Paranormally Yours: The Psychic Community in Durham

With a gallon jug of cynicism, a wad of cash (psychic readings run about $40 a pop) and a handgun (for protection), I braved the Triangle's mean streets in search of her best psychics. To test each one of these soothsayer's "gift," I envisioned myself asking them obscure questions with very definitive answers, and watching with perverse delight as they tried to squirm to some toss-up of a conclusion.

"Did I ever make the All-Star team in Little League?" I would ask.

After staring inquisitively into my inner-dharma (or wherever they would frickin' look) for about a minute, they would respond, "I see real strength in you. An affirmation of power. Yes, Greg, yes. You're an All-Star."

"Well, shiver me timbers, Miss Cleo. I was in fact passed over every year of my four-year career for bumbling Andrew Silverman, the coach's son! Can't you see that in your little crystal ball, you freak show? Boogie woogie woogie!"

However, during the course of my trip, I never resorted to such blatant mockery. My cynical outlook towards these psychics--or as the PC like to call them, "spiritual advisors"--must have arisen from too many infomercials for Dionne Warwick and Friends. Instead, when I actually sat down with these "advisors," I gained a new, if tempered, respect for these people whom I had previously lumped together with mimes, bearded ladies and Kathie Lee Gifford on the top of the "totem pole of wack-jobs."

Did they speak largely of my future, ensuring that I wouldn't know if their predictions were right or not? Were they masterful at backtracking when one of their statements was off the mark? Yes and yes, but the more time I spent with them--hearing about their techniques, their success stories, their unfettered passion--the more believable they seemed to become. No longer strange, quasi-humans hiding behind a crystal ball and some fast talk, they transformed into very real people who, at their very best, just might possess some ability to peer into the future, just like Jay Williams possesses some ability on the fastbreak.

Unfortunately, because the psychics perceive them as very personal experiences, I was told that I would be unable to divulge the meat of my readings, which frighteningly enough happened to be largely accurate. Though miffed at first, I decided that swearing to secrecy wouldn't be such a horrible move because the last thing I need right now is to be on the bad side of someone with the ability to bend the future.

Especially in this job market.

I think it's mixed. People oftentimes don't really understand us. But it's the same as how a doctor has a gift in medicine, and how a lawyer has a gift to help people legally. Everyone has a calling, and this is definitely mine.

Could you explain to me the process of how you were able to give me, or any of your clients, a reading?

Sometimes I see visions. Sometimes I hear voices. I sense some things. It's a conglomeration of different things.

I had read that you had helped the police in one instance. What exactly were the circumstances?

A young man came in and was looking for his friend, and he handed me an article of clothing from that friend. I felt a very negative energy from that piece of clothing, and I visualized a lake and a wooded area. He remembered a place they used to go like that, and he went there. When he went to that place, he found that his friend was there, but wasn't living. When he told the police about his dead friend, the police came and asked me how I knew where he was, and I just pointed to the sign [reading "spiritual advisor"] out front. They didn't have to ask any more questions after that.

If somebody with your ability were to use her power for ill, what would she be capable of doing?

Let's say that someone went to a demonistic [a psychic who does not believe in God] who was a negative influence. That person could influence another person to lose interest in a spouse, breaking up a marriage, or she could influence someone to lose a job.

At dinner parties where you're just a normal guest, what do non-gifted people do when they hear about your being a psychic?

Those types of events are very uncomfortable for me because everybody wants a reading. That's why I tend not to stay that long.

So, more evidence had been collected: A normal, God-fearing person with social insecurities and some discernible talent who just happens to see accurately into the future and helps the police find missing persons. I had always been taught that everybody has one great skill; maybe, just maybe, this was hers.

Though I can say with certainty that not every psychic has the "gift," against all of my preconceived notions of this very curious profession, I wouldn't completely shut the door that Ms. Wallace, and a very select few like her, actually do.

--Greg Veis