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This article was published exclusively online in the Christian Research Journal, Volume 48, number 04 (2025).

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Do you remember the popular 1990s film, Ghost, which starred Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Swayze, and Demi Moore? Even if you didn’t watch it when it came out, it lives on through streaming services and reels on social media, especially during the Halloween season. In the film, Goldberg played a fake psychic who manipulated people for money; however, when Swayze’s character died, he used Goldberg to warn his girlfriend of impending danger. In one scene, Swayze’s ghost jumps into Goldberg’s body and possesses it. This is an example of mediumship, where someone channels a dead person through thought, word, or action to send messages to others.

Mediums are especially popular today due to technology and the internet — one no longer needs to go visit a medium in person because you can connect via video chat. In fact, according to a 2023 Pew Research poll, nearly one-third of Christians believe that the dead want to communicate with us. The same poll revealed that around the same number of Christians (one-third) believe the dead provide assistance to the living.¹ This article will navigate the different types of mediums as well as give a Christian response to mediumship.

What’s a Medium?

Put simply, a medium is a bridge or intermediary between the living and the dead. They are able to receive messages from the dead through various psychic senses, like feeling heightened emotions, automatic writing, or even talking directly to dead spirits. Some popular mediums of the past have been John Edward, Sylvia Browne, and Theresa Caputo. Both Edward and Caputo had their own television series, and Browne was a frequent guest on talk shows in the 90s as well as a best-selling author. Caputo has come back to television and is seeing a resurgence in popularity. But perhaps the most famous medium today is 29-year-old Tyler Henry, who hit the scene when he was just a teenager.

In 2015, Henry appeared on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and that appearance seemed to catapult him into stardom because he launched his own show, Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry, in January 2016. Since then, he has given readings to several celebrities, including Jim Parsons, La Toya Jackson, and Corey Feldman. Perhaps the most talked about reading was for actor and Growing Pains star Alan Thicke. Henry met with Thicke in August 2016, and he told Thicke that he should watch for potential heart issues because apparently those issues ran in Thicke’s family (Thicke said issues didn’t run in his family, except for his sister). Then, in December 2016, just a few months later, Thicke died of an aortic rupture. Believers and fans praised Henry’s abilities, while skeptics said it was a coincidence, and Henry was simply playing the odds since so many American men die of heart disease.²

Types of Mediums

Tyler Henry is a clairvoyant, the kind of medium that sees images or visuals from dead people, but there are different types of mediums split into two main categories: mental and physical. Mental mediums connect with the dead by listening to, sensing, or seeing spirits or symbols. It includes clairvoyance (seeing), clairaudience (hearing), and clairsentience (feeling) spirits. Physical mediums use something called ectoplasm to help elicit sounds like knocking or bell ringing from dead spirits. Ectoplasm is created from the cells of the medium’s body to help spirits interact with the physical world. Sometimes mediums go into a trance and may not remember their experiences, while others say they can speak directly with a dead spirit.

Channeling. Channeling is receiving information from a source believed to be outside of one’s own consciousness. The medium allows the spirit to send information through speech, writing, or some other means. Channeling is closely related to possession, but the two are not quite the same. Possession is when a spirit enters the medium’s body, and sometimes the medium isn’t aware that they are being possessed. Channeling is voluntary on the part of the medium, while possession is not.

Helena Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, which was a new religious movement in the late 1800s, was a medium known for channeling. She claimed she channeled a group of spirits called the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, a secret brotherhood from Tibet. However, eventually Blavatsky was accused of fraud and plagiarism from other sources, indicating that she had made up much of what she said or had stolen it.³

Ouija Boards, Séances, and Levitation. The first time I heard of a Ouija board, I was in sixth or seventh grade. I had a teacher who told us a story about how she had used one to summon messages from a dead loved one, and she got so scared by it, she threw it away. She told us that the next day, it appeared in her bedroom again and no one in her family admitted they had put it there. That story was sufficient to keep me away from Ouija Boards, but they continue to be a popular game globally. Ouija boards originated from the ancient Chinese practice called planchette writing, used by Taoist monks to share messages from spirits.⁴ A planchette is a small, tear-shaped board, usually on wheels, which is guided by spirits to send a particular message. It is the object people place their fingers on while using a Ouija board.

