Never Limit the Limitless: The Extraordinary Power of Spirit
What if the greatest limitation in our spiritual development is not the spirit world at all — but the limits we quietly place upon ourselves?
There is something I have been thinking about a great deal recently.
How much of our potential do we never discover simply because, somewhere along the way, we decided there must be a limit?
A limit to what we can feel.
A limit to what we can know.
A limit to how deeply we can connect.
A limit to what mediumship is supposed to look like.
My recent conversation with medium and teacher Colin Bates on the Soul Sync podcast brought me back to this question again and again.
Colin has spent decades immersed in mediumship, spiritualism and the exploration of consciousness, but what I love about speaking with him is that the conversation never becomes purely technical.
It always comes back to something much more human.
The heart.
Belief.
Love.
And the extraordinary potential that may begin to reveal itself when we stop trying quite so hard to control the process.
Listen to the Soul Sync episode
Never Limit the Limitless: The Extraordinary Power of Spirit with Colin Bates
Perhaps Spirit Was Never the Difficult Part
One of the biggest changes in my own mediumship recently has actually come from a change in my life.
After stepping away from the business I had run for ten years, I noticed something unexpected.
I felt lighter.
More present.
And my mediumship began to feel different too.
There were moments when I became aware of spirit without consciously trying to make a connection. I wasn't sitting down for a reading. I wasn't preparing to demonstrate. I wasn't trying to “get into the power.”
It simply happened.
That made me question something.
Perhaps our connection with spirit is not always something we need to work harder to achieve.
Perhaps sometimes we need to become quieter enough to notice what is already there.
Colin described this beautifully in our conversation.
When the physical mind is occupied by stress, concentration, worry and everything demanding our attention in everyday life, the subtler aspects of our awareness can become muted.
And I recognised myself immediately.
For years I thought I was present.
But looking back, how much of me was carrying yesterday while simultaneously preparing for tomorrow?
That is not really presence.
It is simply a very busy mind standing in the present moment.
Mediumship Is Not a Performance
I think this is one of the easiest traps to fall into when developing mediumship.
We start naturally enough.
Then the questions arrive.
Was that really spirit?
Was that good enough evidence?
Should I be seeing more?
Why am I not hearing names?
Why does somebody else work differently from me?
Before long, something beautiful and natural has become another performance.
Another thing to get right.
Another opportunity to judge ourselves.
Colin talked about the physical mind being one of the biggest obstacles to the natural flow of mediumship.
That resonated enormously with me.
Because the analytical mind wants certainty.
It wants to understand the communication before the communication has even had the opportunity to unfold.
Yet some of the deepest experiences in mediumship seem to happen when we stop reaching for information and instead begin experiencing it.
Feeling first.
Allowing.
Listening.
Trusting what arrives before deciding what it ought to mean.
Believing in Spirit Is Different From Believing in Yourself
This was perhaps one of the most personal parts of our conversation for me.
For a long time, I believed completely in the intelligence of the spirit world.
But I did not necessarily have the same belief in myself.
Those are two very different things.
You can believe that consciousness continues.
You can believe spirit communication is possible.
You can watch extraordinary mediums work and feel completely convinced by what you witness.
And yet still wonder:
But can I do it?
Colin described a progression from being told something is possible, to telling ourselves it is possible, and ultimately reaching the point where that belief becomes something deeper.
Something lived.
There is an enormous difference between saying:
“I think I am a medium.”
and reaching the quiet internal recognition:
I am the medium.
Not from ego.
Not because we believe ourselves to be special.
But because we finally stop fighting the natural sensitivity that has been trying to express itself through us.
Perhaps spiritual development is not always about becoming something new.
Perhaps sometimes it is simply about recognising more fully what has always been there.
Your Mediumship Does Not Need to Look Like Anybody Else's
This is something I feel increasingly passionate about.
No two people experience life in precisely the same way.
So why would two mediums experience spirit in precisely the same way?
For me, a spirit connection will very often begin with a face appearing within my awareness.
For Colin, the doorway is often emotion.
Another medium may simply know.
Someone else may hear a word.
Another may suddenly become aware of a memory, a personality trait or a physical sensation.
None of these experiences needs to be superior to another.
They are simply different languages of perception.
And perhaps one of the biggest mistakes we make in mediumship development is attempting to replace our natural language with somebody else's.
Teachers can offer us extraordinary knowledge.
Books can expand us.
Courses can challenge us.
But eventually, we have to discover how our consciousness communicates.
Take what resonates.
Experiment.
Explore.
And have enough courage to leave behind what does not feel authentic.
Go Deeper Instead of Reaching for More
Something else Colin said really struck me.
If an emotion arrives, stay with it.
If an image arrives, stay with it.
If a memory arrives, stay with it.
Don't immediately discard it because you are searching for the next piece of evidence.
Earlier in my own development I could become almost frantic with information.
One thing.
Then another.
Then another.
Red car.
Beach.
Balloon.
Name.
Relationship.
Next piece.
Next piece.
Next piece.
But mediumship can become far more powerful when instead of continually asking “What else?”, we sometimes ask:
“What is inside this?”
A kitchen is not simply a kitchen.
Perhaps it contains a memory.
Perhaps a grandmother stood at the sink watching her husband outside in the garden.
Perhaps a child sat at the table drawing while listening to her cook.
Perhaps the kitchen was where conversations happened, where love was expressed, where a family gathered, where somebody felt safe.
One image can contain an entire life.
The evidence matters.
Of course it does.
Evidential mediumship is about demonstrating the continuation of consciousness beyond physical death.
But evidence can be more than a checklist of facts.
It can carry personality.
Memory.
Emotion.
Relationship.
And when those things come together, we stop merely describing somebody who lived.
For a moment, we begin allowing that person to live again within the communication.
Mediumship Is About Life
That may sound strange at first.
Mediumship is often described as communication with people who have died.
But perhaps that description is incomplete.
Because if consciousness continues, then mediumship is ultimately not about death.
It is about life continuing.
That distinction changes something.
Instead of asking only:
“Who is the spirit person?”
we might also begin asking:
“Who are they now?”
“What did they love?”
“What mattered to them?”
“What do they want their family to understand?”
“What remains unfinished?”
“What has continued?”
That is where communication can begin moving beyond identification and into meaning.
Proof matters.
But after proof comes another question:
What now?
If we accept that life continues, what does that ask of the way we live this life?
Perhaps that is where mediumship becomes not merely evidential but transformative.
Never Limit the Limitless
At one point in our conversation I spoke about the great mediums of the past and wondered whether certain forms of mediumship had been lost.
Colin immediately challenged me.
Why assume they cannot exist again?
Why place a limitation upon something we describe as limitless?
That question stayed with me.
