What does the word “psychic” conjure up for you? Do you think of someone like Daphne Moon in the sitcom Frasier? A person who’s slightly cuckoo and inclined to think they have a feeling about the future and are sure to tell you about it after the fact?
Do you think of the fortune-tellers the gullible are inclined to consult when faced with a difficult decision? Should one take this job or that? Will Jim ever propose marriage or should one cut one’s losses and concentrate on John?
Or does your mind call up psychic mediums? People who prey upon the grieving, calling up the spirits of dead relatives to assure the world there’s an afterlife and that their loved ones are happily in heaven?
I’ll have to admit the word conveyed all these images to me. So when my husband and I started watching a true crime show about psychic investigators—people who use their abilities—to help police find missing and kidnapped persons, track down murderers, and solve cold cases, I was intrigued.
There had to be more to this business, if you could use it to bring killers to justice, I thought. I was astonished to learn that although many law enforcement officers are skeptical of the phenomenon, others see it as yet another useful tool in their crime-solving kit. So much so that a handbook on investigating homicides that’s used by the FBI has an entire chapter devoted to psychics.
As you might imagine, psychics are most useful in cases where all other avenues have proved unfruitful and the case has grown cold.
About the same time that my interest was piqued by the idea of psychic investigators, I learned about the Gardner Museum theft—the most notorious and outrageous heist of the twentieth century. The only other like it took place in Ireland, but even this theft was eventually solved with—if memory serves—all the stolen pieces recovered.
Still unsolved after thirty years, with no leads in sight and the works still unrecovered, the Gardner heist seemed to me the type of case where nothing could be lost by consulting a psychic. Why not have a psychic sleuth tackle the case, I thought.
I learned that when law enforcement do consult psychics, they treat the information in much the same way they treat witness statements and tips. The information needs to be verified and corroborative evidence found.
So I try to use this strategy in the Celine Skye Mysteries. FBI agents Blake Markham and Julia Hood typically find evidence that corroborates the leads that Celine provides.
Celine herself needs to work like a detective as she attempts to make sense of the psychic impressions she receives. Based on what I’ve gleaned from my research, this information comes in the form of symbols—often very private to the person receiving them.
Its clarity or lack thereof can differ depending upon the psychic’s health, state of mind, and energy level. It also depends upon the psychic’s experience. Past successes and failures help to hone one’s ability.
For me the best explanation of what psychics do has come from Jeffrey Wands’ The Psychic in You. According to Wands, psychics read and interpret energy at crime scenes, the homes of victims and perpetrators or other places they’ve frequented. The energy they read can also come from photos or objects they’ve owned.
Apparently anyone can be taught what’s known as remote viewing—an ability to see what’s taking place in another location. The CIA has run experiments on this, even successfully training people. But, of course, psychics typically don’t see themselves as remote viewers. And most have the ability to see spirits as well.
What they do as investigators doesn’t typically involve reading the future, although some psychic investigators do have a side business providing insights and counsel to clients.
(Note this latter isn’t a practice I agree with. For those in need of counsel, St. Ignatius of Loyola’s spiritual exercises in the discernment of spirits and decision-making provide a more reliable source of guidance in practical decision-making. )
Celine doesn’t predict the future. Nor does she work as a paid psychic counseling people. The only future event Celine can sense is violent death, and it’s an ability she could do without. To see and yet be unable to intervene or prevent what will happen wreaks havoc on her emotional state.
From a Catholic perspective, one can call her a seer. Indeed there’ve been many saints and mystics who’ve had unusual abilities. Saint Faustina regularly saw spirits from Purgatory; Padre Pio possessed the ability to bilocate and could see and communicate with his own guardian angel and those of other people, providing him access to news of their health or lack thereof well before such tidings could reach him in the ordinary course of events.
Exorcists like Father Gabriel Amorth have also consulted seers and these people seem to access information in ways that are very similar to those described by self-professed psychics.
I mention this because there seems to be a sense that the Church and psychics are at odds. But the Church only forbids consulting psychics for the purposes of divination to seek control of the future. It also forbids calling up the spirits of the dead. A person who sees spirits, however, isn’t necessary evil. God does allow the souls of the dead to appear to the living—to ask for Masses or penance or to provide a message.
Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin has a fascinating post on the paranormal: Catholic Paranormal Investigations.
But Celine, although she’s uncomfortable with her abilities, has come to accept that she has a role to play in justice being served. And that she has a special role to play in recovering the Gardner Museum’s lost art.
Enjoy a three-chapter excerpt from Bearer of Secrets, her latest adventure!