Akashic Records Reading vs. Psychic Reading: What’s the Difference?
Why spiritual guidance should open possibilities rather than decide your future for you.
People often ask me whether an Akashic Records reading is the same thing as a psychic reading.
The answer is that there can be similarities, but the way I approach the work is quite different.
In fact, I don’t always describe myself as psychic.
I’ve worked with spiritual energy, intuition, and the Akashic Records for many years, but I don’t approach a reading by simply sitting across from someone and waiting to see what impressions come to me.
I have a process. And more importantly, it’s a process that my clients participate in with me.
Every single time I open the Akashic Records, we begin with the same breathing exercises, grounding, meditation, visualization, and prayer.
We enter the Records together.
We explore together.
And when we’re finished, we consciously disconnect and return together.
There’s a very good reason for all of this.
I never want to take away someone’s personal power.
I don’t want to tell you what I think you should do. I want to create the opportunity for us to listen to what your soul has to say.
And I want you to remain in control of your own experience from beginning to end.
What Is a Psychic Reading?
Psychic readings vary considerably depending on the practitioner.
Some psychics receive images, feelings, impressions, or messages. Others use tarot cards, oracle cards, or different intuitive tools.
Some work with spiritual guides, while others focus on the energy surrounding a person’s present circumstances or possible future.
One approach involves looking at timelines.
Within certain spiritual traditions, timelines are understood as possible directions our lives may take depending on our choices, circumstances, and experiences.
A reader might perceive one particular timeline as being especially strong or likely.
And this is where I become cautious.
Not because I believe exploring possibilities is inherently wrong, but because I think we have to be extraordinarily careful about how we present those possibilities to another human being.
Imagine someone standing at a crossroads.
There are several roads available, but one happens to be more visible than the others.
If a psychic tells that person, “This is the road you’re going to take,” what happens?
The person may begin making decisions based on that prediction.
They may stop noticing the other roads.
They may even feel that the outcome has already been decided.
Instead of opening possibilities, the reading may unintentionally narrow them.
And I don’t think that’s what spiritual guidance should do.
To me, the future is not simply one road stretching out ahead of us. There are choices, intersections, opportunities, and possibilities that can change as we change.
I would much rather help someone recognize the roads available to them than convince them that only one road exists.
The Problem With Our Personal Filters
Every one of us has personal filters.
We have beliefs, experiences, fears, preferences, relationships, disappointments, and lessons that influence how we interpret the world.
Spiritual practitioners are no exception.
A person who has experienced a painful divorce may understandably view certain relationship difficulties through the lens of that experience.
Someone who has enjoyed a long and happy marriage may be more inclined to believe that relationships can be repaired.
Neither perspective automatically makes someone right or wrong.
But both perspectives can influence the advice we give.
I know this about myself.
I’m happily partnered, and I recognize that my own experiences can make me inclined to encourage people to keep trying in their relationships.
That is my filter.
And because I know it exists, I make a conscious effort not to impose it on the people who come to me.
Sometimes I’ll even tell someone about my bias so they understand why I don’t want to offer my personal opinion.
Because the truth is, my experience of love isn’t necessarily the experience another soul came here to have.
And my idea of a successful relationship isn’t necessarily the answer to someone else’s situation.
This is especially important when people come for readings about their marriages.
When Someone Wants to Know Whether They Should Stay or Leave
Relationship questions are some of the most emotionally complicated questions I encounter.
Often, someone has already spent months or years trying to understand what is happening in their marriage.
They may be exhausted, frightened, lonely, angry, or desperately hoping for reassurance.
Sometimes they are looking for permission to leave.
Sometimes they are looking for permission to stay.
And sometimes they want someone else to make the decision because they are simply too tired to keep carrying it.
I understand that.
But I don’t believe it’s my place to make that decision for them.
I remember a woman who came to see me after visiting a psychic about her marriage.
She had been told that her marriage had reached its end and that she could move forward with divorce.
Now, I wasn’t present for that reading, and I can’t know everything that was discussed.
But the situation reminded me why I am so careful about offering definitive conclusions about another person’s relationship.
A marriage involves two human beings, each with their own experiences, emotional needs, wounds, beliefs, and perspectives.
And within the spiritual framework I use, there may also be two souls experiencing different lessons through the same relationship.
One person may be learning to establish boundaries.
