Category: Psychic Protection


The Accidental Medium

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have sensed spirits and other energies around me for a long time now. I see spirits most often, and I try my best to be brave about it. This has been going on my whole life. I talk to as many people as I can about all of this, and rarely find anyone who has similar experiences. Sometimes I ask myself if I’m going insane, but more often I find myself wondering what it is I should do with this gift. I do feel a sense of emptiness like I’m not fulfilling something that I should be doing. I also have dreams that predict the future. My four-year-old son is having experiences of his own; he is talking about shadows and people around him that aren’t there, and telling me about them in great detail. I want to know why I have these abilities while people around me do not, and what I should be doing with this so I can better educate myself and help my son.

Matt

 

Dear Matt:

In order to answer you, I’m going to divide mediums into two different categories: those who are born with the ability to perceive spirits, and those who develop that ability through focused effort. For obvious reasons, those who are born with the ability tend to have a harder time with their psychic experiences than those who actively pursue psychic development.

The experiences of most natural mediums tend to follow certain patterns. Their ability to perceive spirits is usually present from birth, so when they learn to talk, they begin to speak of people that the rest of the family can’t see or hear. Sometimes this is frightening to the child and he will cry and tell his parents about a man or woman or monster who is frightening him. Sometimes, his experiences are wholly positive, and the parents will simply notice that he seems to have an imaginary friend with whom he chatters away. Usually, there is a mixed bag of both positive and negative experiences: they may start out positive, but if the child senses his parents are uncomfortable or frightened by the whole subject, he also gets uneasy or frightened, which opens him up to experiences of a more negative nature.

At that point, the child may start to reject interaction with spirits and seek a way to shut down his abilities. If this is accomplished, there will be a lull in psychic activity until adolescence, when it may flare up again. (Adolescence entails a surge of life force energy coupled with a tendency to deeply question and/or reject what we’ve been told, which naturally tends to produce spiritual experiences.) Unfortunately, because adolescence tends to be a time of great emotional turmoil, those psychic experiences tend to be frightening or negative in nature, which leads the medium to again try to shut them down. There are many, many natural mediums in the world who no longer perceive spirits because they found a way to shut down their abilities in the past. Psychic abilities that have been shut down can remain dormant indefinitely until something happens to trigger them again.

Of course, like you, there are some natural mediums who never tried or managed to psychically shut down, and they often feel just as you do: They wonder if they are crazy or losing their minds, and they have no idea why these things are happening or what they are supposed to do about them.

This course of experience is very different from that of a person who purposefully strives to develop their spirit communication abilities. These folks experience none of the inner conflict of the natural medium, for they very much want to be able to connect with spirits. They are almost always initially motivated by the personal loss of a loved one with whom they very much want to connect. Experiencing the pain and grief of losing a loved one also fills them with great compassion for the grieving and the desire to help others who are struggling with loss. Instead of spontaneously experiencing more spirit contact than they are comfortable with, these seekers must struggle and strive to experience any at all.

I imagine that natural mediums were all seekers like this in a past life; that they had a tremendous desire to connect with the spirit world and worked hard on developing that ability, and this is why they came into this life with that ability already in place. Frequently, natural mediums whose abilities have long been dormant become active spiritual seekers when something happens to trigger that desire; indeed, most gifted mediums have a good amount of natural ability that they have spent a lot of time and energy refining over the years.

It is also clear that genetics play a role, as you can see in the fact that both you and your son are natural mediums. Psychic ability seems to run in families, much like musical ability, athletic ability, and other talents. When this is the case, the question isn’t so much what you are supposed to do with your ability, but what do you want to do with it? There are many people in the world who have a lot of athletic ability who never had the drive or desire to become professional athletes, and that is perfectly okay. Just because we developed an ability in a past life or were born with the genes to excel in a certain endeavor doesn’t mean that we have to go in that direction now.

Desire and motivation are key here. To be a great medium, you have to have more than an ability to perceive and communicate with beings in other dimensions; you also need to have compassion for the grieving, a strong desire to help, and the willingness to live a life of service. So instead of asking yourself, “What am I supposed to be doing with this ability?” I encourage you to ask “What do I WANT to do with it?”

I think the key to all of this for you is your feeling of emptiness: that feeling that you are not fulfilling something that you “should” be doing. I am so glad you included that detail, for it is a huge clue that your inner guidance is trying to tell you something about all of this.

It could be that you are simply meant to learn more about how to control your abilities so you can help your son; perhaps he is the one who is going to apply his natural mediumship abilities to a life of helping others. Maybe, however, you are meant to move in this direction yourself and begin to put your natural psychic talents to good use by working with the grieving. If that feels right to you, then there are all sorts of ways to refine your abilities. The most time-honored methods and traditions can be found in the Spiritualist church, but as all paths are unique, it is really important to pray and ask to be guided to the best path for you.

I was once in your shoes: I was experiencing spontaneous spirit communication and didn’t know why or what to do about it. When I made clear, conscious decision to use my mediumship to help others, all I needed in order to do that began to show up in my life in wonderful ways. I recommend that you pray for guidance and dialogue with Spirit, and listen to that feeling/voice within you that has been pulling at you. This is your inner guidance system; it is how the divine will answer the questions burning in your mind and heart and lead you to whatever you personally need to know or do next.

Learning to Control the Quality of Astral Experiences

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have been aware of the spiritual plane for as long as I can remember, going back to when I was a preschooler and could perceive a man in a top hat who used to watch me in my room every night. I have dreams where I meet people who have passed. In these dreams, I always travel by elevator, and the place I end up in is always a hotel of some sort, ranging from dreary (a woman who did not know she was dead) to the most beautiful room I have ever seen surrounded by walls of glass and this beautiful light that can’t be described. The light was so dense and so magnificent that nothing besides the light could be seen beyond the windows. The real reason I write is because I need help. Starting back in highschool, I occasionally had spirits try to frighten me. Many nights, my mirror would lift off my wall at approximately 2 a.m. and knock over everything on my nighttable. Sometimes my radio would turn on. (This was particularly effective near Halloween when scary commercials were on.) I continued with my prayers and made it through what was a scary time for me. Sometime later, I began to experience sleep paralysis. I became a master of focusing calmly on moving one body part and breaking the trance. I have left my body and heard the voice of my great-grandmother. One time I left my body and when I returned there was a very scary, evil-looking woman approaching my body; I began to pray to God and she snarled and vanished. Last night, I had several episodes that were weak and I was too tired to care, so I fought it off but wasn’t bothered by it. The last time, though, my entire body began to vibrate violently and I began to pray and the vibrations ceased and I was free. I know that I need to better protect myself and I know spirits are trying to contact me, but I am apprehensive. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your time.

