What is it like to be Psychic?

[craig weiler]

I did a blog post on this today because it's a question that I've often been asked. I find it hard to answer, but I did my best on my blog. I have also solicited the responses of others in the hopes of having a lot of feedback. There are already a couple of responses on my blog. If you are psychic I would very much like to hear from you, either as a comment to my blog or here on the forum. (Which I will put in my blog.)
Here's my link:
http://weilerpsiblog.wordpress.com/2011 ... e-psychic/

What Is It Like To Be Psychic?
Posted on October 17, 2011 by craigweiler

This innocent question sounds like such an easy one to answer and yet each time that someone asks me, it leaves me stuttering and mumbling a sort of half reply about energy and connectedness. I have always had difficulty answering it. I do know that my experience with psychic ability is probably somewhat unique to me and that other psychic people are going to have different experiences. More than likely, this is due to differences in values, attitudes, ideas and beliefs as well as familial and societal cultural norms. I am interested in the responses of other psychic people and invite you respond to this question in either the comment section or in an email to me. (craig@weiler . com [remove spaces around the dot] I would like to add other people’s experiences to this post.

The other hard part about describing what it is like to be psychic is that like almost all other psychic people, I was born this way. I have trouble imagining what it would be like to not be psychic. When I have tried to do this, it comes across as condescending towards other people, which is not my intent. On the other hand, I have a duty to tell the truth, which is this: not being psychic feels like a cold barren place to me. I do not understand how people can live this way without going insane from the torture of being cut off from the feeling of connectedness. It feels horrible to me when I imagine it.

But that is beside the point. I promised to try and explain what it is like to be psychic and so, here goes:

The actual psychic ability that most people are familiar with is something that I have to try to access. I do not normally experience telepathy and precognition unless I am actively trying. The strangeness of this is the Yoda-like way in which I have to approach this. Look without looking, try without trying, etc. That sort of thing. I can be surprised and I have occasionally had car accidents or injured myself working. These things have always happened while I was feeling tense and unhappy and my mind was a million miles away from what I was doing. When I am fully present and aware, I am completely safe from any harm. I know that I do not need to fear dying in an accident or because of an illness of any sort; it’s not going to happen to me. In fact, nothing terrible is ever going to happen to me; I know instinctively that this is not in my future. My job in this life is to transition from a person of insecurity and fear to becoming powerful and happy. It is very hard work, but if you had seen me as a kid you would agree that I have come a very long way towards meeting that goal.

The main reason that nothing terrible will ever happen to me is that I can sense bad paths in my life in the areas of health and relationship and steer clear of them long before they cause me damage. For example, I have always taken great care not to injure my back or knees irreparably. Even in my 20′s I was careful and it is paying off now, later in life.

There are two main ways I receive psychic information: visually and experientally. The visual part always comes with emotion. If for example, I want to know who is going to win a football game, I just go to the end of the game and look at how the players are feeling. Who feels depressed at the end of the game? Beyond that, I struggle with getting clear pictures; I’ve never been particularly good at it. I never really learned to draw either, so that might have something to do with it. In low light, I can see the energy field around people and all other living things if I try. If I look for it, I can see in a generalized way where people are hurting.

The experience part of it is that I can experience the consciousness of other living things. It is a little harder to describe what is going on here. I can see things through other people’s perception, provided that they are not too screwed up, although this is always my perception seeing theirs, so there is some translation going on. I can easily feel what other people are feeling provided they are not too far away on the spectrum of either enlightened or unenlightened. I should explain this:

I tend to rate people on a consciousness scale. Enlightened people are bright to me, and unenlightened people lack that brightness. This doesn’t have to do with people’s emotions at the moment, but rather how much wisdom, compassion and love they have been able to create for themselves over the years. Age usually makes a difference, but not always. This ability to connect with the consciousness of living things is not limited to our planet. I can connect with the consciousness of beings from uh, someplace else. I don’t know where they are, only that I can feel them and unlike people, they are quite consciously aware of it when I connect with them.

And of course, there is the connectedness. There is a sense of belonging to something vast, something much greater than myself that completely transcends my individual life. All I can say is that it is truly beautiful.

I welcome the experiences of other psychic people: What is it like being psychic?

[Arouet]

[craig weiler]

[Arouet]

Awww, forget about it...

[ProfWag]

[craig weiler]

ProfWag,
To answer your questions in order: Yes, I use precognition. No, I don't have to physically be with the players or see them on TV to know how they will feel and I don't need to know them or have a visual reference. I sense the group more than any one person. They all feel the disappointment together.

What I found was that players feel disappointment upon losing pretty consistently, even if they're used to losing and they share this emotion as a team. It's a strong, easy to identify emotion. Winning however, brings more complex emotions that are harder to sort out. Not everyone feels the same thing when they win. Some people take it in stride while others are overcome with joy while others might have self confidence problems that complicate their emotions even more.

[Craig Browning]

Craig, you know I do appreciate you BUT. . .

Most of what you explain in your story comes across as both, common sense and natural intuition more than anything. As to forecasting a ball game. . . well, I really think "spirit" has better things to do and such trivia is far from where this kind of ability belongs. I really find such carnal use of these skills a bit of an insult.

Understand, I'm just letting my inner-skeptic speak out here along side that part of my psychic self that took affront to part of your tale. I do believe my story is around here somewhere and it contrasts greatly in that I come from a very long line of spiritually minded folks that ranged from Christian Faith Healers & Snake Jugglers to Water Witches and Golden Dawn practitioners. All before we get to my own life of interaction with some of the major personalities of the New Age realms, the numerous articles I've penned over the years for New Age & Pagan based publications, etc. But, the biggest difference between us seems to be my being far more driven to find mundane perspective as to what I do and have experienced and how I translate that in-put and share it with those that have a desire to learn and cultivate their own PSI side, so they can be free of the delusions and commercial misrepresentation that's out there. Let' s face it, the whole New Age market would be considerably smaller and far less profitable if the would-be gurus simply cut through the crap and stopped inserting pink clouds here and there to obfuscate the more simplified facts about what is and isn't. Unfortunately, profiteering from such things has gone on for millennia and won't be a habit easily broken. . . especially given the nature of the human animal.

