Illusive Reality - Personal Perception

There is something that must be understood in order to achieve clarity: In all personal reality, there is illusion. Then, how can I call it reality? Personal reality is how we construct our personal perception of the world around us. Physical reality is a stable expression of the material universe, one that follows universal laws that are the same in all circumstances, as far as we know at this point in time. Personal reality is fluid, and can alter in any moment, depending on these four things: Physical sense, mental awareness, doubt, and belief. These four things are always affecting our perception of what is happening within and around us. They are the factors that shift our perception constantly between clarity and imagination, and make our lives truly individual, unique experiences.

Who is this woman?

“Who is this woman and what has she got to do with Psychic Kids?"

This all started with an accident.

In June 2008 I was looking for people who had worked with the Atlanta Shakespeare Company or at The Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern in regards to a book I was writing about the Tavern. I asked a friend there where Chip Coffey was nowadays. Now, I had met Chip in around 1999, while I was performing in the Tempest. He was the artistic director of Kaleidescope Children's Theater, which performed in the building our company owned. I wanted to ask him about his company, and also ask him if he ever encountered our company ghosts. I seriously did NOT know anything about Paranormal State, or Psychic Kids, which had begun at that time. Our mutual friend said "didn't you know?..." Well, that news made it easy to go looking for Chip, and it doomed my book.

Why?

I found Chip's discussion board (which he had started a few years earlier), filled with fans. But Chip had become so busy with both shows, he couldn't be there. This busy board was filled with people wanting answers to psychic and paranormal problems, someone to tell them how to do things, not just wanting readings or to know his personal details. And there were some people giving answers. Some of them rather unhelpful answers.

Three things caused me to make the decision that stopped my focus on my book for good: A teenager came on wanting help to learn how to master and control demons, another boy was terrified that he was possessed by demons because he had massive headaches and zigzag vision (these are symptoms of the same form of migraine I suffered for years) and - all the people on there, looking for what they could do, instead of wanting someone to tell them about their futures.

Within a month I messaged Chip and said, "you need a moderator, and I want to do it." He agreed.

This went back on a very old vow of mine. I was never comfortable being a Psychic. I don't like reading people. Even though I'm precognitive, I don't like telling the future. So, yes, I have the abilities, but I never wanted to develop them and become a professional Psychic. Most of my abilities developed themselves over time, without consulting others about what to do, and this gave me a rather unusual perspective: I didn't learn from the various traditional methods, I learned from experience, mixed with a huge very Virgoan dose of being an analyst who takes notes of everything, and having a thought process that is half skeptic and half believer. I learned what works by paying attention. And I learned what works by lots of trial and error.

In earlier years when I tried to bring up the methods I had found that worked, this seemed threatening to other psychic teachers, because it was different from what they had learned to teach. They didn't know what to make of it. That's just it - it is only different. In as many ways as we have learned to use our abilities, and find so many experiences in common, the thing that governs our experiences are rooted in our individual beliefs and traditions. My chosen method  is this: Let go of belief as a rigid thing, and instead learn how to choose belief and use it responsibly. Rely on common sense. Pay attention to what is happening all around you and within you and learn from what you perceive. And keep it simple!

I treat psychic sense as a natural sixth sense, not a supernatural sense. It's a sense with which some are more farsighted than most others, but everyone has this sixth sense. It allows us to perceive what goes on inside our brains, our thoughts and emotions. For those who are far-sensed, or psychic, it helps us pick up information that is coming from outside conscious energy directly into our brains.

Like any other of our senses, it's got its strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I feel it becomes compromised the more we expect of it, so I prefer to just be open to what comes to me, rather than expect it to deliver what I'm looking for. This openess has always given me the clearest information. It resulted in my motto: "you can't tell a gift how to come."

What do I do exactly?

My psychic strengths are:

Empathic psychometry, directly by touch, which allows me to feel the different levels of energy in a person. As a singer and musican, this helps me do something unusual: I can give people I touch an idea of what their essential energy is like through music. This helps people get in touch with their essential selves.

I am a dreamworker. I live a complete life in the dreamstate, and what I learn and do there is as important to me as "reality." That is a huge topic, I'll only touch on here. My precognition and clairvoyance comes largely through dreams; that is the state in which I am most psychically aware.

I am a medium. In fact, I am something that I've ended up calling a beacon - my energy is so high, I draw them to me. I had the disconcerting experience two years ago of drawing a stuck spirit from England, who felt completely trapped, but was with me in my Kentucky home. That taught me a lot about the illusion of location! Odd twist on an old theme: I rarely see the ghosts of dead people. I often see the ghosts of living people. The dead usually make physical contact and sort of push and pull me into what they need. As I'm growing older I am also hearing more voices.

