A psychic said I make smart choices. Seeing her was not one of them

2 hours ago 1

Opinion

September 19, 2025 — 7.00pm

In the same way that others have a trusted mechanic or a physio they swear by, my aunt always tells people to visit her psychic. Apparently, she’s the best and unlike other spiritual practitioners, she’s “the real deal”. So what are you waiting for? Book in already!

To prove a point, my aunt will then reel off all the times her predictions have come true, no matter how tenuous the connection may be. “She said my work life was about to be upended, and two months later, we moved offices! Explain that?”

Most recently, her mind was blown when the psychic (let’s call her Mary) sensed an animal in her future. With two dogs and a cat, my aunt is objectively a pet person, so no one was surprised when she adopted another rescue pup. Well, no one except my aunt. “Can you believe it? She just knew.”

One way to cope with uncertainty is to accept that we won’t ever know what the future holds. Failing that, you can pay a psychic to peddle predictions.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t believe it because when it comes to psychics, mediums and clairvoyants, anyone on the spiritual spectrum, really, I consider myself a rational sceptic.

While I don’t personally engage in woo-woo, many people do. According to research from McCrindle, one in four (27 per cent) Australians believes in the supernatural or has experienced a mystical or supernatural experience.

And who can blame them? In a world of uncertainty, psychics offer up answers to the most agonising conundrums of our lives, which, as it turns out, is quite a profitable business model. In 2023, the Australian online psychic reading market was valued at approximately $100 million, and a 2025 study projects up to 10 per cent yearly growth over the next decade.

However, as a child of the 2000s, I watched enough episodes of Crossing Over with John Edwards, the celebrity medium who dressed like a geography teacher, to form the view that most of the time it’s just good guesswork and a knack for telling people what they want to hear. Have you ever lost anyone? Of course, you have, and they’re here with us right now!

John Edwards had a monopoly on the medium thing in the mid-2000s. No one was better at talking to the dead.

Despite this, I’m willing to try anything once, so when my aunt gifted me a 30-minute session valued at an incredible $99 (telling a fortune = making a fortune), I finally decided to cash it in. Admittedly, the waiting room seemed designed to make even the most seasoned cynic second-guess themselves.

Everywhere you looked, there were either candles, crystals or cushions, the entire vibe giving the distinct impression that something mystical was afoot. It also helped that Mary was appropriately spooky. She appeared without notice, a striking lady in her 60s, wearing not one but two scarves: “I’m ready for you now, Thomas.”

To kick things off, I split a deck of tarot cards into three piles and selected one, Mary inspecting it with great theatre: “Mmm, I’m seeing property.”

Sadly, even the spiritual world is fixated on the housing crisis because the cards were apparently showing that I was either recently in a new house, about to buy a new house or thinking about purchasing a house in the next two years. As someone in my mid-30s living in Sydney, this didn’t feel like a hugely risky leap, but I was happy to give her the benefit of the doubt. “Yes, I am.”

Up next, family. The first card I drew was The Fool, which Mary explained spoke to a strong male energy in my life, someone who is occasionally annoying but often quite useful. Occasionally annoying but often quite useful is almost exactly how I’d describe my father, so we notch this up as a win for Mary.

Less impressive was the conversation about children. Mary inquired if I had any, and I confirmed that I did indeed have one child and another on the way. “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” asked Mary. Unwilling to give her a free ride on this one, I sent the question back her way: “Do you?”

She instructed me to pick a card, and when the first one was inconclusive, I had to draw another. “Much better,” nodded Mary. “It’s a girl.”

Unfortunately for Mary, my next child is definitely a boy, but rather than correct her in real time, I agreed that it may be a girl, and this was all very exciting.

One in four Australians believes in the supernatural or has experienced a mystical or supernatural experience.

It’s tough to recover from an incorrect gender reveal, but Mary tried her best, resorting to the kind of vague-yet-seductive promises that keep psychics in business: A large financial windfall awaits! New beginnings are on the horizon! A major project will soon come to fruition!

Eventually, Mary called time on our session, but not before allowing me to consult the tarot deck one last time. Between us, I placed a single card, the word FAILURE unmistakably emblazoned across the middle. “That’s a mistake,” said Mary, explaining that it was an old deck and the card must have slipped in accidentally. And here I was thinking it was the most accurate card of the day.

Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.