update

Hi, I just joined here and I'm a little confused. What happened?

I have one question. Are psychics welcome here now, or will they be allowed?

I am a psychic reader and run a pretty successful psychic practice with my aunt whose been a psychic and in the business for over 20 years.

I included my last name when I signed up but when I noticed it seems to be an open forum to anyone, so I took it off. Julian is my real first name. I don't have a problem revealing my last name, but I don't want clients googling me and finding me on a magic website. Will posts and profiles here be able to be googled? I take my work as a psychic very professionally and seriously and would like to avoid that.

Why am I here?

I have been interested in magic and use some of it when it can benefit my clients. I don't see anything wrong with that. I use my intuition and psychic abilities, but also use magic techniques when I can help a client. I believe in positive readings and never bring harm to my clients. There's too much negativity in the world, I choose to walk in the light.

I have been a "lurker" on the magic cafe, but would never consider joining there because I understand some would never accept me as a reader and psychic. But I have to admit that in the last year I have learned quite a lot about the magic world and have been introduced to useful material. I wish I had a place to discuss them.

So is this the kind of place that is open to those who are psychic and make a living as a psychic, but also find that magic material can be useful in their practice? Or just magicians?

If not, I will understand and leave. I don't want to be attacked and interrupt anyone's fun if I'm not welcome. I understand people may have a difference of opinion when it comes to my profession, but I am who I am and I can't change that. If I'm not accepted, I leave to live my own life. I don't choose to get in people's ways and I don't allow people to get in mine. It's a live and let live philosophy.

I believe I can add to some discussion as I have plenty of experience and have learned psychic trade secrets from my aunt, who has learned from others before her and so on. Things I don't see discussed in the two magic forums I have read over the past year.

Sorry for the long introduction. It's my first time writing in a magic forum.

Please let me know.

Julia

Hi - Julia, you are more than welcome here. For many reasons.

Firstly, I do intend this to be an OPEN resource. No one will be made unwelcome, unless they are racist, sexist, or step outside of the bounds of moral acceptability. Otherwise all are not only welcome, but encouraged to meet here. Our art should encompass both the die hard skeptic and the truly physic.
I myself am a skeptic - in the true sense of the word - which means that I question with an open mind. It also means that I am very interested in what you have to say. Many mystery performers mix both traditional techniques and what they perceive as genuine phenomenon (incidentally, I count myself amongst their number). Furthermore, I feel that the future of the art lies in blurring this line. Personally, I would like to reach the stage where I cannot tell if what I do is real or not.

At the same time there is a strong - and healthy - tradition of skepticism in our art. I feel that this needs to be preserved too, or we will loose our sense of proportion. There are plenty of incidences in what we call 'mentalism' of performers with psychological contamination. i.e. they start to believe in there own powers and see themselves a prophets who are above others. Equally, there are many so-called psychics who prey on the weak and vulnerable, and these need exposing for the greater good.

I feel that this opens an important theme for discussion, and that this discussion will contribute to taking the art forward.
BTW, you must be genuinely psychic as it was my intention to open the discussions here with this very topic - your views will be important here.

One final point - my original intention was to let the Moon go dark until the end of next Summer - this is purely because of other commitments my end. So, there may be very little happening here until then. However, these things seem to have their own momentum. It is clear from the many emails I have had, that people are very interested in this project - and are eager to see it launched before my projected date. So we will see - just don't assume that things are dead here if there is little activity at the moment.

welcome aboard Julia.

Mr. Gold,

Thanks for the welcome, I will consider staying and discussing things. The whole skeptic thing makes me a little nervous though, I simply won't take part in attacks against myself or in what I believe in. I do believe in my powers as you put it, but I certainly don't see myself "above others". I believe in respect, and respectfully disagreeing when necessary.

I'm just not sure how I will be perceived here since I AM a psychic. I have been psychic all my life. Will you and others think I am doing "harm" and want to "expose" me? I hope not because you would be wasting your time. There's nothing to expose. As I've read on the magic cafe, "harm" can be very subjective also. I don't do harm, I do good, as good as I can. Always.

I believe a positive mind and a positive view on things can help people and I try to give this to my clients when I sense things around them may not be so positive. I believe in warning people to be alert and to keep their eyes open, but I never harm them by telling them something terrible may be about to happen.

Yes, I have used some magic in my work as a psychic, but not always, and I only use it to help clients, when I rather not allow the cards (or whatever divination system I'm using) to dictate an outcome that I may sense may not be a good one. Yes, what matters in the end is what comes out of my mouth, but sometimes a visual positive confirmation for the client is more effective.

I'm sure you have heard of people being cursed and fulfilling their own prophecy when a psychic they believe in tells them they will die young or be very sick soon or mess up that job or marriage. For the record, again, I would never EVER do this! Well, the opposite is also true, if you tell a person that they have the power (and spiritual and energy support) to heal themselves as they get medical treatment, or to better their situation whatever that may be, it helps! For these times I sometimes like to bring out a clear visual enforcement and I have done so with magic techniques.

