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The Reluctant Psychic
We all, as children, saw imaginary friends and heard monsters in the closet. But for Suzan Saxman, those friends and monsters didn't go away-and they weren't imaginary. They were the dead who came to her from the time she was a little girl with urgent messages for the living. Raised in a house filled with secrets, she saw and spoke the truth as soon as she could talk, alarming the nuns in her convent school with her revelations and terrifying her own mother with her strange visions. Each night she woke to see a man with no eyes watching her, and each day she kept watch by the window while her father was at work and Steve, her real father, a swarthy drifter, rendezvoused with her mother. It was the 1960s in suburban Staten Island and she tried to hide it all, and be a daughter her mother could love. Always skeptical of her tremendous gift, she struggled to come to terms with her calling even as she revealed the destinies of everyone, from housewives to hit men, stockbrokers to rock-and-rollers. She could witness everyone's future-everyone's but her own. Why was she visited by angels and demons? Could she ever escape this strange fate? Where was her own soul mate? Now Suzan tells the story of her journey and tries to make sense of her family's buried secrets. Through powerful readings of others' destinies interwoven with compelling narrative, a reluctant psychic emerges from the shadows.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 27, 2015
36 people are currently reading
1749 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
November 20, 2014
This memoir is as much, if not more, about entwined dysfunctional families as it is about psychic abilities. Saxman's relationships with her parents, as well as her relationships with her husband and the men she has affairs with, read like material lifted from soap operas. Consequently, the psychic part of her story is often swallowed up in all the surrounding melodrama.
The writing is direct, as if Saxman is speaking to each of us privately. This style works well and makes for an easy read. At the close of each chapter, Saxman shares a brief anecdote from one of her readings with a client. These passages offer the most insight into her abilities, as we leave the drama behind to focus on the way her abilities work.
As for the content, it is indeed over the top. I commend Saxman for being so open, though I'm left wondering how I feel about it all. If I read this as fiction, I'd accuse the author of being ridiculous with the drama. Saxman makes a lot of odd choices. The men in her life are far too tolerant of her antics. Her husband allows her to carry on intense love affairs, while he apparently remains loyal to her. She spends a large portion of her life pining for and chasing after a particular man, but what she does after connecting with him felt, to me, completely selfish and hurtful. She didn't seem to care about his feelings at all once she'd gotten what she needed.
Saxman appears to experience a jumble of abilities. She sees spirits, hears them speaking, has premonitions and precognitive dreams, and can also feel connections with past lives. None of these abilities do her much good in her personal life, which is mostly a mess.
I'm left with mixed feelings. The focus is far more on her chaotic life, with her psychic abilities as perhaps an underlying factor. Some things I felt needed to be explored more, while other parts were expounded on to the point of exhaustion. If you are not a believer in anything supernatural, I doubt there is enough here to convince you otherwise. If you are a believer, Saxman's life choices might make you question her connection to a higher power. Overall, I think 'Dysfunctional Psychic' might have been a better title.
The writing is direct, as if Saxman is speaking to each of us privately. This style works well and makes for an easy read. At the close of each chapter, Saxman shares a brief anecdote from one of her readings with a client. These passages offer the most insight into her abilities, as we leave the drama behind to focus on the way her abilities work.
As for the content, it is indeed over the top. I commend Saxman for being so open, though I'm left wondering how I feel about it all. If I read this as fiction, I'd accuse the author of being ridiculous with the drama. Saxman makes a lot of odd choices. The men in her life are far too tolerant of her antics. Her husband allows her to carry on intense love affairs, while he apparently remains loyal to her. She spends a large portion of her life pining for and chasing after a particular man, but what she does after connecting with him felt, to me, completely selfish and hurtful. She didn't seem to care about his feelings at all once she'd gotten what she needed.
Saxman appears to experience a jumble of abilities. She sees spirits, hears them speaking, has premonitions and precognitive dreams, and can also feel connections with past lives. None of these abilities do her much good in her personal life, which is mostly a mess.
I'm left with mixed feelings. The focus is far more on her chaotic life, with her psychic abilities as perhaps an underlying factor. Some things I felt needed to be explored more, while other parts were expounded on to the point of exhaustion. If you are not a believer in anything supernatural, I doubt there is enough here to convince you otherwise. If you are a believer, Saxman's life choices might make you question her connection to a higher power. Overall, I think 'Dysfunctional Psychic' might have been a better title.
January 28, 2015
This was such an honest biography, I almost felt like a voyeur for reading it. Suzan tells all in this book of her frightful childhood and her coming into her own, for the moment. As much as think
The Reluctant Psychic
is about her abilities and realizing this made her special, this is also a book about coming to terms with her family’s secrets.
