Have you heard about a Psychic named Presley Gridley? She has aliases of Rhonda, according to one report I read, and Angel, according to another. If you haven’t heard of her yet, you probably will.

Presley just received a nearly $7 Million dollar judgment against her for psychic claims that turned out to not be true.

Short story:
Presley called the Liberty County Sheriff’s office and reported that she was a psychic and was making a report of mass graves. She claimed that several missing children  were also being kept on the property in some type of container or cellar. Due to the seriousness of the claims, the local law enforcement took the report very seriously, and Texas Rangers, FBI and TX Dept of Public Safety all investigated, even going so far as to use cadaver dogs.

Reports indicate Presley went into a great amount of detail: Grisly and gruesome details about dismembered corpses and blood sacrifices.

http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/psychic-ordered-to-pay-7-million-for-false-claims-130617.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1

This story and judgment is sending chills through the Intuitive community, and perhaps it should.

There are certainly some bad weeds in the Gardens of the Divine Channel, and those weeds need to be removed. However, we must remember even the great ones sometimes get it wrong.

This youtube video discusses famous Psychic Medium Sylvia Brown telling Amanda Berry’s mom that she was dead, in water. When in fact, Amanda was alive and kept in captivity for many years and recently escaped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67nnkxSzSYg

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What does all this mean? Where is the break down in the system? Is the intuitive getting bad information? Or is the intuitive just misinterpreting it? Or is it all just made up?

Well, it starts here: Intuitives are humans too. They are still subject to many of the same limitations of the human condition.

Gifts work differently, but to make it easier to understand, think of it like interpreting one language to another. Some expressions won’t translate easily and some might not translate at all. And then there is the very important “foundation of knowledge” factor.

For example, one time I was giving a reading to a lovely woman when I kept hearing “Mother Theresa.” I thought about everything that Mother Theresa stood for and started telling her what characteristics connected her to Mother Theresa. Loving, Kind, Compassionate, Giving. Catholicism.  And yet, I very clearly heard “Mother Theresa” again. So I went further into the energy of Mother Theresa. Still not enough. I finally said, “Okay, they aren’t letting this go.  I keep hearing Mother Theresa, Mother Theresa.  There is something for you to know about Mother Theresa.”  My client then looked at me and smiled. She then said “My mother is named Theresa.”               BAM.

Most intuitives get pieces, tidbits, or snippets of information: a name, initials, a quick flash of something (a man joyriding on a motorcycle) or maybe a familiar phrase or saying (Good Morning Sunshine). Even the really famous Intuitives  receive most of their information in this way. And even those small flashes of information still have to process through the human filter of the intuitive. Just like when I heard “Mother Theresa” repeatedly, I didn’t misunderstand the words but I misunderstood the connection. It happens.

As a general rule, I try to never second guess another intuitive, medium, or healer. Unless I received exactly the same message, I couldn’t possibly criticize their channeled messages. Sometimes, however, something rings so blatantly ridiculous that I have to say “I don’t think that feels accurate.” (To date, I’ve only done this a handful of times, and it normally accompanies a client tells me a story about being told something like “Someone wishes to do you harm, but I can offer your protection for $500,” or in a very extreme case, a healer claimed to be able to help a woman’s deceased husband come back to earth as a walk in, so they could be together again. In those instances, I feel confident enough to cry foul! It’s not that I doubt the walk- in possibility, but one soul will not negate the right to live/life of another. So what about the walk- out’s life? His family? His friends? How would they feel when their loved one wakes up one day and says: “None of you are familiar to me and I’m leaving.” I have witnessed the potential fall out from a walk- in who abandoned the life he promised to live and cherish. It’s painful. )

I’m even going to go as far as to say that maybe Sylvia Brown wasn’t completely wrong. Here’s why:

There is a type of Soul Communication called Soul to Soul or Higher Self communication. It works a lot like mediumship, except that both souls are still in the physical (on earth). I discovered this type of communication one night when my grandmother paid me a visit.  I was living in Texas, and she was in Oklahoma. When I could hear her voice talking to me, I thought that she had just died, and she was coming to say goodbye. I listened to everything she said to me, and then when she was finished talking, I called my mom to have her check on my grandmother. My grandmother was sleeping peacefully, and I was left wondering what had just happened. (Okay, who am I kidding – I was like WTF?!?)

So I then began trying to learn/develop/fine tune this soul to soul (higher self) communication. A few weeks later, I heard a rebroadcast of a Sonia Choquette radio show on Hay House and she was doing this same type of higher self communication. It works very similar to mediumship, but the souls don’t have to be in heaven.

