I’ve taken the chance in my quiet time today to continue reading ‘The Darkened Room’ by Alex Owen. It’s a book full of the history about seances, spiritualism and the role of women mediums. For me it’s also tapping into the development of mediumship as I know it today.

I like to research and look back at the history of things that interest me. It’s like following a thread back into the past. And it gives me an understanding of why things are the way they are right now. What conditions caused spirit contact to be interpreted the way it was. Those foundations have built in to what I do currently. Influences I might not necessarily agree with shape how I work. Or how Spiritualism has been explained to me. I can choose, if I understand the background and context, to move forward in a different way. Even free myself from the limitations those influences might impose. Researching the history also gives me access to alternative views too.

That is very important. I have to remind myself to read wider than the most popular books. My experiences may have a different meaning when considered from an alternative historical perspective. After all, the winning side gets to write the story. And I’m fascinated that the history of Spiritualism really should be her-story instead. Most of the well respected mediums were women. Especially in the first forty or fifty years of the development of Spirit communication. Although I also know that much of the written history, with a few exceptions, has been collated by men. That in itself interests me. It seems the activity in the seance rooms was presented publicly by the men present. Yet the communication was most often by women.

I enjoy looking back into the history of Spiritualism. It’s something I will keep on doing because it helps me to make choices about the way I work. And how I present my work to the public. In the end I hope more and more people access the background to mediumship. It can save them a lot of time in trying to understand why, what, where and how it all works.

Day 780 of my blogging challenge