Growing up in the realm of psychic phenomena is one of constant confusion and doubt. Years of contemplating and questioning the bombarding paranormal activities and experiences. Feeling and sensing the unknown to a degree that is unheard of by most, a young psychic often feels very alone and obscure by comparison.

I don’t recall the first event that triggered my conscious awareness to the supernatural. It’s been with me literally since I was a small child. The simple knowing and recall of events and ideas that were simply out of my reach was amazing.

Apparently when I was only three years old, I informed my poor mother of my father’s extracurricular activities with another woman. I remember seeing images of him with another woman, even though he was in another town completely when it was happening.

People would refer to me as ‘precocious’ due to the fact that I simply ‘knew’ things that were well out of my realm of understanding as such a young child.

Strangely enough, there was a sudden and temporary period of about ten years where I completely forgot about anything paranormal, I think it was called puberty. My supernatural and psychic awareness simply went to sleep for many years.

I didn’t notice too many paranormal events until we moved up north when I was sixteen. The house we moved into apparently already had an invisible tenant. That’s what seemed to awaken my dormant abilities and thrust me into a psychic world full of intuition, palmistry and ghosts.

There was literally no such thing as psychic readings available in the small northern Canadian town in which I spent the latter of my teenage years and early twenties. I’d never even heard of palm readers or psychic mediums except on television and even then, they didn’t appear to be a real phenomena to me.

One day while visiting the local bookstore, I happened upon a small pocketbook that described in great detail the ins and outs of palmistry. I was intrigued, so I purchased the book and hurried home to read it. It was horribly confusing and intricate at first, so many lines and descriptions to remember, I was a bit overwhelmed. I narrowed down the vast list of palm anomalies to just a few distinct and important lines. Then, I proceeded to find friends and family who would allow themselves to be my palmistry guinea pigs.

It started out pretty rough and inaccurate for the first little while until one fateful day, I asked one of my hairdressing clients if I could read her palm. It started out the same as the others, general questions and examination of the lines on the hand. All I ever really did previously was recite what the line resembled in the book and the meaning of that particular crease. While reading this woman, I suddenly got images and ideas in my mind that seemed unfamiliar and unsolicited.

I decided to pass on my strange thoughts to this woman and the outcome was amazing. In my mind’s eye I saw a teenage boy standing in front of me, brown hair and dark eyes. He looked to be about fifteen and seemed very friendly. I was given the impression that he was her son. I knew this woman fairly well as I had done her hair for a couple of years. I was relatively confused because I knew all of her children and they were all under the age of seven.

I said to her with a perplexed look on my face, “I didn’t know you had a fifteen year old son.” She paled instantly and looked as though she were going to faint. All she said in reply was, “I lost a baby boy…fifteen years ago.”

The feeling of shock overcame me and frightened me a little, I didn’t understand how or why I received such an accurate and private knowledge of this woman.

I continued practicing with my fellow co-workers and friends but had little success in repeating the paranormal events that occurred with my client. Slightly frustrated, but undaunted, I persisted.

One evening I went to a housewarming party and met a very nice young lady. We chatted and laughed as we toured the home. I mentioned to her how I had recently taken up palmistry and she excitedly asked if I would read her hands. Without hesitation, I began to read this young girl and we quickly gained a crowd of interested onlookers. Up until this point, I wasn’t very serious about the whole practice of doing readings or aware of their potential to reach into the private pasts of the client.

I knew nothing of this girl except her name. I began to check out the usual lines that I had become familiar with. The heart line, the head line, the lines that indicated how many children one would have, relationship lines, etc. I then turned my attention to the life line. There was the usual lines that intersected the life line indicating times of trials and tribulations. There was curves and alternates lines showing options of new paths and journeys. Considering she was only nineteen, I shrugged off many of the life upheavals due to the over zealous nature of the average teenager.

A strange oblong circle stood out, though, within the first inch of her lifeline. It looked like an empty circle that had been put into her lifeline, making it seem like she was dead for that period of time.

I then started getting those sensations again, the impressions of words and images intertwined with my own thoughts. I was shown that the length of time was a year and it was when she was eleven years old. I told her that I felt that something had happened within this time frame that caused her to seem dead to the world. After I said this, the young girl looked shocked and was quiet for a moment. She simply looked at me and stated with a dazed look on her face, “My mom died of a heart attack right in front of me when I was eleven. I didn’t speak for exactly one year.”

