Page 21 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August/September 2017

Into The Mystic 21

Into the mystic: Why more

people are going to

psychics than ever before

(Continued from Page 20)

Debono, a thin man with prominent cheekbones
and delicate tapered fingers, asks me to
randomly select 13 of 20 Greek mythology cards
that he has made himself. The black-and-white
figures of Greek gods are oddly saucy, with
bulging groins and heaving breasts.
Nevertheless, as he places the cards in
rows, I can't stop tensing up. Holding my hands
flat on my thighs, I feel like a schoolgirl waiting
to be called into the principal's office.
"You have Mars in your house of
publishing," he says, pointing to a red card in the
bottom row that features a pouting man with the
six-pack of a Chippendales dancer. (The he lays them face-side up in four neat rows. The How Does Wikipedia
placement of each card corresponds to a card in the top left-hand corner is a heart. "It's
particular "house", or area, of your life.) telling you to focus, to feel your way through, Define
"Mars is a soldier, which means you and go with your feeling, to go with what you PSYCHIC
have to work like a soldier to get this published. love," Debono says.
So I would say yes, you can get it published and The heart card has the number six
you will, but it isn't going to get done by itself." printed on it, so he counts six cards over, to a
So far, so flattering. (And, regarding the hard card with a picture of a moon on it. The moon,
work, bleeding obvious.) he says, represents "revisiting the past". "So this
Debono is sensitive, though. When he is a bit of a clue about you going back home."
points out that I've chosen Vesta, "The God of The other clues, based on the cards he
Investment" (bone corset, Dolly Parton counts to next? "It's going to maybe depend on
cleavage), he says, after waffling a bit about your relationship as well." (Thanks, "ring" card).
property: "It could also mean that your time in "It's gonna take time, and the anchor can mean
Australia has been an investment. It's something family roots, so that again has a Canadian feel
you've learnt from, gained from, something about it." (Thanks, "anchor" card.) "You have to
you'll use in the future …" talk to your partner." (Thanks, "bird holding a A psychic is a person who claims to use
I can't stop my brain from buzzing with the letter in its beak" card.) extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify
realisation that it would calm my frayed central Being told that the site of your future information hidden from the normal senses. The
nervous system to view my life this way more home will be determined by utterly word "psychic" is also used as an adjective to
often. commonsensical factors that would likely describe such abilities. Psychics may be
Still, other pronouncements go laughably determine the outcome of virtually any theatrical performers, such as stage magicians,
wrong. Among them: "Are you single?" he asks conundrum makes you wonder: why are who use techniques such as prestidigitation,
me, after scanning the cards and noting that I psychics so popular? cold reading, and hot reading to produce the
have not chosen Venus, the Goddess of Love. "Often, people are moving away from appearance of such abilities. Psychics appear
"No! Very much not," I say, through laughter. traditional religion, and more into this idea of, regularly in fantasy fiction, such as in the novel
Not only am I wearing wedding rings, but it's 'I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious,' " says Leela The Dead Zone by Stephen King.
two weeks from my 15th wedding anniversary. Williams, publications officer with the A large industry and network exists
Will my palm reading be more Australian Psychics Association. "A psychic is a whereby psychics provide advice and counsel to
convincing? "You have a very strong gap of tool to discover your own spirituality." clients. Some famous psychics include Edgar
independence," says Debono, staring down at And fortune-tellers will always appeal to Cayce, Ingo Swann, Peter Hurkos, Jose Ortiz El
my right hand. He is referring to the supposedly people experiencing a period of uncertainty, Samaritano, Miss Cleo, John Edward, and
large gap between two of the horizontal lines says the Australian Skeptics' Tim Mendham. Sylvia Browne. Psychic powers are asserted by
(my "head line" and my "life line") that run "Life is random, and that's probably one of the psychic detectives and in practices such as
across the middle of my palm. "It basically biggest things that affects people all the time: psychic archaeology and even psychic surgery.
means that when you were younger, quite like, shit happens," he says. "[So] they want to Critics attribute psychic powers to
young, you were an independent thinker." go to someone who can give them certainty intentional trickery or to self-delusion. In 1988
He adds that my "heart line", which runs about the future." the U.S. National Academy of Sciences gave a
across my palm, near where my fingers meet it, This is what Emma Freud said she found report on the subject and concluded there is "no
has a "fork" in it, meaning, "You like to have most comforting, during her visits to a variety of scientific justification from research conducted
your partner, but you like to do your own thing." psychics and fortune-tellers in New York City. over a period of 130 years for the existence of
It's difficult to believe someone has any "The higher purpose of this thriving industry," parapsychological phenomena." A study
particular intuition about your life or future, she wrote in Britain's Daily Telegraph attempted to repeat recently reported
when what he has said would, I believe, appeal newspaper earlier this year, "would seem to be parapsychological experiments that appeared to
to most sentient beings. that in a competitive, frenetic, feisty, forceful support the existence of precognition. Attempts
But a "Gypsy" deck of divination cards, city, they offer a quiet moment to consider the to repeat the results, which involved
says Debono, can help him predict the future. notion that there may be a universal plan, to performance on a memory test to ascertain if
Which in my case means resolving a specific 18- allow yourself to be guided, to let someone hold post-test information would affect it, "failed to
year-long conundrum: in which country will I your hand." [] produce significant effects", and thus "do not
finally settle for good? The Very Best of Paranormal / support the existence of psychic ability," and is
He counts out the 20 cards I've selected, thus categorized as a pseudoscience.
Parapsychology Radio Programming
face-down, from the deck – they feature simple It is also frequently used in science-
symbols, like a love heart, anchor and ring – and www.xzbn.net fiction (sometimes called psionic or psyonic).[]