Extreme Sisters Christina And Jessica Reveal What It's Like Being Psychic - Exclusive Interview

Most people would say their family is weird or unique in some way, but the families on TLC's new show "Extreme Sisters" are really something else. "Having a close knit family is something most people aspire to and at TLC, we love to explore relationships of all kinds," Howard Lee, president of TLC Streaming and Network Originals, shared in a press release from Discovery. "In 'Extreme Sisters,' we will introduce sets of inseparable sisters whose bonds are raw, honest and perhaps a little unconventional. Their sibling kinship brings the meaning of sisterhood to a whole other level!"

Take, for example, sisters Christina Manning and Jessica Dunagan. Labeled the "Psychic Sisters" of "Extreme Sisters," this duo is anything but ordinary. According to the press release from Discovery, Christina and Jessica have shared every major moment, from getting married and getting divorced to having kids, at the same time. They still live less than a mile apart and are raising their kids as practically siblings while running their own love coaching service. But how did they learn they were different? How deep does their connection go? Christina and Jessica from "Extreme Sisters" sat down with The List for an exclusive interview in which they answered these questions and more.

How did you guys come to be on "Extreme Sisters"?

Jessica: I'll go first. So we actually were scouted from Bodega, the production company. They saw a video that we had put on YouTube five years prior, and we were Reiki-charging our food and I thought that was really interesting. And so they contacted us.

Christina: We had a few videos.

Jessica: The one that they liked though... So we're spiritual and we're psychics. So we use energy to basically create our lives. And we were really ill and we discovered that Reiki-charging our food actually gave us good health. So basically you're taking energy and you're transferring it from your mind into a thought and that into energy for your hands. And then you're putting that energy into the food before you consume it. But it's all about vibrations. Everything's vibration.

They liked the fact that we were spiritual. They've seen our dynamics together in the videos and like, "Wow, these sisters are really close. There's something different about them. There's something unique." And they reached out to us and then here we are. What's interesting, what makes the story even more fun is the casting director actually found my website to get a psychic reading and actually contacted me to get a psychic reading to even get ahold of me. I thought she was just a client.

Christina: So she had to really find us. Spirit led. Spirit led her.

Why do you guys call yourselves the "Psychic Sisters"?

Christina: Well, it's been our career since we were gosh, 18, 19 years old. We grew up, our mom was a psychic. And so we grew up in that world. She had a shop. We grew up running her shop where she sold tarot cards and candles and incense and all this fun little stuff. And we were not about it. We were like, "No, we're not going to go down that same road." And the universe said, "No, yes you are. Yes, you are." And so with our abilities, we're actually intuitive together so we can feel each other's energy. So it's like telepathy for each other, but then we also can see other people's futures.

Jessica: And each other's.

Christina: ... And each other's. We like to butt into each other's business a lot with our psychic abilities.

Have there been any predictions that you've been able to make for one another that have been particularly crazy or ones that were surprising that they came true?

Jessica: She predicted my divorce.

Christina: She told me she was like, "I want to have another kid with my husband." I said, "No, you're going to divorce next year."

Jessica: And I was like, "No, no, I don't want to know. Don't tell me that." So she predicted my divorce. We predicted the outcomes of our relationships with other people. We predicted our mom's death. I did predict my mom being sick with cancer.

Christina: Cancer. I remember it. She came into the house and was like, "Mom's going to die of cancer soon." I'm like, "Okay."

Jessica: So when we get visions, our abilities come through visions, through dreams, through feeling energy and reading energy. So it's a unique gift that we're blessed with and we love it. Well, it's a blessing and a curse.

Have there been any visions that you've had where you thought, "I don't want to know that"?

Christina: Try being single and dating. It makes it hard. It makes it hard because I feel things.

Jessica: It makes it fun too though because, prior to a date, I can ask her about how the date is going to go and if this guy has any red flags I need to know about.

Christina: So we help each other out.

Jessica: We have match-made people as well. We can use our psychic [abilities] ... We have done it. We have success stories.

Christina: We have a lot of close friends that we've match-made.

What was it like filming "Extreme Sisters"?

Jessica: Gosh, I honestly think we were meant for this. We forgot that the cameras were even there. It was almost like we were on a journey and they came at a really interesting time when our life was taking a lot of twists and turns. And they were just there to capture that.

Christina: So I definitely loved it. I look at it more as a journey that I experienced that I get to watch back and really learn from and take notes from. They came at a very interesting time. I will say that, as far as our sisterhood and our personal journey that we were in. So it was fun.

Can you speak about that "interesting time"?