I have to admit that this book almost includes too much. The details of the taunting by her mother and childhood bullies were terrible to read. The truth about her father, and her mother’s husband, were obviously not made up. The lack of love from her mother made me wonder how she came into the world at all, much less with such hope for the future. Sad to see what people put children through. Despite all of that Suzan still retains all of this hope for herself and the coincidences in her life.
She admits that she can’t see anything about her own fate, but then she actually does a few times. Some of the people that feature in this story seem right out of a comic book or something. I have no doubt that people treat clairvoyants differently when they know about them. I just didn’t realize how differently. The people in this book wear costumes and believe in fairies, not that it is all bad. The people in this story seem a little dreamy and very far from the reality I live in. I could see why she calls herself the reluctant psychic, as much as she seemed to just want to be like everyone else she isn’t. People treat her very differently and expect much more from her. It was interesting to learn about how she stumbled through her beginnings. It didn’t really help her to be clairvoyant, except to make her really different from everyone else.
I liked this story, but I was really torn on how to rate it. Due to the genuine person behind this tale, and her unique story, I had to admire her honesty. Not everyone can get up and tell the truth about their skeletons. This is a very resilient woman. I don’t read many biography books, but I believed in Suzan, she seemed real to me. This whole book is delivered in first person. The writer was obviously trying not to skip anything in the delivery. It probably had too many details without enough of the psychic stories we all want to read about. I felt like it needed it to have more of a focused delivery to gain the popularity that this woman’s story probably deserves.
I have to admit that this book almost includes too much. The details of the taunting by her mother and childhood bullies were terrible to read. The truth about her father, and her mother’s husband, were obviously not made up. The lack of love from her mother made me wonder how she came into the world at all, much less with such hope for the future. Sad to see what people put children through. Despite all of that Suzan still retains all of this hope for herself and the coincidences in her life.
She admits that she can’t see anything about her own fate, but then she actually does a few times. Some of the people that feature in this story seem right out of a comic book or something. I have no doubt that people treat clairvoyants differently when they know about them. I just didn’t realize how differently. The people in this book wear costumes and believe in fairies, not that it is all bad. The people in this story seem a little dreamy and very far from the reality I live in. I could see why she calls herself the reluctant psychic, as much as she seemed to just want to be like everyone else she isn’t. People treat her very differently and expect much more from her. It was interesting to learn about how she stumbled through her beginnings. It didn’t really help her to be clairvoyant, except to make her really different from everyone else.
I liked this story, but I was really torn on how to rate it. Due to the genuine person behind this tale, and her unique story, I had to admire her honesty. Not everyone can get up and tell the truth about their skeletons. This is a very resilient woman. I don’t read many biography books, but I believed in Suzan, she seemed real to me. This whole book is delivered in first person. The writer was obviously trying not to skip anything in the delivery. It probably had too many details without enough of the psychic stories we all want to read about. I felt like it needed it to have more of a focused delivery to gain the popularity that this woman’s story probably deserves.
October 24, 2018
4.5 stars
A fascinating memoir about a very gifted psychic medium. Saxman's story is a compelling autobiography coupled with an honestly rendered family epic. Highly recommended.
A fascinating memoir about a very gifted psychic medium. Saxman's story is a compelling autobiography coupled with an honestly rendered family epic. Highly recommended.
March 12, 2015
I met the author, who comes a cross as a sincere, down to earth person genuinely focused on people, making sense of her life, and having a good laugh while she's at it. Well-written memoir, a page turner - for me the psychological and social challenges her psychic ability created for her were fascinating. A coming of age and coming in to her own book. My sense is, if there are true psychics, she is one of them.
February 3, 2016
Suzan's story so eerily aligns with mine that I almost had to put it down to recover. Although I'm not as open intuitively as she, we seem to have had very similar lives. What I loved about her story was her willingness to share the dark spots. Most psychic memoirs are all love and light and "nothing can hurt you." This was honest and not teachy or preachy about her beliefs. I am grateful to see that she had the courage to be so revealing.
April 11, 2015
Fabulous Book, Amazing Woman
Having had personal readings by Fiona, I was interested in learning more about her and her remarkable gift. I didn't realize how much I would enjoy the book. I have a whole new respect for her and David. Wonderful!
Having had personal readings by Fiona, I was interested in learning more about her and her remarkable gift. I didn't realize how much I would enjoy the book. I have a whole new respect for her and David. Wonderful!
