Are Psychics Crazy People?

Psychics are often labelled ‘crazy’ by those who don’t believe in psychic phenomena. Does being psychic mean you are crazy or mentally unstable?

And if it doesn’t, where is the line between mental illness, insanity and psychic phenomena? 

I haven’t seen an article anywhere about this delicate subject written by someone who calls themselves psychic.

Yet, it’s a subject that is very important in my view, and it’s come to my attention lately because in my last blog post, I wrote about how to make spirit communication feel less scary.  I got a comment from a commenter who said that psychic development can be scary because some people have angry spirit guides who influence them into committing violent acts.

To me, it sounded like the commenter was referring to a mental illness (like schizophrenia or psychosis) NOT psychic phenomena. Yet this person talked in terms of spirit guides telling people to do things. 

If you’ve heard about possessions, negative entities, and spirits telling you to do destructive things, you may have asked yourself questions like:

Where is the line between insane and psychic?

Does opening up psychically make you mentally unstable?

And you may have found the whole area a bit worrying and disturbing and decided not to pursue psychic development. Or it may have been a worry in the back of your mind while you pursue psychic development.

In this article, I aim to address these concerns.

(Before I begin, I just wanted to say that I am not a medical doctor. I am not professionally qualified to give advice about mental illness (or any illness!) Therefore, what is written below is my personal opinion and as usual with all of my blog articles, whatever you do with the information is totally up to you!)

So here goes…

The Fine Line Between Psychic and Insane

Traditionally, psychics are thought of as insane.  People who can hear God are insane.  Yet people who talk TO God are not insane – they’re thought of as holy (perhaps this is why religion is socially acceptable and psychic phenomenon is not acceptable.)

As for atheists (who are usually sceptics too), they most definitely do not think that psychics are actually ‘psychic’.  I have heard sceptical people saying things like psychics must be mentally ill.  Or if they’re not mentally ill, they’re unscrupulous liars.  If they’re not unscrupulous liars, they’re well-meaning, but essentially deluded.

Although a few of the psychics out there may be unscrupulous liars or mentally ill, my opinion is that many psychics are fairly normal people of a sound, sane mind.  Not unstable, not stupid, not deluded – sane, and normal.

Yet since I’ve started offering psychic development, and offering readings, I can’t deny that psychic development sometimes attracts people who are not so sane.  I don’t see it so much in my work, but I know others who sometimes attract mentally ill people who are not on medication, because of the nature of what they do.

That is because there is a very fine line between psychic and psychotic.  It’s a thin line but it’s a very clear one.  I just want to talk about where that line goes (in my opinion.)

Psychic or Psychotic?

Some people in the medical community believe that psychic and psychotic is the same thing.  I have read that some psychiatrists believe that if you see and hear things that aren’t there, you’re regarded as either psychic or psychotic.  And the difference between the two is how you deal with what you see. If you cannot cope with the voices you hear because they’re destructive/dangerous/abusive and you need help and mediation, you’re psychotic. 

According to some psychiatrists, psychics are people who CAN deal with their psychosis and so can cope with the voices they hear.

As you may have already guessed, I don’t agree with this!

How Do I Know I’m not Psychotic?

(or how do I know that any psychic is sane, for that matter?)

I believe myself to be a perfectly sane, rational being (who hears and knows things that medical science says I shouldn’t…)

The reason why I believe that my psychic experiences are real, and not psychosis, is because I have had too many experiences day in, day out that back up what I see and know.

Experiences like: talking to deceased spirits, knowing their name, their appearance, and passing on a message to their relative that contains information that was only known to those two people.

It’s not guesswork and it’s definitely not being a clever mentalist and deducing things. Simply because that’s not possible, due to the nature of the specific information deceased spirits pass on. In many ways, I considered myself a skeptical psychic when I started out, and my first experience talking to a deceased person (which you can read about in this testimonial) was what pushed me over the edge into definite, ‘no-going-back’ belief.

Through opening up to the psychic realm (or what some would consider the mad realm!), I know things that I cannot know otherwise. I also co-exist peacefully with psychic input. It’s benevolent and it’s never been cruel or abusive. I can turn it on and off and I can access it consciously. I can go for days or even weeks without it knocking on my door if I really want to ignore it. And I’ve no history of mental illness besides a few months of mild depression caused by circumstance.

So, What Is The REAL difference between Psychic and Psychotic?

Positive vs. Negative – that’s the first distinction.

Controlled vs. Uncontrolled – that’s the second key distinction.

Psychic input from your spirit and your guides and angels is positive, empowering, and is shown to be helpful in hindsight. You can also control it. Spiritual guidance does not interfere with anyone’s free will or attempt to control a situation.

