Interview with psychic medium Barb Powell

Canadian Psychic Medium Barb Powell, nicknamed the “Sixth Charm”, is sought out for her skills in Paranormal Investigations as well as psychic/medium readings. A popular psychic who has been in the fore front of the media for the past 10 years. You may have heard her on Darkness Radio with Dave Shrader, Sirius Radio’s Living Successfully or her interview on The Kevin Smith Show. Barb was the only one in the history of The Kevin Smith Show that pulled in so many listeners and tipped audience ratings. She can also be viewed on TV and read about in Magazines.

Could you please tell the story of discovering your intuitive abilities?

I always knew I was ‘different’. I never quite fit in, even if I were in a crowd of people. It was like I was always observing everything instead of being a part of a group. I would see ‘colors’ around people, which I now know to be a person’s energy or aura. I could see spirit, those who have passed on and I would talk about them to people. You learn very quickly as a child what to say and what not to say. I learned to keep my mouth shut about certain things that were out of the ordinary. I tried to make myself fit into society and be like everyone else. I didn’t want to be different.

When I was a young girl there was an incident where my grandfather had passed away unexpectedly. It was my first experience with someone passing away let alone someone who was close to me. A few days later he appeared to me and began to speak to me. I remember it rather clearly. My brother came into the room and I do remember hearing him yell to my mother that something was wrong with Barb. It was like hearing his voice through a tunnel, it was hollow sounding. I was somewhere else at that point, I could not even feel my own body, nor did I have control over my body. My mother came into the room and began to ask me questions and I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t see my grandfather. I remember feeling happy and he wasn’t dead. That perhaps everyone was mistaken. No one in my family knew what was happening, they figured I was stressed and no one talked about it again….ever. I have always been different. As an adult I knew what it was I could do as a child. But it was more shunned then because I lived in a small community. It wasn’t talked about as much as it is now.

In your bio I’ve read about an incident with the church, where you and your husband were thrown out of it because you wouldn’t agree to take your site down and abandon the practice. How do you see today the relations between established religion and psychic abilities?

My husband worked as a youth pastor at the church we belonged to. I was asked to take my website down and to become a ‘prophet’ to the church. My husband calmly told them that only Jesus Christ is the true prophet. Needless to say I did not take down my website, nor discontinue my work. We are all made in the image of God and we need to be our truly unique selves and be ok with who and what we are as long as we are being true to ourselves and living the best life we possibly can. I do not have an issue with religion, religion has an issue with me.

People need something to believe in and as long as it’s good for them, I don’t see anything wrong with it. I do have an issue with those individuals and organizations that tell people what to do and how to do it. There are many religions and churches that do use their intuition, which they state is from God. I’ve been to churches that the Minister stands up and relays messages of health and emotional well being. I try not to worry myself over what someone else is doing, or what religion thinks of me. I know that I’m trying to do the best I can for myself, my family and for my clients. Living by that rule has helped me to stay grounded and free.

On your site you list skills that you work within. Some of them are: Psychic Intuitive, Medium, Angel Reader, Pet Communicator, Spirit Guide Messages. Some of these concepts require a very special and uncommon world view. I would like to know how you see the world, especially the “unseen” part of it.

I love the world. The world is mysterious and beautiful! Just like the world that has areas such as forests and ocean that has not been explored, so too is the human mind! I truly believe that one day the art of psychic abilities will have the proof needed to show that this intuition is real and accessible to anyone. There will always be those who do not agree or feel that it’s wrong. I’m not here to prove anything, nor to try and argue with someone.

My world is like walking into a busy shopping mall. You can hear people talking, all the conversation and words are bumping into each other and not making sense. This is my world 24/7. When you go to a mall you are not overcome by the noise because you don’t always pay attention to it. Sure it can be overwhelming to you, the crowds, pushing and the business of everything. But you are at the mall to do or get something. Therefore you ignore all this external stimuli. That is what I do. I ignore it unless I’m in work mode. When I’m in work mode, I then pay attention to it. I may not always understand it, but I’ll pay attention to it. The spirit world is very close to our world, there is a very thin thread between worlds is the best I can describe it.

You describe yourself also as a paranormal investigator. What does a “paranormal investigator” do? Could give an example?

