Barbara Bandel has been working as a Psychic Medium for more than 25 years. In this interview Barbara shares her journey of becoming a professional Psychic Medium, insights for people searching guidance on life’s challenges and talks about her published book covering various interesting psychic topics and what it is like to be a psychic medium.
Did you grow up knowing you had a psychic gift?
At first I thought everyone felt, saw and heard the same things as I did but at age 7, I discovered that this wasn’t the case. Together with my best friend, while walking home from school, we saw a man showing us his genitals. Our mothers called the police and the next day we had to describe this man at the police station. We were in separate rooms. We had to look at photos of different men, to see if we could point out this man. I didn’t know back then, that when I focus on a photo, I get loads of information about that person. The things I saw with my third eye and the things I felt were horrific. These were all photos of child molesters and I could see and feel what they did. It was too much for me to handle and I got a panic attack right then and there. Later on when I met my best friend outside and asked her if she felt and saw the same things while looking at the photos, she didn’t know what I was talking about. She didn’t see or feel anything. That was the moment that I thought there was something wrong with me. My father explained to me that some people can see more than other people. That made me feel like an outcast because at that age you want to fit into a group and be anything but different.
What inspired you to offer psychic readings?
A couple of things inspired me. First there is the connection with the spirit guides and the deceased loved ones. Before I gave professional readings, I gave readings to friends and family. I felt the unconditional love the spirits have for us. This is a feeling I hardly encounter here on earth. It’s such a wonderful emotion to experience. The evidence they give to let us know that they are still around is so beautiful. People often say to me during a reading: ‘How do you know these things about me? There is no way you can know this.’ I just repeat what the spirits say to me and they love to give evidence because they know we humans often need evidence before we believe that there is life after death. My guides said to me many many years ago that I am a bridge between humans and their spirit guides. And I couldn’t be happier to fulfill this task, which doesn’t feel like a task at all to me. I learn so much from every reading. After all these years I am still so happy and excited when I wake up in the morning, knowing that I have the privilege to work together with the Universe.
The second thing that inspired me is that your spirit guides know exactly who you are. Why you are born again in this lifetime. They know the things you want to do, the lessons you want to learn, the insights you want to receive etc. So every advice is tailor made for you. As an example: if I give a reading to two people and they have the exact same problem, you would expect the same solution. But this is not the case. Every person has a different background, different personality. So they both receive different solutions. This is why I don’t believe that self-help books help a lot. Because everyone is unique.
The third thing is that I can help people. If you don’t love people and truly want to help them, you won’t last in this field. Helping people really comes straight from my heart.
Why did you choose to help people with their life challenges?
Because this is what makes me happy. I earn my living doing what I love most in the world. Every day it makes me happy. It didn’t feel like I had to choose to help people because helping people feels so natural to me. It’s who I am.
Were you always drawn to your main psychic method, or did you learn any other methods?
When I grew older, the intensity between myself and deceased loved ones (seeing them, hearing them and feeling them) became a lot stronger. And over the years my readings became a lot deeper. Because people are in the transformation of deeper consciousness and so their questions become automatically deeper.
A couple of years ago I learnt from Mark Falconer Atlee, a brilliant and unique teacher, to deepen my trance-medium readings and my healing abilities.
In your opinion, why do people lose hope in difficult situations; what insight are they missing?
It’s very human to lose hope when life throws hardship your way. When the dust settles, it can be very helpful to look at the situation from a distance and figure out what this situation means to you. What have you learnt from this? If possible: try to see what your share in this situation is. Nothing comes out of the blue. You can always trace back where this began and eventually led up to a climax. Most lessons are being learnt in difficult times. It can help if people would understand that we all create our own reality. The good and the bad stuff. So that we can learn and grow as a soul. Because that’s why we are here on Earth to grow and to learn but also to experience fun, love, freedom, excitement, joy and happiness.
What is the most common issue that prevents people from living a fulfilling life?
We can have the most brilliant idea and then we start to think about it and our brain starts to come up with all the reasons why it’s not a brilliant idea. Or you talk to other people about it and they are negative about your idea. And so we let it go. And fear (False Evidence Appearing True). Fear has many different faces, but they all keep you locked up in the same place. Fear to leave a secure environment. Often an unhappy but secure environment. Fear and disbelief in all the options you have. Fear of failing. Fear of being an outcast. Most people like to follow the herd. It’s so much fun to go left when everyone else goes to the right. So fear and not listening to your inner guidance, your intuition is preventing a lot of people to become who they really are.
What inspired you to write “We are more alive than most of the living” and what insights could readers gain from this?
A journalist, Sylvia de Witt whom I had given a reading, called me and told me that she had so many questions about life, life after death and psychic mediums. She had the feeling that she wasn’t the only one. So she came up with the idea of a Q and A book and if I wanted to answer all her questions? I loved working with her because the journalist in her wasn’t afraid to keep asking when she wanted more detailed information about certain topics. And apart from that, she is a lovely woman. People who are curious or just figuring out that there must be more between heaven and earth can read the basic, but very interesting, information about many topics such as: dreams, coincidence, soul mates, spirit guides. My own main spirit guide (his name is Ben) also gave additional information in the book. I also talk about some of my most amazing readings.
What is your most extraordinary experience as a reader?
I had to think long and hard to answer this question. Because every reading is extraordinary. I would say the readings where a deceased loved one moves things around during the reading. That happens a lot. They often choose their own photo. I always ask to bring a photo with you when you want contact with a deceased loved one. I always put the photo in front of me on the table and they (the deceased loved ones) like to show that they are still here: that they only left their body when they died. So they literally move the photo around on the table. It’s also common that a bird tries to get our attention during a reading. Making loud noises for minutes while looking at us. As if it tries to say: ‘Hey, look at me! I want your attention!’ There is a large window in my office and birds love to work together with the spirits. The bird ‘lends’ his or her body for a couple of minutes to the loved one so they can get the attention. So beautiful how these forces work together.
