by Marjorie Ingall
Is your psychic a mensch? Virtuous and pure and moral and upstanding? Or is he more concerned about the state of your pocketbook than your aura?
It can be so hard to tell. That's where The Academy of Psychic Arts and Sciences in Dallas, TX comes in. The Academy was founded in the late 1970s, "to foster professionalism and excellence and understanding in the field of metaphysics and parapsychology," says its founder and president, Timothy Lattus. It offers seminars and workshops for metaphysical practitioners; publishes a quarterly newsletter in which clairvoyant, clairsentient, and clairaudient members share techniques and developmental training exercises; and most importantly, it insists that its members endorse the psychics' Code of Ethics.Why is a code of ethics necessary? Lattus readily admits that the field has a wee problem with charlatanism, particulary in these days of 900 number tele-psychic services. "The economics of that situation are usually such that the people working the lines are making 10 percent or less of what the caller is paying for the call. The money is so low that it is not going to attract anyone who is legitimately psychically gifted. And because the money is so low, the practitioner would have to work many, many hours a day in order to survive. Only the very most experienced psychics can perform very well through an 8-hour day." Finally, "the dimension of that industry is so large, with mass-marketing and television and so on, that in order to staff, they
