to your higher mind and allow you to work with it more effectively. The higher mind communicates to us in many ways, including sending messages to us through our psychic and intuitive senses. A certain amount of good psychic work is channelled directly from our higher consciousness which, as well as being a reservoir of wisdom in itself, acts as a bridge for information that is transmitted to us from external sources such as spirit guides and helpers.
SPIRIT GUIDES AND HELPERS
Spirit guides are personalities or energies of support that work with us to assist us in our development and the pursuit of our higher purpose. Some people choose to think of them as another aspect of their own higher mind or greater consciousness, but I tend to agree with the school of thought that considers them to be entities who are completely external to us and who communicate to us through our higher awareness and, potentially, through our psychic senses.
When I began actively to develop my hands-on healing abilities, I received some powerful tuition from a healing guide in spirit who I believe is still around me, keeping an eye on the healing work that I do. Indeed, I have been aware of a number of guiding spirits supporting me as I have worked on individual and group healing, counselling and teaching sessions. The knowledge that I have access to support and guidance in all areas of my life has been greatly comforting to me during the times of personal challenge I have faced, even when I have been too wrapped up in my own personal dramas to remember to ask for help!
Spirit guides can be the source of a considerable amount of psychic information. Our own guides may communicate with us psychically to advise us about our own personal development or to support us with information for someone who is seeking our help and counsel. Other people’s guides may choose to communicate through us, so that they can pass on valuable insights to the person with whom they are working. I make a number of references to spirit guides throughout this book, particularly within Chapter 6, when I talk about the direct channelling of information.
THE LINK BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND PSYCHIC SENSES
In my experience there is often a powerful relationship between the physical senses with which we are most comfortable and the psychic senses we can most easily access and develop. For example, if you are a visual person who easily thinks in pictures and whose language is very visually orientated, then it is highly likely that you will be able to receive psychic information visually. A person who always notices what things look like and who, when asked to describe an experience, will tend to talk about its visual elements rather than the sounds, feelings, tastes or smells associated with it, is likely to be attuned to receiving and interpreting information in the form of pictures, symbols or filmic sequences.
Latent clairvoyants may work in jobs that allow them to design, visualize, paint, style or illustrate. They may choose a visual art as a hobby and be particularly affected by the appearance of people, objects or environments. However, this is a guideline, not a rule; there are many people who are highly clairvoyant and who do not consider themselves to be visually inclined. Indeed, people who lose their physical sight have sometimes been known to develop a strong clairvoyant sense as a result of their disability.
People with strong visual skills may also be particularly attuned to developing auric vision, or may learn to channel visual information. In fact, many people work as psychic artists by allowing their technical ability to draw or paint to be the vehicle for translating the visual information that they receive.
If you are a good listener, the kind of person who is particularly skilled at listening intently to what other people have to say, or good at discerning changes of tone, pitch and frequency of noise, then you may well be a latent clairaudient. Auditory people are often drawn to work or create with sound, which could include a range of musical skills, voice work and sound recognition. In addition, they may describe their experiences in terms of the sounds that they heard and whom or what they were listening to. Indeed, for many, loud, sustained, persistent or high-pitched sounds which other people may not even notice will be unbearable.
Clairaudients are often people who think in words or sounds first before converting this information into feelings, pictures or concepts. People who have an affinity with words and sounds are also likely to have a latent ability to act as a channel for direct verbal or written information.
If you respond to life emotionally or in a tactile manner and you are the kind of person whose chief response to life is based upon feelings, then you could easily be a latent clairsentient. You may also be a natural hands-on healer. Many people who are naturally empathic, passionate or compassionate find that they have clairsentient ability, or may be drawn to one of a number of healing arts that allow them to work with their hands and heal through direct physical contact.
Clairsentients often feel things quite intensely. Indeed, clairsentients who have not learned to regulate and protect their sensitivity can be powerfully affected by other people’s moods. Similarly, natural healers may gain an impression of another person’s physical or emotional state within the sensations of their own body and emotions. Clairsentients and healers are often people who have a strongly developed emotional intelligence but who, in some cases, may not always be able to voice what they are feeling. Sometimes, feelings are too big to be translated into words. However, a good, professional clairsentient or healer will often learn to bridge the gap between gut intuition and intellect.
PREPARING YOURSELF TO BEGIN
There are no absolute requirements for anyone who chooses to embark upon a journey of psychic development. The principles that I offer within this book are meant as guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules. However, it is best to begin with the right intentions. If you are developing psychically from a position of strength, this will be reflected within the success and stability of your development. Therefore, endeavour to take care of your physical well-being at all times.
I would not recommend any psychic development that is linked to the use of recreational or psychedelic drugs. Anything mood-altering or hallucinogenic could potentially open your psychic senses artificially, but this kind of opening is usually damaging, unstable and ultimately limiting. If you open up your awareness naturally then you open up safely and are better able to stabilize and build upon the positive potential of your newfound psychic skills. Ideally it is also best to keep alcohol, nicotine and caffeine consumption to a minimum. While there have been a number of talented psychics who have been chain smokers, mild alcoholics or coffee addicts, the majority of us function better psychically (and otherwise) when the use of these substances is minimal.
For myself, it was the process of developing as a healer and a psychic that prompted me to give up cigarettes and alcohol. It became apparent to me that it was not comfortable for me to continue using these drugs and develop my abilities at the same time, and the latter was a much more attractive and satisfying option. I have never regretted making that choice! Whatever you choose for yourself, maintain an intention to care for yourself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually and do your best to practise that intention in whatever way that your instincts tell you is appropriate.
In preparation it is also useful to think about your motives for developing psychically. What is it that you want or need from this process of development? How would you like to develop and what effect would you expect your psychic awareness to have upon other areas of your life? From my experience, people who wish to grow psychically as part of their ongoing spiritual evolution and their progression towards their highest potential are those who are likely to have the most satisfying and rewarding process of awakening. In addition, it often helps to have an intention to help and support the growth or healing of others with our innate abilities, although this is certainly not essential. However, the desire to grow and the desire to serve others often go hand in hand; one stimulates the other.
CREATING
