This is probably one of the most meaningful articles I have had to write in many years. I’m here to tell you as a former psychic kid (now a psychic adult) that being a child with higher awareness is a very lonely and difficult road to travel. I consider it my obligation and my joy to write an article that might help these children in some small way.

What prompted me to write this article was a program I viewed two nights ago on television, called “Psychic Kids.” The program discussed children with enhanced abilities. One of the children, a 10-year-old girl, presented with the ability to converse with the deceased. She was also able to sense their presence and pick up on their feelings. Her older brother, who seemed to have no interest in using or understanding his “gifts,” was a very sensitive empath (one who feels and takes on the emotions of others). A third 14-year-old young man, not related to the siblings, caught my attention and I could feel my heart breaking as I was flooded with my own memories of loneliness and the familiar feeling of helplessness. He was a shy, quiet, introverted young man and had no-one but his parents, who believed him but had no way of understanding how he felt. How do you, as a parent, help your child deal with a difficult burden when you, yourself, have no conception of the feelings and nuances involved?

Think about it. When you’re 9 or 10 years old, many times even younger, and you begin mentally hearing people talk to you, asking you questions, answering questions you could not possibly know the answers to, giving you directions, and even comforting you, things begin to get a little creepy. Who can you tell? All your friends are busy playing outside (or on video games these days), talking on the phone, the way normal people do, and carrying on with their normal lives. Who’s going to understand? Who will believe you? Where do you go for help? What happened to me and what I saw happening to these young people was a “shutting down” response. They tend to keep to themselves so that they are not labeled by their peers as “freaks.” They deny their inborn abilities. If they don’t learn to understand and come to grips with their unique talents, they will eventually grow up to feel unfulfilled and unacceptable by society. It is a very sad outcome, to be sure.

The intensification of the hearing and feeling (as opposed to “touching”) senses are not the only psychic abilities that these special children develop. Other senses that become “para” normal (beyond the scope of normal) are smell, touch, vision and in very rare instances taste, although I have only read about this type of phenomena, and not thoroughly experienced it myself as I have all the other senses. Below is a brief description of the different paranormal senses and how they manifest. Keep in mind as you read the descriptions that these senses are being experience by children who have no idea why or how this is happening to them. The explanations are very brief. If you would like more information on how these senses work, please visit our article entitled “On Intuition” on our Reflections page. Make sure to click on the PDF version.

Sight – Psychic vision is most easily explained by the ability to see with the physical eyes what we term “the dead.” My own then 20-month-old daughter (pictured above, now aged 13) demonstrated this ability when one day she fixed her gaze on a corner of our bedroom where there was nothing more than a nightstand. She pointed and asked, in her baby words, “Who dat?” When I asked her who she was seeing, her eyes seemed to watch something very quickly shoot up toward the ceiling, to which she exclaimed, “Whoa!” twice. When I asked her what she saw, she was able to relate to me that there was a man and a lady, and the man was wearing eyeglasses and a hat. My daughter is now a beautiful, well-adjusted (so far) 13-year-old young lady.

Psychic vision is not limited to seeing spirits. Most psychic vision picks up movement out of the corner of the eye. Sometimes the target of our vision is simply a dark shadow, sometimes a flicker of light, sometimes a white mist or vapor, and sometimes a full-bodied apparition, either completely dense (lifelike) or transparent. Other times psychic vision manifests as a picture inside the mind’s eye. I have personally experienced all but the dense full-bodied type. My daughter sees it all. She sleeps with her desk lamp or television on in her room at night because, as she puts it, “the shadow people scare me a little.”

Touch - This is most easily explained as the ability to feel energy either with the hands or body. In my own experience, the sensation I feel is more like a soft electric buzzing on my hands. When I feel the energy on my face, it feels more like pressure and heat. I have had spirits try to give me information or get my attention by pressing on the right side of my face, causing my cheek to feel heavy and warm. Because of the heightened sensitivity to energy, it is very easy for me to feel when lightening is going to strike. I can pinpoint exactly when it will strike because I feel it only nanoseconds before the light expands in the sky. It feels like a ticking/pulling sensation right around the middle of my abdomen, just above the navel. It’s quite fun to experience, and I’ve often wondered how my love for photography would play out if I ever decided to photograph lightening strikes!

This sense, like all the others, can be developed. Barbara Brennan’s book, Hands of Light, is an excellent teaching tool. If you are interested in learning how to develop your extra senses, I would suggest getting her book. It can be found on Amazon.com.

