Hocus Pocus

In my teenage years, I attended a Pentecostal church. (Please do not hold it against me, just read on lol) They were all sorts of crazy, believing in “generational curses”, demon possession, being slain in the spirit (falling over and seeming like they faint because the holy ghost poured out so much spirit on them), speaking in tongues. And prophecies-God spoke to people. They claim a verse that says “Your old men will have visions; your young men will see dreams” or something to that effect. Of course, open to all sorts of interpretations. And God speaks to people outright. How? In an audible voice? Does he send people? Who does God choose? Some really remarkable people. Jim Bakker is one such remarkable individual. God tells him things all the time about what is going to happen in the future. Interestingly enough, God did not tell him not to steal people’s money. That part was in the bible, but God speaks to him in a personal way. Same with Pat Robertson. God lets Pat Robertson in on secrets about our government, upcoming hurricanes, and who in his audience is going to be healed. In the 2012 election cycle God told Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee all to run for president. There can only be one president, but maybe one of them could be the veep? (It is noteworthy that God tells more Republicans than Democrats to run, but I digress.) But God speaks to individuals as well. Again, how does that happen? Good question. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “God told me….” I would have had a nice retirement fund by the age of 18. In fact, I had God tell me something about a future partner. Well, it wasn’t me. It was a well-intentioned family friend. When I was 17, I was involved in a budding romance with another church parishioner. The friend was a woman who spent hours a day praying and reading her bible. I thought with all of that she had a direct hotline to God. She was also good friends with the other family, and she liked all of us. I am sure that she wanted us to be happy. She told me that God told her this was the one for me and that she got a physical confirmation. Well, I was over the moon. At the time. Today, the individual is twice divorced and is now in a long-term domestic partnership without benefit of marriage. (And no, he does not live in a van down by the river, Chris Farley fans.) Those facts were conveniently let out of the friend’s “prophecy.” Needless to say, it was way off. It is not just the church peddling knowledge of the future. Psychics do much of the same. They claim to have knowledge of the future. Only them, of course. The rest of us are not privileged to know. Who tells them things? Most of them do not claim that God tells them. In fact, many of them do not ever disclose how they get their information. Some do say they have “visions”, but others just spout out their predictions without any explanation. And then there is the bizarre world of psychic mediums. These special people have a connection with those who passed on in the afterlife. Apparently, the dead only speak with certain people. If our loved ones pass on, they do not want to directly communicate with us. Only a stranger that charges money, I might add.
So yes, the world is full of amateur and even professionals with purported knowledge of the future. Why is this phenomenon so popular? Because people are fearful, uncertain, grieving, and missing loved ones. Unemployed and lost your job? Is this the person for me? Am I sick and going to die? These are all things that psychics say they can individually answer about your future. Is my loved one still around? Did they suffer when they died? If they died under mysterious circumstances, what were those circumstances? Psychic mediums can answer those questions because your loved one will directly provide them with those answers. These are all concerns that cause anything from worry to sleepless nights to major stress-induced illnesses. And these are not unfounded. People are legitimately grieving when a loved one passes and just want any sort of reminders of their loved ones. They would be comforted if their loved ones would communicate with them just one last time. They would feel relieved if they knew their loved one was peacefully existing on the other side. I will admit, I fell into this category several times. I was grieving and just wanted any kind of connection to my loved ones, and I almost consulted with a psychic medium. And people want answers to their own lives. If they meet someone new, they want to know if that person might be the person for them. Maybe they don’t to waste time. Perhaps they have been hurt in the past and do not want to get involved without knowing they will be hurt again. If someone is struggling with their finances, and they lost their job, it is natural to want to know when they will go back to work. Should they pick a different career? And then there is the matter of death and dying. People want to know if they have a terminal illness and if so, how much time do they have left? Will there be some catastrophic illness in their future even if they are seemingly healthy? Now deceased psychic Sylvia Browne purportedly predicted there would be a worldwide massive illness related to the lungs. However, she predicted that it would disappear as quickly as it arrived. And to tell the truth, I was fearful we were all going to die at the beginning of this and wanted to believe this “prophecy” was true. It was not. We are in the midst of massive death in our world. Most of us fear our mortality, and we want the difficult questions to be answered.
Like Sylvia Browne’s false predictions, the Mayans predictions of the world ending event in 2012 (what was that supposed to be, anyway? They never said), the DaVinci Code, the family friend who predicted my future spouse, none of these things ever came true. And they won’t. None of these so-called prophecies, visions, etc. are real. They are product of people’s wild imaginations and wishes of people who are hurting. There is some good news in all of this. There are “answers” for our lives. They may not come in the form of someone who believes in magical powers, but they are there indeed. One such special group of people are doctors. They are well-trained and went through years of schooling to be able to properly diagnose us. Sometimes they are incorrect, but they have facts, testing, and knowledge behind them. They can diagnose us and even cure us. And here is the even better news-you have a brain, subconscious, and common sense. All of these things can provide you with the answers you are looking for. Sure, it may not come to you in the time that you prefer. It may not be dramatic, either. But the answers will come to you in time. If the answers you are looking for are about your career, there are things that you can ask yourself: Am I happy or stressed at my job? Am I able to safely make a career change without serious financial repercussions? Do I have the education that I need to make a change? As far as a potential life partner, here are some things to consider: Does this person treat me well? Do we have a strong connection to each other? What are our life goals, and are they similar? Would this person be present for me in life’s difficult moments? What do we feel about communication and conflict? And some other common-sense answers: If your potential partner is married, no, it’s not happening. You don’t need a psychic to tell you that someone who has legally committed their life to someone else is for you. If this person is sending out red flags such as anger spells, putting you down, you catch them in lies-you don’t need a psychic to tell you that this person is for you. And finally, if you are missing someone that has left this realm, remembering them will certainly help with your grief. Call a loved one and tell some funny or happy stories about them. Take out some pictures, cook some of their favorite foods, maybe take a trip to their favorite place. Keep in mind that some people do feel that their loved ones are still with them, and that very well may be true. I personally believe that if our loved ones, who knew us best in this life, want to communicate with us that they are closeby they will do so without benefit of a stranger. They understand us better than some psychic medium who knows nothing about our relationships with them.
Remember, you are wiser than you give yourself credit for, and many of the answers can be found within. Emotions such as grief and confusion can certainly interfere with our lives, but they come in stages. And life is full of many stages. My own experience is that I have very few situations in which I really didn’t know “the answer.” I may not have answers about the large things we all grapple about, such as the unfairness of life, but I cannot think of a life circumstance where I was ever left in the dark. And neither will you.