Unlock the Mysteries of Your Psychic Abilities

Psychic and medium mentor Brandi Van joins us to delve deep into the hidden blocks that prevent you from accessing your intuition. Brandi’s journey from a clairaudient child who hid her gift to a full-fledged medium mentoring others is awe-inspiring and deeply enlightening.
Join us as we explore the myths that hold you back from embracing your psychic abilities and learn practical steps to trust and hone your intuition.

Here are three key takeaways:

🔹 Embrace Your Innate Psychic Abilities: Understand that everyone has the potential to develop psychic gifts. Brandi emphasizes that belief in yourself and your abilities is the first crucial step. Whether it’s clairvoyance, clairaudience, or another form, recognizing and nurturing your unique gift is essential.
🔹 Trust Your Inner Voice: Learn to overcome the rational mind’s skepticism. Brandi shares valuable insights and exercises that help strengthen your intuition and psychic abilities. By practicing simple visualization techniques and trusting the early, unfiltered messages you receive, you’ll begin to gain confidence in your abilities.
🔹 Connect with Your Spirit Guides: Discover the power of your spirit guides who are always by your side, ready to assist you in both mundane and profound aspects of life. Learn how to ask questions, recognize their subtle messages, and foster a relationship that will guide you toward your highest path.

Explore these enlightening principles and more in our discussion with Brandi Van. She demystifies psychic development and offers concrete steps to help you unlock your true potential. Don’t miss out on the chance to transform your understanding of intuition and the spirit world. Tune in and let the journey toward self-discovery and spiritual awakening begin!

 

Transcript

Brandi Van:
So it’s really a battle between your intuition, your self trust, and the rational mind. And you really have to start to believe in yourself and just release all of the rational mind because the rational mind’s always going to get in your way.

Announcer: Welcome to Exploring the Mystical Side of Life with your host, Linda Lang.

Linda Lang:
Hi. This is Linda Lang from www.ThoughtChange.com. We are Exploring the Mystical Side of Life once again this week. If you enjoy our conversations, remember to subscribe, share with a friend. Today, we have psychic medium mentor, Brandi Van, with us and we’re discussing myths that pull you away from your psychic abilities. Welcome, Brandi.

Brandi Van:
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so glad to be here.

Linda Lang:
So first of all, you are a psychic and a medium. How did that open up for you?

Brandi Van:
So I always knew I had a gift. Even around, like, age 10, that’s probably the first time I remember hearing a spirit. And so I’m clairaudient, meaning I hear spirits mostly. But imagine you’re 10 years old, and it’s your voice, but not your thought. So I was thinking, “oh my gosh. Like, I don’t know if I’m crazy. I don’t want to share this with anyone. What if they think I’m making it up or just, like, getting it for attention?” So I ignored my ability for a very long time, probably not until I was in my twenties.

I actually had a very profound spiritual experience. So my grandma… we were all in the hospice. She was about to pass away. My family and I were all around her holding hands, crying. And as she took her last breath, I actually felt her spirit rise above the bed, and it was so profound. And when I looked above the bed, I saw all these magnificent, brilliant colors, and they were forming a star, and they were beating in and out like a heartbeat. And in that moment, I just knew she was at peace.

I knew she was, going on to the spirit world where she was just going to, you know, not have these struggles and challenges of the physical body anymore. I knew her angels and her family members who had passed away were with her and everything changed for me in that moment. I didn’t want to not have an ability, I knew I had one. I didn’t want to ignore it anymore. I wanted to embrace it. But then it took me years to do anything with it. You know, I was reading a ton of books, watching TV shows, watching YouTube videos, and nothing was working.

Like, you know, I couldn’t develop them. I couldn’t control when spirit was coming to me, and it wasn’t until I found a mentor. Once I found her, I only worked with her for maybe an hour a month for 6 months, so, like, 6 hours total, and then my abilities just skyrocketed. It was so different to work with someone who had already been in my shoes to tell me exactly what I had to do. And, you know, reading books can get you knowledge, but it’s like as though you were gonna play the piano and you read a whole bunch of books on the notes. But if you don’t put your hands on the piano, you’re not gonna be able to play the piano. So it was that same thing of I needed someone to show me what do I actually need to do and not just read about.