The other may be learning to recognize emotional needs they have overlooked.
One may be struggling with abandonment.
The other may be struggling with responsibility, communication, or the fear of losing independence.
These are possibilities to explore, not conclusions to impose.
When I work in the Akashic Records, I may explore the history of the souls involved, the lessons that appear to be unfolding, and the patterns that may be influencing their present experience.
Sometimes, when I have appropriate consent to explore a partner’s Records, we may consider that person’s soul perspective as well.
Other times, we keep the focus entirely on the person who has come to me and what they can understand about their own experience.
Sometimes, within a reading, a partner may be perceived as still carrying deep love that they are having difficulty expressing in their human life.
Sometimes the information suggests that two people are growing in different directions.
And sometimes the most useful insight has very little to do with whether the relationship will survive.
It has everything to do with what the person needs to understand about themselves.
Whatever comes through, I don’t want to become the authority who decides the outcome.
I want the person to have more awareness, more options, and more freedom to make their own decision.
And of course, spiritual exploration should never be used to persuade someone to remain in an unsafe or abusive situation. Their safety and autonomy always come first.
We Enter the Akashic Records Together
One of the things that makes my Akashic Records readings a little different is that I don’t do all the work while you sit there waiting for me to tell you what I’ve discovered.
We go in together.
Every reading begins with the same process, whether we’re meeting in person or online through Zoom.
I guide you through breathing exercises, and we synchronize our breathing as we begin to settle our bodies and quiet our minds.
We ground ourselves.
Then I lead us through a guided visualization, taking us on a journey toward the Akashic Records together.
You hear me speak the prayers I use to open the Records.
You participate in the meditation and visualization, and we enter that spiritual space with a shared intention.
I don’t disappear off somewhere spiritually and leave you sitting in a chair wondering what’s happening.
You’re coming with me!
And people tend to love this part of the experience.
There’s something lovely about participating in your own spiritual exploration instead of simply receiving information from someone else.
Within my spiritual practice, I understand this preparation as helping us align with the consciousness of the Akashic Records, where I seek to connect with your soul, your Higher Self, and your spiritual team of guides, teachers, and angels.
Sometimes I experience guidance as coming from Creator.
This is the spiritual framework through which I understand the experience.
The preparation matters enormously to me because it gives us a consistent way to enter the work with intention, humility, and a willingness to listen.
I don’t want to rely solely on whatever thoughts or impressions happen to be passing through my mind that day.
And I don’t want you to feel that I’m doing all the heavy lifting while you wait for answers.
We’re approaching the experience together.
You Guide the Reading
Once we’re in the Akashic Records, something important happens.
You guide the reading.
You bring your questions, your curiosity, your concerns, and whatever is happening in your life that you want to explore.
We have a conversation while we’re in the Records.
You might begin by asking about a relationship, and something that comes through may lead you to ask about a repeating pattern.
That might open a conversation about a soul lesson, a belief you’ve been carrying, or a gift you haven’t fully recognized.
We follow the conversation as it unfolds.
I share what I receive and how I interpret it, but I’m not there to decide which questions you should ask or what conclusions you should reach.
And I’m certainly not there to tell you what you must do with your life.
You remain in control of your own process.
You can ask another question, explore something more deeply, change direction, or decide that a particular subject isn’t something you want to pursue.
I don’t believe your soul’s journey belongs to me simply because I’m facilitating the reading.
It belongs to you.
And I think that’s one of the reasons people enjoy the experience so much.
They aren’t passive recipients of someone else’s spiritual interpretation.
They’re participating in an exploration of their own soul’s story.
I’m there to hold the space, facilitate the connection, share what I receive, and help navigate the experience.
But you are the one steering.
And when the reading is finished, that doesn’t change.
You still get to decide what resonates, what feels useful, what you want to explore further, and what choices you make next.
Because the purpose of an Akashic Records reading, at least the way I practise it, is never to take your power away.
It’s to help you recognize the power you already have.
The Young Couple Who Were Told to Drink Coffee Together
One of my favourite examples of this happened during a reading with a young married woman.
She and her husband had moved to a different town together.
They were away from their familiar surroundings, their families, their friends, and the support networks they had always relied on.
And they were struggling.
One of them wanted to stay in their new community.
The other wanted to go home.
They were both lonely, but they were experiencing that loneliness differently.
The young woman was frightened that their marriage might not survive.
