Awakening Your Psychic Powers: Open Your Inner Mind And Control Your Psychic Intuition Today - Softcover

Reed, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312958684 ISBN 13: 9780312958688

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1996

Synopsis

We all have psychic experiences without even realizing it. Now you can harness the power of your inborn psychic awareness.

In his lifetime, American visionary Edgar Cayce introduced thousands to the wonders of psychic awareness. Now his carefully preserved writings are illuminated by well-known psychologist Henry Reed, Ph.D. In the words and spirit of Edgar Cayce, this guide will give you the knowledge you need to build a foundation for ESP and unlock the secrets of heightened awareness, including:

-Psychic sensitivity-a natural part of perception
-Exercises to develop your psychic intuition
-Experimenting with clairvoyance, telepathic suggestion, and open channeling
-Meditation and recognizing the patterns that can change your life

About this title

About the Author:

Edgar Cayce, unwitting seer and clairvoyant, touched millions of lives with his innate spiritual wisdom and his uncanny healing visions.

Born in 1877 in Hopkinsvile, Kentucky, Edgar Cayce had a seventh-grade education, yet was able to repeat complex and technical medical jargon when under a trance. In this state, he was said to heal many of the people who came seeking his counsel with his recommendations for medical treatment. Cayce soon began to talk about spiritual notions such as Atlantis, reincarnation, dreams, astrology, and more. He would also predict some of the more astounding events of the twentieth century, such as World Wars and the Great Depression.

