Training to Become a Psychic Helped Me Be More In Tune With My Needs

"If these people can all have psychic intuitions, I thought, why couldn’t I?"

Psychics have always fascinated me, but until a few years ago, I wasn’t sure how legitimate they were. Then, a strange series of events revolving around a mysterious illness led me to believe in psychic abilities without a doubt—so much that I wanted to develop them myself.

The first psychic to cross my path was Deborah Graham, who originally contacted me to work together on an article. But we became close over time, and when I began experiencing symptoms that doctors couldn’t figure out, I called her. Before I could even describe what was happening to me, she immediately told me, “It’s something like Lyme.” I had never considered it, but sure enough, soon after, a doctor diagnosed me with it.

A few months later, curious what the best psychics out there could do, I booked a session with Lisbon- and Los Angeles-based celebrity psychic Medium Fleur. Without me telling her anything, she told me, “I see you have been ill over the past few years. It feels to me like Lyme disease.” She even accurately described a highly specific situation I was in: “I see a broken relationship around you, but it seems like you’re still in the process of ending it—like you’re about to travel somewhere to break up in person and get your things.” It was all true. At that point, I was sold. I wanted to learn how to develop my own psychic abilities.

If these people can all have psychic intuitions, I thought, why couldn’t I? If I could develop those abilities, I figured, I’d have a powerful skill at my disposal whenever I needed to make a decision. That’s when I came up with the idea to look for psychic classes. A quick Google search showed me that right where I lived in Los Angeles, California, psychic Hillary Michaels was teaching an introductory “becoming a psychic medium” course.

During the eight-hour-long Sunday class, Michaels taught about a dozen students how to connect with someone’s deceased loved ones and how to give “life readings” (aka where you give people advice based on their spirit guides—the people on the other side who are there just to help them).

Then the students gave one another readings, and even though we were all newbies, people’s readings of me were surprisingly accurate. During one exercise, we had to try to feel whatever sensations we could in our partner’s bodies, and my partner picked up on the fact that I had jaw tension related to anger.

However, the readings I gave weren’t as accurate; I got lots of abstract images in my mind that didn’t seem to make sense, and I often couldn’t tell if the information I was getting was about other people or about myself. But Michaels encouraged me, explaining that there’s so much going on on the other side on the realm that it’s sometimes difficult to hone in on the most relevant information—but that everything you pick up on is still real. 

Since I wanted to give this a real shot, I decided to sign up for Michaels’ mentoring program, where I’d give readings once a week over the phone under her supervision. First, I just read other students; then, gradually, she had me read actual clients of hers. Michaels also had me do a five-minute “grounding meditation” each day to help me connect with my intuition, where I’d visualize an anchor pulling me down toward the center of the earth. This helped me to clear my mind so that messages could come in. 

During my first reading, everything that came to me felt really random. Words would just pop into my head out of nowhere—but a lot of them strangely made sense. For instance, I got a sense that there was a problem with a client’s car, and he did have a flat tire. 

It didn’t feel like a particularly mystical experience, but this say-the-first-word-that-comes-to-your-head strategy seemed to work for me, so I just started saying whatever I got during readings. And after almost a year of training, Michaels encouraged me to set up a website where I offered my services, so I did, and I’ve given several paid readings since. But aside from my business, the best thing I’ve gotten out of my psychic education is the ability to intuitively figure things out in my own life.

I used to try to figure everything out through my logical mind, weighing the pros and cons. Now, when I have a big choice to make, I’ll do my grounding meditation, clear my mind, then ask what I should do and see what pops into my head. Or, I’ll do automatic writing, which is where I’ll write the first things that come to me without thinking. Often, I can do this best after I’ve done a psychic reading for someone else—it’s like I’ve connected to a realm that can help me see my problems more clearly. The information I get is often unexpected and sometimes very specific: I once asked my spirit guides what to do about knee pain I was experiencing and heard “flaxseed oil.” I Googled it after, and flaxseed really is used for joint pain.

As my experience shows, you don’t need to have had psychic gifts from childhood in order to be a psychic. It doesn’t even need to come to you naturally. Lots of psychics have classes and mentorships like Michaels’, and there’s nobody they aren’t for. However, if classes aren’t of interest, you can practice by doing the grounding or writing exercises I mentioned. According to Michaels, everyone can develop psychic abilities—and, in fact, already has them. 

“Everyone is born with a connection to the spirit world,” she says. “We have to be! When you are born, you have no idea where you’ve been or what you’re doing here. Our spirit guides and angels talk to us through our hearts to help us understand which way to go next. Have you ever had that knowing in your heart that you have to go in one direction and not the other? That’s them talking to you.”

That’s the comforting thing I’ve learned through this journey: Even when you’re stumped about how to handle a situation and nobody else seems to get it, you’re never really alone. You’re always being helped by a whole team of ancestors and guides on the other side. You just have to learn how to listen.