Fortune-tellers calm nerves of Tokyo's Bridget Joneses

[emad]

The Times
By Leo Lewis
Women seek psychic cure for new-year blues



ATSUKO AKAMI shivers and walks briskly off to catch the last train home: she has just queued for an hour in the cold and parted with nearly £15 to be told that her boyfriend will probably leave her and that she is unlikely to win a promotion at the trading company where she works.

But, she adds with a grin: “It seems I’m also going to get a cat and take up dancing lessons.”

Further back in the queue, other women chat excitedly about what their fortunes might be. One is concerned that her elderly parents may want to move out of Tokyo, leaving her without a place to live near work. Another cannot decide whether to go travelling with a boyfriend she is still not sure about. All are desperate to know what next year will mean to them financially.

Atsuko is one of thousands of Japanese women whose worries about 2005 are fuelling an obsession with clairvoyance. Helping it along is a wave of daytime television shows that first scare Japanese housewives with horror stories about health and relationships, then introduce them to the mysteries of the supernatural to calm their nerves.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1418869,00.html

[Ian David]

1. At least we're not the ONLY country full of superstitious whackos

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2. Cherie Blair BIG fan of quacks, weirdos and ANYONE who can

tell her she's beautiful, saintly and immune from prosecution.....


"Among other things, Cherie Blair, 48, and a high-profile lawyer, is said to wear inflatable "Flowtron" trousers to combat leg bloat. She has been photographed wearing stress-fighting acupressure earrings and a "bioelectric shield pennant," believed to ward off harmful radiation from everyday appliances like personal computers.

She also reportedly consults a psychic (faxing over her spiritual questions when she can't make it in person), and according to British news accounts, once took part in a "rebirthing" ceremony in Mexico in which she and the prime minister shouted and smeared mud and ripe fruit pulp on each other.

For those who aren't aware of it, Cherie Blair is the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Gabriela noted a couple of good lines from the article: "exhaustion and overload can send smart women rushing to foolish therapies" and "nice soothing mumbo-jumbo literally serves as balm for the soul".

Personally, I think the article goes too easy on her. It basically says, "they do these things because they're under alot of stress." Poor people are under just as much stress, if not more, but we still shake our heads in disbelief when they spend money on psychics and faith healers. "Quirky" behavior? I guess if you have enough money, "crazy" becomes "eccentric".
http://www.skepticnews.com/articles/03/01/11/1336245.shtml


AND let's not forget Nancy Reagan!.........

[Ian David]

3. Ronald and Nancy Reagan were our first Wiccans in the Whitewhous

Also, don't forget that time when Laura Bush went for the Native American cleansing ritual, because she thought George was talking about her private parts when he was really talking about the family cat.

Oh, wait.

That wasn't in real life. That was in the TV show, "That's My Bush!"

I always get the real Bush whitehouse confused with that show. They're so much alike.

[emad]

4. Pickles had colonic irrigation like Princess Di? ALWAYS thought

that was a good counter-intelligence line about Colon Bowel and his nasty little whitewashes of US State Secrets....

[Menshevik]

5. wtf

"according to British news accounts, once took part in a "rebirthing" ceremony in Mexico in which she and the prime minister shouted and smeared mud and ripe fruit pulp on each other."

hmmmmmmm.........