In the U.S., talking boards were popular during the Spiritualist movement sometime after the Civil War. In 1890, medium Helen Peters asked her talking board what she should call it, and it said, “Ouija,” which it explained meant good luck.⁵ Peters got a patent for the Ouija board, and eventually it was marketed as a game, which became wildly popular and has retained its popularity since that time, with millions of boards sold. Although believers claim the Ouija board acts as a conduit to the dead, it’s likely a psychological phenomenon called the ideomotor effect that is in play — tiny muscle movements cause the planchette to move as if by external force. In other words, it’s the fingers doing the guiding, not the spirits.

Ouija boards are often used at séances, when a group of people gather together, usually with the help of a medium, to call upon the spirits of the dead. Séances, like Ouija boards, gained traction during the Spiritualist movement of the nineteenth-century. In fact, they made their way to the White House. Mary Todd Lincoln would often host séances at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in order to communicate with her deceased son.⁶ There’s no evidence that séances work or that attendees are communicating with the dead — the ideomotor effect and fraud are common.⁷

Levitation is when a physical medium lifts objects or people into the air by channeling spirits. One popular medium known for levitation was Daniel Dunglas Home, who lived in Scotland in the mid-1800s. He reportedly performed hundreds of levitations throughout his lifetime, including floating in and out of windows. Interestingly, Home was never caught in fraud, and his name was rarely discredited as such, despite many other mediums of that time being accused and found guilty of deceptive practices.⁸

Is Mediumship a Gift or Can it Be Taught?

In general, it seems that many mediums believe that being a medium is a gift that is given to someone supernaturally. For example, both Tyler Henry and Theresa Caputo have said they have a gift, but they have also acknowledged that everyone has the gift and just need to tap into it. Caputo says people don’t realize how often the dead are trying to communicate with them and that the signs are all around us. For example, if something around you is odd and makes you think of a loved one, that may, in fact, be your dead love trying to talk to you.⁹

There are those who say a person can be taught to communicate with the spirit world. The Monroe Institute and Edgar Cayce’s¹⁰ Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) both offer courses to help attendees expand their consciousness to be more in touch with spirits. Cayce was an American clairvoyant from the mid-1800s who claimed he could diagnose diseases of others while he was sleeping. The A.R.E. continues to use Cayce’s writings to teach the next generation of intuitives. Courses are offered online and in-person, and the A.R.E.’s podcast, New Awakenings, offers specific details about mediumship.

What Does the Bible Say About Mediums?

The Bible clearly condemns mediumship in both the Old and New Testaments. Leviticus 20:27 and Deuteronomy 18:10–11 forbid the practice, along with sorcery, witchcraft, and child sacrifice (see also Leviticus 19:31). In 1 Samuel 28, King Saul used a medium to talk with Samuel, even though Samuel was dead and Saul knew mediumship was a sin. In the narrative, the medium conjured Samuel, and Saul communicated with him. The message Saul received was one of doom, and Saul died the next day. In fact, 1 Chronicles 10:13 relates his death directly with his use of the medium, noting that Saul consulted with a medium rather than trusting the Lord.

In the New Testament, sorcery and communicating with the spirits is condemned in Acts 8 and 19. The Bible also refers to the spirits who communicate with mediums as lying spirits, which draws attention to Satan disguising himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). In other words, whether or not people can possibly communicate with the dead, they shouldn’t attempt to do so because Satan can use that channel for his own purposes. The bottom line is that seeking supernatural power, knowledge, or enlightenment apart from the true and living God — including any attempt to contact or communicate with the dead — is strictly forbidden in Scripture. Those who persist in such practices are solemnly warned that they will be excluded from the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19–21; Revelation 21:8; 22:15).

A Christian Response to Mediums

Although there are no biblical passages that endorse or permit consulting psychics or mediums, and the Bible is consistent throughout the Old and New Testaments in condemning such practices, there are still professing Christians who promote them and who do not see these activities as being in conflict with biblical teaching. Unfortunately, some seem to engage the occult knowingly — with their eyes wide open — while others are deceived by lying spirits. Either way, the words of James W. Sire, in his book, Scripture Twisting, are apropos for engaging with such folks: “It is important to hold to the truth of the Christian faith in the case of cultic error, but it is equally important to honor the personhood of the cult believer.”¹¹ Although Sire was writing about cults in particular, his advice translates to the occult, too. So often when we interact with others who do not believe the Bible is true or who twist it to serve their own purposes, we forget that they, like us, were made in the image of God. That sometimes causes us to lash out or respond in ways that are un-Christlike. Instead, we should heed 1 Peter 3:15 and give responses with “gentleness and respect.” This doesn’t mean we allow truth to be trampled upon. Instead, we recognize the opportunity to speak light into the darkness and acknowledge to ourselves that kindness often makes more headway in conversation than harshness.