She wanted to know what was going to happen.
Now, imagine how easy it would have been to focus on the possible outcomes.
Would they stay together?
Would one of them move home?
Would the marriage end?
Would someone eventually give in?
But the guidance I received in the Akashic Records didn’t focus on predicting which road they would take.
Instead, it offered a very simple practice.
Every morning, before the day began, they were to sit together on the floor with their backs against the wall.
Side by side.
Facing a window.
And they were to drink their coffee.
That was it.
No phones.
No television.
No radio.
No distractions.
Just the two of them, sitting together and drinking their morning coffee.
I understood the reasoning behind the guidance almost immediately.
These two people had left behind everything familiar.
They had lost their routines, their community, and many of the little things that helped them feel secure.
And somewhere in the middle of all that upheaval, they had begun to feel alone.
Even though they weren’t alone.
They had each other.
The morning coffee wasn’t about solving every disagreement or deciding where they would live for the rest of their lives.
It was about reminding them who they were travelling with.
It was about creating one small, dependable moment in their day when they could count on the other person’s presence.
They didn’t have to discuss their problems.
They didn’t have to make decisions.
They didn’t even have to talk.
They just had to show up for each other.
And you know what?
They didn’t break up.
Now, I can’t tell you that drinking coffee together was the sole reason their marriage survived.
Relationships are far too complex for that.
But I love that the guidance offered them something practical they could try, rather than declaring their future for them.
It gave them a way to reconnect without taking away their freedom to choose.
And to me, that is a wonderful example of how spiritual guidance can be useful in everyday life.
Sometimes what comes through is so simple that it almost makes me laugh.
Because we human beings can make things terribly complicated.
The Difference Between Prediction and Possibility
This is perhaps the most important distinction I want people to understand.
A prediction can become something we organize our lives around.
If someone tells us a relationship is destined to fail, we may begin interpreting every disagreement as confirmation.
If someone tells us a wonderful new partner is coming, we may stop investing in the relationship we already have.
If someone tells us a career change is inevitable, we may overlook opportunities to improve our current circumstances.
Our expectations can influence our behaviour.
And sometimes the very act of believing a prediction can help shape what happens next.
This is one reason I prefer to explore possibilities without becoming attached to a particular outcome.
In the Akashic Records, as I understand them, we’re not simply looking for the most visible road.
We’re exploring the landscape.
We’re considering what the soul may be learning, what patterns are repeating, what choices are available, and what might help the person move forward with greater awareness.
Sometimes the guidance is about taking action.
Sometimes it’s about having a conversation.
Sometimes it’s about recognizing a boundary.
And sometimes it’s about sitting on the floor and drinking coffee with someone you love.
There is no requirement for spiritual guidance to be dramatic in order to be meaningful.
What If Two Souls See the Same Relationship Differently?
This is another fascinating aspect of relationship work.
Two people can be sharing the same marriage and experiencing entirely different realities.
One may feel abandoned while the other feels overwhelmed.
One may feel that they’re giving everything while the other feels that nothing they do is ever enough.
One may be trying desperately to preserve the relationship while the other doesn’t even realize how much trouble they’re in.
Neither person necessarily has a complete picture of what the other is experiencing.
And within the Akashic framework, I also consider the possibility that their souls are approaching the relationship through different lessons.
This doesn’t mean that one person’s soul has decided the marriage should continue or end.
Nor does it mean that a spiritual reading can replace honest communication between the people involved.
What it can offer, in my experience, is another way of considering the situation.
Sometimes understanding a possible lesson helps a person recognize a pattern.
Sometimes it helps them ask a better question.
Sometimes it encourages compassion.
And sometimes it helps them understand that loving someone doesn’t require abandoning themselves.
The important thing is that the information becomes an invitation to awareness rather than a command.
Just as We Enter Together, We Leave Together
There’s another important part of my Akashic Records readings that I don’t want to overlook.
We don’t simply finish our conversation, say goodbye, and carry on with our day.
We consciously close the experience.
Just as we begin with breathing, grounding, prayer, and a guided visualization to enter the Akashic Records together, we also take time to disconnect and visualize our journey back out.
We do this together, too.
Within my spiritual practice, I consider this an important part of maintaining healthy energetic boundaries. The intention is that neither of us continues carrying the energy of the session after it has ended.
