Recruitment, strategy… The art of divination at the service of the company

Were you recruited through the advice of an astrologer or a medium? Do you owe your appointment to the executive committee of your company to the stars and the alignment of the planets? Lunar questions of appearance, which are however far from being absurd. There are many signs to show it! France has around 100,000 mediums and the turnover of the entire profession is around 4 billion euros, according to the National Institute of Divinatory Arts. While the 32nd Parapsy show is currently being held in Paris, it is worth explaining how, for several years, astrology and the divinatory arts have “matched” with the professional world. In different forms and different needs.

“At the start of my career, my clients were mainly private individuals, explains to the Figaro Claude Alexis, medium for 33 years in Paris. Now, for about ten years, entrepreneurs have been consulting me to talk to me about the development of their business and recruiters have been submitting applications to me.” Same story with Samaëls Lussan, 64, who has been interested in astrology since the age of 14. “My father was a baker and noticed the impact of the moon on sourdough,” she says. She also has a university background, including a master’s degree in management, and has worked in banking. A guarantee of credibility in business circles. “From now on, astrology has entered the mores, but a few years ago it was discriminatory, she observes.

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Which companies use the services of a medium? Just about every industry. “Logistics, accounting, retail, banking…”, states Samaëls Lussan. “Media, fashion, automobile industry”, completes Claude Alexis, who specifies: “a few years ago, a major French car brand consulted me to find out if the name they were about to give to a small car two doors was going to pay off in terms of sales!”

“I meet powerful businessmen who turn into little children! »

Claude Alexis, medium in Paris

How can we qualify the medium, in the language of the company? Let’s say: an atypical consultant who brings a material, an added value that he is the only one to be able to capture. “Clients need to be reassured,” emphasizes Claude Alexis, who links the arrival of his professional clients to the uncertainty of our society of immediacy and to the 2008 crisis. identify the right profiles for such and such a position, to compare the applications, and also to anticipate and/or solve management problems”, explains to the Figaro Samaëls Lussan, who says he is able to anticipate HR conflicts thanks to the astral charts. Better still: she would be able to predict “medium or long term” the movements of a career…

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But mediums will tell you all: it is perfectly possible that in the stars, they “see” nothing. And in those cases, of course, they will tell you again. Moreover, their “advice” is in no way categorical. “I’m not here to demolish, simply to state my feelings, that my interlocutor is free to listen or not, insists Claude Alexis. I do both the most beautiful and the funniest job. I meet powerful businessmen who in front of me are transformed into little children, and who ask me to know what tomorrow will bring. The more uncertainty there is, the more impact the advice of psychics can have. “For an advertising campaign for example, or in the fashion sector, or even for television channels and radio stations, this is particularly true,” he adds.

With word-of-mouth, this atypical form of consulting has therefore spread to the world of work in a few years. One environment, however, remains a little more hermetic than the others, according to Claude Alexis: finance and the upper echelons of investment. Why? “These are too rational materials,” he observes. Although there are always exceptions. Maybe you should call an astrologer to find out the fate of your bitcoins…