New Breed of School Cultivates the Seer Within

The 20 students sit in a half-circle with their eyes closed, giggling and whispering to themselves. Again and again, they yawn--in exaggerated fashion--then make sudden, animated outbursts.

“He-he ha-ha,” one student shouts, before going into another yawn.

The teacher, Joel Hipps, then enters the room and starts his twice-a-week class. His instruction? Keep releasing “all that energy that has accumulated over the week,” he tells them. When you have time, he adds, “create your sun” and “grow your roses.”

Hipps teaches at the Southern California Psychic Institute in Anaheim, where students supposedly learn to read the thoughts of others and attain a better understanding of their own feelings. In essence, through meditation, they seek to develop their sixth sense.

The school is part of a nationwide surge in facilities known as enlightenment schools and metaphysical institutions that cater to cultivating your aura--and mirror the growth in psychic hotlines and infomercials that began about 10 years ago.

Reading Thoughts of the Unborn

The schools are “spreading like wildfire,” said Paul Daniele, president of the College of Metaphysics, which teaches 400 students in Clearwater, Fla.

Although there are no definitive numbers, school administrators suggest that the growth is geographically diverse as well. Daniele’s school has branches in Orlando, Fla., and Scottsdale, Ariz. Another school, Advanced Metaphysical Studies in New York, has taught hundreds--at $275 a semester--to develop their psychic abilities.

The students at the school in Anaheim sit in a large, plain room, with a single seat in the middle for Hipps, the instructor. Some sit on pillows for more comfort, while others simply remove their shoes.

The yawning, laughing and other exercises can go on for 45 minutes.

“It was freaky at first,” said Rychard Powers, who initially witnessed the warm-ups a few weeks ago when he attended an open house at the institution. “But then you find out what they are doing, and it makes sense.”

The psychic institute opened four years ago. Hipps and his wife, Barbara, started the school after studying and teaching at the Berkeley Psychic Institute for nearly 20 years.

When they started out, the schools were unheard of, Hipps said.

“Now it’s almost everywhere,” he said.

The draw?

“They learn how to find their own information,” Hipps said. “So they won’t have to go anywhere else for the answers.”

During the last 25 years, more than 100,000 people have taken meditation, healing and intuition classes at the Berkeley facility. The Clairvoyant Training Program, one of the most popular, has trained 4,000 graduates in keen insight and perception.

Hundreds of people have gone through similar three-hour classes at the Southern California school, where students meet once or twice a week and pay $150 for each of the six-week courses. The school relies solely on tuition to operate.

Kristin Stich said it took her almost 20 years to become ready to explore her abilities. But after her first couple of classes 18 months ago, she wondered what took so long.

“The progress I made was amazing,” said Stich, a 33-year-old graphic artist. “By the second week, I began seeing auras.”

Stich said she has now advanced to seeing otherworldly flashing lights and hearing the thoughts of babies before they’re born.

“I also have an ability to feel other people’s feelings,” she said. “And as my awareness grows, I can notice it more and more.”

For years Michael Drake, 42, was skeptical of psychics.

“I always have been interested but felt kind of leery of the whole thing,” he said. “I always go by my gut instincts, and so many times I would go to a psychic fair and would feel in my gut that something was not right.”

Then Drake met a man trained at the Berkeley Psychic Institute.

“He did it in a clean way,” said Drake, a massage therapist. “It was like there was a science to it. It wasn’t fortunetelling.”

Drake recently began taking the beginning meditation course in Anaheim. During his first class he appeared out of place. But he was soon actively participating in the exercises and, amid the excitement, was even yawning.

“My immediate goal is to become more aware of myself,” Drake said. “But as for my ultimate long-term goal, I don’t know. But I think it would be fun reading people.”