People frequently ask how they can "become psychic" or develop what Psychic abilities they have. Here's the good news: we are ALL already psychic! Some of us are more naturally developed, but each of us can work on developing our psychic abilities further. First here's a brief explanation of the types of psychic ability:

Clairvoyance (clear-seeing)

Having "visions", seeing images (still or moving) on the inner screen of the mind (eyes can be open or closed). Also includes seeing auras, apparitions, angels, etc. In other words, seeing beyond the physical. The area of the body that receives the psychic impressions for this sense is located in the center of the forehead (the Third Eye).

Claircognizance (clear-knowing)

Having knowledge of certain situations/people/places without having any information to facilitate such knowing. This can be things of the past, present or future (premonitions). A common statement from people who are strong in this ability is, "I don't know how I know, I just know." The location for this sense is on the top of the head (the Crown chakra).

Clairaudience (clear-hearing)

Hearing voices, music and other sounds that do not have a physical source. This can include hearing voices of those on the "other side" (deceased people), our guardian angels or spirit guides, our higher selves, or God/dess. This can also include hearing voices/music/sounds that are actually echoes of the past - this happens alot in haunted buildings). The locations for this sense are on each side of the head, just above the ears.

Clairsentience (clear-feeling or clear-sensing)

"Feeling" things about people or situations that we otherwise could not know. People who are strong in this ability often talk about having "gut feelings" about things, and are usually very sensitive to energies and emotions of other people. Negative energies can often cause a wrenching or queasy feeling in the abdominal area. This sense can also warn of problematic upcomings or situations (having a "bad" feeling about something). This sense is located in the solar plexus.

Clairalience (clear-smelling)

Smelling things that have no physical source. Very common in haunted areas, but can also be an indication that a deceased loved one is with us (i.e. smelling your mother's favorite flower suddenly while in a closed room during winter). It can be their way of contacting us, letting us know they're around.

Clairhambience (clear-tasting)

Tasting things without having eaten them. Most often relates to spirit communication, as with Clairalience.

Developing Your Psychic Abilities

You have probably already recognized one or two of these traits within yourself. Most people are strong in one or two of these senses, and not so strong in the rest. While you can learn to develop all of these senses, most commonly you'll end up relying on the one or two you are naturally strongest in. Very often, people say that they don't seem to have control over these abilities, it just happens "when it wants to". By working on developing these skills, we make it easier to use them on demand.

Below are some exercises to help you develop your own psychic abilities. Before beginning, sit in a quiet room where you will not be disturbed, and do some slow, deep breathing until you are in a calm, relaxed state. Visualize soothing white light encasing you, infusing you with peace and calm, surrounding you with powerful protection. Empty your mind of all worries and let the white light erase all tension from your body. When you have reached a state of inner calm and relaxation, you are ready to begin. (Note: while working with these areas, you may experience certain sensations such as tingling, warmth, or coolness. This is normal, and it's okay as long as it isn't causing you any discomfort. If you feel any tightness or strain, you are focusing too hard. Try to relax your focus a bit.)

Clairvoyance Exercises

When just beginning to work on developing your clairvoyance, I suggest that you do the exercises with your eyes closed. This will reduce distractions. Once you become more familiar with the third eye, you'll discover that you can access it easily whether your eyes are open or closed. To begin, close your eyes and see the "inner screen" of your mind. Do you see anything? Sometimes you'll see moving lights or shapes in the blackness, other times you may not. Stay like this for a moment, paying attention to anything you see. Now shift your focus slightly up, toward the center of your forehead (eyes still closed). Visualize this area of your forehead "opening", like an expanding circle. You are now accessing the third eye center. Don't force it or strain too hard, you'll only end up giving yourself a headache! Just sit quietly, focusing on this area of your inner vision, and notice if you see anything. Don't be discouraged if you don't right away. With frequent practice, you will develop. If you are already fairly well developed in clairvoyance, you may see faces, shapes or images without having to wait too long.

Once you begin to develop, you might want to try remote viewing. Sit quietly and visualize a place other than where you are. You might try visualizing your parents' home, your place of work, or even another room of your house. Shift your focus upward to the third eye area and see if you pick up anything that may be happening in that other place. Make a note of what you see, and then try to verify it and see if you were correct. For example, before going to work, sit quietly and try to "see" what a particular co-worker will be wearing that day. Make a note of any impressions you get. When you get to work, see if you were correct. See if you can tell what's happening in your best friend's home at the moment you are remote viewing, then call her/him and ask what they were just doing. I think you may be surprised by how often you will be correct. And of course with frequent practice, you'll be even better!

