Something I have written about previously is that we can all influence each other, in a range of ways - for instance, my post at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/12/response-to-assasination-of-benazir.html has some comments about how our energies can influence what is happening in other parts of the world, my post at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/11/families-funerals-and-bev-brock.html talks about how the living can influence the souls of the dead by doing rescue (also touched on in http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-past-lives-part-2.html), and my posts at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-past-lives-part-2.html and http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/11/protection.html cover protection and psychic attack (the latter also being part of http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/10/control.html).
So the living can influence each other, and the dead; the dead can also influence other dead people, and the living. Sound scary? It shouldn't - the influence of the dead on the living includes the guidance and protection many of us receive. Other, less desirable influences from dead people are not that much different, if at all, from the less desirable psychic influences that come from the living - AND ARE DETECTED THE SAME WAY. (Good influences from others also includes the closeness that one can have with friends and lovers.)
They are also protected against the same way.
Those skills of detection and protection also lay the ground for developing mediumship.
At this point, I'll cover a technique I was taught at the New Age group ASPECTS (see http://home.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm): the "white light test".
White Light Test
This test is for the purpose of checking causes of something - e.g., whether, perhaps, a headache is caused by psychic attack, or a blockage of a psychic ability is caused by a karmic restriction.
1. Establish protection (including checking that the protection is effective),
2. surround the affected area (e.g., the blocked chakra) or your entire self with constructive energy (in a New Age group, "white light", but it could be an inspiring melody or a soothing scent [visualisation seems to works more easily for most people with visual things like colour, but can also be used to create psychic scents or sounds]),
3. ask your "constructive influence guides" (meaning, your "spiritual" guides, your Higher Self, you Patron Deity, your power animal/totem, your ancestors, etc - I use the qualification "constructive influence" when I am working [I actually use the phrase "Divine Light Force"] to make sure I am clearly excluding the influence of malicious or destructive people) to momentarily take out of <name effect/thing being checked> the extent of that which is due to <name influence being checked>.
If, say, you are checking whether a headache is due to psychic attack, go through steps 1 and 2, and then ask (I'll use the phrasing I am familiar with): "DLF Guides, please remove from this headache the extent that is due to psychic attack for a clearly noticeable time". If, say, 90% of the pain disappears for a second or so (or less: be prepared for this change to be brief), then you have good evidence that the headache could be due to psychic attack (and then take care to build your protection and psychic health, strength and well-being [see links above, and other of my posts]). If, say, 10% of the pain goes, you can probably assume that none of it is due to psychic attack.
As another example, perhaps you are having some problems getting a psychic vision, and may be wondering if this is due to a blockage in the third eye chakra. You may (after steps 1 and 2) ask "Higher Self, please remove the effects of any blockage in the third eye chakra from my attempts to obtain a vision for a clearly noticeable time". If, say, you get a sensation of energy starting to flow or move for a second or so (or less: again, be prepared for this change to be brief), then you have good evidence that there is a blockage (and then use colour visualisation to clear the chakra [see http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/10/secret-science-of-hugs.html], or maybe do a crystal balance [see http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-crystals.html]). If nothing else happens, consider other options (but see the qualifiers below).
OK, let's have one more example. Say you're trying to build a psychic melody to do a healing, and are not having much success, and are concerned that your lack of success may be because the melody is not in harmony with the healing effect you are trying to create. You go through steps 1 and 2, and then perhaps ask "Patron Deity Horus, please remove from my attempts to create this healing melody any restriction due to the melody being inconsistent with the healing effect I am trying to create". If there is no change, then you may need to consider other factors, such as your skill levels, outside interference, insufficient karma on the part of the patient, etc, etc, etc. If there IS a significant change, find another melody, or another way of doing the healing.
