Sharon Cheney has been featured in the following articles, radio and TV programs.

The Metaphysical World and Beyond Radio Show  with Nancy Wallace was recorded on December 14, 2009.

This article  appeared in the Montreal Gazette Newspaper on Saturday, October 13, 2007 and was written by Danielle Murray.   

"We Just See Possibilities, Psychics Say" 

So how does it all work? How exactly does one see the dead? Or the future?

Author and psychic Sharon Cheney says people are made up of two things – body and aura.

While we are all privy to the physical side of things, auras are not so obvious. But to those who do see, the aura is composed of layers of energy, each containing tidbits about who we are and how we live our life. When we die, the aura separates from the body and remains intact in the spirit world. That spirit world, she adds, is all around us. “They don’t live on Mars,” she chuckles. From the looks of it though – or at least if you believe everything you see on television, a whole lot of dead people just aren’t ready to move on. And contrary to Hollywood’s take on the matter, the dead don’t come barging into dreams night after night as they do with Medium’s sleep-deprived Patricia Arquette. “I sleep very well,” Cheney says. When they do get in touch – when she’s awake and doesn't mind the interruption – it’s because “they want to tell you how their passing was or what they’ve learned from it.”

Most often, though, it is the living who come to her first. Most of them just want to know that deceased loved ones are all right.

And when psychics – or more specifically psychic mediums – do make contact, not all pick up in quite the same way. Cheney can sense, hear or see them in her mind. Hearing, she maintains, is her “first gift.”

Psychic Mandy Horton usually sees them. Sometimes they are vague and blurry and other times, as clear as any living being.

What both definitely do not see are the haunted souls that came to the sad little boy in The Sixth Sense. They aren’t covered in blood and vomit, they aren’t sporting gunshot wounds to the back of the head and they certainly aren’t hanging from the gallows. It’s more Ghost than Ghost Whisperer.

“All this nonsense,” Cheney says. “The dead don’t scare your pants off. They are not scary or ghoulish – just dead.”

And what pray tell, are they wearing? Does Julius Caesar forever pop by in a toga or Marie Antoinette in fabulous wigs? To be honest, neither Horton nor Cheney seems to care or pay little notice.

Reading the future also has to do with our energy, Horton explains. It’s just a matter of picking up on it, whether it be face to face, over the phone or even through email and letters.

Cheney’s view is a bit more complicated. She says there is no past and no future – every thing occurs in the here and now. And that’s how she sees it – as it happens.

If it all sounds a bit too much, that’s because there is a lot more going on in the world than we can perceive with our five senses.

OK, then, so how do they respond to the argument that no psychic warned of 9/11 or told Princess Diana to stay out of Paris?

“There are some things you can’t change,” Horton says. “If it is meant to be, it is meant to be”.

“Just because you are psychic,” Cheney says, “doesn’t mean you are going to know every last thing that happens on the planet.” At an individual level, though, it does help. “The future is made up of possibilities and probabilities. Some things are more likely to happen than others,” she says. Psychics might see around the corner, but predictions aren’t always right because every one of us has free choice, is in the driver’s seat and ultimately determines our own future. If that sort of lets them off the hook, so be it.

“People want to give their power over to psychics, but we all need to take responsibility for our own actions,” says Cheney.

And what about the 6/49? How come, in the words of Jay Leno, “you never see a headline like Psychic Wins Lottery?”

Both say if they were meant to gain financially, they would. They aren’t in it for the money. They do counter, however, that many self-made millionaires are, if not telepathic, extremely intuitive and willing to take chances based on gut feelings.

Do Horton and Cheney know what’s in store for them, too? Yes. But while Horton prefers not to look, Cheney is quite happy to have a peek. “If I know something is coming up, I have a choice. Do I want to do that or do I not? I can prepare for it.”

Though seeing the bad stuff can be difficult, both view their abilities as a gift rather than a curse. The key is to learn how to switch it off. “I tune in and tune out,” Horton says. “I don’t go around being psychic all the time.”

Sharon Cheney can be viewed in PBS Mountain Lake special "Hauntings of the North Country" filmed in New York  and aired in October 2005. In this film, Sharon provides her expertise on ghosts and other phenomena. 

"I had read Alvin Tofler's Future Shock, in which he predicted that the world would move faster and faster, and there would be a lot more stress," Meloche said. "I had also read a story about trends in California and one of them was these flotation baths."

Meloche would face several struggles in the years to come to get his business to a healthy state - the wrong locations, a dissolved partnership, a dishonest landlord - but ultimately, he was proved right. The speed of North American life would accelerate and there would be legions of people in need of an antidote to the stress in their lives.

In 1999, Meloche expanded his spa, Ovarium - so-named because the flotation tanks are egg-shaped - into an historic former bank building in the Plateau Mont Royal area. It boasts 11 massage rooms and six tank rooms. A roster of 60 massage therapists offer various types of massage.

