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Motherboard TV: We Talked To Steve Jobs Through A Psychic Medium

It's been exactly a year since California Governor Jerry Brown declared "October 16 to be Steve Jobs Day":http://mashable.com/2011/10/15/steve-jobs-day-california-october-16-stanford/. It apparently was a one year-only holiday, but it still stands as a...

It’s been exactly a year since California Governor Jerry Brown declared October 16 to be Steve Jobs Day. It apparently was a one year-only holiday, but it still stands as a testament to how big of a following Jobs had (and still has). It’s also been a year since Jobs passed, but because his visage looms as large as ever, I decided to try to get in touch.

Autumn begs the attention of folks like Reverend Betsy Cohen, a psychic medium and spiritual advisor, who I asked to help me get in touch with Jobs’ spirit. It seemed like a good idea because I, being fascinated by the sort of services Betsy has to offer, couldn’t resist an opportunity to enter the cloud in an attempt to get in touch with such a powerful figure. I had a lot of burning questions for Steve, so I’m happy he had time to hang out.

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Reverend Cohen is credited as being one of New York’s top 10 psychics, which says a lot considering there are about as many psychics in this city as there aren’t public restrooms. I won’t lie to you, the experience was actually pretty intense. But I’m a pisces so, much like Kurt Cobain and George Harrison before me, it’s likely that I’m just kind of a gullible wuss who loves a good story and is happy to spend an hour with a sharp-looking woman.

At any rate, the timing seemed right to try and pick Steve’s brain. A lot has changed at Apple in the last year. Tim Cook is chilling at the top, hardly filling Steve’s shoes (Steve’s words, not mine); the iPhone 5 and iOS6 have folks predictably pissed off and despite the fact that Siri continues to be a hybrid of HAL 9000, Powder and Rain Man, people still treat it like the foreign exchange student from Can’t Hardly Wait.

For the record, I don’t necessarily think Steve was an evil guy and I typically have my reservations about people who reduce him to little more than that considering how much of an influence he’s had on consumer technology. Heck, I happily pollute my life with Apple products. What I’m getting at is that, with all due respect to Steve and Apple, my curiosity got the best of me on this one. I don’t believe in Hell, but if there is one, I’d bet I’m headed there after this.

The day after the interview, I was feeling kind of strange, like I’d just been dumped or something, and a friend reminded me of one of the many anecdotes in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography. The one about how, while he and his wife were considering a calligrapher for their wedding invitations, Steve abruptly left the room, never to return. Eventually his wife found him in his room pissed off; he was insanely offended by the artists’ work. He thought it was so shitty that he couldn’t even look at it. I guess I kind of felt how that calligrapher must have after the whole thing was over. Luckily, it’s nothing a little sage can’t fix.

Follow Sean on Twitter @Yeatons