There’s a moment in a trance session when the room changes.

The air thickens. Someone feels warmth spreading through their hands. Someone else feels a coolness at the back of the neck. Nobody has said a word yet, but everyone knows: spirit has arrived.

I’ve been sitting with spirit since I was a child, long before I had a word like “trance” for it. Today it’s the heart of my work, and the heart of my Spirit Soirée evenings.

This post is for anyone who’s curious. And it’s especially for you if you’re thinking about joining me at a Soirée. I want you to know exactly what trance is, how it works, and what will happen when you walk into the room, so you can arrive open rather than nervous.

What trance mediumship is

When most people picture a medium, they picture mental mediumship. The medium stays fully aware, receives impressions through the clairs, and passes on what they’re given.

Trance is different. In trance, the medium deliberately steps back from their own awareness so their spirit guides can blend with them more closely. Sometimes spirit speaks through the medium. This is trance speaking, or inspired speaking. Sometimes spirit pours healing through them. This is trance healing. Often, it’s both.

And it isn’t possession. Nothing is taken and no one is overpowered. Trance is a partnership between a medium and their spirit team, built on consent, trust and years of sitting together.

The levels of trance

Trance isn’t a switch you flip. It’s a gradual deepening, and it moves through levels.

Overshadowing. Spirit draws close and blends with my energy field. I’m fully aware of the room, but my thoughts quieten and something else begins to guide my words and my hands. Many healers work here without ever calling it trance.

Light trance. My own mind steps further back, like a passenger moving from the front seat to the back. I’m still there, I can hear, but I’m no longer steering. My voice may slow. My posture may change.

Deep trance. My personality steps right back and my guides take fuller control. Afterwards I may remember little of what was said, which is why I always want the room to hold on to the messages for themselves.

The level isn’t something I force. Spirit decides how deep we go on any given night, depending on what the people in the room need.

How trance actually works

It’s built through sitting

Trance isn’t learned in a weekend. It’s built through patient, regular sitting in the power: quiet, dedicated time where the medium simply makes themselves available to spirit, again and again. Over years, the bond with the guides grows stronger, the blend grows smoother, and trust grows on both sides.

Breath and music

Breath and music are my doorway. I slow my breathing until my body softens and my everyday mind loosens its grip. The music lifts the vibration of the room and gives my thinking mind somewhere to rest, so it stops getting in the way.

The blend

As I let go, my guides draw close. They blend with my aura first, then mind to mind. It feels like being gently enveloped, a warmth and an expansion, as if I’m becoming much larger than my own body.

The control

One guide steps forward to hold and manage the connection. This guide protects me, protects the room, and decides who comes through and when. Nothing happens in a trance session without that guide’s watchful care.

The voice

When spirit wants to speak, they use my voice box. You might hear the pace of my speech change, my tone shift, or words I wouldn’t normally use. That isn’t performance. It’s what happens when another consciousness is shaping the words.

The healing

My spirit team includes healing guides who each work on a different layer of a person: physical, emotional and spiritual. They draw healing energy through me, and also from the shared energy of everyone sitting in the room, and direct it wherever it’s needed most. That’s why trance healing in a group can feel so concentrated. Everyone present is part of the circuit.

Sometimes, as part of the healing, Light Language comes through as well, spoken or sung.

Coming back

When the work is done, my guides withdraw gently, layer by layer. I return to my body, ground myself and come fully back into the room. It can take a few minutes. Then we close the space together.

You’re part of it too

Here’s something most people don’t realise before their first trance evening: the sitters matter.

Your presence adds to the power in the room. Your openness, your curiosity, even your nervousness, all of it is welcome. You don’t need to do anything clever, have any experience or believe anything in particular. You only need to be willing to receive.

The lineage I stand in

Trance is one of the oldest forms of spirit work there is. The mediums who shaped me most have all gone home to spirit, and their work still guides mine.

Allan Kardec, the French educator born in Lyon, gathered spirit communications into Le Livre des Esprits, The Spirits’ Book, in 1857. It’s more than a thousand questions about the soul, the spirit world and how the two meet, and it still guides Spiritists around the world.

Ursula Roberts demonstrated mediumship for many years across Britain, Europe and as far as Australia and Egypt. She wrote openly about trance, healing and direct voice for anyone ready to develop their gifts.

Ivy Northage taught at the College of Psychic Studies, where I trained too. Her guide, Chan, delivered lectures through her mediumship, many of them recorded. She never let her students get away with vague communication.

Alec Harris, a Welshman from the Rhondda, began as a sceptic of all things psychic. With his wife Louie and their spirit team in Cardiff, he developed trance, direct voice and healing long before his famous materialisation circles.

Different gifts, one principle: the medium steps aside, spirit steps in, and healing flows.

What happens at a Spirit Soirée

So what will your evening with me actually look like? Here’s the journey we take together.

1. You arrive and settle

You walk into a calm, softly lit room at Anahata Health Clinic in Brighton. The group is small and intimate. There’s music playing, a chair waiting for you, and time to settle in. No experience is needed, and you won’t be put on the spot.

2. We open and protect the space

I open the evening by setting our intention and asking for protection for everyone present. This creates a safe, held container. Nothing comes into that space that isn’t there for your highest good.

3. We meditate together

I guide a meditation to bring you back into your heart and the brightness of your soul. This is where the self-love work begins. It’s also how we build the power in the room, so spirit has a strong, gentle energy to work with.

4. I go into trance

Using breath and music, I begin to blend with my guides. You’ll see me become very still. My face and my voice may change as they draw close. This is completely natural. Simply stay relaxed and keep breathing.

5. Healing comes through

My healing guides pour healing into the room. You don’t need to do anything. Just sit, breathe and receive. This is when most people feel the atmosphere shift: warmth, coolness, tingling, a heaviness, a deep peace.

6. Spirit speaks

My Spirit Guides, Helpers, the Ascended Masters and our collective of Universal friends bring philosophy, inspiration and guidance through my voice. Often it speaks directly to the theme of the evening: self-worth, self-acceptance, loving yourself enough to change.

7. Your questions

Then the floor is yours. You can ask spirit anything, from the universal to the deeply personal: your path, your purpose, a decision you’re facing, the nature of the spirit world itself. The subject is left to spirit and to you.

8. We return and close

My guides withdraw, I come back into the room, and we close and ground the space together. There’s a moment to breathe, sip some water and share if you’d like to. Then you head home gently, carrying whatever you received.

What you might feel

Everyone receives differently. You might notice:

• Heat, coolness or tingling in your body
• The air in the room becoming dense or very still
• Heaviness, as if you’re sinking into your chair
• A dreamy, mildly trance-like state of your own
• Emotion rising, tears, or a sudden sense of relief
• Nothing dramatic at all, followed by the deepest sleep you’ve had in weeks

All of it is normal. Healing takes place whether or not you feel it in the moment. Some people leave uplifted. Many describe something like waking up to themselves.

Is it safe?

Yes. Trance work is held from start to finish. The space is opened, protected and closed with care, and my guides watch over everyone in it.

You stay fully yourself. You’re not the one in trance. You can open your eyes, shift position or step out at any time, and there’s no way to do it wrong.

Trance healing is a complementary spiritual practice. It works alongside medical and psychological care, never in place of it. If you have any concerns before the evening, message me and we’ll talk them through.

How to prepare

• Eat lightly beforehand, and drink plenty of water.
• Wear something comfortable you can relax in.
• Bring a question or two. Write them down so they don’t slip away once you’re relaxed.
• Come with an open heart. No beliefs required, just willingness.

Afterwards, keep drinking water, rest, and give yourself an early night if you can. Journal anything that comes up over the next few days, because healing often keeps unfolding after you’ve gone home.

Why self-love is the doorway

So many of the people I work with are on the same journey: learning to truly love themselves.

Spirit doesn’t heal at you. It meets you where you’re willing to receive. That’s why self-worth, self-acceptance and compassion are the ground every healing grows from. When you open to your own worth, you open the door for spirit to reach you.

And when we love ourselves, we love others freely and without attachment.

What you can take home

💜 A deeper sense of self-worth and confidence to cope with life’s challenges
💜 Greater connection to your emotions, your spirituality and the energy around you
💜 A renewed sense of being in control and inspired to make positive changes
💜 That feeling people describe as “waking up” to themselves and their own power

Come and sit with me

If you’ve read this far, something in you is curious. I’d love you to come and feel it for yourself.

Spirit Soirée is a warm, intimate evening of meditation, trance healing and guidance from spirit. Whatever stage of life you’re in, whether you’re brand new to spirit or you’ve been on this path for years, there’s a chair waiting for you.

Spirit Soirée: An Evening of Healing, Self-Love & Spirit
🗓 Every 2nd Wednesday of the month
🕖 7.15pm–8.45pm
📍 Anahata Health Clinic, 120 Edward Street, Brighton BN2 0JL
💜 £22 per person

Spaces are limited to keep the group intimate. Open to all adults.

Book your place at Spirit Soirée Now

You can also book through Anahata. And if someone you love has been on your mind as you read this, bring them with you. 🤍

I’ll see you in the circle.

Blessings,
Cindy

About Cindy

Cindy Theodore is a 20th-generation shamanic lineage holder, trance medium, Light Language activator and Reiki Master Teacher, trained at the Arthur Findlay College and the College of Psychic Studies. Connected to the spirit world since childhood, she helps old souls, empaths and highly sensitive people heal, reclaim their gifts and come home to themselves.