Somebody got a theasaurus for his birthday.
Jee, sounds like the qualifications for a Palm Beach County election counter.
Posted on 05/25/2007 5:09:38 AM PDT by Renfield
SALEM - Lawyers have the bar exam. Accountants have the CPA exam.
Should Salem's fortunetellers have to pass a test of their own to prove they're psychic?
City councilors, hoping to crack down on fraudulent fortunetellers, are trying to define exactly how a psychic can become licensed to set up shop in the Witch City. They want candidates to undergo a criminal background check and to either live or run a business in Salem for at least a year.
But many psychics want the city to go a step further - make sure they're actually qualified to predict the future.
"It's become a free-for-all," said Laurie Cabot, the official witch of Salem. "Anyone who says they're psychic can come into the city. We don't even know where they come from. We don't know their qualifications."
For more than three hours this week, city councilors listened to two dozen witches and psychics - many clad in black and wearing pentacles - as they explained the tools of their trade.
"There has to be criteria or you're going to get garbage coming here," Barbara Szafranski, the owner of Angelica of the Angels, predicted. "Everybody here is a legitimate person who's worked for years and years. ... When you do a reading, you hold a person's life right in your hands. We have people come to us who are willing to commit suicide, who won't go to a psychiatrist, so they come to us."
"What are the criteria?" asked a baffled Councilor-at-large Joan Lovely. "Is there schooling?"
"No one under the age of 20 should be doing readings, because they don't have the life experience," said Szafranski, who suggested creating a committee that would screen prospective psychics.
When Cabot became the first person in Salem to be granted a fortunteller's license decades ago, she said she first had to perform a legitimate reading in front of a police officer.
"He sat down with me, I did a psychic reading, he was pleased with the reading, and I got my license," Cabot said.
'There are nuts out there'
Some city councilors seemed to agree that psychics should have to provide more than just a business plan and a crystal ball before setting up shop.
"I'm completely unqualified to be a reader, but by these criteria I could make it by the Licensing Board," Ward 2 Councilor Michael Sosnowski said.
Councilors are considering requiring pyschics to submit a five-year employment history and their educational background before their license is granted.
"Every reader in this room is legitimate," said Doug Johnson, a psychic at Pyramid Books who wants candidates to show their experience and training before becoming licensed. "But there are nuts out there - people that are not mentally there."
The city took up the issue almost a year ago, mainly to prevent fortunetellers from blatantly ripping off consumers by demanding lucrative payments in return for lifting a curse or removing a "black cloud."
One woman paid more than $2,000 for readings at a Salem shop, where she was told she had a black aura around her, according to Szafranski.
"Then one day she came into my shop crying," Szafranski told city councilors. "I said, 'You don't have a black aura. Sit down and I'll show you your aura on my machine.' And it was blue and wonderful."
City councilors modeled the regulations after those used by San Francisco, which licenses between 30 and 40 fortunetellers.
But they ran into trouble trying to define the practice of fortunetelling and opted to scrap a line referring to it as casting spells, removing curses, and administering potions to "recover property, stop bad luck, give good luck, put bad luck on a person or animal ... shorten a person's life ... make one person marry or divorce another, induce a person to make or alter a will, (or) tell where money or property is hidden."
"Fortunetelling is divination," Amy Ravish said. "It's the use of skills and tools to do psychic counseling. What you're talking about really sounds strange."
Councilors are expected to revisit the topic tonight. Among the other issues, councilors plan to limit to 10 the number of licensed psychics that can read at psychic fairs and to allow shop owners to set up their own fairs.
"We don't portray ourselves in a horrific way," Cabot said. "We don't bilk people or try to take advantage of people. We're hard workers."
According to a draft of the city's proposed regulations for psychics, fortunetelling would be defined as:
"the telling of fortunes, forecasting of futures, or reading the past, by means of any occult, psychic power, faculty, force, clairvoyance, cartomancy, psychometry, phrenology, spirits, tea leaves, tarot cards, scrying, coins, sticks, dice, sand, coffee grounds, crystal gazing or other such reading, or through mediumship, seership, prophecy, augury, astrology, palmistry, necromancy, mindreading, telepathy or other craft, art, science, talisman, charm, potion, magnetism, magnetized article or substance, or by any such similar thing or act."
Will this cover fortune cookies, too?
How does one test snake oil?
Good point...we better contact the Salem city government about this omission....
Can we get a psychic to let us know how this will turn out?
$2000? That's not an aura of black... it was an aura of gullible and foolishness.
Then one day she came into my shop crying,” Szafranski told city councilors. “I said, ‘You don’t have a black aura. Sit down and I’ll show you your aura on my machine.’ And it was blue and wonderful.”
High tech witches? I didn’t know they used machines...
Why didn’t they see this coming?
Will they be required to carry liability insurance?
Imagine the lawsuits.
“ Have you been wronged by a physic? we’ll get you the money you deserve. call 888-***-****.
Who would write such a policy?
I don’t have a problem with regulating this sort of business. As the “reader” in the article points out, these people are serving as a sort of informal psychotherapist for people. Humans have a need for ritual, ceremony, and (for lack of a better term) mumbo-jumbo. Many get it through the church, some through the “ritual” of the psychologist/psychiatrist’s couch, and some through “psychics”. I’m not sure the city should try to prove whether or not “psychics” can read the future, but they should sit them down with a behavioral psychologist and determine their ability to “read” people (which is what they really do anyway). That “test” that Cabot lady took, where she had to give a “reading” for a police officer (someone else who ought to be a good “reader” of people), is a great example. As an extension on this idea, some people consider the tarot as a set of symbols for performing “psychological algebra”. Far from being a medium to some spirit world, they provide a method for interacting with the subconscious, using evocative imagery.
Laurie Cabot is out there. She may have single handedly made Salem the witch capital of the USA. But she, as well as virtually all psychics, can NOT read the future the past or anything else.
And,Yes I do know her personally!
Somebody got a theasaurus for his birthday.
Jee, sounds like the qualifications for a Palm Beach County election counter.
Don't give her all the credit. Cotton Mather may have had some slight influence.
Lol. I laughed when I read that.
"It's become a free-for-all," said Laurie Cabot, the official witch of Salem.
I laughed even harder when I read that.
It should be easy then. Have one of the real psychics look into the future to see how it all works out.
Silly hippies...
sigh kick
We don’t even know where they come from. We don’t know their qualifications.”
hmmmm .....
Wow. A "mood ring" machine! Well, I'd bet on one of those, for sure!
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