by Bob Olson, BestPsychicDirectory.com, BestPsychicMediums.com & AfterlifeTV.com
I’m excited to share this information with you because this field of spirit communication is much more than it seems. There are definitely steps you—as clients—can take to improve your readings, methods you can use to choose the best psychic medium for you, ways for you to evaluate your readings to know if you got a good one, and some critical things you should watch out for because not everyone who offers readings is on the up and up.
Having said this, it’s important you know that I’m an advocate for credible psychic mediums. My life was changed for the better because of people with this ability, mostly in terms of my spiritual awareness and growth. And over the course of my investigating this field for evidence of life after death, I inadvertently became a supporter of people with this gift.
I’m also passionate about raising the standards in this field in terms of ethics, integrity, responsibility and professionalism. And one way I help to push psychic mediums to higher standards is by educating the public—people like you—about these abilities, so that your standards for what is acceptable helps to lift these practitioners up. If we don’t require higher standards as consumers, it allows psychic mediums to become complacent with lower standards; and that’s not good for anyone.
SCAMS
Let’s get started by talking about the most common scams. The most common scam in this field is what I call “curse removal.” The first thing I want to say is that there are NOT as many phonies, frauds and scam artists out there as the media might make you believe, but they do exist. And there are some real easy ways to spot them.
In this scam, a psychic or medium—or someone pretending to be a psychic or medium—will tell you that you have a curse on you; that is, they’ll say you have a curse that is preventing you from having the life you desire, and—low and behold—they can remove this curse for a fee.
You might think that this scam would be so obvious that nobody would ever fall for it. But scam artists can be pretty savvy. They usually don’t attempt this scam during the first reading. Instead they give the client three or five or ten readings in order to build their trust. Even if they’re not truly gifted, there are convincing scam artists who can fool overly trusting people into believing they are legitimate.
In addition to building trust, the scam artists are also learning about the client during these readings. Many clients do more talking than the psychics, revealing all sorts of personal information. Once they’ve established trust and learned how much money the client has in the bank, that’s when they tell them about the phony curse. And they ask for just about all the money that the client has in their name to remove it. People have told me they’ve been scammed out of $600, $2500, $12,000, and even $22,000!
Quite frankly, if you’re a gullible person who trusts too easily and someone tells you there’s a curse on you, well that can be really scary. And if the psychic tells you that they can remove the curse and, once they do, all your money problems will go away—or that handsome guy at work will fall in love with you, or you’ll get that job to which you recently applied—you’ll pay whatever money you’ve got to ease your fears and make your life better. After all, you really trust this psychic because she hasn’t steered you wrong yet.
And, a word to the wise, in most cases, the scam artist will also give you some reason why you need to “wire” the money to them rather than pay by check or credit card, because this allows them to get the money in a way that you can’t get it back. I was once duped by someone in this way myself when I was in my 20s. It wasn’t a psychic, instead I thought I was buying rights to a business I’d read about in an advertisement. I’d talked to the salesman a few times on the phone and he sounded like a real nice guy. But when I wired the $500 to him ($500 I couldn’t afford at that time), suddenly I couldn’t contact him anywhere. The Attorney General’s office from his state told me I was one of many victims of this man’s scheme.
The truth is there is never any curse. So don’t fall for this scam. Nobody can affect your soul’s journey by putting a curse on you. Studies have been done that have proven this. In fact, the only way curses affect people is when they’ve been told about the curse and they then believe it—as in the placebo effect.
The second common scam in this field involves “spell casting.”
Now this one is tricky because there are people who practice witchcraft who use spell casting as a ritual for setting intentions, and this is not a scam as much as it’s a practice of the craft. Nor is it necessarily a scam when someone is selling fifteen-dollar candles for setting intentions.
But spell casting is a scam when someone is charging exorbitant fees in order to cast a spell on someone—for you—to make them love you, make them offer you a job, make them drop or lose their court case, or make them give you money, as a few possible examples.
