The doctor said, ‘We don’t recognise psychic abilities at all’. My heart was stabbed with fear as I realised I was being completely misunderstood, likely to be locked up for a very long time and medicated against my will. With no transparency on how my mental wellness is to be defined in this situation it was frightening to think of being hospitalised and medicated for something I can't undo with subjectivity of the uninformed and limited by outdated frameworks at my mercy.

Those stories of people being given shock therapy or heavy sedation on a permanent basis is a terrifying thought for anyone, but to have it imposed on you through lack of education by the medical practitioners and a limited code and framework for them to operate in is horrendous. 

Imagine in an instant to find yourself torn from the life you know, from the people you love, your sources of income and thrust into a place where confusion reigns and emotional safety feels like a fragile illusion. You will likely have only the belongings and clothes you are standing up in with you, and many removed from you on admission. 

The person in the hospital bed next to you can be unpredictable and even threatening, and you have no escape from them. The hospital walls close in, not just physically but psychologically and emotionally.

Surrounded by others struggling with their darkest moments is challenging. Some are violent, some desperate, many carrying personal demons that are raging from within. I felt isolated in a way I never have before. But the deepest wound was not the environment; it was the profound misunderstanding of who I truly am and a medication-first protocol impacting my most precious resources – my cognitive functioning and my dignity.

I was not psychotic. I was not delusional. I'm a medium, and with some genuine and justifiable life pressures on top. 

I was medicated with substances with side effects that created depression I’d never experienced before otherwise, and experienced no positive impact of the medications at all. You cannot medicate away the truth and factual experiences. You cannot medicate away psychic abilities, although they can be dampened as all cognitive functioning can be impacted by sedation and medications - especially those to the point of debilitation. Medicine should be making us well, not worse.

When the medicine kicks in, I’m no longer myself but a drunk, slurring mess without the ability to string a few words together let alone function in a professional capacity at all. I feared my entire professional career was being pulled from under me along with my reputation. I’m one of those people with a decent IQ and my brain, along with my sense of professional ethics, are my most valued part of myself. Being stripped of these is soul destroying.

The pioneering peer reviewed researchers and psychiatrists Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof describe a spiritual emergence, as opposed to symptoms of psychosis. Grof and Grof discuss the profound transformation of consciousness that can mimic psychiatric symptoms, but is fundamentally different in nature and requires compassionate understanding, education, fact seeking and not confinement nor medication.

The Grofs’ research illuminates the vital difference between spiritual emergencies and psychosis. While psychosis often involves disorganized thinking and a break from reality, spiritual emergencies are intense, often overwhelming expansions of consciousness that challenge one’s sense of self and reality but can lead to healing and growth if properly supported. The hospital system also seem to confuse a break down with a break through. Some call this a dark night of the soul in spiritual communities also, like a system upgrade rather than a mental fuse blowing. 

In my case, what the doctors saw as hallucinations and delusions were actually genuine communications from other realms that are explained by evidence or validation from my clients or external factors. These communications with spirit are generally positive.

Psychic abilities like this have been validated by police investigations and government bodies who have used mediumship as a consciousness technology to solve crimes and uncover truths for decades or even centuries. This is not fortune-telling or a sideshow act; it is a profound, evidence based scientifically supported ability. It is unfathomable that our mental health framework is not up to date on all this and impacting people's sense of identify, professional standing and reputation, disrupting our businesses and workplaces and letting others down from our commitments. It is isolating and emotionally crippling to the highest level. 

My experience is not unique. Too many gifted individuals are misunderstood, mislabelled, and mistreated by a mental health system that lacks the training, awareness, and openness to differentiate between spiritual phenomena and mental illness. The doctors were even unwilling to read these latest peer reviewed papers to learn from these leading researchers. This ignorance leads to unnecessary trauma, isolation, and medication protocols that change your entire personality and strip the essence of who you are.

The hospital system fails us in so many ways with the mental health wards only able to treat people with a medication first function and in the process can strip you of the medications that they are not qualified to understand – that's the medication you might really need. No mental health wards are qualified to support those with disorders like being on the autism spectrum, ADHD and even PTSD. If you’ve been treated for these conditions you might be stripped of this medication in an instant, and put on anti-psychotics, mood stabilisers or tranquillisers, because that’s all they know and all they have a framework to administer. That's not truly a complete mental health service. The side effects of medications can seem worse than any impact they might have positively if at all. The remedy for side effects is commonly just more medications like giving uppers and downers in a weird cycle by substance abusers rather than living without anything that unnecessarily alters their state of being.

As a medium I believe it is my right to maintain my psychic ability and not to be forced into a pharmaceutical protocol to quash that gift. Even if I might hear unexplained voices (which I don't) and I live the way I want to live with it, then isn’t that my right to choose? I recall the book by Dr Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, where one of his patients could hear music in her head. Dr Sacks was working to medicate her out of this phenomena. In the end he respected her right to choose – she chose to keep this music, as she felt it was too quiet without it. Don’t we all have this same right?

