PSYCHIC MEDIUM BRANDIE CHRISMAN

Brandie Chrisman is an engaging, attractive young woman in her twenties and a single mom with two young children. www.brandiechrisman.com  She lives in a beautiful home about a thirty minute drive from my house.  We settled in her living room in two chairs facing each other about four feet apart with new age music playing softly in the background.  My first impression was a little doubtful because she was so young, but after reviewing our recorded session and reading my grandfather's obituary  I am very impressed with her accuracy. Well, shocked is a more accurate description. There is no way she could know things about my family (going back over 80 years).  Even if she did a google search to find out information about me she would not have found the things she talked about. And besides, I used my maiden name when I made an appointment with her which I haven't used in over 30 years.  So if she looked for anything about me online she wouldn't find a thing.  Brandie talked about things that no one could just guess about my mother or father or grandfather. She is definitely one of the best psychic mediums in Oklahoma, if not the best.  I am far more impressed with her than either James Van Pragh or Sylvia Brown. Brandie also attended the Arthur Findlay College for mediumship in Essex, England.

From the information she gave that I could verify, it appears that she was over 90 percent accurate with my reading (and that's a conservative estimate). I counted 44 details she gave that were accurate.  Five details that I don't know. (Although I don't remember if my father taught me how to ride a bike I don't know who else would have.)  Only one detail that was incorrect - my grandfather had no military connection.  Brandie stated that if he didn't have a military connection it could mean that he was very regimented.  I have no idea if he was or not, but I would guess he would have to be because of how successful he was and perserving through the depression.

Some of things she told me I couldn't verify until later and I thank God I recorded the reading.  Brandie gives so much information and I was so occupied trying to process everything there is no way I could have remembered everything she said.  I wrote out the entire session and that gave me a better picture of just how much information she gave me and how accurately she understood my family dynamics.  I have heard a medium on television remark that spirits have a story to tell and that does seem to be the case - especially with my mother.

In the second reading I had with Brandie she was just as accurate (see my post of 5/30/11 and the update in the post of 7/15/11).  Last March I took a friend to one of Brandie's galleries where she was lucky enough to receive a reading.  After listening to the recording and writing everything she told my friend, we counted 40 items Brandie had correct and just three we weren't sure of.  Brandie is consistently accurate.  I have written about my reading with Brandie so anyone can see exactly what I learned from my reading with her and get an idea of how she works.

Brandie began by telling me to answer just yes, no or maybe, and that if she needs clarification she will ask me a question.  I totally forgot about my recorder until about ten minutes into the session.  Like my first reading with a medium (see my post of 4/4/11) she had the sense of two males and a female.  I determined later that it was my grandfather who initially presented himself.  At first I had no clue who it was because she mentioned a banking connection and then she had a very good visual of him, tall, thin and balding.  [That's grandpa when he was older.] She saw that he was making a big deal about being strong, he was presenting himself with big biceps and thought he had a military background.  Neither of my grandfathers had a military background (that I knew of) but my maternal great grandfather did.  [I later learned from my grandfather's obituary that he was on the board of a bank.]

Brandi never gave me any initials or names in this reading, just information, but that was enough!  My mother came through next (grandfather came back later).  Brandie had a sense of her being educated, not with an advanced degree but more "book knowledge," she could hold a conversation.  [My mother never went to college, but all her siblings did.]

But then Brandie started talking about my mother's childhood, which I later realized she nailed, everything she told me was true.  Brandie said that during my mother's childhood things were very hard for her and her family, and:

1)   they lived in poverty;
2)   mother's parents were hard working;
3)   mom was one of many  [Brandie thought 5 but there were seven kids];
4)   she felt lost in the shuffle;
5)   they all did a level of work to make life work for as long as she could remember;
6)   depression and dust bowl era was significant to my mother;
7)   stressed that the family really went through hard times;
8)   Brandie saw blue collar and farm land - you have to really get out there and use your hands;
9)   education was stopped abruptly at a certain point;
10) college was a dream - Then Brandie said it was like my mother was shaking a finger at her and saying "but don't mistake that for being not being educated,"