I have one concern. When I signed up I used my last name, then I changed it, but I see on the bottom of the page that my last name is still there. Can you magically make it vanish? I would like that.

Hi Julia

I think you may have misunderstood some of my points - which is frighteningly usual for me. As I say, the Moon is intended to be a broad church. It should include skeptics and psychics - both engaged in healthy debate. The point I meant regarding exposing was aimed at fraudulent bogus psychics. From the tradition of Houdini onward, magic has been instrumental in exposing fakes and frauds who prey on the weak. However, I did not mean to imply that all psychics are frauds! Far from it - personally all the psychics I have met have been very genuine and very honest - It is clear that this is the tradition to which you belong. Also, when I was talking about 'psychic contamination' I was referring to mentalists, not psychics. Mentalists are far more prone to this condition - again, all the psychics I have ever encountered have been very humble. Sorry if I did not explain this in a clear manner - I guess I should not compose a post as soon as I get out of bed!

I think the point I was trying to make is that this should be a place for intelligent, open and questioning debate.

As to being attacked - if you keep out of Negrado - this will not happen. Nigrado is intended to be a place where all can say exactly what they feel without censorship. Both you and I have an equal chance of being attacked there! However, this leaves the rest of the forum clean - I have suffered my fair share of personal attacks - outside of Negrado, personal attacks will not be tolerated.

So, I hope this clears up a few things. As I say, you are very welcome here. It is a forum aimed at the mystery entertainer - which is a less ugly term for 'mentalist'. So I am not sure if you will get what you need from here - and there are plenty of psychic forums, as you will be aware. What will be interesting is to open up the debate regarding how 'magical performance' interfaces with 'genuine phenomenon'. Also, I know that Alex (a founding father of this forum) would like to set up an area to specifically accommodate psychics. I think this is a good idea too. So you may well find the debate interesting. Why not just stick around and see how it all pans out?

Finally, as to the name - I looked on your account and your surname did not appear - so the best thing for me to do is to delete your account and you can sign up again, minus this info. PM me or answer here and I will do this.

cheers
Chris

Back when Alchemy Moon was beginning, I had been in touch with Richard Webster (not sure you know who he is, Julia, but if not, search for him).

He was highly interested in joining a place where he could share his ideas, brainstorm, discuss, and help others grow. But when Chris and I (for personal reasons) backed away from Alchemy Moon, contact was lost and he never became a member. I will be contacting him again.

I think having a working psychic, a real psychic, in the forum is of great importance, because most of us here only "pretend" to be. Sure, there are "routines" that are very real in some aspects and can be considered intuitive work, or psychic, but most of the time, most of us only blur that line to our spectators, not truly considering ourselves psychic. I think much could be learned on both sides. Perhaps a psychic can add more entertainment to their psychic readings, and mentalists (or mystery performers) can add more believability, or even psychic aspects to our performances.

Could be very interesting.

I agree that a place like the Magic Cafe would not be welcoming of someone who is openly psychic and wants to learn or discuss alternatives to their readings in order to help sitters. On a place like the Cafe, Julia wouldn't have the opportunity to discuss anything but defend herself from the various attacks that would spawn immediately after her first post. Things like:

"If you're a real psychic then why are you posting on a magic forum?"

"There is no such thing as a real psychic, you're a fraud."

"You are causing harm to people."

"On the front page it says Magicians Helping Magicians, you claim to be a real psychic, go elsewhere!"

On and on.

I don't share such views of course. I'll give you an example:

My girlfriend has a friend with rhumatoid arthritis, and last time we visited her in Sheffield (England), she was not doing too well experimenting with new medications, she was depressed, down, etc. She is into the Tarot, believes in their messages, so I told her I would give her a reading. Not my "casual party entertainment" readings, but a real reading. A one-card reading using only the Major Arcana cards.

I showed her some of the cards on my beautiful Medieval Tarot illustrated by Lo Scarabeo in Italy, then gave her the cards and had her handle them completely the entire time. I asked her to mix them, cut them, and finally stop to remove her selected Major Arcana card.

But while she was doing all that, I called her attention to a blank-backed business card I laid face-down and off to the side which I told her contained an intuition, something of interest to be revealed after the reading was done.

She went ahead and finally selected a card. She turned it over. It was the Star. A beautiful card that predicts hope and healing, unexpected help will be coming with water to quench her thirst, with a guiding light to the future.

I called her attention to the card I had separated earlier, before she had made her selection, and I told her that when my intuition on this one-card reading was correct, that the reading would be even more powerful, more effective, more energized. A little tension before I slowly turned over the card. On the other side of it was printed the Star Tarot card with some key words of description. I left that card with her and reassured her that the right energies where in place for hope, healing, positive change....

Naturally she was amazed at my correct intuition. Even though she knows I'm a mystery entertainer, the idea of trickery didn't cross her mind, because she also knows I perform real readings on occasion. What mattered to her was that the message was a positive one, and since she believed in the Tarot and its messages, the message she received was a very welcoming one, a breath of fresh air. The fact that it was boosted by my correct intuition made it even better.

