Spirit Talker - An Interview with Indigenous Medium Shawn Leonard

Some conversations stay with you. I had the honour of interviewing Shawn Leonard, an international psychic medium from Nova Scotia who has worked professionally for over 20 years. Shawn is Mi'kmaw, hosts the TV show Spirit Talker, teaches an online school called Spirit Talker Tribe, and is the author of Spirit Talker: Indigenous Stories and Teachings from a Mi'kmaq Psychic Medium. He has inspired my own work for years. Here are the lessons I took away.

Watch the full interview here.

Can Anyone Learn to Be a Medium?

This is the question I'm asked most, so I put it to Shawn first. His answer: everybody can learn to be more psychic, more aware and more connected. Not everyone needs to be a professional medium, but everyone is connected to some degree.

How far you go depends on your passion and the work you put in, just like any skill. And you don't need to be born with it. "We're all born with it," Shawn said. "We just forget." Often it takes a moment, like losing a parent, to help us remember.

Spirit Is Your Greatest Teacher

Shawn learned from watching other mediums, but he says the real teacher is doing the work yourself. Start by finding your strongest sense. Some people see images, many people feel, and some hear. Then develop the ones that feel weaker.

There's no fixed vocabulary that works for every medium. Spirit will use your own memories and experiences to send a message, so each medium develops a language of their own.

Trust the Image, Even When It Makes No Sense

Shawn told me about a reading at an event in Newfoundland. A woman's father came through and validated his name, then showed Shawn a single old boot. Shawn had no idea what it meant. He trusted it anyway and described what came next: the boot outside in a garden, filled with dirt, with a plant in it.

The woman began to cry. On Father's Day, she had planted an old boot in her garden with a little dog figure in it, because her dad loved dogs. She had told no one, and she had a photo on her phone that matched what Shawn described.

Shawn says trust is the first part of mediumship. When you step into the unknown with trust, spirit leaves breadcrumbs.

It's Not Our Job to Make Sense of It

I shared a story of my own. In a session I saw a cookie jar and had no idea why. It turned out to be the client's grandmother's jar, which the client had just given to a relative. In the early days I would have filtered that out. Now I just say it.

Shawn had one too. A grandmother kept showing him a saucer with cookies. Minutes later, the woman realized her grandmother's nickname was Cookie. Another time, a spirit showed him a little brown terrier, and the dog's owner turned out to be nicknamed Benji.

Spirit isn't always literal. Our job is to pass along what we receive and let it unfold.

Receive, Don't Dig

No medium knows everything, and Shawn was clear that anyone who says so is wrong. His approach: information should come to you, not be dug out of you. "The moment I start to feel like I need to dig for something," he said, "is the moment I know I've stepped too far into my ego brain."

Train Your Inner Sight

Shawn compared our psychic abilities to a muscle that has gone dormant. He explained that when we look at an object, the visual part of the brain lights up, and it lights up in much the same way when we close our eyes and picture it. Our mind can see without our eyes, and spirit can communicate through that inner sight. His advice is to exercise it with meditation and visualization.

Prepare, and Set Your Boundaries

Before a session, Shawn smudges, clears his space, sets an intention and invites the spirits connected to the people coming. He asks them to go slowly so he isn't overwhelmed, and sets boundaries so he isn't reading everyone at the grocery store. Spirit sometimes has other plans, but boundaries make his work sustainable.

Stories Are How We Teach

Shawn told me that storytelling is how Indigenous knowledge has always been passed down. He does the same in his work, using true stories to help people understand a concept. He also believes the real work starts inside each of us, and that fear, worry, doubt and the belief that "I can't do this" are the limits to let go of.

Every one of us has these abilities. If you're curious what they can look like in a session, learn more about a mediumship reading with me, or read about what evidential mediumship is. To learn more about Shawn, his book, his oracle deck and his course, visit shawn-leonard.com.

Amy B. x