PROVO — Tammy Lee's clients like to park down the road or across the street and slip unobtrusively into her parlor.
They're not really comfortable with anybody knowing they're seeing a psychic, even if they are regulars. That's all right with Lee. She doesn't mind.
"It's usually all secret. People don't want anyone to know. They worry about their friends and their family thinking they are nuts or crazy or doing something that's against their religion," said the Yugoslavian who set up practice in Utah County in June.
She's been a professional psychic for 17 years — and she isn't apologetic.
"My grandmother was one. My mother and my sisters are psychic. My great- and great-great-grandmothers were psychic. My 1-year-old daughter shows signs of ability. It's just always been part of my life," Lee said, who was 4 when she started seeing the future for others.
"I can't read for myself. None of us can. We have to go to different people for ourselves," she said.
But for everyone else, Lee can use cards, sand, special pieces of crystal and her crystal ball to predict the future or explain the past and present.
"Psychic reading is the most popular," Lee said. "My favorite is the psychic or the sand. I like using my ability, and they offer me more opportunity to do that."
Palm readings are the most limited, she said, followed by the Tarot cards.
"You can learn to read palms or cards from a book. It doesn't take any psychic ability," she said.
She also doesn't hold with TV psychics who don't meet their clients and yet charge $3 a minute for generic predictions. "They're not real," she said.
Lee prefers letting a client relax. They're invited to pick up the hunks of crystal that have been handed down in her family for generations or rest their hands on the crystal ball.
Sometimes, that takes hours and she's happy to take that time.
Once a client's guards are down, Lee can pick up on what they're feeling.
"I don't pick up on death. That's for God to decide," she said. But she can predict job changes, new babies on the way, losses and successes coming along. She can sense trouble.
"I see things. I see visions. I feel things," she said. "I try to be completely honest. Most people come in here knowing something's going on so at the beginning of a reading I tell them, I ask them, 'How much do you want to know?' "
Lee came to Utah from California and realizes she's trying to work in a culture that generally looks down on psychic predictions. But she hasn't wanted for clients.
She sees between 40 to 50 a month, depending on the season.
"I feel it's OK here. I get enough respect," she said.
Lee is seeing some fairly alarming events for 2004.
"I see another terrorist attack on the United States within the next nine months," she said. "I see the economy getting better with more jobs for people. I also see earthquakes, one within 250 to 300 miles and one back home in California, a pretty big one, before the end of the year."
Lee has four shops open seven days a week with a newly renovated one at 347 E. 1200 South in Orem. To reach her, call 623-3315.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com