Date 28-Jul-86 1201 MST Subj APfl 07/28 PsychicTeacher WINTER PARK, Fla. (AP) - It was abo

Date:  28-Jul-86 12:01 MST
From:  Executive News Svc. [72135,424]
Subj:  APfl 07/28 PsychicTeacher

   WINTER PARK, Fla. (AP) -- It was about 10 years ago when Noreen
Renier found herself going into trances and surprising strangers by
describing some of their past experiences.
   She felt, she said, like "someone had plugged me into a
socket."
   That was the start of her career as a psychic.
   It began modestly: $5 readings in a hotel lounge, radio call-in
talk shows.
   Since then, she has helped solve police cases, taught at the
University of Virginia, aided a prison convict and a professional
athlete and answered endless questions on the radio.
   She is now teaching a non-credit course in extrasensory
perception at Rollins College, where she instructs people on how to
help themselves.
   "We've got all these little psychics running around Virginia,
now I'm going to get them running around this town," she says.
   Ms. Renier, an unusually outspoken psychic -- except for
revealing her age -- said she was a skeptic once but now feels
everyone has psychic ability. It's a matter of developing the right
side of the brain, which controls feelings and emotions, and
practice, she said.
   "It's sort of like a musical instrument or a sport. You have to
do it a lot of times. All we have to do is control it, direct it,
understand it, use it. And we should use it to better our lives."
   Most of the 17 students at last week's final session of her
class said they learned something. A few displayed some ability to
see "auras" or to describe an unidentified person by holding one
of his possessions.
   "I'm trying not to be as judgmental of people who say they can
do these things," said a 48-year-old retired intelligence officer
who found his strong disbelief weakened by the class.
   "I'm not as quick to condemn them," he said.
   The best psychics, Ms. Renier said, are extroverts with average
education. Most are women because their feelings are highly
developed. Men favor the left, rational side, of the brain, she
said. Only two students in the Rollins class were men.
   A good psychic is accurate about 80 percent of the time, she
said, and each has different areas of expertise.
   She could not explain how it works, except to say belief is
crucial.
   In one experiment last week, a student held the ring of an
unidentified student and correctly described the person as having
shoulder pain, small eyes, a strong chin and guilt associated with
the person's father.
   Another student was less successful -- wrong about the height of
her subject but right about a scar on the lip.
   Several students were fearful of negative effects of psychic
power. But Ms. Renier noted that anything, including intellect, can
be used for pain or evil.
   The life of a psychic, according to her, can be a little
unusual. She intimidates some people, such as opponents in
billiards, where she uses her powers to block shots.
   She said she routinely picks up signals from souls, such as
whether a person is honest or kind, but she reports she can block
it out when she wants.
   Overall, she enjoys her life, she said, especially the potential
for helping others, as when solving crimes.
   Rollins offered her course as an experiment in the
personal-growth genre and may offer it again after an evaluation,
said Richard Bommelje, director of non-credit programs.
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