On Saturday, while many ISU fans were pre-drinking for what would be yet another football loss, I went with a group of my friends to the latest psychic event in Iowa. We were going to experience the “Holistic and Intuitiveness Market” at the Adventureland Inn in Altoona, and I was prepared to test my steel as a skeptic against the paranormal of Iowa.

Once inside the Iowa Ballroom, where the market was held, I stood back for a second to really assess the situation.

Scattered across the room were tables acting as islands of truth and behind them were the people acting as vessels of the truth. I started walking around the room looking at tables with signs saying, “What do the cards hold for you? 20 minutes for $20,” and I felt like all eyes were on me. After all, I had never had a psychic reading before, and I kept wondering if they could “sense” that.

Other things were for sale too. Have you ever had the urge to buy a book telling you what the letters of your name say about you? Or maybe a silver pendant that will guard you against negative energy? All were gathered here.

I looked around the room, watching the few patrons as they moved about. Were they thinking the same things I was? That this was all a huge scam?

I watched as one tearful woman dabbed at her eyes, reaching for tissue as her 20-minute enlightened spirit told her things she didn’t want to hear.

After one lap around the room, I couldn’t take it anymore. My curiosity had gotten the best of me, and the cost would be $20. But which to choose? Clairvoyants, tarot card readers, palm readers and one woman who could tell things about you with a bowl of rocks were assembled for me.

I picked Marilyn, a holistic practitioner who had told me earlier in the evening that my outfit was cute. My friends left the post at my side while I slid into the chair beside her and asked the woman if she accepted checks. She did.

She asked me if I wanted to start by asking her questions or if I wanted her to just start talking. I told her she could start, and we’d go from there. She told me she could read my “energy field” and it said I was creative, nice, sensitive and a little more of an introvert than an extrovert. So far, these things could apply to any average person, so I was not convinced.

Then she told me she saw my father with black smoke around him, and said she sensed he was withholding something from me. She told me she saw that I had had a rather happy childhood, but something was happening with my family now that was kind of a tragedy.

I told her that my parents were getting a divorce, and that my relationship with my father was crumbling. My skepticism was fading. How could she just sense that?

But after further contemplation, no one has a perfect family. She could say that to anyone and have it be somewhat true. Somehow I was still — mostly — not convinced.

The rest of my “session” was spent with her describing what she felt my mother was going through, and that I was the only child in my family that felt they had to be a caretaker.

All of this, mostly true. I was now halfway not convinced.

After I left, I still felt that any good guesser could say these things about a person.

And, training to read people’s reactions could make the show look good. So I remain doubtful. Mostly.