The minute my pal Kathleen and I stepped into The Hotel Pennsylvania last weekend, we knew we had exited ordinary New York City and entered an elevated realm. The people milling around effervesced.

“I want an angel T-shirt like that woman’s,” I said, eyes darting right and left.

“Oh, I’m NOT ready for an angel T-shirt,” Kathleen said in a whisper.

“Sure you are! These women are fantastic!”

Everywhere we gazed “lightworkers,” that is, holistic people with some kind of sparkle to them, were eating breakfast, checking their cellphones, or getting back in line to buy more of Doreen Virtue’s angel products: items like angel necklaces (with particular stones for certain angels), angel card sets, angel guide books.

Every one of the 500 present seemed to have a redemptive, healing story to tell as they twinkled in their angel scarves, toting their sequined purses around. The registered nurse sitting next to me had saved her own mother from a death forecast by cardiologists through a hands-on healing method she’d learned from a professional “spiritualist.” Others said they’d spoken to angelic spirits since childhood and had always felt a little strange about it. Some kind of childhood misfortune seemed to touch many of those present.

Doreen Virtue, angelic author, teacher, and HayHouseRadio.com personality eventually strode down the Crystal Ballroom’s center aisle, wearing a fetching sky blue floor-length gown with flared sleeves from her new Enchanted Couture clothing line.

Like Lady Madonna, Virtue (which is her birth name, by the way) has exceedingly long blonde tresses that drape over her slim shoulders. Chi pops all around her, and her ATP assistants (that’s Angel Therapy Practitioners) were also resplendent in diaphanous silk serapes and shimmering jewelry.

Virtue gave a slide tour of the 15 angels she generally works with, a wonderful interfaith cast of celestial personages ranging from muy macho Michael to the more androgenous Raphael to that hubba-hubba Norse goddess Freyja (who glides around in a cat-pulled chariot, and apparently endows her believers with the ability to “flirt when sober”). Lots of fasciating information.

The angel Gabrielle is believed to be helpful to writers. Metatron (a non-Google-able angel) is helpful to highly sensitive children (and Virtue exhibited real compassion for kids with developmental delays). Virtue’s obvious skills as a psychic who connects warmly with real people came to the fore when she took questions from the audience. When a woman with a depressed father asked for help, for instance, Virtue quickly said the angels were showing her “television and beer.” “Yes!” the woman said. “All he does is drink and watch television. He made fun of us today for coming to see you.”

“The angels are showing me a little black dog… a small dog.” This confused the woman seeking the help for a moment until another family member seated next to her said, “He did have a little black lamb back in Venezuala as a boy, but his parents killed it.” Virtue left them with specific ideas on how to cheer the father up, including buying him a small black dog he could love and take care of. It all seemed convincing. And often very moving. I do believe that we’re all clairvoyant. My only question is: Do the messages really come from angels, or can our intuition guide us to another’s thoughts?

“Let me see what they’re telling me,” Virtue would often say, referring to her angel friends apparently fluttering nearby. “They just show me things. And then I have to make sense of them.” She has a loving, caring manner. But she also seemed really smart. In the late afternoon, we paired up with partners, meditated while holding that partner’s hands, and then gave mini readings to each other relating what had come to us–through angels or not. My partner said she saw a silent retreat for me, and that I was putting a lot of energy “out.” I saw the need for her to prepare for her mother’s death, who she later agreed was “failing fast.” I also saw a tall ship from the 1800s on smooth waters at sunset. I have no clue what that was about!

You can try your own experiments. My aim is to just absorb as much as I can. Have you spoken to any angels lately? Virtue says they all around you, even when you have no idea.