There was an immediate change in her demeanor. A light came into her eyes, a smile grew on her lips. A simple reading made a difference in how she felt, and the shift it created helped her.

A mere two weeks later, she was feeling much better, much happier, more vibrant, more hopeful for the future!

She still has that card I gave her, she recalls how that helped her feel better almost immediately. It gave her hope when she unnecessarily felt hopeless and sad. She created her own reality by putting a little faith in the simple Tarot reading and ran with it.

In this case I used this "visual positive confirmation" that Julia has mentioned on her post. I used a mentalism technique. Do I feel bad about it? I've questioned myself about this, but ultimately no way. I would do it again in a heartbeat. She's a friend, and seeing her uplifted after that reading was a gift to all of us there.

I only take credit for creating a minor shift in her thinking. Do I take credit for her healing? No. She feels better today because of science, some natural alternatives, and her own healing spirit.

Having told this story, I do agree with Julia that sometimes manipulating a reading to guarantee a positive outcome is better for a querent than perhaps allowing the cards to come as they will risking a negative outcome, or at the very least, a less positive one.

If we can make it perfect, why not do it sometimes to benefit a sitter's mental outlook?

An interesting debate.

If you can, in some small way, change someone's life for the better...why not?

Who cares how we get there?

If everyone was happy & healthy...wouldn't the world be a much better place...

I'm loving this new vibe on AM...third times a charm!

Nathan

Nathan you are too right that if people were happier and healthier the world would be a better place. I try to do that in my psychic work everyday.

What Alexander described is not far from what I do sometimes and how I mix magic in my psychic work. Sometimes its important for a person to hear a positive message, it can change their view on a situation and set in motion a solution or answer. I don't always use this because I do have spirit guides who guide me toward a positive message to deliver, but on those other times, I don't see anything wrong with mixing in magic. It has always been done in the history of psychic work but it doesn't mean that psychic work is not real. Because a worker uses magic sometimes in their psychic work does not mean psychic work does not exist. Sometimes people get confused in these magic places. Just making it clear.

If everyone believed in karma, people would be happier and healthier in the world as well.

Julia

I more then welcome someone like yourself, being a reader myself I get frowned upon by some of my friends. They don't seem to see the good we can do for people.

I'm looking forward to seeing some good posts here.

I am a great believer that things evolve by forces beyond the individual. As such, the Moon exerts a gravitational pull of it's own. It is interesting to me to see the flavor that this is taking on.
I have stated that I am a skeptic, this is the opposite of being closed minded. Personally, I believe anything that makes life more interesting. Why not, reality is only an individual construct anyway, why not play with it?

Hello Julia,

There is a certain kind of magician that rallies against psychics, tarot readers etc. You won't generally find them on a community like this one.

I myself work in the psychic field and have a balance of belief and scepticism. Generally, as had been said before, you are doing people a service when they are given a good reading and feel happier from it.

Cosmic counselling I call it!

I am looking forward to discussing this area with you.


Freddie

Thanks you for your nice words. Cosmic counseling for sure!



Julia

It certainly is and there is as much skill involved in being a good reader as there is in being a magician or mentalist. Perhaps even more so.

I was once booked to perform magic at a Halloween charity night. The magic went down well (it was platform rather than close up) and afterwards I was giving tarot readings to raise money for the charity. The table was swamped with (mostly women) all wanting a reading. When the venue closed, I went to a small pub down the road with a friend of mine who was also performing that night and when we arrived I realised about ten women who didn't manage to get readings at the other venue followed me there!

There is something about readings that people really connect with. In this age of science and scepticim you would think that it would diminish but it seems that they are more popular than ever. Often people who are too afraid to speak to a doctor, lawyer or whatever, will come to a 'psychic' and they do tend to trust and open up more to someone who has 'higher knowledge'.

A lot of card flinging magicians may deride such things, but that's mainly because they can't do it themselves!

Now that is better, readings are known as folk counsellling as well.

I did a walk around gig a while ago and did some palm reading while I going round, when I'd finished I had about 3 people that wanted me to do readings for them before I left. I had to duck and run that night as I'd already been there 4 hrs by that time

There is no question that people are more interested in readers than in magicians. I have been in events where a magician was doing tricks and acrobatics with cards. There was no competition.

Julia

Its true that many 'magicians' actively seek out to debunk psychic claims, and i have seen a lot of people who feel it is their lifes mission to do so.
I have worked as a reader, although not psychically and undertook a project of an undercover psychic at a competition. There were many who wanted to be a part of that project purely to be able to stand there and debunk all psychics and their work .. needless to say they werent involved lol..

E x

What happened next, Evie?

Hahaha .... you KNOW the story ! although the experience has left me a little scarred for life. But I will say this ... MWAHHHHH HAAAA HAAAA HAAAA !

E x