I want to encourage everyone to take another look at Sandy’s comments on my posting about St. Joseph. Think about it in terms of your own experience or friends’ experience, and comment, here, on what you think would be helpful to Sandy and many other people in her situation.
Sandy is someone who’s been corresponding with me for more than a year now about her unwanted psychic abilities unexpectedly manifesting, the shock it’s been to her, and her fears of how she must be crazy or she will be rejected, etc. In many cultures she would be selected by the wise elders of the culture for priestly or shamanic training with those developing talents: in ours, our “tribal elders,” psychiatrists, psychologists, clergy, medical practitioners, etc., would probably classify her as crazy and drug her so she did show these abilities any more, and so we would not be bothered and frightened by the uncanny, our dominant world view would be safe. That’s not a healthy situation.
For convenience, I’m going to repeat her comment right here. Well I thought I would, but this program won’t format it decently, so take a look back at her comments….
I’ve given Sandy many bits of advice for some time now, some of which may have been useful, but my knowledge and experience is limited. And just because I’m a scientist doesn’t mean that the relevant science, parapsychology, actually knows that much about this sort of stuff. So I’d like to throw open the discussion to all of you reading this blog. Have you had similar experiences? Or your friends? What can you advise Sandy to do that would probably be helpful?
Is unwanted psychic abilities much like being a closet gay?
Well, I used this term to speak of myself as a closet naturalist because I was too embarrassed to show my true self to my family when I was in my early twenties. So I wonder, how many closet psychics are out there? Is there a chance for them coming out too? I hope so, because we have much to learn from people who are perceived different.
Isn’t it odd that I’m now working on a master naturalist training program? I hope Sandy comes out soon and teaches us about her special psychic gifts. I’ll be the first to sign up. :-))
I always thought of naturalists as genteel scientist types, nothing socially unacceptable, but I guess anything you can think of is unacceptable or shameful to somebody!
I suspect there are a LOT of closet psychics out there! Some are relatively stable in the closet, a lot are probably nervous and unhappy.
My wife and I had some friends over for dinner a while ago, folks we’ve known for a couple of years. He’s always seemed rather skeptical about spiritual and psychic stuff, but quite knowledgeable, which is unusual. Usually the more “skeptical” someone is, the less they actually know. And then after a while he started talking about the “sort of psychic readings” he given a few times in his life and how shockingly accurate they were……Life is interesting!
My dream is that we stop being afraid of psychic abilities and start welcoming people like Sandy!
I don’t have any advice but wanted to comment with a brief summary of my own experience.
Psychic abilities are rarely accepted without judgment in my experience. If you even mention the smallest degree of interest in the paranormal there will be those who label you as off the wall. I had the misfortune of mentioning a few things that happened to me and years later coworkers continue to tease me.
I am a licensed social worker and won’t risk too much for fear of someone using it against me in some way. Social workers in general struggle to maintain professionalism as a discipline in the human service industry.
I have a cousin who has profound psychic abilities which I only recently learned about. While she and I have different manifestations of psychic/spiritual abilities and do not endorse the same interpretations of what is actually occurring we are thankfully able to share with each other. We have even been able to do some positive work together with these gifts.
She is oriented towards a traditional religious experience and has disclosed some of her abilities to a number of Catholic priests in her search to locate a spiritual adviser. So far it appears they have treated her without judgment and advised that she continue to be cautious revealing her experiences.
I am far too troubled by so much that goes on with the religious affiliation I was born with (Catholic) and could not find peace speaking with a priest. For the last year I have found peace participating in meditation practice at a local Buddhist group. This has some limitations but I have found that going to this group and doing my own work and reading has been enough for now. In fact I have found myself coming to terms with certain areas in my life and accepting them in ways I never would have dreamed possible.
I am always exploring and welcome any and all opportunities to discover more of the psychic side of life. For awhile last year I was a member of a ghost hunting group. Even though it seems to have been a bit of a dud it did put me in touch with another group of people open to the paranormal.
It is difficult to find people who take you seriously and even harder to find someone who can nurture growth in this area but I keep trying to put myself in the company of people who might be open to psychic experiences. Perhaps one day I will find a group of people I can be comfortable with. For now it is just me and one or two others as my informal support.
Maybe that is how it will always be. I am still trying to get the hang of the whole Buddhist impermanence thing and how it all fits together. Your blog has been particularly interesting in that regard.
Sorry this was so long and really didn’t say much. I wish I had more to offer Sandy and others who struggle with this. All I can say is keep trying to find those who are open to your abilities and learn to trust your judgment.
Thanks for trying, Dr Tart. I know there isn’t much one can do to cure being psychic. I actually came upon the closest thing to a cure this past week. I got very sick. I know that sounds rather counter-intuitive, but being very sick is the cure for being psychic.
