Ever been to a psychic, or called a psychic hotline? Have you ever had your chakras worked on or been treated by a reiki master? What do you know about your personal numerology?

Tell us all about your experiences with the metaphysical world.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

Answers

Does this include Cajun voodoo? Because I have a lot of experience with that, knowing AB as I do.

Also, my mother has a mean Evil Eye she can put on you from hundreds of miles away.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

I'm doing it now!

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

The Partner and I once landed in a hotel elevator full of psychics (coming from the psychic convention going on nearby). They did impromptu readings on each of us, and while all of the women were sweet as can be and lots of fun, the readings were very vague and kind of inaccurate.

I did have a chelation a couple of weeks ago and one of the things that my healer said was that my body wanted more vitamin B. Then today I was reading the latest news on a physical condition that I have (PCOS) and found out that Brewers Yeast is all the rage now in treatment...containing a ton of vitamin B. Not exactly the stuff of wild and spooky stories, but still interesting to me.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

The Smoker has studied reiki -- in fact, that was one of the things that brought him to Atlanta. He's also done tarot study and meditation with an odd Kabbalist group, claimed to have had clairvoyant and clairaudiant experiences with a group of friends, and pointed out where my chakras are. I treat all this with varying levels of skepticism -- we have a long-running argument, for example, on whether he can actually enter my dreams or not, since he's much worse at remembering dreams than I am.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

Are the Kabbalists the folks with the yarn on their wrists? I think Madonna did that for a while.

Robyn, I definitely think that there are folks that can become so attuned to the human body that they can tell what vitamins, etc., you need.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

Oh, T, she was absolutely listening to my body - and I was amazed at some of the things that my body told her. The vitamin B thing was just so out of left field, so to have it confirmed today just really tickled me.

It was a great experience, and afterwards she talked to me for quite awhile about the anger that I keep inside and the energy that she unblocked. I swear, for the next few days I was releasing anger like a mo fo.

My dear friend had acupuncture done a couple of weeks ago, but it was not traditional chinese method. It was quite painful for her and she had a really violent physical reaction, but she plans to go back. I've not ever heard of this type of acupuncture, but it is evidently to help unblock your energy...the same thing I had done needle free. I prefer my way.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

T, not his group. This is them. Feel free to give me dubious looks.

Kabbalah has a fairly set place in the history of Judaism -- when part of your religion is about interpreting, re-reading, and arguing about the texts, it's inevitable that someone's going to come up with a strange numerologic reading. I wish I knew more about it than I do.

Once I had a dream in which a woman in a long blue dress and with long hair came and talked to me, and told me, "You'll cross that road when you come to it." It struck me as very vivid, so afterwards I described it to him, and he said, "Aha! The High Priestess."

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

I used to read Tarot cards at local clubs. Was very good at it too. A talent that runs in the family. Predicted some really odd things - told one lady she was pregnant at 4 days after conception. She was! It was a lot fun for a while, then people started calling me at weird times because they didn't want to make a move without consulting me. Got very exasperating.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2002

I have never wasted money on a psychic hotline. I did go to a Red Palm gipsy lady--years ago, on a dare: she was completely wrong.

I read tarot myself (have done so since I was eight years old) and collect tarot / divination decks and on a good day, I can tie a reading in with Kabbalah, myth and / or Jung if the querent is hep to that. ;) (Want to know more about the High Priestess / Kabbalah? E-me.) I have done readings online, even, not knowing the age, gender, sex OR the specific question, and have been, supposedly, scarily accurate. I do tend to distrust my intuition too much, though, even after all that. But I'm so cash poor that I'm considering reading in L5P for extra cash.

Am also Reiki Second Degree, with a teacher who had a Shamantic background. Have also had acupuncture. Applied Feng Shui "cures" to house and workplace, and got results.

Oddly enough, I still consider myself a cynic a a skeptic--but if I try something and it works, I gradually give more and more creedence. There are pockets of New Agey-ness in my home, but you certainly aren't confronted with healing gongs, Scientology / cult literature, vats of tainted Kool- Aid, five-pound crystals to "charge my home" or Precious Moments / dolphin statuary. No blades and chalices or yonis and lingams on display, either, as these are not *personally* meaningful symbols for me, and it feels disrespectful to own them. And I do not own any CDs featuring whale rock star vocals. (Unless Aretha counts.) People are generally shocked when they find out I'm interested at all in any of this, as I'm apparently considered to be pretty no-nonsense and logical. I don't believe that giant mutant comet-riding space monkeys from another galaxy are coming to save a chosen few Nike-clad whackjobs with Ikea bunkbeds and nicknames right out of Superman comic books (Driv-El, Drew-El, Two-El, etc.?).

Lastly, I'm a Taoist. In Georgia. FWIW, I was raised Episcopal and taught Sunday School. Even so, I keep this shit on the down-low. Some people in Cobb County have guns and wouldn't believe me if I swore I had no desire whatsoever to make the Baby Jesus cry. (I like the Baby Jesus just fine.) So my spiritual beliefs align with Taoism, whereas my religious beliefs are based on the standard Judeo-Christian format. I usually don't indulge in ritual at all (of any sort). Hard to explain, but that's the closest I can get, as it's a personal thing.

What else do you want to know? Some New Age stuff draws me more than other stuff, some I know next to noting about but respect, some I flat out disagree with, and some I'm undecided about or think is too subtle, generally speaking, to bother with focusing on it or indulging in prolonged study.

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2002

I once had my palm read/future told in the back room of a voodoo shop in New Orleans. The guy was DEAD ON, and it wasn't any of that "Your middle name starts with a... G? No? M? No? L? No?..." shit. It was a long reading, too - about 45 minutes or so. So far, everything has been true, down to switching jobs and such.

The funny thing is, I had just gotten married, and while he told ME that I was going to have a boy, then a girl (neither of which has happened yet), he didn't say anything to my now-ex about kids. Heh. He DID, however, tell him he'd be moving within two years. 5 months after I kicked him out, the military transferred him to Philly, where he'd never have moved if we'd still been married.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2002