In the book “You Are Psychic” clairvoyant and professional psychic reader Debra Lynn Katz attempts to create an at home coursebook or sorts for the would-be psychic based on her personal experiences and training she gained at The Berkley Psychic Institute. The book is a mix of personal stories, anecdotes, and exercises for helping one develop their intuition and visualization skills. It’s a book that starts out very entertaining and intriguing but quickly seems to take a turn and by the end had me completely turned off to Ms. Katz’s techniques.

I originally purchased a discounted copy of Katz’s second book, “Extraordinary Psychic” under the premise that this was a book aimed mainly at professionals looking to expand techniques for working with clients. As this would be me, I thought it would be worth a read, but quickly I realized as I glanced through the introduction of that book that she had a previous book that this one I had was meant to expand on. So I went out and purchased the first one and thought I would read them in order to get the most from them. At this point I haven’t moved on to the second one, but I may still give that a go.

This book however, “You Are Psychic” is a book that is aimed at the open skeptic who wants to expand their own abilities as a form of proving the power of psychic ability. Ms. Katz’s all but says this is how she herself began studying the art of psychic reading and would eventually go on to be a professional reader, and now author, with a thriving business in Sedona, AZ. She begins by telling stories of how she has helped others and tried to prove to those skeptics around her that there was truth to clairvoyance. This soon moves into a series of exercises to help teach grounding and cleansing negative energy. These exercises and techniques, all dealing with grounding cords and “pillars”, were good, basic techniques that I agree all people that work with such practices should be proficient in as they are part of good psychic protection. However things start to get interesting and little less conventional from there.

A technique that Katz was taught in her time with the Berkley Psychic Institute involves creating a “reading receptacle” in the mind where all clairvoyant information is seen. This is done by closing your eyes and “seeing” through the forehead with your third eye. The reader creates a reading screen and then, as Katz’s instructs, visualizes a crystal rose, complete with stem which acts as a grounding cord, and within this rose is where all information will surface. This particular image is chosen because, as she surmises, anyone can visualize a rose. She then states that if you can’t just postulate that the rose is there and postulate the information coming to you. This automatically had me a little thrown off and as I tried these exercises I was never once able to visualize a rose that would contain any sort of images, colors or information. She also goes through a series of exercises that have to do with also being able to “blow up” and destroy your crystal roses and reading screens as a way to release the energy or connection to things you see in a reading because, as she says, if you can create and image you need to also know how to destroy and release it.

The book goes on with a number of what she called “psychic tools” and exercises, all explained in brief snippets with more of her stories and experiences than explanations of these exercises, their techniques, origins and uses. In the section of the book on actually performing readings she talks about several things, which for me, were instant turn offs. First, as she explains early in the book, you should always perform your readings with your eyes closed so that you cannot see your client or the person you’re reading for since this will only influence you and your information. She stress this point in the later part of the book along with explaining that you should never look for validation from a client during a reading because this only feeds our ego and does nothing for the person we are reading for. These two things had me almost throw the book across the room. I think that a reader needs to have their ego in check enough to know when walking into the reading that this isn’t about them, but it’s about the client, and that’s all the more reason to make sure that your client can validate what you’re giving them and that they understand what you’re giving them. If you’re sitting there for an hour with your eyes closed, not looking at or acknowledging your client and just rambling off with whatever comes to you, you could very well open your eyes to either a completely baffled client or an empty chair because you were so in your own little world that you have no idea that the person got up and walked out because you were so far off base! Just because you get information while reading someone doesn’t mean it’s necessarily for that person in front of you (like in a case were someone might be causing you to pull information about one of their children or a spouse) and it also doesn’t mean that they can relate. I agree with her about not wanting to brow-beat your client into agreeing with what you give them and this being a reason to not seek validation but validation isn’t always about the reader’s ego and is just as important to making the client comfortable with you as a reader.

Ms. Katz also includes a lengthy section on psychic morals and ethics. One thing that she talks about which relates to this but is in a previous section, is her thoughts on reading for children. She says that she doesn’t like have adults or parents present when reading for children but makes sure that they are at least within sight or earshot because she doesn’t want to get sued because of things like abuse or molestation accusations. Really?! I would never imagine reading for a minor without the presence of a parent of guardian! To me that just seems extremely unethical! I also found a section on sexual ethics and what to do if you find yourself aroused during a reading because of an attraction to the client and what to do if you think you’re destined to be in a relationship with the client, well, interesting. She then goes on to talk about “astral rape” which was just…interesting.

Frankly I didn’t gain nearly as much from this book as I had hoped. I didn’t find her techniques helpful and many seemed confusing and uninspired. I also felt that with all her talks about ethics, morals and do’s and don’t’s as if she was trying to put herself on a very high moral ground where she was looking down on everyone else, including her clients. I also felt as though she was, to some degree, putting those who use tools to tap their abilities (such as tarot, pendulums, etc) as not “true clairvoyants” and psychics who are somehow less capable.

While I wouldn’t recommend this book and I don’t find much from it that can be useful to those who may have any understanding of their own abilities or the world of psychic reading and healing, it may be of interest to the open skeptic who has no previous experiences to draw from. But for the rest of us this is is one I would stay away from.