And then I became a medium, and now I want to be a mentor for others because that really just sparked my journey, and I want to be that for other people.

Linda Lang:
That is such a beautiful story. And what a gift for you to find peace in that moment of your grandmother’s passing. When my father passed, I could feel his spirit leave his body through the chakras in my hand, and it was wild. Just so tingly and such a different energy than anything from this life. So how beautiful that that was your trigger point for really embracing your gift and how beautiful that you are now mentoring other people. So do you think that everyone needs to already have, like, a certain base level to start developing, or can you just, like, open that door from scratch?

Brandi Van:
So everyone has innate psychic abilities. So it’s actually, you know, more of are you interested in it? Do you want to develop it? And it all starts with belief. You know, imagine that you’re a basketball player, but you don’t believe that you can play. It’s going to hinder your ability to be able to play. And this is the same thing. Just like anything else in our life, we have that limiting belief. And if you have that, it’s going to hinder your ability. So I think it really comes down to belief in yourself, belief in the spirit world, and that these abilities exist.

And then yes, anyone can definitely hone in on them. So, you know, if your parents have grown up with you saying, “no, you’re not seeing anything” or “no, you’re it’s in your imagination.” That’s a limiting belief that they put that pattern in your head, but maybe you’ve had parents who are like, “no, we’re very open minded and we totally believe that.” So I think it depends on how you were raised and then also where you are in your journey now, if you just want to go ahead and dive in on it. But, yeah, anybody is absolutely able to develop them.

Linda Lang:
And how do you learn to really trust those messages that you get?

Brandi Van:
That is by far the biggest the biggest hurdle that all of my clients have, even I had at the beginning, because your rational mind has been in the driver’s seat this whole time. Right? Your rational mind is telling you you’re making this up. There’s no way you know this. There’s no science research on any of this. So it’s really a battle between your intuition, your self trust, and the rational mind. And you really have to start to believe in yourself and just release all of the rational mind because the rational mind’s always going to get in your way. The louder your inner critic is getting, the closer you are to the goal.

And that’s when you really need to dive in and push through. Because when your inner critic is saying, there’s no way this is going to happen, see it like a best friend instead of an enemy and just have it come along for the ride and push through because that means you’re so close. I was doing readings for people and they’re validating everything I’m saying. And I’m still thinking, am I just thinking this up? And, like, clearly I’m not. And they’re telling me you need to trust yourself. And these are strangers. People I don’t even know. They’re telling me to trust myself.

You’re spot on with this message. And you still just tend to doubt yourself. So I think it really comes like anything with time, practice, commitment. And then once you start to get those validations, then you really don’t even need them anymore. Then you just start to trust it so much that I can do a reading and someone’s like, this makes no sense to me. But I still have to give the message just how it’s coming. And then maybe a week or 2 from now, they’re like, you know what? I talked to my mom. It totally made sense to her.

So even in the moment they might be saying it doesn’t make sense, but you still need to trust it because spirit is never going to give you the wrong answer. Now, in saying that I always tell people I’m not a 100% accurate. I don’t believe that anyone is. You know, your rational mind is going to try to understand the message so that it makes sense to you. But again, it’s not for you. It’s for someone else. So you just have to give the message as it is and trust it.

Linda Lang:
How do you know what your psychic gifts are?

Brandi Van:
So a lot of people are clairvoyant, meaning that you see an image, a vision, a symbol in your mind’s eye, but not everyone is clairvoyant. Right? So I think of it like this. Let’s say you’re going to play a sport and the goal is to win. Right? But if you’re good at baseball and that’s what you’re going to win in, then that’s what you want to play. But if you’re a clairaudient like myself and I’m hearing the messages and I’m winning at that sport per se, then that’s what I’m gonna run with. You don’t need to play every sport and win every one of them. You just need to figure out which one is yours and then run with it. People will start to know because they’ll start to recognize, am I seeing things? Am I hearing things? And once you start to realize that that’s the one you really want to practice.

