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US Psychic Industry Has Big Growth

William Parcher

Show me the monkey!
William Parcher
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
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26,902
The U.S. psychic industry has grown 52% since 2005 to reach $2.2billion in revenue last year thanks to wider acceptance of the supernatural, report finds

Daily Mail said:
They come seeking insights on love, money and lost loved ones. Some find answers and relief. Others find a reason to keep coming back, paying each time for the answers they crave. Whether it's palm readers or astrologers, experts in tarot, or mediums who connect with the dead – the psychic industry is booming, according to a new report.

Revenues have grown 52 percent since 2005 to reach nearly $2.2 billion in 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, according to an IBISWorld industry report obtained by DailyMail.com.

The industry has rebounded along with the post-recession economy and a growing acceptance of the metaphysical or supernatural. The industry's growth comes as personal religious beliefs in the U.S. have become more flexible and accepting: more than a quarter of Americans have left the faith they were raised in and 16.1 percent consider themselves unaffiliated, according to Pew Research Center.

'I don't think the susceptibility or gullibility of Americans has changed over the decades,' said Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine and a teacher of critical thinking at Chapman University. 'What we're witnessing is probably more internet access for promoters of psychics to spread their business more,' he told DailyMail.com.

At the same time, the industry is contending with escalating local regulations, as a growing number of states pass ordinances requiring background checks, registration fees, random inspections and limits on how many psychics can work within a given area, according to IBISWorld. ...
Click to expand...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ew-52-2005-reach-2-2billion-revenue-year.html

The highest concentrations of psychics are in Florida and California.
 
Some years ago, our local tabloid, the Riverfront Times, had one of their reporters take a job as a “telephone psychic”. (“No experience required”)

The article she did was rather depressing. There was no mystery to the technique... The standard sort of “fishing” questions furnished by the company was quite sufficient to allow the reporter to be a convincing phone psychic.
The depressing bit was the nature of the calls. Folks with all sorts of real-life problems, looking for help or comfort.
Domestic abuse, children gone bad, financial woes, loneliness, mental problems... The reporter could only take it for a couple of weeks.
 
This is a non news story. What do you expect from a source like that? The final paragraph says the industry will grow by 0.9% pa. Sorry but USA population growth is 0.8% pa growth. So the headline should be "he U.S. psychic industry grows in line with population growth and inflation."
 
rjh01 said:
This is a non news story. What do you expect from a source like that? The final paragraph says the industry will grow by 0.9% pa. Sorry but USA population growth is 0.8% pa growth. So the headline should be "he U.S. psychic industry grows in line with population growth and inflation."
Click to expand...

I was wondering if the figures were normed for inflation, because that would account for 28.57% growth by itself. About another 14.86% growth in the adult population. Multiply those together and you get about 47% growth from population and inflation. So maybe that last 5% is real growth. Not a huge difference.
 
I know he never said it, but PT Barnum's alleged statement on the birth rate of the extremely gullible is proven to be true every day.
What is amusing is that people who laugh at creationism and other Christian supernatural silliness fall for equally silly crap if it's all dressed up in New Age or pseudo Scientific language. I give you Sceintilogy as an example,which just a variant form of the Psychic racket.
 
dudalb said:
I know he never said it, but PT Barnum's alleged statement on the birth rate of the extremely gullible is proven to be true every day.
What is amusing is that people who laugh at creationism and other Christian supernatural silliness fall for equally silly crap if it's all dressed up in New Age or pseudo Scientific language. I give you Sceintilogy as an example,which just a variant form of the Psychic racket.
Click to expand...


I remember a newspaper comic strip in which a man and his young granddaughter were talking to an older woman.

Woman: I'm not religious, but I'm very spiritual.
Little Girl: What does that mean?
Grandfather: It means she believes in things like ghosts and psychics.
Woman. That's a very cynical attitude. What's your astrological sign?
 
"thanks to wider acceptance of the supernatural, report finds ..."

I don't see anything in the article that supports that part of the headline. The report referenced isn't publicly available.
 
Last edited:
jadebox said:
"thanks to wider acceptance of the supernatural, report finds ..."



I don't see anything in the article that supports that part of the headline. The report referenced isn't publicly available.
Click to expand...



There is wide acceptance of the supernatural. We only need to look at how many people identify as some kind of religious. And as people abandon organized religion, they find themselves left with beliefs that lend themselves very well to belief in psychics, ghosts and mediums.
 
xjx388 said:
There is wide acceptance of the supernatural. We only need to look at how many people identify as some kind of religious. And as people abandon organized religion, they find themselves left with beliefs that lend themselves very well to belief in psychics, ghosts and mediums.
Click to expand...

Randi noted the same thing when he toured Russia some years back... Shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Widespread belief in all manner of woo...

I’m on Quora a great deal, and to judge by the questions and answers.... There’s no lack of belief.
 
It is the headline's contention that the growth is due to "wider acceptance, not "wide acceptance" of the supernatural. Other than a throwaway line in the article, that assertion isn't addressed. And, as noted by others, the growth as measured in dollars can be explained by inflation and an increase in population. Even if those factors weren't enough, maybe the same number (or fewer) of believers were spending more on average.

I don't know if such beliefs are growing or not. I just thought it strange that the headline would make a statement that isn't really addressed in the article.
 
jadebox said:
It is the headline's contention that the growth is due to "wider acceptance, not "wide acceptance" of the supernatural. Other than a throwaway line in the article, that assertion isn't addressed. And, as noted by others, the growth as measured in dollars can be explained by inflation and an increase in population. Even if those factors weren't enough, maybe the same number (or fewer) of believers were spending more on average.

I don't know if such beliefs are growing or not. I just thought it strange that the headline would make a statement that isn't really addressed in the article.
Click to expand...

A version of click bait maybe? Get people to buy the paper. Then not read much of the article.
 
Bikewer said:
Randi noted the same thing when he toured Russia some years back... Shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Widespread belief in all manner of woo...
Click to expand...


I remember a great episode of Nova in which he interacted with various Russian psychics. I was particularly amused by the two women who claimed they could divine details of someone's life from a photograph. He provided them a photo of a man they said was a loving family man deeply involved in his community, and a major change had happened in his life in the past year. They were upset that Randi just sat there taking notes, not providing them with any feedback during their reading.
Unfortunately for them, the picture was of Ted Bundy, and he had been executed four years earlier. Their backpedaling was hilarious. "Yes. I said he had sad eyes. The eyes of a sadist."
 
jadebox said:
It is the headline's contention that the growth is due to "wider acceptance, not "wide acceptance" of the supernatural. Other than a throwaway line in the article, that assertion isn't addressed. And, as noted by others, the growth as measured in dollars can be explained by inflation and an increase in population. Even if those factors weren't enough, maybe the same number (or fewer) of believers were spending more on average.

I don't know if such beliefs are growing or not. I just thought it strange that the headline would make a statement that isn't really addressed in the article.
Click to expand...


I'm not even sure that the "industry" can be successfully measured. Whatever "growth" there might have been might be due entirely to different measurement techniques, in addition to general population and inflation already mentioned.
 
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