Most people book a mediumship reading without a clear picture of what the hour is, which is understandable, because almost nothing written about it starts with a definition.

So this page starts with one, and not mine. The Windbridge Research Center has studied mediumship under controlled conditions for years, and the words it uses are more precise than the words the industry uses.

Then I will tell you what happens in my own hour, which format you are actually buying when you book, and the three things a mediumship reading is not. Where another page on this site already answers a question in full, I will point you at it rather than write it again.

Estimated reading time: 10 min read

Key Insights

A mediumship reading is an event with a name in the research literature. Windbridge defines mediums as people who report contact with the deceased regularly, reliably, and on demand, and who share the resulting messages with living people called sitters during an event called a reading. The word that does the work there is on demand, because it separates a working practitioner from someone who has had an experience once. Psychics convey information about people, events, places, or times unknown to them, but not about the deceased, which is why it is often said that all mediums are psychic but not all psychics are mediums. In practice a reading is usually an hour, it has a structure the practitioner should be able to describe before you pay, and it comes in formats that differ more than the price suggests. It is not therapy, it is not fortune-telling, and it is not a guarantee that a particular person will come through, because you cannot choose who comes through.

What a Mediumship Reading Is, Precisely

Windbridge’s definition is the one I would use if I were being careful, and it is worth reading slowly. Mediums are people who report having these experiences regularly, reliably, and on demand, and who share the specific resulting messages with living people called sitters during an event called a reading.

Three things in that sentence matter more than they look.

On demand. A great many people have had one unexplained experience after a death, and those experiences are real to them and I would never argue with one. They do not make someone a medium. What makes this a practice rather than an event is that it can be done on a Tuesday afternoon because somebody booked it.

Sitter. That is the literature’s word for you, the living person receiving the reading, and it is a better word than client because it describes what you actually do. You sit. The work is mine.

Specific resulting messages. Not impressions, not a mood, not a general sense of peace. Specific. That is the standard the research applies, and it is a fair standard to hold any reading to.

And What Separates It From a Psychic Reading

Windbridge draws the line in one sentence: psychics convey information about people, events, places, or times unknown to them, but not about the deceased. As the saying goes, and Windbridge repeats it, all mediums are psychic but not all psychics are mediums.

In plain terms, a psychic or intuitive reading is about you and what is moving around your life. A mediumship reading is an attempt at contact with someone who has died. Many practitioners, including me, offer both, and the two can appear in the same hour because the second ability sits on top of the first.

That distinction changes what is reasonable to expect and what is worth asking, and it deserves more room than a paragraph.

The full comparison is on this site already.

What Happens in the Hour

A practitioner who works to a method can describe it before you pay for it, so here is mine.

I call it the Sanctuary Process and it has three stages. Opening the Veil is preparation, and all of it happens before you arrive: I clear the space and ask for what is needed, and that work is mine rather than yours. Which is the practical answer to the question people are usually too polite to ask, namely how ready they have to be. Not very. Arriving distracted, or skeptical, or in the middle of a bad week has never been a problem on my side of it.

The Bridge is the session itself. This is where mediumship and clairvoyance and whatever else is needed do their work, and where I say out loud what I am receiving.

The Remembering is what you take home. Not a transcript, but the part that keeps working after the hour ends.

You do not have to like my method. What matters is that there is one you can hear before you pay, and a practitioner who cannot describe the shape of their own hour has told you something.

Which Format You Are Actually Buying

This is the part almost nobody explains, and it causes more disappointment than anything else in the field. Two things both called a mediumship reading can be completely different purchases.

The shortest version: a private reading is an hour pointed at you, a group demonstration is an event where messages go to whoever they go to, and a short introductory reading is a smaller first experience rather than a smaller reading. If you book a demonstration hoping to hear from your mother, you may go home having watched someone else hear from theirs.

On distance, I will be blunt because the assumption runs deep. A reading by video is not a lesser reading. The Forever Family Foundation conducts its own medium evaluations over webcam, which tells you what the body that assesses mediums thinks of the format.

What a Mediumship Reading Is Not

Three things, and I would rather you heard them from me than found out afterwards.

It is not a guarantee. You cannot choose who comes through. Spirit decides. I will not promise you contact with a specific person, and the reason that limit is stated here rather than buried is that a reading with nothing promised in front of it is a cleaner hour than one sold on a promise.

It is not fortune-telling. Nothing in the hour is an instruction. I say what is coming through and you decide what, if anything, it means for your life, which is a distinction I have written about at more length elsewhere because it is the one people are most often surprised by.

And it is not therapy. Mediumship can sit alongside grief and support someone carrying it. It does not treat anything, it does not diagnose anything, and it is not a substitute for care from someone trained to provide it. If you are in the first raw weeks after a death, if you are not sleeping or eating, if getting through the week feels impossible, the help you need first is not an hour with me. A grief counselor, a therapist who works with bereavement, your own doctor, or a crisis service if the weight has become dangerous, all of those come before a reading, and not one of them is a lesser thing. I will still be here afterward.