The input that mentally ill people get is not controlled and it’s not input from benevolent spiritual sources like spirit guides or your own spirit. Psychotic input is usually abusive, damaging, destructive and if acted upon, can have very negative consequences.

Therein lies the difference, in my view.

So where does the negative input come from?

Understanding the Positive/Negative Distinction

Positivity and negativity is a scale or a spectrum of emotional energy.  In my Psychic Awakening course, I included this spectrum to illustrate this vibrational scale (you’ll need to click on it in order to see the full picture)

I wrote that it’s good to be above a 4 on that emotional scale (on any given day) before you tune into spirit.

If you’re consistently low on that emotional scale, when you tune into spirit, the chances are you won’t hear any benevolent input.  If you’re unlucky, you might access malevolent input/voices/spirits (whatever you want to call them.)

But of course, that doesn’t mean you’re psychotic. Psychotic and mentally ill people are those who access the very lowest end of the spectrum.

I personally am not sure why mentally ill people are accessing the lowest end of the negative spectrum and why that negative input won’t leave them alone. I have heard shamans say that it’s because you have openings in your energy field and victimization patterns that allow that very negative input to reach you. The medical community would probably laugh at that and say that it’s just a biological disorder of the mind.

Negative or Mentally Ill?

If your vibration is low or you’re depressed, I’m not saying that you’re necessarily ever going to access that same level of input that is available to someone with a mental illness. I believe the kind that psychotic or mentally ill people are exposed to guidance that is the lowest kind of guidance.

As for the ordinary negativity, we all have a shadow side. We all have negative self-talk that can be abusive. You could think of your negative self-talk and voices as being like different programs that run on a computer. Some of them are like viruses that you can get rid of, over time, with some work.

But when that negative virus and voice overcomes all others, and influences your behaviour so that it becomes destructive and dangerous for other people, that’s when it tends towards mental illness. If someone hears voices that instruct, persuade or encourage them to damage or destroy something or someone, in my opinion that’s worrying and medical attention would be needed. If the voices are abusive, power-crazed, or ordering someone to do something damaging or physically dangerous – that’s crossed the line, in my view. If you’re having paranoid delusions, that has too.

In Light of this, Who Shouldn’t Do Psychic Development?

Don’t do psychic development if you live in great fear, or if you have serious issues with paranoia.

Some people are very angry and some have experienced abuse and great trauma.  If you’re in those places, it’s best to make your priority to be lifting yourself up before you do psychic development, otherwise you can access lower guidance that reflects your current emotional state.

If you believe you’re being victimized or if you have any kind of victimization pattern running in your mind, then you may attract spirits who like to victimize.  You need to be in your power to some degree before you can get constructive positive guidance from the unseen realm.

If you do have a mental illness and you operate on the lower end of that scale, my advice would be the same – work on raising your vibration and stabilizing your emotional state before you even consider opening up to the spirit world.  I guess it goes without saying that I wouldn’t teach anyone psychic development who has an ongoing mental illness of that type because it would be irresponsible of me. 

Mentally ill is a big blanket term.  Depression, so-called personality disorders and things like OCD might also fall under that category.  I’m not talking so much about those disorders (unless they cause paranoia), I’m talking mainly about the mental disorders that expose you to negative and abusive input that comes from the lowest end of the spectrum, such as schizophrenia or psychosis. I’m also talking about illness that causes paranoid delusions.

Conclusions…

I believe that people who don’t have mental illness shouldn’t undertake psychic development too lightly either.  Especially not those who plan to do it professionally.  I don’t want to sound heavy here, but make sure you are not depressed – if you are, psychic development isn’t important for you at this time – lifting yourself up is more important. And although this goes without saying: definitely don’t train as a professional intuitive if you’re mentally ill and not on medication (I know that might sound like I’m being condescending by saying that, but I know people who have and I don’t think anyone would like to be a client of someone who had mental issues.) I have no idea how medication would affect psychic experiences so can’t comment on that.

So in my view, you don’t have psychological problems if you have heard voices. You’re not insane if you’ve had visions, or have strong hunches or just ‘know’ things without knowing HOW you know…as long as it’s not abusive, negative AND uncontrolled.

If you want to be psychic and remain balanced, I recommend learning how to turn it off, so that you’re not going around switched on all the time. Obviously, not knowing how to turn it off doesn’t make you mentally ill, but being able to turn it off can certainly help you to remain balanced in your life!

Got questions? Comments?

Do you disagree/agree with this? Although I welcome debates, I will warn skeptics who already think I’m crazy that I’m a lost cause