A member of the American Tarot Association, Crystal Wind has been reading for 14 years and was awarded the rank of Certified Tarot Consultant by the Tarot Certification Board of America. Her work is diverse, as a reader and medium with international clientele, and ordained priestess/spiritual counselor in the Order of Melchizedek. Crystal Wind is a solitary white witch who also provides hands-on healing, Goddess-energy dance/work, reflexology, dream Work, past-life recall, and Wiccan practice/study and ritual.

Crystal Wind can be contacted at crystalwind511@aol.com with regard to personal readings, public and private events, and all ministerial duties (hand-fasting, counseling, etc.)

Just about everyone who studies metaphysical subjects is aware of and understands the Chakra System and all it's implications for a healthy, well-balanced life. However, few people are aware that there are other chakras -- until now. Dr. I. M. Wickedth, a Professor of Practical Practitioners of Metaphysical Studies at a very prestigious university, has discovered the intricacies of one of these lesser-known chakras. Later this summer, Dr. Wickedth's research will be published in the Scientific Researching American Metaphysical Journal. This author became aware of this exciting new study and has obtained special permission to discuss some of the highlights of Dr. Wickedth's research prior to its release.

Dr. Wickedth accidentally located this new chakra center one evening in June after many long hours of hand-writing his thesis in college. His initial experiment began with a bout of writer's cramp and fatigue from long hours and late nights of research. At first, he merely began shaking his wrists to get the circulation flowing again and as he twisted his tired wrists, he curved them over to form a shape with his fingers, thumb and hand. This shape cast a shadow upon the opposite wall as he continued to play with this sensation, but he was forced to stop when he remembered the deadline pressure to complete his thesis.

Many years later, he stumbled upon these old notes and realized that he had inadvertently kept a written record of this break time silliness among the very serious research papers. He read through these notes and re-enacted his wrist exercises. Suddenly, Dr. Wickedth realized that when he slightly blurred his vision to discern the colors of his own aura, he noticed a strange yellowish green color in the area of his wrist and palm. His observations varied slightly as his moods changed but intensity remained swirling in a small vortex in the area of his wrist - he had discovered a long-forgotten chakra center.

Dr. Wickedth continued to research the effects of this small vortex through the next few months with some surprising results. He realized that, due to the location of this center, it is constantly functioning to send both intentions and energy outward (i.e., magical work, healing energy, wish-making.) and, conversely, receive positive and/or negative energies back into the personal aura. Since Dr. Wickedth's area of expertise is in past life regression therapy, it was an easy step to realize the significance of this new chakra center. It lies at the thinnest layer of aura energy and provides approximately 95% faster access into the inner layers of astral bodies and their related realms with less effort than the more detailed meditation and regression methodologies currently used. Being a light-hearted spirit himself, Dr. Wickedth soon realized that this center reacted mostly from direct intentions and whims. He hypothesized that this just may provide a positive application for channeling of the deepest, darkest fears and then healing them faster (and less costly) than the older technologies. He named his discovery - The Widget Chakra (after an experimental program for marketing whimsical non-gadgets during the late 50's).

Over the next few weeks, Dr. Wickedth continued his solitary exploration of his new discovery and in various states of trance -- light, meditative, deep hypnotic, and eventually experimental herb-induced states. Through this exploration his own inner alter-ego was produced -- "Ducky". Gradually and with practice, Dr. Wickedth and Ducky could carry on productive and sometimes silly but intensive conversations on all manner of scientific and metaphysical subjects. The process also brought out childhood trauma and an incident of abuse from a neighborhood pet (that was ducky's issue, not Dr. Wickedth's). In one session, Ducky became afflicted with a mild case of bird flu, but upon further investigation, it was discovered that Dr. Wickedth had suffered grievously in his past life during the Black Plague. Almost immediately, Ducky's symptoms disappeared with the release and healing of this past life.

Dr. Wickedth was intrigued with this preliminary work, but soon realized that he would need to expand his research further before he would be taken seriously by his colleagues. He then solicited volunteers from his students to participate in a study and the Widget Chakra Study began under the more official name, "The Study of Channeling of the Inner Hand Puppet". (I told you Dr. Wickedth had a sense of humor!).

Indepth questionnaires were handed out at the beginning of the first session to record background data of the participants and later compare these traits to the results of their inner hand puppet channeling. Information gathered included personality traits, spiritual growth, family values, etc. Once sessions got underway, each student quickly became adept at clearing and opening their Widget Chakra without involved breathing techniques or time-consuming guided meditation. Within five minutes of arrival, each student would be settled into channeling their own inner self/hand puppet, proving that this method was efficient and easy to manage. The surprise, however, was that there were only a few students who channeled a Ducky - each personality and astrological characteristic brought forth inner hand puppets that reflected these individual qualities. There were kitties, snub- and pointed-nosed snakes, a turkey, a chicken, an elephant and some of the darker energies demonstrated dogs, a squid, and even Anubis (Egyptian God of Death and Resurrection), himself.

