Sitting in the Power: Becoming Familiar with Awareness

A Common Question

What is Sitting in the Power, and why is it considered one of the most important practices for developing mediumship?

Answer

Sitting in the Power is not a technique for reaching Spirit or forcing communication. It is the practice of becoming deeply familiar with your own condition of awareness. As familiarity grows, interruption gradually quiets, recognition becomes clearer, and communication begins unfolding with increasing ease and naturalness.

Introduction

After discovering that trance is not a destination but the natural movement of consciousness, many students ask an obvious question.

"How do I become more familiar with that movement?"

For generations, experienced mediums have answered with the same practice.

Sitting in the Power.

Yet this practice is often misunderstood.

Some believe it is a meditation.

Others believe it is preparation for communication.

Some imagine they are reaching toward Spirit.

Others believe they are trying to enter trance.

At Spirit Wisdom Academy, we understand Sitting in the Power differently.

Not as something we do to make Spirit come closer.

But as a practice of becoming increasingly familiar with awareness itself.

Because perhaps the purpose has never been to create communication.

Perhaps it has always been to recognize what has quietly been present all along.

What Is Sitting in the Power?

For well over a century, one practice has remained at the heart of mediumship development.

It has been taught in Spiritualist churches.

Practiced within development circles.

Shared quietly between experienced mediums and their students.

Known simply as...

Sitting in the Power.

Although almost every developing medium encounters this practice at some point in their journey, surprisingly few are ever told why it truly matters.

Many are simply encouraged to sit quietly.

To breathe.

To become still.

To spend time "in the power."

Yet without understanding its purpose, the practice can easily become another exercise rather than a profound opportunity for transformation.

At Spirit Wisdom Academy, we believe Sitting in the Power deserves a deeper explanation.

Because perhaps its greatest value has never been in what it helps us do.

Perhaps its greatest value lies in what it gradually helps us recognize.

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The Origins of the Practice

The practice known as Sitting in the Power emerged within the early Spiritualist movement during the nineteenth century. Experienced mediums discovered that regularly spending time in quiet awareness seemed to strengthen their relationship with Spirit and deepen the natural flow of communication.

Over time, the practice became one of the cornerstones of mediumship development.

Students were encouraged not only to practice communication itself, but also to cultivate a condition of quiet presence in which communication seemed to unfold more naturally.

Although different teachers described the practice in different ways, a common understanding gradually emerged.

Mediumship was not developed through communication alone.

It was also developed through learning to become increasingly familiar with the condition from which communication naturally arose.

This insight has remained one of the great gifts of the Spiritualist tradition.

Yet perhaps its deepest meaning is only now beginning to be fully appreciated.

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Why Nearly Every Medium Learns It

Whether someone ultimately becomes an evidential medium, a healer, an intuitive, or a trance medium, they will almost always encounter Sitting in the Power early in their development.

This is not because every form of mediumship requires identical techniques.

It is because every form of mediumship arises through the same awareness.

Before communication becomes clearer...

Before recognition becomes more refined...

Before confidence begins to grow...

Students must first become increasingly familiar with the changing conditions of their own consciousness.

Sitting in the Power provides an opportunity to cultivate that familiarity.

Not through effort.

Not through force.

But through repeated participation.

Over time, what once felt unfamiliar gradually becomes recognizable.

And what once required concentration often begins unfolding with remarkable naturalness.

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The Common Misunderstandings

Despite its importance, Sitting in the Power is often misunderstood.

Some believe it is simply another form of meditation.

Others see it as a relaxation exercise.

Some approach it as a technique for contacting Spirit.

Others hope it will quickly produce visions, voices, or dramatic spiritual experiences.

Each of these interpretations contains a small element of truth.

Yet none captures the deeper purpose of the practice.

When students sit only to receive communication, they often become preoccupied with results.

They begin evaluating every thought.

Waiting for every sensation.

Wondering whether anything meaningful is happening.

Ironically, this constant monitoring can become the very interruption that Sitting in the Power quietly seeks to soften.

