It isn't only students of metaphysics who are afraid to give information they get in a reading; thinking it can't be right and trying to reason it out before they deliver it. This happens to everyone. And this past summer, I had the best example I'd ever had of why you should just go ahead and give the info you get, regardless of how silly or impossible it seems:
I spent a week at Lily Dale- a spiritualist community in western New York state. Or, as I like to think of it: Summer Camp for aging hippies.
Lots of great workshops on various aspects of intuition, Spiritual Healing and Mediumship are offered, along with several services in which registered mediums (people who have passed the rigorous Lily Dale testing) and visiting mediums come up to the front stage of various indoor and outdoor temples to demonstrate the truth of survival of the spirit. There are group meditation opportunities, healing services at the Healing Temple and development circles in the evening.
I attended one hosted by nationally known medium Gregory Keene. There were about two dozen people sitting in a circle. Greg Keene led us in a meditation and then suggested that 'if you received any messages that you would like to share, please do so now.'
For the next half hour or so, the people sitting in the circle took turns doing just that. I had an impression that I knew was for a woman sitting some 30 feet in front of me at the opposite end of the circle. But didn't have the nerve to say anything, because I hadn't picked up a spirit per se; what I got was an elephant!
I was pretty sure it wasn't a dead elephant and I could think of no good reason for seeing a live elephant in this circle. Afraid of being laughed at, I'd decided to simply listen. I tried to shut out the elephant. It grew louder. Braying, or whatever it is that elephants do, it dipped it's head down, bellowed out some kind of odd noise, rearing up its head and curling its trunk upward. Over and over. The harder I tried to shut out that elephant, the louder it got.
Finally, with a lull in the circle, I decided to venture out. So what if they all laughed at me? Like I would see any of them again anyway, right? So I took a deep breath and asked the woman across if I could bring her a message. She agreed. And I froze. I thought as loudly as I could to what I assumed to be a room filled with the spirits of loved ones: Please, don't make me come to her with this elephant; give me someone connected to this woman to bring through first; then I promise I will deliver the damned elephant!
Immediately I became aware of a grandmotherly woman pacing in front of the woman so I brought her up. I reached silently for a name. I was rewarded with an instant image of a friend of my mother's impatiently charging across the circle in front of me; her name was Gerta. I gave the name and the basic personality of my mom's friend Gerta,and Bingo: Yes, this woman did indeed have a grandmother named Gerta, German, in Germany with this personality description. Now the signal improved and I continued to pass along info as I got it, including a health concern and a recommendation that I prefaced with the obligatory disclaimer: 'I am not a doctor and cannot prescribe or diagnose, but this is what I am hearing and I'd recommend you check any information out with professional doctors before you try this, but...' and went on to give what I got.
Finally she stepped back (Gerta) and I was left with that stupid elephant. I took a deep breath and said: "Why am I getting an elephant with you? I don't think you live near a zoo; so why would I be getting an elephant?"
The woman, very surprised, said: "Well, a week ago, I was in Camaroon. There was a herd of about 150 elephants standing about as close to us as I am now to you."
You could have knocked me over with a feather. And her, too.
Lesson?
Trust your first impressions.
Don't reason with them; don't argue with them, just trust the process.
It works.