People who are fairly well developed in clairvoyance may often "see things" out of the corner of their eye. In buildings where there is paranormal activity, this is quite common. You might see streaks or orbs of light, you might see a shadow pass by, or an actual silhouette of a person or animal. But when you turn your head to get a better look, it's gone. Why is that? Because when you turn to FOCUS on something, your physical eyes assume the majority of the focus. Try a little experiment right now. Look straight ahead at a particular object (the computer screen is fine). Notice that you can see out of the corners of your eyes (this is your peripheral field of vision). Even while keeping your gaze focused straight ahead, you can still see to the right and left. You are more apt to see something non-physical out of the corner of your eye simply because your focus is relaxed in that area. Now try another experiment. Look straight ahead, but relax your entire focus. Let your eyes go slightly "out of focus" so that everything looks kind of blurry or hazy. In this state, your third eye will take over while your physical eyes are resting. Keep doing this and you may start seeing all kinds of things, from apparitions to auras!

Claircognizance Exercises

While sitting quietly, close your eyes and focus your attention on the top of your head. Visualize a large funnel or cone above your head, the narrowest point just above your head, extending upward to the widest point, about a foot above your head. Notice any impressions you receive, no matter how faint or unusual they may be. You can do this while thinking about a specific event or situation, and see if you can predict certain things, such as things that might happen to you that day, or perhaps people you will run into unexpectedly. Or you can just do this in a general way, by opening yourself to whatever may come through. It is important to acknowledge what you receive. Don't just chalk it up to imagination right away. Make a note of what you perceive, no matter how strange or farfetched it might seem at first. With practice you'll discover your accuracy improving, and likely this ability will begin activating itself without any effort on your part. You'll be one of those people who say, "I just know."

Clairaudience Exercises

Close your eyes to minimize distractions, and focus your attention on the left and right sides of your head, just above your ears. Feel those areas "opening", like widening circles. Do you hear anything? You might not at first, it may take time and practice. What types of things will you hear, you ask? You might hear voices or muted conversation (often it's too faint to make out exactly what's being said), you might hear music (again, it might be faint), or a host of other sounds. Once you begin to develop this sense, don't be surprised if divine guidance comes in this way! One morning as I was leaving the house, I got into my car and very clearly heard a male voice say, "Don't speed". There wasn't a physical person in the car besides me, so I figured it must be one of my spirit guides speaking. "Okay," I said, "I won't speed." But I was late for an appointment and soon forgot that advice. Once I got on the freeway, I stepped hard on the accelerator. Thankfully I was only going about 10 mph over the speed limit, because as I rounded a bend, there were two police cars parked on the median with radar on! Whoops! They didn't pull me over though. I was lucky that time, what if there had been an accident waiting for me rather than a potential speeding ticket? Now I make a point to ALWAYS listen to the guidance I receive, whether I hear it, see it, feel it or "know" it! You should do the same. Don't doubt yourself or ignore what you hear.

Now, when I talk about "hearing" as in clairaudience, it's not quite the same as hearing with our physical ears. Most often these sounds come through as thoughts. You know that voice you talk to yourself with in your mind? Like when you're wondering what you need at the grocery store, "Hmm, I'm pretty sure we have enough paper towels at home, but I'm not sure....maybe I should buy some just in case. Oh, and I can't forget tomatoes..." THAT voice. You're not actually hearing anything physically, you're hearing clairaudiently. It's the same when you hear voices of spirits, spirit guides, angels, and even God/dess. You might hear these things as if it was your own inner voice speaking, or you might hear it in a different voice. Very rarely will the voices be loud and "external". Usually you hear it quietly inside your own mind. In the case of hauntings, the voices can be loud and sound external. Sometimes it's so loud they sound like they're shouting directly into your ear. But even so, it is still clairaudience, since they don't have vocal cords to speak with.

Clairsentience Exercises

Close your eyes and focus on your solar plexus (the solar plexus is located between the chest and the navel - in other words, your upper abdomen). Visualize this area opening, like a widening circle. Do you sense anything? If you are alone in the room, you might not. This sense very often picks up vibrations from other people and places. If you're picking up your own vibes, you likely won't feel anything noticeable. However, you could try thinking about a certain upcoming event, a potential job or mate while keeping this area open too. Do you get anything then? Pay attention to what you feel when you think about certain things, and note any impressions you get. I learned a long time ago to always pay attention to my gut feelings. The few times I didn't, I regretted it! My motto since then has been, "When your gut says no, you say no."