The practice is not asking us to produce remarkable experiences.

It is inviting us to become increasingly familiar with awareness before we begin asking awareness to perform.

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Why It Isn't About Reaching Spirit

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding of all is the belief that Sitting in the Power is a way of reaching toward Spirit.

This idea appears in many traditions.

As though Spirit exists somewhere distant.

As though communication requires us to bridge an impossible gap.

At Spirit Wisdom Academy, we understand the practice differently.

Spirit is not waiting at the end of a successful meditation.

Nor is awareness travelling somewhere else to make contact.

Instead, Sitting in the Power is the practice of becoming deeply familiar with the condition through which communication is already capable of unfolding.

Nothing needs to be forced.

Nothing needs to be manufactured.

Nothing needs to be reached.

As familiarity deepens, students often discover something quietly remarkable.

Communication has not become closer.

They have simply become less occupied with the habits that continually distracted them from recognizing what had been present all along.

Awareness Becomes Familiar With Itself

One of the most unusual aspects of Sitting in the Power is that, over time, students often discover they are no longer trying to achieve a particular experience.

Instead, something much quieter begins unfolding.

Awareness gradually becomes familiar with itself.

This may sound like a strange statement.

How can awareness become familiar with awareness?

At first, it seems almost circular.

Yet if we look closely at our ordinary lives, we notice that awareness is usually occupied with something else.

A conversation.

A task.

A problem.

A memory.

A plan.

Our attention continually moves toward the objects of experience.

Rarely do we pause long enough to become familiar with the condition through which all experience is being recognized.

Sitting in the Power gently reverses this habit.

Rather than continually moving toward experience...

we become quietly interested in the awareness through which experience is already appearing.

This simple shift changes the entire practice.

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Awareness Recognizes Awareness

Most forms of attention move outward.

We notice sounds.

Thoughts.

Sensations.

Images.

Feelings.

The world continually invites awareness toward objects.

Sitting in the Power introduces a different possibility.

Instead of asking awareness to become occupied with another object...

it gradually allows awareness to become familiar with its own presence.

Nothing dramatic occurs.

Nothing mystical needs to happen.

There is simply an increasing sense of familiarity.

Students often describe it as becoming more settled.

More spacious.

More available.

Not because awareness has changed.

But because attention is no longer constantly pulled away from it.

Perhaps awareness has never needed to become something else.

Perhaps it has only been waiting to be noticed.

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Becoming Familiar With Changing Conditions

One of the most important discoveries students make is that awareness itself remains remarkably stable.

What continually changes is the condition through which awareness is expressed.

Some days the mind feels busy.

Other days it feels quiet.

Sometimes communication flows effortlessly.

At other times it appears hesitant.

Thoughts come and go.

Feelings rise and fall.

Attention expands.

Attention contracts.

The conditions continually change.

Awareness quietly remains.

Sitting in the Power is not an attempt to stop these changes.

Nor is it an attempt to create only pleasant ones.

Instead, students gradually become familiar with the movement itself.

They begin recognizing that every condition offers something to observe.

Something to understand.

Something to become familiar with.

Over time, this familiarity removes much of the fear surrounding changing states of consciousness.

Nothing unusual is happening.

Consciousness is simply doing what it has always done.

Moving.

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Why Familiarity Creates Confidence

Confidence is often misunderstood.

Many people imagine confidence means certainty.

Never doubting.

Never questioning.

Never making mistakes.

Mediumship teaches something quite different.

Confidence grows through familiarity.

Imagine walking through your own home in complete darkness.

You move with surprising ease.

Not because you can see every detail.

But because the landscape has become deeply familiar.

You know where the doorway is.

Where the table stands.

How the rooms connect.

Development unfolds similarly.

As students spend more time becoming familiar with awareness, they stop feeling that every changing condition is something unknown.

Recognition becomes increasingly natural.

Trust no longer depends upon certainty.

It grows quietly from familiarity.

