<p>There is a particular moment in trance mediumship that catches almost everyone at some point. The words begin to flow more easily, the altered state feels more natural, and then suddenly a little voice in the mind says, <strong>Am I just making this up?</strong></p><p>Oddly enough, that fear often appears just when the work is improving. And because the communication feels easier, the mind becomes suspicious of the ease itself. Surely, if it feels this natural, it must be imagination. That conclusion is far too quick, and usually quite wrong.</p><p>The fear does not automatically mean the work is false. It does not mean you are a fraud. More often, it means you are becoming aware of how closely mind and spirit actually work together.</p><h2 id="1f27ca23-194a-4ef3-b919-7468a70cf9a9" data-toc-id="1f27ca23-194a-4ef3-b919-7468a70cf9a9" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">The mistake that causes so much confusion</h2><p>One of the biggest misunderstandings in trance mediumship is the idea that spirit should somehow switch your brain off and take complete control, as if you were an empty shell waiting to be used. It makes for dramatic storytelling, but it is not a helpful model for genuine development.</p><p>Trance mediumship is a collaboration. Spirit does not communicate in a vacuum. The message has to move through your nervous system, your language, your memory, your vocabulary, your timing, and your ability to express feeling as speech.</p><p>Think of it like this. Spirit is the signal, but your mind is the instrument. A signal without an instrument remains unexpressed. It may be present, but it has nowhere to go. Tone, rhythm, phrasing, sentence shape, and emotional texture all require a human mechanism to bring them into audible form.</p><p>That means when your own familiar vocabulary appears in the communication, it is not proof that the whole experience is fabricated. It is often proof that the mechanism is doing its job.</p><h2 id="bd373778-aba1-4e80-b83b-31d53ed2f544" data-toc-id="bd373778-aba1-4e80-b83b-31d53ed2f544" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">Your mind is not the problem. It is the mechanism.</h2><p>This is where so many trance mediums trip themselves up. They hear a phrase they would normally use in daily life and decide that must invalidate the entire contact. But of course your own language patterns appear. How could they not?</p><p>The real question is not whether your mind is present. It always is. The real question is <strong>what is leading the process</strong>.</p><p>If two experienced trance mediums linked with the same communicator and received the same underlying message, the expression would still sound different through each one. One might speak in short, direct statements. Another might speak in longer, more flowing language. One may sound lyrical. Another may sound precise and clipped.</p><p>That does not mean one is genuine and the other false. It means the same signal is moving through two different instruments.</p><p>A useful image is light passing through coloured glass. Light through red glass looks different from light through blue glass, but the sun behind it has not changed. In the same way, the spirit message may be constant while the medium's mental and emotional instrument gives it a particular form.</p><p>This is why you can stop treating the presence of your own personality as failure. It was never going to be absent. Every credible trance medium works through their own mind and body. There is no other route.</p><h2 id="849baf1a-8247-451d-82da-4c38d374dfd5" data-toc-id="849baf1a-8247-451d-82da-4c38d374dfd5" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">Why the trance state can feel so seamless</h2><p>Part of the unease comes from not understanding how the brain naturally helps complete communication. Several well-known psychological processes are involved, and they are not signs of dishonesty. They are signs of cognition functioning as cognition does.</p><h3 id="450fbaa1-53f1-4d91-b199-50bb017fd273" data-toc-id="450fbaa1-53f1-4d91-b199-50bb017fd273" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Closure</h3><p>Closure is the mind's habit of filling in gaps so something incomplete appears whole. If you see three dots arranged in a certain way, your mind may perceive a triangle even when there are no lines connecting them.</p><p>Trance mediumship often begins as fragments. A sensation. A partial image. A word that is only half there. An emotional tone. The mind links these pieces together into something coherent enough to speak.</p><h3 id="5cf5892f-708d-4d03-b346-b9a261347a28" data-toc-id="5cf5892f-708d-4d03-b346-b9a261347a28" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Top-down processing</h3><p>Your brain does not build meaning from raw data from scratch every time. That would be painfully slow. Instead, it uses what it already knows to shape what it is receiving.</p><p>Suppose spirit impresses warmth, a coastal atmosphere, and salt in the air. Your mind may turn that into “seaside” one day and “holiday” another day, depending on what language is nearest to the surface at that moment. That is not necessarily invention. It is translation.</p><h3 id="f64ab3c2-c1e9-4097-816f-149568bf1592" data-toc-id="f64ab3c2-c1e9-4097-816f-149568bf1592" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Inference</h3><p>Inference is how the mind draws a conclusion from partial information. You hear someone cough and sniffle and assume they have a cold without being directly told.