Janelle

Dear Janelle:

As we naturally evolve spiritually, it’s normal to have spontaneous psychic experiences, to begin to consciously remember out-of body-experiences, and to eventually gain the ability to leave our bodies at will. It’s also normal to be anxious about this, for these are not everyday, ordinary experiences. Most of us have been taught what to do in order to remain physically safe. We’re told not to open the door to a stranger, and should we set ourselves on fire, to stop, drop and roll. No one tells us what to do when we feel paralyzed in bed and sense an evil presence nearby!

In addition to being psychically sensitive, I would bet you are also under some stress. The sorts of experiences you describe tend to happen when people are extremely sleep-deprived. They also tend to pick up during times of change and transition, such as the teen years, when babies are born, during final exams in college, during career changes, when going through a divorce or getting married, when moving into a new house, etc. Any event or change that causes stress can make us vulnerable to negative psychic experiences, for what we attract on a psychic level is a direct reflection of our inner state of being.

If you can control your inner state of being, you can control the quality of your experiences when you’re in an altered state of consciousness. If you’re anxious when you project or shift your awareness to the astral, you will tend to have frightening experiences, so anything you do that helps to lower your stress level would be helpful. If you are in a state of peace and wonder, you will have wonderful experiences. If you find yourself in an unnerving situation, try to stay calm and assume that all is and will be well. (That’s good advice whether you’re in the astral or the physical!)

Obviously, the more you know about the astral, the less fear you will have of the unknown. With this in mind, I recommend you engage in deep study of the astral, spirits, and out of body experiences. For starters, you might read Astral Dynamics, Mastering Astral Projection, and Practical Psychic Self-Defense by Robert Bruce. Also Journeys Out of the Body by Robert Monroe and Out of Body Experiences: How to Have them and What to Expect by Robert Peterson. It will take a great investment of time and energy to master this material, but since you’re having these experiences anyway, you definitely need an education in this subject.

It would be profoundly empowering on many levels to learn how to control your vibration by studying energy healing and the law of attraction. Remember: if you can control your inner state of being, you can control the quality of your psychic experiences! This has been known by mystics for millennia. It’s even in the Bible!

For example, Proverbs 4:23 – 27, says: Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life….Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. In Proverbs 2:7 – 11, the Bible says, [God] is a shield to those who walk with integrity…He guards the paths of the just…Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.

So what does it mean to guard your heart and to mark out a straight path? If you are at war with anyone in your life, then you carry the vibration of discord. If you send evil thoughts to the person who cut you off in traffic, to the rude person in line at the grocery store, if you are full of bitterness at your ex-spouse or feel like a victim in some way, you will tend to have negative psychic experiences. If, instead, you are ever seeking peace and harmony, if you “forgive those who trespass against you,” if you are tolerant of others and look for the divine in them, if you can bless those who do things you don’t like and not take their behavior personally, then you will radiate peace and attract positive psychic experiences.

This is not easy, but there is no more important work in life than learning how to “guard”/purify our hearts and minds.

By learning how to work with energy, as in energy healing, you will learn how to shift your vibration from anxious to faithful, how to infuse situations with positive energy, how to deflect negative energy – the list goes on and on. How you learn energy healing should be organic, by which I mean that you are guided to it by Spirit. Put out a call/prayer and see where you are guided. I was trained in the Spiritualist tradition, and I’m partial to this method because it is simple and demystified. Many traditions make things far more complicated than is necessary, and surround their teachings with unfounded mystique.

Speaking of which, Robert Bruce has a new book on healing entitled Energy Work: The Secrets of Healing and Spiritual Growth. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but based on his other work, I’m sure it’s great. I’m also sure that it’s no accident that this expert on astral projection has written a book on energy healing, for in order to control your astral experiences, you must be able to consciously influence/control energy.

– Soul Arcanum

How to Create a Positive Psychic Atmosphere


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Dear Soul Arcanum:

I work in a small building where people who start off nice appear to change and act different in a nasty way. I found this site looking for a way to cleanse the building. This makes work in a small environment very difficult. What can I do?

Dolores

Dear Dolores:

We are all surrounded by unseen energies of various qualities. Though most of us aren’t conscious of it, our instincts are constantly tuning in to evaluate the energetic nature of other people and the psychic atmosphere. Many of us only take note of this when the psychic atmosphere is extreme in some way. For example, in a house that is “haunted,” the hair on the backs of our necks may stand up, or we may feel inexplicably terrified and compelled to flee. At the other end of the spectrum, we may enter a place of very positive psychic atmosphere such as a church or a temple and immediately feel peaceful and uplifted.

There is a direct link between the people who inhabit a space and the atmosphere there, for it is our thoughts and feelings that create that atmosphere. You seem to have assumed that it is the physical place that is causing people to grow negative, but it could be that one or more of the people you work with are the real source of this negativity. Just as it only takes one person creating a foul smell and stink up a space for everyone, it only takes one strongly negative individual to poison the psychic atmosphere. Of course, if the business you work for has created a stressful, antagonistic work environment, the simplest way to remedy this negativity is to take practical measures to reduce employee stress and frustration.

Here’s the good news and the bad news: emotional energy is contagious. (You’ve clearly noticed this already.) This means that negative energy can affect everyone present, but it also means that positive energy can spread too. To remedy negativity psychic energy, we have to generate positive psychic energy.

Since the atmosphere and the people who inhabit the space are intrinsically linked, I recommend you focus both on cleansing the location and infusing it with positive vibes, and on bringing out the best in your coworkers. Since there are number of individuals involved here, the more people you can persuade to join with you in these efforts, the more power you will all wield.

There are all sorts of different rituals you can employ for cleansing the location. The key elements will include cleansing the physical space and the objects in it, and also cleansing the atmosphere with something like smoke, as in smudging. As part of this process, you might try the old folk remedy of hanging up garlic all over the place overnight, and then burning the garlic the next day.

The actual ritual you employ is not as important as your focus and intention: you are in essence energetically healing the atmosphere of negativity. Following this cleansing, you should bless the space and fill it with the energies you desire. Go through the whole space cleansing it, and then go through it again and bless it. The actual ritual you employ is not as important as your focus and intention: you are in essence energetically healing the atmosphere of negativity. Following this cleansing, you should bless the space and fill it with the energies you desire. Go through the whole space cleansing it, and then go through it again and bless it. For an example of how you might go about this, see Clearing a Space of Negative Energy.

Once you’ve done these things, bring in elements that promote positive energy. Playing music that feels uplifting and positive can have a dramatic impact. Make sure the space is with bright with light – preferably natural sunlight – and that the color scheme is pleasant and uplifting. You could bring in crystals to enhance your energetic efforts. Definitely make sure the space smells good. Incense is great for this, but if that is impractical for some reason, you could try aromatherapy with a scent like lemon. Keeping the atmosphere fresh is not something you do once – it’s something you regularly.

