From Curiosity to Calling: A Medium's Transformative Journey

In this captivating podcast episode, Sharon Farber, an evidential medium and author, shares her remarkable journey from an initial spark of curiosity to a profound calling as a messenger between the physical and spiritual realms.

 Defying societal norms and scepticism, Sharon's unwavering determination and resilience have paved the way for her to become a passionate advocate for mediumship and a guide for those seeking to unlock their innate abilities. 

Prepare to be inspired as Sharon offers a candid glimpse into the transformative power of mediumship, the challenges she overcame, and the profound impact her work has had on countless lives seeking healing and connection with their loved ones on the other side.

You can connect with Sharon via her website here: https://sharonfarber.net

Transcript

PMD: 0:27

My guest today comes from a background of resilience, curiosity, and determination and from her earliest experiences to the defining moments of her life, Sharon Farber's journey is filled with diverse experiences that have contributed to the person she is today. And without further ado, I invite Sharon to share her background with us, weaving the triumphs, challenges and guiding stars that have helped her navigate the twists and turns of life. Sharon welcome to the Transcendent Minds podcast. Give us a brief outline of your background.

SF: 1:04

Okay. Thanks for inviting me and that rather intense introduction is wonderful to be here. And thank you. So you make it seem so intriguing. I got a degree in sociology. I worked with old people. I worked with something called Medicaid, which was helping people like that. And that got old. I did the old people thing and when sociology wasn't so much fun anymore, I became a massage therapist and that was back in 1988. I've been doing massage and healing for 35 years now. And somewhere along there about 15, 18 years into that, that wasn't exciting anymore, and I became a watercolor artist. There's three of my paintings. So I delved into watercolor painting and that was a passion and shifted into a focus on that and then something happened about 14 years ago somebody invited me to a mediumship demonstration small group in someone's home and I thought. Oh, that sounds interesting. Sure I'd like to go. No burning desire to learn about mediumship. I went, it was amazing. I got a connection. I heard from a close friend and my first born dog, and I saw this medium give beautiful healing readings to everybody else there, there were about 10 of us. And I was fascinated. I had a massage therapy center at the time with a larger room in it. So I invited the medium to come give small group demonstrations of mediumship at my place. So she came once a month for about a year and it was amazing. I got to see more healing, got a few more connections and really developed a respect for the healing potential of mediumship. And then she got too busy to work there anymore, and I couldn't find somebody else. And then, I was giving a massage to a man who had chest pain, and I find out during the massage, that his 11 year old daughter had passed. She had undiagnosed abdominal pain, and then she died in a hospital from a ruptured appendicitis. And here's the man getting a massage from me a year later who still has pain in his heart. And that was the catalyst. Because what I thought was this man and his wife really could use a good medium. If they went to a medium, the medium would connect with the daughter. The daughter would come through and explain how she's in a beautiful place. It wasn't their fault and they would get healing, they would grieve forever, but there probably wouldn't be the guilt and trauma like it was their fault, which I picked up intuitively from the man with his heart pain or his chest pain. So that got me thinking, and this is back when there were not mediums on every corner, like there are now, because a lot has grown, there's been a lot of growth in the mediumship movement here in the States in the past 14, 15 years. Maybe in where you live, there are spiritualists everywhere. Here it wasn't. So anyway, I thought, I want to do that. And most people said to me, ah, I didn't think you could learn to be a medium. I thought you had to be born that way. And I said we'll find out. So I read books, Took classes, got my first connection to a spirit person. And it's Oh my God, I can do it. Jumped up and down. And then I dove in and it's been 13 to 14 years of passionate focus on developing as medium.

PMD: 4:58

Beautiful. And just to say that you're an evidential medium.

SF: 5:02

Yes.

PMD: 5:03

Your journey is not one of a predestined calling, but more of a passionate pursuit fueled by curiosity and a desire to serve and despite you having no prior experience with spirit communication, you've embarked on a path of discovery with an eagerness to unlock the mysteries of the unseen worlds. And It seems like you've encountered skepticism and doubt from both yourself and others and in a society where mediumship is often shrouded in misconception and fear, you face the daunting task of overcoming societal norms as well as embracing your innate gifts. So there's a pressure to conform to traditional beliefs and expectations, but those can threaten to derail your quest for truth and enlightenment. Can you share any initial skepticism or doubts about mediumship and what ultimately inspired you to pursue this path and what inequalities or beliefs helped you persevere on your journey to becoming a medium.

