October 11, 2011

Six months earlier Salvatore Trimboli held a steady office job in IT solving computer problems.

Flash forward to the present and he still works from an office but the ballpark has shifted undeniably; from fixing everyday glitches to changing people’s lives.

At 27, Trimboli is the youngest contestant on Channel Seven’s revamped series of The One, a show that pits together 10 of the nation’s top psychics in a search for ‘‘Australia’s most gifted’’.

In a modest office in a shared urban workspace in Niddrie, Trimboli professes to have had psychic abilities since he was as little as three.

‘‘I was having lots of vivid dreams,” he recalls.

”I used to connect with people who had passed.”

Trimboli says those feelings were blocked throughout his conventional childhood and only resurfaced after the death of his grandmother, a focal point in his life.

‘‘The thing is [though] I didn’t know how to understand what I was receiving because I was a bit young and my family didn’t really know what was happening,” he says looking back.

”It kind of got suppressed a little bit and sort of came back quite strong when I was in my early-20s.’’

From that point Trimboli immersed himself in the psychic world and through meditation says he began accessing the same feelings he had experienced as a child.

Soon he was giving professional readings at night while working his day job in IT.

He tossed it in and became a full-time psychic on the back of his selection on The One.

‘‘Since the show I thought I’m definitely going to dedicate my life to doing this,’’ says an animated Trimboli.

‘‘I really enjoy the satisfaction I get from people’s feedback. Just being able to help them….that’s the most important thing.’’

For the believers, Trimboli’s pathway to The One seemingly has a sense of fate about it – he found details about completing an online test sitting in his junk E-mail on the night before applications closed.

Luckily for him he submitted a hasty application and survived each progressive cull to make it to the final 10 from about 1000 wannabes.

The show’s concept involves contestants tackling a series of challenges, on location and in front of a studio audience, designed to test their alleged abilities.

Last week’s first episode involved psychics being given 15 minutes to find a helicopter in a pine forest using a personal item connected to the pilot.

Tonight’s has them trying to find a thief on a crowded train.

There’s two opposing judges, metaphysicist Stacey Demarco and Richard Saunders, vice-president of the Australian Skeptics.

Trimboli, who claims to have had a dream about the Japanese tsunami two days before it happened, says he signed up for the show to challenge himself.

‘‘[It was] just to try and challenge my abilities and see how well I could go,” he explains.

”I don’t care about the label [Australia’s most gifted psychic]. It’s just more about helping people.’’

Asked about viewers questioning the credibility of psychics, Trimboli says he welcomes the scrutiny.

‘‘I really like being sceptical about even other psychics as well, because people do get things wrong,’’ he concedes.

‘‘Everyone gets things wrong but it’s just a matter of the integrity of your work and where you’re coming from most importantly.’’

For now, Trimboli plans to use The One as a springboard to further his newfound career.

He says the show is designed to entertain and he’s relished trying new things.

Trimboli was one of only four psychics who successfully found the helicopter in last week’s episode, correctly describing having to cross a stream and then head left to its location.

‘‘Well that’s the thing,’’ says Trimboli. ‘‘We don’t really do those sorts of challenges every day. I mean we just talk to people.

‘‘I have to honestly say that I would never be given the opportunity to do the challenges and those sorts of things on that sort of scale. So I really appreciated it.’’

More importantly, Trimboli, a quietly spoken and humble young man, says his confidence has grown as a result of the show and he now feels empowered to be himself.

Most of his family and friends have been kept in the dark about his career, until now.

‘‘I believe in myself more now since I’ve done the show,’’ he says proudly.

The trick will be making others do the same.

The One: Australia’s Most Gifted Psychic, screens on Channel Seven on Wednesday nights at 7.30pm.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/psychic-wants-to-be-the-one-20111011-1livz.html#ixzz1b1HV8lwR