Johnny Burke: Welcome to Closer To Venus , I’m Johnny Burke. Today’s guest is Vicki McGrath. She is a psychic, certified life purpose medium, and 25 year Reiki practitioner. Today, we’re going to be talking about how she helps women to raise their vibration, to activate their dream life, as well as our own personal journey of spiritual awakening. Vicky, welcome to the program.
Vicky McGrath: Well, thank you for having me on your show, and I hope together we can help your listeners understand how to create a life they love using their intuition.
Johnny Burke: I’m sure there are plenty of people that want to learn just that. how did you come to realize that you’re a psychic medium? How did that happen?
Vicky McGrath: I would say it’s, similar to what you’ve experienced with other guests on your show. As a child, I had an Anglican upbringing. I had four older brothers. They probably shamed me for trying to get what I want being the youngest and the only girl. Thankfully into Star Trek and Star Wars. And as a child, I would really be drawn into that world. I would dress up as an alien. I would use my mom’s purple or green eye shadow and make myself a purple or green and dress up like an alien and play Star Wars or Star Trek. So I had kind of an unusual way of being as a child.
I think I lived a fairly traditional life. I went to university. I got married, I sort of passively accepted my role in life as getting a job, going to university, getting a job, becoming a wife, Those types of things. But then once I started my first real job. I had a colleague who, was interested in sort of a spiritual journey himself. He was going to take a Reiki attunement course for a weekend. And he invited me to. come along with him. And that was probably the beginning. So that was about 25 years ago. I also became interested in meditation and followed a Buddhist meditation path in about 2006, I started a daily meditation practice and that really helped to quiet my mind, and really start to see, inside myself and, and learn that way.
So I started to look into mindset and began reading a book, Dana Wilde, Train Your Brain, and it’s basically how to use a positive mantra or a repetition to make yourself happier. And as a result of starting to feel happier, all of these other opportunities started to pop up into my life.
And I joined a Facebook group, called “Practical Magic” and they did this free five-day summit. And that was when I literally popped awake was during the five-day free summit. And the things that I learned on that summit were mind-blowing is the only way I can say it. I suddenly realized I had psychic gifts. I realized that other people lived this life every day, they were guided by their intuition. There were people who were star seeds and galactic shamans and drop in spirits and channels. Like just so much just blew my mind wide
open
Johnny Burke: So the summit was where you discovered that that was the event where you discovered you at intuitive gifts.?
Vicky McGrath: That was it- literally that five-day period. And suddenly I just realized that that was what I was meant to be doing. That I was meant to now begin to live my life from the place where I was creating the life I wanted to live instead of just being the role that I had kind of marched along to all time.
Johnny Burke: Okay. When you were younger, you didn’t have any experiences where you saw spirits or, something of a paranormal, nature?
Vicky McGrath: It’s entirely possible that I did. And that could be why I was so interested in space and aliens. But as an adult, I don’t remember specifically having, experience, but I do remember a lot of being afraid of monsters in my room. And my mom having to come in and turn on the light and tell me that there was nothing there. But what I come to know now is that in fact, I have been using intuition my entire life saw pictures, I got intuitive downloads, basically insights that just came to me without anybody telling me or any educational knowledge.
Things just dropped into my mind. When I was in my career, I would have a full, complete picture of the outcome of a project or something that I was working on. At the time I had no idea that that’s what was happening. And I think that’s how most people live their lives, is that they don’t realize that they’re already being guided by their intuition.
Johnny Burke: What I’ve heard is that intuitive gifts are a lot more common than most people think. When we talk about mediumship, a common question that comes up a lot is what’s the difference between a psychic and a medium, because they’re not always the same thing.
Vicky McGrath: So what I understand is that we’re actually all mediums. What a medium is as a channel, it’s a channel to energy, a channel to the divine. really just a channel of information from some form of source. Some mediums channel spirits like ghosts, some mediums channel spirit guides, angels are another form that are channeled by mediums. So the difference between a medium and a psychic, is that a psychic is speaking to the intuitive gifts that the person has. So a psychic sees things. So a psychic has clairvoyance as kind of their predominant level of intuition. So you might see an angel.