I personally recommend against spell casting on any level, but then again I prefer to fall on the safe side (plus I’m not a witch). My issue with it is that there’s a fine line between sorcery and swindle, and the average person doesn’t know the difference.
My twelve-plus years of investigation into this field have proven to me that no one can override the will power of another person. Therefore, nobody, regardless of what they say or what antics they act out, is going to make your ex-girlfriend or boyfriend fall in love with you with a spell.
Now spell casting is not the same as the law of attraction, setting intentions or praying for a particular outcome. In these latter cases, we’re asking the Universe to assist us with our desires. In spell casting—the scam—the scam artist is pretending to be able to take control of another person’s will and make them do something they have not chosen to do on their own. I hope you can recognize the difference.
Okay, that’s enough on scams. But while we’re on the subject of what to watch out for, here are a few more words of caution when dealing with psychics and mediums.
SOME WORDS OF CAUTION
1) ANONYMITY: I always warn people about the issue of anonymity in this field—dealing with psychic mediums whose identity is hidden—because it gives them no accountability. This means you are open to all sorts of unacceptable and potentially harmful behaviors. You’ll run into this in chat rooms and open forums, for example.
You don’t ever want to get a reading from some stranger in a chat room because you have no idea if they are legitimate or what they might say. And even though you might think you can handle whatever is said, once a fearful seed is planted, it’s pretty difficult to get that out of your mind.
All sorts of negligence and abuse has been linked to these situations that has caused deep, emotional suffering. I heard a story, for example, where a person giving someone a reading in a chat room told a grieving mother that her 3-year old daughter who passed was lost between worlds and suffering from fear and loneliness in her own private hell.
First of all, that doesn’t happen (it was merely an ignorant or purposely cruel message); but just try to get that idea out of that poor mother’s head. I heard another horrific story about a chat room reading where the reader told a grieving mother that her deceased son was saying that he wanted his mother to commit suicide in order to be with him in the spirit world. Can you believe it? Naturally, it wasn’t true (no spirit ever would want or suggest such a thing), but no doubt the fake reading caused this mother extensive emotional trauma.
So don’t get readings from people whose identities are unknown, even if these types of readings are free and even if you think they’re convenient or fun. It’s not fun getting an ignorant message like I just described, because you’ll pay a big price emotionally for it.
2) DEPENDENCE: Don’t become dependent upon a psychic or medium for any reason. You do not want a codependent relationship with them. What you want is for a psychic or medium to teach you how to trust in your own intuition and inner wisdom.
Even when it comes to spirit communication, there are ways that you can learn to do this on your own. Try inspired or automatic writing, for instance. But don’t become what’s known as a psychic or medium junkie where you can’t make a move or get through a day or week without getting a reading.
3) GUIDANCE VS. DEMANDS: No psychic or medium should ever be “telling” you what to do. They can suggest what something “feels” like to them—“I feel like that job would be good for you.” But if they are using the words “should” or “need to” in their advice to you, walk away from that reading and never go back. That person is exerting her power over you or else she is choosing her words carelessly.
Either way, there are plenty of experienced psychics who choose their words more wisely and will give you guidance without telling you what to do.
Psychics are meant to give you guidance, insight and advice. Suggesting that moving to California “feels” like a good idea or leaving your job “seems” like it will reduce your stress is not the same as TELLING you what to do. Psychics should be giving you advice and letting you make the final decision. If they are telling you what they’re feeling, seeing, hearing or getting, they’re on safe ground. That gives you insight to use in making your own decisions.
One person recently asked me, “What am I supposed to do when two psychics give me opposite advice?” My answer is: Why are you going to two psychics with the same question? Did the first psychic not give you the answer you were hoping to get? If so, then you’re shopping around until you get the answer you want. Why bother? Save your money and time if you’re going to do this, because if you ask enough psychics, you WILL get the answer you’re seeking.
