The Psychic Healing Book by Amy Wallace and Bill Henkin has been around since the late 70s, with several updated editions released over the decades. This one is the 25th anniversary updated version. Psychic is a cult classic. It’s one of those oft-cited New Age books you hear a lot about. So it was high time I read it for myself.
First, a few interesting updates in this 25th anniversary edition. Wallace explicitly notes that she wishes she could rewrite the book and not mention spirit guides. “[I]f I could do it differently today I would rewrite or delete entirely the chapters pertaining to the use of spirit guides. I have come to believe that spiritism leads to many mishaps and disappointments, and I would prefer not to even dabble in it.”
She also talks about ch’i kung (or qigong) and chakras, and how qigong should be used to strengthen the lower chakras before a practitioner tries to work with the sixth and seventh (or third eye and crown) chakras.
Henkin also offers fascinating new information. “When we use our psychic abilities we enter the same hallowed grounds of the mind or soul that give rise to creativity and psychosis.” I love that line. It’s worth reading over a few times.
Psychic is an easy to read 208-page classic on developing psychic ability. It’s a practical how-to guide formulated after the teachings of Wallace as she learned them from her psychic teachers. Much of it, I found, is in direct line with the spiritual pedagogy of the Berkeley Psychic Institute, a school for psychic development that’s been around since the 70s, on a street in downtown Berkeley I frequently walk on.
A lot of ground is covered in this book, though the authors skate across the surface of these subjects. Animism, Spiritism, the chakra system, the astral body, color healing, auras and reading auras, karma, dream interpretation, contacting spirit guides, ESP, and future telling are all covered, albeit in a few succinct paragraphs per topic. The book is therefore a starting point, not a treatise.
Psychic also covers practical training for developing psychic healing abilities. Whether they work or not, I’m not sure since I can’t report on any successful personal results, but I will say it’s comprehensive in its articulation of how to train yourself in the ways of psychic healing. Specific exercises are provided, visionary techniques, and personal success stories provided by the author on how these exercises and techniques will hone your psychic healing abilities.
For me, it was a fascinating read and I believe one must be open-minded to many perspectives of the woo.
In the spirit of learning many perspectives, The Psychic Healing Book is an incredible read and worth investing in for your personal library.
If you’re intrigued about a course like Psychic Ability 101, then get this book. It’s practical, full of exercises and training techniques, covers a lot of ground and inspires further reading of the individual topics covered, and most importantly, is written in accessible plain English. Wallace and Henkin also offer fascinating personal accounts and stories of psychic work at play.
I’ve heard of this book many times over before finally getting a copy and reading it for myself. Funny enough, I didn’t know it was published by my publisher, North Atlantic Books. The Psychic Healing Book is considered a New Age cult classic and even when you flip through the pages of the book, the aesthetics and design of it is reminiscent of books from the 70s and 80s. If you count yourself a psychic or are interested in honing your inner psychic, then get this book. It’ll easily become one of your favorite go-to resources.
FTC Disclosure: In accordance with Title 16 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 255, “Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising,” I received The Psychic Healing Book from North Atlantic Books for prospective review. Everything I’ve said here is sincere and accurately reflects my opinion of the book.
benebell wen 
Hmmm. Nice review (as always, very thoughtful). I wouldn’t ever want to use this as a ‘healing’ guide but rather training intuition. Do you think the exercises would enhance one’s intuition or could a person use meditation techniques to quiet the mind to allow intuition to come forward? (Does that even make sense to you????) I guess I’m wondering if I even want to read this book…..
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Hello sybes1, I believe your question can be answered by reading the book and find out. As yourself why you wonder if you want to read this book. Your question is similar to asking a spouse, or a lover “Will I be forever happy in everlasting love with you?” See? The proof is in the pudding, not in the recepee or in the ingredients.
Since I’m trained in that school since 1981, in the Netherlands, it’s become my view that by healing oneself, stumbling on any obstacle that is in the way of clear perception and discernment, using the exercises, one is liberating one’s intuitive abilities.
