INTERVIEW with psychic Dougall Fraser |

Dougall Fraser is having a bad day.

Jacket: But You Knew That Already, 2005.

He’s been up since 5 a.m., he’s jet lagged, and there’s a problem with his hotel room.

He’s also psychic. You’d think he’d have seen this coming.

The truth is, Dougall can’t really see the details of the future, or read your mind. He does have an uncanny ability to size people up, but he’s more of a life coach than a crystal ball-caressing weirdo.

Fraser’s new book But You Knew That Already is a memoir that reads like a chick-lit novel, complete with teen trauma, parental dilemmas and the promise of a glimmering, fabulous future. It’s a surprisingly engaging read, if only because Dougall himself is so likeable. Life ain’t easy when you’re growing up as a closeted gay psychic, but Dougall makes it sound fun. He’s like the best friend girls have been craving since Stanford met Carrie and Will met Grace.

I met up with him for coffee (at the Davie St. Starbucks in downtown Vancouver on April 28, 2005)  to talk about things seen and unseen. And I found that what he does is interesting, and not the new-age hoodoo you might expect.

Jen Selk: So what’s the point of the title?

Dougall Fraser: Nine times out of ten, all I’m doing is confirming things people already know. Unfortunately, what I’ve found in my work is that people want me to be a magician or a seer. And I’m not. I’m like someone who gives really good advice, who’s really intuitive, who can happen to see traits that will play out for you in the future, but it’s more about empowering people. So there’s definitely a common sense to what I tell people.

Do you look for physical clues? Things that help you along when you’re reading someone?

Absolutely. When I’m looking at someone I’m taking in every part of their being. Are they making eye contact with me? Does their body seem tense? Do you seem nervous, or relaxed? Then I go beyond that – I’m looking at energy as well. Because a lot of what people project in their physical image is not what matches up with their energy. The way we dress, the way we style our hair, all of that stuff is important, but if you go deeper into the aura, you can actually get to the core of something.

Do you say a lot of the same things to different people?

Yes. Even though we’re all at different places in our lives, human beings by nature are all pretty similar. We’re all looking for the same things. We’re all trying to achieve the same goals. Everyone wants to know about love, especially. Even if they’ve been married for twenty years, people will ask me, “Is this my soul mate?” It’s a little weird.

Are you always accurate?

No way. I just don’t think it’s possible. When I read someone, it’s kind of like they hand me their autobiography and I quickly skim the book jacket and then fill them in on the story, but there is free will. People’s actions determine what happens to them. Predictions don’t.  

You mention God a lot in the book. Tell me a bit about that.

 I think that for me, early on, I was kind of afraid of religion. Because when you’re growing up as a closeted gay psychic, you know, most religions out there tell you that you’re evil. So for me, my new age journey started with me having to look outside.

I wanted to find something where I was unconditionally loved and accepted … I got to a point, say around my early 20s, when I decided I wanted to focus a little more on the term God, and I became comfortable with it and began feeling that I am welcome in a church or synagogue or temple or what have you. So now, I believe very strongly in this light, or this unconditional love that exists.

If you came to my house, you would think I was Buddhist, mainly because I have Buddhist statues everywhere, and I associate that with calmness and relaxation, but … I believe in everything and want to cover all bases. I believe if you dabble and pull something from each one and make your own philosophy, you can be happy.

Too many people try to find God though a minister or another individual, and I think it’s kind of imperative to create your own belief system.

Dougall Fraser, from his website, 2018

You also talk a lot about “The Universe” in the book. What does that mean to you?

That was the point of the title, But You Knew That Already. I’m not unlocking stuff that you aren’t aware of.  When I use the term Universe, I’m just trying to incorporate all things. Some people get turned off by use of the word God, so when I use a generic term like Universe, I’m just trying to use a kind of umbrella that everyone can feel comfortable with.

You said some people want you to be a magician. What do you think about folks like David Blaine? Is work like that connected to what you do in any way?

David Blaine is a magician, and he’s darn good, but that’s purely parlour tricks. I’m not guessing the card that you’re thinking of. I’m not guessing the number you’re thinking of. Those are different things and that’s a completely different world. And it’s an art, but it’s something else. What I do is more about looking at your emotional strengths and your weaknesses, and figuring out how well you’re doing on the planet. I think I fall closer in what I do to being a therapist than I do to someone like David Blaine. I totally enjoy what he does, and I watch the show, but it’s not my thing.

At the beginning of the book, you kind of give away some of the “tricks” you use (incense, a crystal ball, compliments to start, etc.) Do you feel this stuff is “fake” or that you’re bamboozling people?

I do like stuff like the crystal and the incense. I mean, truth be told, I just bought a new Buddah statue like two weeks ago. Even when I see someone with a new set of tarot cards, I think, ‘Ooh, God, I really want those!’ because I’m still an earthly person that feels attracted to things. I just don’t give my power to them. Like for example, my tarot cards are back in my hotel room right now. I haven’t used tarot cards in like seven years, but as I was packing for the trip, I was like ‘Just in case!’

