Psychics: Mediums And The Message Readings Are Short And Sweet At First-Ever Cda Event

John Pease took the turquoise stone from the woman’s hand and placed it on the wide forehead of an old buffalo skull.

He held his hand over both, and shut his eyes.

“I have a picture of a puzzle, and all the pieces aren’t in place,” said Pease, who looked like he’d be more at home at a rodeo than the Psychic Fair.

“I’ve got a bunch of women sitting around chit-chatting,” he continues as his client stared intently at him with pale blue eyes. “Idle conversation dissipates your vision of what you need to do.”

Pease was one of several psychic readers to share their visions and beliefs with dozens of curious people who came to The Inner Peace Movement’s Psychic Fair at the Holiday Inn Saturday.

Organizer Jan Robinson of Newport, Wash., said it was the organization’s first psychic fair in Coeur d’Alene.

After two hours, more than 50 people had signed up to learn more about themselves from the visiting psychics, many of whom came from the Seattle area.

Pease is an electrical engineer from Portland. He said he discovered his psychic abilities after he found the buffalo skull half buried on his grandfather’s farm in Wyoming when he was a young boy.

“I can’t read your mind, but I can read your sensitivities,” said the tall, clean-cut man.

Patty Small said she thought Pease did a pretty good job of reading her immediate dilemma.

“The puzzle on the table is three career choices right now. He was right on target,” she said.

Small wasn’t the only one who felt something genuine was happening in the room filled with purple and blue balloons, and soft, relaxing music.

“It was an extremely sweet place. I felt a sense of calm and peace,” said a woman who declined to give her name, for fear she’d embarrass her teenage children. “I’ve been to other psychic readings that are rather garish.”

The psychics each seemed to have a different talent. Pease has his buffalo skull. Billie Brashier, a Buddhist, uses “power cards” that indicate an individual’s particular strengths.

Linda Alban, who said she came upon her psychic skills as a born again Christian, reads auras - the personal radiation of energy that some claim they can see.

Another psychic reads palms, and Linda Jordan simply holds a person’s hands. Jordan’s reading of Julie Werner’s spirit prompted a lengthy discussion about men, fears, independence and courage.

Meanwhile, to Jordan’s right, 89-year-old Ruthmary McDowell read the angel cards chosen by an eight-year-old boy. Then she took his small hands in her gnarled, veined ones and told him the story of the four L’s - Life, Light, Law and Love.

She sent the wide-eyed boy off with the advice to listen to his guardian angels.

Between customers, McDowell said her spiritual work has kept her young. It’s all a matter of learning to direct your energy, she said.

“I expect to be going until 108 or 109, full blast,” McDowell said. “You don’t have to get old. Just be involved and enthusiastic. Why be any other way?”

The readings Saturday were short and focussed on positive messages. The fair came a month after one in Spokane that was so popular organizers had to turn people away.

“I heard people were really conservative here, but they’re really open to new ideas,” said Esther Karhu, an organizer from Seattle. “They aren’t cynical at all.”

Another fair is scheduled for today at the Spokane Convention Center.

The Inner Peace Movement is an international non-profit organization with a regional office in Seattle.

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MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.