This question comes up all the time. In fact, it often comes up as a statement. People like to declare, “Oh, everybody’s psychic!” It’s a fun thing to say. And it’s also true.
And false.
Some answer, huh?
World: “Is everybody psychic?”
Eric: “Well, yes and no…”
Here’s the deal: yes, everybody’s psychic. We’re all interconnected on a fundamental level, and all aware of each other and our surroundings and life experiences in ways that both precede and transcend language and the five senses. In other words, we all have non-local consciousness. If this wasn’t true, we wouldn’t have dreams. Nor would we have commonplace psychic experiences, such as knowing what song will be on the radio right before it starts to play or knowing who’s about to call on the phone before it rings, which seem to be universal among people (or at least very, very common). And even if you don’t have dreams or have few psychic moments, you in all likelihood have at least some measure of intuition, meaning you’re sometimes able to process data or information without subjecting it to factual analysis. Which is to say: You Just Know Things. So you’re psychic. Congratulations!
But hold on. Come on. No, not everybody’s psychic. This is because more commonplace and casual psychic abilities are unhoned, uncooked, and essentially without utility. It’s one thing to spontaneously know that something’s about to happen (namely an event over which you have no control) and it’s another thing to sit down in a conversation with someone and start providing them with unquantifiable yet verifiable info about their life (a process over which you have to exercise control to avoid being a laughingstock). In the case of the former, you’re experiencing “leakage”; you’re verifying that some aspects of your mind’s experience are non-local and impossible to quantify via known science, but at the same time you realize you have no capacity to dance with or utilize those elements of yourself. In the case of the latter, you’re dancing like crazy; your intuition is practiced, focused, and acute enough for you to wield your psychic ability in a manner that assists, uplifts, and reassures others.
This dividing line allows us to distinguish between who can serve us as guides and shamans (a category which is uncommon) and who’s just kind of interesting and weird (a category which, if you think about it, includes everybody). If we allow for a perspective in which everyone’s psychic, we’re upholding a mere half-truth: yeah, sure, everybody’s got some psychic bandwidth, but not everybody’s dropped an anchor into the ether. By the same token, some psychics are indeed better than others. The same way some musicians – the ones who practice and experiment and fail and triumph – are better than others. (And no, we’re not all “creative,” either! Sheesh.)
So if somebody says, “Everybody’s psychic,” I can understand the sentiment but not abide by it fully. If you want to be weirded out and get some neat-o stories, spend an afternoon talking to your “psychic” Aunt Jane. But if you want to get advice and gain insight and clarity, seek out a psychic who’s ready to sit down and tap in and read you and rock n’ roll.
