Gloria Thomson has always been a person to help other people out, whether as a psychic or a social worker. Last year, when she heard the Secaucus food pantry needed help to raise funds, she lent a hand – reading palms, tarot cards and employing other means of fortune telling.
This year, in a repeat performance that promises to bring out even more people for the effort, she will join other psychics in a psychic fair.
The Secaucus Emergency Food Pantry gives food and clothing to residents who are low in funds, especially when they have suffered from an emergency or run out of food stamps.
Thomson, who has been a Secaucus resident since the 1970s, was born in New York, but grew up in Union City. She says that it was there, when she was 7 years old, that she began to suffer through strange sensations. Despite her mother’s regular visits to fortunetellers, Thomson didn’t know what was happening to her.
In fact, her first pure psychic experience scared her.
“When I was young, spirit entities that passed on used to come into my bedroom and wanted to talk,” she said. “I got frightened and pulled the covers over my head.”
When she was 12 years old she saw death in the eyes of two sisters who lived near her home on Kennedy Boulevard, she says – and they died within a week
“I couldn’t imagine how I could see something so terrible,” she said.
When she talked to a priest about the experience, she wasn’t satisfied with the answer. Many young people, she later learned, need help during the early stages of psychic experiences.
The experiences started getting strong and she soon found herself going through an experience she called astral projection, in which her consciousness tried to leave her body while she was in a semi-conscious state.
“I remember going to the window and wanting to go out into space,” she said. “It scared me so much it woke me up. This happened for a while.”
She would even get out-of-body sensations while doing yoga.
“My mother didn’t smoke or drink but had to go to card readers, and get her fortune told,” Thomson said. “This was without my father’s knowledge.”
Her father, a worker in the local textile industry, was a very practical man and didn’t approve of such behavior.
“When I was 11, my mother started to take me with her and always wanted to know what my future will be,” Thomson said. “The teller told my mother: ‘She’s one of us.’ When I started to read, my mother felt good and proud. She didn’t feel I did anything wrong. Later, people would tell her how wonderful I made them feel.”
While in her 20s, she began to study with the Rosacurians of San Jose, California, a group who taught her for the next 16 years about the laws of the universe and how they apply to everyday life.
She started doing fortunes with playing cards, and trained with them.
“I found it was so fascinating I couldn’t charge money,” she said. “I would do readings for anyone who wanted them.”
She moved to tarot cards and later to other aspects of psychic experience and experimentation as she learned more. Eventually a friend helped her get involved in a network that did psychic fairs at various malls and then moved onto various other kinds of fairs throughout the Eastern states. She has even worked in Trumps in Atlantic City. She remembered that she was not allowed to predict gambling winnings for anyone.
Studied her gift
She got older, Thomson said she began to under that she had a gift, one that allowed her to look deeper into things than other people could She has taught metaphysics to people at the Unity Center in New York and the North Jersey Metaphysics Center.
This helped her as a social worker later. She has a degree in psychology from Fairleigh Dickenson University and a master’s in social work from New York University. She said many people use psychic abilities without even knowing it, like successful stockbrokers who might rely on hunches.
Since 1979, Thomson has worked for the New Jersey court system and protective services. Over the last few years, however, psychic work has taken up more time. She often is involved in public events.
She once lectured on natural psychic ability and how to develop it at an inner circle of the United Nations.
She had taught in schools through New Jersey, including the Jefferson school in Union City and adult school in Secaucus.
She said people from all walks of life are interested in knowing about future events for themselves. Some of her clients have been prominent judges, lawyers, doctors and such
“They were curious to some extent and wanted to know” how psychic information comes through, she said.
Thomson, Psychic to the Stars, will be featured along with many additional acclaimed psychics at the second Mystical Celebration: Psychic Fair on Friday, May 3. Admission is $5, although services such as the Reike healer, handwriting analyst, tarot card readers, palmist, clairvoyant, astrologer, palm reader and past lives experts will be available at extra cost. The money will benefit the Secaucus Emergency Food Panty. The fair will be at 101 Centre Avenue from 6 to 10 p.m.
For more information, call (201) 330-2014.