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By: ETTORE TOPPI
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Business is booming for gay psychic Dougall Fraser. Handsome, witty and media savvy, Fraser, 27, is on the cusp of notoriety in the realm of public fascination with the paranormal.
His new memoir “But You Knew That Already” is getting solid reviews and selling briskly. But maybe the way Fraser views the role of psychics a little differently than others is what sets him apart.
For starters, he doesn’t talk to dead people.
“It’s boring,” Fraser says. “They always say the same thing: ‘We’re fine. It didn’t hurt. I’m with grandma.’ I do it [for clients], but I’m more interested in human dynamics. Why are we here on this planet?”
Unlike his peers, Fraser believes that people who seek advice from psychics may rely too heavily on what they say.
“People want the mysteries of the universe unlocked instantly,” he says. “That’s not what I do. My job is to point out where you are missing out in life. Because truth be told, if everything were great, why would you be coming to see me?”
Instead, he stresses self-reliance and introspection.
“People are looking to me for something that I can’t give them,” he says. “They need to understand that the power is inside them.”
Fraser is also not afraid to be open about his sexual orientation.
“To me, being out is imperative because I have worked hard to be proud of who I am,” he says. “I absolutely refuse to be put back in the closet.”
Ironically, Fraser’s sexual orientation may be one of the very things that makes him such a marketable commodity. It has been a huge selling point in presenting his book.
In fact, Rodale Press actually asked if they could put “gay” in the title.
“For a while, they wanted the book to be called ‘Queer Guy with a Third Eye,’” he remembers. “I told them I just couldn’t do that.”
And in increasingly frequent talk-show appearances, some producers actually ask him to be “more gay,” he claims.
“Knew That Already” is not exclusively about gay issues, but a large part of it deals with his coming out process and his life as a gay man.
“I wanted to show what it’s like for a gay man trying to blend being spiritual and being human at the same time,” he says.
From growing up on Long Island, N.Y., to testing the limits of his burgeoning sexuality, Fraser gives readers a no-holds-barred look at his life so far. But the book is also uplifting in its insights into the basic life questions that so many people want answered.
The work also reflects the author’s quirky sense of humor and an appreciation of writers like David Sedaris.
“There are some parts of the psychic community that are just hysterical, like the 900 numbers, and I wanted people to see that,” Fraser says.
As an insider, he provides a gimlet-eyed look into an industry that receives surprisingly little scrutiny. But the book’s primary message, he says, is that people need to learn to trust their own hearts.
He sees gay people as often able to achieve that more easily than straight peers. But gay or straight, the message is the same: People should worry less about trying to look into the future and focus more on applying intuition to get the most out of today.
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