(Answered by Psychic Deborah Vaughn)
A. In the 25 years I have been on the giving and receiving sides, an 85-90% accuracy rate has been my experience with the truly gifted.
Q#2. But if one is truly gifted, what accounts for the 10-15% inaccuracy?
A. As I have stressed many times, the paranormal (which I believe is just plain normal), though helpful if used practically, is not an exact science. There are many variables that contribute to inaccuracy. I'll list some that come from my own experience and research.
There's always the intuitive's's own interference :
Then, there is the listener's interference:
Q#3. How heavily should I base my decisions on what I have heard in an intuitive reading?
A. On serious matters, never take risks solely because of what you have heard in a reading. Rather, confirm it with more concrete information from experts on consequential matters like stock markets, investments, suspicions of infidelity, criminal activity, health issues, etc.
On Monday before Thanksgiving, my flight including my connections was cancelled. By Tuesday, those flights had been reinstated, and on Wednesday I arrived in New England without a hitch.
Q#4. How did you get started in this?
A. This is the question most often asked of me. People see me as a regular person, just like them, and they are curious when they find out what I do. Okay, well, when I was still an elementary school student, I saw an ad for Reader's Digest on television. It featured a story on ESP (which I had never heard of), and the ad was really scary. It was about a woman whose father had died and just at the time he died, she saw a ghostly figure of him and heard her calling her name, "Maria, Maria." It scared me so bad I couldn't sleep at night. But I was intrigued. Later I read the article in Reader's Digest and started experimenting to see if I might have ESP abilities, which sure enough I had. (I think we all have it. And those who are attracted to that sort of thing use theirs; those that aren't, don't.) I used to entertain the girls at sleepovers by predicting what the next song on the radio would be. My first research in seventh grade was on ESP, and one of my speeches in high school Speech Class was as well. I still have a yearbook where one of my Speech classmates wrote about my "amazing ESP ability."
Cheerleading, popularity contests, boys, and a cable TV talk show pushed that interest out of the way for awhile. Then I became a born-again Christian, and I was horrified of "the occult." In fundamentalist circles, everything that had to do with supernatural things outside of prayer and answered prayer was just kind of lumped into one satanic ball and called "the occult." One Christian leader said that because "the occult" meant "things hidden," we should avoid it because it was meant to stay hidden. So I stayed away from it for a long time. Now I know that "the occult" means "things hidden," like mysterious things, things we don't understand. The word "occult" is not even in the Bible.
But it didn't go away. In college, I had many psychic experiences. However, I didn't encourage them because of my deep faith in God and, quite honestly, fear of going to hell for dealing with "the occult."
Twelve years after college, I met a man named John Catchings, a popular psychic in Dallas who had been on a lot of national television shows. He told me I was very psychic, and taught me psychometry. I met a lot of people who were in his organization, North Texas Parapsychology Association, who shared some of their psychic developmental secrets with me. John put me in his expo's before I was ready. I really didn't know what I was doing to begin with, but slowly the information I was picking up from people made sense to me.
I spent many hours in my spare time developing, experimenting, adding new methods to my readings, and playing games of ESP with my daughter to keep my sixth sense sharpened.
Over twenty-two years later I still hang out with some who do what I do, although John tragically passed away in 1992. We spend hours discussing our gifts. I still do expo's, if the geographical location permits (where I live now does not permit it), and doing them comes naturally to me now. And I still spend time developing, experimenting, exploring new methodologies, and keeping my skills sharpened with exercises. In the past few years I have added to my portfolio teaching classes and having a web site on the Internet. (1/22/99dv)
Q#5. What do you like best about this profession?
A. First of all, let me quantify that, though I do this professionally, I do not depend on it for a living. The thing I like best is working with people--being in a position to say a kind word to someone who is discouraged or depressed. Being able to shed light on someone's difficulties. (2/28/99dv)
Q#6. What do you like least about this profession?
