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Meet Kari Bandle, a professional psychic, medium, empath, healer and owner of Sacred Whispers Studio. This podcast dives into the messy, magical and meaningful parts of being human. Each episode blends science with spirituality to explore real life topics along with techniques for empowerment and healing. Sign up for your weekly energy forecast along with the podcast topic in Kari's emails on the main page at: sacredwhispers1111.com
You can also learn more about Kari or book a reading.
These empowering podcasts help you navigate life with more clarity, knowledge, and solution-based compassion for your life's journey.
If your here, you were led here and are reading this for a reason so click the button! (they told me to say that😉)
Hey you! Welcome back to Medium with a Mic. I'm Carrie and today I want to talk about your kids. More specifically, I want to talk about what happens when your child says something that stops you in your tracks. Something like grandma was here last night and she told me not to worry Or I don't wanna go to that person's house, mommy.
Kari Bandle:They have sad feelings. Or even I can see colors around people, and that one is really dark. As a parent, you you may be standing there thinking, do I take this seriously? Do I gently redirect them? Am I raising a medium?
Kari Bandle:Or is something wrong with them? Or maybe something is wrong with me not knowing what to do. And this isn't uncommon, but you don't really hear people talking about it. There seems to be a stigma around it. Sometimes parents who are intuitive themselves don't know how to talk to their kids about it.
Kari Bandle:Parents who are skeptical but can't explain what their child just described, parents shut it down because that's what was done to them, and now they're wondering if they made the right call. So I received some feedback on a recent episode that I did that was a very similar episode from a couple months back, and today I just want to dig in a little bit more. I'm going to talk about the science of why children are naturally more intuitive than adults, and I'm going to talk about what different kinds of intuitive abilities look like in kids and how to tell the difference between spiritual sensitivity and something that needs professional attention. I'm going to give you real practical language to use with your child, and I want to talk about how not to be the thing that closes them down because that's a wound that takes a very long time to heal. And if you were ever that child once, the one who saw things, felt things, knew things, this episode is for you too.
Kari Bandle:Welcome home. Let's start with the science because I love bringing those two things together. It makes everything feel a little safer somehow, and we have permission to take it seriously when there's science included. Here's what we know about the developing brain. Children, particularly from birth to age seven, are operating in a predominantly theta brainwave state.
Kari Bandle:Theta is a slow, deeply receptive brainwave pattern. It's actually the same state that experienced meditators train years to excess. It's associated with creativity, imagination, and here's the keyword, permeability. The boundary between the inner world and the outer world is much thinner in beta. Adults mostly operate in beta, the fast analytical task oriented state, and some in alpha, the relaxed slightly open state, but that slow wide open data, most of us have to work to get back there, and children are just living there.
Kari Bandle:This means that the filters are developed as we age. The one that helps us sort out the real from not real or mind from not mine or this reality from other possibilities. Children don't have those filters yet. The veil, as we sometimes call it in the spiritual circles, that membrane between the physical world and the other dimensions of consciousness, is genuinely thinner for children, neurologically thinner. Research in development psychology has also shown that children up to about age four or five engage in what's called magical thinking as a normal developmental stage, but here's where I want to push back a little on how that term gets used.
Kari Bandle:Lumping all of a child's non ordinary experiences under magical thinking can be a really convenient way of dismissing things we don't fully understand yet. The University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies, which is a serious academic research program, been studying cases of children who report past life memories since the 1960s. Thousands of cases and the number of verifiable details these children have provided that they had no logical way of knowing is remarkable. So when I say children are naturally more intuitive, it's proven. I'm saying their brains are physically structured to be more receptive to information that most adults have filtered out.
Kari Bandle:The question isn't whether children are intuitive. The question is what do we do with it? So, let's talk about what this actually looks like in real life because if you're nodding your head, you need to know what you're seeing, And the clairs we talk about in adults, they show up in children too. They're just they look a little different. Clairvoyance in children, which is clear seeing, often shows up as an ability to see things others can't.
