Your Psychic Self

by Melissa Alvarez

  Make a manifestation board to aid in bringing your desires to you. The manifestation board is your own personal collage of the things that you need or want in your life, and is used as you practice the law of attraction to manifest these things. When you create a physical expression of these needs and desires in the form of a board, you’re telling the Universe that you’re ready to receive these new things, feelings, or events in your life. When you create the board, center yourself before you begin and then make the board with focus and intention. The energy that you continually put into the board through feelings, thoughts, desires, and intentions brings the objects on your board closer to you. It’s giving creative visualization a physical place to reside (on the board).

  Now that you have decided what you need and want, the next thing is to cut pictures out of magazines that represent these things and glue them on the board. The board can be made of poster board, cardboard, or paper. Arrange the photos so that the most important thing is on top and the remaining items in the order you desire them, or you can place them in whatever shape or pattern you feel moved to place them. You can also cut out words and glue them on the board or write in words that verbalize what you want to manifest in positive terms. Once you’ve finished creating the board, place it on the wall or somewhere you will see it often and release your energy ties to it. This means that you will release each item on the board and hand it over to the Universe to bring into your life. When it appears, write “thank you” under the item and the date that it manifested so that you recognize its appearance in your life.

  Mirrors

  You’ve heard the children’s dares. Maybe you’ve even done them. You go into the bathroom, lock the door, turn off the light, and say “Bloody Mary” three times while turning in a circle. When you look into the mirror, Bloody Mary will be there, covered in blood that drips from her knife. Isn’t that a lovely way to scare a child half to death? Mirrors have always been an object of fascination when it comes to the spirit world. They are said to reflect the image of a spirit, act as a portal, and do a variety of other things (some of which aren’t necessarily true).

  I know for a fact that spirits can manifest in mirrors because I’ve seen spirits through them. Once I’d been blow-drying my hair (which was very long at the time), so I’d bent over a bit so I could get to the back better. When I stood up, I saw the reflection of a blond-haired girl about ten years old standing in the bathroom doorway and heard the words, “It will be okay, but be prepared for change.” I immediately looked at the door but there wasn’t anyone there. I went to check on my kids in their room, and they hadn’t invited anyone over. The girl just vanished. But she was right. Within several weeks everything changed and our lives were turned upside down. It all worked out okay, just as she’d said. I’ve since learned that her name is Ally and she’s one of my guides.

  Try It Now:

  Connect with Your Spiritual Nature through a Mirror

  You can use a mirror to intuitively connect to your soul. In doing this exercise, you can determine what your abilities are and the best way for you to use them because you’re tuning in to your true essence. What you’ll do is use a mirror that doesn’t have a sink in front of it—you’ll want to be able to stand close to the mirror instead of leaning toward it. Pick out your mirror, protect yourself with white light, stand there and stare into your own eyes. Let your mind clear, find your center, and ground yourself to the earth. Now spread the fingers of your right hand wide. One at a time, place your fingertips on the mirror. As each fingertip connects, imagine it opening a portal that connects you to the Other Side, to your true spiritual essence, and give each fingertip an intention. Your intention may be something like, “Show me the best way to understand my empathic ability,” “I want to see the path I mapped out for myself,” or maybe, “I am afraid of my abilities; show me how to erase this fear.” If you only want to work on one thing at a time, repeat the same intention as you place each fingertip on the mirror. Now, intuitively look past your physical eyes and into your soul essence. It may take a few minutes to connect, but once you do, you are within yourself at the purest and most basic level. Listen to messages from your higher self and any guides that show up to help you.

  As you move along your path, there will be additional tools that will be of use to you if you need them. As they come into your life, give them a fair chance of helping you to achieve further enlightenment. You may only need them for a short time; then again, you may feel such an affinity to them that you continue to use them as you grow and develop your intuitive abilities throughout your lifetime. Tools are there to assist you. Use them as you see fit.

  [contents]

  Three

  Discovering Your

  “Clair” Abilities

  The “clair” abilities are the bare bones of intuitive development. Everyone has them and they can be strong or weak depending upon where you are in your spiritual growth. You can develop each of your clair abilities and make them stronger. Let’s take a look at each of them and how you can make them work for you.