SF: 6:19

I wasn't skeptical as soon as I went to the demonstration, I saw mediumship in action, evidential mediumship facts, personality descriptions, people saying, Oh, my God, and crying she connected with somebody and I knew it was him. So from my first personal experience with mediumship, there was no skepticism or doubt about mediumship by itself. And I wasn't skeptical so much about my own abilities. It was just Oh, can I do this? It was excitement and yes, there was doubt. Part of the thing is you have some mainstream mediums who try to put themselves up on a pedestal. They talk about their unique abilities to do this. And you talk about the second and third generation mediums as if they're better than other people. It's like in Harry Potter when you have the magical families versus the muggles, like somebody who doesn't have magical parents. So it was like that and it wasn't a conquest. It was like I'll see and same thing with me getting my first connection. As soon as I got my first connection, I was given a massage to somebody I'd known for a while and I told her that I was studying and she said, Oh, you can practice on me. And I was like, Oh, okay. And it was the first time I ever tried to practice and I connected with her father. Plus, it was really good because she said, I have a friend who passed. Maybe you can connect with my friend. So she was probably on the massage table thinking about her woman friend and I connected with a man and got some evidence about her father. I knew a couple of letters of his name or a double letter in his name. I saw packages of cigarettes. I knew he passed from cancer and I saw a military uniform. And it turns out that not only was he in the military, cause many people are, she has his uniform in her possession she was looking at it maybe two days before. So I'm like oh my God So as soon as I had that I could do it. But then I had my doubt because worse than Mediums are people saying you can't learn it. You'll have to be born that way are the people who say, Oh if you're not born that way, you can learn to do it a little bit, but you'll never be good. That was worse. Because then that would mean, Oh, I did this, but I still might not be able to achieve the accuracy that I want. But like you said, I am a bit resilient and I just plowed through it and I went to the college in England, Arthur Finley College in 2012 for the first time for a week. Everybody says this, but it felt like coming home. It was amazing being in a college where there are about 100 mediums all working on development. So I came back. I started a mediumship development circle because I couldn't find one, so I led that 1 for 7 years in person up until 2020 when we stopped meeting in person and then I did practice readings. I wanted to do a hundred practice readings to build up my abilities. And I did 118 and then I did small group practice readings. So I didn't have doubts once I started doing it. It's Oh my gosh, I can do this and I saw firsthand how healing and wonderful it was for people, then I quickly became a champion for other people to, if I can do it, you can do it. And spreading the word that you don't have to have a lineage of mediums to do this and that people who feel compelled to study mediumship, who find it fascinating and healing can learn how to do it. And that's where I entered my niche of teaching with a little specialization on beginners and even people who've never done it before.

PMD: 10:37

Can you say more about your first connection with the other side? How did that impact your perception of yourself and your abilities?

SF: 10:48

It was that aha moment. Oh my God, I did it. Really simple. She said, yes, she was emotional. She understood. I couldn't have known this other ways. We ruled out the possibility that I was psychically picking up on what she was thinking about, because she was thinking about her friend and I got her dad. So it was just the, Oh my God, I can do it and then because that's how I am, like I decided to do watercolor and I just put all my energy into being the best watercolor artist I can and since then, I'm still putting all my energy into being the best evidential, accurate, professional, compassionate, evidential medium I can possibly be. I went back to Arthur Finley College three times. I've studied with people here and I teach people, I learn by teaching people. I am amazed at my students, especially the beginner students who haven't been told, you can't do that and don't have to overcome the voice of, Oh, you have to be born that way. But even some of the people who come to me and then watching them get their first link, it's amazing. So does that answer your question?

PMD: 12:04

Yeah. can you say more about how did that make you feel when you first realized that mediumship was something you could learn and develop as distinct from a predetermined gift?