On the other hand, if you’re going to a psychic medium for insight from the Universe or spirit, then take what they tell you and weigh it against what your own intuition is already telling you. That’s the best way to make decisions with the help of psychics and mediums. If your gut feeling and the psychic medium agree, this should confirm to you what the best move should be.
4) MISTAKEN MESSAGES: Psychics and mediums can be wrong. That’s seems funny to me to even write that, but so many people think that psychics and mediums are always accurate. No way.
Sometimes psychics and mediums misinterpret the message they’re getting. Sometimes the message is for someone else, like their next client. And sometimes they’re just flat-out wrong.
I know a psychic who told her client that his wife was cheating on him, but the message was wrong. It turned out that his first wife cheated on him, which is what was coming through, but his second and current wife was faithful.
That error could have ended this person’s marriage. So keep in mind that psychics and mediums can be wrong, or—as was the case with this example—can be misinterpreted. Too many people think that psychics and mediums get everything perfectly correct. It’s just not the case, so be cautious in making major life decisions based on a reading.
Now let’s discuss one of the most common reasons people think a psychic medium is a fraud when they’re not. It’s all related to the accuracy of predictions.
PREDICTIONS
I get a lot of feedback about people’s readings with psychics and mediums, and a common comment is that the psychic is a fraud because nothing they predicted in the reading came true. This reasoning that an inaccurate prediction means fraudulent psychic is based on a lack of understanding of how predictions work. So let me teach you about predictions just in case this ever happens to you.
Too many people think future predictions are set in stone, when in reality they are merely snapshots of what “might” happen, not what “will” happen. Because we have free will, we each have the power to change what psychics see in our future. In fact, you could hang up the phone after a reading with a psychic and instantly alter the prediction that was made in that reading simply by making an alternate choice.
This, of course, is why many people get psychic readings in the first place—because they seek guidance on making better choices that can lead to the future they desire.
Just think of a prediction as a photograph taken through the windshield of your car. This photo indicates the direction your car is heading, but it doesn’t take into account that you might make a right or left turn along the way. Free will is our ability to make right and left turns before we reach the destination in the photograph. Make one turn and suddenly the prediction (the photo) changes.
So while it’s perfectly possible that a psychic medium might misinterpret what they are seeing (clairvoyance), hearing (clairaudience), feeling (clairsentience) or knowing (claircognizance), it’s also possible that you made a new choice or took an unexpected action (a right or left turn) that changed the outcome of that potential that the psychic saw for your future. In this case, they weren’t wrong. You merely used your free will to change the future that showed up in that snapshot during your reading.
WHEN YOU GET A BAD READING
Predictions and scam artists aside, we do get bad readings now and then from legitimate psychics and mediums. There are all sorts of possible reasons for why the reading wasn’t good: the medium was having a bad day, you chose a medium without a lot of experience, or maybe the medium’s reading style wasn’t compatible with your preferences.
If you truly think that the psychic medium gave you a poor reading because he is either totally without ability or seriously lacks in ability—or you think that he had a bad day that resulted in you getting a lousy reading—you can certainly ask for another reading (maybe a new day will make a big difference) or you can request a refund.
Not all psychics and mediums offer refunds (usually because people have taken advantage of them and got refunds that weren’t warranted), and they’ll usually tell you if they give refunds or not on their websites. But whatever your request, don’t charge at the psychic medium with your guns drawn expecting a fight. Be kind and gentle in your communication of your dissatisfaction with your reading. Psychics and mediums are people too, and they will reflect YOUR attitude in their response to you.
You also want to be fair when asking for a refund or repeat reading. So maybe a partial reading is more appropriate because the reading wasn’t a total loss. Don’t ask for a full refund or a full hour reading if only half your reading was disappointing. Psychic mediums will be more likely to fulfill your request if they see you’re being fair with them.
About a year after I got over my skepticism, I recognized that there were benefits that I gained even when I got a bad reading, too. And this is true for you. An obvious one is that a poor reading teaches us to recognize and appreciate an extraordinary reading. On the other hand, it’s important to ask yourself if you would recognize a good reading if it slapped you in the face. Have you had so many readings that you’re now an expert and can identify a good reading from a mediocre one?