Much of the processes involved in this work, are experiential, and no “one size fits all”.
One of the most valuable aspects that are helpful to keep in mind, is this, that healing and the realm of energy work, can’t be approached in a logical way with mental caprioles, formulaes. For it’s a condition of energy, that keeps every circumstance in flux. Panta Rhei 😉♒
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Hello sybes1, even after over 5 years, after reading your review, where you make clear that you haven’t read the book, and maybe you’ve read it by now, there’s something about this kind of information, knowledge, insights that are given words to it that can also be described in other words, that one can’t say “This is what you do, how you do it, when, how much, how long, etc etc. and then… poooooffff, you’re intuitive. The realisation that one is intuitive can only be experienced and made into a statement that this is the case, by the one who IS the experiencer. Another person can say that they think or feel that you’re intuitive, but that’s based on their perception and experience. There has to be an experience of some sort that allows wisdom in. Otherwise it remains ideas, thoughts, and words in baked air, as we day in Holland.
I’ve attended many lessons in the School for Intuitive and Creative Development, based on the teachings of Lee Bostwick, who taught the writers of this book. Since 1978, when the teachers from Bostwick’s School arrived in the Netherlands, starting the school, many new insights and ways to put it in words, have shown that regarding intuition, and quieting of the mind, there’s always an element of “work in progress” in the curriculum itself, in the composition of a team of teachers, the energy they express and hold within the school, and, not in the least, the “work in progress” that is taking place in the student him/herself.
I do know, but I’m not a person who thinks in terms of “One size fits all” regarding meditation, and healing techniques, that being with oneself in quietude, solitude, silence, at home or in nature, can open the door to begin to look at, or know of deeper levels of one’s consciousness. The best way to act on questions rising, like yours “Do you think the exercises would enhance one’s intuition or could a person use meditation techniques to quiet the mind to allow intuition to come forward?”
is act on what’s suggested in your question, and experience what this does for you. Let it be a conscious choice, so that you’re vigilant in being loyal to that choice, and aware when a new choice is around the corner, so to speak. A conscious choice is the best compass one can have.
In other words, read the book, and than you’ll know how it affects you, and if it holds value for you.
And if you’ve read the book, I hope that my words are up to speed with your experience of it.
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Haha, how funny, I’ve responded 2 times to sybes1, and only now I discovered that there are 2.
They’re no mismatch though 😉
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Psychic tarot is another book that is full of helpful tips and exercises to help develop intuitive skills. Some use tarot, others do not.
Promotes taking the time to really explore, learn your deck using psychic, intuitive sensing, before reading interpretations in a book. It recommends spending at least one month per suit. followed with at least a month of exploring court cards, followed by at least a month exploring Major Arcana. This strengthens your trust in yourself to find meanings in the cards, also develops psychic, intuitive abilities. The authors encourage you to find ways that work for you, disciplining self to not look at a book until one has found own way of interpreting, reading the cards. Then if you desire, you can go back and look at the book or learn one the major schools of tarot. This book is esp. helpful for intuitive style readers, that do not feel drawn to the Christian, religious orientations of the 3 main schools of tarot thought. You can use any deck you want with this book. Refreshingly free of dogma. Learning the cards using psychic, intuition requires different sort of effort. than intellectual learning. Both ways are valuable. In this day age, we have over abundance of ways to learn academically. over value this way of learning.
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this is an interesting topic,the psychic power or the the psychic healing healing. But this topic is not purely scientific however, pseudo scientific. Ejaz Ahmed
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Hello Ejaz Ahmed, it’s an interesting development in the world of science, nowadays, that scientists scratch their heads while observing 2 particles of the same origin making efforts to move to one another, while on distance from each other. How is it possible to explain this? With pure science or with pseudo science? This is the introduction of the Quantum Field.
One of the first writers addressing this subject is Lynn McTaggart in her book “The Field”.
Does this clarify something for you?
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