Do you like hunting for treasures at yard sales, thrift stores or used bookstores? Do you love the Antiques Roadshow television series? Do you have any family heirlooms rich in sentimental value?

Many people do, and now is the time of year when people often peruse yard sales and antique stores looking for something old that’s new to them. If you have any items that once belonged to someone else, do you ever wonder about their history? And if you did not know the previous owner, do you ever speculate about who has treasured it throughout the years, or how they got it in the first place?

Since this is a paranormal column, by now you might be wondering what this all has to do with strange phenomena. Well, what if you had the ability to find out more about someone by simply holding their keychain, or even a photograph of them?

Psychometry is the official term for receiving psychic or clairvoyant information through touch. According to psychic Ted Andrews, author of How to Do Psychic Readings Through Touch, some people do seem to be born with enhanced psychic abilities, but psychometry is a skill that anyone can learn.


What We Leave Behind
When you think about it, the idea that psychic energy is stored in objects is not so far-fetched. You already leave behind other kinds of energy on almost anything with which you come into contact. For example, let’s say you are sitting on a couch reading a book. The phone rings, and you put the book down to go answer it. An infrared camera can easily show the energy you left behind on the couch in the form of heat. Similarly, psychometry can be used to detect residual psychic energy.

According to author Elizabeth Owens, a Spiritualist minister and professional medium, you need not have contact with an item for an extended period of time to leave an impression on an object. “One misconception people have is that they sometimes assume that when they psychometrize an article such as a necklace, the necklace needs to be worn for a long time prior to it being psychometrized so that the energy is more intense. However, energy can be absorbed very quickly,” she explains in her book Spiritualism & Clairvoyance for Beginners.

Owens also says that although energy is absorbed quickly, it does not “erase” the energies of those people who had contact with an object before its current owner. “Another misconception is that there is only one energy present on an article. For instance, if you were given a ring that your grandmother wore while she was alive, it would carry her vibration, but if you placed the ring on your finger and began to wear it regularly, the ring would absorb your energy,” she explains. She recommends that those still building their psychometry skills focus on either the current or a previous owner, but adds that “with practice, the reader should be able to read all of the people who have worn the ring.”


Psychic Crime-Busting
Psychometry has even been used to help solve crimes. There are dozens of psychics throughout the country who have helped solve missing persons and murder cases. Sometimes the information provided by a psychic has proven to be critical in solving the crime and convicting the person responsible.

Psychic Noreen Renier has been helping police and other law enforcement agencies for more than twenty years. In fact, she once sued someone for libel after being labeled a fraud. She won the case after a number of law enforcement officials, including two FBI agents, testified to the accuracy and validity of her contributions to their investigations. In her work, Renier uses psychometry to help her focus on the victim, often asking to hold an item that belonged to the victim at the time they disappeared.

Psychic Carol Pate may have saved the life of an Arkansas teen who was kidnapped by a sadistic pedophile. When contacted by a member of the missing boy’s family and asked if she could help with the investigation, she agreed and asked for a photograph or something that had belonged to the missing teen. When interviewed in 2004 about the case on CNN’s Larry King Live, she explained how she receives information: “I hold the photograph in my hand, and I tune into the energy of the individual. The individual has a signature energy, and I’m kind of like a radio. I tune into their station, and once I get that signal, I then know if they’re alive or dead, what they’re thinking, what’s happened to them.”

In the field of paranormal research, Stefan Ossowiecki is still renowned long after his death for his contribution to our understanding of psychic abilities. Born in 1877, he had an unusually strong gift for psychometry. In the 1920s and 1930s he worked with leading French and Polish researchers, producing some amazing results. For example, when psychometrizing sealed envelopes to determine the writing or drawing sample contained inside, he was accurate more than eighty percent of the time—an extremely significant percentage that is far beyond statistical probabilities of chance.

When tested at the University of Warsaw, he also displayed amazing abilities with archaeological objects. Stanislaw Poniatowski, a professor of enthology at the university, verified the accuracy of Ossowiecki’s information after he provided amazing details about the lives of prehistoric humans—simply from holding a ten-thousand-year-old flint tool!

After the Nazis invaded Poland, Ossowiecki began what perhaps was the most important work of his life. His reputation and skill with psychometry was well known, and hundreds of people came to his apartment with photographs of their missing family and friends. Ossowiecki would hold each photograph and try to help people find out what happened to their loved ones, always refusing payment for his services. His story has a tragic ending, for he accurately predicted his own early death before the end of the war. He remains one of the most widely studied and renowned psychics of the twentieth century.


Everyday Uses
You don’t need to be a psychic or a sleuth to have a use for psychometry—it can help you in more mundane matters as well. Say you’ve misplaced your car keys. Try drawing a simple map of your house, or the area where you think you may have left them. Then psychometrize the map and see if you can receive impressions of their location.

If you’re shopping and having difficulty deciding between two different pieces, take them both to the dressing room. Take a few moments to breathe deeply and clear your mind. Then touch one, then the other, and see if you get an impression regarding which is the best choice.

You could also try letting psychometry help you if something you own breaks down. Elizabeth Owens recommends psychometrizing any appliance or vehicle that is not working properly, such as a car, washing machine, or DVD player. In Spiritualism & Clairvoyance for Beginners, she provides examples of questions you may want to ask yourself during your session: “Can you see parts that are affected? Who should you call for help? Should this be a friend or a business? What is a reasonable amount of money to expect to pay for a repair? Will the cure transpire today or will it take longer to accomplish?”

The key to success at psychometry is practice. The more you work at developing this skill, the more successful you will become. You might also want to try practicing with friends and family to broaden your range and receive instant feedback regarding your accuracy. From finding out just where you misplaced your keys to discovering long-forgotten history of a treasured antique, psychometry is one way that anyone can unlock the secrets of the past.


Sensing Secrets of the Past: How to do Psychometry
Everyone will experience psychometry perceptions a little differently. Some may have vague, undefined feelings, while others may have detailed scenarios pass through their minds. Your way of perceiving is no better and no worse than anyone else’s. It is simply your way.

• Begin by performing a relaxation exercise.
• Rub the hands together to activate the chakras.
• Take the object to be psychometrized in your hand.
• Examine it closely, and then close your eyes.
• Move it around in your hands. Run your fingers over it. Place it against the solar plexus or forehead.

Do not worry if no images or impressions come to mind. They may just be slow, or they may be registering in other ways. This is where the questioning comes in. Mentally ask yourself simple questions about the object and its owner. Keep them simple and uncomplicated. Framing them for “Yes” or “No” responses is effective. Trust what comes to mind. Some sample questions: Is the owner male or female? What is the general disposition of this person? Is this person generally upbeat or down? Is there an issue prominent in this person’s life? Is it family? Business? Personal? Is there a color significant to this person? Is there something special about this object?

These kinds of questions are essential to ask. Remember that you may not see or hear the answer. You may only think it.

Speak your answers and impressions with confidence. When using the questioning method of generating insights, phrase your answers in a way that includes the question. For example, if you mentally ask about a color, and blue comes to mind, simply say, “I see the color blue. To me this would indicate _____ about this person and/or object.”

Remember, sometimes all it takes is to speak out loud what you are impressed with for the doors to open wide. By speaking from your impressions, thoughts, images, etc., about the object, you draw from the subconscious to the conscious.

It is often with the speaking of impressions that the meaning of them becomes clear. Oftentimes dreams do not make sense until we speak of them or record them. With psychometry, the describing of the object and any impressions we experience will help do the same thing. It stimulates understanding and clarification.

Excerpt is from How to Do Psychic Readings Through Touch, by Ted Andrews