I teach about past life recall. I have a lot of experience with reincarnation and past life recall and have been advising people about recall for eight years now. I have three verified past lives, one as Christian Bayer, an 18th century Bavarian; Esther Waterhouse, the wife of the painter John William Waterhouse, which was my latest past life; and a famous past life that I don't openly discuss unless a memory becomes relevant, and until people get to know me a bit better. I have varying degrees of recall about lives stretching back to pre-historic times.

I work in a close partnership with a spirit guide I call Brendan, who reminds me every time I write those words, that I take him for granted, and I do. But I also appreciate him more than I can say, as I appreciate all my spirit guidance, seen and unseen.

My psychic weaknesses are:

My imagination and my emotions. I always have to thin them out and put them aside. I call this constant process Psychic Laundry.

What's the most usual thing I do? Sense the underbelly of people's feelings. I can't help it. But I keep those feelings private, it's their privacy, and in many cases it's things they don't want to be aware of. I respect that. I try to be very careful what I tell people, but sometimes people realize that I know things they don't want known, and they react by disliking me intensely. I am too clear a mirror.

What's the most unusual thing I do? I'll have to think about that one. I do a lot of things.

Those who do a lot of things teach. That's why I am a psychic tutor.

Other than psychic work I am a musician, writer, playwright, actor, artist, and craftswoman. This divides my time up into little pieces, and not only has NOT made me financially rich, but keeps me dirt poor - I can't seem to do without any of it. It all helps me look at things from unusual angles, and what I find when paying attention teaches me so much, and I hope helps others as well. Love, for me, is an attraction to all things amazing, in people, places and things. Life has been a struggle, sometimes extremely so, but it's never been without that love.

I'm going to stop waiting now... If I had a child who told me he or she were seeing ghosts: I would first listen, and show them I was calm and not afraid, and help them face the fear and deal with that incident. It would also help them to know I was listening to them, and not brushing them off. If it was their imagination, they would not bring it up in the same way again. But if they did, I would listen closer: were the details pretty much the same as they were before? Then I'd look into any natural causes that would make that activity happen, if not in the house, then watch what else was happening with my child. Was my child unable to concentrate? How emotional would my child get? Were there any repeated manic actions? A persistent lack of control or distress - that's when you're getting into needing medical help. Don't assume anything - be open and pay attention. And above all do not frighten your child. When they come to the natural point where all children MUST face some kind of "boogie man," whether it is imaginary, medical, emotional, or, LEAST common, actually paranormal, it does not help if the most unwanted boogie man of all jumps out at them: the fear in you.

Let go of the fear and take up the wonder. Teach this to your children. They deserve amazing things.

Psychic Shielding

If you’re going to use psychic ability, you need to understand that you ‘re working with energy. Just as in the case of working with any form of energy, there are dangers involved. You need to know how to protect yourself.

This is easier than it might seem. Remember everything is made of conscious energy. Consciousness is open to suggestion and intention. If you intend to protect yourself and have confidence in your intention, the protection is going to happen. When something unwanted comes at you, shove it off!

But what if you’re still not quite sure you can do it? Does that seem too easy?

You might be surprised how different the most effective protection is from what we’ve been taught all these years - in fact, it’s the exact opposite of what we’ve been advised to do!

The method I’ll tell you about is quick, efficient, and conserves your energy for more important things. Things that make you afraid aren’t important – they’re trying to knock you off track. If they do, they win. If you can show you’re perfectly capable of knocking them off track – the battle is quickly over. And you still have energy for the good things.

How do you do it?

Turn out the light. Flip the switch. Don’t be afraid of your own darkness.

You’ve heard of surrounding yourself with white light. That’s something you need for daily living. White light reflects fully balanced energy – it’s not just positive energy, it’s all of it working together. White light symbolizes how you should live your normal life. But when things go wrong, you need to focus on the one thing that repels trouble. Negative energy repels negative energy – just as we were taught about magnets in science class. If you try to use only positive energy, it will attract the negatives.

It doesn’t mean you’re being bad. It’s all in how you use it. I think of bad as something loaded down with personal baggage. If you keep your personal baggage out of what you’re doing, you’ll be lighter and quicker in your actions than any opposition might be.

Just as in martial arts, the strength of the method is not in how much power is used in the blow, but in the speed with which you return to your normal state. Don’t hold onto the force – let it rest for the next time it’s needed. That is a perfect psychic shield. Use it well.

Grounding and Creativity

Because you are working directly with conscious energy, knowing how to ground yourself is as important as knowing how to shield.

There are a number of methods that teach you to imagine attaching yourself to the earth in some way. That’s not grounding, that’s securing yourself. There’s a huge difference. Security is a great and necessary thing at times. But grounding means keeping yourself from building up dangerous levels of your own energy, or allowing excessive energy that hits you to flow off without causing you damage. For that you need something that will conduct the energy away from you, and channel it in a benign way. For that, it’s best to simply turn to the science of energy grounding.

