Psychics down through history have had a bumpy ride. Back in Egypt 2000 years ago, things were pretty good for a few of them. They were looked up to by society. It was a common practice for the Pharaoh to have one on his permanent staff with whom they consulted on all matters. This was a great job — as long as their information was correct. False information could get them executed! So much for job security.
After the Islam, Jewish and Christian religions got popular with the masses, it just wasn’t healthy to be a psychic. They could get executed, banished or thrown in jail for allegedly being affiliated with the Devil.
During this same time period, the prophets mentioned in the Bible received all the celebrity. They did about the same job but from a more theological angle. It could also be that the psychics were seen as competition and nobody liked that… especially the prophets.
At any rate, this caused psychics to keep a very low profile for centuries to come, and there’s little or no data available about them until around the mid 1500′s. That’s when Nostradamus (1503-1566) presented his Les Propheties or “The Prophets” in 1555. In this book he is credited with predicting major world events including the world wars and the 9/11 tragedy. But even he had to do his work in secret so as not to be accused of heresy by the church.
Fast forwarding to the 1800′s, psychics got a fresh toe-hold when the Spiritualism movement came along. Although extremely popular in Europe and the U.S., this too fell by the wayside as many con-artists exploited it for their own personal gain. This really gave the legitimate psychics a bad name and tarnished the public perspective of their abilities.
It wasn’t until the 20th. century when Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) sprang onto the scene that psychics began to gain credence. Cayce was able to tell seriously ill people why they were sick and what they needed to do to get well.
Edgar Cayce’s work afforded psychics with a degree of social acceptance that was not seen for over 2000 years. In the 21st. century now, psychics are experiencing the highest degree of social approval in history. Celebrity psychics like James Van Praag, John Edwards and Sylvia Brown have taken the legitimacy of psychics to it’s highest level ever.
But you know as well as I do that the con-artists are having a field day too. I guess we’ll always have them. But there are still many, many real psychics working today. Society has accepted them like never before. Psychics today are even utilized by private investigators and police to help solve difficult cases.
Posted under Psychics
This post was written by The Online Psychic on April 14, 2010