SF: 12:17

I was like, Ooh, I'm glad I'm right. Let's share that. And the thing is, people say you have to be born that way and it's could be a semantic thing. I didn't create something new. I believe that all the time, this ability was within me and is very likely within everybody and it wasn't like learning something outside of myself. It's more about an uncovering, unwrapping, uncovering, and developing something that's there. And everybody's intuitive. Everybody has some psychic abilities whether they call it that or not. Everybody's Oh, I knew that was going to happen. Or, and so you just take it further and further if people are compelled to do it. So it's been a long journey and over the 13 years, there have been those when I've had struggles, like I don't feel like I'm progressing as much as I want, I'm not at the level of my tutors who've been doing this for 40 years and maybe they started when they were 12, there is that doubt. It used to have that doubt. Maybe it's because I wasn't born this way. I later learned that it was all about being present, that I'm distractible a little bit. And learning that instead of thinking that maybe I'm not supposed to do it, maybe it's more about just being present which, once I learned that, and stopped going into fear that maybe I wasn't supposed to be doing this, because obviously I'm supposed to be doing this. I've had so much confirmation that this is where I'm supposed to be.

PMD: 14:01

It's pre determined for you. I think that's pretty determined. Yeah. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in embracing mediumship and how did you overcome them if there were any challenges?

SF: 14:14

Not really. I don't really care about the people who don't believe in it or are skeptical, even if they're related because It's my life, not theirs. And there are enough people who embrace this and that I can help and are eager to get readings and grow and heal. So I'm not really concerned about the other people. So that wasn't so much of a challenge. I did try to hide it from some people a little bit at the beginning, but I got over that. The challenge has all been me getting in my own way. When I wrote the book, and the book you'll probably mention that later. I wrote a book about mediumship. When the book came out, I went into a little bit of a panic because, oh no, I'm an author. I'm supposed to be an expert. I feel like I am an expert on mediumship, how to learn mediumship, how to teach mediumship development, but people would expect me to be this amazing medium and that part freaked me out a little bit. The idea that the expectations were a little bit challenging Oh my goodness but I got over it.

PMD: 15:26

In evidential mediumship what specific methods or skills or techniques do you employ to ensure the information you convey is accurate and undeniable for your clients?

SF: 15:41

It's all about character, personality, essence specifics. Evidence isn't I have a grandmother here, and she's wearing an apron, and she's in the kitchen, and she likes to bake. That's a pure cliche. Tall, dark man here, grandfather with gray hair. So you have to get beyond the cliches to specific evidence. If you have a grandma, I've had a grandma come through when she had a yellow canary in a cage she kept in the kitchen. I use that as an example. If you're going to have a grandma, you need to know that. Or I had a grandmother who played the trumpet. It was actually a cornet, but I'm like, got this woman, old woman, gray hair, and she's playing the trumpet. It's little specific things like that. It's what happened to them. what they were like, whether they were happy and fun, whether they were uptight and stressed, and some of the obvious ones. Did they have a long, drawn out passing? Did they have a quick passing? Did they take their life? Just interesting specifics. It's all about evidence. Messages can be general. They're here. They're alive and well on the other side. They're proud of you. There might be specific messages. It might just be, they're so happy to be connected with you and let you know, but the evidence has to be really specific. It has to be describing somebody you're going to know, not something vague and it's just taking any piece of evidence and then making it more specific. If you have a dog, what kind of dog? Big dog, little dog, young dog, old dog, boy dog, girl dog. If they pass from an illness, what kind of illness? How long did it take? And that kind of thing. Really proving to the sitter, the person who's getting the reading, that this is really their person.

PMD: 17:35

Can you share a poignant experience where the evidence provided during a session had a profound impact, offering solace or confirmation beyond doubt?

