Ann Dexter-Jones—socialite, designer, mother to nightlife hotshots Mark, Charlotte, and Samantha Ronson—has a gift. “I’m a Reiki master,” she says. Reiki is a Japanese alternative-healing technique in which a master channels the universe’s “Reiki” energy through touch, strengthening the patient’s own supply. Dexter-Jones volunteers in Mount Sinai’s pediatric intensive-care ward. “I start channeling, and I can put my hands on you or near you, and you can feel the heat, even through clothes,” she says. “Don’t say I’m some sort of Mother Teresa, but things happen that I have no explanation for.” Dexter-Jones says she worked on a woman whose arthritis mysteriously went into remission. Another time, she visited a 4-year-old with severe neurological damage. “I had no idea what result I’d get; you never do. And after I’d finished, I slipped out of the ward and I suddenly heard these hysterical sobs. It was the mother. She said in four years the child had not reacted to anybody and when I left the ward, his eyes followed me.” Dexter-Jones works on herself when she doesn’t feel well. “But there’s no accounting for stress. That’s when the Marlboros come out.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Jada Yuan
• Table of Contents: October 24, 2005 issue of New York | Subscribe!