Why Chelsea Handler Seeks Out Oranges After Her Strange Encounter with a Psychic

Chelsea Handler has experienced many significant moments of loss in her life which eventually led her down a path of self-discovery and radical acceptance with the aide of therapy later in her life. During the harsh transitions in her life, Handler had a conversation with a famous psychic, Laura Lynne Jackson, who inspired faith that there is a spiritual connection to the physical world. She felt comforted by the idea that our dead loved ones are still here with us. This conversation created a strong connection Handler now has to oranges when she sees them out in random places. 

The psychic conversation

Handler met Jackson through some mutual friends who highly recommended her. Handler says in an interview on Wondery that the discussion was about people from the afterlife and how one could connect. Handler recalls the conversation in the interview. Handler said:

“You have to ask for a sign. You really have to get down on your knees and be like, ‘Hey mom. I need you to tell me that you’re here. Like, show me an orange,’ or whatever your sign for your mother is. And you have to mean it and believe it … And I have found oranges in the strangest places. On the east slope under a chairlift, there was an orange by itself, which had obviously fallen out of somebody else’s — but it was there for my eyes to see. And it was such a great comfort; it’s like, ‘Why wouldn’t you believe in that stuff?’ She’s kind of like a conduit for that kind of conversation, to tell you, ‘OK, your mother’s here, your father’s … whatever.’ I also take all that stuff with a grain of salt, you know what I mean?”

Current relationship with oranges

For many years since that conversation, Handler has been open to the public about her positive feelings toward oranges, even mentioning her connection with them in her book Life Will Be the Death of Me, according to USA Today. A direct quote from her Facebook says:

“Many people who haven’t read my book keep asking what the orange signifies. It signifies someone handing you a life raft. Someone taking care of you and thinking of you. When my psychiatrist Dan handed me an orange he had picked from his tree—was when I finally was able to cry … We should all be putting our arms around each other and handing our oranges to anyone who needs them. A reminder that we are all in this together. I had a problem with the color orange after the election, and I needed to take the orange back. It’s mine again. It’s ours. It’s to give to another person when they need it the most.”

Handler stays strong emotionally through everything 

According to People, Handler lost her brother at the age of 9, feeling many complicated emotions about the entire situation. She had so much success in her life, that she felt she didn’t need to ever truly process what had happened. She was determined from a young age to be strong and not let the emotions from that loss affect her, essentially just shutting all feelings off. 

She told USA Today, “I dealt with it by just, if anybody talked about Chet or mentioned him, I’d just leave the room. I’d get on my bike, and I’d ride my bike for hours around the neighborhood. I could cry on my bike, but I wouldn’t let anyone see me cry in person.” 

This emotional disconnection led her to eventually seek therapy later in life, wanting to work through these problems. Her psychiatrist helped her process the emotions she never allowed herself to truly feel, and this process also led to her belief that there must be others out there who are also suffering. This brought inspiration to her to write her book. She felt she needed to put more good out into the world. Those moments of recovery and the conversation with the psychic brought her to appreciate the connection she now has with oranges and where she sees them. This is her link to her loved ones who have passed.