Ha ha! Awesome. I’ll report my findings in a week.
Really, tell me more. I frequently have clients ask about beating those things. I tell them the way to avoid it is not to get arrested.
Dudes, she doesn’t predict the lottery numbers. She predicts that the guy you’re dating who was lazy and controlling yesterday is going to be lazy and controlling tomorrow. She’s like Dan Savage, except she uses a deck of cards as a shtick instead of “Hey Faggot”.
What are some of the most common questions you get from clients?
That doesn’t help. Certain types of jobs involve getting up close and personal with polygraph machines. Look up “full lifestyle polygraph exam” and see what sorts of jobs require spending all day in the comphy chair.
What sort of clues are you picking up from your clients to tell you who they are and what they want to hear from you? Do you have something like a mental checklist of things to observe and what that implies about your clients?
Infidelity and drug addiction questions are very common. People want to why they aren’t more successfull or why their parents use to beat or molest them (If the parent is dead I usually lie outright on this question and say it was because a demon or evil spirit possessed the abuser). Since 9/11 and the Iraq war, many people are worried about their safety. I do get asked for lucky numbers and about horse races, how to make a business work, what to do about income tax or immigration, or problems with teenagers or a spouse. The creepiest and stupidest questions have been asked by criminals. What type of charms will ensure the success of a business, especially what will help protect it from the police, for example.
Yes, it’s more like an encyclopedia.
I’m sure someone has come in and asked you for lottery numbers before. What do you do when a client does that?
Have you ever had a situation where a client wanted advice on doing something that you found morally repugnant? A criminal looking for hints on beating the polygraph so they can get away with committing a crime might be an example. What do you do? Where do you draw the line and turn a client over to the authorities, if possible?
Do you ever get clients who ignore the advice you give them, but keep coming back with the same problems (that your advice would solve, if they would take it)? How do you handle that? Do you give them the same advice again, or do you give them some different advice that they might find easier to follow?
Do you keep any kind of resources on hand for people with serious problems that could be helped by other professionals? Hotlines or names of shelters for people with abusive spouses, names of good marriage or family counselors, names of income tax or immigration lawyers, that sort of thing?
What kind of questions about drug addiction do you get? Is it usually about someone’s own drug use, or drug use in someone close to them?
What do you say if the parent is still alive? Do you ever tell your clients to consider going to the authorities about something like molestation?
I joke and say if the spirits would be kind enough to give me that information I would build them a private temple be their devoted disciple for life, but unfortunately, the spirits do not seem interested in getting good help these days.
Often. Now I am going to reveal one of the dirty little secrets of the psychic world. There is no psychic-client priviledge and some of us (including me) will sell out criminals as fast as I can hit the speed dial to my favorite detective. We help solve a lot of crime because we hear things no one else does. Bounty hunters like to stake out our places too. A lot of people who have skipped bail will go see a fortune teller about it. As long as the bounty hunter isn’t physically on my property or blocking access to it, there is really no way I can prevent him from hanging around.
All the time. I just remind them if they had taken my advice they would have been better off. Sometimes the advice has to be repackaged.
I do, some others do, and some others do not.
Someone close to them. Is my kid or husband on drugs? Usually, they are only there to confirm their suspicions.
I suggest the counciling at the women’s center. If the person is underage and the molestation is therefore still an on-going crime, it’s back to speed dialing my favorite detective. He or she (there have been numerous favorite detectives over the years) is a reasonable law enforcement officer that keeps the fundies off my back in exchange for tips.
Have you ever had a reading “go bad”? I mean a situation such as someone freaking out over what you told them, or perhaps you getting something really wrong? Have you ever felt that you were in danger?
Excuse me sir, would you like your palms read?
No thanks! Pink’s just fine!
Heh, using people’s stupid gullibility against them. I kinda admire that.
Out of curiosity, do you feel there should be a law protecting psychic/client privilege, the way it is for doctors, lawyers, and priests?
Pink? Why pink? Are you some kinda racist or something? 
Not really, any law protecting psychic/client privilege would require more government intrusion in my life than I want. The practice would have to be regulated much in the same way doctors, lawyers, and priests (at least the ones that can claim the priviledge ) are.
I have a 20-gauge shotgun for just such occasions and I take all the precautions anyone would in a business where some of your customers are mentally unstable or criminal. I would say I’m in less danger of being harmed than the clerks at a liquor store or a 24-hour convenience store.
Over the years, I’ve had plenty of people freak out and I’ve made mistakes in readings. I’ve learned how to calm people done and how to quickly divert a reading away from the mistakes. On a side note, people who get extremely excited about how accurate a reading are a very desirable client base.
Nope!!!
I just had to throw in some colour, and pink was in the neighborhood.
(I’m glad I’m not painting the house bright green!!!)
I don’t. It’s called scamming people when you’re putting their money in your pocket. No matter how you try to rationalize it, it’s hardly an honorable activity to pretend you can predict the future by reading palms or cards.
I think it’s hardly an honorable activity to pretend you can predict the future by reading ancient religious texts, but religious leaders get away with it (and are frequently honored for it) all the time. They don’t even have to pay taxes on the money they take in or for all the beautiful props (buildings like palaces, fabulous sound systems, artwork, etc.) they use for performances. The cards and palm scrutiny are just tools to help people communicate.
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I thought they were aids in telling the future, not nurturing communication. Is my understanding wrong?
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What do you think of the Amazing Randy, professional sceptic?
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Do you have a degree in counseling or psychology?
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Is the “predicting the future” part of your job a scam? I mean, do you believe you can magically/supernaturally know the future or not?
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Do your clients sometimes believe you can tell the future? Do you allow them to believe you can?
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Do you practice full disclosure? Do you tell your clients that you are going to think about what they have said and use the information to predict or not?
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Cards, palm reading, astrological charts mean whatever the reader wants them to mean. There are probably a thousand or more systems for “reading” them. They are a tools.
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I love the Amazing Randy. I wish more people listened to him and that salaries would rise in the academic profession I am formally trained in (Library Science) to afford me a more comfortable living that way than through telling fortunes. I also realize that is probably a dream.
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I have an undergraduate degree in history and a Masters of Library Science. While an undergraduate I took approximately 18 hours in the social sciences (Intro. to Psyc., Educational Psyc., Psyc. of Woman, Human Sexuality, Intro. to Sociology, and Intro to Cultural Anthropology). I also grew up helping my mother, grandmother, and other women in our family work in the fortune telling business which is somewhat like the medieval tradition of learning a trade through apprenticeship. Many fortune tellers and readers who are immigrants from former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union have considerably more formal academic training and were professional councilors or medical doctors in their former countries.
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I believe everybody has some capacity to predict the future if they used their common sense. Unfortunately, many people don’t want to think or need to be taught how to use their minds. As far as the supernatural goes, I employ tradiational European and Asian folk practices used to court spirits and ascertain advice for the future. Has a spirit ever directly manifested itself to me or have I ever seen any overt signs of the supernatural? No. Have I ever used these tradiational practices as a way to facilitate communication and explain and teach ideas? Everyday.
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Plenty of my clients believe I can tell the future. I let them believe what I think they need to believe. And in some cases, the futures rather predicatable, wouldn’t you say (i.e., the lazy scumbag husband who hits his wife isn’t going to experience a miracle and change, he’s going to keep on hitting her, until she leaves, etc)? So yes, I do predict the future.
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Define full disclosure. I tell the client what I think they need to know. I tell them I am not a psychologist, social worker, or medical professional. I am a wise woman descended from centuries of wise women and I will use all that I know and all that I can ascertain from this world and the others to help them.