There are some qualifiers to this technique:
(1) there may be a valid reason for you not to know the answer - for instance, you may be meant to be denied the answer to force you to think something through properly, or because you are meant to go through an experience, or - and this one can be a toughie! - because someone else is meant to help you
(2) the technique assumes that you have enough karmic credit ("good karma") to be able to have the energy shifted for a moment (that can take some effort in the case of a strong psychic attack)
(3) people's preconceptions can be insurmountable - ESPECIALLY your own. In general, it is best (but not always practical) to not ask a question unless one is totally (emotionally, mentally and spiritually) comfortable with all possible answers - AND the absence of any answer.
On that last point, I recently saw a programme on TV about the Bermuda Triangle which suggested that the "missing flight" (Flight 19 - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19) may have become lost through the Flight leader becoming so fixated on a perception that he considered his instruments - including his compass - were wrong, whereas they actually were correct. You need to at least acknowledge the possibility of such fixations to yourself, and then work calmly, rationally, in a balanced, objective manner on any actual or possible problems. To understand this issue and it's potential shortcomings better, also have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occlumency#Legilimency_and_Occlumency.
That attitude: calm, objective, balanced, is a key matter in developing a sound base from which to develop your ability to work as a medium. If you are interested in developing that ability, how would you develop and maintain your ability to attain and maintain that state of being? How are you going to develop the inner strength to calmly accept disappointment and then identify and work out the solution to whatever it was that disappointed you (usually poor or inaccurate channeling, in the case of mediumship)?
If my experience is anything to go by, often you can identify problems - particularly when they are occurring - by being observant and paying attention to your inner-scape. YOU know when you are fooling yourself; you just have to be unafraid of that possibility. You have to be able to see that such problems are just one more step along the path of developing the skill you are seeking. ways of identifying that resilience is my key interest in writing this blog today.
I consider that the better you know yourself, which is how you can then best be yourself (how can you be yourself if you don't know what that is?), the more likely you are to attain and maintain that calmness, and to be able to detect the influence of others on yourself. Under most circumstances, when such influences occur, you are likely to want to then adopt ways of minimising that influence (e.g., by establishing adequate psychic protection - which is then checked!), but when you are developing your mediumship, you want to develop the connection you have selected (commonly that is with a "guide" or deity, but it could also be with, for example, an earthbound entity for the purposes of "rescuing" that entity.
In this context, "rescue" is basically about directing an entity who has become earthbound (stuck around the earth plane after the death of their physical body) from this plane to the astral world that they should be in. Some links about rescue (and I don't necessarily endorse any of these links; several of these are just from an Internet search - I won't say which as I wish you read with your brains switched on) are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_rescue
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm
http://www.spiritrescue.co.uk/ (this site includes examples, and discussion on the use of mediumship for rescue work, including trance to rescue earthbound entities)
http://www.spiritremediation.com/spirit.htm
http://www.lorrainealder.com/
I'll come back to spirit rescue later. For now, I wish, dear Reader, for you to consider the topic of knowing and being yourself. How do you do this?
Well, life experience can help (not always, though, if the life experience is destructive). Thinking, including meditation (reflective meditation, not relaxation meditation) can help. Personal growth work is good for some, for others - depending on the technique - not necessarily so good. Similarly, some psychic/spiritual growth or development techniques suit some people, others suit others.
You have to find what works for you. Research - shop around, critically.
One clue I'll give you now, though, is that being dogmatic or set in your ways or beliefs is not a sign that you know yourself. The only constant in the Universe is change, and you cannot say that you know yourself until you know how you will navigate your sense of identity through the reefs of ever-changing time.
Perhaps the key for the purposes of this post, though, is the ability to recognise yourself. Keeping some sort of journal helps here, as reviewing it can help you recognise when your emotions, thoughts, etc are not true to your self. I actually use a numeric record, where I allocate numbers to how I feel generally and on some specific aspects, with respect to mind, body and spirit. I don't fill it in every day, but I try to do so regularly enough so I can help endorse knowing myself.
