Page 5 - june_july_2009.qxd

May 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 31/05/2010 6:15 PM Page 5 From The ‘X’ Zone Newsroom 5 Derren Brown will have got the gist of things by the end of the and, Kruger said, "As far as where Cathy Investigates: The Man first part. I have to admit that I feel disappointed Stevens is, I couldn't tell you that." Druella, a transsexual who was born a by it because it will have provided a platform Who Contacts The Dead - for Powers’ awful business. This seedy man woman, said he was only looking for "a few relies on other people’s misery and grief for his tidbits to direct me and comfort me and give me did he succeed in exposing living - I wonder how he sleeps at night. a sense of safety and security" when he went in When Brown said that the whole thing fraud? made him feel “sad and uncomfortable”, I to the Hawthorne Psychic Shop for a palm- reading last October. agreed. The main positive from the "For lack of a better word, I had a documentary is that it neatly gives clear proof midlife crisis," Druella said. "As a result of that this particular psychic is a fraud. But my some soul-searching, I thought I would try to overriding feeling is still of anger; I hate that live as woman again after 20 years living as a lying psychics are able to get away with man -- to go back. I was struggling at the time." manipulating people in this way. Because, in my Druella said he had a "rough time" opinion, it’s just plain wrong. stopping testosterone, which he compared to a woman's hormonal response after a Transsexual Says Gypsy hysterectomy, and "coming out" again as a Psychic Got Him to Spend woman to his co-workers. "I was looking for someone to give me a Simon Cocks $150,000 little sign or something," said Druella, who had previously seen other psychics and spiritual Derren Brown’s latest television teachers. "I went into a tailspin. I didn't sleep appearance is an interesting (yet overlong) look ABC News well for eight months and I was fighting the flu. into psychics who profess to have the ability to "I had a desire for a loving figure and talk to the dead. The hour-long documentary Man Says Psychic Preyed on Satanic Abuse spiritual person in my life and [Stevens] really covered a lot of details I thought were a little He Suffered as Child; She Says He Wanted did play on that," Druella said. "I was really obvious; but it’s really not my place to tell you to Join Her Business vulnerable." what or what not to believe in. I’m a sceptic Stevens, whom he described as dressed though, and the events of Brown’s week spent As a child, Drakar Druella was raised a in a jean skirt and boots with her dark hair with self-employed psychic Joe Powers were Catholic and also had been the victim of ritual pulled back in a pony tail, "seemed like an fairly unsurprising to me. abuse, so when he turned to a Portland, Ore., average nice person." It’s good that Brown readily admits he psychic last October looking for spiritual "She didn't have any weird stuff, just himself has no psychic powers. Anyone who’s advice, he said, her strange requests made some metaphysical books on her shelf and pretty ever seen him on TV before will know of his sense. candles and incense, he said. impressive abilities of persuasion and First, she wanted $22,000 to buy a But in the course of their first showmanship. In fact, when given the tabernacle from the Vatican that would rid the conversation, which cost $265, Druella said opportunity to pretend to do a psychic reading, 42-year-old of "negative energy," he said. Then, Stevens "pressed upon a sensitive thread' -- his I thought he did a better job than the over the course of seven weeks, he said, she Catholic upbringing. “professional” Powers! asked him to buy a $46,000 Hummer and four "She said that I had some kind of bad During the week that Brown spent with Rolex watches totaling $38,000 -- all to help energy around me and was profoundly the Liverpudlian “psychic”, Powers had a mix create a spiritual center. concerned for my well-being," said Druella, of good and bad readings. In his worst, he But after his credit card debt soared to who told her about the "heinous abuse" he said basically got no hits at all. And in his best, he $150,000 and he said he saw her try to use the he had suffered as a child. really seemed to have all the facts. It’s evident same religious ploy on two other women, he Druella said a relative had performed though that all of what he was doing could be went to police. Druella has since filed for satanic rituals on him before the age of 5. explained by a little research and a look into bankruptcy and said his credit has been ruined. Experts define ritual abuse as any ‘cold reading’. Now, police are investigating possible psychological, physical or sexual assault on an If you’re a sceptic like me, you’ll fraud conspiracy charges against the psychic, unwilling victim committed by cultists or in the already know what cold reading is. The 39-year-old Cathy Stevens, a Gypsy whose name of religion. technique of convincing someone you’ve just lawyer says she is being persecuted for her "She hit the jackpot when she knew my met that you know them extremely well is religion. history," he said. "I just went for it lock, stock something Derren Brown is an expert at. And Stevens' lawyer said Druella is a person and barrel." when Powers’ techniques are put under even with "mental health issues" who is trying to Druella said Stevens told him that she just a little scrutiny, it’s clear that he could "smear" her for things he did because he wanted had "special connections" to the Vatican. easily be using cold reading to achieve his to go into business with her. "She called it an exorcism and said she results. As the investigation continues, who is needed a tabernacle," he said. "After she used it, It was interesting to see a breakdown of the victim in this bizarre story: Druella, a she would return it and I would be fully just how cold reading is done, but as I just said, transsexual bookkeeper with a troubled past, or refunded. She was lying and I believed it." most sceptics will know this already. If you’re a Stevens, a fortune teller who believed her client Druella, who has an associate's degree believer, it won’t matter to you; all the evidence was a willing business partner? from Portland Community College and has isn’t going to change your mind. This is shown In January, police raided both Stevens' worked for 10 years with the same company, by the fact that Claire Cooper (from Hollyoaks home and her psychic shop in the hip, southeast said he had always "lived simply" and had and Coronation Street - she sits for a pretend section of Portland and charged her with "impeccable" credit. reading from Brown) is convinced that Brown aggravated theft. After fingerprinting her and But at her urging, he said, he bought an has psychic abilities despite his own insistence holding her for a few hours, she was released H-3T Hummer for $45,940 so they could go to that he has NO clairvoyant abilities of any kind. and charges were dropped pending further a remote area and do spiritual work. Anyway, it doesn’t matter that I think investigation. Druella said he also agreed to buy four people can’t talk to the dead. It’s never been my "We still have other victims to come Rolex watches, totaling $37,840 so Stevens agenda to change anybody’s views. But, even if forward," said Portland Police Department Sgt. could use the "special components" to save his they could, do you really think they’d be Sue Kruger, who refused to reveal more. "We life. throwing out numbers and letters to psychics in want to look at the whole case together with all He also handed over journals from his some sort of beyond-the-grave guessing game? the charges rather than add things down the previous advisor, giving the psychic even more At the end of the day, this documentary road." material to take advantage of his "belief is full of obvious observations. And most of you The psychic has since closed her shop system," Druella said. (Contd on Page 6)