Chapter 7

Practices and Techniques
to Enhance Psychic Awareness

chapter flower art

Developing psychic abilities is more than learning a set of skills. We may be attracted to psychic awareness for the insight and answers that it can provide. However, this is just a drop in the bucket. Psychic awareness leads us out of our soul slumber and wakes us to our potential. Like a well-sharpened knife, it carves away the fleeting rewards of the personality and ego self and delicately reveals the core of the self, soul, and spirit.

Taming the Ego

Once we begin to experience spontaneous psychic insights and desire to further develop our natural intuition, we are at a tipping point. Our spirit and soul are emerging and integrating into our conscious self. Our spirit is naturally psychic. It is not contained or limited by time or space and physical death. It is eternal and connected to the vast source of all love and wisdom. As our spirit bubbles up into our conscious awareness, it further strengthens our psychic awareness.

The work of psychic development is to activate our innate psychic awareness and integrate it into our conscious self and daily life. All too often we attempt to control psychic energy and fit it into what our ego feels and thinks it should be, but this rarely proves to be a successful strategy. It can be difficult to give up the reins of control to the unseen inner force of psychic activity, as the ego continually wants to jump in and take over the process. However, the ego or personality self is not intuitive or psychic, and this aspect of our being is forever confined to the limitations of the five physical senses.

When we allow the ego to dictate and tell us what to expect when we intuit energy information and how to develop psychic abilities, we lose our way. When confronted with psychic energy, the ego reacts with apprehension, fear, and doubt. It has a preconceived idea of what it means to be psychic and what the intuitive information and guidance that we receive should look and feel like. Yet these assumptions and expectations are never correct and helpful. Too often people discount genuine psychic experiences and sabotage their progress because of unrealistic expectations.

Invite the ego to take a back seat. Allow your spirit, the eternal part of you that is trustworthy and always works in your best interest and highest good, to come forward. Intuitively listen to your spirit and observe, become aware of, and learn the unique ways that psychic energy manifests in your life. Unlike the ego, which operates through judgment and expectations, your spirit is gentle and guiding and meets you right where you are. It works through your individual strengths and weaknesses and helps you to develop your unique psychic gifts.

Spiritual Power

Although it is possible to develop psychic abilities with little or no focus on our spiritual development, we will only get so far. To go beyond the limitations of the five senses, we have to build the inner power that is needed to reach higher levels of psychic awareness. This power comes from our spirit.

Our spirit is a free agent, not able to be contained or defined by any one specific religious belief or devotion to a particular spiritual practice or understanding. It does not matter if you believe in God, divine beings, Jesus, Muhammad, or the Goddess. Whatever you believe or do not believe is up to you. The kind of spiritual power that psychic ability requires is not dependent on a religious orientation. Instead, the spirituality of psychic awareness is the recognition and acceptance of your integral connection to an invisible network of love, wisdom, and goodness. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, there is a divine presence within you, assisting and guiding you like a star in the night.

To strengthen and deepen your psychic awareness, listen within to your spirit and allow it to lead you and reveal new truths and insights. When you have the courage to go beyond conventional perspectives and preconceived assumptions and listen within, you build spiritual power. All too often we try to wrangle our spirit into a three-dimensional, finite perspective that our ego self feels comfortable with. If you want to advance in psychic awareness, it is necessary that you let go of control and walk the unknown path. It is only when you open your heart and mind and embrace the mystery that new truths are revealed.

Psychic awareness is a natural expression of our spirit. Just as we grow and develop physically, mentally, and emotionally, so too do we spiritually evolve and advance.

For instance, as we get older, our bodies naturally grow and develop. Through exercise and a healthy diet we can increase our physical stamina and contribute to good health. Learning how to accept our emotions and feelings, forgive ourselves and others, heal our emotional wounds, and love ourselves increases emotional maturity, while mental and intellectual growth occurs through questioning, exploring, learning, and problem solving.

Spiritual growth is just as important. Listening to the voice of our spirit allows our understanding of who we are and what life is to evolve and transform. As our spirituality deepens, our ability to develop and use our psychic senses expands and strengthens.

