Are Psychic's Beneficial or Harmful To the Paranormal Field of Study?

 Written By: Christy Selfridge    

The term “psychic” is defined as:
Psychic: psy·chic [s’kik] adj
1. of the mind: relating to the human mind
2. outside scientific knowledge: outside the sphere of scientific knowledge
3. supposedly sensitive to supernatural forces: claiming or believed to have extraordinary perception and sensitivity to nonphysical or supernatural forces

     Most of the time when people think of a psychic, they automatically assume that the psychic knows all, sees all & has endless answers to the questions they seek. Although it is true that different psychics have different gifts and some stronger than others at giving spiritual knowledge, it doesn’t mean that every psychic has all the answers or that they are 100% accurate with their impressions or readings.  Even the most popular & renown psychics such as Sylvia Brown, John Edwards & James Van Praagh will tell you that they are not always 100% accurate in their readings  If a psychic tells you they are, then they are not a true psychic that can be trusted.

    For countless numbers of years, psychics have been used as a means for spiritual message & communication. The use of a psychic brings up a wave of different emotions & opinions amongst different cultures, races, religions, and yes, even paranormal investigators!  Some people are open to the idea but some are very closed off, especially those that view it as against religious beliefs. Whether you believe in psychics or not, they DO exist and there are many legit psychics that choose to use their gifts to help others. How do they get the information? Where does it come from? Why are some people psychic and some not? Let’s take a look at some of these different questions.

    It is said that everyone has a psychic side to them, some just have their spiritual side open and awake and some do not. It is theorized that most people are born with their spiritual side open and it is through gradual learned beliefs and convictions, this “door” to the spirit world is slowly closed over time, thus putting ones spiritual side to “sleep.”  A good example would be a child’s fear of ghosts while growing up. Normally children are very open to the spiritual world until they are taught differently. Most parents in order to subside their children’s fears will tell their children, “There’s no such things as ghosts” and by doing so, over the passing of time causes the child to close off any thought or belief that ghosts exists.

    Psychics a lot of times are given spiritual insight or message when needed and often times are given images of the past, present or future.  A lot of the times when a psychic is given information, they may not always have a full understanding of the message they have received. This leaves the psychic to try to find the meaning in order to convey the message correctly. It would be a lot like trying to but a jigsaw puzzle together that had many, many small pieces to it. This would partly be the reason why a psychic may not always be 100% accurate and you have to trust the individual psychic that you are dealing with.

    For example, I once heard a well known psychic talk about a message that he had interpreted wrong.  He began telling the story of a client that had come to him for help. The man wished to speak with his recently deceased wife. During the reading, the departed wife came to him and had a message of her own to give to her husband. The woman insistently kept pointing to her neck, desperately trying to get her message across. The psychic at first thought she was trying to tell him about her neck with possibly an injury that had occurred while she was alive. The psychic asked the husband if his wife had something wrong with her neck at the time of her passing or any time at all. The man replied, ‘No, there was no neck injury that he was aware of.”  The communication continued for a while longer and after a short period of time, the psychic learned that it wasn’t the woman’s neck that she was trying to talk about, it was a necklace that she wore around her neck.  As you can see from this example, a psychic may indeed be getting a message, but it’s how they interpret it that makes all the difference in their accuracy.

    So what exactly does a psychic investigator do while on a location? Most times while conducting the investigation, a psychic will pick up impressions in the area that they go into. Some psychic investigators choose to keep a personal written log as they get the impressions or messages while in a particular room or area. They may choose to use these written logs for reference later or for discussion with their peers. Other psychics may keep a walking audio log of their impressions and others will just announce the impressions out loud to those they are working with or around. Most of the time, groups that have more than one psychic while on the same location may choose to split up their different psychics to be able to more accurately access their impressions later on.

    I know that whenever our group goes on investigations, our first and foremost priority is to document and observe any activity that might be taking place at the location.  I do use my abilities to feel out the different areas that might have activity, but our group does not base our investigations or our findings on psychic impressions.  Our goal is to be able to record the alleged activity taking place.  Many times when I personally go to a location, I won’t even open up to use my abilities because I think that ultimately in the end, in can affect the data results.  For example, I believe that psychic communication affects the recorded EVP.  Most people would think that when a psychic is in communication with ghosts, they would get a lot of EVP recorded; however in our experience, 9 times out of 10, no EVP has been recorded during this time.  My theory on this is due to the vibration & energy levels present by both the spirit(s) AND the psychic.

    For example:  I think that there are 3 basic levels of vibrations:  HIGH, MEDIUM & LOW.  When a psychic communicates with a spirit(s), they have to raise their vibration level.  When a spirit chooses to communicate, they have to lower their vibration level while maintaining the highest level of energy possible.  I believe that when a psychic & spirit communicate with each, they have to meet somewhere in the middle!

