The Future Looks Bright for Tyler Henry — and He Knows It

Hollywood’s favorite medium opens up about life, death, and having a full-circle moment with RuPaul.

When someone hears the word “medium,” their reaction is usually overwhelming enthusiasm or an eye-roll — and generally nothing between the two. Tyler Henry, who made a name for himself on E!’s Hollywood Medium With Tyler Henry and earned a list of celebrity clientele that includes just about every Kar-Jenner sister, Lizzo, Eva Longoria, Megan Fox, and Selma Blair, knows that not everyone’s going to take him seriously, but also understands that it just comes with the territory. Ghosts have a way of making people take sides.

“Some people are wide open and other people kind of need evidence,” he tells InStyle. “With that comes varying degrees of belief and I really respect that and honor that.”

But earning a 2023 Daytime Emmy nomination in the Best Lifestyle Program category for his Netflix series, Life After Death With Tyler Henry, seemed to not only legitimize what Henry was doing (connecting people with spirits that have passed in addition to adding a true crime twist to his usual operations), it also affirmed, at just 27 years old, that he was doing exactly what he needed to do, even if naysayers brush him off. In addition to his television series, Henry is taking his talents to the real world with his national tour, An Evening of Hope and Healing, which is currently crisscrossing the nation with 25 stops from coast to coast and offering a chance for everyone to see his gift for themselves (though if you can't make it, Henry offers a chance to watch live readings with The Tyler Henry Collective on Fireside).

“As a medium, you're kind of expected to prove yourself constantly. I absolutely understand that as this is the world that I work in,” he explains, adding that things don’t always go the way he or the subject expects. “Sometimes, the readings you expect to go a certain way don't and vice-versa.”

While reading people may take a toll on him physically and emotionally, Tyler explains (much to fans’ delight) that he won’t stop sharing his gift anytime soon. He actually shared that he needs to work in order to provide that pent-up energy a way to leave his body.

"Things start building up and it actually can become very uncomfortable,” he says of the phenomenon. "It's when I don't work that it becomes a problem."

When Henry isn’t working — and with a waiting list of over 600,000 people hoping to get some time with him, he’s working — you can find him enjoying the archaic art of making stained glass windows, hanging out with his beloved doodle, Nancy, or even acting as a makeshift “after-Life Alert” for his partner, Clint’s, grandmother.

“There was an instance where his grandmother fell down into a wooden deck, basically. And I saw it happen before it occurred. I said, ‘You need to call home,’” he explains. “And indeed, that had just happened.”

Henry’s unique gifts are extremely meaningful for all the people that he interacts with — and they’re wildly accurate. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to receive a reading and connect with my late grandmother, who shared a few messages for my family from the afterlife. So, even if Khloé Kardashian communicating with her late father Robert made some people groan, Henry has a fan for life not only because of his ability to connect with the other side, but also because of his uplifting and delightful personality.

Read on to learn about how Henry recuperates after an intense reading (self-care is important), what he says is the distinct difference between a ghost and a spirit, and which celebrity reading meant the most to him.

Related: Vanessa Hudgens Wants Us All to Believe in Ghosts

Congratulations on your Emmy nomination! 
It was so surreal. I had no idea that it was even a possibility. I genuinely hadn't even thought about it. It was so special to get to hear that it was a nomination. With everything going on in the world right now, it was really surreal. While the Emmys have been postponed for the time being, I think it'll work out in the long run.

With the success of Hollywood Medium With Tyler Henry and Life After Death With Tyler Henry, how do you deal with skeptics and non-believers?
It's kind of part of the territory. I think, as a medium by nature, it is controversial. I've read a lot of people who started off as skeptics and through the process of hearing things that were subjectively meaningful to them, they would go on to acknowledge that perhaps there's something to it.

My goal is to try to meet people where they're at. And while my goal isn't necessarily to have to prove myself in every reading, I think every reading should have something of value. I want to just leave people better than I find them. And if I can do that and turn a skeptic into a believer, then that's a good day.

You mention having a brief experience with a ghost on the show. Is it different for you when you encounter ghosts compared to the spirits that you channel?
It's definitely more intense and generally is unsolicited. When I do a reading, I have some mental preparation, that I'm going to hopefully make a connection. When something does, it's not surprising. But when it comes to visitations from people who aren't in readings, as we call them, more like ghosts, that tends to be completely unsolicited.

It doesn't happen often. It is a lot more jolting and takes a lot more time to figure out what the point of the experience is, if there's a message in that encounter that I'm supposed to glean, and then perhaps pass on. I definitely prefer visitations during readings when I've created kind of a mental framework to prepare and be receptive and then hopefully have a point to the interaction.

It's like you're giving consent to the interaction.
You nailed it with the word consent. It's so important, especially in readings and making sure everyone feels comfortable.

Knowing how draining it is to be a medium, is this something you can continue to do? Can you ever take a break from communicating with the other side?
I definitely find, as long as I blow off the steam in doing designated readings at designated times, I seem to be able to maintain a balance of normalcy and then readings. If I take three weeks off or I go on an extended vacation, I find that I actually start ... And bear with me here, I call it being spiritually constipated. Things start building up and it actually can become very uncomfortable.

Why do you think it’s so tough to come down from readings?
A lot of mediums have historically described that taking on the energy, taking on the impressions of whatever may be coming through does often come at a personal sacrifice. I seem to have reactions, physical ones, that a lot of mediums don't really report.

