The last issue of Newsweek reports on Laura Day, a New York-based psychic business consultant. I was horrified to read the opening bit about the very technically competent hard drive company Seagate hiring her to run a management workshop. I guess motivational speakers at management workshops are always sort of nine parts fluff to one part content, but hiring a psychic seems like going a little too far. Interesting that they were impressed by her ability to intuit a disconnect between R&D and marketing. She must have gone to great lengths to divine that insight — like maybe reading a Dilbert comic strip before she arrived.
Perhaps Day does have some powers of intution — at least enough to realize that she’d get better business by avoiding that stigmatized term, “psychic.” From the Newsweek article:
Day is one of a small but expanding cadre of corporate psychic consultants—the professionalized face of an occupation better known for hokey headscarves and crystal balls. Rebranded as “intuitionists” or “mentalists”—terms more palatable to mainstream America—psychic advisers in recent years have been crossing over into the world of legitimate business, where they are used by decision makers in law, finance and entertainment looking for an edge in a down economy. “I specialize in nonbelievers,” says Day, referring to her roster of “red-meat-eating, Barneys-shopping, Type A personalities.”
Well, they’re not that hard to win over, because they’re willing to pay $10,000 a month for Day’s services. I don’t know if that’s really the mark of a nonbeliever.
“Intuition” is a real phenomenon, based upon almost subconscious detection of important cues that might be hard to consciously identify. You might notice that a person’s facial expressions, tone of voice, or way of moving are slightly different from what’s usual, which could clue you in to the idea that something is troubling them. Intuition is a valuable skill for management consultants, as they have to synthesize an accurate understanding of events from different people’s perspectives, watch individuals working together and analyze the dynamics, and give advice based on the trends they observe. People don’t usually come out and say to each other, “I hate taking orders from you” or “I disagree with your philosophy of how this office should be run;” it’s all much more subtle than that, so intuition about others’ feelings is essential.
After perusing Day’s website, though, I don’t think she really bills herself as not-a-psychic the way the Newsweek article suggests. The Experience Intuition section contains recordings on how to “send healing” to people or situations who need it and how to give your own “intuitive reading.” In describing the books she’s written, she says she “showed readers how to apply [intuitive] techniques in their professional and romantic lives while developing a variety of advanced intuitive skills such as telepathy and precognition.” In the first sentence it does sound like this might be just another take on relationship advice. (When your girlfriend says nothing’s wrong but then slams the door in your face, use your intuition….) But then she goes all Philip K. Dick on us! What is this, Minority Report?
“Remember when doing a reading that when you give to another, you give to yourself, because we are all really one energy in the circle,” Day says in the “Prologue to intuitive reading” recording. Um, right. Then she says you might get only glimmers of impressions that won’t make much sense to you, so you have to ask the person you’re doing a reading for to fill in the details for you — a classic psychic reading trick that makes the subject feel like they’re getting some information while really they’re explaining it all themselves. (Example: “I sense a man… the letter J is associated with him somehow.” “Oh yes, my uncle! His middle initial is J!” “Yes, I’m now getting a strong uncle sense….”) Thankfully she does tell people not to give medical advice using these techniques, though the natural question is, if these techniques really work, then why not?
Speaking of medical advice, I found this thread in a part of the forum dedicated to “Health and Healing,” which seems to be about half people asking for healing energies to be sent to their ailing loved ones, and half requests for help with specific medical problems — blatantly ignoring Day’s directions. I liked this thread in particular not only because it was for a really weird-sounding medical ailment that really ought to have a doctor’s attention (the topic is “Brown lower eyelids - dry & wrinkly”), but also because most people are giving really general and obvious advice. The most “intuitive” they get is having sensed the word “nutrition” while thinking about the problem, but (a) it’s not that mind-blowing to say “Are you eating a balanced diet?” when someone asks you for medical advice, and (b) I’m particularly unimpressed by the poster who mentions it after having read it already in the original question.
Like all alleged psychics, Laura Day and her followers do a decent job of making educated guesses while padding their readings with nonsense. There’s something to be gained by using a bit of intuition to supplement cold, hard intellect, to tell you when you can’t trust a new business partner who offers you a deal that looks lucrative on paper or to warn you that a close friend or relative might be hiding some important information from you… but intuitive skills like those aren’t worth $10,000 a month. My favorite part of the article was this:
(Though she admits her teenager can be psychically distracting as well: “I don’t want to see what he did with that girl until 2 a.m.,” she says. “But I can.”)
Are you kidding me? Is there any mother who doesn’t “see” what their teenage child is up to when they’re out until the wee hours with a significant other? It really doesn’t take psychic powers.
Tags: pseudoscience, psychics