Alaine Portner, owner of the Yoga Center of Medford, was already practicing several of the disciplines associated with yoga by the time she became a student more than 20 years ago. A fitness teacher, who was interested in spirituality and philosophy, Portner fell in love with yoga when she discovered that she could teach philosophy and exercise at the same time. Within three years of her first yoga class, Portner opened her own studio and began touching the lives of thousands of individuals.

Portner’s love of yoga philosophy and her natural talent for teaching helped her become a pioneer, who helped to facilitate the evolution of the 5,000-year-old practice of yoga from a niche activity of New Age followers to part of the cultural mainstream. “I knew yoga had broken through any remaining barriers when Wal-Mart began selling yoga pants and people were comfortable wearing them to work,” she quips.

A smile lifts Portner’s lips at the corners while she muses at how yoga has grown into a $27 billion industry with 20 million practitioners—some of them her former or present students and some of them yoga teachers that she has certified through the School of Yoga. Content and unattached to her trail of accomplishments, Portner has turned her focus to pioneering yet another age-old New Age concept— acting as a Medium in order to channel messages to individuals from their deceased family members and friends. “I was already interested in the universal telepathic component of the human emotional bandwidth before I started practicing yoga. Implementing Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga into my life simply brought more clarity and helped me refine the gift of spiritual communication,” advises Portner.

In her recent book, Medium Memoirs: Messages of Love, Hope, and Reunion, Portner explains that the first hint about putting her gift to use for others came during an informal morning meditation at the Center. “A distinctive spirit appeared behind a participant in a powder-blue leisure suit waving a white handkerchief. When I approached the student to ask her who this man could be, she completely broke down and explained that this was her father, whose blue leisure suit was his trademark and the last thing she put in his coffin was a white handkerchief. There was a beautiful calm after the message of his guidance was delivered to her. The student felt ‘recognized’ by her father. This was an energy she could feel but not ‘see’ and fortunately, her teacher validated for her.” The overwhelming response from the meditation group witnessing this reunion inspired continuous Mediumship and Satsanga (group) discussions at the Center.

Philosophically, Portner instructs lessons on universal intelligence, love and continuous mindful living in the everyday. She suggests that there is a universe speaking to us through nature and symbols all of the time. “At one point I asked Spirit how I could use my practices to serve my community and new visitor’s to the Center as well as those who had departed this early life. That’s when my gift of psychic Mediumship fully revealed itself. By tapping into the vast reservoir of energy that is Spirit, I could reunite people with loved ones who have crossed over to the other side, and act as a messenger for those who no longer have earthly voices,” clarifies Portner.

Since 2010, Portner has kept track of her 5,000 readings. “I love communicating with the spiritual dimension and I want to tell everyone I meet that if they only knew what is in the energetic world that surrounds them, who is watching them from the other side, and what messages they are trying to communicate about how to live and love, they would worry less. Stress reduction is a common reason why many people begin a yoga or meditation practice. These pursuits give permission to participants to relax and let go of the everyday dramas that play heavy on our minds.” Over time, practitioners begin to worry less and enjoy life more fully. Portner, along with her talented staff are always excited about the potential of teaching students alternative techniques for mind, body and spiritual fulfillment. The blend of the physical experience of breathing, meditating, practicing yoga and now Mediumship inspires and invites a cross-section of body types. The Center’s teaching staff continually searches for ways to invite each and everyone’s journey to be uniquely supported.

“I believe that we are a more conscious society today than we were 20 years ago when I took my first yoga class. I also believe that it won’t take another 20 years for individuals to grasp the Science of Oneness that enables me to be a Medium. I feel that more of us are open to the fact that we are all just as capable of feeling and hearing Spirit speak to us as we are capable of recognizing when a deceased loved one is trying to get our attention.

“Many of us know that we can use meditation to quiet the mind and increase our internal peace for moments at a time. This means that we’re not all that far away from owning the fact that the ancient energy and state of elevated consciousness already exists within ourselves. More people are seeking self-realization today than any other time on Earth. As a result, more of us know our purpose and are living our life in service to others from that perspective,” explains Portner, who has been approached by a production company and an entrepreneur to film a documentary entitled, Modern Mediums. A crowd-funding opportunity on Kickstarter gives the general public a popular and effective way to support the project of spiritual education and bring it to life.

Portner reminds us that, “Yoga and Mediumship opportunities are natural awakenings for those seeking a greater connection to a historical evolution of mindfulness that promises greater peace and happiness in our modern world.”

For more information contact, Yoga Center of Medford, 417 Stokes Rd., Medford, NJ. AlainePortner.com, mediummovie.com/Kickstarter or call 609-654-9400.