Why Different Mediums Pick Up Different Things — and the Radio-Frequency Model of Spirit

Why is it that you can sit with two different mediums, both connecting to the same loved one, and come away with two quite different sets of evidence?

That's what Tamsin wanted to understand. Is her own private way of connecting with her late husband — through journaling, through feeling — different from the connection a medium would make? Does each medium tap into a different part of him? The answer opens out into one of the richest topics in the whole season: how mediumship is filtered through the individual medium, the staggering intelligence of spirit, and a model Hannah keeps returning to — that we work like a radio, picking up whatever frequency we're tuned to.

Listen to the Episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_qcLDuXOlA

Everything Comes Through Your Filter

The starting point is simple but far-reaching: different mediums pick up different pieces of energy from the same spirit, because mediumship works through the resource of you.

"I cannot perceive things from spirit that I have no knowledge or awareness of. It's simple as that."

Whatever you receive from a spirit comes through your own lens — your references, your vocabulary, your life experience. On top of that sits your particular way of perceiving: some mediums are strongly visual, others feel things, others are gifted with names and words and addresses. So when you visit two mediums, you'll get some overlapping evidence and some that's completely different — not because one is right and one is wrong, but because the same spirit is being received through two different instruments.

And this is where spirit's intelligence comes in. They know which pieces of evidence will land best through each particular medium, and they tailor what they bring accordingly.

You Tap Into Different Aspects of Spirit, Too

Tamsin's instinct was right: her private connection with her husband really is different from a medium's. When she journals, she isn't asking him for hard evidential proof — she's asking for feelings, for comfort, for guidance, for the things he'd want to tell her. (Hannah adds a candid aside here: working evidentially on your own loved ones is extraordinarily hard — she finds it nearly impossible.)

So the same spirit shows up differently depending on what's being asked of the connection. Spirit reads the intention, the expectation, and the need — and meets it.

The Grandmother Who Was Two People

This is the heart of the episode, and it's a brave, honest piece of personal storytelling. At a recent retreat, one of the demonstrating mediums brought through Hannah's grandmother — while Hannah's sister, who was there chefing, was also in the room. Two granddaughters, one spirit. And something striking happened: the medium would offer a detail, and Hannah would say no while her sister said yes, or the other way around.

"She said she's a very kind and loving lady, and I said no, and my sister said yes, and we were both right."

Her grandmother, Hannah explains, was an extraordinary woman — funny, vivacious, "like a star that had fallen to Earth." But towards the end of her life she became difficult; a slight sharp edge grew longer and sharper, and there were decisions made within the wider family whose shockwaves are still being felt today. Hannah's sister didn't see as much of that final chapter, so for her, their grandmother is held in stasis as the woman she used to be. Hannah saw more — and has dealt with more of the fallout since.

Here's the part that makes it more than a story about perception. The medium brought through the kind, loving version — and Hannah believes that was spirit's intelligence at work, because it was her sister who most needed to hear from their grandmother that day.

"Who wants to be remembered as their worst bits and forgotten about their best?"

It was, she admits, a gift to be reminded of the grandmother she'd loved, when the recent years had made that easy to forget. Her relationship with her grandmother didn't end at the passing; it's continued, shifted and complicated by everything that came after. That honesty — that our bonds with those in spirit keep evolving, knots and all — is rare to hear stated so plainly.

Spirit Will Take a "No" for a Later "Wow"

A lovely related insight: it's often the evidence people say no to in a demonstration that later cracks them wide open, once they check with a relative or remember something they'd forgotten. Hannah suspects there's intelligence in that too.

"They know that getting yeses might make me look good… but I'm also willing to get a no in front of an audience and for them to have some sort of wow factor moment later."

Spirit, in other words, will sometimes trade the medium's moment of looking good for the sitter's bigger realisation down the line.

You Are a Radio: The Frequency Model

The second half of Tamsin's question got practical — about opening "energy doors," and whether spirit can really only reach us when invited. If they're already with us, why does it need asking? Hannah's answer reframes the whole thing.

