Mediumship Money

Money is a topic that is pretty much guaranteed to get some type of knee-jerk response from many people you talk to. Should mediums charge? How much should they charge? How much is too much? The discussion is often accompanied by a strong moral distain for those who practice anything different from the speaker. People who charge nothing look down on those who do, either because they feel it should be free, or they're doing something charitable by doing "free". Those who charge something look down on those who charge a lot more, because they feel they're taking advantage of people. And those who charge a lot look down on both groups because they're devaluing their services. These are not the only examples where one looks down upon another, but they are fairly illustrative. I've been thinking this one over, and came up with some observations to share with you. Note that I am not subscribing to any particular view here, just sharing a few things as food for thought. For clarity in communication, "mediumship" stands for the whole ball of wax of psychic/mediumship/healing things, and "customer" stands for any recipient of such services. And we'll assume quality services, not junk or fakery - let's take that out of the discussion completely, because that takes us down a different path that is best saved for another time/post. Free services are nice, because they're either charitable, or just free. But free to the customer usually means you're paying instead. For example, you're paying to travel to the location (assuming travel is involved). You're paying with your time, because it's your time being spent, when you could be doing other things. Is it really fair to do "free" in all cases? Is it fair to do free in any cases? What about free for those who truly and legitimately can't afford money? Maybe have the customer do something positive in return, whether it is directed back to you, or something else? Here is one example, which involves money. I know a medium who did a reading for someone and was going to charge a modest amount of money (at least that's what he told her initially). He knew them well, and they could essentially afford it, but it was still a bit tight for them. Instead, he asked her to take the money she would have paid him and buy a toy for their little daughter, who doesn't get quite as many toys as she should, because money was tight. Should a medium do this every time? Perhaps not. But why not have the flexibility to think outside of the box, in certain cases? Charging something is the most common scenario. Is it right to charge an amount that is "too low"? Are you (as a medium) being fair to yourself in the process? Is it really unethical to charge an amount that represents a fair exchange between the medium and the customer? "Fair" is often overlooked. When it comes to fees for services, fairness is often overlooked by the medium and the customer. Perhaps both parties ought to take a fresh look at it. Attorneys and doctors study for somewhere around eight years or so before they go out into the world and charge for their services. And they DO charge. It's not unusual for an attorney to charge $150 per hour or more to work on a case. And doctor visits can easily cost as much, if not more, depending on what's going on. Why does it cost so much? Because it takes a long time to make an attorney or doctor. Those skills do not come quickly or easily, for the most part, which is why they have to go to school for a long time to learn them. They are valued professionals. Why are you paying them so much? You're paying them based on their value. Some would argue you're paying them to reimburse them for the cost of their education, but if their education was free instead, is their value any less? I doubt it. It's really about value. Why do people balk at paying similar prices for quality mediumship? Generally speaking (and of course, there are exceptions), it takes as long to make a good medium as it does an attorney or doctor, often longer. (Generally speaking, the "get rich quick" methods of learning mediumship can work, but it can also fizzle out as quickly as it came. A life of learning approach is usually the most successful approach.) It takes a long time to make a medium. Why shouldn't the customer pay fairly for the value? There's a lot of food for thought here. I'd like to hear from you about it, and to do that, just register. Once you register, you can write a post. You won't see the post until I approve you as someone who can post, and once I do that, you can post immediately. (This keeps the spammers out. I get fake registrations all the time from spam bots that would spam my blog incessantly if I didn't have an approval process in place to keep them out).