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Lori, a psychic counselor, reads tarot cards at a branch of the Psychic Eye Book Shops. Photo by Christine H. Wetzel. NEW PREDICTIONS FOR NEW YEAR Robert Leysen, owner of Psychic Eye bookstores in Nevada and California, offers these predictions for Las Vegas during 2002: - Because people will still be skittish of flying on commercial airlines, the helicopter business will boom, with 25-seat helicopters providing transportation from passengers' front doors to the rooftops of major casinos in Las Vegas. - A major movie studio will be built along Boulder Highway or in the southwest area of the valley. - Las Vegas will become known as the sex capital of the world, taking the crown away from Amsterdam, Netherlands. Realizing the county is missing out on a moneymaking opportunity, politicians will begin working on a way to legalize prostitution within Clark County. Here are other predictions for the year from such national publications as The Sun, Weekly World News and National Examiner: - A time tunnel will be created allowing people to travel back and forth into the past. - Scientists will invent an automobile that runs on urine. - Wireless technology added to scissors will allow barbers to control several haircuts simultaneously. - New technology will allow people to receive animated tattoos that appear to move on the skin. -- SONYA PADGETT

Sunday, January 06, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

TRUE OR FALSE?: LOOKING AHEAD

Modern-day psychics focusing on reassurance, self-help advice

Hard-core Al Gore supporters may be disappointed to hear that, despite a national psychic's prediction, not a single one of the nine Supreme Court justices vanished without a trace in 2001.

Other predictions that failed to occur last year: Successful human head transplantation remains an unexplored area of American medicine, and the Mississippi River didn't flood enough to form a new ocean in America's heartland.

Those failed predictions for 2001 join a long list of other colossal misses made annually by national psychics. Year after year, such predictions are made and fail to come true, but that small fact hasn't stopped people from seeking out a little advanced knowledge.

In fact, local psychic and bookstore owner Robert Leysen says the number of customers coming into his Psychic Eye bookstores for psychic readings has gone up about 15 percent since Sept. 11. Terrorist attacks on that day have left Americans feeling wary and uncertain about the future, Leysen says, causing them to search for answers in new places.

"Everybody wants to know about their future," Leysen says. "Readings have gone up even though there's been a slight decline in retail sales."

Some customers want to know if they should look for work in another state. Others need relationship guidance, while many want to know if they're safe from terrorism. Although the reason people seek psychic advice is as individual as their weight, it all comes back to one thing, Leysen says.

"I think they're looking for answers. They have questions about their lives and about their direction in life. Right after the incident, people needed centering, balance. It was very interesting to see that shift," he says.

The increase in believers doesn't surprise Gene Emery, who says the lure of having even a small glimpse into the future or a loved one's behavior is too tempting for some to pass up.

"It's the fear factor," says Emery, a Rhode Island science writer who has been keeping track of inaccurate psychic predictions since 1979. "People more than ever want to know what's going on with them."

Every year, Emery buys supermarket tabloids and notes psychic predictions. At the end of the year, he writes about those that fail to come true. To date he hasn't come across a single accurate psychic, but that doesn't mean he has dismissed the possibility of one existing.

"I'm certainly open minded about this," Emery says. "All it takes is one to prove (psychic ability) is possible."

Leysen says he also has never met a psychic, even though he claims to have psychic abilities.

"How can you say you're psychic? How can you prove it? Can you go to psychic university and get a degree in it? That's the problem we run into, there's no standard," Leysen says.

At times, Leysen, who owns 14 Psychic Eye bookshops throughout Nevada and California, sounds more like a self-help guru than a psychic.

"I want people to get some entertainment, help, hope from (a psychic reading). It's more counseling than anything," Leysen says. "We encourage people to help themselves. The answer is within the person so we encourage our psychics to give their clients intestinal fortitude. You provide hope, direction, empathy."

Sometimes people need reassurance that they're doing the right thing in life, Leysen says.

"We give people that hope, that direction. We'll recommend a book you might read," he says. "You can't run to a psychologist every time."

That philosophy is fine, Emery says, as long as customers are aware they're paying more for entertainment than real information.

"If people want to believe in this it's OK with me. I want people who are decision makers to know whether they should waste their resources on it," Emery says. "If you know (predictions) are hogwash they're a hoot. It's like pro wrestling, it can be fun if you know that it's fake."

But Emery has found that even when he points out the predictions that don't come true, people tend to ignore the evidence because they to want to believe.

"People make the forecast come true in their personal lives," Emery says. "It's the customers who do all the work. Horoscopes, palm reading, tarot, prediction, all are difficult, especially when you're talking about the future. It's the psychology of it. There's a lot going on when you're getting a reading and a smart creative person finds it very easy to give (psychics) credit for something that sounds true. People want the inside track, it's just a fascinating reflection on human nature."