In the paper, there was an article about a 22 year old woman from Florida who was arrested in Suffolk County, NY for providing an eighteen year old girl with a bogus psychic reading at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove and charging a ridiculous amount of money for it ("Fortune Teller Accused of Fraud," Matthew Chayes, Newsday, October 11, 2009). According to police, Tiffany Evans told the teenager that she was under a curse and that to lift it she would have to purchase a potion, candles and a supposedly magical stone for over $1,000.
They caught this allegedly fake psychic undercover. The teen paid $25 for an initial reading. And then, authorities say, the young client brought undercover cops with her for a follow-up appointment where the psychic tried to sell the teen the $600 potion and stone and would perform a ritual to lift the imaginary evil spell for another $1,250. It was then that they busted Evans and charged her with fraudulent accosting, three counts of fortune telling and attempted grand larceny.
When I saw this article in the paper, I had to check out Newsday's website for the comments. They were predictable. People asked, "Fake psychic? Is there any other kind?" Most sensible, down-to-earth people possess that level of skepticism about psychic abilities.
What shocked me, however, were some of the charges brought against the psychic. I agree that if she tried to take the teen's money for the purpose alleged she should be charged with attempted grand larceny. Candles do not under any circumstances cost in the thousands. And you can get a body wash from Bath and Body Works at a two for one sale. Do what a Catholic priest does and bless these items. Her actions were fraudulent as accused. But, she also faces three counts of "fortune telling" to quote the indictment.
Until I read this article, I wasn't aware that a source of entertainment that people may find at a carnival or at psychic night was an illegal service subject to criminal prosecution like prostitution. It's one thing to feel that it's all a scam, but purporting to be able to communicate with the deceased or to predict future occurrences is a lot different from trying to charge a teenager an exorbitant price for worthless products.
When you go to a psychic medium or dial one of those 900 numbers which are obvious scams, they advise you that it's "for entertainment purposes only." You aren't expected to take it seriously. Nobody is policing them, and they advertise on TV and in the back of magazines. I think some of those advertising fortune tellers are the biggest frauds of all.
I've encountered some of these mediums who try to sell you $200 candles. This one burly, short-haired woman who swore "God had brought (me there)" told me she could lift a curse on my "aura" and that all I had to do was "pay for the materials." I visited her to be entertained, but she infuriated me. She kept trying to prompt me to tell her things. I wish now that I had the presence of mind at the time to do what that brilliant young woman did. While I don't think she ought to have faced charges for claiming to predict the future and making such general statements to me, she definitely tried to defraud me into a worthless purchase.
This young lady in Manhattan read me for $25. She made general statements about me that were off and others that I could have heard from my family. She's the kind who stops you on the street when you've had a long day and just want to make it to Penn Station. She sees it on your face; she's got that gift! When she offered to bring me back to her office for a "more in-depth reading," I refused.
The majority of psychics are frauds, charlatans who are just out to make a buck, but I do believe there is another kind. They are few and far between. A few have helped police departments solve crimes. I certainly wouldn't want those people to face criminal charges of any sort, especially something as petty as "fortune telling."
I come from a family of skeptics. I was raised to believe in God and went to church growing up, but my family used to ridicule psychics. "If they were truly psychic," my mother once told me, "they'd be millionaires. They could predict the lottery numbers." "Remember that movie Ghost?" my uncle once asked, "Whoopi Goldberg claimed to talk to the dead and then the ghost appeared and she was scared." "She's describing your typical teenager," Mom said of a woman who read me at my friend's birthday party.
And then we got a frightening prophecy about my aunt that came true. A family member visited a psychic medium who went into a trance while she was performing the reading. She predicted the exact spot of my aunt's cancer years before it manifested itself and that she would die of it. This relative did not provide the woman with any information about herself or her family. But as fate would have it, my aunt died of the cancer that appeared right in the same spot on her body that the medium said the tumor would be.
Our views on the existence of psychic abilities changed forever.
I became even more convinced that paranormal activity was possible when my father died. I was living at my parents' house during law school when I lost Dad. For a year or two, unexplained occurrences followed his death from cancer. Still objects suddenly shook by themselves without manipulation. Lights, the computer and our electric garage door operated by themselves, prompting us to look at each other in shock.
Remembering what had happened to my aunt, I visited a woman who provided psychic readings for a reasonable price. She had the ability to detect physical characteristics that only the individual knew - taste, sound, touch, what someone was eating the night before. She sensed a spot in my back that occasionally gave me pain - an injury I got at 13 when I fell down a flight of stairs.
She also purported to communicate with spirits of the dead. Without my sharing any personal information, the woman told me that a man with Dad's name and physical description was claiming to be my father. She worded messages from him in a way that only my father could. There was no other way she could have been capable unless she personally knew him, which she hadn't.
My skepticism faded.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
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