April 28, 2016
This was truly a great read. It's an open an honest account of an incredible women's journey who just happens to have an extraordinary gift. Her trials and triumphs are relatable... Her story is inspiring and empowering.
July 4, 2015
This was an incredibly written book that I read in 24 hours. Whether or not you believe in psychic visions, spirits, or past lives. Suzan Saxman's descriptions of her visions and spiritual connections since childhood are fascinating. Her ability to see spirits in people and animals really made me question our connection, or lack of it, with the spiritual world. I was particularly interested to read this description:
You don't need a psychic to tell you that the Earth is in a sorry state, and that technology is interfering with the natural order of things...we've stopped paying attention to what's happening right in front of us.
...We have forgotten that everything in nature is divine.
Prophetically, I had this exact conversation with a friend recently, and we discussed the lack of connection between children and nature.
I was also interested to read about Suzan's connection with former child actor Jack Wild, and of the possibility that they may have been siblings. Later in life, she finds a connection with living in Woodstock. What if more of us took the time to make spiritual connections with the people and places around us?
I was also interested to read about the author's decision to be "done with romance":
...the Oracle of Delphi in Ancient Greece was always a woman who was done with marriage and children...freedom...these days I'm married to me.
You don't need a psychic to tell you that the Earth is in a sorry state, and that technology is interfering with the natural order of things...we've stopped paying attention to what's happening right in front of us.
...We have forgotten that everything in nature is divine.
Prophetically, I had this exact conversation with a friend recently, and we discussed the lack of connection between children and nature.
I was also interested to read about Suzan's connection with former child actor Jack Wild, and of the possibility that they may have been siblings. Later in life, she finds a connection with living in Woodstock. What if more of us took the time to make spiritual connections with the people and places around us?
I was also interested to read about the author's decision to be "done with romance":
...the Oracle of Delphi in Ancient Greece was always a woman who was done with marriage and children...freedom...these days I'm married to me.
April 9, 2015
As advertised, this memoir offers dazzling scenes of a young girl's (and then grown woman's) encounters with the world unseen. Initially, the action transpires during an off-the-charts dysfunctional upbringing, and later during a wildly adventurous, unconventional life. Those passages alone make it a fascinating read. But The Reluctant Psychic offers more. Even though her gifts and exploits are way beyond the average person's, Saxman, with Perdita Finn, relates her life story in such a down-to-earth, generous fashion, the reader steps away with a broadened sense of their own experience; that vivid visitation dream you had, that stranger you somehow knew, that song you heard before you turned on the radio to find it playing, that premonition that came true. Those are not insignificant blips. The Reluctant Psychic shows how you, too, are connected to more than you realize. By example, Saxman handles her sometimes difficult gifts, and the various types of fallout, with inspiring courage and resilience, despite carping from those who judge (or worse). Even non-psychics can relate to that. Suzan Saxman's memoir will touch and embolden your inner, secret freak, and you'll be glad.
July 22, 2015
I read this book with an open mind and ended up enjoying it rather a lot! The story is absorbing and well told, there is great rhythm to it (unlike some other biographies of this kind)and in general I found it quite moving.
Maria Carmo,
Lisbon 22 July 2015.
Maria Carmo,
Lisbon 22 July 2015.
May 17, 2015
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I really like the author's down to earth approach.
February 14, 2018
Well written and fascinating, although I'm a sucker for anything from this Genre.
March 12, 2017
quite the confessional, and quite good
January 11, 2015
I've had enough experiences in my life to know that, at the very least, I don't have all the answers. I'm fascinated by ghosts and occult experiences and looked forward to an in-depth autobiography about the author's encounters with the other side shining some light. What I got instead was a poorly written cliched tale of a misfit with a terrible mother sprinkled with short psychic anecdotes. Suzan Saxman plays the role of the reluctant psychic convincingly; equal parts living as an outcast on the fringes of society and the draining grind of giving readings for money. She also basks in the celebrity status she accumulates over time and cavalierly justifies a lot of selfish and borderline cruel choices in her life, not unlike the mom from whom she longs for approval.
