RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Rose Kopp, a psychic, holds weekly seances at Glen Grant's Haunt in Moiliili.
They gather every Friday night at the Haunt in Moiliili -- believers and disbelievers -- ready to ascend creaky wooden stairs (is there any other kind?) to a dim room made to look like a 19th-century parlor.
By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comIt's there that they meet Rose Kopp. She's starting to feel ... otherworldly presences!
The clairvoyant is there to connect loved ones in the here and now with their dearly departed -- much like what John Edward does on his popular "Crossing Over" TV series. While Kopp claims her psychic powers are just as real as Edward's, leave it to the Haunt's co-owner and obake storyteller Glen Grant to add a touch of the theatrical to the proceedings.
It's his intent to one day use the room for an entertaining, historical presentation of the seance, complete with ghostly knockings and some parlor magic. There are old-time theatrical bills and portraits of "phantom photography" on the wall that, according to Grant, was the sensation when the "magic" of such imagery first hit the American public around 1868.
For now, the room is Kopp's to use. She's been a full-time metaphysical consultant for about 30 years, after leaving the nursing profession. "I've been meditating since 1971," she said, claiming that her intuitive powers have improved as she's meditated over the years.
Kopp said she has no control over what spirit demands her attention. "It could be someone asking her grandchild to go back to school, or a spirit who tells a loved one that they don't like someone currently in their lives."
Rather than feeling spent after an evening's work, Kopp claims "it energizes me. On a good night, it almost seems the spirits are lined up, ready to go -- even to the point that someone with a strong personality wants to speak ahead of turn."
She remembers one young, athletic man who had died, who was persistent in trying to talk to his sister. "It got so that I had to tell him to sit down and wait his turn! I saw him sitting down on a bench at a beach, drinking water and eating an apple. His sister told me that apples were absolutely his favorite fruit."
Despite the room's ambience, Kopp says there's nothing scary about the seance itself. Everyone interested holds hands in a circle, with skeptics and the merely curious on the outside.
"This is a science to me, although some could choose it as entertainment," she said. "But there are people there who want the psychological and emotional healing I can provide, so they can go on with their lives.
"I'm there if someone from the other side wants to come through. It can be a very healing experience."
"Conversations with the Other Side" with Rose Kopp: Enter the dead zone
Where: Seance Room, upstairs from the Haunt, 2634 S. King St.
When: 8 p.m. Fridays
Admission: $15
Call: 943-0371
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