Solving a cold case sometimes takes a special sleuth; that's when the police say,
"what the heck, let's try her -- psychic detective Renier"
~ Larry W. Bryant

A natural platform artist, Noreen Renier can (and does) elicit from almost any audience a mix of awe and admiration whenever she's called upon to discuss her profession: consulting with various law-enforcement agencies as a psychic detective.

On Feb. 25, 2007, I happened to attend her you-too-have-psychic-power workshop conducted at the Edgar Cayce Foundation's Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, Va. There, while performing, unwittingly, as a "spirit guide" encased in a mortal body, she helped us focus on becoming more aware of our own psychic potential. She put us in the mood for this elevation by reviewing a few of her success stories as a professional psychic detective -- one whose cases have been featured on the Cable-TV channel Court TV's program called "Psychic Detectives." Then she led us through a group exercise in meditation, closing with a series of practical ESP demonstrations among us as we assembled in smaller groups for hands-on participation.

Even were you to have little interest in extrasensory perception, you'd have a hard time ignoring the charisma and commitment displayed in Renier's presentation. Both entertaining and inspirational, it left me with a much-needed dose of positivism -- reenergizing my quest for paranormal knowledge and offering me further enlightenment along the way.*

I next saw Renier in tutorial action at the annual Malice Domestic Convention of crime writers, held in Arlington, Va., on May 5, 2007. There, this consummate communicator gave a short version of her A.R.E. workshop. She explained how -- in a semi-trance state during her police consultation on unsolved cases of murder, rape, missing person, etc. -- she sees pictures, often one feature or artifact or scene at a time. Therefore, she finds that she usually must brief the assigned police officer on how best to frame his/her questions about the event; in doing so, she counsels: "No YES or NO questions -- they're impractical for rooting out yet-to-be-developed details of a case."

Renier's investigatory tool kit includes psychometry, whereby she taps into the vibrational energy of persons, places, and things. These energy-trace resources have included murder weapons, victims' hairbrushes, and even a murdered horse's tail (as recounted in her now-out-of-print book A Mind for Murder: The Real-Life Files of a Psychic Investigator -- see my review thereof in the _ _ _ _ 2007 issue of FATE).

These days, from her log-cabin home near Charlottesville, this gracious, fearless, physically active 70-year-old does most of her consultation work via telephone. After nearly 30 years of practice with about 500 cases behind her, she has an ample record from which proudly to retire. "But this is my WORK, MY LIFE!" she quickly demurs, and bothers not to predict her own fate.

Recently, she's teamed up with a sketch artist in New Carrollton, Md., who likewise has little difficulty in producing a given suspect's likeness (or scene's profile) from characteristics perceived and relayed by Renier during her phone consultations. Often these percipient-artist phone sessions proceed at the rate of one prominent feature at a time -- until the targeted person/scene/artifact's image emerges fully.

Often enough, too, during her workshop's question-and-answer period, comes the burning question: "How can I cultivate and apply my own psychic power to help achieve greater financial success, happiness, and other personal fulfillment?" To codify her answer for all such curious folk -- not just for those able to attend her lectures -- Renier has begun writing a formal handbook, whose topics range from (1) understanding the right-brain/left-brain functioning; to (2) using regular meditation as a key for opening the door of intuitive thinking; to (3) priming the cerebral pump via the hand-held pendulum; to (4) facilitating healing.

Late last year, Renier extracted a key chapter from her forthcoming book, publishing it as a pamphlet. She used to make it available for sale at her speaking engagements and through her web site ( http://www.noreenrenier.com ). It's title can't be any clearer: "How to Create and Attract Anything and Anyone You Want in Your Life." She both baits and challenges us with this summary of the pamphlet's instructions:

"My goal is to enable the reader to utilize various aspects of the mind to increase awareness. By extending the use of one's basic senses, the reader becomes exposed to new ways of 'seeing' and 'perceiving' information. Some of the concepts presented are both simple and astoundingly easy; others are more difficult to master, and practice is essential. So is commitment. But what wonderful experiences and discoveries about who you are await you!"

As I compile this rumination, I note that Renier has just returned home from a Memorial Day '07 reunion with staffers, board members, and some fellow former research subjects of the Durham, N. C.-based J. B. Rhine Institute for the Study of Consciousness ( http://www.rhine.org ). Yes, as this inveterate practitioner of networking will tell you, she not only has pursued a long-time interest in parapsychology and mysticism but also has undergone, at the Institute's invitation, some exploratory sessions as an ESP subject herself.

If you sense that Noreen Renier has become a Woman with a Mission, you're quite right. But it's not just HER mission. It's the mission of us all, whether each of us realizes it or not: i.e., to use both of our cerebral hemispheres to become (and remain) one with the creative forces of the universe -- ever mindful that, in the immortal words of the late seer Edgar Cayce, "Mind is the builder."

* Occasional FATE contributor Larry W. Bryant is researching a prospective work on the "politics of psychic detection." His latest book, Conjuring Gretchen: The Saga of Virginia's Preacher-Hypnotist, has just been published by Galde Press, Inc. He welcomes e-mail at: overtci@cavtel.net. Reprinted with permission from fatemag.com 1-800-728-2730