As always, the admission price was extremely affordable -- $5, plus plenty of free parking! The exhibition hall was full of everything from psychics to ghost hunters, Reiki practitioners to chiropractors, shamanic healers to aura photographers, and several shops that specialize in oils, crystals, wands, books, and DVDs. About a month ago, I ended up winning an online contest that earned me a four free tickets! Do I didn't even have to spend any money this year to get in the doors!
Once again, the Iowa City Metaphysical Expo had a variety of speakers scheduled throughout the day. My biggest complaint about the expo is that there are two rooms where speakers do their thing, but the start and end times in the two rooms don't mesh. So I might go to see a particular speaker at 10:30 AM, but then find myself deciding if I want to leave his show midway through his talk so that I can see the 11:00 AM speaker in the other room.
The first program that I attended yesterday was by Don Marlette, Psychic Medium & Spiritual Advisor: "Beyond the Veil" Gallery Readings. He was one of yesterday's Keynote Speakers. Don shared his story and his background. He then led a gallery reading that was actually pretty fun to watch. I didn't get a reading, but my co-worker Kelli ended up chatting with him for a few minutes about her dead brother. He made a strong enough impression on her that she ended up reserving time for a private reading later in the afternoon!
I then attended a program by Sylvia Runkle Hypnosis: "Awaken the Depths Within." I came to this program a few minutes late, but Sylvia briefly discussed a revelations that others had provided to her while under hypnosis. We did a brief group hypnotic session. The goal was for us to receive our own revelations, but I'm not very good at this type of thing. I just couldn't remain in a hypnotic state in that setting. But it was still pretty interesting stuff.
After some lunch and a chat with my chiropractor at Total Health Chiropractic, I did a bit of shopping. Nothing much, just some oils to assist with mild pain relief.
I then went to the other Keynote Speaker: Beth Peterson. She is a writer and motivational speaker who survived getting struck by lightning... twice! Her two books are "Life After Lightning" and "Destination Heaven." She described her death and afterlife experience. She went to Heaven after her first lightning strike and was allowed to return to life after promising to help others. Frankly, just hearing her experience of overcoming the ongoing effects of being hit by lightning, including years of depression, PTSD, skin ulcerations, brain injury, and chronic headaches, was worth listening to! But she's a good speaker and tells and engaging tale.
My last expo program was "A Witch, Shaman, and Light Worker Walk Into a Coffee Shop" by two of the women from Wild Indigo Coyote. Basically, we were offered a primer into the differences between the three types of people -- and learned that sometimes there's not much difference!
It was nearly 4:30 PM by this point and I decided that I had had enough for the day. I was exhausted! As always, the event was lots of fun and well organized. I just saved the date on Facebook for the Fifth Annual Iowa City Metaphysical Expo -- October 21, 2017!
Updated on 11/07/16: This year's Iowa City Metaphysical Expo was featured in today's Daily Iowan. They didn't interview any of the expo's organizers, but checked in with representatives from Unknown Darkness and Total Health Chiropractic, as well as author Lesa Kay Smith, writer of "Beautiful Gift -- How I Found My Son In The Afterlife."
You can read the article here.