{"id":484,"date":"2009-06-03T13:27:51","date_gmt":"2009-06-03T13:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html"},"modified":"2009-06-03T13:27:51","modified_gmt":"2009-06-03T13:27:51","slug":"10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html","title":{"rendered":"5 Things to Know Before Going to a &#8216;Psychic&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every year millions reach out to those who seem to have the divine on speed-dial. Over the years I&#8217;ve been to dozens of people who fall under the umbrella term &#8220;psychic.&#8221; Usually I&nbsp;contact these folks when I&#8217;m in a time of confusion or pain or need, and feel I&#8217;ve lost the forest for the trees. The idea is not necessarily to know what&#8217;s going to happen next Tuesday or when I&#8217;m going to get married, but rather to re-find the path that feels like the one I was born to follow. <\/p>\n<p>Though some religious traditions, including Christianity and Judaism, advise against seeking prophecy of any kind, I see it as another way to glean wisdom and insight into myself or a situation. It&#8217;s another tool in my self-healing, spiritually-seeking toolbag that has often helped me move through seemingly immovable situations.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some things you might want to know before going that way yourself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1)&nbsp;Drop the Word &#8216;Psychic.&#8217; <\/strong>The word has become so loaded and debased by psychic hotlines and storefront psychics that it has virtually lost its meaning. Most people who authentically have &#8220;sight&#8221; call them selves &#8220;intuitives&#8221; or &#8220;spiritual coaches.&#8221;&nbsp;And this is because , a good intuitive is a guide&#8211;rather than just dropping information bombs on you, she will ask plenty of questions and then suggest possibilities you may not have considered, much like a therapist does.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2) Choose Wisely.<\/strong>&nbsp;Also like choosing a therapist, when selecting an intuitive go on referrals from people you trust. I can pretty safely say never call a psychic hotline or go to a $20 storefront&nbsp;tarot reader. There&nbsp;is plenty of room for disreputable characters in the field who can take advantage of your pain, openness, and need for hope&#8211;not mention the fact of selling information that isn&#8217;t instantly verifiable. Make&nbsp;sure you feel comfortable in this person&#8217;s presence and that what she&#8217;s saying resonates with you. Like a therapist, the person should be honest about not knowing all, have a loving, compassionate presence, and leave you feeling better when you leave. They will not dole out bits of information and try to &#8220;upsell&#8221; you for more.&nbsp;The fee&nbsp;will be agreed upon upfront. <\/p>\n<p>I had one session in which I called a&nbsp;medical intuitive, she said a few sentences that were supposed to summarize my situation and then asked if it &#8220;rang any bells&#8221; for me. I honestly said no, that I felt like she was talking about someone else. She told me that there are some people she just can&#8217;t read, said she&#8217;d refund my money and wished me well. I was shocked and disappointed, but admired her honesty. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>3) Don&#8217;t Expect a Prediction or an Easy Way Out. <\/strong>The best intuitives will always give a caveat that they don&#8217;t see all. No one can really know what will happen, even those with better-trained deeper vision&nbsp;than the rest of us. If anyone ever tells you an absolute,&nbsp;or&nbsp;what you what you should do,&nbsp;run.&nbsp;True professionals will help you find the truth that&#8217;s inside you and offer perspective.&nbsp;They will also not be handing you easy answers.&nbsp;Chances are you&#8217;ll leave the session somewhat sated but also&nbsp;with internal &#8220;homework,&#8221; things to think about and work on that may or may not have occurred to you before. It&#8217;s not a quick fix&#8211;and in fact, the point&nbsp;should be to learn to seek and rely on your intuition and inner wisdom. It also helps to set an intention before entering a session&#8211;to identify your most pressing question or issue and how you would like this person to help address it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4) &nbsp;There Are Many Ways to See.<\/strong> A common question about intuitives is &#8220;How are they getting their information?&#8221; The answer&nbsp;can vary widely. Some talk to guides or angels, others &#8220;channel&#8221; certain guides (meaning they kind of &#8220;check out&#8221; or step aside while an entity speaks through them), others &#8220;tune in&#8221; to your energy body, some read auras, palms, faces, or the tenor of your voice. Some read minds, others use tools like tarot cards, the I-Ching, or runes. But essentially they are all going to the same source&#8211;into the mystery. It&#8217;s what some call God or gods, or the Universe. It&#8217;s the spiritual realm that&#8217;s just out of reach for those of us who aren&#8217;t trained in or born into the art of deep seeing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5) Many Have Come Before You. <\/strong>Christianity sees divination as going against the Bible&#8217;s mandate not to seek &#8220;soothsayers,&#8221; because that would be expressing a lack of faith in God as omnipotent and all-knowing. Yet many other of the world&#8217;s religions and cultures have woven&nbsp;it into their fiber&#8211;Hinduism uses Vedic astrology to match marriage partners; in Chinese culture, an expert is consulted on the most mundane to crucial life matters&#8211;from when to get married to where to live. Wanting to know what will happen is not just a result of our modern brains grasping for control and answers; it&#8217;s been the human condition for millennia, people have been seeking propehcies since Greeks took often long journeys to consult the Oracle at Delphi. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year millions reach out to those who seem to have the divine on speed-dial. Over the years I&#8217;ve been to dozens of people who fall under the umbrella term &#8220;psychic.&#8221; Usually I&nbsp;contact these folks when I&#8217;m in a time of confusion or pain or need, and feel I&#8217;ve lost the forest for the trees.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-valerie-reiss","category-holistic-living"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>5 Things to Know Before Going to a &#039;Psychic&#039; - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Things to Know Before Going to a &#039;Psychic&#039; - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every year millions reach out to those who seem to have the divine on speed-dial. Over the years I&#8217;ve been to dozens of people who fall under the umbrella term &#8220;psychic.&#8221; Usually I&nbsp;contact these folks when I&#8217;m in a time of confusion or pain or need, and feel I&#8217;ve lost the forest for the trees.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-03T13:27:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vreiss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"5 Things to Know Before Going to a 'Psychic' - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"5 Things to Know Before Going to a 'Psychic' - Fresh Living","og_description":"Every year millions reach out to those who seem to have the divine on speed-dial. Over the years I&#8217;ve been to dozens of people who fall under the umbrella term &#8220;psychic.&#8221; Usually I&nbsp;contact these folks when I&#8217;m in a time of confusion or pain or need, and feel I&#8217;ve lost the forest for the trees.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2009-06-03T13:27:51+00:00","author":"vreiss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html","name":"5 Things to Know Before Going to a 'Psychic' - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-03T13:27:51+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-03T13:27:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/df896dd70b2001a7a331d7c0264dbd4d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/10-things-to-know-before-going-to-a-psychic.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"5 Things to Know Before Going to a &#8216;Psychic&#8217;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/df896dd70b2001a7a331d7c0264dbd4d","name":"vreiss","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/7e2\/7e2e836248d6127446bfae5802ee2a83x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/7e2\/7e2e836248d6127446bfae5802ee2a83x96.jpg","caption":"vreiss"},"description":"Valerie Reiss is Holistic Living Editor at Beliefnet. She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/vreiss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}