  Clairvoyance/Clairvoyant

  Clairvoyance is a French and Latin word that means “clear vision”—the intuitive ability to see visions without using your eyes, an intuitive knowledge of people and things, to perceive within the mind’s eye (the third eye, which is located in the middle of the forehead) something that exists on the spiritual or ethereal realm. A clairvoyant is the person who is able to obtain information about past, present, and future events from other dimensions using the third eye and not the physical eyes. They can see what normally cannot be seen physically. If you are clairvoyant, you may see spirits, auras, angels, guides, and others. You may also see scenes that explain situations in others’ lives. Clairvoyance is the process of obtaining this information. For those who have the gift of clairvoyance, you can see past the veil to the spiritual realms and receive messages from departed loved ones or obtain information from a higher source, such as spirit guides. If you’re also clairaudient, you may hear these guides and loved ones speak to you, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

  Clairvoyance can manifest in different ways. You may see an entire scene play out like a movie running through your head; you may see words, numbers, or objects that give you an overall intuitive impression; or you may see the physical manifestation of your guide or another entity delivering a message. When my abilities first started developing, I knew when I would have a clairvoyant vision because my physical vision would change. Whatever was in front of me would disappear and I saw what looked like a television channel that had gone off the air. All that was on the screen was the black-and-white snow, then that would fade and I’d see a scene playing out like a movie. When it was over, my vision would go back to that snowy screen, then that would disappear and I would be able to see regularly again. Once I was able to recognize a clairvoyant vision for what it was, the snowy screen before and after the vision stopped happening.

  Clairvoyance feels like the information is coming from outside of you. You may be watching a scene unfold in your mind’s eye, but the information itself isn’t part of your being. It feels as if it’s outside of your physical and emotional self, just as you’d feel if you were seeing a movie in a theater. It’s something that you watch instead of experiencing it as your own internal thought process or emotion. As you discover more about your clairvoyant nature, look for signs that what you’re picking up is coming from outside of you instead of coming from within you. Do you see a snowy screen like I did? Or maybe you always see visions of events that have happened in the past on your left side and future events always seem to happen on your right side. This is a clue that what you’re experiencing is clairvoyant in nature.

  The importance of clairvoyance is that you recognize you are seeing an event happen, whether it’s in the past, present, or future. You might be able to connect your clairvoyant experiences with reality, confirming your abilities are on track.
You may also recognize it as something that hasn’t happened yet. The important thing with a clairvoyant experience is that you use the information to help yourself or others.

  Clairaudience/Clairaudient

  Clairaudience means “clear hearing,” and is the ability to hear sounds from the spiritual world that are inaudible to others. It is intuitively hearing that which isn’t audible from a physical source but instead originates from the spiritual realm. This may include music, voices, and ordinary sounds such as doors closing, keys jiggling, or someone making noise as they move around the house in daily activity when you know that there isn’t anyone on the physical plane that could be making the noise.

  Sometimes these sounds can be loud and quite noticeable, while at other times they are merely a whisper. Clairaudient intuitives can often hear spirits speak to them just as clearly as they can hear you talk. They may hear music, knocking, or other sounds without a physical source, or pick up entire conversations when no one else is around. Any sound coming from the spiritual realm (the Other Side) that you can hear but your best friend standing right beside you cannot hear is clairaudient in nature.

  Most often, clairaudient sounds are associated with spirit guides, angels, or deceased loved ones speaking to you in order to deliver messages, but sometimes they are just random noises. They can be related to the paranormal, which is why clairaudient intuitives can often pick up specific messages in places thought to be haunted. You may also tap in to a portal (a place spiritual beings use to travel between the realms of existence). If this is the case, you can usually pinpoint the portal to one specific location by listening to where the sounds originate.

  So what does it feel like to be clairaudient? Have you heard someone shout your name when no one was around? If a clairaudient intuitive is distracted or not paying attention when someone from the spiritual realm is trying to deliver a message, they will sometimes shout just to get your attention, especially if it’s an important message. If you hear your name being shouted, take a few moments and focus your intuitive abilities in order to hear the message. Sometimes you’ll get it immediately and other times it may be hours later, but the shouting of your name increases your awareness so that when the message comes, you’re open to receive it. This type of clairaudience feels as if you’re hearing it with your normal hearing. Other clairaudient sounds feel like they’re in your head or coming from a specific place outside of yourself, such as the corner of a room.

  When I do readings and spirit guides come with messages for the person I’m doing a reading for, I hear them talk in my mind and I normally just type what I’m hearing so that the message is as accurate as possible. Other times, I’ll hear the message as if someone is standing beside me talking. If you’re developing your abilities, make sure you’re paying attention to the sounds around you. Ask others if they hear what you’re hearing; soon, you’ll be able to recognize what is coming from the spiritual realm and is truly clairaudient.

  Clairscent/Clairscentrist

  Clairscent is the ability to smell something clearly that does not have an origin on our physical level of existence but originates from the spirit realm. A clairscentrist is an intuitive who can smell these scents or odors and who can interpret the meaning of a smell and whether there is a message being delivered with the scent.