Next, in order to evoke positive energy from your coworkers, you will have to work with the law of attraction. While it’s true that we can’t create in another person’s experience, we can lift ourselves into a vibration where we naturally attract a higher level of experience, which will either cause people who are negative to stay away from us or draw those people up to our vibration when they are around us.

This reminds me of one of my first highly sucessful manifesting adventures. I was on a road trip with a friend who was also into the law of attraction. When we went through customs to enter into Canada, my friend was on her cell phone. The customs agent took tremendous offense to this and was shockingly nasty to us. At first we were upset about this, but then we decided to pivot and focus on manifesting friendly, happy people from there on out. What followed was an incredible stream of people so friendly all we could do was laugh in astonishment. One after another, everyone we met from there on out went to extraordinary lengths to help us, and everyone was so cheerful it was like being in the “twilight zone.”

My point is that by consciously working with the law of attraction, you can either attract the sort of people you want to interact with or bring out the best in the people around you. Even really nasty characters smile, laugh and are kind sometimes. You can draw this out of them, but you have to stop focusing on what you don’t want – negativity – and start focusing on what you do want – happy, friendly, helpful coworkers.

I suggest you create some “spiritual Febreze” and use it on yourself as well as your work environment. Get a clean, empty spray bottle, distilled water, rubbing alcohol and an essential oil like lemon. Add a little alcohol to the water, and then add as much of the essential oil as it takes to create a pleasant scent. Next, charge this mixture with positive energy by calling to mind all the positive things you want to manifest. While you hold this mixture in your hands, channel the essence of that positive energy into the mixture. (If you’re unfamiliar with how to do this, you may want to study magickal spellwork in general.)

Every morning after you get out of the shower, spray yourself with this magic perfume and set your conscious intention for the day. It may go a little like this:

Universe, just as I carry this wonderful smell with me on my body, I will carry joy with me wherever I go. I will shine my inner light on any shadows I encounter, and bring out the best in others. I will greet everyone I meet with warmth and good humor, and will receive all sorts of blessings in return. As one who is connected to the stream of pure positive energy is more powerful than a thousand who are not, I look forward magically creating a wonderful atmosphere wherever I go. Fill my world with friendly, helpful, happy people! (This is just and example. You can set any intention you desire – the point is to set a CONSCIOUS intention for the day instead of taking whatever comes your way.)

If you also spray this “spiritual Febreze” around your work place every morning, you will infuse the atmosphere with its pleasant scent and positive vibration while at the same time encouraging everyone around you to unconsciously entrain to your positive vibration.

– Soul Arcanum


Negative Energy in Classroom


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I am a college math professor and this semester in one of my classes, I feel a heavy environment around me. I feel drained, my head hurts, and my neck is tense at the end of the class. I know that I am more sensitive to bad energies than the average person and I do not know how to stop it. I am suspicious about one student but I am not 100% sure about it. This is affecting not only my professional life but also my family life. My sign is Pisces. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.

Dear P.:

What you are experiencing could be the result of high EMF exposure, which can cause headaches, tension, anxiety, weakness, and a general feeling of malaise along with all sorts of other symptoms. You wrote that you only have this problem in one of your classes, and I am wondering if you only teach in that particular classroom for this one class. If that’s the case, I would focus on environmental factors (like high EMFs) before looking for psychic influences. Of course, it’s possible that the problem is both psychic and location specific, as may be the case with a “haunting.” If you teach in that classroom frequently and only have problems with one particular group of students, then it makes sense to look to the people involved as potential sources of your discomfort.

First let’s assume that you only have problems when you teach in that particular location. If this is the case, as I mentioned, it’s likely that you are dealing with a high level of electromagnetic radiation. Some individuals seem to be particularly sensitive to electrical fields. Some are hyper-aware of these fields without being adversely affected by them, while others suffer discomfort from exposure whether they are consciously aware of the energy or not. Many people who are consciously aware of electrical fields are also psychically sensitive. I know many psychics who can feel and/or hear the buzz of flourescent lighting even when it’s on another floor of the building they are in. I can sense if the television is on and muted from all the way across the house. If this sounds like you, then you are definitely sensitive to electrical fields. (If you have ever left the city for the country and been amazed at how much better you felt, you are probably electrically sensitive.)

If your symptoms disappear when you leave the location of the classroom, it makes sense that something there is bothering you. I recommend you visit the classroom when there are no students around to see if you are affected then. If you are, then it must be something related to that particular environment – and not a particular student – that is causing you distress.

The answer could be something very simple and mundane. For example, if the classroom you are teaching in has flourescent lighting, that is definitely a potential cause of your discomfort, for many people report getting headaches and other symptoms when exposed to flourescent lights. If you’re sensitive to electrical fields, you will definitely be sensitive to flourescent lighting. To determine if this is the problem, try sitting quietly in the classroom for 15 minutes with the lights off. If you don’t have a negative reaction, try the same with the lights on and see what happens. If you start to become uncomfortable, the remedy may be as simple as replacing the lighting.

If you begin to have problems the minute you enter the unlit room or building, then you will want to measure the EMF fields of that location, for there are all sorts of things that can cause high EMFs aside from flourescent lighting such as nearby power lines, computers, wireless towers – the list goes on and on. I don’t have room to go into how you can test that location for high EMF fields, but that information is readily available on the internet. If you discover that this classroom is plagued by high EMFs, then you will either have to find a way to remedy that situation or ask to have your classroom moved to a different location.

Please note that discovering high EMFs does not negate the possibility that there is also some form of psychic attack going on. There is a strong correlation between high EMFs and paranormal phenomena; what’s unclear is which comes first. I believe that we create the high EMFs with our electrical appliances and that entities in the lower astral (like earthbound spirits) use that energy to try to affect this dimension.

I have noticed a dramatic increase in paranormal phenomena over the past couple of decades, and I believe that this is why. As we are constantly electrically charging the psychic atmosphere as never before in history, we have no idea how this will affect us all physically OR metaphysically. I think it’s entirely possible that it is causing a thinning of the veil between this world and the dimensions closest to us in vibration, and that this is enabling all sorts of unusual phenomena.

It also makes sense that this electrically charged atmosphere can lead to stronger psychic phenomena, so that even a student daydreaming about bashing you in the head because he’s bored or is having a hard time understanding the lesson could affect you if you’re highly sensitive. (We are constantly interacting on an auric level; the more energy is channeled into those interactions, the stronger the effect they tend to have.)

If all of the above experiments fail to yield clear results, I suggest you call the student in question to meet with you in your office. If you are immediately affected as you are in the classroom, then you have your culprit. It’s important to keep in mind that this student may not wish you ill. For example, it could be that you have shared other lives with this particular student, and that the presence of that student brings uncomfortable energies up for you. The relationship between teacher and student is as likely to involve past life connections as any other, and feeling ill is a very common reaction to encounters with uncomfortable past life material.

