What Does it Mean to be Psychic?

When discussing Tarot, often the topic of psychic ability comes up. Many of us believe that everyone is psychic, and anyone who has ever had a “gut feeling” or had their intuition guide them understands this sense of the word. Often, the word “psychic” carries a connotation of an amazing power to read minds, correctly guess lottery numbers, and see events in the future as if they were on a videotape that could be cued to the moment of interest and dissected for detail. That sense of the word is usually the one that skeptics have in mind when they are inclined to criticize Tarot, or any form of divination, as “fake.” People who tend to believe in “psychic” ability tend to think of it as the intuitive, gut feeling sort of sense that develops in its reliability the more you listen to it and pay attention to it. There are other names for this, perhaps prayer is one way of looking at it as well. How fascinating that we have different names for our feelings, and for our “sixth sense,” depending on what framework we are coming from. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we were all taking about the same thing?