I Let A Psychic Take Over My Dating Apps

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What if you could speed past the endless “How r u”s, bathroom mirror selfies, and interminable texting to get right to the good stuff: A relationship with a decent person who can form complete sentences and seems genuinely interested in more than your tatas. I know what you’re thinking, Is there an app for that? Unfortunately, no. But have you ever consulted a psychic?

Over the past few years of dating, whether I met a guy in person or online, I was coming up with some serious duds. After my last relationship ended over his fear of exchanging keys (he reacted the way I do when I see a spider), I was flummoxed. I’m smart, funny, and pretty cute. So, what gives? Why doesn’t an equally intelligent, hilarious, and fetching dude want to snatch me up?

I had no idea, but I knew someone who might: Mystic Michaela, a Florida-based psychic and aura reader. Before I met her, I thought auras were strictly reserved for street fair psychics and people in Haight Ashbury who still think it’s the 1960s. Turns out, I couldn’t be more wrong. According to Mystic Michaela auras are energy signatures that surround every one of us. She sees auras the way you and I detect someone’s hair color. Auras clue Mystic Michaela into a person’s childhood, their traumas, personality quirks, and what makes them tick, which she can then use to assess relationship compatibility between people.

Just like every snowflake is unique, so is the way everyone wears their aura.

There are six main aura colors: red, yellow, green, as well as the “empath” colors blue, purple, indigo, who can intuit how other people are feeling, and four rare colors: pink, turquoise, rainbow, and crystal. Just like every snowflake is unique, so is the way everyone wears their aura. After viewing some photos I sent her, Mystic Michaela tells me I have a purple aura. Purple auras tend to be creative, opinionated, spontaneous, free-spirited, and intuitive. (If you want to figure out your aura colors, check out Mystic Michaela’s Instagram highlights breaking down all the hues).

“You would do well with a green-blue or red-blue aura,” Mystic Michaela advises. She said my wild purple aura needs someone with a bit more stability to balance me out; someone logical and grounded. Mystic Michaela hit it on the nose. I like being the more outspoken, extroverted one in the relationship, and crave the energy of someone smart, confident, and grounded. The Stedman to my Oprah. Unfortunately thus far, I had only been meeting Pete Davidsons — sweet, but messy.

“Auras aren’t just colors, they have textures, shapes, and hues as well,” Michaela tells me. “The healthier the aura, the more intact and smooth it is. Rips, tears, and uneven tones can signify life struggles often linking to past traumas that have not been healed.” For us non-readers, an aura is what we sometimes perceive as another’s “vibe.” We’ve all been around someone we instantly liked or disliked; that we sensed was calm, or happy, or anxious. Mystic Michaela says that is their aura sending out vibrations.

And not all auras are compatible. For example, someone with a more dominant red aura would be most compatible with a partner who had a more laid-back indigo or blue aura. While a type-A yellow aura would clash with a take-charge red aura. “When you understand someone else’s aura and what makes them tick, you can stop taking things personally and know that someone is operating from their aura color,” Michaela explains. You can begin communicating instead in a more authentic, honest, and vulnerable way. It will help you increase your own joy in a relationship as well as a potential partner’s.” For example, a purple aura isn’t trying to be messy or seek attention to irritate you — self-expression in all of its forms is just part of their inherent nature,” Michaela says.

During my first session, Mystic Michaela did a deep dive into my creative and intuitive purple aura to help me sort through my past and learn what has been holding me back. Looking through photos of various exes, Mystic Michaela was able to see some clear patterns.

My parents are both Indian immigrants; my mom is a doctor, my dad an engineer. So for them, being creative and outspoken was forbidden. They expected me to follow the rules and do something “sensible” like studying medicine or law. Their strict authority clashed with my free spirit purple aura causing a great deal of friction: I often felt I was being punished for just existing.

For us non-readers, an aura is what we sometimes perceive as another’s “vibe.”

I have had plenty of therapy to help me sort through the emotional trauma over the years, but until Mystic Michaela’s reading, I never fully understood how my upbringing impacted my love life today. Since I was shamed for being myself as a child, I learned over time to hide the quirkier, more intuitive, and emotional sides of myself in relationships.

