There is this notion out there, well, two schools of thought actually. One that says that alternative, metaphysical, lightworkers, psychics, mediums and the like should not be paid for their services. The theory goes that IF it is a God-given gift, they should not charge for it, and IF they are legit, they will not seek monetary benefit from the pain/suffering of others. That to seek compensation automatically places them in the “charlatan” category.

Then there is the one that says people should be paid for their work. Period.

I’m influenced and indoctrinated by the first one, and convinced of the second one.

See, I had my first education in the more traditional fields of psychology, sociology, and anthropology…then went on to get a master’s degree in social work. I’m here to tell you people, that in this field, we get paid. And we monetarily benefit from the pain and suffering of others. We go bankrupt without pain and suffering and despair. As do doctors, lawyers, surgeons, insurance companies, plumbers…think of more.

Even people in the alternative field devalue themselves by charging to little, or not at all because they fear this means they are opportunistic parasites and are not legit.

Payment for service shows respect, AND allows the practitioner to survive and to continue offering their services to many other people. I DO, sometimes question the high prices that famous alternative people make, but in that case, it is simply a matter of consumerism…if people want to pay it…that’s none of my beeswax. If I was rich, I might spring for their services too.

I have the interesting contrast to have been a part of both worlds. I worked in my educated field, and then found it so lacking and so over burdensome and ineffective, and such a waste of my gifts that I went out on my own. First I got some additional training for my “natural” gifts. Then I opened shop. And for the most part, I had a policy that I would see people regardless of their ability to pay. I was offering a combination of counseling with energy healing to assist people in making the mind/body connection. What I attracted was people who had exhausted their resources on traditional therapies and were tapped out. I saw them anyway. I did this for three years. In lieu of rent for my office space (which had other offices in it), I cleaned the office space for all. In a three year period, I made just enough money to cover expenses and not a single penny more. The energy output for me, especially as an empath is HUGE. And at some point, the reward of “thank you you’ve helped me so much”, just wasn’t cutting it for me. I have hopes and dreams and aspirations and desires and bills to pay too. The balance is off.

Why should I not be paid for my “gifts”? Singers, musicians, athletes…should they all be told that their gifts came from God and as such, should be given freely? We sort of DO live in a world that trades on the dollar to get by.

There’s always bartering, right? That is problematic. It still give you no cash flow. And often, the trades are unequal, or people don’t reciprocate, or don’t take their trade when you’ve accepted their service, some services don’t have much overhead, some products/services do, and you sort of have to maneuver sticky situations if somebody knows you barter, but you don’t want what they have. Then there is the whole issue of the IRS view of bartering. It’s basically illegal. And the larger question becomes the return of…why should I take a chicken instead of money if I have a product/service that people value (and by value, I mean, they like it, they come to it, they utilize it, but don’t think they should pay for it).

So, consequently, I closed up shop. Might have to “get a REAL job”.

Then enters in this idea of being ripped off, lied to etc. Yup, it happens. There are alternative people out there who have no gift or skill and hang up a shingle and rip people off. The “snake oil salesmen” of old. Visions of Professor Trelawny in Harry Potter might come to mind.

OK, so I’m gonna ask you. Be honest. How many times have you purchased a product that did not live up to the advertising? How many times have you gotten your hair cut by a butcher with a pair of scissors? How many times have you taken your car in for repair and been ripped off? How many times in your life have you been lied to, cheated, or had a product or service not live up to your expectations? That’s life baby. The world is full of both good and bad. Deal with it. It is not exclusive to people in the woo-woo world. You vote with your dollars and your word-of-mouth advertising. You never buy a product twice that sucks, you change doctors, etc. Very rarely (despite the press), do we sue for all the times we are lied to and cheated, so to me it is a non-issue that often times alternative practitioners don’t have licenses or boards that we can report to. You can sue anybody for anything if you want to. Most of the time we don’t…we just go elsewhere. And in my case, it wasn’t that my “charlatanism” put me out of business…I HAD business. I just let people continue to not pay me. I undervalued the gift and they did to. We all bought into the first notion that a gift is freely given. Well, yeah that is a cool IDEA…but rather shortsighted. I won’t do that anymore. I’ll give it when I feel so inclined, but by and large, until something changes in the biz to legitimize it in all our minds and pocketbooks, I’m out of the storefront business. I’ll give it away for “free” on the web, and get the advertisers to pay for it. So click click click on those sidebar ads and make me rich, baby! Then I can go get a reading from a high-dollar TV psychic. Cuz everybody knows they are more gifted than everybody else, right?