Brents brings unique gift to Warren County
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And that’s exactly what one does in a place where many people believe there is just one way of seeing things.
A native of Warren County and graduate of Dibrell, Brents lived out of state for awhile and recently moved back to McMinnville, where she is beginning to offer what she said are psychic readings using dream analysis, tarot cards and communication with energies of spirits who have passed.
“For me, when I walk up to someone, it seems to be just in talking, I zero in on a voice,” she said. “It’s just like I know – like I’ve known you before.”
Brents said she began to pay more attention to extraordinary occurrences after her husband passed away in 2000 and what turned out to be her grandfather appeared to her in dreams. She knows her ideas may be a lot for most people to swallow, as those practices offer alternative views of life and death and challenge conventional wisdom.
There are plenty of skeptics. Most of them say those who claim to possess psychic abilities, like some who have been featured on prominent TV talk shows like “Larry King Live” or “Oprah,” aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.
Skeptics also say so-called psychics are just good at reading people’s body language or may obtain advance knowledge of a person’s life and capitalize on being right when the subject identifies a correct response during a “reading.”
But Brents doesn’t seem to be worried about what other people think.
“People usually get a very surprised look on their face,” she said of telling people what she does. “Some of them won’t take my card. They have their own beliefs, which is fine. I have no problem with that. I don’t force myself on anybody. I don’t want to.”
Since she has just recently moved back to town, most of her readings have occurred in Indiana, so there was no way to objectively observe a typical reading here.
An unrelated person accompanying the Standard to an interview with Brents appeared impressed with a sample dream interpretation, but also said there were some things that didn’t add up.
A common reaction to the possibility of psychic ability is one of skepticism, especially when the nation is buzzing with psychic hotlines and plenty of people are willing to make an easy buck preying on vulnerable people.
“People can be taken advantage of, but I’m saying there are a lot of people who are good, honest, Christian people who are not taking advantage of people,” Brents said. “If the person is ethical and they are psychic, they will not gouge you with money. They will not tell you, ‘You have bad evil spirits around you and I’ll take all these evil spirits away.'”
“People who are ethical don’t do that,” Brents continued. “People who are ethical don’t threaten or intimidate people. And I would tell anybody that if you see a psychic medium, you shouldn’t see one more than once every year,” she said.
Of dreams, she added, that is the mind’s way of telling someone something.
“We all have free will and free choice, so it’s time we started understanding it,” she added.