You might see spirits; you might see spirit guides. So those are All ways that a psychic would interpret the information that they’re channeling. As a medium, you’re channeling, and that’s how you see it is through your psychic gifts.
Johnny Burke: I’ve been told that a medium can basically contact the dead and psychics basically can feel things and sometimes foretell a future event. the answers are often different, but all mediums are psychic, but not all psychics or mediums. Would you agree or disagree with that?
Vicky McGrath: I would say it’s obviously up for interpretation. I would say we’re all mediums We all channel energy whether we realize It or not. I would say that people maybe misinterpret what psychic is. There are a variety of different intuitive gifts, the four clairs are kind of like baseline for intuition, but for me, a psychic is someone who sees. So you’re right. Maybe they see the future. Maybe they sense something.
Johnny Burke: Can someone actually take classes to develop their mediumship?
Vicky McGrath: Oh, a hundred percent. Once I learned about my intuition, that’s exactly what I did because when I attended that summit and all of these people were talking about all of their spectacular ways of being in the world, I thought, well, what the heck? I don’t think I’m a Starseed. I don’t think I’m a galactic Shaman, I don’t think I’m a drop- in spirit and I’m definitely not channeling some big, spiritual being . And so I wanted to know what exactly my gifts were. And I sort of see myself on the beginning of the spiritual journey of a spiritual newbie, if you want to call it that, where I’m really just learning about how my intuition works in the world. And so I definitely took, some classes. You can take online classes, or you can take in-person classes. For me in person and practicing was the best approach for me to understand my gifts. I took a lot of courses and got my life purpose medium certification through Hillary Michelson.
Johnny Burke: You are certified then.
Vicky McGrath: Right. So now I’m certified. So that’s the LA spiritual arts and she does live in-person on the computer, of course,
Johnny Burke: The Forever Family Foundation, they do testing, which I think is five back-to-back Skype interviews. And then the foundation people actually interview the sitter, and they score for accuracy. So when you got certified, was there a similar process or was a different?
Vicky McGrath: Yes. Part of the process was we had to read other people. So we would have people who wanted readings, sign up and then participate in the class and we would read them in real-time. And Hillary would then give us feedback as well as the sitter, the sitter would verify or validate whether or not we had information that was relevant for them. For example, so seeing the deceased people that were around the sitter and asking for their information to provide to the sitter and then the sitter would verify, yes, that’s my mom. That’s my dad. That’s my grandad. That’s my uncle.
when I’m doing reading, I see exactly what the person that I’m communicating with on the other side is wearing. I can see their hair color. I can see if they’re wearing earrings, everything they’re as clear as if they’re sitting in front of me, but there’s nothing scary. They are not ghostly. They’re just like themselves in the real world except now they’re passed. And so for me, that’s how they came through. That’s what mediumship is really, is that it has to be evidential and that’s part of the certification process. When I went through the different courses that Hillary was offering, I started out with mediumship, working with deceased folks, but I came to understand very quickly that that actually wasn’t where I wanted to go. That that’s a singular event, which helps somebody connect with a loved one on the other side, but it doesn’t help them so much in this life to create the life that they love.
With life purpose mediumship, you’re connecting with the sitters or the clients, spirit guides. And they’re giving that person the validation to move forward with what they want in their life. That excitement, that joy, the creativity, that they’re feeling deep in their hearts that wants to come out. And then there’s the spirit guides on the other side are helping them, encouraging them and supporting them to move forward because it’s a big risk to suddenly start doing what you want to do with your life,versus just marching along and doing what everyone else is expected of you in your life.
Johnny Burke: This is the first time I’ve heard of the title, life purpose medium. It’s very interesting to say the least. You brought up something really important about spirit guides. And it seems to me that whether we’re talking about mediumship, past life regression or even shamans, speaking of which, it seems like all three modalities at some point or the other literally enlist spirit guides to kind of guide them with their client.
I’ll give you an example. Someone I interviewed actually pretty recently – past life regression, where he would literally coach the client to meditate and ask the universe, his spirit guides to, please show him the most beneficial past life that would benefit him in this life. I’ve heard a similar thing with shamans as well. So spirit guides and angels are obviously very important for just about everyone, that practices these modalities. Would you agree?