Don’t take spiritual deception lightly — once Satan has a person in his grips, it can be difficult to help them see the truth. Interestingly, with regard to Christians who claim mediumship is okay biblically, such as Adrian Lee, author of How to Be a Christian Psychic, it seems like they understand that Satan is trying to deceive but don’t see it as a possibility in their own lives:

Satan and his minions are working to mislead us and turn us away from the Gospel. But they work cleverly. They may not be solely working on us individually, but on the big corporations that sell Ouija boards in the children’s section of the multinational grocery stores, or the news agencies that peddle falsehoods and hyperbole. It is what we absorb, what we see, what we are exposed to. It is important to remember that if we have God on our side, then we have no need to fear any entity or spirit whether it has evil intentions or not.¹²

Keep in mind that anything that is unbiblical needs to be called out with graciousness and firmness. If a Christian family member or friend is consulting mediums, tell them with clarity what the Bible says about it. They may not be able to see the deception in their own lives.

If someone you know is not a Christian but consults mediums, using Scripture as a reason to stop may not work, but it might help to note how rampant fraud is in the industry. Psychics and mediums can use technology to gain a lot of information about a person and can then claim the information came from beyond. It’s good to respond to skepticism. As with all things, before you enter into conversations about this, ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom about what to say. Most of all, though, avoid engaging a medium’s services yourself. Guard your heart from lying spirits.

Lindsey Medenwaldt is an assistant professor of business and economics at Northwestern College and the author of Bridge-Building Apologetics (Harvest House, 2024). She holds a master’s in apologetics and ethics from Denver Seminary, a JD from St. Mary’s School of Law, and a master’s in public administration from Midwestern State University.

NOTES

1. Becka A. Alper et al., “Spirituality Among Americans,” Pew Research Center, December 7, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/12/07/spiritual-beliefs/.
2. See Susan Gerbic, “The One Where ‘Psychic’ Tyler Henry Reads Alan Thicke,” Skeptical Inquirer, September 15, 2017, https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-one-where-psychic-tyler-henry-reads-alan-thicke/.
3. “Helena Blavatsky,” Brittanica, accessed October 20, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helena-Blavatsky.
4. Cheng-Mei Chang, “Chinese Writing: A System of Characters Rich in Structural Diversity,” Expedition 31, no. 1 (1989):40–51, 49, https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/31-1/Chang.pdf.
5. Baynard Woods, “The Ouija Board’s Mysterious Origins: War, Spirits, and a Strange Death,” The Guardian, October 30, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/30/ouija-board-mystery-history.
6. Alexandra Kommel, “Seances in the Red Room: How Spiritualism Comforted the Nation during and after the Civil War,” The White House Historical Association, April 24, 2019, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/seances-in-the-red-room.
7. David Robert Grimes, “Science of the Seance: Why Speaking to Spirits is Talking to Yourself,” The Guardian, October 30, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2015/oct/30/science-of-the-seance-why-speaking-to-spirits-is-talking-to-yourself.
8. “Home, Daniel Dunglas (1833–1886),” Encyclopedia.com, updated June 11, 2018, https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-biographies/daniel-dunglas-home.
9. Theresa Caputo on “The View,” Facebook video (public), March 15, 2024, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1895703654218006.
10. For more about Edgar Cayce, see Lindsey Medenwaldt, “Edgar Cayce: The Would-Be Sleeping Prophet,” Christian Research Journal 46, no. 4 (2023), https://www.equip.org/articles/edgar-cayce-the-would-be-sleeping-prophet/.
11. James W. Sire, Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways Cults Misread the Bible (InterVarsity Press, 1980), 19.
12. Adrian Lee, How to Be a Christian Psychic: What the Bible Says About Mediums, Healers and Paranormal Investigators, 2nd ed. (Wisdom Editions, 2022), 77–78.