is it unethical?
Reply With QuoteI don't think there's a black and white answer for this, for several reasons.
I operate on the basic premise that there needs to be a mutual exchange of energy. In days gone past you would never have dreamed of consulting with the local elder/wise person/healer with out taking something to give them. For one person it might be a handful of fresh eggs, another person with more wealth might bring a whole chicken. The point was, you paid your respect by bringing soemthing that was a significant but do-able payment for you.
In an monetary environment, that is more difficult. For someone on struggle street, $15 might be all they have left over after meeting their very basic needs for the week, while someone else may have the ability to throw $200-$300 away on a whim. How do you set a price for that? If you ask too little, people do not value the product/service you give them. If you price too high, some very genuine people may not be able to access your product/service. Also, in a monetary market, price is often driven by demand - so if you are very very good, and are booked for months ahead, then that can drive your prices up. Perhaps by charging a bit more it allows you to travel and visit more people and share with a wider audience...sometimes there are hidden overheads too.
For example, doing readings at a big psychic expo - some of them have a pyschic 'pit' where a standard price is charged, the reader gets a little less than half of the price of each reading, the manager gets a cut (and provides the tables, chairs, booking time service) and the remainder is the fee the manager pays to the expo organiser. Other expos charge a flat rate per stall - readers set their own price but have to furnish their own stand and often need another person to manage the bookings (as it's so busy). It's considered polite to charge around or near the same price as the other readers (no one likes someone who undercuts) - often around $30 per 15 min reading - but who's to say that's fair...for a student or someone who's underemployed, $30 is difficult.
Telephone psychic services - IMO - not so ethical - anyone can ramble on to stretch the number of minutes the client is on the phone - and the reader themselves get only a very small portion of that.
This gets a lot more contentious when you apply it to people who are conducting healings - whether spiritual or reiki or whatever...again there is the question of overheads, but also the need to charge an amount that is appropriate to the value of the thing that is bought. It's reasonable that someone with more experience/training etc may charge a little more than someone who is fairly new to it. Some people claim it's universal energy and should be given for free - well that's ok if the healer's financial circumstances allow, but not so acceptable if they are struggling without an additional income source.
Where is it utterly and entirely unethical (and indeed morally corrupt) is to charge hundreds or thousands of dollars from vulnerable people, promising to de-hex them, or miraculous spiritual cures. There was a woman here in Adelaide last year who was charged for exactly this reason: claimed to be able to cure cancer working over people with late-stage cancer prognosis - utterly unscrupulous conduct.
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