Author’s Note:
I met Julie Christensen while doing research on a family history project. (We didn’t know each other before that).
Julie’s mom went to high school with my late father’s best friend, Hank Carbonell. My father, an introvert, didn’t make friends easily, so Hank was special. I thought there may be a chance that Julie’s mother might have a recollection or perhaps a comment from him in her high school yearbook from 1939.
I didn’t have a lot to go on. Hank died when his fighter plane crashed in 1943 and I couldn’t find much in the government archives.
Julie checked the yearbook and alas there was nothing from Hank.
After conversing a bit more with Julie I discovered that she made her living as a psychic medium.
She volunteered to assist my exploration in a manner I never considered—as a medium. Julie seemed quite confident that she could make the connection and I was happy to take her up on her offer.
In her line of work, communicating with folks on the “other side” was akin to making a long-distance call. Usually the other party answers.
She succeeded in communicating with Hank and came up with some great details. I later corroborated what she discovered with Hank’s relatives.
Suffice it to say, I was impressed. Julie was “for real”.
I was fascinated by her work and wanted to better understand her modus operandi. How in the heck does she do this?
That is the genesis of this Q&A.
By reading the interview below, you’ll have a much better idea of how a psychic medium, or at least how Julie, operates.
Julie makes her home in Rocklin, California (near Sacramento) and calls her company Luminous Passages, LLC. She works both in the US and internationally helping to connect her clients with Spirit. In doing so, in her words, she helps them heal and awaken to their true nature and authentic selves.
Her methodology is to work with “evidential mediumship”. This means she will help the client establish who they are communicating with on the other side by ferreting out clues about the deceased individual’s traits, hobbies, habits, physical description, etc.
Julie also assists others in developing their psychic mediumship abilities and navigating spiritual awakenings through intuitive counseling.
Unlike most people in her line of work, she is a licensed marriage and family therapist where she specializes in grief and trauma therapy in a separate business.
Julie has a master’s degree in counseling psychology with a specialization in transpersonal psychology from John F. Kennedy University received in 1999.
We connected via Zoom for this interview.
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Rob: The first question is why go to a psychic? What kinds of things can a psychic help you with?
Julie: Interesting question because you’re asking what a psychic can do. Before I answer that I think it’s important to delineate the difference between a psychic and a psychic medium.
Rob: OK, tell me about it.
Julie: A psychic is going to look more into your current life and through your aura. A medium on the other hand, is the one who connects with the other side. So, a medium is going to connect with deceased people, or pets, or guides, or other entities. Even that depends on the medium you see and what they believe in, what they have experienced, etc. Different mediums have different skills.
I’m a psychic medium.
Rob: Thank you for distinction. What else should I know?
Julie: One of the things that I do is called “evidential mediumship”. What it means is that when I bring in a deceased person to someone, I’m bringing in evidence such as: what they look like, what their personality is, shared memories, and other traits. Thus, I’m trying to prove to you that life goes on and that I have your loved one whether it be a person or a pet.
Rob: What kinds of reasons would a client have to see you?
Julie: Often someone they love has passed and they want to connect with them. They miss them. Maybe they didn’t get closure. Maybe they just want to know how they are or what happened to them? Are they okay? I act a little like the old-time telephone operator where I’m passing questions and answers back and forth between the client and their loved ones.
Rob: Is there a rule of thumb how often you might help someone connect with a loved one?
Julie: If I see someone who’s really in grief over someone who’s passed, I restrict them to seeing me maybe once a month. It’s important to understand you can get addicted to doing this. You miss somebody and the next thing you know, you’re wanting to connect and can spend a lot of money seeking out different mediums. If it’s a husband or a wife, you want to connect every day and that isn’t necessarily helpful. I don’t think it’s good for you because you must be here.
Rob: What other kinds of things do you help people with?
Julie: Often people want guidance. And so, from a psychic medium perspective, I use guides as well to show you the future. And then, I also will use psychic ability.
Other people might have issues at the office that need resolution. Or maybe they are simply not happy at work and need advice and I “look” into it.
And then, it might be questions about one’s love life.
Sometimes other things just come up for me to pass on. For example, I was shown that one of my client’s cars needed work. I suggested they take it in to a mechanic. Three days later the client contacted me and said the car broke down on the way to San Francisco. So, yeah, who knows?
