In a world full of uncertainty, many people look to psychics and mediums for answers to burning questions about their lives and the people in them.
Debra Katz, a psychic and social worker in Los Angeles, told HuffPost that most of the questions she receives from clients have to do with relationships.
“I’ve met with thousands of clients over the past 25 years, and I’d say 90 percent ask about relationships,” she said. “This may be the main reason they are coming for a clairvoyant reading, or it may be in addition to other questions such as those related to career or life purpose.”
And while there are plenty of people who are skeptical of psychic readings, that doesn’t stop others from believing (or at least hoping) these sessions might provide them with some clues about their relationships with family, friends and romantic partners.
Below, psychics reveal the relationship questions they get asked again and again.
1. Will I meet my soulmate?
This is, hands-down, the No. 1 relationship-related question New Orleans psychic and medium Cari Roy gets asked by her clients, she says. In fact, it comes up during nearly every reading ― whether the person is single and looking for love or in a relationship but unsure if they’re with the right person.
“If we are not in a healthy relationship, many of us feel we are alone in the world,” Roy said. “Everywhere we look, we see examples of happy couples and wonder if and when this will happen to us. As a professional psychic, I am often the person folks turn to for guidance in the who, what and where of romance.”
Sowande Mustakeem, a psychic medium, numerologist and African-American studies professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said she asks her clients to be very intentional about what they would want this potential partner to be like.
“I also remind them that we have to be clear in what a soulmate is and could mean in our lives depending on where we are on our path,” she said. “Such an awareness can manifest what we seek in the heart most because our words are powerful activators.”
2. Is my spouse cheating on me?
According to the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, an estimated 25 percent of men and 15 percent of women in long-term relationships have cheated on their partner by having sex with someone else. When emotional affairs or intimate acts other than intercourse are included, those numbers are even higher. It’s no wonder, then, that people look to psychics to help allay their fears or confirm their suspicions.
“In this ever-growing world of dating sites and social media interaction, it is easy to be tempted to stray,” Roy said. “People are getting pretty slick about hiding these liaisons, but many do get caught. I am often used as one of the avenues to help finding that out. When the Ashley Madison site was hacked, I saw a big increase in business.”
Katz also gets this question quite a bit, though she prefers when clients ask her to describe their relationship in general terms without bluntly posing the “is-he-or-she-cheating” question.
“In that case, if there is an extramarital affair happening, or let’s say illicit drug use, illegal activities or other shenanigans, these things will just emerge, and that way we both can be more certain the information is coming from an intuitive source rather than just my analytic mind,” she said.
3. Will my affair partner leave their spouse for me?
For Roy, this question is a tough one, as it requires her to put aside her personal feelings about relationships born of infidelity. Though she has seen many relationships that begin this way end, she said, doesn’t let that cloud her response to the question, taking each on a case-by-case basis.
“I am never judge-y about this,” she said. “We fall in love at inopportune times and it’s not for me to say if that’s right or wrong. As someone who has been reading for over 30 years, I can tell you that from what I have seen, only about 20 percent of these types of relationships have a happy ending.”
4. How can I get this person to like or love me back?
Unrequited love is a painful form of rejection. And getting ghosted, which is all too common in today’s dating landscape, is even more frustrating because it leaves people guessing without receiving any type of closure. Clients of Los Angeles-based psychic Shirley Lipner often come to her to ask if suitors who suddenly vanished will come back into their lives.
“So many of my beautiful singles ask me this question because people are feeling more and more isolated, and long for connection,” she said. “My advice: get off the apps! Dating apps actually encourage a lack of intimacy, in my opinion. Get into your life, and your person will appear.”
5. Is my divorce or a breakup a failure at love?
After investing years or even decades into a relationship, splitting up can make you feel like you wasted your precious time, made a mistake or somehow “failed” at love. But psychic medium Laura Lynne Jackson, author of The New York Times best-seller The Light Between Us, insists that’s just not the case ― in fact, she believes the opposite is true, and often finds herself explaining that to her clients.
“A divorce or breakup can signal that the relationship has already fully played the role it was meant to play in your life,” Jackson, who lives in Long Island, New York, said. “The leaving of it was a complete success of that soul lesson and a huge victory on your soul’s path.”
Staying in a stagnant, loveless relationship can actually be more of a “mistake,” if you want to call it that, she said.
“Relationships that no longer allow partners to grow can cause them to get stuck,” Jackson said. “Staying stuck with a partner can, in fact, be the failure.”
People who end the romantic aspect of their relationship but are able to remain kind and cordial, or even friendly, with a former partner, are taking an important step forward, Jackson said. Sometimes, though, it’s not healthy or even possible to keep an ex in your life, especially for those who end a toxic or abusive relationship ― and that’s OK, too.
“For those who leave abusive marriages or relationships, the lesson is often valuing your own life energy and light enough to leave the situation,” she said.
6. Can I fix an unresolved issue with a loved one who has died?
We don’t always get to work through the relationship problems, resentments or regrets we have with loved ones before their deaths. But in Jackson’s work as a psychic medium, she believes we can still patch up unresolved issues even when one person in a relationship has died.
“If they wronged you or weren’t able to see or take responsibility for their actions, once they cross, they will see it differently ― and want to ask for your forgiveness,” she said. “Often, when I read, I am delivering messages of love and forgiveness between the sitter and a relative or loved one on the other side.”
You don’t necessarily need a psychic medium to help you mend these issues, Jackson said. She advises her clients to ask for a sign from the deceased person, and then look out for it in the world.
“Default signs they often use are coins, electrical disturbances ― think cell phone blank messages and calls, flickering of lights, computer or electrical devices malfunctioning ― as well as birds, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, deer,” she said. “They also may send songs or repeating numbers like 11:11, 444.”
“Relationships don’t end at death,” Jackson added. “Death is a doorway, not a dead end. And love and forgiveness are the most powerful of cords.”