And how much skepticism do you still have? I know that in my first two years of getting readings, my skepticism was so strong that I thought all the psychics, tarot readers, palm readers and astrologists were a bunch of phonies. Why? Because I hadn’t yet got the evidence I needed to overcome my skepticism—evidence I later got from a medium. So my psychic and tarot readings, which gave me less evidence and more generalities, were not appreciated by me because I wasn’t ready to accept that type of reading yet. But that was my fault for going to those types of readers instead of going to mediums who could give me the evidence I needed. It’s one of those situations where “you don’t know what you don’t know.”
So on a positive side, those early readings that gave me vague generalities planted seeds for my future growth. If nothing else, they helped me appreciate the evidence in my first reading with a medium, because I immediately saw the difference—I saw the evidential messages in contrast to the more general messages that I was used to getting in my earlier readings with psychics and tarot readers.
So I recommend we all step cautiously when criticizing a psychic or medium. When I created BestPsychicDirectory.com, this is exactly why I decided to only allow positive reviews on that site. I wanted it to be a resource where people like you could help others by writing reviews about your readings, but I had two concerns about letting people write negative reviews.
One, I knew that many people might not recognize a good reading when they got one. For instance, when it comes to skeptics like I used to be, I knew that their skepticism could possibly prevent them from recognizing a good reading, and that just isn’t fair to psychics who give great readings but without all the evidence that mediums provide. I also knew that many people will throw out an entire reading just because their prediction didn’t come true, and this is because most people don’t understand how predictions work (as I explained above).
Two, I chose to not allow negative reviews on the BestPsychicDirectory.com because I believe we can learn as much by reading about people’s positive reading experiences as we can from their negative ones. If you’re trying to choose between two mediums and one has no reviews and the other has 150 people raving about him, it makes it pretty easy to choose between those two practitioners. Also, when it comes to this field, people can become very emotionally charged in their negative reviews, and I just didn’t want that dark energy surrounding my website.
And three, some of the responsibility for the reading is on the client’s shoulders. Not everything that makes a reading good or bad is shaped by the psychic or medium. There are things that are the client’s responsibility. So let’s talk about that next.
TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR READINGS
Here are steps you can take and ways that you are accountable for making your reading the best it can be.
1. DON’T SHOW UP INTOXICATED.
I know this could sound funny, but this happens more often than you might expect. People get nervous about their readings and take or drink something to relax themselves, and this can affect the clarity of the messages for the psychic medium, as well as your ability to fully comprehend the reading. I know a woman who did this. When she initially called to book her appointment a week in advance, the psychic medium answered the phone. Instantly he began getting clear messages from her deceased mother. But then the night before her appointment, the client drank a bottle of wine to calm her nerves. And when she called for the appointment the following morning, the clarity of the communication was diminished—the medium was astounded at how the mother’s communication was half what it was the week prior. We can only speculate why, but it was likely because her lower energy negatively affected the three-way link between her, the medium and her mother in spirit. This example shows that even a hangover has ill effects on a reading.
2. GET INTO A RELAXED STATE.
People have a lot of anxiety during readings, which often shows up as “psychic amnesia,” when you suddenly can’t remember anything about your life. The medium’s saying she has someone named Frank in spirit and you can’t remember that your best friend in high school who died in a car accident is named Frank.
Your reading will be better if you sit down in a quiet place for 15 to 20 minutes before your reading and breath deeply while quieting your mind from the hustle and bustle of the day. Just don’t get so relaxed that you fall asleep and miss your phone appointment ;-)
3. DON’T GET A READING UNTIL YOU’RE EMOTIONALLY READY.
If your grief is so overwhelming that you’ll spend half the reading frantically sobbing, this will only distract the medium and prevent you from getting the most out of your reunion with your loved one. Give yourself some space between your loved one’s passing and the time of the reading.
