The Intuitive Medium

by John Cappello

Intuition is often used as a broad term for psychic ability, but I choose to use the term with a more specific meaning.  Intuition, for me, is another name for claircognizance.  This psychic sense involves the mind and is characterized by the use of the term "I know".  Using the words "I know" indicates that other physical sensations such as feelings, sight, sound, smell or taste are not associated with an impression received. Every physical sense has an extended psychic sense.  In addition, each of these extensions can sense the energy of entities.  It is therefore true that intuition can be used for sensing a spirit.

Knowing information about a person or situation is part of developing your overall skill as a psychic, but when you sense the presence of an entity around another person or yourself, it is mediumship.  Knowing when another spirit is around you does not necessarily involve your other psychic senses.  When you have the sensation of "knowing", you might be inclined to start a mental checklist asking questions and wondering about the spirit you are encountering.  Furthermore, walking into a room and knowing someone is there who is not in a physical body can be disarming when you are not expecting it.

I found it interesting that this reality is not common with others.  It has been a normal part of my life ever since I can remember.  Discernment, as some call it, has been natural for me because I have always sensed that rooms were sometimes crowded with spirits.  They usually do not give me any other signal than just their presence when I first encounter them.  However, once I know they are there, I am able to determine some information about them.  I discern whether they are adults, children, angels or guides by their particular energy.

Many people call me and say they have "strange things happening around them" but they are afraid to talk about it.  They believe that their experience will lead others to treat them differently or think they are crazy.  When I let them know that, for some, this is common, they are often surprised and even relieved.  Acknowledging spirit around us is okay because it validates the continuity of life.  Usually the spirits we "know" around us are family members or others we have known during our lives who are now in the spirit world.

This month, I am exploring intuition on my radio program and asking for listeners to share a time when they noticed a spirit around them.   I am conducting my Intuition workshops in September as well.  Next month, attention will be brought to the first major holiday of the fall season, Halloween.  This celebration highlights spirits of all kinds but focuses on negative spirits who do not have the best intentions.  The intuitive medium "knows" these entities do not represent the majority of those in the spirit world. They also know that it continues to be a challenge getting those around them, in the living, to believe they are not crazy!

Review by  

Author Ingrid Hall about  

Open the Mind Exercise the Soul

Wow!  Talk about the universe dropping something straight into your lap.  In my last review of For the Love of Spirit by Liz Winter I talked about wanting to develop my psychic abilities but not having the time to go to a class and then the very next book I happen to open to review just happens to be about developing your psychic skills!

I found the preface of the book interesting because the author states quite firmly that he felt the need to have a frank and honest platform for psychic abilities that steers it's perception away from being something evil or inappropriate and I would definitely like to know more about the author's own life experiences as whilst undoubtedly some people think my own beliefs are a bit "mad" or "eccentric" the vast majority are at least tolerant of my opinions and I have never felt that it was a particular issue. (At least with people that I know!)

Because the author is a medium and because I have very recently read For the Love of Spirit I will admit that I went into this book looking for comparisons and whilst Liz Winter's book offers up a very frank account of her personal life as well as her work with spirit, John Cappello focuses from the offset on his work as a medium and I immediately got the impression that I was going to get a very detailed account of his work with spirit and was instantly hooked.

The book is written in clear, accessible language which most people will understand.  The first chapter concentrates on the author's recollections of some of his readings and he then moves onto exploring the arguments for the validation of psychic abilities versus the scientific explanations that are available.  He also looks at Religious beliefs and how whilst some faiths actively harness psychic power other religions choose to operate a parallel belief system to explain the existence of the psychic phenomenon and others expressly forbid the use of psychic abilities in the practising of their faith and I have to say that I think this section is incredibly well thought out and well written.

Whilst discussing the impact of philosophy on mankind's understanding of the non-physical world Cappello also touches briefly upon the Elysian Fields which were written about extensively by the ancient Greek poet Homer in his Odyssey.  Having only ever read extracts previously from The Odyssey I am now very much on a mission to read the whole thing.  LENORA HUGE HINT - I WOULD LOVE IT IF SANTA COULD BRING ME A COPY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!  I was also previously unaware of the differences in opinion between Aristotle and Plato on the nature of the soul and very interested to read about St Anselm, whom I will confess to knowing absolutely nothing about prior to reading this book. Indeed, I found this entire section both informative and thought provoking.

The author then moves onto the subject of self-development.  The book is very much aimed at beginners and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was already familiar with a lot of what the author was discussing and I found his section on awareness and control particularly helpful.

Clairsentience, Clairvoyance, Intuition, Clairaudience, Clairgustus and Clairfragrance are all discussed at length in subsequent chapters.  I will DEFINITELY be buying a physical copy of this book as I want to revisit each of these subjects individually and at my leisure. The book also covers working with spirit and explores the difference between psychics and mediums and is an absolute MUST for anyone either considering embarking upon their own spiritual journey or developing their psychic abilities.

My only one tiny gripe about the PDF that I received was the presentation and layout and if this is identical to the actual book then I would suggest that the text should be fully aligned/justified as some readers may comment upon this.

Open the Mind Exercise the Soul - Life from a Psychic Point of View can be found at Amazon.

You can also connect with the author via Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/OpenTheMindExerciseTheSoul 

or at his website:

http://www.johncappello.com