Sound - This sense has been the culprit behind the accusations of “voices in my head,” “the little birdie told me,” the cute little angel and devil on your shoulder, arguing back and forth, and more seriously it has been the cause of some of those poor souls who are extra-sensitive and are driven mad with the voices they hear. I have been sensitive to hearing voices, which I later learned were the beckoning of the departed, wherever they may be, since I was about 9 years old. People still look at me strangely when they see me carrying on a two-way conversation with no-one else. I find myself having to sleep with a small fan on in my room all night so that I am not distracted by the people who try to get my attention. The white noise seems to help quiet my mind. Every once in a while, though, they manage to get a very physically audible (to me) “Lori!” which sometimes makes me sit bolt upright in my bed. In these cases I take the time to listen, and then nod off to sleep, when what I should do is write down what they tell me; in a perfect world, maybe. It’s not that easy at 2:45 a.m.

This is also one of the most disturbing senses when it comes to children who are new to experiencing their abilities. I was fortunate enough to have a mother who never, ever judged the wild stories I shared with her.

Smell – The passive sense -- The best way, in my understanding, that smell has been used psychically is as a means of contact from the other side. People have reported to smell the tobacco of a departed grandfather, or the perfume of a grandmother or some other close relative. The key word here is “close.” It seems that the deeper the bond, the better the sense of smell can be utilized. I have been in my car driving home from work and smelled popcorn from seemingly out of nowhere. When I arrived home, I found that my children had had friends over, and noted two empty microwave popcorn bags in the trash can. I suppose I should be thankful the popcorn bags made their way to the trash bin!

HOW CAN I HELP MY PSYCHIC CHILD?

Excellent question! Since you asked, I’m happy to share. As a once psychic child and a parent of two psychic children (my daughter who we’ve already read about, and my son who refuses to acknowledge his giftedness and doesn’t know I’m keenly aware of his talents) I feel fully qualified to offer advice and how-to’s of helping psychic kids.

1) Never, ever, under any circumstances DOUBT them. What they experience – feel, see, hear, smell – is as real to them as the computer keyboard under your fingertips. Doubting them or brushing their experiences off as silly or childish will only do harm to their emotional health and mental well-being, and they will learn to distrust themselves.

2) Talk to them! When they are young, it’s very easy to get them to open up. They don’t know they’re different yet. When they come to you with strange information about your Uncle Bob or someone your child describes as someone you know to have passed, talk about them! Ask questions. Don’t be afraid. The process of living and dying is as natural as breathing. When your children are older and you suspect they may have advanced senses, when the time feels right, ask them about what they feel. Reassure them that you will believe them, whatever it is they tell you and DO NOT freak out or let your facial expressions get out of control. Pre-teens and teens are very good at reading our body language. Children who are empathic or who can feel our emotions will be able to feel your doubt and judgmental thoughts, which leads me to our next point.

3) Keep an OPEN MIND. If you talk to your children with no preconceived ideas about death, dying, and the paranormal you will be less likely to judge them. Pretend you are in a classroom and your child is your teacher. Allow yourself to absorb what they tell you and don’t forget to ask questions. Some questions you might ask are:
o Do the spirits look like you and me or are they see-through?
o Do you hear the voices from your real ears or do they seem to talk to you in your thoughts?
o How does it feel to you when you feel a spirit nearby?
o Do you feel afraid when they talk to you?
o Can you tell if they feel angry, sad, happy or afraid?

For those children who feel the emotions of others, remind them, when they begin to feel fear or anger coming from a spirit, that the fear is not their own. This will make it much easier for these children to let go of the anger or fearful feeling once they remove themselves from the area where they felt the spirit’s feelings. Keep in mind that empathy is not limited to spirits. Empaths feel the emotions of the living, too! When you know you have an empathic child, do your best to remain calm and in good spirit when you’re near them. It will make a world of difference in how they feel when they are around you.

4) DO YOUR HOMEWORK! We live in an incredibly research-friendly age. Get online and seek out others like your children. There are groups out there who are there to help your psychic child. One in particular can be found on the Web at Psykids.net. They actually have camps where gifted children can meet and identify with each other as well as online discussion groups. Please check them out.

Thank you for taking this step in learning how to understand and help your psychic child. If you have any comments or stories you would like to share, I would love to hear them and, with your permission, share them in future articles on this web site. I can be reached at Contact @ Mirrorwaters.com