Because human beings love boundaries.
We create systems.
Qualifications.
Definitions.
Methods.
Boxes.
Some structure is undoubtedly useful.
But when structure becomes certainty, exploration can disappear.
The pioneers of mediumship experimented.
They explored consciousness.
They sat for long periods simply becoming aware of themselves before attempting communication.
They allowed themselves to ask questions without already deciding what the answer should look like.
Perhaps we need more of that spirit of enquiry again.
Not recklessness.
Not abandoning discernment.
But curiosity.
What else might consciousness be capable of?
What else might spirit communication teach us?
What other ways might this extraordinary intelligence express itself through completely different people?
I don't think we discover those answers by copying what came before.
I think we discover them by respecting what came before while still being brave enough to explore what might come next.
The Most Powerful Foundation May Be Love
And underneath almost everything Colin and I discussed was one word.
Love.
Love for the spirit world.
Love for the person sitting in front of us.
Love for the person attempting to communicate.
Compassion.
Kindness.
Service.
There is a great deal of discussion within mediumship about technique.
And technique matters.
But technique without heart risks becoming empty.
To me, mediumship should never simply be about demonstrating what we can do.
It is an act of service.
Sometimes it provides evidence.
Sometimes healing.
Sometimes hope.
Sometimes simply the extraordinary reassurance that the relationship we thought had ended has, somehow, changed rather than disappeared.
And perhaps that is the greatest reminder of all.
Our responsibility is not to become the most impressive medium in the room.
It is to become the clearest, most compassionate version of ourselves that we can be.
Follow What Resonates Within Your Heart
Colin finished our conversation with words that, for me, capture the essence of the entire episode.
There is no single right way.
There is no single wrong way.
There is the pathway that resonates within your own heart.
That does not mean abandoning responsibility, evidence or discernment.
It means recognising that spiritual development is also deeply individual.
What opens one person may restrict another.
What inspires one person may leave another completely untouched.
Our responsibility is to listen.
To learn.
To question.
To remain humble.
And then, eventually, to trust.
Because perhaps the spirit world was never asking us to become somebody else.
Perhaps it has been waiting patiently for us to become more fully ourselves.
And maybe that is what it means to never limit the limitless.
Listen to Soul Sync
In this episode of Soul Sync, I speak with Colin Bates about mediumship development, belief, surrender, evidential mediumship, the intelligence of spirit, individuality, spiritualism and the extraordinary possibilities that may open when we stop placing limits on ourselves.
Read the full conversation
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Absolutely. For the accordion, I’d keep it clean, speaker-labelled and without timestamps so it reads naturally and gives Google plenty of indexable text without looking like a raw transcript dump. I’ve lightly tidied punctuation and obvious transcription stumbles while keeping the meaning and tone of the conversation intact.
Accordion heading:
Read the full conversation with Colin Bates
Optional intro above the transcript:
Below is the full transcript of my Soul Sync conversation with Rev. Colin Bates, exploring mediumship development, self-belief, surrender, the intelligence of spirit and what it means to never limit the limitless.Full Transcript
Jason Paul:
Hello, my darlings, and welcome back to the Soul Sync podcast.Today I want to begin with a question.
How much of our potential do we never discover because somewhere along the way, we decided there must be a limit?
A limit to what we can feel. A limit to what we can know. A limit to how deeply we can connect with ourselves, with one another, and perhaps even with the spirit world.
Because we human beings, we do love a box, don't we?
We like definitions. We like certainty. We like to know where something begins, where it ends, what it is called, and preferably whether someone else has already approved it.
And mediumship, I tell you this, is no exception.
We ask: am I doing it correctly? Was that really spirit? Did I imagine it? Was that evidence strong enough? Should I be seeing more? Should I be feeling more? Should I be hearing more?
And before we know it, something that is meant to be natural has become yet another performance. Another thing to get right. Another part of ourselves to doubt.
What if I told you the spirit world — connecting to them — is not the difficult part?
What if connection is not something we have to force, manufacture or somehow earn?
What if it's already there, and it is our own noise, our stress, our fear and the constant need to understand everything that prevents us from even noticing it?
And I've been thinking about this a great deal recently.
Since stepping away from my business, I have felt something shift within me. I feel lighter. I feel much more present, even though I thought I was pretty present before.
And strangely — or perhaps not so strangely at all — my mediumship has begun to flow in ways that feel more natural and spontaneous than before.
Spirit has started making itself known when I am not sitting in a reading, not preparing for a demonstration, and not consciously asking anybody to come forward.
And it has made me wonder how often we believe we are present when, in truth, part of us is still carrying the weight of yesterday or rehearsing the problems of tomorrow.
This is my conversation with Colin Bates.
Colin Bates:
Thank you so much. I'm delighted to be with you once again.Jason Paul:
Well, I'm delighted to have you here.I was so excited when you said you would come back on because you're such a wonderful human being. And I know that so many people found your previous episode really helpful, which was titled You Are the Power.
So welcome back.
I'm excited to talk to you because, like I was saying before we pushed the record button, I feel I've been given a massive upgrade recently in my mediumship, especially since leaving my company.
It's really made me look at things differently.
Mediumship has helped me so much in my life because even in the decision I took concerning my work, without mediumship, I do not think I would have been able to navigate that period of my life.
It really made me aware of why mediumship came into my life and what it gives you.
It was a lot of the spirit world that made me feel confident.
But I've now noticed since leaving and feeling lighter that my mediumship is flowing, and it's really made me assess my relationship with the present moment and how present I was in the past, thinking I was present.
It's interesting, isn't it?
Colin Bates:
Well, it is, you see, because it's all about the balance — the mind, the body and the spirit.When something is just not quite right, it will in some way affect the balance of everything.
Usually when something is not quite right, it's either the mind, the body or the spirit. When one of those is out of sync with the rest, everything can feel as if it's just not quite right.
But mediumship and the journey of the soul, I believe, is not only something that's sacred. I believe that it's something that's ordained pre-birth within the spirit.
So it's quite amazing, really, how through one thing it opens the doorway to a greater possibility in a way that is right for you.
You may not see it when you're in the middle of it, but as you move through it and things start to clear, all of a sudden it's as if the green light is fully on.
It's saying: now. Now is the time. Now is the opportunity, perhaps, to focus upon your heart's desires rather than what the physical mind and world demand of you.
Jason Paul:
It's interesting.Even on reflection, I felt I was very much playing tug of war.
On one hand, I'm trying to be spiritual, I'm trying to do my mediumship, trying to do all these different things.
But it made me realise just how much, in my subconscious all the time, there was so much going on.
Even my meditations now — I'm sitting there and everything's flowing.
I'll tell you an interesting story, actually, Colin. You'll like this.
