http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/12/30/news/local/doc4959c4f738526787963675.txt

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/12/30/news/local/doc4959c5185dd5e399301578.txt

West credits God for gift
By PATRICK MALONE
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Colleen West takes her gift seriously, and she's careful to point out that her clairvoyance should not be mistaken for any kind of dark magic. Rather, she said, it's a divine blessing.

West describes herself as a psychic, a medium, an empath, a light worker and a healer.

She said spirit guides visit her, as they do many people. Why, then, can she communicate with them while so many others don't?

West said there's an intuitive side to many people that they simply don't tap into. In some cases, that's because of fear over how others might react to it. She encouraged those with similar gifts, young people in particular, to explore their talents.

“There are young people right here in Pueblo waking up” to their abilities, West said. “They're not alone. I want them to know that.”

West can relate to the reluctance to “come out” that some psychics experience.

“I was afraid that if I told my mom, she would put me in foster care,” West said.

West said her maternal grandmother was a psychic, and her mother a healer. Although West's mother embraced her own healing side, "to her, psychic abilities were something to be frowned upon," West said.

West, who was born in Wichita, Kan., but has lived in Colorado for decades, believes God bestowed her gift when she was 12 years old. She was visiting her older sister on the East Coast, and visited the Atlantic Ocean. While swimming, she was caught in an undertow.

“I could feel myself against the bottom of the sea floor,” she recalled. “The next thing I remember I was in this watery tunnel with a light at the end. I felt as though I was walking toward the light.”

Two male voices beckoned to her, and she inched toward the light. But before she got there, one of the voices announced, “I set you free.”

“That was God,” West said.

West pushed off the floor of the ocean and regained her breath at the surface.

The next summer, during another visit with the same sister who had since moved to a farmhouse near Wichita, West was alone in the kitchen and leafing through a cookbook when an inexplicable smoke emerged around her, and passed quickly from the room.

“I told no one of that experience for six or seven years,” she said. “Who's going to believe a 13-year-old?”

During the 1990s, God visited West again and told her she should pursue her gift more fully. She believes God brought her to Pueblo.

“I'm here for a reason,” she said.

West said she's in communication with divine beings of many varieties.

“I hear from the Divine: God, Jehovah, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit, the saints - as known by the Catholic religion - and the archangels,” West said.

Whether someone can tap into their psychic abilities depends on their willingness to accept them, according to West.

“We all have these gifts or abilities,” she said. “We are born with them. However, some of us choose to deny them. Sometimes our lives become overwhelming and we take those abilities and put them on hold, no matter how pleasant or disturbing they may be.”



(Pueblo)  Keep your flood insurance premium paid (especially in the Union Avenue Historic District). Keep an ample supply of potable water on hand, and don't bother to buy that heavy-duty snow shovel, regardless of what the Old Farmer's Almanac might recommend.

On the bright side, fewer locals will be getting divorced, more people with alcohol problems and their families will get the help they need and neighbors will help neighbors through their difficult times. Plus, a large business is on its way to town, provided local government stays out of its way.

Each of these prophecies was delivered by a divine messenger, through Pueblo psychic Colleen West.

The Pueblo Chieftain sought out West's powers to illuminate important events to expect in 2009. The most monumental happening that West forecast can be expected within the next few years, but not necessarily in 2009. She predicted that Pueblo would experience a flood of 1921 proportions, and that the Union Avenue Historic District would be hit the hardest.

The Union Avenue district has seen more than its share of tragedy in 2008, with the deadly explosion that leveled two buildings and claimed one life. An industrial accident claimed another life in the historic district weeks later.

West said the district is a hotbed of supernatural activity.

It's hard for me to go down there due to the earthbound presences - ghosts, she said. There's a lot of activity down there, whether ghost or spirit. They can manipulate energy. They can change it in a way to where we ourselves can go from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. People just don't realize what ghosts can do with the energy around us.

What the entities have done with the energy (on Union Avenue) has made it hard for the average shop owner to see an increase in business."

West said the city's North Side, at the northern edge and extending east from Pueblo Boulevard to Interstate 25, is another hotbed of spiritual goings on.

“I feel changed energy” on the North Side, West said. “It's a sign of our time.”

Water, the kind fit for drinking and otherwise, figures prominently into West's predictions for Pueblo in 2009.

“Aside from our own bodily intake of water, we need to be very conscious of the amount of water that we use,” she said.

On the weather front, West said that Pueblo will see less snow and other precipitation than is predicted during 2009.

Now, for the good news. West said she senses a decrease in local divorces spurred by the poor economy. She sees an increase in couples seeking counseling to resolve their differences. More people struggling with alcoholism and their families will seek help in 12-step programs as well, according to West.

Kindness also will prevail in 2009.

“I see the people of the city of Pueblo taking back their city,” West said. “And what I mean by taking back is loving their neighbors and helping out where they can, even though they themselves may be struggling or suffering in some way.”

In terms of economic development, West said 2009 looks promising for Pueblo.  “I'm not getting the particulars, but there's a company coming to Pueblo that my spirit guides say - provided City Council approves it - is going to create jobs, bring jobs to Pueblo,” she said. “A fairly good number of people, I will be on the safe side and say roughly 100 jobs.”

Nationally, 2009 will hold ups and downs, West said.

“There is more to come in the way of hurricanes and storms for the coastal states, into Florida and the Carolinas, possibly as far (north) as Maine,” she said.

President-elect Barack Obama will be well-received globally. He'll begin the troop withdrawal from Iraq this year and lead a charge to remedy the nation's financial woes, West said.

“Beginning in mid-2009, we will finally begin to climb out of the (economic) hole,” said West. “(Obama) is going to be very diligent in bringing home our troops. I see the beginning of that in late 2009. President Obama, he will astound not only the American people, but the world as a whole, through his leadership and guidance.”

West said there were other trends, both local and national, that she foresees. But some are troubling, and she didn't want to add to the concern of a city and nation already heavily burdened with worries.

She also offered this disclaimer: “As a psychic, we are not 100 percent accurate. What messages may come across in the present are not etched in stone.”