"Spirit are with us. Yes, they are here. But if you want to feel them, you have to open the door. And the door that opens is in your energy, not spirit's energy."

It's like opening your front door: the path and the drive were already out there. You're not summoning anything — you're opening to what's already present. Spirit doesn't require the instruction. Your energy requires the instruction.

"We are like a radio, and we pick up whatever frequency that radio is set to."

Open up with no intention, she says, and you just cycle through all the stations — like scanning the dial in the car, never settling. But choose to work with spirit guides and you're tuned to the spirit-guide frequency, which carries its own expectation of guidance and inspiration. Open up evidentially and you're tuned to specifics and proof. This is also why people get confused between working mediumistically and working psychically: if your energy and focus are all on the sitter rather than the spirit world, you're working psychically — even though spirit is right there at the edge going "Hannah, hello, can you hear me?"

Fine-Tuning Within the Frequency

The radio model has layers. There's the broad station — spirit guides, angels, Ascended Masters, evidential — and then the fine-tuning within it, set by what you're actually doing: writing, speaking, pulling cards. Ask spirit a specific question and the signal narrows to that answer, because that's all you've tuned into.

There's no point, Hannah notes, asking a spirit guide for evidential proof — and she tells the story (from her forthcoming second book) of once trying to cheat the system by getting a spirit-guide drawing, complete with a whole CV and write-up, none of which she's ever been able to verify or see. Guides are for inspiration, teaching, understanding and healing — not for proof.

Meanwhile, spirit is reading your energy and "trying to jam with us the whole time." Tuning into your guides doesn't mean your loved ones have huffed off in a sulk.

"It doesn't mean your loved ones are like, 'Oh, well, screw her, she's only working with spirit guides.' They're still there — but you have tuned into the frequency, so that is what you can feel."

The Elevator Full of Loved Ones

One more image Hannah returns to: working evidentially is like stepping out of a lift on a particular floor of a very tall hotel. Everyone on that floor belongs to your sitter — all their loved ones gathered there — and your job is to work out which one wants to communicate, which one the sitter most needs to hear from. They're all present at once, so part of the energetic work is making sure you've landed on the right one.

"Which is how sometimes we can get it [wrong] — which is nothing to be ashamed of. 'Tis facts."

And she ends by celebrating exactly what Tamsin noticed: that evidential, healing, trance and spirit-guide work all genuinely feel different in the body, and that different individual spirits feel different too. Learning to work with all of that is the job — and feeling the differences at all is a sign the door is wide open, not just cracked.

Key Takeaways From This Episode

• Everything a medium receives comes through their own lens, references and abilities

• Two mediums can bring different — and equally valid — evidence from the same spirit

• Spirit has the intelligence to tailor evidence to each medium and each sitter's need

• Our relationships with those in spirit keep evolving after death

• Spirit will sometimes accept a "no" now for a sitter's bigger realisation later

• Spirit is always present; it's our own energy that opens the door

• We work like a radio, picking up whichever frequency we tune to

• Spirit guides are for guidance and inspiration, not evidential proof

• Working evidentially, in healing, in trance and with guides all feel genuinely different

About Hannah Macintyre

Hannah Macintyre is an evidential medium, spiritual teacher, author and host of the Mediumship Matters podcast. She supports students around the world through mediumship training, spiritual development programmes and Spirit Social, her conscious platform for spiritual connection and growth.

Explore Hannah's books, courses and spiritual development resources through her website and online community platforms.

Listen to More Mediumship Matters Episodes

Explore more conversations around evidential mediumship, spirit communication, mediumship development, spirit guides, the intelligence of spirit, energy and frequency, and spiritual growth.

And if you'd like to deepen your own spiritual development in a grounded and supportive environment, Hannah also offers online programmes, workshops and community experiences designed to help developing mediums build confidence, trust and a deeper understanding of how spirit communication works.