A ground is matter that allows energy to flow off and disburse instead of building up. Energy does NOT seek containment – it needs to flow. So if you give it a place where it can do that, it’s going to leave you alone.

To ground yourself, make contact with something bigger than you are that is porous and has a lot of different ways that allows the energy to flow off. The best thing for this – the earth of course! But wood, brick, or other porous material can help. Don’t touch metal – you’ll make yourself part of a live circuit! Any material that conducts energy shouldn’t be touched. Anything small than you won’t have enough mass to attract the energy away from you. Think big – go find a wall to stand against. Go hug a tree!

All you have to do is touch it. Our energy is conscious and smart and knows when it feels the way it can go. You don’t have to hold on for dear life, just make good contact with it and let the stuff flow off.

The important thing is: let it go. You might be holding it back without knowing it. You have to open the gate between yourself and the ground. You do that by simply believing in what you are doing.

You can also use this to ground yourself emotionally. Not so much by going to hug a wall, but to let bad feelings flow into doing something bigger than yourself. This is something called sublimation – not subliminal messaging, but talking the energy of something that doesn’t feel good and applying it to a bigger and better use. Even negative energy and feelings have good uses, if you make the effort to find them. Creativity is a great way of grounding yourself emotionally – just think big!

Repetitive Dreams and Dream Symbols

I've been trying to find an easy way of explaining this for years, but I usually end up giving an example: I have a fear of mice. Now, I am old enough to know better than to let that fear get to me, I understand mice, but that doesn't mean the fear has gone away. If a mouse comes through the house at night, and I hear it in my sleep, I will have a nightmare - not of a mouse, but of something much scarier, that has the scurrying qualities of a mouse, an intruder who gets onto my bed that I can't get off of me. This is my fear of what a mouse might do maginfied a hundred times! In this way the nightmare vents my fear.

A repeating dream is a message that our mind needs us to recognize, to figure out. The best way to do that is look past the details to what is basically happening in the dream. The dream stops when we either resolve the issue without realizing it in our daily lives, or we figure out the dream. You know the full details of your repeating dreams - look at them again. For years I had repeating dreams of aliens coming down to visit me, sometime a few at a time, sometimes hundreds, always frightening. One night in the middle of the dream I became lucid (conscious in the dream) and I said, "I know what you are now: my fear of the unknown." Just that little thing. The second I said that, the aliens disappeared and were replaced by a celebration that was almost like I'd won a million dollars! ;D

If you have repetitive dreams or dream symbols, I wouldn't worry. If something does come back, write it down when you wake up, then read it. You may be able to see  what is basically happening in the dream, perhaps something as simple as a common fear. Then let it go.

Differences Between Ghosts And Spirits

Can we physically determine whether we are in contact with a spirit, or a ghost?  I'm not certain yet. My two cents: Now that I've had a few conversations with Brendan, my spirit guide, around a K-2 meter - I'm sort of a ghost magnet, sometimes, so when a spirit that is trapped on or truly engaged on this plane is around me, there are readings around me - but, so far, not when Brendan is active. I haven't had a K-2 around when he physically interacts with me so I don't know if this would change in that instance or not. Otherwise, Brendan isn't on the same plane - Brendan seems to communicate with me non-locally. It's all being perceived within my brain. Would this change when he does the knocks and touches me - don't know - it may not. How can we know until we have a way to measure things? Most of the time, though, I feel connection even with attached spirits is a non-local thing that only the person receiving would pick up. We each work with different channels, just like trying to pick up analog radio. You and I could be in the same room and pick up different things, unless the spirit is working really hard to just get back on this plane, period. I feel the ghosts who leave the best evidence in a space could care less who is around - they are just focused on getting back to this familiar plane. Then anyone can pick up they are there. If they are focused on communication, then they will concentrate on just contacting one person from whatever plane they are on. That's what I feel makes sense, from what I've experienced over the years.

On A Question Of Ritual

Someone asked me once if ritual had to be something that is strictly passed down, and I answered "someone created it at one time. Create your own." I continued:

"Any time you use magic ritual you protect yourself and make a safe place in the energy of the universe. You focus on the intention of the ritual to open it, you perform a ritual you absolutely believe in to manifest the intention you have, and you close the ritual, sealing your intention in the energy of the universe. Control every step. In this way your ritual is given its own "life," a beginning, purpose, and end. When done you "open" the safe place you made in the energy and return to your routines.

If you look at any traditional ritual, in any religion, faith, or magical practice, you will find the signs these steps are taken. You can find them even in a regular religious service, like a mass. So each of us can have variations in ritual according to what we believe in, but we should always keep control over what we are doing. It makes the manifestation stronger."