Soothsayers are enjoying good fortune in Bulgaria as the economic downturn and an increasingly hectic pace of life sends citizens searching for answers and willing to fork out huge sums of money.

The demand for fortune tellers was illustrated - yet again - after it emerged that clairvoyants, soothsayers, fortune-tellers and astrologers with special powers have reported revenues worth hundreds of thousands of levs at the National Revenue agency.

A fortune-teller made it to the biggest taxpayers in Bulgaria with incomes worth hundreds of thousands levs, data of the agency shows.

No more than forty soothsayers have connected their cash registers to the National Revenue Agency (NRA) to transmit real-time data on their turnover.

The capital Sofia is a base for nine legal clairvoyants, followed by the northern town of Veliko Tarnovo, according to the NRA.

Clairvoyants, soothsayers, fortune-tellers and astrologers with special powers have turned into a social phenomenon in Bulgaria over the last few years.

The business of miracle healers has been booming in the country as never before on the back of the economic crisis, Bulgarians' despair and their predilection for mysticism and superstitions. The pushy women can be seen standing in front of hospitals, their ads feature in newspapers and on the internet. It is hard to avoid meeting them even in downtown Sofia.

More often than not, following these sessions, the patients end up with double-digit bills, rather than a solution to their problems. The promise to solve virtually any problem whether it's regarding love, career, finance, stress or illness however have made the miracle healers so popular in Bulgaria that they successfully compete with the medics from the health care sector, left in tatters after the collapse of the communist regime.

Once banned by Bulgaria's communist authorities and seen as a revolt against the regime, today clairvoyants, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, astrologers and universal saviors show enviable skills for survival in the globalized world. They lift a curse via e-mails, say what the future will bring via ICQ and lead online studies for candidate witches.

Experts fear that even if legislation that distinguishes charlatanism from psychotherapy is implemented strictly, it would not do much to put an end to the booming business of clairvoyants and miracle healers because too many Bulgarians believe in their services.

The fear of the unknown, the insecurity and instability that marked the period of big changes in the country, makes people look for refuge in superstitions, say sociologists.

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