BALANCE
Achieving the harmonious interaction of light and dark, masculine
and feminine, Yin and Yang and creative and receptive energies
in mind, body and emotions is an integral part of meditation,
dream work, psychic development or any creative work on personal
and professional growth.
Many situations in life can prevent balance in mind, body
and emotions. You may be thrown off balance by the people
around you, by your environment, by feelings of fear or anger
or by psychic information you receive. It is easy to be overwhelmed
by these stimuli, both external and internal, and psychics
believe that one of the most important aspects of psychic
growth is the ability to keep oneself balanced, to stay rooted
within yourself whatever is going on around or inside you.
Visualising a golden light or bubble around you to protect
yourself from distraction, self doubt or misfortune is a technique
often used by psychics to encourage inner balance, as is reconnecting
with the earth after psychic work by going for a walk or taking
a drink of water to ground yourself again in everyday reality.
In a recent series of seminars this year I talked with members
of the group about people or for that matter situations which
drain us both physically, mentally as well as emotionally.
As a psychotherapist early in my training boundaries both
between myself and the person I was working with as well as
with aspects of myself such as feeling the need to parent
a person or a situation when it was not indicated are uppermost
in my mind when considering balance. As
our discussion in the group continued the simple, accessible
idea of someone as a psychic vampire emerged. I invited members
of the group to consider times when a person had acted in
this way towards them. I then asked members of the group to
consider why this had happened and to become aware, as in
the classic Bram Stoker novel entitled 'Dracula' how tradition
stated that we had to invite the vampire into our home for
them to continue to gain access.
In my life I use my intuition when entering a room or when
about to talk to a person and I can sense how they will drain
and pull me out of balance. If this is what I sense then I
disengage so as not to invite them into my life. Prevention
being better and easier than cure?
BEHAVIOURAL MEDICINE
Behavioural medicine is an approach to healing that acknowledges
the effects of behaviour on health, and takes this into account
not just the interaction between a human and the environment
but the interaction between body, mind and spirit.
Non western healing systems such as traditional Chinese medicine
for centuries have based their approach on the interaction
between mind and body but it wasn't until the 1960s that western
medicine began to acknowledge that mind and body may not be
as separate as it had previously been thought.
Psychiatrist George Solomon observed that feeling unhappy
and depressed increased arthritis symptoms, and in his experiments
he found that rats put under stress died more quickly than
those who did not experience the same levels of stress. But
the real break through came in the 1970s with psychoanalyst
Robert Adler, who suspected from experiments with rats that
the nervous system played a part in a body's immune system.
He coined the term 'psychoneuroimmunology' [PNI]. Later research
confirmed that the nervous system does indeed produce reactions
that influence brain function and that there is collaboration
between the mind, the brain and the immune system.
PNI suggests that emotions have a part to play in physical
health, and over the years research has shown that relaxation
and positive thinking techniques can produce changes in wellbeing
and can be used in the treatment of illness. Relaxation, visualisation
and imagery have been used with success to treat a whole range
of conditions, from headaches and indigestion to serious conditions
such as depression, heart disease and cancer. Studies also
show that unhappy feelings, in particular suppressed anger,
fear and guilt, low self esteem and lack of loving relationships,
can all increase a persons chances of developing heart disease,
cancer and infertility.
Many medical experts now acknowledge the important role relaxation;
loving relationships and positive outlook play in mental and
physical health and wellbeing. Psychic healers have always
used the power of the mind to heal physical and emotional
problems, believing that if people feel better mentally and
emotionally they will improve physically.
For
a more detailed exploration please visit my website www.thepowerofcaring.co.uk
BILOCATION
The appearance of a person or animal in two places at the
same time. What exactly occurs in the phenomenon of bilocation
is uncertain, but one theory is that a person's double or
doppelganger is somehow projected elsewhere and becomes visible
to others either in solid physical form or ghostly form. Generally
the double remains silent or acts strangely. In folklore,
biolocation sometimes presages or heralds the death of the
individual seen.
Bilocation allegedly has been experienced and practiced at
will by mystics, ecstatics, saints, monks, holy persons and
magical adepts. Several Christian saints and monks were skilled
at bilocation.
Reports
of bilocation were collected in the nineteenth century by
the pioneering psychical researcher Frederick Myers, one of
the founders of the Society for Psychical Research in England.
Myers published his reports in 1903 in 'Human Personality
and Its Survival after Bodily Death', but the phenomenon has
received little interest in modern times.
BIOENERGETICS
Like acupuncture and acupressure, bioenergetics assumes that
existence of a universal life force that affects health and
wellbeing, and a capacity for self-healing within everyone.