Jessica: Obviously she gets a new boyfriend. So we get to experience that. We're going to take the viewers on a little journey of, how does a psychic –

Christina: Well, we've lived parallel lives. So we were always married at the same time and single at the same time. This is the first time in our life where she's remained single while I've had a relationship.

Jessica: The first time.

Christina: So we're navigating it. We're navigating this all together. We're figuring it out all together.

Jessica: For the first time.

Christina: We've always been married at the same time.

Jessica: So our lives have always been the same. Divorced at the same time, pregnant at the same time. This is the first time I've been single without my sister.

Has that brought up any challenges?

Jessica: Well, I think what makes it more hard is the fact that I'm psychic and I read minds.

Christina: So she wants to butt into my relationship. And I'm trying to just have a healthy relationship with my partner and still have a relationship with my sister. And that created a lot of challenges. Plus I think that it was just really hard for us because we're so used to being inseparable and really close. And I had to share my time with my boyfriend and my sister. So that created some challenges. Plus my boyfriend, it was a new experience for him. He had never dated a twin. I was his first relationship. Plus it's with a twin and you guys are this close.

When did you two realize that your particular relationship is different than other sisters' relationships?

Jessica: Our divorces. I would say our divorces.

Christina: We were almost kind of naïve to it. We didn't know any different.

Jessica: It's like asking someone that's not a twin or close to their sister, "What's it like?" People always ask what it's like to be a twin or be so close. And we don't know any [different]. Everyone told us how extreme we were. "This isn't normal, you guys."

Christina: You just don't understand us.

Jessica: But it's our normal. So to me, it's normal.

Christina: But I think for us though, for me, particularly, I think it was a huge eye-opener when we both went through divorces and our ex-husbands both said the same thing: "You guys are too close, and it's too hard to be in a relationship with you guys." That's when I thought, "We need to make a new strategy."

Jessica: She wanted to make new strategies.

What are the things that make you guys different? And do those differences ever create tension or interesting moments in your relationship?

Christina: I would say right now our biggest difference is the fact that I'm trying to find out who I am without us. It's always been the twins, the twins, us, us, us. I'm trying to create who [I am] without her. And that's where we're different because she is opposite of me. She thinks we should really embrace this and be the same all the time. And if you haven't noticed, I have my hair longer. I would love to cut my hair short. I think short hair is adorable, but I don't want to look just like her. There she goes, "Why not?"

Jessica: It's cool.

Christina: It's so cool being twins, but sometimes you want to be like, "Gosh, I've been a twin my entire life, who am I by myself?"

How does that make you feel, hearing your sister say that she wants to be different than you sometimes?

Jessica: Well, I think that it's a blessing to be a twin. It's a unique experience that I think people envy, to be honest. Not everybody, but I want to embrace it. I want to embrace it and take it for all it is. I have someone that shares the same DNA as me. How cool is that? Let's look alike, let's dress alike. She won't dress alike. She won't do it. We did for so many years.

Christina: We should have been triplets and then they could have done their own thing.

Have you ever had any trouble in the past with people not understanding or even approving of your relationship?

Christina: Oh my gosh, everybody.

Jessica: Our own mother found it hard.

Christina: Growing up, she was always like, "It is so hard to get close to you girls because you don't let anybody in. It's just you two, you guys are each other's everything. And it's like, how do people get into that and become a part of that?"

Jessica: But we do share the same best friend, which you guys will get a glimpse into that world as well. So that'll be interesting to see that dynamic as well in the show. I think it's different. It's different. People just don't get it. Our own mom, she thought it was hard. So our brother, everybody. Clearly our ex-husbands.

What's your favorite memory together, a twin moment?

Jessica: I think for me, I think being pregnant together and becoming moms together, just experiencing that and watching her be a mom. For me, that's my favorite, doing that together.

Christina: I think just doing the show has been a huge memory for me. Even doing our meditation in the woods, just little things like that. Those are all memories for me that, just knowing that the camera's there, even the whole filming experience has been a magical memory for me.

Is there anything that you regret about your relationship? Things you had to give up? Moments you wish you could take back?

Christina: For me, I have no regrets because I think in life, even the mistakes that we've made, we've been able to learn from those. And so to me, I think it's all just a part of our journey and I embrace our imperfections and our failures together because we get through them. We've gotten through so much and I don't know any other relationship that could sustain what we've sustained and made it through it. We actually have people that say that, "If that was my sister and I, we would not be talking." And we just get through it, we pick up. You know what it is. It's having somebody in your life that you are 150% raw, real, and open with. She knows every single thing about me. There's not anything that I can't tell her and I think that's a problem with guys in our life. Is they're like, "No, no, no, no. I need to be that person. I need to be that person that you share all those intimate details with."

