A Commentary on Cay Randall May’s book: The Intuitive Career: How to Succeed as a Consultant, Reader, or Healer

   What can society expect from a professional intuitive? I think it is crucially important that psychics get it together to provide us with an answer. It would create the actual status of “profession” in the mind of society. What do psychics profess? We don’t know yet, but we’re waiting.

   We know that carpenters profess the values of square and plumb, and understand building codes and their responsibility to abide by them. We can count on those standards being upheld. Doctors profess the absolute value of sterility in their operations and hold themselves accountable, skepticism aside, to the principle “do no harm.”

As some doctors profess through a sign at their reception window, “You don’t pay us for results, you pay us to perform the procedures professionally. Results are up to God.” All professions have their standards and practices. What are the standards of the psychic industry? It’s not up to society to set the standards, it’s up to the profession. What will it take to mobilize psychics to create a profession?

   It’s a curious fact that when you hear psychics, as a group, criticized, it is usually concerning avoiding the “fakes.” As our society does not officially endorse anything psychic, how could someone purporting to be psychic be anything other than a fake?

The criticism shows that there is an implicit acceptance of things psychic, a street acceptance of psychics, and people are looking for the best. Surveys show that most people believe in some aspects of the paranormal.

How will that street level of belief become a culturally accepted fact? What is it that makes for an implicitl acceptance of psychics? Could it be something that could form the basis of some code of practice?

   People find psychic readings helpful. There’s a fact. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t seek out psychics for help. Edgar Cayce was himself against giving readings, but what persuaded him to bypass the negative attitude provided by his culture was that people found his readings helpful. I think the fact that psychic readings can be helpful is a place to begin. Now I didn’t think this up myself.

It comes from a book written by a professional psychic, written to wanna be professional psychics, on how to become a professional, as in making a living from it. The book is The Intuitive Career: How to Succeed as a Consultant, Reader, or Healer (CayMay Press). The author is the Reverend Cay Randall-May, Ph.D. A professional research scientist (biology), Dr. Randall-May has spend the past many decades working as a psychic.

She has her psychic credentials. She is on the list of cooperating psychics who have worked at A.R.E.’s annual Edgar Cayce Legacy conference on psychic development (just for fun, go to www.google.com and search the term “Field Tested Psychics”) and is certified by the Edgar Cayce Institute as an Intuitive Heart practitioner.

It was in her book that I stumbled upon this simple fact concerning the helpfulness of psychic readings. It was in the context of explaining to her readers that there would always be a demand for psychics. Why? Because people find them helpful.

   I find her book to be a great companion to Henry Bolduc’s book, Your Creative Voice (see my column from Venture Inward archived here ) because of its encouragement and practical suggestions regarding developing our talents by sharing them with others. Both authors are life members of A.R.E. and have produced in their books manuals on expressing the spirit of the Cayce readings through practical service.

What Dr. Randall-May’s book does to contribute to the development of the intuitive profession is to present guidelines for an effective career helping people through intuition. It’s more than the nuts and bolts of growing a practice (create a work environment, get a business card, network, give talks, etc.) because she provides a larger societal context for one’s professional relationship with clients and the general public.

She embraces the skepticism that exists in society as well as the scientific advances, and frustrations, studying the paranormal. She believes the professional intuitive has an obligation to educate her public. One form this education can take is to provide clients with some guidelines on how to prepare for a reading, what to expect, and not expect, from a reading.

   Having a sincere and well-lived spirituality, Dr. Randall-May projects the attitude that the client is also psychic, and were circumstances different, the client might be able to answer the questions herself, and should be open to having personal revelations in response to the reading. In other words, rather than seeing herself as a seeing eye dog for the blind, she sees her service as somewhat like a healing, removing the blocks to the perception and understanding of the truth. It is such insights that will help practitioners articulate what society can expect from professional intuitives.

   Cay mentors intuitives into developing professional careers. Read more about her service at http://edgarcayce-intuitionschool.org/cay1.htm