[When I returned home I pulled out my genealogy records and found a family story written by a cousin about the life of our grandparents. During her childhood my mother was living in Wichita Falls,Texas and the family had been doing very well thanks to grandfather's investment in a few oil wells. Grandfather had made a million then lost it all when the depression hit and the banks called in the loans, and according to my cousin "there was nothing to do but hunker down and tough it out.  To eat, grandfather was forced back to subsistence farming (a form of farming in which nearly all of the crops or livestock raised are used to maintain the farmer and his family, leaving little, if any, surplus for sale or trade."  He basically found a site in open prairie and moved in dilapidated oil-field houses that he stuck together for a home.  My mother's education abruptly stopped at that point and as a senior in high school I am not sure if she was able to graduate or not.   If she had not, she would never have told us!  All her siblings had been to college but being the youngest she never had the chance, so her education was abruptly stopped as Brandie said. The dust bowl era took its toll on them too and they survived on what grandmother could grow in her garden and a few hogs that they raised, and an occasional beef that one of the family could afford to butcher.]

Then Brandie goes into more personal areas for my mother.  She said that when mom was older it was very important to her to be very well "put together."  Brandie was taken back to the 50's era dress and gloves.  She said it was like prim and proper were very important to my mother. [A big yes on that!]  Brandie asked mom why she was bringing this up and determined that this was around the time she met my father and that was when she had felt the best in her life. [True, she had a good job and she found my dad.]

Amazingly, Brandie sensed that later my mother became very stressed and frazzeled, and had a sense of being overwhelmed. [Yes]  According to Brandie, my mother felt that things had to be a certain way to be right, but never quite were how she thought they should be. Brandie said I might not have known this about my mother, but my mother had a tendency to become frazzeled raising children. [Oh yes!]

[Wow, looking back now I realize Brandie is absolutely correct.  My mother came from a blue collar background and when she met my dad, (who had a Master's in Engineering from LSU and worked for an oil company) she must have felt very lucky to have made such a good catch!  She determined very early in their relationship that she would marry him.  Consequently, however, with my father's position came an elevation in social status that did cause her considerable concern for being proper and everything being just right.  I do remember my mother as being stressed a lot and I had more than my fair share of lectures about how to act or dress for "polite society."]  

Switching gears,  Brandie said my mother was now talking about my relationship with her, that there had been a distance between us, either a physical distance or at odds.  [Probably talking about the time I lived in Canada with my first husband. I don't recall being at odds any more than most teenagers/young adult.]  She went back to being frazzeled during my early childhood.  [I'm sure Brandie is correct about that because I was a surprise baby when my mother turned 40 and I remember her being "frazzeled" or nervous.  My mother would never play cards with me or board games because she claimed that it made her too nervous. At the time I didn't think that much about it because it was just what I thought was normal.]

What really shocked me was being told my mother acknowledged "things I wanted her to do that she didn't - like go to things, or do things and she didn't". [OMG]  Brandie said my mother apologized for not being more motivated and not measuring up.  My mother was at odds with herself.  It was stressed that there was a significant change in my mother due to fatigue from when she was younger.  My mother had an image of how life should be and she was sorry for not measuring up.  [Wow]

I was surprised when Brandie stated that my mother talked about having a lot of fatigue.  My mother told Brandie that everyone thought at the time it was depression, but it was not.  The fatigue was significant because it became worse which caused her to become unmotivated.  It continued to worsen until she let everything go and that she became ill before anyone else knew.  There is something significant about the immense fatigue.  [OMG]
[On the way home from my reading I realized how much that made sense because for years my siblings and I had thought our mother was depressed (or lazy).  Perhaps it was because she did seem so unmotivated - she had to have a housekeeper and after dinner our dishes went into the sink to "soak" so they would be easier for the housekeeper to clean.  Then it dawned on me; my mother snored horribly and I would bet a large amount of money that she had sleep apnea (like my sister).  The next day I recalled when I was a senior in high school and found my mother's prescriptions for both Dexadrine and Benzedrine - (which I admit I sampled so I could stay up and study for a test) and why on earth would she need bottles of both?  This was 1969 and I don't believe that doctors had even discovered sleep apnea yet. Sleep apnea can also cause strokes and my mother had her first one at 59.] 