A good rule of thumb is to get the reading when you can talk about your loved one without losing control. It’s okay to cry—that’s expected. But there’s a big difference between a joyful cry and hysterical sobbing.
A psychic medium recently told me that it’s very distracting to her when a client is bawling uncontrollably during the reading. She said that in order to give a good reading in this situation she has to remain as detached as possible from the client’s outward grieving, which she said makes her feel and appear without compassion. But it’s the only way she can focus on her connection with spirit and convey the messages in a calm and orderly fashion.
4. DON’T MAKE DEALS WITH YOUR LOVED ONES IN SPIRIT.
Don’t tell your father in spirit that you’ll believe it’s really him coming through as long as he gets the medium to say “pork chop” or some other word or phrase. The problem here is that the medium is getting all sorts of messages—often from multiple people in spirit—from which he has to choose which he’ll convey to you. And he might not choose the “pork chop” message that he’s hearing or seeing.
Sadly, there are people who have been given dozens of excellent, evidence-based messages, but they’ll throw it all out and won’t acknowledge them because they didn’t get that one message that was part of the “deal.”
5. DON’T FEED THE MEDIUM.
Feel free to bring the medium a cherry cheesecake, if you so desire, but don’t feed them any information. Clients (sitters) should not be talking during readings except to answer yes, no or maybe. This is only in response to the medium asking, “Does this message make sense to you?” or “Do you understand?” Then just say, “Yes, that makes sense,” or “No, I don’t understand the message,” or say “Maybe it makes sense, but I need more information.”
If the psychic or medium asks you a more specific question, feel free to say, “Shouldn’t you be telling me that?” That’ll usually stop them from asking you any more leading questions.
I teach psychic mediums how to give better readings and I spend a lot of time on training them to NOT ask leading questions. Psychics and mediums should only be asking if you understand the messages they’re giving you. But the reality is that many legitimately gifted psychic mediums sadly DO ask questions. Rather than just give you what they’re getting—like “I’m hearing colon cancer, which means that someone on the other side died of colon cancer”—instead they ask, “Who died of colon cancer?” The problem with this terrible habit is that you’re now going to feed them with information, such as “My father died of colon cancer.” Wouldn’t it be so much better if they told you that your father arrived at the reading and is saying that he died of colon cancer? Yes, of course it would.
So yes, psychic mediums would give better readings if they didn’t as anything but “Do you understand this message?” But so many mediums need a lot of help in this area—even the famous psychic mediums. So don’t immediately assume a psychic or medium is a fraud just because they ask you a question. But you can help to train them not to ask questions by reminding them to give you what they are seeing, hearing, feeling or intuiting rather than presenting the message to you in question form.
6. DON’T FORCE FIT MESSAGES.
Some people feel so desperate for the medium to be correct that they make messages fit that don’t fit. If the medium is seeing a young man, it’s not your 80-year-old grandfather. If the medium is feeling that the person died from a lung issue, it’s not the same as a heart attack.
During a live medium demonstration (where a medium gave random readings to audience members from stage) I once watched a medium say, “I’m seeing a white dog,” to which the woman getting the reading responded, “Yes, I have a black cat.” That’s force-fitting the message.
When receiving messages, we must keep our minds open that the message might not be for us, but rather, might be for our friends, neighbors, coworkers or in-laws. So the white dog mentioned above turned out to be her father’s dog when he was a boy. But the woman getting the reading was only focused on thinking about her own pets, and by force-fitting the message she would have missed out on the real message. Luckily the medium didn’t allow her to accept “white dog” for “black cat” and continued to realize it was her father’s childhood dog.
7. BE HONEST WITH THE PSYCHIC MEDIUM, EVEN WHEN IT’S AWKWARD.
None of us want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but too often we avoid hurting the medium’s feelings to the detriment of our reading. Look, if none of the messages are making any sense, you need to tell that to the medium, and preferably as soon as possible.
