Psychic Medium Matt Fraser On What He's Learned From The Spirit World - Exclusive Interview
Mention the word "psychic," and a certain mental image comes to mind — perhaps someone who looks and dresses like Stevie Nicks and conducts her readings out of a dark, incense-filled salon filled with mysterious objects. Until he made a name for himself through his live shows, books (including "When Heaven Calls" and "We Never Die"), and his reality show on E! with his family, "Meet the Frasers," few people who saw Matt Fraser on the street would take him for a psychic. The cheerful, clean-cut former EMT conducts his readings in well-lit spaces filled with skeptics and believers alike, and his readings are more likely to end in laughter and hugs than cryptic warnings from beyond.
But while Fraser matter-of-factly acknowledges his ability to communicate with the spirits of the dead, he emphasizes that there's nothing creepy about it. "A lot of people think as a psychic medium that my life is spooky," he explained with a smile. "But the only thing that's spooky about me is my family, because they drive me insane." In an exclusive interview with The List, Fraser opened up about how he came to terms with his unusual talent and why he chose to share it with the world.
Matt Fraser discovered his gift early – and at first it terrified him
When you first discovered your gift, I saw on your website you mentioned that you were frightened by it. What enabled you to get over your fear of communicating with the dead?
Growing up, being psychic was such a challenge for me because I was seeing and hearing things that other people couldn't, and I was petrified. I remember being so young — being 3, 4, 5 years old — I was afraid to go to bed at night. I was afraid to be alone. I was afraid to be by myself, because every time I was by myself, the souls would come in and try to talk to me.
Being so young, I had no idea what they wanted. I never realized that I was psychic or I was a medium. I literally thought that I was being haunted by the dead. I had no idea what it meant. For years and years and years, I pushed my abilities away to try to live a normal life.
Then as I got older, I wasn't sure what it was that I was supposed to do. I always felt a deep connection to people and I wanted to do something with helping others. I just wasn't sure what that was or what that meant.
I started my career as an EMT. From there, I worked up the courage to go and see a medium myself. What really changed me was the fact that all of my friends at the time were going to see psychics and mediums, and they were having great results. They were feeling like going to see a medium helped them so much in their life. I decided to go and see a medium myself and revisit what I had been pushing away. Seeing a medium for the first time myself completely changed my life because it gave me a different outlook on everything that I feared as a kid.
As a medium, Matt Fraser is sometimes the bearer of unwanted news
Have you ever received a message from the other side that would've been disturbing or potentially upsetting to whoever you're reading? If so, what did you do about that?
Absolutely. There's messages that people don't want to hear, because the thing is that some people will come in looking to hear a specific message, but there's something else that's communicated to them during the reading. But I don't consider this to be a bad message or something that's negative. The souls on the other side want to help us, guide us, and they want to point us in the right direction. The thing is that as a medium, I have a policy — and that is I have to tell the truth, and I have to say exactly what the spirit world is telling me, even if it's something that I don't want to say.
For example, some people might come to me and they thought that their loved one passed of an overdose, but really it was suicide. I'll have to convey that message. Sometimes it's that somebody will come through from the other side, and you might have a certain recollection of events, but they might say something different.
That's one of the tough messages that I have to deliver, when people get news that they're not expecting to hear. But also, what the spirit world tells me is that when we receive information like that, it actually helps us to heal, because we can't heal without knowing the truth.
The souls of the dead don't take nights and weekends off
You've been able to see and communicate with the dead since you were tiny. How does that gift impact your daily life? If you're out running errands or trying to work out, are there souls trying to contact you? How do you interact with them?
There is no customer service hours when you're talking to the dead. Let me tell you something — it's a 24-hour job. The souls are always there. There's always something that they have to say. What's so amazing is they know that I'm a phone line to them. That's what they think of me as.
Our loved ones are already trying to get in touch with us in our daily lives. When they see someone like myself, they'll use me as a tool in the toolbox to get to you. If there's a message that's there, when I'm out to dinner, when I'm walking down the street, when I'm out somewhere, I'll feel compelled to deliver it because the souls will ask me to, and that's my job.
You're never really off then — you can't turn it off.
There is no turning off whatsoever. There's sometimes when I'll get in bed at 10 o'clock at night and I'll still hear some messages from the other side, because like I said, doing this work, it's a great honor to deliver these messages. At the same time, it's just a part of who I am.