For example, when I was in university, I watched a film about a pilgrimage to a sacred temple in India, and while watching the film, I was suddenly overcome with feelings of extreme anxiety to the point of panic. I broke out in a cold sweat and thought I was going to throw up. I fled the auditorium through the closest door, which was an exit door. Much to my surprise, as soon as I was outside, I felt perfectly fine. I later recalled a past life in which I had been trampled to death during a pilgrimage to a similar temple.

Regardless of whether or not this student is consciously sending you negative energy, the remedy is the same: you will want to bless the student and the whole situation, and bathe it with divine love. This will shield you and make you invulnerable to psychic attack, for one who is connected to the stream of pure positive energy is more powerful than a thousand who are not. If every time you walk into a classroom to teach, you bring the brightest love you can summon in your heart with you, you will be more metaphysically powerful than any energy even the most disgruntled, bored, depressed or frustrated student can dish out.

 


Telepathic Pain Connection


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Dear Soul Arcanum:

I was with my fiance, Scott, for ten years before he died. Scott’s mother is 84 years old, and we were his caregivers for the last year of his life. We bonded on a very deep level as we shared the pain of losing him. For the past three weeks or so, I have had extreme soreness in my neck and shoulders. I am a runner and attributed this to needing a new pair of running shoes, though this pain seemed strange and different from aches and pains I’ve experienced in the past. When I called Scott’s mom tonight and asked her how she was doing, she told me that HER neck and shoulders have been aching and that she had just found out that she has a pinched nerve. I didn’t even tell her about MY neck and shoulder pain. I am now wondering if it is possible that I was picking up on her pain, and if so, what you would call this. This is not the only time we have had a strange connection like this. While I don’t believe in coincidences, I haven’t always had these experiences; there seems to be something special going on with Scott’s mom. Have you heard of anything like this before?

K.

Dear K.:

Your question reminded me of all sorts of amazing personal experiences and stories I have heard from others over the years. For example, a few months ago, I awoke early in the morning feeling strangely dizzy and queasy. As I was very groggy, I wondered if I was getting sick but then quickly drifted back to sleep. I then dreamed that my teenage daughter came into my bedroom and told me that she was feeling queasy and didn’t want to go to school. I woke up from that dream and drifted off again. About fifteen minutes later, my daughter actually came into my room and woke me up and told me that she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to go to school. I then realized that my own physical discomfort had disappeared, and that I had been picking up on what was happening with her.

This sort of telepathic connection is known to be especially strong in twins. I recently became acquainted with an amazing story of identical twins who not only regularly experience each other’s pain, but also have physical manifestations of what happens to the other twin. For example, one twin got accidentally socked in the eye while playing at a playground one day, which led to her developing a black eye. At the exact moment that the twin was injured, the other twin experienced pain in her eye and later developed a black eye even though her own eye hadn’t experienced any physical trauma.

There are all sorts of amazing stories of people who experience a telepathic connection to another person that leads to physical symptoms like those you describe. This tends to happen most often with people who are emotionally very close, such as mothers and their children. Since it sounds like you are closer to Scott’s mother than many daughters are to their own biological mothers, I don’t find it at all strange that you would share a strong psychic connection. It’s also possible that the two of you have shared other lifetimes in which you were biologically related, which would further strengthen your psychic connection this lifetime.

My sense is that you are a very physical person, and thus your strongest psychic sense may be clairsentience. This would tend to cause you to pick up telepathic information kinesthetically, by feeling it in your own body. I imagine that your intuition tends to speak to you through gut feelings, and that you tend to experience strong emotions in your body such as having butterflies in your stomach when you are nervous or getting a headache when you are stressed. Psychic mediums who are strongly clairsentient are those who tend to physically feel how a particular spirit passed, or feel other physical sensations as a form of metaphysical communication. To describe a spirit, they physically feel what it was like to BE that person. Thus they may say something like, “I feel like I am very tall but like I am bent over with roundedness in my upper back, and I feel like I have facial hair; it is tickling my lip.” By contrast, someone more clairvoyant might say, “I see a tall man who walks a bit hunched over who has a beard and mustache.” As you might imagine, being strongly clairsentient would encourage the sort of physical experience you describe.

While what you experienced was tangible in that you physically experienced her physical pain, you are also receiving other types of telepathic information without being conscious of it. Just as we all receive visual, auditory, kinesthetic and other information on a physical level, we all do the same on a metaphysical level, but when we are strongly skewed to one modality, we may not pay as much attention to the other information. I would bet that you are picking up on Scott’s mom’s thoughts and feelings without realizing that those thoughts and feelings are perhaps not your own, for this sort of exchange tends to be more subtle than physical sensations.

The closer we are to someone, the more likely we are to absorb their thoughts and feelings. Of course, the more sensitive we are, the more likely we are to be affected on this telepathic level as well. When you put two people who are very sensitive and very emotionally close together, all sorts of telepathic experiences tend to result.

If we have empathy for the person involved, it can be very difficult to separate our feelings from theirs even if we know that what we are feeling is not our own. For example, when my son was an adolescent, he went through a period during which he was angry, sullen and irritable. I would be perfectly happy but as soon as he got in the car, I would find my mood radically shifting. He didn’t even have to say a word for this to happen; it was like this dark, heavy cloud had invaded my aura. Even though I knew that he was the source of my suddenly dark thoughts and feelings, trying to avoid being affected by his bad mood was like having a passenger smoking a cigar in my car and trying to not inhale any of their smoke. It is fascinating to me that being in an enclosed space seems to be as powerful on a metaphysical level as it is on a physical level; if I were near my son in another setting besides the car, it was easier to separate my energy from his. While removing myself from his presence was most effective of all, in situations where someone we love is in great distress, we may pick up on how they feel even if they are thousands of miles away.

When we care about how other people feel, our auras are open to them. Instead of saying to ourselves, I don’t care how this person is feeling, I just want to feel good, we are constantly energetically checking on them much as we might do by phoning them to see how they are doing. It is this caring that bridges our energy fields. When we empathize with someone, we start to entrain to their energy and may be affected by their mood. To be invulnerable to the emotional or physical pain of someone we care about, we must become adept at setting our own tone and cultivate faith that everything happens for a good reason, so even if someone is struggling, we know that they are experiencing exactly what they need to experience in order to learn whatever they need to learn.

Soul Arcanum

Bodywork and Emotional Healing


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Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have had a number of massages in my life, but yesterday I had a very unusual experience. I was getting a deep tissue massage from a new therapist when suddenly I was overcome with feelings of profound grief and sorrow. I also experienced tremendous physical pain where she was touching my back beneath my left shoulder blade. Much to my embarrassment, I started to writhe in pain and sob. It was so intense I had to stop her and end the session. I could not wait to get out of that office. I felt very bad about this for many reasons. I’m now wondering if maybe I picked up on the feelings of the therapist or if she somehow touched off a “nerve” in me. I have never had anything like this happen before. What do you think?

