Chapter 4

Break “Beyond” and More Easily Access
Your Psychic Gifts

Getting to the place where psychic ability flows easily is the ultimate goal. It starts with the desire to be psychic, and then continues with a fundamental need to develop your gifts. Though it is not a step-by-step process, there is a basic order to things. This chapter, you’ll discover, offers you a transitional period and the tools and direction you need to increase your psychic intensity. Going within to access your gifts is critical. This allows you to travel using your spirit and to raise your vibration based on your thoughts. To make it an easier transition from a beginner level to beyond, you need to take stock of what you’ve been thinking about. It’s a good time to reflect on what you believe and what interests you and your spirit.

Raise the Vibration of Your Thoughts

We create our own reality. Our thoughts design our lives; whether they help you or hinder you is the question you must ponder. Another way to understand this is to realize that what we pay attention to becomes the focus of what our life is. Just think about what that means. When we pay, we invest in something; there is an expense. When you direct your attention to something, it makes that more prevalent and pulls your consciousness to it. It is important to pay for something or manifest something you want, rather than get distracted by that which will not serve your greater purpose.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean that just because you decide one day you’d like to be psychic, you automatically will. It does, however, create a greater possibility that you will increase your skills. What we surround ourselves with is what shapes us. If we choose to be around others who don’t believe in the psychic reality, we may stifle our own development; it can take a toll on our own thoughts and make us doubt the validity of what we are trying to accomplish. When, instead, we join the ranks of all the people around the world who trust in the absolute of intuitive existence, we elevate our own gifts and can immerse ourselves in this psychic world. This, subsequently and collectively, raises our vibration and helps us increase our metaphysical skills.

Raising our vibration is a true gateway to psychic development. Empowering ourselves to believe we can go to a level beyond helps propel you to that next degree of proficiency. Getting to that point, past where you’ve been before, takes nurturing. You need to cultivate your energy to grow your psychic gifts. Sometimes it helps to visualize what it would look like to raise your vibration—seeing it will often help you to translate it into the thoughts you need to produce the results you want.

Exercise

Raising Your Vibration Layer by Layer

As usual, get comfortable and take a few deep breaths. Close your eyes and breathe some more. Stay in this space, with your eyes comfortably closed and continue inhaling and exhaling, relaxing with every breath.

Imagine a thick, delicious, multi-flavored seven-layer cake in front of you. The bottom layer is vanilla cake. Gluing this to the layer above is vanilla frosting. Starts off pretty basic, right? But, nevertheless, still delicious and moist. Take a bite! The next layer is a confetti layer. There are sprinkles melted into the vanilla cake and on top of that is a mouthwatering strawberry frosting. We are building a delectable confection! Are you still eating? Above that is a sheet of marble cake, with fudgy chocolate mousse icing on top. Eat it! Is your mouth watering for more? Mine is. Luckily, there’s so much more.

Next, there is a chocolate layer, with cherries and black forest cream followed by a sheet of coconut cream cheesecake with coconut cream cheese icing. This is getting intense! Yum, that tastes amazing. The sixth layer is a delicious blend of almond cake and oranges with a whipped-cream topping. To cap it all off, there’s a red velvet layer with a purple grape and plum frosting. This is a crazy cake! I just swallowed my seventh bite. How about you?

Now, go back to the bottom layers. Vanilla, simple but appealing. Did you stop there? Or were you able to rise to the next layers? They were a little more developed and interesting as you expanded with each flavor. Think of the cake layers as your psychic vibrational layers. Were you able to build it up? Or did you get stuck somewhere?

How did it feel? Did you want to stay at one spot in the cake because it was familiar? Did it spook you a bit to imagine a flavor that didn’t quite make sense to you or that wasn’t as comfortable as the other flavors? Was your attention lost at a specific layer? Perhaps halfway through?

Go back and imagine the cake again. Now that you know how raising your vibration can relate to moving up the cake layers, was it easier to imagine and visualize and even enjoy each layer? Or do you still stop somewhere? Maybe substitute the layers with something you’ve always wanted to try but were afraid to because you thought you wouldn’t like the change. Take that bite, make the connection. Was it difficult to imagine going where you’ve not gone before?

