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Attendees Get Metaphysical At Fair

Tribune photo by FRED BELLET

Tarot card readers (top/left) Kyle Westover,15, of Tampa and Arlene Jordan of Seminole discuss common sense Tarot as they look at the cards at the Metaphysical Fair.

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By DAVID SOMMER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 7, 2008

PORT RICHEY - Beyond the Tree of Tranquility, past the soul cards, the tarot readers and the astrologers, Sharon Silva and her daughter Cassidy were asking about the wonders of EFT.

As they watched, practitioner Jeanne "J.R." Ranger tapped away at a man with a headache.

While she tapped, Ranger had her patient repeat her chants. Nothing mystical: just simple words of healing; assurances of self worth and self actualization.

Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT, Ranger explained as she helped the man will his headache away.

"I hate taking pills and that's why I'm so impressed with EFT," Ranger said.

Silva said she was impressed, too, and would be back at the Unity Truth Center for one of Ranger's twice-monthly group healing workshops.

The Port Richey woman said she had heard that the nondenominational Truth Center was hosting its first-ever Metaphysical Fair today, and she and her daughter wanted to see what it was all about.

Silva said she has studied hypnotism and had heard about EFT.

"I've never met anyone who did it, so I'm happy I'm here," she said.

Ranger urged her to come to a Tuesday evening session.

"We work with everyone in the room and see if we can get them relief, and we usually can," Ranger said.

If Ranger's EFT technique had not worked, headache man had plenty of other options at the Metaphysical Fair.

Classroom No. 6 was the "Reiki Room," where sore backs were massaged, feet were rubbed and scented candles and the sound of a bubbling fountain filled the air.

Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction, Reiki Healer Olivia Murray explained.

All around the Reiki room, therapists were laying on the hands, so to speak, and clients said they were soothed.

"Everybody is praying, in a way. It's just another way of working on it," a way to get closer to God, tarot reader and numerologist Eileen Tish said of the metaphysical lifestyle.

The tarot readers were probably the most popular draw on Saturday. About a dozen of them had clients lined up for readings of 15 minutes or more for $1 a minute.

"I like readings. I haven't had one in a long while," said Dolores DeMauro as she wandered the halls of the Truth Center.

"I need one. My life is so dull," the New Port Richey woman told a friend as they exchanged mischievous smiles.

The Rev. Diane Dittman, who offered tarot readings and something called "psychometry," the ability to learn about a person through an object they have touched, said her job is to "channel God's love and affection for others. We are not healers.

"We can only do what God's purpose is for that person," Dittman said.

Marlene Jordan, who practices Chinese astrology, said that to her, practicing a metaphysical art is about helping people to part with the past and embrace the new and present.

She said it should not matter whether a client gets advice through the reading of tarot cards, the stars or the palm.

"Modality is just a medium, as paint is to an artist," Jordan said. "It doesn't define the reading."

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

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