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Sunday 24th August was an exception. I was in Stourbridge Spiritualist Church attending a service conducted by the medium Darren Brittain. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him work, but – hardened, cynical journalist though I almost certainly am – I’d never knowingly pass up an opportunity to watch this exceptional medium at work.
Not for him a few hit-and-miss names randomly thrown out in the hope that some obliging soul with a kind heart will accept them. Detail is Darren’s middle name.
Not just a thorough physical description of the father communicating, not just his name, personality traits, occupation, age, manner of passing, favourite food, location of work premises, but the number of the bus in which he travelled to work each day. It blew the recipient’s mind, as did every other message delivered to members of the 120-strong congregation at the service.
Darren’s mediumship didn’t manifest in the kindergarten, unlike some. Now 40, he was 17 when he first entered a Spiritualist church in an attempt to discover what was causing him to see “lights and colours” around people. It had been happening for a few years and he wanted to know why. The medium told him he was psychic, and would soon be doing what she was doing. He wasn’t inclined to believe her . . .
He’s since become the most gifted evidential medium of his generation. How did it happen?
“Shortly after joining the church’s open circle I was invited to sit in a home circle where I sat for about a year, until the leader had health problems and closed the circle,” he explains. “After that I joined a development circle which later ended for the same reason.
“I was in the circles long enough to understand the depth of responsibility that’s involved in presenting mediumship. When people ask ‘Who trained you?’ my answer is always the same – ‘Life and Spirit’. Everything I’ve ever needed to know has been sent, either through a person or an experience.”
Darren is currently awaiting the date of his final assessment for a CSNU in Speaking and Demonstrating, and I cannot but smile mischievously to myself as I wonder who will be making that assessment . . .
He would eventually like to be involved in the educating of tomorrow’s mediums as well as in the assessment of them as award holders of the SNU.
“I believe the general standard of mediumship and presentation needs to be raised on our church platforms,” he says. “We need to not only seek to inspire a higher standard in our mediums. We also need to educate our booking secretaries in knowing what is and what isn’t mediumship and then empower them to be brave enough to disallow the latter to be demonstrated within their church or centre.”
Sticking with the education theme, in his recent address at Stourbridge Darren recalled a situation in which he was leading an advanced mediumship course. Asking his students to indicate if they were already working mediums, only two said they were. This suggests an alarming lack of self-knowledge and realism on the part of the other students, who were apparently beginners and shouldn’t have been on the course in the first place. I asked Darren how he views what I personally see as the current obsession with becoming a medium.
“The danger is that suggesting everyone is capable of mediumship almost guarantees that the quality of our future mediums will suffer because it’s represented as being so easily achieved and also usually in a short space of time. Of course this isn’t accurate, nor can it ever be. The link with the spirit world needs time and effort to unfold and we need to educate tomorrow’s workers that there is huge discipline required to be a great medium. We should be reaching for that; it really doesn’t serve spirit or life to aim for mediocre.
“Time and experience are necessary to unfold the ability and to learn present it responsibly. We must also be honest with our trainees and tell them that sacrifice comes with the work, too. We often go without spending time with friends and family; there may be financial strains; and there can be negative effects on our health. In the case of the ‘advanced’ students it was a little like buying clothes for the size you want to be! This is where development and self-awareness are so important.”
Banging my familiar old drum, I ask – can mediumship really be taught? Isn’t it an inborn gift/talent in the same sense that an artist, sportsperson, musician, actor has a natural gift/talent? If the gift is there to begin with, then proper development and tuition can potentially hone it into something exceptional.
It seems that Darren agrees. “My own understanding and experience is that mediumship is an inborn gift/talent in much the same way that an artist or musician has a natural talent,” he says. “In its ‘raw’ state it is uncontrolled and undisciplined but as with all types of ‘gift’ it seeks an outlet because it’s in our soul to express it.
“Our own inherent ability to ‘feel’ can be developed and heightened. We can learn to trust our instincts; the development of our intuition is within our own capacity. Being able to nurture and expand our own spirit should absolutely be the first point of our awareness and development.
“People spend too much time looking ‘out there’ instead of looking within themselves. Of course our mediumship functions through our conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind, so we really need to look at what’s in there that encourages or inhibits the evidence we’re open to. This of course is an ongoing thing and still does not necessarily indicate that we are able to link with the discarnate spirit for purposes of delivering evidential mediumship.
“Another really important aspect of our development is to look at what being a medium ‘gives’ to us. There are many whose ego ‘dysfunction’ is searching out ‘celebrity’ through their mediumship rather than seeking to raise their standards and work to be a medium ‘celebrated’ for offering healing to others.”
In a previous interview Darren discussed the fact that he works with all the mediumistic faculties. At that time, he told me – “I know that when I’m feeling more compassionate, more understanding, more willing to share, more loving, the clairaudience is stronger.” I asked what that suggested to him about the spirit world.
“I would suggest that all our healing work is ‘heart-led’. That is to say that we work with a great compassion for others in offering them healing. My experience is that when I’m feeling anything from the heart, this energy combined with my link to spirit expands and takes my consciousness to the same level, in this case to the spirit world where love, compassion, and hope are ever present. Once I do this I am in such an alignment than the spirit world is more real to me that the physical one. As such, my perception of it is more profound, hence the ‘voices’ being stronger and clearer.”
Finally, I asked this very down-to-earth medium what, for him, are the best and worst parts of his job.
“The best part is absolutely being able to offer people the chance to heal their grief through mediumship. “The worst part is the amount of travel that goes with it. I drove 30,000 miles last year alone!”
For more on Darren and his work, visit: www.darrenbrittain.co.uk
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