Obviously, this cake metaphor is about raising your vibration, but it’s also about changing your mind-set. When you accept that you can challenge yourself to a point you’ve not gone before, you are able to expand your psychic talents. Increasing your frequency gets you that much closer to moving beyond a beginner level.

Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation is a fantastic way to help raise your vibration, thereby helping you connect on a deeper level to your psychic abilities. Meditation is a state of deep relaxation and can be as easy as taking a simple breath. By directing your intention to your breathing, you are guiding your conscious mind to lead the way for your subconscious to begin processing and healing without your conscious input. All that’s needed to meditate, to reach a state of detachment from the external self, is to allow it to happen. Relaxation of the body can assist the mind to reach a safe zone, where nothing can hurt or control it. This can, at times, be difficult to achieve, though taking that first deep breath is the best way to start.

Meditation has many health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure, reducing stress, decreasing anxiety, and helping you sleep better. Meditation can alter the way you react to run-of-the-mill happenings, which in turn can bring a sense of peace. Serenity can be achieved in the moment, but also for the long term. The more often you meditate, the easier it becomes and the more it transforms your way of being. Knowing how to reach a basic meditative state is the first step toward reaching a spiritual awareness that can bring you to a level beyond beginning.

Many of us already have a meditation practice, or at minimum, have some experience with meditation. All meditation is good meditation, but all meditation is not practiced with the same goal. Meditation is mostly used for relaxation, which is a wonderful first step toward using meditation to enhance your psychic awareness. Once you’ve discovered how incredible meditation can make you feel, and what your current meditative habits can do for you, you are ready to expand your routine to include meditation to enhance your extrasensory gifts.

Meditating helps you empty your mind from conscious thought. We typically have so much static playing in our minds that it can block the inflow of psychic information. When we quiet the chatter, we are more receptive to messages. Learning how to mindfully meditate allows us to silence the constant distractions and be present in the moment. It will bring you a sense of peace and calm, enabling you to link to the universal energy with your extrasensory gifts without consciously interfering.

Jon Kabat-Zinn (author, biologist, and creator of Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society) describes mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”6 Mindful meditation does not come easily. Rather it may take quite a bit of exploration before you feel you are truly meditating. Practicing will help get you there.

Exercise

Mindfully Meditate

Go somewhere you won’t be disturbed. You’ll need a good amount of time to practice, so allow for that. Sit or lie down comfortably. Close your eyes. Begin by focusing on your breath. Feel the oxygen as it enters your nose, travels down into your throat, and into your lungs. Then, focus on the air as it leaves your mouth. Be in the moment. Focus only on your breath. As other thoughts enter your mind, acknowledge them and let them go, transferring your mindfulness back to your breath. Every thought you have is merely a distraction. Continue breathing until you feel more focused than distracted. When you are ready, move on.

Now, bring your mindfulness down to your pinky toes. Feel them. Breathe energy into them. Focus on where they are on your body. Feel your blood flowing through them. Feel the temperature of them. Feel where your toenails connect to your toes. Feel where your toes connect to your feet. Feel where they touch your other toes. Once you’ve connected to your pinky toes, take another deep breath and move your awareness up to your calf muscles.

Feel the energy flowing through your calves, blood and energy pulsing through with every breath. Feel the power your calves bring to your legs. Feel the strength in your calf muscles, ready to be utilized on command. Be present and bring your entire focus to these muscles. Stay there for a moment, until you’re ready to move on.

Next, move up to your hips. Feel the way your joints connect. Focus on the area between your hips. Be mindful of how your pelvic area feels in this moment. Notice the warmth in your lower abdomen. Pay attention to how your insides feel; notice if they feel heavy, light, and so on. When you have explored and focused entirely on your hip and lower trunk area, you are ready to move up.

Focus your energy on your entire torso. First pay special attention to the exterior of your body. Then, when you inhale, focus on the processes inside your body. Sit with this large area and allow yourself to focus on every bit, a little at a time. Feel your muscles contract as you breathe and your chest fills with oxygen. Stay here until you are prepared to move up into your neck and shoulders.

