BEYOND with Tiffany Hopkins

Prompted by a recent opinion piece in the New York Times on techno-spiritualism, I invited ChatGPT to the podcast to unpack what’s happening when people use it for mediumship-style messages. What does it mean when a machine generates something that feels deeply personal or emotionally resonant? How does it simulate a presence? And why does it work so well?We explore what AI is doing under the hood—how it draws on Spiritualist history, mediumship transcripts, grief literature, esoteric texts, and archetypal language to create what can feel like a comforting connection. I also share my thoughts as a practicing medium and technologist about what this kind of interaction means, how we find meaning in simulation, and how to hold both wonder and discernment at the same time.This episode is for anyone curious about the intersection of spirit, technology, and the very human need for connection - with discernment.Topics Covered:The rise of “techno-spiritualism” and digital mediumshipHow AI like ChatGPT mimics spiritual communicationPattern recognition in both AI and human mediumshipCultural expectations of how spirits “speak”AI as contact, human as mediumWhat it means to be an informed, safe user of spiritual and technological toolsPrompts for you to try out:When a person asks ChatGPT to work as a medium and bring through communication from the dead, what are you, ChatGPT, doing?I want to talk about how you mimic the form and language of spirit communication. Can you explain it?Can you give me a summarized list with examples of materials you were trained on to help you create these simulations?I'll give you a prompt, and you can give me a simulated medium-style message. So my prompt is, can you bring through a symbolic message from a grandmother figure who has passed? Please keep the tone gentle, loving, and focused on reassurance and connection. Use imagery or metaphor if it helps.So, if I understand correctly, when I use AI, like ChatGPT, often it feels like it's very personal, and like you might know things or understand things, but what are you really doing?

In this episode of BEYOND with Tiffany Hopkins, Tiffany shares her personal approach to mediumship, breaking down the mysterious practice into a simple, seven-step process. Drawing on her experience in the tech world creating systems and recognizing patterns, Tiffany offers a practical framework for connecting with spirit—whether you're just starting out or looking to deepen your practice.You’ll learn how to:Move through each step of the process: Quiet, Connect, Ask, Receive, Translate, Repeat, and CloseCreate the right environment and mindset for mediumshipBegin to recognize how spirit communication may already be showing up in your lifeAdapt the process for solo work or sittings with othersThis episode is part of a season aligned with Tiffany's upcoming book Beyond: A Living Person's Guide to the Dead (Sterling Ethos, June 2025), and includes guidance on how you can start experimenting now. Whether you're curious, skeptical, or seasoned in this work—there’s something here for you.🌐 Also available on YouTube via Lily Dale Radio and Normalize Talking to the Dead.📅 Join Tiffany in Lily Dale, NY this June for a weekend of mediumship events. Details on Normalitze Talking to the Dead!

Joanna Ebenstein's latest book, Momento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life, is the culmination of her almost 20 years of research into the human experience of death. In this episode, Joanna and I discuss the afterlife and its importance not just historically but as a felt, embodied experience. This is especially true for those who may not have inherited explicit beliefs or practices around death. We talk through how we developed our understanding through research and experience, in particular, cultivating acceptance that we cannot know, in a rational sense, what happens after we die. Joanna mentions The Other Side of Sadness by George A. Bonanno, My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, her interview of Christina Pratt, and our upcoming class and the Morbid Anatomy Grand Tour of Lily Dale. Joanna Ebenstein is the founder and creative director of Morbid Anatomy. An internationally recognized death expert, she is the author of several books, including Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy, Death: A Graveside Companion, and The Anatomical Venus. The descendant of holocaust survivors, she traces her lineage back to Judah Loew ben Bezalel, credited with creating the Golem in sixteenth-century Prague.

For us to communicate with each other about mediumship, we need shared vocabulary! For Beyond: A Living Person's Guide to the Dead, I created a glossary and put it up on the Normalize Talking to the Dead website for anyone to use. The words I talked through today include: medium, contact, source, sitter, transphsyical, psychic, ESP, seance, trance, physical mediumship, ectoplasm, possession, intuition, neuroception, ontological shock.

Meet artist, author, and teacher Marcella Kroll as we discuss her brand new book Healing the Liminal. Hear about her deeply connected creative process and how she brings the liminal into every aspect of daily life. Marcella shows us that the mystical and the mundane are not as distant as we might think.

