The Spirit Medium’s Hall

In recent years, people have looked down on the northeastern tradition of spirit-mediumship. But it’s not just spirit-mediums: every line of work has both good and bad practitioners.

There are so many fraudsters that even people who need help now hesitate to consult anyone. These days, it’s become common for someone to finish a reading and tell you that you have a whole host of problems to deal with. If you don’t pay to have them fixed, it weighs on your mind; if you do, you’re afraid you’ve fallen for a scam. In the end, you’ve spent your money and still have no idea what’s going on. Some people who carry immortal affinities and have established spirit altars can’t make sense of what they see and wonder if they’d have been better off without one. Those who haven’t established an altar constantly feel tormented, as if they’re neither fully human nor something else. Just getting involved in this line of work can leave people dazed and obsessed.

Lately, I’ve talked a lot with friends about this work. It seems that many people are feeling lost these days, so I thought I’d write about some of the stories between me and my visitors in my spare time. I hope the stories I share can help you. (Adapted from true stories. The characters and events are fictional. Please do not take them as references to real people or events.)