Ghostbusting

The song goes, "I ain't afraid of no ghosts." People think, "Who you gonna call?" and my name comes into play. One time, a woman begged, so I hired myself out to bust some ghosts. On the phone, she sounded so agitated that I couldn't resist.

"I can't sleep! They bump in the night! I think I see them float by in white gowns but my husband doesn't see them. You have to help us!"

Who can resist a damsel in distress? Off I went, curious and not at all afraid. Every night when I was a child, before I got into bed, I searched my closet and looked under my bed for the bogeyman or his ghostly likeness. I knew exactly what I would do if I saw a ghost. Nothing. I had no clue what to do when I got to this couple's house, so I volunteered a freebie.

A calm woman answered the door. Her diminutive husband peered out from behind the dining room wall. The woman started to giggle. We trudged up the stairs to the second floor to go into the "ghost" room, then stood quietly in an unremarkable area with little furniture. I think the couple held their breaths.

No ghosts here, I thought, but as they talked their fear seemed real.

"I have a solution," I said. "You open the window," I told the man, "and you go get a broom," I said to the woman.

Like stray cats and bats, disgruntled spirits do not wish to stay stuck in one house. I sent out a quiet message, "Hey you ghosts, go terrorize someone else."

When the woman returned with the broom, I saw hints of happiness. I made a show of shooing the ghost out the window.

"No ghosts allowed here!" I yelled.

Weeks later the woman called. "Are they still there?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, but we miss them. Can you make them come back?" she pleaded.

As the saying goes, it takes all kinds.

Palm Reading

I never understood the art of palm reading. Last winter I got every book I could find and did an extensive study. My pal Michele said to read the hand a person uses the most, the one my psychic calls the working hand.

In Vermont over Labor Day weekend, I read my sister's palm and her husband's. They laughed all through the reading and made irritating and funny comments. The next day I read my niece's palm. She was quiet and respectful. When I finished, my sister and my niece had kind words for my abilities.

On a recent visit to my psychic, I showed her the bracelet rings etched on my right wrist. Three rings is longevity. I have four.

"Past lives and wisdom," she said. I blew a kiss of appreciation.

The High Line in New York City

On Manhattan's west side lies a beautiful garden on what used to be elevated railroad tracks. My grown daughter took me through the Meatpacking District, up a silver elevator and into another part of the city I had never seen. Wooden slatted lounge chairs reminded me of Atlantic City in the '50s. Rushes in the garden made me think of dunes. As Layla explained how industries used the trains, I revisited the past in my intuitive mind. I watched muscle men load freight, heard crew chiefs swear and smelled sweat and metal.

Was this my imagination or an intuitive "seeing"? I don't know. The two are so closely aligned. Maybe they are the same thing?

A friend is sick and you see it first. Trouble brews in your best friend's marriage and you know before she tells you. Your boss got fired today and last week you had the feeling he would be gone in no time.

Let all parts of your life intertwine. Create your own garden. Allow imagination and intuitive to co-exist.

Quick Questions from Seekers and My Best Answers

How often should I see a psychic?

I suggest once a season. Weather changes and moons bring new events. Personally, I visit my psychic once a month. I need her calming nature and reassurance. Go figure.

Are you awakened at all hours of the night by weird dreams/visions?

Yes, although seldom more than once a night. My dreams have decreased since I began my work on murder cases in '92, and now they occur a few times a month.

Can a person read tarot for themselves?

It is possible but difficult. Our desires get in the way of true "seeing". To learn the cards, a co-worker suggests a study of one card a day. That is a little too dull for me. I now use a seven card spread, but when I started, I did a three card throw. That made it easier for me to decipher. I pulled my best meaning from the pictures on the tarot cards and then looked each of them up in a tarot book. Every few years, I buy a new tarot meaning book. Thirty years later, I am still learning.

Inherited Psychic Ability

A stranger in a beauty shop told me a story. When her grandfather was a boy, he dreamed of a missing dead man. In the morning, he told his mom that it would be hard for the police to find the man hanging from a tree because there were too many bushes around him. Much later, the dead man was found in the spot the boy described.

I told the ladies in the shop that I believe psychic ability is inherited. The stranger said no one in her family has it.

Regarding DNA, science shows more links every year. The most recent concerns Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Current research has found a mutation on the A3243G, a substitution variant at HOXA1 and an insertion variant at HOXB1.

We have no proof, but I am convinced my grandfather and my uncle had Asperger's Syndrome (ASD). I think my first cousin and my brother have it. Could this be anything but DNA?

My senior citizen's hands match my father's before he died. The moles on my neck look just like the ones my grandmother sported. My body weaknesses are a clone of my mom's.

Science will prove things I won't live to see, yet I don't plan to peer from the grave. I use my psychic and intellectual abilities to find answers now.

A Psychic Has a Psychic?

I quote my personal psychic often. When I do, people react with shock. "YOU have a psychic?"

If I want to be irreverant, I say, "A fox can't smell her own hole." If I want to be professional, I ask them, "Do you know how you walk? Can you see the back of your head without a mirror?"

Every day, sometimes five times a day, I read my tarot cards. Sometimes it is to calm an anxious thought, other times I actually wonder what will happen to me that day. Many times that I read, my desires get in the way of my intuitive clarity. The Tower means a sudden change, and if I were reading for another person, I could tell if it seemed negative. For myself, I cannot "know" or "see" with the same abilities I manifest with others.

My own psychic soothes me. She sees work issues in advance and helps me generate ideas to solve them. She give me info to prevent arguments with friends and relatives. Her practical direction fills me with energy.

When you talk, your voice sounds different in your head compared to how it sounds when taped. It is the same for intuition. The added help and another person's perspective make my life easier.

Motherhood Intuition

My youngest child is a freshman in college. I miss his physical plant and his humor, his need for food and help with chores. Something else has been missing and I just figured it out--Motherhood Intuition.

At my daughter's first cry, it kicked in. I somehow knew when she needed me. My children's nuances of behavior seldom slid past me. Their unspoken wants became my desires. Instinctively I cared for them and put them first. The house bulged with feeling and pathos and anger and love.

Now I live alone. My vibes bounce against white walls. I listen for sounds no longer made, for wants now manifested by my grown children. My intuition felt dead.

It is now spring and I know my intuition is alive. No longer Motherhood Intuition, it sweeps and sways and holds court over friends and neighbors, my sister and mom, and clients who seek my services.

Don't tell me it is not done. They are grown, it is done. Now I am a friend to my children. Friend Intuition has taken its place. I am both resigned and relieved.