According to Karen Marie Williams, president of the Central Texas Psychic Association, “The biggest thing we do now is promote psychic fairs. At the fairs are psychic readers of all different types, vendors, and then we have lectures and workshops for those people interested in learning more about parapsychology.”
I’ve always wondered why so many psychics chose the Red Lion Inn and similar environs for their semi-annual gatherings, and now I know.
Located in a really tiny one-room office off North Lamar, the CTPA has been around for “a little over 10 years” since its inception by highly regarded local psychic Joe Nichols. Since then CTPA’s ranks have grown to include a membership list of 200 and a mailing list of over 1,800.
“It’s really open to anybody,” says Williams. “We have a reader who lives in Oklahoma, one that lives in Maryland, and so on, but most of our readers are living in Austin.”
In addition to psychic fairs, CTPA has also begun investigating local psychic phenomena, though their methods are a far cry from those of Bill Murray’s Ghostbusters: “For the investigation that I went out on, we took a group of seven along. The people who called us complained of having things fly out of cabinets, pictures would drop off the wall, and this woman was even being pulled out of her bed at night. So we brought incense and candles with the intention of clearing the house and getting the ghost to move on. We believe that if a ghost is hanging around, they’re stuck, they’re not moving ahead in their personal growth or whatever.”
Did it work?
“Oh yeah. They said that within about 10 days of our coming out, the ghost had cleared out and they hadn’t had any other incidents.”
This summer’s events for the all-volunteer CTPA included a stint doing readings at Austin Aquafest as well as an ongoing series of readings at The Body Shop in the Barton Creek and Highland Malls.
“One of the things that this organization wants people to see is that this isn’t that uncommon, it’s not a strange thing. I think as time goes on and it becomes more and more common, people will begin utilizing their own intuition and personal abilities. Everyone has psychic ability and can develop what they have. It’s just a matter of tuning in to it.” — M.S.
This article appears in September 5 • 1997 and September 5 • 1997 (Cover).