It is a form of psychotherapy that involves a high degree
of intuitive awareness on the part of the therapist, and patients
have been known to report psychic experiences, such as episodes
of clairvoyance, as a result.
Bioenergetics works with the physical, emotional and mental
patterns of men and women to reduce emotional stress and help
with the challenges of living. It is a way of understanding
personality in terms of the body and its energetic processes.
According to bioenergetic theory, repressed emotions and desires
affect the body by creating chronic muscle tension and loss
of wellbeing and energy. The theory is based on the premise
that there is no fundamental separation between the mind and
the body: that psychological stress reflects and creates what
is happening physically, and physical or somatic events both
reflect and create mental and emotional state. Emotional stress
from many areas - relationships, family crisis, jobs, health
- produce tension in the body. Contractions in the muscular
system are often the result of carrying unresolved emotional
tension. These contractions can have a direct effect on the
energy level of the individual, on the capacity for spontaneous
and creative self-expression, and feelings of well-being.
Bioenergetic analysis seeks to bring about the conscious integration
of mind and body. Therefore, the focus is on both the psychological
issues presented and the manifestation of these issues as
shown in the individual's body, energy and movement. Bodywork
is combined with psychoanalysis of dreams and childhood experiences.
BIOFEEDBACK
Is the measuring of vital bodily functions that are normally
unconscious, such as breathing, brain wave rhythms, heart
rate and blood pressure, through information provided by electronic
devices. This information is then used to help control these
processes. Biofeedback is a relatively new field, emerging
only during the 1960s. Since that time biofeedback has been
used in parapsychology for psi testing.
Originally biofeedback was applied to brain waves. Brain waves
were the first discovered in 1924 by Hans Berger, but it wasn't
until the 1950s that it was thought possible to control them
at will - in 1958, researcher Joe Kamilya was able to help
college students control their alpha brain waves. By the early
1970s the attention of researchers turned to how biofeedback
could help one achieve altered state of consciousness, such
as those achieved in meditation, and how in meditation bodily
processes could be changed. Other experiments concentrated
on training subjects to alter involuntary processes, such
as blood pressure.
To monitor physiological processes, biofeedback electrodes,
which look like stickers with wires attached to them, are
placed on the clients skin. The client is then instructed
to use relaxation, meditation or visualisation to bring about
the desired response, whether it is muscle relaxation, a lowered
heart rate or lower skin temperature. The biofeedback device
reports progress by a change in the speed of beeps or flashes,
or pitch or quality of the tome. The results of biofeedback
are measured in the following ways:
Skin temperature
Electrical conductivity of the skin, called the galvanic
skin response
Muscle tension, with an electromyography [EMG]
Heart rate, with an electromyography [EMG]
Brain wave activity with an electroencephalograph
[EEG]
Biofeedback
demonstrates the connection between mind and body by teaching
subjects to use thoughts and relaxation to control bodily
processes, and as a result it is typically used as an alternative
medicine technique to treat health problems ranging from stress
related disorders to raised blood pressure, chronic pain,
addiction and asthma. Biofeedback can also teach people how
to increase their alpha brain waves. The alpha state is not
necessary for psychic experience, but studies have shown it
is condusive to it, since subjects who can slip easily into
alpha states tend to score high in psi testing.
BLACK
MAGIC
The use of supernatural and psychic power for evil ends, the
opposite of white magic, which is concerned with healing and
promoting what is good.
The term 'black magic' has been used with a wide variety of
meanings and evokes such a variety of reactions that it has
become vague and almost meaningless. It is often synonymous
with three other multivocal terms: witchcraft, the occult
and sorcery. The only similarity among its various uses is
that it refers to human efforts to manipulate the supernatural
with negative intent and the selfish use of psychic power
for personal gain. Workers of black magic are thought to have
but one goal: to satisfy their own desires at whatever cost
to others.
Magic, good or evil, is universal, with no ethnic or racial
association, and it is unfortunate that not just in the Western
civilisation but many cultures around the world, good and
evil have for centuries been denoted as white and black. White
often designates healing, truth, purity, light and positive
energy, while black is darkness, falsehood, evil and negative
energy.
In modern times probably the most popular synonym for black
magic is the occult. Originally the term meant hidden, hence
mysterious, and was routinely used by classical and medieval
scholars to refer to 'sciences' such as astrology, alchemy
and kabbalah but from the late nineteenth century when magical
sects such as the Order of the Golden Dawn emerged, the term
began to take on the meaning of evil or satanic. Perhaps best
known occultist and black magic practitioner was Aleister
Crowley (1875-1947), who dubbed himself the Antichrist. More
than any other person Crowley gave the occult an evil connotation.
