Just Give Them Money, Gods OK With That (?)
We all need money to survive. Indeed, even monks living a life of poverty go begging everyday for their meals need some money to keep the monastery running and to buy new robes every now and again. Certainly salary is not always equal to the importance of a job. Firemen and Policemen keep us safe. Teachers mold our children's lives. But they are paid a very modest salary. Brain surgeons and heart specialists also do very important jobs, and reflecting their long training period and the high cost of their education they are paid very well.
Psychics are also paid very well. A reading with a well known psychic, even over the phone, can run hundreds to thousands of dollars. Also, a psychic and client rarely have just one reading. The psychic wants the client to return again and again, and please bring your checkbook, credit card or cash. A dependence on the psychic for decision making is the goal of many psychics.
Now, people that "speak to the dead", indeed speak to our dead loved ones, should get a lot of money. What could be more important than talking to a dead child, parent or spouse? I can't think of anything that would be more important, if it were TRUE. Who would not give almost all they own to just speak to a dead child once more? Or to speak to a loved parent? The problem is that they psychic is not really delivering on this claim to speak to the dead. We all know that on some level or we'd all be out there maxing out our credit cards to speak to grandmother in the beyond. If everyone that answered yes I think psychics are real really believed that, psychics would rival Bill Gates in income.
When someone dies one of the first things we learn is that things aren't important, people are important. Death puts our material world in perspective. Psychics prey on this. Spend money on us, and we'll give you back your loved one they claim. Doubt is what holds us back from paying up, it's not that well my child died but I'm really too cheap to pay to contact him. People may claim psychics have real powers, but they aren't usually willing to back it up with money. Those that do often find the experience less than they wished for or were promised.
Still, when people like myself complain "you can contact the dead, and you charge? You could get a sad parent in touch with their dead child, or a woman in touch with her spouse, and you charge? You actually turn down people without money to pay you even though their dead relatives are screaming in your ear?", the defenders of psychics say "hey they have to eat and pay for a mortgage and live just like the rest of us!"
Personally, if I had the dead speaking to me, I would make it my mission in life to simply pass on what is being said to me constantly. Everyone I would meet I would tell "oh your aunt says hello" "Your mom says you look horrible in purple, wear more green" "your dad hid the will in the family Bible" "Your child says she loves you so much, and they have puppies in heaven." Whatever. I would be overwhelmed with the gift and also very humbled. I can't think that I would need much. Passing on what I heard all day from the dead would be joy enough, who needs a new car or a fancy house? I imagine that people would feed me and probably almost any church would have a lovely room I could stay in. Heck, the Pope would probably have me over and give me a wing of the Vatican for when I wasn't simply traveling and connecting people with their dead loved ones. That is IF I could truly talk to the dead. Indeed if anyone could truly talk to the dead, they would be in such demand by churches and religions (she can prove there is an afterlife!) and heads of state ("now really what does Lincoln say we should do?") that money would not be much of a consideration.
Still there are those that say psychics deserve salaries equal or above the heart surgeon or cardiologist. They say what a psychic does is far more important. They often compare a psychic to a psychologist. The psychic can heal the person suffering from grief. Mind you the psychic charges more than most psychologists! Also remember the goal of many psychics is to have a client come back again and again. The goal of most psychologists is for a patient to eventually not come back! The difference is the psychologist has an ethical obligation to try to cure the patient. The psychic does not have this same ethical concern, since the psychic is already faking it.
I should also point out that the heart surgeon and cardiologist will treat people that can not pay them. Most states have laws that people without insurance must be treated. If you have a brain tumor or a heart condition you will be operated on even in the United States (which does not have universal health coverage). The psychic will perhaps do a few charity readings. A common trick is a first reading free and follow ups for a fee. A psychic will often do a free reading for a criminal case, such as a missing person or murder, because the publicity generated will bring in paying clients.
It all comes down to money. Yes we all need to eat and a place to live and for that we need money. But, if people are truly psychic it makes me wonder about God. Because I can not imagine a God that would give this gift to the the of person that can say well I know you kid is dead, and he's telling me all sorts of stuff right now, but I'm not going to tell you unless you cough up $500...
Are psychics real? As often is the case, money will give you the answer. The psychic is a paid entertainer (as may of them have in small print on their web sites). Do they as "entertainers" deserve the salary of a Pavorotti or De Niro? My not totally objective answer is "NO"
