What to Expect From Your First Psychic Reading

Getting your first psychic reading is a little weird.

Not necessarily the reading itself. The part before it.

You have willingly paid a stranger who claims to be psychic, and now you have questions about the questions. What am I supposed to say? How much do I tell them? Are they going to know something embarrassing? Do I confirm things when they’re right? What if they’re wrong? What if they stare at me for thirty seconds and announce that someone in my family has a name beginning with M?

And, perhaps most importantly: Am I supposed to be doing something?

Usually, no.

Every psychic works differently, so I can’t tell you exactly what will happen during every reading with every reader. I can, however, tell you what a psychic reading is generally like, what shouldn’t freak you out, and what you absolutely do not have to pretend is normal just because somebody has a velvet tablecloth.

First, It Probably Won’t Look Like the Movies

There may be tarot cards. There may be candles. There may even be a crystal ball because some of us enjoy a little atmosphere.

But a psychic reading is usually much less theatrical than people imagine.

Nobody should need to dramatically clutch their temples while receiving an urgent transmission from beyond. The lights don’t have to flicker. Your grandmother doesn’t have to knock over a lamp. And if you’re having a reading online, the psychic’s ability shouldn’t disappear because you are currently sitting in your home office next to a printer.

Most readings are surprisingly ordinary from the outside.

The psychic may shuffle cards, close their eyes for a moment, write something down, start talking immediately or ask what you’d like to focus on. They may use tarot, oracle cards, a pendulum or no physical tools at all.

Different psychics also experience information differently. One person may describe seeing images. Another may get words or phrases. Someone else may simply know something without being able to explain why they know it.

There is no single correct psychic operating system.

What matters is whether the information is useful, specific enough to mean something and relevant to what you came to understand.

The Psychic May Ask You Questions

This occasionally alarms people because they think a real psychic shouldn’t have to ask anything.

That’s not how I see it.

There is a difference between a psychic asking questions to understand where to look and somebody pumping you for enough information to manufacture a reading.

If you tell me you’re asking about Bob and I say, “Who’s Bob to you?” that doesn’t mean the psychic hotline to the universe has been disconnected.

It means I would like to know whether Bob is your husband, your boss, your neighbor or the man you met twice in 1997 and have recently located on Facebook.

Context matters.

A psychic may also ask whether something makes sense because psychic information isn’t always delivered with footnotes. If I’m getting something around a move and you tell me you’ve been considering moving, now I know we’re looking in the right direction and can keep going.

You are allowed to answer questions.

You are also allowed to notice if you’re doing substantially more talking than the psychic.

If twenty minutes have passed and you’ve explained your childhood, your marriage, your mother’s marriage, Bob’s childhood and the peculiar emotional dynamics of Thanksgiving 2014 while the reader periodically says, “Mmm-hmm, I’m getting that,” we may have wandered away from psychic reading and into an extremely expensive conversation.

You Don’t Have to Sit There Like a Hostage

Please react normally.

If something makes sense, say so.

If something doesn’t make sense, say that too.

If the psychic asks you a question, answer it.

If you don’t understand what they mean, ask them to explain it.

A reading is not ruined because you spoke.

Some people become so determined not to “give anything away” that they sit completely expressionless while the psychic talks, apparently auditioning for a role as Suspicious Woman #3 on Unsolved Mysteries.

You don’t have to do that.

Healthy skepticism is fine. I actually prefer it to someone believing every sentence simply because I own tarot cards.

But there is a difference between paying attention and setting traps.

You hired someone to help you look at something. Let them look.

No, the Psychic Probably Isn’t Reading Every Secret You’ve Ever Had

This is another fear people sometimes have before their first reading.

What if the psychic sees everything?

Your search history. Your terrible ex. The thing you lied about when you were fourteen. The fact that you secretly hate your sister’s potato salad even though everybody else insists it’s wonderful.

Psychic readings don’t generally work like opening somebody’s complete personnel file.

The information that comes through tends to relate to what we’re looking at, what is significant around you or what the reader is particularly tuned into.

That doesn’t mean unexpected things never appear. They absolutely can. Sometimes something comes through that seems unrelated until you realize it’s connected to the larger situation.

