By AARON GOUVEIA
STAFF WRITER
BUZZARDS BAY - Ellie Pechet doesn't need to watch the ''Ghost Whisperer'' on television. She claims to be one.
The soft music playing in the background meshes with the soothing sound of a trickling waterfall as Pechet, who runs the Phoenix Rising Holistic Healing Center on Main Street, prepares to help an earthbound spirit move on to ''the other side.''
Sitting in her office with her eyes closed, she dangles a crystal on a silver chain from her hand and it swings like a pendulum. She tells her client - a local businesswoman who wished to remain anonymous - a male spirit attached itself to her three days ago.
The woman says that's when she began feeling anxious, frustrated and depressed. However, in just minutes Pechet says she has cleared the spirit and leaves her client with a sense of relief.
In addition to earning a master's degree as a licensed mental health counselor from Cambridge College in Cambridge, Pechet claims she is a psychic and medium who can communicate with earthbound spirits and detail past lives.
And business is good, Pechet said, thanks to the paranormal surging into the mainstream. ''Medium'' and ''Ghost Whisperer'' are prime-time television shows featuring psychic individuals, who communicate with the dead to solve crimes and complete the deceased's unfinished business.
An Internet search shows roughly a dozen other businesses on Cape Cod specializing in psychic readings, but Pechet claims no one else in the area combines energy work, counseling and mediumship like she does.
There are no special licenses or permits required for this type of business, according to town planning officials.
Whether she's clearing a haunted house
full of ghosts or extricating a client from a dark spirit, the bottom line is her clients leave a session feeling better both physically and emotionally, Pechet said.
''I realized quickly that traditional counseling is limited,'' she said. ''Although I enjoy it, I wanted to find other ways to help people shift in a positive direction more quickly and effectively.''
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According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 21 percent of Americans believe living people can communicate with the dead and 37 percent believe in haunted houses.
Pechet said she realized she was a medium eight years ago, but knew she was psychic even before that. She claims her powers are growing and now she can sometimes gain insight into unsolved accidents.
For instance, she recently spoke with a client who was depressed over the drowning of a family member.
However, Pechet said she was able to communicate with the victim and describe what he was wearing at the time of his death, as well as provide specific details of the drowning.
Hearing what had happened during the accident and being assured the spirit was moving on to the other side was a relief for her client, she said.
By contacting her spirit guides, Pechet said, she can communicate with the dead and both kinds of spirit attachments - karmic spirits and ghosts with unfinished business.
Karmic spirits have a connection to one of a person's past lives, Pechet said, while ghosts with unfinished business need closure before they can ''move on.''
While sitting in Pechet's office one day last month, Jeffrey Hennessy, 43, of Wareham said he has been a client of Pechet's for a year.
When he moved back to this area after a 20-year absence, Hennessy had just lost his job and his father was dying.
After his dad's death, Hennessy said he was depressed and felt a constant weight on his shoulders.
During one of his first visits with Pechet, she told Hennessy she could see and hear his father who was still present in Hennessy's house.
Although he had his doubts, Hennessy became a believer when Pechet told him that his father wanted him to start making omelettes again.
Making omelettes with his father had been a family tradition, he said, and since his dad's death he had been buying ingredients to make omelettes but letting them rot in the refrigerator. He said there was no way Pechet could have known this since they had never met before.
''It took me by surprise but that's when I really started believing in Ellie (Pechet),'' Hennessy said. ''Now I never second-guess.''
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But Benjamin Radford, editor-in-chief of the magazine ''Skeptical Inquirer,'' said it's important to separate common sense and television entertainment.
Radford has spent the last 10 years investigating claims of paranormal activity, and specializes in examining supernatural claims from a scientific point of view.
He has received countless reports of supposed psychics and mediums who claim to possess the same abilities as Pechet. While most of these people aren't being intentionally deceitful, their claims are usually inaccurate, he said.
''For the most part, the people who claim they can speak to spirits really believe they can,'' Radford said.
''There are some hoaxsters and liars, but for the most part they're misinterpreting their experiences.''
For her part, Pechet said, her client list is growing. Her folder of testimonials is getting thicker.
Interested parties can call Pechet for prices, but she charges $125 for a basic 50-minute session and $185 for 75 minutes. Those sessions include readings, counseling and energy work.
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/bi ... ture12.htm
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