PSYCHIC: NOT EASY MONEY

Angie Shown goes to work every day but she never leaves her home. Her office is also her bedroom, dining room and kitchen -- part of a tiny Cape Girardeau apartment.

The walls are covered in bizarre artwork, some of it her own. The shades are drawn. A television flickers in the corner. A friendly cat of unknown breeding moves from the couch to the bathroom and back to the couch.

This is where Shown takes calls for several hours a day, doling out psychic readings to the lovelorn, unemployed and sometimes suicidal.

The 31-year-old member of the Psychic Readers Network rolls through her three-room apartment, pouring tea, shooing the cat away and fetching Tarot cards. She uses a wheelchair to travel, but it seems as much a part of her body as her legs.

Shown's last job was a bit different. She was an independent-living specialist with the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence. At that office, she used her degree in social work to help others deal with their disabilities.

Shown says she does the same thing now.

"At SADI, I made $8 an hour," she said. "With the network, I can make $11 or $13 an hour. I can do it here at home anytime during the day, and helping people is something I've always done naturally."

Shown first realized her special abilities when she was about 16. She had been raised in a Christian faith but always dabbled in the paranormal.

It started with reading other people's thoughts -- a process Shown described as hearing snatches of conversation in a crowded room. People whose minds are focused on a particular subject are easiest to read.

Shown began to develop her talent by studying the religions of the world, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and paganism. She said she started seeing visions and was able to contact the dead.

For years, Shown used her talents to help her friends and didn't ask for any money. Then a fellow psychic called her and suggested she join the Psychic Readers Network.

Shown signed a contract and wrote a required essay on why she could be a PRN psychic. An interviewer called and asked for a sample reading. Shown got the job and started logging on to the system when she wanted to work.

"I kicked myself at first because I thought it wasn't right to take people's money for telling them the truth," she said. "But preachers do it every day. They talk about the pearly gates and the streets of gold. I tell them about the future they can do something about."

Since she signed up, Shown has fielded hundreds of calls from upset people and earns about 25 cents a minute. One man was suicidal when he called. Shown began pulling the tarot cards and saw that his life wasn't going to get any better soon.

In that case, she used her knowledge of social work to break the news. She was so drained after the call that she had to log off the line for the night. Although she didn't hear from the caller again, Shown said she knows he is alive and well.

Now Shown wants to build her local clientele and give face-to-face readings at home. She also wants to make psychic readings a more accepted part of society.

"You tell people you're a psychic and people think you're full of it," she said. "The only difference between me and them is that I listen to myself. I pick up on the energy that's around me."