Move your attention to your spine, where it enters your neck and shoulder area. Pay attention to how it feels, whether it feels loose or tight, stiff or flexible. Concentrate on the muscles there and be mindful of what they feel like. Contemplate on the joints where the shoulders meet your collarbone and notice what they feel like. Then, travel into your head.

Focus on your head, the entire head. Your face, your muscles in your face, your mouth, nose, and eyes. Then pay attention to the top of your head, your scalp, and even your hair. Feel your ears and how they reach inside, down to your throat and the side of your head. Feel your jaw muscles and your cheeks.

When you’ve explored your face and head, take a deep breath. Continue breathing and focus on your breath as it moves through your nose, and into your chest and lungs. Pay attention to how it feels as it leaves your body through your mouth. Keep your focus on your breathing as the air travels in and out.

Bring your mindfulness to how it feels to have your body sitting or lying down and take a few more deep breaths. When you are ready, open your eyes and bring yourself back. Remain in the present.

Mindful meditation helps provide us with a glimpse into our own life, our own energy. It offers us an opportunity to get ourselves unstuck and get out of our own way, imparting to us a greater awareness of reality in the present moment. Meditation also helps you connect to your spirit. It allows you to enhance your connection to the energy that connects us all. Through this link you may even begin to travel psychically and be present metaphysically in another place or time.

Psychic Abilities, Meditation,
Hypnosis, and How They Connect

You may think psychic abilities and hypnosis are two very distinct specialties, but in reality, there are many areas where the two overlap. Hypnosis is similar to meditation but requires a very definitive stated goal before executing this type of guided meditation. And, you already know that meditation can allow your conscious mind to take a back seat, permitting you to remain open to receiving psychic messages. So, utilizing these available tools and learning how they connect will help you become more proficient with your intuitive gifts.

When I discovered my propensity for intuitive abilities, I began to recognize I wanted more. I wanted to understand how people had memories of other times and how these details from these other lifetimes were popping up in my readings. I began studying hypnotism and became certified as a hypnotist. I realized I could offer more than just readings when I discovered past-life regression hypnosis and how it played a part in discovering who we were in this lifetime. Another way to gather metaphysical data is through astral or psychic travel. This type of extrasensory journeying can be achieved when combining hypnosis and meditation with our psychic gifts. This method of being in another location spiritually, while your body remains physically somewhere else, can be accomplished and used to gather psychic information. Learning these more advanced practices will help you increase your psychic abilities to beyond a beginner level.

Meditation and Astral (Psychic) Travel

People dream when they sleep. Most often these are dreams that seem fantastical or unreal. But, many people have dreams that feel very real. This may be due, in part, to visitations. Loved ones and guides often come through during sleep because you are, essentially, out of your conscious state and they can get through without you doubting or blocking them. Also known as psychic travel, astral travel is another way physical reality, normally not visited, shines through in your dreams. This can leave you feeling like something was more real than just a dream. Your spirit, traveling out of your body, is able to visit other people or places and experience things while your physical body remains asleep. Most often, this happens without any conscious effort or decision. There is a way to achieve this level of astral travel or have an out-of-body experience while awake. This enables you to gather data in a metaphysical way, different from when you consciously use your senses and try to bring the information to you.

Astral travel can advance your psychic abilities in a way nothing else can. It can allow you to bilocate to a place distant from yourself in order to know what is there or what is happening there. This is also known as remote viewing. Having the ability to gather data from the other location can help you psychically perceive where lost objects or even people may be. It can assist you in viewing something you wouldn’t otherwise be able to see. It can also assist you in psychically connecting to someone else.

Through meditation you can achieve psychic travel. When done correctly, you can project your astral body out of your physical body and travel to a pre-determined location or even a random spot. This can be achieved with practice and the belief that it is possible! Occasionally, it occurs when you least expect it, as it did with my client Delia.

Delia came in a few years ago wanting me to facilitate a past-life regression for her to discover who she was before she began her journey in this lifetime. This is a common request from my clients for a variety of reasons. They come out of curiosity, or they are searching for a reason or some background why they may have a phobia or fear in this current life. Frequently, clients are looking to understand why they are struggling with an unhealthy relationship with someone. They know why they are there and their past-life regression usually reflects it. Delia’s session took a strange turn, though.