A paranormal investigator is simply someone who goes into a place of business or home in order to investigate unexplained phenomena. It’s not always caused by spirit or something unexplained. There have only been a few occasions that I can honestly say that a house or place of business is truly ‘haunted’ and I have been doing this type of work for years full time. I am usually called when people are scared or they fear that business is being affected by what the believe to be spirit. I never go alone and I am usually accompanied by a team. There are those in my team who use equipment such as an EMF reader, Infrared Thermal Scanners, compass and other such tools. Obviously I can pick up any spirit or energy changes in an environment.

One of the services that you offer is “Corporate Psychic”. What is this? How common is it in business to use the skills or psychics?

A corporate psychic is a psychic who uses intuitive skills in order to help a business succeed. This type of psychic is like a consultant who looks at the employees listed and can tell who are the trouble makers and who needs to stay and who needs to go in order to make a business run better and succeed. This psychic can help hire new employees and look at the business to see where things may be going wrong and how to correct it. This type of psychic is also good in picking jury selections as well. I think people would be very surprised to learn just how many businesses use a corporate psychic! It’s quite popular.

You also write that you help with Strategic Planning, Employee selection and hiring etc. How being a psychic make you suitable for performing Strategic planning for corporations? How do you help with employee selection?

It’s all about the energy of someone. A psychic can detect who are the trouble makers and who are better workers. They can tell who will cause issues down the line and hopefully save a business some trouble. I’ve had business owners call me up to ask me about their business. That’s all I need to know from them. From there I can usually tell what the business is about and where things are going wrong and hopefully be able to offer some solutions of how to get things back on track.

You know, mediumship has not been accepted by established science as a fact. Same for other psychic effects and skills. How do you think it would be possible to prove the whole world that there is indeed truth to it?

I learned a long time ago that people will believe what they want to believe and that it isn’t up to me to prove anything to anyone. That is how I choose to live my life. I’m not living for other people or what other’s may think of me and I am now ok with that. It took a long time to get to that point in my life, but I’m there. That doesn’t mean certain things do not bother me…but I’ve learned to deal with them in a more positive way instead of allowing negative thoughts and comments affect me.

There have been many mediums/psychics who have ‘proven’ their skills and there are still people out there that give this work a bad name because they do not work in an ethical way.

Do you ever have any doubt regarding the messages that you relay to your customers through you psychic gifts? In general, what makes you certain that your abilities are real and that the world as you see it?

Because I'm human there is always doubt in our lives. One of the most common questions I get from students is how can they be sure that it's intuition and not projecting fears or hopes. How can you tell when a hunch is intuition that is valid and not something simply made up or a random lucky guess. My response to them is that you don't know. That's the entire challenge of using intuition. I've been doing this work for years and have been able to put aside my own fears, ego and personal opinions when doing the work that I do. It's highly unlikely you will see me crying with a client. I'm very blunt and honest with what I do. Basically with a reading, don't ask if you don't want to know the answer. I won't relay what I know a client wants to hear. I will relay the information I receive, which is one of the reasons I do not like to do criminal cases or cold cases with family members. I will usually only work with police because it's difficult to tell a family member all the details I receive when working on a case.

How do you think the world will change in the next 10 years?

Things change day by day. In 10 years I believe we will hear more health news in regards to cancer and AIDS. AIDS will change, meaning mutate and there will be another catch to this disease that will cause more panic and fears. But there will be good news in regards to cancer and cures. On a spiritual note, I see that people will become more accustom to hearing and believing in the spiritual realms. However, TV will take it to another level and play off the fears of people. Making things unbelievable and more difficult for those in this line of work. Someone quite famous in the paranormal world will be outed. Meaning there will be bad press for them as there will be those who are on a mission to out spiritual workers and frauds to make their point.

How do you see your mission in this world?

I see myself as getting by in the world. I’m trying to live the best way I possibly can while helping where I can. I’m not out to prove a point or to create a mission plan for myself. My theme is to be me and for me to travel down that road of self discovery and figure myself out. I wasted too many years trying to figure others out and ways I could fit into their world. I’ve set myself free to be who I know I am and that’s a person who is no longer afraid of what others think. Setting your soul free will allow you to sore to heights you never knew existed! Release those limits you set upon yourself. Anything and everything is possible. Don’t worry about the how to and the why. Focus on the goal, don’t focus on how to get there.

My thanks to Barb for taking the time to answer my questions.