Psychics and Seeing Your Life within a Blink

John William Waterhouse - The Crystal Ball

We are told that all we have is the present. The past is already gone and the future has not evolved yet, nor will it ever because unlike the past, the future is simply intangible. And we live out each moment, some of them good and enjoyable, others sad and depressing; in the meantime, we are racing toward the ultimate destination, our own death.

The present, however, is not as fixed as we may think. Time flies when we are engaged in pleasurable activities and drags on forever when we are facing boring or tedious situations. It flows imperceptibly when we are asleep.

Yet at times, we feel that time has stopped or that it has acquired an eternal quality. It is a mystical moment, which I have referred to elsewhere as epiphany, where we see beyond the present into the eternal now. In those moments of spiritual truth, time has stopped its ticking and we seem to step out of time.

We gain a different perspective of events. Life does not become a moment-to-moment struggle with the dread of the future haunting us at every step, but we get to see the so-called big picture. It is seeing beyond trivial matters or daily chores while observing a certain direction and purpose in our life. It is the underlying and undying eternity that embraces us. Such visions may be induced by drugs or are the reality of people with a special gift: psychics.

Psychics are often repudiated in modern society. We often do not believe in them and think they are crackheads, weirdos and charlatans. Religious people shun them due to the psychics' supposed ties with the occult. God does not want us to see into the future. Or does He?

In fact, age-old prophets were psychics in the sense that they had gained a glimpse of the future. They foretold the coming of the Messiah. The Bible itself foretells of the end of the world, the Apocalypse. So why would fortunetelling be so wrong to practice?

Sometimes I agree that the reason we are wired this way, of not knowing our future, is for the best. We can function better by not knowing and second-guessing what will happen next or when our own life will come to a grinding halt. Most people would not mind some guidance now and then, but would not like their whole life spelled out in detail because that would take all the fun and initiative out of it.

But what are some of the implications of psychic phenomena? Life as we know it is a straight line. It starts from birth and it ends at death. We do not know what happened before nor can we say with certainty what will happen after. But we know that there is the invisible stream of time connecting and weaving the past with the future and giving form to our own life.

Psychics are said to step out of conventional time and see this “line.” They are not being tied to the present, but get to look at the complete panorama of all time events, also known as synchronicity. It is like watching a movie that you can pause, rewind, fast forward anytime. Time becomes a plaything you can direct whichever way.

And there is something to be gained with such a perspective. It shows you that life is more than just your present. This is reassuring when it seems that the present obstacles and hurdles are dragging you down. It is a hope, almost childlike and naive, projecting into the future, that everything will work itself out, regardless of the present circumstances. 

It is also the realization that our life is made up of all those little interminable moments that we come in touch with, that define us and give our life direction. It is being aware of and knowing that death is only an endpoint of what we call a life lived.