I began relaxing her, getting her ready for her past-life regression session.

“When I count down from three to one, you will step into a place distant in time and space, a place you may or may not recognize, that has everything to do with who you are today. Raise your finger to let me know when you’re ready to begin,” I told her.

She raised her finger and we began the process of acknowledging who and where she is. I ask her to look at her feet and her hands and even her clothing and to tell me what they look like. She answers, and her response makes me wonder if she’s regressing at all.

“It’s me. It’s the same outfit I have on now. My wedding ring is on my finger and I can see my toe ring,” she answers.

I am feeling possibly she wasn’t relaxed enough to travel back in time. Maybe I can salvage the session for her, so I keep going, hoping we can peel back her experiences in layers. I ask her if she feels like she is sitting down (like in my chair) or if she is standing or walking.

“I feel like I’m looking down, almost like I’m flying,” Delia told me.

“All right. Is it light or dark out?” I ask, my curiosity climbing.

“It’s dusky, but I can see,” she continued in a raspy, breathy voice.

“Tell me what you see,” I encourage her, intrigued by the slight change in her demeanor.

“I’m a little winded. I feel a bit detached,” Delia says.

“All right, can you continue?”

“Yes.”

“Great, tell me what you see,” I say again.

“It’s strange. I’m looking at the roof of my car?” she utters, questioning.

“What else do you see?” I asked, captivated by her response.

“I see other cars, from above, like I’m flying over them. It’s the parking lot here, outside.”

This has me fascinated. Is she just remembering coming into my office? Is she having difficulty letting go of her reality? Or, is it something more? Instinctively, I ask her a question that, depending upon her answer, I know I can validate immediately.

“What else is there to look at? Do you see anything besides the vehicles?” I inquire.

I observe her questioning herself before she responds, so I encourage her by telling her, “It’s all right. Just tell me what you see.”

“Okay. I am seeing all the cars, still. There is a minivan pulling in and parking.”

“Keep going,” I tell her as I inch closer to my office windows. “What color is the van?”

“It looks like a silver or a light blue.”

I look out the window and see the tail lights of a silver minivan that just pulled into a parking spot. As I watch, a mom and a young girl hop out.

“Is there anything else?” I ask.

“Yes, there are a couple of people now. It looks like someone with brownish hair and someone smaller with blonde curly hair.”

That’s exactly what is happening outside my window. I am fascinated at this point because I realize I have not led her into a past-life regression; rather I’ve brought her, through meditation, out of her physical body and into her astral body and she is currently traveling outside my office building. I decide to try one more thing before bringing her back.

“Delia,” I begin. When I do past-life regression, I don’t use their name as this can create confusion in their past lives. I elected to use it intentionally to see if it threw her off or not, but it didn’t appear to. “Do you see any buildings?”

“Yes. I see your office building and the salon next door,” she responds with more confidence, now.

“Can you travel over to my window and tell me what you see?”

Unbeknownst to her, I was standing in front of it, now, waving.

“Okay, give me a second. It feels like I’m moving through a dense fog.”

“No problem, take your time,” I encourage.

“I see your window. And I see a person, I think. Wait, I think it’s you. You’re holding your hand up or something.”

I continued the session and had her go to the edges of the parking lot, but no further. I wasn’t sure how secure she was at this point, and I didn’t want to cause her any anxiety. My office is on a busy road and I didn’t want her to be fearful heading out above any traffic she might encounter. After I brought her back to her body and out of her meditative state, we discussed what had happened. Unlike a dream or even a psychic vision, she was able to remember, in full detail, everything she had witnessed. Delia, like I, was shocked that she had experienced an out-of-body episode. She, of course, was curious as to why she hadn’t regressed, but she wasn’t quite sure what was going on. We went on to discuss what happened.

