Customer Reviews
Well balanced book, clear instructions and it works.... - By: Arty Alison, 01 Jun 2008 
Because of its clarity is might seem like a starter book, but having certain abilities myself which have evolved over the years, I can recognise the things Craig speaks of & have to agree with what he says & sees of spirit...and the exercises do enhance the incoming information. You won't wake yourself up over night, quick fix it is not, especially if you are starting from scratch, but steadily you will see progress & see more & learn to read the messages, translate the symbols or signs & clairaudient incoming information & improve your skills. The clarity of style suits me, no misleading mumbo jumbo, good techniques, completely understandable & it works....he says it how it is...
Broad coverage, detailed information about different aspects of mediumship - By: E. Ng, 14 May 2008 I ordered this bookin January 2007 after having some strange experiences at my house & also before I started attending psychic development workshops & open circle at a spiritualist churchin my area.
Anyways, here is a listing of the chapters:
Chapter 1: Open your mind to the other side: what is a medium?
Chapter 2: Psychic school: how to set up & run a circle
Chapter 3: Quick ways to get started: psychic art, advance clairvoyance, & other techniques
Chapter 4: Sensing vibrations: developing the gift of psychometry, & how to sense history
Chapter 5: Going deeper: meditation, spirit guides, seeing & sensing the aura
Chapter 6: Mediumistic development: giving proof of life after death
Chapter 7: Spiritual investigation: spiritual walks, dowsing & ghost huts
Chapter 8: Advanced techniques: trance, inspirational speaking, blindfold clairvoyance
Chapter 9: Presentation: Demonstrating to an audience
Opening to the Other Side is very beginner-friendly, easy-to-read & laid outin an aesthetically pleasing manner with photos & illustrations. As you can see from the listing of the chapters, he touches on many topics related to psychic & mediumship development, such as forming your own circle, the things that take placein a circle, different types of psychometry (which you often practisein psychic development workshops &in circle), personality traits of mediums, auras, chakras, what are spirit guides, etc.
He gives a good description of all the topics mentioned as well as even providing exercises that people can do with a partner as well as some they can do alone. He goes into depth when it comes to critical matters such as the importance of meditation, things you may experiencein meditation & how to deal with them. Meditation is very important to mediumship because one has to learn to silence their own mind & increase their vibration to be able to pick up messages from spirit. Other critical matters he gives in-depth discussion to are sittingin circle, the structure of readings, linking with spirit & presentingin front of an audience. The last two are very important. This past April I attended a mediumship workshop held by Eileen Davies who is a tutor at Arthur Findlay College. During one exercise with a partner, I was getting all sorts of information from spirit about her present day family, but not the patner's relative who had passed on. Ms. Davies suggested that I address my partner's spirit directly by asking who am I speaking to & so I did. This was very helpful because now I got the information that I really was looking for from spirit. This coincides with what isin the book. A couple of timesin this book, Mr. Parker mentions the importance of establishing a rapport with the commmunicator. In the presentation chapter, he mentions the CERT rule, a teaching method used by many mediums & explains what it is.
C - communicator
E - evidence
R - reason
T - Tie it up
At the beginning, every time I went to a workshop or to circle, I went back home & looked at Mr. Parker's book. It helped me understand what was happening & why. It has now been a little over a year that I have been sittingin circle & finally satin a closed development circle for at least 2 months. It has been almost a year since I picked up Opening to the Other Side & all I can say is that so much of it I can relate to now but not before because I didn't experience it yet. Mr. Parker speaks from his vast experience & shares some humourous ones as well, such as beingin the audience with his wife listening to a questionable medium. He also touches on ethics & the proper character of a medium. Without the proper attitude, one cannot develop to their fullest potential because mediumship requires the purest intentions.
You can't learn mediumship from a book, you need to putin the time & sitin circle. Even open circles are helpful (despite the changein number & composition of it) because it is not easy to get into a closed circle. You need to get invited or they have a space open. Closed circles require a commitment of weekly attendance usually for a certain period of time. I'm still very much a beginner & even after a year, I still find this book helpful & a very good read because now I'm experiencing things inside (and outside) circle that I can go back to the book & refer to. If you really want to learn mediumship, I suggest checking out your local spiritualist church. The SNU has a directory of spiritualist churches all over the world. Usually these churches have open circles as well as workshops. Keepin mind that it may take time to find the right circle because different mediums have different styles.
One problem I have has to do with the listing on Amazon.co.uk. It states that the date of publication is 2006. Since I'min Canada, I first checked Amazon.ca & they only had the 2005 book, so I ordered from the UK. Anyways, to my shock the book I received was not the 2006 edition but 2005. I contacted the publisher Sterlingin the US. It turns out that there is ONLY THE 2005 EDITION, there is no 2006 edition. There was no second printing. I could have simply ordered from Amazon.ca & saved some money on shipping.
Poor work - By: Barry Waldren, 18 Dec 2007 
In all honesty this book just seems to be a rehash of previous work. It doesnt really advance past begginer level which is what all the other books by this author are aimed at. I was really excited to get this book only to be dissapointed by the content. Seems more like people arein for making money than actually teaching anybody anything these days.
Good for newcomers but please can somebody write something for those of us that know what the base lines arein the psychic world?
Comprehensive guide - By: C. B. Stephenson, 11 Nov 2007 I am over halfway through this book & I'm really enjoying it. The visualisations are helpful & the content flows really well. Aside from a few grammatical errors & typos, the book is well-written.
Highly recommended!
