Then Nik quit kidding around and got down to brass tacks. He said that Richard Nixon was gonna resign from the presidency. Nik said it had nothing to do with a sexual scandal but something to do with some missing audio tapes and a place he called Watergate. This was three years before Nixon bowed out “unceremoniously.”

Nik predicted the Iranian crisis two years before it happened and said that the Gulf War would prove to be nothing but a waste of time and the U.S. would have to go back in there again and clean up all the problems. Nik warned government officials that America would have to invade Iraq and capture or kill Saddam Hussein in order to prevent a nuclear war and predicted that even then, there would still be terrorists attacks in major cities such as Washington, Los Angeles and New York. Those of you who read the newspapers or watch the news on TV can readily understand the accuracy and importance of his predictions. He certainly made a believer out of me.

On a lighter note, since that time I have tried to pay particular attention to anything Nik the Quick says, especially if it has something to do with money, vacations to Bermuda for the annual Sports Illustrated bathing suit location photo shoot or invitations from Hugh Hefner to the Playboy mansion for an intimate little fireside chat during the Christmas holidays with a bodacious blonde playmate.

It was Nik the Quick who sent me packing for Hollywood one day for a rendezvous with a curvaceous young lady who claimed to be the “love child” of Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy.

I can tell you one thing, she was the “spittin’ image” of Marilyn, from the way she talked to the way she walked. Or, maybe in due respect to Groucho Marx, I should say “She don’t walk, she wiggles.” (That’s what he once said about Marilyn).

Well, let me tell you, when I had dinner with Janet Raymond in one of Marilyn’s favorite Hollywood restaurants, I expected any minute to see the late columnist Sydney Skolski walk in the door and buy us a drink.

When Janet did the Merv Griffin TV show with the late Peter Lawford and the actor turned to her and said, “There’s no doubt, my dear, you are Marilyn’s daughter, but I’m not the father,” and she answered him quickly saying “Of course not, JFK was my father,” I could sorta see Nik the Quick relaxing somewhere with a glass of champagne and a great big smile on his face.

Maybe you don’t know the story about “the lovechild of Marilyn Monroe” that had everybody who was anybody buzzing in tinsel town, (and if you do, maybe you don’t believe it), but you probably read about Nik the Quick in one of those news magazines. After all, he’s the psychic guy who helped the FBI find Patty Hearst.

The grand daughter of William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped in 1974 from her Berkeley, Calif. apartment by a leftist group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (otherwise known as the SLA). Now, they made all sorts of demands since the Hearst family was loaded. As a result, the Hearsts eventually made a $6-million donation to provide food for the poor in the bay area. Wonderful. But their pleas to the SLA to release Patty were not heeded.

The rumor mill revealed that Patty had been blindfolded in a closet, and physically and sexually abused, causing her to change her name to Tania and become a convert to the SLA. Maybe you saw some of those pictures that were circulated with her holding a weapon and participating in the bank robbery of the Sunset branch of the Hibernia Bank.

When everybody was going berserk, out there on the west coast, Nik the Quick immediately stepped up and helped solve the stress caused by the nasty incident. He told the FBI and law enforcement officers not to go off on a wild goose chase somewhere, they would find Patty about six or seven blocks from her own apartment.

By reading the numbers in her birth date and the number of letters in her name, Nik came up with the street address where she was being held captive. He also told authorities that they would find her in an upstairs apartment.

Tania aka Patty was arrested in a matter of hours at the location with other SLA members. She was later convicted of bank robbery, but had her sentence commuted after 22 months by President Jimmy Carter and was released from prison on February 1, 1979. Later, she was pardoned by President Bill Clinton during the final weeks of his term.

(Note: Today, Patty Hearst Shaw and her husband Bernard Shaw live in Connecticut with their two daughters. In an interview recently, she said of the SLA: “They wanted to overthrow the government of the U.S. They called themselves an army. They planned on forming cells and going on until they started a full-scale war in this country.” She added that she had put her actions in the 1970s well behind her. “I’ve lived my entire adult life haunted by what happened. But I have had to get on with my life”).

Not long after all this stuff made the headlines on the front pages of the newspapers all over the country, Mr. Hearst invited Nik the Quick to have dinner with him at the Hearst mansion. Nik spent the night as Mr. Hearst’s house guest and ironically slept in the bedroom where Patty once snoozed. Weird? Maybe, but not to Nik the Quick. who pre-purchased a special pair of pajamas for the celebrated occasion.

Since that time Nik has proven to most skeptics, who doubted his skill and sincerity, that his psychic abilities are legit. But the way he goes about coming up with all his calculations and conclusions can often make you do a “double take.”

I never saw Nik use tea leaves, or rattle bones like witch doctors do, or use voodo boards, or drink potions from strange looking green bottles smuggled into this country from the Orient. But he does use a number of interesting techniques - which have become his trademark - to help him find the answers he is looking for whenever he does his psychic readings.

