Sheehy says she has been channeling Raphael since she was a senior at the University of Delaware, 18 years ago. At first she couldn't control Raphael, like the time she started channeling in the middle of a Lambertville restaurant. Sheehy's ability was initially unwelcome in her Catholic household. "My mother thought we had to get a priest and get me exorcised," Sheehy told a group of 40 people who sat in a dimly lit room at the Health and Wellness Center in Warrington to witness her channel.

Sheehy refers to Raphael continuously as "she," even though Raphael is traditionally thought of as a male. Sheehy says the archangel itself does not project any gender but is rather "a spiral of love and light." She tells the audience that Raphael is not a fortune teller and that they should only ask universal questions. Before she begins to channel, however, Sheehy makes sure to remind her audience about the company she began with her neighbor, Meghan Krause, called Live with Love, Inc., which sells yoga bags, eye pillows filled with lavender and flaxseed, and note cards with Raphael's affirmations, among other things.

Sheehy closes her eyes and breathes deeply. Her voice then begins to dip and rise again. She makes primitive noises. The lights don't flicker; the ground doesn't shake. Sheehy just sits in her chair, making noises and rocking back and forth. She giggles, then begins to speak, pronouncing each syllable carefully. "It is that you are very large and I am so happy to see you and you are very beautiful."

Before taking questions from the predominantly older, female audience, each of whom paid $25 admission, Raphael gives a message that stresses unity, that we are all one, must love ourselves and each other and must all live in the now. These themes will recur in her long, often circuitous answers. Frequently, she'll say "Hello!" sounding not unlike a Teletubby, and after she feels she has sufficiently answered a question she will say, "What is it?"

What the Bible didn't tell us about Raphael is that she's pretty funny. When a woman named Sherry asks if she is getting closer to God's purpose in her life, Raphael responds that God's purpose is to love and it is humans that define their lives through what they do. "God does not say you are an accountant," Sheehy/Raphael says, and then lets out a wild giggle.

Kelly Sheehy's Angel for an Hour can be contacted at 215-230-9977; visit Live with Love at www.livewithlove.com.