Tenement Talk: Clairvoyant Housewives of the Lower East Side

Who knew that the Lower East Side of New York had so many psychics? The Tenement Museum is offering this fascinating webinar on the subject -

 

Virtual Tenement Talk: Clairvoyant Housewives of the Lower East Side When: Monday, October 25 at 7:00pm ET Where: YouTube Live At the turn of the last century, the Lower East Side was home to more than 1,000 people working as psychics, palm readers, and fortune tellers. One such businesswoman, Dora Meltzer, ran her palm reading studio from 97 Orchard Street, now home to the Tenement Museum. Join us on YouTube Live for a free virtual Tenement Talk with historian and Yiddishist Edward Portnoy and Tenement Museum President Dr. Annie Polland on the role of clairvoyants in the world of the Jewish Lower East Side, streamed live to YouTube from inside our historic tenement building at 97 Orchard Street.  RSVP NOW

 

Psychics and the Pandemic

Excerpted from the New York Times, this article describes how psychics are moving to more online readings and the rising popularity of consulting psychics during this stressful time.

What, if Anything, Can Psychics Tell Us About All of This?

Demand for their services has illuminated another kind of health crisis.

A few weeks before the U.S. presidential election, Zulema Hormaeche, a tarot reader in Los Angeles, chose a card to reflect the state of the nation. It was the one that depicts a tall building struck by lightning, with flames bursting from the top and occupants leaping to their deaths. “The Tower,” she said, “is the end of a system as we know it, the end of an era as we know it.”

Ms. Hormaeche has an intimate understanding of the ways this year upended people’s lives and sapped their optimism. She has peered into a huge number of homes during virtual consultations. Her clients tell her they are eating and drinking more, and that they feel desperately lonely. And sometimes they mention even more troubling details. One client, she said, described a dream in which she harmed her children.“All of us are feeling the fear of everybody,” Ms. Hormaeche said, and that fear, coupled with uncertainty about when it might abate, has caused demand for spiritual guidance to soar. According to data from Yelp, interest in businesses in the somewhat niche “Supernatural Readings” category more than doubled in April. Keen, an online marketplace for psychics, has reported a steep rise in customers.

These consultations function almost as armchair counseling sessions: clients can open up and have their thoughts reflected back at them through a nonscientific — even mystical — lens. And while there is good reason to doubt the material of psychic readings (the mystical realm being inherently unknowable, or at least, endlessly interpretable), these consultations provide comfort for some.

 

A surprising number of people say they’ve consulted fortune tellers: 1 in 5 Americans, according to a YouGov survey published in 2017. People go to psychics for all kinds of fanciful services, like palm and aura readings, astrological consultations, cartomancy, mediumship and animal communication.

Even before the pandemic, the business, like so many others, was shifting online. In 2019, consumers spent nearly $40 million on the top 10 U.S. psychic and astrology apps, compared to $24 million the previous year, according to the app research firm Sensor Tower. And demand for services that support emotional well-being (such as counseling and wellness apps) has grown over a year of profound loss and collective anxiet

Thomas Rabeyron, a professor of clinical psychology and psychopathology at the University of Lorraine in France, recently published the results of a study on a group of 60,000 students during lockdown, where he found marked increases in depression, anxiety and post traumatic symptoms. He compared it to the aftermath of 9/11: the constant warnings of an invisible threat have wreaked havoc on mental health. Though he is a scientist first, Mr. Rabeyron also conducts research on the paranormal. “Psychics are barometers of social anxiety,” he said.

 

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“In the long run, it will be very beneficial,” Mr. Wamback said of virtual readings. “In the short term, it’s a little chaotic.”Credit...Cole Barash for The New York Times

Fraud and scams are undoubtedly a danger, particularly now. In September, the A.A.R.P.’s Helpline reported receiving at least one or two weekly calls from victims of psychic fraudsters compared to one complaint every couple of months in the past.

 

Even Mr. Wamback, who relies on videoconferencing technology to work, is critical of the platforms, which he refers to as “psychic sweatshops.” Ms. Bowman, on the other hand, is more skeptical of psychics who haunt the neon signs and small storefronts of New York City. (She’s not the only one; in New York, performing a psychic reading under pretenses other than entertainment is a class B misdemeanor, and those convicted of fraud can face multiple years in prison.)

“All you need is a handful of desperate people,” she said.

Bridging the Counseling Gap

In recent years technology has opened up new possibilities for counseling, in addition to traditional talk therapy. Apps that feature consultations with professionals and self-guided thought exercises have reached a wider population, and the evolving view that mental health is simply health has reduced some of the stigma around seeking help. The pandemic has only caused demand for such services to rise.

But instead of seeking out mental health professionals, some sufferers have looked to psychics. Mr. Alcock, the psychology professor, is worried they are using these sessions to make important life decisions. “People ask specific questions sometimes,” he said. “This gets really serious when people ask for medical advice.”

Indeed, equating therapists and psychics places a global mental health crisis in the hands of people with no training. And while many different kinds of counselors — religious, spiritual and mystical among them — may be able to help with temporary bouts of anxiety and depression, only health care professionals have the adequate qualifications to treat chronic conditions and more dangerous disorders like schizophrenia.