I explained to her that she had an astral travel experience and that I had never witnessed a client having one while trying to regress. But, I also shared that it was a really cool thing and now that she had done it, she should be able to do it again, even on her own, through meditation. I intuitively knew this to be true. A few weeks later Delia contacted me and confirmed that after many meditative attempts, she was indeed able to recreate her out-of-body experience and even validated what she had seen by going outside to confirm her visions of what was happening near her house.

I witnessed Delia’s initial experience, one that was unexpected and unprecedented for both of us. I, too, have experienced a form of psychic projection or travel. For me, like Delia, I was not immediately aware of what was happening. I was participating in a week-long class to study remote viewing when I had my own out-of-body, astral travel experience. It was, in a nutshell, surreal.

I was at Omega, and the assignment was given to tune in, using remote viewing, to an undisclosed target. This meant we, as a class, were given the task to view somewhere or someone, but we didn’t know where or who. We were told to do this overnight and come back the next day with the data we collected. The entire evening, and into the morning, I felt extremely uncomfortable. I felt like I constantly had to look over my shoulder because there was someone watching me or following me. I didn’t like it and I didn’t know why.

We shared our experiences in class the next morning. I shared that I felt strange. It felt like I was seeing things outside of myself, as though I were looking at my own actions with other eyes, even to the extreme that I watched myself sit at the dinner table with other students the evening before. It turned out the assignment was to remotely view ourselves! That, of course, meant that what I was actually doing, without realizing it, was psychically traveling and watching myself the whole time. I was the one that was making me uncomfortable, though I hadn’t been aware of it. I was metaphysically traveling outside of my body, watching my physical self. That was my first experience with true psychic or astral travel.

Delia did it, I did it, and I am confident you will be able to do it too! You have the added benefit of already possessing a keen sense of intuition and are on your way to develop it further. Practicing doesn’t always make perfect, but it will take some effort to learn how to astral travel through meditation. In the last exercise, you were tasked to do a mindful meditation. Before you move on to astral travel, make sure you are comfortable with the previous meditation. If not, do it again. There is nothing saying you can’t repeat it numerous times to prepare for your out-of-body experience.

With Delia, there was no time to prepare for her astral travel. She began taking a random journey until I guided her to a specific location. For practical purposes, you would do better allowing a trip without a predetermined destination for your first attempt. At the end of the following exercise, you will have an opportunity to direct where you want your astral body to take you. But first, you can master, or at least attempt to master, getting out of your body.

For now, do not worry about gathering specific psychic data. Instead, just practice the spiritual journeying. You don’t want to have to think too much about it during your first attempt. If you find you can travel easily, at the end of the exercise you will find direction to gather information about where you are, and as you continue practicing, you can allow for bringing more information back from each journey.

Exercise

Astral Travel Meditation Part I

As always, go somewhere you won’t be disturbed and be sure you are wearing comfortable clothing. Try to lie down instead of sitting as this will help provide a better probability of a successful journey. (I will refer to where you’re lying as a bed, but you can be on the floor, on a couch, or even lying down in your car.) Begin by breathing deeply and continue focusing on your breath. When you reach a deep state of relaxation, you can move on.

Move your focus to where your heels are touching down against the bed. Notice how it feels to connect there, and then move up into your calves. Again, pay attention to where you are touching the bed and feel how you are almost being drawn down into the bed. Continue moving up your body, into your thighs, rear, back, shoulders, arms, and head, taking plenty of time to feel the physical connection where each body part touches the bed. Feel yourself grounded down, relaxed and content.

Imagine there are two sets of magnets. The first are attached to you everywhere your psychical body meets the bed—one positively charged on each area of your body and a corresponding negatively charged one in the same places along the bed. These magnets are creating a perfectly balanced connection, keeping your physical body attached to the bed.

Now, imagine a beautiful fluffy cloud. Within this cloud there are negatively charged magnets. More positively charged magnets are attached to your astral body, just above your physical body—above your toes, your knees, your hips, your abdomen, your chest, your hands, your jaw, and your forehead.

