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Jennifer Barnett: The Clairvoyant Mom

Jennifer Barnett never thought that moving in to an old house in San Marcos would open up a whole new world of communication.

She and her husband, Christopher, met in London while Barnett was travelling in college and, after a few years of dating, they decided to go on vacation.

“We arrived in Turkey on September 10, 2001,” said Barnett, “and the next day was 9/11.”

The couple was stuck in Turkey for a few days and when they finally returned to London, Brittish authorities cancelled Barnett’s visa and tried to send her back to the U.S.

She told officials, “but I’m with him and we have a life together” and they responded with “get married, or break up. I don’t have time for this.”

They got married and moved back to San Marcos, where they had two children, Harvey and Sophia, and moved in to an old house.

“When we first moved in to this house, there were a lot of occurrences,” said Barnett. “Books would fly off shelves. Lights would go on and off. Weird things would happen.”

Neighbors told Barnett that the house was about 100 years old and was nick named “the bone yard” because human remains were found several years ago when workers were digging in the back yard.

“The first owners of this house were the Ratliff’s – brother and sister,” said Barnett. “Rumor has it that she died and her brother buried her in the back garden.”

She said the stories didn’t scare her and that she likes that her house has a strange history.

“I called in some paranormal investigators,” she said. A professor from Texas State University came gather evidence. “While he was here stuff happened.”

Barnett said the occurrences slowed down after that, but she was intrigued.

“When all of that stuff started happening, I was like okay, so there’s obviously a whole other world out there. I mean, I never paid attention to that before,” she said.

She took an intuition class from a woman who she’d had a psychic reading from and it opened her eyes.

“When I was little, I would have dreams that would come true, or I would look at the phone and, I’d hear in my ear ‘telephone’ and I would look at the phone and it would ring. Or I’d see things out of the corner of my eye, but a lot of times I would just know when things were going to happen. That was the most prevalent thing with me,” Barnett said. “I never thought, ‘I want to be a psychic when I grow up.’”

In the class she said she learned that there are lots of ways people get their information. Some people have dreams that come true, some people have visions when they close their eyes and some people hear voices.

“That’s my strongest,” she said.

Others can pick up an object and know who it belonged to, some can actually see people walking around and some can sense when someone’s with them.

“I can sit there and say, ‘There’s somebody standing right next to you.’ I can’t see them, but I know that they’re there. I know whether they’re male or female. If I’m lucky I’ll get a name,” Barnett said. “There are so many facets to intuition and energy and the metaphysical world and we don’t know enough about it to explain it, but its there.”

She said she finds it comforting when she senses someone.

“When peoples’ loved ones come through, you can feel the love in the room,” said Barnett. “Every single person has similar people around them, they just don’t pay attention.”

She said most people react strangely when they find out she’s a medium because of what they've seen in the movies and on television.

“When I tell people I can do this, their faces get concerned or they back away,” she said. “It’s who I am. I can’t help it. Once you pay attention to everything around you, you can’t stop it. It’s like flood gates open and you can’t pretend it’s not there.”

Barnett is writing a book for young adults that explain things like where imaginary friends come from and the significance of finding a dropped coin.

“I explain about the kids who society deems as weird, for whatever reason … They’re actually very special,” she said.

Jennifer Barnett's story was originally published in the San Marcos Daily Record on July 29, 2009.