Linda Lang:
And that can open up those other psychic gifts, like for you and your grandmother, where you saw.

Brandi Van:
Sometimes it can. Sometimes it can’t. But as long as you have one, there’s no wrong way to do it. So as long as you have one of them to receive a message, then that’s yours, you know? But in terms of psychic abilities, there’s so many different types of psychics. There’s healers, there’s empaths, there’s telepaths, there’s mediums like myself who could talk to deceased loved ones. So once you start to figure out how can I communicate, then you would need to figure out what type of ability I have because you’ll naturally be better at one or even a few. And then that’s the one you wanna run with because that’s going to help you help the most people.

Linda Lang:
And what if you don’t really have an interest in doing this for other people, but more for yourself? What kind of gifts can you receive from developing your own psychic gifts?

Brandi Van:
Think of it like having your own mentor every day of your life to ask questions. Your spirit guide is here with you all of the time. And it’s unfortunate because a lot of us don’t know how to talk to our spirit guide and they’re here to guide us. They’re, they’re here to help us get to our highest path in life, but if you don’t know how to ask them questions and receive their answers, their message goes unnoticed. So it can really help you in anything, whether it’s as small as, “can I get a parking spot closer to the building today that I’m going to?” or it can be, “what career choice should I take?” So they’re here to help us. And I get asked this question a lot. Can I ask my spirit guides too many questions? Is it a such thing? But it’s actually a two way street.

The more you ask your spirit guides a question and they help you, the more they ascend in the spirit world. So they want to help us because they have an ultimate goal as well to ascend. So, yeah, I always say to have 3 questions at all times to ask your spirit guides and thank them once you get your answer. Because by thanking them, you’ve now told them, “hey, I recognize that you helped me with this. I’m going to take your advice” and then they’ll go up another rank in the spirit world.

Linda Lang:
And what would you say to someone who has put that question out and can’t hear the message or or doesn’t think that a message is forthright?

Brandi Van:
That’s exactly what I teach because a lot of people can’t, you know? So that goes along with the clair-senses. It goes along with opening your gifts. So, yeah, I’ve had people like that where they can’t get that answer. And, like I said, reading a book’s not going to help you in that. Even if it’s not me, get a mentor because that’s going to be your best route to open your abilities.

Linda Lang:
I think chances are the message has come. You just haven’t seen it or you don’t know it’s a message because it can be pretty subtle sometimes.

Brandi Van:
Yeah. And if you don’t know what you’re looking for, how to look for it, or, you know, even to recognize it, then it goes unnoticed, which is really unfortunate.

Linda Lang:
Because there are so many gifts, and even just knowing that connection that you don’t have to walk this path totally alone, unsupported. Right?

Brandi Van:
They’re here for us. You know, they were assigned to us at birth. They want to help us. I mean, think about how hard life is. We have this physical body with all of these elements. We have struggles, challenges, stresses, and they know what our goals are here, that they know what we’re here to do, and so they want to guide us toward that.

But, yeah, if you’re missing those messages, then… not saying your path would always be incorrect, but wouldn’t it be a lot easier if someone were there to help you and support you?

Linda Lang:
I think one of the things that kind of maybe tripped me up on my path was not recognizing how they can help with the kind of mundane earthly things as well. It doesn’t always have to be about the highest spiritual path and how to evolve your soul. I remember Elvis Presley coming down and giving me suggestions on how to edit my podcast to make it easier for me, which totally blew me away. It can help you with those everyday things too.

Brandi Van:
Yeah. That’s amazing. That’s an awesome story. And, you know, we always have our main spirit guide that’s with us all the time, but we do have those spirit guides that come in and out of our lives. So, if that was what he needed to help you with, you know, maybe he’ll never come back, but it was like when you needed that guide, he was there for you, which is awesome.

Linda Lang:
It was so wild. Yeah. It was really wild. And I agree that there are guides that come and go depending on our choices. I know for myself, I have a writer guide who has come in to help me write. So I don’t necessarily feel that was my main guide for my whole life, but because I have this interest in writing, a new guide has appeared. And so for all the artists and painters and singers, and chefs even, you probably have a guide that helps you with your interests too.