Kari Bandle:The classic example is the imaginary friend who provides specific, consistent, detailed information over time, not a fuzzy, shifting playmate, a persistent presence with a name, a backstory, and opinions. Some children see what we call residual energy, impressions left in spaces by past events. Others see auras, the energy field around living beings, and describe them as colors without any prior knowledge that this is a thing people do. Clairsentience or clear feeling is probably the most common intuitive ability in children. It is also the one most likely to be pathologized.
Kari Bandle:A clairsentient child will walk into a room and immediately become distressed or cling or refuse to enter, and they can't always explain why. They absorb other people's emotions like a sponge. They may be labeled overly sensitive or anxious when what's actually happening is that they are feeling the emotional residue of a space or picking up on the unspoken emotional state of the adults around them. Clear cognizance or clear knowing shows up as children who just know things without being told. They announce facts that turn out to be correct.
Kari Bandle:They express opinions about events they weren't even present for. They sometimes say things about family history that they weren't old enough to be told. Clear audience or clear hearing can be trickier to recognize. Children may describe hearing voices or sounds that others don't, and this one requires more careful attention, which we'll talk about in a minute. And then there's there are what I call the relational signs, a child who is deeply uncomfortable around certain people for no obvious reason, and it later turns out those people were not safe.
Kari Bandle:The child who knew something had happened to a distant family member before the phone call came, the child who describes a grandparent or ancestor that they never met with startling accuracy. These are not anomalies in communities where spiritual sensitivity is respected and normalized, these experiences are expected. We in western culture have simply developed a habit of explaining them away. There's a difference between spiritual sensitivity and symptoms that need professional evaluation, and knowing the difference is one of the most important things a parent can do. Here's a general framework.
Kari Bandle:Intuitive experiences in children tend to have a few consistent qualities. They're usually calm or matter of fact in the telling. The child isn't distressed about what they're reporting. They're simply reporting it. They have internal consistency.
Kari Bandle:The same presence has the same name, the same personality over time. They often come with verifiable information the child couldn't reasonably have known. They don't typically interfere with the child's ability to function, sleep normally, maintain friendships, or feel safe. Experiences that warrant professional support look different. The child is frightened, not just matter of fact.
Kari Bandle:The experiences are escalating or becoming more intrusive. The child is hearing voices that tell them to harm themselves or others. The child is withdrawing from normal life, losing sleep chronically, becoming unable to distinguish inner and outer realities in ways that aren't appropriate for their development. There is a significant change in personality or behavior that feels sudden or alarming. If you're seeing any of the signs from the second category, just please reach out to a mental health professional, a good child psychiatrist or therapist.
Kari Bandle:This is not instead of taking the spiritual dimension seriously, it's in addition to it. The two can coexist. Your child can be both spiritually sensitive and benefit from therapeutic support. One does not cancel out the other. Your job is to stay curious, stay present, and make sure your child has all the support they need, spiritual and practical.
Kari Bandle:So let's talk about the language because the words you use in these moments matter more than you realize. When a child shares an intuitive experience, what they need most in that moment is not analysis or explanation. They need you to stay in the room to not make them feel like something is wrong with them or having... For having said whatever they just told you. And here's just a few things that might help.
Kari Bandle:You can say, tell me more about that. It's simple, open, inviting. It says, I'm interested, and I'm not afraid of what you might say. You could say that sounds like it was real to you. This validates the experience without you having to claim a position on its nature.
Kari Bandle:It honors their reality without requiring you to have all the answers. You could say some people in our family have experiences like that. If that's true, say it. Normalizing it within the family context is incredibly powerful. You don't have to make it a big deal.
Kari Bandle:Just let them know they're not alone. You could ask, what did it feel like? Getting curious about the emotional experience rather than just the facts keeps the conversation gentle and child child led. Now here's what not to say. It was just a dream, or you have a big imagination, or don't talk about that.
Kari Bandle:That's not real. You're scaring me. Stop making things up. I'd like to add that I know most parents who say these things are doing it out of their own discomfort, not cruelty. They don't know what to do with what their child just said, and the nervous system's default is to shut it down.