I think it's a testament that there is something very real happening. So, I choose to view it from that angle versus it being so depleting, even though it is.

Do you ever resent having this ability?
I've always found it to be more of a benefit in my life than something that's ever taken away. I've had an overwhelming sense of validation in my own personal life that life continues on.

Your readings are mostly positive. Have you ever seen anything negative and have you chosen to share it?
I think it's important to sometimes assert negative things in order to help a person move forward. Again, so much of it's preventative, the idea that we can empower ourselves in the here and the now to live better, to do better. And I think challenges are part of life. They're an inevitability, but having the confidence to know that we can handle things not alone is really important. The idea that we are so much more than the worst thing that ever happens to us. We are so much more than a brief moment in time. They are so much more than how they died. I try to implement it in every reading.

Related: Jessica Chastain Explains Why She Believes in Ghosts

What is your relationship with death?
I don't feel about death like a lot of people feel about death. And while I certainly look both ways when I cross the street, you have to stop at signs, as I always say. It's given me a peace and overall genuine sense of joy in knowing that this is temporary, that we do reunite, that we are all connected, that love's a force, that it really truly connects us all and that it doesn't end when we die. And just that awareness has made me live differently, more mindfully, and has allowed me to really feel a sense of happiness that I don't think I would've otherwise ever had.

You’re an accomplished painter and fans know you use that as a creative outlet, but how else do you practice self-care?
For me, creativity is a really helpful way to apply intuition in a way that isn't occupational. I make stained-glass windows. I don't know anybody else who does it, but for me it's really special because it is tactile. I have to work with my hands and it's a process and something about that is deeply grounding, to have something that you can physically hold on to, look at, and watch it progress over a period of time. When you think of my work in a traditional sense, it's very much mental. It's very much non-tangible. So, to have something physical to go back to has really helped me ground myself.

On Life After Death, you had trouble reading your mother. Are you able to read other people close to you?
The thing is, the bias becomes a problem when I'm really trying or if I really am being told to focus on this one specific area. But there are times — all the time — where I'll just be off-the-cuff with my partner Clint, and I'll just say things that end up happening. He calls home and things have happened 2,000 miles away.

How does he feel about your gift?
It's fascinating, because 95% of the time, it means nothing to him. But then, he'll call his mom, and I mean there was an instance where his grandmother fell down into a wooden deck, basically. I saw it happen before it occurred and I said, “You need to call home.”

And indeed, that had just happened, so ... it's like Life Alert, but afterlife alert.

Related: How to Become Your Own Psychic Medium

Does it help if a person approaches a reading wanting to connect with a specific person?
It can help. It can also sometimes hinder. There are times where people will come wanting to hear from their mom and then they end up hearing from their mother-in-law. As a medium, I'm a little bit more like a mailman in the sense that I don't write the letters, I just deliver the message. With that comes having to be tactful and mindful, but I kind of only can give what I get.

What can we learn about grief from someone who has passed?
I think one of the most beautiful things that I've learned about grief is that it's an important thing to honor regardless of what we know to be true. It's a human experience to miss somebody. And even if you have a spiritual awareness, that needs to not invalidate those natural feelings of wanting to pick up the phone, of wanting a person to hug. I think, if anything, that death is not a goodbye. It is a “see you later.”

Take that love that you shared with that person and give some love to someone here who desperately needs it. Take what you learned from that person and teach somebody who might be here who could benefit from that lesson. That kind of gives them a second shot at life through our actions.

Related: The Pandemic Made Me Addicted to Buying Astrology Readings On Etsy

You read celebrities on E! show, Hollywood Medium With Tyler Henry. Which clients made you feel starstruck? 
La Toya Jackson was a big one. That one was nerve-wracking, because I knew exactly who she was going to want to hear from and that kind of added another element of being starstruck in the event that he would come through. I was nervous about meeting her and then I was nervous about sitting with her because I was like, "What if Michael Jackson pops up?"

But one of the beautiful things about that was, despite how overwhelmed I was, I was still able to connect information that was only known to the family, to his children, and was able to relay that to her in a way where I've actually been able to be in touch with his daughter since.

It's been a really beautiful thing. That was a really intense and meaningful experience. I think more than the celebrity aspect, it just showed the human being behind the performer and that was really special.

Who was your favorite celebrity reading?
I would say my reading with RuPaul was one of my favorites, just because that was somebody that meant a lot to me as I was growing up and being different in a very small town. And then to be able to meet him and really help him resolve some issues he had with his dad, who had passed, and be able to bring forward an apology he never received in life was so healing. When I think of it, it was really just the importance of accepting the apologies we'll never receive. In his case, he received the apology from his dad, but he never thought he would. He had done the work through therapy to accept his dad before he even got that apology. That was just a testament to his strength and his resilience. For his dad to come through and kind of validate that was really the icing on the cake.

He meant so much to me and then I was thankfully able to give something meaningful to him.

Do you feel like you accomplished the story you wanted to tell with Life After Death?
It's very vulnerable, very intense. I think that Life After Death was really a snapshot in time. We were coming off of the pandemic, I was exploring family mystery and I was able to traverse the South and all across the United States and really help people with readings, who really needed it. I was really happy even for one season that it was what it was. I think for it to continue would've kind of taken away from that. As a medium, that's really what I try to do, to act as a conduit for storytelling. With my mom having such an intense story, I was really proud to be able to share that and hopefully help people who can relate.

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