The ongoing pandemic has changed life as we know it, and with no end in sight, people are seeking answers from unconventional sources.
PsychicWorld reported in June that since the lockdown began, there were 669,000 Google searches for "psychic advice" and searches for "psychic predictions coronavirus" increased by 95% over a 90-day period.
The website surveyed the things people are seeking psychic help for during the pandemic, and they found that 80% were asking to see their future, 74% were seeking love advice, and 67% were seeking job advice.
However, this does not give an insight into how this differs from the experience of psychics before the pandemic.
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Working over video chat and phone, VT interviewed two psychics, Daniela Birch and Justine Ayling, both of whom experienced the reported surge in business, and we asked them how this compared to psychic work before COVID-19.
Justine Ayling said she received so many requests she turned down work.
Meanwhile, Daniela Birch said that those who had previously been closed off to her work became less frightened of it.
She said: "People are way more open to my advice. While in the past, I have felt people judged me and feared my gifts."
The two women noticed a difference in the type of requests they've received, with both noting a move towards mediumship - channeling communication between the dead and the living.
Birch said: "I am known as a relationship/soul mate specialist, but I would say the mediumship side has been stronger. My clients are wanting reassurance from their loved ones on the other side."
This was also the case for Ayling, who said: "I've seen a bit of an increase in people wanting to connect with spirit, partly for guidance but mainly for comfort.
"People realized that the cards were not going to tell them anything they didn't already know, lockdown/virus/social distancing wasn't going away anytime soon."
Clinical psychologist Dina Hassan said people are choosing mediumship because the pandemic has taught them that so many things are out of their hands.
She said: "Right now, it seems that every time you come to plan for the future, something bad happens, and this leaves you believing little in your ability to plan for what's to come."
The psychics said this has been a difficult time for them too, with Birch revealing that there have been days when her psychic channels have been blocked as she is "highly sensitive to energy."
She said: "Many psychics, including me, are empaths, and we feel the world's pain.
"I have had so many clients in pain, and fear of their future. Some have miscarried, lost loved ones, their business has dried up financially, and everyone is wanting reassurance from me."
One of the downsides of having so many people come to her for advice is that she has had days where she too has wanted comfort and has had to learn how to ask for it herself.
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Ayling said that while she hasn't necessarily had trouble while working with clients, she has also tapped into the negative feelings of others.
She said: "I've had to put a lot of white light protection around myself during lockdown. I meditated, used healing crystals, and used mindfulness to keep the darkness of the time at bay."
An increased number of male clients have contacted Birch during the pandemic, which is an interesting shift from Pew Research Center's finding that women are typically twice as likely to visit psychics.
She said: "I am receiving a lot more men lately who want advice I do also offer intuitive mentoring and working on business coaching and not only one-off readings and guidance."
Ayling said that one of the reasons people have sought out mediumship is because they have lost loved ones of the virus and wanted confirmation that they were still around.
"They also wanted the chance to say their goodbyes," she said.
Hassan said that seeking out psychics is a way of supplementing a need with hard evidence - evidence which, unfortunately, does not exist during this time.
She said: "It will be someone who really got hit hard by COVID. Who is in learned helpless mode, and that can be anyone because the isolation and distancing is affecting everyone, even therapists."
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If you want to seek out psychic advice, Birch and Ayling advise consulting psychics with good reputations and taking recommendations where possible.
Birch said: "See what they specialize in. Really be crystal clear as to what you want support with."
Ayling added: "Have a completely open mind and be clear at the start what you are looking for."
But while psychics may comfort some during the pandemic, Hassan said that a good alternative is mindfulness.
"It's not a good thing to be stuck in the future or the past," she said. "Being mindful is about being aware of the here and now and celebrating your small successes, which, ultimately, could help you feel better about the future."
For so many people across the country, COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on their livelihoods.
Due to the nation-wide lockdown, industries like retail, hospitality, and travel have all been hit hard, with thousands of people losing their jobs, and many others having their income slashed after being placed on furlough.
However, after months of lockdown and ongoing social distancing rules, very few people have considered the impact the pandemic has had on sex workers.
Now, a professional escort has spoken to VT about the impact COVID-19 has had on sex workers, what has been her most unusual requests in the bedroom, and what needs to change for the stigma around the industry to finally be removed.
India Rose, an escort and camgirl from England, has been left unable to see her regular clients for months.
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"Officially, I started doing sex work about two-and-a-half years ago. I started off as a camgirl and you naturally build up relationships with regular clients and that led to meeting them, " she explained.
Prior to working as a camgirl, India Rose started seeing sugar daddies at the age of 18. Explaining that she was about to go traveling at the time, she said she purely got into the job after a friend said it was an easy way to make money.
