By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The living can get in contact with the dead, according to a self-described psychic medium Patsy Seay-Dollar. But only if he or she expresses the specific desire to do so.
“Some people are fine with angels, but they don’t want Grandma coming in,” Seay-Dollar says as she sits with a stack of tarot cards at ii Energy Works Metaphysical, a store she operates at 1191E Ft. Campbell Boulevard. The store offers alternative spirituality and healing, in addition to selling items such as herbal candles, crystals, jewelry and tarot card decks.
Seay-Dollar explains why she first asks guests, before a reading, whether or not they would like to hear from a deceased loved one.
“If someone is nervous about having their ancestors, their ghosts, coming in and giving them messages, I ask them to tell me up front. That way I don’t bring in a message that will make them uncomfortable. I always respect that boundary and let them set the boundary.”
Seay-Dollar, who attributes her abilities to God, says that before she performs a reading she first says a prayer – or an “invocation” – to “bring in the light and the love to surround us in a bubble of the divine source.”
Seay-Dollar then uses tarot cards to begin the reading, which she says gives the person something to focus on.
She explains: “It allows them to open up so that I can look at what their questions are and what their angels, their gods, their ancestors, have to tell them – a message they may have to tell them.”
Most of Seay-Dollar’s customers come in for readings with romantic and career questions, Seay-Dollar says. She gives each client a 30-minute reading and charges $45.
Seay-Dollar works with another self-described psychic, Janna Phillips, at ii Energy Works Metaphysical. Phillips has what could be argued is a genetic ability — her grandmother, mother and aunts also had psychic abilities.
“I would see angels and visions as a young child,” says Janna Phillips.
“My grandmother was very psychic,” Phillips says. “She would read people until she got old and picked up on a lot of deaths. The she stopped doing it because that depressed her.”
From the age of five, Phillips knew she was different.
“I would see angels and visions as a young child,” she says.
Her father was against the practice of psychic abilities, so for years Phillips put her abilities aside. Then she got into her forties and decided to explore those abilities anew, in particular because she had gone through two near-death experiences.
“I was in the tunnel and it was really foggy and it felt so good,” she said of the experiences. “I didn’t want to come back. So I have no fear of death. It’s a blessing to get a glimpse of the other side.”
In fact, that is the one core message Phillips wants to tell people: “There’s no reason to fear death.”
Phillips’ services, which are $30 for 30 minutes, include various options. She performs tarot card readings, crystal readings, flame readings and automatic writing. She also does gallery readings before a group of people, as does the television psychic John Edwards.
The store also offers classes for people who want to heighten their own intuitive or psychic abilities.
“It is a gift that everybody has the option to partake of,” Seay-Dollar says of such abilities.
For more information visit www.iienergyworksmetaphysical.com or call 931-216-6324. The store is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.