A Treatise on Physical Mediumship
by Ethel Post-Parrish
1943

A Treatise on Physical Mediumship includes lectures on not only Mediumship, but also Ectoplasm, Telekinesis, Spirit Writing, Vibration, Direct Voice, The Production of Apports, Psychic Photography, Laying on of Hands, Materialization.

EXCEPRT: LECTURE 1 - Mediumship

The Continuity of Life and the Communion of Spirit are established facts in the minds of millions of people today. They know that they continue on in the next world exactly where they left off in this, that, as one of our well known writers so aptly says. – "Death does not mean the end of the book, it only means the close of the chapter, we turn the page and the story continues, more beautifully than before, on the other side of life." It is a proven fact, that there has been, since the beginning of time, communication through mediumship with those who live in the Spirit World.

Many religions express  belief that man lives after the change called death but Spiritualism is the only religion that affirms and absolutely proves that fact scientifically. Those who are not familiar with the history of Spiritualism do not realize that it is based upon the psychic phenomena found in the Christian Bible. In both the Old and the New Testaments we find evidence of Spirit Communion. We cannot consistently state a belief in the psychic phenomena recorded in the Bible and refuse to accept the same phenomena as they occur today. Both manifestations are governed by God's Natural Law – that law is immutable, therefore the phenomena that happened during the life of Jesus can still occur today provided we have the same conditions  and the human instrument (a medium) necessary for such a manifestation.

Just what is a medium? The National Spiritualist Association gives us the following definition: "A Medium is one whose organism is sensitive to the vibrations from the Spirit World and through whose instrumentality intelligences in that world are able to convey messages and produce the phenomena of Spiritualism." We divide mediumship into two classes – mental and physical. As this book is devoted entirely to a study of physical mediumship, we will not discuss the mental phases at this time. The development of physical mediumship depends upon the chemicals within the human body of the instrument. We shall go into that more thoroughly in the chapter on Ectoplasm.

Before we touch upon the psychic phenomena of the Christian Bible, let us see how far back the records of Spirit Communion can be traced. According to Fabre d' Olivet (who wrote the book "Hermaneutic Interpretations of the Origin of the Social State of Man"), the first medium of whom we have any record was a woman of the Borean race. Her name was Voluspa. d' Olivet bases his story upon the evidence found in ancient records of which he has made an intensive study. You will find the story of Voluspa in my book, Ancient Prophets and Seers. She lived in 6750 B. C. Before the first psychic manifestation was received by Voluspa, the women of the Herman race were looked upon as slaves, belonging to the men, and they were shown very little consideration. Because of her development of mediumship, Voluspa became divine and assumed complete authority over the people. This power went to her head and caused her to do many foolish things.