Summer 2005
A Conversation with a Clairvoyant
“It’s not that I don’t want people to know where my business is or who I am, it’s just that normally I wouldn’t talk to someone about my gift. Many don’t understand how I’m able to read palms and see events that take place in the future, but I do.” Cleo said when she was finished with the reading. After the reading, I had told her that I was working on this story, which is when she asked me not to use her real name or give out the name of her business.
Cleo and I spent about ten minutes talking; however, it was a busy night and soon she’d have customers waiting. What I was able to get from Cleo was the fact that when she does someone’s first reading there always seems to be about a 50/50 chance of them coming back.
“Sometimes I perform a reading on someone and they come back a month or two later and eventually become regulars of mine. However, I also may perform a reading on someone and never see them again, which I understand. It doesn’t hurt or surprise me if someone doesn’t believe what I’ve told them; I know it can be hard for some to believe in what I do.”
Cleo said that she has between 50-75 customers that she sees more than three times a year. However, around Halloween Cleo sees a spike in customers.
“I get a big increase in customer flow around Halloween; it’s the whole spirit of the season, I guess, Birthdays are also another big profit maker for me. People just seem to like coming in on their birthdays, especially 16 and 18, to see what is in store for them.”
“I think,” said Cleo, “the popularity and demand also depends on the climate of the times. If you look back on the ‘field-day’ of psychic readings, which was in the 30’s and 40’s, you see a country that was upset by a lot of social factors. People just wanted to know if things were going to get better. And I believe that’s the same now. People are so uptight over what is going on in the world. They need to know if it will get better. I have a lot of military family members as customers; they just need to know if things are ever going to look up.”
This point was one I hadn’t thought of before. In our country’s social climate, it doesn’t seem shocking that some would be turning to other sources of belief instead of organized religion. The war in Iraq has been ongoing for over two years now, and families have been torn apart from each other.
Not only does the popularity of psychics come and go, but also the law plays a big part in where and how fortune-tellers make their livings. Due to many fortune-tellers ripping off clients, psychics have had a hard time keeping their business open. Many tellers are forced to close down either due to finical problems, or because of the law. However, even with the law not always on their side they do according to Cleo help in certain times.
“I have a lot of mothers and wives coming in wanting to know about their ‘boys.’ At time its hart breaking to see this. I just hope I provide them with some comfort.”
Comfort for some maybe, but Amanda’s impressions afterwards were less than appealing. “I don’t see myself going back [to Cleo’s], but that doesn’t mean that I won’t ever get my palm read again. I just wasn’t too impressed with what she told me, but you never know: Something may come along that surprises me, and I’ll then believe what she said.”
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