"higher plane
communication," or similar terms, are employed herein in some cases.

What Is Mediumship?

Let us see just what is meant by the term "mediumship." The term
"medium" is defined as: "That which lies in the middle, or between other
things: hence, that through which anything is conveyed from one thing
to another." In a special sense, a "medium" is "a person serving as the
channel of communication between decarnate entities and human being
still in the flesh," in "spiritualistic phenomena." The suffix "ship,"
of course, denotes state or office; and in the case of "mediumship" it
indicates that the designated person possesses the state or office of a
"medium," the latter term being used in the special meaning above
defined.

Of course, the term "mediumship," as above defined, lacks a clear
meaning unless the term "spiritualistic," or "spiritualism" be defined.
The term "spiritualism" (or as many of the best authorities prefer to
state it, "spiritism") is applied to "a system of communication with the
unseen world, or with the inhabitants thereof, the latter being usually
known as 'spirits,' through persons called 'mediums,' which has attained
popular favor in Europe and America since about 1850." Or, as another
authority states it, "Spiritualism is a term employed to indicate the
belief that departed spirits hold intercourse with mortals by means of
psychical phenomena, commonly through a person of special susceptibility
called a 'medium.'"

Ancient Mediumship.

It is, of course, unnecessary to state in detail the fact that
communication with decarnate entities has been known and practiced by
the human race from the earliest days of recorded history, and
probably long before that time, and is far from being a modern
discovery. Moreover, such communication has been known and practiced
by races of human beings other than those inhabiting Europe and
America--particularly in the oriental countries. In the oriental lands
such communication has been well established for many thousand years,
and the most ancient records give evidences of it. The Hebrew
Scriptures contain many instances of such communication, showing that
the same was an accepted fact of the life of the race at the time and
in the places at which these records were written.

Mediumship and Religious Belief.

The careful student will of course notice that this communication with
the higher planes of life and being--this so-called "mediums