It's almost like when you're a fitness trainer. Even though you might clock out when you leave the gym, the moment that you go home, you might still be thinking about those last clients that you saw. You might still be wondering how someone's doing with nutrition, how they're doing with their exercise plan. It's still a part of you.
Matt Fraser welcomes skeptics – and opportunities to prove them wrong
How do you deal with skeptics? Have you ever convinced a skeptic that you're the real deal?
Oh, my God. I love the skeptical ones. What I love is when somebody walks in [a] skeptic, they're not sure what to believe, and all of a sudden they have a life-changing experience. It's happened time and time again.
I got to tell you that I don't pride myself on convincing skeptics. The other side does all the work — I just say what they're telling me. But there's a couple videos on YouTube that I've done, and those are the most viral videos because I think that so many people aren't sure what to believe. If I was in their shoes, I would question it too: "Is psychic ability real? Can somebody talks to the dead? Is there another side?" When somebody walks in with those questions, and all of a sudden they receive an experience of hearing from someone that they love, receiving validation, knowing without a doubt that their loved ones are there — it can be, and is, life-changing.
There was a football player by the name of Michael Clayton who hosted a television show in Tampa called Studio 10. It was funny because they asked me to be on the show. In the beginning, he was very nervous. He did not want a psychic medium on it. He didn't believe in the other side; he was very much a skeptic. He allowed me on the show and he actually allowed me to do a reading for him. It was amazing, because he was a man who was so skeptical — so blank-faced, so tough in a way, where he didn't want to believe. Thick-headed, I guess you could say.
Then all of a sudden, live on TV, as I was waiting for him, you could see how it impacted him and changed his life. That video reached over 3 million views for that reason, because everybody was like, "Oh, my God." We all know a skeptic. We all know somebody who doesn't believe or isn't sure. To see somebody completely changed and to see somebody regain hope shows us that, wow, these messages do so much, and our loved ones are always with us.
Advice from spirits led Matt Fraser to unexpected business opportunities
Have you ever gotten any special advice or support from someone on the other side, and if so, could you share that?
Absolutely. The souls on the other side know so much more about living life here in this world now that they've departed than even us who are living. And I got to tell you, my loved ones in spirit tell me [things] all the time. They share with me all the time different messages through my intuition. It's actually funny, because being a medium, I run everything through my intuition — everything that I do. I'll go and I'll listen to the guidance that I'm receiving from the other side, even when that guidance doesn't add up with the facts.
For example, I remember there was this time when I was doing a reading in ... it was actually Agawam, Massachusetts. My team who handles my events was like, "Matt, you can't go to Agawam. You don't have a following in Agawam. The population is low. You have no following in Agawam. The show is not going to be well attended. It's not going to sell out. You should look at other places." I'm like, "I keep feeling, because spirits are telling me, I need to go to that area. That's an area where I need to go." They're like, "Absolutely not. You're taking your own chances. No one's going to buy tickets."
Next thing you know, I trusted my intuition. I went there, and the whole event sold out. People drove from all over, and I actually went several times after that. Everybody was like, "How did you know? How is this even possible? Looking at the numbers and looking at your audience, it shows you don't have a following there." I'm like, "Well, the thing is that the spirit world sees tomorrow so much more clearly than we see yesterday."
That's one of the reasons why I even wrote my book, "We Never Die." This is a book that I've been wanting to write for so long because the spirits have told me that there's so many people here in this world that fear death, dying, the afterlife. They're not sure if their loved ones are at peace and therefore they can't be at peace. The spirit world has also shared with me that the more I can do to introduce people to heaven and to share what heaven is like, the more that I can help people alleviate their fears.
Matt Fraser's new book, We Never Die, answers his fans' most pressing questions
I was going to ask you about the book. Has it been in the works for a while?
Yes. I started the concept of the book several years ago, but I started writing it during the pandemic. During COVID, I had a lot of downtime, but that was the one time, more so than ever, where my inbox was flooded on a daily basis — thousands of people emailing in. They were emailing in questions that they had about the afterlife because it wasn't until the pandemic that everybody had one fear, and that was death and losing a loved one.
