'Psych'-ics

(James Roday - Shawn Spencer from Psych)

My friend Kerri-boo went to a psychic yesterday. She called me on her way, all excited, she'd never been to a psychic before, and her boss had just been to this man, and was very impressed. I'd never heard of him, but supposedly he's fairly well known in those circles. *shrug* He's never been on tv, so I don't know him. I told her, when he's 'reading' you, don't react to anything. Control your body/face responses as much as possible. That's how they know when they've 'hit', is when you respond, verbally or otherwise.

She called me back maybe 45 minutes later. She was very disappointed in the reading. He got nothing right, and was so far off base she was sort of pissed. I told her it just proves my belief that 95% of these people are fakes. They're good at reading people - they are con artists. Now, some of these people may honestly believe that they're psychic, but that just makes them delusional, not right.

Now, the other 5%?

Sure, I believe that some people do have psychic abilities. The question is, where do these come from? Some think that they're a natural gift from God, others believe that they gain these abilities through trafficking, knowing or otherwise, with demons. Maybe it's a mix of the two.

I've always wanted to go to a psychic, just to see, but never gone, because I think, at best, it's a waste of money, and at worst, I could just be asking for trouble.

Funnily enough, the section of the Catechism I'm reading now is on the First Commandment, and this is the part I read this morning:

Divination and magic

2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.