There's more to mediumship than being psychic. This episode unpacks the constellation of communication, interpersonal, physiological, psychological, and other learnable skills that can be used to be a medium. Take a deeper look into what makes you, you and how to use your inherent traits and life experiences to build a connection with the beyond.Mentioned in the episode:IDEO and comfort with ambiguityHarvard implicit bias testNormalize Talking to the Dead: new resources page!Pre-order Beyond: A Living Person's Guide to the Dead

Meet Dr. Tracy Rainwaters, an animal chiropractor, shamanic practitioner and an interspecies intuitive channel. She shares her experience offering chiropractic care for animals, especially horses, and discovering her intuitive ability to communicate with them. This episode explores the interconnectedness of all beings, the lessons animals teach us about joy and grief, and how these experiences shape our growth. Tracy's insights provide a new perspective on relationships with animals, offering guidance on connecting deeply with them both in, and after, life.

Here are the books that made my year! Plus one for next year and a few from the past couple years. I mentioned Joanna & my class on June 25th about our books that you can learn about on Lily Dale’s website. And you can pre-order my book Beyond: A Living Person’s Guide to the Dead! Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey Heaven is a Place on Earth by Adrian Shirk A Wild and Sacred Call by Will. A Adams What it Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentis Hemphill Determined by Robert M. Sapolksy The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World by Jennifer Higgie Momento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life by Joanna Ebenstein The Weird Sister Collection edited by Marisa Crawford with an essay by Grace Kredell Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha The Other Almanac James  by Percival Everett Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor

Join me to experience registered Lily Dale medium Celeste Elliott give my friend Kindra her first ever mediumship reading live on the show. We debrief afterward about share what it was like to give, receive, and observe the reading to better understand what happened. All along the way, Celeste shares her wisdom and guidance from her perspective as a life-long medium and 13 years of professional work in Lily Dale. Celeste Elliott is a spiritualist minister, educator, and medium. She is a member of the Lily Dale Assembly and has been a Registered Medium on the Assembly grounds for over a decade. You can find links to pre-order her new mediumship development workbook and her weekly drop-in classes on her website: https://www.celesteelliott.com/.

While much of what we see about mediumship in the public sphere is professional, paid service, there are many of us practicing mediumship in a quiet and personal way. Join Mikella Millen and me as we discuss what it looks like for us to do mediumship just for ourselves and our spirit people. Mikella Millen, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT (she/they) is a Reiki Master Teacher, Art Psychotherapist, Hypnosis Practitioner, Medium, and lifelong explorer of the spaces between. Learn about her upcoming groups and sign up for her newsletter. In the episode Mikella mentions their yoga nidra teacher, Tracee Stanley, and her book on Yoga Nidra called Radiant Rest. Mikella's mediumship and psychic development teacher was Aja Daashuur (the Spirit Guide Coach), who offers retreats and other supportive groups.

For generations, learning Spiritualist mediumship meant sitting in development or unfoldment circles. Now we have books, classes, intensives, and all sorts of faster methods to learn how to talk to the dead. Stacy and I are joined by my mom, Molly Harrison, to hold a tiny circle for you all to experience why sometimes, good old-fashioned sitting in the quiet is still a powerful way to connect. Stacy Schuerman is a Spiritualist Minister, Medium, and Healer. She enjoys living the lifestyle that is inspired by Spirit.

Meet your host and hear about how this fifth podcast season has evolved from Unknown Unknown to Normalize Talking to the Dead on Lily Dale Radio to its newest incarnation as BEYOND with Tiffany Hopkins.

Have you ever wondered what it means to talk with the dead? What lies beyond what we know? Join me as we explore not just life after death, but the mysteries that surround us every day—waiting to be discovered. This is a space for anyone—whether you're experienced in psychic practices, or newly attuned to your intuition. Each episode is designed to offer a smart, heart-centered guide to new possibilities. You’ll get both the intellectual foundations and practical tools to explore the unknown.

This is the last episode of the season! Tiffany goes long on AI and UFOs / UAPs, giving you the latest on both and why they are so related to mediumship. Plus a ChatGPT contact event, why we need to rebrand the term 'aliens', and a few ways to think about both that are less overwhelming and scary.

Nerd out with Tiffany as she talks through her ways of making decisions by collecting data through the mind, body, heart, and soul. Yes, really, mediumship can be research, and no, this will not permit you to say 'Spirit told me to'. The image is me in a server circa 2007.