Vicky McGrath: Oh, a hundred percent. And I would say that you don’t have to go into hypnosis or anything like that to do that. You just have to ask, they’re always there. They’re always here with us. They’re always supporting us. Once you understand how your intuitive gifts work within yourself, then that’s how the information comes through. In the clairs and the clairs are how you receive the information, and then you can interpret the information from those clairs. In readings with sitters who are interested in their life purpose. I have experienced angels who give me information about that person’s childhood that helps them to guide them now. What was exciting for them as a child, is probably still what excites them now. They’ve just left that behind thinking that it’s childlike. You can have access to your spirit guides. You can ask your spirit guides any time you can ask them during meditation, you can ask them as you’re driving down the road or walking through the grocery store. There’s no time that you don’t have access.
Johnny Burke: It’s very obvious that you have intuitive gifts. What about those practitioners that are not intuitive? They don’t have any of the clairs. They don’t have second sight. They don’t have any of that. Do you think that they can still contact spirit guides and angels within their practice or just in daily life?
Vicky McGrath: I don’t think there’s a living being among us that doesn’t have intuitive gifts. They just haven’t figured out how they come through, how to open to them. So I feel that everybody can always hear the information that spirit guides are bringing for them or that their intuition is bringing them.
There are people who are channels to massive celestial beings in other dimensions and whether or not they also consider themselves intuitive or have clairs, you don’t really hear about that. For example, Esther Hicks who channels, Theo who is channeled, and Toth, who is channeled. These are channeled beings who are coming through. Dee Wallace is another one who channels. You don’t hear those channels then saying” I’m clairvoyant” or “I’m clairaudient “, You just hear them talking about being a channel. So I think it just depends on what your experience is, whether or not you identify yourself as being intuitive or having your intuitive gifts.
Johnny Burke: I don’t know very much about channels. The mediumship, the shamanism, the past lives and how all this fits together, I think is very interesting for all of us. Whether we’re intuitive or not. One of the common complaints, or should I say objections about mediumship is, when we’re getting a reading., How do we know the medium isn’t just reading our mind instead of actually bringing forth one of our deceased relatives or friends for that matter?
Vicky McGrath: I know some people are able to do that. There are people who have telepathic gifts who can read minds that way or express themselves that way. As a sitter, thinking about the person that you would like to come through, then that might be how they’re coming through. So you might be thinking about your mom or dad who passed. And you’re thinking about the ways that they were in their life with you, your mom baked chocolate chip cookies, which were divine and the person who’s reading you picks up on that. That’s evidential, whether it’s mind-reading or not, that’s how that information is coming through for that reader, for that medium.
Johnny Burke: If I were to play the role of the devil’s advocate-if I was sitting for you, for instance, and you brought through someone, and I didn’t give you any information, you know nothing about me, my background or anything,. And you bring forth someone who appears to be my mom, how do I really know it’s my mom and not just a random spirit, or again, you’re reading my mind? How do we really know that? Or is there a way to even know?
Vicky McGrath: Well, I’m not sure whether you could deduce or not, but for me , I reach out through my solar plexus, heart chakra, I envelop my sitter with my energy and I’m connected to them energetically, but I’m still keeping my energy to myself. How I see it is that if I’m looking at the sitter, so I’m looking at you right now, on your left, where I’m looking at are your mother’s side of the family, and on the right are your father’s side of the family. And so that kind of helps me to understand who’s coming through, but then for me, I actually see the person. I see what they look like. I see that the person has long curly, gray hair or blue eyes or the color of their skin, what they’re wearing. I can see if they’re wearing a floral dress. What the colors of that dress are. I can see if they’ve got jewelry on, I can see a hundred percent. There’s no way that I could know if your mom wore wooden or feather earrings, if you’ve never told me that information. So that’s how it comes through for me.
When I’m doing a reading in a life purpose reading, what I’m seeing is actually the spirit guide, giving me information about the sitter. So in that example, where I connected with an angel, they were telling me things about the sitter’s childhood, things that they did as children and things that they did interacting with their family. And what I saw was the angel showing me those things about that person’s childhood. So I saw in detail Mickey mouse ears, for example, balloon animals, things that I could never just come up with. And then it’s up to the sitter to say, “oh yeah, that’s why this is meaningful to me”. Right? That’s how I interpret that person’s or that ‘guides information.
