Secrets of a Telephone Psychic

Ever wondered just how accurate those telephone psychics are? You've probably seen the TV commercials: a bunch of women chatting it up on a couch, boasting about their psychic abilities, urging viewers to call their own "personal psychic." Just who are these people anyway? I decide to find out.

The first step is getting the phone number. I watch TV for a couple of days straight hoping the commercial will come on. Of course, it doesn't. So I search the Internet and turn up hundreds of web sites for psychic hotlines. I dial the 900 number for the "Psychic Friends Network" and reach a recorded message.

"Welcome to the Psychic Advisor Line, where you can get answers about love, money, success and more. The cost of this call is only $3.99 per minute, and you must be 18. The average length of this call is 10 minutes. If you are under 18 or do not wish to be billed, please hang up. Billing will begin in 3 seconds."

Silence. "Please hold on while we connect your call. Stay on the line and one of our psychics will be right with you." More silence. "If you know the psychic advisor you would like to speak with, please enter their 4-digit number now, or stay on the line while we select one for you." More silence. "You are now connected to your psychic advisor." Some new age music plays for about 25 seconds -- $1 worth of my psychic time. "You are now connected to your psychic."

At long last, my personal psychic comes on the line. A pleasant female voice says, "Hello, my name is Sandy."

"Hello," I say, thinking that since she's psychic, she'll automatically know my name.

"Hi there."

"Hi."

"What's your name?"

"Uh, Jane..."

"Hi, Jane. How are you today?"

"Good."

"And what can I do for you today?"

I wasn't prepared for this. "Well...I don't know...I just thought I'd give it a try..."

We both laugh. "Give it a shot and see what's up," she says.

This seems like a good time to probe her for information. "Are you really psychic?" I ask.

"I'm a card reader," she says. "I have a lot of psychic ability, which I think anybody who does any type of reading has to have. I prefer to call myself a spiritual counselor. A lot of it's just kind of being in tune with people. And I have a tremendous amount of mileage in life because I'm older."

When I ask, Sandy reveals that she is 55. She says that most card readers use Tarot cards; however, she prefers a regular old deck of cards. "I've tried to learn how to do the Tarot cards and they mean nothing to me," she notes. "And yet I can turn over a regular deck of cards and get some kind of information about 95 percent of the time."

Sandy has been doing readings for about ten years, the past four as a telephone psychic. But these clairvoyants are not sitting around on a couch chatting, as we've been led to believe. They're spread across the country, in their own basements and living rooms. Sandy wasn't even sure which psychic hotline she was hooked up to. She explained that when she goes online, she calls a number, keys in a code and is then hooked up to a computer somewhere.

Sandy operates her psychic hotline out of her house in California, in conjunction with her watercolor painting. "I have my cards all lined up and ready to go, and in between calls, I do the watercolors," she explains. "Today I've been pretty busy. Yesterday I was on for a couple of hours and didn't get anybody."

Still, she seems to enjoy it. "You get to talk to people from everywhere, like you and I, and just have nice conversations and hopefully help some people," she says. "You also find that as you do it, you help yourself, because you begin to see yourself there and it helps to answer a lot of your own questions."

Most people call about love, relationships or money, she tells me, and the cards give her a good starting point. "We just kind of tell you some different paths that are open. Of course, the choices are up to you, because it's still free will...most people have their own answers."