Conference hydra::dejavu

226.0. "Psychic Expo in Toronto" by MILRAT::KEEFE () Mon Oct 20 1986 11:03

Associated Press Sat 18-OCT-1986 12:26                           Psychic Expo

With Crystal Balls And Tarot Cards, They Travel The Occult Circuit

   TORONTO (AP) - More than 100 practitioners of the occult landed
in Toronto this weekend to predict the future and to make a living,
with services ranging from a $5 automated oracle to stock market
forecasts costing $3,000.
   ``In this business you have a lot of charlatans. This is the
cream of the crop. No one who comes is knowingly trying to rip
somebody off,'' said Donald Nausbaum, organizer of Toronto's 4th
annual ESP Psychic EXPO.
   He said he personally checks out all the palmists, spiritual
healers and other performers at the show.
   The Toronto fair is the latest stop for the occultists who,
equipped with tarot cards, crystal balls and magic sands, travel the
exotic fair circuit in the United States and Canada.
   Ten thousand people were expected to pay $5 admission and fees of
$15 to $30 to have their futures told in dozens of different ways,
from the traditional reading of 22 tarot cards to computerized voice
analysis.
   One performer is Yogi Narayana, billed as a specialist in stock
and gold price fluctuations, who has some startling things to say
about superpower leaders.
   ``(Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev will be shot in the Kremlin
before eight months have passed. Ronald Reagan will not serve out
his second term,'' proclaimed the bearded clairvoyant, a man of
aristocratic appearance.
   He said he was born Alfred Schmielewski in East Prussia 58 years
ago and was dubbed a yogi by his West German publisher.
   Schmielewski, now a Canadian, claims 80 percent accuracy for his
predictions. He said he has a 95 percent success rate with clients
who pay his top consultation fee of $3,000 for stock market advice.
Ordinary folks are charged $125, he said.
   ``I am very frequently approached by very desperate people whose
future has run out,'' he said of patrons who come in search of a
quick-kill investment.
   Stephen Lewis, a former elevator mechanic from Hamilton, Ontario,
offers advice through an automated oracle. For $5, visitors can have
their voice analyzed and palm read by a computer.
   ``The nicer you talk, the nicer it is to you,'' Lewis said of his
machine, whose printouts can be far from genteel.
   ``You are indecisive and overly sensitive to criticism. So
smarten up and take friendly advice,'' the device told one visitor.
   Herb Isaacs of Algonac, Mich., who said he has attended 50
psychic fairs on both sides of the border, goes into a hypnotic
trance to describe incidents in a person's past.
   He also diagnoses general health by looking at spots in the eyes
and uses ``quartz mystic crystals'' to receive messages from the
spirit world.
   He acknowledged that many psychics are ``in it for the buck'' but
said the genuine ones try to help people.
   ``Some call us the cheap psychiatrists. Most people come to us
with marriage problems, or they have a husband that just died and
they're worried about what will become of them,'' he said.
   Belgian-born psychic Ginger Ella, from Toronto, forecasts the
future from a deck of ordinary playing cards, amplified by a look at
a person's palm.
   With background music from Bizet's ``Carmen'' playing at
Toronto's International Center, she laid out the aces of spades and
clubs and told her client, ``You have double trouble.''
   But her reading also contained good news, humor and a little
flirtation.
   She uses her powers at home, she told a reporter, to see if her
teen-aged children can be trusted.
   ``I have three daughters so you know what I'm talking about,''
she said.

    >"In this business, you have a lot of charlatans.  This is the cream
    >of the crop. ..."
    
    I'd sue for defamation of character! :-)
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.