I was at Gay Pride the other day in Weston-super-Mare, as you do, and there was a healing tent there.
There was a healing lady, and she was offering massages for about £10 or whatever.
I went and sat in her chair. She's a lovely lady.
I don't know what happened, but I suddenly felt there was a spirit person wanting to talk to her.
And I would never in a million years normally start saying to someone, “I've got a spirit person,” because my doubt, at the best of times — I can be in a reading sometimes and still be doubting what I'm getting.
But I don't know what came over me.
I just suddenly said to her, “Do you have this lady? This name? This person in the spirit world?”
And it's happened to me about five times over the last week where I'm standing with someone I know and suddenly I'm becoming aware of spirit people when I'm not requesting someone to come in.
It's made me really aware that my sensitivity has suddenly heightened.
So it's an exciting period, but it really makes me stop and reflect on how busy we get in our lives.
There will be lots of people listening to this trying to develop their mediumship, wondering why it isn't flowing.
And a lot of the time it's just by virtue of your circumstances.
But like you said, sometimes you don't even realise these things are going on within you when you're in the thick of it.
Colin Bates:
Well, you see, it's the physical mind.The physical mind is the dominating energy of this life and this world.
When you move into the time of the medium, in a way what you're doing is moving away from that.
You're starting to focus upon a reality which is real, because mediumship really is part of life and the journey of life.
But it's that ability perhaps to take time away from what is occupying us physically and really move into that sense of a greater awareness.
When you're in the physical mind and everything's going on, all of the subtle realms of the psyche and the spirit are muted.
When there is freedom within the mind and it's not preoccupied, or when you are in that moment of peace, there isn't that great concentration physically.
So consciously or unconsciously, you're opening the doorway to an experience. Your own sensitivity is heightened.
But remember, mediumship is a natural process.
It is something you create through the power of the mind, but it really is the natural power of the soul.
When you're with someone who perhaps has a need, or you are moving into greater sensitivity, you're going to be more aware of the spirit world.
You're going to have these wonderful experiences.
And I always say: I'm just going to let go of the physical world and start to listen to the whispers of heaven and just see who's here for you.
Really, there's no separation.
I think that's where people try to put things into boxes.
Well, you can't put life in a box. It doesn't fit.
There's no separation between one world and another. It's just a thought.
So the more you become in tune with the natural power of who you are, the more you embrace the peace within the heart, the easier that doorway will open to the awareness of the other world.
I do believe that.
We are our own natural blockage, if you will.
The three things that stop the wonderful flow are the physical mind, stress and concentration.
And the physical mind is the one that will always tell you: you can't, or should I, or could I?
Jason Paul:
It's funny — the three things you're listing: concentration, stress... tick, tick, tick, Colin.All the things I'm not meant to have!
But I'm in the present now. I feel present, Colin.
Colin Bates:
Yes, and this is what is so wonderful, because as you're continuing to develop, you're starting to believe it.It's starting to become an actuality of belief.
We look at the three tiers of belief.
I can tell you you're a medium.
You can tell yourself you're a medium.
But until you believe it, you won't embrace it fully.
Every time you sit, every time you work, there is something within you and I that is sacred.
There is an essence of life that is capable of coexisting in more than one world.
As soon as you start to empower that — because we are the doorway — the spirit world can't change.
They live in their own vibration of energy.
So it's the medium that walks between worlds and opens their thoughts, minds and hearts to this greater awareness of the spirit world.
Jason Paul:
And what are the three levels of belief?Because I would say that I've believed for a long time, but I've gone through different stages.
At the very beginning, I wanted to believe in the spirit world.
Then I went on this big expedition searching for proof of the spirit world.
Eventually, the only proof I was willing to accept was when I started doing it.
Then I thought: okay, now I know the spirit world exists.
But then there are these different stages.
I would say that I was then stuck in the stage of believing implicitly in the power, love and intelligence of the spirit world, but for a long time I lacked belief in myself in terms of my ability to do it.
Now I would say I'm coming like an eclipse, Colin. I'm just meeting in the middle at the moment.
How would you describe these levels of belief?
Because there are going to be people listening to this saying, “Yes, Colin, I believe, but it's not happening for me.”
Colin Bates:
Well, you have to look at belief, faith and reason.I always look at the three pillars of faith.
True faith is the belief in that which we wish to be and to become.
The first level of faith is when I tell you.
If you bring it into relation to spirit, I can tell you about the spirit world.
Then you can tell yourself about the spirit world.
You can say, “I believe in the spirit.”
But until you really embrace that, until that belief becomes a faith, it's moving into something else.
When we have faith within something, it becomes an absolute. It becomes unshakeable.
Especially in mediumship, because we go through these stages of development.
We go through these stages where we are very sensitive.
We're sensitive to people and sensitive to what people say to us.
When we move beyond that — and I'm talking about teachers, because some of them do far more harm than good —
Jason Paul:
Well, indeed.If you're a sensitive person as well, when you're going to a teacher and you're not being handled in the right way, with love, it does cause problems.
I've heard of so many mediums or aspiring mediums whose confidence is in the gutter, so to speak.
Colin Bates:
Well, this is where I come into action, really, because they all pop round to see me and I dust them down, pick them up and send them off again!What you have to remember is that the spoken word, once it is said, can never be taken back.
You'll always remember those moments.
But as you grow and develop within your sensitivity, you reach a point where you embrace the fact that you are the medium.
That's where the “I am” comes in.
“I am.”
Those are the most sacred words.
First there was nothing, then there was light. The first words of creation: I am that.
When you embrace that within your mediumship, you begin to realise that the power of the medium is who you are.
It is not someone you're trying to be.
It is something you need to recognise within yourself.
The sacred act of mediumship is a facet of your soul.
You are created unto life and love, and it is who you are.
This is me.
That song from The Greatest Showman — that's what you want to play before you do a reading or demonstration!
Jason Paul:
Oh, that builds the power, doesn't it, Colin?Colin Bates:
Because you come into that presence of energy.I think you also have to look at the stages of the heart.
You look at the physical heart, for instance, which is really occupied with everything of this life.
Then you move into a time of the seeking heart.
That is where, with your heart, you're seeking to embrace and understand life and the journey.
Then you move into the devotional heart.
The devotional heart is when you embrace the power of life, the energy of creation.
Then there is another one on the end — which I'm sure I'll never reach! — called the clean heart.
That's when you let go of all distractions within this life and move and become one with the creative God force.
Jason Paul:
That sounds like a lovely stage, doesn't it?Colin Bates:
Well, it was the guru of Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Yukteswar.I haven't got the words exactly right, but he talks about the stages of the heart.
I'm wavering, you see.
I'm trying to be in the devotional heart now and let go of all the emotion of the last couple of years because, my God, there has been quite a lot.
