Key takeaways
- Online works as a format — and video or chat can actually help you, by showing the medium’s manner or keeping a record.
- Choose a mediumship specialist, not a general psychic who lists “mediums” among twenty services.
- Share less, notice more: the person’s first name and your relationship are enough; write down what was specific.
- The red flag is a price on peace: any claim that a loved one is “stuck” or “troubled” and needs paid work to rest is a script aimed at grief.
- A reading is one way to feel connected, not proof of contact — and it sits alongside grief support, not instead of it.
Why people seek a medium — and why that’s normal
For most of the twentieth century, the dominant view of grief held that mourning should end in detachment. The continuing-bonds framework, introduced in a 1996 edited volume by Klass, Silverman and Nickman, reframed ongoing connection with someone who died as a normal, often healthy part of grief rather than a failure to let go. A 2020 interdisciplinary review found that sensing a deceased loved one’s presence — through felt presence, sound, sight or scent — is reported by 30 to 60 percent of bereaved people across cultures, and is mostly experienced as comforting.
Neither finding says anything about whether mediums make contact; research describes how people grieve, not what lies beyond. What they do say is that wanting a sense of connection is not unusual or unhealthy. A medium reading is one of the ways people pursue it. The rest of this guide is about pursuing it safely.
Chat, phone or video for a medium reading
| Format | What it gives you | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Video | You can see the medium’s manner, pacing and seriousness; it feels closest to sitting together | Usually the highest per-minute rate; you need a private space where you can be emotional |
| Phone | A conversational, unhurried feel; easy from anywhere quiet | No record unless you take notes — have pen and paper ready |
| Chat | An exact written record of every detail the medium offered, to reread when you’re calmer | Slower; typing time is billed, and emotion is harder to convey |
If you can only choose one thing, choose a record. Grief blurs memory, and many people find the details they keep returning to are the ones they wrote down. Video plus notes, or chat on its own, both give you that.
When to book — and when it may be too soon
There is no rule, but there is a useful test: can you hear something unexpected, or nothing at all, without it making things worse? In the first raw weeks after a loss, many people can’t yet — and a reading booked for urgent reassurance tends to leave them wanting another. If the loss is recent, sudden or traumatic, or if grief is disrupting sleep, work or daily life months later, a grief counselor or therapist is the more honest first step; a reading can come later, alongside that support. The fuller discussion is in What does a medium reading actually do?
Choosing a medium on a platform
- Filter for mediumship. Both Kasamba and Purple Garden list psychic mediums. Choose someone whose profile is built around mediumship and grief, not a generalist who lists it among many services.
- Read how they describe the work. Careful mediums talk about offering connection and comfort and say they can’t guarantee who comes through. Profiles that promise to reach a specific person, or to deliver messages on demand, are promising what no one can.
- Read reviews for manner, not just accuracy. Look for words like gentle, patient, didn’t rush me. With grief, how a medium holds the conversation matters as much as what they say.
- On Purple Garden, watch the intro video. Two minutes of watching tells you whether you’d feel safe being vulnerable with this person.
- Set a time limit and a budget before you connect. Grief makes it easy to stay on “just a few more minutes.” Decide in advance, and let the session end there.
During the session: what to share and what to notice
| Share | Notice and write down | Be cautious of |
|---|---|---|
| The person’s first name and your relationship (“my mother, Anne”) | Details that were specific to them — a phrase, a habit, an object — that you didn’t mention | Statements that fit almost any loss (“she wants you to know she’s proud of you”) offered as proof |
| That you’re looking for connection or comfort | Which details you supplied yourself, so you can tell them apart later | Questions that fish for details (“I’m getting an older woman, a J or M name?”) followed by confident elaboration |
| Little else, at first | How you felt, in your own words, straight afterwards | Any suggestion the person is unhappy, stuck or in danger |
Comforting general statements aren’t wrong to receive — they can be exactly what someone needs to hear. The point of noticing the difference is to keep your own footing: to know afterwards which parts felt specific to the person you lost, and which were kindness.
Mediums on both platforms
Video if you want to see the medium; chat if you want a record of every word. Both platforms let you read profiles and reviews before you pay anything.
purple gardenMediums & psychics · video, voice & chat
$30 free creditNew clients · credit applied with your first purchase
kasambaPsychic mediums · chat & phone · 24/7
3 free minutes + 50% offNew clients · billing details needed to activate
Partner links: MysticDo may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Offers are set by each platform, are for new clients, and can change — the live terms are on their sites.
Red flags that target grief
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service describes the core psychic scam as a warning of trouble followed by a request for money to fix it. In mediumship, the trouble is usually placed on the person who died. Walk away from any of these:
- “They’re stuck,” “troubled” or “can’t cross over” — followed by an offer of paid work to release them.
- Messages that create urgency or guilt — that you must act, pay or book again for the person’s sake.
- Promises to reach a particular person on demand, or guarantees of contact.
- Pressure to extend, buy a package, or continue the conversation off the platform.
- Discouraging other support — any suggestion that you don’t need family, friends or counseling because you have the medium.
If any of these happen on a platform, end the session and report the advisor. On Kasamba, the Satisfaction Guarantee can credit you toward a different advisor if you ask within 7 days; Purple Garden’s terms ask for refund requests within 3 days, at its discretion.
How to hold a medium reading well
Let it be one of several ways you stay connected — alongside memories, rituals that matter to your family, conversations with people who knew them. Keep what comforted you; set aside what didn’t ring true. If you find yourself needing a reading to get through each week, or grief is still making daily life hard many months on, please reach out to a grief counselor or therapist. That’s not instead of connection; it’s support for carrying it.
Sources
- Klass, D., Silverman, P. R., & Nickman, S. L. (Eds.). (1996). Continuing bonds: New understandings of grief. Taylor & Francis.
- Kamp, K. S., Steffen, E. M., Alderson-Day, B., Allen, P., Austad, A., Hayes, J., Larøi, F., Ratcliffe, M., & Sabucedo, P. (2020). Sensory and quasi-sensory experiences of the deceased in bereavement: An interdisciplinary and integrative review. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 46(6), 1367–1381. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbaa113
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service. (2019). Psychic scam. uspis.gov
- Kasamba Support, FAQ: Satisfaction Guarantee; Purple Garden, Terms of Use (effective October 21, 2026). Read November 5, 2026. purplegarden.co
FAQ
Do online medium readings work?
Is a phone or video medium reading better?
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This guide follows MysticDo’s content methodology: Problem → Context → Options → Differences → Risks → Decision Criteria → Recommendation Path → Action. Research is cited for what it describes about grief, not as evidence for or against mediumship. Platform policies were read from each platform’s own pages on November 5, 2026. We haven’t tested readings and we don’t rank individual advisors. MysticDo earns a commission through the partner links on this page. Not a substitute for grief counseling or therapy. See the methodology page.