All Psyched Up

Photo by Allison McWaters and Idrees Syed / VOX Staff

Raisa Habersham / VOX Staff
 
After I wandered through the store for a few minutes, I was approached by a tall, slender man clad in hippy-like, earth-tone-colored clothing. He wore a grin bright as day as he approached me.
“Hi, I’m Don Simmons,” he said cheerfully, extending his hand to shake mine. I didn’t know what to do, so I shook it.

“Have you ever had a psychic reading?” he asked, no doubt sensing that I was nervous and probably hadn’t. When I didn’t answer immediately, he bugged his eyes out at me and gave me the creeps. Hesitantly I told him I hadn’t, and it took me a moment before I realized he wasn’t being creepy at all — he was just teasing me, trying to make me laugh or at least relax a little.

“Give me a minute and I’ll go set our room up,” he said in an easy manner and ventured off toward the back of the store.

I had never had a psychic reading, but the idea of getting one made me both anxious and excited. In fact, I had actually booked two readings from two different psychics just to experience a wide range of the powers they claimed to have. Based on the seeming harmlessness of Don, what fear I had was replaced by with my burning curiosity to better understand the unknown.
 
The Past of a Psychic
Don eventually came back to get me and ushered me into a simple, but rather large room with white-painted walls and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the woods. He pulled up two chairs, placed them facing each other and asked me to sit down.

Before we got started with my psychic reading, I wanted to know more about who he was and how he — for the lack of a better phrase — developed his powers. Don told me that contracts with the Phoenix and Dragon to offer his psychic services in palmistry — better known as palm reading — graphology, past life regression and readings, hypnosis and tarot card readings. As I talked to him, I couldn’t help but appreciate how serious and professional he was about his work. He definitely was no road-side fortune teller looking to scam people. He really thought of his job as a way to help others, and he realized he had a knack for this when he earlier worked for a crisis intervention hotline and could immediately sense what callers needed.

Don said he realized at the age of 6 that he had “a sixth sense.” However, he thought everybody had this same awareness of a spiritual world, and it wasn’t until he was a teenager growing up that he found out he was different from the rest of his peers.

He trained as a journalist and worked for a long time in the film industry before life events forced him to confront his talents. Through a friend, he met a psychic from India who taught him palmistry and Don found he was better able to harness his abilities. He went on to study past-life regression and readings — which allows him to sense things that happened in a person’s past lives that are causing them trouble today.
 
My First Reading
Finally the time came for Don to do his thing. He started off with graphology, the ability to divine information about a person just by their handwriting. He had me print my name, sign my name and write down my birth date on a sheet of paper.

From a quick but close look at what I wrote, Don told me that I was meant to be a leader. I thought to myself, Of course I am! From my cursive signature, he saw that I loved to start projects but that sometimes I had a problem finishing them, that I want others to complete them for me. I didn’t agree with this but I didn’t tell him so. Don added some numbers up from the letters in my name — I’m not exactly sure how he did this — and told me that my life path number was 11. He said that this meant I was an artist at heart. I was happy with that because my dream is to become a film director and actor.

Based on my birth date, Don said my lucky number was two. I always felt that my lucky number was seven. He told me that two signifies that relationships and partnerships are important to me, which didn’t seem to fit since I like to do things my own way.

So far, I wasn’t impressed with graphology, though I was impressed with Don’s conviction. But then he moved onto palmistry, and he asked me to place my hands in his and he took a careful look at them. According to Don, palmistry is one the most ancient divination techniques that’s actually based on physical science. My hands trembled a little as he traced the various wrinkle lines on them and my heart rate sped up. I was terrified he’d discover something I didn’t want to know.

But Don’s easy way calmed me, and he didn’t reveal anything scary. “Your right hand represents your free will, and your left, God’s will,” he said. “What’s written on your left hand never changes, but what’s on your right changes constantly based on what choices you make.”

He told me that the line that curved down the center of my left hand was my destiny line, and he explained that my destiny was just beginning to take shape as I approached adulthood. I agreed with that reading; I feel like I am just coming into my own.

