Psychic Experiences
Science Fiction or Psychic Fact
Oda May Brown isn't the only psychic on the block any more. Neither is the
butcher's wife or the little boy who sees dead people. Even Steven King has
had to share some of the pie when you talk about this topic. What is it?
Psychic Phenomena.
In the last thirty years the interest in the paranormal,
extrasensory-perception (ESP) and the use of psychic powers has escalated.
Beyond your basic Steven King novel, the idea of being psychic or having
psychic abilities has penetrated deeply into genre of mainstream
television and movies. In 1990, the movie Ghost with Patrick Swayze, Demi
Moore and Whoopie Goldberg as Oda May Brown was the first blockbuster film
to portray psychic phenomena in a positive light. The following year, The
Butchers Wife was released where Demi Moore portrays a clairvoyant woman
who is married to a butcher in Greenwich Village. This speaks nothing of
the impact Haley Joel Osment had on viewers as he portrayed Cole Sear, the
young boy who could see dead people, in The Sixth Sense.
On television this interest is not diminished. We are bombarded with
commercials for the Psychic Friends Network, Miss Cleo and other psychic
advise lines. Unfortunately, these shows do not promote the credibility of
this once coveted art. There are however a number of shows emerging that
explore this phenomena in a more serious light. Dramatically speaking, we
have shows such as the Outer Limits, the X-Files, Profiler and even Star
Trek. We are also starting to see a growing number of real life
documentaries such as Crossing Over with John Edwards, Beyond Belief with
Melissa Ethridge and Encounters with the Unexplained with Jerry Orbach.
Sylvia Brown, Caroline Myss and James van Praagh are frequent guests on
shows such as Oprah, Maury and Montel. In fact, stations such as the
Learning Channel, the History Channel and the Discovery Channel have also
jumped onto this bandwagon, setting aside a large number of viewing hours
each month to cover this and other paranormal topics.
With all of the attention being given to psychic phenomena, its true
nature still lies deeply shrouded in mystery. Mass media has significantly
improved the sinister and evil stigma once associate with this ability,
but in doing so it has inadvertently misrepresented the essence of the
psychic experience.
When I was twelve years old, there was a television series called The
Sixth Sense starring Gary Collins as Dr. Michael Rhodes. Dr. Rhodes was a
college professor who investigated mysteries involving extra-sensory
perception, spirits, possessions, and other paranormal topics. It was like
"Murder, She Wrote" with a psychic twist.
As Dr. Rhodes worked to resolve the predicament of that particular
episode, he would walk into a room or touch a specific item and would have
a psychic (clairvoyant) experience. Limited by the constraints of film
making, the producers portrayed these intuitive insights as appearing of
this world. It was not unusual to see the ethereal image of Mr. Green's,
the recently deceased, float across a room as if visible to the naked eye
or illustrate a precognitive impression as a dreamlike encounter. It is
images like these that have mislead individuals as to the character of the
psychic experience.
The truth is, is that we all have psychic experiences daily. Some people
describe these experiences having a moment of intuition, as an impression
or even a gut feeling. Others write them off as a weird happenstance or
coincidence. When we have a psychic experience, we are receiving
information on non-verbal levels. It is as if we each act as radio
transmitters, sending out our thoughts, feelings and emotions. In turn, we
also possess finely tuned reception equipment built into us that allows us
to receive this information from others.
When we receive psychic information, it can be experienced in a number of
different ways - a thought, a feeling or even knowingness. By paying
attention to sensations in our physical bodies, to changes in our emotions
or to what we are thinking, we can "tune in" on psychic levels. This is
the experience.
One form of psychic input is called kinesthetics. This is where our
physical bodies reflects the attributes of another person. On kinesthetic
levels, we can experience a headache for no apparent reasons, only to have
it to go away as mysteriously as it came. Our backs may ache if we are in
contact with someone who has back pain. We may experience stuffy sinuses,
heart palpitations, indigestion, and even soreness in our muscles and
joints. The range and depth of what we can intuit from others on physical
levels is as varied as the number of health issues that plague man.
Don't worry about catching a malady when picking up this type of psychic
information. Once these individual move out of our physical space or
awareness, we no longer receive information from them. While they may
still be transmitting, we are out of the reception zone. When this occurs,
the physical symptoms, aches and pains that were being experienced go away
as quickly as they came.
Another way in which we receive information on psychic levels is through
our feelings. Feelings are a felt sense, meaning we experience them in our
bodies. Unlike the literal aches and pains we may experience on
kinesthetic levels, here we experience emotional type feelings such as
certainty, peace, harmony, tranquility, apprehension, jealousy, distrust,
hate or anger.
Being open to experiencing the feelings of others is called
clairsentience. We are having a clairsentient experience when we feel the
"vibes" in a room or get the creeps when we meet someone new. This ability
allows us to be empathic, to share in the joys of others as well as in
their sorrows. It alerts us to when things aren't quite right and can help
us when making decisions by giving us a "gut feeling". It is only when we
don't pay attention to these feelings that many of us end up saying to
ourselves after the fact, "You know I had a feeling about that!"
"Listening to what a little birdie told us" is a way of describing another
psychic ability. It is called clairaudience. Technically speaking, we are
having a clairaudient experience when we receive information on auditory
levels. As humans, we constantly have an inner dialog going on inside of
us. This dialog is on two separate and distinct levels. Our mental dialog
is aptly described as the non-stop inner chatter that we hear in our heads
all day and for some well into the night.
Conversely, when we receive information on clairaudient levels, non-verbal
information is send out subtly. It can be a soft and gentle reminder that
prompts us to take our umbrella with us even if it is not raining outside.
At times, this inner voice can be firm and directing. It also has been
described as having a persistent nagging like quality, working to guide us
onto bigger and better things. Similar to the clairsentient experience, we
oftentimes find ourselves saying in hindsight "I should have listened to
myself!"
We also receive psychic information on visual levels. This ability is
called clairvoyance. This ability is the one most often portrayed in
movies and on TV. It is also the capability that is most often
misrepresented. When asked, a surprising number of people expect to see
waiflike ghostly apparitions floating around a room or have corporeal
entities materialize out of nowhere and then interact with them on
physical levels. This expectation is anything but the truth.
When we have a clairvoyant experience, we see things in the mind's eye. It
is the faculty we use when we employ our imagination, visualize potential
outcomes or even daydream. We use our clairvoyance at work to help us plan
projects. We use it at home when we "keep our eyes" on our children.
Sometimes when we receive information on this level, it is experienced as
a fleeting thought or image. In fact, most people assume that when they
use this capability it is just their imagination at work. The truth be
told, it's not.
The final form of psychic information we commonly receive from others is
referred to as knowingness. When we are utilizing this ability it seems as
if we just know stuff - right off the top of our head. If asked, many of
us would not be able to explain how we knew, but we did. When we share
insights received on this level with others, they often seem prophetic. If
these insights are left unspoken, we may end up saying to ourselves "Oh I
knew that!"
The simple truth regarding psychic abilities is this: we all have access
to this form of non-verbal communication. In fact, many of us recognize it
when we receive it, even if we don't have the correct word to associate
with it. In the end, however, regardless of the amount of information
being received, it does us no good at all if we do not use it. So if you
are getting bad vibes from somebody, trust it! If your inner knowing is
working to guide you in one direction or another, listen to it. If you
find that you just know something, believe in it's worth. And for God's
sake, if you find that a friend or loved one has a headache - get them an
aspirin.