Oh Gardener! This is the bane of my exsistance as a psychic reader.
I sooo know what you're talking about.
We wrote up a pamplet and when someone pulls that on me I give them the pamplet and ask them to spend a minute reading it.
I excuse myself and let them sit alone for a few minutes.
When I come back they have usually changed their mind and if not I spend some time explaining that this experience is for them and in order to have a really good reading experience they need to drop the games and participate in their reading.... it's a collaboration, not a parlor trick entertainment.
What Magpie said is also something I so agree with.
I tell them they are being unfair to themselves, they are wasting their time and money...it is of no concern to me, the cards will say what they want to say regardless, and go where they want to go.
But give them a direction and we can really get to work, and to the heart of your desire...why you walked in the door.
The bottom line Gardner is ...we don't have to prove anything.
By the time they sit for their reading, they have taken the time to find us, pay us, and they have already made up their mind to have a reading.
They owe it to themselves to get the reading they came for.
And if they chose to sit back, remain passive, give away their power and not enter into the relationship of the reading...well then I just read.
And if they go away unhappy at least I know I have done everything in my power to help them have a good reading experience.
I have done my part.
I have been true to my gift.
And I am a psychic reader....but nothing shuts down my abilities faster than "You're the psychic you tell me!"
I had such a bad experience with a woman 2 weeks ago I almost stopped reading publicly.
She would not ask a question or give me a direction for her reading.
Even after the pamplet and the talk.
She just gave me the old line, "You're the psychic you tell me."
So I read cold.
It was a good reading, alot of info. for her.
But she fought with me on every point.
Kept telling me I was wrong.
I would stop and say well my cards and my intuition are saying this and I trust them..then she would backtrack and say '"Well, yes, what you are saying is true I just wanted to test you and see if you would change your story if I disagree with you."
When her time was up she said "Do you mind if I ask a question?"
I thought she was going to ask a question about what I had just read....
Instead she recited a laundry list of questions she now wanted me to give her quick answers for!
"Could you just pull a card for this.. how about that..."
I just sat there staring at her.
I was shocked that she would blantantly try and extract extra time from me as if I owed her something more, when she had given me such a hard time throughout the whole reading!
I just sent her to the front desk and told her there would be a fee for another reading.
When she protested I said "Next time ask your question's up front."
I spent a long time thinking about this later.
And yes, I am here to provide guidance, but never to be disrespected or used.
Bill yourself as what you want to represent.
Think carefully about what you write in a flyer or pamplet you pass out, because that is what they will expect you to deliver.
And be clear about your personal guidelines and boundries...view them as a protection for yourself.
And if you feel they are baiting you or testing you and you feel uncomfortable about that there is no shame in handing them back the money and telling them that you don't work that way and why.
It'll shock the heck out of them, but maybe they'll walk away with a new understanding of what a reader is.
That is what I should have remembered to do in the above case.
Holly Cow this got way to long, sorry
I've just thought long and hard about this and it was good to get it out and down on paper and have a look at it with all of you.
Thank you for the question Gardener!