I also find that doing my psychic exercises regularly, including colour visualisation, practising psychic muscles, etc, helps me to simply recognise when an energy in my aura isn't my own - which more often than not is a good experience, as it can show friends/partners/guides etc are thinking of me.
To develop your mediumship, you will need this ability of (psychic) differentiation of energies.
You will also need to develop your ability to ground yourself - possibly when others are trying to get you out of your body. Think that isn't likely to happen? Think again! Too many drunks in pubs have auras that are crawling infestations of dead alcoholics striving to get as much sensation of drinking alcohol as they can through forcing gthe drunk to "just have another".
It happens - and this is no place for airy-fairy, floaty types. In my opinion, developing mediumship is a challenging task, and it requires well grounded, capable people who will be onjective and self-honest. Being able to ground yourself under stress is another vital skill - unless you are prepared to accept your teacher forcing you to come back, which is likely to leave you with a headache! In many situations, beginners seem to think that being lost in a psychic sensation is a good think - as in, "oh that was so good I didn't know where I was": in the context of learning to do mediumship, unless you are that extremely rare breed who is a genuine deep trance medium, it is more often than not a sign of dangerous lack of discipline and possibly self-indulgence (in the sense derided by Castenada's teachers [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castenada, which as of Saturday 1st March, 2008, has it's neutrality disputed).
I'm being harsher in this post than I have in any other, I think. That is for a good reason: becoming a medium can be a tough challenge. You need to be skilled in knowing yourself and psychic differentiation, in being grounded no matter what (including when others are trying to get you off with the fairies) and in psychic protection. You'll also need a good teacher.
OK, I had planned on writing more, but I've been at this for a while now, so I'll leave it at that for now. I may come back to rewrite this post more, or I may put more in another post.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
Gnwmythr
This post's photo is me MAANY years ago, with a pet cat named Hazel. Hazel was a "second chance" cat (passed on to me by an acquaintance who saved her from being put down) who took to staying as close to me as she could.
Tags: about me, chakras, change, control, emotions, energy work, karma, life lessons, New Age, personal characteristics, planes of existence, protection, Psychic attack, responsibility, rescue, mediumship
First published: Saturday, 1st March, 2008
Last edited: Saturday, 1st March, 2008
So the living can influence each other, and the dead; the dead can also influence other dead people, and the living. Sound scary? It shouldn't - the influence of the dead on the living includes the guidance and protection many of us receive. Other, less desirable influences from dead people are not that much different, if at all, from the less desirable psychic influences that come from the living - AND ARE DETECTED THE SAME WAY. (Good influences from others also includes the closeness that one can have with friends and lovers.)
They are also protected against the same way.
Those skills of detection and protection also lay the ground for developing mediumship.
At this point, I'll cover a technique I was taught at the New Age group ASPECTS (see http://home.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm): the "white light test".
White Light Test
This test is for the purpose of checking causes of something - e.g., whether, perhaps, a headache is caused by psychic attack, or a blockage of a psychic ability is caused by a karmic restriction.
1. Establish protection (including checking that the protection is effective),
2. surround the affected area (e.g., the blocked chakra) or your entire self with constructive energy (in a New Age group, "white light", but it could be an inspiring melody or a soothing scent [visualisation seems to works more easily for most people with visual things like colour, but can also be used to create psychic scents or sounds]),
3. ask your "constructive influence guides" (meaning, your "spiritual" guides, your Higher Self, you Patron Deity, your power animal/totem, your ancestors, etc - I use the qualification "constructive influence" when I am working [I actually use the phrase "Divine Light Force"] to make sure I am clearly excluding the influence of malicious or destructive people) to momentarily take out of <name effect/thing being checked> the extent of that which is due to <name influence being checked>.