What Has Actually Been Studied About the Hour

Two different questions get confused here, so it is worth separating them.

The first is whether the information in a reading can be accurate under conditions that rule out ordinary explanation. That is contested, there is real research and real methodological criticism of it, and nobody has produced proof of survival after death. I have set that argument out in full in Are Psychic Mediums Real?, including the skeptics’ strongest version of it.

The second question is different and less often mentioned. Windbridge states that it tests hypotheses not only about mediums’ abilities and characteristics but about the impact of readings on the grieving. That is a question about the hour rather than about the afterlife, and it is the one I think most sitters are actually asking.

I am not going to overstate either body of work. What I will say is that there is a research center with a named director of research studying this, which is more than the field is usually given credit for, and considerably less than certainty.

The Rest of Your Questions, and Where They Are Answered

This page is the definition. These are the questions that come next, each of which has a full answer of its own on this site rather than a paragraph here.

What a first session is actually like, start to finish, is set out in what to expect from your first mediumship session. Whether you have to speak during the hour, which worries more people than you would think, is answered in do you have to talk during a mediumship reading. How to prepare, and why there is less to do than you fear, is in how to prepare for a mediumship reading. Whether I will tell you what to do with what comes through is in will a medium tell you what to do. Which of my own sessions suits which situation is in SoulSight reading versus Spirit Connection session. And what to ask any practitioner before you book, including me, is in the nine questions.

If you read only one of those, read the last one. With no body licensing the practice itself, the questions you ask before you pay are the only quality control there is.

• What to Expect from Your First Mediumship Session
• Do You Have to Talk During a Mediumship Reading?
• How Should You Prepare for a Mediumship Reading?
• Will a Medium Tell You What to Do?
• SoulSight Reading vs. Spirit Connection Session: Which Do You Need?
• What Questions Should You Ask a Medium Before You Book?

Frequently asked questions

Q: What is the difference between a mediumship reading and a psychic reading?

A: The Windbridge Research Center puts it this way: psychics convey information about people, events, places, or times unknown to them, but not about the deceased. A mediumship reading is specifically an attempt at contact with someone who has died. It is often said that all mediums are psychic but not all psychics are mediums, which is why the same practitioner can offer both. If you are deciding which one you want, the full comparison is on this site.

Q: How long does a mediumship reading take?

A: An hour is the common shape and it is what I work in. A sixty minute private session with me is 144 dollars and a joint session with Michael is 233 dollars, both posted before you book. Shorter formats exist and are useful, but understand what they are: a fifteen or thirty minute reading is a smaller first experience rather than a compressed hour, which is exactly why they are for new clients only, one introductory offer per person.

Q: Can I ask for a specific person to come through?

A: You can tell me who you are hoping for, and most people do. What I cannot do is promise you that person will arrive. You cannot choose who comes through. Spirit decides. I would rather disappoint you now than take your money on a promise I have no business making.

Q: Does a mediumship reading work as well online?

A: In my experience it does, and the assumption that distance weakens it is the most common misconception I meet. The clearest external evidence is that the Forever Family Foundation, which evaluates mediums under controlled conditions with sitters the medium knows nothing about, conducts those evaluations over the internet by webcam. If remote readings did not work, the body that tests mediums would not test them that way.

Citations

• Windbridge Research Center, What are mediums and how do scientists study them?. The definition of a medium, a sitter, and a reading, the regularly-reliably-on-demand criterion, the psychic and medium distinction, and the statement that the center studies the impact of readings on the grieving. https://www.windbridge.org/what-is-a-medium/
• Windbridge Research Center, Are all mediums frauds?. The regulatory position in the United States and the definitions of hot and cold reading. https://www.windbridge.org/are-all-mediums-frauds/
• Forever Family Foundation, Medium Evaluation Certification Process. The controlled evaluation conducted over webcam, cited here as evidence about the remote format. https://foreverfamilyfoundation.org/medium-evaluation-certification-process/
• Windbridge Research Center, Receiving a Mediumship Reading: Recommendations for Sitters. The center’s own consumer fact sheet for people about to sit for a reading, which is the practical companion to the definition this page opens with. https://www.windbridge.org/factsheets/WRC_sitters.pdf

Related reading

• What to Expect from Your First Mediumship Session
• Mediumship vs. Psychic Readings: What’s the Difference and Which Do You Need?
• What Questions Should You Ask a Medium Before You Book?
• What Is the Sanctuary Process? Elissa Rose’s Three-Stage Mediumship Methodology
• Can a Medium Help with Grief?

About the Author

Michael listens to the pulse of the earth. His dowsing offers a grounded path to inner knowing, through stillness, presence, and trust. Together, we offer a place of authenticity, where roses bloom and the veil thins.