Psychic Protection

As we listen to our spirit and open ourselves to receive nonphysical energy information, we increase our interaction with the spirit realm. A source of loving, wise, and positive energy, the spirit realm seeks to guide and help us. Through our intuition we connect and communicate with loved ones on the other side, spirit guides, angels, and other divine beings. At times we may recognize or receive the name or other identifying information about who we are communicating with. However, it is not always important and it can even become a distraction to focus too much on the identity of the spirit who is spiritually close. If the energy information that you receive is positive and affirming and if you feel comfortable and calm while intuiting, you can trust that you are connected to positive and beneficial spiritual forces.

However, even though the spirit realm is predominately positive and safe, there are lower-vibration nonphysical energies that can create confusion and provide inaccurate psychic energy information. Although they are rare, there are also nonphysical entities that can be disruptive and thrive on fear and negativity. However, in the spirit realm, the power is with the positive and the good. The light, or high-vibration divine and positive energy, is a stronger force, and once it is invoked, any dark forces scatter and diminish. Under normal circumstances, lower-vibration spirits cannot harm, hurt, invade, bother, or attach to us while engaged in psychic development.

With this said, there are a few things to be aware of and ways to further protect yourself during psychic activity.

Practice the following:

• Do not open yourself to psychic influences if you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This lowers your vibration and weakens your energy field, enabling harmful energies to draw close to you.

• If you are angry, fearful, anxious, or in a heightened emotional state, do not engage in psychic development work. First talk to someone who is understanding and compassionate and who can help you to discharge and release difficult emotions. Seek an inner state of tranquility through meditation and prayer. Engage in a physical activity like running, swimming, or a sport that will help you blow off steam. When you feel more of a sense of calmness, you can open your psychic channels.

• Never seek psychic energy information for revenge, to prove that you are better or more special than others, or to have power over another. This lowers your vibration and attracts negative energies that will offer you the information you want in order to create a bond with you. However, only the initial information you receive will be correct and helpful. Eventually you will become confused and disturbed by what you receive.

• Before you intuitively tune in to psychic energy information, it is always a good idea to say a prayer or invoke divine and positive, high-vibration light energy and presence. Before I begin a session I always say a short prayer. I ask to be surrounded by the white light of love and protection, and I ask to only receive information and guidance that is in my and my client’s highest good. This activates protective high-vibration energy and repels negative or unhelpful spirit realm influences.

Raising your vibration, embodying the divine attributes of love and forgiveness, and being mindful of your spiritual growth activates a white-light bubble of protection that continually surrounds you.

ding ornament Exercise: Intuitive Meditation ding ornament

Meditation can help you to connect with your spirit and better receive clear and accurate intuitive guidance. During meditation, the active, conscious mind and emotions become less prominent. To varying degrees the inner chatter also becomes more subdued and quiet. Although the thinking mind never completely turns off, meditation allows you to differentiate between the voice of the thinking mind and conscious self and the deeper presence of your spirit, where psychic energy information emerges. A regular meditation practice can strengthen and accelerate psychic development.

Here is a simple meditation that will help you to increase your intuitive awareness.

To begin, find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. It is best to have a dimly lit room. Turn off any electronics, and sit in a comfortable chair or on the floor with pillows. When beginning a meditation practice, you may want to set a timer for five to fifteen minutes.

Close your eyes and pay attention to your breath. Breathe long, deep inhales and exhale any stress or tension. Continue to breathe this cleansing breath, inhaling and then releasing any tightness or tension in the body through the exhale.

As you breathe, be relaxed yet attentive and notice random thoughts and emotions as they surface without overfocusing on them. Do not push away or ignore what surfaces. Simply take note of your thoughts, breathe, and let them go. Don’t react and begin to overthink. Train your mind to notice a thought and then let it go. When an emotion surfaces, feel it and breathe and release it. Acknowledge whatever surfaces and continue to bring your awareness back to the breath.

When you feel relaxed, imagine your mind opening. Visualize, sense, or feel a white-light orb of energy above your head. Continue to breathe cleansing breaths, and slowly allow this light to fill and open your mind. Continue to imagine your mind merging with this light.

Breathe into your heart and imagine it opening. Allow the white light to expand from your mind into your heart. As your heart opens, imagine the light filling you with love. Move the energy of light and love through your body. Feel your body respond and soften and become receptive. Imagine this light and love extending from your body and filling your energy field.

