Local psychic fair provides alternative sources for finding them.

If you don't know what you're looking for, a psychic fair is a good place to start.

Psychics, a term broadly applied to people who see, feel and generally experience the world on levels hidden to the rest of us, tend to attract the seekers of that difference.

This weekend, psychic artists unite in a one-stop shopping destination at the Holiday Inn near the Dayton Mall from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday sponsored by Illminations Massage & Reiki Center.

Illuminations Psychic Fair Weekends are affairs arranged about twice a year by Sharon Lane, herself a Reiki practitioner who pulls people together as a gift to the world.

She believes psychic fairs are great places for those searching for different ways to look at things — holistic ways to care for the body and alternative ways of thinking about life.

"It's a great place to connect with people who might have answers, or people who are looking for different ways of dealing with all kinds of issues," she said. "The way you think can change your life, and that's why I'm so excited about bringing those two types of people together."

The event offers a chance to sample different theories of healing and opportunities for education in life on a spiritual plane most of us slide right by. There are quite practical applications to the psychic arts, Lane said.

"I started out in the medical field, but I know that there's also an alternative or complementary way to heal the body. Many of the traditional medicines we have now still treat the symptoms — we don't always look at the cause," she said.

Park Morris, 57, who lives in Harrison Twp., thinks psychic fairs are good for what ails you — even if you're not sure what it is.

"I've been to readers who'll take my hand and in just a few minutes be able to distill a huge life question into a manageable, organized thought," Morris said. "I don't go to psychics often, and when I do it's because something's nagging at me or there's an issue I can't get a handle on. I've never failed to get a good, different perspective on stuff."

Psychic fairs can include tarot, palm reading, runes, aura analysis, crystal healing, aromatherapy, astrology and massage — in addition to the mediums who purport to communicate with the dead.

"Having such a conglomeration of offerings in one place makes it both harder (to choose) and more fun," Morris said. "The only restriction is how much you can afford, because this stuff isn't cheap."

Tim Morefield, owner of the Enchanted Hourglass store in Xenia, is a frequent psychic-fair participant, but he won't be attending the upcoming show.

He said a person looking for a reader at a fair must rely on their own intuition. "Walk around and you will kind of get a feel for the place. Let a reader call to you."

Morefield doesn't recommend visiting multiple readers at an event. "If they are hitting five or six readers in a show ...

that's somebody looking for somebody to give them the answers they're looking for."

Prices for readings vary widely according to what type of service is performed, the complexity and the time involved. Tarot readings start at about $20 and take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes; psychic intuitives will take your hand and talk for 30 minutes for around $30. It's always best to settle any fee questions upfront, and psychic-fair etiquette calls for a healthy respect of personal space while a person is having a reading done.

"Nobody wants some stranger interfering and butting in while they're trying to figure out if their son is making the right career choice — or whatever," laughed Lisa Rekow, 33, of Centerville. "I've been to these fairs a lot, and for the most part people are so kind, so respectful, so friendly and not the least bit nosey."

When Lane organizes the participants, she likes to focus on local practitioners.

"I try to keep them local, because people do like to follow up and get readings," she said. "The atmosphere is very cozy — people come back month after month, year after year."

Morefield said psychic fairs also draw people from all religions: "There are so many different types of readers out there is it unreal. "It is something out there that is open to everybody. You have your Buddhists. You have your Hindus, the Muslims.

"If you walk into a psychic fair, you will see so many different cultures. You will have the drummers over here, you'll have the belly dancers over there. It's like walking into a cultural convention because you see people from every walk of life.

"They can be Christian. They can be pagan. It doesn't matter what your background is or what your belief system is, we're there to help. We're there to provide the right tools, the right counsel. We're trying to give people what they are looking for and what they need."

A PSYCHIC PRIMER

Psychic: A person with the gift of extrasensory perception, who is able to tap into frequencies to which most of us remain oblivious.

Tarot: A set of cards featuring 21 trump cards and one called The Fool, in addition to the usual suit cards found in ordinary decks. Tarot readers believe the cards and their layout give insight. The subject chooses the cards, which the reader then interprets.

Palmistry (chiromancy or palm reading): Telling a person's future through the study of the palm and its creases, which change over time.

Runes: Runic alphabets are symbols used in ancient times; the name "rune" is taken to mean secret, or something hidden, believed to give the symbols some special power of divination. There are several different ways of reading the runes.

CHAKRAS: Seven centers of spiritual energy aligned up and down the center of the human body, commonly used in yoga philosophy.

REIKI: Massage-related therapy in which a trained and experienced practitioner touches and redirects a person's energy by strengthening and relaxing energy fields.

Reflexology (zone therapy): Reflexologists massage specific areas on the feet, hands and ears, believing in a direct correlation between those areas and other areas of the body. The idea is that stimulating a small area will provide positive energy to its corresponding body part, thereby assisting in better health and healing. Reflexology is most commonly performed on the feet.

Aromatherapy: Essential oils and other aromatic compounds from plants are used alone or in various combinations to positively affect a person's healing and/or health.

Crystal power: The belief that crystals have mystical healing and/or paranormal powers; crystal healers believe that every living thing has an energy system that includes chakras and electromagnetic fields (including auras). Using the right crystals, healers believe the energy system can be tuned and rebalanced, improving health and well-being.

Medium: A person with the ability to communicate with spirit personalities, commonly known as dead people.

Aura: An aura is a subtle field of colorful radiation around a person or object — kind of like a halo. Readers believe auras represent soul vibrations and can represent moods, thoughts and health of the person it surrounds.

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

JUST WHAT IS PARANORMAL

Psychics, mediums, intuitives — they've been with us since time began, always the subject of controversy and always making news (and hit television shows). "Paranormal" is an umbrella term, defined by the Journal of Parapsychology as "any phenomenon that in one or more respects exceeds the limits of what is deemed physically possible according to current scientific assumptions."

Obviously, scientists view all things paranormal with high skepticism, because it's impossible to scientifically document within accepted practices the experiences and knowledge claimed by those familiar with the paranormal. Parapsychology deals with psychic phenomena such as telepathy, extra-sensory perception, psychokinesis, reincarnation, ghosts, and hauntings. Reports of such phenomena have appeared in every culture since, well, forever; its findings and practitioners find acceptance and demonization in rolling waves of cultural trends. Always, however, psychics and their ilk cannot avoid being controversial: Like religion, sometimes it's just a matter of faith.

how to go

What: Illuminations Psychic Fair.

Where: Holiday Inn, 31 Prestige Plaza, Miamisburg.

When: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

COST: $7 a day or $12 for both days ($5 from 10 a.m.-11 a.m. both days).

More info: www.illuminationsreiki.com/pfair.html.

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on Dayton Daily News