A. That I have no control over what comes through. I want everything to be just what the person wants to hear. But when someone asks me a question, I have to call it like I see it. Also, sometimes the answer is vague; other times the answer is very specific. I wish they could all be very specific. (There is a reason why this happens. I just don't know what it is.) Sometimes this whole dealing with the unknown is a little disconcerting. In my mainstream jobs, I am used to being in control of my work and its flow. Not so for this profession! (2/28/99dv)
Another thing I would like to add about doing this: Over the past 22-plus years, I have found a pattern of certain things meaning the same in "psychic language." Again, I don't understand it and have no control over it. Here are some things you should know:
Q#7. Even though a prediction may be accurate for me, it doesn't always happen when they say it will. Why?
A. Timing a prediction is one of the difficulties of doing this work. The logical answer to your question that comes to me is this: There may be a delay due to the person putting off his or her free-will part of the panorama. As I mentioned earlier in this column, a friend asked me when she would get a job. I told her "January." Then she put off her job search until after January. It stands to reason why she did not get a job until April.
Alternatively, the person may be doing his best to prevent the occurrence. Once I was warned that, within a month, my home would be burglarized. Then she said the thief would return two weeks later. One year later I was robbed while I was away from home. Exactly one week later he broke in while I was inside. Skeptics might say that this was bound to happen anyway, because I lived in the city. But I truly believe that this was a true, intuitive prediction, because I had lived in Dallas for eleven years with no probems with theft. The delay in timing could be attributed to the fact that, for a long time, I was extra careful to lock up, keep my alarm set, etc. But the day of the robbery, I was deep in thought as I was walking to my car, and I didn't pay attention to the suspicious person who approached me and asked if my neighbors were home. This turned out to be the intruder. 6/7/00
Q #8. You talk of having psychic experiences by hearing and seeing otherworldly things? How does this differ from those who are psychotic who hear voices and see visions?
A. There is a difference between Divine Guidance and psychosis. Divine Guidance will never tell you to do anything that will hurt yourself or others. However, psychosis will do this in people with certain mental illnesses. Sometimes people with psychosis proclaim things that are irrelevant and make no sense.
Guidance helps with relationships, most other issues, little things through the day. It tips you off to real scenarios going on at work. It helps curb paranoia. It helps heal relationships. It is relevant.
Please note the difference! (5/17/05dv)
All revised 7/4/08, 3/29/09.
Q#1. What accuracy rate should I expect from an authentic psychic reader?
The information that the psychic receives is most likely accurate in itself, but by the time it has gone through that middle person--a human being--the information may have become misinterpreted or garbled:
One time I was reading at an expo and heard the name "Foster." I asked the listener if that name meant anything to him. "No, he said." I pushed it aside and continued reading. However, the next person sat down and wrote her name and address for my mailing list. I had never seen her before and noticed that her last name was "Foster." This had been a case of psychic interference. It doesn't happen much, but it does happen, especially when you're in a large, crowded room where energy is bouncing off the walls.
That is the advantage you have in receiving a reading: You are still in control; you have the choice of which fork in the road you will take.
For example, an unemployed friend once asked when she would get a job. I projected "January," but she chose to delay the job search--which was her prerogative--until after January. In April, my friend found her job.
It's okay, I think, to take little risks. In November 1993 a close relative, Linda, invited me to her home for Thanksgiving. However, the only available flight was with American Airlines, whose flight attendants were preparing to strike any time. This meant possible flight cancellations of that airline, since the FAA mandates that a sufficient number of attendants be on the aircraft to ensure passenger safety. Linda asked me if I wanted to chance the American reservations. She suggested that I do a tarot reading on it and then call her back with my answer. As I shuffled my tarot cards and asked if my trip would be a success with the American tickets, the card that had represented Linda to me for four years fell out. I called her back with the news. "The 'Linda' card fell out." "That must mean you are going to be seeing me," was her conclusion. "Let's ticket the American flight."
That card reading served as a positive catalyst to get me to Linda's. On the other hand, had the reading been interpreted inaccurately, the consequences would not have been disastrous: I would have spent Thanksgiving with a friend, which was "Plan B."
(1-2-99dv)