Police charge owner of Valley psychic business with theft from nonprofit

Francis Scarcella
Daily Item
fscarcelle@dailyitem.com
March 14, 2019

SUNBURY — The owner of a Valley energy healing and psychic readings business faces felony theft charges after Sunbury police say she stole $13,192 from nonprofit organization Parent to Parent.

Jessica Mena, 40, of Old Farm Lane, Milton, was arrested and charged with five felony counts of theft by deception, access fraud, computer theft, forgery and possession and use of unlawful devices. Police say she stole the money through 19 unauthorized transactions.

According to Sunbury Police officer Brad Slack, Parent to Parent officials reported in August that an employee may be involved in possible fraudulent activities. Parent to Parent is a nonprofit resource and support network created by parents for parents.

Parent to Parent officials told Slack that Mena began working for the nonprofit to maintain financial records, police said.

They showed Slack two separate transactions, including a payment of $576.31 to Mena from Parent to Parent through PayPal in May, police said.

Parent to Parent officials said they were unaware of any payments authorized to be made to Mena. Slack said he suspected there would be more transactions so he requested bank records.

Weeks later, he received the records and Slack found 19 unauthorized transactions to Mena with the majority of the money being used for bills, according to court documents.

In June and July, two payments were made to Mena's home payment from the Parent to Parent account, according to the charges. Police said Mena forged the name of another employee on a check made out to Mena.

The total loss to Parent to Parent was $13,192.54, according to Slack.

Slack said he made multiple attempts to speak with Mena but she would only respond by email and when Slack told her he wanted her to come to the police station, Mena asked if she was charged, according to court documents. All communication stopped between Slack and Mena. Tuesday night, Mena was arrested at her home.

Mena appeared before Sunbury District Judge Mike Toomey via video and remains in Northumberland County Jail on $50,000 cash bail.

In 2015, Mena was one of the inaugural Sunbury Revitalization Inc. Biz Pitch Award winners when her business provided a plan on opening a holistic center and academy in the downtown area. The business has since closed. Mena also owns Mena's Healing Center, and the website says she offers energy healing such as Reiki and psychic readings.

https://www.dailyitem.com/news/police-charge-owner-of-valley-psychic-business-with-theft-from/article_35632568-45a4-11e9-b147-fbb460e97646.html

Bishop is setting up team of exorcists, warns against evil spirits in Reiki and other healing methods

Conor Kane
Irish Examiner
October 09, 2018

A Catholic bishop has said he is establishing a "delivery ministry" group of people who will be attempting to rid people of the devil and warned against the possibility of users of Reiki and other healing methods being exposed to evil spirits.

Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan said today that he has got "several requests" from people to help deal with evil forces and that one priest in his diocese is about to start training in the practice of exorcism.

Bishop Cullinan said he was told by the brother of a Reiki master that the man was "working on somebody one day when he actually says he saw a vision of Satan" and was "scared out of his wits, dropped the Reiki and went back to the church".

Speaking to Eamon Keane on WLR FM's Deise Today programme, the bishop said: "You're channelling energies, in inverted commas, you could well be opening yourself up to letting a spirit in which is not good and is dangerous stuff, actually."

He made his comments when asked if he agreed with Pope Francis's view that child abuse is caused by Satan, and said that he "absolutely" agreed. "Since day one, Pope Francis has been talking about the action of Satan. As Bishop, I have got several requests from people, one lady for example who is involved in counselling, I don't know if she's Catholic or what, but she's coming across things in people which she cannot deal with and she knows that it's beyond psychological."

He said he has received "about nine requests" in the last couple of years from people in relation to "what they believe to be evil forces".

"I am just setting up a group, actually, of people who want to be part of delivery ministry, if you like. This is something that has to be done in secret because you don't let these people's names out and they are going to houses where people maybe have been involved in some kind of new age thing or some kind of séance or that kind of thing and, unfortunately, they've opened up a door to an evil force, Satan. Does Satan want to destroy the human person? Of course he does. Not only the church, but anywhere and everywhere that he will get in, he has come to destroy."

