WANAMINGO — Heather Allen says being a psychic medium wasn't her first choice of work.
The Wanamingo resident at first wanted to be a travel agent. But events kept getting in the way.
First she lost her job. Then things started getting weird. Just when a new job seemed within her grasp, a hiring freeze would be declared. After it happened a third time, Allen began to feel that something more than coincidence was at work in her life.
Where many people may see a high degree of randomness and coincidence in events, Allen sees larger spiritual forces at play. What some see as unexplained memories, she sees the potential for past lives.
"You can call it intuition, but that, to me, is a kind of comfort word," Allen said. "Where is that information coming from? I'm trying to look at it a little bit further."
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A new way to look at things
A psychic medium is someone who believes they can both commune with spirits in the afterlife and predict future events. Allen has been making a living in this hybrid profession for the past decade, doing the majority of her appointments over the phone from the comfort of her Wanamingo apartment. Allen also offers group consultations or classes within driving distance, including Rochester, Stillwater, Zumbrota and Minneapolis.
Brent Adams, a St. Paul real estate agent, met Allen two years ago and came away from the experience convinced of her ability to predict the future. He says he came into contact with Allen while she was doing readings in a coffee shop in Stillwater.
Adams says Allen proceeded to tell him things that proved to be "really accurate." One prediction Allen made was that Adams would meet someone in the next three to four months and offered a partial description of the person he would meet: It would be someone with a skinny build and blond hair.
A couple of months later, Adams ended up meeting someone just as she described, and they are now best friends.
"I'm 100-percent convinced she is the real deal," he said.
Born and raised in New York Mills in northwestern Minnesota, Allen describes her work in terms of providing information that may offer comfort in a time of grief or help in making choices about careers, relationships and lives.
Allen describes the experience of exploring someone's past life or communing with spirit guides as a "conversation." She says she may stare off into space or stare at an object to help her focus, but mostly she just listens.
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Healthy skepticism
Allen says she doesn't insist on people coming to one of her consultations in a state of uncritical acceptance. A healthy skepticism is, in fact, an appropriate response when dealing with a psychic medium.
"The people who are the most scary to me are the people who don't have any skepticism. They want to believe in everything," she said.
Allen also gives classes and workshops. One of them, "Presence of Light," is offered through Rochester Public School's Community Education and explores psychic and spiritual development. Another class, "Journey Back," uses mediation to guide people to past lives.
Being a psychic medium is a fairly rarefied work. An Internet search reveals anywhere from 15 to 20 practicing psychic mediums in the state. Allen says her clientele runs the gamut from doctors and nurses to authors and artists.
Ultimately, she says, it's up to people to decide for themselves whether the insights she has to offer from the realm of spirit guides, the soul and ghosts are of use in their own lives.
"I'm not trying to make choices for people," Allen said. "I try to (offer) things that they are missing or they are not considering."