I had high hopes for this book, but in the end, this was a fairly predictable story of an ugly mother/daughter relationship and the requisite search for understanding and forgiveness. The errors and inconsistencies prove frustrating, and her style is dry and hackneyed, even with a co-writer. The psychic parts were interesting at times, but also a bit repetitive. I have little doubt that she has some psychic powers which have proven both blessing and curse for her, a thematic truism across most books in this genre, but she never really provides much of a compelling story, nor is she capable of describing her gifts in much detail. She doesn't make many deep philosophical observations about what her life has taught her. When she does, it's to tell us that the dead are just as self-absorbed, petty, and needy as the living. She also makes a strong case, inadvertently or not, that it really doesn't matter. Enjoy life, don't sweat the small stuff, love one another, don't be a jerk, etc., etc., etc. Fortune cookie stuff. It's all sadly dull. Saxman is a go-between the souls of the deceased use to pass along messages; unstoppable and relentless, in a manner that makes it seem as if she's little more than the customer service rep for the spirit world. I can't blame her for taking the air out of the room, so to speak, but I do feel a bit sobered by what I've learned.
You may take away something else and for that I mildly recommend it.
I had high hopes for this book, but in the end, this was a fairly predictable story of an ugly mother/daughter relationship and the requisite search for understanding and forgiveness. The errors and inconsistencies prove frustrating, and her style is dry and hackneyed, even with a co-writer. The psychic parts were interesting at times, but also a bit repetitive. I have little doubt that she has some psychic powers which have proven both blessing and curse for her, a thematic truism across most books in this genre, but she never really provides much of a compelling story, nor is she capable of describing her gifts in much detail. She doesn't make many deep philosophical observations about what her life has taught her. When she does, it's to tell us that the dead are just as self-absorbed, petty, and needy as the living. She also makes a strong case, inadvertently or not, that it really doesn't matter. Enjoy life, don't sweat the small stuff, love one another, don't be a jerk, etc., etc., etc. Fortune cookie stuff. It's all sadly dull. Saxman is a go-between the souls of the deceased use to pass along messages; unstoppable and relentless, in a manner that makes it seem as if she's little more than the customer service rep for the spirit world. I can't blame her for taking the air out of the room, so to speak, but I do feel a bit sobered by what I've learned.
You may take away something else and for that I mildly recommend it.
March 14, 2015
I recieved this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
When I first got this book I did not know if I would like it. I thought that it would just be about some crazy lady, who thought everyone was good and there were only good spirits. I was surprised when I began reading it. I eventually figured out she has the same beliefs that I do. I have never fit into a specific religion, seeing that all of them could be related to each other. I've also believed in spirits. This helped me realize that I most likely have past lives and it fits into how I have always been interested in certain periods of time.
I was amazed by all the things that happened to her and around her. We all hope to find our soulmates and we always expect that when we do we will fall in love in a romantic way. I liked to find out that a soulmate may not be someone you can be romantic with and you may not find in every life, but they will always be waiting at some point.
This was a book I really enjoyed and it taught me about myself and my beliefs.
When I first got this book I did not know if I would like it. I thought that it would just be about some crazy lady, who thought everyone was good and there were only good spirits. I was surprised when I began reading it. I eventually figured out she has the same beliefs that I do. I have never fit into a specific religion, seeing that all of them could be related to each other. I've also believed in spirits. This helped me realize that I most likely have past lives and it fits into how I have always been interested in certain periods of time.
I was amazed by all the things that happened to her and around her. We all hope to find our soulmates and we always expect that when we do we will fall in love in a romantic way. I liked to find out that a soulmate may not be someone you can be romantic with and you may not find in every life, but they will always be waiting at some point.
This was a book I really enjoyed and it taught me about myself and my beliefs.
August 19, 2015
I won this from a GoodReads First Read Giveaway. It was easier to read in the beginning. It was harder later on. This poor gir went through absolute hell. Playing Look Out for her mom during her affair, to meeting her husband, David and having an affair or two of her own, to crushing on jut about every guy she sees, to meeting Jack Wild, her brother from another life...its a Roller Coaster of a book.
March 20, 2019
Suzan Saxman did a phenomenal job of sharing what it's like to be a psychic. I don't know if I believe in that stuff, but I like to read about it. She talks about her childhood and her very strained relationship with her mother. She also talks about her relationships with men and takes responsibility for her mistakes in them. If you like reading about this kind of stuff, read this. I found it to be very interesting.
September 11, 2016
Eu não tenho palavras para descrever o quão amei este livro. Uma história verídica relatada por uma médium. Para quem adora livros com esta temática, este livro é perfeito.
January 10, 2023
I was mesmerized
December 20, 2022
Favorite Quotes:
The Christian hutch thinks snakes are the most diabolical of all life-forms, but nothing in nature is evil. I think God created everything in his image, even snakes. Everything is capable of forgiveness.
How could I tell her that I could feel the essences of animals and that they were no different from what I sensed from people? I could feel the fear coming from the beating life force of the earthworms the children would pull apart on the playground. I could feel how wrong it was when the neighborhood kids trapped lightning bugs in jars. How could you not know that every living thing had a soul?
