Gail Lionetti says she has a gift that has led her to work on high-profile police cases involving people whose names are familiar to those who follow such news events, names like Sam Manzie, JonBenet Ramsey and Natalie Holloway.
REBECCA MORTON Gail Lionetti says she is a clairvoyant, clairaudient medium, who has put her gift to use working with law enforcement agencies throughout the United States as a private investigator. To help a local family, Lionetti will be hosting a benefit “Angels Among Us” event on Jan. 16 at the Sheraton in Eatontown. Lionetti is clairvoyant, clairaudient medium, who has put her gift to use working with law enforcement agencies throughout the United States as a private investigator.
After surviving a difficult childhood and two neardeath experiences, Lionetti, who resides in Freehold, said she decided to use her psychic gifts to help people understand their lives from a spiritual and supernatural perspective.
Lionetti, who grew up in Hazlet, said that when she was 6 years old she realized she was connecting with something. She explained that a lot of times with children, spirits will connect with them through the child’s most treasured possession. To the 6- year-old Lionetti, the spirits were communicating through her dolls.
As time went on, Lionetti began to question what was happening to her.
“There was one point in my life that I did not believe in this. I was very skeptical, I’m still skeptical on a lot of things. But I was able to open more by meeting with other people and searching things out and finding that I really did have a gift,” she explained.
About 30 years ago, Lionetti said, she began doing readings for people, including some celebrities. She also began working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and said she has a 98 percent mark of finding a missing person. As a private investigator, Lionetti has her own company, Scorpion Investigations.
To inspire others, Lionetti wrote about her childhood and how she has overcome the troubling situations of her past. “Survival on a Wing and a Prayer” has a purpose of helping people realize that no matter what they may go through in life, they can survive it as long as they do not let the negatives take over their life, Lionetti said. Some of her experiences working as a private investigator are documented in the book.
There is no such thing as a certified medium, Lionetti said, noting that well-known mediums such as John Edwards and Sylvia Browne do not list themselves as certified.
She said she understands how people can be skeptical about what she does, again noting that she, too, is skeptical about some areas.
Lionetti said she was very skeptical when she was first able to communicate with live animals. This was an ability she had not heard of previously, but Lionetti said she has been able to help identify injuries in animals through communicating with them.
If someone tries to test her by faking his or her name, Lionetti said she will immediately ask that person, “Why are you testing me?”
Lionetti said phony psychics have helped provide the disbelief that is instilled in some people about this particular gift.
More children are being born with these psychic gifts, Lionetti said. She said television channels such as A&E have shown evidence of this in the program “Psychic Kids.”
“They are the ones that I believe are going to change this world for the better,” she said of these children.
Having the ability to speak with the spirits of missing people is not an easy task, she said. Lionetti described the pain of, in some cases, reliving the death of the individual she is communicating with.
When she works with a police department for the first time, Lionetti said she requests no information about a missing person other than the person’s name. She said she asks the police officials she is working with not to make her involvement in a case publicly known.
Lionetti said she tells police she is “doing this (investigation) not for them, but for the family, even though the family may not know I’m involved.”
In most circumstances Lionetti does not interact directly with the family but is called in on the case by the police.
When focusing on the name of a missing individual, Lionetti said she usually knows right away whether the person is alive or in spirit form. If in spirit, she connects with the entity who will provide her with details such as where the person’s body may be located.
When she is comfortable with the information provided by the spirit, Lionetti will provide the details to the police. In many cases she is asked to join the police as they search the area. She works with cadaver dogs which can pinpoint the exact location of the body for authorities to recover.
On top of working with the police and performing private readings, Lionetti has also founded Spiritual Outreach Support. In that group she guides students through meditation to reach their own higher level of consciousness toward psychic ability, which she explained everyone holds.
Lionetti speaks with local bereavement groups to help grieving individuals find closure. She also holds group sessions called “Angels Among Us” where she will speak with the spirits trying to communicate with their loved ones in the audience
To help a local family, Lionetti will be hosting a benefit “Angels Among Us” event on Jan. 16, 2009 at the Sheraton in Eatontown with doors opening at 6:45 p.m. Michele Baccaro Parson, a lifelong resident of Middletown, battled three forms of cancer throughout her life before losing her battle on Aug. 11.
Lionetti said the Parson family is facing medical bills and funeral costs in the tens of thousands of dollars. In an effort to assist the family, all proceeds from the Jan. 16 event will go directly to the Michelle Parson Memorial Fund. A gift auction will also be held that evening.
Tickets for the night are $80, which includes a buffet meal, and must be purchased in advance. To purchase tickets visit Lionetti’s Internet Web site at www.gaillionetti.com and click on the lectures and seminars tab.