Psst! Want a Hot Tip? Try a Crystal Ball
In a turbulent market, psychics see the future
At the Triton, a trendy San Francisco hotel favored by the dot-com crowd, the lines are long. But the wait isn't for one of the hotel's 140 rooms. It's for the tarot-card reader who sets up shop every night in the lobby. Across town, in an office near Fisherman's Wharf, a psychic whose clients include at least one of the leading dot-com casualties says the demand for her services has been unseasonably brisk. "It's usually love and spiritual problems people come to me about," the woman says. "But now it's more for business problems."
At a time when the markets have been sending shock waves through the business world, it should probably come as no surprise that some CEOs and investors are turning to a new form of irrational exuberance: the universe of the so-called sixth sense. If there was any doubt about the trend, GotMarketing.com, which offers do-it-yourself online marketing tools to small and midsize businesses, recently unveiled a popular new feature: a business psychic named Imara who dispenses advice three times a week on its Web site. "Everybody's just on pins and needles right now," says Teri Dahlbeck, president of GotMarketing. "People are getting pink-slipped. Marketing budgets are getting slashed. In these troubled times, people are looking for a different insight that gives them a competitive edge."
According to Dean Radin, president of the Boundary Institute, a research center in Los Altos, Calif., that investigates the scientific basis for psychic phenomena, the current resort to the otherworldly underlines an increasing corporate fascination with the psychic. "There's always been an underground interest in these matters," Radin says. "But in times of uncertainty, when you exhaust all the usual intelligence, you tend to look elsewhere for information. And in Silicon Valley now, everyone's scrambling."
Feedback--fast! An electrical engineer with a doctorate in psychology, Radin, 48, spent a decade in the telecommunications labs of AT&T Bell and GTE, then switched to parapsychology research at the University of Nevada and Interval Research Corp., a think tank sponsored by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. One year ago, he and some colleagues set up their own institute to explore whether a scientific basis exists for claims of extrasensory perception. Operating on an annual budget of under $1 million, the institute is funded by the engineering-trained titans of high tech. For some of these backers, the field is a personal interest. For others, it offers the promise of unlocking the innovative thinking that the "new economy" constantly demands. "All our money comes from what I'd call the captains of industry out here," he says. "But given the nature of the industry, people are very shy about having their names used."
One reason for the upsurge in corporate interest, Radin argues, is new discoveries in fields like quantum physics that indicate a reassuring scientific basis for the paranormal. But the greatest impetus clearly comes from the uncertain economic climate. "I do see a high level of anxiety," says Imara. "People aren't sure where to invest."
A 44-year-old self-styled "business intuitive," Imara says her own mission is to "help clients do for themselves what they come to me for"--that is, to trust their gut. Not that she relies on ESP alone. She has a master's degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and spent five years as a marketing executive for Shasta Beverages and Inmac USA, an online computer retailer, before dropping out to become an actress. When an accident cut that career short, Imara--who says the name came to her in a vision--remarketed herself as a business psychic. "In some cases, companies don't have time to do market research studies, which can take months," she says. "I can give them that feedback in an hour."
Skeptics may doubt that. But among Imara's 30 private clients is Mark Etscovitz, president of Voice Processing Solutions in Santa Cruz, Calif., who says he has used her advice for five years in making deals and investments. And when he recommends Imara to colleagues, Etscovitz says, "there's more interest now because things are falling apart."
On the GotMarketing Web site, Imara avoids predictions. But in an interview, she offers little comfort for investors unsettled by mercurial markets. "It's going to remain volatile and extremely unpredictable." She does see one growth industry out there, though--her own. "We're giving all our logical, left-brain functions to computers," she says. "So what does that leave us with? All the right-brain, nonlinear, intuitive tasks." Her forecast: "People who have my skills are going to become more and more valuable."
This story appears in the January 8, 2001 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.