Mediumship is steadily growing in popularity, and researchers have taken notice. In the Fall 2023 edition of the Journal of Parapsychology, Siri K. Zemel, an independent researcher & Helané Wahbeh, ND, MCR, Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, published a paper titled: Ethical Readiness and Professionalization Among Mediums and Channelers in the United States. To gather the necessary data, they surveyed almost 150 mediums and channels to see what the overall sentiment was. In their abstract they said:

Most respondents were middle-aged, white, college-educated females with strong group beliefs around the importance of research, education, and training; ethical standards and scope of practice guidelines; and a more structured professional field. This study provides a glimpse into who mediums/channelers are, what they believe about their occupation, their responsiveness to the development of ethical standards, and related foundations required to advance towards professionalization.

So what does professionalization mean? The study authors address this question directly by defining it as the process by which standards, regulations, and ethics codes are established. This would mean that the medium had agreed to adhere to a particular standard (using standardized terminology, providing receipts, agreeing to recording of sessions) and set of ethics, (e.g. not selling charms or promising to remove curses, charging all clients the same rate.) and had agreed to be held to that standard. (e.g. clients are made aware that there is a formal complaint process, allowed access to it and there is a process for punishment that can result in removal from the organization.)

Is Mediumship Regulation Important

The existence of this kind of formal structure can lead to greater acceptance in society. Mediumship as it exists now is an unregulated industry where anyone at all can choose to call themselves a medium. A formalized structure makes this process more difficult and tends to have more serious people as well as weeding out those who indulge in wishful thinking or are looking for a quick buck.

One thing that is brought up in the paper is that lab testing of mediums (which has been taking place since 2003) has become refined over time and there is an established methodology. Passing such a test would lend great credibility to mediums who can accomplish it.

The authors note:

Mediums are “individuals who report experiencing regular communication with the deceased” (Beis- chel, 2007, p. 37). The current study focuses on mental mediumship, and the terms mediumship or medi- um in this manuscript refer to the research and practice of mental mediumship. Channeling can be broadly defined as “the process of revealing information and energy not limited by our conventional notions of space and time that can appear receptive or expressive” (Wahbeh, 2021, p. 21). While recognizing the distinctions and overlap between mediumship and channeling is essential to elucidate understanding of both phenomena (Beischel & Rock, 2009), this study combines the two practices into the single category of mediumship/channeling because they are so tightly linked, and because there is not currently a strong socially accepted professional distinction between these two occupations. Psychopathology is often mistakenly associated with mediumship/channeling abilities despite mediums and channelers scoring below pathological levels on mental health symptom screening scales (Wahbeh & Radin, 2018; Wahbeh & Butzer, 2020; Roxburgh & Roe, 2011), which is consistent with people experiencing other parapsychological phenomena (Sagher, Butzer, & Wahbeh, 2019). Nonetheless, when practitioners aim to establish themselves professionally, the role of consumer trustworthiness and social reputation becomes more important. A small number of field leaders offer evidence-based testing and certifications for mediums, while other programs grant easier access to achieving certification—creating great variability across levels and types of professional status for mediums/channelers.

The profession of mediumship has no overarching unified guidelines or certification, ethics code, or regulation that would inform clients of who can be trusted. Gaining trust is only possible currently through word of mouth. While that is a tried and true method for hiring competent professionals in a wide variety of areas, it does nothing for people who do not have reliable personal connections to guide them. The authors also note that a code of ethics is considered foundational for a profession.

Regulation Comes from Necessity

To use a personal example, I’m a general building contractor and work in one of the most highly regulated industries out there. You can find regulations for building contractors in the Code of Hammurabi, (Babylon), ancient Egypt and the Roman empire. In the middle ages this was dealt with through guilds. Mediumship has been practiced as well in all of these cultures, yet has never gone through a similar process. The reason for this is rather basic if you think about it: It has to do with the level of harm. Bad building can cause great harm, including killing or bankrupting people. Bad mediumship holds no physical risk to the client and can be shrugged off. A crappy, dishonest reading will set you back a few bucks and not much more than that. (The authors disagree with me here. See Zemel’s comments further below.)

While complaints about bad building contractors could fill a library, mediums receive relatively few complaints, and outright scams are so few and far between that they generally make the news when they happen. From a government perspective, market forces deal effectively with this profession, and it doesn’t require intervention. If mediums want more respect, they’ll have to create it for themselves in the form of an overall professional association that has agreed upon standards. The authors explain:

Professional associations often serve the role of disseminating a code of ethics for practitioners, which distinguishes the professions’ values and moral obligations (Evetts, 2012). Professional associations play a meaningful role in structuring and governing a professional field (Nicklich, Braun, & Fortwengel, 2020). In addition to providing mentorship, they create skill development, career opportunities (Escoffery, Kenzig, & Hyden, 2015), and knowledge networks (Newell & Swan, 1995). Professional associations can also aid in securing social recognition and stable, remunerative jobs for their members (Bellini & Maestripieri, 2018).

