Nowadays mediums are becoming more and more popular, whether it be watching Theresa Caputo the Long Island Medium on TLC, or Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry on E!. Now forget about these televised psychic mediums — what about actually going to see a medium up close and personal? Would you ever? Well on April 9, I did. I went to a group reading with certified psychic medium and master teacher Amy Utsman.
The group reading was held at a small spiritual store called Five Sisters. It’s the perfect little store for finding crystals, clothes and spiritual guidance.
To tell you the truth, this wasn’t my first rodeo with seeing a psychic medium. To give you a little background about me, many of my family members have crossed over to the other side. Such is life, right? My mom and I discovered psychic mediums through watching various shows on television, but we actually bought tickets to see Theresa Caputo at an event that she hosted in Miami. There were thousands of people in the audience, but she managed to walk our way. Although she was standing right next to us, our spirits didn’t come through, but the person next to us did receive a reading. My mom and I still had a great night, but we were slightly disappointed.
This is when my mom discovered Amy. Turns out the Five Sisters store was next to her gym, and it periodically hosts group readings where Amy Utsman connects with spirits on the other side for about two hours or so. My mother and I have seen Amy three times, twice in group readings and once in a private session. The private session was insanely accurate and provided my family with closure and happiness about our past loved ones. However, this article isn’t about me and my experience. It’s about what a certified psychic medium does in an actual group reading.
The room where the group reading was held was surrounded by Christmas lights, decorative curtains and Buddhist statues. Amy made it very clear that all cell phones needed to be turned off so they would not break the connection if a spirit were to come through. The room was filled with a mix of men and women of varying ages. Amy told the audience to take a couple of deep breaths. She also said to invite our loved ones who have passed who we wished to hear from to join us. Before Amy started, she explained the traits of how one of her readings would go so we would be aware of what she was doing. She explained that she does not do reading with her glasses on and says the word “okay” a lot just to reassure the spirit she is channeling. She told us if she talks about something you wish not to share with the other people in the audience because it is too personal to raise your left hand for her to stop. Then Amy jokingly said, “I’m not going to levitate and spin around.”
The group reading had now begun, and already Amy was channeling spirits left and right. Sometimes more than one spirit would come at the same time, and she would have to get them sorted out with the people in the room whose loved ones were trying to come through. What happens when a spirit first comes through is she first identifies if it is a male or female. She then goes into more detail describing how they died and what kind of personality the spirit has or a specific characteristic about them so one of the people in the room can identify if that spirit is for them or not. Amy strongly suggests to not tell her anything because that is her job and not the person in the audience to give all the details.
For example, she described a male that was coming through. She described the man being Italian, having a raspy voice, could be an uncle, passed from illness due to the tightness in his chest and a cough and was a smoker. Someone from the audience identified with these descriptions, but Amy always finds a specific detail about the spirit to connect directly to the person in the audience. It turns out that the male spirit was an uncle warning the niece that they should not spend a lot of money on the first car they buy for their daughter because it was going to get wrecked in a crash. Even though this sounds scary, it was a warning for the family provided by their loved one who had passed. Some spirits had messages of how they were sorry for how they passed; some just wanted to say hello, but others had important messages that needed to be told to their families.
Overall, the night was great. Not everyone got a reading, but in a group of more than 40 people, she gave readings to more than half. Even if you didn’t get read, it was amazing to hear some of the stories and watch the faces of joy, sadness and relief from the audience members receiving these messages they long waited for from their loved ones.
Photo Credits: Alexandra Ciccarone