Jessica: I also don't have any regrets.

Christina: I thought you would have regrets.

Jessica: No, I don't live in regrets. I don't live in regrets. I'm with love. And so as long as I'm of love. Now, do I regret how I've handled some situations. Yeah. But it happens.

How many kids do you each have and how old are they?

Jessica: So I have a 5 and a 6-year-old. They're only 11 months apart.

Christina: And then I have a 5-year-old. So we've both been pregnant two times. I had a miscarriage with my first pregnancy. So we would both have two children. So that's what's interesting too is that we literally have only been pregnant together, which is so crazy. So I have one boy, who's 5. She's got the girl who's 5 and then she's got the older boy.

Did you guys plan to get pregnant together or did it just happen?

Christina: It happened.

Jessica: No, we did not plan.

Christina: There's nothing in our thoughts. I feel like if we were to get pregnant again, we'll plan it now because it was like, we like being pregnant together. I don't want to go through a pregnancy without her now. I've gotten to used to having someone to complain with. And eat fast food with. No plans. Not at all.

How are your children in regards to your relationship? Do they realize that their moms have a special relationship?

Jessica: They're used to it. They don't know any different.

Christina: They're best friends too. They always want to play. So they're always together. They're best friends. I don't think they know any different.

Jessica: No.

Christina: I think ... they think they have more love and it's like they have two mommies. So I think that's definitely one of the blessings of being so close, is that our kids get to be so close.

Do you know if they share those same hopes that they'll stay close with their cousins forever?

Christina: I think so. I think so. We're going to raise [them] to embrace –

Jessica: They're raised like brothers and sisters, to be honest. All of our vacations we take together with the kids. We're planning a trip to Disneyland, we'll take the kids. So they're just going to have all those memories as children together.

Christina: So there are times where I feel guilty that I only have one child. He's an only child, and I'm like, oh my gosh. But I also remember that he's really not an only child because [of] my sister's kids. So he has a brother and sister. Don't worry, we use the word cousin around here, but to me that's his brother and sister.

Are you guys nervous about sharing your story so honestly with the world?

Jessica: No. I find it actually very liberating and free. It's very freeing to me because, even our psychic ability, we hid it. We hid it from people. So just opening it up and saying, "Hey, this is us." And I love that I was so raw and vulnerable because I feel like it'll be relatable. If I can help somebody understand. If it can just be relatable to one person, then that'll make me ...

Christina: Hopefully there will be people that can relate to what it feels like to be in her situation. As long as we know that we're giving somebody some entertainment and a purpose, we have a purpose to help people too.

You mentioned that your mother passed away. How did she pass? How have you been since then?

Jessica: Actually, it just became three years ago. It was her three-year anniversary at the beginning of April. And she had cancer. She didn't know she had cancer, and all of a sudden, she had a lot of pain and we took her to the doctor and she had stage four. She was told she only had weeks to live in that moment. And she ended up living for three months. So she's a fighter. And I've sucked that strength in, and I just remember that because she had cancer everywhere. She wasn't supposed to live even three months. So we took care of her. So she stayed with us and we took care of her. And so as much as it was so hard to go through that with her, we also were able to heal some of the past wounds that we had with her throughout our childhood. So there was a lot of healing in it too that was done.

What is the one thing you hope viewers will take away from your story?

Jessica: That no matter what, when you have a sister bond, it's unbreakable. You get through everything together, the good and the bad.

Christina: And I think I would want viewers to say like, no matter what happens, to always learn to grow from the situation versus separating from the situation. I believe hopefully it will bring us closer. I feel like it's brought us closer in some ways. So I don't know. We're still on the journey.

Jessica: We're still on the journey.

Christina: But we're here. We still made it through it.

Jessica: We made it through.

Christina: Some of it will be hard for us to watch, I'm sure. But we made it through it, so.

Is there anything else that you guys wanted to share?

Jessica: We did just publish a book called "Charge Your Food, Change Your Life," about Reiki-charging food.

What inspired you to write it?

Jessica: We're big on manifesting. It's like our dreams have all came true through our mind. So this is something we've been manifesting for a while, and we're just like, "Let's do it," and spirit led us.

And Reiki-charging our food is what changed our lives. And we just wanted to share that with others. We started using the manifesting and Reiki energy to overcome our illness, to overcome the struggles we were going through in our childhood. And it completely changed our lives.

Christina: We just published it on the 1st of April. So it just came out.

It's all about sisterly love in TLC's new series "Extreme Sisters," premiering Sunday, April 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.