Mother Earth's Wholistic Fair promotes natural healing

With the smell of fragrant candles and relaxing music in the air, over 200 people wandered from booth to booth Saturday at Cape Girardeau's first fair promoting alternative medicine and natural healing.

The Mother Earth's Wholistic Fair at the VFW hall in Cape Girardeau offered a plethora of exhibits aimed at informing people about all-natural foods, various healing arts and even psychic readings.

Inside the hall, 33 booths were set up in two rooms offering the sale of herbs, jewelry or services such as healing touch therapy and Tarot card reading.

Throughout the day, several information sessions were held delving into yoga or organic food.

Renee Halterman ventured down to the fair at the behest of one of her friends, who convinced Halterman to have a psychic reading, something she had never done before.

"I don't know what I want to know," Halterman said. Looking at a box a tissues sitting at table while waiting for the psychic, Halterman admitted she was a bit nervous and was not sure what to expect.

"I'm going to try not to take anything to heart," she said on the reading. "It's just for fun."

In addition to the future, some vendors were promoting alternative ways to heal the body, including one who recommended getting dirty as a way to become clean.

Dick Schmidt, of www.clayplay.com, uses "crystal healing clay" to heal the body, mind and spirit.

"This is like a street version of a spa," he said.

According to Schmidt, the clay, gathered from Quartz crystal mines in Arkansas, is applied to the entire body in order to help detoxify the skin. It can even be used as a natural Band-Aid or even drunk.

"People have done it for a long time," he said.

Down the hall from Schmidt were several massage benches set up where fairgoers could receive healing-touch massages to realign a person's energy.

Fair organizer M.J. Myers said many people who experience such a massage feel more energetic afterward.

"Nonbelievers can see the change in people," she said.

Myers called the fair, which she claimed was the first of its kind in Cape Girardeau, a success and estimated about 250 people had come through by 1 p.m. Saturday.

"For the first annual, I think it's fantastic," she said, adding the event would become yearly and is expected to be even bigger next year.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127