psychic regulation in michigan

I came across an interesting article in The Macomb Daily out of Michigan, near Detroit. It describes a new law being considered in Eastpointe that would regulate psychic businesses like tarot and palm readers, astrologers and mediums. It’s meant to protect people from being ripped off by “so-called psychics”.

As a professional tarot reader, I’m especially sensitive to the need to keep the metaphysical arts/industry free of scammers. Obviously, any time someone from this field cheats someone, it reflects badly on all of us, but what’s up with the Eastpointe City Council?

First, they propose to make anyone opening an astrology or fortune telling business get a business license and a psychic’s license. As I see it, if all businesses need a business license, why wouldn’t a psychic business? That seems fair.

But what about this psychic’s license – what could they possibly mean by that? Given that an earlier draft of the law defines a psychic as someone who, “pretends to be able to reveal the future”, I can’t imagine that they’ve got a board of professional clairvoyants overseeing the regulation process.

As it turns out, getting a psychic’s license has nothing to do with proving your psychic abilities; it’s more about tracking your activities.

The law would require the names and residences of all employees who work at the psychic business. Even this doesn’t seem so unusual – except why bother? Don’t all legitimate businesses in Eastpointe already keep such records and submit them to government at tax time?

But let’s keep going – the psychic business applicant would also have to include information on his or her height, weight, hair colour and criminal history. As well, they would be required to submit a recent photograph and be fingerprinted. Wow they’re tough in Eastpointe. The psychics there must be out of control!

But there’s more. The psychic business operator would also have to undergo a police inspection and provide records on all customers identifying their names, ages, addresses and services requested. They haven’t yet determined what the fee for the permit would be. I’m eager to find out.

In response to why these new regulations are necessary, City Councilwoman, Veronica Klinefelt is quoted as saying, “We’ve read stories in the news about these psychics ripping off people of a large amount of money and we hope to avoid anything like that in Eastpointe.”

Am I to understand then that they’ve not actually had a problem of their own in Eastpointe – they’ve just heard that others have? What are they doing here? If they’re simply trying to protect their citizenry from potential liars and cheats, you’d think similar regulations would be necessary if one wanted to open a car lot, a weight-loss program or an advertising agency.

People committing psychic scams aren’t being psychics – they’re being frauds, con artists and thieves (see my blog entry from March 28th – You Don’t Have A Curse On You!). Doesn’t Eastpointe already have laws strong enough to deal with such cheap swindlers?

I can’t imagine what the psychics in Eastpointe, Michigan are up to that they require such surveillance. Why keep such close tabs on what I imagine is a rather small industry? But who knows, maybe things have gotten out of control with the psychics there and City Council’s simply nipping a problem in the bud. In any event, it’s clear that psychic businesses aren’t much trusted or welcome in Eastpointe.

Nearby Maycomb Township already bans any form of fortune telling, mind reading or card reading. The Township Clerk, Michael Koehs, is reported as saying “I don’t recall exactly why we put that one on the books, but obviously there must have been some concern over an individual’s integrity.” Obviously.