Holistic Expo: Both Mind and Body

By Nichole Seitz
Contributing Writer

An attempt to heal both mind and body. That is a very basic way of defining the word holistic. If you hear the word in a passing conversation, incense, scented candles and healing rocks may be some of the images that pop into your head. But holistic healing goes beyond the clichés, including many things that you may not have thought of. And that is exactly what the owner and creator of Edge Life Expos (which puts on the Fargo Holistic Expo), Gary Beckman, has sought to do.

For the fourth year in a row, the Fargo Holistic Expo will take place at the Civic Center this coming weekend. With 80 booths, 20 intuitive readers and free workshops every hour, it is safe to say the Expo provides something for everyone. “It is a very eclectic group, if you will. It’s a very, very good show”, said Beckman.
But it is a show that was a long time coming. The expo had been held in Minneapolis for 11 years before Beckman started to get requests to bring it to Fargo-Moorhead. “Many people were coming down from Fargo,” he said. “Four sisters and their mother would come down every year and one of them said ‘Why don’t you think about bringing it up to Fargo’ and I said ‘Sure, I will.’ Then the next year we decided to do it.”

Each year the show has grown, adding more booths, speakers and workshops. With 80 booths at the event it may be hard to decide just where to start. There are several booths featuring handmade jewelry, soy candles and various treasures and artifacts from different cultures.

“We have a couple booths that have an unbelievable collection of rocks and stones that people really can’t find in [Fargo] unless they come,” said Beckman. “There are a lot of people that are interested in the power of the stones so that’s an important part of it. These are semi-precious stones that have energetic properties to them.”

Ever wanted to be able to communicate with your animal? No problem. There is a booth for you. Professional animal communicator Mary Stoffel will be on hand to share some of her techniques and tips. Stoffel also offers workshops teaching you the basics of communicating with Fido. “Be prepared to learn about your own telepathic communication ability, how to establish a telepathic connection with your animal companions and other animals, and most of all, how to have fun with this natural, normal process,” said Stoffel.

One of the more interesting booths at the event happens to deal with sound therapy. Universal Sound Therapy offers scientifically designed, computer-generated tones that are designed to remind the body of its natural healing process. This therapy claims to be able to help you with anything from asthma to varicose veins. While it sounds like something that is a little far-fetched, there is a huge market for personal sound therapy machines. Stores like Target, Walmart and Bed, Bath & Beyond all sell variations. Sound is used to heal what ails someone, whether it is sleeplessness or Asthma.

The idea of being able to heal whatever health ailments you may have just by listening to different sounds seems like a great alternative to a visit to the doctor’s office but some people remain unconvinced of the results. “I’d give it a try, but it sounds like a claim that you would hear at two in the morning on an infomercial,” said Fargo resident and skeptic Josh Schwanke.

Seeking an alternative form of healthcare can be appealing, especially with the turmoil of today’s healthcare system. Many Americans remain uninsured due to the high costs of insurance and in turn, seek alternative, more cost-effective ways to treat themselves. According to an article written by Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, 36% of adults are already using some form or other of holistic healthcare.

Anything from dietary and herbal supplements to acupuncture and chiropractic care are considered to be holistic forms of care. According to the Web site http://www.dictionary.com, the definition of holistic is “identifying with principles of holism in a system of therapeutics, especially one considered outside the mainstream of scientific medicine, as naturopathy or chiropractic, and usually involving nutritional measures.”

“I guess I wouldn’t have thought of a chiropractor being classified as a holistic healer. But it makes sense because I know of people that don’t believe in chiropractors for whatever reason,” said Schwanke.

Aside from different exhibitors, the expo offers several speakers that span the two days the event is held. People who communicate with the dead, intuitives that will give you a reading and people that will help you prepare for 2012 are just some of the people slated to give talks.

Ever heard of the popular book “The Secret”? The ideas of that book, which are known as the Laws of Attraction, focus on ways to teach people how to understand that their energies and the energy around them have an effect on their lives.

“One of the things that I do is that I help people understand that their energies in their environment sometimes make them stuck and that energy has an effect on the physical level sometimes,’ said Annette Rugolo, who is speaking at the expo and taught many years as a Master Dowser (a dowser is someone who studies energies). “Sometimes when I talk to people, they like to think they are doing everything right on the physical level to create a positive attraction and I help them realize that there is another level of attraction called karma.”

Rugolo will be speaking about the Expanded Law of Attraction, which is just a more in-depth version of the regular Laws of Attraction. According to the Expo’s Web site, Annette “will help you expand your awareness of the Law of Attraction as she presents the two missing pieces. As you learn about Heavenly (Soul) and Environmental levels of the Law of Attraction, you gain an expanded view of the universe and can begin accessing information to help you align more fully with these universal laws.”

Aside from her two hour speech slated for Saturday, Rugolo will also be holding a seminar on the Monday following the expo. The focus of this seminar is a somewhat controversial subject, the year 2012. Whether you believe that the world will end in 2012 or not you are likely to find one of your friends with a differing opinion. With this seminar Rugolo is hoping to ease the fears some people may have regarding 2012 and also help prepare people for it.

“What I’m doing is presenting information for what is really going in 2012 and how people can best prepare and on an individual level, what each of us can do to help this event happen easily,” said Rugolo. “It is really to help bring people out of fear of 2012. It’s information about what is happening in the universe energetically and things happening beyond our planet.”

If preparing yourself for 2012 is not something you are interested in listening to Intuitive Kathryn Harwig might pique your curiosity. What exactly is an intuitive person? Ever heard of the show “Medium”? The show, which stars Patricia Arquette, focuses on a woman who uses her psychic ability to help solve murders. “Those kinds of shows, they have to present it in a very dramatic fashion. It really isn’t that dramatic,” said Harwig.

In most cases the information Harwig receives is practical. For example, during our interview, she kept getting information about a car. Information like that is hardly dramatic enough for a prime time television show. “That’s not very dramatic. It’s not like there’s a dead body hanging around you or anything,” Harwig joked.

On Sunday, Harwig, along with medium Troy Parkinson, will answer any questions you may have and, in Parkinson’s case, help you receive messages from loved ones that have since passed away. “What we’ll be doing first of all is discussing what it is, really, to be like us, when you walk through life getting information from other sources,” said Harwig. “Then we will be taking questions from the audience about their own personal lives. Troy will be looking at it from the perspective of what messages there are from the spiritual realm and I will be looking at it from messages I get from my intuitive ability.”

Other speakers include another medium and presentations on how to reconnect with one’s spiritual self. Whether it is beautiful handmade jewelry, all-natural beauty products or a deeper way of life, the Edge Life Expo definitely has a little bit of something for almost everyone.

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If You Go

What: Holistic Expo 2010
Where: Fargo Civic Auditorium
When: Sat-Sun, April 17-18, 10am-5 pm
Info: 763.427.7979