Brandie said that the fatigue played into things not being the way my mother thought they should have been and she is sorry that she could not make it so.  She had some guilt that she could not provide the picture of what things should be like.  [I totally believe this is correct because it makes so much sense to me.]

Then who had to be my grandfather (my mother's dad) came through again as strong and again showing big biceps. Brandie stated that he was over emphasizing that he was not strong at the end of his life, but he feels strong now.  Brandie thought his death was chest related, maybe heart. [Had no clue until I came home and read his obit.] She felt he had a military back ground or he was very regimented; [Don't know.] and that he was a proud man - but not in a negative light, but that he holds himself with pride.  [My mother specifically told me this about my grandfather, that he was a proud man.]  

Brandie described him physically as having broad shoulders and tall [I don't know] and that he was blue collar; she saw him out on the land with the plaid shirt feel and an oil field connection. [The oil filed connection really surprised me - remember that during the depression he put together shacks from oil fields to make a home.  Before the depression he had invested in oil wells.]  Brandie stated that she felt that he had no college. [Correct, my grandfather left home at 13.]  She said that my grandfather indicated that he died when I was a small child { I was two]. 

Again Brandie was drawn to his lungs, she had a heavy lung feeling like a chronic lung issue, almost like a miner's lung.  She asked me if he smoked and I said he probably did. [When I read his obituary I discovered that he died of lung cancer, so Brandie nailed that one!]

My grandfather showed Brandie a farmhouse with a row of trees and indicated that there was something significant about those trees.  Brandie said they kind of looked like fruit trees and she was shown apple trees - which she said usually means a teaching connection.  [Two aunts were teachers and surprisingly my grandfather was on the school board.] Brandie saw apples being put in boxes that were then put in a truck. [?]  Brandie said he was again emphasizing a life of work and she thought he was trying to say that I had that same work ethic. [How sweet.]  There was something significant about his watch [?] and again Brandie felt a military connection.  [I have no idea if my grandfather was ever, even briefly in the military.  I have yet to find a WWI draft registration card for him because in the data base  on Ancestry.com there are hundreds of men with his name. My cousins have never mentioned anything about him being in the military either.  His father, however, was a captain in the civil war.]

My father came through next.  Brandie saw him as slender and tall, educated, soft spoken- not a yeller, very level headed, good at expressing love and older when he passed.  [All true.]  Brandie had an image of graduation and me and that my father was very proud because it was like a milestone had been passed.  [I was the first of his children to graduate from college, albeit a junior college.  Since it was clear that my other two siblings would never graduate from a college he was especially happy that at least one of his kids did.  I remember him telling me after graduation ceremonies that "I was the first kid to graduate from college."   Interesting that Brandie would see that.]

She said my father had a sense of humor, that he enjoyed telling jokes with his friends and he could do it his whole life.  She said he could make me laugh.  [True.  In fact there was a newspaper article about my dad and his three college friends when they all got together again for the last time in their lives because of their 60 year friendship.  When my father was asked what they liked to do together one of his comments was that they "liked to tell jokes, mainly filthy ones."

Brandie said my father handed her a picture of her grandfather and thought that meant that dad was a newspaper reader.  Brandie said her grandfather used to sit in his chair with his coffee and read the paper.  [Yes, my dad certainly read the paper and books every day in his chair by the window, but with bourbon, not coffee.]  She said there was a soft strength about him and that when he did talk you listened - he talked when there was meaning.  She felt I could go to him with anything and he was not judgmental. [Yes]  He liked to care for people. [Yes]  Then, surprisingly Brandie said that he played board games to bond with me.  [He would always play Parcheesi with me whenever I asked him to.]

