I grew up in the Midwest in the late 60’s and 70’s. I was a smart, curious little guy, my head filled with questions about everything including spiritual, psychic & metaphysical things. The only person I had to talk to about psychic ‘new age’ things was a zany uncle who frequented psychic fairs and believed he had seen a UFO over a wheat field in Kansas. This left me with books as my only real source of knowledge. And as you can image, the New Age Psychic section in neighborhood branch of the Omaha Public Library in the mid 1970’s was pretty skinny.

These were lonely days for a curious kid with no outlet to explore his interests. My story is not unlike the stories I hear from so many folks I meet every day. I assumed this is just part of the spiritual journey. What if I had had the opportunity to start studying psychic and spiritual things when I was just a kid?

The Logan School

Recently I was contacted by an instructor at The Logan School in Denver.  The mission of The Logan School for Creative Learning is ‘to provide an experience-based educational opportunity for gifted children of all backgrounds that allows each child to develop individually to his or her full potential.’Students at the Logan School have the opportunity to explore areas of interest to the student. The instructor had a few students interested in New Age topics like Spiritualism and psychic phenomena. We made an appointment for the kids to take a field trip to my office to meet me and ask their questions.

Prior to the visit, the teacher forwarded over questions which he had the students prepare in advance. Our talk completely transcended the questions provided in advance but would be a framework for our conversation. The 4 students’ areas of interest included Death, The Paranormal, Superhuman Powers, and Psychology of Religion. The questions were thought provoking, far beyond anything I would have been able to ask at age 10.

Our Meeting

The day arrived for our meeting. I stood at the top of the stairs. I watched two teachers and four little bodies move up to the second floor where my office is located. Then each student took a moment to introduce themselves. After a very brief pause, one of the students began to share what he knew about the Fox Sisters. As an aside, I know a number of Spiritualists who know little or nothing about the Fox Sisters and the origins of Spiritualism. I knew right away this was going to be a fun couple of hours.

The students asked questions like “Do you have any parapsychological abilities (telekinesis, ESP,etc.)?”, “ What’s happening with the mind when communicating with the dead?”, and “Do you build your own séance materials?” The last question refers to a time when Spirit Mediums regularly used physical props as a part of the Séance. However, this isn’t a common practice today and showed me that these students were doing research on these subjects.

Favorite New Age Question

So, I think my favorite question of the day was “How do you feel about pop culture representations of the new age and psychics?” This is a subject near and dear to my heart. As a Medium, I am sensitive to the portrayal of our faith and our practices as mere punchlines to a joke, or our practitioners as fakes needing to be exposed. There are only few people in our world of whom it is acceptable to poke fun, and Psychics, Mediums & Spiritualists are among those few.

Fun Two Hours of New Age Discussion

After two hours of vigorous discussion, we concluded our session. Later that day I received an email from the teacher which in part read “I can’t tell you in words how much of an impact you made on the students this morning.  The conversation on the way back to school was fascinating and gave insight into just how inspired they were by meeting with you. I appreciate your time greatly and the wisdom and energy you bring to the world. You truly have a gift and I am so grateful that you shared that today.”

I was grateful to have met them as well. Their interest and enthusiasm inspires me to continue doing this work. I am excited to continue to reach out to those who find this subject exciting as it expands their awareness of the physical and spiritual universe. It was also a way to pay homage to the many, many teachers who took time to share their wisdom with me as a younger man. I hope in some way to have made an impact on future generations of spiritual explorers in same the way my teachers affected me.

Speaking of “psychic” notice that 4 out of the 5 of us are wearing green. Great Minds think alike!

For more on kids with Psychic Abilities… The Secret Life of Kids: An Exploration into Their Psychic Senses

Back to Basics: Psychic Development A to Z