The research papers will reveal how the individuality of the students expanded beyond themselves with this channeling and their inner hand puppets soon took on their own personalities and idiosyncrasies. Dr. Wickedth also integrated some facts which demonstrate how working with one's inner hand puppet (inner child) is like the common, innocent childhood past-times such as hand gestures for making shadow puppets, sighting and acknowledgment of deceased spirits, and invisible (to adult eyes) playmates, etc. All of which he feels is a part of human evolution which is usually lost to us upon reaching maturity. Dr. Wickedth indicates in his research that this ancient ability (knowledge) must be reclaimed before we can continue evolving. Remember, when your mother would insist you wash your hands so much and so often? Well, Dr. Wickedth believes that this is a subconscious remnant of that time when the purpose of this obscure chakra was better understood. This may also explain why it is leaking into today's society from that time when it was important for everyday survival in a world that dealt with manner of energy and states of being.

Some of the shyer students found this channeling difficult when asked to so readily bare their very soul with all it's traumas. Dr. Wickedth realized this fear would be a stumbling block in both the current research and with future applications and it would be imperative to remove this barrier to reaching a comfort zone. His sincere consideration lead to the realization that for centuries ancient man utilized masks and costumes for a variety of reasons to disguise or entirely hide the human ego - such as, the performance of ritualistic acts representing the gods themselves, religious ceremonies, all sorts of theatrical performances, and for sacrifices or executions. For the next session, he brought a basket-full of buttons, lipstick, craft eyes, and socks. Just as children play dress up to learn and to experience life, Dr. Wickedth speculated that so would the traumatized inner hand puppets find safety in an alter-ego. You may recognize this ancient tradition by it's modernized reference - sock puppets. Now, the shy students had a safe venue to express their inner child and provide an outlet for the re-learning of ancient practices which are steeped in time by utilizing costumes. As healing takes place under this formatted guise, the sock puppet will eventually be replaced with a healthy hand puppet and a happy person attached.

The later stages of Dr. Wickedth's study moved the group's more confident channelers into some other metaphysical areas. One of these areas was Psychometry, where the reader would handle objects or pictures directly at their Widget Chakra. Usually, these readers can easily shake this energy off or wash their hands in salt water to cleanse this sensitive chakra. However, Dr. Wickedth explains that powerful electromagnetic energy is handled by the psychometrist during a reading and that both positive and negative energy flows freely through this access point. This can be very dangerous to the untrained reader. He feels that teaching readers to immediately access their inner hand puppet upon beginning a psychometric reading, they can both open the chakra to receive the messages and allow their "Ducky" personality to impart the message verbally, thereby, allowing the reader to remain protected from this powerful energy. He feels that Psychometry should be studied intensively and is currently asking Psychometrists to contact him if they would like to participate in further research.

During the last few months of the study, students began to explore positive and negative aspects of the channeled inner hand puppet (yin and yang). The class incorporated a double channeled method which uses the right and left Widget Chakras. The expectation was that each student would display a male and a female ducky (or other hand puppet character), however, the surprise was that most students were able to access two different aspects of their inner self and would find a positive energy ducky on one hand and a darker energy Anubis on the other hand. Those who were still employing sock puppets were able to create a greater variety of characteristics through experimentation with the devices available. Some even found that they were able to remove one sock from their more dominant hand and work toward a healthy inner hand puppet more quickly with this method.

The most amazing event culminated recently when, during a group session, Dr. Wickedth decided to allow himself to entrance along with the class. He found himself deeper than usual and was transported to a past life. He saw himself dressed in woolen, brown robes and diligently working on a large wooden vessel. Storm clouds were gathering and he later expressed feelings of anxiety, panic and frustration that only a few people (seemingly his family members) were helping with this large undertaking. As he pounded nails and lifted the massive planks, he realized that animals were gathering behind him. Through trance-blurred vision, he became aware that he was not alone in this regressive state and turned to see the entire class had joined him. They were freely double channeling their inner hand puppets as male and female animal counterparts. Dr. Wickedth, was brought back from his hypnotic state and immediately began an excited discussion. It was obvious that they had, indeed, channeled a group scene of the building of the Noah's Ark.

The amazed Dr. Wickedth expressed delight at knowing of his past life as such a famous person and for the breakthrough in the field of group channeling and past life therapy. He proudly notes that this discovery of the Widget Chakra and this channeling method will prove to be important to metaphysical practitioners everywhere who strive to bring the ancient learning forward in time and to use it for mankind's spiritual and physical evolution. During this Millennium, more such wondrous discoveries will surface as promised by such profits as Dr. Casey.

By the way - to all of you metaphysical students who are dialing your study group and teachers out there to ask why they haven't introduced this wonderful new method of channeling or spoken of the research of Dr. Wickedth — APRIL FOOLS!