Why Do Pirates Love Parrots? (7 page)
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Authors: David Feldman
E
very expert we consulted agreed that the percentage of female professional psychics lies somewhere in the 75 to 90 percent range. If you include storefront fortune-tellers and palm readers, who are almost exclusively female, the percentages would go up.
In order to solve this Imponderable, at least three separate questions must be answered: Do women, in general, have more skills or qualities necessary to do this job? Is there a reason why patrons might prefer to consult a female than a male psychic? And are there economic, psychological, or sociological reasons why women might gravitate toward this job (or why men might be repelled by the notion, or not have the opportunities that women are afforded)?
In order to unravel all of these threads, we went a little nuts here at Imponderables Central, speaking to some of the most prominent psychics and skeptics, gypsies engaged in fortune-telling, and police specializing in fraud, and also reading scores of books on the subject. Not one written source addressed this Imponderable head on, but every person we contacted directly had an opinion on the subject.
QUALITIES NEEDED TO BE A PSYCHIC
Many of our sources contend that women, in general, are superior listeners and talkers compared to men. Communication skills mean little, however, if a potential professional does not possess the abilities to “read” a potential “sitter” (a client of a psychic). Is there any substance to the notion of a “woman’s intuition”?
Dr. Doreen Virtue, “spiritual counselor” and author of
Goddesses and Angels
and
Divine Prescriptions,
and a certified professional counselor as well as a Ph.D. in counseling psychology, argues that there is. Virtue feels that women’s roles as child bearers and, usually, child nurturers, are instrumental in their developing the skills necessary to be a psychic counselor. Virtue told
Imponderables
that women must trust their instincts about the needs and feelings of their babies at a time when the child cannot communicate desires through words; through this experience, women gain greater confidence in exploring nonverbal realms.
James Randi, president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, and perhaps the world’s most prominent skeptic and psychic debunker, agrees with Virtue that women’s traditional role as child nurturers has “hardwired” them to become more observant of the “little things”—emotional nuances and relationship frictions—that men might not notice. But he sees no evidence that women are superior to men in predicting the future or in mastering the paranormal; only in “reading people” more successfully. Randi’s foundation offers a one million dollar prize to anyone who can prove verifiable psychic ability. So far, no woman (or man) has been able to gain the prize.
Most of the psychics we interviewed for this book endorse the view of Brian Edward Hurst, a spiritual medium from Reseda, California, who was a teacher of the bestselling author-psychic James Van Praagh, and author of
Some Go Haunting.
Hurst believes that although more women demonstrate strong intuitive skills, the few men who “get in touch with their psychic energies” are every bit as effective as women.
Psychics felt that most men are less open to the spiritual realm than women. Many studies have shown that people who believe in psychic phenomena “before the fact” are much more likely to experience it. Virtue goes so far as to say that some men would not accept as valid a psychic experience that has just happened to them because it conflicts with their belief system.
Women are not only more likely to believe in the truth of an intuitive insight, but to act on it. Perhaps the most famous psychic in the United States, Sylvia Browne (http://www.sylvia.org), told
Imponderables
that women are much more likely to act based on gut feelings that defy rational analysis. While men may have hunches, they will tend to try to back up the hunch with facts and logic, whereas Browne claims that women are more likely to trust the emotional: “Intuition—the gut feeling—is our cell phone to God.”
Louise Hauck, a “clairvoyant spiritual counselor” (http://www.louisehauck.com) and author of
Beyond Boundaries: The Adventures of a Seer,
believes that the men who make the most successful psychics have been the ones who are most sensitive (“capable of getting out of their heads and into their hearts”)—in essence, men who possess personality characteristics that Western culture have traditionally deemed “feminine.” Frederick Woodruff (http://zenpop.home.mindspring.com/), author of
Secrets of a Telephone Psychic,
feels strongly that cultural assumptions are responsible for the relative dearth of male psychics and the disdain with which they are treated by the mainstream press. He wrote to
Imponderables:
Psychics, astrologers, tarot readers, intuitives—all of these belong to the archetype of the feminine, and this explains why our culture…has a hard time accepting the viability of intuitive arts. Sociologically speaking, feminine ways of perception and expression are not honored and promoted the same way masculine principles are upheld. Because survival and security are such compelling drives, the logical, rational, practical approach holds precedence.
Woodruff is gay, and many of the psychics we talked to mentioned that most of the male psychics they know are gay. While no one claimed there was a link between sexual preference and psychic ability, in his book Woodruff notes that even as a child,
the driving force behind my fascination with mysticism was an early and abiding attraction to and identification with the feminine realm.
Psychologists have long confirmed the conventional wisdom that women are superior at reading body language and other nonverbal cues. Skeptics argue that the very qualities that make women more attuned to the emotional needs of others also make them better con artists than men. What good is purveying information if you won’t be perceived as accurate, empathic, or honest? As one female skeptic e-mailed us: “Women are better liars.”
THE CLIENTS OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHICS
By all accounts, many more women visit psychics than men (figures most often cited are in the 75 to 90 percent range, similar to the breakdown of the psychics themselves). Gallup Polls consistently indicate that women have a stronger belief in psychic phenomena than men. Might a woman simply feel more comfortable consulting another woman about intimate details of her personal life? Does a female psychic represent a more maternal, forgiving, and nurturing figure? Skeptic W. Rory Coker, a physics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has studied fortune-tellers and observes that women, in general, seem to feel more comfortable with seeking external help in order to solve problems; unlike men, women do not feel guilty or diminished if they lean on loved ones, friends, or counselors.
