By DPA

Clairvoyants, soothsayers, fortune-tellers and astrologers in Bulgaria are seizing on the economic crisis to offer people a bit of hope for the future.

They can be found, for example, in front of the Sheraton hotel in Sofia calling out predictions to passers-by. "You will have great fortune," or "Something is depressing you," are the types of things they say. They know that people in the Balkans, especially when times are bad, would like to know something about what the future will bring.

Generally, they are pushy women offering people tips in exchange for cash on how they can master their lives or avoid a disaster. They also stand in front of hospitals in order to profit from people in despair and their ads are seen in newspapers and on the internet.

They promise to solve virtually any problem whether it's regarding love, career, finance, stress or illness. Offers to lift a curse or create a love potion are the most common. Such things, however, are harmless compared with some claims such as those that offer a miracle cure for cancer or depression. These clairvoyants call themselves healing artists and charge double-digit or higher amounts for such "services."

The Bulgarian government now wants to distinguish this charlatanism from psychotherapy.

"Currently, anyone who treats people with any means can describe himself as a psychotherapist," said parliamentarian Irena Sokolowa. Psychotherapy should be practiced only by people who have been educated in the area, said Sokolowa, who is also a psychologist. She is sponsoring a bill to make this a law.

But experts are worried that such a law wouldn't do much to put an end to the booming business of clairvoyants and miracle healers because too many Bulgarians believe in their services. One in particular stands out: Profit Wanga who died in 1996. Also known outside Bulgaria, Wanga is said to have predicted the Chernobyl nuclear reactor catastrophe and the election of a black president in the US 18 years before it happened.

Bulgarians' predilection for mysticism and superstition is explained by the Balkan country's position on the edge of Europe between the orient and occident. The way Bulgarians think is influenced to a large extent by the psychology of the people of the east, who tend to believe in miracles more readily than do western Europeans.

Professor Ljubomir Halatschew said this trust in "special powers" is widespread in Bulgaria. Speaking on the Bulgarian private television channel bTV, he said every second Bulgarian that participated in a survey said they believed in supernatural phenomena and feared having a curse put on them.

However, as a rule most people who claim to be miracle healers are unscrupulous cheats. Magda, for example, promises to cure women of infertility over the telephone. She claims to do this by transmitting impulses through the phone line and it is a lucrative business. The "therapy" consists of three 45-minute telephone calls, according to the newspaper Monitor. The cost is about 280 euros (335 dollars).

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