A woman emailed me once complaining that her two-hour reading with a medium didn’t make any sense at all. I asked why the medium continued for two hours knowing that nothing was making sense, and she said that the medium didn’t know because she didn’t want to interrupt him. Yet she was upset when the medium didn’t agree to a refund.
So be honest when messages don’t make sense, but do it in the most gentle and kind way you know how.
8. KEEP AN OPEN MIND, EVEN IF YOU’RE SKEPTICAL.
There are two types of skeptics, open-minded skeptics and closed-minded skeptics. Closed-minded skeptics are merely debunkers. They are locked onto to their skepticism and wear it like a badge of honor. They don’t look for evidence first and draw their conclusions second. They have already made their conclusions and only seek evidence to back them up.
Open-minded skeptics, however, haven’t created their image around being a skeptic. They are truth seekers. They are open minded enough to recognize that they don’t know everything and humble enough to know they can be wrong. So they begin with skepticism because they don’t have reason to believe otherwise. But then they investigate first, discover evidence second, and draw their conclusions last. This is how I investigate the afterlife.
CHOOSING THE BEST PSYCHIC MEDIUM FOR YOU
Here are some secrets I’ve learned over the years on how to choose the best psychic medium for you.
1. DECIDE ON A PSYCHIC OR MEDIUM.
You must decide if you want a psychic reading or a mediumistic reading.
A psychic reading is best to help you confirm what your own intuition is already telling you, to get guidance or direction, or to get advice regarding issues or challenges in your life. If you’re seeking to communicate with loved ones in spirit, then you want a reading with a medium. Are you grieving and want to know if your loved one is okay, happy and watching over you from the spirit world? If so, then a mediumship reading is definitely for you.
Know, too, that many psychics and mediums specialize.
I know one psychic who focuses his ability on relationships, a medium who focuses on animal communication, and another medium—who is better described as a channeler—who focuses on conveying wisdom from ascended masters (higher level spirits).
This is why it’s imperative that we read through the psychic medium’s website, read articles written about them or interviews they’ve given, or even call and interview them (or their assistant) when possible. It’s important that you know exactly what they do and decide if their ability, specialty, reading style and personality all resonate with you.
2. DON’T OVERSPEND ON A READING.
You want to set your budget for a reading. How much can you afford to spend?
I highly recommend that you don’t overspend on your reading; that is, don’t spend more than you can afford. If you spend more than you can afford, your expectations are going to be sky high and your anxiety is going to increase, as well.
The truth is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get a good reading. We have over 600 psychics and mediums listed on BestPsychicDirectory.com and the average is $100 for a one-hour reading. If that’s the average, that means there are plenty of people charging under $100.
Having said this, quite often (though not always) a higher priced psychic or medium does mean they have more experience and possibly better training. It also indicates that they are popular enough to be able to charge a higher fee. If you’re not popular and not very well known, you’re not going to make much of a living giving readings if you charge a higher fee.
If you’re wondering if it’s spiritual to make money giving readings with a gifted ability like this, you’ll want to read this article I wrote: Click here for article.
3. GO FOR A FULL HOUR READING.
I personally don’t recommend getting half-hour readings unless you’ve had so many readings that you only need a few questions answered. And I certainly don’t feel they are long enough to gain enough evidence to overcome skepticism. Even if you’ve had a few readings, it’s often not until the second half hour when the psychic or medium has really warmed up and connected in such a way as to give you the most beneficial messages.
My first reading in 1999 turned out to be a 3-hour reading. It was meant to be a one-hour reading, but it was going so well that both the medium and I didn’t want to stop. So we kept going for 3 hours. And I know for sure that I would not have got enough evidence in the first half hour to overcome my skepticism. Since there are plenty of people offering reasonably priced one-hour readings, go for the full hour in order to really benefit from the experience.
