A Field Trip to Princeton’s Psychic, 26(.5) Witherspoon Street

The Princeton Village Psychic is on 26 ½ Witherspoon Street. It’s easy to miss and surprisingly spacious. Although a blue sign advertises the business on the main sidewalk, you have to squeeze into the passageway between Mandalay and Teresa Café to find its entrance.An address in flux seems fitting for a business that sells the intangible. It also echoed my frame of mind on the evening I enlisted two of my friends, Kathy  and Jacqueline, to have their palms read with me.My inner rationalist said that I shouldn’t waste $20 on something I inherently distrusted, yet I was also curious about this niche market and how it survived in a sea of J-Crew and gourmet cheese shops.“Psychic Trish” unlocked the front door for us after I waved from outside. The store offers different services in ascending price order; a simple palm reading, a palm and facial/full body reading, a half deck tarot card reading and a full deck tarot card reading. Prices range from $20 to $85. We went for the cheapest option.Trish said that she had inherited “the gift” from her grandmother, who originally started the business. She doesn’t usually read palms for Princeton students. Most of her younger clientele are from Rider University in Lawrenceville.“Princeton students seem too busy and stressed.”Kathy, a junior in the English department, started off the readings. Trish said she had a very long and deep lifeline, and that she was “meant for marriage and love.”“You love very deeply and care a lot about others,” the psychic said as she held Kathy’s hand. “You should think more about yourself.”The psychic said that Kathy was very creative, but that she had been having difficulties settling on a direction for her work.“I was trying to keep my poker face on,” Kathy recalled after the reading, noting that she had recently been reflecting on her aspirations in the performing arts.The psychic also predicted that she had recently started seeing a boy whose name includes the letters J or N.“I would have been more skeptical if she had listed vowels, but the letters worked out,” Jacqueline noted.Other predictions included a strong academic future and summer travel plans abroad, specifically to "the south," where she would meet new people and have several summer flings.One of the first observations that Trish made about Jacqueline was that she had not been sleeping well because of stress and anxiety. She said that Jacqueline was worried about her grades, but that she was very successful and intelligent.“I just started a regime of sleepy-time tea and no caffeine after 3 pm to prevent nighttime restlessness,” Jacqueline said later. “But I also just look really tired and nerdy today.”The psychic predicted that Jacqueline would pursue a post-graduate degree and that she would have a leadership position later in life.Jacqueline flinched, however, when Trish said she would be working with children.“I definitely don’t see myself working with children,” Jacqueline said later. “Maybe law school students?," I offered.When Jacqueline asked about her summer plans, of which she was already fairly certain, the psychic accurately predicted that she would not be traveling internationally.“I feel like I’ve read you before,” Trish said when I opened my palm to her. I said that I had not, but looked on expectantly as she started my reading. It was strangely intimate to sit across from her. When she wasn’t looking at my palm she maintained eye contact.Trish said that I had a strong character and that I would probably start a business of some kind. Although I also have a creative streak, she said I would settle on an industrial career.“Someone in your family is very worried about you, and you’ve lost contact with them. A father or a mother.”It was probably the most negative statement that Trish had made over the course of our séances, and it rung strangely true. Kathy and Jacqueline, with whom I had discussed the issue at length in the last few weeks, raised their eyebrows in unison.“It was definitely the most striking moment,” Kathy recalled later.Even though the experience did not convince me to rely on palm reading as a reliable science, I was surprised by how intently we focused on Trish’s words. Even though some of her statements seemed wildly beyond contemplation – like the prediction that I would get married in my 20’s and have four children – the ones that struck home made us think about our priorities and relationships.In the end I interpreted the reading as an experiment in human faith. When faced with high stakes and deadlines in a place like Princeton, connections between a stranger’s voice and thoughts about your own life can be oddly comforting.-AW