However, after returning home and starting a Monday-Friday, 9-5 job, India Rose soon started to miss the excitement of her former life. Then, after seen an ad on Instagram, she decided to join a webcam agency.
While working as a camgirl, India Rose started to speak to regular clients on a daily basis. She explained to VT how this soon developed into her meeting one of them for sex:
"I had been talking to [a guy] for about three-to-six months, so quite a while. And then he said, 'Look, I'm in London, do you want to do something?' And I thought, 'Do you know what, yeah!'"
And despite what many people may think, India Rose has never been in a situation where she has felt unsafe - making sure to research each client before she meets them.
In fact, she points out that "it is no different to meeting a guy on Tinder or at a bar on a night out." But for extra precaution, India Rose does allow her close friends to track her phone.
When I asked how her friends responded to her career choice, India Rose said they have been 100% supportive, and they have said that "as long as your safe, then you're fine."
I then asked if her family knew about her life as a sex worker, to which India Rose told me:
"I've never fully said to [my family] that I do this. But I'm pretty sure that they've put two and two together [...] I don't know what they think I do otherwise because I've never had a proper job and I'm always in designer clothes.
"We've never openly spoken about it. Over lockdown, I went to stay with them for a bit. So I came to their house with a suitcase full of props and wigs and all sorts for webcamming - which I'm pretty sure they came across, but they've not said anything."
And when it comes to dating, India Rose told me that she has recently started talking to a guy, but is yet to come up with the best possible way to tell him about her life as an escort.
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When I asked India Rose to talk me through a normal working week, she revealed that she will usually work as a camgirl from Monday to Friday - of which her clients pay per minute in either group or one-on-one chats.
Once a month, she will set a weekend aside for her escort work - booking out an Airbnb where she meets her clients.
Talking me through the process, India Rose reveals that she does not do random meets, and makes sure she has built a relationship with the client beforehand.
Prior to meeting, they will discuss any specific requirements, what they are expecting, anything in particular they like, or what they would like her to wear.
She then takes the money on arrival and ensures that they take a shower - joining them if they would like.
"I'll get ready - if they've brought me a toy or a costume to put on. Then yeah, then we just get on with it and do it."
Sometimes the clients then suggest going for a meal - continuing to pay for India Rose's time.
Asking how much each session costs, India Rose revealed that she charges £350 ($460) per hour, and will see roughly for regulars over a weekend in two-to-three-hour slots.
With her webcam work included, she told me she can earn anywhere between £5,000-£6,000 ($6,590 - $7,910) per month.
However, India Rose did explain that her decision to see all of her clients over one weekend per month is down to two reasons; the fact that "it is quite draining, emotionally" and that she is admittedly "lazy".
When asked if she would encourage somebody else to become a sex worker, India Rose said "for sure", but offered the following advice:
"Just trust your gut and have a bit of common sense. Whether it is with a safety situation or you're truly thinking 'I want to do this/I don't want to do this' - don't do it for the wrong reasons. You have to do it because you enjoy it.
"Of course you're going to have days where you think, 'Oh, what a day!' But you get that with every job.
"It is hard work - especially with social media and advertising and photography - you have to wear a lot of hats. Don't think you can just jump on and do it. It is hard work. But I do think it is worth it.
"And I think if you're thick-skinned enough and I think if you really don't care and enjoy it, then go for it."
India Rose then stressed that you cannot survive in the business if you are "constantly anxious and constantly worried".
"So many girls get into it for the wrong reasons. Obviously the money is amazing, but you do need to enjoy it, she explained, adding: "Don't do it and always be looking over your shoulder. Don't drain yourself over it."
The 21-year-old then explained that even the webcamming comes with its risks: "You do have to be prepared, even on camera. Some [people] do want to be nasty and troll you for no reason - just because they can. And I just think, 'You're paying for this?!'
"But some girls get so upset over it - it sets them back weeks. It's just your mindset."
I then became curious enough to ask India Rose what her strangest request had been from a client, to which she gave me two answers which were poles apart:
"I always find the ones that are quite - not boring - but, mediocre the strangest. Because, in a way, I can see why the fetishes and why the odd requests... why you'd pay for it. Because it is a service at the end of the day, and it is something that you can't ask your girlfriend because you're embarrassed.
"So when guys just want to... I had one session before that was an hour and half, that was just kissing. I found that a bit odd."
"But also I've had weird ones before. One guy - there's this thing called sploshing - which is food fights and getting really messy with food. And it was a mixture between that and a foot fetish.
"So, he was basically pouring custard and squishing cake into my toes for about an hour. And that was a bit odd - but, again, easy to do."
However, like so many of us, India Rose's livelihood was left with a question mark over it when the UK was placed in lockdown back in March.