This was the message of Jesus. It wasn’t about stuff. It wasn’t about the nuns’ comfy chairs, endless meals, and fancy televisions in their residence. It wasn’t about saying these words or that prayer for protection. it wasn’t about eating a lamb at Easter; it was about bringing the lamb inside and recognizing it is a being just as important as you were. It was about kindness. It was about celebrating life.
I had never heard about ley lines, the geographical energy alignments that connect sacred places, but I can feel them. And I felt them at Glastonbury. Call them dragons, call them ley lines, there is something happening under the earth there and it is filled with magic and power. If the ground beneath Greyswell Circle had felt cursed, this land felt blessed. I could feel the electrical energy rising up through the soles of my feet and coursing through my body right out of the crown of my head. Everything within me was awakened at Glaston-bury. Every light was turned on. I had never felt this kind of pure joy before.
After England, the bland suburbs of New Jersey felt intol-erable. In so many places in America, especially for some reason in New Jersey, the old energies of the land have been obliterated. The land was stolen, raped, and paved. Everything has become superficial, vapid, and disconnected from the earth. I hated it.
I got a job at a Baskin-Robbins and was fired almost instantly for scooping too big. Then I started waitressing at the local pizzeria for $1.50 an hour plus tips and sexual harassment.
I see a lot of kids who try to ignore their spiritual selves and end up doing drugs or drinking instead, and they freak out when what they really need to be doing is exploring their souls the way we did with Father Bob. Kids really want spiritual adventures, but they don't know how to have them.
Animals are always like this. They don't hold on to any bad feelings. They're not worried about their stuff or their money. They just want to let their human friends know how much they love them. And children, too. I've never met a child who died young in an awful car accident or from leukemia who was in any way regretful about the experience. They are always radiant and more concerned that their parents don't despair but know that their children are all right. They are connected to that basic joy that gets so easily lost when the affairs of the world are thrust upon us--money, mortgages, politics, ambition, status.
Unhappy lives lead to unhappy deaths.
I've noticed that suicides are always quick to tell me that they didn't mean to kill themselves. All the time, I hear this. “It was just a big mistake!" I don't know if they're telling the truth. Maybe they just want to comfort themselves because they're embarrassed about what they've done. They come chrough and say, "Oh, shit, shit, shit, what did I do?" They regret it. I've never met a suicide pleased with what they've done. And here's the crazy thing. All that unhappiness and rage they thought they were going to get rid of by dying? They're still stuck with it. The work you've got to do is the work you've got to do.
In the beginning I was very excited by the responsibility I had. Here I was, only in my twenties, and people came to me to help decide if they should keep their babies or not. Now, I’m basically pro-choice, but it seems like the people who came to me were led by their babies. Those souls wanted to come into the world, that's what I always felt. Maybe babies who didn't want to be born made sure their mothers didn't hink about it too much and never went near a psychic. I do know that often aborted babies come back to their mothers to be reborn at a better time. I've often seen this. Or the babies go to other families. They are never angry at their mothers. They have so much more wisdom and understanding and compassion than the angry protestors. The movement between life and death felt very fluid to me, back and forth, back and forth. Nothing's ever final. I wish people knew that life and death and rebirth are so much more complicated than one single lifetime, one single decision.
The dead need time to heal. The etheric body needs to be healed as well as the physical body.
Evil does scare me, but its usually not inside of people like this. It's not even really inside the mafosi or the thugs in the bars. No. Where I see real evil is in the witch burners. The righteous do-gooders. The Rick Santorums. Those are the people who scare me. And the people who hurt animals, the rich boys who fly to Africa to bag a cheetah or cut the tail off an elephant. Their lack of respect for the life around them I find disgusting. The most evil things are always at war with nature.
The Christian hutch thinks snakes are the most diabolical of all life-forms, but nothing in nature is evil. I think God created everything in his image, even snakes. Everything is capable of forgiveness.
How could I tell her that I could feel the essences of animals and that they were no different from what I sensed from people? I could feel the fear coming from the beating life force of the earthworms the children would pull apart on the playground. I could feel how wrong it was when the neighborhood kids trapped lightning bugs in jars. How could you not know that every living thing had a soul?
This was the message of Jesus. It wasn’t about stuff. It wasn’t about the nuns’ comfy chairs, endless meals, and fancy televisions in their residence. It wasn’t about saying these words or that prayer for protection. it wasn’t about eating a lamb at Easter; it was about bringing the lamb inside and recognizing it is a being just as important as you were. It was about kindness. It was about celebrating life.