Michaela’s insights made me realize that for years when it came to dating, I had been trying to tone down the solo-traveling, business-owner, sex-writer, intuitive, feelings, no-filter part of me for fear that would scare a guy off. That is until after we had been dating for months and I thought it was “safe” to talk about feelings. To these men, it seemed as though I went from being a soft, agreeable, starry-eyed woman to a total spitfire overnight. I decided moving forward that I would approach men with more candor and be less scared that doing so would scare them off.

In the interest of being open-minded, I decided to swipe on pretty much everyone who wasn’t a hard and immediate no. If we started chatting, I sent Michaela a picture with any additional info cropped out so she would fully rely on her psychic instincts. Would she be able to find the aura of a Prince Charming amongst all these frogs?

When a funny and handsome lawyer started messaging me, we immediately clicked. But Mystic Michaela wasn’t feeling his green aura. “He feels a little screwed up from a past relationship. He feels very witty. He also feels like ‘your type.’” Pass! She was spot on. He was my type — and I definitely did not need emotionally unavailable man #782 in my life.

My video date with a red aura man seemed promising at first. Red auras are passionate and strong-willed, which seemed like a perfect match for my equally passionate purple aura. “He wants love for real,” Mystic Michaela told me. Now we’re getting somewhere! I thought. Or maybe not, as Michaela added: “He feels like he is always trying to prove himself. I do detect major family issues.”

My digital rendezvous with him confirmed Mystic Michaela’s spidey sense. As the black sheep of his family, he always had to work extra hard to prove he could make it outside of the family business. And while he seemed outwardly sweet, genuine, and desirous of a long-term relationship, he confessed he had issues with authority. Normally I would just nod along. But this time, I decided to ask why. After mumbling something about issues with his father, he changed the subject. His explanation didn’t sit well with me, so I decided to pass on him. But the good news is thanks to my decision to approach every interaction with more honesty, I found out more quickly a guy wasn’t a good match rather than getting frustrated later.

When you understand someone else’s aura and what makes them tick, you can stop taking things personally.

I was starting to sense who was green vs red aura, or neither. Reds tend to work in sales, law enforcement, legal services, or real estate, or own their own businesses. They post lots of gym selfies and seemed to enjoy being leaders. Green auras were more analytical. They tended to be engineers, IT professionals, CEOs, financial analysts or, if they are green-purple, work in the arts. Though Mystic Michaela said I would do well with a red or green aura, I noticed I was having more interesting conversations with the greens.

“I get this peculiar and strong feeling he’s really into cats.” Michaela said when I asked her about a man in the film industry. I later learned he worked on Tiger King. She also told me this green aura is a bit socially awkward. After numerous lengthy rambling exchanges with him that led to him asking for my website (and not my phone number), I deduced she was right. Call me old-fashioned, but I would rather invest my time in someone who wants to talk on the phone or meet up. His lack of desire to do either seemed to confirm Mystic Michaela’s observation. Before my aura reading I me would have played it coy; now, I decided to just put it out there. “I’d rather talk on the phone than us cyberstalking each other,” I told him. He quickly unmatched me.

When I showed Mystic Michaela a picture of a straight-laced seeming man, I did not expect her to say, “He feels like he has some sort of fetish you may not want to get into.” She did qualify, however, that this red aura was a “real gentleman.” Dying of curiosity, I asked point-blank if he had any fetishes. Within two minutes, he responded that he loves women in tight leather spanking or walking on him. I thanked him for answering, then told him that wasn’t my cup of tea and unmatched.

After weeks of swiping, I still hadn’t met the Harry to my Meghan. Though Mystic Michaela was incredibly accurate about her assessments of these men, it turns out she’s not a wizard. She can’t conjure up a man to suddenly appear in front of me. Initially, I thought having a gifted psychic acting as my own personal matchmaker would be no different than having a fairy godmother waving her magic wand. “I’d like an ambitious, funny, grounded, smart guy who wants to binge-watch Schitt’s Creek and go to music festivals, please!” And poof! There he would be.

But the true gift was Mystic Michaela’s insights into how I was presenting myself to the world and why I’ve been attracting the men I have. She helped me understand my own patterns, so I could make better decisions for myself not just in dating but personal relationships in general. Identifying how dimming my personality had attracted the wrong partners was a huge lightbulb moment for me. I finally felt comfortable letting down my walls and embracing who I really am. Though I didn’t meet Mr. Right yet, learning to love my fiesty, outspoken purple aura and understanding how it can be compatible with a stabilizing green or red aura helpful information no matter what my future holds.