I honestly didn’t know what to do with this information. I actually stopped doing readings for a couple of years after this incident. It frightened me. I didn’t understand where this information or these images were coming from. What if some demon was following me around and playing with my mind. What if doing readings was similar to playing with a Ouija Board, I had heard before that playing with one could invite evil spirits. I obviously had a lot to learn about the spirit world.

The more I tried to get away from the paranormal, the more it followed me and forced me to face it. Prophetic dreams, eerie déjà vu and many intuitions proven correct, It seemed that I couldn’t avoid my destiny.

I was living with my boyfriend at the time, in a large, old house that sat in the middle of a huge plot of land. A very pretty and secluded acreage.

My life had a pretty predictable routine, wake up, work at the salon, go home, cook supper, watch television and go to bed. This pattern would’ve continued forever if I didn’t experience a select few of paranormal experiences which would forever open my eyes.

The house on the acreage had a spirit, a mean one. It would do rude things like hide things, slam doors or stand over me while I was sleeping, then scare the life out of me.

One day while I was very pregnant with my first child, I was planning on a day of bookkeeping for my boyfriend’s business. I always had a certain pile of papers set aside that were for the business only. One of the papers that was essential to utilize that day was a letter from a prominent oil field company that had the new address and phone number to their new office. Without this paper, it would have been very trying and time consuming to find out the new information. My boyfriend needed the invoices sent to this company that day and would have been very unimpressed with me if I didn’t do it that day.

My boyfriend had been gone to work in the oilfield camps for quite some time at this point. No one else had been in our house for weeks. The day I received the letter, I very diligently had placed it on the top of the letter pile as to deal with it first and foremost.

The next day, I went about my morning routine, then I proceeded downstairs to start the bookkeeping. I approached the letter pile and noticed right away that the company letter wasn’t there. Perplexed, I carefully looked through the whole pile of letters hoping that the company letter somehow just got mixed in. I went through the whole pile three times and could not find it. Getting a bit panicked, I looked around the house, thinking I might have misplaced it somewhere else. I even went through the letter pile several more times.

After an hour of searching and tears welling up in my eyes, I resigned to the fact that I had lost the paper and was going to have to call my boyfriend and tell him he’d have to locate the number and address of the company. I could hear the disdain in his voice already. Even though I’d checked and rechecked the letter pile several times, I decided to look through it one more time. I approached the counter where the letter pile sat neatly. Approximately twenty letters, bills and notes of importance were neatly stacked.

I approached the pile and there, on the very top of the pile, face up, was the very letter that I needed. Besides shocked, I was angry. I instantly knew that something in the house was messing with me. It wasn’t the first time that this type of experience had happened, but I had rationalized the other times as simply me overlooking the missing item. This however, was indisputable. I wasn’t crazy, that paper was not there for a whole hour, then, somehow, it was.

There’s definitely a time to be logical and find rational explanations for things. We mustn’t jump to the conclusion of paranormal involvement lightly and without investigating alternative sources. I’ll tell you though, that one still has me baffled.

From there, I had one odd experience after another, from ghosts in the salon to seeing shadows walking in my home’s hallway when no one else was upstairs. I was forced to face the very things that I did not want to admit to.

Once my daughter was born, I knew deep down that her father and I were just not meant to be. I was compelled to move southeast to be near my family in central Alberta. I somehow felt that I was meant to be there. I packed up my life in northern British Columbia and went to embark on my new journey.

I continued doing readings in many of the hair salons I worked at. Many of the clients and hairdressers were very interested in having their palms read after they heard I could do that. I never, ever charged anyone for a reading, it just didn’t feel right to me. Being privy to people’s personal information, being trusted with it and the opportunity to help people connect with their higher power just seemed like something you offer free of charge.

With every reading, I noticed that my abilities seemed to be getting stronger and more accurate. Before, I would get about a fifty percent accuracy rate, then it was about seventy percent. Eventually, after years of reading, I’m at about a ninety-nine percent accuracy rating. The more I trusted my abilities, the stronger they became.

I can recall so many amazing readings over the years, but I’ll just give you a few of the most memorable. Their identities have all been withheld.