4. GET A REFERRAL.
It’s best to begin getting referrals from people you know and trust. Who do you know who has had the type of reading you want? Were they happy with their reading? Did they have a similar budget? Have they had enough experience with readings to know a good reading from a poor one?
Just as importantly, do you and this person who is making the referral like and dislike the same things? Do you have similar tastes, beliefs and values? Do you both have the same degree of skepticism?
These are all important questions to ask yourself, because you don’t want to get a referral from a relative with whom you have absolutely nothing in common.
If you don’t have anyone you trust for a referral, that’s why I originally created my own recommended list on BestPsychicMediums.com. I had been writing about my favorite readings for three years when I created this special website listing the people I have personally tested and approved. You can read articles I’ve written about my readings with these people, which will help you to know if their personality and reading style resonates with who you are and what you like in a reading.
If you don’t see anyone you like on my recommended list, I offer another resource, BestPsychicDirectory.com. Here you have over 600 psychics and mediums to choose from and thousands of REFERRALS from happy clients to help you make your choice.
5. CONSIDER A PHONE READING.
Even today, there are still a lot of people who prefer getting readings in person. Personally, I like phone readings more because the psychic or medium can’t see my facial expressions, body language, clothing style or jewelry (like my wedding ring). You can deduct a lot about a person by looking at them. Consequently, I feel that phone readings help to remove the influence of the psychic’s or medium’s intellect and force their gifted abilities.
But, even more, being open to a phone reading allows you to choose from readers all over the world, and certainly all over the country. That gives you more choices, which is better for your budget and for choosing the best psychic or medium for you.
6. USE THE BENEFIT OF ONLINE RESEARCH.
To really help you choose the psychic or medium who is credible, reputable and aligned with your preferences, use the Internet. Here are some tips of what I, personally, do when evaluating a new psychic or medium based on their website.
a) DOES THEIR WEBSITE GIVE THEIR FULL NAME?
I’m a stickler when it comes to psychics and mediums using their real names. I require it on BestPsychicDirectory.com and BestPsychicMediums.com and I’m turned off when only first names or aliases are used on their websites.
We would never hire a lawyer, accountant, chiropractor or therapist using these types of fake names, so it shouldn’t be acceptable in this field. I know psychics have reasons why they don’t use their names. But now more than ever, psychics and mediums want to be taken more seriously and considered professionals. Therefore, using their first and last names is a must to raise the reputation of these practitioners and the psychic medium field in general.
Some psychic mediums claim that they don’t use their full names because people in their location are less open to psychics or they don’t want to expose their families to the stigma that can come from working in this field. But this is part of the reason psychics have the reputation they have. It’s time that people stop hiding and begin being proud of their ability.
I once had a psychic ask me to remove her from my directory because her lawyer told her it was best for her court case. I told her I’d remove her but said that I thought she should be proud of her work as a psychic—and that I thought it was shameful of her lawyer to suggest otherwise. She emailed me back and asked me to keep her on the directory. She said she hadn’t even realized the insult that was encased in her lawyer’s suggestion and that she was proud of her work as a psychic.
b) DOES THE WEBSITE SHOW THEIR PHOTOGRAPH?
As a consumer and a private investigator, I get suspicious when someone doesn’t have their photograph on their website. It makes me wonder why. Are they hiding something? Are they unconsciously ashamed of something they’re doing? What does it say about a business owner who doesn’t want his clients to know what he looks like?
Obviously, having no photograph on their site doesn’t mean they aren’t a good psychic or medium. But I like to know who I’m doing business with. And I feel that I get so much information from looking at a person’s headshot. In many ways, the photograph is the most important piece of information because I learn so much about a person just from that holographic energy source.
So if they do have a photograph on their website, ask yourself what you “feel” when looking at it, and trust those intuitive impulses.
c) IS THEIR WEBSITE PROFESSIONALLY DESIGNED & HOSTED?
Look to see if they pay for website hosting or if they use a free website service. You can tell if they use a free website service because there will be a link or banner at the bottom of every page that says something to the idea of, “Click Here To Get Your Free Website.”