Those thoughts and issues — even the world itself influences us, as well as people, time and places.
So the answer is to move into compassion and say:
“I love you. I do not understand you. I wish you well. But I cannot live within the anger you create or the disruption.”
I've tried really to follow that within myself.
The amount of people who come and say somebody told them, “You will never be a medium.”
That is the greatest destructive thing you can ever say to anyone.
Not everybody is destined to be a platform medium or a private-sitting medium.
Why ever would you?
But the majority of people who come upon this quest of the heart, seeking to embrace the presence and power of the spirit, will go on to change the world spiritually.
Because it's the spiritualisation of the heart.
It's bringing peace within life.
Many of the people who touch mediumship will go on to make the greatest healers, which is the highest form of mediumship.
They'll use their sensitivity in life.
Because it's not about death.
It's about life.
Jason Paul:
It's interesting you're even saying that — mediumship is about life because we are forever eternal.When I think about it, it's never really described as that, is it?
You wouldn't say, “I'm doing mediumship because I'm giving way to life.”
But I guess maybe that's how we should start.
This isn't about connecting to people who've passed away.
What we're actually doing is connecting to life.
Life that is eternal.
Colin Bates:
Well, when I was a child — because I'm old now —Jason Paul:
Oh no you're not, Colin. You're looking very radiant today!Colin Bates:
When I was a child, we sat first for over a year in what they used to call an awareness circle.You sat to find the presence of the power within you.
It wasn't at all to do with the spirit world.
It was about finding that core essence of being and embracing the presence of that.
Then going on from there to start to sit before the presence of the spirit.
In a way, in this age, we do it back to front.
People come and they want to speak to Granny, but they haven't learned how to speak to themselves.
It's really learning how to access the power itself.
Within you and I there is an unlimited supply of this extraordinary energy called life, which is the key to everything.
But if you were to say to someone, “Yes, of course you can come and study with me, but you've got to sit in the quiet for a year first,” they'd say no.
Jason Paul:
You'd probably only get one or two who would do it!And I bet you'd wish it was like that because that'd be quite an easy first year for you.
You'd love the beginner group!
Colin Bates:
Well, the thing is, I love to sit.Whenever I'm teaching, I always sit with everybody all of the time.
So I'm more there than here!
But you can understand it, can't you?
If you look at what you are going through and how you've come into this wonderful blossoming of everything, it's come into being because you've learned certain aspects of yourself.
You've taken certain steps based upon your own needs rather than what you were doing.
I would just drop a little seed of thought into your lovely mind and say maybe there was a higher influence there that was already starting to bring its awareness to you — that actually, what you were doing was not right for you.
Jason Paul:
Well, it's interesting you say that because I've started to think that you get to a certain age in life and start looking back.Over the last few years I've started noticing a lot of coincidences.
Things coming along. People coming along.
Why did mediumship come along as it did?
I owe mediumship a lot because it's made me really look at myself.
It is ultimately a journey of self, isn't it?
Because it is so individual.
When I started this journey, I was petrified of death.
That was my starting position, Colin.
I wanted proof.
I wanted proof to know that everything I'm doing in this life has purpose.
I couldn't get my head around: we're born, we die.
It just didn't make sense.
It was like my soul was almost crying out, yearning.
And now I'm so glad mediumship came into my life because I think it has healed me in so many ways I needed to heal.
But it is very individual.
That's what I wanted to talk to you about today.
Even how we interpret it.
When I get a connection now — and I didn't realise this until recently — I always start off with a face in my mind.
It's always a face.
I get a face really clearly.
At one point I thought that was limiting because I thought, why can't I move beyond the face?
Why am I stuck with the face?
But I've really started to look at the way I feel into and use evidence.
When you first make a connection, tell me what is happening for you.
What are you feeling?
What are you experiencing?
What's going on internally within you, Colin?
All sorts, I imagine — party poppers going on!
Colin Bates:
The first thing for me to create communication is to start in the heart and build the love and the atmosphere within myself.There is a focus. There is an intention. There is a concentration.
The concentration creates an energy or a power, and that creates the experience.
Clairsentience is actually your strongest, although you may not think it, because it's through the feeling that you start to know someone is there.
Something tells us someone is there.
Perhaps before that I am seeking the spirit within myself.
There is an expansion of the auric field.
There is an expansion of my spirit senses.
My attention is moving from the physical life and world to the other world.
I'm seeking the spirit.
I'm opening the door, if you will, to that experience.
It's interesting that the first thing you see is a face because the first thing I touch is emotion.
That emotion can be a story.
It can be a reflection.
It can also be a message.
“I love you.”
“I'm sorry.”
“I was angry.”
“I never said goodbye.”
My first touch is an emotion of some kind.
Through the feeling, I blend with an emotion, and then it takes me to a presence, which is personality.
Personality takes me to mind.
And mind will have a chat.
I'm listening while I'm experiencing.
What I try not to do is describe immediately, because description will take me away from the mind of the spirit.
But feeling an emotion will take me into understanding.
Jason Paul:
Yes, I see that.Colin Bates:
The emotion leads you into a story.Why I love you.
How I love you.
Why I'm sorry.
Why I'm angry.
And that is also based upon the relationship between the spirit and the person you're talking to.
Jason Paul:
It's interesting because yes, I get the face, but actually, no — I do get the emotions at the same time.I've got a very overactive imagination and a very quick brain, and I've got so bogged down with the clairvoyance sometimes.
You start wondering: how do I interpret the image?
What am I meant to take from this?
I learned a valuable lesson a few weeks ago when my granddad kept popping up in readings.
I thought: well, I know this isn't my granddad literally stepping in.
He's showing me something.
He's showing me an activity.
But there's a lot going on there.
And even the fact that when you start the reading or experience, you're building up that energy — it almost feels to me like you're creating.
Colin Bates:
You've got it.The energy of the reading starts the very second you meet the person.
You use the power of the voice as a way of connecting through the introduction.
The feeling takes you into the knowing, which helps to build a stronger connection.
You've got the preparation before you start — preparing yourself, because I do believe you should always do that, however you choose to do it.
Then the moment I see someone, I look at them and my heart goes: what do I feel about you?
I'm not using the mind to seek to find or answer questions.
I'm using the power to embrace.
Because the mind, God love it, will try and give you an answer.
And 99 out of 100 times, that answer will be based upon your own analysis rather than the energy of the experience.
So you want to kick the mind out, really.
Stay with the heart.
Stay with the feeling.
Through the feeling, it leads you into understanding.
You've got the natural medium, and you've got mediumship of the mind.
I teach the mind as a way of a portal to the other world, but I teach the power as a way of communication — not the mind.