Not because every experience is immediately understood.

But because awareness itself no longer feels unfamiliar.

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The Relationship to Chapter Five

In the previous chapter we explored an important possibility.

Perhaps every medium is already experiencing trance.

Not because they have entered some extraordinary state.

But because consciousness has always been moving.

Sitting in the Power is where that understanding becomes experience.

Rather than merely learning that consciousness changes...

students begin quietly observing those changes for themselves.

What previously existed as an interesting idea gradually becomes lived experience.

The reader no longer asks,

"Do changing conditions exist?"

They begin asking,

"What is happening within awareness right now?"

This is one of the great turning points in development.

Knowledge begins becoming recognition.

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Nothing Needs to Be Forced

This realization often comes as a great relief.

Students discover that Sitting in the Power is not asking them to become more spiritual.

Or to think less.

Or to empty the mind.

Or to manufacture peaceful feelings.

Instead, it quietly invites them to remain present with whatever condition is naturally unfolding.

Some days awareness feels calm.

Some days restless.

Some days communication appears close.

Some days remarkably distant.

Each condition becomes part of the practice.

Nothing needs to be rejected.

Nothing needs to be achieved.

Everything becomes an opportunity to deepen familiarity.

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When Trying Harder Often Interrupts

Many students begin Sitting in the Power with sincere determination.

They concentrate.

Focus.

Wait.

Listen.

Search.

Yet after several minutes they begin wondering,

"Why isn't anything happening?"

Without realizing it, their attention has quietly shifted away from participation...

and toward evaluation.

The practice has become a performance.

The very effort intended to deepen communication has begun interrupting it.

This is one of the great paradoxes of mediumship.

Trying harder is not always the same as becoming more available.

Sometimes availability grows precisely because effort has become gentler.

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Allowing Instead of Producing

At Spirit Wisdom Academy we often speak about participation rather than production.

This distinction matters.

Production assumes something must be created.

Participation assumes something is already unfolding.

Students frequently discover that the moment they stop trying to produce communication...

they begin noticing communication that was already quietly present.

The practice changes from doing...

to allowing.

From managing...

to noticing.

From striving...

to recognizing.

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Presence Instead of Performance

One of the quiet dangers in spiritual development is believing every practice session must accomplish something.

That every meditation should become deeper.

Every experience more profound.

Every communication more remarkable.

Sitting in the Power gently dissolves this expectation.

Some sessions feel spacious.

Others feel ordinary.

Some appear uneventful.

Others quietly transformative.

Each has value.

The purpose is not to perform well.

The purpose is to become increasingly present.

Because presence itself gradually becomes the condition through which communication most naturally continues.

---

Letting Conditions Naturally Deepen

Perhaps the greatest gift Sitting in the Power offers is patience.

Nothing needs to be rushed.

Nothing needs to be forced.

Nothing needs to prove itself.

As students continue returning to the practice, awareness quietly becomes more familiar with its own movement.

Recognition becomes softer.

Participation becomes easier.

Communication begins unfolding with increasing simplicity.

Not because Spirit has changed.

But because the student has gradually stopped interrupting what awareness has been quietly revealing all along.

The Transformation That Begins to Unfold

Students often begin Sitting in the Power expecting communication to change first.

They imagine receiving clearer impressions.

More vivid images.

More accurate evidence.

Perhaps deeper trance.

Sometimes these developments do occur.

But they are rarely the first changes.

Instead, something else often begins reorganizing itself.

The person who is receiving the communication.

This is one of the great surprises of mediumship.

Development is not only changing how communication unfolds.

It is changing the relationship the medium has with communication itself.

---

Why Sitting in the Power Changes Mediumship

Every meaningful practice shapes the person who practices it.

A musician develops more than technical skill.

Their listening changes.

An artist develops more than technique.

Their seeing changes.

In much the same way, Sitting in the Power develops far more than mediumistic ability.

It changes how attention relates to experience.

Instead of reacting immediately...

attention begins remaining present a little longer.