Feel the positive magnets attaching your physical body to the bed, repelling the positive magnets connected to your astral body—the two cannot connect and they naturally begin to separate. The cloud begins to float upward and starts to gently pull your astral body up with it. You may notice your forehead area being drawn up to the cloud first, followed by your jaw and your hands and your chest and your abdomen and your hips and your knees and your toes. Bit by bit, feel your astral body drawn out of your physical body up to the beautiful, light cloud. When your entire spiritual body floats up, it begins to mesh with the cloud, allowing your astral self to float without effort. It might feel as though your temperature has cooled down, almost icy. This is okay and is nothing to be concerned with. The ambient temperature of the cloud will keep you safe.

Imagine now that your cloud self turns over, gently, in a non-jarring way. Your astral body is now looking down at your physical self, lovingly, appreciatingly. Allow the cloud to begin carrying you. As you look down you can see what you are gliding over. Notice any colors you see as you slowly move. Pay attention to any shapes below you.

As you continue to move, observe where you may be. Are you still near your physical self? Are you in the same location you were when you started? If so, continue moving. If not, discern what you are looking at. Try to make out some particulars, like how far off the ground are you? Are you inside or outside? Are you nearby or have you traveled a great distance? Do you hear any sounds? Are there any people? Can you discern any details about what you are looking at? Is there anything above you? Allow your astral body, your spirit, to look for anything remarkable that you will remember when you get back to your physical self.

When you’ve satisfied your travel yearnings, allow yourself to float back, slowly. When you see or feel you are above your physical body, release the magnets holding you to your astral cloud carrier and allow your physical magnets to gently cradle your spirit back inside your physical body. You may experience a bit of a jolt. This is okay. Don’t worry if it happens. Alternatively, it may feel as though your body has become wrapped in a nice, warm blanket.

Take stock of how well you did with your, possibly, first astral travel experience.

Now, process your experience. Did you enjoy it? Did it feel comfortable? Were you able to travel? Did you feel you were out of your body? If you traveled away from your physical self, go and validate what you saw—the colors, shapes, sounds, people, and other details you discovered during your astral travel experience. If you traveled a great distance, too far to physically go right now, look the area up on the internet to help you validate it. If you can’t get validation this time, it’s okay, or if you didn’t accomplish what you’d hoped, give yourself a day or two and try it again.

Exercise

Astral Travel Meditation Part II:
Take Off to a Destination

It’s time to travel once more, but this time decide on a destination before you go. For your first attempt, pick a destination you can easily validate by physically attending. You want to have access to the location immediately after you’re done with your meditation. Choose a spot that may have some activity, but not too much. It’s hard to verify the data you perceive in real time if there are constant changes.

When you are ready, repeat Astral Travel Meditation Part I. When you get to the part where you begin to move away from your physical body, set your intention to travel to your pre-determined location. Notice whether you can observe anything along the way. Pay special attention to the little details, even things as small as a cup on a table or even the color of flowers. It’s these details that will provide validity to your traveling.

Allow yourself to freely travel to your destination; don’t try to control how you get there. Once you’ve reached your location, examine what is there. What do you see? What do you hear? Do you feel anything? Are there any other people there? Does it feel warm? Cold? Comfortable? Uncomfortable?

When you are ready, come back to your body and gently release your cloud. Were you able to travel to your pre-determined destination? Was it very quick? Did it take a long time? Did it feel easy? Was it difficult? What, if anything, differed for you knowing you had a destination instead of just free floating?

If you couldn’t accomplish this type of astral travel, no worries. Practice will help you. Go with whichever way felt better or easier for you. Having a specific destination right now is not essential.

Astral travel can create a feeling of detachment. It may also bring about a feeling of being displaced or dizzy. Be sure when you are done practicing to pay special attention to how you feel. You may have to stomp your feet or go outside and hug a tree to try to ground yourself back into your physical body.

Getting beyond Your Ego

Perhaps you have been practicing readings and are feeling stuck. When you are at a point in your development where you receive more positive feedback than negative from the person you’re reading for, it can make you feel pretty good. There’s nothing wrong with this; in fact, it’s wonderful. Getting validation that your readings are hitting home can fill you with a sense of pride, which again, is great. What you need to beware of is how easy it can be to lead with your ego instead of your intuition. The need to feed your ego by being right should never be your primary focus. Instead, your goal should be to provide the cleanest, truest reading possible, even at the risk of being wrong. When you work from your ego, you will never be communicating the truth and you won’t be able to progress.

