Paul Fenton-Smith Interview

Impulse Gamer interviews Paul Fenton-Smith, renowned clairvoyant and popular author about his latest book Intuition and fine-tuning your psychic abilities.

“We’re all born psychic, from prophetic dreams to deeper instincts, intuitive information comes in many forms. Effective intuition relies on knowing how to tune in to your abilities when you need them” says Paul Fenton-Smith.

Based on his 33 years studying and practising as a clairvoyant, Intuition unlocks ancient psychic secrets. It also includes compelling real life examples to illustrate each point.

Leading Australian designer Cristina Re has designed the stunning colour photography and easy to follow charts, making this unique book more appealing to everyone curious about intuitive development.

Your latest book, Intuition has just recently been released. How has this been going for you?

It's going really well. It's the most bizarre thing because when I do talks in book shops, they will order the stock in and sell 5 or so copies and I'll sell another 5 or 6 when I'm there. However during my visit to a bookshop in Sydney, they sold 50 copies in the two weeks leading up to my talk and I signed 30 copies there on the night. So this book is selling a lot faster than my previous 9 books and this is number 10.

We've noticed that the book is quite easy to read and flows quite well, how did you devise this format?

The way it worked is that students ask for notes and I've been teaching now for 20 years or so. These notes turn into a book slowly and steadily which is why Intuition is a step by step guide. The students ask all the questions so you know what to put in and leave out.

I didn't want to write something too esoteric for people and originally the publishers wanted something that was about me and how fantastic I am but book shops are full of those things. People don't want that but would rather learn about something.

What was your biggest challenge in writing Intuition?

My biggest challenge was finding ways that I could make exercises for people to do for themselves that were not overwhelming. Breaking an exercise down to 5, 6 or 10 steps can be very tricky because if you've leave out one step that you think you've already included, people get stuck.

Intuition seems to have a familiar theme of telling people to slow down and in essence to stop and smell the roses. Is this true?

That's the difficulty, people are always in a hurry, especially with city life and one of the ways to listen to your instincts is to stop your mind, even temporary and I think that meditation is great for that. But to be fair, a lot of people can't meditate and they've tried and found it too difficult. I've suggested other things, whether going for a jog, gardening, a salt bath or something, just to get your mind slow down. I've got a friend who does crosswords and she slows down by doing that which would drive me crazy. But for her, she gets into the zone, that creative space where you can find solutions for problems.

So basically you have to find your own ways that suits you?

That's right which is why I've suggested a variety of things in the book.

How did Cristina Re come to be the designer for the book?

Although she came up to me and suggested it, these days books compete with DVD's, the internet and all this colourful information that is coming at you straight away. They are appealing but most books are not. That's the reason I chose Cristina.

Apart from your book, how can people fine tune their intuition?

Practice! Practice is the important thing like guessing how many letters you'll get in your mail box or how many e-mails you'll have when you switch on your computer in the morning or when the phone rings, guess the identity of the caller. It's these sort of things that help you practice.

What about the dangers out there for people who want to fine tune their psychic abilities? What should people look out for?

One of the obvious dangers is Ouija boards and professional psychics never use them  because they are very dangerous. You're inviting anyone whose deceased, any spirit to visit you. It's like driving along a country road at night and you see a hitch hiker on the road. Would you pick them up? Probably not as most people have a sense of self preservation and would not want to end up in Belanglo forest. Psychic abilities is one of those things where people need to know the road rules around it, when to use them and when not to. In clubs, bars and hospitals, that's not a time to be psychic  because you're picking up all that energy that is negative.

So what is this negative energy?

It could be anything, it can be person coming to you with a lot of fear and really worried about something. They might sit with me for an hour and have a reading and that fear stays in the room after they've gone. When I visit friends in hospital, fear and loneliness are the two feelings that purvey hospitals because you're there by yourself with plenty of time to think. It's just a genuine negativity.

An example would be a friend who is depressed and when you visit them, they drain you of energy and you feel like you've been knocked. You might only have been there for 10 minutes with them and you don't know where your energy has gone but you just feel faint and exhausted. Some people do this to you all the time. You wouldn't mind if your friend is hospital and you've given them some of your energy but if its someone with depression for over 20-years, that's another thing.

How do you protect yourself from those with negative energy?

That's a really tricky thing. Many years ago, I used to work in an office and worked opposite a guy who would go clubbing all night and would be on anything that he could get. Some mornings he would walk into the office with what he was wearing last night and hasn't even been home. He squandered his energy all night and he wants my energy and I thought is it just me or am I imaging this. So one day I avoided him from 8:30am to 11:30am and he finally caught up with me. I asked him why did you want to see me, he said nothing, just to say hi. In other words he didn't consciously know that he wanted my energy but if he had a conversation with me, he's got enough energy from me to get him through the morning. I thought if he squanders his energy, he doesn't deserve mine.

