Page 20 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August/September 2017

20 Into The Mystic

Into the mystic: Why

more people are going to

psychics than ever before

by Samantha Selinger-Morris

More people than ever are going to
psychics and fortunetellers– but why
exactly? Samantha Selinger-Morris
sets out on a road test to find out.

I know what you're thinking … Who goes in for
psychics and fortune-tellers anymore? Didn't
they go out of fashion along with other 1980s
hits like Soap-on-a-Rope and Lifestyles of the
Rich and Famous ?
As it turns out, no. They're more popular
than ever. While only 49 per cent of visitors to a
Mind Body Spirit Festival in 2012 were father died at 58, of a brain tumour, and he many are fairly easy to guess: that my father
interested in having a psychic reading, that level wished that he'd seen the Rocky Mountains was "in a hospital, and unwell" before he died,
jumped to 72 per cent for this year's festival in before he died.) My shoulders slacken. I look that my husband and I have been talking about
May. down at my shoes. property (we're Sydneysiders), that, regarding
Could it be because, as Emma Freud – That Morgan keeps circling back to my father, "There's a significant link with
great-granddaughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund topics that elicit an emotional response from me education." (My father was a teacher assistant
Freud – put it earlier this year, they are "cheaper is a classic "cold-reading" technique that late in life, but I think it is safe to bet that most
than therapy"? psychics use in order to make a client believe parents value education.)
I'm a die-hard sceptic. But then, I also have they have contacted their dead loved ones, or So why did I cry?
wince-inducing therapy bills. And as novelist know something about their future, says Tim There is a huge comfort in someone
Jeanette Winterson once put it, a hole in my Mendham, executive officer of the Australian recognising the sad fact of my father's early
heart in the shape of a loved one who has died – Skeptics. death. Because he died in Canada, few people
in my case, my late father. Could Emma Freud "It's the customer who's supplying all of knew him, and those who did bravely uttered
be right? the emotional response, and basically it's the his name in the 12 years since he died. The
In order to find out, I meet with fortune-teller, or whoever, picking and choosing topic, I assume, is too uncomfortable for them.
Christine Morgan, an "evidential medium" who what works, what hits with the client," and then So hearing Morgan speak about my
provides "evidence" that a loved one has focusing on that, he explains. father feeds a yearning to have him enter my
communicated to you from "the spirit realm". Reflecting back, I see that the technique life again.
Greeting me at the door of her spotless works. Again and again, Morgan launches into Is this why so many people still go to
semi wearing a simple black dress and ballet misses that make me um and ah, before abruptly see psychics? Is it simply because they speak
flats, her hair a demure platinum bob, Morgan asking me about something that has previously to us about matters that other people don't
looks like your kind librarian aunt. In a tidy hit an emotional snag. want to hear about?
room upstairs, she settles into a black "Now, all children love to colour in, and And what, I wondered, would a
ergonomic chair and jumps right in. things like that, but one of your children loves fortune-teller tell me, if I divulged my own
"Have you lost your father?" she asks. (I books," she says, out of the blue, after some personal struggles? Would he or she be
have not mentioned my father to her.) "Yeah," I misses. anything like Priscilla Kelly Delmaro, the
say, quietly. My face lights up. "Because he sits," she New York-based fortuneteller who made
"Because your dad spoke to me this says, referring to my dad – "and I can see him global headlines last year for bilking an online
morning," she says with a firm nod of her head, watching [your son reading] … and he's entrepreneur, Niall Rice, out of more than
as though she's divulging a secret. "I just sent absorbing what's going on with this grandchild $730,000 by promising him, among other
out a thought to the spirit world. I said, 'I have a … he's just making me aware of this quite things, a bridge into another dimension to
young lady named Samantha coming to see strongly, so he's saying, 'You're never alone.' " reunite him with a former girlfriend?
me…' and I just heard, 'I'm her father.' " "Can I have a tissue, please?" I ask Delmaro even continued the ruse after
Her words pour forth like a calm British tearily, after some more Dad talk. Rice discovered, through Facebook, that his
auctioneer for the next hour. Do I think Morgan is actually former girlfriend died, by promising to
Many of the suggestions she makes communing with my late father? No. There is reincarnate her spirit into the body of another
absolutely miss the mark: that "either Mum or far too much misinformation. (She does explain woman. (Delmaro later served eight months in
Dad's sister is in the spirit world" (neither has that mediums are not "infallible", but then she prison.)
had a sister), that "your Mum [is] in the spirit also senses, among other wild misses, a I visit fortune-teller Paris Debono, in
world" (my mother is alive, and when I indicate "memory from the spirit world [of someone] inner-city Sydney. Sitting at his table in a dark
this, Morgan then says she meant my dad's who made candies at Christmas" – and we're corner by a window, I ask him: will a book
mother), that my children "haven't been to Jewish and don't celebrate Christmas.) that I'm writing be published?
Canada as yet" (they've all been to where I'm Not to mention those instances when she makes And what should I do about my 18-
from, and when I say so, she says she means it seem as though my father has said something year long struggle with periodic loneliness
"for a length of time"). quite specific to her, but only after I've provided here in Australia? Should I stay? Or return to
I scrunch up my mouth. her with the information.For instance, after she Canada, where I was born?
She circles back to my father's death. "I asks – knowing I'm a journalist – who "writes"
feel very distinctly with him, that –" she speaks ("Is it you that writes? Who is it that writes? Or (Continued on Page 21)
now as though he is speaking through her – " 'I did he do writing?") and that I tell her that my
would've liked to have travelled more … father wrote a book, she asks me if I have it. The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show
Because I would've liked to have seen more,' " When I say, "Yes," she shoots back: "Yes, that's with Rob McConnell
she says. right, because he's just said, 'She has it.'" Nightly on XZBN
"Yes," I say, my voice gentler now. (My She does get some details correct. But www.xzbn.net