Susan Kerr ’71

Member of Adelphi University’s Profiles in Success program.

Spiritual Counselor, Author, and Lecturer

Don’t Try to Predict Your Life

Although she’s a psychic and spiritual counselor herself, Susan Kerr ’71 warns college students against trying to foresee their future.

“Don’t try to predict your life,” she says. “Everything you do today will be of use some time in the future.”

Her advice draws on her own experiences along a varied career path, and her belief that Adelphi gave her the self-confidence to pursue her dreams.

A speech and drama major, Ms. Kerr planned to pursue a career in television production. After college, she joined the long-running NBC television show Kraft Music Hall, which featured such performers as Anna Meara and Jerry Stiller, and music stars, including Wayne Newton, Johnny Cash, and Roy Rogers.

Her second job after college was also with the NBC Corporation, as a guidette at the Radio City Studios in Rockefeller Center. For several years she gave guided tours to fans hoping to catch a glimpse of stars from The Tonight Show, NBC Nightly News, and Saturday Night Live.

But eventually Ms. Kerr was drawn to continue her education, albeit in a field not taught at Adelphi.

“I’ve had psychic experiences my whole life,” she says. “I wanted to gain a better understanding of myself.”

Ms. Kerr has developed her metaphysical and psychic abilities through extensive study of Eastern religious traditions and meditation, including spending time at the Foundation for Meditative Studies in Ashland, Oregon.

Her first book, The System for Soul Memory, is based on the human body’s natural energy system, similar to the physiology behind acupuncture. Ms. Kerr hopes to inspire and instruct others to utilize a better understanding of their energy system to better their lives.

“I’ve always been able to perceive things that others don’t,” she says. “I was born knowing how to use parts of my brain that most people never access.”

Indeed, Ms. Kerr is often able to see whether people or animals are unhappy or suffering. In the 1990s, she returned to television, appearing as an animal psychic on several talk shows, including Joan Rivers and Ricki Lake.

“Communicating with animals is very much like with people,” she says. “They have souls too, and often the same things that would affect us, affect our pets.”

Ms. Kerr came to Adelphi from El Paso, Texas. “I was one of three students from outside the New York area,” she says. “Everyone was much more in-your-face than I was used to.”

Nevertheless, she thrived at Adelphi, and laid the foundation for unique career. Ms. Kerr’s second book is due to be published in 2008. When not working, she enjoys playing golf and bridge, and painting. Now a proud New Yorker, Ms. Kerr and her husband Michael enjoy returning to Texas to visit their elder son and granddaughter.