How accurate should a psychic be?

I went to New Orleans in February of 2020, and like most people on the planet who visit there, I got a psychic reading. The woman who read for me was a bone reader named Karen. Pretty cool, right?

The bones were in a bag, and she asked me to reach in, grab some bones, and toss them onto a chart laid out on the table. Then the reading began.

It was wonderful and confirmed many of the questions I’d been sitting with.

However, one thing was pretty off the mark. But the reading was still incredible, with most things being very accurate.

The things that were accurate were startlingly accurate. Some of her insights about my life were simply Wow.

The first thing she said was, “I see a move. You are going to completely transform your life.” I felt chills run through my body when she said that. My partner and I had just started having serious discussions about moving away from Chicago. We were tired of the crush, speed, and chaos of the city.

Which, four years later, happened. We live in Asheville and hike in the mountains–a much different life than tromping through the urban jungle we had grown accustomed to. So yes! We have transformed our life, and it was an awesome decision for us! We’re really happy here. It was great that Karen gave me that sweet jolt of affirmation.

On the other hand, Karen did think I might move to Florida. She picked up on the Southern direction, but nah. There’s no way I’d ever move to Florida. Too hot for me.

Did I hold this against her? No. Did I pick up and move to Florida because a psychic said I might? No, because I have reasonable expectations and know that I’m the one who gets to decide. Just the fact that she confirmed for me that this move would likely happen, and that it would be life-changing was enough to help me feel good about my direction. The point of a reading is to affirm the soul’s deepest longings, not predict the outcome or what happens when those longings are set into motion.

Psychics often feel pressured to deliver information that is beyond what should be expected from a human. And who can blame them? People place a lot of pressure on psychics.

Another Wow moment was when she described and drew (she’s also an artist) a picture of an ornate frame in my living room, which holds an important photo of my grandparents. She said something very personal about the photo, which helped me connect more deeply with my loved ones.

So, how could she, as a psychic, make such startling insights but also say things that were way off the mark?

Here’s why.

Psychics are human. We are not the all-seeing divine.

I’ll share my process as an intuitive so you can learn a little bit more about how this works.

When I do intuitive work, I open up channels to receive information from Spirit. When reading the cards, I work with traditional meanings, but I often find that Spirit guides where my attention should be in the cards. Sometimes, I see little stories or get glimpses of people, feelings, or circumstances surrounding the querent. This is outside of what can be seen in a card with the naked eye. This is information that comes from another place. Other tarot readers might not work that way, but I do.

We can use the tree metaphor to understand how this works. Above my head, the crown chakra acts as an antenna, tapping into superconsciousness. These antennae are like a tree’s limbs, extending out into a superhighway of information. Some call this place the akashic records. Here is where information about the collective is stored. I also call this Spirit.

I see this place as a kind of pure, loving energy that is always available to help us when we need insight.

We all have access to this vast web. With practice, we can visit it at any time!

We are still human, though! This ethereal library and the place of Spirit are not physical. It is a place and energy, but not one that we can understand in the corporeal sense. I may be an intuitive who can travel to this special place, but I am still tethered to my earthly body and experience. I cannot fully separate and move into the purity of this place to see everything about a person’s life or future – to be in this place of pure love and seeing would require dying! Or being in a constant out-of-body state.

Let’s go back to the tree metaphor to understand what happens next.

Our bodies and minds are the tree’s trunk. This is where the tree-limb antennae (higher consciousness, Spirit, the akashic records, etc.) meet the body. It’s like the trunk of the tree, which symbolizes our earthly being. The tree’s trunk is where we make sense of the impressions, faces, and feelings we received from the higher realm (the limbs) with our minds. 

Minds are different from the pure place we channel from. Minds are governed by logic, which is human and therefore imperfect.

The human mind is fallible, but it’s necessary for interpreting what’s coming in.

It is logic that makes sense of intuition and the information coming in from the higher plane. The mind processes the etheric into understandable information for sharing with the querent. 

And as you can imagine, the human mind is much more prone to error.

That is why Karen was able to pick up on our move, but her human mind, the logical side, got in the way. She felt we’d move, but she said Florida! Why? I don’t know. Maybe that’s a place she has a personal connection to. Maybe she intuitively felt we’d move South, and Florida was what she associates with the South.

These kinds of human errors are normal. No one in a body can stay in the super-conscious forever and deliver perfect messages.

So you might be asking: Why trust a psychic then?

Before I answer that, I will say this: A psychic reading should confirm what you feel, know, and want — not predict your decisions or give absolute outcomes. Life’s decisions are yours to make.

So, the trust between you and the psychic needs to be based on a mutual understanding that you are here for affirmation. And if they are good at what they do, they will be a bridge for you to that affirmation.

That is why Karen was a good psychic. She got to the heart of my dreams and experiences and connected with me in a way that helped me align with them. Just because she thought I might end up in Florida does not mean she was in any way less powerful or insightful.

And on an aside, these kinds of psychic errors can be avoided.

My approach is to let querents know that I am not here to make predictions or tell them what to do, but to be a Seer who confirms what’s happening within. Communicating reasonable expectations can help both parties avoid getting lost in predictive reaching.

So, these are my words to you: Give the psychic a break. And this applies to psychics who, for the most part, are doing a pretty good job of tapping into the heart of you.