Anyone involved in "delivery ministry," or exorcism, has to "pray for the healing of the church" and recite - with the permission of the bishop -the prayers of exorcism, he said.

"It's a tricky area, there's no doubt about that, it must never be done on one's own and there always has to be prayer behind it. I remember one particular priest, a friend of mine who I knew who was involved in one particular case, and it was a girl, a professional girl, young, who came with her mother, and there were four men, kind of rugby types, to hold her down in the chair, such strength she had.

"The priest had warned the four guys beforehand, just make sure you've gone to confession and one guy didn't go to confession, one of the four, and the girl with a voice that wasn't hers, it was a male voice coming out of her, actually called out the sins of your man, the guy who hadn't gone to confession. That's kind of scary stuff.

The use of "delivery ministry" in his diocese is "a fledgling thing," Bishop Cullinan said. "We're finding our feet in this area. It is something there are more and more requests coming in. I would hope that people will not get scared and I'm sorry if I'm scaring anybody. But let's pray and let's just realise, if you read Scriptures you will see that Christ was over and over again confronted with Satan, over and over again with the enemy."

Asked by the presenter if he had ever been in the presence of evil, he said he had met two people who had frightened him, with "a coldness and a venom that was there".

He cautioned people to be careful about where they go for healing and said "I do, I do" when asked if he thought there were dangers in getting involved in Reiki or new age healing.

"Because if you're opening yourself up to a spirit and someone is channelling a spirit, they could be challenging the wrong spirit. I have met, personally, people who are so oppressed with something which is other than psychological. And I would never, by the way, counsel a person not to continue to go to their doctor or counsellor or psychiatrist - absolutely - but sometimes there are things which are paranormal, spiritual," he said.

"I know one particular girl who worked with a guy who was into Satanism and she came away very badly affected and still suffers because of that. Very difficult area. I sent her to somebody and I hope she found healing since. It's scary stuff, but the Lord is master and he is the one we trust."

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/bishop-is-setting-up-team-of-exorcists-warns-against-evil-spirits-in-reiki-and-other-healing-methods-874665.html

Alarm over appeal of pseudo-therapies in Spain

Experts warn of serious consequences if authorities do not take action to counter the growing popularity of treatments like reiki



An alternative health center.Jaap Buijs
JAVIER SALASEl PaisApril 24, 2018

Apparently Spaniards are somewhat confused over the scientific basis of so-called pseudo-therapies, with experts warning of grave consequences. The last Sociological Investigation Center (CIS) survey carried out in February included questions on pseudo-medicine such as homeopathy and reiki for the first time. Despite the lack of concrete proof that pseudo-therapies can be effective, Spanish society appears hazy on what distinguishes conventional medicine from the pseudo variety.


While some expressed skepticism over the effectiveness of pseudo-therapies and explained they wouldn’t resort to them because they didn’t work, more stated that they hadn’t used them either because they were expensive, they didn’t know about them or they hadn’t needed them, suggesting they could resort to them in the future.

Practices like yoga that truly promotes well-being gets confused with reiki which is simply a trick


HEAD OF THE OBSERVATORY AGAINST PSEUDOSCIENCE JERÓNIMO FERNÁNDEZ “The data clearly confirms the confusion,” says Josep Lobera, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Madrid who says of homeopathy, “Most people think it’s a [conventional] medicine because it is sold in pharmacies in its box, with a prospectus and even prescription.”

It turns out a significant number of the medical profession are in favor of alternative therapies –18.4% of pseudo-therapists have the support of healthcare professionals while 14% have been informed about a pseudo-therapy at their health clinic.
According to Elena Campos, president of the Association for the Protection of the Sick from Pseudoscientific Therapies (APETP), “People go to a professional because they believe they are going to help them be cured but you could actually be getting further away from the chance of [the right] treatment. It has highlighted the need to inform the public in general and also train [medical] professionals so that they know what they are up against.”


https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/04/19/inenglish/1524134049_353111.html

The business behind Christ-centered energy healing

Daniel Woodruff

September 21, 2016

(KUTV) “Dear Father in Heaven,” Robin Johnson says as she kneels with her patient. “We pray that this session will go well.”