Apparently my father enjoyed being outdoors, she thought the outside made him feel like meditating and he would go out to reflect. [I don't know about that, but I do know that he loved taking us to the mountains in Colorado - his favorite place in the world. At one point he had purchased a half acre lot in Estes Park, CO and intended to build a vacation home there.  Unfortunately my mother's first stroke a few years later caused him to rethink building in a small town where he was not confident in the medical facilities.]  


She said that when he gave me away at my wedding it was emotional for him and a significant memory for him.  [He was extremely happy with husband no. 2. and knew he would not have to worry about me.]


He also taught me to ride a bike, I am told. [I don't remember, but I don't know who else would have taught me, certainly not my mother.]  She said dad was a picture taker.  [Absolutely - that was a big hobby for him.]  Brandie told me that dad brought a lot of joy to my childhood. [Oh yes, especially when he bought me a horse!]


Brandie thought there was something significant about dad's wedding ring and I told her he didn't have one.  She said then it has to mean that he took commitment seriously, he would not make promises he could not keep and he tried to pass that down.  [Absolutely true.] 

Brandie saw that I had a brother and that dad was very loving toward him also. [True]  He was very proud of his success. [At that point I indicated to Brandie that my brother was not particularly successful but actually that was my reaction to my estrangement from him.  My brother is a hard worker and did provide reasonably well for his family so that actually is success.  I was thinking of success as having a great career and making a large amount of money.]  She said that dad was separating me and my brother and my dad indicated that "they get on each other's nerves." [OMG, how many times did I hear that phrase when i was growing up, that one sibling or the other got on someone's nerves - usually my mother's!]  Brandie saw that there was something going on with me and my brother that makes us be separate. [True, for the last 25 years.]  I was told to not shut the door on him.  [We have emailed each other over the past couple of years.]


Back to me and my dad, Brandie said we were the closest in the family and he enjoyed that [true] and that he enjoyed our conversations when I was older.  She saw that it was significant when I came to see him and check on him when he was alone.  [True, after mom died I went over every day].  He left me with gratitude because we always had each other with mom being sick and brother being brother.  [Mom was in the hospital for a month before she died and my brother was in Australia and didn't make it home until soon after her death.]


I am so amazed.  This was more than I expected.  I am still processing all of this.  My parents have been gone for 25 years and this reading took me back to memories I hadn't thought about in a very long time.  I don't know how on earth anyone could guess all of this.  Wow . . . . I never thought I would find a good medium this fast! 

You can read about my second session with Brandie in my post of 5/30/11 and an update on the second session in my post of 7/15/11.  Brandie was consistent with her amazing accuracy and grasp of my family dynamics.  In the update I have included information I learned after discussing the reading with a niece. 

BLOGTALK RADIO

After listening to a reading by Brandie Chrisman on Blogtalk radio I found her website and made an appointment for Monday.  She lives about 30 minutes from my house and she charges $50 for 30 minutes and $100 for an hour.  I filled out a form on her website and about an hour later received a call from her assistant who scheduled the appointment.  (Must be doing well if she can hire an assistant!).  As it turned out, the $100 was a bargain for the numerous validations I received from Brandie.  It was an incredible experience and I plan to go back to her. 

If you have never head of Blogtalk radio (www.blogtalkradio.com)  I recommend that you take a look and see what it has to offer.  Anyone can host their own radio show and there are a wide variety of topics to choose from, and quite a bit for those interested in paranormal or spiritual topics.  I stumbled upon it when I was searching online for the next medium I wanted to see.  One of the things that Bob Olsen (www.bestpsychicdirectory.com and www.bestpsychicmedium.com)  recommends that you look for in a psychic is that they will go public, like in psychic fairs or blog talk radio.  It shows that they have more confidence in their abilities.  Another medium I hope to see has her own show on Blogtalk radio and hopefully I will have time to listen to a couple of her shows.

PSYCHIC MEDIUM JUSTIN

Finally, for the first time in my life I had a reading with a psychic medium.  Naturally I had hoped and prayed for a dramatic, detailed and accurate reading with specific names, dates and certain events in my life.  Not surprisingly, I guess, that was not to be.  I didn't think it was a total waste of time, however, because I could relate to some of the things he told me he was seeing.  Whether or not the information from actually communicating with those who have passed on or his own insight and intuition I will never know for certain.  But it is fun to speculate!

