Fortunetellers and Psychics Battle Connecticut Ban as Rights Violation

Jennifer Whelden says she is a psychic, but she does not claim any window into the future. What she can see is the present--and she doesn’t like what she sees.

Fortunetelling and psychic readings are illegal in Connecticut--a violation, Whelden and other psychics say, of their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religion.

“Everything is buyer beware, why should we be different?” Whelden said. “I’m not sure fortune cookies are even legal in Connecticut. Are we going to make evangelists illegal, too?”

For the moment, evangelists operate openly; psychics do their work discreetly, underground, but they are coming out of the paranormal closet to lobby to have the law changed.

“I realize we run the risk of getting more people in trouble, but we’ve been trying to hide the law for so long,” said Whelden, who moved from Texas to Windsor Locks in 1982. “No one will take a stand.”

This mystic melee goes on elsewhere as well.

In Independence, Mo., Municipal Judge Gary Titus found that the city’s fortunetelling law violated their constitutional rights.

Titus agreed with the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in 1984 that an Azusa, Calif., ordinance was an undue burden on free speech. The court held that fortunetelling constituted speech, and not just commercial activity.

But in Pennsylvania, the Assn. for Astrological Networking has tried without success for several years to repeal a law banning psychics.

And in Connecticut, some police have started a crackdown.

Lynn Merritt, co-owner of Mystical Horizons bookstore in Mystic, said two police officers told her she would be arrested if she didn’t cancel her bimonthly psychic fair three days before the event. They handed her a copy of the state’s fortunetelling law.

“Why should people be denied service if they want it?” asked Nancy Doncaster, the owner of another Mystic New Age bookstore, The Elements. Doncaster also was ordered to cancel her fair.

But authorities say the government has an obligation to protect vulnerable people from their own folly. They cite the case of Mary and Gardenia Ephraim, a mother-daughter team of fortunetellers convicted last year for bilking six clients out of $280,000.

“Whether there’s a crime doesn’t depend on the foolishness of the victim,” said Assistant State’s Atty. John Massameno, who prosecuted the Ephraims. “If the foolishness of a victim excused the behavior of a criminal, there would be very few convictions in this country.”

The Ephraims told clients to rub eggs over their bodies, spit in the mouths of chickens and give them thousands of dollars in order to expel evil.

“They told me things that were going to--that were real bad in my life, like if I didn’t do this or I didn’t do that, that these evil spirits were going to get me . . . people were out there that were going to hurt me,” Robin L. Jones, a former client of the Ephraims, testified at their trial.

“When you’re scared to death, you do anything people tell you to do,” said Jones, who testified that she gave the Ephraims $18,000 in cash, jewelry, gift certificates and clothing.

But psychics contend that they have been unfairly linked with fortunetellers like the Ephraims. They do not see the future, they say--they cannot tell you what horse will win the Kentucky Derby next year, for example. But they say they have developed their natural ability to see truth, and can tell a client where he or she is headed in life.

Fortunetellers, they contend, are swindlers who pretend to be able to predict or change the future, return lost loves or help clients make money.

“There are charlatans out there and it’s horrendous what they do to the psychic community,” said Wilma Zoe Andrews, a psychic from Bridgeport. “I have clients who have asked me if they give me more money, can I make things happen. I’m very much against that. I don’t light candles and I don’t do Tarot cards.”

“Fortunetellers can be a hindrance, but a good psychic can help somebody,” said Whelden. “I’m not trying to pull anything over anybody.

“Psychics can only tell you where you’re headed. To me, a psychic’s goal is to help an individual get back in tune with what’s best for them--we’re not mind readers,” she said.

Whelden said she began giving readings in Texas, where fortunetellers and psychics are legal. She had to be 80% accurate in 50 readings to perform at psychic fairs. Classes and support organizations in Texas also help ferret out fakes, she said; eventually, she wants to see Connecticut psychics certified, like therapists.

Whelden says her clientele has doubled in the last few months, as people look for answers in the depths of the recession. She gives one to 10 readings a week and works fairs where she sees 20 to 30 people a day.

In a reading, Whelden says, she “channels” with her clients to get in touch with her higher self.