SF: 17:48

That happens alll the time in most of the readings. I gave a reading yesterday and first I connected with a great aunt and I could tell this is on zoom a 45 minute reading, and I could tell that this wasn't the area of need for the person I was giving the reading to, but she was very polite and receptive. We connected with the great aunt who was supportive and lovely. Then I connected with her father, which was the point of need. And just as an example, I talked about how he had drama, trauma, wild card, substance abuse and created pain and destruction in his family, to his wife, to the kids, and he was just a disaster. I was just giving information that he gave me that she understood. I wasn't being judgmental. This sounds terrible. And as soon as I started talking about him, she was like yes and that was the point of need in the reading. So it wasn't like I'm just describing someone who comes to the office. This man was colorful, loud, and he struggled and he had a challenging death. And there was a lot of forgiveness or requesting forgiveness. There was remorse, there was apologies and there was a specific message to her about it nothing being her fault and about how she couldn't help and all that kind of thing. It ends up that there were challenging circumstances to the death. She was involved and she was questioning her role. Father comes through. He's fine now. He's aware of all the destruction. She's aware of whom he is. It was very clear cut. He's also telling her it wasn't your fault and let go and don't carry this and that he caused enough pain during his life that he was already remorseful about it. That the last thing he wants is for her to carry some pain and challenge from his passing also. This was just an example, and it's fresh because it was yesterday. For her, that was what she needed. We also had a visit from her grandfather, who was lovely, supportive, and present. And a brother, who It's like a cameo who was trying not to be like his father, but there was some similarity. She knows without a doubt who these people are and had a message of healing and support from everybody who came through. And that's a typical successful healing reading.

PMD: 20:33

It transforms possibly the grief and the emotional pain of the living, but does it have an effect on transforming the emotional pain of the departed?

SF: 20:45

I believe it has a positive effect. It's not emotional pain because in my understanding, they're not in emotional pain. They are looking and aware like the grandfather, lovely life here, supportive, all was well when he was here. He's on the other side the same way. The father, although he had a challenging life on the other side, there's peace. And I didn't mention this part from the other side. He's now able to support her connect with her out of fatherly love for the 1st time in decades. So it's not an emotional pain there on the other side in my understanding, they are at peace, and they are all is well, but there's the growth of the soul, I believe that souls can have multiple lives, one at a time. His soul had this lifetime, which was challenging, so I believe that it's very healthy and positive for the evolution of his soul to be able to connect with his daughter and be supportive, loving, and show remorse. It's not for the personality or character, because he's fine, but for the evolution of his soul and his healing and progression, I believe that mediumship is also supportive and healthy for people on the other side. But it's just in a different way.

PMD: 22:17

Yeah, I see that. I see your role is responsible of delivering evidence within the context of the reading, how do you ensure it profoundly impacts the lives of those seeking connection whilst maintaining their emotional well being.

SF: 22:34

Some people come just to experience mediumship, and some people come with a great loss and grief and need and I just do my best to work with spirit to provide healing, love for the highest good. Some of them tell me how much better they feel like they feel like a load was lifted off of them and some of them, depending on how receptive and open and ready they are to heal in their process might get a little bit of healing or just an experience and have to go on and continue with their own development and process. I can't ensure anything. All I can do is use my attention to work with the spirit world to bring as much healing and love and connection I can between those on this side and the other.

PMD: 23:24

So you're facilitating an environment, a safe space for them to come into so that space can become an anchor, if you will, for those unseen worlds to come through you as an agency of amplification, for those things that want to come through you as that messenger, as that conveyor. I believe in my own practice as a coach, I always look at facilitating a safe space so it can be a brave space so that person can be fully self expressed and obviously I can't be responsible for their behavior, but I can be responsible to them as a coach or as a medium or whatever that role may be.

SF: 24:08

Yes.

PMD: 24:08

In terms of the principles of evidential mediumship how can the principles be applied in everyday life to foster a deeper understanding of the unseen worlds and enhance our spiritual connections?

SF: 24:26

That's an interesting question. First for me, I guess the idea is that everybody goes to a spirit world regardless of how you pass. You go to a spirit world where all is well, you're met by people on the other side who you knew and loved before, they're greeting you, you're healthy, you're well, and you can continue the evolution of your soul. By knowing that, people can hopefully lose any fear of death that they have, a fear that they will be nothing, gone, when they're on the other side. There's also an idea of karma that we are responsible for our actions here. It's not just like you can be a horrible person here and you let me just go to this healing spirit world. You do still go to a healing spirit world. You don't become an evil spirit, even if you did terrible things here, but there is that awareness, that karma and acknowledgement that you might've done some hurtful things while you were here. So the idea is that it can help people deal with their own fear of death with loss with knowing that their loved ones in spirit aren't gone forever that they're in a good place. Does that answer your question?