Instead of rushing toward conclusions...

experience is allowed to unfold.

These subtle changes become the environment within which clearer communication begins emerging.

Mediumship improves not because Spirit suddenly speaks more clearly.

But because the medium has become increasingly available to recognize what is already unfolding.

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Recognition Begins Earlier

One of the first changes many students notice is that recognition seems to happen sooner.

Experiences that once disappeared almost unnoticed begin attracting attention.

A fleeting image is no longer dismissed.

A subtle feeling is no longer ignored.

A sentence that once would have been interrupted is now allowed to continue.

Nothing about communication itself has fundamentally changed.

The difference lies in how quickly attention recognizes what is appearing before identity has time to replace it with analysis.

Recognition becomes less something we struggle to achieve.

And more something we learn not to overlook.

---

Identity Interrupts Less

Identity is not the enemy of mediumship.

Nor does it need to disappear.

Its role is to interpret experience.

The difficulty arises when interpretation arrives before recognition has fully unfolded.

Sitting in the Power slowly changes this pattern.

Not by removing identity.

But by reducing its urgency.

The impulse to explain immediately begins softening.

The need to know right away becomes less compelling.

Questions still arise.

But they no longer arrive with the same insistence.

Communication is given room to breathe before it is asked to justify itself.

---

Communication Continues More Easily

One of the simplest observations experienced mediums often make is this:

Communication likes continuation.

A single image naturally leads to another.

A feeling opens into a memory.

A memory becomes evidence.

Evidence becomes recognition.

When interruptions become less frequent, communication develops its own momentum.

Students frequently discover they no longer need to search for the next impression.

The previous impression often contains the beginning of the next one.

This realization changes mediumship profoundly.

Instead of trying to find communication...

they begin following it.

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Trance Deepens Through Familiarity

Many students expect deeper trance to arrive suddenly.

Yet more often it develops almost imperceptibly.

The familiar boundaries of thinking begin softening.

Speech becomes less constructed.

Attention rests more completely within the unfolding experience.

The medium is rarely aware that a significant change has occurred until reflecting afterward.

This is one reason patience is so valuable.

Development often reveals itself through accumulated familiarity rather than dramatic events.

The condition deepens because it has become increasingly familiar, not because it has been forced.

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Confidence Emerges on Its Own

Students often ask how they can become more confident.

The answer is rarely found by pursuing confidence directly.

Confidence is usually the consequence of repeated recognition.

An impression proves accurate.

Another unfolds naturally.

Communication continues without constant interruption.

Over time, trust begins replacing hesitation.

Not because doubt has disappeared.

But because experience has become a more reliable teacher than uncertainty.

Confidence grows as familiarity grows.

Almost without announcement.

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Identity Begins to Reorganize

Perhaps the deepest transformation is one students seldom anticipate.

Identity itself begins relating to experience differently.

It becomes less concerned with performing well.

Less occupied with proving ability.

Less anxious about making mistakes.

The impulse to manage every moment slowly gives way to participation.

Students often notice they are becoming more patient.

Not only during mediumship.

But throughout daily life.

Conversations become easier.

Listening deepens.

Responses become less hurried.

The qualities cultivated during Sitting in the Power begin extending far beyond spiritual practice.

Development has become personal transformation.

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Why the Greatest Changes Often Happen Away From Practice

Many students assume progress only occurs while they are sitting in the Power.

Yet some of the most meaningful changes reveal themselves elsewhere.

While walking.

Preparing a meal.

Speaking with a friend.

Watching the sea.

Something feels different.

Attention has become less hurried.

Experience unfolds with greater ease.

Communication appears without being searched for.

Only then do students recognize that Sitting in the Power was never confined to the chair on which they practiced.

Its influence has quietly begun shaping the way they meet life itself.

And perhaps this has always been its deepest purpose.

Not simply to develop better mediums.

But to cultivate human beings who become increasingly present, increasingly attentive, and increasingly available to the living conversation continually unfolding around them.