One hairdresser who was very sceptical asked me to do a reading for her. I started with the usual observations of the lines on her hands, then that familiar feeling began to wash over me. A tingling sensation that I’ve since learned is a signal that the energy connection is strong.

I noticed three distinct circular dots on her lifeline. They were placed on her lifeline before the age of ten. One dot looked to be about age five, another around seven and the last at about nine years old. My intuition told me that they were three young girls that had died. I was shown in my mind that they were three sisters and family members of the stylist that I was reading. She confirmed that she had lost three female cousins, all whom were sisters of one another. They had all died of different occurrences within the years I stated. The stylist appeared to be less sceptical after that.

Another stylist that I was reading had only worked at the salon for a few days. I barely knew her name. As soon as I started reading her, I felt great sadness. I saw an image of a car accident in my mind. As I read her hand, I noticed she had a daughter and was married. When I told her of my impressions, she began to cry and said that she had just recently lost both her husband and daughter in a tragic car accident.

Within the year, I had moved on to another salon. There I found a lot of very interested people who wished to have readings. One stylist in particular inadvertently taught me that all readings should be done in private.

There were at least five other stylists standing around observing me performing a reading on Karen. I had a look at both hands, carefully scanned all the lines on her hands and became a little confused. She was quite young, recently married and pregnant with her first child. In my mind, I was given a glimpse of her in a wedding dress but she looked even younger and the groom certainly wasn’t the man she just married

Confused, I said aloud, “I didn’t know you were married before.” Karen’s eyes got wide and she turned very red. She said in a hushed voice, “Not even my mother knows that. We got married in Vegas when I was nineteen, but we had in annulled before our parents could find out.”

Another young girl who worked there, named Alannah, also extended her hands towards me for a reading. I walked up to her, she was seated at the salon’s reception desk. Normally when I did a reading, I would have the client place both of their hands facing up in front of them and I would hover both of my hands about three inches under theirs. I would tune into their energy while looking at the lines on their hands. I usually never touched them.

For some reason when I approached Alannah, instead of just placing my hands in the usual position, I reached out and grabbed both of her hands. As I did this, we both received an enormous energy surge that jolted up both of our arms up to our elbows. It wasn’t like an static electricity shock at all, it was like a hot poker being shoved through my skin from my hand to my elbow. We both recoiled holding our arms. Shocked, we nervously shook off the experience and proceeded with the reading, but I certainly didn’t touch her this time.

I began the reading and was receiving many disturbing images, mostly regarding her childhood. There were images of several men who were in and out of her mother’s life. Some of the men hurt Alannah, but one in particular seemed very evil. I saw an image of him standing over me, holding something, but it was blurry and I couldn’t make it out. After I told Alannah what I was seeing, she abruptly ended the session and walked away, obviously upset.

I felt badly, but I’m always candid with what I’m seeing or feeling because it could be essential for the client to hear it. A lot of times, we humans suppress our emotions and experiences without facing them. These pent up suppressions can wreak havoc on our life causing sickness, obsessions, depression and worst of all, a delay in spiritual growth.

That evening, I went to bed as usual. At around midnight, I was woken up by the most excruciating pain I’d ever experienced in my right knee. It was like a hot poker was being driven through it, over and over. This continued for hours, I took pain medication and tried icing it, nothing helped. I was in my mid twenties and had never, ever had any issue with my knees before in my life. There was nothing I did different within the last few days leading up to this. I couldn’t fathom what on earth this pain could be from.

At about four o’clock in the morning, after suffering with this for hours, it quit suddenly. It didn’t subside slowly or gradually, as though the medication had finally worked. It just quit and it never happened again.

The next morning, I went to work at the salon and I had the feeling that I should ask Alannah about her own knee. I walked up to her and asked her point blank what happened to her knee. She didn’t even say anything, she just bent over, rolled up her pant leg and exposed to me the worst scar I’d ever seen. The skin on her knee literally looked like hamburger. Apparently the man I’d seen during her reading had been holding a large piece of wood with nails sticking out of the end. When she was about twelve, this step father had beaten her in the knee with this weapon and she subsequently endured years and years of reconstructive surgery to repair it.

As horrified as I was, I asked her, “Does it hurt at night like hot poker being stabbed through it?”