The Washington Post wrote: "His words have inspired faith in spirituality, which for many people is more powerful than science." Called the "sleeping prophet" and "America's greatest psychic," Cayce, who died in 1945, may have been the first to usher in what is now known as the New Age Movement. More than fifty years after his death, his work continues to influence our lives in powerful new ways.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Awakening Your Psychic Powers
Part I THE PSYCHIC IMAGINATION 1 IMAGINE BEING PSYCHIC The study from the human standpoint, of subconscious, subliminal, psychic, soul forces, is and should be the great study for the human family, for through self man will understand its Maker when it understands its relation to its Maker, and it will only understand that through itself, and that understanding is the knowledge as is given here in this state. EDGAR CAYCE reading no. 3744 4 1  
People who go into this without spiritual aspirations should be warned that unless they remain open-minded about the possibility of being led into deeper meanings of life, their experience will almost certainly turn out to be a blind alley. For people who covet psychic potency out of profit and power, my advice is unequivocal: either develop higher motivation or drop the whole business at once. The consequences of deliberate misuse of these abilities can be disastrous. ARTHUR FORD WHEN I LIE ON my back on a warm summer's night and gaze up at the spectacle of the stars, my mind naturally floats upward into the enormity of the universe and I seem to merge with the stars. This earthen platform of our planet, usually such a solid foundation, becomes an ever-shrinking, wobbly pebble in the huge, glittering blackness of space. My imagination, and I with it, expand into the infinite. I am engulfed in a tingling chill. Overwhelmed, I suddenly snap back to solid earth. But, I ask myself, what happened? Was what I sensed really true? Was it really possible that my mind could rise and join the stars in heaven? As I ponder this mystery, I know I am not alone. The Native Americans, for example, have a tradition that they came from the stars and to the stars they will return. What enshrouded secret of their sacred imagination links them with the stars? Another traveler, the English "imagineer" Olaf Stapleton, shared his psychic journey into space with us in his book Star Maker. His mind encountered not only other worlds, but was able to commune with other minds, travelers all in a multidimensional universal consciousness. In an attempt to keep us grounded on earth, he called his account "science fiction." Nevertheless, in the guise of such fiction, the imagination is the first pioneer; science and technology then follow, building concrete steps for all to climb. The imagination is an unbounded traveler, often returning with surprising souvenirs to lure successive generations of adventurers. To the stars we once visited only in our dreams and in our imagination, we now sent rockets and spacecraft. A PSYCHIC PROBE OF OUTER SPACE In December 1973 Pioneer 10's observations about the planet Jupiter began to reach NASA scientists, who were millions of miles away on earth. Some of its observations contradicted astronomers' long-held assumptions about this revered planet. Pioneer 10's discoveriescame as no surprise, however, to two men who had "seen" Jupiter nine months earlier. In an experiment organized by the Stanford Research Institute, two gifted psychics, Ingo Swann and Harold Sherman, traveled psychically to Jupiter while scientists recorded their impressions. Swann was in California, Sherman in Arkansas. Their impressions were amazingly similar to each other, and opposed to scientific speculation: both visualized a deadly radiation ring around Jupiter and an upper atmosphere of colorful frozen crystals; they said that the planet itself was very warm, but was whipped by violent windstorms. Pioneer 10's data later contradicted the scientists' speculation, and confirmed the amazing accuracy of the atmospheric observations of Swann and Sherman, our first psychic astronauts. About a year later, they repeated their feat on a "visit" to Mercury. Again, they gave similar reports on what they had seen. Moreover, when the data from NASA's Mariner 10 space probe began to reach earth from Mercury, it contradicted conventional scientific speculation and confirmed the psychics' observations. Scientists had assumed that Mercury was too hot to support an atmosphere and that it revolved too slowly to have a magnetic field. But the two psychics sensed a thin atmosphere, as well as a magnetic field. Another astounding correspondence between the reports of the psychics and the data from Mariner 10 was the discovery of a helium "tail" coming out of Mercury and heading away from the sun. In To Kiss Earth Goodbye, Swann describes the excitement he felt when newspapers printed descriptions of Mercury that were much like his own psychic impressions. Can you imagine traveling psychically to another planet? How do you imagine that these two psychics made the trip? Words like "travel," of course, suggest physical movement. Swann describes the psychic probe into outer space as an experiment in "out-of-body travel," suggesting psychic movement through space. In an out-of-body experience, our consciousness appears to leave our physical body--we may see our body lyingmotionless below. In this extremely liberated state, travel to distant places is possible. Is this what Swann did? Perhaps, instead of "traveling," Swann expanded the range of his awareness beyond the bounds of his body and near vicinity to include the distant planets. Or perhaps he saw into the future, and examined the reports of the NASA spacecraft as they were analyzed by scientists. Either interpretation assumes a considerable psychic feat. Yet how we imagine the operation of psychic awareness will prove quite important. BECOME AN INSTANT PSYCHIC Imagine, if you will, that you can take a pill that will make you instantly psychic. Suddenly, you are able to experience the world from the point of view of people nearby; you know their thoughts, feel their feelings. What would that be like? In a study conducted by Charles Tart, Ph.D. (a psychology professor at the University of California at Davis and a long-time researcher of psychic phenomena), a group of college students and residents of a community in California were asked to contemplate taking such a pill. Their reactions were mostly negative. The most frequently expressed worry concerned lack of control--people were afraid of becoming overloaded, of being continually bombarded with information from other people's minds. One person thought that he would pick up on other people's dreams and not be able to sleep. Many expressed concern about such negative side effects as being driven crazy by the experience, and needing to retreat to a place of solitude. Others worried about being confused--not knowing how to tell whose thoughts they were getting, or-even worse--not being able to distinguish their own thoughts from those of others. That possibility was particularly scary. Have you ever walked into a roomful of people and felt the "bad vibes" in the room? During meetings at work, for example, you can tell that something is wrong--people are upset, something is not right. That'salmost like mind reading. Would you like to know more, to be even more psychic in a situation like that? What would that be like? The following imaginary account of a mind-reading experience, inspired by Dr. Tart's "pill," illustrates what might happen: I look over at Martha, and I begin to feel her anger. Now I can also hear her thoughts, the cursing and the accusations that are going through her mind. As I tune in more closely, I feel the frustration behind the anger--the hurt feelings and the disappointment. I also experience some of her memories, and understand the personal context that is making this frustration so important at this particular meeting. The patterns in her life, how