However in those cases where you can't avoid them, you will need to cleanse a little more. Go swimming, walking amongst nature, have a salt bath. You will need to clean these energy away. If you're working with them or living with them, sometimes it's almost impossible. That's why I wrote a section in my book called cleansing for couples. If you're wanting to cleanse yourself and your partner but they are not interested, you need to find ways to cleanse the both of you and there are techniques in the book there.

I give an example where a client of mine has a husband as a builder and they're not interested in cleansing. He has his own building company and is very stressed about his finances and she had started sleeping in another room because his energy was so wound up that he was tossing and turning all night. He thought she was getting ready for a divorce but she loved the man and couldn't sleep next to him. I told her to get him in a bath when he first gets home and make sure it's a salt bath, he won't care. That way when he finishes the bath, he will feel cleaner and within a week she was sleeping next to him again.

In your book, you've talked about Nature's Internal GPS, why do you think society have put on the blinkers for this?

Minds are getting faster and faster. You get home and had a busy day and flop on the sofa and normally you would stop and think there but now we hit the remote as our minds are so quick. The internal GPS is still there but men more than women do it in literal GPS terms and they don't need that the street directory but tend to find their way. So I think it's there for everyone, it just needs developing.

Abilities can be misused right?

You have to careful about that, it's called trespassing. I say it's none of my business when a client asks me to spy on others. I tell them that they need to ask the person yourself or leave it alone and get your own life. I get some bizarre questions though, someone asked me if I murdered my husband, will I get away with it? I can't answer that because I'm an accessory before the fact! Another man asked me if I have an affair, will my wife find out and I said yes, his next question was, what month will she find out? I thought you idiot, she knows already if you'll have an affair!

Sometimes people want clairvoyants to help them get away with things. A few days ago, a young guy was asking me about a future business proposal and wanted to know if it would be successful? I looked at him and said tell me, does this business idea involve taping two packs of white powder to your body and walking through an airport scanner? He said yes and I said you've done this before and served time for this. He said yes and said 4 years in a Thai prison. Why would you do it again when you know the risks involved in this? He said he didn't get paid last time and needs the money. Jesus, that's a hard way to earn the money.

Do people come to you asking them what are the lotto numbers and how to make money?

I cant give lotto numbers. If I could give lotto numbers I wouldn't be working for a living. I would be strolling down to the lotto office once a month to collect my winnings. That's not possible. The way I see it if that if a clairvoyant tells you you're going to win the lottery, you will win anyway, it has nothing to do with the clairvoyant.

I normally say intuition shouldn't replace logic, they should work together. For instance if you have an important decision to make like investing in a new business, buying a house or moving countries. You first do all the research and when you've narrowed your options down, then you use your intuition as the next step. If you haven't done your logical stuff, then it's not worth it.

When I moved to this neighbourhood 20 years ago, I was going to advertise in the local newspaper and I asked the Tarot cards if it was wise to advertise in the paper and they said yes. I then asked if it was wise to start this week, no, next week, no, the week after yes. I wonder why I couldn't start for two weeks and it rained on those newspapers and no one would read them. It was telling me if you advertise in a wet newspaper, you're wasting your money.

Is tarot your favourite technique when you do readings?

I use tarot, palmistry and hand reading is another one. Hand reading is a little more logical and anyone can do it and you don't need intuition. But I think tarot is a good tool because people come with questions for the next year or so. Will I get this job, is it wise to buy this house or invest in this business.

There are different types of tarot cards, are they all the same?

They are. There are 78 cards in a deck and the pictures may vary but they are still numbered and named the same way. The picture may be different but they have have the same meaning.

Are there bad psychics around?

Yes they are. It's like in any field, there are people that are good and people that are not so good. That's why most people go for recommendations.

Is that why you established the Academy of Psychic Sciences?

Yes, so I could train people. When I was in London,  I worked across from a lady who was a just a pure clairvoyant and she didn't have any tools. On a good day, she was brilliant but on a bad day because she didn't have any tools, she was hopeless and still charging money. One afternoon at 3:45pm, she said I will talk to you later as I'm off home to bed. She went home and done four readings that morning for 55 pounds each but she wasting the time of the clients because she was having a bad day. So on bad days, if you still have the tools of tarot, astrology or palmistry, you can still give a good reading.

What do you do in your down time?

I love to watch films, I play piano and there's not a lot of down time as I'm always updating my website. We're about to move into a new house and this new house backs onto a park so I'll be out in that park a lot. I like nature but I don't spend enough time in nature. It's one of those things where you get out and think this is fabulous but then you forget.

How do you control your readings? Do readings come to you when you look at people?

These days because of my work, I switch it off which most people do with their work. When I go out and if people ask me what I do for a living, I don't tell them I'm a clairvoyant because they're only after a reading. What I normally say is that I'm a writer and if they ask what sort of things do I write, I say technical  books. So that way you get left alone because you can't do it all the time, you need to have some time off. I only see clients three days a week and I write one day a week and then I'm teaching, doing other things as there is always something to do like paperwork.

Your book talks about a wide range of techniques from telepathy to clairvoyance and astral travel. Is it possible to master all these techniques or is it like specialisation and most people only go down one or two paths?

