Have you ever wanted to contact a loved one who has passed away? Nineteen years after she lost her beloved father JULIE COOK asks a celebrity psychic to teach her how to reach him

On average it happens a few times a month. I’ll have a dream about someone and something happening to them and then a few days or weeks later, I’ll discover the scenario in my dream happened in real life. It’s always been this way.

One night when I was 19 I dreamt of my grandmother being reborn as a baby but with her elderly head. I woke to my university halls of residence landline ringing, went to it and heard my father tell me my gran had died in the night.

Then there was the time I dreamt of a tower with bodies falling from it in graphic detail. A few days later the World Trade Center tragedy happened.

I dreamt of my father lying still in a contraption in a wall. That year he started radiotherapy for the cancer that killed him.

And on the morning he died, in 2005, I had a strange feeling of everything ‘stopping’ and that I should not get the train to work. He died that morning.

So, I’ve always felt a little bit psychic. But often I ignore my dreams or feelings, or I forget them. Like the time I had a dream that I should not go down a path. Next morning I went walking and saw this path I had dreamt of. Ignoring my gut instinct I walked down it, only to be flashed at by a man in the bushes.

So what use is a tiny nugget of psychic ability if I don’t listen to it or interpret it correctly? And can someone like me be ‘trained’ to get better at it?

I contacted celebrity psychic Inbaal Honigman. Inbaal has been psychic all her life, doing Tarot readings from age 20. She’s appeared on Big Brother as the reality TV show’s resident psychic to see who would be voted off. Now she runs courses helping psychics improve their skills.

I’ve always felt a little bit psychic, writes Julie Cook

Our first session starts with a Zoom call. Inbaal is bubbly, friendly, personable and tells me that everyone has the ability to be psychic but they need to nurture it.

‘Even people without that tiny grain of ability can train to be a certain type of psychic,’ she says.

She tells me it would be good to start by keeping a dream diary and to get a deck of Tarot cards to ‘ease you into the world of symbolism.’ She also recommends crystals ‘to achieve more clarity’ - a clear quartz and one of obsidian. Clear quartz is ‘great for healing and great for sleep,’ she adds.

‘Black crystals like obsidian absorb negativity and keep your thoughts uncluttered. They help defend against people coming to drain you.’

Inbaal advises me to pick a Tarot card of the day to place next to my bed to see if that can provide a ‘bridge’ between my dreams and my understanding.

I choose the Six of Cups featuring a boy giving flowers to a girl, in a pretty square with a barracks behind it.

I sleep, but wake up with no memory of dreams.

‘If you look carefully,’ says Inbaal ‘an adult is in the background of the card walking away. This can mean a happy childhood in that adults let the kids be kids, but conversely it could mean adults were not around.’

I don’t think of my childhood much. Money troubles, recessions, job losses, unhappily married parents and then cancer of my father blighted my younger years and so it’s eerie that my subconscious chooses not to react to this card.

Julie with her father on holiday in the south of the UK when she was three. He died in 2005

On another night I lay out the Two of Swords.

I dream of walking down a slippery slope, terrified of falling, close to a sea edge. At the bottom I am introduced to a man. We walk back up and I know I have to get away from him, then I wake.

Inbaal explains the card: ‘The Two of Swords features a figure holding two heavy swords which represent having to make a choice. It’s about being indecisive or having to decide on a path.’

When I walked downstairs to feed the cats, I wandered into the kitchen and saw a perfect, white half moon and gasped as three ducks literally flew across it in sillouette.

It felt so spooky I couldn’t wait to tell Inbaal.

‘This is interesting because the number of the card is two and the ducks are three, so that represents progress numerically. Then there is the moon. If you look closely at the card it has a moon in the background of the figure representing intuition. And a moon with the ducks moving across it is as if the universe is saying ‘get on with it, make a decision.’

I have been grappling with decisions lately on everything from midlife crises, to investments and pensions to even where I want to end up living.

But something else is happening too. Since choosing the cards and noting my dreams, I do feel more in tune and empathetic. I can sense my daughter is having a difficult day at school and lo and behold she comes home tearful.

So maybe having this introspection is helping me to become more psychic? Inbaal says dreams are a bridge, not just to our subconscious, but to any dormant psychic ability we may have. If you can learn to open your mind very deeply to your subconscious thoughts, it can trigger psychic abilities you never knew you had.