PMD: 25:43

There are many layers to that question in terms of being humans on this planet and what we're here to do and why we're here as distinct from you're born, you go to school, you get married, you have 2. 2 kids, you get the white picket fence, you get the job or the degree and you lose consciousness after 70 or 80 years. I think that it goes way beyond that, but I think that's been stripped out of our education because I see mediumship is a very natural thing and something that you put in your book is that anybody can learn to do that. I've heard it so many times is you're either born a medium or you're not. I think we all have these capabilities. I don't profess to be a medium but I do rely on my inner tuition or my intuition because I'm a very intuitive person and I can read certain things. Is it mediumship? I don't know, because people say are you channeling? Are you a medium? And I don't put a label on it such for me because I want it to remain pure. Because we only seek labels because we want hot definition because we feel insecure unless we can put a label on something or we can categorize it in some way. And then the references that are attached to that categorization tend to be really for many people, not a mountain, but a mole hill where they have a very small snippet of what mediumship actually means, what it connects to, the significance of it, where it may lead and the reason it's actually here. The reason that we can establish I believe an ever ready media between the material and the ethereal and there can be that two way traffic. But again, it's like anything, you need the skills.

SF: 27:40

If you came to my online beginner class, five hour beginner class, I believe that by the end of the class, you along with anybody else there, if it's something that appealed to you, you would be able to connect with a loved one in spirit, give a validated reading and not that you have a need to know this on some level, you might be able to say to yourself, huh, I'm a medium, not out of a need to prove anything or label or box, but just like an excitement of, oh, wow, I can do this. My next one's an evening class so it would be in the middle of the night for you. But in April I got a Saturday class you could hop in for free and experience how I teach people how to do

PMD: 28:30

I tend to pick up more on energies and vibrations and frequencies cause I'm intuitive and this is really challenging for me because there are words often used in the spiritual community, like vibrations, frequency and energy. But I feel that my soul is being called to provide a soothing presence or remedial balm if you will to help people connect with a universal influence that's far greater then our earthly existence and I'm unsure of the specific form this will take. I've no label for it, but I know I engage with it perhaps imperfectly. I don't always do it very well, but it's something I'm deeply interested in exploring further especially after listening to other podcasts is who've got on the same journey like Sandra Champlain, who was initially a skeptic but since found her purpose and I believe some aspects of our lives are predetermined while others, I believe are self-determined and we may all have aspirations, but can we actualize them? Can we bring that ethereal consciousness into tangible application, creating a pure connected stream of awareness that offers a remedial balm and allows voices to come through. When my father passed, I couldn't reach him in time and that grief affected me for years. But then I found peace in the belief that I can still communicate with him.

SF: 30:05

Does he speak back?

PMD: 30:06

I think he does. But through dreams and whispers in my mind, but I struggle to discern, is it my imagination? Is it something real and if I'm going to truly understand what it is, I must quiten my overthinking mind.

SF: 30:24

Actually if you want to know whether you really can, that's where giving readings to other people comes in. It's really hard to validate that we're connecting with our own people. We know them. We know what they look like, feel like, and what they're likely to say. Even for me, as an evidential medium ship, I pretty much can't validate connecting with my own people. Other mediums connect with them and I connect with other people's, but if you want to know that you're really connecting what you do is you learn enough to do it for other people. That's the key I'm just throwing this in there because it's 1 of the key facets of mediumship development is reading for other people. With their own people it's a matter of trust and looking for signs and knowing that they love us, but evidential mediumship is reading for other people and getting information you can't possibly know and watching them respond and heal. Once you can do it with other people that might give you more confidence and trust in your connection with your own dad.

PMD: 31:31

Confidence definitely comes into it as well, but sometimes the feelings are overwhelming and I feel certain things and it's a question of measurement and interpretation. So I'm getting a measurement of some kind, but I can't necessarily give it descriptive value. It's a bit like watching the old TV when you got static on it. I got to tune it in somehow and that's part of the skill that I don't have. How do I tune that so I can get the picture. I can see what is streaming into my consciousness or what I'm being an agency for and how to shape my agency to be able to be that messenger for something higher than me.

SF: 32:19

If you want to do that in regards to mediumship, I can help you there. Send me the details. April 20th, Saturday, April 20th 11 to four, my time, which would be four to nine your time on zoom.

PMD: 32:34

Thank you, Sharon that sounds like a plan. I see you as a mentor and in terms of how do you guide others in developing their skills in evidential mediumship, but ensuring they uphold the integrity of the practice and provide meaningful evidence.