I'm not seeking to find all these different things.
What I'm doing is using the energy to embrace the experience, so that the experience tells me what I need to know — not what I think I should know.
That's what goes wrong.
Jason Paul:
You mentioned one part there, and you sort of skimmed past it, which I think is the hardest part.Everything you've said, yes, I completely agree with.
But the quick part you skimmed past — which I think so many people get stuck with — is just allowing.
Not reaching.
Not trying.
Not pushing.
I would spend so long in my journey pushing my oar out, trying to build all these different things.
But that bit is so hard because it's the total point of surrender.
You can say, “Yes, I'm not trying. Yes, I'm allowing. Yes, I'm just being. Yes, I'm just sitting.”
But at the end of the day, you have to really be in alignment with that.
That's where the journey comes.
Colin Bates:
Well, really, it's the seeking.Everything is created through love.
When you embrace that and radiate it, you'll touch it.
At the heart of the spirit world is the creative force because they are part of one another.
As you move into that awareness, I radiate that feeling of welcome, if you will.
I'm wishing to connect.
There's a part of me that is seeking.
But I can do two things at once.
I can talk to you about your life, your light and your journey, and at the same time move into an awareness of your granny.
I'm there talking to you and experiencing your life, and at the same time looking at the energy of need within a reading.
Your need may be to understand this life.
Your need may be to understand and talk to the spirit.
It may be both.
So, in a natural order, they will both be there.
The spirit world is with you, not me.
I am seeing and communicating with the spirit because they're there and they're with you.
And they're with you because before you come to see Uncle Colin, you've sat in your thoughts and said:
“I need this. I need help with this. Help me.”
Or: “Mama, be with me.”
Therefore the energy already knows what you need.
That's the difference between creating what you think it needs and surrendering and allowing the naturalness to unfold.
The soul itself is the power to know.
Knowing is actually the strongest gift of this age.
What you'll find with mediumship is it starts in all these different ways and experiences.
Then, as you move through the foundation of the power that you build, all of a sudden you'll experience less but you'll know more.
Trust, trust, trust.
Because as soon as you question, it chips away at the goodness that you create.
This is why: I am the medium. The medium am I.
You build it. You create it. You know it.
That's when that absolute faith becomes unshakeable.
Then when you reach that point, it does not matter what anyone says to you.
You'll smile.
You'll say, “Thank you very much.”
You'll turn your back and go.
That is the greatest moment as a medium.
Jason Paul:
I've literally just got to that point, Colin.I feel like I've just got to that point and it's exciting.
I wouldn't say I'm not willing to take no for an answer — that's something my mum said to me growing up: “You've always had a problem with the word no!”
But I do feel now that that alignment has come.
You go through different stages.
At the beginning, when you look at mediumship, it's sticky.
“Okay, I've got red car. I'm seeing beach. I'm seeing balloon.”
Then you get to a stage of saying, “Yes, okay, I'm getting this.”
Recently, in the last few weeks, what has come to me is that you are a composer of energy as a medium.
Now I'm building the power in a reading because the language I'm using is different.
I was loving it yesterday, Colin, when I was doing the reading.
I said: “Right, your mum is now saying this. She is communicating this. She says that she used to like going to open water.”
It's that ability to bring that person to life which builds on that energy.
Colin Bates:
Isn't it just?Because you are the storyteller of life.
And that is the difference between working with an emotion and the essence and building an atmosphere.
It's the difference between somebody saying, “It's my mother,” and somebody saying, “Oh my God, it's my mum.”
Jason Paul:
There you go.When I'm in the power, my volume level goes up.
You can tell I'm in the power!
The problem with that is I'm already quite a loud person.
Normally when I'm in a group doing mediumship it's, “Can you be quiet?”
If anything, that's taking me out of the power, Colin.
So I have a bit of a problem with my volume knob.
Colin Bates:
Honestly, I think we all do.The latest work I've done over the last couple of months, I've found myself getting so loud.
I say, “Am I shouting?”
It's, in a way, the presence of the power that moves us.
But when we have an inner awareness of it, we can turn it down a little bit because you don't need to be loud.
I find I'm very loud when I'm working through translation.
Then all of a sudden I'll go, “Oh, I'm really sorry. Am I shouting?”
And they go, “Yes.”
I go, “Oh dear, sorry!”
Jason Paul:
The thing is, Colin, I almost think I'm probably twice as loud as you in maximum-volume mode!That's the problem.
Someone said to me a while ago — I won't name names — “Jason, you're made for platform. You won't even need a microphone.”
I thought, yes, there's probably a lot of truth in that!
But there's something about that building of the energy.
I've even noticed when I get up to do platform work, I used to get up in the early days and it'd be sticky.
The energy drops if you take too long.
I've noticed with me, when a spirit person shows themselves, I probably don't stay with it anywhere near long enough at the beginning because I'm like a horse out of the paddock.
As soon as I've got a sense, I'm with it.
But what I'm now doing is not getting lost in family connections.
I used to spend so much time getting lost in those.
What feels like a dad to one person is a granddad in another.
We all have complex lives.
Not everybody has a 2.4-family setup these days.
There's something else in this.
I care so deeply about my mediumship that that has been an issue in the past.
Now I've stopped caring.
Now, you might have an issue with that.
I do care.
But I've had to start saying “I don't care” because that gets me out of the way.
And that's really allowed the spirit to flow more.
Colin Bates:
Well, it is.It's that letting go, isn't it?
True mediumship is an entrancement.
Within that, it touches all senses at once and goes beyond the physical limitations of mind.
You reach a point — it's like the superconscious mind — you're so sure and you're so there that nothing else exists.
You become, in a way, the experience itself.
You're no longer questioning what you're doing.
You're experiencing.
Then confidence comes within that because you're more listening to the experience and embracing the experience.
There's less of a shadow of your own mind saying:
“Hang on. Wait. Wait, wait, wait.”
Which is what the mind does.
Or: “I know the answer! Pick me!”
And of course it doesn't really. It just thinks it does.
You're moving into more of a free flow, if you will.
When you start your communication, a lot of that type of information isn't there because you're not there yet.
If you pressure yourself to find it instantly, that's when it goes wrong.
Start with what you have and then prove what you need in order to sustain and unfold.
One of the things that I do is talk to the lovely spirit world before I work — not when I'm working, because it's too much effort.
I say: “Right. Tell me something about your life.”
Or if I'm demonstrating: “Tell me something unusual that will identify you.”
You're putting it into the power that you're seeking.
Then when you go to work, it'll be there.
Do you know why you don't get names so readily?
Jason Paul:
Why?Colin Bates:
Because if I know you and love you, why ever would I give you my name?Nobody does in life.
