Are You Sure You Want to Be Psychic?

"How can I get to be psychic like you?" people ask me breathlessly.

I've worked as a psychic for over thirty years and it means more to me each day, but would you really want to have this gift if you actually knew what it was like?"

First off, people expect free, on the spot readings no matter where you are or what you're doing. I'm lying on the examining table in a paper robe at the gynecologist's office, my feet in stirrups. The doctor inserts the specula, sits down on his little stool for a good look, and asks, "So, what do you see for me?"

Or I'm having a romantic dinner with my husband at a restaurant. (We practically don't see each other during the week because he leaves before 6 am and when he gets home, I'm on the phone with clients.) Friday nights, he and I have so much to catch up on. We begin telling each other about our week when one of the waiters recognizes me.

"Am I going to get that part?" he asks.

I've just sliced my blackened tuna in half and pushed it to the side of the plate so I won't eat more than the four ounces my latest diet allows for. For a moment, I think he wants the other half of my fish. And then it hits me. He's asking for my psychic opinion about whether or not he'll land an acting role.

"Just once can't we eat out in peace?" my husband asks him.

Apparently not. The busboy and a whole family from another table come to ask me questions about their future too.

As uncomfortable as it is when other people badger me for readings, it's worse when, without prodding from anyone else, I can't turn off that part of my mind when I'm not working. Imagine how it is when the daughter of a friend rushes up to me, her face flushed with joy, holding out her hand, splaying her fingers to show off the diamond ring her boyfriend, now fiancé, put there last week. What pops into my head? I see her standing at the alter in her Vera Wang wedding gown, groomless and sobbing. Maybe the guy isn't going to leave her right at the altar, but it's a sure sign he's going to back out, and probably well after all the down payments have been made. She's not my client. I don't have the right to say anything but a booming "Congratulations," my face stiff with false cheer.

What if she were my client? It's bad enough the jerk is going to break her heart. Do I have to as well? Yes, it's my job. I have to do it. I have to even if she curses at me, even if she threatens to kill herself. But if she does threaten suicide, I have to call 911 to report it even if my intuition tells me she'll live into her late nineties.

So after all of this, if you still want to be a psychic, the best thing I can tell you is to begin to meditate. When you meditate, you have the peace of mind to hear your own thoughts or what you think of as your own thoughts. You'd be surprised who and what you'll get to know if you pay attention.

The other thing to do is at night, before you go to bed, write down three things that you think are going to happen to you the next day. I don't mean to write down what's in your calendar for the next day, but try to guess what your friend will be wearing when she meets you for lunch or a specific phrase someone might say to you. If you're wrong, don't let it stop you from doing it again the next night. It's the daring, the act of focusing in that way that will train the mind to see the future. Within a matter of months, you may become an expert on tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Comments

[wisdomkeeper]

I really enjoyed this article. I have a few questions, though.
1). Sometimes I have these weird moments when I just "know" something. I might have met someone for the very first time and I'll have this thought (for example, only) "He cheats on his wife." (These types of thoughts are right about 95% of the time.) Or maybe I'll walk in the woods and know that someone (like a spirit or "presence") is watching. What do you make of this, Rochelle?
2). What is a "caul" - I read in your book "Miriam, the Medium" that psychics are born with them? Are all psychics born with them?

Thanks so much!

[americaforme]

Making sence out of being phsycic is like pounding a drum in ancient Africa...the mind is so amazing, some folks are 1000 years ahead of what we call time,hence they dont understand the science,were just getting into nanotechnology. If everyone was Phsycic talking would be obliterated,and that is extremly nonsenical. To let someone con you into thinking that phsyic isn't more than distressing, is a great mistake...I venture to say the phsyic's childhood was not fun knowing everyones bussiness.. as an adult we have a choice, we can practice this voo doo (as some call it) or give it up in this earths 3 dimensions,for peace and harmony, its none of my bussiness what another person thinks...or what their future holds...

[stellanoir]

Yeah,

As a reader it's unbelievable how many people will try to solicit advice in spurious social circumstances.

It reminds me of a local mechanic who was at a festival at which I was reading.

He slapped a sticker on his T shirt upon which he had written, "OFF DUTY." LOL

I agree, the circumstances especially within families for which one gets forewarned about are often far more intimidating than the ones regarding those to whom our heart strings are not so closely attached.

A lady on another site was just in a dither. She had seen that a woman in her extended family had a stroke and was in the ICU. She had a vision of her condition as soon as the phone rang.