  The most important factor in knowing that you are a clairscentrist is whether or not you are able to find physical causes for the aromas that you smell. You have to look high and low to rule out even remote possibilities before attributing the scent to the spiritual realm. You don’t want the smell of a rotting potato in your pantry to make you think that spirit is trying to deliver a message associated with someone who disliked potatoes—chances are, there’s a bad potato hiding in the bag you purchased last week. If you live in an apartment building, condo, duplex, or other type of attached building, you have to make sure that the scents aren’t somehow coming into your home from someone else’s residence. If they aren’t, then the scent is probably originating from the spiritual realm and you have to use your intuitive abilities to determine why you smell the particular fragrance. Another good indication that the scent is otherworldly in nature is if you’re the only one that smells it. When you have a clairscent experience around others, you can determine the root of the smell more quickly than if you’re alone because you’re able to ask other people if they smell the same thing.

  Scents, aromas, and even pungent odors come to intuitives for specific reasons. For instance, say that a relative has passed over but has a message that he or she wants to deliver to someone left behind. Then the scent associated with the person may be apparent to the intuitive. There have been numerous times that I’ve smelled specific perfumes during a reading or other things like cigar smoke, cigarette smoke, pipes, mothballs, rain, specific foods cooking, and so on. The reason for these smells was specifically to help confirm the identity of the spirit visiting.

  Your guides can also send you messages using scent. Let’s say you have a hard time staying emotionally calm in times of stress but the smell of lilacs always seems to calm you. Then one day you’re at work—everything is going wrong and you’re at your wits end. Suddenly, you are overwhelmed with the scent of lilacs. You immediately begin to calm down and try to find the source of the smell, but can’t. In this situation, your guides have stepped in to give you a little reprieve during a stressful time.

  Oftentimes scents that are picked up by a clairscentrist will be very strong, but they can also be very fleeting and light. If you’re tuned into your intuitive abilities you will register both, regardless of the strength of the impression.

  Clairempathy/Clairempathic

  Clairempathy means “clear emotion,” or to feel the emotions and attitudes of another within one’s self. It is feeling another person’s emotions, mental thoughts, and physical energy without prior knowledge of how that person feels. This is what an empath experiences. Sometimes these feelings can be overwhelming, especially if a large group of people is involved in some tragedy. Being an empath can be very draining unless you learn to filter the emotions and keep them distant and separate from your own inner energy.

  As a clairempathic, you may also understand a person’s true inner feelings even if they are able to hide them on the outside. Sometimes it can be very difficult to separate your own feelings from empathic feelings originating from another person. As an empath, you should learn to recognize when the feelings are coming from outside of your being and be aware that they are not your emotions at all.

  I’ve always believed that clairempathy is one of the hardest intuitive abilities to control. Sometimes you’re just hit broadside with overwhelming feelings that seem to come out of nowhere. You find yourself crying or are jubilantly happy without reason. Usually the reasons are revealed later, when you recognize that it was your empathic abilities causing the feelings and not your own experiences.

  Here’s a situation that I experienced that shows empathic abilities in action. Recently, I had a week of crying jags where I’d get an overwhelming feeling of sadness and just burst into tears. It actually got to the point that it was annoying me. At first I thought I was just being overly emotional; as more time went by, it just didn’t make sense that I’d burst into tears for no apparent reason. Toward the end of the week, I was talking with an intuitive friend only to discover that she’d had the same thing happen to her within the same time period. Incidentally, my crying jags took place right after a series of tornadoes devastated the Midwest and the Mississippi flooded to the extreme. While I knew what was going on in the world, I don’t watch the news regularly because I’m empathic and it can sometimes be very overwhelming for me. I hadn’t realized that what I felt was a result of the sadness in the Midwest until my friend pointed out the connection. Sometimes you have to remember to check your feelings to make sure they’re your own. In this situation, I hadn’t done that. As soon as I checked my feelin
gs, I realized that the emotions were indeed coming from outside of me, and the feelings stopped just as suddenly as they’d begun.

  Try It Now: Clairempathy

  For this exercise, turn on the television and watch the news. You may have to switch channels until you find a news report that you feel drawn to. As you watch the report, pay particular attention to the emotions you’re feeling. Are they coming from outside of you? Or are they your emotions? If they are coming from outside of you, you’re probably connecting empathically with the people in the report. Notice and write down how you feel and any impressions that you receive. Over the next few days, follow the report to see if any of your impressions happened or if you can confirm that you picked up on the feelings of someone involved in the story, which will often be revealed through further news reports.

  Clairgustance/Clairgustant

  Clairgustance is the ability to experience taste from the spiritual realm that is associated with a specific person, place, or thing without putting anything in your mouth. This ability can be connected to the present, past, or future. An intuitive who has this ability is a clairgustant. Clairgustance is also referred to as “clairsavorance” and a clairgustant as a “clairsavorant.” Both terms are used interchangeable to refer to the ability of “clear tasting” and the intuitive who has the ability.

  Clairgustance is often experienced when in the alpha state of consciousness (when you’re meditating or daydreaming), but can also come on suddenly and for no apparent reason when you’re fully conscious and far from the alpha state of mind. It often accompanies other abilities such as clairvoyance or clairscent.