SF: 32:54

I can't insure anything, I can insure that I teach them the practice and the ethics and the intention that I believe, but I can't follow them throughout their lives to make sure they do it the way I teach them, but I start at the beginning, this is mediumship, this is my definition, this is not mediumship, this is how it works, this is how the spirit world works and these are the things that you do and this is how you perceive spirits with your psychic vision, hearing, smelling, tasting, knowing all the ways to do it. And then how to prepare yourself, prepare your environment, ground, raise your vibration, set your intention, the importance of having somebody to give a reading to. Step by step, this is how you do it. What are you concerned about, facing your fears, there's nothing to be afraid, you don't need protection, on and on, addressing specific questions and concerns. And then we have the practice session and I hold their hand and walk them through doing it. Some people, the hardest part is getting a link. People like how do I start and I'll give them their own, if they want their own little private mini meditation. Okay. Close your eyes. Imagine this, and that, and I give them a little scenario and then, okay. And then I have four or five different guided meditations to connect and then, okay. And so now you're with the spirit person and they've been waiting for you and it's amazing. People are like, how do I do it and I'm like, Oh, I have a man and an older man and the next thing, they're giving a reading. That's how I do it answer questions and of course I talk about the ethics. It's about healing and love. It's not about taking advantage of people. You need to be honest and compassionate. and present and ethical. I teach that and I would say that probably 99. 9 or all of the students I teach take that to heart and work in a beautiful place. But that's how I teach.

PMD: 35:03

That's great. In terms of the unseen worlds could you shed light on the nature of the unseen worlds and how they coexist with our reality? How do these realms intersect and influence each other?

SF: 35:19

First, I would consider it one realm. I'm not aware of multiple unseen realms. My focus and expertise is like here we are on the planet having this embodied life and that after we pass we're in the spirit world which would be one realm. I don't personally believe in Satan, demons, entities, levels, like that so there's here and there's there and it's not so much a different place as a different vibration. So here we are, we physically pass and we're shifted to that place. I haven't been there. I've connected with hundreds and hundreds of people who were there. But my focus has always been about them character personality relationship to the embodied person. What I know is that there's no pain, no illness, physical, mental, or otherwise that there's no fear. There's no levels. There's no waiting period. No, they're cocooning while they're waiting that doesn't happen. I know that they're instantly there that no one needs help getting there. No one gets stuck. Nobody doesn't go there for any reason, including taking their own lives unexpected passing, not having unfinished business, having people who don't want them to leave. So I know people go directly there. I know that they're well, I know that they can do pretty much whatever they want. This is where the details get fuzzy. And I don't know exactly how it works and I can't answer those specific questions about do they get married no. So I know by talking to people what it's like, and it's one realm and then they're there and they can still connect with us and I know that there's no time. That's how they can be doing their own thing and still come through a medium or the anecdotal stories of two different people going to mediums in different parts of the world at the same time, the spirit person can connect with both of them because they don't have time there. So that's what I know. They're with loved ones, they're continuing their soul's evolution. They have jobs, but it's not like our job's stressful, we've got to earn money. It's more of things that fulfill their soul's need or what they want to do. Like they may be choosing to work with people on the other side and or people on this side, supporting people in different ways. So that's my concept of the spirit realm and the interaction, the overlap is that mediums or people who are sensitive can connect with them and they can choose to connect with us. So we have some overlap. I also believe that they can choose to have another life to reincarnate and that they work that out with spirit guides, supportive spirit and they have helped deciding what life might be most beneficial for their soul's evolution. And then you have your life, you forget about your time and spirit and you work through more information and before you ask, because people always ask, people in my belief, people who are in the spirit world have another incarnation can still come through a medium because they're coming through as their spirit personality character that you knew from this lifetime can come through, even if the soul, which is what they're part of, chooses to have another life.

PMD: 38:54

Thank you for sharing that. As a multifaceted healer and artist and medium and teacher, you're also the author of the groundbreaking book, Choosing to Be a Medium. Can you tell us more about what solidified your commitment to writing this book?

