Hard-nosed executives turn to psychics for job advice

Unemployed executives in London are now seeking advice from psychics, who are reporting a huge increase in business from wealthy professionals like bankers, auditors and investment experts, reports Vijay Dutt.

Unemployed executives in London are now seeking advice from psychics, who are reporting a huge increase in business from wealthy professionals like bankers, auditors and investment experts. They all have one question: “How do we survive this credit crunch?”

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Katie Winterbourne, an “intuitive therapist” based in Harrods department store in London, charges £120 for an hour-long reading and has a three-month-long waiting list.

An Indian woman executive, who has been trying for a new job since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, said that she has consulted a psychic apart from “sending her horoscope to a relative in India for forecasting by an astrologer”.

The British Astrological and Psychic Society (BAPS) said it had witnessed a dramatic increase in the demand for readings in the last three months. Websites such as thepsychicsociety.co.uk and psychics.co.uk, which also offer psychic readings over the phone, have also reported a significant increase in enquiries.

“I’ve definitely noticed a new trend,” said Jayne Wallace, a clairvoyant who works in Selfridges. “A surprising amount of my clients are very high-up, wealthy, important people from within the financial industry.”

William Hooper, 39, said he gave up his job on the advice of his psychic, Robin Lown, to become a property developer in Cyprus. “He said I needed to be out of the banking industry by September, 2008. So that’s what I did — just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the US.”