Another reason people come to see me is maybe someone they love is alive, but they can’t connect with them. They’re in a coma or they have dementia. So, I can help them have a conversation.
Sometimes folks who are adopted want to know something about their birth parents. I can assist them in that department.
I can also pick up on health issues, but I won’t call myself a medical intuitive. It’s not my specialty.
Other people might want to connect with their pets. Maybe you have behavioral issues with them. I can suggest what we can be done.
Recently, I had someone contact me about their horse. They were getting ready for a big horse competition, and I picked up something was wrong on the back of the horse. And they said, “Yep, that’s exactly where is this problem is.” They considered another horse for the event, and I “looked” in on that horse, “This other horse can do it and wants to.”
Rob: You mentioned “guides” earlier. What are they and why would people be interested in them?
Julie: When I work with guides, and different mediums may do it differently, but I will see a person’s “gate”. This entity is called a gatekeeper. It’s a guide who’s with you from the time you’re born until you die.
Often, it seems to be a family member that passed before you ever got here. And it could be somebody from a past life or somebody just very in line with your life purpose. But for the most part, it seems like it’s a relative that passed before you arrived. And so, I’ll explain who it is. They can ask questions, and then I’ll ask permission and go behind the gate and see other guides.
The next guides might be creative, or perhaps someone from a past life. When I go the furthest in behind the gate, I’ll get what I call a high vibration guide which is a little more ethereal-like and will provide all kinds of information about their life.
Rob: Anything else?
Julie: There are those interested in ETs, and they’ll want me to connect with these entities to discover their other lives on other planets or dimensions and get guidance. So, now we’re really stretching.
Rob: I’d say so.
Julie: That was a big stretch for me too once. And frankly, before I didn’t believe in any of this stuff. Well, even deceased people were a stretch for me.
Rob: Do you train people to become mediums?
Julie: Yes, I believe we’re all mediums to different extents and I help people develop their skills. Sometimes I’ll meet with someone who’s in what we call a spiritual, or kundalini, awakening. Part of this mentoring process is intuitive counseling as I help them navigate their journey which can include facilitating the unconscious to the conscious, clearing out issues from the past and supporting them through spiritual experiences. It can help them be a clearer channel for mediumship. Some clients have had mediumship abilities their entire life and they’re just wanting to fine tune them.
Rob: Sounds like an awakening can be traumatic.
Julie: Yes. It can be exhilarating, beautiful, painful, and frightening. Anyone who goes through this has a different experience. It is not a one-size fits all experience. And you don’t have to go through one to be a medium. I also don’t suggest trying to bring it on. If it’s meant to be; it will come to you. I went through one myself in 2012 and fortunately was working with a very skilled psychotherapist and spiritual teacher. I like to say when the dust settled, I was a clearer channel to be of service. It’s outside the normal realm of experience and I’ve met people who were medicated until it shut down. It’s complicated.
For anyone interested, I suggest perusing www.biologyofkundalini.com. If you do have one it can take up to five years to integrate. The first year is usually the wildest. Then it generally slows down, and Spirit gives you a little bit and it gets boring and slow for a while until you integrate it. And then, you get a little bit more. And hopefully, you’re practicing. And you just see where it goes. You don’t go 0-100. If I had gotten everything that I’ve got today, all at once, I’d probably have been hospitalized because I couldn’t have integrated it. I’m still growing and changing and probably always will.
Rob: Does your professional training in psychology help you as a medium?
Julie: One way it complements my readings is I’m trained to work with people by examining their past. When I have a spirit in, one of the abilities I have is to go back in their life and see where there were problems. Was there abuse in this person’s life? Was there addiction? A variety of things.
When I’m talking to the client and I have a spirit there, if there were issues between them, I can help them talk and resolve and get closure. At a minimum, it helps the client understand why the person who’s crossed over was the way they were. And somehow, they get, I think, relief and closure from that perspective. So my work as a medium combined with psychological training really provides an opening to explore these kinds of issues.
This completes Part 1 of a two part interview with Julie Christensen. Stay tuned for Part 2. For more information on her services visit www.luminouspassages.com.