Hughes, Irene (Finger)
Chicago psychic who attained fame in the 1960s with her
predictions. Born Irene Finger in a log cabin at Saulsbury, Tennessee,
Hughes claimed Cherokee Indian and Scotch-Irish ancestry.
She worked in a hospital in New Orleans and married
William Hughes in 1945. After the war she moved to Chicago
and became a reporter. Hughes used her psychic abilities to
pay for the move to Chicago by correctly forecasting horserace
winners.
Following a major operation in 1961, Hughes became aware
of a Japanese spirit guide. She became more intensely interested
in psychic phenomena and went on to become a professional
psychic reader. She wrote and lectured on psychic subjects
and began offering private consultations. In 1963 she founded
the Golden Path in Chicago, an organization devoted to teaching
students to develop their psychic talents. In 1967 she visited
the Psychical Research Foundation in Durham, North Carolina,
where her psychic abilities were tested by parapsychologist
William Roll.
Among her many psychic predictions was one concerning
the assassination of Robert Kennedy. In 1962 she predicted the
exact date of death of former Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson
in 1965. Her growing reputation was enhanced in 1967 when
some six months in advance she predicted the massive snowstorm
to hit Chicago in January of that year. She filed other
predictions with the Central Premonitions Registry.
During the 1970s Hughes emerged as one of the top psychics
in the Chicago area. Several books by and about her appeared.
She was a frequent guest on radio and television talk
shows, and for several years she hosted a local television show
on Chicagos WSNS. After a fruitful career, she retired from the
public scene.
Sources
Defano, M. M. The Living Prophets. New York Dell, 1972.
Hughes, Irene. ESPecially Irene A Guide to Psychic Awareness.
Blauvelt, N.Y. Rudolph Steiner Publications, 1972.
. Know Your Future Today. New York Paperback Library,
1970.
Psychic magazine, editors of. Psychics. New York Harper &
Row, 1972.
Steiger, Brad. Irene Hughes on Psychic Safari. New York Warner
Paperback Library, 1972.