I had never heard about ley lines, the geographical energy alignments that connect sacred places, but I can feel them. And I felt them at Glastonbury. Call them dragons, call them ley lines, there is something happening under the earth there and it is filled with magic and power. If the ground beneath Greyswell Circle had felt cursed, this land felt blessed. I could feel the electrical energy rising up through the soles of my feet and coursing through my body right out of the crown of my head. Everything within me was awakened at Glaston-bury. Every light was turned on. I had never felt this kind of pure joy before.
After England, the bland suburbs of New Jersey felt intol-erable. In so many places in America, especially for some reason in New Jersey, the old energies of the land have been obliterated. The land was stolen, raped, and paved. Everything has become superficial, vapid, and disconnected from the earth. I hated it.
I got a job at a Baskin-Robbins and was fired almost instantly for scooping too big. Then I started waitressing at the local pizzeria for $1.50 an hour plus tips and sexual harassment.
I see a lot of kids who try to ignore their spiritual selves and end up doing drugs or drinking instead, and they freak out when what they really need to be doing is exploring their souls the way we did with Father Bob. Kids really want spiritual adventures, but they don't know how to have them.
Animals are always like this. They don't hold on to any bad feelings. They're not worried about their stuff or their money. They just want to let their human friends know how much they love them. And children, too. I've never met a child who died young in an awful car accident or from leukemia who was in any way regretful about the experience. They are always radiant and more concerned that their parents don't despair but know that their children are all right. They are connected to that basic joy that gets so easily lost when the affairs of the world are thrust upon us--money, mortgages, politics, ambition, status.
Unhappy lives lead to unhappy deaths.
I've noticed that suicides are always quick to tell me that they didn't mean to kill themselves. All the time, I hear this. “It was just a big mistake!" I don't know if they're telling the truth. Maybe they just want to comfort themselves because they're embarrassed about what they've done. They come chrough and say, "Oh, shit, shit, shit, what did I do?" They regret it. I've never met a suicide pleased with what they've done. And here's the crazy thing. All that unhappiness and rage they thought they were going to get rid of by dying? They're still stuck with it. The work you've got to do is the work you've got to do.
In the beginning I was very excited by the responsibility I had. Here I was, only in my twenties, and people came to me to help decide if they should keep their babies or not. Now, I’m basically pro-choice, but it seems like the people who came to me were led by their babies. Those souls wanted to come into the world, that's what I always felt. Maybe babies who didn't want to be born made sure their mothers didn't hink about it too much and never went near a psychic. I do know that often aborted babies come back to their mothers to be reborn at a better time. I've often seen this. Or the babies go to other families. They are never angry at their mothers. They have so much more wisdom and understanding and compassion than the angry protestors. The movement between life and death felt very fluid to me, back and forth, back and forth. Nothing's ever final. I wish people knew that life and death and rebirth are so much more complicated than one single lifetime, one single decision.
The dead need time to heal. The etheric body needs to be healed as well as the physical body.
Evil does scare me, but its usually not inside of people like this. It's not even really inside the mafosi or the thugs in the bars. No. Where I see real evil is in the witch burners. The righteous do-gooders. The Rick Santorums. Those are the people who scare me. And the people who hurt animals, the rich boys who fly to Africa to bag a cheetah or cut the tail off an elephant. Their lack of respect for the life around them I find disgusting. The most evil things are always at war with nature.
July 3, 2025
“The dead are right here, right now. Things change, form changes, but love doesn’t.”
“Love, and the practice of love, that’s the only thing that saves you in the end.”
I see a lot of people didn’t like this book but I did. I thought the ghost writer kept it interesting and well paced. (Out of all the books I’ve read about psychics, this is the best written, the professional craft shows through.) I also liked how she closes each chapter with an anecdote of her own. Unlike other psychics she gets very clear information and not just glimpses. She knows a lot of things from childhood on. She has faced a very difficult life. But to me, a tip she gives to talk to the dead is worth the entire book: Say their name out loud. I’m doing that to connect to my gran. Her passing has broken me. I always knew it would. 💔💔💔. In the book, a woman who loves her dog brings him back. She feels him through her love. “You loved him and he came back.” 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔#hope
It works!!! I said my gran’s name. I smelled her. Güeris, te amamos. Yo te amo Siemroe y en todas las dimensiones por toda la eternidad. Tu nieta te ama por encima de todas las cosas. Vuelve, Güeris. Vuelve, por favor. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.
