Media Articles

Dead People Are This Woman’s Life
By Erika Viltz

Barb Mallon sees dead people. It’s her job and her passion. As a psychic medium she connects spirits of people who’ve passed to their loved ones still living.

But you won’t find any crystal balls at her house or warts on her nose. She steps out in comfy jeans, leather jackets and trendy shoes. She’s a wife and a mother. Just your typical small-town girl who grew up to be a psychic. To her, it’s perfectly normal.

“It’s not a supernatural thing,” Mallon says , tucking her red hair behind her ear. “It’s a natural thing really. A very normal, natural thing. I think a lot of people put it so out of proportion.”

Most people have psychic abilities, according to Mallon. She says it's a sense just like being able to see and touch. The difference is that some have to work harder than others to bring it out.

Mallon began exploring her abilities seven years ago, inspired after watching a reading conducted by a psychic medium.

After tucking the kids into bed, every night 40-year-old Mallon goes to work at her office in Chantilly, VA. While her husband stays home with their two boys, Mallon is connecting to people who have passed away. There she becomes a vessel for sons, daughters, mothers and friends to speak with those they miss in the afterlife.

There she can demonstrate that, as her business card says, “ They are never as far as we think…”

But the spiritual visits don't end when Mallon leaves her office. These beings sometimes camp out around her for days before a scheduled reading, she says, knowing they'll be contacted soon. “They’re kind of like waiting in line," Mallon says.
Spirits aren’t like the Hollywood variety, according to Mallon. She says they come as images in her head – fuzzy globs that look like “Vaseline rubbed on a mirror.”

But despite their fuzzy form, their messages come in clear Mallon says, especially when there’s something important left unsaid between the sprit and their loved ones still alive. Usually the spirit wants to rid the person of any guilt or unsettledness so all parties can move forward, Mallon says.

Janice Ervin, Mallon’s client and friend, has seen her in action – both one-on-one and in larger group readings. She swears by her abilities saying Mallon gives specific details in her readings only that person would know, not general stuff that relates to everyone.

“She truly strives to be as impeccable with the thoughts coming across as possible, " Ervin says." She cares as much about the energy to which she is connecting as she does the client to which she delivers the message."

But not everyone is cheering Mallon. At an expo she participated in a few weeks ago, a guy walked past her booth laughing at her banner “Barb Mallon, Psychic Medium”. When she asked him what he was laughing at, he pointed to the sign saying, "uh, psychic."

But when stuff like that happens, she just stands her ground. In general, Mallon doesn’t mind skeptics and welcomes them to readings, as long as they’re open-minded. “You absolutely should be skeptical, but if you’re closed minded you’re going to totally block the process.” Once they come in for a reading they usually leave believers. She once had skeptical FBI agents join a group reading. The next time they came back with their families, she says.

Mallon recognizes there are phony psychics out there just trying to get your money, which she says gives legitimate psychics a bad rap. She said most psychics, like her, are doing it to help people. They charge because they have to.

“I’d love to do it for free,” Mallon says. “But then I couldn't put food on the table.”

Mallon is certified by the American Association of Professional Psychics, which screens all its members for ethics, professionalism and proven psychic ability.

Mallon was relieved her husband was okay with her new career choice. To her this was a destined, gut-inspired decision, albeit a far cry from her first career as an admin assistant.

“He was like you do what you need to do and I’ll do what I need to do,” Mallon says. “So he’s into NASCAR sponsorships and I’m into talking to people who've passed away.”

She remembers being called to investigate a house in Maryland where people reported seeing strange things happening. She discovered the ghosts of an old married couple lingering there. The ghost of the husband was knocking things over in the house. The wife’s ghost hung around the children’s room in a maternal, protective role.

Ghosts are simply earth-bound spirits who don’t want to leave for whatever reason, Mallon says . Some love their homes and their relatives here, others are afraid to move on.

To get rid of them Mallon says to burn special herbs – a process called smudging – and firmly tell whatever is there to leave. You’ll know they’re gone when you start feeling “a lightness in the house,” she says.

Outside of work, Mallon is a full-time mom who says her kids are her first priority. Generally she understands the stigma around psychics and keeps what she does under wraps unless someone asks.

“It’s certainly not something I can go into my son’s classroom on career day and say this is what I do,” she says. “I’d freak all the kids out.”

But she thinks there is an awakening happening in the nation and people are opening up to the idea. Regardless, Mallon is content that she’s found what she’s meant to do in life and could never go back to doing anything else.

“ There's just no way,” she says, “This is what I am.”

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Erika Viltz is a graduate student in print journalism at American University