The Academy for Psychic Studies - Come In For a Healing Then Go Away

This article is from the Bohemian newspaper, distributed in the Sonoma County area. I have excerpted it with a link to the full article.

It pretty much speaks for itself.

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From The Bohemian

http://www.bohemian.com/metro/01.02.08/cover-0801.html

Medium Cool
By Vrinda Normand

The New Year is the busiest season for psychics, and Silicon Valley has a lot of them. Even true believers are always on the lookout for fraud, and Santa Clara's Edward Carrion wants to protect the psychic consumer.

"I hate people that rip off other people," he says.

So he's doing something about it. He created a free educational resource on his website (readingsbyedward.com) called "Psychic Consumer 101." There you'll find easy-to-read tips on what a psychic is, how to tell if a self-professed psychic is the "real thing," and how to tell if a psychic is "using you."

"Silicon Valley has the highest concentration of psychics that I know," Edward says. "The energy of readings here is huge." Downtown San Jose, he adds, is a major "reception center" for the other side. If that's true, then you're more likely to find a good psychic among the crowded phone book listings, websites and hippie fairs in the South Bay.

Still, Chapman warns, the same trend also invites wannabes who see the profession as an easy moneymaker, especially when the economy is struggling.

"Anything in the psychic realm can be misused," Chapman says.

I gathered lots of practical tips to be aware of if you plan on being a psychic consumer this year, but the most obvious and understated one was this: trust your gut feeling.

So I decided to find out about becoming a little psychic myself.


The Academy for Psychic Studies is tucked into a tiny office space off Lincoln Avenue in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood. On some Saturdays, the school advertises its presence with balloons and a sidewalk sign offering a free psychic consultation.

The Academy's website includes a list of its classes, from beginning meditation to advanced aura reading. On Tuesdays, it welcomes members of the public to an open, complimentary "energy healing clinic."

Unfortunately, the Academy does not welcome members of the media, and refused to speak with me for this article.

"We're not interested because that's not what we're about," a woman from the Academy told me before she hung up the phone (and before I could ask why). The school also requires that visitors sign an agreement promising they're not investigators or journalists .


…be very wary if they respond defensively or try to hide something from you. I told Edward (author of "Psychic Consumer 101") about my strange experience with the Academy for Psychic Studies in San Jose. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Why are they so afraid of investigation?" A trustworthy psychic, he added, is willing to be transparent and should even let you record the reading."

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