If, say, you are checking whether a headache is due to psychic attack, go through steps 1 and 2, and then ask (I'll use the phrasing I am familiar with): "DLF Guides, please remove from this headache the extent that is due to psychic attack for a clearly noticeable time". If, say, 90% of the pain disappears for a second or so (or less: be prepared for this change to be brief), then you have good evidence that the headache could be due to psychic attack (and then take care to build your protection and psychic health, strength and well-being [see links above, and other of my posts]). If, say, 10% of the pain goes, you can probably assume that none of it is due to psychic attack.
As another example, perhaps you are having some problems getting a psychic vision, and may be wondering if this is due to a blockage in the third eye chakra. You may (after steps 1 and 2) ask "Higher Self, please remove the effects of any blockage in the third eye chakra from my attempts to obtain a vision for a clearly noticeable time". If, say, you get a sensation of energy starting to flow or move for a second or so (or less: again, be prepared for this change to be brief), then you have good evidence that there is a blockage (and then use colour visualisation to clear the chakra [see http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/10/secret-science-of-hugs.html], or maybe do a crystal balance [see http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2007/06/workshop-on-crystals.html]). If nothing else happens, consider other options (but see the qualifiers below).
OK, let's have one more example. Say you're trying to build a psychic melody to do a healing, and are not having much success, and are concerned that your lack of success may be because the melody is not in harmony with the healing effect you are trying to create. You go through steps 1 and 2, and then perhaps ask "Patron Deity Horus, please remove from my attempts to create this healing melody any restriction due to the melody being inconsistent with the healing effect I am trying to create". If there is no change, then you may need to consider other factors, such as your skill levels, outside interference, insufficient karma on the part of the patient, etc, etc, etc. If there IS a significant change, find another melody, or another way of doing the healing.
There are some qualifiers to this technique:
(1) there may be a valid reason for you not to know the answer - for instance, you may be meant to be denied the answer to force you to think something through properly, or because you are meant to go through an experience, or - and this one can be a toughie! - because someone else is meant to help you
(2) the technique assumes that you have enough karmic credit ("good karma") to be able to have the energy shifted for a moment (that can take some effort in the case of a strong psychic attack)
(3) people's preconceptions can be insurmountable - ESPECIALLY your own. In general, it is best (but not always practical) to not ask a question unless one is totally (emotionally, mentally and spiritually) comfortable with all possible answers - AND the absence of any answer.
On that last point, I recently saw a programme on TV about the Bermuda Triangle which suggested that the "missing flight" (Flight 19 - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19) may have become lost through the Flight leader becoming so fixated on a perception that he considered his instruments - including his compass - were wrong, whereas they actually were correct. You need to at least acknowledge the possibility of such fixations to yourself, and then work calmly, rationally, in a balanced, objective manner on any actual or possible problems. To understand this issue and it's potential shortcomings better, also have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occlumency#Legilimency_and_Occlumency.
That attitude: calm, objective, balanced, is a key matter in developing a sound base from which to develop your ability to work as a medium. If you are interested in developing that ability, how would you develop and maintain your ability to attain and maintain that state of being? How are you going to develop the inner strength to calmly accept disappointment and then identify and work out the solution to whatever it was that disappointed you (usually poor or inaccurate channeling, in the case of mediumship)?
If my experience is anything to go by, often you can identify problems - particularly when they are occurring - by being observant and paying attention to your inner-scape. YOU know when you are fooling yourself; you just have to be unafraid of that possibility. You have to be able to see that such problems are just one more step along the path of developing the skill you are seeking. ways of identifying that resilience is my key interest in writing this blog today.
I consider that the better you know yourself, which is how you can then best be yourself (how can you be yourself if you don't know what that is?), the more likely you are to attain and maintain that calmness, and to be able to detect the influence of others on yourself. Under most circumstances, when such influences occur, you are likely to want to then adopt ways of minimising that influence (e.g., by establishing adequate psychic protection - which is then checked!), but when you are developing your mediumship, you want to develop the connection you have selected (commonly that is with a "guide" or deity, but it could also be with, for example, an earthbound entity for the purposes of "rescuing" that entity.
