I’m a psychic bystander. That is, I’m surrounded by astonishingly gifted psychics, but I essentially have no particular abilities myself. Yes, I know that “everyone has the potential to be psychic.” I’ve heard that one, and even repeated it myself. But the fact is that while those around me see, hear and/or smell spectacular entities beyond the veil… I… simply don’t. Could I develop that ability? Maybe. But why bother? I’m married to a gifted psychic so it would be redundant.

It took me years of living with Stephen to finally break down and accept that maybe there were some very real things going on that were simply beyond my ability to explain. After all, Diane Hennacy-Powell, MD, who taught at Harvard Medical School writes that psychic ability is most often inherited. She says that’s because the brain and nervous systems of exceptional psychics are like very sensitive energy antennae. And that can be passed down from generation to generation. Well, I don’t have well-tuned synapses. I come from a long line of skeptics who were short-changed in that department. And when people don’t experience psychic phenomena first-hand, there’s a tendency to find it hard to believe.

So, what softened my skepticism? Things like:

• Two people seeing my father’s ghost at his funeral, describing the same scene and “body” language of his spirit, without having talked to each other.
• An energy healer passing her hand an inch over my body and telling me what the problem was, long before a doctor’s appointment confirmed everything she said.
• Another amazing energy healer curing my asthma (which I had for several years) after one visit. It’s been four years and it hasn’t come back.
• A psychic reciting the first and last names of several of my ancestors. Not initials, not generalities. First and last names. And he was correct.
• Another psychic in Long Island repeating verbatim my late mother-in-law’s favorite catch phrase about life. How could anyone ever know that?

Well, that’s a small sampling. Being around all that paranormal clatter can’t help but make even a psychic bystander feel a bit curious. That’s why I wrote Loitering at the Gate to Eternity: Memoirs of a Psychic Bystander and its sequel, Sightseeing in the Undiscovered Country. The first tells more than 100 stories about my husband, his family, friends and people I didn’t know who just wanted to share some of their experiences with me.  The second is an anthology of more than 100 stories from everyday people here and overseas about their psychic experiences. I find these tales fascinating—including precognitive dreams, out-of-body experiences, reincarnation, contact with the dead and much more. Some of the people I interviewed have had only one or two mystical experiences in their lives. Some have them every day. I continue to be intrigued.

After all, if we could figure out everything in this world, how dull life would be!

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