COVER STORY : A New Age of Aquarius : Booming Interest in Astrology and Other Psychic Arts May Be Related to a Need for Comfort and Security in Uncertain Times

When Chris Georgas returned to Los Angeles recently after seven years in Minneapolis, she found herself grateful for a number of things: the weather, the presence of her immediate family and, perhaps as important, the abundance of stores and services specializing in the psychic arts--astrology, palmistry and Tarot card reading.

“It reminded me of Coney Island, with all the advertisements for shops along Ventura Boulevard and on Melrose,” said Georgas, a Beverly Hills cosmetologist who has used the counsel of psychics for more than 30 years. “I was pretty shocked that it had opened up to that point. I just couldn’t believe . . . the public display of it.”

Long a haven for the paranormal, the City of Angels has now become a psychic Mecca of sorts. Following a 1985 state Supreme Court decision that overturned local bans on fortunetelling and psychic readings, shops offering metaphysical services, books and goods have proliferated--with the Westside one of the Los Angeles area’s busiest markets. No longer relegated to dingy private bungalows or semi-secret rooms above businesses, psychics today are reading palms, advising the anxious and surfing the astral plane in mini-malls, Wilshire Boulevard storefronts and--most lucratively--on private 900 telephone lines.

Psychics, of course, aren’t for everybody; they have more than their share of critics. However, the growing number of soothsayers in recent years reflects a steadily growing demand.

“The public has become more aware of the metaphysical in the last five or six years,” said Robert Leysen, who nine years ago founded the Psychic Eye Bookstore, which now has 10 locations throughout California and Nevada, including one on Main Street in Venice. “It has come out of the closet.”

Psychic Spencer Grendahl, who teaches a course in palm reading at the Learning Annex in West Los Angeles, agreed: “The market has been rather flooded.”

Psychics and others in the field say there are several reasons for the trend. One has to do with the general tenor of the times--that is, Southern California’s ongoing recession and the anxiety it provokes.

“When the economy gets worse, people get more interested,” said Ed Helin, a psychic and astrology instructor at the Carroll Righter Foundation in Hollywood. “When things get bad, we always see an upturn because people like to know what’s going to happen.”

In Helin’s case, the effects of such financial anxiety are readily discernible--more than half of his work is for businesses that hire him to help in personnel matters, or in decisions concerning expansion or investments. Such businesses are image-conscious, Helin adds quickly, and put a premium on keeping their use of psychics a secret.

Another factor is the greater openness of people to consider so-called alternative philosophies, coupled with the growing distrust many have of science and technology. That willingness to ponder different, non-traditional realms of thought, say psychics, has led to a more tolerant cultural milieu.

“People weren’t eagerly talking about their visits to astrologers in the 1950s, but they were still going to them,” said Martin Bravin, a clinical psychologist and director of the Psychic Science Institute in Encino. “Before, psychics used to be pulled in by the police. In 1994, they’ve got storefronts.”

Echoed Century City attorney Barry A. Fisher, who represented the fortunetelling plaintiffs in the 1985 state Supreme Court case: “There’s much less of a stigma today than before.”

That has made soothsaying less daunting for prospective customers--and more convenient for regular seekers of psychic advice. For Georgas, who used to have to drive to San Bernardino to seek spiritual counsel, psychics have always been worth the trouble to find. One, in fact, predicted her move out-of-state to a northern clime, which occurred when she later married and moved to Minnesota. Now, she consults a reader about once a month--right in Los Angeles. “I just need someone to talk to, who knows more than I do,” she said.

Ironically, the tolerance now accorded palm readers and other psychics has in some ways made business tougher--the result of greater competition. Though well-known psychics and places such as the Psychic Eye continue to do well (Leysen averages 55 readings a day in his Sherman Oaks store and around 35 a day in Venice), the hot area of growth is one that didn’t exist a few years ago: 900 lines on which customers can phone in for readings by staff psychics. At $4 a minute or more, such services can be more expensive than private psychics, who usually charge around $100 for an hour-length astrological consultation and as little as $5 for a quick palm reading.

Perhaps the most successful service has been the 900 line begun three years ago by the Psychic Friends Network. The network, promoted in 30-minute TV infomercials in which celebrities such as Dionne Warwick and Phyllis Diller preside over re-enactments of psychic events, fields more than 5,000 calls a day for its 1,500 psychics. It may have seemed like an offbeat idea in the beginning, but executives behind the infomercial insist that a psychic network is fully in keeping with Americans’ attitudes and beliefs.

“People have been using psychics and reading astrology for hundreds of years,” says Robert Hoffman, a vice president of the Baltimore-based Imphomation Inc., producers of the 30-minute commercials, which air in 250 markets nationwide. “It’s a very ingrained part of our culture.”

Psychics who work with private clients say that 900 lines can do little for those who phone in. Mostly, the psychics who staff the lines, they say, are those unable to sustain their own businesses and are therefore reduced to taking on anonymous callers. “They can’t give you a good reading over the phone,” declared Psychic Gloria, who runs the Psychic World shop near Century City. “A lot of people call them, (but) they’re a rip-off.”

