What the Bible Actually Says About Mediumship and Why the Answer Might Surprise You

I need to start this post by telling you something personal.

I was a Christian when I had my near death experience. I had built my faith, my community, and a significant part of my identity inside the church. And when I came back from that experience with the ability to channel, with gifts I had never asked for and did not know what to do with, the first thing I had to wrestle with was exactly the question you might be asking right now.

Is this evil?

I want to give you the honest, thoughtful answer I wish someone had given me. Not a fear-based answer. Not a politically safe answer. The kind that actually holds up when you sit with it quietly and let your own spirit weigh in.

God Has Always Spoken Through Spiritual Channels

Before we get to the passages people use against mediumship, I want to start where I think we should always start, with what scripture actually shows us about how God communicates.

Because it is not what most people expect.

“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17

That is not a narrow, exclusive statement. That is an expansive one. Spiritual perception is not presented here as rare, forbidden, or dangerous. It is presented as part of how God has always intended to move through human beings.

And then there is the Transfiguration, one of the most striking moments in the New Testament:

“And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” Matthew 17:3

Moses and Elijah had both been dead for centuries. And yet here they are, present, communicating, and not a single person in that scene treats what is happening as evil or demonic. It is described as holy.

Jesus himself continues communicating after his physical death:

“He appeared to them during forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:3

If spiritual communication after death were inherently dark or forbidden, this would be a problem. But it is not treated as a problem. It is treated as sacred.

The Bible also shows us conscious life, communication, and awareness continuing beyond the physical body in Luke 16, Matthew 27, and Luke 23. The framework of scripture is not “the dead are gone and silent.” It is “love and life continue beyond what we can see.”

What the Passages Against Mediumship Actually Say and What They Don’t

Yes, there are verses that warn against mediums and consulting the dead. I am not going to pretend they are not there.

Here are the most commonly cited:

Leviticus 19:31, Leviticus 20:6, Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Isaiah 8:19, and 1 Samuel 28.

These verses are real. But they are almost never presented with the context that makes them make sense.

These were written during a time when the nations surrounding Israel practiced spiritual rituals that were genuinely harmful and corrupt, including child sacrifice, blood magic, spirit summoning for military domination, and using spiritual access to curse, control, and harm others. These were not people sitting quietly and opening themselves to divine guidance. These were practices rooted in fear, coercion, and the manipulation of power.

God was not warning against spiritual sensitivity. God was warning against spiritual abuse.

The danger was not communication. The danger was how and why that communication was being used, and who was being hurt in the process.

The Story of Saul and the Medium of Endor, The Most Misunderstood Chapter in the Bible

This is the passage that gets used most often to shut the conversation down. And it deserves a much closer look.

King Saul, having already disobeyed God repeatedly, is terrified as war approaches. He does not repent. He does not return to humility. He acts from panic and desperation and secretly goes to a medium, asking her to summon the prophet Samuel.

Here is what most people miss about what happens next.

Samuel actually appears. He actually speaks. And what he says is accurate. Even the medium herself is shocked, which tells us this was not a common trick or illusion. Something real and rare occurred.

Samuel does not rebuke the medium. He rebukes Saul.

The problem was never that spiritual communication happened. The problem was Saul’s disobedience, his fear-driven motivation, his refusal to repent, and his desire to bypass personal accountability. He was not seeking God. He was seeking control.

This story does not prove that spirit communication is evil. It proves that using spiritual access as a substitute for personal responsibility is destructive. Those are two very different lessons.

The Double Standard Nobody Talks About

Here is something I want you to sit with for a moment.

• When a pastor stands at the front of a church and says “God told me to share this with you today,” that is called prophecy.

• When someone sees a vision in prayer, that is called a gift of the Holy Spirit.

• When a preacher feels divinely led to a particular scripture that speaks directly to someone’s life, that is called revelation.

  
  

All of those things are someone receiving spiritual insight and delivering it to another person. That is the definition of mediumship.

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:7

God has always used people to deliver messages. The gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12, including prophecy, discernment, and words of knowledge and wisdom, are not fundamentally different from what an ethical medium does. The difference is often just the language, the setting, and whether an institution has given its approval.

When the same function is performed inside a church it is called sacred. When it is performed outside of one it is called dangerous. I will let you draw your own conclusions about why that might be.

What About Ecclesiastes 9:5, “The Dead Know Nothing”?

This is the verse most commonly used to deny that communication with those who have passed is even possible.

But Ecclesiastes is a poetic book written entirely from a human, earthly perspective, what life looks, feels, and tastes like “under the sun.” It is a book about despair, limitation, and the experience of being human in a world that does not always make sense. It is not a theological statement about the nature of the afterlife. The rest of scripture, including the Transfiguration, the rich man and Lazarus, and the resurrection appearances of Jesus, repeatedly affirms that awareness, love, and communication continue beyond the physical body.

Context is everything.

Discernment Is Not Optional and I Mean That for Everyone

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” 1 John 4:1

This verse is one of the most important in all of scripture on this topic and it is almost never discussed in conversations about mediumship. Because here is what it actually says:

Spiritual communication exists.

Spirits are real.

And discernment is required.

You are never meant to blindly accept what comes through from anyone.

Not a medium. Not a pastor. Not a prophet. Not even scripture without your own prayerful reflection. The invitation of that verse is not fear. It is wisdom. It is the call to be an active, discerning participant in your own spiritual life rather than a passive recipient of whatever you are handed.

That is exactly the posture I bring to every session I do. I do not tell you what to believe. I do not ask you to surrender your judgment. I bring through what comes through, hold it with integrity, and trust you to weigh it against what your own soul knows.

What Mediumship Is and What It Has Never Been Meant to Be

Mediumship is the ability to perceive spiritual information, often from loved ones who have passed, spirit guides, or divine consciousness, for the purpose of healing, comfort, clarity, and understanding. It is not meant to control your choices. It is not meant to replace your relationship with God or your own inner knowing. It is not meant to remove your free will or tell you how to live your life. And it should never create dependency.

In every session I do, you remain the sovereign authority over your own soul. Always. You take what resonates. You leave what does not. And no message that comes through me or anyone else is more authoritative than what your own spirit confirms as true.

The Real Dividing Line

The question has never been whether spirits exist or whether spiritual communication is possible. Scripture is clear that both are real.

The real question has always been this:

• How is spiritual access being used?

• Is it rooted in love or in fear?

• Does it honor free will or remove it?

• Does it bring the person closer to their own truth or make them more dependent on someone else’s?

“Let all things be done for edification.” 1 Corinthians 14:26

That is the standard I hold my work to. If it does not uplift, clarify, or bring peace, it does not belong.

A Note From Me

I spent a long time wrestling with these questions after my own experience. I did not come to this work easily or lightly. I came to it through loss, through an encounter with the other side that I could not deny, and through a slow, honest reckoning with everything I had been taught.

What I found on the other side of that reckoning was not darkness.

It was more love than I had ever known. T

he same love that was at the center of my faith all along, just closer than it had ever been before.

If you are sitting with this question, I honor that. Take your time with it. Let your own spirit lead. And if anything I share in a session ever does not sit right with you, do not take it. You do not owe belief to anyone. Not even me.

With love,

Camille