Trying to make sense of sixth sense
Brick psychic teaches workshop at Lakewood Community School
By MATTHEW McGRATH
LAKEWOOD ? It comes as a dream. There is no explanation for it, but soon thereafter the event comes true with uncanny accuracy.
It starts as a gut feeling: Something is wrong or someone close to you is in trouble. That gut feeling was right.
It might not even be complex; an internal Caller ID or thinking about a person before bumping into them on the street.
Coincidence? Sure, if the existentialists are correct, there is no fate, and each person is isolated from every other person, coincidence is the only way to explain it. But what if there is something more, not fate or destiny per se, but a collective conscience everyone can tap through extrasensory perception?
A group of nine people tried to dig deep within themselves to find their sixth sense at a Lakewood Community School workshop last week taught by Barbara Mackey, a notable area psychic.
Elizabeth DeMaio and her friends Diane Zuranlow and Deborah Sheedy, all of whom are older than 50, were among the small group looking for some answers.
"There was always something I felt I've known," DeMaio said. "So when I learn it as a fact I'm not surprised."
But, is this power or ability something that can be learned or even taught?
"We all have that sixth sense," Mackey said. "But we suppress it because we're not sure, or we're overeducated."
It is a matter of learning to ignore years of lessons to logic and reason, and go with intuition, Mackey said. And, each person's ability can differ slightly from someone else's.
Mackey used three exercises to help students unlock their abilities: deep meditation, mind reading and psychometry, or reading the impressions left by someone on their personal objects.
In the first exercise, the students were asked to close their eyes and follow Mackey on a journey up a flight of stairs, out a door and onto a beach. With each imaginary step they are asked to become more and more relaxed.
They lie on the beach and allow the thoughts to enter their mind and then write what they experience while in the meditation.
Students' thoughts drifted to their sons, colors and recent conversations.
Then they were asked to write down items on a piece of paper ? one thing they like and two they don't. One student would send the answer telepathically while the other person received the message.
The results varied.
Zuranlow said she was trying to base her answers more on what she knew about the person and adjusting her answers more as she learned about them.
"I think it's about learning a person's character," she said, "and making judgments on what they would be."
The last exercise was taking personal objects ? glasses, watches and rings ? placing them to the forehead and reading the impressions left on them by their owner.
Emotions, travel plans and even the possibility of marriage all were raised. Again, there were some dead hits and near misses, and some were just plain wrong.
These exercises are used throughout the psychic community to teach people how to discover their hidden ability.
"I use my experience to guide students through the exercises," said Kasandra Charamer, a psychic who teaches her own classes in Eagleswood. "In most cases people turned off their psychic ability when they were children, but we reached a point where it's becoming more accepted."
More people are moving away from traditional religion, because they "don't cut the mustard," Mackey said.
"It's about seeing God in all things and all places," she added. "People want something more spiritual."
But, according to Roman Catholic dogma, it is not about seeing God in all places, it is taking away from God, a Diocese of Trenton spokeswoman said.
The Catholic catechism regards palm reading, astrology and interpretation of omens, among others as a direct violation of the first commandment to worship only one god.
However, the students who took Mackey's class had no diabolical reasons for taking the class.
"I learned that I really should go on instinct and first impressions," DeMaio said. "I'm going to believe in them more."
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