How Do I Know if a Psychic Medium is Real and Not Cheating.

Psychic mediums can cheat using tactics like cold reading, googling you, and checking social media accounts.

Yes, many psychic mediums do cheat using techniques such as hot-reading (googling, checking a client’s social media) and/or cold-reading (giving a generic reading based on things like your age and how you respond to cues), but many more truly believe they have the ability to connect to the dead. Their hearts are in the right place, but they are often just good at picking up cues that they believe they are getting psychically or from someone who has passed away.

Now, what about the small percent of “self-proclaimed” psychic mediums who are getting highly accurate information that cannot be explained by “normal” means - either intentionally or not. Information such as a deceased person's name, personality traits, hobbies, and special memories that you shared with this loved one.

There are some psychic mediums however, who are showing genuine abilities, even during controlled scientific studies!

It is that small percent of mediums who are demonstrating this level of inexplicable abilities that have transformed my skeptical ass from someone who assumed an afterlife was wishful thinking and all mediums were either charlatans or self-deluded, to someone who thinks something absolutely unexplainable by material science is going on. Transformed into someone who is almost 98% sure I will see my dad again one day.  

So, how do you assure you are getting that level of reading if you go to see a psychic medium? How do you walk away from a reading knowing the medium did not cheat? While scientists such as Dr. Julie Beischel are taking this to a level in the lab that you or I cannot, this is what I do to assure a medium cannot cheat.

Here are 12 tips to know a psychic medium was genuine and did not cheat.

Use a fake name when getting a reading with a psychic medium.

1 - Fake name
Give a fake name. They do not need your name. You can give your real first name if you have a fairly common first name, but make sure you do not give any other part of your name. 

To disguise your identity for a medium reading use a Google Voice number.

2 - VPN /Email/ Google Voice
Create a fake email address with your fake name that you use just for this reading. Create a Google Voice number if the medium needs a phone number. I even used a VPN (virtual private network) wherever I booked a reading online through their website. You can also use a friend’s computer or one at the library or Kinko’s. I never heard of a medium tracking an IP address to trace who booked an appointment, but there could be some technology? If someone is defying the laws of the universe, I wanted to eliminate any possible normal means - including ones that could include some FBI level technology I had never heard of. 

Make sure psychic mediums can’t share information on you.

3 - Use different fake names
If you are going to more than one medium, use a different fake name and email address for each one. This can eliminate the possibility that mediums create? sell? share? databases with one another on clients  

Careful about giving anything that can reveal your identity to psychic mediums.

4 - Have someone else pay
Do not pay in advance with your credit card, PayPal, Venmo or anything attached to your name. Do not pay with a family member’s credit card, Venmo etc. If it is in person, bring cash. Otherwise, borrow from a friend. Use their credit card etc and pay your friend. Ideally this friend is not a roommate or business partner. It can be someone you are close with, but don’t have identifying information tied with them.

5 - Dress Generic
As I explain in 6 Things to do Before Visiting a Psychic Medium, if a medium is using cold-reading, they will pick up cues based on the way you dress. If your grandpa gave you a special watch, don’t wear it. If you are a yoga teacher, don’t come decked out in LuluLemon. If you are a painter, scrub your fingernails and don’t dress like you have an appointment at a Soho art gallery. If your mother died of breast cancer, don’t wear that pink ribbon. Hide any meaningful tattoos. Look completely generic. Then if you are a hairstylist for example, and your hair is just in a plain ponytail, it will mean something more if your grandpa talks about what a great hairstylist you are. 

6 - Be careful of fingerprints
There are two mediums I had readings with who requested paper checks in advance and that I fill out a paper form to book a session. First for the paper checks. If I were to have my bank issue them a paper check, it would print out with my name on it. So I got a cashier’s check. Whenever I touched the paper cashier’s check and printed out the paper form, and then placed them into the envelope I used rubber gloves. I didn’t get fingerprints on any of the papers that the medium would receive. Granted, I don’t think they could have access to that level of fingerprint machine, then somehow trace it to my fingerprints (considering I’ve never been arrested) - but again, if someone is defying the laws of the universe you wanna be able to eliminate all possible ways they could have cheated or you will always wonder. 

