The first time that psychic Patricia McMonagle had to prove her gift to a skeptic, it was at a family gathering, and the skeptic was her uncle.

McMonagle, of New Hope, was just 10 years old.

The uncle said he would believe all the talk, if McMonagle would read his palm. But that's not how she works. Her gift manifests itself in a feeling that she can't contain, McMonagle says, and at 10, there is no such thing as self-censorship.

"You know what?" the 10-year-old said to her uncle at the gathering. "Why do you have two wives?"

Until then, no one in the family knew that the very-married uncle had a girlfriend - not until his niece told everyone.

That was a family's rude awakening to what McMonagle calls a gift that she has had since she can remember.

On Saturday, she and fellow psychic Patrick Arnone, of Doylestown, will be the featured guests at "A Day of Psychics," a seminar at the Best Western New Hope Inn. The event, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., will include presentations from McMonagle and Arnone and personal readings for attendees.

"A good psychic will give you information in your past that you can confirm, or what's happening in your present life, which you can confirm. So when they give you information about your future, you can more easily trust that information," said Susan Duval, the event organizer who formerly coordinated seminars at Doylestown Hospital's Health & Wellness Center.

In her years as a seminar coordinator, Duval says she has found Bucks County to be a community open to exploration of alternative spirituality and the metaphysical. She says some have likened Bucks County to Sedona, the Arizona community believed to be an energy vortex by followers of New Age spirituality.

Arnone, who has done readings for 20 years and studied at the Holistic Studies Institute of New York, moved to Doylestown a year ago, after being encouraged to relocate by friends in New Hope. He and his partner felt drawn to the area, Arnone said.

"We didn't move here for metaphysical reasons, but we did hear that the area was receptive to this kind of work," said Arnone, who spoke at a recent gathering of the New Hope Metaphysical Society.

McMonagle moved within the last several months from Philadelphia, an effort to start fresh after 30 years in Roxborough, a divorce, and a feeling of stagnation in the city.

She was born in Philadelphia and grew up near the athletic stadiums in South Philadelphia. She graduated from St. Maria Goretti High School in Philadelphia, and began hitchhiking to New Hope when she was a teenager. The attraction of the Bucks County town was "the energy, the people, and sense of community," McMonagle said.

She grew up Catholic, but now describes her spirituality as "freelance," believing in God, or "that universal consciousness, whatever you want to call it."

When she was 19, McMonagle received from her mother a set of tarot cards, but she never used them professionally. It was after her marriage to Bobby McMonagle and the birth of her daughter Kate that she says her psychic ability emerged full-force.

"I started hearing people and I saw spirits," McMonagle said. "I was afraid."

The images were detailed: a man in horn-rimmed glasses with an open book in his hands. She then went to see a psychic, who confirmed McMonagle's psychic talents and later began referring clients to her.

A typical reading is 30 minutes, with McMonagle touching on issues including finances, health, family and career. The discussion is guided by what she describes as an intuition, unavoidable feeling, connection and empathy.

She says that "as far as she knows," she has never been wrong in a serious way, but "if I were wrong in a way that would seriously impact a person, I would stop doing this," she said.

Over the years, McMonagle has worked as a jury consultant and contributed information to police investigations, including the Center City rape case, she said.

McMonagle contacted Philadelphia police through neighbor and former Philadelphia police detective Edward Tenuto.

"I remember her talking about that case with me, and I remember her mentioning to me that she thought that the guy had some relationship with the military," Tenuto said of a conversation he had with McMonagle before an arrest was made in the case. Troy Graves, who later confessed to the crimes, was a serviceman in the Air Force.

The feeling is one that "grabs" her, an energy that is all consuming, McMonagle said. At times, she wishes it would leave her alone, such as when she sensed her grandfather would die soon.

"I get the impressions, but I don't let it get me down," McMonagle said. "I've learned that oftentimes if we change our attitude or approach in the smallest way, it can change the outcome of the situation."

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