I'm always surprised at how otherwise intelligent people still end up believing in the oddest stuff. John Edward (talks to dead people) and Sonya Fitzpatrick (the pet psychic) have hot TV shows; Ms. Cleo rolls a Jamaican laugh (with a California birth certificate) all the way to the bank at $4.99 a minute; Peter Popoff to this day thumps people on the head using Jeh-HAY-zuss to heal them of their troubles; and the suburban American landscape is dotted with palm readers and psychics who, for a fee, promise to help you with your troubles.

These people succeed because we want to believe in them. Most folks who read this site probably don't realize just how cold and frightening science can seem. We all have unexamined beliefs we've held on to since childhood. If you're not used to your beliefs being challenged, the ones that connect you to your past and the past of everyone who came before you, life seems to die a little each time someone shines a light on a belief and tells you it's wrong. Especially when things get desperate, when a parent, spouse, or child just isn't getting any better, the pull of the quick fix is powerful indeed.

We also have the more recent phenomena of angry people who think the world owes them whatever they want whenever they want. The words "personal responsibility" generate at best blank looks and demands for more. "Gangstas" to blacks and "trailer trash" to whites, they all seem to end up doing the same talk show circuit together (there must be a club somewhere) screaming the same obscenities together, forming the background noise of a modern society that allows a human being to reach adulthood without actually requiring them to grow up.

Sometimes it's laughably easy to detect the scam. Sometimes it's not. Always remember just because you can't explain it scientifically doesn't mean there's not a scientific explanation for it. Human beings are fiendishly clever critters when it comes to fleecing each other, and their inventiveness can astound. And it always plays on your assumptions. A psychic who allows you to tie his hands to a chair will amaze you when the spirits he summons in the dark move things around. You'd probably never noticed the hinged chair arms that come loose in the dark. A faith healer who walks up and tells you your name, your age, and what is wrong with you is unbearably exciting. You'd probably never think to look inside his ear for the radio that connects him to an assistant reading from cards in a back room.

Personally I have no idea how John Edward does what he does. He's darned good at it, whatever it is. Always charming, usually funny, at times even profound, people are left gasping at what he tells them, visibly moved. Personal "readings" bring individuals to tears and laughter and almost physical relief. People walk into his shows vibrating like coiled springs full of grief and despair and leave gratefully with peace and happiness.

Which brings up an important point. We all know about the placebo affect. When drinking "vite-a-tonic" relieves some people's symptoms, does that make it wrong? If visiting a tent revival coinicides with someone's own immune system sending a cancer into remission, was any harm done? If what a psychic makes up and puts in your dead child's mouth helps you sleep at night, is it really a crime?

The problem is all of these people charge you money. Up front. Usually a lot of it. This has throughout history implied the promised trade of the truth of something real for the truth of real money. And yet the people supposedly just trying to help you already know all of these things, all of these things, are lies.

These people are leeches on a society, providing little if any good while sucking away sometimes the entire life savings of those they purport "help". The harm comes from all the people who drank the tonic instead of taking their medicine, or who saw the faith healer instead of the doctor, or who visited the psychic instead of the therapist. If all you're going to give me is gambler's odds, what the hell good are you?

Some of these people may be at heart kind, decent folk who think they're just helping ease people's minds. I have a feeling most of them are not. But if you really do think you're helping people, really making a difference by telling them what they want to hear, giving them what they already have, teaching them what they already know, and hell maybe you are, that's fine.

I'm sure if your customers agree they'll have no problem at all dropping a donation in your box as they leave.