At our next meeting Inbaal tells me how to open and close my Chakras. These, she says, are the main energy points in the body that can allow you to be more attuned to signs from the universe and spirituality.

During our Zoom, we close our eyes and Inbaal gently talks me through the chakras.

‘Place your feet firmly on the ground and keep arms and legs uncrossed. We’re starting with a few breaths, sending our roots further into the ground making us safe, bounded and secure.’

Then we feel the earth energy travelling through the roots into the feet and up our legs until it reaches our base chakra, a red circle right at the top between the legs.

‘As the energy reaches the base chakra a red circle starts spinning and glowing,’ she says.

My ultimate wish is to contact my dad, writes Julie. This was taken on holiday as a little girl

It travels to the sacral chakra, an orange circle below the belly button and onto the Solar Plexus, the chakra of the sun, and this circle spins yellow. From there the energy flows to the heart chakra which is green and then to the throat chakra, a blue spinning circle.

After a few moments, the energy reaches the third eye – a purple circle on the forehead – and moves to the top of the head where ‘a bright white glittering trap door opens and a silver cord extends upwards, connecting us to the heavens so we are nurtured, nourished and protected.’

It’s a strange experience.

When I open my eyes, colours seem brighter, her voice seems clearer and I feel incredibly sharp and awake, as if I’ve had four coffees.

Inbaal tells me this is how I need to be so I can be open to spirits but it’s safest to close the chakras down so I don’t absorb unwanted spiritual activity or negative energy.

So can opening chakras make me more available to spirits of those who have passed?

‘Yes,’ she replies.

For the next few days I try opening and closing the chakras. It becomes increasingly easier to do and ever so relaxing. I genuinely feel the energy coursing through me and sharp and awakened once the chakras are open.

My ultimate wish is to contact my dad. He died in 2005 of cancer aged 59 and I used to have regular very lucid dreams in which he visited me. Not so much anymore.

For the next few days I continue with my Tarot card of the night, my dream diary and my chakra opening and closing.

Inbaal Honigman has been psychic all her life, doing Tarot readings from age 20 

On the fifth night I dream of my father. He’s in a large church of no set denomination or religion, is younger again and wearing a smart suit. He’s walking away and I keep trying to find him. There are various rooms in the church where people congregate and I know I have to find him in one.

I wake up and write my dream down, feeling hopeful and wishing I could have had a conversation with him.

I try again the next night and the next. I try all week but he never appears again.

Inbaal suggests opening the chakra just before sleep and laying out a Tarot card that relates to masculinity. The obvious choice is the Emperor – a strong card of a man sitting on a throne.

I lay it out, sleep... and dream of other things.

Inbaal asks what was my father’s star sign. I tell her Cancer and she recommends the Knight of Cups, a water sign but also because the figure is wearing a crab-like shield.

I lay this out one night, open the Chakras as she has said and fall asleep.

That night in my dream my father comes to me. He’s happy and we’re in a strange house. He’s brought a large wrapped present with him. It’s a pool table for my son, Alex.

In my dream Alex cries because he’s at last meeting my dad. It’s a happy dream and when I wake up, I’m sad it’s ended. I ask Inbaal about its meaning. 

She says: ‘A house would represent your mind, and rooms in the house represent parts of your personality. The house wasn’t one you recognised, so you’re relating to each other in a ‘new’ way now, your dynamic as father and daughter has shifted. Maybe he’s had a lot of time to think about his life and he views you in a different way, maybe you’ve changed how you remember him too.

‘A wrapped gift is him sharing a message that isn’t obvious, it’s symbolic. The fact that it’s huge is also meaningful, he really wants to make an impact. I love the symbolism of a pool table. Multiple possible goals are set, and they can be achieved one by one.’

Inbaal asks if a pool table means anything specific to me. It doesn’t.

‘The flatness of a pool table is very meaningful,’ she adds ‘everyone’s got a chance. If your son wants to go and study more but he worries that everyone will be wealthier or more intelligent than him, your dad’s pool table could be saying that once on the green, everyone is level.’

I now feel so invigorated. The Tarot, the crystals, the diary and now the chakra opening have made me realise I do have an empathetic gift.

I hope as I progress and learn more it will lead me to even greater understanding. There are lots of things I’d like to say to and ask my dad. He died so young and I wish I’d had more of his advice. I like to think these dreams might be a bridge to that happening in the future.

inbaal.com