All she said was, “Every night.”

There’s one last reading I’ll share with you now because if I don’t stop talking now, I’ll keep going forever.

I was at a birthday party with my daughter, she was about two at the time. The party was for a co-worker’s son and I literally knew no one else at this party. All of the children at the party were very young, so many of the mothers stayed to watch their child. A group of us mothers, all strangers to one another, sat at the kitchen table in awkward silence. Being the sociable and outgoing person I am, I decided to strike up a conversation with the one beside me. Somehow, after a few minutes, the discussion inevitably turned to the paranormal. For some reason, I always manage to bring up the topic of ghosts, psychics and the supernatural.

This lady in particular was extremely sceptical and when I mentioned that I did readings, she smugly thrust her hands at me and demanded a reading. I obliged even though it’s normally very difficult to read someone who’s guard is up and is already in the mindset that psychic readings are silly.

I began by telling her that I feel that she’s recently lost some one, a woman, her mother. She immediately snarled a sharp, “Nope.” Okay, I continued. I started to feel a weakness in my muscles, I told her that this woman passed from a disease like multiple sclerosis. Again, she snapped, “No!”. I thought I’d try one more time because this was a very persistent sensation I was getting, I described the sadness I was feeling and that this motherly figure had passed on about two weeks ago. “No! Wrong. I don’t know anyone who’s died recently, my mother’s fine.”

I discontinued the reading and joked that my mojo must be off that day. It was then that I noticed the sound of weeping behind me. I turned around to face another of the mothers sitting quietly at the table. She looked at me bewildered and said through tears, “My mother died two weeks ago from multiple sclerosis.”

I surmised that because the sceptical woman was not willing to share any of her own energy, my energy sought out the next available willing participant.

Those readings were so many years ago now, so much has changed since then. My path has altered from doing personal readings to now trying to reach those in need of spiritual growth and comfort.

I always find it ironic how everyone seems to think a mystic or psychic should always be in a perfect and balanced mood.  Quite the opposite actually.  With the continuously bombarding energies and sending out positive thoughts and prayers for others, we are often left feeling drained and lethargic.  It takes a great deal of work to constantly be aware of the energies that surround us.  There are so many days when the spiritual connection is just not possible.

I often wonder if the spiritual masters such as the Dalai Lama have days like that.  Days where they’ve just plain old gave out as much love and energy as they could to people and can’t seem to conjure any more.

Sometimes, when I read too many horrific and disturbing media headlines, when some inconsiderate person cuts me off in traffic or when I get those strange looks when I tell people that I’m a psychic or spiritual medium, I get a little down.

I always admire those people who seem to always be one with the energy, they seem to just exist in a protective spirituality dome all their own and seemingly coast through life undaunted.  Someday, I hope to be one.

With the blessing of any gift comes responsibility and burdens.   One of the most unfortunate consequences of being bestowed with psychic ability is the judgment and misunderstanding from others.  Strangers automatically assume that you are a charlatan or hoax.  Religious groups condemn you as a witch or satanist.  But most unfortunate of all is the behavior and denial of friends and family. 

Recently, I was informed by a friend that I’ve known for almost twenty years that she would not read or support any of my work because it goes against the bible.  As I completely understand any individual’s belief system and prerogative, I can’t help but feel slighted by a person, claiming to be my friend, who before even reading my work could condemn me so abruptly.

It’s alarming to say the least that a person could be so blinded by a book written and interpreted by imperfect men.  The bible is full of wonderful moral tradition and fantastic symbolic stories.  Jesus had many tremendous and compelling journeys, all rich with spiritual analogies and enlightenment.  The bible or Jesus’s teachings, however, was not intended to be a tool used for judgment or condemnation against those who choose not to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  As great and wonderful as he was, not all of us have to support the resulting fellowships that ensued after he perished.

Many of us choose our own paths to enlightenment.  No matter what path a person chooses, the destination is the same.  Whether Atheist, Mormon, Satanist or Catholic, God does not have a preference when it comes to welcoming his children home.  The physical body is but a temporary school of enlightenment, the educational path is up to the individual.

One of the saddest paths, in my opinion, is the one that has been blinded by an institution that seems to require constant proof and initiation.  Jumping through metaphorical hoops and living by rules sustained by an ancient book of misinterpretation.  If it hasn’t been misinterpreted, then why are there so many versions?