Although there don’t seem to be any formal studies of whether clients of psychics prefer male or female practitioners, scores of studies about the preferences in psychotherapists have been conducted. Is it far-fetched to compare a psychic reading with a psychotherapy session? In
Secrets of a Telephone Psychic,
Frederick Woodruff muses:
Why do people reveal so much more, so quickly, to a psychic than they would to a therapist or family counselor? My theory is that most people don’t go to therapists or psychiatrists. Often discourse with a psychic is the first opportunity a caller has had to broach subjects they’ve avoided or denied. I also think that deep down most people don’t really believe in astrology or tarot the same way they “believe” in psychotherapy. And despite all the mental-health experts they’ve watched on the
Ricki Lake Show,
a good portion of our society still equates psychotherapy with being crazy or dysfunctional.
Most studies tracing the effect of the sex of a counselor upon clients are inconclusive or are filled with flaws, but a few trends emerge that seem relevant to sex-preferences for psychics:
- 1.
Female psychotherapists report less discomfort during sessions than males. - 2.
Female therapists seem more sympathetic to the problems of their patients; male therapists were notably harsher in their patient assessments. - 3.
Female patients report higher levels of satisfaction with women therapists (there is some evidence, certainly not conclusive, that female therapists might be more successful in treating women).
If female psychotherapists are more empathetic to women, perhaps so are female psychics. Why wouldn’t women want to consult with a reader who is empathetic and nurturing rather than judgmental or combative?
THE SOCIOLOGY OF PSYCHICS
Historically, the professional psychic has been a female. Sylvia Browne notes that women were the original shamans. In indigenous cultures, it was usually the women who were the healers, the mystics, and the prophets. Even in modern times, it hasn’t always been easy for women, especially single women without a formal education, to find work that would provide them with economic independence. James Randi notes that in the nineteenth century and earlier, fortune-telling and psychic work was
a credible way for a woman to make a living, which is why mostly women became psychics—men would simply get a real job, because they could.
W. Rory Coker feels that these sociological reasons are paramount in explaining the sex differential:
Historically, this was a career path open to women in the lowest social classes, as well as the low-middle and mid-middle class. Men had many paths to choose from; women did not. The fact that the first mediums were the Fox sisters [who became media sensations in the late nineteenth century; they were eventually exposed as fakes] set the standard. Weren’t women more “susceptible” and “weak-willed” and thus easily possessed by spirits? Most female spirit mediums indeed had male spirit guides, as if female spirits were not forceful enough to possess even a living woman.
A number of psychics and spirit mediums I talked to started out as habitual attendees at séances, habitual consulters of psychics. And then they had a kind of epiphany: “I can do this myself, which must mean I have some talent. Since I am not intelligent or educated, the fact that I can give people advice must mean that I am communicating with (usually male) spirits without even realizing it.” I have heard this from about half of the fortune-tellers, mediums, and psychics I have had the opportunity to talk to about their background.
Psychic work offers obvious advantages to women, particularly mothers. The work can be done part-time from out of her residence. The hours are flexible, making it convenient for those with childcare or homecare responsibilities.
Most of the female psychics we talked to mentioned that because psychics have traditionally been mostly women, men have been reluctant to enter the field, probably for the same reason that men don’t become nurses or elementary school teachers in greater numbers. Even if a man is endowed with talent, he is less likely to enter a woman’s “turf.” Sylvia Browne hastened to add, however, that although women dominate the psychic field quantitatively, many of the most famous psychics, such as Edgar Cayce, Douglas Johnson, Arthur Ford, and James Van Praagh, are men.
So far, we’ve been lumping together “intuitives” such as Sylvia Browne along with fortune-tellers, even though there are few similarities in the way they operate. In most urban areas, the field of fortune-telling is dominated by female Gypsies (more properly called “Rom,” or “Roma,” the word for man/men in the Romani language.) Sergeant Sean McCafferty, of the New York Police Department’s Special Fraud Squad, has spent years trying to fight fortune-telling scams. Sergeant McCafferty told
Imponderables
that he has never encountered a male fortune-teller.
Fortune-telling itself is not a crime, but many storefront operations make money by scaring clients with tales of curses that can be cured only by offerings of money or the purchase of special candles. Once a fortune-teller claims to be able to heal a sitter, a crime has been committed. It is not unheard of for sitters to pay from five to thirty thousand dollars to rid themselves of curses. The cynicism with which the Rom women ply their trade is exemplified by one salient fact: Roma rarely go to other Roma to have
their
fortune told.
Not all Roma are engaged in crime, of course, but the pattern for children of fortune-tellers is hard to break out of—girls are usually pulled out of school in the fourth or fifth grade at the latest, and learn how to ply their “trade” by eavesdropping on the palm-reading or fortune-telling sessions of their mothers or grandmothers. As Bob Geis, another specialist in “transient crime,” who left the NYPD to become a private investigator, told
Imponderables,
In the Gypsy culture, females usually earn the money and the men manage the women. Children are not sent to school but they get a great education. Little girls sit behind the curtains and hear their mothers do the readings, thus learning every trick in the book.
In the Rom culture, it is unmanly to be a fortune-teller, and this belief has feminized the profession in the greater public’s eye.