By Linda M. Potter
While other kids his age were playing baseball, seven-year-old John Holland was reading metaphysical books. He knew he was different than other children and so did his friends and family. Now, an internationally known psychic medium and author of his own metaphysical books, such as Born Knowing, Psychic Navigator, and the newly-released, Spirit Whisperer: Chronicles of a Medium, Holland recalls growing up as something of a loner.
“People thought I was strange,” he says. “Out of the five kids in our family, I was always the sensitive one; I knew who was coming over, who was ill—things I couldn’t possibly have known.” While people around him were baffled by his behavior, Holland says he simply continued to fill his data banks with information, reading everything he could find about psychic powers, spirituality and religion.
It was the early 60s, he explains, and there were few resources available to support children like him who were “different.” As he grew older, he learned to keep his abilities to himself in order to fit in. “As a teenager, a few of my friends knew about me and would say, ‘Johnny, do that thing you do,’ but I mostly pushed it away.” It wasn’t until many years later, as an adult, that Holland fully embraced his spiritual gifts.
The question Holland is most often asked is whether he sees himself as unique—born with an ability that other people simply do not have. He responds with a quick, “absolutely not.” We are all psychic, he insists, but most people do not connect with their gift and allow it to develop. Holland believes we are all born knowing, but as we get older and begin using the left side of our brains, we forget about our spiritual connection and our innate abilities. Not everyone is able to reconnect during their life time, he says.
Does he believe he was somehow chosen to do this work? “That’s a tough question,” he responds. “I believe I chose this life before I incarnated into the physical body, but I also feel I’ve done this work before, in previous lives.”
In spite of the pull to acknowledge his intuitive abilities, he pushed back for many years, living the high life in Los Angeles and busying himself with a dizzying list of different jobs, everything from bartending to office work. Even after his life-changing automobile accident, which awakened the abilities he had pushed away as a child, he was hesitant to move forward.
“My friends totally pushed me to do psychic readings and see people. And I said no because the responsibility is overwhelming. People’s lives are in my hands. What if I’m wrong? What if I’m not good enough? Am I going to be called a freak all over again like I was as a kid?”
His feelings shifted, when after two years of doing psychic readings, he moved into mediumship. “I must have raised my vibration,” he says, “When you’re psychic you’re like a TV, and I suddenly switched to cable!”
The once reluctant psychic left LA behind and traveled to England where he spent time studying with other mediums. “I went to Arthur Findlay College and took a couple of courses there. I went there for the programs, but I really got my best training by sitting with mediums every Tuesday night for two years,” he explains.
Committed to bringing more awareness to the unique needs of children like him, Holland counsels with parents of psychic children on a regular basis. These children need to be acknowledged and nurtured while still having boundaries, he says. Helping them to understand what they’re experiencing as normal and acceptable is the key, they say. “There are resources to help people now,” Holland says. “When I was a kid, there were no support groups.”
Now living on the East Coast, Holland has been featured in several TV specials. The A&E special, Mediums: We See Dead People, provided a fascinating insight into how John works as a “Psychic Time Machine” able to pick up vibrations and detailed information from a past event, whether it’s seen, felt, or heard. He also starred in his own pilot, Psychic History, for the History Channel.
John Holland appears in St. Louis on May 6, 7pm. His lectures include an astounding demonstration of mediumship with live readings and messages for some of the audience members. The lecture will be followed by a Book Signing of some of John’s bestselling titles, including his new book, The Spirit Whisperer. The event is scheduled at 560 Music Hall – 560 Trinity Avenue Delmar Loop – Corner of Delmar and Trinity, Saint Louis, MO.
For further information, and to purchase tickets, contact www.brownpapertickets.com or BellaSpark Productions, 970-443-0732.