If you haven't seen somebody for 15 years, Mama isn't going to say:
“Oh, it's Audrey.”
Well, mine would!
She's going to say:
“Oh my God, I love you. I love you. I love you. Tell her I love her.”
You've got to move through that and embrace that to begin with.
Then maybe a little bit down the line, you'll know what it is.
So work with it until you're sure.
Don't place pressure upon yourself to find it instantly because you're not there.
You need that little time to embrace the presence.
Janet Nova — she was extraordinary — used to say:
“I'm putting the overcoat of the spirit on.”
When I put the overcoat on, I become that person and step into their shoes.
I thought, isn't that marvellous?
What you're doing is starting to feel, to sense and to become.
She was one of the most extraordinary demonstrators.
I had the privilege of working with her for over 30 years.
She used to just smile, look up to heaven and listen to the voices.
She was extraordinary because she had this faith and belief and love.
My God, did that woman laugh in everything she did.
It's trusting that which is within you to embrace that which you need in order to fulfil the wishes and dreams.
The spirit has wishes and dreams.
The person who comes has wishes and dreams.
I have wishes and dreams — or needs.
My need is to know you, understand you and embrace you.
Then bring everything together so that needs are answered, and love and healing is created.
Really, that's what we do.
Jason Paul:
It is.My granddad came through — he's a guide of mine now.
I've come to accept that in the last six months.
He was a medium, so he's sort of teaching me from the other world.
He came through and said to me:
“Jason, you need to stop surrendering your power to teachers, books, whatever. You need to take what resonates, find your way, but be an outsider.”
There's something in that at the moment.
Like you were saying about doing a reading and not getting stuck on the name, the relationship, all of this kind of factory-produced mediumship where you need to get this, this, this and this.
If anything, it's robbing the opportunity from the spirit person.
Back in my early days at secondary school, I was really into performing magic.
I loved it.
I was a bit of a comedian on stage.
I'd do all sorts of things with stage illusions.
I'm a big fan of Derren Brown.
I've often said that the spirit world is so intelligent.
There's such an intelligence in terms of what they can do.
Recently I've been playing around with colour cards and things like that — being able to get the colour, get the symbol.
It's made me start thinking.
Yes, I accept your point about we're not going to get mediumship back to where it was.
Colin Bates:
Now, don't limit it.When you look at the mediumship of the past, these were people who dedicated their lives and themselves to unfolding the presence and power of the spirit.
There is nothing to say that you could not create to the same degree.
There are no limitations.
Do not limit the limitless power of who you are.
We will never quite do it in the same way.
Jason Paul:
Go on, sorry, Colin.I'm doing that thing I used to tell people off for in sales — interrupting!
When I first started in recruitment, that was one of the things I had to get out of the habit of.
I've just interrupted you and now I can't remember the point!
Colin Bates:
The point was that you said mediumship will never get back to the way it once was.And I said: don't limit it.
There's nothing to say that you cannot.
Life is about facts and figures, but it is also so much more.
That's why I believe it's the combination of the two.
There has to be the evidential side of mediumship that proves the continuity of life.
But you also have to embrace that life is more.
What makes us who we are?
This is one of the things I do with my darlings.
I say:
“I want you to place yourself in the spirit world. You are the spirit, and I am your medium. What would be your evidence to me to tell someone it was you?”
Jason Paul:
Well, I'll tell you what it wouldn't be.I wouldn't want you saying:
“My name's Jason. I'm 38. I live in Bristol.”
Because that's not going to be what I want communicated.
I would want you to say to my loved one, firstly, how much I love them.
Of course, I want them to know it's me, so there has to be some evidence of validation.
But I would want them to know I'm around them.
I would want to bring in evidence that shows I'm aware of what they're doing at the moment — to let them know of my presence, my love and the fact I'm still around.
Colin Bates:
That's what I start with.I bring the evidence in afterwards.
The evidence is also based upon “I remember when.”
So you've got the memories.
If, for instance, the emotion is one of love — “I really love you” — how do I love you?
It's taking something a little bit further to open a way of understanding as to why.
All of a sudden you feel this overwhelming sense of love and then see the two of them going arm in arm, laughing, going up the shops.
There are memories that come through love.
Those last three days of life where you never left my side and just held my hand and said:
“It's okay, Mum. It's okay for you to go.”
Emotion has a meaning, but it has a story.
Often you'll find with spirit that one of the things we really embrace is unfinished business.
So I tell you: before you leave this world, tell everyone exactly how you feel.
Leave nothing left unsaid.
Then you'll know exactly where you are.
Life and spirit is a progression.
We don't become an angel with wings and a harp and a curly perm — though that'd be very nice sometimes!
There is a gradual realisation of life, the journey of life, what we have done and what we've experienced.
Quite often within communication and the emotion of it is:
“I'm sorry.”
How am I sorry?
The story that comes with that and the memories that come with that are often more powerful than giving the name, the age and where you lived.
Although the name, age and where you lived can be absolutely confirming.
Look at Estelle Roberts and Helen Hughes — first names, second names and addresses, demonstrating to thousands of people.
I've read the transcripts.
It's extraordinary.
So it has to be a combination of everything.
For some people, it's going to be more dotting the i's and crossing the t's in the spirit world.
For others, it's simply:
“Tell my baby I love him.”
And sometimes that's the greatest message you ever can give.
You can't fix it.
You can't stick your finger on it and say, “This is what you need to do.”
But what you can do is realise that this golden thread of information and the flow of life leads us from one thing to another, to another, to another.
Rather than seek to find, embrace where you are and allow it to unfold.
Whether it's an emotion, image or knowing, embrace it because it will bring you to more.
The deepening, exploring and expanding of information.
You've got Granny in the kitchen.
Yes, Granny was in the kitchen — poor ladies were tied to the kitchen, they had no choice!
But the fact that you've got Granny in the kitchen means there's something more to Granny in the kitchen.
Stay with it.
Feel.
Sense.
Become the kitchen.
All of a sudden, you're describing all these bits and pieces.
You see Granny standing at the stone sink looking out the window.
Through the window you see Grandad doing his garden and vegetable patch like a military operation.
There's a little boy with his little spade and his own little bit of garden.
You're the little boy.
You loved your grandma and grandad.
So you've got this amazing story.
But you've got to explore through the feeling because it takes you on a journey.
Or Granny is in the kitchen.
Describe the kitchen.
All of a sudden there's a table in the corner.
There's a little girl drawing, listening to Granny as she's cooking.
She's speaking to the granddaughter.
Jason Paul:
It's that leaning into the emotions, isn't it?And leaning into each piece of evidence.
I know at an earlier stage of my mediumship I'd get one piece of evidence, then another, another, another, another.
I'd almost throw away bits of evidence.
But even the emotions — how you start by leaning into that.
