Barry Williams, executive officer of the Australian Skeptics Society, has a longstanding offer to give away $100,000. The society first put up the bounty, originally standing at $30,000 in 1980, for a medium or psychic who could prove their paranormal powers under mutually agreed controlled conditions.
In 30 years, they've tested 100 people, most of them water diviners. The cash remains unclaimed and, Williams suspects, will stay that way.
"Never once have we had a claim from a famous astrologer or clairvoyant. If you've ever heard their name, you can bet your life they have not contacted us. I'm a cynical bugger. We know they are frauds. Why would they put themselves out for us to expose them?" Williams asks.
From the Delphi Oracle to the prophecies of Nostradamus, humankind has been fascinated with destiny. Invariably, fortune tellers draw on esoteric and new-age philosophies, mysticism and even religious themes. They talk of angels, karma, universal forces and reincarnation, yet Williams believes psychics are no more than glorified amateur psychologists, who tease important information out of clients, representing it as something about to happen.
"If people could predict the future like lottery numbers, they would be winning the lottery all the time," Williams says. "They have all sorts of get-outs, like you can't predict your own future. I don't doubt we have intuition. But that is not a paranormal ability."
Not everyone is as suspicious, however. Brisbane academic Dr Kathryn Gow researched the abilities of 53 psychics in Australia and overseas and believes psychic ability does exist - for a rare elite.
She started out as a sceptic and became a believer after several predictions came true in her life. Now she has come full circle, questioning all but a select few. The Queensland University of Technology researcher describes herself as a "brave psychologist" for her openness to the possibility that, as in the animal kingdom, humans can be strongly intuitive.
"I've met about five genuine [psychics]," she says. "Of the rest, 20 were charlatans and the others had something, undeniably a skill."
Psychics are most accurate when they are left to provide detail without interpretation, Gow says. She cautions people about seeking psychics to map their spiritual lives.
"The difference between a good psychic and a charlatan lies in the specific details provided," she says. "Good psychics do not generalise but nor should we corner them with specific questions because it can cause false results. What they do best is pick up on things that come to them - pictures, a feeling, full-motion pictures; some get a sound or a whole sentence. I've had them come back with whole sentences."
Armed with this advice from both sceptic and convert, I set out to test the state of the future's market by visiting five different fortune tellers. Surely if they are all genuine, they will predict similar things in my life?
Internet guru: Sharina
Sharina bills herself as "Australia's No. 1 psychic to the stars, radio and TV personalities", using the mystical arts of numerology, astrology, palmistry, feng shui and tarot to plot future finances, health and love life. And all of this without ever meeting her clients. My 30 pages of predictions - "amazing detail and uncanny accuracy" - were ordered via the internet and based on only a single scrap of information: my date of birth.
According to Sharina, I'm a good judge of character and I like large families. Status is important to me, though my purpose in life is to help people. I'm experiencing emotional turmoil, having begun a phase of great spiritual and personal growth, and I'm trying to fill a great emptiness inside.
If she's referring to mid-life reassessment, she's right. But that's what you tend to do with fortune tellers - mentally search for meaning in the more abstract predictions and seize on the positive.
I certainly wasn't going to argue when she predicted action, excitement and major life opportunities in 2008, including three big celebrations and a home business.
Cost: $150.
Avalon psychic: Elizabeth Lucy
Not a great start. Lucy begins by asking if there is a Paul or Pauline in my circle of family and friends? No? What about a Nancy or Nellie? A Jack, Jackson or a John? A Shirley or Sharon? An Aiden or Andrew? A Catherine or Christine? Roger and Robert?
Only one name rings a bell - my brother-in-law whom I've not seen in almost four years. On the plus side, Lucy predicts my sister will be promoted, something that comes true the very next day.
So perhaps there's hope for her other predictions - that I will soon be travelling across water; that I'll write a book, possibly for children; that I may change careers and become either a teacher or a trainer.
But I need a GPS tracking system to work out where she thinks I'm going to move. First Queensland. Then the North Coast. Perhaps a vineyard or a place in the country? A haven on the northern beaches? Or a house with a leafy aspect in Hornsby. Finally, she concedes we will settle locally.
Cost: $120.
Angel intuitive: Shaki
I meet Shaki in the megamart of fortune telling - the psychic reading room of the MindBodySpirit Festival at Darling Harbour. Forty psychics, mediums and astrologers sit in five aisles with tarot and angel cards spinning like casino chips.
As an angel intuitive, Shaki starts by holding my hands across a velvet tablecloth. After much deep breathing she offers a message from the angels: do not fear, move forward.
She asks if I'm in health care. No, I volunteer, I'm a writer. She tells me I'm very creative and will one day write a book. Then, without prompting, she answers one of my pressing questions: we will move.
Do I have children, she asks - a little girl? No, a boy. Well, I will have a girl. And apparently the angel cards reveal something else - I am being protected by the angel Ezriel. His presence denotes a change in the next three months that will bring great comfort and hidden blessings.
Cost: $70 for 50 minutes.
Spiritual counselor: Colette Levy
The spirit world is not co-operating. French-born psychic Levy, from the ASA Spiritualist Church, can sense a crowd of the dearly departed at my left shoulder - two men and three females. But my grandmother at her right is blocking her psychic pathways.
She asks for a personal item and I hand over my wallet. Using psychometry - or vibes - Levy correctly identifies a recent personal trauma, then predicts a happy resolution to a prolonged family sadness and a change of address.
My parents are grateful she predicts a long life for both. And my mother is excited she identified her nagging back pain. She sees a Josh and a Dillon in my life - one out of two. But why couldn't she name my husband or my son?
She bats at spirits hovering about her like mosquitoes and often breaks into cough - a sign, she says, that spirits are trying to talk over her. At the end, she clicks her fingers, complains the spirits are making her cold and orders them to leave.
Cost: $50.
Psychic-medium: Kate Barnes
Barnes, from Surry Hills, wins points for telling me no clairvoyant can be 100percent accurate and that I should beware of psychics who close their eyes and make a pretence of meditation.
She works from visions and feelings, using her psychic "third eye" which she claims to have developed at the age of four. "It's like looking at a screen with your eyes," she says.
Barnes believes the future is a potential that can be acted on and ultimately changed. Her predictions for me include a change of address; a job offer, probably within the same organisation; and a year of choices.
My initial cynicism shifts with some of her insights. She accurately describes my husband, down to the red flecks in his beard. And she correctly identifies the cause of some ongoing family tensions. I think she's lost it when she tells me I've been married for 14 years but she's dead right - I'd miscalculated.
So I test her. My husband has been nominated for an award - will he win? She senses applause and advises me he should wear red and sit with his back to the door. We couldn't get there. He didn't wear red. He lost.
Cost: $100.
Despite questions about their accuracy, there was a consistency to the psychics' predictions. Each successfully predicted my family will move in 2008. We will start actively looking in the new year, though we'll stay in the same neighbourhood. But only Barnes picked up my reluctance to start house-hunting.
Verdict
All said I would travel overseas - and that's highly likely. A family holiday could well be on the cards.
Four said I would write a book in 2008, which I doubt, since it is something I have sworn never to do.
Barnes predicted a tempting internal job offer, Sharina the start of a home business and Lucy a switch to teaching and training. They can't all be right. And anyway, though I'd consider an internal promotion, I'm happy doing what I'm doing.
But my consultations made me think a better year lay ahead. Are they right? Time will tell.