Brandi Van:
Yeah. And not only your interest, but I always say also your personality. So let’s say I’m going to, I don’t know, go give a speech in front of 200 people and I’m completely nervous, then my spirit guide of confidence will come in to help me with that. Even an everyday experience where you just need the opposite of whatever you’re feeling, there’s that spirit guides come in to help you.

Linda Lang:
Yeah. That’s a beautiful use. That’s a beautiful use for it. So, Brandi, do you have any tips on how we can strengthen our connection and actually get the messages that they’re sending us?

Brandi Van:
So because most people are clairvoyant, because that goes with our sense of sight, which is our main one, I always tell people to do this exercise. So I’ll do a quick exercise with everyone. So if you close your eyes and envision a… and I always go with a different fruit… so today I’m gonna go with a lime. So if you envision a lime, you want to envision the size of the lime and you want to see the color of the lime. And then once you’ve seen it, you want to see it go up and out of your vision. And that seems like such a simple thing. Right? But some people can’t do it.

And some people, it takes a while, and you might need to envision yourself holding that lime, or maybe the lime’s on a table in the kitchen, or you need to come in with a crayon and color the color of the lime. However, you need to see the lime and then see it go up and out of your vision. And the reason for that is the stronger your imagination, the stronger your message is going to be because the more vivid you can make something, the more vivid when spirit comes in, that they can make it for you. And the second reason is when you see something that you did not create in your imagination, you know this is a message from spirit. I did not create this. So this is a message coming in from spirit.

Linda Lang:
That’s a really interesting point that the stronger your imagination is, the greater your intuition is. And imagination is something that so many adults have stepped away from.

Brandi Van:
You know, you can take anything in your life and try to envision it. So let’s say you were at the beach last week. Try to imagine that again and use all of your senses. See the waves, smell the sea salt, you know, feel the wind against your skin. Whenever you’re starting to develop your ability, it’s all about your 5 senses. So anything you can do to try to envision, imagine, feel, know, see, that’s going to help. And a lot of people are always like, “well, isn’t that just me using my imagination?” But that’s using your 3rd eye, and that’s what we need to develop so that we can have these abilities. And if someone is wondering about how to to trust their intuition, it’s a 4 step process.

So it’s not just about listening. Right? So first, you need to ask it a question because if you don’t ask it a question, you’re not going to get an answer. So first is to ask it a question. 2nd is to listen, and you only have 4 seconds, and it has to be a feeling in your heart, in your, in your gut. If you went onto that 5th second, your rational mind kicks in. So if you start thinking, you’ve already missed the intuition boat. So, that first 4 seconds, whatever you feel, that’s your answer. Then you need to trust it because it’s always going to lead you to the right place.

And then you need to act on whatever it says. And if you miss any of those 4 steps, you’re not actively listening to your intuition.

Linda Lang:
A lot of people hear and understand and then consciously choose not to do it.

Brandi Van:
Yes. That’s true. And that’s unfortunate because I think how many times have you been like, “I knew I shouldn’t have done that,” right? And that’s what we’re trying to avoid because it is always going to lead you to the right path. So it’s like anything else. You need to practice at it. You need to really give yourself some self compassion. If you don’t, try again.

But that’s ultimately what you want to do, especially when you’re developing your ability. Because the more you trust yourself and your intuition, the next step is trusting the message from spirit. So, if you don’t trust yourself, how can you trust the message that’s coming in from spirit?

Linda Lang:
And for people who would like to develop it and actually start giving messages to other people or doing readings, that’s a pretty big step from receiving messages for yourself to working with someone else and having to have that intuition “on call” when you need it, let’s say. How do you do that?

Brandi Van:
Sure. So of course, that’s the next step even. So you want to be able to control your ability so much that you can call spirit on demand. So you’re going to have that person in front of you, “I need a message” and you need to call on them right then and there. So that again takes a lot of practice, a lot of self trust. And really, I can’t emphasize practice enough. So you always want to practice on people first that know you’re just starting out, that know you’re practicing.

