When we first become interested in the spirit world, we tend to predominantly fall into one of a few broad categories:

Survivors of grief and loss: We have experienced the loss of someone we love and are searching for confirmation that their spirits survived the death of their physical body

Paranormal enthusiasts: We are particularly interested in experiences that can be perceived with the five primary senses, especially if they can be recorded, documented, and verified in some capacity

Natural mediums: We couldn't avoid the presence of spirits if we tried and may feel overwhelmed by the intensity of what we experience

Magical explorers: We are interested in working with spirits as part of our rituals and spellcasting

We all start somewhere and, if you see yourself in one of those camps, this is a call to step outside your comfort zone.

I know some of you reading this will recognize your interests intersect some, if not all, of these categories. This is especially true if you have been communicating with spirits for a long time. I know this has certainly been the case for me. As of this writing, I have been a professional spiritual practitioner with a knack for working with spirits for over 13 years. However, my enthusiasm for exploring what might be out there goes back as far as I can remember. I was spooky kid, fascinated with tales of ghosts and haunted houses. I also had my fair share of strange of experiences in nature as a child. I have a clear memory of seeing fairies when I was six years old at a summer camp deep in the mountains in Northern New Mexico and never doubted that I could understand my many animal companions. As I grew up, I remained spooky, but also found deeper meaning in my experiences with spirits. Significant people in my life died at an early age, and I had profound visitations as I navigated my grief. I eventually began to dip my toes into divination and later, witchcraft. As far as spirits were concerned, for years I was only conscious of what I like to call the Three Gs: ghosts, gods, and guides. Because I primarily ran in secular witchcraft circles, I wasn't exposed to much else.

As I got older, I found that my ability to perceive spirits became increasingly pronounced. I also found I had little control or autonomy of how or when these experiences manifested. As I struggled to make sense of these experience, I dove back into my spooky side by reconnecting with my love of exploring haunted spaces, which had always been a fun family activity, particularly for my mom, stepdad, and me. While that was interesting, the true turning point came when I connected with a mentor in Sweden who taught me to work with spirits as a practitioner of folk magic. It changed my life. I began to pay attention to the subtleties of the experiences I was having. It opened up my world to spirits of the home and land, of working with my ancestors, of connecting with plants as sentient spirits, of conjuring spirits whose task is to do my bidding, knowing how to handle nasty and nefarious spirits, and so much more. Altogether, this journey has spanned over 40 years—and there's still so much more to learn and experience!

As I have followed the winding path of my spirit communication journey, one of the things I have noticed—and that I hope to see change—are the silos we put up around what could be shared interests and expanded understanding of the wide and weird worlds that may exist beyond our physical reality. For example, when I first began dipping my toes back into the world of paranormal investigation, I approached experiences with spirits and in haunted spaces as someone with mediumship gifts who was also interested in learning new strategies and techniques. I assumed that everyone came together through our shared spooky interests, even if the lens we viewed the phenomenon through was different. While I have met wonderful folks and have had great experiences in those paranormal investigation spaces, I was surprised by how often I also experienced suspicion and disrespect. The more I investigated why this was so, the more I discovered about the long and complicated history that has existed between psychical researchers, which led to modern paranormal investigators, and mediums. This goes back to the late 1800s as psychical research societies were founded alongside both the rise of Spiritualism and occult societies like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. While it wasn't their only focus, many psychical researchers studied mediums to both understand the phenomenon and to expose fraud. Unfortunately, there was plenty of the latter. However, the role of pervasive skepticism left little room for nuance or context. Famous mediums of the time like Eusapia Palladino, Leonora Piper, and even the Fox sisters were put under immense scrutiny. That is reasonable, but it's worth examining the ways they were scrutinized. The test conditions, which often included being unclothed and strapped down in rooms of primarily male researchers, are questionable—especially when the power dynamics of the time are taken into consideration. The earliest and more prominent psychical research societies of the time were founded by and largely comprised of generationally wealthy men, although there were a few women in leadership such as Eleanor "Nora" Sidgwick. The mediums most frequently under scrutiny, on the other hand, tended to be women from lower socioeconomic circumstances. Many were working mediums who had learned they could earn independent income by holding seances or gallery readings, which raised suspicions about exploitation. Often for good cause! While there were some mediums who absolutely took advantage of the grieving and the curious, there was nuance. For example, the mediums mentioned earlier all manifested phenomenon. Eusapia Palladino was said to levitate tables, have items apport from one spot to another, and more. She also unequivocally faked results on more than one occasion. Kate and Maggie, the Fox sisters, were also found to have manifested spiritual phenomenon. Maggie, however, later claimed that they faked the whole thing. One of the most studied mediums in history, Leonora Piper, was able to regularly channel accurate messages but she was not 100% consistent. It's fair to say that no one excels at their job all the time. Ms. Piper eventually disappeared from public eye after years of scrutiny by researchers who were convinced of her authenticity and and some who never believed, no matter what she produced.

It's my opinion that this kind of historical backdrop has created unnecessary limits on what we can experience and learn. Unfortunately, this is just one example out of many. There are comparable rifts in psychic development and mediumship circles and in magical communities, while ufologists, communities of cryptozoology enthusiasts, and pursuers of high strangeness have their own dynamics.

I call to anyone interested in spirits to step outside your comfort zone. If you are paranormal enthusiast, take a psychic development class that can assist you in going beyond your five primary senses and devices. Mediums, dive into learning about the folkloric spirits of the land you live on and see if those lines up with cryptid sightings in your area. Magical practitioners, play around with paranormal investigation devices and try using them when you cast spells—you'll be surprised how often they can perceive the energy we can build in our workings! Everyone, go outside on Wednesday nights at 10PM and look at the sky. The lore says that's an opportune time to see a UAP! These are just a few of the millions of ways we can go beyond our tight circles and what we know—or think we know—in the interest of discovery, wonder, and fun. I wish you well in enjoying the ride!