About two weeks ago, a Tiktok went viral in the spiritual community of a supposed psychic medium sitting in a public place and “reading” strangers to the camera as they walked in and out of a café. To be clear, she was approaching these strangers. She was just telling her friend what she was picking up on energetically.
The video rubbed people the wrong way for several reasons. I was uncomfortable with the childish, gossip-like tone. It felt like she was picking things up from these strangers and making fun of them. The conversation around this video has been about consent. None of these people asked for a reading. They were in a public setting that was not at all related to the occult or spirituality and here is a supposed psychic telling their business to the camera and uploading it to TikTok. These are the kinds of readers you shouldn’t trust. Here are a couple of reasons why.
Malicious or untrained? A clue that someone is an untrained empath is when they say they’re open to everyone’s energy and they “can’t help themselves” but to pick up on information about the strangers. A psychic medium or empath should know how to open and close themselves off to psychic information for their own mental health and as a form of control and discipline. If someone were to use the excuse that they’re unable to stop the flow of information, I wouldn’t trust them to do a reading. They’re obviously inexperienced and should not be trusted with my energy. If they’re trained and still choose to read strangers who are not seeking a reading, then they’re a spiritual voyeur. Would you go on a date with a person who goes up to random windows and watch people? Or worse, record their windows for TikTok? If not, then why would you hire someone who gets on TikTok to make fun of strangers’ energetic information? Not to mention that sheer immaturity.
Is it ever okay to read people without their consent? This is still debated, so keep in mind that the following is just my opinion and subject to change. Most people will tell you no — absolutely not. You should never go up to a stranger and say “I have a message from your dead grandmother,” even if the spirit of meemaw is yanking at your shirt. And you should definitely not use social media as a vehicle to deliver a message for someone who didn’t ask for it. I’m in agreement there.
But then there’s the topic of celebrities and public persons. In our legal system, there is a distinction between a private person and a public figure. A private person is someone who does not seek the spotlight and/or were put in the spotlight against their will. A public figures has less expectation of privacy because they because they seek public attention and have become a household name.
What does this mean in the spiritual sense? Let’s say you’re a sincere fan of the Kardashians. You’ve purchased Kylie Jenner’s lip kit, you wear Kim Kardashian’s Skims beneath Khloe Kardashian’s Good American jeans. You would be one of the millions of people who have had energy exchanges with their brands, their products, and even their lives (reality show). They’ve accepted your time, attention, and money for their success. They’ve opened their lives to the public, so conducting a psychic reading would not be out of the question.
(This may be another post for another day.)
Let private persons stay private The people in the viral TikTok video, however, were not public persons. They were private persons in a public space. Just because someone is in a public space, like a café, doesn’t mean you’re entitled you to absorb and report on their energetic information.
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