Many people first come to this subject through the word psychic. Some have had impressions they cannot explain; others want to understand what a psychic reading is, or whether it can be learned. This article explains how psychic development works, how progress can be judged honestly, and how it relates to mediumship.
In one sentence
Psychic awareness concerns living people and present circumstances; mediumship builds on it, adding communication attributed to someone who has died. One is the foundation, the other the more specialised work.
1. What Does Psychic Development Mean?
In the teaching traditions this article draws on, psychic describes impressions about living people, places, objects or present circumstances: a sense of someone's personality, a relationship, a situation at work, the history of an object. Psychic development is the patient training of that awareness. It is less about producing remarkable experiences than about learning to notice quietly, describe accurately and accept honest feedback.
These are traditional descriptions of a practice, not a scientific explanation of how information is obtained. Section 5 looks at what research can and cannot say. Throughout, we use the language teachers use, without claiming more for it than it can carry.
2. Why Psychic Awareness Is the Foundation of Mediumship
A familiar saying in mediumship teaching is that all mediums are psychic, but not all psychics are mediums. The College of Psychic Studies describes psychic and mediumistic work as related but distinct skills, with mediumship as a specialism that tends to take longer to develop1. Psychic awareness is where both begin: the same attention, the same inner senses, the same discipline of describing before interpreting.
That order matters for anyone choosing what to learn. Psychic work is not a lesser skill, and it is not a stepping stone everyone must leave behind: many people develop psychic awareness for its own sake. But it is not a more advanced form of mediumship either. Mediumship asks for something further: information attributed to a particular person who has died, developed until a sitter can recognise them. Our article Psychic vs Medium explores the difference in detail.
A psychic learns to recognise the ingredients. An evidential medium learns to prepare the medicine. You cannot make the medicine without knowing the ingredients, but knowing the ingredients does not make you a pharmacist.Prabhat Sharma
3. The Building Blocks of Psychic Development
Courses arrange these differently, but most responsible psychic training works with the same six building blocks.
Stillness and attention. Short, regular periods of settling the mind, such as the Spiritualist practice of sitting in the power, so that subtle impressions can be noticed rather than forced.
The inner senses. Learning how impressions may arrive: as images, sounds or words, feelings, a sense of knowing, occasionally smell or taste. Our guide explains how these are described.
Describing before interpreting. If an image of a blue door arises, the student says “a blue door”, not “your childhood home”. Interpretation added too early is the commonest source of error.
Present-life partner readings. Working with a consenting partner, often a stranger in the class, on impressions about their personality, relationships and present circumstances, then hearing what they recognise.
Psychometry. Holding an object, such as a ring or a watch, and describing impressions about its owner. It is a useful exercise precisely because the owner can check them.
Feedback and a practice journal. Recording what was said, what was recognised, what was not, and what was added by interpretation, so that progress can be seen over weeks rather than judged by one good day.
Skill of any kind grows through focused practice with feedback, not through time spent alone6. That is why supervised partner work matters more than any book or video.
4. How to Judge Progress Honestly
The hardest part of psychic development is not receiving impressions; it is knowing which ones mean anything. Two well-documented effects make honest feedback essential. Statements that feel personal are often true of almost everyone, the effect psychologist Bertram Forer demonstrated in 19492. And anyone giving a reading can, without intending to, pick up information from a sitter's appearance, words and reactions: the basis of what is called cold reading3. People are remarkably good at reading thin slices of behaviour in ordinary life4.
Signs of real progress
- Statements become more specific and less general
- Impression and interpretation stay apart
- A clear “no” is accepted without argument
- Connected details, not scattered guesses
- Consistency across many exercises
Not reliable measures
- How vivid or dramatic an experience felt
- One unusually accurate reading
- Statements that would fit most people
- Agreement drawn out by questions
- Praise from people who wish you well
None of this dismisses what students experience. It simply asks the same question a careful teacher asks: what actually happened, and what does the feedback support?
5. What Research Can and Cannot Say
Scientific opinion on psychic ability is divided. A 2018 review in American Psychologist argued that the experimental evidence for some parapsychological effects deserves serious consideration5; a reply in the same journal argued that the effects are not established and that such claims conflict with well-supported science7. There is no scientific consensus that psychic perception exists, and no consensus that it does not.
For a student, the practical conclusion is the same either way. A meaningful experience is not proof of its source, and an accurate statement is not proof of how it was obtained. Training cannot settle the scientific question; it can teach honesty about what each exercise does and does not show.
6. Ethics, and the Question of the Future
Psychic work involves real people, so ethics must grow alongside ability. Responsible teachers and codes of practice for readers agree on a few essentials8:
Responsible practice
- Reads only for people who have asked
- Explains what a reading is, and is not
- Keeps what is shared confidential
- Says clearly when nothing is clear
- Leaves every decision with the sitter
Warning signs
- Predicts illness, death or disaster
- Gives medical, legal or financial direction
- Claims curses or blocks to be removed for a fee
- Guarantees accuracy or outcomes
- Creates dependence on repeat readings
What about the future? A psychic reading may touch on choices and possibilities ahead. These are impressions offered for reflection, not predictions and not advice. They are never a substitute for medical, financial, legal or psychological guidance, and every decision remains with the person receiving the reading.