As your mind, heart, body, and energy field merge with light and love, become aware of any psychic thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations that emerge. Accept whatever surfaces without overfocusing on it. Continue to breathe and invite and allow any psychic impressions to continue to emerge. Stay in a receptive mode, and take note of what you receive without trying to understand or overthink it.

When the energy begins to fade, gently open your eyes. Write down any psychic impressions, feelings, thoughts, images, and sensations that you experienced.

Intuitive Types and Spirituality

As we continue to open to and become more familiar with listening to and connecting with our spirit, new connections and aspects of our authentic self emerge. Psychic development sets in motion accelerated growth and change. It pushes aside the mundane and inconsequential and moves our soul and spirit to the forefront. Although developing psychic abilities can begin as nothing more than an interesting pastime, it creates a subtle but significant shift in our consciousness. We become part of a rich world of energy, spirit presence, and spiritual exploration.

Spirituality and psychic development are intertwined. Each of the four psychic types connect with and express spirituality in slightly different ways. We all embody and have the seed of each type’s spiritual gift within us. While you have the potential to experience and express the spirituality of each type, you may find a stronger connection with the spiritual energy of your predominant psychic type or types.

Consciousness (Mental Intuitive Type)

If you have a high degree of mental intuition, you likely have a natural spiritual understanding of and connection to higher consciousness, wisdom, and mindful awareness. Unlike an emotional intuitive, you are less likely to be swayed by emotional states and heightened spiritual longing. You are more interested in what makes sense, not necessarily logical sense but intuitive inner sense.

Because you are a truth seeker, you may investigate and try out different religions and spiritual paths. Always attracted to new ideas and knowledge, you may enjoy studying spiritual texts and investigating less mainstream spiritual thought. Many mental intuitives are attracted to spiritual practices that explore the power of the mind, such as using the mind to heal the physical body, create abundance, and intuitively explore and communicate with other dimensions and spiritual beings.

A mental intuitive may also be attracted to the study and research of different religions and spiritual practices, such as Buddhism, Science of Mind, and mindfulness.

The Lovers (Emotional Intuitive Type)

If you have a high degree of emotional intuition, your heart is the doorway to spiritual presence. You are intuitively connected to the energy of unconditional love, compassion, and forgiveness. With your tendency to feel deep feelings and create intense emotional connections with others, your spirituality is likely heart-centered and passionate.

You may be devoted to a particular spiritual leader or spiritual being with whom you experience a close, personal, and loving connection. The desire to feel and experience heightened states of longing and rapture and spiritually merge and become one with a soul mate or beloved partner may stir deep in your soul and motivate you.

For an emotional intuitive, feelings of love and the desire to heal the emotional wounds of others intensify psychic abilities. Through the combined forces of emotional intuition and spirituality, an emotional intuitive has the innate ability to connect and communicate with the angelic realm. Through this special connection to the angels, they are often able to lovingly heal and compassionately tend to those who suffer.

Earthwise (Physical Intuitive Type)

If you intuit primarily through physical intuition, you are naturally attuned to the divine presence within all of life. A bird in flight, the roar of sea waves, or a blooming flower may whisper to you of a greater divinity.

If you are a physical intuitive, you may feel a special spiritual connection with nature. The walls of your church may be the trees, the wind, and the sky. You may be attracted to Wiccan and pagan practices and intuitively feel the power of your spirit through earth-based rituals, or you might instead be drawn to the time-honored rites and practices of more traditional religions.

As a physical intuitive, your spirituality may be expressed through action and service. Not content to meditate, like a spiritual intuitive, or contemplate truth and reality, like those with a high degree of mental intuition, you may feel more comfortable expressing your spirituality in more tangible and hands-on kinds of way. You may give to those in need, quietly take on the less-sought-after tasks of keeping an organization or family on track, and contribute your time and energy as a way to love and divinely serve.

If you possess a high degree of physical intuition, you may be a natural healer who is able to work with divine forces through hands-on and other forms of healing. Your physical self, particularly your hands, can be a conduit of higher-vibration spiritual energy. In this way you have the potential to penetrate and go beyond the limitations of physicality to transform and heal.