I don’t want you leaving feeling as though you’ve given away part of yourself, and I don’t want to carry your experiences around with me for the rest of the day.
Your energy belongs to you.
Mine belongs to me.
And the work we’ve done together deserves a proper conclusion.
I believe healthy spiritual practice should have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
We prepare ourselves to enter the experience.
We explore the questions and insights that arise while we’re there.
And when we’re finished, we close the Records, disconnect, and return our awareness to our bodies and our everyday surroundings.
It’s a way of honouring the experience without remaining attached to it.
I also think this teaches something important about boundaries in everyday life.
We can be deeply present with another person without taking responsibility for everything they’re carrying.
We can share a meaningful experience without becoming entangled in each other’s lives.
And we can offer compassion, understanding, and support without giving away our own energy in the process.
For me, this is part of spiritual responsibility.
It’s also part of respecting personal sovereignty.
We enter together, we explore together, and we leave together.
And each of us returns to our own life, carrying whatever understanding feels meaningful, while remaining responsible for our own choices and well-being.
Why Ethics Matter So Much in Spiritual Readings
When someone comes to a spiritual practitioner, they may be feeling especially vulnerable.
They may be grieving, frightened, confused, or desperate for certainty.
That creates a responsibility.
I believe we need to be careful with our words.
We need to recognize our biases.
We need to respect consent and privacy.
We need to understand the difference between offering an interpretation and declaring an absolute truth.
And we need to be willing to say, “I don’t know.”
I don’t believe spiritual practitioners should use fear to persuade someone to make a particular decision.
I don’t believe we should encourage people to become dependent on readings.
And I certainly don’t believe we should make ourselves the final authority over someone else’s life.
Even when I feel strongly about something that comes through during a reading, I want the person to remain free to consider it, question it, or set it aside.
A reading should support someone’s relationship with their own judgment, not replace it.
So, Is an Akashic Records Reading Better Than a Psychic Reading?
No. I don’t think that’s the right question.
There are thoughtful, ethical psychic practitioners who approach their work with care and humility.
And there are Akashic Records practitioners whose approaches may be very different from mine.
The label alone doesn’t tell you whether a reading will be helpful.
What matters is the intention, the process, the ethics, and the way the information is presented.
For me, the Akashic Records offer a spiritual framework for exploring the deeper story of the soul.
I prepare through breathing, grounding, meditation, visualization, and prayer because I want to move beyond my everyday opinions and listen as carefully as I can.
And I invite my clients to participate in that process because I believe their involvement matters.
They guide the questions.
They participate in the exploration.
They decide what resonates.
And they remain responsible for their own choices.
When we’re finished, we close the experience together, respecting the boundaries that allow each of us to return to our own lives.
I want to explore soul lessons, relationships, gifts, patterns, and possibilities without deciding what someone’s life is supposed to look like.
And most of all, I want people to leave feeling that they have more choices, not fewer.
Your Soul’s Journey Is Still Yours to Live
One of the things I love most about this work is that the most meaningful guidance is often surprisingly ordinary.
It may not involve a dramatic revelation about a past life or a grand prediction about the future.
It might be a reminder to speak honestly.
To stop carrying a responsibility that doesn’t belong to you.
To recognize the love that is already present.
To set a boundary.
To begin again.
Or to create ten quiet minutes in the morning with someone who matters.
I believe our souls are here to experience, learn, grow, and explore.
And I don’t think that journey should be reduced to a single predicted outcome.
There are roads we haven’t noticed yet.
There are choices we haven’t considered.
There are ways forward that may not be obvious from where we’re standing today.
The purpose of a reading, for me, isn’t to tell you which road you’re destined to take.
It’s to help you recognize that you still have the freedom to choose.
And sometimes, that changes everything.
Explore Your Own Akashic Records
If you’re curious about the deeper patterns, soul lessons, or spiritual themes unfolding in your life, I offer private Akashic Records readings online through Zoom.
My approach is grounded in spiritual preparation, ethical practice, personal sovereignty, and a deep respect for your freedom to make your own choices.
Explore Online Akashic Records Readings
If you’d like to learn how to work within the Records yourself, my Crow Medicine Akashic Records Reading Level 1 course introduces the practices, spiritual preparation, ethical guidelines, and intuitive skills I use in this work.
Explore Crow Medicine Level 1 Training
With love,
Sue Crielaard
Vital Village Metaphysical