I was almost enjoying it too. We had company and I didn’t want things moving unexpectedly in our home with my new daughter-in-law here for a visit. The poor girl is shy enough around her in-laws without subjecting her to psychokinesis. An earache seemed like a reasonable price to pay for shutting down the pk. And sometimes infections get better without any medical intervention, so avoiding the doctor didn’t seem completely out of line. (Did I mention the pk went away? 🙂 )
I finally saw the doctor yesterday, got a prescription for antibiotics, and then slept for about 12 hours straight. This morning the TV turned on by itself while I was eating breakfast. Apparently I traded in one cure for another.
But it isn’t all bad. I missed some parts of how I experience things, like the intensity of colored lights around everything. That diminishes a lot when I’m sick. As a teenager when I first realised that not everyone saw the lights I was so filled with sadness that I cried. It seemed terrible to imagine life without those lights.
A friend of mine recently put me in contact with a psychic who has some experience helping people like me be OK. I haven’t talked to him yet, but I’m hoping for the best. In the meantime, I’ll just try to focus on the lights.
I too have experienced a boom in telepathy. I have been sensitive my whole life and did some hemi-sync and meditation work recently and my “gifts” just exploded. Now I am overwhelmed and fear for my sanity as well. I wish I could blame it on drugs or a lack of them or some other trauma in my life, but nothing odd other than Monroe’s CDs…anyone else had this happen? I completely understand the problem about being in the closet with PSI abilities. It is extremely scary and disruptive especially when they hit like a freight train.
A good friend of mine was also getting overwhelmed with the rapidity of developing psychic abilities. She had to learn to say to the Universe/God/Spirit/Deeper Self, whatever you want to call it, “You’re freaking me out! Too much, too fast! Slow it down to a manageable level or I quit!” It worked for her, I hope something like that works for you. The reality is that in terms of scientific knowledge, we don’t know what the optimal speed is or how to control it…. ;-(
Hi Sandy,
A lot of these things would happen to me too, and I totally understand. I have a terrible fear of disclosing these things to anyone. It’s too bad because I think that a lot of good could come from this if we were free to explore and grow openly. It’s not as much not wanting the abilities as the fear of the so called “witch hunt”.
Fear of “witch hunt” is perfectly reasonable. It’s not as bad as it’s often been in times past, but most of us are driven by irrational emotions much of the time, and attacking others as a way of avoiding working on yourself is a common human course. So es, be discrete! I wish I could say times are enlightened, no problem, but I can’t realistically say that….. ;-(
I would suggest that Sandy’s PK abilities make her a great potential healer. When seen this way, her “curse” actually become a “gift”. I would suggest that she invest in self-cultivation practices (Meditation, internal Qigong …), and get a look at what medical Qigong has to offer. She may be surprised.
I think Sandy reads this blog, and that’s good advice.
Yeah, there definitely are quite a lot of “closet psychics” out there. I am one, who stays in the closet to avoid disrupting my profession, and I’ve met a very large number of others. I’m completely certain that “closet psychics” vastly outnumber people who speak about it openly. When we someday reach a point where society stops judging the mental competency of people based on their gifts or skills in this area, then I believe we will be pleasantly surprised at the number of people we find.
But I’m posting out of concern for Sandy’s situation. In my youth I experienced quite a number of disturbing events, such as moving objects, shattering glass, and seeing things clearly that I should not have been able to see. I was initially a little afraid of these things, and afraid of myself for doing them. But I learned you don’t have to be. The key starts with understanding that when these things happen, it truly is a part of you doing them. Where we get frightened is when we are not aware of our entire selves, and thus our conscious minds are surprised or disrupted by the psi actions done without conscious awareness.
This is best resolved by engaging in a regular practice of focal meditation, in which one spends about an hour at a time trying to focus the whole of the mind on a single object or single thought. (I placed a link to an article about this at my name above.) This exercise eventually helps one achieve a unity of self from which psychic abilities no longer surprise us, but instead, become a welcomed part of our self-awareness. If you can turn it on, turn it off, or direct it where you intend, then it becomes a valuable tool in your life, rather than a frightening burden out of your control. So please, Sandy, don’t think of psychic abilities as something you need to “cure”. They’re a deep part of you! Approach them as something you can fully integrate and gain awareness of and control over, and you will find peace with them.
In my mind, this is a good example why we need to develop appropriate cultural patterns to respond to these kind of occurences. In many other cultures, so called “psychic powers” are widely accepted and those who practice them are held in high esteem. I’m not arguing against science, and not against christianity – but both models of explaining reality are deeply against anything “esoteric” or “magical”. This stems from a big lack of understanding how life works in my opinion. But how does that help Sandy?
Well, first of all it would help if she could acknowledge that her ubbringing, her culture prevents her from seeing her powers in a new way. If she’d live in the amazon basin, she’d probably a shaman with high status.
It is important to learn how to let go of preconceived notions about reality, to willingly embrace this new situation . It makes me a bit sad to read about her wanting a “cure”. I believe the best way to go about it is to talk to that psychic she was mentioning – to get another perspective. Because otherwise, stigma is all there is.
Could we get an update on the Situation? I would like to know what happened in the last year.
Sandy, i really hope you’ll find a way to deal with this situation. Don’t forget that there are many others like you out there. Some are out in the open, some are hiding – but they do exist 🙂