Essence (Spiritual Intuitive Type)

If you have a high degree of spiritual intuition, you likely have a natural appreciation and affinity for the unseen and spirit realms. Because of your awareness of nonphysical beings, you have the natural ability to discern and trust the positive guidance and love of the unseen. Through communicating with spirit, you have the potential to bring messages of hope, understanding, and guidance to others. You are also likely to intuitively tune in to the spiritual purpose and soul path of others and activate and support their spiritual gifts.

With a rich inner life, you may seek solitude or spiritual practices that assist you in achieving higher states of awareness. You might also be drawn to spiritual practices where you can lose your sense of self and merge into a greater feeling of oneness, beyond the physical body. Those with a high degree of spiritual intuition are often attracted to less conventional spiritual practices. Unlike a physical intuitive, who often experiences spirituality through nature, or an emotional intuitive, who enjoys heart-centered communication with others, you may experience your spirituality through an inner state of awareness. For a spiritual intuitive, spirituality may be a sense of connectedness to the unseen whole and a peaceful oneness with all of life. Although your ability to feel and be immersed in a wide range of spiritual states is highly refined, you may not necessarily be able to put your experiences into words.

Frequency

As our connection to spirituality increases and intensifies, so does our vibration. The process of attuning our mind, emotions, body, and spirit to the energy of pure, wise, and loving divine presence is often referred to as raising our vibration. The higher your vibration, the easier it is to psychically receive accurate and helpful guidance. Fear, negativity, and similar emotions and states of mind vibrate at a lower density. When we receive psychic energy information through lower vibrations, it is more likely to invoke fear and confusion and be inaccurate. As we connect and align our consciousness with high-vibration energy, we are naturally protected from lower energies and psychic interference.

We can only psychically receive energy information at our level of consciousness. Higher consciousness awareness embodies the divine attributes of love, compassion, and wisdom. As our consciousness ascends to these higher levels, it becomes easier to receive accurate and crystal-clear psychic information.

It is important to raise your vibration before engaging in psychic work. However, this practice can also be done on a daily basis, as integrating higher levels of intuitive awareness into your everyday life is the ideal. Not only will your psychic abilities increase in strength and accuracy, but you will be happier and experience more inner peace. Some of the benefits of raising your vibration include improved mental clarity, an increase in personal power, improved physical health, and rapid healing of illness and other physical, emotional, and mental ailments.

There are many ways to raise your vibration. Here are a few:

• Practice meditation on a daily basis. Even if you have only five or ten minutes, tuning inward, focusing on the breath, and listening to your spirit can raise your vibration and increase intuitive receptivity.

• Spend time in nature. If you live in the city or are not able to be in a natural setting, look out the window at the sky, stars, and clouds. Sit on a porch or deck, watch the birds and squirrels, or tune in the energy of the trees.

• Be grateful. It can be helpful either in the morning or evening to have a daily practice of recognizing and having gratitude for three things that you experienced in the past twenty-four hours.

• Notice beauty. Beauty is an attribute of the divine. Spiritual beauty is not necessarily the same as what society deems attractive. The smile of a child, a cat sitting in the sun, a home-cooked meal, and other simple occurrences all radiate beauty.

• Be kind. Smile, forgive, do not react to provocation, let go of defensiveness, and give others the benefit of the doubt. These are all acts of kindness.

• Go on an electronic fast. Turn off your phone, television, computer, or music for a specific amount of time.

• Eat fresh, raw foods and drink water.

• Do more of what brings you joy. If you are not sure how to generate feelings of happiness, try different things. Gravitate toward what feels good.

• Help others. Be of service and give, and let others be there for you.

• Trust your intuition and act on your innermost truth.

• Releasing negative emotions and replacing them with positive ones quickly raises our vibration. Instead of ignoring and suppressing uncomfortable emotions, let yourself feel them. As you do this, they dissipate. However difficult it may be to let your feelings surface, it causes more harm to stuff them down and ignore them. Your emotions do not define you; they are simply feelings. They come and go. You are not your anger, fear, frustration, or grief. As you feel your negative emotions and let them go, you make room for the higher vibrations of love and compassion to fill you.