A Brazilian medium said death is simply transmuting and transforming to a different frequency. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear your deceased.
Another interesting idea she runs is “chronic illness is often caused by past life drama.” I know mine comes from this life, but it’s still an interesting thought.
A beautiful thing she says is that the dead always want to come back to their families. It really is a beautiful thing to say. “What’s better than being with her mother and her family? That’s all the dead ever want. I know that. What do you know?” ”
Her mother’s passing is incredibly sad because there is nothing sacred in it. There is no afterlife. Nothing, as expected. Her mother didn’t believe in anything. It’s very sad, but the reason she is like that is late explained in the book.
Pd. Yo misma no sé por qué escribí esto en inglés si siento que debería haberlo hecho en español.
“Love, and the practice of love, that’s the only thing that saves you in the end.”
I see a lot of people didn’t like this book but I did. I thought the ghost writer kept it interesting and well paced. (Out of all the books I’ve read about psychics, this is the best written, the professional craft shows through.) I also liked how she closes each chapter with an anecdote of her own. Unlike other psychics she gets very clear information and not just glimpses. She knows a lot of things from childhood on. She has faced a very difficult life. But to me, a tip she gives to talk to the dead is worth the entire book: Say their name out loud. I’m doing that to connect to my gran. Her passing has broken me. I always knew it would. 💔💔💔. In the book, a woman who loves her dog brings him back. She feels him through her love. “You loved him and he came back.” 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔#hope
It works!!! I said my gran’s name. I smelled her. Güeris, te amamos. Yo te amo Siemroe y en todas las dimensiones por toda la eternidad. Tu nieta te ama por encima de todas las cosas. Vuelve, Güeris. Vuelve, por favor. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.
A Brazilian medium said death is simply transmuting and transforming to a different frequency. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear your deceased.
Another interesting idea she runs is “chronic illness is often caused by past life drama.” I know mine comes from this life, but it’s still an interesting thought.
A beautiful thing she says is that the dead always want to come back to their families. It really is a beautiful thing to say. “What’s better than being with her mother and her family? That’s all the dead ever want. I know that. What do you know?” ”
Her mother’s passing is incredibly sad because there is nothing sacred in it. There is no afterlife. Nothing, as expected. Her mother didn’t believe in anything. It’s very sad, but the reason she is like that is late explained in the book.
Pd. Yo misma no sé por qué escribí esto en inglés si siento que debería haberlo hecho en español.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2017
Psychic phenomena has always been interesting to me. If there is a book that focuses on mediums, psychics, or anything related, I want to read it, mainly because the concept of someone being able to connect with another world is attractive to most people. We want it to be true, because believing is equivalent to hope.
This book was entertaining, absolutely. Here's what bothered me about this book: the psychic who is the subject of the book lacks a certain likeability.
My perception of so-called spiritual people is that they have an awareness and sensibility that renders them selfless. This book bothered me because the psychic seemed to take advantage of people, and I'm not talking about the people she read for. There seemed to be a dismissiveness to the way she lead her life, primarily with regard to her love life. The icy relationship between her and her mother was understandable, but the way she handled her personal relationships seemed cold in my view, and not very enlightened.
Further to this, the trip to England where the friend she went with seemed to be a means to an end, the leaving of her well-meaning (though flaky-sounding) husband for the lawyer, and other instances I won't go into, all reeked of opportunism, to an extent. It felt wrong, to me, and made me feel largely unsympathetic toward her.
But, the book was entertaining, and I read it all the way through. Perhaps I'm wrong about her character. After all, I'm not a psychic.
This book was entertaining, absolutely. Here's what bothered me about this book: the psychic who is the subject of the book lacks a certain likeability.
My perception of so-called spiritual people is that they have an awareness and sensibility that renders them selfless. This book bothered me because the psychic seemed to take advantage of people, and I'm not talking about the people she read for. There seemed to be a dismissiveness to the way she lead her life, primarily with regard to her love life. The icy relationship between her and her mother was understandable, but the way she handled her personal relationships seemed cold in my view, and not very enlightened.
Further to this, the trip to England where the friend she went with seemed to be a means to an end, the leaving of her well-meaning (though flaky-sounding) husband for the lawyer, and other instances I won't go into, all reeked of opportunism, to an extent. It felt wrong, to me, and made me feel largely unsympathetic toward her.
But, the book was entertaining, and I read it all the way through. Perhaps I'm wrong about her character. After all, I'm not a psychic.
January 25, 2018
The final reveal made the book worth a read (it is one of those human nature things that you can reflect on) as well as the "rules" of the spirit world.
