When false seers are real thugs…

“An industry of human distress”: this is how clairvoyance scammers are qualified by the National Institute of Divinatory Arts (Inad). Because in the world of clairvoyance, there are seers who are well established, whose prices are displayed and the services clearly defined, and the others: internet platforms or telephone numbers in 08, many scams exploit the vein of divination. Occasionally from the Parapsy loungewhich begins this Wednesday at the Espace Champerret (Paris XVII), 20 minutes tried to see clearly in the accounts of the visionaries.

>> To read: In the crystal balls are reflected the concerns of the French

“You are a cuckold, everyone knows about it!”

“Foresight has taken such a leap that anyone can call themselves a medium,” laments Youcef Sissaoui, president of Inad. We see scams in the thousands every month.” On the Inad website, there are many testimonials: “The consultation would have lasted more than 30 minutes and amounted to 109.50 euros”, “She gives me the coup de grace: “You are a cuckold, everyone is aware!”” or even “I I again consulted Emeraude who hung up the phone on me, telling me that I was a “heavy case”. For Youcef Sissaoui, the exercise of the clairvoyant profession should be regulated to avoid financial scams and psychological damage: “Some platforms call on mentalists, professional manipulators who aggravate the problem of desperate people and make them addicted to fortune telling.”

Addiction is an increasingly common problem, testifies Gina, fortune-teller. But she assures that she “does not practice it”: “I have already told customers not to come back for a while.” Gina admits to being “surrounded by a lot of charlatans”: “Occult works, like disenchantment, are big scams, but desperate people are ready to pay dearly for it.”

Is the good clairvoyant the one who does not see?

“Some have embarked on clairvoyance to become rich,” adds Soraya, clairvoyant medium. This is the case of Rose-Anne Vicari, a former clairvoyant, who admits to having embarked on the activity to get out of precariousness. “You can very well earn a living by practicing clairvoyance,” she says. There are people from whom we extort hundreds of thousands of euros. In his book Confessions of a clairvoyant, this penitent recounts how she earned up to 2,000 euros per month, “more or less declared”, by “repeating automatisms”: “It took me about a year to realize that I had no gift but simply empathy that allowed me to identify people,” she says. Therefore, she believes that any clairvoyance should be prohibited and is a scam: “Psychics can be harmful by the influence they have on consultants.”

At Inad, we refuse the amalgam between “free clairvoyances” and “serious” cabinets: “A consultation must vary around 1 hour in the cabinet and cost around 80 euros”, specifies Youcef Sissaoui, who offers sighted sign a code of ethics. Among its clauses, there is the prohibition to “state certainties, to guarantee the certain realization of events or the accuracy of predictions”. Would an honest clairvoyant be a clairvoyant who does not see? “Credibility is acquired by saying ‘I don’t know,’ says Gina, whose prints cost 60 euros but who also offers the one-question formula for 15 euros. We do not earn a good living by being sighted, because we are very numerous.

“I have already told clients to stop consulting because they could no longer pay their rent,” says Soraya, who charges 70 euros per hour of consultation. “This price is justified by the time spent with the person”. Like Claude Alexis, who launched the webtv RTV-voyance.com, it does not make people pay in great difficulty. But making yourself known via a website or a TV show is crucial for finding new customers. “Better to rely on word of mouth rather than highly touted advertisements, advises Soraya. A clairvoyant does not ask questions and knows how to put the forms to announce what she sees. A psychological talent that has a price.

>> To be continued: Gift or bluff, how do clairvoyants explain their talent?