BIRDS
Appearing
in dreams are thought to represent spirits, angels, trascendence
and the supernatural. In mythology birds are messengers from
the spirit world, souls of the dead or carriers of souls of
the dead. In European folklore black birds, such as crows
and ravens, that cross your path or gather near your house
are thought to be death omens.
WILLIAM
BLAKE 1757-1827
William Blake was a mystic, poet, artist and engraver whose
visionary art was much misunderstood by his contemporaries.
He published his first set of poems when he was 26, and six
years later, in 1789, be printed the 'Songs of Innocence',
which he also engraved and illustrated. In his forties he
wrote his more symbolic epic poems, 'Milton and Jerusalem',
and his best-known illustrations of the 'Book of Job' and
'Dante's 'Divine Comedy' were created in the last few years
of his life.
Blake lived and died in relative poverty. He received little
formal schooling, which makes his visionary interpretations
of the Bible and the classics all the more remarkable. From
a young age he experienced visions; when he was ten he told
his father he had seen hosts of angels in a tree, and when
his brother, Robert, died at the age of 20 he saw his soul
ascend heavenward clapping its hands for joy. Throughout his
life Blake drew his strength from the spirit world. He believed
deeply in the human imagination - indeed, that it was the
only reality - and he often spoke with apparitions, angels,
devils and spirits that he drew and engraved in his work.
His interest in the spirit world brought him into contact
with many of the visionaries and writers of his time.
MADAME
BLAVATSKY 1831-1891
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, daughter of Russian Aristocrats,
was a key figure in the nineteenth century revival of occult
and esoteric knowledge. A highly intelligent and energetic
woman, she helped to spread Eastern philosophies and mystical
ideas to the West and tried to give the study of the occult
a scientific and public face.
Blavatsky became aware of her psychic ability at an early
age. She travelled through the Middle East and Asia learning
psychic and spiritual techniques from various teachers, and
she said that it was in Tibet that she met the secret masters
or adepts who sent her to carry their message to the world.
In 1873 Helena immigrated to New York, where she impressed
everyone with he psychic feats of astral projection, telepathy,
clairvoyance, clairsentience and clairaudience. Her powers
were never tested scientifically, but her interest was always
more in the laws and principles of the psychic world than
psychic power itself. In 1874 Helena met and began a life
long friendship with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer
and journalist who coveted spiritual phenomena, and a year
later they founded a society 'to collect and diffuse knowledge
of the laws which govern the Universe.' They called this society
the Theosophical Society, from theosophy, a Greek term meaning
'divine wisdom' or 'wisdom of the gods'.
Traveling to India, Blavatsky and Olcott established themselves
at Adyar, near Madras, and a property they bought there eventually
became the world head quarters of the society. They established
a nucleus of the movement in Britain and founded no fewer
than three Theosophical Societies in Paris.
Throughout her life Blavatsky's powers were dismissed as fraud
and trickery, but this do not stop the Theosophical Society
from finding a home among intellectuals and progressive thinkers
of her day. The society was born at a time when spiritualism
was popular and Darwin's theory of evolution was undermining
the Church's teachings, so the Society's new thinking flourished.
Many people appreciated the alternative it provided both to
church and dogma and to a materialistic view of the world.
Blavatsky's two most important books are Isis 'Unveiled' and
her magnum opus, 'The Secret Doctrine', published in 1888.
She drew her teachings from many religious traditions: Hinduism,
Tibetan Buddhism, Platonic thought, Jewish Kabbalah and the
occult and scientific knowledge of her time. Although they
influenced many people, her books are extremely difficult
to read. Nevertheless, her teachings were absorbed by many
people and then simplified into a worldview that was taken
up by many later New Age groups. This worldview includes a
belief in seven planes of existence; the gradual evolution
and perfecting of spiritual principles; the existence of nature
spirits [divas] and belief in secret spiritual masters or
adepts from the Himalayas, or from spiritual planes, who guide
the evolution of humanity. All these beliefs are derived from
Balvatsky's Theosophy.
BLOCKED
ENERGY
Energy
is believed to be the basis of all matter, and psychics and
alternative medicine practitioners believe that a field or
energy, called an aura, surrounds your body and a flow of
energy [chi] exists within it. If these energy forces are
interrupted for some reason the energy becomes blocked and
will not flow freely. Charkas are an essential part of this
energy flow. If one or more of them is closed, then the energy
is blocked at these points.