• One of the most effective ways to raise your vibration and accelerate your psychic development is to pay attention to your thoughts. Interrupt the cycle of mind chatter and negative self-talk. When you encounter fear-based, negative, critical, or judgmental thoughts, let them go. Acknowledge them and then choose to think a different thought. Replace negative or fear-based thoughts with a positive, reinforcing statement.

For instance, imagine that you find yourself thinking thoughts such as these:

I don’t know what is wrong with me.

I know I am going to be disappointed.

Last time I tried that I failed miserably. I am not going to take that chance again.

You can choose to counteract these negative thoughts with more positive ones. For instance:

I value my individuality and like doing things my way.

I know everything will work out for my highest good.

I learn a lot by trying new things. I am grateful that life is always providing me with new opportunities.

The first statements lower your vibration and drag you down. The second statements are more motivating and focus on good feelings. They raise your vibration and open you to positive energy.

ding ornament Exercise: Meditation to ding ornament
Raise Your Vibration

Raising your vibration prior to engaging in psychic activity will protect you from lower, negative energies and help you to receive higher guidance and insight. This is especially important if you are stressed or fearful or have been in a negative environment.

This meditation can be used to clear your mind, heart, and physical body in preparation for psychic development work, exploration, and practice.

To begin, find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed and sit in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and breathe a long inhale and exhale any stress or tension. Continue to breathe cleansing breaths, releasing any tightness or tension in the body. Focus on the breath and become aware of any random thoughts or emotions that begin to surface. Accept whatever thoughts or feelings surface without pushing them away or ignoring them. Simply take note of them and let them go. Anytime a thought or emotion surfaces, acknowledge it and continue to bring your awareness back to the breath.

Continue to breathe and imagine a beam of pure, high-vibration white-light energy above your head. This divine light is soothing and relaxing and at the same time energizing and nurturing.

Take a deep breath and allow this light to move down through the top of your head and into your third eye area. Breathe and imagine this light expanding and filling your head and neck with calm, soothing energy. Take a moment and continue to breathe in this energy. Move the beam of light down into your shoulders. Feel yourself relax. With the energy of this light, imagine that any burdens and stress in your jaw, neck, and shoulders release and dissipate.

Move this beam of light into your heart. Imagine your heart opening. Stuffed-away and suppressed feelings surface and easily dissolve as you breathe this light into your heart. Feel your heart expand and open like the blossom of a flower. Your heart grows larger and larger, filling with high-vibration love energy.

Allow this light to move down into your solar plexus. Feel this light filling you with strength and power. This high-vibration spiritual power enhances and supports your intuition. This light expands, and you feel spiritually grounded in the physical body.

Move this light into your organs. Feel this high-vibration energy releasing any toxins in the body as you fill with light. Feel this light nurturing and strengthening you.

Continue to breathe and feel the energy move down into your hips, legs, and feet. Feel your whole body energized and relaxed. In this high-vibration energy you feel lighter and at the same time grounded as the light reaches down into the earth and anchors you.

Continue to breathe and feel your body, mind, and spirit vibrating and expanding. Feel yourself move beyond and outside of the physical confines of your body. Imagine this light surrounding and protecting you.

Stay in this high vibration as long as possible. When you feel ready, breathe and come fully and completely into your physical body. Allow the white-light bubble to continue to surround and protect you.

Altered States of Consciousness

Raising your vibrational frequency empowers you to reach the kind of altered state of awareness that supports and encourages psychic awareness. In an altered state of awareness, the personality and ego self recedes into the background as your intuitive soul self comes forward. To the overtaxed brain, altered states of awareness can feel soothing and relaxing. They are often experienced as expansive, loving, and tension-free.

Being in an altered state can be so pleasant that many people attempt to achieve it in false and potentially damaging ways. Alcohol and drug use weakens the energy field and makes us more vulnerable to negative spiritual influences. Although they can bring relief by numbing and quieting the personality and ego self, they give only temporary relief that cannot be sustained.

The best way to achieve an altered state is through training the mind to detach from ego-driven states of consciousness and reside in higher-frequency awareness. This can be accomplished by detaching from mind chatter and raising your vibration. The more adept and familiar you become with altered states of consciousness, the easier it is to access psychic energy information. Here are a few ways that you can achieve an altered state through raising your vibration.

Walking Meditation

Walk someplace where you do not need to be overly concerned about traffic and noise. A quiet street or path through nature is preferred. As you walk, pay attention to your breath and scan your environment. Continue to breathe, and if you find yourself overthinking or carrying on an inner conversation, go back to the breath. As you breathe, open your heart and become intuitively receptive. As you receive energy information, don’t try to figure it out or overthink. Allow energy and awareness to flow in and out as you scan your environment, relax, and breathe.

Prayer

Prayer induces an altered state of awareness and connectedness to a higher presence and power. Invoking and talking to God, Goddess, Divine Spirit or Presence, or whatever higher energy you feel most aligned with is a powerful way to raise your consciousness and nurture your intuitive receptivity. Prayer puts things into perspective. It allows you to let go of control and accept grace and intervention. When your psychic awareness is aligned with higher forces, you become a messenger and intermediary for the divine.

Chanting

Chanting is an excellent way to raise your vibration. While speaking and singing are a projection of the voice in the external environment, chanting focuses the energy of the voice inward. This sound energy reverberates throughout the body and energy field and shifts your consciousness into higher states of awareness. Various spiritual practices and disciplines use chanting as an effective way to draw closer to the divine.

Here is a simple but effective chant. Sit with your back erect and close your eyes. Breathe in through your nose and exhale the Om sound. When you run out of breath, repeat. Breathe in through the nose and exhale the Om sound. Continue this breath and the repetition of Om.

Music

Listening to music relaxes the thinking mind, soothes the nervous system, and releases stress. Allowing the conscious self to recede and the intuitive self to come forward is the hallmark of an altered state of awareness. The best kinds of music to induce an altered state are polyrhythmic, monotonous drumming, chants, and New Age music. However, you may have a particular type of music you enjoy that induces an altered state.

Music can positively impact our brain waves and stimulate psychic receptivity and awareness. It may be helpful to listen to instrumental music and to close your eyes and relax. As you do this, allow images, feelings, thoughts, and sensations to emerge. Don’t overfocus on what surfaces; just keep relaxing and listening.

Incorporating these kinds of activities into your daily life will help you to become more familiar and comfortable with shifting into an altered state. This is turn will make it easier to attain this state when you want to use your psychic abilities. If you are constantly rushing, overthinking, stressed, and anxious, it is difficult to quickly shift into the receptive and open awareness that is necessary to receive psychic energy information. Psychic awareness is a way of life, and the more you nurture and encourage altered states of awareness on a daily basis, the stronger your psychic muscle becomes.

Being Present

Along with raising your vibration and attaining an altered state of consciousness, being grounded in the here and now is essential for successful psychic development. Grounding is being fully centered, mind, body and spirit, and it encourages and supports you in receiving psychic energy and translating it into understandable and usable information. When you are not grounded, receiving psychic energy can create mental confusion and leave you feeling off balance and overwhelmed with sensations and foggy impressions.

At times, raising your vibration and engaging in psychic development can tip the scales and knock you off balance. Here are a few telltale signs of being ungrounded:

• Feeling spacey

• Physical awkwardness, bumping into things, tripping

• Forgetfulness

• Headaches

• Grogginess and laziness

• Staring into space for an extended period of time

• Feeling fearful, anxious, or stressed

• Inability to communicate your psychic impressions

• Feeling a constant stream of psychic information moving through you (even when you do not want to receive psychic energy)

• Experiencing emotional ups and downs for no known reason

• Constantly hearing words, phrases, and inner talk that do not make sense

• Constantly seeing orbs, colors, images, people, faces, and other images that others do not perceive (when not engaged in psychic work)

• Not eating or sleeping well

• Pounding in your head or dizziness

• A constant buzzing feeling of vibration moving through your body

• Being unable to focus

• Craving sweets or carbohydrates

When developing and engaging in psychic development work, it is helpful to include grounding as a part of your daily practice. Here are a few grounding activities:

• Practice mindful awareness. Notice your surroundings and the activity that is going on around you. Smells and sounds can bring us into the here and now. What subtle noises, fragrances, and colors do you notice in your environment? Move your awareness into your body and become aware of any tension or stress in the muscles and joints. Stretch and release any tightness or discomfort. Breathe and center your awareness in your solar plexus. Feeling your inner core of power centers your consciousness in the body.

• Being in nature, feeling the sun on your face, dipping your toes in a cool stream, or digging in the garden all help to ground your energy. Feeling a connection with nature is a good way to clear your head, open your heart, and feel your connection with the earth. All of these also help you to increase and build up your inner psychic reserves.

• Lifting weights, running, doing yoga, and most types of physical activity are good ways to ground. Psychic development work tends to increase our spiritual energy and expand our consciousness outside of the physical body. Physical activity helps this energy to move back into the body and nurtures the spirit as well.

• Eating protein such as beans and meat (if you are not a vegetarian) and red, orange, or yellow fruits and vegetables energizes the lower chakras.

• Take a bath or shower, sit in a hot tub or steam room, or go swimming. Water neutralizes energetic static and helps to connect and integrate the mind, body, and spirit.

• Practicing visualizations can help us connect our spiritual and physical energy centers with the earth and the elements. Here is an easy grounding visualization. Imagine a red cord of energy that extends from your lower spine down into the earth. White-light high-vibration energy moves down through the top of your head, through the spinal column, and into this cord. This cord extends into the ground and anchors itself deep in the earth, and moves the energy of the earth up through the cord and into the physical body.

The Clearing-Out Process

One of the most reliable ways to raise your vibrational frequency, ground yourself, and refine and sharpen your psychic abilities is through personal inner growth. As high-vibration energy enters your consciousness, whatever resides within you that is not in harmony with your highest good surfaces. Simply put, your stuff will rear its ugly head. Old emotions and emotional wounds will make their way to the surface, and beliefs, feelings, and thoughts that prevent you from growing psychically and embracing a new understanding of yourself may seem to become stronger. While you may feel and become more aware of your fears, stress, low self-esteem, vulnerabilities, and sense of worthiness, you may be at a loss as to how to heal and transform these feelings and issues. Psychic development does not happen in a vacuum. The shift to a higher psychic consciousness stirs up our fears, thoughts, and emotions and prods and pushes to the surface all that is preventing us from being clear channels of positive, high-vibration energy.

If you resist this growth and try to hold back the tide that wants to wash away all that is obstructing and preventing you from clear and accurate intuitive receptivity, you will hit a wall. Intuition will become fuzzy and unclear and you may feel blocked and unable to form a clear psychic connection to energy. If you continue to try to push through and work with psychic energy without addressing personal issues and releasing past emotional wounds and limiting beliefs, you may feel a heightened degree of anxiety, which for some people often becomes a feeling of panic.

The only way to continue on the psychic journey is to participate in the work of personal and inner growth. This is not the exciting work of psychic exploration and paranormal intrigue, but the tedious and often difficult work of purging and letting go of painful emotions, beliefs, prejudices, fears, suppressed anger, and all the other stuff that we try to avoid.

The good news is that your psychic awareness can assist you in this process. It acts almost like an intense cleansing agent. As high-vibration energy pours in, it stimulates and helps to flush out what needs to be let go of. The pace of this work can vary; sometimes it is slow and other times it happens more quickly. Trust the timing and rhythm of this detoxification process. Your soul and spirit working through your intuition are guiding you.

Subtle Clearing

The clearing process can happen at any time and any place, but it is more likely to occur when you are relaxing, meditating, or doing an intuitive exercise. During a gentle psychic clearing you may begin to experience subtle feelings of sadness or anxiety. You may become frustrated with your intuitive progress and want to give up, or you may wonder why you are even trying to become more psychic. You may feel blocked and unable to access your intuition. Although the feelings are not overwhelming, you may lose interest in developing your abilities or become restless, and your attention may become focused on something else. However, if you are able to sit with these feelings and probe deeper, you will discover that what you are experiencing is motivated by an inner resistance. There may be an unconscious belief about psychic development, or you may be fearful that you are changing and entering uncharted inner territory. There may be suppressed pain or fear from the past that has nothing to do with psychic awareness and that you need to let go of.

As you become a clear psychic channel, the low-vibration energy of negativity and toxic emotions surfaces to be released. Instead of denying the uncomfortable feelings and thoughts, embrace them. Feel the emotions and allow the thoughts to surface, breathe, and then let them go. This is all that you need to do. You do not have to relive past events or be consciously aware of the origin of what surfaces. Just accept and feel and the energy will dissipate. As you do this, you heal and transform. High-vibration energy flows through you, and you experience better spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health and well-being. Your psychic power increases.

When we move forward in our psychic development, it is inevitable that at some point we will take a step backward. Don’t let setbacks alarm you, and don’t give them more attention and meaning than they deserve. Take a deep breath, do what needs to be done, and keep moving forward.

Continually Purge the Psychic Channels

Clearing your energy is not a one-time event. It is important to continually acknowledge and become aware of the emotions, feelings, resistance, memories, and beliefs that get stirred up and brought to the surface during psychic development. To continue to receive clear and accurate psychic energy information, feel your feelings, let go of negative thoughts, and release any built-up stress or tension in the body.

Sometimes the process of clearing is obvious and other times it occurs in unexpected and more challenging ways.

For instance, you may be at home reading about intuition or spirituality or doing an intuitive exercise when a wave of sadness or other unexplained feelings comes over you. You may want to cry without knowing why. Or you might become anxious and it may feel like your skin is crawling, or you might all of a sudden feel a sense of fear or impending doom or that something is not right. Although these episodes are confusing and likely do not make sense, they are signs that something is surfacing from within and needs to be released or healed. If this or something similar to these experiences occurs, don’t run from what is happening but instead stay with it.

For some people, confusing memories may surface. Events that you don’t remember and that have been repressed and don’t make sense may come into your awareness. You might recall past-life memories and feel the trauma or fear that you felt long, long ago. Feelings of anger or even rage may spontaneously come over you. You might find yourself mad at something that doesn’t seem like a big deal. None of what is happening makes sense and you don’t know what to do. You may dream of places and events that you do not recall but that invoke strong emotions, or you may awaken feeling an emotional intensity that you cannot identify.

While developing and increasing your psychic capacity, the clearing-out process is sure to happen to some degree. When it does, stay with the process, despite the feeling of wanting to shut down and avoid all that is surfacing. Becoming conscious is a big step in psychic and spiritual growth and awareness. If you resist this process, you will feel lost and ungrounded. Despite the intensity of the experience, allowing and not resisting it is healthy and positive. Not only will your intuitive abilities increase and become stronger, but your health and overall feeling of wellness will improve as well.

When confusing feelings or memories surface, stay mindful of the process. Allow a part of your awareness to experience the feelings and tune in to the memories and other sensations that need to surface while another aspect of you allows and invites positive, loving, and high-vibration energy in. Breathe and receive this energy, open your heart, and have compassion for yourself as you clear out and let go of what is not in your highest good. Stay with this process for as long as possible. Eventually the painful feelings, stress, and anxiety will begin to calm down and dissipate. Feelings of peace and love will flow in, and you may become aware of and feel a warm and loving angelic presence helping you.

Once you have let go of whatever may have been getting in the way of you receiving high-vibration, clear, and accurate psychic insights and guidance, other changes may occur. For instance, you may feel motivated to let go of people and activities in your life that are not supporting your highest good. Certain friendships may go by the wayside, and you may no longer find interest in past activities and pursuits. You may find that you are more sensitive to certain foods, like those high in sugar and carbs, and that crowds and loud noises are uncomfortable. As your vibration heightens, you may experience an increased interest in spending time outdoors, being with others who are on a spiritual path, and taking better care of yourself. Once activated and developed, your psychic awareness acts as an invisible radar leading you to the people, food, activities, and environments that support and nurture the best possible you. Being psychic is a way of life, and it leads to a good life of abundance, positive connections with others, inner peace, and joy.

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The more you incorporate the practices from this chapter into your daily life, the easier it will be to develop your psychic abilities and use them when you need them. Successful psychic development is a way of life. As you actively participate in raising your vibration, shifting into altered states of consciousness, and grounding, you not only will be able to receive psychic energy information but will also enjoy the benefits of high-vibration living, such as feelings of connection to a higher presence and power, inner peace, elimination of stress and anxiety, and a sense of well-being.

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