7. Where Psychic Development Leads
For some people, psychic development is complete in itself: a more attentive, honest relationship with their own perception, and perhaps, in time, careful readings for others. For others it becomes the foundation of mediumship. The difference is in the question a student is asking:
A psychic exercise asks
What can I perceive about this living person, their life or this object, and does my partner recognise it?
A mediumship exercise asks
Can I describe a particular person who has died clearly enough for the sitter to recognise who it is?
Mediumship asks for more: sustained attention to one communicator, connected evidence rather than separate impressions, and the added responsibility of working with people who are grieving. That is why it is usually taught as a longer, supervised discipline.
8. How We Approach Psychic Awareness
At The School of Mediumship, psychic awareness is not a separate module. It is woven through all six days of Evidential Mediumship Level 1, through present-life partner readings and psychometry, as the foundation for mediumistic work. Level 1 is a mediumship programme with a single Certificate of Completion; it does not train or certify psychic readers.
For people whose interest is psychic development on its own, Soul Consciousness Lab® is planning a dedicated, multi-level psychic development programme, separate from the School. Until then, Level 1 is the place to learn how psychic perception works, and where mediumship goes further.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can anyone develop psychic ability?
Teachers generally say that awareness can be developed with practice, though people differ in what they notice and how quickly. No honest course can promise a particular ability or experience. What training can reliably build is attention, clear description and honest use of feedback.
Is psychic development the same as mediumship?
No. Psychic development concerns impressions about living people, places and present circumstances. Mediumship builds on that awareness and adds communication attributed to someone who has died, developed into evidence a sitter can recognise.
Do I need psychic development before mediumship training?
Not as a separate course. Most mediumship training includes psychic awareness from the start, because it is the foundation every medium works from. At the School, it is woven through all six days of Level 1.
Is psychic work more advanced than mediumship?
In our teaching it is the other way round. Psychic awareness is the foundation; mediumship is the more specialised discipline built on it.
Can a psychic reading predict the future?
A reading may touch on choices and possibilities ahead, but these are impressions for reflection, not predictions or advice. They should never replace medical, financial, legal or psychological guidance, and decisions always remain with the person receiving the reading.
Is psychic development safe?
For most people, gentle, supervised practice is a calm and reflective experience. It is wise to learn with a teacher who sets clear boundaries, and to pause and seek support if practice ever increases distress or unsettles your sense of reality.
Where can I learn psychic development in India?
At the School, psychic awareness is part of Evidential Mediumship Level 1 in Bengaluru, as the foundation for mediumship. A dedicated psychic development programme is planned separately by Soul Consciousness Lab®.
Awareness First, Then Depth
Psychic development, practised well, is a discipline of attention and honesty: noticing carefully, describing plainly, and letting feedback, not hope, decide what an impression was worth. For some, that is the whole journey. For others, it is the first step towards evidential mediumship, a longer path that builds on the same foundation and asks a great deal more.
Learn to notice clearly before you decide what anything means.
About the authors
Dr. Rashhi Sharma, PhDFounder and Lead Trainer of The School of Mediumship. She studied mediumship with Suzanne Giesemann in the United States and in person at Arthur Findlay College and The College of Psychic Studies in the United Kingdom. Full profile
Prabhat SharmaTrainer at The School of Mediumship. He studied mediumship in person at Arthur Findlay College and The College of Psychic Studies in the United Kingdom, and co-teaches every day of Level 1. Full profile
Continue Exploring
- Psychic vs Medium: What's the Difference?Two related practices, two different claims, and why the distinction matters.Read the article →
- How to Develop MediumshipA beginner's guide to practice, from foundations to supervised work.Read the article →
- Evidential Mediumship Level 1Six residential days in Bengaluru, from psychic awareness to evidential mediumship.Explore Level 1 →
References
- The College of Psychic Studies (2026). What's the Difference Between a Psychic & a Medium… and Which Am I? 26 August 2026.
- Forer, B. R. (1949). The fallacy of personal validation: a classroom demonstration of gullibility. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 44(1), 118–123.
- Roe, C. A. Cold Reading. Psi Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research.
- Ambady, N. and Rosenthal, R. (1993). Half a minute: predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(3), 431–441.
- Cardeña, E. (2018). The experimental evidence for parapsychological phenomena: a review. American Psychologist, 73(5), 663–677.
- Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T. and Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.100.3.363
- Reber, A. S. and Alcock, J. E. (2020). Searching for the impossible: parapsychology's elusive quest. American Psychologist, 75(3), 391–399.
- Zemel, S. K. and Wahbeh, H. (2025). Code of ethics for mediums and trance channelers. EXPLORE, 21(3), 103159. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2025.103159
Institutions and studies are cited to document how training is described and what research has examined. Citation does not imply endorsement of the School or of Soul Consciousness Lab®.
