Human need to know future boosts psychics' popularity

• Studies find two-thirds of Americans have at least one paranormal belief
• Popularity of mediums can be seen in television show saturated with the theme of psychic powers
• A separate study shows that paranormal beliefs are a positive coping mechanism in uncertain economic times

Her grandmother read tea leaves in the kitchen. Her mother was an astrologer and medium.

Now, Adrianna Lesniak of Attica is carrying on the tradition."My guides and angels connect with others' guides and angels," explains Lesniak, who has dark hair, a calm face and long, graceful fingers. "I contact people on the other side."

These days, that thought is not really astonishing. Psychics are more familiar to Americans than ever, thanks in part to TV shows from "Long Island Medium" to "Psychic Investigators" beaming into our living rooms.

Two-thirds of Americans have at least one paranormal belief, according to Baylor University sociologist Christopher Bader and colleagues. The main believers? Women. They are the majority of psychics, and also the most likely to go to psychics, astrologers and mediums.

And Michigan women psychics think they know why.

"I think there is more social pressure on men not to be involved in this kind of thing. Men are expected to be 'normal,' if you know what I mean," says Ali Jackowski, 41, of Warren, a tarot reader who runs the weekly Michigan Psychic Fair in Detroit.

"Women connect to the world through their 3D (dimension) chakra (the stomach)," adds Lesniak. "I think women have a deeper connection to the intuitives, and we are more attuned to going with our gut." Still, Lesniak says, "the lines are shimmering and decreasing. Men and women are more androgynous now, and racial and other dividing lines are becoming less, and we are becoming more as one."

Whether it's Theresa Caputo in "Long Island Medium," Patricia Arquette in "Medium" or the experts on "Psychic Investigators," television is saturated with the theme of psychic powers. But their popularity is not so much influencing the culture as reflecting a long-held cultural fascination, says Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York.

"Psychics have been believed in for thousands of years, well before television," he says. "Their success in the popular culture now expresses an already widespread, deep human need to know people who can know the future."

Setting up shop

Every weekend in metro Detroit, the Michigan Psychic Fair offers a one-stop shopping experience for the curious.

One recent weekend at the Holiday Inn Express in Roseville, seven psychics set up tables and quietly told customers their past, present, future. The cost ranged from $30 to $60 per session.

Some psychics are clairvoyants with ESP. Some are mediums who mediate with the spirit world. Some psychics read energy from everyday objects — tarot cards, your palm, auras, numbers or astrological signs. Some do past life counseling or "scrying," looking into a crystal ball or flames.

Psychics can't give you winning lottery numbers or tell you the day you will die, Jackowski says. They can't cause the sun to shine or bunions to vanish.

"A psychic is there to help you live a better life, not be your fairy godmother," says Jackowski, who charges $5 for an entrance fee to the fair, which she and her husband have run for 15 years. "We get people who are in crisis, who need advice and guidance. We get people looking for fun. We also get people who are regulars. But they are all seekers."

It's probably easier to find a psychic than sign up for affordable health care.

So it may be good for the nation's mental health that a new academic study shows that paranormal beliefs are a positive coping mechanism in uncertain economic times.

"Not only does belief in precognition increase feelings of control, it does this particularly when people feel low in control," said the paper's author, Katharine Greenaway, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia. "So at the height of the global financial crisis, or during turbulent personal troubles, or when a loved one passes away, people can cope with these experiences by bolstering a belief in precognition."

Best practices

Michigan's female psychics sometimes find themselves in demand for parties and events. They just are careful what they say.

"If it's a bachelorette party and you are reading the bride" and see marital troubles ahead, "you don't tell someone they're going to get divorced or have problems," Jackowski says. "You would form it as, 'Here are your strengths and here are some challenges.' "

Jackowski has heard the bad things people say about tarot cards — that they predict doom or they are evil or a hoax. But she says a skilled reader can interpret the subtleties, not literal meanings of cards, and that tarot suggests paths, not determines them.

For example, "the tarot death card scares people. But it doesn't necessarily mean death. It means a break and change."

Where their powers come from, the psychics don't know.

But psychic Bethany Henry, 39, of Westland credits her gift entirely to God, not a dark art. The married mother works as an adult caregiver, but she also runs Spectral Energies, which does clairvoyant work.

"We're not little magical fairies with little magical wands. And we're not God," she says. "I only deliver positive messages. Because anything from the dark is not — well, what's it going to help? I don't allow dark. I send it to the light. I send it back to God to make it right."

What most clients want from her is hope, says Henry, the daughter of a minister.

"For me, people want direction in life," she says. "It is very simple — family, finances, love. Sometimes they just want someone to talk to."