Free websites do NOT mean that the psychic or medium isn’t legitimate or trustworthy. But it is a red flag to me that they are not as committed to their business because they haven’t invested in their website and don’t pay for hosting.
This is NOT about the amount of their investment. This is about commitment, accountability and looking for signs that they anchored to stick around. Because frauds and fly-by-night scam artists use these services since there’s no cost and nothing that can be traced back to their true identity. In other words, while I don’t make any final judgments based on this alone, this is a warning sign that leads me to hesitate and look more cautiously.
d) IS THE WEBSITE PROFESSIONAL IN ITS APPEARANCE?
I believe that a person’s website is a reflection of their personality and pride in their work. So if the website is disorganized, unprofessional or has some unfitting content or pictures on it, I would expect their readings might reflect this, too.
e) DO THEY PRESENT LIVE EVENTS?
Look for a calendar of event listings on their website to see if they present workshops or live medium demonstrations. To me, this is a good sign that they’re legitimate, confident and popular enough to attract an audience. Psychic mediums who aren’t very good tend to avoid public demonstrations of their ability.
f) HAVE THEY BEEN INTERVIEWED BY THE MEDIA?
Look on their website for a page that lists all their radio, TV, newspaper or magazine interviews. If they’ve been interviewed, they’ll usually link to a page where you can read the article, watch a video clip of the TV appearance, or listen to the interview. Being interviewed by the media is another good sign. Frauds usually shy away from the media.
Plus, it’s an implied endorsement if the writer or host says good things about them. But even if it’s merely an interview, most writers, hosts and producers do some homework to choose reputable people to interview. Although the media are usually not experts in this field, these credentials at least add some credibility.
g) DOES THE WEBSITE SHOW VIDEO OF THE PSYCHIC MEDIUM?
You already know I like photographs, so you can imagine how much I love video. If a picture says a thousand words, a video must say a million. I particularly like videos of psychics mediums giving readings.
Sometimes they’ll show video of themselves giving a reading to a single person, and sometimes it’s a video of them giving a live, public demonstration (these are my favorites). Keep in mind that videos can be edited to show the best of what they offer. Nonetheless, it’s pretty difficult to look good on video if you’re not.
h) DOES THE WEBSITE HAVE A TESTIMONIALS PAGE?
Testimonials are very important because what other people say about you speaks louder than what you say about yourself. However, too many psychic mediums offer testimonials without full names. And you know how I feel about using full names. In my investigator mind, a testimonial has no credibility unless I can verify its authenticity.
In mainstream business, most testimonials will have contact information of some sort (like a website address) so that people can verify it. But in this field—in the entire mind/body/spirit field, sadly—most people offer testimonials with only first names or initials.
If a psychic medium has endorsements from well-known people such as media hosts, authors, experts in the field, or even celebrities, these weigh heavily in their favor. Even though some media people and celebrities wouldn’t know an extraordinary reading from a crappy one, endorsements of this sort show that people are putting their name and reputation on the line to support this person.
If the psychic medium’s website lists lots of testimonials from “Joe K.” or “Sally from Arkansas,” chances are they’re still legitimate, but I don’t give them a lot of credence due to their lack of full names.
CONCLUSION
So I’ve told you what to watch out for, ways that you can personally improve your readings, and steps you can take for locating and choosing the best psychic medium for you. Let me conclude by saying that after 12 years of investigating life after death, I’ve found readings with psychic mediums to be the most compelling evidence that we survive death, precisely because getting a reading is an experience rather than just knowledge that someone else teaches us. And experiences such as these are what carry us from skepticism and belief to a knowing—where we know from a cellular level that the afterlife is real and that we are eternal. So if you haven’t gotten a reading with medium yet, I highly recommend it for your own afterlife investigation.
Warmest regards,
Bob Olson
© Copyright 2011 Bob Olson, BestPsychicDirectory.com, All Rights Reserved
