Paranormal Lauren not one to play God

Christina Schott, Contributor, Jakarta

At the end of September 2002, Nyonya Lauren was sitting on the beach at Kuta, Bali, meditating. Suddenly she saw a huge wave rolling towards her, adorned by a crest of fire. Many dead bodies washed up on the shore.

Nobody else, of course, saw the wave and its ghastly portent. When Lauren talked about it, nobody believed that a huge misfortune would soon come over Bali.

"This island is a safe haven," she was told by her friends. The clairvoyant left the island but only two weeks later, she got a call in the early morning -- and she knew that her prophecy had been tragically fulfilled.

Some people might hail her as a supernatural talent, while others simply dismiss her as a charlatan playing on people's fears about their future. From the high and mighty to regular folk, people come to seek her predictions about their future.

She is also a regular source for TV shows and in print media every new year, telling what lies in store.

"I didn't ask for this talent. In the beginning I was rather afraid of it," she said, mechanically smoking one cigarette after the other. "I don't know where it comes from, and actually I don't want to know. Somehow nature gave it to me."

Lauren was born in the Netherlands in 1932. She grew up in Eindhoven, enduring all the atrocities World War II brought over Europe. She had her first paranormal experience in elementary school.

"I heard voices saying we had to leave the school immediately. But when I told the teacher about it, he got angry and punished me by sending me home," she remembered.

Her mother did not believe her, either, but to calm the child down she went with her to a place outside the city center.

"Two hours later the Germans attacked the city and my school was bombed. A lot of children and teachers died," Lauren said.

In 1953, she met her first husband, an Indonesian studying in the Netherlands. She returned with him to his homeland and eventually became a citizen.

"I felt before that my future would have something to do with a tropical country," she said.

She returned to her birthplace six years ago, but ended up staying only half of the alloted six weeks she was given for her visa.

"In Europe, one cannot fulfill one's life. The prefabricated ways of how you have to live are too inflexible."

When Lauren gave birth to her only son, she had another premonition, telling her that the newborn would not become older than 26 years.

"I was terribly sad, but I had to live with this burden, not being able to talk about it."

In fact, her son died in a car accident some weeks before his 26th birthday, leaving behind two sons. They have been raised by Lauren and her second husband, whom she married after being a widow for eight years.

It was only after her first husband died in 1971 that Lauren made her personal predictions a profession. First, friends came by to ask her opinion for this or that problem. Then the friends of those friends came and the clairvoyant became more and more popular.

Today, her clients range from housewives desperate to know more about their unfaithful husbands, entertainers uncertain about their future and politicians worrying about the result of the upcoming elections.

That wisdom does not come for nothing: The first consultation costs Rp 300,000. "I am not a rich woman," she said, "but I need something to pay my assistant and to look after the facilities. After the first visit, there is no fee anymore."

Lauren, with her red-tinted hair and kohl-rimmed eyes, receives her guests in a tiny, dimly lit office that is crammed with figures and pictures of Buddha, Christ and Hindu deities in her home in East Jakarta. She does not read their palms nor use cards or other tools of a common fortuneteller. She will just listen -- while her guest talks about his problems and fears, she senses and interprets his aura.

"I don't play God. Many people are just insecure and look for something to hold on. But I bring it back to them: They have to do their own laundry, since I cannot live their lives," she said.

"You have to find your own balance: Don't hide in front of yourself and be aware that the product of the future is how you live now."

Sometimes a bad aura affects a certain part of the body, causing physical illness.

"People often just worry too much or are too stressed and then their body reacts. Cancer, for example, in my opinion is a kind of suicide. But I cannot operate on stress, they have to free themselves," Lauren explained.

In those cases, she sells her clients herbal medicine that she obtains from a certain temple in Nepal.

The link to the Himalaya state came from the Indian spiritual leader Om Sai Ram. Lauren went to see the guru at his compound in southern India, after she came across his portrait in three extraordinary situations in a row.

"Finally you come," she remembers his first words after her arrival.

And his message for her?

"Teach the people to think and live positively." The guru, with his Jimmy Hendrix-style haircut now oversees Lauren's office from three posters.

Whatever one might think of her paranormal abilities, there is no denying she has a special charisma and she knows how to read people, even if it is through sophisticated judgment of character.

"I feel I have a mission and it is not finished yet," the 71- year-old woman said. "I am tired, but there is nobody to replace me. So I still have to go on with my burden."