But you’re not normally sitting across from someone with unrestricted supernatural access to every thought you’ve had since birth.

Frankly, that sounds exhausting for everybody.

You May Hear Something You Already Know

And that doesn’t automatically make the reading useless.

People sometimes expect every sentence of a psychic reading to be information they could never possibly have known themselves.

But part of a good reading can be confirmation.

Maybe you’ve suspected for months that your job isn’t going anywhere. Maybe you already know a relationship dynamic has changed. Maybe you’ve been getting the unmistakable feeling that it’s time to do something differently but keep talking yourself out of it.

Hearing someone independently pick up on the same thing can matter.

The interesting part is often what comes next.

Why is the situation happening? What aren’t you seeing? Where does it appear to be heading? What changes if you choose one direction instead of another?

A reading doesn’t have to reveal that you’re secretly heir to a European principality to be useful.

Sometimes the useful information is the thing you already knew but didn’t trust yourself enough to believe.

Some Things May Not Make Sense Immediately

This happens.

A reader may mention something you can’t place. A name means nothing. A situation doesn’t seem relevant. Something about the timing feels impossible.

You do not have to force it to fit.

Please don’t mentally scan everyone you’ve met since kindergarten trying to make “a man with a J name” become your dentist’s former receptionist’s husband Jerry.

Just say you don’t know.

Sometimes the meaning becomes obvious later. Sometimes the psychic misunderstood what they were getting. Sometimes they were simply wrong.

Yes. Psychics can be wrong.

I realize this ruins the marketing plan for anyone selling Guaranteed Divine Certainty™, but there it is.

A psychic is interpreting information. That interpretation is coming through a human being, and human beings are capable of getting things wrong.

The important question isn’t whether every single sentence becomes indisputable proof of supernatural perfection. It’s whether the reading, taken as a whole, gives you meaningful information and perspective.

You Might Get Predictions, but You’re Not Receiving a Court Order From the Future

Depending on the psychic and the kind of reading you’ve booked, future possibilities may come up.

I read predictions.

I also don’t believe the future is a completed movie sitting somewhere waiting for us to press play.

People make decisions. Circumstances change. Other people make decisions. Opportunities appear. Opportunities disappear. Somebody meets somebody at a barbecue and suddenly the next six months look different.

A psychic reading can show where something appears to be heading based on what’s happening now.

That can be extremely useful.

But if someone tells you that on October 17 at 2:42 p.m. a six-foot-two veterinarian named Gregory will enter your life and you will marry him beside a lake exactly eighteen months later, I would not put a deposit on the venue yet.

Predictions are information, not instructions from the future.

A Live Reading and a Prerecorded Reading Feel Different

If your first reading is live, you’re part of the conversation while it’s happening. You can answer questions, clarify things and immediately ask about something unexpected that comes up.

A prerecorded reading is different.

You send your question or situation ahead of time, the psychic does the reading without you there, and you receive the recording afterward.

Personally, I love recorded readings because the psychic gets uninterrupted space to follow what comes through, and the client gets something they can replay.

You will be amazed at what you don’t hear the first time.

The first listen, you’re waiting for the answer to The Question.

The second listen, you’re no longer internally screaming GET TO BOB, and suddenly you notice the seven other things that were said along the way.

And no, you don’t need to be spiritually available at the exact moment your prerecorded reading is happening.

If your psychic is reading for you while you’re wandering around Costco holding a rotisserie chicken, the connection has not been compromised.

Live or recorded is mostly a matter of preference and how you like to receive information.

You Are Allowed to Disagree With the Psychic

This is important.

A psychic reading does not outrank your own judgment.

If something doesn’t feel right, you don’t have to reorganize your life around it because a psychic said it.

You don’t have to quit your job.

You don’t have to break up with someone.

You don’t have to move to Arizona.

You don’t have to forgive Brenda.

And you certainly don’t have to buy an additional $700 cleansing because the reader has suddenly discovered that an ancient curse is preventing your soulmate from locating you.

A reading should give you information to consider.

It should not require you to surrender your common sense at the door.