If you get love first of all, that is the most powerful thing.
Lean into that.
There's a fluidity to what you're talking about.
And there's something in what you said about talking to your spirit team.
Why do your spirit team bring you the emotions first?
Because they know that's how Colin works.
They know that's your vocabulary.
Colin Bates:
Yes, but the spirit bring the emotion because I'm connecting to the spirit.The guides and helpers are still there and part of that process.
As I'm working in this life helping everybody to find how to create communication, there are people in the spirit world helping people in spirit learn how to communicate with the living.
Can you imagine such a thing?
Jason Paul:
I think my granddad's one of those because he always comes through when I'm doing training.I think he loves teaching mediumship from the other world.
There's something in that.
Colin Bates:
So you see, it's that learning.What if you've got somebody who's never communicated before?
What if you've got somebody who was very shy and introverted in life?
First and foremost, they're going to look at the medium.
Are they going to be able to communicate and work with the medium?
So you need to be one of compassion and love to embrace everybody.
As soon as you become aware, there needs to be this embracing.
Look at the trance states where you're working with guides, helpers, philosophy or trance communication.
There is what we call an anchor.
That anchor is the first point of perception.
As soon as you embrace that, you work on surrendering.
But nobody surrenders.
Cooperate.
Very few people actually surrender in this world anyway!
As you cooperate, they begin to influence on a deeper level.
You begin to feel as the spirit feels.
You begin to see as the spirit sees.
Therefore, what you really want to create is a communication of mind to mind.
If you get lost in descriptive detail, a frock will not talk to you, but the mind will.
You want to touch the mind.
The way to touch the mind is through the personality.
Your personality is the window of your soul.
It tells me how you think, how you feel, how you look at life, how you looked at your work, your job and everything within it.
See the world through the eyes of the spirit.
Then you see where they are and how they're living.
You also feel the emotion.
When you meet somebody in this life, the first thing that comes is emotion.
You arrange to meet somebody and everything comes in that moment.
Well, it does in my life anyway!
It takes five minutes to calm that down before you start talking about what's important.
So embrace that first touch because not only does it give you an insight into the need of the spirit, it will give you, in essence, the message.
The message is always embedded within the information, essence and presence.
If somebody comes to the end and says, “And the message is...”, well, they've missed it.
Because the message is purely from the intuition and knowing rather than the influence of the spirit.
Jason Paul:
And you can tell when someone's working like that.You can tell the energy in it as well.
We were talking before about how the pioneers were experimenting.
They were doing things.
They were trying all different sorts of things with their mediumship.
I feel in recent times it has become very:
“This is how we do it. This is how it's done.”
What I was saying about magic earlier was that I keep thinking: the spirit world is so intelligent.
It blows my mind, the intelligence of them.
How they can tap into our entire memory and consciousness in order to use us as a vehicle.
How much they prepare to come through.
I want to do platform mediumship, but I also want to perhaps show a younger demographic the power of the spirit world.
I'm sure the spirit world would want to engage with creative ways to show their intelligence that aren't just the way we've always done it.
I keep thinking about merging the Derren Brown-type magic past of mine with mediumship, just to show the pure intelligence of what can be done.
Something happened yesterday.
I had a reading from someone where they took a photo of mine, put it in this little box, and used what they described as quantum energy that brought out an entire report.
From a photo, it showed all sorts of things relating to my body, food intolerances and emotions.
Whatever one makes of that particular method, a penny dropped for me.
It made me think about the idea that everything carries information and energy.
And it made me wonder how much we're underestimating what we are.
Colin Bates:
Well, look at such people as Andrew Jackson Davis.He had this ability to go into the trance state and diagnose and prescribe in Latin and write it.
Look at Edgar Cayce, for instance, the sleeping prophet.
So never limit the limitless power.
But it's interesting you're talking in this way because mediumship is a sacred act.
It is bringing knowledge of this continuation of life.
It starts through the awakening of the soul.
There is this desire to know.
But the way of the world now is that we have to be so much more.
I like this sense, because I was only speaking of it last week in my classes, that you have to embrace life as a medium in many different facets.
Communication of the spirit is just one of them because people are coming to us who are in great need of help, support, healing and knowledge within life.
The fact that you don't do something doesn't mean you can't.
It just means you don't do it.
If we embrace the fact that we are working with a living, loving intelligence, don't you think that intelligence would know what that person needs?
The creative energy of life is an intelligence.
Sometimes you can bring knowledge and information that comes from anywhere and nowhere and everywhere.
It's not just limited to Grandma and Grandpa.
That has its place because it proves the continuity of life.
That, to me, is important.
But once you've had your proof, what then?
Jason Paul:
That's something I keep talking about.At churches, if you don't get a message or you're not the person receiving one, I sometimes don't feel that the spirit has touched me.
And maybe this is just from my own experience and patchy attendance!
But I don't feel touched by the spirit sometimes because I think a lot of the time now we're even too scared to give some level of spirit philosophy.
Where is it?
Colin Bates:
Now don't get me started!Because philosophy — everything about that service — is the food of the soul.
From the invocation of the prayer, to bringing into everyone's awareness this greater existence of the God force, the power, the presence of spirit.
The philosophy is food of the soul because it's answering everybody's question through inspiration, through the spontaneity of spirit, to bring everyone into the communion of spirit.
When everyone is within that communion, every single person should take something from it and feel part of every message.
Jason Paul:
That's why a genuine trance communication should touch everyone, shouldn't it?If it isn't touching everyone in some way, then the spirit should be touching everyone's consciousness in that moment.
Colin Bates:
It should.But one of the things we don't teach so much in this age, which we should, is the presence and atmosphere in a church or demonstration.
Especially in a demonstration, because many of those people aren't interested in spirit itself.
They just want to know something.
They're not necessarily based upon the spiritual way of life.
So what you've got to do is be able to bring something and create something that unites everyone in their thoughts and heart in relation to the eternal pathway of life.
Then you'll have a most wonderful evening because you'll have an atmosphere of spirit that will touch everybody.
Everybody's mind needs to be focused in the same way.
If I was demonstrating, I would never simply stand up and demonstrate.
You need to feel the presence and atmosphere of the room first because it will tell you what you need to do to make it more conducive to what you're trying to create.
Jason Paul:
Again, composer of energy, isn't it?Working with the energy as you want it.
Personally, I want to do things with my mediumship that are outside of the box.
To be honest with you, that's probably why I don't particularly want to follow a qualification route.
I want to find my own way to do it.
The spirit world keeps impressing on me at the moment:
“Jason, you're not designed to do it the way anyone else has done it.”
And I keep saying back to them:
“Thank you for that!”
Of course I'm not.
But why should I?
