By Emily Wilson
This article was retrieved from Volume 15 Issue 1.
The human race will never completely understand the universe, though we have tried. Religion, philosophy, and pure guesswork have helped people find peace within the unknown for thousands of years, but still, the main questions of life remain unanswered: who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? These questions can make even the most confident people question their strongest convictions. We may never be able to answer the biggest questions, but there are people who can offer believers insight into life and death, possibly making the human experience a little easier. They are known as psychics. Curious and intrigued about this community, I set out to discover what it means to be psychic and debunk any misconceptions.
The idea of psychic powers may seem abstract and foreign, but that is not the case. In fact, there are students here at ORR who identify as psychics or have had experiences with the supernatural. Bella Rodrigues (Sr.) and Alice Bednarczyk (Sr.) have experience with divination, (or the practice of seeking knowledge about the unknown by supernatural means), in several forms. Bednarczyk does not identify as a psychic, but she reads tarot cards and studies astrology. Rodrigues does identify as a psychic. Regarding her psychic ability, Rodrigues had this to say: “My grandma and my mom both read tarot and they both believe that they’re psychic, so by default I also believe I have some sort of psychic ability.” This brings up more questions; can the psychic ability be inherited? Rodrigues went on to describe the power of dreams and their correlation to life. Often times, she says, her dreams will come true. Rodrigues’s mother experiences the same thing. “On more than one occasion we’ve had the exact same dream.” According to Rodrigues, being psychic is more than an ability alone. When asked what it means to be psychic, Rodrigues replied “ It’s not a religion, it’s a way of being. All I know is that there is more
than I know.”
According to Alice Bednarczyk, psychic ability is not necessary for an enlightening tarot experience. “I feel that tarot represents the energies of the people in the room or in the building and your aura.” An aura is a supposed colorful energetic emanation surrounding a living creature. She has seen tarot cards do incredible things during her readings. “When I’m doing readings, sometimes they’ll look through the cards first and they’ll say ‘hey I like this card’, and then I do a reading for them and even though I shuffle the cards, it will show up at the top,” an occurrence too perfect to be mere coincidence, according to Bednarczyk. Rodrigues agrees, claiming “Overtime, you change and the cards change with you.”
Tarot cards are just one of many forms of divination, including communication with animals and mediumship (communication with the dead). Jessica C., a Braintree
based psychic-medium, does all three. Jessica has been working at Open Doors as a psychic for ten years, but she discovered her spiritual abilities long before then. “I started having dreams that came true when I was 16. That was a little weird, I didn’t do anything with it for a long time. The other unfortunate thing is, when I was 8 I told my dad if he didn’t quit smoking he would die by the time he was 50. He died at 47.” Jessica started reading tarot in college and learned animal communication shortly after, along with energy healing. “Everybody’s born with the ability to (be psychic), but whether or not they are relaxed enough to open up ... and trained to recognize what it is and translate it is the key.”
Jessica believes both her education and natural abilities have helped her get where she is today. Jessica also feels she possesses the ability to communicate with animals and spirits. “To me, it’s all soul to soul communication, so it doesn’t matter if the soul is living, deceased, human, not human.” During her readings, she has the chance to read many different types of people. She has read children in the past, the youngest being only eleven. “Children are usually more open, it’s different in that I’ve got to be careful what I say.” In her line of work, Jessica will encounter the occasional skeptic. “There are some of us that are scam artists but most of us aren’t. Most of us are trying to help any way we can, and if you don’t want us, then we can’t.” In fact, Jessica makes it her priority to help people by empowerment of the human spirit. “I get a lot of people who
have been stuck in an abusive relationship,” says Jessica, “I’m working on doing what’s more empowerment and manifestation stuff at this point ... it’s, in general, wanting to
work more on getting people unstuck and helping them move forward.” Jessica also believes helping people is part of being psychic. When asked what it means to be psychic, she replied “I guess that would be being able to connect with the collective consciousness to get answers for people and help them, guide them through their life.”
I have been read by psychics before. The first time was in Provincetown, Massachusetts in a small booth in the center of town. The second time, I was read by Jessica
C. at Open Doors. The two psychics told me the same thing, that I was creative and could pursue a creative career but fear of instability was holding me back. I was astonished by the similarities between the two sessions. This made me evaluate my life and helped me work through my fears to hopefully fulfill my potential. Psychics helped me ac-
knowledge my subconscious thoughts. I believe somehow I already knew what they were telling me, I just needed help sorting through my troubles. In that way, one does not pay a psychic to tell them who they are, but to help them discover what already existed within.
In my opinion, anyone can benefit from visiting a legitimate psychic. Psychics help us clarify our lives, minimize bad situations, or find out who we are. Even after
this investigation, I know there is no single answer to the question “what does it mean to be psychic?” It can be the ability to connect with the energy of people or the universe to read a person’s subconscious, or being inexplicably connected to the world in a mysterious way. Because there’s no right answer, the only one who can tell you if you’re psychic is you. In this way, you truly are what you feel. I would recommend meeting with a psychic to anyone who wants to learn more about themselves, even if you are skeptical. After that, perhaps you will discover for yourself what it means to be psychic.