He attributes the growth in spa-type businesses and holistic services to a shift in North American and European cultures. "People are starting to want to get away from consumerism," he said. "Flotation is more than just a therapy. It's part of the cultural creative phenomenon."

In other sectors of the holistic industry, the growing acceptance of non-traditional therapies - everything from reiki and acupuncture to homeopathy and polarity - is referred to as a shift in consciousness. "People are not only more accepting of alternate therapies but they're seeking them out," said Rukhshana Surty, owner of Harmoni Holistic Health Centre in Kirkland. "People are being faced with debilitating diseases and are discovering that some of the drugs on the market do more harm than good."

Surty, who has a physical education degree, worked in information technology and financial consulting before training as a massage therapist and opening her centre seven years ago; it offers massage, yoga, pilates classes and workshops in spirituality and wellness. She said the shift toward mind-body-spirit therapies is the result of consumers becoming better informed and taking charge of their own health. "People are moving away from going to their doctors and asking for a pill to fix them," she said.  "Everyone and his grandmother is putting up a yoga studio these days. It's very mainstream."

While it's difficult to gauge just how large the alternative therapy and mind-body-spirit industry is, the easy availability of such treatments suggests it's gone mainstream in the past decade and is a burgeoning sector of the economy. Growing hand-in-hand with it is a new acceptance of spirituality that is not associated with traditional religion.

Harmoni, for instance, offers workshops that focus on such topics as palmistry, soul tarot, spirit guides and angels, karma, automatic writing, dream interpretation, meditation and psychic circles. "Our clients love the seminars that are spiritually oriented," Surty said. "They're about self-healing." But like Meloche, she's had to struggle to make her business viable. "We've been in business for seven years and are just now breaking even," she said.

Harold Simpkins, a professor of marketing at the John Molson School of Business, said mind-body-spirit businesses often grow through word of mouth. He said there may be several reasons alternative therapies are gaining ground. "The population is aging and there's a long waiting list to see doctors," he said. "Also, 20 years ago, if you were in pain and traditional medicine couldn't help you, you simply lived with the pain. Now, people are looking for other ways."

Another reason holistic therapies have been taking their place in the market, he said, is that they often come packaged with stress relief. "Things like reiki, massage and acupuncture have a relaxing, stress-relieving side to them. What's more, consumers are more knowledgeable about these therapies than they were a generation ago, thanks to the Internet."

The interest in the holistic and spiritual sectors has also been a boon for the educational sector, where people are spending money on continuing education courses in spiritual development. Sharon Cheney, a Montreal psychic, who recently moved to New Mexico, has taught spiritual courses in the continuing education centres of various colleges, including Vanier in Montreal, for several years. Those courses, which she now offers online on her website, www.sharoncheney.com, include such subjects as reincarnation, the soul's journey and spirit communication.

"If all this seems mainstream now, it's because people have been exposed to it in film and television programs in the past decade," she said. "There's a big shift going on in people's consciousness." Cheney, who said she has been aware of her psychic gifts since childhood, was employed as an occupational therapist before she got a masters degree in counselling psychology. In addition to teaching, she specializes in spiritual psychotherapy.

In smal conservative towns where I have  taught, I noticed that people hadn't heard much about holistic health, whereas in large cities like Montreal , there is a thirst for knowledge about these subjects. Prior to that, most of the continuing education classes were about  learning to use computers.

"Now, it's the spiritual classes that are attracting people. This is all about empowerment," she said. "Whether you go for holistic treatments, consult a psychic, take spiritual courses or become a vegetarian, it's about taking charge of your own mind-body health."

The move toward self-care is also reflected in the growing spa industry. A year ago, online marketer Randy McCaig wanted to buy his wife a spa day as an anniversary gift. "I couldn't find any Montreal spas online," he said. "I learned there was a huge demand for spa services but no online resource where you could look for a spa."

McCaig set up an online list of Montreal spas, at www.spasmontreal.com. He was astonished to discover 120 spas in the greater Montreal area, 80 in the downtown sector alone. The services they offer range from esthetics and massage to such holistic treatments as reflexology, acupressure and reiki.

"The spa industry is growing because so many of us have hectic lives," McCaig said. "Spas allow people to be looked after and pampered. A lot of companies are offering spa services as corporate perks. I've seen the market grow in the past year alone and I don't think we've seen the end of this growth." About 2,700 unique visitors have logged onto McCaig's site since it was launched in January.

Meloche has been a beneficiary of the growth in spa services. In 2004, the occupancy rate of Ovarium's flotation baths and massage rooms was 87 per cent. "It would take a whole day of meditation to get the benefits of a one-hour float," Meloche said. "My hope is that people will come here before they burn out. I call it the Future Shock absorber."

Listen to Sharon Cheney being interviewed on the KFHX/1620 radio show called "Everyday Matters" hosted by Maria Perreault. The show was taped on Oct 15, 2005 in Fountain Hills, Arizonia. Please click below to listen to the show. www.kfhx.com

This article about Sharon Cheney was written by Chris Barry  and appeared in the Montreal Mirror Newspaper in August 9, 2003.