On My Mind: Psychic Phone Lines
July 29 -- You have all seen her, I'm sure. Especially if you've had one of those sleepless nights and you flip on the television at 3 a.m. and there's nothing on but infomercials.
The other night I saw her on three different channels, almost simultaneously. I'm talking about "Miss Cleo," the woman with the West Indian accent, colorful garb, and gold bangles.
Cleo, excuse me, "Miss Cleo" excitedly tells you that all you have to do is call the telephone number boldly plastered on the screen for her tarot card readings. She'll give you three minutes of free advice about your life, your loves, and your future. She doesn't tell you that more time is going to cost you big time. But growing numbers of dissatisfied callers are up in arms over the charges they have had to pay.
The World Looks to the Paranormal
Miss Cleo has been on my mind because this past week, the state of Missouri filed lawsuits against her psychic hotline for allegedly violating the state's no-call law and for consumer fraud. As Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon put it, Miss Cleo (if she's psychic) should have seen it coming. He said, "It doesn't take a crystal ball to realize that ripping off consumers is not without consequences."
Missouri callers were reportedly billed for free services by spending three minutes on the phone providing personal information and then were charged for the time they spent waiting to talk to a psychic.
This got me to thinking about what seems to be unprecedented interest by the American people today in mind reading, faith healing, psychics, and mediums.
The New York Times has a feature today on John Edward, the 31-year-old host of what was once an obscure late night show on the Sci-Fi channel, where he claimed to receive messages from dead people. But now, he's become so popular his psychic talk show, Crossing Over with John Edward, is being nationally syndicated. In New York City, the CBS station will run it at 3 p.m.
Look at the TV schedule and you will a host of shows dealing with the paranormal: The X-Files, Millennium, Profiler, the Psi Factor, the Outer Limits, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Friday the 13th, and The Dark Side. Even more are in the making.
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