Of course, many skeptics make the same claim about all psychics. Gallup Poll figures show a minority of Americans profess some belief in psychic power (in one 1990 survey, 46% said they believed in spiritual or psychic power, while 36% believed in telepathy and 24% in astrology).

Nonbelievers find that level of acceptance surprising.

“It’s the triumph of hope over intellect,” said Chaytor Mason, associate professor emeritus of human factors psychology at USC. “It’s amazing that people hang on to this when time after time it isn’t proven true.”

Mason said many of those who believe in psychic power are “anxious, frightened people” who lead lives of much uncertainty--like the actors and politicians who abound in Los Angeles. “This is a city built on anxiety and lack of support,” Mason said.

Likewise, Detective Tom Henton of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Bunco Unit, which is charged with rooting out fraud, said the majority of psychics simply listen to people’s problems and offer guarded advice based on intimations they pick up from their customers.

“Ninety percent of the time, that’s what people are looking for when they go to psychics,” Henton said. “It’s almost like a priest-subject relationship.”

Such soothsaying can spiral out of control. Henton recalls one case several years ago in which a man was bilked out of more than $200,000 by a mother and daughter team who were later arrested and sent to state prison.

“It’s very common (for people) to spend $10,000, $20,000, $25,000,” said Henton, adding that many customers become psychologically dependent on psychic consultations.

Well-established psychics such as Helin and Grendel don’t deny that their profession has its share of people they say are poor or phony practitioners--but no more so, they contend, than any other field. Eventually, they say, such psychics get weeded out because they fail to gain customer satisfaction and repeat business.

“A good psychic is not someone who tells you what to do with your life,” said psychic Charlene Whitaker, who has been in business for 15 years and who teaches astrology at the Carroll Righter Foundation. “But there are a lot of people who are not qualified, who hang that shingle up, go to town and make the money.”

Stephen Kaplan, executive director of the Parapsychology Institute of America, based in Elmhurst, N.Y., is more blunt. Although the psychic arts are themselves legitimate, he says, most of the people who practice them are not.

“People should be very skeptical of this field,” said Kaplan, who recently finished a book on what he calls the hoax of the Amityville Horror. “It’s only about 95% fake. Most of the people who try to make money in it aren’t real.”

Still, Kaplan is an adamant foe of professional skeptics and debunkers who want to abolish the entire profession. “I’m not ready to throw it out just because the field is so filled with corruption,” he said. “There is some truth here.”

Yet, in many instances, customers are looking not only for truth but for some psychological comfort as well. Psychics say that, just like bartenders and barbers and others who come in regular contact with the public, they spend a lot of time letting people unload on them, usually about career and relationship matters.

Leysen of the Psychic Eye said some clients have said they derive “as much satisfaction having a reading as visiting (their) psychiatrist.”

Helin boasts that a good psychic can use his or her powers to “do in an hour what it takes a therapist six months to do.”

For Isabelle, a retired writer in Beverly Hills, her patronage of psychics has as much to do with their company as with their prescience. Yet she recalls one instance several years ago in which her astrologer advised that a male friend of hers was about to have a bad accident. The next day, the man suffered a severe fall and ended up hospitalized.

That incident, coupled with other pronouncements that have come true over the years regarding her personal life, has made Isabelle a stalwart believer. And, as the Swedish immigrant points out, in Los Angeles she is hardly alone in that.

“I feel that especially here in this country, and especially in Los Angeles, more people believe in it than not,” said Isabelle, who has been using psychics on an intermittent basis for more than 20 years. “Some of my friends say it is stupid because it doesn’t exist. . . . For me, to talk to (a psychic) is better than having to pay for advice from a psychologist.”

Soothsaying

Fortunetelling takes many forms. Among the most widely used are astrology, palmistry and Tarot card reading.

ASTROLOGY: Perhaps the most popular of the occult beliefs, astrology is based on the assumption that the position of the sun in relation to the stars and planets affects individual fortunes and the character of certain days. Western astrology can be traced to 2000 BC and, until relatively recently, was associated with the science of astronomy. Each of the Zodiac’s twelve signs is associated with definite character traits, temperaments and physiology.

PALMISTRY: Also called chiromancy, palm reading has a long history, extending back to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Palm readers focus on four lines and seven “mounts” on a person’s hand to analyze character and predict destiny. The lines, which run across and down the hand, are called the head, heart, life and fortune lines. The mounts, located at the bases of the thumbs and fingers, and on the sides of the hands, are named for various planetary figures and are supposed to reveal character traits.

TAROT CARD READING: Introduced in Italy during the 14th Century, Tarot card reading is used to tell fortunes and predict the future. Sizes vary, but the most elaborate Tarot pack contains 78 cards--56 of which are divided into suits of 10 numbered cards. The remaining cards are numbered from one to 21 and are adorned with figures that represent natural laws, elements, virtues and vices.