Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Developing Your Inner Psychic


People often refer to "gut feelings, or instincts." This is a sense of knowing what cannot easily be rationally expressed or intellectually confirmed. People are often heard to say things like, "I knew I should have done that" and there is usually an overriding feeling of something being either right or wrong, without having a specific reason for it. Where does this feeling come from? Is there an innate psychic or intuitive faculty from which we could all benefit? How do we access it?

Awaken Your SensesPsychic sensitivity is not based on some obscure formula known to a few privileged people; on the contrary, you already have every ingredient you need in your five senses. Every second of the day, you're absorbing a changing blend of aromas, flavors, sounds, sights, and textures. The process is so automatic it's easy to take for granted but without your senses you would literally be "dead" to the world. This is the polar opposite of a psychic's experience of life, where everything is vivid, sensuous, and alive with meaning.

People who are unusually sensitive can perceive atmospheres, feel invisible presences, see visions, hear messages, and experience reality on many different levels. With a little practice, you'll be able to do all this yourself.

Journal NotesFive sensational days

Exploring your senses to their limits takes time, space, and imagination. It also requires the ability to focus: a simple way to achieve this is to allot an entire day to discovering a single sense. Then, at the end of that day, write up your experiences in your psychic journal.

Note down your reactions to any incident, exercise, or experiment that gave you positive feedback, and made an active difference to your sensory awareness.

Pay attention to the exact quality of your reactions; notice whether you felt excited, calmed, aroused, amused, inspired; or frightened, uneasy, curious, or repelled.

Each day's events may also trigger a special chain of association in your mind: for example, a fleeting scent, a fading color, a grain of wood--any of these can release a flood of memories.

You may remember people and places that you had long forgotten. Again, write everything down; all these links will lead you toward enhanced psychic awareness.

A Day of VisionIdeally, you should choose a day that has a full moon on the same evening. As soon as you wake up, tell yourself out loud: "Today I am going to look closely at everything around me." This triggers your visual awareness and prepares your intuition for action. As you go through your day, look at everything with the candid gaze of a child--try to see things just as they are. Look at objects, buildings, colors, people's faces, animals, and plants with new eyes.

Don't spend time "evaluating"--simply look. This way, you'll take in more visual messages, as you won't be censoring or rejecting anything. At some point in the day, try one of the "gazing" exercises described below.

Candle-GazingHow to enhance your psychic sight.

1. Choose a quiet, dimly lit place, and light a candle. Place it on a table, and sit down, facing the candle. Get yourself quietly relaxed.
2. Gaze into the candle flame, staying relaxed and calm, watching the flame.
3. Now, focus your gaze at the place where the blue color of the flame meets with the gold--this is the point where your potential for psychic sight can be developed. Continue gazing at this spot until you feel you have absorbed enough.

Moon-GazingSee a new vision in the full moon.

1. Find a quiet place to relax and look up at the full moon; allow your gaze to become completely absorbed by the moon's light.
2. Next, close your eyes, and note the intense blue image imprinted on your retina. Draw this blue color toward you, and use it to visualize yourself.
3. If there is no full moon, you could try gazing briefly into a 100-watt lightbulb; but you should never look into the full glare of the sun, as this could damage your eyesight.

A Day to Follow Your NoseThe moment you wake up, say out loud: "Today I am going to experience as many different smells as possible.
" This message will literally put you on the scent; follow your nose through the day, and notice every aroma--starting with the smells of your morning toast and coffee.

Be alert to everything--fumes from traffic; smells from coffee shops and restaurants; the waft of perfume from a passer-by. Sniff your newspaper, and breathe in the smell of a leather wallet.

This prepares your psychic antennae for action, as the first hint of an invisible presence may be a certain smell. A faint, old-fashioned scent could be a link with a departed grandmother, and a pungent whiff of tobacco may announce a man who always had a pipe with him when he was alive.

What's That Smell?This exercise can be very revealing.
1. Ask a close friend to make up a "sampler" tray: it could include things like a lemon, furniture polish, starch, stationary, spices, mothballs, a smelly insole, and an overripe piece of cheese.
2. Keep your eyes closed or blindfolded, and smell each item individually. Take time to experience each scent--it's just as important to identify what feelings are evoked in you as it is to identify the source of the smell.

A Day to Listen CloselyYour wake-up message for your listening day says: "Today I'll keep my ears open and hear what the world really sounds like." You may think this is easy, but you're probably unaware of how much sound you automatically block out. This form of "natural selection" is a survival mechanism, helping you to focus on the important signals around you. One of the first signs of stress is the inability to cope with a constant bombardment of grating and discondordant sounds, and censoring these helps you to stay calm and balanced. You can use a consciously selective approach and focus on different sounds, as if they were separate notes in a piece of music. Turn the day into your private musical with tunes made up from varying notes: automobile horns, ringing telephones, beeping vehicles, hissing coffee machines, clacking cups and saucers, whirring elevators, a slammed door, sudden shrieks, barks, and laughter.

Listen to the BirdsHere's how to follow each part of a symphony of bird song.
1. Find an outdoor space, where there are plenty of birds--this could be a public park or in your garden.
2. Sit quietly relaxed, listening to the medley of birdsong around you. At some point you'll distinguish one song from the others. Focus on this, and spend time listening to it.
3. Now let the song of this bird take you to another's, and listen to this for a while. Again, you'll find that you're naturally drawn to the next bird in line. Listen intuitively to each song, sensing the essence within each.

A Touchy-Feely DayIn the morning, look at yourself in the bathroom mirror and announce: "Today I will live each moment through my hands." Let your fingers tingle in anticipation and start from home: run your hands over the surface of your skin and through your hair; feel your bath towel; touch the cool porcelain of your bathtub; note the slick sensation of a plastic toy; and feel the bristles of your toothbrush with your fingertips. Throughout the day, make a point of touching as many different textures as possible--smooth, furry, silken, rough, warm, cold--and notice all the different sensations you experience, both positive and negative.

A Guided TourThis journey starts with a simple touch.
1. Ask someone who knows you well to pick out a distinctively texturized object for you.
2. Close your eyes and ask your friend to place the item in your hands; as you explore it, talk about the places it evokes. It may take you into a garden from childhood, onto a beach, or somewhere you've never been before.
3. Visualize yourself there. Explore your surroundings throroughly and pay attention to everything that you see. If there are people or animals, how you do feel about them? When you've completely absorbed the feeling of the place, open your eyes.

Tasting the DayIf you like eating and drinking, you'll probably enjoy spending an entire day in an extended tasting session. But you should still alert your taste buds first thing in the morning by saying: "Today I'll pay close attention to everything that I taste." This starts from the moment the flavor of toothpaste floods your mouth; you may follow that with a swirl of mouthwash. What do these flavors evoke? Cool mints? Spicy cloves? Cinnamon? Consider the flavor of everything you put in your mouth. And explore unfamiliar things--for example, if you want to give your taste buds a real shock, touch the end of your tongue with a metal coin.

Discriminating TasteUse this subtle method to tune your senses and taste the air around you.
1. Sit in a quiet, airy place and relax.
2. Breathe slowly and regularly, then open your mouth slightly. Let the air around you flow into your mouth.
3. Focus on the taste of the air, and open yourself completely to whatever you're sensing. You'll be surprised at how much information you'll receive this way.

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