Hillary's Psychic Friends Network

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In a miniature scandal that is drawing comparisons to Nancy Reagan's infamous consultations with astrologers to guide her husband's policies, it has come to light that Hillary Rodham Clinton has held quasi-mystical sessions with a so-called "New Age guru." The First Lady reportedly went into a trance and conducted conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt and Mathama Gandhi.

This story stems from disclosures in Bob Woodward's new book, "The Choice," which focuses on presidential contenders Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. The description of Mrs. Clinton's "seances" fill only a few pages, but that brief account has sent the media into a frenzy and granted late-night talk show hosts a Buttafuoco-style supply of comedic ammunition.

According to Woodward, Mrs. Clinton has been friends with psychic researcher Jean Houston since 1994. Houston is a successful author and lecturer who advocates the existence of spirits and the untapped potential of the mind. She became a valued confidant to the First Lady, helping Mrs. Clinton cope with unfavorable public scrutiny and the aftermath of the '94 Republican landslide.

In April 1995, Houston and Mrs. Clinton met in the White House solarium, partly to discuss ideas for the book "It Takes a Village," which Mrs. Clinton was writing. Houston believes that people can draw strength from their historical "archetypes" -- Houston says her own is the goddess Athena -- and she had identified Eleanor Roosevelt as Mrs. Clinton's spiritual forebear. She encouraged Mrs. Clinton to close her eyes and imagine that she was meeting the former First Lady. Houston then asked her to speak to Mrs. Roosevelt, and to provide an imagined reply.

"I was misunderstood," Hillary said on Eleanor's behalf, Woodward's book claims. "You have to do what you think is right. It was crucial to set a course and hold to it."

Houston later led Mrs. Clinton into an admiring imagined conversation with Gandhi. Houston also suggested that she speak with Jesus Christ, but Mrs. Clinton refused because that would be "too personal."

Houston, whose father was a writer of jokes for such comedians as Bob Hope, says that her original inspiration for the inner conversation technique came from the childhood experience of seeing family friend Edgar Bergen speak with his dummy, Charlie McCarthy. Bergen told her that he was always surprised by what Charlie said, even though the voice was his own. The notion that a discussion with oneself could lead to new discovery has stuck with Houston all her life. She describes it as a powerful mental exploration technique that finds precedent in the works of philosophers such as Machiavelli.

But neither the media nor the White House is regarding Houston's work in such noble terms. Neel Lattimore, Mrs. Clinton's spokesman, was quick to discourage any parallels to Nancy Reagan's supernatural proclivities, downplaying the encounter as harmless brainstorming.

"This is not a mystic, this is not channelling," Lattimore said. "This is just her talking, especially at a time when she was working on her book, trying to get her head in shape and helping her get through some tough times."

Other White House spokespersons have suggested that Houston is only one of many women Mrs. Clinton spoke with while writing her book, and merely a minor acquaintance. But Houston has actually visited Mrs. Clinton with great frequency, and has spent the night at the White House on a number of occasions. Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, Maggie Williams, came to speak of Hillary's mood brightening notably on days when she got her "Jean fix."

Appearing on "Dateline NBC," Houston herself portrayed the conversations as nothing more than "idea sessions" and wished to quell the hubbub. She recalled the talk with Mrs. Roosevelt as lasting only four minutes and could not even remember a discussion with Gandhi taking place.

Houston describes Mrs. Clinton as having been exposed to more psychological abuse than any other person she knows of. She offers this theory as a possible explanation for the First Lady's status as a lightning rod of the nation's disapproval:

"America had a lot of its shadow, its negativity, projected onto the Soviet Union. And I think that when the Soviet Union dissolved, a lot of that shadow was released. ... In part... it went towards a woman who was... changing a certain perception of who women are and what they can be. And this is scary."

(c) Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc.