All of the things I’ve mentioned above are just some of the ways you can tell that your intuitive abilities are at work. You will be experiencing these things with one of the clair abilities or through your mind’s eye. While physical manifestations do occur, they are rare compared to the daily manifestations you will experience through the third eye.
As you learn about what you can do, you must also learn to trust yourself. My biggest problem is always self-doubt. When I do a reading, I always wonder if it was accurate. I pass the information along as I receive it and hope that it is relevant to the person’s life and situation. I never know if it is or isn’t unless they write me back and tell me. But it is this self-doubt and worry about my accuracy level that keeps me from getting an inflated ego.
How do you know when you’re having a metaphysical experience? In this chapter, you’ll discover a variety of methods and presentations that will let you know whether what you are experiencing is intuitive, spiritual, or paranormal. Consider each of them, note if you’ve already had a similar experience, and keep in mind those experiences you haven’t yet had so that you will recognize them when they appear in your life.
Intuition
Instincts are part of our human existence. Intuition is the psychic part of our instinctive nature. It is the ability to obtain knowledge or have a belief without being able to justify it. It comes from a place deep within you and there isn’t a way to logically prove what your intuition tells you. A well-known example is “a mother’s intuition.” Think back to your own childhood. How many times did your mother know you were doing something that you weren’t supposed to be doing? Or if you hurt yourself and she came running out of the house to check on you at just that moment? As a young adult, your mother may have called you out of the blue when you were feeling lonely, upset, or were trying to make a difficult decision. I jokingly tell my kids that “moms know everything” and while they’re quick to point out that I don’t know everything, they can’t argue with my mother’s intuition. We all have this kind of intuition, whether or not we have children. It applies to friends, family, acquaintances, and situations.
The more you acknowledge your intuition at work, the more it will grow. By paying attention to the times you listen to your intuition, and you witness the results that follow, you will grow more confident. Your intuitive nature isn’t based in fear, so you should analyze how your intuitions feel so that you know the difference between feelings of fear and intuitive impressions. Feeling fear unrelated to intuition is different from your intuition warning you and then feeling fear after the intuitive impression.
What does intuition feel like? It is a deep resonating sense that feels like it comes from the depths of your soul. It may lead you to check on a loved one just to make sure they’re okay or to make decisions that just “feel right,” even though someone else may question or disagree with your choice. If your intuition is warning you away from a situation or person, it may feel like a barrier rising between you. If it is guiding you toward something that will help you, it may feel like a positive energy guiding you, even if you don’t understand why.
The most important thing in understanding and developing your intuition is recognition. When your intuition feels true to you, when you feel certain that you’re on the right path (even if that path is a warning) and you accept it as such, you’re embracing your intuition. Sometimes your intuition will conflict with your feelings. If it does, then your intuition is probably the path to follow. If you’re considering relocating to a new town but your intuition is telling you to stay put, then don’t move. Wait. Maybe the time isn’t right. The reason that you shouldn’t move will probably become apparent if you just give yourself a little time before acting on your feelings.
Intuition leads you in the right direction. It gives you a clear understanding of what form your abilities might present themselves. When reading through the following types of abilities, pay attention to what you most relate to and what might be manifesting in your life. Again, as you progress in time, new abilities may pop up. It is good to learn about each so you can recognize them when they appear.
Extra Sensory Perception (ESP)
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) is when you are able to obtain information without using any of your five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, or smell. ESP is using your “sixth sense,” including any and all of your intuitive abilities, to obtain information that you should not know. ESP is first and foremost a way of communication using the sixth sense and focuses mainly on clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition, retrocognition, and psychometry, but it’s not limited to these five abilities. ESP is a broad term that covers all aspects of intuitive abilities from remote viewing to clairvoyance to astral travel. I’m including the term ESP in this book because not only is experiencing any type of ESP a sign of your abilities, but this term is also how many people describe the sixth sense.
When one thinks of ESP, what often comes to mind are lab tests where an intuitive predicts the shape printed on a card (these are called Zener cards) or other testing methods. This study of ESP is called parapsychology. In the field of parapsychology, scientists try to prove the existence of intuitive abilities through scientific methods. While the research has made great strides, there has yet to be concrete proof that abilities exist.
Once you realize that you have some form of ESP, the way you can increase the abilities is to practice regularly. Extrasensory perception has been with you since birth and will be with you until the day you die. Everyone has it and you can increase the strength of your abilities through practice. Becoming more accurate in your ability is similar to an athlete practicing for an athletic event. The more athletes run, the faster they become because they have conditioned their body to surpass itself during every workout. The more they use their muscles, the stronger they become over time. It’s the same way with your intuitive abilities. The more you practice and acknowledge your abilities, the stronger they will become and the more accurate you’ll be in your knowledge and in any predictions you may make.
Prophetic Dreaming
There are many different types of dreams. Some dreams are just your subconscious working through things that happened during your day. Nightmares or very busy dreams that have weird and strange things happening at a quick pace can be the result of eating spicy food prior to going to bed. However, some dreams have greater meaning, and their purpose is to reveal something new to you. You can learn a lot about your dreams through dream interpretation. There are many books on the market that will tell you what each aspect of your dream means. When you combine all of the symbols and meanings together, you can interpret what the dream is trying to tell you. Then there are prophetic dreams, which are completely different.
In a prophetic dream, you will normally see a future event. These dreams usually have specific qualities about them that, over time, will help you separate them as unique and prophetic. If you always dream in black and white, and then you dream in color, this could be an indication that this dream is prophetic. I always know when my dreams are prophetic because they feel completely different from other dreams that I have. I always dream in color, but in a prophetic dream, the colors are so vibrant they almost seem alive. I am always an observer in the dream, usually watching it from above or from the sidelines as the scenes play out. I always feel like the dream is real; I hear people speaking and I feel the elements.
When you have a prophetic dream, it can be a warning of an upcoming event that you can take action to change when you realize that the dream is happening in your life. Other times, there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. Sometimes these dreams show you joyous occasions and at other times, the events aren’t happy. Let’s look at a couple of examples. The night before the Oklahoma City bombing, I had a prophetic dream where I saw massive rubble and huge chunks of concrete lying everywhere, and I heard children crying and people screaming. The dream didn’t last very
long, and those elements were all that I remembered, but it was so traumatic and real that I woke up crying. In this case, there wasn’t anything I could do. In another prophetic dream, I saw myself driving a red car and going around a curve. I noticed a particular tree, out in the middle of a field. There was a motorcycle with two people on my side of the road coming right at me and we crashed head-on. Then a couple of days later, I was coming home from work in our red car, noticed the tree in the field, remembered the dream and instantly braked my car, slowing down to about twenty miles per hour and moving toward the middle of the road. Sure enough, a motorcycle came flying around the curve, went past me on my right instead of the left and out into the field. I pulled off the road and ran to check on the driver and passenger, who had both been thrown from the motorcycle. Luckily, everyone was all right. In this case, because I acted on what I saw in my prophetic dream, a car wreck was avoided and no lives were lost. Had I not slowed down and moved over, I have no doubt that the prophetic dream would have happened exactly as I saw it.
Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreaming is when you consciously realize that you’re dreaming during the dream. You can become lucid at any point during a dream. It often happens when you notice something outside of the realm of the physical earthly plane that seems impossible (for instance, if you suddenly grow ten times larger than your normal size), while at other times, lucidity is just a sudden realization that you’re in a dream. It is a skill that you can develop. One way is to give yourself a symbol like a mirror, a horse, your hands, or a cell phone. Look at that symbol (or a picture of it) before you go to sleep and tell yourself that when you see that symbol in your dream, you’ll realize that you’re dreaming.
In a normal dream, you will just accept whatever happens in the dream. If you’re lucid dreaming, you can make deliberate choices and actions. In the lower levels of lucid dreaming, you are aware that you’re dreaming and can alter what happens in your dream. If you’re in the middle of a nightmare and a monster is about to eat you, then you will feel real fear; if you’re lucid and know you’re dreaming, you can choose to fly away out of its clutches. At the lower levels, you may not realize that everything you’re dreaming is happening in your mind or that you’re asleep in your bed. In the higher levels of lucid dreaming, you are aware that everything you’re seeing, feeling, and participating in is created in your mind; you know that you’re safe, and sleeping peacefully in your bed, and will awaken at some point. By knowing what lucid dreaming is, and how to influence your dreams, you can effectively put an end to nightmares if you become lucid during them.
Once you’re aware that you are lucid in a dream, you can intend to do specific things such as flying, going on adventures that you create, or coming up with innovative ideas and concepts. You can also ask your spirit guides to come to you and have a discussion with them. This is where your intuitive abilities come into play. It is commonly thought that seeing a deceased person can be the catalyst that lets you know you’re lucid, because you know the person isn’t living on the earthly plane. While this is true, I believe that, once lucid, you can have discussions with the people you love that are now on the Other Side. You can also obtain precognitive answers to questions or access the Akashic Records (see “Akashic Records” in chapter seven), all during your dream. It’s easier for spirits to contact us in the dream state because we put up barriers when we’re awake that block them. If you’re lucid, you’ll be able to obtain more information from spiritual sources and those on the Other Side. The possibilities are endless.
Astral Projection/Astral Travel
In order to astral travel, you must be intuitively in tune with the etheric world and the planes of existence around you. The astral plane is similar to the earthly plane because it contains everything you find on earth: people, buildings, roads, etc. However, you don’t experience the basic physical needs of eating, sleeping, or going to the bathroom. Each of us has an astral body that we can use to travel within the astral plane. During travel, we remain connected to our physical body by a silver cord of energy. When astral traveling, you can move at the speed of sound or take a casual walk. You can astral travel for specific reasons, and if you choose to visit the upper levels of the astral plane, you can gain a greater understanding of your own spirituality, intuitive abilities, lessons for this lifetime, and divine soul purpose. Astral projection, also known as astral travel, is when you intuitively will your soul to leave the physical body and go into the astral plane. While in this dimension, you may visit other places or people in the physical realm.
Try It Now: Astral Travel
Let’s go over the basics of how to astral travel. Try not to make this more difficult than it is. Sometimes, simpler is better when it comes to techniques. Choose a time when you will not be interrupted to lie down somewhere comfortable and clear your mind. In order to project your astral body into the astral plane, you have to have a great deal of focused concentration and be in a light trance. Your body should feel heavy and paralyzed, unable to move, while your mind is wide awake and ready to travel. The quickest way I’ve found to get to this state is to imagine every muscle in your body relaxing. As it does, imagine that you’re sinking into the object you’re lying upon. Feel it wrap around you, keeping you safe. Now, raise your frequency from within by focusing and drawing upon Universal Energy. Feel it enter through your crown chakra (located at the top of your head), energizing you from your core outward. When you feel ready, imagine that you’re stepping outside of your physical body and into the astral plane. See the silver cord that attaches you to your physical body. You may hear a buzzing or whooshing sound as you do this. Explore the astral plane at length; when you’re ready to return to your body, imagine the silver cord retracting, drawing you back to your physical body. Once you’re out of the trance, make a point to stand up and ground any excess energy by sending it from your body through the bottom of your feet, through any flooring underneath you until it goes into the earth.
Remote Viewing
Remote viewing is the ability to access information from a remote geographical location—allowing you to see people and events that are going on in the present but are outside of your physical range of vision—using something other than the known five senses. If you have this ability, you may be able to describe faraway places that you’ve never visited or people whom you’ve never met or seen before simply by using remote viewing. The remote viewer can be in North Carolina and see an event happening in Japan at the very moment they are looking with their intuitive ability. Some people think remote viewing can be taught and you don’t need any kind of intuitive ability to do it. However, I believe that in order to view that which is outside of your range of physical sight, you have to use the clair abilities on some level.
Typically, remote viewing isn’t used during readings or to tell the future. It is structured, scientifically based, and usually done in a controlled environment. This was especially true when the United States government got involved in training remote viewers in the early 1970s. It takes time and a lot of practice to become a highly skilled remote viewer. When you’re conducting a remote-viewing session, you must put away all preconceived notions of what you think will happen and instead, without any kind of bias or wandering thoughts, put yourself in the moment and focus on the “target,” even when you don’t know what the target is.
Can you be a remote viewer? Sure you can. There are exercises you can do now to test your skills and decide if remote viewing is something that you’d like to pursue with your abilities. If you look online, you’ll find a lot of different remote-viewing tests where you will focus on a target and then a picture of the target will come up on the next screen. A far better way is to have one of your friends or family members cut out some pictures and put them in security-lined envelopes so you can’t see the picture. If you’ve selected ten photos, your assistant should number them from one to ten. Next make a list on a piece of paper. Ta
king your time, focus on the picture inside envelope number one. It you pick up a word, write it down; if you see a scene, draw it. Even if you only see lines, draw them. Do a remote-viewing session on each envelope. Then, when you’re finished, take the pictures out one by one, comparing them to what you wrote or drew. Were you close? You may have gotten the general lines of the picture or you might have drawn it perfectly. For example, if the picture was of a lake with mountains in the background and you drew several inverted v’s with a circle below them, then your session was successful. You detected the primary lines within the photo. With practice, you will find that you will be able to correctly draw or describe more details of the photo through remote viewing.
Visions
A vision can take you by surprise; on the other hand, if you’re doing a reading, you may expect to see them. They can be brief, fleeting glances of something that is going to happen, an event that has already happened in the past, or they can go on and on like a movie and you see specific details. They can occur when you have your eyes opened or closed and they appear to be projected in front of you like a movie on a screen. Some visions will move from the right to left, or the left to right, or appear directly in front of you. Visions always give you needed information about someone or something; the information can be for you or someone else. Often it’s up to you, using your intuitive ability, to decide what the vision means and whether or not you should act on it. It’s not always easy to experience visions. Some can be graphic, or they can be things you really don’t want to know. There’s always a reason that you’re seeing them, but some of them can leave you with uncomfortable feelings and nag at you after the fact.
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