Johnny Burke: I’ve noticed quite a few times that when people have near -death experiences, and they see past relatives, the relatives often look like they’re in their prime; much younger, and vibrant. Do you find the same thing in your mediumship readings or not necessarily?
Vicky McGrath: Yes. I would say that’s a hundred percent true that, often they will come up as their younger selves, whether that’s for the benefit of the sitter or whether that’s how they would like to be remembered. The thing about our past loved ones is that they don’t look like that anymore. They’re there in spirit. You can’t actually see them. So they come through how they want the sitter to see them to remember them to understand. Also the time of their life- how was that meaningful for them and the sitter? So if they’re in their prime, you know, maybe that’s when they had a connection or a relationship. They don’t want the sitter to remember when they were old and, and passing and weak and, and perhaps had a terrible disease, they want them to remember that they were vigorous and young and that they had this great job or that, that they did this great thing.
Johnny Burke: Okay. Now, speaking of evidential, mediumship, can you give us an example of such a thing from your own readings?
Vicky McGrath: There are four main clairs- so that people understand what I’m talking about. Clairvoyance is when you see things. So for me, clairvoyance is my strongest clair. I see pictures. So pictures dropping into your mind that you would not have any reason to have in your mind, otherwise. Claircognizance is when you just know something. So this is my second strongest. I would say that things just drop into my mind, total packages of information that I never knew I could never know that were never told to me. Clairsentience is when you feel things . For example, in a reading, I felt a pop in my right arm and the sitter told me, “Oh yes, I broke my arm.” So that’s an example of clairsentient. You feel other people’s energy, you feel other people’s emotions. And then clairaudience I would say is the fourth main. And that’s where you hear voices. I know it’s difficult to think to yourself. Well, how is that different than, having a mental illness and hearing voices? But the voice you hear it is actually in your heart, or in your throat, you don’t actually hear it in your ear or in your mind. There are others- more subtle clairs, but these are the four that kind of work through me predominantly.
So to get back to your question, if I were reading somebody that’s an example, I would read someone and I would have a feeling. I would feel the pop in my arm. I would feel a stabbing in my neck. If someone had a neck problem, I felt for example, tingling, buzzing, vibration in my feet. And I learned that the person had gout. So that’s how things come through. So not only am I seeing clear pictures, the person that I’m reading, but I’m feeling things, hearing things and knowing things all at once and it’s all coming through. Everybody has a different level of those gifts or maybe has one of those clairs that strongest for them. So they might see things more or they might feel things, or they might smell. There’s Clairgustance where you taste things. That happened when I was a teenager, I was just sitting around playing cards with my friends, and I suddenly had this sensation of eating a pork chop.
Johnny Burke: Okay.
Vicky McGrath: of course they just looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn’t know at the time what to do with that information or what it was telling me.
Johnny Burke: That reminds me of something. Once, I lived in a really old building in Los Angeles , one of my friends, told me that,” I think you have some kind of a spirit presence there” and I just kind of laughed it off. And one night I walked into the living room, and I smelled what seemed to be a very old-fashioned fragrance, the perfume of lilacs. Does that mean anything?
Vicky McGrath: Absolutely a hundred percent. You had a loved one. Someone there with you that wore that perfume and that knew that you would be able to interpret that as that person.
Johnny Burke: But how do we know it was a loved one? How do I know it wasn’t someone haunting that house?
Vicky McGrath: Well, I personally haven’t had any hauntings experience, so I can’t really speak to that. I have only ever had one experience with a deceased, loved one who lingered around after we wanted him to. It just depends on your abilities and your strengths. I don’t see earth-bound spirits who we consider ghosts. I feel presences, but I don’t know if they’re ghosts or aliens or spirit guides. So, I think if you were just smelling that perfume and it didn’t have any other sensation, a threatening sensation, or a frightening sensation or an energetic sensation, I would just say it was a loved one. And they wanted you to know they were there. with you .
