Monica the Medium did a reading on me, and my mind is blown

Monica Ten-Kate, 22-year-old college student and star of the Freeform show Monica the Medium, talks to dead people. Like, actual people who have died but are unexplainably still able to communicate with certain humans. She connects to the spirit world in a way that very few people in the physical world can. She’s a bonafide medium.

How do I know? Because she just talked to my mom, who died four years ago.

Monica spent an entire hour doing a reading on me and my wife Becky, where she interacted with a few of the people in our lives who have passed away (we were only scheduled for a 20-30 minute reading, but my mom wouldn’t stop talking… typical).

Going into it, Becky and I were skeptical — Becky way more so than me. But we both were open to the idea of talking to our dead relatives, because why not? The reading was done over Skype, which seemed like an impractical setting to summon spirits. But as it turns out, spirits know their way around technology.

The reading blew our minds. It truly felt like I spent an hour interacting with my mom. There were lots of people who wanted to give us messages, but my mom was the most adamant (also typical).

Monica knew things about my mom she couldn’t have possibly known — not even by Googling me — unless someone extremely close to me told her. She knew my mom’s name started with “Mar” — her name is Margie; she knew I have a sister (my mom was pissed that she wasn’t at the reading with me); she knew almost every detail about my mom’s death — how she died, why she died and the decisions we had to make prior to her death; she told me that my mom asked me to thank my dad for being by our side during all of it; she knew that my sister and I both have necklaces with a tiny bit of her ashes inside; she knew that my wedding was at the beach and that my mom’s absolute favorite place to be was near water (and that she loved traveling — she was a travel agent); she knew that I wore her earrings on my wedding day; she knew that I keep a wallet-sized picture of her in my bathroom; she knew that my wife and I are trying to start a family; she knew the names of five of Becky’s relatives (FIVE, you guys) and how they died. And she told Becky that even though my mom never met her, she thinks of her like a third daughter and couldn’t have picked a more perfect person for me — in fact, she said she did pick her out for me.

So are we still skeptical? No. No we aren’t.

To check out Monica in action, the season finale of Monica the Medium airs Monday at 10/9c.

Monica also answered some pressing questions I have about death, reincarnation and mediumship.

How old were you when you realized you could connect with dead people?

I had always been intuitive and empathic growing up, but didn’t start sensing Spirit around me until I was about 15-years-old. However, with being in high school at the time and trying to be “normal” and fit in, I suppressed my gift for a couple years out of fear that people would think I was crazy!

Are your friends supportive of your unique ability?

When I first came out of the “medium closet” some of my friends were skeptical, but once they experienced it for themselves or witnessed someone else get a reading, they became full believers and have been incredibly supportive ever since!

I’ve come across two sprits, and talking to them was definitely not on the forefront of my mind when it happened — I immediately hid under the covers. Is it ever a scary situation for you?

Oh goodness, I’m sorry that happened to you! I can imagine that would be pretty frightening. When I first started sensing Spirit I would go to bed at night and pray that I wouldn’t wake up and see a dead person at the foot of my bed. Luckily for me, I’ve never seen Spirit outside myself, rather I see Spirit in my mind’s eye (like the way people will see images in a day dream) and I hear Spirit in my thought’s voice. They communicate with me in a way they know won’t ever scare me.

Can spirits watch us do things we probably don’t want them to see — like shower and sexy time things?

Spirit will often bug me in the shower, as its sort of a medium’s telephone booth in a way. But don’t worry, they aren’t creeping on us! They respect our privacy and don’t watch us in those moments.

Do you have any tips for people who can see or feel spirits but aren’t able to figure out the message they are trying to give?[subheader]

It’s kind of like playing an instrument in that for some people it comes so naturally, and for others you might need more experience in order to strengthen the connection to Spirit. To help develop your own abilities (and possibly receive messages from the other side) my number one tip is to start meditating every day. Once you can learn how to fully quiet your mind and tune out the everyday clutter in your head, it is much easier to not just sense Spirit, but also start to hear, see, and begin to communicate things.

[subheader]Can we still contact our loved ones who have passed away even if they have reincarnated into a new body (if that’s even a thing)?

Yes! I do believe in reincarnation and do believe we can still communicate with love ones who have passed away but may have already reincarnated. This is because a part of our soul known as our “higher self” always remains on the other side, no matter how many times we come back around. I talk a lot more about all of this in my first book that I’m in the process of writing.

When you connect with loved ones who have passed and they have things to tell us, are they the same old people they were down here, and just because they are dead we think they are all-knowing?

When we die, we go through a period of “life review” where we get to watch back our lives, and with our Spirit guides, we go over what we did or did not do according to the “to-do” list or “soul contract” we had made for ourselves before we came into this lifetime. And so in going through all of this, our soul grows, learns and can see the bigger picture. They will still have their same sense of humor, sarcasm, loud personality, etc. that they would’ve had here in the physical world, but they do have a much greater understanding and perspective on things, and because of this, will often times express apologies or take responsibility for things they may have said or done here on earth, now that they realize where they went wrong. And this is why when they give us advice or share their two cents about things we are going through presently, we should actually listen!

Do you have a strong sense of what the afterlife is like?

Spirit shows me bits and pieces of what the transition process is like and about the afterlife. However, I do not have access to all of what goes on there and I surely do not have all the answers. What I can say though, is that because of the work that I do and what I have learned from Spirit, I no longer fear death, and I have no doubt that there is a heaven (or whatever you want to call it) and that our souls absolutely live on after we die.