Rev. Sherry Lee Calkins

Rev. Sherry Lee Calkins is a registered medium of the Lily Dale Assembly and works as a medium and aura artist. By her account she heard a voice from Spirit one summer day telling her to draw the aura she sees around people during a reading; at the very first drawing the client recognised her angel in it. She calls these drawings an Aura Chart. She takes no credit for them herself, believing Spirit and angels guide her hand — for her an expansion of automatic writing, in which the spirit world seeks a more tangible form of expression. Because of her angel workshops and the part angels play in her sittings she is also known as „The Angel Lady". She is among the mediums portrayed in the HBO documentary „No One Dies in Lily Dale", directed by Steven Cantor and released in 2010. In it she recounts that she began giving readings at nineteen, after her mother — herself a Spiritualist — invited her to take part in a séance. She describes her perception this way: „Feels like me. But I say things I know I don't know." Of how close those in spirit come, she says: „Sometimes, I can feel them sit down on my lap. We become one." And on death: „We are spirits who are occupying a body for a while to teach us more." — „We're going to move upstairs when it's time, but death just doesn't happen." An Aura Chart reading lasts 45 to 60 minutes and portrays eight years of a life in colour, moving two years at a time from past choices towards the way forward; the drawing stays with the client as a visual record of the sitting. She gives in-person sittings at Lily Dale from April to October for $130, and telephone sittings all year round for $135. All appointments must be scheduled in advance: in-person readings may be paid in cash on the day, while telephone readings must be paid in advance via PayPal at the time of booking, without exception. She takes enquiries by e-mail or telephone, expressly not by text message.