HSPS: Sensitive or Psychic?
I’ve met plenty of HSPs. I guess you’d expect that, knowing me and the people in my world. Not only the people I attract, but who are attracted to me. Interestingly, I’d say that 90% of these self-professed “highly emotional, highly sensitive” people deny being “psychic.” Which leads me to thinking about the potential dividing line. And to ask: Why would so many people argue that they couldn’t possibly be psychic—that it was something they were not capable of, didn’t want, didn’t need, or felt was something way beyond their comfort zone?
The question here might be more difficult to answer if I had not been so solidly in that “I couldn’t possibly be psychic” camp for so long. What stands out to me now is how so much of it is about the definition.
- The term psychic carries with it so much baggage that I’d be hard pressed to sort it all out here. Does it mean you’re telepathic? Have ESP? Dream about future events? Have prophetic visions or thoughts? See things or know things that other people don’t? Hear what’s in people’s heads? Or maybe you’re just not like everyone else, so you’ve taken on the label because it makes things easier.
- There’s a vast difference between what you feel emotionally, what you know in your mind, what you feel somatically, and what you feel you simply know without knowing how you know it. Is that what being “psychic” means?
- For some people, “psychic” means you’re weird. For others, it means you’re crazy. For the self-professed “skeptics,” there’s no proof that will ever be enough for them to believe in such a thing. And for still others, the word alone sends them running for the hills.
According to the dictionary definition, here’s what the word “psychic” means:
- relating to or denoting faculties or phenomena that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, especially involving telepathy or clairvoyance;
- relating to the soul or mind. a person considered or claiming to have psychic powers;
- a medium.
Connecting the dots
Perhaps the following thoughts on the matter will help you connect the potential dots between sensitive and psychic.
- Until I began hearing from the spirit world, I honestly did not know the difference between psychic and mediumship, but there turns out to be an important distinction. While psychic means perceiving information from other people, mediumship means receiving information from the spirit world (tapping into the universal source). The reason this differentiation is so important is that for me, in my work, I choose to reel in my psychic octopus as much as I possibly can so that any information I receive will be as clear as possible, filtered as little as possible by my human agenda (whatever that happens to be). Naturally, I cannot guarantee that my human connection does not play a role in my mediumship, only that it is my intention to be as clear as possible so the information is in the best, most loving, intention for all concerned.
- I did not know that picking up what other people were putting down was a sign of being psychic. I just thought that I was always feeling messy inside, as if I had a million emotions and thoughts going on at once. I did not realize it was because I was taking other people’s energy on as my own or that I was actually hearing their thoughts and feeling their feelings.
Why it matters so much
It’s all about connotations. In other words, both words, psychic and sensitive, carry a whole lot of baggage. The first implies you could be imagining things or are into woo-woo stuff that makes for lots of commentary and/or discomfort; the second that there’s something less than capable about you. I think you’ll agree that neither one is terribly helpful.
If you’re highly sensitive, what really matter here is that you feel you can be open to the experiences your sensitivities invite into your life without fear. If you saw a spirit when you were a kid and it scared you, did you shut down lots of your sensitivities in response? If you had an imaginary friend, were you told you were seeing things that weren’t there so you learned to “un-see” what you were seeing?
As long as you know how to use your sensitivities, abilities, capabilities, and talents in ways that are productive, positive, and filled with pure loving intention, you can call it whatever you want. Because, in the end, that is what matters the most.
