Buyer beware: fake psychic readings

T. Stokes: I have over many years campaigned for both a code of ethics, and certification to practice for all psychic readers, and at no time in the past has this been more necessary than the present.

Any lecturer, medium or psychic can gauge the effectiveness on any matter by the volume of his postbag, and for many years I have had a constant input of correspondence, on the matter of fraud in the profession, in some cases involving quite large sums of money, this was only superseded by calls to my radio slot.

That every profession has its share of bad apples is certainly true, but we have no professional bodies or ombudsman to mediate in disputes, while some complaints are unfounded, most complaints are on financial misappropriation.

Princess Diana once said to me she had been duped and exposed by a fraudulent psychic, and Fergie had also been misled and quite badly advised. This is compounded by the spiritualist association announcing that, " personal dealings of individual mediums are their own business"

But the law is there already, its just that the police will not apply it.

Every service provider, including spiritualist organisations are covered under the human rights act-- have what in law is known as a "duty of care" both to those who work in its organisation and those who pay for a service from it.

I am often amazed at the amount of what the British police refer to as; “Royal mail fraud” the amount rational people who post away large monetary sums to anonymous post office boxes for angel blessings, to have spells done for lost loves to return, to win the lottery, free foreign holidays, have hexes removed, cosmic ordering or cause death or hardship to enemies.

And as for those who succumb to doorstep psychics and Jesus peddlers, selling lucky heather, religious mags or Jesus tokens, what are people using for brains here ?

I have had letters from Lancashire telling of doorstep canvassers targeting old peoples homes, with fake psychic scams. Most areas of concern are telephone psychics, so please be careful here, and mailshots through the post promising a cure for every spiritual ill at sky high prices, are still catching people off guard.

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Remember in a worst case scenario, trading standards are there for your protection, and so is the Citizens Advice Bureau, and most solicitors give the first hours advice for free, over the years I have sent so many people to the Citizens Advice Bureau over scam readings that now they send them to me !

Always look to a reputable body for your readings, and as in a case shortly to appear before the British courts, always get a real name, do not be fobbed off with "angel cloud chakra bunny" or similar nom-de-plumes, insist on a name with whom you speak.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that counterfeiting exists only, because of the existence of real gold, and to not tar all readers with the same brush. The ancient Greeks has as their prime maxim, “man know thyself”

And a good reading can show you just that.

T Stokes lecturer in paranormal studies

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