R.

Dear R.:

What you describe is very common; in fact, I’ve experienced something like it myself. I too was seeing a new massage therapist when this occurred. He employed an electric blanket to prevent me from getting chilled, and everything was going fine until he covered my upper torso with the blanket so he could work on my legs. Suddenly I was overcome with feelings of panic. I felt like I was suffocating and being crushed; like the blanket weighed hundreds of pounds. Instead of succumbing to panic, I decided to try to relax into those feelings and see what may be behind them.

Immediately I began to remember a past life in India, and I knew that I was at the moment of my death. I was at a sacred temple where thousands of people had traveled on pilgrimage on a holy day. The crowd was pushing forward, trying to get to where they could touch a sacred statue and leave an offering. We were on top of each other when the crowd pushed forward in a fervor and I felt myself being crushed. I felt as panic-stricken as if I were actually there and being crushed to death. This was so physically and emotionally intense that I too nearly had to end the session.

It is very common to have strong emotions come up during body work. Most seasoned massage therapists have seen this so many times that nothing surprises them anymore, while other body workers purposefully seek to help clients achieve emotional healing and release. Of course, not all massage therapists are created equal; those who are especially spiritual may spark this sort of healing, while those who are more physically oriented may focus wholly on the muscles beneath their hands. Further, strong reactions tend to be sparked when an area of the body that is holding pain or tension is touched.

As for why psychic insights, past life memories, and repressed emotions tend to surface during body, for work most people, receiving a massage is the deepest trance state they ever experience. As soon as they slip into this altered state of consciousness, whatever has been just beneath the surface of their awareness tends to come up. Big vibrational shifts toward an unsual state of peace and relaxation also tend to produce energetic tension. It’s a bit like being in a hot air balloon: we may be hovering a few feet above the ground when suddenly someone stokes up the fire. If we have sand bags on board to keep us grounded, this creates tension: we are being pulled skyward but we have all of this baggage weighing us down. In order to soar, we may have to drop some of that weight. This is a natural process; our subconscious minds seize the opportunity to bring up whatever is heaviest or most needs to be released when an opportunity to go higher arises.

There are all sorts of theories about how we hold old energy in our bodies and auras. As I don’t have room to go into detail here, you may want to explore the work of pioneers in this field like Wilhelm Reich, Fritz Perls and Stanislav Grof. The main thing to understand is that we tend to hold wounds from childhood and even past lives in our bodies. For example, someone who was raped in a past life may experience pain on intercourse; someone whose head was bashed in may experience migraines; someone who was suffocated may experience asthma or panic attacks during which they feel they can’t breathe. It’s interesting that you experienced the reaction you did when your therapist touched a certain spot underneath your left shoulder blade, which of course is directly in line with your heart. The important thing to keep in mind is that these are not problems to be feared and rejected; they are helpful symptoms that tell us that healing is needed.

As for how and why we store trauma in the body, basically we have a natural tendency to try to distance ourselves from painful experiences. If we have repressed trauma on an emotional or mental level, then when we shed our physical bodies, we will carry that trauma with us in our subtle bodies. When we then incarnate in a new body, the subtle bodies <q>inform</q> the new physical body, which naturally integrates that energy and information. Mind/body medicine has clearly established that our thoughts and feelings affect our physical well-being. It is also true that the body can affect our feelings and thoughts; for example, to calm yourself emotionally, you have only to breathe in a slow, calm way. A change on any level affects the whole being, so for lasting change to occur, healing must take place on all levels. If we view our mental, emotional and physical bodies as a team in a six-legged race, it’s easy to see how a problem in one body will affect the whole.

We might compare these different levels of energy to water. If energy becomes frozen in the energy field (locked in the body), it is something we can run into or trip over and it is very hard to manipulate. If we raise its vibration to water (the level of emotion), we can still slip on it but it is easier to work with. If we raise it again to the level of steam by bringing the buried thoughts behind it into our conscious awareness, then it will naturally begin to evaporate and dissipate. It sounds like in your case, some old trauma was brought up to the level of emotion, and that energy began to be released. The awakening of that intense energy caused the same reaction of panic and avoidance that caused it to get stuck in the first place. Until you face it and work with it, it will remain with you. If instead, you allow that energy to lead you to new awareness, it will begin to evaporate and be released. This is the power of catharsis; anything that evokes a strong reaction is a signal that there is tension that needs healing.

One reason hypnotherapy is so effective is because it works at the causative level of the mind; it quickly brings frozen issues up into our conscious awareness so that they can be processed, healed and released. Since it is important to address all levels of one’s being, however, several different modalities may prove helpful. It is important to honor what works best for you. For example, someone who is highly kinesthetic may respond best to body work, whereas someone highly visual may respond best to hypnotherapy. There are many different modalities for spiritual and emotional healing; the important thing is to honor your own nature and trust that emotional catharsis will prove helpful and healing in the long run.

Mind Control


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Dear Soul Arcanum:

Is there a type of psychic ability that enables you to control the people around you?

Marie

Dear Marie:

Before I answer your question, please note that if you fail to treat others as you would want to be treated, it is sure to backfire on you!

I believe the so-called psychic power you are looking for would simply be called “mind control.” As for whether or not such a power exists, I must explain that in my view, there is no hard line between the physical and metaphysical, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the mundane and the spiritual: all are vague points on a broad spectrum. This means if we can influence each other physically, mentally and emotionally, we can and surely do influence each other psychically.

For example, let’s say that you are wandering through an ordinary day when someone pays you some flattering compliments. Let’s also say that this person’s aim is to seduce you into doing what he wants, whether that is go to bed with him, do him a favor, or buy a vehicle from him. What happens next will depend on his skill, your susceptibility to his influence, and your own affinity for what he may want you to do. When all of these factors are high, he will probably have a great deal of influence over your choices.

Let’s take these factors one at a time. People who are very skilled at the art of persuasion may have studied it or just be naturally gifted at reading people and then coercing, seducing, or manipulating them into doing what they want them to do. While salespeople study all sorts of different psychological techniques with this in mind, there are psychic elements that come into play as well.

First, the person with the strongest life force energy will tend to dominate in any situation. Sometimes their leadership is overt, but at other times, they quietly radiate a certain vibe that makes us listen to them, want to please or impress them, or assume that they know more than we do. While we can point to all sorts of different mundane reasons this may be true of certain individuals, there is something happening on a metaphysical level when someone puts us “under their spell.”

