By Kevin Griffiths, Vancouver Sun
B.C. clairvoyants gaze into their crystal balls to the year ahead
January is a busy time of the year for the mystic arts as everyone tries to get a jump on what’s in store for the year. While the tsunami has soothsayers working overtime in Southeast Asia with predictions that the tragedy is a harbinger of the end of the world (coming in 2010 according to Nostradamus), most local psychics, busy lining up their predictions for 2005 didn’t see it coming….
In North Vancouver, Kelly Oswald is the founder of the West Coast School of Mystic Arts. Her reading on the coming year focused more on people rather than politics.
She agrees with the Regans that there’s no sign of a major natural disaster in the works for B.C. But what is likely to happen is increased stress and worry as people become more aware of the likelihood of a big earthquake here in the future. She said to expect attendance to rise at events such as earthquake preparedness seminars.
“Another thing that I came up with: Mother Earth just spoke to us in a big loud way. At some level people are aware of what we’re doing to the planet.”
She said the tsunami and its worldwide response, which happened in late 2004, will spread over into this year and help create a sense of connectedness like never before. While 2005 was supposed to be a year of connecting with people in a meaningful way, the tsunami and its response has simply accentuated a process that was already going to happen.
“I almost want to call it naval gazing,” she said from Whistler. “We’ll be more aware of ourselves – a looking inward not in a selfish way but in a way that connects with other people.”
Many people, however, don’t believe in the predictions of psychics at all – including members of organizations dedicated to debunking claims of the paranormal.
Timothy Campbell, vice chair of Skeptics Canada, said he doesn’t believe there are any genuine psychics.
“When I say I don’t believe there are any, I’m not saying there are none,” he said from Toronto. “I’m saying there is no good evidence that there are any.”