As the days of October ebb away, Iowa City’s spiritual community continues to flourish amid bustling Halloween preparations. Sound therapy bowls sing and psychic orbs roll into use as ethereal entertainers spend the spooky season reflecting on their practices.

“When I started [Om], it was a unique store [full of] international gifts from everywhere. Over the time, it has grown into a more holistic store,” said owner Jeet Saini. Om has been one of Iowa City’s spiritual staples for over 20 years.

Om’s interior is an eloquent showcase of diversity. Its shelves are lined with wide varieties of cultural and spiritual gifts, ranging from hand-woven tapestries to dragon’s blood candles.

Saini mentioned that most of the items inside were not just meant for connecting with the physical body, but also for the mind and soul.

“[With these artifacts], people are able to understand themselves. They can explore [their] outside world, but at the same time, the inside world,” she said.

Deeper into the store, there is a room where the entire left side is almost completely composed of shelves of different singing bowls. Used in sound therapy, the bowls act as standing bells that are inverted and played by rotating a mallet around the outer rim.

“It’s a very basic principle of science, like resonance, how sound kind of travels,” Saini said with a bowl in her lap, tapping the rim to evoke a vibration. “There is a tone to it, a sound, so both of those are very helpful in healing. You are doing something now, you are in the present moment, which is called mindfulness. Each sound corresponds to one of the energy centers of the body, which are called the chakras.”

Since Saini grew up in India, she takes a lot of her influence from Vedic culture, a culture purposefully lacking in organized religion. In other words, people are free to explore themselves in any way they wish.

“My big learning experience from life is that it’s not all about logic. Like why you did or didn’t do that, this should be more profitable or this should be avoided. I go with what I am drawn to,” Saini said. “If I connect [with something], and if it makes me think ‘Yeah that makes sense,’ I can relate to that. [If] it brings immediate peace and calm, why not [explore it]?” Saini said.

Saini mentioned that life-changing miracles have occurred right in front of her eyes as a result of her spiritual practices. In one such case, a Cedar Rapids woman had walked into Om, and Saini could tell that she was having a bad day.

“We were having a conversation and a book [near the display] fell. So, she picked up the book and she [almost] put it back, but she ended up not doing so,” Saini said.

That book was about sound healing, which intrigued the customer. Saini knew the author; he was one of her distributors from Nepal.

She told her customer about the distributor’s expertise in sound therapy, and through further communication, found out he was holding a class in Colorado. After booking a flight, her customer was able to attend the session.

“When she came back, she told me that [her] life changed and that [she] found her purpose,” Saini said.

Amazingly, the woman decided to practice sound therapy outside of her experience in Colorado and eventually offered to teach others about the joys of sound healing.

Despite stories such as these that suggest what is almost divine intervention, many people, especially college students, are choosing not to affiliate with religion. 38% of 18-29-year-olds identified as religiously unaffiliated, according to the Public Religion Research Institute’s 2022 Census of American Religion.

However, adults continue to identify with “New Age” beliefs in the occult and metaphysical spirituality. According to a 2018 Pew Research study, 62 percent of nonreligious adults in the United States believe in at least one “New Age” belief.

Some “New Age” practices include crystal healing, astrological prediction, and tarot card readings, all of which can be resourced in Iowa City. Thus, the thriving college town Iowa fosters has become home to stores like Om. Retail isn’t the only way to engage with the spiritual realm, though.

Stephanie Prier’s sense of the past, present, and future is a gift she recognized in her childhood. As she learned to understand her ability, she came to a realization.

“What I’m doing here is making a difference in this individual’s life and helping them through whatever situation that they might be going through,” Prier said. “Eventually [I started doing that] for friends and then family members, and eventually [I felt] like I wanted to expand my ability by reaching out to locals around me and being able to do readings for them.”

One of Prier’s specialties is tarot card reading. During each session, she shuffles a deck of tarot cards as her client focuses on their wishes, dreams, and the energies they want to attract.

Then, the stories come to her. Laying out the respective cards, she finally explains her client’s tale. Prier detailed how the energy she feels from the client can affect the results of their reading.

“If you’re feeling really anxious or really nervous, it’s not going to give you the right answer,” Prier said. “I mean there [were] some clients who came in that I guess were impatient. I [told] them to give their reading more time and eventually they [would] call back and say, ‘You were right.’”

One of Prier’s other practices besides her tarot card readings is crystal ball readings. Unfortunately, her stories do not show up inside of the ball like they do in the movies — it is just a tool to aid her abilities.

“It goes into the past, present, future, love, marriage, and business,” Prier said. “It will answer questions and give guidance, and I can also pick up on other individuals as long as I have their name and their date of birth.”

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Reaching that point of calm is one of the main points that Prier stresses, and it is the same for local business PrismsScape Gems, which is a place that does much more beyond showcasing its wide arrangement of crystals.

PrismsScape Gems & Healing Center is just outside the city’s downtown area, but it has grown into a prominent spiritual store over the past ten years.

After starting her metaphysical journey in 2002, owner Gina Crosheck has come a long way and gained a team of many specialists throughout that time. The tragic loss of her husband and sister within the same week sprouted a path to the spiritual that Crosheck has been on ever since.

Croshek has worked at the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights in the College of Law for the past 27 years, during which time she took a leap of faith and began her private practice around Reiki and past life regression.

“A friend of mine used to say Reiki is channeling divine love. So, it’s universal life energy, and Reiki has been around probably almost as long as people have been around,” said Crosheck.

Past life regression is a form of hypnotherapy that takes an individual through their past lives and experiences to help them explore memories they might not be able to access on their own. Through sessions of past life regression, an individual can reconnect with their past experiences by getting rid of some of the “noise” that might be covering these memories up.

Not too long afterwards, Croshek had people wanting to work together, which led her to open PrismsScape in 2015.

The store sells crystals and offers appointments for those who want to find their spiritual balance. One of these specialists who offers their service at the store is Richard Hirsch, who uses integrative kinesiology, which combines Eastern and Western medicine.

“He had trained early in life as a chiropractor, but then he went to China and studied with the masters of Chinese healing four times. He’s able to see things that many of us cannot see,” said Crosheck.

PrismsScape also offers energy scans, craniosacral massages, and meditations with galactic energies. The myriad of distinct practices offered at Crosheck’s store alone speaks to the ever-growing nature of the spiritual community.

The store’s welcoming, cozy atmosphere wouldn’t be possible without the decorated shelves of crystals and Crosheck’s hugging policy. If any of PrismsScape’s spiritual guides are met with a customer who just needs a hug, they’ve been told to go for it.

The healing power of the hug is akin to the healing Iowa City’s mystic messengers hope to provide.

“The primary directive of the whole business is sharing love with people,” Crosheck said.