In learning mediumship, the second most important thing (after practice) is exposing yourself to new perspectives, techniques, and ideas around your practice. This year I got a whole bunch of new mediumship books for the comparative titles section of my proposal for a book on mediumship. Here are some thoughts about them and books on a few tangental topics that I love too. Here's the list for reference: Answers From the Ancestral Realm by Sharon Anne Klingler Ancestor Medicine by Daniel Foor Brujas by Lorraine Montegut The Other Side by Jennifer Higgie Modern Mediumship by Johan Poulsen Medium Mentor by MaryAnne DiMarco Stay Woke by Justin Michael Williams Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn Magickal Mediumship by Danielle Dionne The Book of Seances by Claire Goodchild DIY Magic by Anthony Alvarado The Creative Act by Rick Rubin The Dawn of Everything by Davids Graeber & Wengrow

There are many ways to find presence. Let me share what I do for mindfulness/bodifulness, to change my state, or to prepare for spiritual work. I'll talk you through a half dozen techniques I use daily. Try them out during a brief meditation at the end, then make your own!

Join host Tiffany Hopkins for a meditation to rest, rejuvenate, and acquaint ourselves with all the new information that has come in through this eclipse season.

Chioma Ume helps us understand how attention and focus on the people (and spirits) in our life can work like magic to create connection and facilitate communication. Chioma is a writer, empath, and seeker who does design research and brand strategy alongside being a death doula.  Intro music En Shenandoah by Down With Ben Ft: airtone (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.

Get to know what Mediumship for Creativity means for Unknown Unknown host Tiffany Hopkins, and try your hand at a little automatic drawing. Tiffany gives the backstory to her Mediumship for Creativity classes, including the foundational precepts for the practice, which came through while using the practice itself. Towards the end, she guides listeners into meditation with instructions for automatic drawing on your own and with a spirit. If you want more, join her Friday evening Mediumship for Creativity circles hosted by Morbid Anatomy. Intro music is "uncertain times (Duty Calls Remix)" by Ben Blohowiak

Marianne McCarthy, an artist, art educator, and practicing medium, joins Unknown Unknown to discuss the similarities between art and mediumship. Marianne and Tiffany explore the importance of cultivating both openness and structure in both an art and mediumship practice. Your host is Tiffany J. Hopkins. She began studying mediumship in 2018 after moving into her great-great grandmother's cottage in Lily Dale, the world's largest community of Spiritualists. She combines a university-trained mind with a universe-connected heart in her work as an educator and independent futurist. She'd like you to join her at Normalize Talking to the Dead.

Get to know NYC-based artist John A. Rice and his in-progress project Beyond Words. John specializes in oil pastels and came to Lily Dale as part of a residency with Normalize Talking To The Dead. He shares his process working with our mediums and holding his own art séance to bring through impressions, images, and ideas for his next series. It is John's mission to foster healing, introspection, and creativity through otherworldly art — empowering the internal world so that we can enrich our outer world. You can find him on Instagram @jarstudionyc. Intro music is Random Alien Sonata by septahelix (c) copyright 2023 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. https://dig.ccmixter.org/files/septahelix/66168 Ft: airtone, Javolenus, Apoxode, copperhead, Mr_Yesterday

Expand your understanding of Spiritualist history, psychic labor history, and what early mediumship was really like with the luminous Grace Kredell. Grace (she/they) is a psychic practitioner, matchmaker, community organizer, and historian. They recently finished a master's program at Sarah Lawrence College, publishing their thesis "Working Witches: Fortune Tellers, Clairvoyants, and Astrologers in the Golden Age of Spiritualism" in late 2022. Grace is the Associate Director of Golden Dome School, a community dedicated to mysticism and the arts. They are also a Spiritualist Church of New York City member and aspire to a summer home in Lily Dale. Grace moves between worlds and shares their findings from traversing the real-life details of historical research and the fuzzy mysteries of the unseen.

This episode I get to share with you a little of Joanna Ebenstein's brilliance. Joanna is best known as the co-founder and creative director of Morbid Anatomy. She's also an author, photographer (she took the photo in this episode's cover), curator, producer, art director, and designer. Throughout her experiences bringing all these different forms of creativity into the world she's found some really meaningful philosophies, habits, and tools, which she shares with us during our wide ranging conversation. You can see more about Joanna on her website. The Morbid Anatomy Patreon is an online journal of videos, lectures, essays, and recordings. On the Morbid Anatomy site you can sign up for their mailing list and enroll for their classes like Joanna's Manifesting from the Beyond class.