Her story does make you want to meet her, especially since she starts the book with a veiled challenge that she lives her life in a way that you would not be able to make contact in a manor other than showing up at her house.
I find it odd that the editor let through so many self-contradicting statements, but maybe that was intentional, to show the complexity of her personality.
Her story is kind of the opposite of watching the movies "The Room" and then "The Disaster Artist." After The Room, you hate Tommy Wiseau as a person, but The Disaster Artist gives you empathy for him as a person. While reading this book, you feel sorry for her childhood, and then she paints herself as a hedonist jerk.
Her story does make you want to meet her, especially since she starts the book with a veiled challenge that she lives her life in a way that you would not be able to make contact in a manor other than showing up at her house.
I find it odd that the editor let through so many self-contradicting statements, but maybe that was intentional, to show the complexity of her personality.
Her story is kind of the opposite of watching the movies "The Room" and then "The Disaster Artist." After The Room, you hate Tommy Wiseau as a person, but The Disaster Artist gives you empathy for him as a person. While reading this book, you feel sorry for her childhood, and then she paints herself as a hedonist jerk.
November 30, 2016
This was an extremely interesting book as I have always had an interest in mediums and the spiritual world they inhabit. I believe in the fey, the feelings that are there even if they are not always understood. I feel hope in the belief that lives are lived several times over and that there is no need to fear death as it is only a new beginning. It makes sense to my rational brain when we can recognise what we perceive as wisdom in a new born's eyes or say that someone is an old soul who has been here before. Maybe we all have.
May 15, 2019
Something real
I loved this book. Suzan had a painful childhood with a mother who lived in rigid fear and seemed unable to love her daughter's. But Suzan saw and knew things other people didn't. She saw dead people and could experience flashes of people's past lives. I often wonder if the extreme pain of some children's lives is somehow connected to their psychic gifts. The men and was involved with almost seemed to represent realms she tried to find happiness and fulfillment in until she finally found herself. A powerful and honest book,
I loved this book. Suzan had a painful childhood with a mother who lived in rigid fear and seemed unable to love her daughter's. But Suzan saw and knew things other people didn't. She saw dead people and could experience flashes of people's past lives. I often wonder if the extreme pain of some children's lives is somehow connected to their psychic gifts. The men and was involved with almost seemed to represent realms she tried to find happiness and fulfillment in until she finally found herself. A powerful and honest book,
August 10, 2024
Some--like Suzan or Susie or Fiona (various appelations by which she was known)--know at an early age of the spirit world from firsthand knowledge. When I taught Mysticism at university, I had a couple of such students who spoke with me privately about their experiences. For the rest of us, it's possible to develop our psychic abilities when we acknowledge the possibility, accept it and develop it. If you haven't read any of the books by psychic mediums John Edwards, James van Praagh, John Holland, Sylvia Browne or others, including Edgar Cayce and Paul Selig, I'd encourage you to dip into one. Or start with Saxman's book and see where it leads you.
September 7, 2025
Absolutely loved this book and could not put it down. Co-written with writer extraordinaire Perdita Finn it is a carefully crafted memoir of Suzan’s life and experiences interspersed with some of her readings with clients. I learned an incredible amount about the dead, for which I am very grateful. Thank you Suzan, for your vulnerability and willingness to share your incredible life story with us.
March 10, 2019
Desde que me falaram sobre este livro, fiquei com o bichinho de querer ler. Aliás, quem me conhece sabe que o mundo do oculto, fantasmas, mediums, etc, atrai-me imenso. Fico fascinada com o tema, o entanto este livro, não foi tão fácil de ler, gostei mais de ler sobre as leituras que a autora ia fazendo e descrevendo do que a própria vida da autora. Acredito que não tenha sido uma vida fácil, mas preferia ler sobre as leituras que ela já fez...
https://aviciadadoslivros.blogspot.co...
https://aviciadadoslivros.blogspot.co...
April 22, 2019
Uma leitura obrigatória para todos aqueles que acreditam na vida após a morte, para todos os que são apaixonados pela espiritualidade e pelas experiências que esta proporciona. Uma leitura simplesmente deliciosa e super rápida e leve. Não tenho palavras, gostava de não ter terminado tão rapidamente.
October 8, 2025
A fun memoir, sort of an irl mystery too ("is she for real?"). The book is more about interpersonal difficulties and pleasures especially with her mom than mystical happenings though those are abundant. There is an overarching narrative about fear which was very insightful me.
Hillary Huber does a good narration.
Hillary Huber does a good narration.
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