The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

Jazz musician and psychic medium

Carolyn Wilkins, ’69

Music and mediumship may not seem to have much in common, but Carolyn Wilkins operates at their crossroads.

“Both are about surrender,” says Wilkins,’69, a professor at Berklee College of Music and a psychic medium. “You have to release your conscious mind to play music well, and I use the same faculty to help people as an intuitive counselor.”

As a little girl, she’d get visions and see things. But growing up in the 50s and 60s, she didn’t have a framework for what to call it, so she kept it to herself. She spent most of her life pursuing music and the creative arts, particularly with the help of Lab jazz band director Mr. Hey.

“He went out of his way to expose us to the contemporary music conditions that were in the area,” she says, which included inviting local innovative musicians to visit their class and work with the students. “It was very inspiring and allowed us to feel connected and up-to-date with trends and what was going on in the music business.”

It’s only later in life that she has felt confident and comfortable enough to tap into a gift she long set aside. Now, she’s combining improvisation with the kind of open mindedness that’s required to work as a psychic. In her new Boston event series, Music, Magic and Mediumship, she tunes into people’s souls and then creates a tune to help them through their life situation.

“We’re all connected on different levels, and this includes our spiritual support team that we have around us at all times. I connect with people’s ancestors and spirit guides, and then each participant receives a reading that includes music that’s designed to be healing,” she explains.

Hopefully, the combination of spoken information and music will nudge people closer to the direction they need to go to be in better alignment with their life purpose. And it is in this alignment that we can experience true freedom.

“Jazz is also a form of freedom, after all. You express yourself improvisationally while being in a structure, and within that structure you can be free,” she says. “It elevates the whole atmosphere.”