    Now if there is NO psychic in communication with a spirit(s), I believe that a spirit lowers their vibration level closer to the individual’s vibration level in order to communicate.  A good example that I have heard would be a ceiling fan with 3 different speeds.....on high, medium & low.  On HIGH, you normally cannot see the spinning fan blades moving individually.  This would be the high vibration level that a spirit resides on.  When a ceiling fan is on MEDIUM, it is still difficult to see each individual blade moving, but every once in a while your eyes are able to follow a blade.  This would be the level that the spirit & psychic communicate on.  The LOW speed of a ceiling fan is usually slow enough for our eyes to not only see each individual blade, but to also be able to follow each blade.  This would be the vibration level that a spirit would most commonly use when trying to communicate with those individuals who are not psychically inclined. 

    It is theorized that high energy levels have to be maintained by a spirit in order for them to be seen & heard, especially if they are not in direct communication with a psychic.  We can only imagine how hard this must be on the spirit to try & regulate their vibration & energy levels, thus possibly the reason why it is hard for them to manifest in form, verbally communicate and or move things in our physical plane.  This needed energy can easily be understood by investigators & researchers because of their continued experience while on a locations with equipment malfunctions, battery drainage, flickering lights, quickly burned out light bulbs, physical energy drain, etc. 

    This leads me to believe that perhaps the reason for no recorded EVP during the times when psychics are in communication with a spirit is due to the spirit's level of vibration (medium level).  It would be much easier for them to have to only lower their vibration from high to medium to communicate with the psychic, rather than having to lower it all the way down to low in order to communicate with those that are not psychically inclined by interacting with equipment present, manifesting or the act of moving physical objects, etc.  By keeping their vibration level on medium, they would use less energy by choosing to communicate with just the psychic. 

    A neat thing happened back in 2002 when myself & a few other investigators (3 of us which were psychically inclined), conducted an investigation of a private residence.  (See Meeko's House under our "Investigations Page")  We were still researching my theory and decided that when we did the investigation, we weren't going to communicate with any spirit(s) if they were present in the home in order to see if we could get them to react with our equipment first.  Eventually if our attempts were not successful throughout the investigation with this experiment, we would then open up communication at the end of the investigation in order to give any spirit(s) a chance to communicate in case their energy levels were to low to do this. 

    Our methods proved successful as we had a meter activation on the Gauss Meter (which had no battery) and recorded a drop in temperature in on the rooms.  Later on one of the investigators was reviewing audio and came across an EVP that said "Oh no, they're psychic!"  What is also fascinating about this EVP is that it was recorded 10 minutes into the investigation so we found it unique since this was during the time that we agreed there would be no psychic communication.  Later on during our “sit-down” we opened up for any spirit message and as we suspected, no EVP was recorded during this time.  Now I’m not saying that it doesn’t ever happen, but in my opinion the chances of recording EVP during this “communication time” is very slim.

    Should psychics help people with their haunting by giving their impressions of the ghosts that might be present?  Some investigators say no, as they feel that no psychic should give their impressions just in case they are not 100% correct. They argue that investigators and psychics alike should simply try to record the evidence (if any) turn it over to the owner of the location and then let them draw their own conclusions. They feel that the psychic should not tell them anything about the spirit(s) they have present. However, as our group has encountered, there are many home & business owners who want to know and are usually thankful to know a little history behind the ghosts.  So what is the right thing to do?

    OKPRI tries to find a happy medium between the two arguments. Our main goal of course is to research & study the paranormal field by recording evidence of a “haunting.”  We go into each location we investigate with a skeptical but open mind and by doing so, have found that about 75%-80% of the time, we ARE able to DEBUNK the “haunting” taking place.  There is however, still that 20%-25% of a chance that we will and DO find evidence of a haunting. We also make copies of the evidence that we record and turn the evidence we have collected over to the homeowners. If the owner of the location asks us either previously to the investigation, or after the investigation about any background our psychic has picked up on, we will then go ahead and give them any impressions or message that we picked up on during the investigation. We have found that the owners are very grateful for our group coming out and all the information that we have provided to them.

    How do you know which psychic is legit and can be trusted? This is very important as there are many psychics out there who may not be legit or they may have some spiritual talents, but they charge such outrageous prices that most “normal working class” people cannot afford their rates. You may also encounter those who charge for “getting rid of your ghosts” or they tell you they “can guarantee you that they can rid you or your home of ghosts.” Beware of these people as they are not truthful in their actions and words.

    If you do seek out a psychic or spiritualist to help you with a haunting (whether with a paranormal investigative group or not), they may be able to help a few of the spirits within your location cross over, but just like all of us living, ghosts have free will and free choice and cannot be made to do anything, no matter HOW experienced a psychic claims to be.  Psychics have NO CONTROL over all aspects of the spiritual realm, so they should not guarantee you that they can rid you or your home of a ghost(s) when that is something that cannot be guaranteed.  As always, beware of those psychics who charge you for their services.