</p><p>In trance, you rarely receive full paragraphs dropped neatly into consciousness. You receive pieces. The mind naturally reaches toward what those pieces indicate.</p><h3 id="de9e4862-8aba-43de-a01c-35ac2d697d31" data-toc-id="de9e4862-8aba-43de-a01c-35ac2d697d31" style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2;">Confabulation</h3><p>This is the word that alarms people most, largely because it sounds sinister. In truth, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/confabulation">confabulation</a> is not lying. It is the mind's tendency to create a coherent account from incomplete information, without any intention to deceive.</p><p>Researchers in memory see this often. People fill in missing parts of a memory with plausible detail because the mind dislikes broken narratives. In trance work, something similar can happen because spirit impressions are rarely delivered as neat, complete scripts.</p><p>So no, the involvement of these processes does not mean trance mediumship is fraudulent. It means human cognition is participating in the work, which it must.</p><h2 id="559aeae1-0daf-4964-b210-cc165be01e90" data-toc-id="559aeae1-0daf-4964-b210-cc165be01e90" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">Where things actually go wrong</h2><p>The real difficulty is not that the mind is present. The real difficulty begins when the mind starts to <strong>control</strong> rather than serve.</p><p>This usually shows up as forcing.</p><p>Forcing happens when the silence feels unbearable and you rush to fill it. It happens when you start guessing what the sitter wants to hear. It happens when you perform the role of a trance medium instead of allowing the contact to develop in its own timing.</p><p>Underneath forcing there is often an agenda:</p><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;"><li style=""><p>Wanting to sound profound</p></li><li style=""><p>Wanting to be impressive</p></li><li style=""><p>Wanting to be right</p></li><li style=""><p>Wanting to prove spirit is present</p></li><li style=""><p>Wanting to prove to yourself that you can do it</p></li></ul><p>That last one catches many developing mediums. The more you push to prove spirit is there, the more you interfere with the very atmosphere that allows spirit communication to build.</p><p>If you are interested in strengthening the deeper foundation beneath trance, the practice of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.developingspirit.com/blog/sitting-in-the-power">sitting in the power</a> is one of the most important disciplines you can develop.</p><h2 id="59ee9c8b-1db6-4459-b0a5-f435dbc68d26" data-toc-id="59ee9c8b-1db6-4459-b0a5-f435dbc68d26" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">Atmosphere matters more than performance</h2><p>Spirit communication needs room. It needs atmosphere. And atmosphere cannot form when the medium has already decided what should come next.</p><p>Imagine two mediums in the same chair.</p><p>One allows the pause to stretch. The room grows still. The sensation builds. There is a thickness to the moment before the first words are spoken. Even if the silence lasts several uncomfortable seconds, they do not rush it.</p><p>The other cannot tolerate the gap. Silence feels like failure, so the mouth moves before the power has settled. Something is said just to keep things going.</p><p>The difference is not simply style. It shows up in content.</p><p>Agenda-driven speech often sounds safe and general. It can apply to almost anyone. But when the medium waits long enough for the atmosphere to build, the communication tends to arrive with greater weight and specificity. A strange phrase. A precise detail. An unusual timing. Something the medium would not have reached for consciously.</p><p>That is often when the work stops feeling generic and starts carrying evidence, impact, and presence.</p><p>There is a close relationship here with altered states and flow. If that interests you, you may enjoy reading about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.developingspirit.com/blog/the-flow-trance-mediumship">the connection between trance mediumship and flow state</a> as well as broader reflections in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.developingspirit.com/blog/category/Trance-Altered-States-Consciousness/141">trance and altered states category</a>.</p><h2 id="b0991565-df43-41b7-a9c4-a13301f90de6" data-toc-id="b0991565-df43-41b7-a9c4-a13301f90de6" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">Mind and spirit are not opponents</h2><p>The whole question is often framed badly. It is not mind versus spirit. It is mind and spirit, every single time.</p><p>The concern should never be, “Is my mind involved?” Of course it is.</p><p>The concern should be, “Did I allow spirit's atmosphere to lead, or did my own agenda move in front?”</p><p>This shifts everything.</p><p>That fearful moment of “am I making it up?” can actually become useful information. When the communication feels thin, rushed, or mentally manufactured, that inner alarm may be showing you where forcing entered the process. In that sense, the fear can be data rather than a verdict.</p><p>Presence of mind plus no forcing can support real trance work.