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Unable to meet up with clients, India Rose told me she was able to concentrate more on webcamming and her content sites.
With more people at home, I assumed that her webcam work would have increased, to which she responded:
"Yes and no" - there was fewer men online during the day, because their wives and families were home. So most of the late night and early in the morning were busier. But throughout the day, not so much.
"Lunchtimes were busy, when people were on their lunch breaks - working from home."
Yes, people are logging on to cam sites in their lunch breaks - who'd have thought it??
But as the UK's lockdown measures began to ease, it still took India Rose a while before she started meeting clients in the flesh.
"Personally, I didn't do any [meets] - just for personal preference, I didn't want to risk it," she explained, telling me that she had only her first client since lockdown at the end of July.
"I'm not sure I want to be meeting random people all the time - and even in hotels - it's all a lot harder. You never know what they've been doing or what they've been up to," she told me.
However, with many of her regulars out of the country, she admits that she still cannot "fully get back into it", even if she wants to.
And with so many people being out of work and cashstrapped, I asked India Rose if she'd seen more people turning to sex work, to which she replied:
"There has been a massive influx of girls working - it has jumped up dramatically. A crazy number of girls have signed up.
"I don't know if that's because they're out of work so they're more desperate for money, or they're at home and have more time on their hands, or if it is because it is more spoken about in the media and word of mouth. People are a lot more open about it."
When I asked her feelings on more women working in the business, she told me: "It is a bit more competition - but at the same time, it creates more conversation about it and makes it more open in society."
India Rose is currently a brand ambassador for the escort site Ennvy.com - a new website that she describes as "easy" and "user-friendly".
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"It's made by workers for sex workers," she explained, adding that the company also works to support charities that are striving to change society's attitudes toward the industry.
Discussing what needs to be done to help remove the stigma around sex workers, India Rose told me: It is 100% about education - just sex in general.
"There's such a shame around it and embarrassment - but when you think about it, it's one of the oldest industries in the book, but it's always had a stigma around it.
"I think you need better education, starting in schools. But also for adults to be more open about it - not discuss fetishes more, because that'll put us out of a job [laughs] - but to be more knowledgable on it. There's so many girls and women who still don't talk or discuss it.
"[Sex] education is not just about: 'You get your period, guys have wet dreams, you have sex, and here's how to put a condom on. Don't get a disease.'
"You need to talk about different relationships. You need to talk about LGBT sex. You need to talk about a much broader range of what is out there - because everybody is going to experience it."
However, despite the stigma surrounding the industry spanning generations, India Rose is confident that the conversation around sex work is growing, thanks to celebrities like Cardi B and Bella Thorne joining platforms like OnlyFans.
"I think with sites like OnlyFans - where it is so much more accessible and you've got influencers and celebrities doing it - it's all a form of sex work," India Rose explained, "so it does open up the conversation more and it is slowly being drip-fed into society."
India Rose also highlighted that there is also a generational gap when it comes to attitudes toward sex workers. She said:
"There's a lot of older women who will look down on girls for going out wearing a short skirt or low cut top - and then we get into blame culture.
"But in 20 years' time, I think it will be completely different yet again. With the internet and with everything being so accessible - [the industry] does just continue to grow."
Many many millions of people are now in self-isolation or under some form of lockdown as the world battles the coronavirus pandemic.
Naturally, many of us are searching for new ways to pass the time, now that our daily schedules and routines have been interrupted to varying degrees. Whether it's filling the hours you'd normally be commuting or working, or desperately trying to find a viable at-home alternative to the local pub quiz, we're turning to new methods of entertainment in these turbulent times.
Lockdown is certainly driving people to unusual habits - watch this Instagram model crash through a glass door while attempting a Tik Tok challenge:
What's more, it would seem that this newfound spirit of invention and curiosity is extending to the bedroom. According to research from AnchorPumps, Google searches for "how to make sex more interesting" have risen by more than 5,000% during the weeks in lockdown.
It's evident that sex is very much on peoples' minds at the moment, as "how to get in the mood for sex" has also seen a 5,000% increase. As if any more evidence were needed, "how to spice things up in the bedroom" has seen a 3,250% increase.
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Perhaps this is an inevitable byproduct of spending so long in the house: there's no more nipping out to hit the gym or watch football at the pub to occupy your time.
Interestingly, plenty of people also seem to be mulling over questions of starting a family, with the research showing that searches for "how old is too old to have kids" have risen by 2,800%.
If you're struggling to fill the time, then one woman has shared her genius method for baking your very own loaf of bread in a slow cooker.
We are urging all of our readers to adhere to the advice from their respective governments and medical bodies, and practice social distancing and self-isolation where required. Together, we will beat this...