Our soul, a direct link to God, directs us in the paths that we need to learn from.  Why would he have given us all free will, the ability to choose or have made so many of us if He wanted us all to be the same? 

Psychics are simply messengers and spiritual guidance counsellors.  Though the name and reputation of psychics have been dragged through the mud over the centuries due to greed and manipulations of some, there are many on earth that are faithful spiritual servants.  They are not better or worse by any standards than anyone else.  Everyone has the potential to hear their soul speak and connect with other souls, it’s just that some people have adapted that ability more efficiently.  Some people are born with exemplary intelligence or physical attribute, some are born to guide others into enlightenment.

So, in light of my friend’s resistance to my mission to help those who need help, I myself have faced yet another obstacle in the great path of my own journey to enlightenment.  My choice though is to learn from her rejection and hope to assist others with the pain of rejection from loved ones.  These types of lessons can only be gifts bestowed to me in the form of sadness to better enable me to understand the woes and trials of others.

When a child is born, a parent hopes and prays for all the world’s blessings and joy for that new soul. Every human is born so wonderfully unique and talented in so many different ways. Some children are actually born with such amazing and supernatural abilities that one has to ask why some are blessed with these unbelievable talents. No one ever seems to question the authenticity of a child genius or musical prodigy, they simply prove their gifts and are accepted as unique pillars of society.

Hundreds of years ago, great mystics and seers were revered throughout lands as oracles, respected and sought after for their gifts of insight and divine knowledge. They too had been bestowed an amazing and prodigal gift.

Why in this century are psychics, mystics or oracles treated so horribly. Mistrusted, laughed at and scoffed upon, those who have been bestowed which what was once was a holy blessing, has become a embarrassing and ridiculed curse.

Day and night, a psychic can be plagued by unwanted flashes of past, present and future torment or angst from every individual they encounter, living or dead. Constant overwhelming and painful emotions that hover in the depths of every living creatures aura bombard a psychic’s everyday life.

It’s very difficult to describe to people how invasive and difficult having this particular ‘gift’ can be. Judged and made fun of on a daily basis, it can be a cruel and harsh existence. Most people seem to think that psychics are witches and receive their otherworldly premonitions from an evil source. Some assume that psychics must not believe in God or have turned their back on religion. Many seem to come to the conclusion that those who receive regular communication from angels or spirit guides, must be crazy. None of these beliefs pertain to a true psychic who receive their other worldly information from a divine source.

A true psychic is a loving and caring individual who uses their gift to help others with their spiritual path in life. An honest psychic is but a prodigy of the sixth sense. God doesn’t make mistakes, psychics aren’t some misguided error from the divine.

A genius could never suppress their intelligence, a great and natural pianist could never hide from the virtuoso. Why should a psychic feel as though their God given gift be hidden or treated like a malformation. Religion, God, Jesus, angels, prayer and heaven are all based on faith because we haven’t any tangible evidence, yet we do have proof through the eyes of those who are blended with the other side.

Many people simply choose not to acknowledge someone’s psychic abilities. They choose to ignore or belittle them. Some think they are so close to being ethical when they think they are not hurting the psychic when mocking them, because it’s believed as an invalid and intangible talent.

As for the charlatans of the industry, you must ask yourself how many auto mechanics, plumbers or lawyers have over estimated and over compensated themselves in an shady manner. How many politicians are wonderful speakers and great pillars of society, yet at the drop of a hat, shown their true colors in moments of monetary and selfish weakness? How many priests assaulting young children will it take to cast a dim and dark shadow over a once glorious and divine position? The psychic industry is not immune to these sinister and unauthentic shadows. People can be taken in very easily by wayward con artists portraying psychic ability due in part that the individual seeking help is usually in a particularly vulnerable state.

At any rate, with all trades and public services, it would be best to consult many individuals who have had experience relating to that person promoting themselves. Ask around, get second opinions, never trust anyone at face value, sad as it is to live that way. Anyone who demands outrageous amounts of money for any service, including psychic services, probably isn’t the real deal.

So in summing up, rather than an instant condemnation, psychics should at least be given the same advantages and disadvantages as any trade that deals with the public.

Copyright Danielle Lee 2008 All Rights Reserved