Going public as a medium

One of the issues you face as a medium is whether to go public or not.  I remember when I first started becoming involved in mediumship and spiritual development.  I was somewhat reluctant to let people know that I was involved, because I didn't know if they would accept it.  Mediumship is one of those things that everyone reacts to differently - that is, you don't know how someone is going to take it until you've already told them.  I've had an experience or two where it wasn't received well, which only goes to illustrate the point. Over time, I became more comfortable with it.  Telling people still gives me a twinge of anxiety becuase of the misunderstandings people carry around in their heads about it, but that's just part of how it goes for me.  My feelings about it at this point are that I don't go out of my way to promote it, but on the other hand do not deny it.  So if you were to put "going public" on a scale from closed to moderate to wide open, I'm in the moderate camp. I think one of my issues with going public is that I don't feel like hearing cynicism from acquaintences and others I know.  It's like getting criticism from unexpected places when you didn't ask for it to begin with.  It's that rule of irony that once enough people know about it, you'll get someone in your face who has an agenda to shoot down your perspective.  And it's not that I can't "fight back" in a shooting match.  Actually, I have learned a good bit about it and can discuss it, which is a point of personal pride for me.  I'm more prepared than the average Spiritualist for such a discussion, and have helped other Spiritualists who get caught in shooting matches.  It's more that I would like to avoid it. I think the lesson for me to learn is to just say "So what, deal with it.  Let the chips fall where they may."  This is hard for me because I don't like the idea that (some of them) will run about with a distorted perception of me, based on their lack of understanding.  More accurately, these folks already have the distorted understanding and aren't likely to want to correct it, and I don't want to be an example of it in their head. But Helen Thomas from down under says it rather well -  "I have let go of the fear of what people might think of me. I know that there are people who won't get it and I know that there are people who will always be skeptics." I should look it at is being no different than letting the world know you're a musician or artist, and besides, the famous mediums have all done it and survived... It's something to work on.....