Justin is a very personable, down to earth, 30 something man of Italian heritage.  He is very easy going and immediately put me at ease.  The reading was conducted at his home where I met his wife and outgoing five year old son.  We sat in the kitchen for the reading which added to the relaxed atmosphere.  Justin explained to me that he gets messages mainly by being shown pictures, like a psychic pictionary.  He meditates before the reading asking those who have passed over to use parts of his life, if they so desire, to help him relate to what message they are trying to communicate.  He has been giving readings for ten years now and doesn't really advertise except for his website.  At $40 a hour he is the most reasonably priced medium I have found.  He lives in a lovely home with a pool so obviously he is employed elsewhere.  If someone needs a reading but cannot afford it, he will do it for free. (I haven't found anyone else who will do that yet.)

Before channeling the spirits, Justin began by giving me an Angel card reading.  I had never heard of Angel cards, but apparently they are a positive alternative to Tarot cards - there is nothing negative in them.  The reading from the cards was basically general and fairly accurate but things that could be applied to most mothers, so it would be difficult to say that it was psychic rather than intuition.  The main purpose of the Angel card reading is to set the stage, more or less, and to help open up a positive channel.


As he began to channel, Justin said there were several spirits present; an older male and another male and one female.  Immediately he was shown the letter J - - the letter that my sister's name begins with and who I most wanted to hear from.  I asked if it was for a male or female and Justin didn't know, all he saw was the older male acknowledging the letter J.  (I was being careful not to give much information.)  Immediately he was shown a motorcycle - which totally confused me.  I asked if it related to the J name and told him I didn't know of anyone who had passed with a motorcycle. 

[I do have a cousin, who at age 73 bought his first motorcycle and is extremely proud of it; as evidenced by his photo taken with it by a professional photographer and posted on facebook as his profile photo.  I wondered later if perhaps it was my father coming through and acknowledging that I had visited this cousin after not seeing him for fifty years.  My sister with the J name and I had talked for years about visiting this cousin.  Finally, a couple of years after my sister's death I decided to drive the 600 miles and see him.  As far as I know he is still living, at least he was a couple of months ago . . . I guess I'd better check.]

The older male presence was pointing from himself then to his side which indicated that someone was named after him.  [That would be my brother.]  Justin asked if this male had cancer [yes] and mentioned a cancer scare [maybe my brother who had thyroid cancer].  The presence was showing a white cake, which is supposed to acknowledge a birthday or anniversary within a month [my wedding anniversary is in seven weeks].  Then, out of the blue, Justin is shown a Lexus.  I had no idea what that meant nor did I know anyone who had one.  He also is shown a plane going from "here to here" - back and forth.  [I do travel a lot.]

Justin is then shown a child that is moved around a lot, which made the child feel disconnected.  I told him that made sense.  He saw that I had worked with the child.  Then the presence switches gears and acknowledges the cook [could be my mother in law or son in law].  Again, Justin saw the the male presence was with a female and two other males.  Then Justin states that they make him feel like I've been the glue that holds the family together and no one acknowledges it.  One thing was clear to Justin, he saw me going from here to there problem solving and correcting and "stuffing it down." [Very accurate for me at times or the skeptic could say that was a typical mother.]


[I then told him the child that who is moved around a lot would be my youngest daughter who had a drug problem.  We had sent her east to a rehab in Tennessee, then home where she relapsed a few months later, after which we sent her west to a half way house in Arizona and she has moved several different times while there.   The plane Justin sees going back and forth is probably me going back and forth to  Phoenix  from Oklahoma over the last three years. (Thanks to Southwest Rapid Rewards.)  In fact, I had only been back from Phoenix a couple of weeks at the time of the reading and in ten days I am going to Washington D.C. with a couple of friends, so that is pretty much back and forth over the country.]

