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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2001
The Lawrence Metaphysical shop, 1610 W. 23rd St., offers palm, psychic and tarot card readings. The shop moved from its downtown location about two months ago.
A legal, but perhaps not typical, business STORY BY NICOLE ROCHE PHOTOS BY JAKE TEITELBAUM
Reporters have been bugging Tina Lee since she opened her Lawrence Metaphysical Shop last year.
"I don't understand why everyone is so interested in me and my business," she said.
But reporters—and the general public—are interested because Lee's shop, with its new location at 1610 W.23rd St., does not provide the services of a typical business.
Lawrence Metaphysical Shop, 1610 W.23rd St., offers palm, psychic and tarot readings. Tina Lee, owner, said, "Lawrence is a very spiritual place."
Lee offers palm, psychic and tarot card readings for $25, $35 and $45, respectively.
Lee says that she has acquired many return customers since she moved here about a year ago from California.
"Lawrence is a very spiritual area," she said. "I think that's why so many people here are looking for direction and answer."
But although this type of business may be thriving, the situation hasn't always been so easy.
Toni Wheeler, staff attorney for the city of Lawrence, said that until this summer, there was an
ordinance in place that prohibited fortune tellers and palm readers in Lawrence, but the ordinance had not been strictly enforced by the legal services department. She said the ordinance was an older one, but she was not sure how long it had been in place.
Wheeler said that after an intern in her department examined U.S. Supreme Court cases dealing with fortune tellers, they realized it would be impossible to enforce the ordinance legally.
"Fortune tellers have a First Amendment right to speak and prohibiting that in other districts has been found to be unconstitutional," Wheeler said.
The Lawrence City Commission then decided to remove the ordinance, she said.
Lee said that despite the presence of the ordinance, she never had any legal problems with the city when the ordinance was in place.
Lee's shop was located on Massachusetts Street until two months ago, and she said she relocated to
West 23rd Street because her landlord wanted to expand an optometry clinic in that area, she said.
Another business, Lunaria Holistic Health Center, 1103 Massachusetts St., provided psychic readings until recently, but according to a secretary at Lunaria, the center no longer offers them because its only psychic is moving to Arizona. The secretary did not give a reason for the move.
There are few regulations that govern psychics in Lawrence.
Diane Trybom, deputy city clerk,
said although some states required
all businesses to be licensed.
Kansas has only a certain list of
businesses that require a license.
Psychics are not included on the
list, Trybom said, and as long as
the business is zoned properly,
then it is allowed to be there.
"Zones are based on traffic generating capacity and how many people are going to be visiting the site," Brian Pedrotti, Lawrence/Douglas County planner, said.
Pedrotti said psychics were
The Kansas Attorney General has received about 160 complaints that Miss Cleo's psychic hotline was misleading. Tina Lee, owner of Lawrence Metaphysical Shop, said she had not received any complaints since she moved to Lawrence one year ago.
included in group 12 — businesses labeled as "personal services." Other businesses in this group include barbers, beauty shops and altering shops.
Pedrotti said the entire north side of W.23rd, where Lee's business is located, allows for group 12 businesses.
But this code is difficult to enforce, similar to the original ordinance, Patrick said.
Patrick said there was a current city code in Lawrence, code 14-601, that specifically protected individuals from "cheat or fraud." The code states: "No person shall use or practice any game, device, or deceit, or assist the same to be done, for the purpose of cheating, defrauding, or obtaining money or other valuable things from any other person unlawfully."
"Unless someone comes forward saying they were a victim of fraud, there is really no way for us to regulate that," he said.
Andrew Koebbe, St. Louis sophomore, said the issue of fraud was an important one because he did not see psychic centers as legitimate businesses.
"I really believe that psychics are manipulative in the sense that they are so vague," he said. "They are vague because the advice they give would apply to almost anvone."
Koebbe said the danger with psychics was that people who go to
see them probably already believe that the psychic is legitimate, or they wouldn't waste their time and money to see one.
"Then when they hear something that sort of relates to them, they jump to the conclusion that it is real," he said. "The person may not see the psychic as being strictly for entertainment."
"I believe in the truth of the Bible, which quite clearly speaks out against things like witchcraft or fortune-telling," he said. "The strange thing is, the Bible does not deny the existence of these things, but it says that these powers do not come from God."
safety for him. Koebbe said he's a devout Christian, and that his beliefs affected the way he viewed the psychic world.
Ley says religion dictates her line of work in more ways than people would think.
"Everyone has the right to practice their religion," she said. "That's what I do; I practice my religion."
Lee said she does not understand why people would see anything wrong with what she does for a living. She said she has been a psychic for 17 years and she has had many satisfied clients that repeatedly return for readings.
"I'm here to help people." she said. "Not to hurt people."
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Contact Roché at 864-4810
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