As I looked around the table, there were several other women I’d never met before, and I realized that many of them were wondering if I was reading their minds or discovering their deepest secrets. I was so out of my "psychic mode" that day that it hadn’t even occurred to me that these women were even thinking of me as being a psychic. I quickly reassured them all that I couldn’t and didn’t wish to read any of their minds and that their secrets were safe. There are so many misconceptions about who psychics are and how we use our abilities that I’d like to do my best to lay a few of those misconceptions to rest right here. Every human is unique and different, and psychics are no exception. We all work differently from each other. Some are on a spiritual path, others aren’t. Some work with a crystal ball or read tea leaves or tarot cards; others communicate with angels or spirit guides; some go into a trance and channel their messages; some work with a Ouija Board or do automatic writing. There are mediums who communicate with the dead and others who use their abilities to get rid of ghosts. Some focus strictly on past lives, and others only work with the future. There are aura readers, fortunetellers, and palm readers. Every psychic I know has his or her own unique way of using his or her abilities. Misconception 1: Psychics can see into the minds of everyone we come into contact with. It just isn’t so. Yes, some psychics are less ethical than others are, but most professionals turn off their abilities when they’re in public. In fact, every hard-working psychic I know will tell you that at the end of a long day of reading people, the last thing he or she wants to do is read people’s minds. That’s like thinking that bus drivers want to drive people around on their days off! When I was younger and still developing my abilities, random information would come into my mind about people and it was all very unclear who it was for or about, but as the years passed and I became more psychically developed, I was able to turn my abilities on when I needed them and shut them off when I wasn’t using them. Most professional psychics work that way in order to prevent burnout. It is usually very easy to tell if people are in the early stages of their psychic development. If they’ve been around awhile, they’re respectful of people’s boundaries and don’t read them unless asked. But those in the beginning stages often get excited and want to show people what they can do, and it can cause problems when they don’t wait for people to ask. They "tune in to" people to impress or scare them, and that’s certainly not what these abilities are for. If you’re ever in a situation like the women at the baby shower, and are uncomfortable in any way because you don’t know if a psychic is respecting your boundaries, just ask God to put protection around you, so that no one can read you unless you ask. This is usually not necessary, however, with professional psychics who have been around awhile. Misconception 2: We all read palms. I can’t tell you how many palms I’ve had extended to me over the years from people who think all psychics read palms. I don’t read them, and neither do most of the psychics I know. Reading palms is a skill that palmists learn from a book. You don’t need psychic abilities to do it.
Misconception 3: Psychic abilities are evil (or psychics work for Satan). Maybe back in biblical times, when there was apparently little or no understanding of psychic abilities, the religious leaders felt that the ability to see into the future could only come from the guy in the red suit with the horns and pitchfork, but it’s now two thousand years later and we’ve learned a lot about the gifts of prophecy referred to in 1 Corinthians 12. Jesus and the other prophets in the Old and New Testaments received their visions and messages through clairvoyance and clairaudience. And Jesus told us that we have these abilities as well. "These gifts I give unto you and greater works shall you do." These gifts aren’t evil. They are just one of the many gifts and abilities God gave us when we were created. Misconception 4: Psychics know their own future. Whenever anything unexpected happens in my life, people always ask me why I didn’t know it was going to happen or why my spirit guides didn’t warn me about it. In order to see future events, a psychic has to be able to be emotionally detached from his or her life and to not care what’s coming. That can be very hard to do in one’s own life. I know that as I’ve grown spiritually and have come to accept that there’s a reason for everything that happens, and as I grow away from a victim mentality and realize that things don’t just happen to us, sometimes I’m able to see future pictures for myself. And, as I continue on this path, I can hear more in-depth guidance from my intuition as well. But the key — and please pay attention to this because this is the key to hearing your intuition as well — is the ability to detach. Psychics can only see into personal situations when they are not attached emotionally to the information they might receive. This article is excerpted from Echo Bodine’s upcoming book, A Still, Small Voice: A Psychic’s Guide to Awakening Intuition, due to be published by New World Library in June 2001. |
I was at a baby shower recently and noticed that the woman sitting next to me was very quiet throughout the afternoon. I didn’t know her personally and didn’t think much about it until we were just about finished with our meal and she blurted out, "I’m so nervous sitting next to you." I asked her if she thought I could read her mind, and she hesitated and said yes.