Nik always asks people to write down 10 questions that can be answered with a yes or no, before he begins to elaborate. Then he instructs his clients to put them in an envelope, seal it and hand it to him. In a matter of minutes, Nik the Quick answers specifically all the questions, pointing out the number of the question before he answers it. They say seeing is believing, but sometimes it still leaves me speechless.

The astounding thing about all this “hocus pocus” is that Nik never opens the envelope, until he has finished with the reading. Then he asks the person to open the envelope and read the questions again while he elaborates on his critique.

Nik also uses numerology and astrology when he is searching for answers. He also reads palms and can hold a person’s hand and get all sorts of vibrations to validate his comments. (I saw him once completely dazzle a popular TV hostess by enlightening her about past, present and future romantic interests by using a special deck of ancient Egyptian cards).

Nik the Quick has always prided himself on being a positive person. He never dwells on the negative. Many people are nervous about having him predict their future because they are afraid he might tell them something bad is going to happen in their life. But Nik never does that. If he senses something negative, he makes a positive out of it in a manner that stimulates the clients to achieve the goals that are necessary to make them successful and happy.

(Note: Nik now specializes in legitimate personalized readings for those who want to know more about their future. Interested people may contact Nik by writing him at his e-mail address nikraka@yahoo.com or by e-mailing this writer at his e-mail address: donnyfun@donnyfun.com.

“The power of the mind is amazing,” sez Nik the Quick, “ but few realize just how powerful it really is. Everybody has a bright side and a dark side. A person can be honest and positive and cause good things to happen or they can be deceitful and lie, causing bad things to surface. You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but the mirror never lies.”

Nik often uses an amazing mirror imaging technique when he works with convicts and criminals. Before I met him, I had never seen this technique used before, and I had never even heard of it. But, it’s positively accurate, and doesn’t leave much doubt when all other techniques may have been inadequate.

The premise is rather simple, but the results can be astounding. By holding a mirror up to the face (the nose actually) of a person in question to reflect the positive and negative images on both sides of their face, a psychic can get some amazing reactions.

Nik cited the case of Richard Nixon, who was projecting a false, happy mirror image to his public on one side of his face and an evil, negative image (his true reflection) on the other side of his face.

Though his work has changed dramatically in the past few years, Nik still works with individuals to help them understand and change, if necessary, their career, personal and emotional directions in life.

Though many are fascinated with Nik and his psychic abilities, some are reluctant to take the necessary steps and make the necessary changes that will impact their lives.

“All of us have this apparatus in the mid-brain called the reticular re-activation system,” Nik said. “We have been programmed to think a certain way since our youth. And we will always re-act the same way we think, unless we change our way of thinking. That’s really what my psychic technique is all about, to cause people to examine their minds and their abilities and to realize they can be whomever they want to be and enjoy the greatest happiness in the world if they will only take the necessary steps to make that happen.”

I told Nik the Quick he made it all sound so simple. “It is simple,” he said. “You don’t have to go to a psychic to find that out. Read the Bible and you’ll discover that faith is the answer. Believe and it shall be.”

Because Nik believes he has been gifted by God to help people, he stays away from the more commercial ventures most high profile type psychics get involved with, such as Las Vegas scams to become rich gambling or giving an inside tip for a healthy sum to a guy who wants to bet a bundle on an NFL football game.

After the Patty Hearst story made the headlines, Nik was besieged by folks wanting him to help them find missing children. I remember one time he directed police officers to a location as a result of a vision he saw in his mind while eating his breakfast cereal. “There’s this huge round object not far from a football field,” he told officers. “It’s rather imposing and can be seen from a great distance. You’ll know it when you see it because it has something that looks like a giant Superman logo painted on it.”

The Superman logo turned out to be a big Safeway grocery chain logo with an enormous “S” painted on a tower. In a little over two hours, officers found almost a dozen children in a nearby building, who were being held for ransom. There was big money at stake here. Believe me, big money. Nik donated all of it to charity.

Nik doesn’t do much police work or charity work (which he enjoys), anymore, because he simply doesn’t have the time. He’s in demand as a public speaker and could probably spend the rest of his life on the lecture circuit tour.

Many Hollywood stars and glamorous people are among his famous clients. Nik the Quick has been endorsed by many celebrities and VIPs, including the late Mae West, the late Lana Turner and Burt Reynolds. He has done psychic readings for Johnny Carson, (on the telephone), Phyllis Diller, Pearl Bailey, Tina Turner, Warren Beatty, Angie Dickinson, Kenny Rogers, Donald Trump and Ross Perot. Even Col. Tom Parker has consulted with him about the magical career of Elvis.

One of these days, maybe, somebody or something will stump Nik the Quick. But it’s not likely. And that’s a prediction from the man himself.

Well, that’s show biz, baby