</p><p>Presence of mind plus forcing puts imagination in the driver's seat.</p><p>That distinction is far more helpful than trying to eliminate your personality from the process.</p><h2 id="da660231-24bb-486f-abfa-dc02c402be52" data-toc-id="da660231-24bb-486f-abfa-dc02c402be52" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">Practical steps to deepen your trance mediumship</h2><p>If you want to work with this more skilfully, keep it simple and disciplined.</p><ol type="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;"><li style=""><p><strong>Stretch the pause before speaking.</strong> Add an extra three seconds before the first words come. Notice what changes in the quality of the contact.</p></li><li style=""><p><strong>Stop policing your vocabulary.</strong> Your own words will appear. Instead of obsessing over that, pay attention to whether the message feels rushed, performed, or pushed.</p></li><li style=""><p><strong>Review each sitting honestly.</strong> Write down where you felt yourself waiting and where you felt yourself forcing. Patterns reveal themselves quickly when you do this consistently.</p></li><li style=""><p><strong>Develop your inner stillness outside formal trance.</strong> Practices such as meditation and attunement help build the steadiness needed for trance communication. You may find useful support in these reflections on meditation and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.developingspirit.com/blog/trust-your-inner-guru">trusting your inner guidance</a>.</p></li><li style=""><p><strong>Keep training the instrument.</strong> Your mind, language, and sensitivity all matter. Ongoing study, practice, and reflection sharpen the instrument spirit works through.</p></li></ol><p>For those wanting to explore more teachings, guided development, and resources on trance, mediumship, and spiritual practice, there is a wider collection of materials on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.developingspirit.com/blog">the Developing Spirit blog</a>, along with courses and study options at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.developingspirit.com/en/all-products">all products</a>. You can also explore the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.skool.com/myinnercircle/about">Inner Circle community</a> for continued development.</p><p>If your work is especially rooted in power building and altered states, the guided practice on <a target="_blank" href="https://youtu.be/UbE7K2ifXu4">Sitting in the Power</a> may also be a valuable companion.</p><h2 id="7078b835-c247-4daa-964b-57ff756c04af" data-toc-id="7078b835-c247-4daa-964b-57ff756c04af" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">The real truth behind the fear</h2><p>The fear of making it up is not the enemy of trance mediumship. Misunderstanding it is.</p><p>When you know that your mind is meant to be part of the process, you stop panicking every time a familiar word or phrase appears. When you understand the psychology of closure, inference, top-down processing, and coherent meaning-making, you stop mistaking normal cognition for fraudulence.</p><p>And when you learn not to force the silence, not to perform, and not to chase proof, you create the conditions for stronger and more authentic spirit communication.</p><p>Your task is not to disappear.</p><p>Your task is to become a clear enough instrument that spirit has room to speak through what you already are.</p><div><div class="tableWrapper"><table style="min-width: 25px;"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: center; line-height: 130%;"><span style="color: rgb(21, 23, 26);">Online Courses</span></p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: center; line-height: 160%;"><span style="color: rgb(21, 23, 26);">Check out self study online courses</span></p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: center; line-height: 120%;"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.developingspirit.com/all-courses"><span style="color: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 120%; font-family: inherit; background: rgb(255, 53, 126);">Click me</span></a></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div data-youtube-video="" style="display: flex; justify-content: flex-start;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KFTxUG3QAhg" start="0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" style="max-width: 100%; text-align: left;"></iframe></div><p></p>

Explore the truth behind the “Am I just making this up?” moment in trance mediumship—how mind and spirit collaborate, why familiar language appears, and why the trance state can feel seamless.

Trance Mediumship: Why “Am I Making It Up?” Happens

The mistake that causes so much confusion

Your mind is not the problem. It is the mechanism.

Why the trance state can feel so seamless

Practical steps to deepen your trance mediumship

Explore spiritual development articles by Helen DaVita on mediumship, clairaudience, trance, shamanism, and soul growth. Deepen your spiritual practice today.

Spiritual Development Blog – Mediumship, Intuition & Soul Growth

Join Helen DaVita's spiritual development blog. Read practical insights on mediumship, spirituality, intuition, trance, and soul growth at Developing Spirit.

Trance Mediumship: Why “Am I Making It Up?” Happens

Trance Mediumship: Why “Am I Making It Up?” Happens

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