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Confessions of a small-town psychic By
merry lu
The ad was wedged in the classifieds, between exotic dancer for hire and concrete layers wanted. It was short, sweet and to the point: "Tarot card readers, phone psychics, work at home. Top pay plus bonuses," and listed a number. Christmas was coming and a few extra bucks would always come in handy. I could work at home, choose my own hours. Why not? It took me a week to get up the courage to call the number and I called late on a Saturday night, hoping, I think, that no one would be there. but someone was. I might have known. I should have known. Qualifications? The calm voice on the other end of the line told me that I didn't need to know how to read Tarot cards. "It might help if you have a deck in case anyone calls that actually want a reading. But what we're really looking for is someone to listen to the caller. We're more in the line of counseling work. People are just calling up looking for the right to talk about their issues. "Generally the caller is just an insecure person looking for a person to listen to them," the voice continued. "They may be lonesome. You need to let them work out their problems themselves. Your job will be to guide them to the answers." I'd be paid between 15 to 25 cents a minute, and Dave -- the voice -- recommended that I plan on working at least 20 hours a week. "That will get you the highest returns." "But I really don't have any experience with reading cards." "Don't worry. How old are you?" When I told him, he said "good." He really preferred older readers, he said; ones with more of what he called "real world" experience. Listening I could do, so I signed up. I have to confess that the late night infomercials have always appealed to me, maybe this is what drew me to the ad in the first place. Insomnia is a battle that I often lose, and Diana Ross and Cloe have at times felt like close friends. After all they know so much about me, every intimate detail, or so they say. Cache Valley is not a hot bed of practicing psychics, so I went online to see about the community of fellow Tarot readers. Faithfully I followed the discussion groups and read the bulletin boards dedicated to the paranormal. Tending to the skeptical side of humanity I read some of the postings with my regular, "oh yea right, this person has way too much free time." One frequent poster, I'll call her Theresa, was about as far out on the limb as one could go, and not actually fall off of the humanity branch. One day she dominated the discussion with the weird dreams she was having, she actually felt that someone on the list had it out for her, and that she was being the target of their evil intentions. Her parents wouldn't let her move out of the house, "so controlling," and she couldn't decide between being a scientist or a film maker. She was convinced that in a past life she was both, so each profession called to her. I decided to seek help and counsel elsewhere. Hoping to get information on how to advance my new career and sharpen my Tarot reading skills, I kept reading and studying. Then my kids found out what I was doing. I was surprised by their reactions. I had always thought that I'd taught them to be open-minded and willing to listen to all sides of the argument. Not so with reading Tarot cards! I was going to the devil. One of my sons wondered if I needed to go and see my bishop. "Why are you bringing that stuff into our house, you are the mom, you should know better" lectures blared on like so many desensitization tactics to bring me back into the mainstream. I began doing free readings for as many people as would let me. I even know what our family dog's future is going to be. He'll live long and be fat and happy for many more years. But something was still missing in my attitude, I still wasn't convinced. Was anyone for real out there? Were all psychics like me, fakes with a capitol F? Again I started to search to find someone who really believed in what they were doing. Sister Marilyn of Logan's St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church said Catholics are people of faith, they don't need to read the cards, and that the church in general doesn't encourage it in any way. Carolyn, a Presbyterian, felt that the cards were just a toy, but admits that sometimes she does wonder. I was afraid to ask my bishop, for fear that he'd call me in for that interview my son wanted me to have after all. My search seemed to just leave me with more questions, but if you'd like to follow some of the trail that I have trod you might want to go to these sites: http://www.geocities.com:0080/RainForest/Canopy/1956/tarot900.html http://home.att.net/~innerlightpsychics/innerlight.html http://www2.dgsys.com/~bunning/top.htm http://www.paranormalnetwork.com/
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