A former coronavirus skeptic is now warning others to take the pandemic seriously after being hospitalized with his wife.
Brian Hitchens, a Florida-based ride-share driver, had previously taken to social media to claim that the pandemic was blown out of proportion, but he changed his mind after he and his wife contracted the virus.
In an interview with WPTV-TV from his hospital bed at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center in Jupiter, Hitchins said: "I don't want to see anyone go through what I went through."
Hitchins admitted that prior to his diagnosis, he was skeptical about the scale of the pandemic and didn't think the problem was real.
He said: "I thought it was maybe the government trying something, and it was kind of like they threw it out there to kinda distract us.
"I'd get up in the morning and pray and trust in God for his protection, and I'd just leave it at that. There were all these masks and gloves. I thought it looks like a hysteria."
Taking to Facebook at the start of April, Hitchins wrote: "I do not fear this virus because I know that my God is bigger than this Virus will ever be."
But now in a lengthy post written at the start of this week, Hitchins changed his mind and wrote: "please use wisdom and don't be foolish like I was so the same thing won't happen to you, like it happened to me and my wife."
A month prior to his change of heart Hitchins, fell unwell, and his wife began to experience symptoms shortly afterward. They then self-isolated before the pair began to feel "worse and worse and worse" before they went to the hospital.
Hitchins and his wife required treatment in intensive care, and his wife remains on a ventilator at the time of writing, causing him to admit "this wasn't some scare tactic that anybody was using".
Hitchins now says that he is feeling "a lot better", but his wife has shown "no signs of improving". "My wife has been sick before in the past quite a few times and she always fought through to get better, but now after three weeks I have come to accept that my wife may pass away," Hitchens wrote on Facebook.
Hitchins concluded his Facebook post by writing "listen to the authorities and heed the advice of the experts", before adding that he "should have wore a mask in the beginning".
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, governments around the world had no choice but to cancel social gatherings in an effort to reduce the spread of the disease and save lives.
This obviously included weddings, and now there are thousands of couples around the world who have been forced to postpone their big day for some unknown time in the future.
Related - This couple was surprised when their kids performed a wedding ceremony on their backyard after they were forced to cancel their big day:
I personally know three couples who have been forced to cancel their photographers/caterers/venues etc, leaving them heartbroken and out of pocket.
Well, the UK's Channel 4 may be able to offer a consolation prize for any engaged couples out there who have been forced to cancel their special day as a result of the pandemic.
Channel 4 is looking for these aggrieved couples to take part in a new TV show titled Wedding in Lockdown.
Per a casting call posted on the Film & TV Casting Calls UK Facebook page, Channel 4 is after "fun-loving couples" that have had to cancel their weddings due to COVID-19 and are currently "unsure what to do".
The premise of the show will see the selected couples taking part in a dream wedding ceremony in their own home.
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The show synopsis adds: "Channel 4, with the help of a celebrity cupid and some special guests, are looking to bring a much-needed wedding back to life and offer one special couple the opportunity to have a virtual ceremony they’ll never forget in their own home, with family and friends watching and celebrating online."
The ceremonies will be streamed live online to loved ones, who will also be given the opportunity to star in the show. The special occasions will then be broadcast to the nation at a later date.
Of course, in the UK marital licensing laws prohibit weddings taking place at home, so it is important to note that these ceremonies will not result in a legally binding marriage. But hey, at least your ceremony will be on TV and go down in history.
No release date for the show has currently been announced.
If you would like to take part in the show, couples should register their interest at [email protected] to apply.
It's fair to say that the coronavirus pandemic has been hard to cope with, and many people around the world are suffering due to the lockdown guidelines.
We all live in hope for the day that the quarantine will be lifted, but now a prominent health expert claims that it might be another year before we see life return to normal.
Nouri stated: "We will certainly have to continue these stay at home orders for I suspect at least through the end of May, or perhaps some time in June. There’s not going to be a time when there is a magic date and then everybody goes back to their lives as normal. That’s not going to happen for a long time."
He continued: "Once June comes around, once July comes around, it’s not going to be the kind of situation where people are going to be going to crowded restaurants and movie theaters. Things are going to be different, I suspect, until we have the vaccine."
The US Surgeon General recently delivered this speech on the coronavirus:
He added: "If we do really do a good job of flattening that curve and reducing the number of transmissions from person to person, we still have to be very careful while we lift those restrictions. What’s really different about this novel coronavirus is that it’s this combination of both being very contagious and then also at the same time being about 10 times more lethal than the flu."
We are urging all of our readers to adhere to the advice from their respective governments and medical bodies, and practice social distancing and self-isolation where required. Together, we will beat this.
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