Psychics: incense, hundreds of varieties of stones, dream interpretations, decks of

cards and natural healing. Many may call these individuals “bogus” or “quacks,” but the

practitioners strongly believe they are onto something with these alternative healing

methods. The Canad Inn hosted a Holistic Healing and Psychic Fair Saturday, March 24th, so I

went to learn more about these alternative healing methods.

The people who believe in alternative healing methods have to demonstrate

commitment to the method. This is not something you can just pick up and start doing

one day, there is an art to it. Shimen Lynn drove from Iowa to Wyoming for years in

order to attain a certification in crystal healing. She says some teachers will work with

students online, but she prefered to commit to in-person training.

“I like to touch the stones and feel what they were meant to do,” Lynn said.

Although many from outside of the community believe there is no science backing the

field of crystal healing, practitioner Joe Rothengass really believes there is. He

explained the theory of why crystal healing works.

“Basically, everything is an electromagnetic field: the earth, humans, our cell phones,

plants, everything,” Rothengass said. “Our bioelectric field gets out of balance and the

crystals, since they hold a constant frequency, can help rebalance that by way of the

vibrations they give off. Our body reads the frequency and balances.”

People used crystals before they used modern pharmaceuticals. They would grind up

certain minerals and ingest them or carry them in pockets or purses. Now, we have

instruments to read frequencies and we can tell that crystals really do vibrate. We also

know from modern technology and electronics that electromagnetic fields affect each

other.

“People way back knew,” Rothengass said. “They just didn’t have the science to back it up.”

Now, Rothengass believes we have the science to back up these beliefs but “no

one is putting the pieces together because that would mean we’d have to change.”

One example Rothengass gave was amethyst. People used to grind it up and ingest it

when they showed symptoms of a low magnesium level. Amethyst contains magnesium

even though they didn’t know that.

Today, instead of ingesting it, “the crystal’s vibrations prepare your body for magnesium, the next time you eat something with magnesium in it, it will absorb better,” Rothengass said.

In a convention room of crystals and mediums, Marilyn McGregor was the odd one out.

She does dream interpretation using the ancient Hebraic method. She has been

interpreting dreams for 12 years and got into it out of curiosity.

“When I heard about it, I was intrigued,” McGregor said. “I want to share wisdom to steer your life onto the path you’re created for.”

But dream interpretation is not something you just start doing. McGregor went through

ministry training to learn her craft and says that accurate interpretations come through a

personal relationship with Jesus, even though she never uses the terms “Jesus” or

“God” in her interpretations.

“People respond better to the terms ‘spirit of love’ or ‘spirit of truth,’” McGregor said.

This may seem like ‘quackery’ to some, but she has a method. She can tell she has

given an accurate interpretation when she can see it resonates with someone.

Since McGregor had some downtime, she offered to interpret one of my dreams. I

described to her a dream that I had at three years old and had remembered my whole

life. Her interpretation was based in symbology. A hill represented the ability to grow as

a person and grow closer to the spirit of love, and the snakes in my dream represented

obstacles and lies, etc. While there may not be an exact science to this, there is still a

basis in tradition.

Another method of healing based in tradition is herbal healing through tonics. Omni, the

owner of an apothecary, loves to help others regain health.

“I like to help people take their health and wellness back into their own hands from

pharmaceutical companies,” Omni said.

She points out that most pharmaceutical products are originally from plants and natural

sources, so herbal products can help, as they are from the natural version of what

medicines are made of.

The one skill present at the fair that wasn’t strictly about healing, but instead about

understanding, were the psychics. I spoke to a psychic medium from Fargo, Jeri

Vaudrin, about her journey in the world of being a medium. Some people are intuitive,

but being a medium is different.

“Being able to connect to the other side, that’s inborn” Vaudrin said.

There is no psychic school. Since everyone’s abilities are inborn and unique you can’t

have a class for that. Instead, Vaudrin trained with mentors and did a lot of personal

study. Eventually, even though she didn’t feel ready, she just put herself out there on

the job and let her abilities do their work. Some people realize that they have psychic

abilities from a young age, but not Vaudrin. She found out when another medium was

giving her a reading and told her she was a medium from the energy she could feel

coming from Vaudrin.

“I didn’t know where all of this was coming from but it’s happened,” Vaudrin said.

Her abilities felt strange to her, but she was never afraid.

“Hollywood has turned this into a joke,” Vaudrin said.

But, she thinks there really is some science to it. Again, she cites energy.

“We are all energy and energy cannot be created or destroyed,” Vaundrin said. “When we die, we shift into a different form of energy on a different plane.”

As she sees it, being able to feel the presence of someone who has passed is simply

feeling their energy. It’s nothing scary or demonic like Hollywood has painted it.

Whether or not any of this is real or legitimate is up to each individual. These

practitioners all believe strongly in what they do and devote their lives to their craft. Whether or not anyone else believes the same as they do, all of them have found peace in the method of healing they choose.

Maddie Ardelean is an A&C writer for Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]