Dear Julia:

How do I begin to develop the psychic abilities that were handed down to me from my family? My father is clairvoyant and my mother had the ability to duke it out with evil spirits in our home. When I was a little girl, I lived in a haunted house and prayed to God to bless me by making me NOT see any spirits or entities because of fear. Now I experience all kinds of psychic phenomena such as knowing who is calling and what people are feeling. I even see random sparks of light, like flashing stars in various colors. Lots of the things I've heard in my mind have come true. Many years ago, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, severe depression, anxiety, etc., because I told my doctor that when I drive, there's a man I see in my peripheral vision, sitting in the passenger seat. Of course once I look at him, he's gone. I'm wondering if this is a good time for me to ask God to bless me with greater psychic awareness so I can help myself and others. I'm beginning to feel that my time has come to stop resisting this sort of experience, to allow it to just flow naturally. Is it safe to turn my psychic abilities back on?
- Rainny

Dear Rainny:

What you describe is actually a very common course of experience. First, children tend to be far more open to psychic experiences than adults for a number of reasons: they are fresh from the Spirit world and have a strong connection to the Divine; they have open minds and a high vibration; they haven't been taught that these things aren't real or possible, etc.

When children tell adults about their psychic experiences, however, the adults often react with fear, which freaks the kids out. After all, kids are constantly learning how to stay safe from their parents and other adults, so if mom and dad are scared, they learn that they should be scared too.

We must also remember that psychic abilities are rooted in basic survival instincts. Our intuition is designed to help us survive and protect ourselves and our interests, so it's natural for early psychic experiences to come in the form of warnings of physical or emotional danger.

Further, when psychic abilities kick on suddenly, most people are totally out of their comfort zone both because this is a new type of experience and because there is so much fear and misunderstanding about these matters in modern society.

The more afraid we get, the more scary, negative experiences we tend to have, which becomes a vicious circle. Many people respond as you did: by praying for their psychic senses to turn off. This is actually a healthy response because whether real or imagined, fear keeps us from getting into new situations before we're ready for them.

On top of all of these challenges, you unfortunately sought help in modern medicine, which tends to consider psychic experiences to be symptoms of psychological malfunction. Being labeled mentally ill of course just left you disempowered and more afraid of these sorts of experiences than ever.

When we're ready to handle a new level of experience, instead of feeling afraid of it, we'll feel curious, excited, fascinated, etc. - as you do now. The important thing to realize at this point is that you can trust your own inner being to protect and guide you every step of the way. You've grown and changed since you first tried to shut your abilities down, and your interest in such matters is itself an indication that you're ready to explore new territory.

To move forward, you just need to raise your vibration in relationship to psychic perception. We all have a general vibration concerning various subjects and areas of our lives. For example, you may feel really confident, happy and optimistic when you think about your family, but afraid and insecure when you think about psychic matters. To make your psychic life just as fulfilling as your family life, you need to cultivate positive beliefs and feelings about this whole area of experience.

When we study the aspects of our lives that are most rewarding, we can see that we approach them differently than we approach troubling aspects. In areas that are most fulfilling, we tend to carefully cultivate what we want, expect things to go the way we want them to, and feel confident in our ability to handle whatever may come up. This requires us to trust ourselves. Instead of worrying endlessly, we assume that one way or another, things will work out.

If you can do this with your psychic ability, it will become rich and rewarding too. Below are some basic steps that should help you to create what you want in this area of your life.

*Carefully cultivate what you want. This may mean you take classes, read books, do various spiritual exercises, etc. It's like getting into great physical shape: you wouldn't expect it to just happen because you ask the Universe for it. You must put some time and thought into creating a high level of ability and experience.

*Expect success. Assume that this will naturally happen for you if you just decide wholeheartedly that you want it. Ask Spirit to guide you to fulfillment, and expect to be led.

*Cultivate faith in your power to create what you want in your life, and faith in the ultimate benevolence of the Universe. Heal your fears of psychic experiences by studying all aspects of this subject. People are naturally afraid of what they don't understand. Once you truly comprehend that like attracts like, and that the key to psychic protection is a high vibration, you'll know that the only thing to fear is fear itself.

*Develop a strong, clear personal relationship with Spirit and your personal guides. Meditate and ask for ideas and inspirations, and then act on them. There are infinite ways to awaken and develop your intuitive abilities, but to find the perfect way for you, you must allow yourself to be personally guided by Spirit and your own inner knowing.

Finally, you are clearly already highly psychic, so instead of turning anything back on, you might want to think of this as expanding something you already have. Now that you know you can trust your own feelings of fear and desire to protect and guide you, you can feel good about going deeper into this sort of territory. You can also trust that whatever happens and however you respond to it is just right for you at that time, and that ultimately, nothing can truly harm you.

As for that man in the passenger seat, this is also a fairly common experience. Sometimes people perceive guardian angels riding next to them, especially if they pray for safety and protection when riding in the car. Usually, however, people perceive the spirits of loved ones or any other spirits connected to them as passengers in their vehicles because they are in an altered, dreamy state of consciousness while driving. As their minds wander, their subconscious minds come forward and take the wheel. This enables them to tap into subtle perceptions and deep insights that normally remain below the threshold of their conscious awareness.

- Julia