I have this weird feeling like it’s not going to work, so there’s part of me that always thinks, ‘what if I come meet you and I don’t see any colours around you?’ That’s why I wait for a minute before I read. It’s not like I look across the room, see you, and see colour. I need like a moment, to relax. And yeah, you always start off with compliments in the beginning. It loosens people up.

[In terms of the props], I still use those things because I think human beings by nature – myself included – are ceremonious. I like to set a table, I like to get dressed for dinner, I like to put on cologne. Do I need that to be sexy? No. Do I need a candle and incense to be intuitive? No. But I still like it.

In the book you imply that everyone has the potential to be psychic. Or that everyone has the capability to tap into their instinctual feelings. But how do we determine what a truly psychic vision is and what is just worry, or self-created inner chatter?

That‘s the hardest part in the world. I wish I could tell you that when I close my eyes, I get this like psychic voice. But it is the most difficult thing in the world to distinguish between mental chatter and a genuine psychic impression.

When I’m receiving information about someone, it’s the same voice that I have in my head that’s worrying about whether or not I paid the bills or paid the rent or whatever.

Two things that I can tell you for sure: when it comes to fear, it is a loud, booming voice. And most human beings have their first psychic experience with fear. You know, being on a street corner and just feeling afraid, or especially like mother and child – you know the mother knows the child needs their attention.

And I guarantee you will not question it. You’ll know when you ignored it too. It’s very very clear. It’s like this tightness in your stomach. And what I’ve learned to do and what I tell people about is how to recognize the signs – like your jaw clenching, or a chill that kind of shoots down your spine. These are like the same things that happen physically and chemically in every single person when they’re in a fear situation.

Is there anything you wish reporters would ask you?

That’s a good question. I have a career that is so … different. People tend to come up with really different questions. The only thing that pops into my mind that I will tell you from this experience thus far is it’s nice to be around someone that I feel safe with.

Like, you make me feel safe. And each reporter has actually been different. It really depends on the mood. Sometimes they come in ready to jab me (and I get the scepticism – that’s normal … a really common thing, but there are some people who tend to do it a little bit rudely, and that’s not necessary).

My job today isn’t to convince you that I’m psychic. My job is to show you like a brief glimpse of my world.

I can instantly tell, as soon as I make eye contact with someone across the room, I know how they’re going to be.

Okay, I know you have to get going, so do you want to do any Canadian predictions? Anything like that?

I’ll tell you what – I’ll do your energy first.

So, when I look at you, you mostly have yellow light around you. And yellow light is the colour of higher intellect. So it’s very bright. It’s the colour of the mind. But it’s also someone who has a tendency to like flop back and forth. Like, it’s like, constant thought. It’s almost too much.

In your business world, your thought is what’s going to make you successful – because having ideas on a regular basis is a constant thing for you. Sometimes you even forget them. But when you go onto your personal life, it’s like too much energy on that level. And we have to learn how to turn the mind off.

One of the things you’re working on is how to separate the business part of your being from the personal part of your being. You don’t have to pick something. People with yellow light work on a constant, constant basis. It’s someone who is like, constantly pushing themselves, which is one of the things I want you to work on. You need to make sure in your lifetime that you’re able to step back and say ‘Wow, I did a really good job here.’  And not … it’s like, you go from A to B to C to D and you need to like stop, or plateau.

You need to learn how to enjoy the space that you’ve gotten to without always planning ahead for the future on such a constant basis. So that’s the energy of yellow.

Every colour has a positive and a negative attribute. I will also say the same similar things to every person that I see who has the same colour. Like with yellow – I will always say that yellow light is the colour of mental ability. Yellow light is someone who dissects things and plans things. These are always general themes. I have to figure out where the energy is actually working in your life.

The interesting thing when you see yellow around a woman is – well, we all have masculine and feminine energy – and yellow is more of a masculine colour right now, which means the focus is on career right now. It’s like, enterprise, moving myself, moving to the next phase … but it’s a positive sign. It just means you’re probably focussing too much on your career. You need to make sure the energy is 50/50.

I think you need to spend more time on your relationship. I think in the next couple of weeks or in the next couple of months, you’re going to be very focussed on your career, and you could easily get lost in that because you enjoy it. You get lost in your mind. It’s easy for you. You’re good at it. But you need to make sure that you’re keeping balanced.

Well, dang. That’s pretty accurate.  Any other insights on me?

Probably not. If anything comes up, I promise I’ll tell you. I’m not going to say ‘It’s been really nice knowing you… buuut…’ [laughs].

One thing that concerns me is that if someone comes back to me in a year saying ‘everything you said to me came true,’ I did something wrong.

I just don’t think it’s possible. Maybe 80%, and that means I’ve done a darn good job … My understanding is that your destiny is between you and the creator … The other thing is that admittedly, I have to do this all day … One of the things I’ve learned to do is maintain my energy for a certain period of time. Three years ago, I would have stayed here for hours, reading you over and over again … I just can’t do that anymore.

That’s fair. We’ve been here for an hour and I’m exhausted too. 

For more interview pieces and Q&As, head over here.

A heavily-edited version of this interview with psychic Dougall Fraser about his memoir But You Knew That Already published in my regular “Words” book column for Dose on May 9, 2005.

Published in Dose magazine, May 9, 2005.