A New Age Question: Which Gurus Are Real?

When political commentator Bill Jenkins was asked seven years ago to host a weekly radio program on metaphysics, he was taken aback. “I thought, oh here we go, farmers having contact with UFO’s,” said Jenkins, who started researching.

“I read about traffic cops who had out-of-body experiences, about psychic experiments being conducted at our citadels of learning, that reincarnation is a fact of life for most of the world.”

He took the job, and today KABC’s “Open Mind” often tops the listener ratings for its time period. But as New Age gurus clamored to be on his show, Jenkins--like many others--found that it is not easy to know who is credible because there are no formal degrees or examinations to help certify practitioners.

This issue of regulating metaphysicians has increasingly been joined in the courts and in city councils.

Many municipalities in the past banned psychic arts. In 1985, however, the California Supreme Court ruled that such ordinances violate constitutional protections of free speech.

Attorney Barry Fisher, who represented fortuneteller Fatima Stevens in the landmark case against the City of Azusa, said, “The mystic arts are an integral part of some religious beliefs--that there is a mysterious spiritual aspect of the universe which has influence on people’s lives.”

Since the decision, many cities have resorted to expensive licensing and strict zoning ordinances, Fisher said. In a more recent case, members of the Vineyard of Enlightenment Church of Metaphysics sued the City of Buena Park after police raided their psychic fair and confiscated astrological charts. The city said the church did not have a permit for fortunetelling but later dismissed the citation because churches are exempt from filing for permits.

Los Angeles County got rid of its psychics ordinance in 1983, when it cleared the books of outdated laws. Sheriff Sherman Block unsuccessfully asked the Board of Supervisors to reinstate it to “outlaw inherently deceptive practices.” But Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, contending that could apply even to fortune cookies, said, “My dear sweet mother read the future in tea leaves and considered it a science.”

Facing attacks, psychics have organized statewide to raise legal defense funds and to promote credibility. “We accept fair and equal licensing, but we are also trying to educate that we aren’t entertainers in sideshows,” said Edward Helin, a Canoga Park astrologer who heads the 100-member Professional Assn. of Holistic Arts and Science.