she dealt with frustrations and anger in the past, and how her self-esteem was affected by frustrations--all this flashes into my mind. I also tune into her body. Her heart is pounding faster, and I can feel the heart pressing against the resistance in the arteries that are clogged with cholesterol. I can sense her blood pressure rising. I get an image that, somewhere down the road, a heart attack is in store for her as a result of the food she eats and her patterns of frustration and anger. My heart goes out to her, and I wish that she could relax. But I also sense her fear. Relaxing at this moment would seem threatening. She doesn't want to lower her defenses, so she feels trapped in her cage of anger and resentment. I know all this and more in a split second. My eyes move to Bob, sitting next to Martha. I can see what his life is like, and how it affects him in this meeting. But just then Fred begins to speak, and the tone of his voice expresses volumes of information--in the pitch and the rhythm of his speech I can sense his nervousness and his attempt to take control of a sticky situation; from the tentativeness and forced gentleness of the words I can hear how he is attempting to deal with stress. So while I am looking at Martha's face and seeing her life unfold before me, I am also experiencing the sounds of Fred's voice, and his life is also unfolding before me. It is a bit confusing, to say the least. I want to regain some focus, as I have my own business to bring up and feelings to express about this meeting. But with all this other information I'm getting about the people in the room, Iknow that I will feel the impact of my own behaviors and viewpoints upon their goals, desires, and feelings. I just don't know how I'm going to be able to process all this and still function at my own job. I'm going to try to tune out some of the noise and focus on my own objectives. This person feels overwhelmed and confused. Concentrating so much on the feelings of other people makes it difficult to stay in touch with his own thoughts and goals. Fortunately, he is making an attempt to take control by focusing the gift and turning down some of the input. Knowing what the other people at the meeting are thinking and feeling tends to inhibit action and makes the person a bit more cautious, less willing to do what is in his own self-interest. Such a concern for others could be a deterrent to the competitive spirit! A telepathic connection to people around you would certainly affect your relationship with them. Almost half the people in Dr. Tart's study expressed some doubt about their ability to handle such telepathic information maturely. What if they heard thoughts that they weren't supposed to know? Would they be able to resist taking advantage of someone whose thoughts they knew? What if they heard unkind thoughts about themselves, things that hurt their feelings, things they wish they hadn't heard? What would they do then? One man confessed to having a lot of nasty, mean, selfish thoughts, thoughts that might cause him to be rejected or to become the target of ridicule should other people become aware of them. It feels good to be loved in spite of our negative aspects, he said, but he wasn't so sure that he would be able to love people no matter what they were thinking. Others confided a similar worry. They wouldn't want their own thoughts read, and were not so sure that it was fair to read someone else's thoughts. To some it seemed like an invasion of privacy; others were concerned with encountering thoughts that might prove troublesome or upsetting. Mind reading could lead to concern over what other people think, which is already a problem for many people. Some people had positive responses as well, althoughthey were less specific. Dr. Tart pointed out that the most frequently mentioned positive remark was that mind reading would be "interesting," or something similarly vague. The most specific positive reaction was that mind reading might improve communication through increased empathy. One person suggested that by reading other people's thoughts you could come up with a lot of ideas that you'd never think of yourself-"you'd be a genius in no time." Are you surprised at the results of the survey, or sympathetic with the concerns? It is interesting that the people in the study were more likely to imagine negative consequences than positive ones, and to describe them in such vivid terms. Clearly, the negative side of psychic awareness seemed more real to them than the positive side. This response could have been due to the way the proposition was worded, of course, but this study is not the only source of evidence available that points to a fear of ESP. The fear seems to be real. In the course of this book, as we develop our psychic awareness, we will examine the sources of these fears and learn an approach that will help to overcome them. Few people in Dr. Tart's study had much to say about the positive use of psychic awareness. Instead, they envisioned themselves as passive victims of unscreened information. Perhaps it was because the ability was thrust upon them suddenly, with no time to prepare themselves for a new way of experiencing the world. Unfair as it may seem, psychic ability can appear in just that way. Consider the case of Peter Hurkos. Peter, a Dutch housepainter, was a member of the Netherlands' underground resistance to the Nazis during World War II. In his autobiography, Psychic, he describes how one day he fell from his ladder thirty feet to the ground. As he fell, his life flashed before his eyes. The last thing he remembers is the cry, "I don't want to die!" The next thing he knew, he was in a hospital. The doctor told him that it was a miracle he had survived such a severe head injury. Later that day, Peter noticed another patient in a bed nearby. To his astonishment, he found that he knew allabout this man. But he was a stranger! How was it possible? When the nurse examined Peter, he discovered that he knew things about her. When another patient said goodbye and wished him well, Peter found he was overcome with fear for him. He blurted out a warning to be careful. Peter shouted out that the man was a British agent and had been found out by the Germans and was to be killed. Two days later, the man was killed. Peter was confused by these impressions, which had come spontaneously with the conviction of truth. When he went home four months later, he hid in his room with his "curse," refusing to come out. He was bombarded with visual impressions that made him very quiet and very afraid. He was finally drawn out by an inexplicable urge to read the Bible. He realized there wasn't one in the house, and he had to go out and buy one. As he read, he began to feel better about his condition. He found that his power was increasing, and also troubling him less. He discovered that he had what he terms the "power of faith." He decided to go out and rejoin his colleagues in the underground movement. There he found he could turn his "curse" into a "gift," by aiding in the war effort in a unique way: one of his first accomplishments was to identify Nazi spies within the underground community. After the war, he developed his psychic ability to solve crimes and locate missing people. PSYCHICS VIEW THEIR ABILITY Being able to relate his psychic ability to biblical stories helped Peter Hurkos to conceive of it as the "power of faith." Being able to put his psychic ability to good use made it possible for him to value his gift and to develop it further. Like the subjects in Dr. Tart's survey, Peter was confronted with the sudden appearance of acute psychic sensitivity. Just as the subjects imagined, Peter experienced himself as an overwhelmed victim of an ability he could not control. Only when he developed a new perspective on his psychic gift, which gave him a sense of purpose and the ability ...

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0312958684
• ISBN 13: 9780312958688
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 242