Note that both of those readings were two of the best readings I ever had.

Psychic Mediums can ask leading questions and phish for information.

7 - Pay attention to how the medium speaks
Make sure they are not asking leading questions that force you to give up information and make it look like they “got” the information. A common example of this is the following line, “You didn't lose your dad, did you?”. So… what are they saying? If you say “yes, I did,” they can easily reply with “I thought so.” If you say “No, I didn’t,’ they can say I didn’t think so. If you are unclear what the medium is saying, you can ask them to clarify. I have had mediums say the above and I will reply, “I’m sorry I don’t get what you are saying. Are you saying you are getting that my dad did pass or  that he did not?”. Sometimes it is just awkward phrasing, because even the genuine ones are still human and don’t speak perfectly. In that case they replied, ‘I meant I am getting that he has passed.” In ones that were less than genuine they repeated. In that case it is up to you if you want to push it, or reply, but be aware that was not evidential. 

8 - Answer nothing more than yes, no, I don’t know
There is no need to give more information than this. The best mediums will tell you not to give them anything else. For example if a medium says, “I have a woman here who is a generation above you. Related to you who passed quickly,” and you say “Yes! That is my Aunt Lisa who died of a heart attack,” you just ruined the chance to get some amazing evidence. If you answer only “yes,” than the medium could continue, “I am getting an L name like Lisa or Lindsay, she died suddenly of something related to her heart. Not your mother, but you were close like she was your mother.” Let the medium show how much they can get. 

Psychic mediums might be reading micro expressions and unintentionally cold reading.

9 - Phone is best if possible
Sometimes the emotion of an in-person medium reading is needed. I love the in-person when I can do them for just that reason, but phone is more evidential. Before I delved in, I assumed in-person was best because I could watch what they were doing. Did they have an earpiece with an assistant feeding them information (I looked carefully my first few readings!). If I am sitting in front of them they can’t sit there and google me! But a phone is more evidential, as long as you hide your real number such as have them call you on a google voice number, a burner phone, or make your number unavailable if you are calling them. The reason a phone is more evidential is they cannot pick up cues from how you look or any micro expressions. 

10 - If you are doing a video call, keep your background neutral
I had a few readings on Skype or Zoom. Along with making a fake Skype/Zoom account name, make sure your background is neutral. You don’t want them to get information based on your home. Is your mom’s favorite painting on the wall behind you? A family photo? A sympathy card on the mantle. You can use one of the Zoom backgrounds, or make sure you are in front of a neutral, blank wall.  

Do not give extra information during a psychic medium reading.

11 - Avoid small talk as much as possible in the beginning
If it’s in person especially, of course there needs to be some small talk. Mediums are humans and they are being polite. They will ask normal welcoming stuff such as did you have an easy time finding the place. The same if an assistant greets you. Be wary if they seem too conversational, as if they are trying to get information. Polite and friendly small talk is nice and human though, as long as you don’t give anything away. Notice if they ask something like, “Oh where did you come from? Do you live in that town? They have a great school system right?” Are they trying to see if you have kids? If you lost a kid? 

12 - Be quiet!
If it's a group reading, do NOT give information to anyone else there. If during a break or before the readings start, another guest is warm and friendly, sure be friendly. But if they ask you anything about who you lost, do NOT answer. You can be honest and say, you want to keep things evidential so you would rather not talk about it. Most likely the guest is friendly, and they are trying to bond a bit over the loneliness and pain of grief, but sometimes mediums do plant people who gather as much information as they can. Also, maybe the other guest is as honest and kind as can be, but there are microphones or plants lurking around feeding information. In terms of private readings, if you are in a waiting room, the same applies. If you went with someone, do NOT talk about your loved one, or anything about yourselves such as what you do for work. Do NOT talk to anyone else in the waiting room. Do NOT pull out that necklace from your deceased husband that you carry in your pocket. Do not open your phone and look at a photo or that special last text. Even if the place is empty there could be cameras.

I am a skeptic and when I took away all ways a medium could cheat and they still got accurate information, my life changed!

So those are tips I follow. Now, I am still absolutely astounded beyond words that despite these protocols, some mediums have gotten highly accurate information. I can confidently say I know they did not cheat.