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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2003)
October 17.2003 PEOPLE ...............¥ ............... went into one of my favorite coffee shops and saw the sign. “Free Psychic Readings Today.” Free is a very gixxl price. I I sat down across from Suzanne Deakins, a 59-year-old bisexual counselor. After some small talk, she asked for my ring. T hen she pro nounced, “You have a pain in your right arm." I was floored! O f all the things she could have said. My right arm had been aching for about three weeks (the result of some vigorous gardening). I had even gone to the acupunctur ist a week before for some relief. I gaped over the table at her, and she said, “You’ve never had a reading from me before, have you?" No, 1 hadn’t. I’d had another psychic read ing 10 years ago. T he fellow told me there was someone in my life named Ingrid. He was close. My partner’s given name is Sigrid. But Suzanne was so right on; how could she have known about my arm? So 1 s;it down with Suzanne and another queer psychic to see if they could explain it. Don Clarkson, 58, does not fit the picture of “psychic.” In his dress shirt and slacks, I picture him as the real estate agent he used to he. His small office downtown near the library is deco rated in yellows and golds; a statue of a wizard holding a crystal ball sits in one comer. A huge tarot deck poster covers most of one wall. We sit down, and Clarkson explains how he works. He will close his eyes and watch pictures that appear before him. “It’s like watching a movie go on behind you," he says. He will then open his eyes and share with me what he has seen. Clark son explains that the pictures he sees have a really gtxxl accuracy rate but that his interpreta tion of them can oftentimes be wrong. 1 ask a couple of questions— about my dad, who has been ill, and about my potential to make money as a writer. He closes his eyes and rubs his head. 1 sit and listen to the MAX trains go by as the aftennxm sun streams through the windows. W hen Clarkson opeas his eyes he shares with me that things for my dad don’t lcx>k so gcxxl but that my income potential is promising. ack in 1978 Clarkson was at a personal growth seminar where he was asked to close his eyes and try to “read” something about a stranger in the group. He was skeptical. He s;it down across from a woman he didn’t know, and she asked him to describe a rcxxn in her house. He priKeeded to tell her that she had a round oak table in her dining rixnn, five chairs around the table and a sixth that sat bro ken in the comer. The woman was astounded. She began to ask him other questions. Everything he said was tme, and Clarkson freaked out. “I’m a double Virgo, left-brained, B ~**a*m '~ Color me read Are psychics spooky or comforting? WeVe decided both. by K athy B elge pen,” he says. “If I say you’re going to get m ar ried next week— if you d o n ’t want it to hap pen, it isn’t going to h a p p en .... I think people come to the psychic thinking it’s magic. T he psychic can reveal but doesn’t heal or make things happen.” For th at Clarkson has com bined life coaching with his practice to help clients work toward some of the goals he reveals in his readings. o why would a person go to a psychic? "I believe they come for some help in finding solutions and understanding the symbols appearing in their life," Deakins says. Clarkson adds most people come to him with health, career or relationship issues. A nd what about predict ing the big stuff—say, 9/11? "Many psychics get very uneasy feelings before big happenings,” Deakins con jectures, and reminds that she sees only the present moment. But, she adds, "Many things can happen to change that moment of energy.” Clarkson says he once had a vision of a train wreck that happened two weeks later, but he works hard to filter those kind out. “Every once in a while there are these uninvited visions, and I really don’t like that,” he explains. He would instead only welcome visions so vivid that he could call someone— like the railroad compa ny— and try to prevent it. And what about picking winning lottery numbers? Clarkson claims to have had some luck once predicting stocks for a client, but when he tried his hand at the lottery, “I didn’t even get one number." A nd even in relation ships his psychic abilities have not necessarily helped him. His last relationship was with a man who cheated and lied. “T he psychic process didn’t do a damn thing," he smiles. So what did I get out of their readings? Deakins saw that I was still holding onto the grief from a close friend dying. She gave me some tips to let it go. After hearing what Clarkson said about my dad, I decided to take a cross-country trip to visit him. Even if he lives for another 20 years, I will not regret the special time we just spent together. J H S Don Clarkson and Suzanne Deakins (inset) can help you tie up those messy emotional loose ends we call feelings very grounded businessman," he notes, “and we do not believe in this sort of shit.” So the left-brainer spent the next few years in distress. He began to have visions more and more often. Once when he was at a party some one mentioned a friend and asked him what he saw. Clarkson describes feeling sick to his stom ach and having a horri ble feeling of falling. It turns out the man was in the hixspital after a terrible fall at work. Oftentimes he would pick up informa tion about people on the street. “That was very upsetting," he explains, because usual ly he only sensed their pain. “I felt like they were intruding my life." Eventually Clarkson met Diane Stone, a well-known astrologer, and she helped him fcx:us his gift— to allow visions in when he wanted and to shut them out other times. Eventually he set up a business doing readings. Deakins realized she had psychic abilities about five years ago when she was working as a physician’s assistant. The diKtor noticed she knew things about the patients he didn’t know. “I didn’t think of it as a gift at the time," she shares. "My friends tell me 1 was always a bit scary knowing about things 1 should not have know n...I never thought of it as spe cial...! still don’t.” The first thing Deakins picks up from people is their general health. “I feel I am led to problems," she says. “I feel them first in my kxly." Both psychics emphasized that what they experience is in the present, and they try not to predict the future. “I have always been a bit concerned about giv ing...a reading that it could become a self- fulfilling prophecy," Deakins explains. Clarkson says he just tells you what he sees. “If you don’t like the pictures, they won’t hap ‘Tm a double Virgo, left-brained, very grounded businesstnan, and we do not believe in this sort of shit” —Don Clarkson Call D o n C larkson at 503-295-9777. Contact S uzanne D eakins at 503-544-0932 or wuu>.ones[>iritfoundation. irrg. Portland free-lance urtier K a TUY BELGE is your Guide to Lesbian Life at umw.lesbianlife dbout.com. Don’t miss the M i - 20th Anniversary Party! I < ■ ■■■■■ I WM Sunday, November 2 3 Hollywood Theatre, 4 122 N.E Sandy Blvd Tickets go on sale November 7 An evening of celebration and comedy! Kjr<-'n l \ j j j /¿
