Bucking the Trend: How psychic services boom in a recession

The market for psychic services in the UK is booming. Psychic mailings - letters promising spiritualist services in exchange for a cheque - are estimated to have cost Britons £40m in 2006-07, according to Office of Fair Trading research. Psychic services via telephone, online and satellite TV keep the tills ringing further, much further. In 2006 Selfridges in London launched the Psychic Sisters service in store, and Harrods followed with Inner Beauty.

The Mind Body Soul fest thrives with Scientologists vying for position with holistic nudists. With rates for a reading anywhere between £30 and £200, the most popular psychics are booked months in advance. Sylvia Brown, one of the most well known psychics offers a 20 minute telephone reading for $795! As well as the readings and TV shows, there is the opportunity for book deals, the lucrative tour circuit, and columns not only in new age magazines, but also in mainstream titles. For successful psychics, the rewards are huge.

Ditto the rewards for the media promoting or advertising psychic services internationally, whether by radio, TV, or online, and there’s no sign of it abating.

There is no ignoring the fact that this is no longer a fringe community, and the government reacted to the potential risk of charlatans (count to ten) with the introduction of Consumer Protection Regulations in 2008, which replaced the 1951 Fraudulent Mediums Act (which only saw a 10 or so convictions since its introduction in 1951).

Spiritualists fought the new regulations, claiming Spiritualism as a religion which should not be subject to such rules and potential litigation. They said that as soon as they asked for donations towards the hire of a village hall they were at risk of a legal action from a dissatisfied believer or entrapment. But surely, if they are bona fide then they have nothing to worry about...or at least they should see it coming?

Indeed, a whole list of disclaimers must be added to the spiritualists' spiel if they are to avoid an avalanche of writs following the repeal of the Fraudulent Mediums Act, and the relatively new Consumer Protection Regulations. Promises to raise the dead, secure good fortune or heal through the laying on of hands are all at risk of legal action from disgruntled customers. Spiritualists say they will be forced to issue disclaimers, such as 'this is a scientific experiment, the results of which cannot be guaranteed'. Thus they claim the new regulations will leave them open to malicious civil action by sceptics.

All this begs the question why, while people are foregoing their second (or heaven forbid), first holiday, there are still others ready to invest in chi generators and phone premium rate lines to talk to someone who will make generic statements about their future?

Why in these sceptical, cynical times do we think that a medium can tell us what’s wrong with our lives, and even throw in a chat with some departed relatives and make a few (often pointless) predictions about our future?

Psychic services have long been used by the rich and famous. American Presidents (the present one excepted) had a predilection for referring to the occult for help; Abraham Lincoln for one. Famously, Ronald Reagan checked ‘’almost every decision with Joan Quigley, who drew up horoscopes for each and every enterprise.” Today though addressing a medium is becoming a far more mainstream occupation.

It is sometimes suggested that the reason why Jo Public is looking to medieval solutions to their problems, or support from beyond the grave is because of the gap left by conventional religion. Others feel that it is a more general malaise as faith is lost in other institutions such as the government, the family or society in general.

When the Selfridges Psychic Sisters heralded established businesses bustling into the psychic market the UK media sat up and took notice, and “The Sunday Times”, “The Independent” and “The Telegraph” sent the journalist who drew the shortest straw out to investigate the validity of the claims.

None of the journalists found it a life changing experience, and none of them came out with any sense of enlightenment. Like James Randi, the self professed conjurer and debunker of psychics, mediums etc, they felt that the mediums visited relied on assumptions by the client and suggestibility. Those visiting mediums ‘’want’’ answers, comfort, support, direction. However, the responses they get from their psychic tends towards the generic, and when specifics are covered tend to be peripheral, leading the client to wonder why someone would reach out from the grave to tell them that they are about to buy a goldfish. The journalist from “The Telegraph” was told he would attend the Michael Jackson concert at the O2. Unfortunately, although he had a ticket, the psychic didn’t foresee MJ’s death.

Comments such as these are bread and butter psychic speak:

"Money is tight. You have to look at it closely. You are also looking ahead to new horizons and a new start. You are moving on to better things. I see a younger person who has a lot of love but can be naive at times." Ambiguity and interpretation reign.

"Your dad, is he in spirit?" she asks the journalist." "No," I reply. "Is his dad?" "Yes,” he replies. "He was quite a tall man," she states. "Not particularly," he says. "But taller than you..." she ventures. The journalist is 5ft 8in, below-average height. Most people are taller than him. When he leaves he is left with the feeling that if he was a believer he would’ve found much to bolster his belief.

Arch-sceptic James Randi – whose $1m reward to any psychic who can scientifically prove his or her ability has so far gone unclaimed – would baulk at these suggestions. "Magical thinking is a slippery slope; sometimes it's harmless, but other times it's quite dangerous. Why people are so drawn to the irrational is something that has always puzzled me," he says. It is, of course, also lucrative.

I find the whole psychic industry distasteful and cynical; feasting on the vulnerable and depressed.

A telling story is this, and one which addresses the ''what harm can it do?" point :

“Karen Phillips lost her 22-year-old daughter last year. She has just begun to see psychics. "I would love to think that I could contact her, and have started going more often to psychic shows and to want personal readings," she says. "I want it to be true so that I can still have contact with my daughter, whom I miss desperately. I know I am on the brink of getting addicted, but at the moment my rational side prevents me."

The telling parts of Karen’s story are that she ‘’wants’’ it to be true, and that she is in danger of becoming ‘’addicted’’ – and at a price. Personally, I would like to return the favour offered by one psychic and push ‘’debris’’ up, instead of out of his ‘’bottom chakra’’. If it is possible for souls to cross the great divide between life and death, to turn the laws of nature on their heads and make contact with the living, why would they go to all that trouble and effort just to tell me that one day I will own a goldfish? I would hope that they would have something more profound to say. In the meantime, I wait to see if the government’s regulations are better used than the previous legislation..obviously if I were a psychic I wouldn't have to wait.

For more information James Randi does a splendid short talk on TED.
http://www.ted.com/talks/james_randi.html