You will find that you have natural talents in one or two areas. It's very rare that someone will be good at all the things in the book. You don't need to be, for example musicians might be good at one or two instruments or only one type of music. Clairvoyants are same. I've listed the four types of clairvoyants in there as well because you need to find the right one for you.

When people come to you for readings, what is it generally about? The future? Their loved ones that may have passed?

Most readings are about current circumstances when people have a decision to make and it could be anything from changing jobs to a decision at university. This where palmistry can be really good because the answer is there for you.

Do you think some religions hamper the psychic abilities of society?

Some religions are against it so some people feel that it's the devil's work and that sort of thing. I think that some of the reason religions are against it because it gives you a bit more free will and they don't like that. If you got too much free will, you'll be less interested in what they have to offer. In some ways it's competition. In my first book, I mentioned that the Vatican in Rome has the largest occult library in the world. In the 13th and 15th century, they commandeered all those books in Europe and it's just amazing. It's interesting that they're against it but they've got the big library.

I've got a memoir from an English palmist in 1930 called Count Louis Hamon who put himself under the name of Cheiro. He was very well connected and even read for one of the popes. He did the popes astrology and the pope did his numbers as he was a keen numerologist. That's bizarre that the pope was interested in these things.

What happens when we die?

It varies from person to person. That's why when I do mystic readings and I'm contacting deceased people, I ask how long ago did your mother or father die because if they're gone 5 to 10 years than its usually harder to reach them and they often moved on. If they're gone within the last year or so, they are easier to reach. It's like levels or schools and that the longer they are away, the more they move on from the physical plane. Some will hold on because they don't want to let go of their lives or let go of their loved ones which is not such a good thing because they can't do much anymore, they need to move on. They don't belong here anymore.

So the afterlife are different plains of existence?

Yes. There are like 8 levels that they can move onto and the level closest to Earth is where they start off. So that's why most people experience a dream or two where a loved one comes back to them in a dream and lets them know that everything is fine or they resolve something, like forgiveness so they can move on. Most people who I have talked to have had this experience. People are more raw in the first few months and aware of what's going on and slowly they start to move on which makes contact more difficult.

I read for a women two months ago and her deceased dad apologised to her and said, you deserved the education and I thought what does this mean. She said I had three brothers and they all university education and when he was alive, he looked at me and was old fashioned and thought you will get married and have a family and we won't spend money on your education. Then in her 20's, she got a job, saved some money and put herself through university and then masters. The brothers didn't do much with their uni degree as they were from a farming community and he realised that after he died, she was the one who needed the education as she done more with it and he was apologising. She broke into tears but it was great for her to recognise that her dad knew she had a great mind.

When you do communicate with the dead, is it like a conversation or do you get flashes of images and words?

Both. Sometimes I see them standing there and I will talk to them but it works in your mind like the way memory works. If I ask you to remember your living room at home, you've got it in your mind's eye and that's the way that it is. What I normally do is describe the person to the client and they say that's so and so and sometimes they can recognise them and sometimes they can't. Occasionally when an older person passes away like an old lady, she'll go back to her favourite years like when she was 30. It makes sense and if you could choose between being 25 or 75, you're going to choose 25. Then I ask them questions, do you have anything you want to tell them and it goes back and forward. Just because Uncle John was a plumber, doesn't mean he's not going to talk about your downpipes. People still have all the knowledge and information they had when they were alive and they are not much different, the personalities are still the same.

Who is the strangest person you've spoken to who has passed?

That's a difficult one but I had a lady who saw me recently and said her friend died around the age of 56 which is quite young. I described the women to my client and she said that was her. I passed on the message from the spirit that said I don't like this no luggage rule and I immediately thought she was a hoarder but my client burst into laughter. She said we were flight attendants together 25 years ago and that's how we met and became good friends. Even flight attendants can take a bag onboard but when we die you can't take anything with you, so it was an in joke. Sometimes the deceased will give you information that only your client will understand.

I don't do a lot of medium work because I think it's important to let people know that people who have died are okay but that's all, then they move on. Even on the day, if someone asks me to contact their deceased aunt or cousin and I look for them and they are not there, I don't disturb them and leave them alone. It's best not to disturb them because they start to disturb you in your sleep and in other ways.

You've mentioned how we can listen to the universe and the universe is a big place. Do you think there is something else out there besides humans?

I think it's possible but I think that if you're just looking at space probes, you won't see anything because it's another plane. Think of it on electronic terms with two copper wires for your phone that can run up to 6 or 8 phone calls at the same time because they are using different frequencies. That's why when the power of one of those frequencies starts to drop, you get a crossed line and it comes into the other wave band. So in other words if you're looking with your eyes, you might not see them because they are in another dimension.

A perfect analogy to end this interview Paul that we should not just use our physical senses. Thanks for your time Paul and good luck with the book. For our readers, if you're interested in the world of psychics, we suggest you check out the book Intuition which is available at all good bookshops.

For more information, visit - www.paulfentonsmith.com