The study’s research objective was to assess readiness for a formalized structure within the US mediumship/channeling field. The specific aims were to: identify beliefs and practices related to research, education, and training within the field; identify beliefs related to ethical standards and scope of practice guidelines; and assess views on the development of a formalized professional structure within the field.

Enforcement is Important

I think what’s missing here is an acknowledgement of the importance of an enforcement mechanism. If you can’t or won’t punish bad actors, you cannot gain credibility with the public. I had a discussion with author Siri Zemel, who had this to say:

The largest qualitative theme in this study was "ethical responsibility", which many participants described as the imperative to "do no harm" and an "urgent need" for ethical standards.

In response to this loud cry heard through the participant data, Dr. Wahbeh and I published a follow-up study in Explore titled "Code of ethics for mediums and trance channelers". This 2025 study outlines a consensus-building approach for the development of an aspirational code of ethics for the field.

However, as you point out, the "lack of an enforcement mechanism" is an enormous hurdle in regulating mediums/channelers. A smaller, related theme in the professionalization study was termed "bad actors", which participants warned as practitioners in the field who lack consumer ethics. Some study participants referenced these bad actors as "charlatans" and "driven by financial gain". One participant summed it up by saying "This field is so stunning, but unfortunately, it is abused by some".

Going back to the example of general contracting, perhaps a closer example could be found in the fields of psychotherapy and counseling. I have read of therapists being sued for implanting false memories, including the associated psychological, emotional, and relational damages that can cause. Yet when done well, psychotherapy can deeply heal, enlighten, and enhance the consumer's quality of life.

There was a specific structure to the survey. Here, I defer to the exact wording of the researchers:

The survey captured demographic and practice information, statements of belief, and open-ended feedback around the survey’s three core topics: research, education, and training; ethical standards and scope of practice guidelines; and formalized structure. The self-administered online survey was the only study involvement for participants.

Participants were divided into three categories:

Medium – someone who communicates with discarnate souls from a non-physical realm (for the purpose of this study, ‘medium’ refers to a mental vs. physical medium) •

Channeler – someone who reveals energy or information from a non-physical realm, which may or may not include discarnate souls (for the purpose of this study, ‘channeler’ refers to the full spec- trum of channeling abilities from intuition through trance channeling) •

Mediumship/channeling – the field in which mediums and/or channelers practice

The Demographics

I personally think that the most fascinating part of this study is the demographics. If your view of psychics is something like this:

Hold on to your hats, because while 85% were female, only about 20% were under the age of 44. Not only that, around 40% had a bachelors degree and almost 30% had a masters or doctorate.

Far from being a trashy profession filled with scammers and lowlifes, we find instead older, well educated women. About 90% had received some form of training. The authors provided a short list:

For those who attended or offered a certification program, a total of 90 programs were listed, of which 58 were unique listings. The most common major certification programs listed included Forever Family Foundation (11%), Spiritualist church group (11%), Lisa Williams International School of Spiritual Development (9%), Mark Ireland / Helping Parents Heal (8%), James Van Praagh School of Mystical Arts (7%), and Windbridge Certified Research Medium (6%).

About 40% made under $25,000, about 27% made above $25,000 but below $50,000 from mediumship alone and a little over 7% made over $100,000 a year. Most mediums saw between 2 and 9 clients a weeks, with most charging between $100 and $300 per session. It’s decent pay for a self employed specialized service, but nothing amazing, given the average number of clients per week. For most mediums it is probably a second job and for a few it is a decent full time job.

Innate vs. Learned Ability?

One thing of interest mentioned in the study was the nature of learning mediumship/channeling. The authors provided this comment:

A somewhat controversial topic among respondents was innate versus learned ability, and this debate may need to be settled for the field to advance toward commonly accepted education, training, and certification standards, as an element of professional status. According to Evetts (2012), a profession can be described as “the knowledge-based category of service occupations which usually follow a period of tertiary education and vocational training and experience” (p. 3) and is further enhanced by an accumulation of knowledge and skills that drives one through the developmental stages of novice, competent, and expert (Alba & Sandberg, 2006)

In other words, if it is an innate ability, then training and education are superfluous, but if it is learned, then they are of great importance. This question has to be settled for the field to move forward, but very likely a training and education program are quite important from a standpoint of credibility.

A Quick Summary

The study concludes with four more points. First, most respondents agreed that training, education, and research were important for the field; second, ethical standards were also important; and third, new practitioners could benefit from support in the form of structure and resources that a mediumship association would bring. Finally, mediums would like to meet others from their profession in a formal atmosphere.

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