Dr. Bufka emphasized that people experiencing distress should reach out to professionals: “Whether it’s going to be a psychologist or other kind of mental health professional, social worker, counselor, primary care provider or a psychiatrist — somebody who has training in mental health concerns and understands what those are, and has expertise in how to best treat and address those problems.”

Mr. Rabeyron believes there are some benefits to nonpsychological consultations, like helping people carry out mourning rites in a new way, or simply listening. He said that clients may decide to consult a professional after talking to a reader.

 

“When it goes well, it can be an entry point into a process of self-examination,” Mr. Rabeyron said.

Therapy can appear daunting at the outset. The need for multiple sessions can also be a deterrent, along with the possibility of diagnosis or medicalization. “Some people are less frightened of psychics than doctors or psychologists,” Mr. Rabeyron said.

Still, there’s no match for a trained professional. Ms. Hormaeche, who also works as a nurse’s assistant, is used to dealing with vulnerable people, but she is receiving calls that are beyond her expertise. (The uptick could be due to the immense stress of the moment, but there have also been reports of a small number of Covid-19 patients experiencing psychotic symptoms, hearing voices and developing paranoia.)

She mentioned a new client who said he was hearing voices that were encouraging violence. She told him only a doctor could help him; she has not heard from the young man since.

“I hope to God he got some help, but that made the hair on my neck go up,” she said.

 

Forensic Astrology

I just discovered a fascinating blog on forensic astrology. According to the site, Forensic Astrology is the art of using Horary and Birth Charts in combination to determine the nature of events as they occurred in unsolved crimes and missing persons cases. I have over 30 years experience in Astrology, both Forensic and in general.

Horary charts are electional astrology charts of an exact moment in time.

The astrologer who runs the blog (and whose name I could not locate) has an explanation of how they came to use astrology in this manner:

I began to study Astrology at age 11 and had a fascination with all 
things metaphysical most of my life. It was many years before I truly 
understood Astrology, all of its elements and dimensions. I published 
many features and articles in magazines like American Astrology and 
Dell Horoscope. After years as a student in the Astrological Research 
Guild I was drawn into studying the charts of murderers to discover 
some secret. However, after much research and painful hours of study I 
became aware that it was not the murderer who dictated the death of 
another but the victim!. Now I do charts for locations and victims to 
determine the deadly combination that creates a violent death.

The blog offers extensive analysis on some of the more famous cold crime cases including Jimmy Hoffa, Natalee Holloway the young American student that went missing in Aruba, and Chandra Levy, the Washington DC intern who was found dead in a park. Check out this fascinating blog for all the arguments, analysis and conclusions.

 

 

I just discovered a fascinating blog on forensic astrology. According to the site, Forensic Astrology is the art of using Horary and Birth Charts in combination to determine the nature of events as they occurred in unsolved crimes and missing persons cases. I have over 30 years experience in Astrology, both Forensic and in general.

Horary charts are electional astrology charts of an exact moment in time.

The astrologer who runs the blog (and whose name I could not locate) has an explanation of how they came to use astrology in this manner:

I began to study Astrology at age 11 and had a fascination with all 
things metaphysical most of my life. It was many years before I truly 
understood Astrology, all of its elements and dimensions. I published 
many features and articles in magazines like American Astrology and 
Dell Horoscope. After years as a student in the Astrological Research 
Guild I was drawn into studying the charts of murderers to discover 
some secret. However, after much research and painful hours of study I 
became aware that it was not the murderer who dictated the death of 
another but the victim!. Now I do charts for locations and victims to 
determine the deadly combination that creates a violent death.

The blog offers extensive analysis on some of the more famous cold crime cases including Jimmy Hoffa, Natalee Holloway the young American student that went missing in Aruba, and Chandra Levy, the Washington DC intern who was found dead in a park. Check out this fascinating blog for all the arguments, analysis and conclusions.

 

 

Voting Booth Feng Shui

This previous post bears repeating --

Voting Booth Feng Shui

Last year I found some information of how the placement of voting booths in a polling site can impact how people vote. This post, called Voting Booth Feng Shui might be even more applicable for this year's Presidential election.

The original article was from the New York Times and told about how a team from Stanford University conducted a study showing that where a voting booth is located can make people vote against abortion (if the booth is in a church) or more open to educational funding (if the booth is located in a school). 

Let's be cognizant of where and how we vote this year.
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If you'd like to learn more about feng shui in general, here is a highly recommended book to read: Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life : How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect and Happiness.

 

Last year I found some information of how the placement of voting booths in a polling site can impact how people vote. This post, called Voting Booth Feng Shui might be even more applicable for this year's Presidential election.

The original article was from the New York Times and told about how a team from Stanford University conducted a study showing that where a voting booth is located can make people vote against abortion (if the booth is in a church) or more open to educational funding (if the booth is located in a school). 

Let's be cognizant of where and how we vote this year.
----------
If you'd like to learn more about feng shui in general, here is a highly recommended book to read: Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life : How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect and Happiness.

Lena Rodriguez - Tarot Down Under

Lena Rodriguez is a fascinating Australian tarot card reader who has been conducting readings - primarily political - on YouTube. Her forecasts, no matter what your political persuasion, are fascinating as you can see in this July 17 reading: