Support, don't Destroy.

Friends, pagan, Wiccan, HooDoo, Druid, whatever....please listen to an old woman who has 42 years experience as a professional psychic and Druid.

Every 5 – 8 years I see the same thing happen in the metaphysical and even, believe it or not, in the Fundamentalist Christian churches. We go from having open psychics, workshops, meet-ups, businesses and whatever your grouping is: church, grove, coven in every city with a growing audience, clientele and social circle to maybe one business, psychics hiding in the closet, hidden groups of 2 or 5 people meeting in dark corners in less than a year.

The last time this happened was 2008. I know from personal experience that the most popular and successful company hawking their flawed wares knew exactly to the day when the market was going to crash because they timed their last sales push to the minute. They also bankrupted stores across this country, leaving them with merchandise they paid more for wholesale than was now being sold for in mass market bookstores. I tell you this because you should not feel like this is an isolated movement by a couple of psychic condo commandos. It is nationwide and it effectively destroys everything we spend 5 to 8 years building and it is afoot again, right on schedule.

Step one is to break the community apart from within using the oldest trick in the book. We need to police ourselves because there are evil people doing bad things in our community. There are con artists in every single profession. We don't have a disproportionally large number though you would think there was one on every street corner. There must be over a hundred psychics doing legitimate readings in my county and there are two groups of “gypsy fortune tellers”. Newsflash: the cops are on to them. They know they are trafficking in humans. They are slowly and carefully creating a case against them and just like the Marks in Miami, they will meet a jail cell and be forced to give millions back to the people they cheated.

These people fire bomb each other. Do you really want to go up against them? Maybe I should ask if you want your home and business burned down and to wind up dead. Let the police do the job of policing. That's what they train for and get paid to do. It's not what you do and the old excuse of the poor mundanes can't take care of themselves, insults you and them.

Trying to play Psychic Condo Commander, does nothing for our community. If you want to get rid of the non-psychics, those poor deluded people who had one experience that seemed psychic and set up shop, the way you do it is through education and through providing an exceptional service. I have people come to my shop and say, he's a nice guy but not psychic. The “mundanes” as you call them, know real psychics just like they know the difference between playing piano in a bar and being a concert pianist. They also know con artists. Give them some credit. Face it, either your predictions come true or they DON'T. If they don't, people do not return and spend money on you.

Even the people who get conned know they are being conned. No woman looks in the mirror and sees someone marginally attractive and thinks the guy with a Barbie doll on each arm leaning against the Corvette is going to fall madly in love with her and whisk her off to Paris for a life of luxury even if some psychic is telling her that. She may buy the love spell but she knows it isn't going to work. I have women tell me they knew when they spent 25,000.00 on a love spell, it wasn't going to work and they did it any way.

I know one person who scared people into sending him between a few dollars to a few hundred a month. He doesn't know he was recorded, the recording was taken to the cops and the cops in that state reached out the cops here and he is being watching. Someone always goes to the cops and the fraud division sets their sights on them. They don't need you playing cop. You just bungle it up for them.

So, instead of trying to set everyone in the community at everyone else's throat, let's try something new. Don't try the old 'if you have nothing to fear' crap on me. It gets to the point in a couple of months that even when your best friend takes you out for coffee, you afraid you will be the next victim of the psychic police mafia and you are walking on egg shells watching every word. That is very stressful and psychics don't preform well under stress. What we need to do is support each other, not tear them down and particularly not on Facebook, people. I constantly say if you want to know what I am doing, ask me. And if I know, I will tell you. Some days, your guess is as good as mine.

Not every person wears the same style clothes. Not every person likes the same food. Not every psychic is going to click with every client. You like some people. You don't like other people. It is simple. Often the client tells tales just because they didn't like or click with the psychic. Some times the psychic has already discovered the client is delusional and it may take you a few weeks to make the same discovery. So, take most of what you hear with a grain of sand and a wait and see attitude. You never know when the person may have issues with the person and not the psychic and be out to ruin their reputation and if you are honest, you will admit it has happened to you.

While we are admitting these things to ourselves, you also have to admit that you are suspicious some people in our field are out to destroy the whole community and I am going to tell you, you are right. That is why this happens every few years on schedule like a bad case of the flu. The people who finance this have deep pockets and they troll the communities for someone respected, personable and needing money or with something to hide. I saw guy go from 2^nd hand beat up car living in a trailer park to Cadillac, condo on the intracoastal and TV ministry in ONE WEEK. The guy didn't even believe in any God. It's not just us, that get this treatment.

But if we support each other, we reduce the number of vulnerable people to be picked on and used, because when they (those doing this) get the desired result, you will be living in a camper because it is all you own and you also will have a legal gag order preventing you from warning anyone else. They will throw you away like last year's garbage.

So how do we support each other? When you decide to hold that psychic fair remember you are running things. Bring in the psychics you know are honorable, hard working people and leave the con artists and borderline schizophrenics at home. It's better to have a few good people than several dozen half baked psychics. Use your fair to educate people. Print out handouts explaining your fair is providing a SAMPLE of what a psychic reading is and that is why the price is lower. Then, don't go too low and always set time limits. People like to pay in one location, know when they are going to get their reading and how long it will take. People are busy and their time is as valuable as yours. People hate to stand in line in this country. So have a sign in table, a schedule for every psychic and keep the people out of the reading area because you never know who is listening and who knows who. If you are a store, remember you are making your profit off selling product and the psychics are really advertising.

This doesn't mean several of us can't get together and have little fair or you have an open house. Just about every Saturday, I offer abbreviated readings for 20.00 in the parking lot. They are short and to the point. It lets those who have no experience with me or readings, get to know me and experience a reading. It lets my regular customers drop in and get that one question answered when they don't need a whole hour reading. It doesn't hurt anyone. You can do the same thing as an open house if you don't have a store and work at home. Keep things fun.

Educate.....that should be in capitals. Tell people the one free question or 10.00 card reading is a con to separate the gullible from the skeptics. They can go through a 100 people for free because the con artist is looking for the one they are going to fleece for thousands of dollars. They can pay thousands of dollars in license fees out of petty cash because they fleece people out of a minimum of 15,000.00 each up to millions. How do you think they can afford an office on a main highway in a business district and a big car and several security men on 10.00 readings? Do the math.

Tell people flatly the 200.00, light 7 candles in 7 churches will bring back that lover is a ruse. First off, are there actually 7 churches you can light candles in where you are? I'm in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and there aren't. Actually most churches down here use LED votives because of fire ordinances and heat.

If your money needs cleansing, why not just take it to the bank and have them give you new money? If I thought that dollar, it's been a slow week, in my wallet was cursed I'd just spend it or get it exchanged at the bank.

Be honest. Some times the spirits talk and some times they seem to be on vacation and Uncle Harry isn't any smarter dead than he was alive. Not everyone has a past life as a king or queen. Not everyone will be able to access their past life. Some times the Universe refuses to show us the future. Be honest and tell people that. They need to know we are just people who have a TALENT.....we don't have anything more special than a concert pianist, a baseball pitcher or a surgeon.

It is not a 6^th sense. It is an augmentation of the same five senses that everyone has. You see more, hear more, feel more, taste more and smell more. That's all. Everyone has those five senses but only around 18% will have any degree of psychic ability and some people will actually be negatively impacted. They are the clumsy people who don't ever have a clue about other people and are black and blue from running into coffee tables. It is just like singing. Some people can't carry a tune in a bucket but most people can sing. There are only a few that are going to make records, be on stage or sing opera. The distribution of talent is the same across everything: doctors, lawyers, plumbers, singers, musicians, artists, mechanics, engineers, cooks and Indian chiefs.

People need to know that it takes years of study to become an astrologer or a Tarot reader. I started studying the Tarot at 16 when I saved up for my first deck and I studied and practiced every night because it beat homework. I don't think I was truly competent until I was 23. I spent 2 years in class, yes a real class, learning the basics of astrology. Then you interned under an astrologer and maybe after 5 years of study and internship, you got to actually interpret a chart. Admittedly, a lot of that time was spent learning the math and constructing a chart because we didn't have computers but it was long time and a lot of learning to know whether aspect a or b was the most important. People need to know that your psychics have put in as much time as most people spend on a B.A. learning their craft. I know, I have a B.A. and it was easier than Tarot Cards.

People need to know they are paying for the psychics' time. If a plumber fails to unstop your toilet, you are still paying for him trying to do it. If you get a second opinion from another doctor, you are still paying the first doctor for his opinion. You are paying for time and expertise and if you don't like the answer, well, you aren't paying for the answer. You are paying for the process.

Our only defense is an educated consumer and in the end, the more educated the consumer, the easier our job.

So, if you don't like a presenter at a show, don't attend or don't go to their lecture. But, don't smear the event and the presenter all over Facebook, because you aren't winning any points, you are just giving the enemy ammunition to shut everyone down. The same with other psychics. These silly little wars are destroying everyone not just the guilty. I read some of these things and wonder how anyone in the general area makes any money after people read this stuff. After last years VooDoo wars I was beginning to think the qualification for being in that religion was insanity.

Have a little compassion. People fall in with the wrong people. I know more than one psychic who goes from marriage to marriage looking for a man to promote them and what they get is worn out and used up, dropping from exhaustion and then they repeat the cycle until they have no talent left. If a guy pitches 12 hours a day, that arm wears out and it may not recover. I have actually been pushed in a commercial environment to do so many readings my hands could not shuffle cards for a couple of days and I have carpal tunnel syndrome from it. Miss or over use your ability and you will lose it. If you lose it at the top of your career, you are going to try to fake it and you will fail. We all know the failures. Don't be afraid to ask if you can help and don't be afraid to ask for help. Know your limits and know the limits of your profession.

Support rather than tear down. Clients want to feel good. You want to feel good. No one can feel good if they think they are constantly on trial. So let's try to avoid losing everything this cycle, refuse to embrace the holier than thou and get together and have some fun and support. We can do this. This time we CAN change the world for the better.

And please try to remember, at least for now, in this country, you are innocent until proven guilty. If someone has not been proven guilty in a court of law, they deserve the same benefit of the doubt you would like to have. If some people were actually guilty of what they accused, they would be in jail by now. The cops aren't stupid and they read the books. The cops are always somewhere and always looking for a nice collar to earn a reputation. Remember that.