I told her of my first prophetic vision wherein I had seen my cousin's funeral. I tried to call him prior to his accident but didn't know what to say. . .like, "don't leave the house for the next six months. . ." or something?

Weeks after he died, a wise Jungian assured me that sensitives are often forewarned of tragedies before they happen so they can be stronger when they occur.

It was true. I had cried for three days and gone through my emotional purge before he died. Then I was totally strong for the extended family members with whom I had to share the sad news.

Thanks for sharing. May your daughter fair well over time.

best

[GreenEyedOptimist]

I thought your essay was very interesting. I am a lawyer by trade, and people always ask me for free advice at inopportune times (even though I practice in a narrow specialty that has no relevance to 99.9% of the population). I assume that other professionals encounter the same problems, but you are in a unique position because you can get information about a person without them even asking! That must be tiring at times, when you really don't WANT to know things. I am going to try your suggested exercise to try to develop some skills myself. What can it hurt? Sometmes I think of a song, and the song comes on the radio. Or I hear or say a certain unusual phrase, and then hear that phrase again a minute or 2 later, said by someone else (on tv or whatever). This kind of thing happens to me all the time- maybe even every day. I think I could be named the "psychic of insignificant information" because my abilities are thus far limited to songs, phrases and other mundane matters! I look forward to reading more of your posts!

[lungfish]

Graff's book describes some of the problems related to accurate RV with examples. When his RV teams in the DOD were tasked with finding BG Dozier who had been kidnaped by the Red Brigades his teams acquired some information. They said he was in a blue tent and that he was in a supermarket but couldn't say where. When he was found he was being held in a blue tent on the floor above a supermarket in Padua, Italy.
Some information but not all. Not quite 100% but definitely not a total miss.
While there were accurate results with the effort, the program did not sustain itself with repeated and exquisite accuracy. It wasn't a failure but it wasn't accurate enough to continue funding.

There are three types of RV and four basic PSI functions. RV, Precognitive Dreaming, Telepathy and Synchronicities... all of these represent nonlocal communication of information and there are suitable functional technical examples of these capabilities and it is reasonable to consider that human brains are also capable of these skills.

As for references, you made the assertions that you know that PSI isn't "real" so you have the onus on you to prove it. However, in the spirit of engagement I will throw you some bones:
Bradly, Raymond T. "The PsychoPhysiology of Intuition: A Quantum Holographic Theory of NonLocal Communication"
An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications, American Institutes for Research, September 29, 1995
CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing At Stanford Research Institute by H. E. Puthoff, Ph.D.
Reading the Enemy's Mind : Inside Star Gate--America's Psychic Espionage Program by Paul Smith, January 2005

Given that it took me all of two minutes to locate these docs for starters I return to your issue of bias.
Science is what you espouse but I contend that you are actually Scientistic and sharing dogma rather than Science fact and the docs above support my contention...

[lungfish]

Hi Rochelle,
I have worked around the edges of this with RV and related things that the USGov developed through the work at SRI by Targ and Puthoff. Dale Graffs book "Tracks in the Psychic Wilderness" was critical to my own suspension of disbelief.
We are remarkable creatures and what we think we know about reality is hardly adequate. The standard model of physics is falling apart and being replaced by cosmologies that allow for practical applications like Quantum Teleportation (Google) and other equally as astounding things.
We are entering a new paradigm. The challenge is to be ourselves at our full potential and to do it ethically and not to be fooled by our own minds.
I have had the priviledge to meet and work with some very gifted people in this field and I am more convinced then ever that PSI plays a role in most conscious actions, in some cases a very small role and in others a noticable one.
As you say meditation is the key because the mind will work on the data once it is acquired and corrupt it. So the key is becoming still and careful with the impressions....
To everyone reading this I say be very careful who you work with on this skill set because there are a lot of charletons out there. The really good ones don't have a shingle out with their name on it....you can spend a lot of money and get nothing. Like Rochelle says, meditate... and get a copy of Graff's book for starters if you are the intellectual type.
I did enjoy reading Upton Sinclairs book "Psychic Radio" which documents PSI experiments with his wife...
Thanks for bringing out this topic so carefully...

[RochelleShapiro]

I hope you're willing to try these things. They are actually fun.

[wondering]

I would post something, but you already know what I'm going to say.

[HeevenSteven]

What am I thinking?

[blueraven]

What? None of the antispiritualists have pounced on this yet? Wow. Must be asleep at the switch.

And I sympathize with you. I'm not a psychic, but I have my own moments where people think they want my life and do some of what I do. They have no freaking idea.