You may begin to hear birdsong from half a mile away, a conversation between people in a busy supermarket or on the street. You’ll know it because it works like a radar – you can’t hear it, then suddenly the sound comes into range. It might sound as if I’m talking about normal hearing, but when you consciously focus on your intention to hear, you will hear more. Try the exercise below to practise tuning in to distant sound.
1 Sit in a comfortable chair, and close your eyes. Feel at peace and be perfectly still.
2 What do your hear? What is the quality of the sound? How does it feel? Do your ears ring, or tingle? Far-distant sound can feel like a subtle sensation around your ears, like tiny pin pricks.
3 Listen to the sounds of silence; it can be quite noisy!
4 Write down what you have heard, or speak it out loud.
Aural information from Spirit doesn’t have to come from a distance, however. I call close-up sound from Spirit ‘internal sound’. This happens when Spirit tell you something without you being aware of it. Have you ever been with someone and you are convinced that they have just said something important to you, but when you tell them, they say that they haven’t said a word? This can be a sign of Spirit talking to you close up. This kind of knowing resonates on the inside. Often when Spirit speak, they speak inside of you, so you sense it as if you are receiving a message. How often have you felt that you have heard something that you know is meaningful and yet you dismiss it as your imagination? We could receive so much more guidance if we could accept these promptings as real messages sent to help us.
3 Sensitive sight
This exercise helps you to believe more actively in what you see, and expand your spiritual vision. There are two ways of seeing: physically, or externally, often beginning as a small sensation at the corner of your eye, and internally, when you see a picture in your mind’s eye. These are the images that you will work with during the visualisation exercises (see page 32). Because Spirit will only appear to you in a way that is comfortable for you, to begin with you may feel a presence, rather than see an image physically or internally. The more comfortable and practised you become, the more sensitive your vision.
1 Place a candle securely on a table. (I use a light-coloured candle, because it gives clarity of vision.) Sit comfortably so that you can see the candle, and light it.
2 Focus on the flame. Don’t try to draw the candlelight in to you, and don’t take yourself into the flame. Just be with the beauty of the light.
3 Now pay attention to what you may see at the edge of your vision, without altering your focus on the flame. Let any colour, sensation or image register. Don’t think about what it could be. Just receive it.
4 Now close your eyes. This will help you to expand what you have seen with your peripheral vision. Don’t expect anything. The more you can push away your thoughts, the more clearly you may see.
4 Centring
You can practise this simple visualisation as a preliminary to any of the guided visualisations throughout this book. It is particularly helpful if you are feeling stressed, or generally out of kilter. Through practice, it can help you become more sensitive to your internal vision.
1 Visualise a candle flame, and look at the golden centre.
2 When you can do this, hold both your hands as if cupping the light of the flame.
3 Feel, if you can, the warmth of the flame.
4 Move your hands apart, stretching the golden light. Keep going until you are no longer aware of your hands and you feel the light is both in and around you.
You are now centred. You can learn to do this quite quickly, at any time when you need to take a few minutes to sit still and be quiet.
5 Opening your chakras
This is a good general exercise for daily practice in developing sensitivity, particularly when you need to feel calm and still your mind.
The chakras are the seven principal energy points on the body. They are sited at the groin (the base, or root, chakra), the spleen (or navel, chakra), the solar plexus, the heart, the throat, the brow (or third eye, between the eyebrows) and the crown of the head. There is also an eighth chakra, located above the crown, which usually corresponds to your fingertips when you extend your arm above your head (see the chakra journey exercise, page 105). In this exercise, we use the seven on the physical body. The chakras are energy centres of spiritual knowledge, through which we can access our higher selves. By opening the chakras, we open to increased sensitivity.
1 Sit comfortably, with both feet on the ground. Close your eyes, and take a deep, round breath, in and out through your nose.
2 Visualise a cocoon of white light enveloping you from head to toe for protection (see page 68). Seal it as if you were holding the air inside a balloon.
3 For the base chakra, visualise a violet flower: feel its texture, trace the outline of its petals. See the petals open, then open the centre of the flower. Really look at the colour and detail of the petals.
4 For the spleen chakra, visualise a white daisy. Open and touch the petals, feeling its vitality. Open the centre of the daisy and look around – what can you see? Just allow yourself to experience whatever comes to you.
5 For the solar plexus chakra, visualise a sunflower. Touch it with your fingertips as its petals and centre open up to you. Its centre reveals a volcano, and deep within is liquid gold. It isn’t hot; it is totally safe. You are sitting on the volcano’s edge. Dive in and immerse yourself in this gold. Feel its light and energy penetrate your being.
6 For the heart chakra, visualise a delicate pink rose. Again, feel its texture. See its petals and centre open for you.
7 For the throat chakra, visualise a forget-me-not. Trace the outline of its blue petals, and watch them peel back to reveal its centre.
8 For the third-eye chakra, visualise a buttercup: open its petals and centre.
9 For the crown chakra, visualise a golden crown opening, and shining a ray of light upwards.
You are now open to Spirit in a way that you will be able to sense beings.
Now close your chakras. To do this, imagine that each chakra has two little flaps, one folding over the other. See them close, one at a time, for each of the seven chakras, and feel at total peace.
Chapter 2 Meeting Spirit Guides
My spirit guides live in my earliest memories. Their love
