- You know, my life is a strange thing.
So there are those whom will think that I'm pure evil
and that I am murdering babies
and sacrificing goats and I'm not.
I like children, I can just never finish a whole one.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Some topics are hard to approach.
Either the subjects are inaccessible
or people are uncomfortable discussing them.
So we found those subjects in person,
rented a space in Los Angeles and invited our audience
and strangers to come in and ask them anything.
- Hello, my name is Richard-Lael Lillard.
Richard-Lael is one name, and I am a psychic, a clairvoyant,
and I'm here to answer questions on the topic.
Hello.
- Hello.
I've never spoken with a psychic before.
- Well, maybe you have, you just didn't know it.
- Yeah, I guess anyone.
Yeah. Anyone could be.
- When was the first moment you realized
that you had a psychic ability?
- Well, you know, that's a funny question
that people ask frequently.
When I was four, almost five,
my father was dying in the hospital
and they said, "What do you want for your birthday?"
And I said, "My father is coming home for my birthday.
My father's coming home for my birthday."
And everyone went, "Oh, poor kid.
He doesn't really understand what's going on."
And then my father came home for my birthday
the day and the night before my actual birthday.
And they said, "Well, aren't you excited?
Your father came home."
And I said, "I knew he was going to."
- Can you gimme a rundown on what kind of psychic you are
and kind of, your abilities?
- Well, I use many tools.
I use divining rods and I use crystals
and I use all kinds of things,
but there's a lot of intuition.
- What kind of people come to you?
What type of people are they?
People who had vulnerability? - All walks of life.
- Sadness in their life?
- I have read for every religious viewpoint.
I have read for wealthy people.
I have read for poor people.
I have read for young people, and for old people.
- Wait, just to clarify,
you tell fortunes, is that correct?
- I don't like people to say fortunes
because when I'm doing a reading for someone else,
I do not speak in the absolute,
because if I tell you something,
if I tell you there is something that is coming
and if you step to the side, you're going to miss it,
then it changes the events in the cards.
- What should someone do
if they receive a fortune that they don't like?
- Well, remember number one,
that you are the director of your own movie.
You are the writer of your own novel,
and you can say for the affirmative, "I like that,"
or for the negative, "I don't like that."
I would also recommend that sometimes
I give things to people that I know they don't want to hear,
but I do so because they need to hear it.
If they say "Well, I don't like that, do it again.
Do it again," I'll tell them,
"Okay, but that's still how it is."
- So being psychic is a lot about you being
in touch with your intuition,
so do you have daily rituals that you follow?
- I do. Yeah, I certainly do.
The main thing that I do is breathing.
There is three parts in the breath.
When you inhale, you are taking in newness and freshness.
When you pause, you are forced to focus on the now,
and when you exhale through the mouth,
you are pushing out all of that negative energy.
- Do you think everybody,
whether it comes to coincidence or deja vu,
do you think that there are
abilities that we can all have
but we just aren't channeling?
- I believe, yes.
When children are little, they believe in magic
and fairy tales and wizards and ghosts and spirits
and all kinds of wonderful things, and as adults,
we tell the children, "No, that's not real.
No, that's not real.
No, that's not real."
And so by continuing to say those things,
it sort of breaks down their ability
to open up to those other worlds.
- So how do you feel about people who use
their gift of being psychic to get on TV?
Because sometimes when it reaches TV
and becomes a reality TV show,
you start losing the sense of what's real or not
and there's so much production behind it.
So how do you feel about celebrity psychics?
- I don't have a problem with celebrity psychics.
I'm very good friends with many of them.
As humans, we oftentimes have this sort of judgment
against someone whom makes money off of something
that they're naturally talented as
and the altruistic side is beautiful,
but there are bills that have to be paid
and television pays bills.
I know from personal experience
- How have your family and friends
reacted to you being a psychic?
- My friends, it was no surprise when I started.
Many of them knew.
My mother is my dearest friend.
She's 80 years old, and she was very, very clairvoyant.
Back in the '50s, people started calling her a witch.
So we'll openly discuss things that we do
sort of know, but they refrain,
like they do with many other aspects of my life,
my family pretends it doesn't exist.
- Wow. How does that affect you personally?
- As far as the psychic ability goes,
they call it a gift from God, they call it second sight.
They call it, they have different names for it.
As far as the more personal aspects of my life,
our conversations have, have gotten to be very,
"How are you? How's the weather?
How are you feeling?"
- Have you ever felt ashamed for being psychic?
- Oh, no. Never.
No, I don't ever feel ashamed for it.
I don't feel ashamed about anything.
Growing up, I would try to fit in.
I would try so hard and I was weird
and skinny and pale with big teeth,
and I had a strange accent and I wore strange suits.
I was odd.
And I would try, on occasion,
to be what everyone wanted me to be
and I would wear the clothes and I would change my voice,
and I was so unhappy.
So no, I'm never ashamed of who I am.
Never. No
- Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
- My pleasure, Margaret.
I really think you are a lovely lady.
I would like to meet you in person, I think.
I think you're quite a lovely human being.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
(soft music)