Medium gets in the spirit

In the spirit of Halloween, Buffalo State students invited a certified medium to share her experiences and to discuss her interest and involvement in the world of Spiritualism.

Licensed metaphysical minister Patricia Stabell was brought to campus as a guest speaker for the Anthropology Society on Tuesday.

"Metaphysics started as a philosophy and ended up becoming a science. Then in the 1800's it worked its way into spiritualism," Stabell said.

She said it has since gained more popularity over time resulting in a phenomenon combining scientific research with the supernatural.

Stabell is an art teacher from Darien Center with a bachelor's degree in both graphic design and fine art from Buffalo State College. Teaching art is what she does most of the time said Jessica Stabell, Patricia Stabell's daughter, a senior at Buffalo State majoring in anthropology.

"(Being a licensed metaphysical minister) means that she can perform marriages and she can council people, she also teaches meditation classes and she could run a spiritualist church," Jessica said. "My grandmother is also a licensed minister and she has a church in Buffalo, my mom does go there occasionally as a guest speaker."

Stabell also does psychic readings based on tarot and astrology, which she said she uses to help counsel and heal people spiritually. It's about helping people to improve the quality of their lives, she said.

Stabell said she is not the only one in her family who was drawn to spiritualism.  Both her grandparents were interested in spiritualism, and it was her grandmother who first helped to channel her psychic abilities by asking her to predict which card would come next while playing Rummy.

Stabell said she was able to recognize her connection to the spiritual world even before she was born.

"I remembered hovering around and sensing this family niche that I was going into," she said. "One of the first things I remember (after being born) was realizing that people couldn't hear my mind and it was really strange."

Stabell said she later learned to communicate verbally but she still felt compelled to communicate with others using her mind.

She said when she goes out and gives speeches to the public she mostly focuses on meditation techniques and psychic readings. She said she speaks with people who are struggling with something and haven't found relief using more traditional methods. 

"Whenever you're having a problem society says go get therapy, and a lot of times they don't help you to learn skills to work through your problems yourself," Stabell said.

She said her goal is to get people into a state where they can get in touch with their higher selves and be able to use spiritualist theories to improve their lives.

"It's a really good idea for everyone to understand the cultural aspect of something that seems religious but really isn't, and it's a new and different thing that we haven't really touched on yet," Jessica said. She said she hopes that the speech inspires students to pick up an interest in the supernatural and to gain an understanding of psychics and spiritualism.

Assistant anthropology professor Susan Maguire said she agrees that it is important for students to be informed about different types of culture.

"I think anthropology is something that everyone can get something out of and study," Maguire said. "Any student can benefit from these talks and trying to understand how our society is structured and how that impacts them in their daily lives."

To learn more about exactly what Stabell does she encourages students to go to her website, www.stabellstudios.com for information on psychic readings and meditation classes. She said she also plans to post a reading list of books that she finds interesting to help people gain a better understanding of Spiritualism.

Mia Summerson can be reached by email at summerson.record@live.com.