People who are strong in this sense are often referred to as "sensitives" and will frequently have "gut feelings" about certain people and situations. These feelings can be very strong, such as a clenching or wrenching of the abdominal area, or they may be fainter, such as a fluttering, tightening or mildly queasy sensation. Have you ever met someone and taken an instant dislike to them? And if asked to explain your dislike, you could only say, "I don't know why, I just have a bad feeling about him." This is clairsentience, and most often these types of gut reactions end up being accurate, even if there isn't any verifiable information to go along with it at the time.

Sensitives often find themselves bombarded by random emotions that are hard to decipher. Crowded public places are especially hard for sensitives, and many of them avoid this type of gathering. Many of these people think something is wrong with them, or that they're suffering from a phobia of some kind. What's really happening is that they are picking up the emotions of other people in these crowded places! Below I will offer tips to help with this.

Clairalience and Clairhambience Exercises

These two senses are harder to develop, and most of us won't have a need to develop them. They're more secondary psychic senses, except perhaps for mediums and psychics. If you do wish to develop these senses, begin to develop an awareness of what you are smelling and tasting at any given moment. Pay attention while in meditation to any smells or tastes you get. Can these be explained by anything in the room or perhaps in a nearby room? Could the scent be drifting in from an open window? Pay attention to the smell of a room when you walk into it. Open your mouth slightly, allowing the air to touch your tongue. Most often you will smell and taste things that are going on in the room at that moment. For example, if you do this in a restaurant, you will likely smell food, various perfumes and colognes, or perhaps cigar smoke or cigarette smoke. Are there any other scents you pick up that don't seem to belong? Like in a restaurant that doesn't allow smoking, you wouldn't smell cigar smoke. If you do, think about why. Is there a lounge nearby that people are smoking in? Did the restaurant used to allow smoking and the smell still lingers? If you are at home and you smell something like this, first look around and make sure that no one has indeed been smoking (or if you smell flowers, look around for a possible source of the scent, etc.). Is there a window open? Could the scent be coming from a neighbor's house? If you can't find anything, think about family members or friends who this may apply to (deceased or living). Could they be thinking about you or "dropping in" to pay you a visit? In all cases, try to find any logical explanations there might be first. Air fresheners, scented candles, potpourri, old furniture or even nearby houses can often trick us into thinking we're using our psychic senses when in fact we are not.

Triggering Between Psychic Senses

Remember that your psychic senses can often work together just as your five physical senses do. I call this "triggering". For example, when doing spirit communication work, I will most often sense a spirit first, and then I get a mental image of what the spirit "looks like" (or what they looked like in life). I might get a sense of age, hair color, stature or build, clothing or the type of person they are. I might even know certain information about them, such as things they've done, their name, etc. In this type of case, what I feel (clairsentience) triggers what I see (clairvoyance), and even what I know (claircognizance). Sometimes I'll hear something (clairaudience) and get a feeling about it (clairsentience). Or I might suddenly "know" something (claircognizance) and also have a bad "feeling" about it (clairsentience). It takes practice to decipher exactly what you're seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing. Sometimes you won't be able to tell what came first, the feeling or the knowing, the hearing or the seeing, the tasting or the smelling. And it doesn't really matter too much, as long as you're getting the information you need. In time you'll begin to gain a better understanding of how your own psychic senses work together. It's different for everyone, so be patient as you learn to work with these skills.

Trust Your Intuition

When you first begin to practice using your psychic senses, you might get impatient with yourself and wonder if you'll ever get it right. Don't do that! As with anything else in this life, practice makes perfect! The more you work with these abilities, the better you will be with them. Don't discount the information you're getting. If you can verify it, go ahead and check. If not, then just acknowledge that you received it. You never know, it just might end up happening in the future! I find it helpful to jot down any impressions I get in a journal. That way I can go back and check if any of them came true at a later time. You'd be surprised how many things you can predict.

Does this mean that you'll never be wrong? Of course not! If we were all-seeing and all-knowing, we wouldn't be human, would we? As much as we work on developing our psychic abilities, there will still be times when we aren't accurate. That's okay. Sometimes our imaginations take over, that's all. With practice you'll get a lot better at knowing what is a true psychic impression and what is your imagination.

Psychic Information in Dreams

Can psychic information come in dreams? YES! In fact that's very common. Remember though that dreams are very often symbolic rather than literal. Just because you dream of someone dying in a car crash doesn't mean it's going to happen! The car crash could be symbolic of something else in their lives, or in your life (obstacles, transformation, starting down a new path in life, etc.). It will be tremendously helpful for you to study symbolism and learn what various symbols mean to you. Don't rely too heavily on "known" symbolic meanings though. It's a good place to start, but ultimately you should think about what various symbols convey to YOU.