Don determined from another line on my left hand that I liked to help others. Another line starting from the outer side of my pinky finger on the same hand indicated to him that I am a caregiver. That was right on, considering I am the oldest of six children in my family. On my right hand, he read lines that told him that I should expect a lot of travel in my life, which excited me greatly, as well as three major relationships — one coming very soon.

Lastly, Don did a brief tarot reading — which I originally didn’t want him to do. I kept thinking about all those movies where a fortune teller draws the Death card from the deck and then someone eventually dies. But Don assured me that the Death card didn’t usually represent physical death, but instead that a major life change was coming.

He fanned out the cards like you’d do with a simple card trick and he asked me to pick one for myself. I drew the Aeon card, and Don told me that it meant I would persevere forever in the things that I did with my life. I didn’t fully understand this, but I took it to mean I wasn’t a quitter — which is absolutely true.

With that, my time was up, and Don and I said our goodbyes. I thought the experience was a positive one, and I wouldn’t hesitate to consult with Don again — although I’d have to win the lottery since he charges $50 for a half-hour reading.
 
A Second Opinion — From Beyond
My second reading proved to be very different from the first — a little more “out there” and definitely scarier. Candace Zellner, who hails from Mississippi and didn’t realize her abilities until she was 38 years old, believes she channels spirits from outside the earthly plane of existence. All her life she has prayed to do God’s will. “And then one day, I prayed to God and I just started writing automatically,” Candace said. “But what I wrote didn’t come from me; the words came from someplace else, from someone else.”

As she was raised a strict Southern Baptist, Candace was skeptical of these powers at first — and she still sometimes has a hard time believing what happens to her when she contacts the spirits of dead people or angels. When she channels them, she says a quick prayer before calling out to the spiritual world to contact them. She is basically the middle man, and those who come in for a reading must ask questions for the spirits through her.

Sometimes in reaching out to the plane beyond, Candace has confronted evil forces. She can tell if a person has malevolent spirits, including demons, attached to them, and she has helped perform exorcisms to get rid of them. She herself has seen these demons in both the spiritual world and in real life. “They’re just like the ones in the movie ‘Constantine’,” she said. “Don and I saw that movie together, and we were amazed at how much they actually got right.”

Despite how much that bit of information freaked me out, I decided to go ahead with a reading. It wasn’t easy because, even though with all she told me, I still didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Candace asked me to wrote my full birth name, my birth date and age, as well as those of the deceased person I wanted to contact — which I decided was my grandmother. Candace then proceeded with a prayer. I prayed, too, as I was afraid of what might happen next.

Candace then asked me if I had any thing I wanted to ask my grandmother. It took me awhile to think of something, but I asked if my family would be OK when I go off to college next year. Candace told me that she was unable to give me a straightforward answer because she had connected with an angel instead of my grandmother. The angel said that my grandmother couldn’t’ come, that she was having too much fun in Heaven. It didn’t surprise me at all that my grandmother would say such a thing. However, I was amazed as to how Candace continued to ask me questions about my grandmother that were on point, coming to the conclusion that she had lived a sad and lonely life. I almost teared up at the though of it. After speaking with the angel, Candace said a closing prayer.

I felt a little uneasy. I wasn’t sure if anything had really happened, but it was uncanny  how Candace seemed to know — or at least relate — so much about my grandmother. Candace asked me if I was all right, then hugged me and wished me well as I left.
 
Drawing Conclusions
I cannot say that from these readings my skeptical view on psychics and fortune tellers has changed completely. I still feel that they are guessing more than tapping some psychic power — despite how amazed I was at how close they came to the truth. I do have a newfound respect for psychics like Don and

Candace who have made a serious commitment to using their gifts to help other people. While I’m not sure of their powers they possess,  I believe they are excellent counselors who are doing good things with their lives.

I believe in a spiritual world, and it’s not out of the question that certain people are able to connect with it better than most of us. I wouldn’t mind  seeking out further evidence of what people like Don and Candace can do. And I encourage all of you readers to satisfy your curiosity about things that cannot be explained, and maybe even get your own fortunes told if just to have a unique experience.
 
Raisa is a senior at Mays High.