Posted on 03/20/2009 5:54:42 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
NEW YORK (Mar 20, 2009)
After she was laid off from her job at Tiffany & Co. in New York City and forced to pack up her cosy apartment and move back to her family home, Siobhan Lamont said she felt lost and confused. She had just ended a long-term relationship, her brother was sick, and everything seemed in disarray.
"I was in a desperate state," she says. "It was hard to find the little light at the end of the tunnel."
So Lamont, 23, did something that five years earlier, she never would have imagined: She called a psychic.
Throughout the country, as the economy crumbles and the unemployment rate soars, people like Lamont are increasingly turning to psychics for hope.
Psychic Derek Calibre, who charges $120 for a one-hour session, says business has more than doubled in recent months, up to four or five readings a day. Calibre said that people today are "struggling and worried" and much more willing to take a chance on psychic intuition.
While there are no official statistics available, Rosemary (The Celtic Lady) McArthur, CEO and founder of the American, Canadian and U.K. Association of Psychics & Healers, estimates the industry is up 30 per cent from last year.
"Everyone has said that their readings have gone up incredibly," agrees Dawn Carr, founding member of the American Association of Psychics and Mediums, based in Boston. "It's surreal." About a third of callers are so-called psychic virgins, who are trying clairvoyance for the first time, she says.
Psychics have also noticed their clientele growing more diverse, with many more calls from men and people from industries across the spectrum.
Those who study consumer behaviour say it's not unusual for people to turn to psychics during tough economic times.
Stuart Vyse, a psychology professor at Connecticut College and author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition (Oxford University Press, $21.95), says that when faced with uncertainty, people are desperate for anything that gives them a sense of control -- even if it's just an illusion.
"The simple act of doing something makes you feel that you have some control in an uncertain world," he says.
And while love and relationships were once at the forefront of fortune seekers' minds, these days, Calibre said, clients' questions about whether their jobs are in danger, and what to do if they are, now consume about 70 per cent of session time, versus less than 40 per cent a year ago.
"They're asking, 'What's next for me? This is the ship going down. Am I going to get a life raft? Am I going to get on the lifeboat?'"
Carlos Aguilar, 45, says that although he used to consult a psychic once or twice a year, lately he's been calling much more frequently -- about once a month. Aguilar last year lost the restaurant he owned for a decade and is now unemployed, with mounting debt and creditors calling. He says he wants to know whether he'll be able to regain his financial footing.
"I'm just trying to find some kind of reassurance that my life isn't over. Even though things look really bleak and really bad, it's really nice to hear someone say, 'Hang in there. Things are going to be OK.'"
While it's easy to question the value of paying upwards of $100 for advice gleaned through tarot cards and crystal balls, these psychics say they are providing their clients with a valuable service.
"It's not that I'm waving a wand and giving them a job," Calibre says. Instead, he tries to help his clients identify forgotten talents and interests that could be used as they move from one career to the next or alert them to symbols that could be significant in the future.
When it came to discussing Lamont's career, for instance, Calibre revealed a card featuring a pink triangle with stick figures in different colours holding hands under a rainbow. The image symbolizes community, mental health and working with society, he told her. "This could be something that you're interested in," he said.
She hadn't yet told Calibre that she was considering returning to school for a master's degree in social work, which is her current plan.
Last week, Aguilar called Calibre, "desperate and panicking" to find out what to do about his home, which is on the verge of being foreclosed on by the bank.
Calibre says he drew two cards, one representing foreclosure and one representing trying to hold on to the property. The former card depicted happy, smiling faces; the latter "a tortured, hard root." Foreclosure, he said, seemed like the better option.
Aguilar says Calibre also told him he would soon begin a new job or perhaps open his own business and get himself out of debt. "He said he saw me getting back on my feet very quickly," Aguilar recalls.
While Lamont and Aguilar acknowledge the price is high, Lamont says that Calibre was able to provide something she couldn't find consulting friends, families or her therapist.
"He just really gave me some little hope that things will be OK and I'm going in the right direction," she says.
"I don't know that I could get the peace of mind from a financial adviser," Aguilar says.
I think I know why this chick lost her job.
Because she’s dumb as a stump?
All these people should call their mothers, and be told, “Stop being a whiner. Your boyfriend was a jerk, anyway, and you were an idiot for living with him when he was never going to marry you. Now get off the couch and go look for a job in a city where you can afford to live on what your skills are worth ... and by the way, now don’t you wish you’d worked harder in high school?”
Or if their own mothers aren’t available, they could call me!
I know all. I see all. I see ramen noodles in your future, while there is a big, thick steak in mine. Now hand over the $120.
I initially read “psychics” as “Physics”, and I thought to myself, “How does knowing how to solve for the friction of a block on an inclined plane help with the recession?”
Wow!
When I first read that, I read it as: “Recession driving people to PHYSICS”.
I don’t know why, but I found that somewhat comforting.
Then I realized my mistake.
“Long-term” relationship at 23? I’ve had longer relationships with some of my socks than she’s been ALIVE.
You know, more than six weeks, and she knew his last name.
“Was he a phychic?”
“No, he was a judge.”
I’m starting a collection of “Freeperisms” and this one is going in there. LOL
“worked harder in high school” High school might be one reason for her problems today.
Why aren’t psychics all billionaires?
She could have taken physics if she wanted to.
I’d be more than willing to split my winnings half and half with a psychic if they would tell me the winning numbers for tomorrow’s mega-lotto.
If these idiots would just see it is all about who they vote into office.
Merciless! You're in good form today.
Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Thanks. It’s been a long week!
I knew two weeks ago, that you were going to post this today.
I'm not psychic, I'm a time traveler. Meet me here last Wednesday and I'll tell you how I do it.
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