Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
A Psychic Overview
By Kshanti Livingston

What makes a great movie? Posed differently you could ask: What makes a movie great? Is it the cast? Director? Screenwriter? The Special Effects Team? The person who makes copies for the accountant of the editor’s cousin? Ok, maybe not. The point is, there are many things that factor into the making of a great movie; you just need to know the formula, then know how to adapt it for your purposes.
In creating the third movie in the Harry Potter series, they've made pure gold. It seemed as though the creators of the first two were still perfecting the formula, but persistence has paid off. With a new director and a new take on the screenplay, adapted from the famous novels written by J.K. Rowling, The Prisoner of Azkaban blows the first two movies way out of the park. In short- the movie rocks!
Okay, at this point you may be thinking, "Well that's all well and fine, but where does the psychic come in?" Read on my friend and you will see.
After you've been working somewhere, either with a lot of people or even one person in particular, do you ever feel drained, emotionally or physically, afterwards? In this movie Harry has this same feeling - to an extreme. The reason? Dementors. The soul sucking prison guards from the highly guarded Azkaban Prison, a place you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy. Azkaban is a prison for witches and wizards who have no chance of being free again.
Dementors can be compared to foreign energies that get into your space and try to take your amusement out of everything. In the movie, Dementors keep the prisoners in check by making them believe they are re-living their worst memories over and over again. In a sense, they are being kept stuck in the past. (It's kind of hard to be happy with all that negativity going through your head.) The 'Big Gun' for Dementors, reserved only for the steel hearted or runaways, is the Kiss of Death. The Kiss literally sucks the soul right out of the unlucky victim. This reminded me of Psychic Vampires - people who drain your energy.
There's one thing that can fight off a Dementor and that is the Patronus Charm. This charm conjures up a Patronus; a kind of anti-dementor, a guardian which acts as a shield between the conjurer and the Dementor. This concept is similar to your aura, which, when brought in around your body correctly, acts as a shield between you and everyone else's energy. By focusing on the happiest memory that can be thought of, the conjurer casts the charm with the magic words, 'Expecto Patronum!' The form of the patronum is different for everyone. Harry Potter's patronum is a great white stag that chases the Dementors off. The psychic correlation here? Thinking positive thoughts is the way to ward off the negative memories and pictures you may be stuck on in your life.
Ever have the feeling of Deja Vu, or wished you could be in two places at one time? Hermione Granger, a high spirited brainy student, found the solution to her problem of not having enough time for all the classes she wanted to take at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was granted use of a Time Turner. This made it possible for her to be in two places at one time and she was able to take a double workload for the school year. Not a bad idea, but as we found out in the movie, there was a lot to keep track of. But we saw examples of what can happen when a spirit leaves its body and goes into future time, then re-lives the experience once again with their body - Deja Vu.
There's many more examples of correlations between the wizard world of Harry Potter and the psychic world of Here and Now, but you'll just have to go see the movie and find them for yourself.
Well, it's been a pleasure spending time with you, but I'm afraid that until next time I must say good-bye and good day!