It is throught that blocked energy which is not cleared can
lead to serious consequences, affecting your mental, physical
and spiritual health, and impeding your spiritual and psychic
development.
BODY
SCANNING
The
ability to look psychically into and around a human body in
order to determine the person's health and state of mind.
Body scanning can be experienced through any of the five senses.
A medical intuitive can psychically read a body and come up
with a diagnosis in actual medical terms. Each intuitive works
differently; for example, some read auras whiles others read
energetically the insides [organs, blood, glands]. Intuited
information can then be provided to the clients medical doctor
and/or health care professional for further evaluation and
discussion of possible treatments. Many medical intuitives
work with, or are, medical doctors themselves.
BODY
WORK
Alternative
medicine therapies that take into account the role of the
mind and emotions in physical health and look especially at
how the body interacts with the enviornment and universal
life energies.
There
are many types of bodywork therapies involving manipulation,
massage, movement, breathing, energy balancing and energy
transfer. All these therapies assume the existence of a universal
life force and the ability of the body to self-heal when therapy
stimulates that life force. Examples are acupnuncture, acupressure,
bioenergetics, energy balancing, massage, reflexiology, rheiki
shiatsu and therapeutic touch.
BOOK
OF THE DEAD
The
Book of the Dead refers to the funeral literature of ancient
Egypt. The texts consist of charms, hymns, speels and formulaes
designed to help the soul pass through the dangerous parts
of the underworld. By knowing the formulaes, it was thought
that the soul would ward off evil spirits and pass safely
into the realm of Osiris, god of the underworld. At first
carved on to stone sarcophagi, the texts were later written
on papyrus and placed inside the mummy case, and therefore
came to be known as Coffin Texts.
BOOK
TEST
The book test is a way for the deceased to communicate with
the living and provide evidence of their survival after death.
It was developed in the early twentieth century by English
medium Gladys Osbourne Leonard and her spirit control, Freda.
In the book test the deceased communicates through a medium
and provides the title of a book not known to the medium.
The deceased gives the books exact location and then specifies
a page number, which is supposed to contain a message from
the deceased. Leonard's book tests were very successful, and
almost always the passage selected contained personal messages.
Paranormal factors may well figure in some books tests, but
this does not necessarily imply that there is life after death,
as book tests can be easily explained by the idea that the
medium himself or herself is picking up psychic information.
Another problem with book test as proof of life after death
is that on almost any page of a given book some passage may
be interpreted as a message.
BOOK
OF SHADOWS
A
book that contains rituals, laws, healing lore, chants, spells,
divinatory methods and other topics to guide witches in practising
their craft. There is no single definitive Book of Shadows
for witchcraft; each tradition may have its own book, and
local covens and individual witches can adapt books for their
own use. In past centuries Books of Shadows were held secret;
however, some witches in recent years have made their books
public.
Traditionally
a coven kept only one Book of Shadows, kept safe by the high
priestess or priest. But today individual witches have their
own personal Books of Shadows in the form of diarys or notebooks,
often now on hard drive and disk.
BOSTON
SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
A
psychical research organisation that was welll regarded in
its day, publishing a series of books and pamplets between
1925 and 1941.
The
society was created as a result of internal strife within
the American Society of Psychical research. When spiritualist
Frederick Edwards became president in 1923 and introduced
more popularist policies, Walter Franklin Prince, the ASPR's
well-respected research officer; left to start the rival society
in Boston with an academic focus. The Boston Society was officially
set up in 1925 'in order to conduct psychic research according
to strictly scientific principles.'
Prince
was the backbone of the society, and it faded away after his
death in 1934. During its brief existence the society did
not actively seek members and always favoured quality over
quantity in research and publication. Among its most important
bulletins was a report in the 1920s on ESP experiements conducted
at Harvard University and a paper entitled "Toward a
Method of Evaluating Mediumistic Material", published
in 1936. The society also published a number of groundbreaking
books on mediumship, including Beyond Normal Cognition
by John Thomas (1937). The Boston Society also published J
B Rhine's work Extra Sensory Perception (1934), which
described laboratory experiements carried out at Duke Univeristy.
BRAIN/BRAIN
WAVES
Although it is possible that psychic power is a bridge that
connects your brain to a higher mental or spiritual force,
some experts believe that psychic ability should be treated
as another aspect of brain function. They regard psi as an
additional sense that is somehow located in our brains, and
believe that understanding psi can help explain how we perceive
and process information.