You May Feel Weirdly Emotional About Something You Didn’t Expect

Sometimes the thing that gets you isn’t the thing you came to ask about.

You booked because you wanted to know whether you should change jobs, and suddenly the reading touches on how exhausted you’ve been for the last two years and now you’re crying.

Annoying.

It happens.

Readings can bring up things we’ve been avoiding, minimizing or simply haven’t had language for yet. That doesn’t mean every emotional reaction is proof that the psychic has uncovered a sacred cosmic truth. Sometimes people cry because they’re stressed.

But don’t be surprised if something lands harder than you expected.

You also don’t need to apologize for it. Psychics who work with people regularly have seen people cry.

We survive.

What If the Reading Is Completely Wrong?

Then it’s completely wrong.

Before declaring it a disaster five minutes afterward, give yourself enough time to determine whether something simply didn’t make sense yet or genuinely doesn’t fit.

But you don’t owe a psychic an elaborate explanation for why their reading must secretly be correct.

You also don’t need to twist your life into a pretzel trying to make the information work.

Sometimes the reader isn’t the right fit for you.

Sometimes the reading is off.

Sometimes you get a great reading with one person and a terrible reading with another.

Sometimes two psychics can look at the same situation and give you very different answers.

Welcome to the part nobody puts on the brochure.

The goal isn’t to find a human Magic 8 Ball who will never be wrong. It’s to find someone whose way of reading gives you useful information without making you dependent on them to interpret your own life.

What Should You Feel Like After a Psychic Reading?

Hopefully clearer.

Not necessarily happier.

That’s an important distinction.

Sometimes clarity feels wonderful because you realize the thing you’ve been worrying about isn’t nearly as ominous as you thought.

Sometimes clarity is irritating because the answer is essentially, “Yes, you already know what you need to do.”

Sometimes you leave with more to think about because the reading showed you an angle you hadn’t considered.

What I don’t think you should leave with is fear.

You shouldn’t feel like something terrible will happen unless you immediately book another reading. You shouldn’t suddenly need a psychic’s permission before making ordinary decisions. You shouldn’t believe the reader now has authority over your future.

A useful reading should hand your life back to you with a little more information than you had before.

Your First Psychic Reading Does Not Require a Personality Transplant

You don’t have to become a different kind of person to get a psychic reading.

You can be skeptical.

You can be nervous.

You can laugh.

You can ask questions.

You can say, “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

You can think some of it was fascinating and some of it was complete nonsense.

You can be somebody who believes in psychic ability and still expects a psychic to earn your trust.

In fact, I recommend it.

Your job isn’t to perform the role of Good Spiritual Client. Your job is to show up with whatever you’re trying to understand and keep your own brain switched on while somebody else takes a look at it.

No turban required.

If you’re considering your first reading and want to see how I approach them, you can find my current psychic and tarot reading options here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens at the beginning of a psychic reading?

Every reader works differently. Some begin with general impressions, while others ask what you’d like to focus on. A tarot reader may start shuffling cards while you explain your question. There isn’t one standard opening that all legitimate psychics follow.

How much should I tell a psychic?

Enough for the reader to understand what you’re asking about without giving them every detail of the situation. You don’t have to withhold obvious information to test them, but you also shouldn’t need to spend half the reading telling the psychic the entire story.

Will a psychic know everything about me?

Probably not. Psychic readings generally focus on the subject being explored and whatever relevant information the reader picks up around it. Getting a reading isn’t the psychic equivalent of handing someone every diary you’ve owned since middle school.

What if something doesn’t make sense during my reading?

Say so. You don’t need to pretend you understand something or force it to fit. Sometimes information makes sense later, sometimes a psychic has interpreted something incorrectly, and sometimes the reader is simply wrong.

Can a psychic reading predict exactly what will happen?

A psychic may pick up on likely developments or where a situation appears to be heading, but people and circumstances can change. Predictions are best treated as information about the current trajectory rather than guaranteed events.

Is a prerecorded psychic reading as effective as a live reading?

A reading doesn’t require you and the psychic to be communicating in real time. Live and prerecorded readings offer different experiences: live readings allow immediate interaction, while recorded readings give the reader uninterrupted time to work and give you something you can listen to again later.