This isn't a doctor's office. Johnson is getting ready to perform Reiki -– a form of alternative medicine focused on energy. On this evening in Centerville, she’s working on a woman named Jessica.

“In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen,” Johnson says, getting up and beginning to place her hands just above Jessica’s body. The goal is to help Jessica get back into balance.

“I can feel whether the energy is flowing or not,” Johnson said.

Energy healing itself isn’t new, but Johnson’s way is a bit more unique. A picture of Jesus Christ hangs next to her.

“I’m always hoping that Christ will come to assist in the healing,” Johnson said.

"Duty-bound" to share this with other people

What Johnson is practicing is something known as Christ-centered energy healing. And she’s not the only one doing it. At a recent conference in St. George, hundreds gathered to learn about it. The organizer of the conference is Tammy Ward, a mother of eight children from Garland, Utah.

“I feel duty-bound –- literally duty-bound –- to share this with other people,” Ward said.

Ward said she got started with energy healing three years ago. One of her sons had a problem with his left testicle. Ward took him to a healer. She said what happened next was miraculous.

“She said she cleared it,” Ward said. “I didn't understand at the time. But when I went home I know when I changed my son's diaper that it was no longer swollen, and it hasn't ever been swollen since.”

Ward said that woman healed her son. She continued to visit the healer. She also prayed.

“I wanted to make sure it wasn't like woo woo, voo doo, you know,” Ward said. “I just didn't know.”

She said God answered her, telling her to not only pursue that healing for herself, but to teach it to others.

“One night I was told to do the conference, and that very first conference we had 1,400 people, literally from all over the world,” she said.

While those conferences are officially non-denominational, there's a general recognition that they're made up largely of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

David Gann was one of the few men who attended the St. George conference in August.

“This is what I want to do,” said Gann. “I look for people who can help me follow him better and that's why this is so important to me and uniquely leading me where I am trying to go.”

But most who show up are women. Just don't use the "F" word.

“I do not see it at all as a feminist movement,” said Tamara Laing, who also attended the St. George event. She said it’s no surprise LDS women are embracing this work. “I see this as a fulfillment of prophecy actually. Woman are using spiritual gifts and feeling safe using spiritual gifts.”

Ward is Mormon herself, but she’s quick not to draw lines.

“Heavenly Father told me that this is not just for the people of the LDS church,” Ward said. “This is for all of his children.”

A big business

But God's children will have to pay. This is a business. The Reiki sessions Robin Johnson conducts cost $90 an hour. The conferences require attendees to buy tickets. And Ward charges a lot more money to teach healing privately.

“I really believe that people who have invested in their time and learning how to do this should be compensated just like any other occupation,” Ward said, defending the practice of charging for energy healing.

On her website, Ward sells package deals. One offers 24 online personal mentoring sessions with her, among other things. The price tag she's put on her time? Roughly $1,000 an hour.

Ward pitches herself as a life coach who's “a great example of teaching others to trust our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

2News asked Ward whether people within her church accuse her of priestcraft. She didn’t say yes or no, but instead responded with a question.

“People who have, who are painting pictures of Christ, should they just automatically do artwork for everyone for free? They have a picture of Christ, it has Christ in the picture. What about people who are songwriters or singers who are writing songs about Jesus? Should they instantly and suddenly and for forever more make their songs free?” said Ward. “I don't think it's any different.”

Ward added she’s “prayed to know if this is OK with Heavenly Father, and I've been told that it is.”

LDS church urges caution

But the LDS church is not sounding the same endorsement. 2News reached out to ask if the church has a position on Christ-centered energy healing and the movement spearheaded by Ward.

“We urge Church members to be cautious about participating in any group that promises-in exchange for money-miraculous healings or that claims to have special methods for accessing healing power outside of properly ordained priesthood holders,” said church spokesman Eric Hawkins.

2News attempted several times to reach out to Ward to ask for her response to the church’s statement, but we have been unable to reach her.

 

http://kutv.com/news/local/the-business-behind-christ-centered-energy-healing