Interesting story? Mexico or Oz or what country? So do you think now the headaches caused or vice-versa and 'successful as a medium' means what? Not knocking you but to clarify a cool history. In other words,
1) physical symptom vs 'ability' and which causes, or coorelates or happens first
2) mediums vs person with condition reliably predicting, contacting, etc. As good as frauds or chance or good as finding/predicting?
A proportion of migraine sufferers experience a set of physical symptoms called "aura" around an hour before the migraine strikes. During "aura," all kinds of interesting things can be seen, heard, felt, and smelled. For example, people will have halos--New Age mystical auras. Orbs, flashing lights, and geometric patterns are also seen. Medically, the aura is considered to be an early symptom of migraine. What makes some people susceptible to migraines is unknown.
New Age "psychics" and spiritist mediums claim to see the same thing I've described.
Everybody wants to be special. When I saw these things for the first time, I wanted to believe it was some special psychic power or paranormal experience -- clairvoyance, telepathy, the voice of God. Afterall, I saw the same things as professional "psychics" and mediums.
I took notes on what I experienced. I devised ways to test some of the experiences objectively. The tests were crude, but they were good enough to rule out genuine psi ability--my results were never consistent.
They fail the scientific test of repeatability. For example, I try to view a street scene outside of my apartement during an OBE. I take note of the people I see and what they're wearing. I look for something unusual--something that would not normally be there. It will stand out.
I observe an old lady walking a giant poodle with a green mohawk whose balls have been dyed red. She and the dog are on the sidewalk in front of my aptartment. Then, I wake up as fast as I can, and write "poodle with mohawk and red nuts" in my notebook and put the date and time. I run outside and look around. I look for what I saw during the OBE.
Nobody is in sight. I can see around two hundred yards up and down the street, and there are no side streets. I dismiss it as a failure, and go back to the door.
As I'm walking inside, I turn around and look at the street one last time. The old lady and her freaky poodle are going by (in the same direction). All of the details are the same except for the timing. They were five minutes late. I'd never seen either of them before.
I try teh same experiment ten more times that month, and I don't see anything even close again. Then it happens again on the 11th try.
Having said all that, once in a while, there is an uncanny result that is too unlikely to be a coincidence. But it does not happen often enough and never "on demand."
Strangely, weather phenomena is like the paranormal. Ball lightning, for example, has been observed and even photographed. But it never happens consistently or on demand. AFIK, no lab has produced it.
I don't think the migraines are a side-effect of psi ability. If there is real psi ability, it's too inconsistent.
1) I believe most of my experiences can be explained by the migraine aura. They are the most noticeable just before a migraine, but they are there all the time but not as prominent.
Other things like OBE are different. It turns out to be a natural, physiological phenomenon that anybody can experience, either with practice or in a lab that is equipped with a transcranial stimulation rig.
2) I've never seen or read about a "medium" or profesional "psychic" do anything convincing. Nobody cranks out tomorrows winning lotto jackpot numbers beyond chance. Nobody locates hidden treasure beyond chance or beyond a reasonable guess somebody would make if they are familiar with the case.
Not even Houdini's mediums were able to give the secret message hidden in the sealed envelope. ( Houdini was a believer. He wanted to prove it. this was intended to be proof of communication from the dead. )
I think some of the mediums are experiencing migraine auras. They saw orbs and ghosts (hallucinations) and fooled themselves into believing they had "the Power." They're self-deluded, but they don't intend to trick people.
The rest of the mediums are simply frauds and vultures (eg Lasha from the Heather Wad train wreck). Their MO is cold reading and doing background checks on their clients when they make an appointment and before they show up.
