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Interview: Damien Carlsteen: ‘I’m crazy, but not insane!’
Everything
about Damien Carlsteen is special. His appearance, his whole presence
actually. He is a clairvoyant, and uses this to make his decisions on the stock
market. And I almost forgot to mention that he is exceedingly friendly.
Immediately after we meet, he explains that he is autistic, so that I
know why he doesn’t look me in the eye during our
conversation. He explains what it means to be autistic. ‘I
can only do one thing at a time; if I am disturbed by
something while I’m busy doing my work, I get confused,
retreat into myself, and am not very flexible.
He tells this
with some self-ridicule. He can do this because he has
enough self-assurance. He knows what his weaknesses are,
but also his strengths.
With the help of therapists who are specialized
in autism, he is forced to live cut off from the outside
world. ‘I must have structure in my life, they help me with
that. And rest. The key to my life and success is rest.’
But it is a fascinating world he lives in with his
shortcomings. He is in good company. Einstein was
autistic, Bill Gates, and they even say that Picasso was
too. An autistic person often has a stroke of genius. ‘I
had to attend a special school because I couldn’t keep
changing subjects all the time. I can’t speak English and
then an hour later Dutch. Or have a geography lesson,
followed by a biology lesson. Later I went to the Open
University where I rapidly got one certificate after another
because I could concentrate on one subject per certificate.’
During out conversation he keeps looking aside at my cellphone, which
is lying on the table. Then he says, ‘I’m really afraid
that the phone will start ringing and interrupt us.’ I put
it away, but right afterwards the doorbell rings. Damien
plows on courageously through the interruption.
When he was 25
he started working for a bank. During the weekly investment
meetings he expressed his opinions on the stock market.
After three months he was summoned to the director, who told
him that he had conspicuously often made the right choices.
“How do you do that?” Damien couldn’t give him a proper
answer. Then the director asked him whether he had
clairvoyant feelings. To Damien’s surprise the director
didn’t react negatively. He thought it was great that his
analyses were supported in this way by Damien. But several
months later he was fired. They were afraid of the
newspaper headlines: “Security bank is working with
clairvoyant.” Informally however he kept giving him
advice.
Two years later
Damien asked a friend to look after him for a few months, so
that he could devote himself completely to investing. Now
the power of his autism helped him. His monomaniacal
efforts earned him his first million that year.
Thereafter an
acquaintance of his set up a company through which
subscriptions were available to use his predictions.
‘Investors always use instruments, systems, visions, but I
do it purely through feeling. But regardless they are happy
when I support their actions. Even when I see things
differently, they then choose for their own ideas, but more
cautiously.’ I realize that I do believe his odd story. I
tell him that if I were he, I would keep his gift a secret,
because it could alienate people. Damien: ‘Yes, but it also
attracts people. Sometimes because it is an extra
affirmation of their own ideas, but also because many people
recognize my gift. Moreover I don’t think much about this.
I’m not sensitive to negative criticism. I learned a long
time ago what I can and what I cannot do; and what is
important to me. I have many limitations, but I can live
with them. I’m only sensitive to my own negative
criticism. I remember my first interview when everyone
close to me warned me not to mention that I speculated based
on my clairvoyance. But I told the interviewer anyway and
before I knew it, everyone was coming to me. It struck me
that I was being taken seriously and wasn’t being made fun
of.
He devotes
himself mainly to fluctuations of the market indices and
commodities. It’s difficult for him when not much is
happening on the stock market. A variation of five points
in a week is too little for him. But Damien’s success on
the stock market is not just due to his clairvoyance. He
keeps well on top of what is going on, but the final
decisions only reflect his hunches, intuition. ‘I do find
it interesting to hear what others have to say, I read the
trade journals. The stock market is my area of interest.
Because I’m autistic, I concentrate on the details that
others perhaps miss. As a matter of fact my vision stems
from a kind of cocktail between clairvoyance and knowledge.
I once made a prognosis that I didn’t feel good about. But
it did seem right. And nevertheless it kept eating away at
me, and then I switched everything around and this did come
out right. My self-knowledge had come to my help.
‘Why do you
still speculate, you have enough money.’
‘It gives me a
lot of pleasure. Moreover I don’t want to be a hermit. The
chance of that is very likely with my syndrome. Thanks to
investing I keep up my contact with people.’
‘Does money
play a big role for you?’
‘It doesn’t mean a thing to me any more. I take it for granted. I
already have everything.’
‘How did you
discover your gift?’
‘In the
casino. I was there with my brother. It was actually too
busy for me there and I wanted to leave, but my brother
wanted to play. I said, “Bet on black.” It went well. We
won a lot. At home I started guessing the color of playing
cards. That also went well. Whenever I can’t sleep I still
grab a deck of cards and predict primarily the colors, but
often the whole card. When it goes well, I start calming
down.’
‘ What does
clairvoyance mean to you in your daily life?’
‘In summary: Fun. It makes things easy for me. I feel
useful. It gives me tranquility. I develop’ an idea of things and
it always comes out. Once in a while it goes wrong though and then I have
a big problem. A few weeks ago I wanted to stay in a hotel in Germany.
I saw a sauna in my mind and wanted to go there. But it turned out that
there was no sauna. I was so upset that I drove right home’
Rob van Olm |