Randomly, Justin was shown a teddy bear and wanted to know if that was significant in any way.  I said no.  Then he mentioned the 16th, which he said could be an age or date. [At the time I thought it was my dad's birthday, but I was mistaken.  Instead I realized later that on April 16th I will be in New York City for the first time in my life with my two best friends for the first time in their lives.  A very special day for us indeed!]

Then finally the woman presence presents herself strong [like I had asked my sister to].  She appeared to be the cook [sounds more like my mother in law] and was a stern disciplinarian [definitely not my sister].   But, then Justin says she is referencing "eyes" and asked if she had a problem with her eyes.  I told him there was no problem with her eyes but that did make sense to me.

[I did not tell Justin until later that before coming to the reading I had asked my sister to come through with something specific and that she could refer to our last trip together when we went through several states - Illinois, Indiana and Iowa.  I told her the medium worked by seeing pictures and she could show him eyes for the letter I, if she couldn't get across the specific states.]


At this point Justin tells me that he cant make much of anything out.  He said "it's like they don't want to talk to me.  Like they are very private."  He had difficulty getting anything for the rest of the reading, but he did come up with a little more.

Some random things:  A Vietnam vet [maybe an old boyfriend who may or may not have survived Vietnam.]  Who is the M name and not connected to the vet and who has allergies really bad [I had no clue. My maiden names starts with M and my paternal grandfather had severe allergies, but Justin thought it was a first name.]

He is shown a house with a wooden fence and tree in front with a blue buick (older, big tank of a car) in a suburban neighborhood.  A tire swing.   [No clue.] 

Then he gets a bit more accurate:  I was asked who is the scrapper - the fiesty one who would fight, the R name is coming through.  I responded that my husband has a name that begins with R.  Justin asked if he had a short fuse with we first met and I mellowed him out.  [More or less, took many years.]  I told Justin that my husband wrestled in high school and retired undefeated and he thought that qualified as a scrapper.  [I didn't tell him that my husband won a gold medal in the Mexican Olympics in 1968.  Who knew Mexico had Olympics?]

Other random images were:

 A little dog, a brown lab. [My brother in law recently lost a Jack Russell Terrier and four or five years ago lost a chocolate lab.]

The 12th (day or month) - I told him my birthday and my sister's birthday were in December (as were my mother's and her mother, and a niece). 

He saw the teddy bear again and I asked what color it was and he responded that it was just an ordinary brown teddy bear. 

He was shown a pair of wings - not a bird - just the wings that popped out of a tattoo.  [My youngest has wing jewelry and clothes with wings on them and wants a bird tattoo.  I better ask her if she ever got it.]

A Menorah and Christmas tree were shown together.  [My husband is catholic and his best friend is Jewish.  Lately they have been meeting for dinner once a week after work.]

Who passed in a car accident or impact - some sort of trauma.  [No clue.]


He is shown the color purple. [Means nothing to me.]

He sees Cat Kora (?) from Iron Chef.  [I like the food network but never watch Iron Chef.] 


Last of all, he asked me "who is Phil?"  I told him I didn't know anyone named Phil.  


As Justin walked me to my car he apologized for not being able to give me a more accurate reading.  He said he had this problem just a few other times, when the other side did not particularly want to communicate with him.  I assured him that there were some things that I thought were specific and I had enjoyed the reading anyway.  He asked me to let him know if I remember something that would make more sense out of some other things in the reading and I agreed to let him know.


The most accurate parts of the reading for me would be his vision of the child being moved from here to there.  Justin told me later that the reason he got that was because he was shown a scene from his life; when he was five and living in New York,  he was taken out of school by a social worker and taken to a foster home.  He was being taken away from his mother because of her drug problem.  It makes sense to me that this would be something that my father -or any other relative - would bring up.

Then the letters J and R definatly had meaning.  But were they good guesses from his subconscious or was he actually receiving visions of letters from my deceased loved ones?  Seeing a plane going from here to there was sort of specific as was the 16th.  Connecting the letter R with the scrappy one was pretty good . . .

And then there was the reference to the eyes, which to me were specific, although to a skeptic it might not be.


I am a believer and a skeptic . . .