How do you know when you work from your ego rather than your intuition? You can tell the difference in a variety of ways. Your ego is going to look for external validation, to make sure you’re right with everything. Your intuition, however, just knows. Though you desire validation from others when you read for them, the need for validation should never overpower the intuitive data coming through. Intuition is love based, whereas the ego is often cloaked in fear. Though the information you receive psychically may make you happy, it is neutral in form. The ego, on the other hand, is harsh and tends to make you feel less than or unworthy unless you do something strictly to pump up your ego. Your psychic self will not generally falter, unlike your ego, which has a greater capacity to change to fit your ego’s idea of what something should be, even if it is contradictory to what you previously thought or felt intuitively.

Essentially, your ego is lying to you. It makes you distrust your true intuitive self. It pushes away your psychic gifts, making you doubt your abilities. It needs to be the best—if it’s not allowed, it will feel threatened and cause you to lash out and create confusion, crashing down your psychic intuition. Your ego works hard trying to convince you that you need to be a certain way, and perfection is just a part of that. Eckhart Tolle, a worldwide spiritual teacher and author, says in his book, “I have also met many others who may be technically good at what they do but whose ego constantly sabotages their work. Only part of their attention is on the work they perform; the other part is on themselves. Their ego demands personal recognition and wastes energy in resentment if it doesn’t get enough—and it’s never enough.”7

The problem with ego driving your intuition or anything else is that it prevents you from tapping into your psychic gifts. It holds you back, concerned with the possibility that you may be wrong or that you may not be the best. It shields your psychic birthright, falsely protecting it with the worry that if you let your ability shine, the ego will be attacked. Learning to identify when it’s your ego or your intuitive self will allow your psychic gifts to flourish. It will help keep your psychic work genuine and brings your authentic psychic self to the surface so you can access and develop it.

So, how can you know whether your insight is coming from ego or intuition? When you think of various attributes, you might automatically recognize which are your ego and which are your intuition. When you’re unsure, try tuning in to your intuition and let your psychic self feel which it is. To get an idea, here are some emotions, traits, and feelings to consider.

Generally, these come from your ego:

• anger

• anxiousness

• distress

• doubt

• a sense of emptiness

• fear

• harshness

• hollowness

• thoughts that jump around

• negativity

• doubt

• rationalizing

• having to be right

• feeling weighed down

These come from your intuition:

• feeling complete

• consistency

• creativity

• sense of freedom

• feeling fulfilled

• joy and happiness

• a sense of just “knowing”

• love

• feeling neutral

• positivity

• relaxation

Think of a person giving you a pat on the back. Is he encouraging you or pushing you down? These are your intuition and ego, respectively. If it feels right and comfortable and natural, chances are it’s your psychic self, but if it hurts or makes you feel bad, it’s probably your ego. Believing you can access your psychic abilities on a regular basis is the foundation on which to build and develop your spiritual awareness. What you think matters.

As you may have noticed, this chapter has been about getting you to a place where you can more easily access your psychic gifts. You may also have realized that a major step you need to take to get you there is to go within. Our thoughts create our reality. Now, I’m not saying that if you think you’re stuck in a tornado you will actually be swept up with your home and belongings, but I am saying that you will keep feeling battered around. Thinking positive rather than negative thoughts will go a long way toward making you happy, which in turn will provide you with a sturdier platform to jump into your psychic gifts.

Meditation is a surefire way to direct your thinking and even to promote a stress-free way of life. You can access your spiritual self and tune in to your psychic abilities in an almost effortless process through meditation. Traveling from the comfort of your own home is made possible through astral travel, which opens your psychic abilities in a way you may have never imagined. And, maybe most important, is the discovery of how your ego tries to sabotage your gifts by creating a level of doubt. Your ego can also try to discourage you from utilizing every resource available to you, but you will learn that accessing your psychic gifts with the aid of tools will help you bring your gifts to a level beyond a beginner.

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6. Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life. New York: Hyperion, 1994.

7. Tolle, Eckhart. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. New York: Plume, 2005.