Maybe Sylvia Brown was communicating with Amanda Berry’s soul/higher self. And maybe that part of her knew that she wouldn’t be free before her mother transcended home to heaven. Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not saying that’s what happened for sure. I’m just saying it’s a possibility.

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Intuited messages about “what will happen” are also subject to the human interpretation. Predicting the future is always tricky, even for a truly gifted Intuitive. One free will decision can alter the entire course. Let me give you an example:

Gillian is a client seeking guidance on when she will meet her Soul Mate (soul based relationship). And I can see pretty clearly that Gillian is going to cross paths with him in October and they have even had past lives together. They have a strong soul connection. Gillian leaves happy and ready for her new relationship.

Gillian was invited to a wedding in August. She would really only consider going to the wedding to meet guys, but because she knows she will meet her soul mate in October, she feels no need to go to the wedding. She sends her regrets that she will not be in attendance, and this simple decision alters her path. why? Because she was going to meet Kate at the wedding, and Kate was going to set Gillian up with her brother Sam, who was indeed Gillian’s soul mate. So knowing the future altered the path.

Anytime an Intuitive tells a client a prediction, there is the risk of altering the path. When I am shown the future, I am shown 3 to 4 different scenarios based on free will decisions. I see the highest good path, the most likely path, and the less likely paths. My job is to interpret which one the client wants and then help him/her to align with that path.

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Now, back to Presley Gridley. . . I have no idea what she saw. I have no idea if the information she gave to the police was truly intuited or if it was just made up to try to make a name for herself. Either way, she probably didn’t act appropriately.

I don’t know that an Intuitive can say any vision or message is absolutely, utterly, and 100%  correct. Why? Because we are faced with the issue of interpretation. Just like I misinterpreted “Mother Theresa” for several minutes, Presley Gridley could have misinterpreted the message of mass graves. Maybe there was a mass grave on the property – just several hundred years ago. Maybe it was a metaphorical message. I don’t know.

Clearly, some Intuitives get it right. The good ones are very accurate, and even when we don’t know the context, we can still get the message. One day, I was doing a session with a woman and her brother in spirit showed me 3 trees. I had no idea what the trees were but he showed me the image several times, so I finally said “okay, he wants you to know something about trees. Three trees.” The woman smiled. The day before, she had purchased three trees to plant in her yard: one for her mother in spirit, one for her father in spirit and one for the brother in spirit. I had absolute no context for those 3 trees, but the message came through anyway.

I don’t know how Presley Gridley’s message got so severely messed up. And maybe we will never know. I doubt she speaks about this case in light of the judgment against her.

If one thing is for sure, the professional accountability and responsibility of intuitives has changed in light of this judgment. Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe this action will be the motivation to inspire, if not  force, more intuitives, mediums and healer into a state of vigilance, professionalism and ethical standards.

I’m not afraid of ethical standards. I employ them anyway. And I will be so grateful when the day comes that I never have to see the pain in the face of another person who has been taken advantage of by an Intuitive who used fear to manipulate and control him. Spiritual teachers, healers, and intuitives should hold themselves to a standard of Healing. Our oath should be similar to that of many pagan religions: Harm None — hold the purpose and energy to harm no one. Help. Heal. Transform. Let each person leave you better than they arrived.

If there is one more thing we can take from this experience, it’s this:

Texas does not like Psychics.

As someone who was literally branded a witch and ran out of a small Texas town, I can speak from first hand experience as to the legal discrimination I faced in Texas. It was a painful and difficult time in my life, as my family, including my husband and children, also suffered discrimination because of my Intuitive and Healing Work.

I’m sure there are parts of Texas (big cities) that are more accommodating to Intuitives and their work, but my personal experience has made me wary of small town Texas. I know it’s hard for people who live in more progressive, liberal areas of the US to understand the energy of living in the Bible Belt (Texas, Oklahoma), but it really is a very different experience. I feel my job is to be a catalyst to begin meaningful conversation about the dynamics of being Psychic in the Bible Belt area of the US.

Please join me in holding prayer, love and light for everyone in the Presley Gridley case. With a nearly 7 Million dollar judgment against her, she needs a lot of Light and Love. This has certainly been a painful lesson. But please don’t forget the families adversely affected by her inaccurate messages, including the ranch owners. Their lives were destroyed, and they were clearly wronged and seriously injured. My heart really hurts for these people.

We can do better. We will do better.

Yours in Light and Love,

Leslie

Bible Belt Mystic.com