In this context, "rescue" is basically about directing an entity who has become earthbound (stuck around the earth plane after the death of their physical body) from this plane to the astral world that they should be in. Some links about rescue (and I don't necessarily endorse any of these links; several of these are just from an Internet search - I won't say which as I wish you read with your brains switched on) are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_rescue
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm
http://www.spiritrescue.co.uk/ (this site includes examples, and discussion on the use of mediumship for rescue work, including trance to rescue earthbound entities)
http://www.spiritremediation.com/spirit.htm
http://www.lorrainealder.com/
I'll come back to spirit rescue later. For now, I wish, dear Reader, for you to consider the topic of knowing and being yourself. How do you do this?
Well, life experience can help (not always, though, if the life experience is destructive). Thinking, including meditation (reflective meditation, not relaxation meditation) can help. Personal growth work is good for some, for others - depending on the technique - not necessarily so good. Similarly, some psychic/spiritual growth or development techniques suit some people, others suit others.
You have to find what works for you. Research - shop around, critically.
One clue I'll give you now, though, is that being dogmatic or set in your ways or beliefs is not a sign that you know yourself. The only constant in the Universe is change, and you cannot say that you know yourself until you know how you will navigate your sense of identity through the reefs of ever-changing time.
Perhaps the key for the purposes of this post, though, is the ability to recognise yourself. Keeping some sort of journal helps here, as reviewing it can help you recognise when your emotions, thoughts, etc are not true to your self. I actually use a numeric record, where I allocate numbers to how I feel generally and on some specific aspects, with respect to mind, body and spirit. I don't fill it in every day, but I try to do so regularly enough so I can help endorse knowing myself.
I also find that doing my psychic exercises regularly, including colour visualisation, practising psychic muscles, etc, helps me to simply recognise when an energy in my aura isn't my own - which more often than not is a good experience, as it can show friends/partners/guides etc are thinking of me.
To develop your mediumship, you will need this ability of (psychic) differentiation of energies.
You will also need to develop your ability to ground yourself - possibly when others are trying to get you out of your body. Think that isn't likely to happen? Think again! Too many drunks in pubs have auras that are crawling infestations of dead alcoholics striving to get as much sensation of drinking alcohol as they can through forcing gthe drunk to "just have another".
It happens - and this is no place for airy-fairy, floaty types. In my opinion, developing mediumship is a challenging task, and it requires well grounded, capable people who will be onjective and self-honest. Being able to ground yourself under stress is another vital skill - unless you are prepared to accept your teacher forcing you to come back, which is likely to leave you with a headache! In many situations, beginners seem to think that being lost in a psychic sensation is a good think - as in, "oh that was so good I didn't know where I was": in the context of learning to do mediumship, unless you are that extremely rare breed who is a genuine deep trance medium, it is more often than not a sign of dangerous lack of discipline and possibly self-indulgence (in the sense derided by Castenada's teachers [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castenada, which as of Saturday 1st March, 2008, has it's neutrality disputed).
I'm being harsher in this post than I have in any other, I think. That is for a good reason: becoming a medium can be a tough challenge. You need to be skilled in knowing yourself and psychic differentiation, in being grounded no matter what (including when others are trying to get you off with the fairies) and in psychic protection. You'll also need a good teacher.
OK, I had planned on writing more, but I've been at this for a while now, so I'll leave it at that for now. I may come back to rewrite this post more, or I may put more in another post.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
Gnwmythr
This post's photo is me MAANY years ago, with a pet cat named Hazel. Hazel was a "second chance" cat (passed on to me by an acquaintance who saved her from being put down) who took to staying as close to me as she could.
Tags: about me, chakras, change, control, emotions, energy work, karma, life lessons, New Age, personal characteristics, planes of existence, protection, Psychic attack, responsibility, rescue, mediumship
First published: Saturday, 1st March, 2008
Last edited: Saturday, 1st March, 2008