People during the pandemic lost loved ones, were afraid of their own health, were afraid of someone that they loved passing. Therefore, it caused us all to start thinking about heaven and the afterlife. So [much] more so then [and] now than ever, all these questions came in: "Matt, how old are we in heaven?" "What are we doing in heaven?" "What if we didn't get to say goodbye to our loved one?" "What if our loved one couldn't remember here in this world?" "What if there was a child that had passed, do they get older in heaven?"
I took all of these questions that I received from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and that's what I used to write my book. This book is filled with all of the questions that people have been wanting to ask a psychic medium but maybe haven't had the courage before to ask.
Matt Fraser's shows attract diverse audiences
Besides your books, you had a TV show for a while, "Meet the Frasers." How did that come about, and what did you hope that viewers would take away from it?
Before the TV show, I had already had a two-year waiting list for private readings. I was already traveling the country doing live events and shows and had a big following, luckily. One day I got a call from E! Entertainment, and they were like, "Matt, we see you give readings all the time. We want to do a show behind the scenes of you, your life, and your family." I thought it was cool because a lot of people think as a psychic medium that my life is spooky. But the only thing that's spooky about me is my family, because they drive me insane.
That's how the TV show came to be. It's an everyday reality-style of what life is like on the back end of the readings. This way, my fans and followers could get to know my family and what life is like when I'm not doing readings. That's what the whole show was about. We're so excited to announce that there's a TV special that's going to be coming out later this year that is going to pick up on that as well, which is really cool.
Speaking of your live shows, who are your attendees? Are most of them just curious, or do they come with a specific person in mind that they want to contact?
Everybody who attends an event attends for a different reason. There's some people who have lost a loved one, which is the majority who want to connect with the other side. There are some skeptics that don't know what to believe. They're like, "Is this real? Is this guy legit? What is this? I want to believe, but I don't." That's another person who attends. Another person who attends is somebody who wants to connect with their own psychic ability. Maybe they felt something, maybe they felt strong intuition. [They] come to validate that.
What's cool is that during this event, it's more than just a show. It's literally a family reunion with heaven, and it's also a learning experience, because people can learn about the life after this one.
Matt Fraser sees a growing acceptance of psychic abilities
In our society, claiming to have psychic abilities is pretty stigmatized. If you say, "I can talk to the dead," a lot of people will think you're a little bit off. What advice would you give to the people in your audience who may have that ability, but struggle to live with it and struggle to deal with it?
Back in the day, my mom was a medium, my grandmother was a medium — [they] never did it professionally for that reason. They never talked about their gifts, to the point where my grandmother didn't even tell her own husband that she was a medium for that same reason, because you couldn't talk about it back in the day. You couldn't talk about speaking or hearing the departed, you couldn't talk about having psychic ability. You couldn't even talk about sensing or feeling your own loved ones with you because people thought you were crazy.
Luckily, something came about that changed things, and that was the internet. What was really a big pioneer in this is that the internet started taking over. People have screen names, and you could come in as anonymous. People started to share their experiences of sensing and feeling their loved ones — sensing, feeling signs, knowing that their loved one was there and with them. Then it started to open up. As those topics started to trend, it started to open things up to the media, where all of a sudden, for the first time ever, TV talk shows were starting to have psychics and mediums on like myself. All of a sudden, we have networks that are picking up psychic programming.
That has been a huge pioneer in all of this, because our world is completely different than it was even 10 years ago. People are so much more open to this, to the point where when people see me on the streets, they want to come and share with me their experiences and the signs and the things that they feel.
What I want people to know is this: The spirits tell me we all have our own psychic gift. We all have a way to connect with our loved ones. It's about embracing that connection and knowing that you are not alone ... Right now I have 1.2 million followers on my Facebook page. What I want people to know is those followers aren't there just for me — they're not groupies of Matt Fraser. These are people who have become a family. These are people who are on my Facebook page, sharing their gifts, sharing what the afterlife is to them, sharing their own beliefs, sharing the signs that they've gotten.
I love that because I feel like my Facebook page has become a safe haven for anybody to talk about what they sense and feel from their loved ones in spirit. I love going on there every day and seeing all the different messages and people talking about their own experiences. The more that we share with one another, the more that we learn.
Matt Fraser's newest book, "We Never Die," is now available wherever books are sold.
This interview was edited for clarity.