Grounds for thought: Using coffee for a psychic reading

In 1995, Roya Razavi survived a major car accident. She was in a coma for two weeks, and not expected to live. She had severe head injuries, a broken neck, jaw and ribs, and her lung was punctured. At one point she was pronounced dead.

She did survive, though, and says that today, to look at her you would never know that anything had happened. The only trace of her injuries is her barometerlike ability to sense changes in the weather – something common to many who have broken their bones.

Actually, I should restate that: The near-death experience did leave Razavi with another permanent reminder, one decidedly less common. She had always been a very intuitive person, she says; but after coming out of the coma, she sensed an immediate change in her perceptions: a heightening of intuition. “It was a little uncomfortable,” she says. “It was like when a car gets a tune-up. I would think, ‘Why do I know things when people just pass by on the street? Why do I know so much about someone’s life without even wanting to, without even focusing on them?’”

Razavi was already a spiritual person, and had made a practice of visiting an ashram on a regular basis to meditate. She asked her spiritual advisor there for her opinion about this enhanced intuitiveness. “She kind of laughed,” says Razavi, “then said, ‘It’s a gift given to you, and you’ll know what to do with it when the right time comes.’”

As a child, Razavi grew up watching her Iranian mother read Turkish coffee grounds for many people. “I never forgot how each and every time she said something that was meaningful to someone, I would get goosebumps,” Razavi says.

In her 20s, she had done Turkish coffee readings for people herself, in a casual way with friends and family. She had always been into it spiritually, but now she felt that perhaps, with the gift of enhanced perception that she had been given, this was what she was meant to do with her abilities. She began to do readings on a regular basis.

“This experience of mine in a coma played a great role in my doing this work now,” says Razavi, “and except for the pain I experienced, I would not change it. I get so much from helping others. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me, and I’m very grateful for it.”

Turkish coffee reading is an ancient form of tasseography (interpreting patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds or wine sediments). Turkish coffee is like strong espresso, with grounds left at the bottom of the cup. The sediments remaining are used in the reading.