SF: 39:11

Okay, here's the book. Beautiful. There's also a companion journal. If you're really into developing your mediumship and you want a place to do your prompts and stuff like that, there's two facets to writing the book. One is that I was compelled, drawn, encouraged, practically forced to write the book by spirit. I am not one of those people who go around saying, Spirit's telling me to do this. I take full responsible for everything I do and say and I have a more subtle awareness of spiritual help, but with the book, it wasn't that subtle. I was basically compelled plus the weird part was it started early in the morning, three days in a row. I'm nocturnal a lot, and I don't get up in the morning three mornings in a row. It's just like all this thoughts about a book and an outline and all that. And after three days I got up and I started. So I feel like I was encouraged and compelled. I am not somebody who had an interest in writing, no interest in writing, no newspapers not journaling. So there was this guidance, I must say, it certainly felt like that to write a book and I'm like, okay, if I'm writing a book, I want a lot of help and I had a lot of help. It just came so easily, boom, chapters and outlines and all the information just came so strongly and clearly. And I also said, okay, I need some help. And I got an agent and a traditional publisher and everything just fell together. That's more rare than winning a lottery getting a traditional publisher for that. So that was very reassuring. On the other hand on a more, I'm responsible level. I went through so much hard work on my journey and I had to face all those oh, you can't learn to do this and you'll never be very good. I don't know how to make that stuff. Maybe something shifted so I wrote the book because I didn't have the support that I needed. The working title for the book was How to Become a Medium When You're Not Born That Way, or Are You? But that was a long title, and the publisher and editor came up with choosing to be a medium. They came up with multiple choices, and I'm like, ooh, I like that. So I wrote the book because I want people to know that they can learn to do this. And it's a book I would have loved to have when I was developing, especially with step by step, there are 65 exercises. So it's what I would have wanted.. I had trouble finding a mentor. I only had like classes and maybe I can send an email. I didn't have a spiritualist church. I didn't have somebody take me under their wing. I didn't have anybody physically saying, Oh, you can do this. It was harder for me and I watched my current students blossom with love and support and showing them as an example. That's why I wrote the book. I was compelled to, which was really odd because it was in 2014 that I started writing the book. I had only been on the path for three years and I kept it a secret because I thought it seemed super presumptuous and ridiculous for someone at my level of experience to be writing a book, that was the other thing. It was like, It was almost embarrassing, but it took four years. It came together. It was meant to be and now, instead of trying to tell people everything, it's like here, it's in the book.

PMD: 42:54

Give us an overview of the book.

SF: 42:56

Okay. This is what mediumship is. This is what it isn't. This is how I became a medium, a little bit about my quest, my search. And then this is how you do it, step by step, like I said in that little overview before, this is how you do this, how to ground, how to set your intention, and this is the way to perceive spirits, step by step, exercises as you go along, and then actually doing it tough readings, skeptics becoming a professional. So it starts from what it is and how to start all the way to what do you do when the reading doesn't work, things that can happen, bringing through people who weren't in spirit and all kinds of stuff like that and in the end, there are some appendices about spiritualism I have interviews from 10 other mediums, 10 questions from 10 mediums to get a different perspective because not everybody believes the same thing and that's an overview.

PMD: 43:58

Looking at the book, I see it as a a practical toolkit of understanding as distinct from a rule book of behavior and there are some wonderful tools in there. One of the questions that comes up is how does cultural, religious and societal beliefs influence the acceptance and interpretation of evidential mediumship phenomena?

SF: 44:24

Mediumship has been present and used and developed for thousands of years on every continent, so it's universal. It's not just for one particular religion or culture. They might call it different things, but it's been happening probably forever. The largest cultural obstacle that I'm aware of is types of Catholic who are brought up that you shouldn't disturb the dead and people who believe in Satan and things like that parts of the new Bible where it says don't consort with mediums and things like that. So a lot of people, I don't know how many, have to overcome their religious upbringing that it's scary and bad and evil and have to overcome that to immerse themselves and freely develop without fear. That's the major obstacle I'm aware of. Other cultures might have it, but it's very universal. It's all about connecting with loved ones in spirit, however, and it's all for good, and it's all for healing. It's not my job to make anybody believe anything or to prove anything working one on one with people my intention is to prove the continuity of life their loved ones around their well, they're connected. They're aware of our lives. That's on a one to one thing. Overall, I'm not trying to prove anything to the world the proof of mediumship or anything like that, I'm going to help individually people who are ready and want to have that experience and that healing. The rest of the world they can have their own beliefs and think whatever they think, and hopefully it won't be particularly harmful to other people.