Let’s say Harry is trying to persuade Alice to see things his way. Regardless of what he is actually saying to her, on an energetic level, the interaction will look basically the same: Harry’s aura will expand and grow bigger than hers and look like he is drawing her aura into his. His aura will expand to blanket hers, and if he is succeeding, her aura will begin to shift and change to be more like his. If, however, Alice is just pretending to agree, her aura will remain whole and separate despite his efforts and it won’t change but may even grow stronger and clearer in its original state. One can also see this when someone is giving a rousing speech or teaching a fascinating class: the speaker’s aura will spread out over the audience and draw them toward its color and vibration. The auras of those whose heads are nodding in agreement will change toward the speaker’s, while those who are lost in their own thoughts will remain as they were. Naturally, someone skilled at energy work could consciously put this dynamic to good use.

This brings me to hypnosis, which certainly resembles the mind control power you are asking about. What many people don’t realize is that hypnotists only have the power they are given by the one hypnotized. During hypnotherapy, only those suggestions that are in harmony with the patient’s desires are accepted. During a stage show, volunteers must first agree to going into trance for the purpose of entertaining the crowd, and would resist acting against their own values if such a thing were suggested. So while it is possible for a hypnotist to make a person “bawk” like a chicken, if the hypnotist were to suggest that they take a knife and stab the person next to them, they would “balk” at the hypnotist!

We’ve all interacted with someone who was trying to be sneaky about trying to get us to do what they wanted to us to do. This is the stereotype of the used car salesman who is overly friendly and desperately trying to paint an irresistible picture of what he wants to sell us. It may seem like psychic powers have nothing to do with such a scenario, but in fact, our own psychic ability/intuition is what makes us instantly dislike such people and want to get away from them.

This brings us to the second factor: how susceptible a person is to others’ influence. Basically, the more hard-headed someone is – the harder it would be to get through to them – the harder they are to influence. At the same time, the more thoughtful and intelligent someone is, the harder it will be to persuade them to think or do something they really don’t agree with. People who are psychically sensitive but not consciously aware of that fact and are not prone to deep reflection tend to be ideal victims for psychic attack, whether that attack is by a metaphysical entity, a con man, or someone who is desperate for a favor. Imagine a sensitive young woman who is tender-hearted, not very bright, and lacking in self-confidence, and how someone persuasive could make her feel sorry for him and get her to do what he wants her to do.

Finally, we have the question of whether or not the person you want to influence is in harmony with doing what you wish. If you are trying to sell someone a car, the other person is in the market to buy a car, and you have a great car to sell at a great price, it will probably be easy to influence them. If, however, you are trying to persuade a drunk to remain sober, a nasty person to play nice, or a love interest to change their sexual orientation, you’re in for an uphill battle.

Of course, there are an endless number of aims we can achieve by working with the law of attraction. I have at times been able to “manifest” having someone mean and ornery be kind-hearted, liars be truthful, and grumpy people be cheerful, but these successes were always short-lived. For example, I once did a guided meditation to make peace with someone who had been nasty to me for years. In the meditation, I reached out with love, spoke to her higher self, and vividly visualized us embracing each other with good will. That very day, she called me, apologized for her behavior, and was like a different person altogether. I was blown away with my swift success. Who knew it could be so easy? Of course, reality came crashing in a few days later when she flew into a rage about some imagined slight and returned to her usual ornery manner. I tried to manifest peace a number of times after this and it always worked, but it always quickly fell apart too.

I eventually realized that I was trying to turn a lion into a kitten. While a trained lion tamer can perhaps get a lion to behave like a kitten for short periods of time, it is foolish, exhausting and impractical to try to make anyone act against their true nature and inclinations. In fact, if they become angered by our attempts and go on the offense, such efforts can quickly go awry.

So while it’s possible to temporarily influence people to do what we want them to do when we are skilled in the arts of persuasion, they are susceptible to outside influence, and they aren’t totally against what we desire, there are easier ways to create what we want in our lives. Instead of trying to get certain individuals to fulfill our desires, it’s much wiser to work with natural spiritual law. If we focus on manifesting what we desire in general and let go of how it comes to us, we can manifest a happy, downhill journey to fulfillment.

Soul Arcanum


Highly Sensitive People Skills


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’m hoping you can help me. I can see auras though not well. Because of this, I know that I have a clear aura. It’s physically exhausting for me to be around other people. Just being at work all day around lots of other people drains me to the point of exhaustion. This drives my husband crazy because I’m always tired. What I’ve read about auras suggests that my exhaustion has to do with my aura being clear. I thought if I tried to develop my ability to see auras better, maybe I wouldn’t be so tired all the time. I can now see auras better but this has only made me even more tired! Maybe I’m doing it wrong? It’s to the point that my main fear every day is not having time to rest. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Marie

Dear Marie:

Before I go into spiritual remedies, I must encourage you to make sure there is no physical cause for your exhaustion. Even if your doctor says you’re okay, it’s important to make sure you’re eating a very healthy diet and getting adequate rest and exercise. Please note that what most people consider a very healthy diet and what I’m talking about are two very different things. In my view, a very healthy diet is composed of whole, natural foods: vegetables, fruits and animal protein. The more processed a food is, the deader its energy will be. The typical modern diet and sedentary lifestyle is perfectly designed to cause low energy, dis-ease, and all sorts of other troublesome imbalances.

You say that you have a “clear aura.” I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I’m going to assume you mean that you have very thin psychic boundaries – that you’re not “thick-skinned.” I’m also going to assume that you’re not seeing colors in your own aura, and this is why you’re calling it clear. It can be much harder to see your own aura than to see other people’s auras because you are looking through your own aura when trying to see it. It may thus be that you are not seeing your aura at all, and this is why you’ve assumed that it is clear.

What you describe is a common syndrome associated with :highly sensitive people.” If you Google that term, you’ll find lots of interesting information. Basically, everyone who has keen intuition is highly sensitive, but some people are more affected by their sensitivity for various reasons. For example, a stereotypical Aquarius would tend to be less affected by high sensitivity than a Cancer because Cancers are much more emotional and much less philosophical than Aquarians tend to be.

Someone who has been consciously working with their psychic senses and has traveled a long ways down a conscious spiritual path will probably be much better at handling the unique challenges posed by high sensitivity. There are lots of highly sensitive people who have found ways to work with their thin skin. Every professional psychic I know falls into this category.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you a quick, simple way to conquer this problem that will prove both long-lasting and truly effective. Some people may tell you to wear certain stones or crystals or perform magickal rituals, but these measures are like bailing water out of the bottom of a boat instead of repairing the hole. You’re going to have to do some real inner work in order to get more comfortable in your thin skin.

The most important thing is to develop faith that everything happens for a good reason. This will allow you to walk through all sorts of potentially overwhelming, upsetting situations with grace and equanimity. It will allow you to maintain a calm, high vibration regardless of what is going on around you, and this high vibration will basically make you immune to other people being able to affect you.

One way to begin to develop this faith is to study near death experiences and life between life research. Near-death.com is one great resource; for the life between life research, I recommend books by Michael Newton Ph.D. The more you expose yourself to this information, the more you will come to understand that every experience blesses us in some way. This will enable you to be at peace with your own experiences (including the challenge of dealing with your high sensitivity), and it will enable you to remain serene when people around you are in turmoil.

