Are you one of the 20% of the population classed as a ‘sensitive’, or in other words, someone with a developed level of psychic ability?

Lucy Setters, a tarot card reader and psychic from Brighton, is one of the 20% who has honed her psychic powers to connect with the spirit world. Lucy believes that everyone has psychic powers which can be developed, so in the name of open-mindedness and curiosity, I decided to ask Lucy about her powers, and how she goes about using them.

It was from her paternal grandmother that Lucy says she inherited her abilities. “In hindsight I’m sure my late father had something too, it just wasn’t something that was talked about when I was younger.” Lucy believes that this sort of ability runs in families, as a result of the willingness of some families to discuss their psychic abilities with one another. But Lucy is adamant that we are all capable of accessing and cultivating our own psychic powers, whether our families are practising psychics or not.

“Everyone has clairvoyant abilities. Some say they were born ‘with the gift’, something I am wary of because it is something which implies they are special.” Lucy says that in order to access the spirit world, we must balance our personality ego, or the part of our minds saying ‘I can’t do this’, with our soul energy, to enable us to access the collective consciousness and information from the dead. Holding a photograph or an object owned by the person whose spirit you wish to contact can help, and Lucy recommends dedicating some space to spiritual activities. “In fact that is why I moved a couple of years ago, so I could have a separate room to work in.” If you want to work on your own psychic abilities, Lucy suggests meditating for ten minutes a day, as this helps her ‘tune in’ more easily.

Of course, as a psychic, Lucy experiences a fair amount of scepticism. “People doubt the existence of psychic powers because it isn’t tangible.” However, Lucy says it is amazing how sceptics react when something which cannot be doubted comes through. “For the last couple of years I’ve worked at an annual accounting software exhibition in London and that has been interesting, alpha men in pinstripes who have done the whole ‘arms crossed, tell me then’ bit and they have been quite shocked!” In fact, more and more men have been enquiring about Lucy’s services, mostly on work-related matters, although women still make up the majority of her clients, at around 80%, and most clients approach Lucy in times of crisis, perhaps looking for reassurance or comfort. It is for this reason that Lucy is very careful in the way that she phrases the information uncovered in her readings. “A psychic reading is supposed to be uplifting. For me, if anything comes through which isn’t so positive, I take great care to make sure I choose my words in a supportive way.”

Sometimes, though, psychics have to deal with finding out some difficult information from their readings. “Once, I got a massive pain in my head and it turned out the client had a brain tumour,” Lucy said. Fortunately, the client had surgery, and Lucy kept in touch with her throughout her recovery. Lucy says that she tells people what they need to know, and that it might not necessarily be what they want. “A client has commented that I give people hope, but never false hope.”

Lucy’s favourite psychic tool is the tarot cards. “Carl Jung said that if he was put in a room and allowed only one tool to work with, it would be the tarot. It works as a system for opening up the psyche.” Put simply, tarot comprises 78 cards split into 22 Major Arcana (greater secrets) and 56 Minor Arcana (lesser secrets), divided into four suits. The Major cards indicate significant life events and inner feelings, whereas the Minor cards reflect the day to day happenings in life. Each suit represents a different area of life, such as health or love. The reading is derived from the cards and the way they are laid out in relation to one another. “I absolutely love tarot, as I am a clairvoyant, it is the perfect tool for me as I visualise very easily, so literally as I tune in, I can ‘see’ what’s going on. Being able to use this skill to help other people is the biggest buzz!” Lucy says that tarot has helped people re-evaluate abusive relationships in the past based on a reading, and that even just making people aware of the non-material world through tarot is important.

A particularly interesting tarot reading occurred last summer:

“A woman called me on a Sunday morning saying that she lives in Lancashire and on the previous Thursday she had the urge to come to Brighton. On the Saturday she decided to have a tarot reading and found me, her first reading in 12 years. She came at 1pm on the Monday and once we started, her maternal grandmother came through. She started crying, telling me that her maternal grandmother was the most important person in her life. I got a lot of information through, her grandmother told about her peaceful passing, how much she loved this woman, described a lot of personal information, which she could take. However, she insisted her grandmother had not passed over. I then got a call about 6.30pm that day, to say her mother had called her to say her grandmother had passed away at lunchtime, the exact time of the reading. I have no doubt that the whole sequence of events was orchestrated by spirit, because energetically I would be the one to connect with her grandmother and let her say goodbye. Who comes all that way, from Lancashire to Brighton, on a whim?”

So, what if you believe you may have psychic abilities you wish to tap into? Lucy recommends finding a psychic development circle, starting the search at a local spiritualist church, or at the College of Psychic Studies in London, where Lucy herself studies. She also attends regular workshops and psychic retreats with renowned psychics Tony Stockwell, Gordon Smith and Heidi Sawyer. She mentions that online development groups exist, but recommends the personal connection of a physical group over these, as you can share experiences more easily. And the number one piece of advice? “Find a mentor that you trust and work with them. Once you start it’s quite a journey!”

How about you? Are you convinced by clairvoyancy?