December 2008

Living Amongst Psychics

Some folks will to go to a psychic with a buring question or to get less dramatic information, but it is not an ordinary, day-to-day event for most people. It is usually a planned event with appointments made and building anticipation felt . In my world, in my little sub-community within the population at large, psychics are the normal people and their abilities are pretty much taken for granted. In my world what others call psychic readings happen in the course of normal converstaion. Last night was an example.

There are some interesting standout psychics who come to town and our friend Caryl suggested we attend the "demostration event" of a guy who evidently is quite a phenomenon. For his demonstration of his abilities people in the audience pay five dollars for a little blank card and an envelop. Each person writes the names of deceased people they personally knew and a question on the card, seals the card in the envelop, and puts the envelop into a basket. Lots of audience members fill out cards and put the sealed envelop containing them in the basket.

Caryl explained that the last time she had attended she wrote down the first names of (if memory serves me correct) five deceased people. The question she wrote down was "where is the money" and it was mentally directed at two people whose names she had written on the card. These two had been murdered recently and there was speculation among family members about the possibility that they had stashed money somewhere that their murderer hadn't found. When the psychic drew Caryl's card (as with all the others) from the basket he did not open the envelop and since he didn't know which audience member had submitted it he began his demonstration by giving the names of the deceased people that were written on the card so that the person in the audience would knew he was giving them their reading. Caryl said that he correctly gave all five names she had written down and he then said in answer to the question she had written down, "there isn't any." Correctly getting five names at random are impossible odds, this guy is either doing something real or he's a really, really good guesser. No stash of money has been found in the year or so since the murder, the accused murderer has been caught and the trial is due to begin in the next few months.

So, going back to last night, Pharon, Caryl and I were supposed to go see this famous psychic just for the opportunity to see his demonstration. Turns out the schedule given in an early version advertisng emails for this event gave the wrong date. So, we missed him. Somewhat of a let down. We headed back to our place and sat around sipping wine and gabbing.

Remember my recent blog about the Difficult Death? Well a lot has happened since the man's death, not all of it fun. Turns out his brain cancer evidently affected his judgment and behavior in ways that ran up a bankrupting size set of bills for the little company he and his wife had. The wife is at wits end with every day bringing a new batch of impossible to pay company bills. Bankruptcy paper work is already filed for the business and the court date is soon.

The widow knew that Caryl was going to see the famous psychic last night and had asked that Caryl fill out a card with certain names on it and a question. The question was something like, "Is there more of this stuff coming and as a practical matter is there anything I should do about this?" Since the scheduling error in the advertising had caused us to miss seeing the guy the card was never filled out and that question was not asked. So, in our sipping-wine-and-chatting-time I asked Caryl to repeat the question out loud. I placed intent to be getting an answer and when she said the question I paid attention to any impressions.

The immediate impression was of the deceased husband and the sorrow and shame he felt at having left such a financial mess and web of lies behind. Then, in answer to the question, he said "financial ruin" with the implication that this would be the best, practical outcome. The impression had the flavor of there were more bills coming but not necessarily all company bills, and that these new bills would be so big that personal bankruptcy would be the most practical choice for the widow to deal with them. The implication was that the widow needed, as a practical matter, to immediately contact her attorney to find out whether or not the paperwork already submitted should be amended to include company bills that had not come in yet, and to determine whether or not these future "noncompany bills" needed to be addressed in the present bankruptcy filing. So, that message will be given to the widow, just something that happens in an ordinary conversations over a glass of wine.

Bruce