So they’re not expecting the world. So then it’s a lot more lax. And then as you practice, you’re going to start building your confidence. You’re going to start getting those validations and then you can move on to then charging if you want. ‘Cause there’s so many ways to create income in this industry. It’s just, like, not talked a lot about, but, you know, you could be pet bereavement counselor for someone who’s lost their pet, or you could do mediumship readings for someone that lost a deceased loved ones. There’s psychic detectives that work with the police to find a missing child. There’s so many different ways that you can do it and you can have this ability for yourself.

But I feel like, my personal opinion is, I have a responsibility to help others because it is such a beautiful, amazing gift that I feel like I would feel selfish if I didn’t help other people with it.

Linda Lang:
Would you recommend people don’t do readings for their family and close friends when they’re starting out? Because sometimes we know people so well and we can have our own judgments and thoughts about that person, that it might be a little bit hard to distinguish what’s coming from spirit and what is coming from us.

Brandi Van:
Yeah. Absolutely. So when you have that emotional connection, it does make the reading harder. So if someone wanted to do that, you know, you can certainly practice, but let’s say, let’s say it was about my grandma, right, who I had 20 some years with of my life. I would ask for questions before I was born because that’s something I would not know, and make it very specific. So that’s how you would get your mind out of it because you clearly don’t know something before you were born. So if I ask my mom something about her childhood, that there’s no way I could know it. And so that’s how you’d wanna approach that.

But you could still do it as long as it’s not something that you already know because then your mind’s going to interrupt that message and put in, insert itself in there.

Linda Lang:
The other thing I’d like to ask you about is attachment. You know, perhaps, maybe yourself or the person you’re reading for, there is a real deep need or desire for an answer that maybe it’s some, you know, really difficult situation in your life and you have such an attachment to getting help, is it possible that your emotional state can keep you from receiving that answer?

Brandi Van:
You’re talking about the psychic or the person receiving the reading?

Linda Lang:
I think the person receiving the reading, but if the psychic is doing that for themselves and can’t step far enough out of the situation, I think it could apply to really both of them.

Brandi Van:
Yeah. So first, I’ll talk about the person receiving the reading. So if someone is grieving, I always consider it like a brick wall. And if there’s that thick brick wall, imagine you’re trying to even talk to a human through it. You will not be able to hear the message. So I know I always tell people their person must have passed at least 6 months to 2 years because if that wall is so thick, I cannot get through the message. And then in terms of yourself, or even the person you’re reading, sometimes your spirit guides are going to put a wall up. So if someone has a very negative energy, your spirit guides will want to protect you from that.

And you’ll know within the first five minutes whether you’re going to be able to do a reading or not. So if you feel that wall and you don’t think it’s coming from their grief, it could be that your spirit guides are putting up a wall so that you can’t go into that person’s energy field, and vice versa. The other person’s wall might be coming from their spirit guides because maybe they feel like they’re not ready for this message. And so we need to put that wall up so that you can’t get through either. So it’s kind of a two way street in terms of the spirit guides putting up a wall, so you might not be able to get the message. I’ve never had an instance where I couldn’t get the message for myself, but, you know, I think you will be able to get it in time. So I just feel like, you know, if you haven’t gotten it today for yourself, try again in another month or so and keep trying. Spirit only is going to give you what you need at this moment.

So if you’re not getting the message, it means that you’re not meant to have it right now because they know what’s best for us, and they’re not gonna give us a message that they don’t think we’re ready for.

Linda Lang:
I was wondering if sometimes that could also be that the person isn’t willing to hear. Because I think there has to be a level of openness, receptivity, and willingness without needing it to look a certain way.

Brandi Van:
If someone does feel that way, then I feel like why are they going for a reading? You know? So, you can’t control what’s coming through, and I’ve had people like that where they’re trying to steer my answers to them. And it’s like, that’s not what’s coming through. That’s what’s in your mind that you want to come through, but that is not what’s coming through. And I noticed during those readings that my energy just gets so depleted because it’s so hard for me because I’m trying to give a message. They’re not responding to it in the way that they should be, and they’re not receiving it. And then my energy gets very drained. So I usually cut those readings off.