We need urgent reform. Mental health professionals must be educated about spiritual emergencies and the legitimacy of mediumship as a consciousness technology. Hospitals should develop protocols that respect and nurture spiritual experiences rather than suppress them. Patients deserve to be seen, heard, and supported; not imprisoned for being themselves.

To the medical community, I urge you to expand your horizons and embrace the full spectrum of human consciousness. We need reform of how we diagnose people without checking facts, calling on family members who are not qualified to make judgement on our mental wellbeing, nor automatically be assumed they can play a reliable part in the diagnosis of mental health. These processes of diagnosis would never pass any legal considerations commonly expected in a courtroom. We are judged as guilty before proven innocent, we are diagnosed without all the facts checked, and circumstantial evidence forms a subjective opinion by doctors to impact your entire future and reputation. Being thrust into a hospital against your will breaks down any business operations and isolates you from the life that you’ve spent a lifetime building.

Being imprisoned and exposed to a ward of daily violence and disturbing outbursts by other patients is difficult and even worse for those of us who've experience domestic violence or similar.

It is common for people to come into the wards with only what they stand up in, without a change of clothes or any basic amenities. Some even come in naked and the best you can expect is some hospital pyjamas or some clothes from lost property not even to op shop standards. All those little things that make up your personality are stripped from you, and those basic self-care needs like moisturiser or the shampoo you need is even out of reach. That protein diet that was keeping you fit and well is out the door with a carbohydrate overload in washed out over-cooked, soggy and cold meals served up on paper plates and bamboo cutlery...not to mention highly processed and full of preservatives.

Being locked up against my will was like being imprisoned for a crime I didn’t commit. My hope is that one day, no one else will suffer the pain of being misunderstood simply for being who they are and suffering the heartache of being imprisoned for it.

Let us open our minds and hearts to the robust evidence available to understand the power of our consciousness and the unseen nature of our reality is a real thing. Only then can we create a mental health system that heals rather than harms, that works from facts and evidence rather than subjectivity and assumptions, and that honours the incredible diversity of human experience and our right to be who we want to be.

To help others understand that mediumship is a valid consciousness technology, consider these approaches grounded in education, demonstration, and compassionate communication:

Share research and documented studies where mediumship has been validated by police and government bodies as a tool for solving crimes and uncovering truths. Emphasize that mediumship is not fortune-telling or entertainment but a scientifically supported ability to access information beyond normal senses.

Clarify that mediumship specifically involves two way communication with spirits of those who have passed on or are unseen in higher realms, distinct from general psychic intuition with risk of personal interpretation. Highlight the importance of developing intuition to build trust in mediumistic abilities and to differentiate from our own faults or faulty thinking processes.  

Invite others to explore their own intuitive abilities through meditation and mindfulness practices that open awareness to higher states of consciousness. Suggest simple steps like quiet meditation, setting intentions, and journaling experiences to demystify the process and reduce fear or scepticism. This allows people to experience the truth of our reality for themselves. 

Connect with like-minded groups or communities where experiences can be shared openly and validated. This helps break down stigma and builds collective understanding and acceptance of mediumship as a genuine consciousness technology.

Emphasize the importance of clear boundaries, healthy mental and emotional states, and rituals that create safe spaces for mediumship work. This professionalism helps counter misconceptions of mediumship as a scam or sideshow.

Use your own or others’ authentic experiences to humanise and normalise mediumship and intuitive gifts, showing the healing, guidance, and closure it can provide. Emotional connection often shifts perspectives more effectively than abstract explanations. Putting your hand up and owning your own truths without hiding behind stigma. It is documented that a huge percentage of the population admit to having some intuitive gifts but because of stigma will hide it.

So many people I've spoken to about this experience universally come up with the recommendation to fake 'recovery' just to get out. I've been told so many times to just simply say 'Wow, that medication has really helped me see how this is all made up and I'm all well now, thanks. Time for me to go home!". It is appalling that people feel pressured to do this. It is giving a false sense of success to the dysfunctional mental health system too, further embedding it into our society. The more we are certain of our somewhat exceptional reality the more the doctors think there is something wrong with us - not their system. 

By combining education, personal experience, community support, and ethical practice, you can foster greater understanding and respect for mediumship as a valid and valuable consciousness technology able to contribute meaningfully to society. I'd even go so far as to say that if we all embraced our spiritual technologies the world would be a happier place. 

If we continue to embrace this technology we’ll find we have less crimes in the world, we have more unconditional love for others and we’ll also have complete understanding from our communications without interpretation by our own filters and limits, but by the sender’s exact intention. We’ll also have more room in our mental health hospitals for those who truly need it.