This school for clairvoyants knows just how to affirm your powers

When Rani August first walked into the Berkeley Psychic Institute (BPI) in 2008, the downpour outside gave her arrival the Stygian feel of Suspiria s opening scene: a stranger at the rain-drenched threshold of an unfamiliar world. For August, though, the other side of the doorway promised belonging. Inside, she heard people openly talking about things she had kept private for decades, like seeing energy, communicating with spirits, and practicing healing. She remembers getting chills and tearing up as she realized she had finally found what she had been searching for all her life. “It felt like coming home,” August tells 48 Hills. “Coming to BPI was like going to Hogwarts, only better because it was real!” Today, the institute she describes as her spiritual home is also where she works. The Rev. Rani August has served as director of Berkeley Psychic Institute since 2021, overseeing classes, teachers, staff, and the Clairvoyant Training Program while teaching and offering profe