PMD: 46:14

I totally agree with you. I never try to convince anybody of anything because it's not my job to do that. I'm not trying to give anybody a rule book of behavior or to convince them that this is true or this is untrue because the best way is for them to discover it for themselves and if it's something they don't believe in or it challenges their paradigm, especially if they have a blind paradigm. That's what they will live with and I think for some people, their references amount to a mole hill as distinct from a mountain. And, if you gather references and you gather the information and you have a visceral experience, no one can take that away from you. But like you say, you're not there to convince anybody.

SF: 47:01

I have an uncle who did not believe in this at all, and he passed a couple of years ago, and he's come through other mediums in classes, and he's come through in circle, maybe 6 different times. I keep telling my mom because it's her mother. But he didn't believe in us. He believes in it now. He's come through with beautiful evidence of what he did, how he was, and family and all that and he was a huge skeptic who didn't want to know.

PMD: 47:30

I want to move on to this part of the show is called Soul Spotlight, and it's a fun part of the show where I'm just going to ask you a couple of questions. We are just to vent about this part. I didn't warn you about this. I don't want anybody. It's really venturing into the whimsical and profound corners of being really. I like to try and be a bit unconventional here to offer a glimpse into your dreams and your aspirations and your untapped potential. So my first question to you is If you were to create your own utopian society, what would be its most defining feature and why?

SF: 48:10

Simple, peace and health. There's no, yeah, peace. Peace, health, people getting along, and the opposite of that. Chaos, destruction, fighting, starvation, illness, and all the bad stuff. And then everything else is just a bonus. music, art wonderful food. Everybody has a place to live. Everybody gets along. That's my utopia.

PMD: 48:41

Beautiful. Imagine you woke up one morning and you found out that the laws of physics no longer applied. What's the first thing you would do this new found freedom?

SF: 48:52

I want to fly. I love flying. I've had wonderful flying dreams, and I've had lucid flying dreams. I want to fly without a plane or anything, I just want to be able to fly. It's so cool what I've done in my dreams and the lucid dreams.

PMD: 49:09

Beautiful. As we conclude our discussion of evidential mediumship I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to you for sharing your insights and experiences and your dedication to the study and practice of mediumship. For listeners, I hope this discussion has sparked curiosity and reflection on the potential of mediumship to bridge the gap between the seen and the unseen, and whether you approach this topic with skepticism or openness, I encourage you to continue seeking understanding and exploring the mysteries of the universe. So regardless of your beliefs or perspectives, I believe that the pursuit of knowledge and connection is a journey that unites us all. So let's remain open to the possibilities that lie beyond our comprehension and embrace the wonder of the unknown. Sharon, where can people find you and where can people get a copy of your book?

SF: 50:10

The best way to find me is my website, SharonFarber. net. And you can get the book anywhere books are sold. Basically any well, yeah, even in the UK, you can use Amazon or other online places. So you can get the regular book anywhere the companion journal it's pretty much through Amazon. Most mortar stores don't carry the companion book. And so there's my website and from my website, you can watch my YouTube videos, my TikTok videos, go to my Facebook page. Instagram and all that kind of stuff. And if you're interested in mediumship and you're on Facebook I have a group called Mediumship and Mediums, which right now has about 27,000 members, and it's a place where you can learn, ask your questions, and get people to practice on. So you just have to say, I want to give some free practice readings and then you'll have more than you could possibly have because people will be like me.

PMD: 51:12

Do you have any parting words at all?

SF: 51:16

If I can do it, you can do it. Mediumship is wonderful to experience, go to a medium, but it's also amazing to actually do it and if you think that might be something you're interested in, I can help you and like I said, it's like learning to play an instrument. You don't have to be born playing the violin. You take lessons and then you practice and practice. So that's what you can do with your mediumship, even if you have never seen a spirit person before. So that's my last words.

PMD: 51:51

Sharon, Thank you so much for your wisdom and your insights. It's been a wonderful conversation.

SF: 51:56

Thank you for your questions and challenging me.