Local psychics use powers to help

Psychics don't always answer calls on hotlines or go on talk shows with claims of the fantastic.

They don't see the future or sit by waiting for the latest in a long line of divine prophecies.

In fact, a lot of those who believe they have the sixth sense are much more normal than a Nostradamus, Jeane Dixon or La Toya Jackson.

They have families and lives and day jobs. But beyond the day to day, they have another side - one that they believe is beyond simply "psychic," a term some think is overused.

"I like the word intuitive because it's a gift that everyone has," said Susie Joyce, a local intuitive who has operated her own practice out of her home for 12 and a half years.

Joyce believes her own gifts are clairvoyant and empathic - that is, she is attuned to see people and events as well as being able to read emotions.

"I see things in my mind," she said. "I hear guidance."

She said she first became aware of her intuitions in her twenties, when she would have an awareness of where her first husband was when he was traveling for work.

After the marriage ended, she said she began to feel a lot of the empathy. When calling friends, she'd be able to sense their feelings.

"I would get feelings about what was happening," she said.

Eventually, she began to be consulted by people who were already using their intuition for a living. In addition, more and more of her own friends began to consult her for advice.

At this time, she had also begun to study reiki, which Joyce likened to an intelligent, universal life-force energy.

"That's the new age-y way of talking about it," Joyce said. "This stuff is used by nurses."

With these foundations, she eventually established her own practice.

"I turned it into a business because I felt like people would value what I did if they had to put some energy into it," Joyce said.

Though it has gone through a number of changes, Joyce's practice is currently called Beyond Illusion.

While balancing a family and day job, Joyce also works with her practice - and the clients that come with it.

She gets the familiar "you were right" - like the client she tried to steer away from marrying the wrong person who went ahead with it anyway - and she recently got the call that the marriage was dissolving.

But it's got the therapeutic aspects as well.

"Getting a reading is like getting a mental massage," Joyce said. "They remind you of who you really are."

Though she said she uses reiki to help focus energy and see the auras of people, the primary part of her readings involves the use of tarot cards.

"I use them as a guide, the symbols in them, the pictures, the numbers, the suits, those kinds of things," she said. "What I see in one card for one individual won't be the same thing I see in the same card for another individual in a different situation."

But even with her clients, there are misunderstandings from those who assume the intuitive should somehow know all.

"Sometimes people don't think I should ask them anything, which really doesn't make sense," she said. "It's a give and a take. When you go to the doctor, you have to sometimes tell them what the symptoms are."

Catherine, last name held by request, is another local intuitive. She is the proprietor of Energy Aspects, as well as the co-host of "Exploring Unexplained Phenomena," a radio show on Saturday mornings at 10 on KZUM.

Her abilities are something she has always had, she said.

"When I could start to talk, I'd tell my parents, 'Can't you see the angel standing there?' " Catherine said.

Eventually, her Catholic parents wanted her to forget about all of that. And she did. But in her mid-twenties, her dreams helped her remember.

Then, about 10 years ago by her own recollection, she said she really started to embrace them. That's when she started to get into dream interpretations and tarot cards.

Catherine likens her practice to a service because, as she said, "you wouldn't be at my table unless you needed help with something."

She got her first tarot deck when she began doing readings, and it's the deck she still uses today - the one that just has the right fit in her hands.

"Every deck has its own language, it has its own vibration," she said.

That's how Catherine sees the world - a series of vibrations. She likens her own abilities as sensitivity to these vibrations.

"When I do a reading, I can feel it, what's trying to be communicated, and put it into words," she said.

In her time, she has worked occasionally with law enforcement.

"Very little, but I have," she said.

Catherine said there's a lot of skepticism that goes along with using her powers in conjunction with law enforcement, as well as misunderstanding at the clarity of what she sees.

But along with the tarot readings, she also does a lot of body energy work and home/business energy clearing.

She said she feels as if she's simply redistributing already present energy when she does these - imprints from previous owners and tenants left behind that need to be cleared or replaced.

For both Joyce and Catherine, the things they see are never concrete. A possible future is just that - a possibility that is alterable by free will, but at that point is the current possibility.

It's not the exact science commonly seen on TV. It's never something they see or hear in the traditional sense - it's something they feel.

"It's amazing work," Catherine said. "It just totally is amazing, rewarding, satisfying to see people shift."