The Psychic Healer

Shankar was born in a middle class home in the outskirts of Lucknow. His father was a Government servant attached to the Lucknow municipality and his mother was a primary schoolteacher at a local Lucknow school. Shankar also was a student in the same school his mother was teaching. Shankar had a younger sister Geeta.

His was a humdrum middle class life without much excitement or tension. As a young kid of between 4 and 5 years Shankar was beset with nightmares he could not understand or explain. These were of cataclysmic events like plane crashes, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes. As a child he was petrified by them and but wasn't able to clearly communicate to his parents. They felt that it was part of his childhood fantasy of growing up. These dreams then abruptly stopped and then came back to haunt him at the age of 13.

This time prior to the second series of nightmares, he had a vision. An angelic figure came in front of him one afternoon after he reached home from school. Without any verbal communication this spirit conveyed to Shankar that he had a gift of helping others, and that he needed to use it wisely else he would lose that gift. Shankar was confused and as a teenager was even more skeptical to convey his "vision" to his parents. Thereafter after this incident the nightmares once again commenced. In early 2001, he had strange visions of planes crashing into tall buildings in a place he had only seen in Hollywood movies. Shankar did not disclose these nightmares to anyone but it did effect his school grades. His concentration fell and consequently his school grades plummeted. His mother, being a teacher at the same school, could not provide a sufficient explanation to her colleagues on her son's poor performance.

Shankar had an eerie feeling that these terrible dreams were linked to the "vision" he saw. He also felt that his gift was in seeing into the future. However it was a future that had some cataclysmic events linked - it wasn't a future that had mundane or ordinary events. When the planes crashed at the World Trade Center in New York in Sept 2001, Shankar was convinced that he had witnessed this event in his dreams months prior to its happening. The gift he was bestowed was "he could see the future" albeit some dramatic future event that he may not have a control of.

Shankar wasn't particularly delighted with his gift - the nightmares left there imprint on him the next few days and he needed to come to terms with their fallout. Further he never wanted the exalted position of a "visionary" sent on earth to save mankind. Despite his dislike of his dreams, they continued and were getting more vivid and clear as time passed. He decided to once again convey his dreams and their interpretation of "visions of the future" to his parents. As expected, they pooh-poohed them to his teenage fantasy which was resulting in his poor school grades. It was only after he clearly predicted his grandfather's illness leading to his ultimate death did his parents truly believe him.

Shankar's parents also did not view his visionary gift well. As middle class Indians, they dreamed their son becoming a doctor or engineer having settled in a well paying job. A soothsayer / seer of kinds wasn't exactly what they wanted out of their son. Thus Shankar's gift was kept under wraps and not talked at length at any time.

The dreams however continued and they severely impacted Shankar's academic performance. His 10th & 12th grades were poor so he did not qualify to be an engineer or doctor. Even an IAS was out of reach for him. He best got himself a Class III central government job in New Delhi as a section officer.

All this while Shankar believed that his true calling was the gift bestowed to him by the angelic figure he saw. In Delhi, away from his parents in Lucknow, Shankar was determined to use his gift for the purpose for which it was given. His first clients were at the Central Government office in New Delhi. His colleague's child was very unwell and wasn't responding to any form of medication. Shankar decided to try his hand out - he had read about psychic healing and tried his hand on it. As the young child had a few options left, Shankar decided to attempt psychic healing on the child. Miraculously, the child was cured. The young boy healed so rapidly that it left his parents and doctors astounded. Shankar himself could not believe the results. He quickly got himself acquainted with other psychic healers in India and across the world. This was a very select community who were bestowed psychic powers of vision and healing. Shankar realized that his true calling was that of a psychic healer.

The little boy's miraculous recovery provide Shankar the impetus to involve himself as a healer. His fame spread quickly through word of mouth. Shankar quickly built himself a successful parallel career as a psychic healer. He would be in his makeshift clinic from 6 am to 8.30 am, and thereafter attend his government job only to revert back to his clinic at 5.30 pm sharp. In between during office hours he was inundated with calls from potential clients seeking clarity on his healing skills.

The psychic healing practice boomed - his clients were poor and middle class people who sought Shankar's help in his alternative therapy. He was simple in his approach and direct to his clients. He clearly told his clients that his healing was the choice of last resort when all conventional healing failed. Further, he could never guarantee success till he was fully tuned with his psychic skills to solve the case. Despite these caveats patients came in large numbers. Shankar could not deal with all cases and each case resolution deeply drained him.

At this point Shankar quit his government job and became a full practicing psychic. Apart from healing skills he had a penchant for predicting the future. His psychic / medium skills became better and he did not have to resort to nightmares alone to solve his clients problems. All in all, Shankar was putting to good use the gift he was bestowed with.

Shankar's life was about to turn again now - he met with a lady who was a Jyotish in Delhi. Shankar's fame and practice attracted her to him. Shankar was in need of companionship in Delhi and Maya actively pursued Shankar. Maya's own Jyotish practice was really not going anywhere. There was several practicing Jyotshi's in Delhi and Maya one among many. However, she was well heeled and connected in Delhi party circles. It was Maya's idea to latch on to Shankar's skills to advance her business. As a psychic Shankar could never his the skills on himself but always on others. They married and Maya set up her practice alongside Shankar's

It was Maya who encouraged Shankar to take more Jyotish type clients. Psychic  healing was the last resort healing and favored only by the middle class. The money and glamour was there in predicting the future of the rich and wealthy. Shankar wasn't keen in the beginning but was persuaded by Maya. Her client list were impatient for something different and Maya had Shankar cleverly lined up to serve them. The money was not so much in the consultative fee but more on the prescriptions for a better karma. Maya was now selling expensive amulets, rings etc to clients. From a psychic healer Shankar began peddling the future based on psychic skill to rich clients.

As he got more involved in his new venture with Maya, Shankar realized his psychic skills were slowly ebbing away. He could not feel his client's problems on a psychic basis anymore.  Earlier, he could feel the energy levels of his patients owing to psychic gifts and provide a cure for the deficient/excess energies. He now resorted ever increasingly to palmistry and face reading. In fact most of his answers were contrived to meet the client's demands and therefore his readings were trumped up. Clients kept pouring in, however, thanks to Maya's marketing and social skills.

One day Shankar felt has his gift had completely disappeared. He just another normal quack making a quick buck along his wife. He revealed his predicament to Maya. She would have none of it - this was a business doing well and now it was running on connections and contacts.

Shankar looked himself in the mirror one day to try and completely confused about his predicament. In all these years, he never witnessed the angelic figure, and this time it appeared before him. The message though unsaid was clear - you have lost your powers because you did not use them for humanity. 

The very next day Shankar decided to quit Maya's business and return to his old ways as a psychic healer. It was a bold decision and Maya wasn't very happy with it. Shankar's old loyal clients and followers returned as did his psychic healing powers.

In the meantime, Maya's Jyotish practice floundered on account of Shankar's absence. She shut shop and joined Shankar in his Psychic Healing endeavor.