Karl Crabtree is like many of his fellow Ohio Valley residents.
He’s married. He has a family. He goes to work to help support his family and provide them a good life.
But there’s another side to Crabtree’s life and to his experiences. It’s a side that many in general express skepticism over, and even fewer have the ability to truly bridge a connection.
You see, Karl Crabtree is a natural empath and a medium. Because of this, he offers his services as a paranormal investigator, a medium, and also will perform an insightful Tarot reading.
And before the dismissive impulses overtake your reaction, know this. Crabtree doesn’t do this for money. In fact, he doesn’t even charge. He uses his gifts to help people in innumerable ways.
While he does ask for an open mind, he doesn’t do so with a hand out expecting monetary compensation for his services.
Have people given Crabtree money after working with him? Yes. But it’s always voluntary. Given he needs to travel to you to properly perform a reading or investigation, usually that comes in the form of gas money. But otherwise, it’s free of charge.
That, if nothing else, generally will disarm skeptics believing another “psychic” is only out to make a quick buck.
“That’s the first question people ask is how much,” Crabtree said. “People out there charging kind of ruined it. Now everybody thinks we’re just out to make money.
“Someone who can truly connect with people, it’s a gift and not something I take advantage of.”
You can find Crabtree on Facebook on his group page entitled Natural Empath and Medium. There he talks a bit about his background and abilities. But you’ll also find videos of investigations he’s conducted, as well as everyday citizens that Crabtree has helped, thanking him for his efforts.
Crabtree has a regular day job. But as a person gifted with these abilities, he chooses of his own volition to help others.
Disregard what you’ve potentially heard and seen in movies and tv shows.
“Being a psychic medium isn’t like it is in the movies,” Crabtree admitted. “I cannot forsee someone’s future. Instead, I can read into someone’s life, and provide guidance.
“As far as the other side, spirits are all around us. All I do is open a window for spirits to be heard. Their world is connected to the physical world. They can see and hear everything that we are doing and are able to use energy to affect things, like move objects.
“But most mean no harm.”
An Early Start
Crabtree believes he first became aware of his additional perceptive abilities when he was a teenager.
“Something must have triggered it,” he said. “But a light bulb went on and I just started seeing things, feeling things.
“At first, it was scary of course, because you’re afraid of what you don’t understand. It took some years for me to get used to it.
“Now, it’s like ‘oh, an apparition popped up. Oh hi.’ It doesn’t phase me now.”
Crabtree has performed investigations at various locations, from people’s houses, other buildings, to even the Moundsville Penitentiary. He can also help people connect with deceased loved ones and has done so in order to try to help countless others.
He doesn’t mess with Ouija boards and needs some type of connection in order to locate a particular spirit to potentially initiative a conversation.
“You can’t just contact someone over a long distance,” he said. “You have to be in the right area, the right location, at the right time.
“I can’t just sit here and call a random person from Arizona. It doesn’t work like that. But cemeteries are a hot spot. They are a direct link to that person.”
Crabtree says his interactions with spirits in general, whether communicating directly or utilizing investigative tools to allow the spirits to be heard, is tough to explain for the uninitiated.
“Now if you have a piece of someone, say an urn of ashes, I can focus on that and tune in that way. Or, go to a grave site for that is the strongest link to someone. It’ll take a few minutes, but I can get that person to show up and usually tune in at a grave site.
“Because I’m more empathic than anything, I can pick up on people’s emotions, but also those of spirits,” Crabtree said. “Obviously, they aren’t in the same plane we are. They have no physical body, but they do carry on their emotions. It’s hard to explain and sometimes even I don’t fully understand it.
“Say if a spirit was happy in life, and was a joyful person, they will carry that emotion with them in death.”
It’s not always unfinished business that causes a spirit to linger in the afterlife either. Sometimes it’s attachment, or guilt, or trauma. It just depends. He has helped spirits cross over to the other side. But some just aren’t ready, or willing, to move on.
As far as questions regarding where said spirits move on to, Crabtree admitted there are some topics he doesn’t discuss or try to seek answers to. Heaven? Hell? Religious questions? He steers clear of those topics.
“There are some things you’re not meant to know until it’s your time. And I don’t ask those,” he admitted.
A Personal Reading
As stated, Crabtree also does Tarot readings.
The first thing he imparts to those he’s performing a reading for is the realities of Tarot.
“Tarot allows me to connect with the living, but Tarot does not tell the future. That’s wrong,” he said. “What it does is give guidance and insight into the basic details of everybody’s life.
“It can reveal core issues and basic problems, and, if there’s a particular issue you’re having, say financial, it can help you to work through it. But it’s not the future. It just reveals details of your life which can have an effect on your future.”
Crabtree noted that sometimes people will have a particular financial issue, or personal problem that they are looking for guidance and insight on. He will focus his reading on that aspect in particular.
He intensely shuffles the tarot cards while focusing on the recipient. Then he asks for the recipient to cut the cards. That way it’s picks up off the person’s energy as it is their reading.
I opted for a more general reading, just looking for any insight into me as a person and my life in general. I’ve never had a Tarot reading before. I figured it would be an interesting experience, and I was right.
The first card turned over dealt with me as a person and my career. It talked about various personality traits and he went into how those manifested in my life. The accuracy was uncanny.
Another two dealt with relationships and how I chose to lvie my life. Again, fairly accurate. As he went further into the deck, the accuracy wore off and Crabtree admitted that at that point, the reading was finished.
Most people go 3-5 cards deep before it starts to tail off. But like I said, first three, incredibly spot on and it was interesting.