I’m not surprised that trying to read auras better would exacerbate your problem, because what you did was become even <i>more</i> sensitive while at the same time tuning in to draw in more of others’ energy. In order to stop being affected by others, you’ll want to reverse this psychic flow. By this, I mean that instead of tuning in to others’ energy, you’ll set your own high tone and send that energy OUT.

You might begin by adopting the inner mantra, “The divine light in me greets the light in thee” or “Namaste” whenever you interact with another person. Visualize love and good wishes flowing from your heart out to them. Don’t get attached to them responding in any particular way; this is about who you are choosing to be and the energy you are choosing to send out into the world.

Don’t worry that if you send all these good vibes out, you’ll somehow run out. You’re not sending your own energy, you’re channeling divine love and light, which is endless. The more you channel this energy, the better you will feel yourself. It may be helpful for you to undertake some training in energy healing to learn how to maintain your own energetic well-being when interacting with others.

My next suggestion is for you to take up a regular meditation practice. Meditation will develop your inner observer, which will empower you to step back from whatever is happening around you and center in your own higher self. With this in mind, I’m going to offer you a mini meditation exercise that you can silently practice whenever you start to feel drained.

Take a moment to center yourself by relaxing your shoulders and taking a few big, deep breaths. Close your eyes and picture yourself sitting in an ancient Roman theater, watching a drama unfold on the stage below you. Focus in on the actors and allow yourself to get caught up in the emotions they are conveying. Notice how, as you identify with the actors, you experience those same emotions. Now pull your awareness back into your own body and remind yourself that these are actors on a stage playing out various parts. Mentally label what is happening on the stage “drama,” and then relax into the pleasure of watching it unfold. Now back up even more – lift right up out of your body and look down to observe yourself watching the performance. As you do this, you realize that you too are an actor on the stage of life. Smile at yourself and the people around you who have gotten so caught up in playing their parts that they have forgotten that life is just a big production we undertake because it’s exciting, like watching a drama on stage. You are now centered in your inner observer and should be able to observe yourself interacting with others without being thrown off of your own high vibration and spiritual center.

As you move through each day, whenever you find yourself starting to feel worn down by the events unfolding around you, remember to say “drama” to yourself, and then shift from taking in others’ energy to flowing love and compassion outward.

– Soul Arcanum

When Your Best Friends are Energy Vampires

 

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I don’t have many friends, for I choose them carefully. At the moment, I have two women in my life who could be described as psychic vampires. One is an internationally respected healer/teacher. My intuition is growing more and more refined, and I was shocked when the manipulative, calculating, dishonest energy I was picking up about this healer was confirmed. I realized I had given my power away by putting her on a pedestal and making less of my own gifts. She tried to discredit the healer I currently see, and suggested one of her students start treating me while she supervised my case. I’ve decided to keep my distance from her and not leave my current healer, who has helped me tremendously. This is clearly a case of professional jealousy. The other friend is also very spiritual. I feel she’s a little jealous of me, and sees me as somehow better off than her in many ways. It’s like she thinks I have some secret to the universe and wants a piece of it. Why am I attracting these energy vampires? I don’t have that many friends, and at this rate, they are dropping like flies! Thanks, Soul Arcanum!

Sitara

Dear Sitara:

I’m not sure the friends you’re describing are really energy vampires. Energy vampires are people who can’t get all their energy needs met directly from Source, so they try to feed on other people’s energy. To determine if these friends are truly stealing your energy, ask yourself how you feel when you’ve been around them for a while.

Do you feel energized and uplifted or down and drained? Do you feel like there is balance in your relationship in terms of give and take, or does your friend talk endlessly about herself? Are you doing all the giving? Do you find yourself constantly feeling like you should do something to help or save her? Does she make you feel better about yourself, or does she put you down or compete with you in order to feel superior?

If none of these really fit, odds are good that you’re not dealing with energy vampires so much as you are ordinary people with egos and human weaknesses and faults, just like the rest of us.

People who are highly spiritual like we are tend to be very idealistic. We want to believe in people, see the best in them and love them with all our hearts. It can be very disillusioning when we meet someone who seems to be everything we’ve ever wanted in a friend, and they turn out to be a mere mortal instead of the demi-god we’ve been worshiping.

There are a couple of dynamics worth mentioning here, given the relationships you describe. First, the more we tap into our own personal power, the more we evoke deep issues in other people. If there are buried issues that need to be brought to light and healed in our friends, then our dynamic energy will tend to bring those issues to life in some way. This is especially true if we’re devoted healers and counselors. In personal relationships, the interactions may not be overt; instead, they tend to come out in subtle ways through the ever changing dynamics of our connection. We thus spark things for the people around us without knowing that we are doing so simply because our main intention is to help others heal and grow.

Also, as we develop intuitively, we begin to psychically pick up on all sorts of stuff that people tend to hide. Nearly everyone hides their shadow side, so it can be shocking to sense these hidden truths, and difficult to make peace with living at this level of awareness. Everything is naturally perfect, of course, for once we attain this level of awareness, we’re ready for the deep lessons in unconditional love that psychic awareness evokes.

Your spiritual teacher friend is clearly insecure about her wisdom and abilities. The wisest and best teachers always are, by the way, for they constantly question themselves. Having you see someone else for healing and that person apparently being able to truly help you has brought her insecurities up. While her behavior is disappointing, we must strive not to take anything personally, and simply be the best person we can be with everyone we know and love. As I see it, if a friend disappoints us, our job is to reach for a higher, more loving road in order to nurture good things in that relationship. Maybe right now, this relationship is not about her meeting your friendship needs, but about you giving her something important such as an opportunity to work on her ego issues, learn a lesson, or observe you setting a shining example of love and wisdom.

I like what you wrote about putting her on a pedestal and discounting your own wisdom and abilities. I think instead of expecting her to be the spiritual leader in your relationship, you should step forward and reach for a higher level of love and wisdom yourself regardless of what she says or does. Then you can become a source of healing both for her and your relationship. You might do this by recognizing with compassion that her ego is kicking up, and she perhaps is worried that she is not good enough or that she will lose your friendship or respect and admiration via your experiences with this other healer.

Similarly, instead of viewing your other friend as someone who is trying to steal something from you, it would be wise to stay in a very high vibration and view her admiration as a positive thing. The more we align with a high level of life experience by working with the law of attraction and cultivating a high vibration, the more we attract people who want this for themselves like moths to a flame. Sometimes these people do want to suck our energy, but sometimes they just think we’re wonderful, and they want to study us so they can emulate us.