Colin Bates:
Why should you?Because you are unique.
You are individual.
No two people will ever perceive and receive the spirit in the same way.
No two people will ever unfold it in the same way.
When you have love in your heart and there is genuine compassion for the needs of others, how can you go wrong?
Jason Paul:
You can't, can you?Colin Bates:
I don't think so.The journey of life is the transformation of the soul.
It is the spiritualisation of the heart.
That is one of service to mankind.
It is really dissolving into the love element, the divine presence of life.
Within that, everything that you need will come when you need it.
When we speak about spiritualism as it is today, it has its roots in an incredible truth.
But it is one truth of many.
It is one pathway, and yet they all lead to the same mystery of life.
When we speak about spiritualism, it needs to become more open and welcome all religion, in my opinion, because it has so many elements of many different aspects of life and religion itself.
It is a truth.
It is a philosophy.
It is a religion.
But you also have to look at the world in which we live and the people coming into this world.
They are seeking to embrace and find their own truth within this world.
Jason Paul:
You've got the biggest heart, Colin.Colin Bates:
I still serve all of the churches, and they welcome me beautifully.I think where we are now is at the threshold of another revelation within the spirit because spiritualism has gone through so many changes over so many years.
One of the things I find — because I work in different countries and have the privilege of seeing people from many different places — is that people coming into spiritualism and mediumship, this sacred ancient practice of mediumship, are seeking to go beyond restrictions.
They're seeking to embrace a universal God that honours all religion and all life.
That's what spiritualism was and should be.
It should embrace all thoughts and all ideas.
It should be experimental.
I've honoured that for 65 years, and I will honour it until the day I leave this life and this world.
Whatever your opinions may be, each one of us is seeking to embrace our own pathway of understanding and love.
You may disagree with me, which is wonderful.
But don't come knocking on my door because you won't be welcome!
Jason Paul:
I don't think any one place should own spiritualism.Normally the reason people get drawn to spiritualism is because they're not aligning with how religion has been presented elsewhere.
So I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Colin Bates:
We have the most wonderful opportunity in life.The ethos of the spirit is one of communion.
It is also one of personal responsibility.
And it should be one of loving kindness to everyone.
It should not be one of conflict.
I was very fortunate that I was brought up with love.
I studied under the greatest mediums of our age, and each one gave me something.
Collectively they all had this great passion and belief within the power of spirit, and worked tirelessly to bring that into this life and this world.
I think that's where the focus needs to be.
We need to focus upon this collective harmony and work together.
When everybody is in union and harmony, everything will manifest in a way that it should.
I don't think we should spoil something that, within its truth and foundation, is absolutely one of love.
But unfortunately we live in a world of human nature, and human nature at times is not kind to each other.
But all things pass and leave this world.
Everything is but for a moment.
That moment, be it a reason, a season or a lifetime, will have its day.
Then it will move into something else.
The way to change the world is to be one of peace.
To be one of love.
To embrace the reality that we are all created equal.
We are all born of this one true source of life that has many names and honours many religions.
When you choose a pathway of peace, it will lead you into a universal and greater understanding of life.
That is how I would like to be remembered.
I've had the most amazing life.
I've had the privilege of teaching thousands upon thousands of people and helping them to find their way.
I regret nothing.
We always remember that which touches the heart.
And I carry every single one with me because that is the joy of life.
Whatever your belief may be, I will continue to serve the churches because the core essence of love is still there.
When you touch the heart of someone and bring something called hope to another, and you see that light turn on once more, you are creating a miracle.
And miracles still exist.
It is our belief within them.
Jason Paul:
It's like the barometer of love, isn't it, Colin?It's the most important thing.
I try to go through my life now with such softness and grace, to just let things go.
But that is the answer, as you say.
And I would say to people listening to this:
If you've got any situation in your life — perhaps you're looking at a teacher, or anything else — put love at the top of everything.
Because I believe when we go back to the spirit world, we realise that that is all that is.
Colin Bates:
Mavis was a great one.She used to look at you and say:
“Do you know, I do love you, but I don't understand you at all.”
And I'd just laugh.
She was an extraordinary teacher.
I had the privilege of working with her for many years.
One thing she taught me was that she knew, she believed and she understood life.
She understood her own journey.
I think if you can start to embrace the reality of that and understand that we are all human beings upon a spiritual journey, we are all seeking to find, embrace and become.
We may not always agree with each other — Lord knows — but we can always love each other.
“I love you, but I do not understand you” is a wonderful saying.
And all those teachers, all the pioneers of the past, still exist.
They are still part of everything we do and everything we create.
When you sit within the presence of life and send your thoughts, they are there for us.
They support us.
They wish us well.
So who is to say where the ultimate source of inspiration lies?
Jason Paul:
Well, that's a big question, isn't it, Colin?We could discuss that for a whole other hour.
We'll do that again, shall we?
Thank you, my dear, for coming on.
It's been so lovely to talk to you, and I'm sure everyone has loved hearing from you.
So thank you for coming onto Soul Sync.
Colin Bates:
It's a real pleasure to talk to you.But remember: there is no right way. There is no wrong way.
It is the way that resonates within your heart.
When you follow a journey, follow it because your heart tells you to.
The spirit world is as real as you and I.
There is nothing that separates us.
It is only a will and a wish and a thought.
And we are embraced by eternity.
Jason Paul:
What a way to close the episode, Colin.Thank you, my dear, for coming onto Soul Sync.
Colin Bates:
It's a joy.Everything is a ramble with me!
Accept it.
Take from it what you will.
I certainly don't have all the answers.
I never profess to.
But I do have love in my heart, and I do wish you well, all of you.
Jason Paul:
He certainly does have love in his heart, and it emanates out every single time I speak to Colin.I think he's such a lovely person, personally, and an amazing medium.
He teaches through such a lens of authenticity and heart.
He's just a beautiful human being.
And he's been an inspiration in my mediumship.
That conversation really touched me and made me introspect on my own journey with mediumship and, at times, how much I've doubted myself in that journey.
But do you know the funny thing?
Once I knew that the spirit world was absolutely, 100 per cent real to me, I didn't doubt them.
It was myself I doubted.
My ability to connect with them.
Which is crazy considering how much I was achieving in my life overall.
But until next time, my darlings, lots of love.
Continue exploring
If you are exploring mediumship, consciousness or your own relationship with the spirit world, you can discover more reflections and conversations through Soul Sync and the Insights section of JasonPaulMedium.com.
If you would like to experience my own work as a psychic medium, I also offer mediumship, psychic and tarot readings online, including for people in Bristol, across the UK and internationally.
Above all, wherever you are on your own journey, stay curious.
We may understand far less about consciousness than we imagine.
And that, perhaps, is part of the wonder.