Kari Bandle:But here's what happens when a child is told repeatedly that what they're experiencing isn't real. They learn to stop trusting their perception. They start to doubt themselves at very fundamental level and they disconnect from a sense of inner knowing that is one of the most valuable tools they will ever have and they learn that parts of their experiences are not safe to share especially not with the people who love them most. That is a significant loss and it echoes for a very long time. So if you've done that, if you shut the door your...
Kari Bandle:Or shut your child down out of your own fear or uncertainty, I'm not here to make you feel guilty. I'm here to tell you it's never too late to reopen the door. A very simple, hey. Remember when you told me about or tell me about it again? I wanna...
Kari Bandle:I want you to know that I'm ready to listen now. Any of those things. Just open the conversation again. It can do so much more than you know. So, let's get practical.
Kari Bandle:What does it actually look like to raise a child in a way that honors your sensitivity without blowing it out of proportion? First, normalize without spotlighting. You want your child to know that intuitive experiences are a normal part of human experience, not that they are special or chosen or different in a way that sets them apart. Too much emphasis on their ability can create pressure and performance anxiety. Keep it as matter of fact as you possibly can.
Kari Bandle:After all, we were all born with this ability. Second, give them language. Children who have words for what they experience feel less afraid of it. You don't need to go full metaphysics. You can say things like, some people are very good at feeling other people's feelings.
Kari Bandle:It sounds like you might be one of those people, or some people seem to get information in ways we don't fully understand. Scientists study that. Age appropriate language goes a very long way. Third, teach energy hygiene early. If your child is clairsentient and absorbing everything around them, they need tools.
Kari Bandle:Simple things. Teach them to imagine a bubble of light around them before entering crowded places. Protection. Teach them it's okay to say, I need a break, when they're overwhelmed. Teach them that other people's feelings belong to other people, and they are allowed to set them down.
Kari Bandle:Fourth, create a safe space for sharing. This doesn't have to be a formal thing. It can be as simple as a few minutes at bedtime. Did Anything interesting happened in your mind or your feelings today? Just have a little conversation.
Kari Bandle:Say it in a tone that communicates genuine curiosity and zero judgment. Fifth, work on your own stuff. This is the hard one. If you are carrying unresolved fear or skepticism or anxiety about the spiritual, your child will feel that. They will literally pick it up in the room with you.
Kari Bandle:The most powerful thing you can do for any intuitively sensitive child is to do your own inner work because they're already reading you. They've been reading you for a long time. Now I want to just spend a few minutes with those of you who spent this episode not thinking about your child but thinking about yourself, the child that you were, the experiences that you had that no one had language for, the things you saw or felt or knew that were dismissed or denied or worse, punished. You came to this episode for a reason, and I don't think it was entirely about your kids. If you were an intuitively sensitive child who didn't have the support you needed, I want you to hear this.
Kari Bandle:What you experienced was real. You were not broken. You were not making it up. You were not dramatic or strange or disturbed. You were sensitive, open, perceptive, intuitive, empathic, and you deserved someone who could hold that with you.
Kari Bandle:Part of why so many of us are drawn to this kind of work as adults is because we're still completing something. We're giving the child version of ourselves what we always needed. Someone who takes it seriously. Someone who speaks about it in the daylight. Someone who says, yes, this is real.
Kari Bandle:You are real. Your experience counts. That child is still in you, and you can be their safe space now. So here's what I want you to take away from today. Your child's intuitive experiences deserve to be taken seriously, not because you have to have all the answers, but because see...
Kari Bandle:Being seen and heard is one of the most powerful gifts you can give another human being, especially a little one. Watch for the signs. Use the language that keeps the door open. Teach them to work with their sensitivity and not fight it, and do your own work because the most important thing you can model is an adult who is at peace with the parts of life that aren't fully explainable. And if you need help navigating any of this, whether for your child or yourself, you know where to find me.
Kari Bandle:I have a community. If you have any questions or need direction towards expanding your own intuition, if you need referrals, I know all the best resources just right at my fingertips. All you have to do is ask me. I do readings. I'll get you there, So send me an email if you have questions, and thanks for being here with me.
Kari Bandle:I really appreciate you. Until next week. Keep listening to those whispers of wisdom.