The Social Challenges Of Being Psychic

I am often asked what it is like is to be psychic. It is a blessing when I can use my gift to be of service to others. However, it can sometimes also be a burden to know things you are not supposed to know, especially if you can do very little about it. Sitting silently on the sidelines and watching patiently is a big part of being psychic.

The other day, for example, a customer came into my store. He was on speaker phone with his wife, telling her how he was buying her and their kids some surprise gifts from my store. But she sounded disinterested, hostile, even angry. She certainly did not seem grateful for what he was doing for the family.

My employees commented afterwards on how sorry they felt for the poor guy, and how awful his wife sounded. But I advised them to not judge so easily – we never know what is truly going on in other people’s lives.

The truth is, I intuitively knew more about the couple than my staff did. I sensed he had cheated on her and that he was not the perfect husband. He believes doing things like surprise shopping for the family would somehow make up for all the pain and disappointment he had caused her.

One time, I had a friend who introduced me to another friend and her fiancé. After the couple left, I told her I was concerned that her friend’s fiancé may be gay. I also told her that he was going to break off the engagement a month before the wedding. I suggested she talk to her friend, to soften the blow and prepare her.

My friend knows I am psychic, but she is always a little skeptical. She became very angry at me and insisted that I had it entirely wrong. The fiancé, she said, was clearly very masculine and did not act gay at all! She went on to say some deeply hurtful things to me, implying, among other things, that I probably only thought he was gay because he did not make a pass at me.

The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you ~ Brené Brown

We did not speak for about three months after the incident, until my friend called me to confirm that her engaged friend was an emotional wreck. Her fiancé had finally come out and told her he was gay. He could no longer go through with the wedding.

How did you know, my friend asked. There weren’t any tell-tale signs at all? I did not know what to say. It is not the first time someone did not take me seriously. In fact, it happens all the time. That is just how it is when you know things others do not.

I never received an apology for the hurtful things she said to me. Sadly, we never spoke again after that. I could not continue to be friends with someone who doubts my psychic abilities when they had been proven to her time and time again. Much less do I wish to associate with someone who can say such hurtful things to me. This was also not the first time. I have lost many friendships over the years because I am psychic.

In my younger years, I was out dancing with my friend whose husband was a musician in a band. Another woman was trying to befriend us and came over to chat with my friend. After she left, I cautioned my friend that this woman might be a troublemaker. I sensed that she was going to flirt with both my boyfriend, as well as my friend’s husband.

My friend said I was being too ‘judgmental’ and that she liked the woman a lot. So, I said nothing further and patiently watched events unfold in the weeks that followed. One day, my friend called me to complain that the new friend had thrown herself at both her brother and her husband. Once again, I had no words. Not many people realize this but keeping quiet and watching patiently from the sidelines can be a big part of the psychic’s social life.

Some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little cover-up and decoration. But as time goes by, what is true is revealed, and what is fake fades away ~ Ismail Haniyeh

By the way, I told that same friend on another occasion that her father was giving her 18-month-old baby boy alcohol when her parents were babysitting him. She was deeply offended. There was no way her dad would do that!

In time her husband revealed to me that they had indeed caught her father giving the baby alcohol to calm him down and make him sleep. She never said a word about it herself. Her ego was too bruised to admit to me that I was right all along.

For me, however, it is not about being right. It’s about protecting my friends and helping people. And it’s not all bad news all the time. I also told the same friend she was going to have a daughter. She insisted there was no way. Her husband did not want to have more kids, because according to his family’s history he would continue to only have boys. I also told her that he daughter would be very talented and someday she would be in the performing arts.

We grew apart in our friendship and in time we lost contact. I ran into her 20 years later. She now has a college-age daughter who is enrolled for a masters degree in performing arts.

As you can see from just these few example, friendships and social life can be challenging for psychics. Do you keep what your perceptions secret? Do you go through the long, grueling, sometimes degrading process of constantly proving yourself? Do you put up with the criticism and cynicism? Do you find new ways to answer the ‘how did you know’ questions?

Sitting silently on the sidelines and waiting patiently is often a big part of being psychic.