(publicity photo “The Women of Germany” WWII)

My great Oma, Alwina, was an incredibly accurate psychic. There are several family stories which are circulated around the holidays, and now that I’m actually working in this field, I appreciate her accuracy even more.

One story is set during WWII. Alwina was ¼ Jewish, and so was not a target for the government’s ethnic cleansing policies at the time, and all those who didn’t wish to be labeled enemies of the socialist party were obliged to join the party or risk losing their jobs, their homes and worse. Alwina and much of my father’s family were Nazis, like many Germans, out of survival.

(Ironically, my mother’s family was in Canada and fighting with the “allies”. Just a generation later the warring families’ histories would overlap through marriage.)

Everyone was losing loved ones. Everyone was sending their men out to war, over 100 million souls on this earth were serving in the military between 1939 and 1945. If you want to refresh your memory on WWII history, the wiki entry completely overwhelmed me with dates, stats and photos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II

(My Opa, Alwina’s son, was one of “Hitler’s Youth” a sort of government-agenda Scouts organization. Please understand, those families who didn’t join up with the socialist party’s agenda were considered its enemies.)

It is no wonder, during this time of worldwide horror, that women desperate for information turned to my great grandmother for insight into the fate of their husbands, brothers, suitors and sons. This is how Alwina ultimately earned her reputation.

One day, a chauffeured car pulled up in front of Alwina’s house. A well-dressed woman was assisted out of the vehicle by her driver, and she knocked on the door. She wanted to know where her husband was, if he was alive and whether he would come home.

Alwina, without even letting this woman into the house quipped, “Your husband is fine. He was injured in battle, but he survived. He lost an arm and a leg. He’s at your house right now, wondering why no one is answering the door.”

This was too much for the woman – convinced Alwina was a “schyster” she stormed back to her car and went home.

Two days later, the chauffeured car returned to Alwina’s house. The well-dressed woman approached and knocked on the front door. This time, when Alwina answered, she said,

“I’d like you to meet my husband…”

He was a healthy if no longer whole fellow, missing an arm and a leg but otherwise fine. He had indeed been knocking on the front door of his own house the moment his wife was visiting Alwina.

Stories like that get around.

It’s a really common request for people consulting a psychic to ask about their future. Everyone hopes for readings as accurate as Alwina’s. Psychics who are consistent and skilled build reputations through word of mouth referrals. Foretelling the future is a specialized skill, and my work centers more around mediumship, conversing with a particular consciousness, rather than gleening information from the great cloud of information surrounding the planet… although I’m working on building that skill set.

Still, sometimes things come through and I pass it on, but the thing which really makes me hesitate is the potential impact a psychic can have upon someone’s life by passing along information. I’ve already told you about my friend whose futures opened up after a month of meditation… which startled me enough to use this as an example whenever anyone asks me about their future. I’ll tell you what I see, and what I see is there because of the decisions you’re in the habit of making. If you want to create a different future, you can. You don’t have to accept what I tell you as inevitable.

A few entries ago I told you about my friend Emma who met “LA Guy” recently… well yesterday I just heard about her weekend. Silver Fox is now officially Silver Dud. In a shockingly complete disaster of an evening, Silver Dud utterly destroyed any and all chances with Emma. Let’s just say the evening started with an Ativan he got from a friend, (this is a prescription, controlled anxiety medication) peaked with getting stranded after he got so drunk he lost his car keys and offered to buy her expensive shoes as compensation, and culminated with some very unattractive statements.

The universe owes my friend big. She’s fantastic, she did not deserve this disappointment… and I felt terrible having read the situation and seen nothing wrong with this guy. In fact, her grandmother had chimed in to say she liked this guy, and another trusted spirit friend had declared Silver Dud would “never hurt you.”

I would never say that. I never met the guy, and I certainly wouldn’t advise my friend to let her guard down after just two weeks. This just fell out of my mouth, as generally happens during a reading.

So what the hell, Emma’s spirit posy??? What kind of fall did I inadvertently set her up for? I apologized to Emma, and she said her disappointment likely would have happened anyway. He was so sure of himself, things had started off so well. It was a complete surprise to everyone involved.

I’m so sensitive to the potential impact of a future reading… so much so that I don’t like to do it. And I’m left puzzling how Alwina dealt with giving terrible news to heartbroken widows.

I’m understanding, more and more, why she never read for friends and family.

So folks, what do you think? Would you do future readings if you were me?