Premonitions & Prophetic Dreams - The Darker Side

With psychic ability, we often get the "bad" along with the good. When we develop our psychic senses, we are open to receiving all kinds of information, and this can include premonitions of upcoming events. This can be difficult, especially when we sense a loved one's impending death or illness. Sometimes we can do something about these events, and sometimes we cannot. I wish I could offer more helpful advice about this, but all I can say is, "use your best judgment". I don't advise going around spouting off to people that they're going to die, even if that's what you're sensing. This will only frighten them and make them think you've lost your mind. Psychic ability is a big responsibility, and we have to use it as such. Here are two good examples:

Several years ago one of my coworkers was talking to me about her son. She was telling me that he'd been sick recently, with a fever, vomiting and extreme fatigue. As she talked, I suddenly had what I call a "psychic flash", a very quick clairvoyant vision. I saw her son's circulatory system, all the veins and arteries running through his body. Immediately after that I saw the words, "cancer in the blood". The vision was there and gone in a millisecond. At this stage of my life, I wasn't at all sure of my abilities, so I figured it was my morbid imagination taking over and dismissed it from my mind. As the weeks wore on, this coworker kept telling me that her son was still sick and the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Every single time she spoke to me about her son, I had the same psychic "flash" of his circulatory system, and the words, "cancer in the blood". And every time I had that flash, I'd berate myself for being morbid and push it out of my mind again. I'm sure you can guess what's coming next.

Exactly five weeks after my first psychic flash of this woman's son, he was diagnosed with leukemia. I cried for days over that, and felt tremendous guilt. What if, by saying something, I could have given him a head start on treating this disease, five weeks earlier? What if he died, all because I didn't open my mouth? It took me a long time to get over that, a long time of dealing with "what ifs". Even though I wish I had given her an inkling of what I was seeing, I still don't think it would have been wise for me to say, "Oh, it's cancer in his blood!". What I could have done though, is say something like, "Have them check his blood, I feel it's important for them to check his blood." But it's too late now. I never did tell my friend about my visions, I couldn't see how that would help anything. (Note: After his diagnosis, he underwent many months of intense chemotherapy treatments and eventually went into remission. But the last I heard, he had had a recurrence. I've since lost touch with his mom, so I don't know for sure how he is now.)

The other example is quite different. I'm going to keep the details vague because my family doesn't realize I had this premonition, and I don't see why they should know about it now. A couple of summers ago, I went to visit some family members. Upon walking into the house, I noticed a brilliant green aura surrounding one of those family members. As I looked at this aura, I had a sense that his time on this earth was growing short, and he wouldn't be with us too much longer. I had no reason to think this, because he wasn't sick at all. He was elderly, but in great shape. Like I used to do so often, I just dismissed it from my mind. Four months later he was diagnosed with cancer, and he died a few weeks after that. This situation is very different than the other one, simply because it was this family member's time to pass on. Nothing I said or did would have made a difference. It was his time to leave this earth, and I picked up on it. End of story.

I have often wondered why I'm given information like this, when it's clear I can do nothing about it. What's the point? I've come to realize that when you're open psychically, you get whatever there is, the good and the bad. If you refuse to accept the bad, you also shut out the good. When you're open, you're open and all you can do is use your best judgment on when to say something about what you sense, and when to keep your mouth shut. Always consider the other person's feelings about what you might say. Try to help in any way you can, but also realize that they may not want to know. Respect that and accept it. Let go of what you cannot control.

Help for Psychically Sensitive Souls

As I stated above, sometimes people who are too open psychically can find crowded places extremely painful and uncomfortable. This especially applies to people who are strong in clairsentience, but it pertains to the other senses as well. In these situations, sensitives often feel bombarded with psychic impressions, emotions, thoughts and a flood of information from the people around them and even from the building they are in. There are many methods of reducing this psychic "noise". Experiment and find which one works best for you. Here are a couple of ideas:

Close the reception areas - above I mentioned where the psychic reception areas are for each psychic sense. If you feel bombarded with unwanted information, focus on "closing" those areas to shut it out. Just like you visualized those areas opening during the exercises, visualize them closing now. You could also visualize a shield of protective energy covering them, blocking out unwanted impressions. You may not need to do this with ALL of the reception areas, especially if you're only strong in one or two psychic senses. If this applies to you, just focus on closing those that you're strongest in.

"Zip up" a shield of protective energy - visualize a big "pouch" of energy, like a sleeping bag. It can be any color you wish, whatever is most soothing to you. I usually use white, but that's my preference. Visualize yourself stepping into this pouch of energy, and pulling it up and around you. Pull it all the way over your head so you are completely encased in its protective warmth. Then "zip" it up, just like a sleeping bag. You are now encased in a shield of energy. This works very well and I've used it many times myself.

Fun Exercises to Develop Your Psychic Abilities