Johnny Burke: Really?. Okay. I guess it’s kind of a gray area. Going back to your readings, bringing forth loved ones and, spirit guides and angels, have you come across someone’s ancestors; or people that lived long before this person, the sitter was even born. that ever happened.
Vicky McGrath: Grandparents and great-grandparents are pretty common. I have not personally experienced anyone probably beyond a grandparent, aside from spirit guides. To me, spirit guides are ancient, multidimensional beings. Who knows how old they are? But in terms of reading for deceased loved ones, I would say great-grandparents. This is as far back as I’ve received people. So for example, I’ve had a great grandparent come through in full military uniform, and that was to help the sitter understand who they were. There’s no way that they know their great-grandparents, they might’ve seen pictures, but they would never know who is coming through necessarily. So they have to come through in a way that’s meaningful for the sitter. I’ve had great grandmothers come through in aprons and sort of old-fashioned dress. Old fashioned hairstyles to be able to identify themselves as the great-grandparent.
Johnny Burke: Since we’re talking about mediumship, there’s even a book by this very title called The Medium Explosion, which is evidently happening these days; mediums, psychics, shamans, intuitives, empaths. I’ve even heard the expression, the empathic big bang. Any idea why this is happening now?
Vicky McGrath: Well, I love this question because of course, I’m among the medium explosion. Our vibration is raising higher and higher and higher. Most of us probably don’t really know what that means or even perceive that that’s what’s happening, especially when we are looking at the news, given the dialogue of the current society. But the reality is as the higher vibration, goes higher and higher, more and more hearts are opening. And that’s where the intuitive gifts pop open is when the vibration reaches a certain level and you have to have a certain level of happiness of joy of desire to create something for yourself; that calling, that longing, that yearning to create a life you love for that to happen. And so I believe that’s what’s happening. That’s my interpretation
Johnny Burke: Do you think that it’s happening now because it needs to happen now? could it be that the veil between this dimension and the others, which includes the afterlife and spirit world is actually getting thinner?
Vicky McGrath: When we talk about the veil and the interdimensional aspects, it’s individual perception of that. For me, I would say the veil is very thin because now I see spirit guides. I see deceased loved ones, not all the time, only when I want to. And that’s my choice. I have very strong, energetic boundaries.
As more of us see our spirit guides, channel inter-dimensional beings, see angels,deceased loved ones. Then more of us perceive how thin the veil is. The veil is just a description of the fact that we are currently living in this life and there are other beings living and other lives. In fact, we’re all just one big, super consciousness living in different dimensions together.
Then there are people. I’ve heard them called sheeple, right? Who are just moving along still at that lower vibration and who haven’t yet come to the point where they are going to raise their vibration and they will just continue as sheeple until they move on? Right?
Johnny Burke: I’ve never heard that before
Vicky McGrath: I love that term.
Johnny Burke: I think the choice to raise your vibration is obviously a personal one. I definitely do, but I guess I can’t speak for everyone. I never get tired of asking these questions because everyone’s a little bit different, but it’s also nice to hear confirmation over and over again, so what do you plan to do with your mediumship now?
Vicky McGrath: Right now? I’m writing a book and an online course so that I can help other spiritual newbies. I work mainly with professional or executive level career women, a midlife career woman, like myself who are on a personal development journey. They’re not really looking for a career change, but maybe they’ve outlived other roles. Maybe they’re empty nesters. Maybe they’ve had a divorce or some other transition in their life. And then they now feel this drive to, to live their purpose, to create the life that they want to live. My work now is to work with others, to help them raise their vibration, to understand their intuitive gifts, and then create a life based on their intuitive gifts that brings them happiness, joy, fulfillment, and helps them to live their purpose. So while I’m writing my book and my online course, I am also offering what I call mentorship opportunities. So if any of your listeners are interested, they can reach out to me if they’re interested. I have a few mentorship opportunities available.
Johnny Burke: Good. All right, Vicky, excellent information. Thanks for joining us today. How can people get in touch with you and learn more about you?
Vicky McGrath: Anyone that’s interested to email me. It’s vickymcgrathspiritual arts@gmail.com. If they would be interested in working with me or learning more about me and I can also send them a little gift. I have a fun visualization exercise that helps to you know, the creative juices flow for people and help them to start to feel a little happier.