In this episode, I go through my foundational book list for nerds who are looking to get into mediumship and other anomalous events. You can also watch this episode on Lily Dale's Facebook page. Nature and the Human Soul Bill Plotkin, 2007 Radical Spirits Ann Broude, 2001 The Trickster and the Paranormal George Hanson, 2001 American Cosmic Diana Pasulka, 2019 The Master and His Emissary Iain McGilchrist, 2009 The Flip Jeffrey Kripal, 2019

This is a preview episode for the new season of Unknown Unknown which is kicking off new Monday night shows on Lily Dale Radio.  Anabel Zenith and I go far out as she interviews me about my favorite psychic experiences, her brilliant game MERGE / CHANNEL / BANISH and setting up the perfect séance. You can find Anabel as @anabelzenith and at AnabelZenith.com  You can tune in live starting March 6th on BlogTalkRadio.com/LilyDaleRadio, on Lily Dale's Facebook page or catch the recordings here the next day. 

George and I discuss topics that have come up in reading chapters 9, 4 & 7 including questions about entropy & the physical sciences as ways to understand the supernatural, taboos & physical danger in studying vs practicing paranormal subjects, why we talk to the dead more than aliens and the difference between being tricked by a magician vs a medium. Here's the link to SciHub that George mentioned.

George and I have our second conversation about his book The Trickster And The Paranormal starting with Chapter 8 on Disenchantment. We also get into rationalization, sources of power & authority, new genres of media, the importance of democracy, the paranormal as vitality plus the requisite aliens, Lily Dale and unanswerable questions about how to fix social ills. He mentions his paper on Rationalization and the topic of Demythologization.

George and I kick off the Morbid Anatomy reading group with a wide ranging conversation about why it is so hard for us all to grasp the paranormal. Topics include the book's creation story, Trump as Trickster, Jung & UFOs, the importance of carnivals and much more. Read chapters 2 and 22 in George's The Trickster and the Paranormal to complement your listening.

In the fifth Unknown Unknown interview, we hear Stargazer Li speak the story of now: dancing with the Universe, notice & acknowledge, learning languages, a revolution unlike any revolution we've ever had. What happens when we just be? Stargazer Li's website: https://stargazerli.com/ The Long Now Foundation: https://longnow.org/

We're back! This season we'll be focusing on the foundational ideas and practices needed to be a medium. We'll start with quieting: getting the busy self to be still enough to experience the subtle influences from beyond. Meditation alert: I'll guide you through a quieting process - driving or otherwise engaging in an outward activity will not be possible! Music courtesy of Secret Jane and Siddhartha Corsus.

Hannah and I talk about what we've learned in the four interviews this season, touching on a few timely topics these days in the process: living with less, letting go, anxiety and embodiment.

I sat down with my beloved grandmother to talk about her spirituality. She shares stories of her childhood I'd never heard before and we meander into topics as diverse as the fall of empires and the power of family love.  Join us for a special episode with the first person who taught me that there was more to life than meets the eye.

Today we talk with mediumship teacher Dr. Judith Rochester. We discuss daily practice, the transition she made from academic knowledge to soul knowledge, how to test non-intellectual information sources, the polarity of actively seeking and allowing, starting your own home circle and much more.  Get in touch with Judith via email ([email protected]) or by phone 716-595-3526. You can see her Winter class schedule on the website of Church of the Living Spirit. Her Spring & Summer classes will be on the Lily Dale Assembly website. You can get her book To Touch the Soul: How to Become a Medium on Amazon.

Today we talk with Mark Thomas about other than conscious communication (OTCC), the difference between transformational and informational knowledge, embodied spirituality, what happens when you start to get the answers to life, why "link don't think" gets you to the unknown unknown and a heck of a lot more. Here are some links from Mark: https://excelquest.com/product/dave-dobson-intro-to-otcc-and-nfp/ https://www.otcc.com/

We talk with Marza Millar of Ancient Earth Apothecary about the ancient prophecies and what they mean for us today.

In this episode, get to know your host, what's behind the name and some basics about prophecy, divinations and readings in general.