Remember when you got that vibe, followed your instincts – rationality had nothing to do with it —  met that person and lived happily ever after? Or did not follow a hunch and lived to regret it.  Human beings are gifted with intuition. The famous Oracle at Delphi clued in Solon, and he listened.  Constantina Rhodes, a charming, hyper-perceptive  Ph.D. , is a certified intuitive. She walks the talk, teaching others how to develop their intuitive powers, and gives private readings. “People come for a psychic reading often when they’ve exhausted all the regular avenues,” Constantina says. “The most frequent questions I’m asked have to do with major changes regarding love, career and where to live. Ninety-nine percent of the people I consult with say it’s great.”

Science has begun to take intuition seriously. Innovator Steve Jobs called it “more powerful than intellect.” The U.S. Military is investigating the power of intuition, how it helps troops to make decisions and save lives. Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive, wrote: “Even when we’re not at a fork in the road, wondering what to do and trying to hear that inner voice, our intuition is always there, always reading the situation, always trying to steer us the right way. But can we hear it?”

Says Constantina: “Many people get psychic impressions – like you know somebody is going to call you. But there’s a way to train yourself so that you can tap into that, pay attention to how your body feels with information. So when I teach, I tell people it’s like art or music. Some people are born with an exceptionally beautiful voice, some with an ordinary voice, but at whatever the starting point, if you train, if you learn the grammar of it,  and the basics,  and how it works in your human instrument, you can develop it”

Constantina’s main professional focus is teaching the History of Religion at New York City’s Hunter College. She’s the author of several books, including those based on her own Sanskrit translations. She did not come immediately to her calling.

“I’ve always been intuitive, but I’m also very intellectual and rational. I had a lot of spiritual experiences growing up, but I never really connected them.”

Living in Tampa, FL  with her husband and daughter, she was searching.

“There were so many things I was trying to figure out. I was teaching world religions there. For my doctoral work, I had spent two years in Delhi, India, studying Sanskrit. I had started doing meditation. It opens you up and opens up your intuition. In Florida, I met different people who were teaching how to develop intuition incrementally, and how to do exercises connected with spirituality. I found it fascinating and started doing them. One of my teachers was a Greek woman. I said: ‘We’re allowed to do this?’ It became part of my personal practice. I also found that I was very good at it. I saw it as really gratifying and a way of helping people.”

Constantina brings intense concentration to her readings. “After a reading, I feel really elated, and the more open a person is, and if we’re really flowing, the more beautiful it is. It’s like going to this sacred space. It takes a lot of energy, and it makes me very hungry, and very tired afterwards. If a person comes for an hour reading, I might spend a half hour before praying and meditating, and a half hour afterwards sleeping and reading. The most I like to do a day is three readings.

“I do most of my work on the phone. I go into a meditative state. If I do a reading on the phone, I ask people to send me their questions the night before. I pray and meditate the night before. I print the questions out, and use that as an anchor, so then when we get on the phone, the energy comes through their voice. Some people like to be there physically. When I read in person, in addition to the questions, I like to hold an object of theirs. Metal is the best because it conducts electric energy and carries information about what’s going on with the individual.”

She discourages her clients from becoming consultation addicts. “My personal intention when I do a reading for someone is to make them feel good about their life, to empower them, so they can move on to wherever they need to go. I have strong guidelines. I never drop gloom and doom on people. My readings are an hour long. Maybe we’ll meet two or three times. But other than once or twice a year, you don’t really need more than that.”

Constantina comes down hard on what she terms “sidewalk psychics. There are some really bad people out there. They will lure you in and then escalate the price and it’s very bad news. I don’t operate like that.”

She grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ, the eldest of four youngsters of Peter and Mary Rhodes.  Both of her parents were born in the USA, and were introduced by Archbishop Iakovos, when he was a priest at the Boston Cathedral. Her father, a Harvard graduate and electrical engineer, had a job that moved them throughout the country. When Constantina was born, they returned to Boston so that Iakovos could baptize her.

She earned an undergraduate degree at Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. at Columbia University.  A deeply committed Greek Orthodox, she points out that her mother and father, with a few other people, founded St. Thomas Church in Cherry Hill. “My mother got out the phone book and called everyone with a Greek name.” Her grandparents were from Crete and Arcadia in the Peloponnesus. Her grandfather shortened their name from Rhodopoulos to Rhodes.

Some of her most profound intuitive and spiritual experiences were in Greece, including at the monastery in Aegina while studying at Duree College. “To me, intuition has always been involved with a spiritual experience, connecting to God.” At age 15, while a camper at Ionian Village, she had “an extraordinary experience going to Delphi. I didn’t know much about Delphi, but something was churning in me. There was something so powerful in this place. It was years later that I found out about the Pythia, the famous Oracle at Delphi, and what she did.

“I teach a whole unit about the Pythia in my class at Hunter. I personally reject the theory that she was intoxicated by drug-like vapors. From what I understand, the whole phenomena of connecting with deities was a very ancient practice. It was a way for them to allow their consciousness to open up and receive information from the gods.”

Divorced now, Constantina is devoted to her young grandsons, ages 3 and 5. She does not own a TV, and to relax enjoys dancing – Greek, folk, and Latin. “I’m so much in my head that it’s good to do something physical.”

Looking to 2016, Constantina weighed in on the New Year. “It’s getting scary out there. We are being pushed to the tipping point. The spin is so loud! We need to pull inward and get back to basic values. People are reassessing and thinking on their own, starting to tune out the noise.”

Anyone interested in a private  reading can consult Constantina’s web site, or email her at [email protected].  She will be  teaching  a course in  Intuitive Development at the Open Center starting in February.