The higher we go in terms of quality of experience and vibration, the harder it is to find peers. Then instead of journeying through life with all our classmates, we naturally become teachers. In a typical schoolroom setup, there are way more students than teachers, and it’s the same on our spiritual journeys. As you evolve, you will be surrounded by more people who are in position to learn from you, and you’ll only know a few other teachers, who will often be off in their own classrooms, doing their thing.

You’re wise to ask how and why you are attracting friends like this, but it’s more important to figure out how you can manifest a higher level of experience. I’ve had great results with working with the law of attraction to manifest good friends. For example, years ago I told the Universe very clearly and with all of my heart that I wanted to meet a friend who was <q>just like me.</q> I ended up meeting a friend in a most unusual way who practically IS me! The ways we are alike are astounding. This experience taught me that we all have many kindred spirits in the world, and we just need to work with the law of attraction to draw them into our experience.

In summary, I encourage you to stop expecting your friends to be free of faults. Our goal is not to find perfect people, but to learn how to love everyone around us despite their imperfections. We all have our issues and everyone is doing spiritual battle with their egos every day. Do keep choosing your friends carefully, and when they disappoint you, examine your experiences for how you can use them to work on yourself and become an ever brighter light wherever you go. Also, remember that we have the power to manifest what we want in our lives, and we can use the law of attraction to both bring out the best in people and draw wonderful new friends into our lives.

Soul Arcanum


Symptoms of Energy Cording


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I read your article on promiscuity and how it affects the aura and creates energetic links. I have read this before from a Hindu saint. My question is: How does this astral tie affect the individual? I mean, let’s say I have been with many partners – how would I notice these astral connections? Are there observable mental, emotional or physical symptoms? Besides thinking of the person, I don’t notice anything else.

Ryan

Dear Ryan:

Since the influence of psychic cording is subtle/energetic, how much you notice would depend on how psychically sensitive you are. Of course, the stronger the bond, the more likely one is to notice these effects. For example, the strongest psychic bond is typically that between mother and child, so even mothers who aren’t especially psychic may have striking experiences of this connection. Similarly, someone who is highly psychic can pick up things about people they barely know. If you are highly psychic, you may have an acquaintance pop into your head only to have that person phone you just after this, or learn that this person was thinking of you at that time.

Please note that I’m talking about conscious effects: we are all influenced by the psychic cords we have with other people whether we know it or not. Further, the less conscious we are of these interactions, the more they tend to influence us.

The cords that are formed when we have sex with someone are never completely broken unless something is done to purposefully break them. They do tend to fade or diminish over time, however. The stronger they are at their foundation, the more they tend to endure. Thus a long, passionate, true love affair is like a castle: though we may leave it behind, it remains standing and will continue to exist even as it falls into ruins. Only if we purposefully disassemble it and re-appropriate its materials will it disappear from the landscape.

Along the same lines of this metaphor, when we sleep with someone in a casual way without forming a deep bond, it’s like throwing up a little hut in our psychic territory. If we sleep around a lot, soon we’ll have a little ghetto in our psychic back yard. These creations aren’t as strong and enduring as true love affairs, so they will fall apart faster. Since they aren’t enormous like castles, it’s much easier to ignore, dismiss or overlook them.

It’s interesting that I’m writing this column today, because just last night I had long, delightful dreams of a boy I loved decades ago. Our bond is a good example of the castle I describe above. Though we’ve only run into each other a handful of times since we broke up, we continue to have fond feelings for each other, and I continue to have him pop into my mind on a regular basis. I also tend to dream about him every now and again, which is a very clear indication that we continue to have a strong psychic bond.

Having frequent or striking dreams about someone is one sign that we have a psychic bond with them. Here are some others:

On a mental level, the most common sign is that these folks will tend to just pop into our heads for no apparent reason. Of course, it’s wise to ponder what may have caused them to come to mind. If there is a song playing on the radio that reminds us of them, it could be nothing more than a mental association. If we can think of no reason why that person may be popping into our heads, then odds are good that we’re psychically linked.

As for why they would come to mind at that time, all sorts of things are possible. If we are working on some particular issue in our current lives, and that issue is somehow tied to the experiences we had with that person, it’s natural for those energies to be reawakened. It’s also very common for our thoughts about someone to make them think about us. Therefore, when someone pops into our heads, it may be because they’ve been thinking about us for some reason. Having a psychic connection to someone is sort of like having an intercom system: when one party sends a signal through it, it starts something of a telepathic dialogue that can go on indefinitely. Of course, for most people, this is mainly happening at an unconscious level.

On a mental level we can also pick up thoughts and ideas from people we are psychically bonded to. For example, I often see images of desert mountains, and when I follow the line of these images, the face of an old lover comes up, so I assume I am seeing images from his life. This is very similar to the images I see when I purposefully connect with someone on a psychic level in order to do a reading for them. It’s also similar to how spirits show me images and memories from their lives. This is really helpful to know if you’re trying to develop your psychic abilities, for if you examine the random images and thoughts that pop into your head, you will have a sense of what it is like to pick up psychic impressions.

On an emotional level, we can be suddenly overtaken by moods and feelings that seem to come out of nowhere. While we tend to feel like our moods just come over us, our feelings aren’t random. When we choose to be in a certain mood, our feelings are coming from within us; when we don’t consciously set our own tone, our moods tend to entrain to the strongest signal around us. This is why being around someone who is depressed can really get us down, while being around someone who is in a great mood can lift our spirits.

Sometimes the strongest signal is the emotional wavelength of someone we have a psychic bond to. This is why we may sense that someone is in danger even though they are miles away, for being in danger sends a very strong signal. Since we are rarely conscious of this type of influence, it tends to be extra powerful. It’s relatively easy to notice the influence of someone who is depressed and make a conscious choice to set our own tone, but when the influence is psychic in nature, we may be baffled as to why we suddenly feel down.

On a physical level, we can pick up the aches, pains and problems of people we are strongly connected to. This is especially true when we empathize with someone and we are powerful creators. Through years of working with the law of attraction, I have gotten to the point where I can give something my attention and manifest it very quickly. When I’m not careful with my thoughts and vibration, this tends to yield undesirable results!

It’s tricky to keep my vibration high when someone I love is hurting. Recently my athletic daughter had a lower back injury, and my heart went out to her because she was so frustrated and disappointed at her inability to compete. Within two days, I had the exact same pain in the same spot in my lower back. Similarly, my husband has been struggling with a painful elbow, which we’ve learned is due to bone chips in the joint. Within about a month of him developing this problem in his left elbow (and me listening to him talk about it and watching him struggle with it every day), I had pain in my left elbow!

The key to resolving such matters is conscious awareness. Once I became conscious that I was empathizing with and thus entraining to these vibrations, I was able to quickly release those conditions. Given the endless ways that psychic bonds can influence us, we are wise to choose the people we bond to carefully, and to cultivate conscious awareness of the subtle energetic interactions constantly flowing through our lives.

Soul Arcanum