My Psychic Experience...

I had a friend who happened to see a psychic perform at some venue. She was young and naïve and quite impressed with his abilities. She convinced me that we should make an appointment with him and each have our futures revealed. I have always been a skeptic but, in my mid twenties, I had lots of questions I wanted answered. In any case, whether he was legit or not, I figured it would be an interesting experience and fun too, so we went.

We were welcomed to his expensive home by his wife/assistant/secretary who took us to a small waiting room. I’ll admit we were excited to hear what he had to say. After a few minutes the assistant returns to the room with two pads and pens in her hand. She tells us to write down our questions on the pad and to “press hard” and that somehow this would facilitate his picking up on our thoughts. She assured us we would be keeping the paper when we were done. It wasn’t until a very long time later that it dawned on me that they would just pass a pencil over the page underneath and read what we had written. 

My friend was called in first and when she was done she seemed very content with everything he had to say. I wasn’t surprised. Then it was my turn. The skeptical side of me went in to be entertained. It was going to take a lot to convince me he was for real. Of course he knew my questions and used them to guide the session. He asked me a couple of things like was there anyone close to me whose name started with the letter “J.” I said no, even though my father’s name is Joseph and my mother went by the name Jennie. So then he said how about “G”? I said no again, but then it hit me that both my parents names started with the letter “J” and they were translated from Italian names that started with “G.” Still, I was mildly amused. He told me I would get married one day, which was really all I wanted to know. What did he have to lose to make me happy? Then he asked a peculiar question…”Do you have plumbing problems?” I was taken aback. I know I didn’t write that down and why would he ask such a ridiculous question? In any event, I didn’t have any plumbing problems. On the whole I would say I wasted my time and money. At least I got a good story out of it.

I went to work on Monday prepared to tell my adventure to my coworkers. As we took our morning break together we would discuss what we did on the weekend. Once I told them I went to see a psychic all the attention was on me. I told them about the session, the pad, the letter “J” question. My friend Janet, also a skeptic, tells me that is a popular letter for names so it’s not such a great guess on his part. Suddenly I had an idea. I wanted to try the plumbing question out to see what reaction I would get from any of them. As Janet was sipping her coffee, I asked her out of the blue, “Do you have any plumbing problems?” She almost spit put her coffee and exclaimed, “Did my husband call you this morning?” “No,” I answered, surprised at her dramatic reaction. “He had to have called you or how else would you know?” I assured her he didn’t call and how would I know what? She answered that her toilet had overflowed that very morning and he was going to work late to take care of it. She seemed pretty shaken and wanted to know why I asked her that if he hadn’t called and put me wise to it. I told her that the psychic had asked me that question out of the blue and I wanted to see what reaction I would get if I asked it. I guess many people must have plumbing problems all the time, that’s the only reason why he would blurt out a question like that. I think it freaked her out because we were talking about psychics, she was skeptical and then I managed to hit on the one thing that was weighing on her mind that morning. It was very funny to see her so stunned for those few minutes and trying to convince her that her husband hadn’t called.

I never went for another reading with any psychic. I do believe we all have some degree of psychic ability. I know my mother had some, it was a little stronger than intuition. I have had instances of it from time to time. But, I also think there are a lot of quacks out there who are good at making people think they can read minds or tell the future when it’s all about reading body language, reactions and using vague language so you can’t really be wrong.