THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO BE FOOLED:
ONE IS TO BELIEVE WHAT ISN’T SO; THE OTHER IS
TO REFUSE TO BELIEVE WHAT IS SO.
Soren Kierkegaard
The fertile field of psychic phenomena is far too tempting for those long on imagination and short on ethics and/or psychic talent to resist.
Fortune Telling is definitely against the law in most states. But there are guises under which such laws can be sidestepped in order to make a fast buck or two.
One popular means, in some areas, to avoid arrest is to form a "church".
There are "Diploma Mills" that will provide instantaneous ordination. Advertisements for such resources appear in many magazines; even those in which you would least expect to find them.
One such ad was headlined:
"Become A Minister!" The body copy said all you had to do was sent $10.00 to this "church" to receive a certificate proclaiming ordination and, for only $5.00 more, "Doctor of Divinity" was available.
I couldn’t resist. I sent them the $15.00.
A few weeks later a large manila envelope, addressed to "Doctor Sundance" arrived. Inside were official looking, ready to frame documents that told the world I was not only a fully ordained minister but a Doctor of Divinity as well.
Included with these documents were 2 wallet-sized cards, complete with gold seals on the backs, with similar proclamations.
I read through the material accompanying my sudden ordination and found I was now able to officiate at weddings and funerals.
Across this material a message was stamped in red ink: "Special Offer! For a limited time only! Send $5.00 and become a Bishop!"
When I shared the news of my amazingly swift and inexpensive ordinations with my good friend, Gundella, she sent $10.00 to the mill and promoted her pet dog to the realm of ministry. Muffy never married or buried anyone but she was supposedly fully empowered to do so.
If you are super ambitious and hell-bent on duping people out of their money— it is possible to start your own church.
If you incorporate predictions into your services, and accept donations to your church — it is possible the law can’t touch you nor, in some instances, can the IRS.
In most states it is the passing of money from the client to the reader that causes the scales of justice to crash down on you.
All you may have to do is get those certificates, rent a room or an entire building, let the word out that you’re a minister who is capable of predicting futures and there is a distinct possibility you will be in business.
To keep a semblance of "churchiness", you might want to read a few passages from the Bible, and perhaps toss in a bit of shouting about the wages of sin.
If your conscience has been hammered into lethargy, I suppose this is one way of going about it, and I have interviewed a few fortunetellers who graciously accept donations to their "churches".
My advice is, stay away from them. There may be a few with honest psychic ability but the word "honest" just doesn’t jibe with this particular modus operandi.
There are other ways that allow you to maintain a more healthy conscience.
One is to make your ability available to only those who are willing to go to the trouble of finding you — stay "underground". A strong enough desire within a potential client might just bring him or her cautiously to your door.
What I feel is one of the safest and most comfortable ways to go about this is to serve either coffee or tea, and perhaps a donut or sweet roll, or give a little talk (lecture) about specific or general psychic phenomena — whichever is most untroubled for you — and charge for the coffee, tea, sweet and the lecture.
While still living in Michigan — a state that frowns on psychic predictions — I spent a couple of years doing precisely that.
My "talent" was recognized by, instigated and nurtured by, Gundella.
It was her suggestion that I do the lecture "side-step". I took her advice not only because it kept me within the bounds of what was considered legal but also because I felt the people who were interested in such readings would want to know my opinions on them.
Not many were all that interested. They just wanted their readings.
I read for a wide spectrum of people: men and women, young and old, black and white, Eastern Indians, professionals and non-professionals, urban and suburban, heterosexuals and homosexuals — people of wealth and people who lived below the poverty level.
These people came to me for what are termed "far-life-readings" — information on their former lives, and why they reincarnated into their present ones.
There were many who had far more faith and trust in what I told them than I did. I often wondered if the person for whom I was "reading" was bending whatever I said to fit a particular happening, aspect or hope in their lives.
There was one young woman who virtually leaped across a table to embrace me when I told her something she was obviously yearning to hear.
A young physician was on the verge of tears when I gave him an answer to a problem that had been plaguing him.
And there was the young woman who quit her lucrative position at an automobile manufacturing company to become a full time belly dancer — prompted by one of my readings.
After 2 years of this — I called it quits.
I was between believing the people who came to me were "off the wall" to begin with – and I was frightening myself!
A few examples:
A woman, who moved out-of-state, starting calling me just about every day to ask what she should do about whatever was going on in her life.
When using automatic writing, I got a very garbled message, one in which I could not recognize a single word.
The woman for whom I was reading had asked me to try to contact her deceased mother. This was one type of reading that I constantly tried to avoid. The "writing" that came through the planchette (in absolutely no way similar to my handwriting) would become very small and "crunched up." I was never able to find an explanation for this.
This woman was pleading with me. She needed to reach her mother. Finally, I agreed to try.
The usual small, crunched scribbles came through the planchette and onto the paper beneath it.
I couldn’t recognize it. I was relieved. I could tell the woman that, although I had tried, it simply didn’t work this time.
I told her, but my relief was very short-lived.
The woman asked if she could see the "message". I handed the paper to her.
"Oh!" she said, "I can read this!"
"You can?" My surprise was genuine, but I was not prepared for what she said next:
"Yes! My mother spoke only Armenian, and this is in Armenian!"
That was bit too much. The one and only language I speak and understand is English.
I soon thereafter called Gundella to tell her I had decided to cease giving far-life readings.
It now seems ironic that those readings took place in Michigan, where you must side-step stringent laws against such things.
I now live in Florida — where it is only required that you purchase a license if you want to be a psychic.