One of the most amazing discoveries in medicine was made by
Roger Sperry in the 1960s, who revealed that the right hemisphere
of the brain, responsible for intuition and creativity, makes
an equally valuable contribution as the left hemisphere of
the brain, responsible for reason and logic and previously
thought to reign supreme. Opinions differ on what part of
the brain psi function exists in, but many believe that the
ability to connect to intuitive information is housed in the
right side of the brain and that for optimal brain function
both the right and left sides of the brain need to work together.
Some scientists suggest as well that brain waves need to work
together. Brain waves are electrical impulses our brains constantly
release, and they are measured in hertz, or cycles per second.
There are four major stages of brain wave activity, beginning
with beta, the shortest and fastest waves, and moving through
to delta, the strongest and slowest.
When the brain is emitting beta waves, the individual is active,
awake and conscious, with his or her eyes open. Alpha brain
waves operate just below waking consciousness, a state that
is attained in meditation and relaxation. The average person
can maintain awareness in this state. Typically, eyes are
closed and the body is relaxed, but alpha waves are also produced
during daydreaming with eyes open. The alpha state is not
essential to achieve success in psi testing results, but studies
show that it is conducive to psi. Theta brain waves are achieved
during deep relaxation. The average person cannot maintain
awareness in this state, but some meditators claim that they
can. The final state, delta, is one of sleep or unconsciousness.
Some scientists maintain that the blending of all four brain
waves create a brand new brain wave form. Some followers of
Eastern philosophy propose that the awakened mind, which occurs
when a person is more aware of their spiritual existence,
is a state that combines all four brain waves at once.
BREATH
The
first and last thing we do in life. Breathing is the essence
of life and it is not suprising that breathing and breath
are often identified with the soul. In Roman times a close
relative would inhale the last breath of someone who was dying,
because it was thought that the soul had to enter into another
body or it would be lost. In Hinduism the breath or life energy
is seen as the force that controls the mind; healthy breathing
is healthy thinking and healthy being, which is why yoga always
teaches breathing exercises.
In
the past half century or so many Westerners have tried to
learn the techniques for breathing, meditiation and mind control
that Eastern yogis have studied for millenia. In recent years
psychiatrist Stanislav Grof developed a method that combines
breathing and meditation and called it Holotropic Breathwork:
it helps individuals enter an unordinary state of consciousness
for psychic healing by using evocative music, accelerated
breathing, energy work and mantra drawing. Aspects of this
meditation involve exploration of the inner self and spiritual
opening.
Breathing
exercises
Simple
breathing exercises are thought to help give you quick
access to psychic states of mind. One Eastern technique
is to visualise, with each in-breath, drawing in coloured
light - pink light for harmony and quiet contemplation
and white or gold light for spiritual energy - and slowly
breathing out black mist of smoke as all the negative
energies leave the body.
A
yoga breathing exercise that is thought to be very effective
for saturating your aura and your body with energy is
alternate nostril breathing
Using
your right thumb, close your right nostril and inhale
slowly through your left nostril for a count of four.
Then keeping the right nostril closed, use your fingers
to close the left nostril, so both nostrils are closed
for a count of eight. Then, keeping your right nostril
closed, remove your thumb rom your right nostril and
exhale for a slow count of four. Switch nostrils, closing
the left nostril and inhaling through the right nostril
for a count of four. Close both nostrils again for a
count of eight, and exhale slowly for a count of four
through the left nostril. Repeat the whole exercise
four or five times.
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BURIAL
RITES
The idea of a journey to the afterlife is evident in every
culture and ever age, and it has always been considered a
duty of the living to set the dead on their path to the other
world. In primitive times symbols were carried to rocks and
implements and weapons were buried with the dead to help them
in the next life. In Greece a gold coin was buried with the
dead to pay the ferryman to take them across the River of
Death. The Egyptians had the most elaborate burial rituals
which lasted for days. Today the idea of a journey can still
be said to exist when we lay flowers on graves to provide
beauty and peace in the hope that the spirit will find it
on the other side.
As well as preparations for the journey to the afterlife,
the other important part of ancient burial rites was to make
sure the spirit found peace and did not return to haunt the
living. Some ancient cultures maintained contact with the
dead, keeping artifacts of the deceased so that communication
could take place with the help of a go-between. In many places
in the world ancestral spirits and ancestor worship still
play an important role and burial rites create a doorway from
this world to the next.
Generally burial rites in the West have taken on the idea
of paying respect to
the person and his or her family and the ritual has become
a way to say good-bye. It is an important time because, according
to psychics, the bereaved need to let go of the spirit so
it can go on its way, and the spirit needs to let go of the
bereaved. Burial rites therefore still represent a bridge
between physical life and spiritual life.
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