I’ll refund their money and just say, like, “this is not going to work because you’re putting your own, how can I say, like, your own wishes upon this reading, and you’re basically trying to control it, and this is not how it works.”

Linda Lang:
I certainly could see that. I think of situations where a person is trying to cast blame on someone else without necessarily taking their part in responsibility.

Brandi Van:
Yeah. Absolutely. And again, that’s them trying to control it and maybe alleviate their guilt, but that’s not how it works.

Linda Lang:
There you go. So, Brandy, what are some of the myths that actually prevent us from connecting with our psychic ability?

Brandi Van:
The first one is absolutely their fear. Right? Because you’re going to this place of the unknown. You’ve never been there before. And of course, media doesn’t help in TV shows. Right? Movies show us the exorcist, the poltergeist. So I think if you have that connection with psychic abilities, with the occult or witches, then you’re afraid of it. But it’s really not something fearful. It’s actually something beautiful and amazing.

So that’s really a unfortunate misconception because it’s not scary, especially if you know how to protect your energy. If you know how to call in spirits that are only of the highest realm and the highest good to communicate with you, you’re not going to have a negative entity come to you. Of course they exist, but if you know what you’re doing, they’re not going to come to you because you have power over spirit and they’re going to just see it as “why am I wasting my time? I know this person’s not going to have a reaction to me.” So, fear is definitely the biggest one. Another one is people think that they can’t develop it later in life, that you’re born with this, you know, that you have to do it your whole life, but that’s not true either. It’s just like, if tomorrow you want to start learning how to play the drums, okay, go learn how to play them.

It’s the same thing. Anyone, at any point in their life, as long as they have an interest, as long as they’re going to do the time and the practice, you can do it. Another one is, you know, people who are skeptics, they always talk about science. Right? Well, there is no science on subjective experiences. So I always say that, whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, you can’t tell me what I’m experiencing. I 100% know that spirit is coming to me. Just like if someone was on a roller coaster and one person’s screaming, you don’t know if they’re fearful and like, “get me off this thing.” Or if the other person is screaming, like, “I love this and I’m getting back in line and going on it again.”

You can’t tell by looking at someone what they’re experiencing. So, you know, there’s no science on that. So there’s no one that can tell me what I’m experiencing. I think another one too is that people think it’s for other people. Right? It’s not for me. It’s for the Teresa Caputo’s and the Tyler Henry’s of the world. And the only way I can do this is if I get famous, but that’s not true either. I mean, Michael Jordan was great at basketball, but that doesn’t mean that no one can play basketball because he was the best one.

So, yeah, it’s just a myth that people have. The more people that do this, the more we’ll talk about it, the less taboo it will be. So I feel like we need as many people doing this as possible to try to get through that stigma and anyone can do this. So, yeah, it’s absolutely not anything that you can’t do.

And the last one is that people think you can’t turn it off once it’s on. And trust me, you can. Can you imagine if I had dead people talking to me all day? Like I would hate my life. It would be like I’m working all the time. Like the dead people would be my client and I can’t turn it off. No. That’d be horrible. So you can absolutely turn it off. You set those boundaries with spirit. You turn it off when you want to, and you turn it on when you want to. So it’s definitely not like I’m psychic all the time. You know? I’m a I’m a wife. I’m an aunt. I’m a sister and a daughter. I’m all these other things. I’m not just a psychic 100% of the time because that would be a lot.

Linda Lang:
Brandi, if people would like to know more, where can we send them?

Brandi Van:
Of course. So they can go to my website, www.brandivan.com. That’s Brandi with an “i”.

Linda Lang:
Perfect. Thank you for being my guest today.

Brandi Van:
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Linda Lang:
And thank you for listening to this week’s edition of Exploring the Mystical Side of Life. You will find all of our conversations on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform. Come visit me at www.ThoughtChange.com. Pick up your copy of Learning to Listen. It’ll help you discern what psychic messages and gifts are in your back pocket. That’s it for this week. We’ll see you again next time. Bye for now.