Talent or skill? Magic or mystique? Matthew Kamont, The Lehigh Valley Medium, enthralled an audience of enthusiastic followers at the Visitor Center at SteelStacks recently presented by ArtsQuest. For the uninitiated, a medium is another term for psychic. A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory, or highly developed perception to identify information hidden from the normal senses, usually involving telepathy or clairvoyance.

As explained by Kamont, “Psychic is a very broad term. All pizzas have a dough crust, sauce and cheese, but that doesn’t make them all the same.” And so it is with psychics – the same basic idea but not all the same.”

Kamont has always known that he had an extraordinary ability to sense or feel strongly when others did not. He became more aware of this talent and decided to hone his skill by meeting with Spiritualist Pat Longo, who is known for channeling universal energy and healing. Longo identified Kamont’s anxiety as unexpressed spiritual energy, an indication that he is a medium. Longo identified similar traits in the medium Theresa Caputo.

Kamont is a clairvoyant who aids the living with the insights he receives from the dead. Having discovered that he can receive “Signs, Symbols or Images” from the past, Kamont becomes the conduit between the living and the dead. The dead do not “talk” to Kamont ,but show him images that he then interprets based on his frame of reference, and gives his voice to the spirit for the audience. Kamont points out the difficult part for him is accurately reporting what he sees.

At the recent event, Kamont said he was seeing what he thought was a bird, then thought it was a parrot – at that point someone recognized the spirit as her relative, who had a nose like a parrot and was nicknamed “Beak.”

Crowd reaction varies. Some cried happy tears, pleased to know their loved one was watching over them. Others laughed at the quirky symbolism that identified their love one. Many felt validation, that decisions they made were approved of.

Kamont’s one wish? “That everyone leaves better than when they came.”

Kamont’s next event is scheduled for Suynday, Dec. 10 at his Palmer Township facility.