Human Beings that cosign this passing of wisdom game, have a deep romantic perspective to it all that all too frequently turns into delusion -- co-dependency on another mortal that they elevate and literally give power to, over their own lives & will. It doesn't have to be some Llama from Lhasa or a Hopi Shaman, the various modes of the Abrahamic faiths do the same thing -- brain washing!

I'm not saying that this particular shell game is 100% corrupt in that I do understand the value behind making the student "earn" their way towards "realization" and as such, learn how to look at their life and themselves from multiple points of view. Modern man has forgotten how to do this and has invented countless means by which to avoid said obligation of labor. On the other hand, the proponents of the Psychic/Spiritual industry -- the jerks charging $100.00 for a 2" long crystal point that cost them less than $20.00 dollars -- have mystified and enchanted themselves right out of business; the extreme costs and near constant push to do this workshop and the next month after month has done more to sustain the views of the cynic than the message & hope they're supposed to bring.

A Quick Anecdote. . .
When I lived in the L.A. area I worked with my friend Richard Webster, tailoring his lecture & workshop on Astral Travel so as to tie-in to my own personal experiences. I charged a $45.00 tuition for each student, never accepting more than about a dozen total guests. Yet, in Beverly Hills there was a clown that used Richard's notes, did the same basic program I was doing and demanding over $200.00 per person. More so, he used a High School gymnasium and played host to as many as 200 people each session. My discovery of this coming from someone that had taken my class and then the more expensive -- she was livid!

The other big difference between me and this other clown was that I admitted that my program was based on Richard's research with personal anecdotes tossed in while this other guy claimed it all original to himself; he was the great and powerful Oz.

When this type of greed and deception is afoot, the whole sense of validity in what we teach and claim gets lost and those born with innate abilities become devalued and mocked. These are the things that keep most legit psychics under the radar and out of the limelight, ashamed of the craft because of the great number of fools within it that have no honest sense of direction or purpose.

[craig weiler]

Craig,
I'm not looking for any moral lessons in all of this. I'm just trying to put something into words that is hard to describe, but that people want to know about. I think you judge me harshly here. You don't seem to have a feel for who I am and you appear to be going off onto a tangent about people who are not following the path. (You're preaching to the converted.)

Can you describe what it's like to be psychic? I recommend that you give it a shot. It's actually pretty hard to do I think.

[Craig Browning]

[craig weiler]

Craig,
Highly sensitive person + highly creative = psychic. No need to go into any of the details. Until such time as we have standardized testing anyone can call themselves psychic. It cheapens the term, but there is nothing to be done for it.
If someone wants to do "levels" so be it. They'll find out eventually how meaningless it is.

And all of this is beside the point. All I'm asking is what it's like to be psychic.

[ProfWag]

[craig weiler]

Hi ProfWag,
By the way, the definition for a psychic person that I use is my own based on my own research. I think it's valid. The researchers say that everyone has some psychic ability, but that it is not distributed evenly in the population. Some people have a lot more than others.

I strongly suspect that many people who are psychic don't identify themselves as such and there are of course some people who identify themselves as psychic that aren't. There are no official criteria and it's an area in which there are maybe two researchers in the entire world. There is no standardized test, nor is there any psychological literature on identifying psychic people. Everyone, everywhere is flying blind.

You have to realize that without any sort of knowledge about what psychic ability is, most people most of the time will explain it away due to ignorance. Most people think that it defies physics.

I have run into several people, including myself who needed several years to sort this all out.

Now, to address your question about sensitivity:

Based on stories people have related to me, some people

HSP, or highly sensitive person is a term used by mainstream psychology. I prefer the definition set out by Kyra Mesich, Psy.D.

1. Emotionally sensitive people feel emotions often and deeply. They feel as if they “wear their emotions on their sleeves.”

2. They are keenly aware of the emotions of people around them.

3. Sensitive people are easily hurt or upset. An insult or unkind remark will affect them deeply.

4. In a similar vein, sensitive people strive to avoid conflicts. They dread arguments and other types of confrontations because the negativity affects them so much.

5. Sensitive people are not able to shake off emotions easily. Once they are saddened or upset by something, they cannot just switch gears and forget it.

6. Sensitive people are greatly affected by emotions they witness. They feel deeply for others’ suffering. Many sensitive people avoid sad movies or watching the news because they cannot bear the weighty emotions that would drive to their core and stick with them afterwards.

7. Sensitive people are prone to suffer from recurrent depression, anxiety or other psychological disorders.

8. One the positive side, sensitive people are also keenly aware of and affected by beauty in art, music and nature. They are the world’s greatest artists and art appreciators.

9. Sensitive people are prone to stimulus overload. That is, they can’t stand large crowds, loud noise, or hectic environments. They feel overwhelmed and depleted by too much stimuli.

10. Sensitive people are born that way. They were sensitive children.

There are a couple different responses kids have to their sensitivity. One type of sensitive child is the stereotypical kid who gets picked on by bullies, and is a well-behaved, good student because she cannot stand the thought of getting into trouble. The other type of sensitive child more often experiences the stimulus overload mentioned in the previous paragraph. These children are thus over stimulated and have difficulty focusing, which causes them problems in school.

Sensitive people typically exhibit all or nearly all of the above descriptors.

One of the sure signs of a truly sensitive person is that he feels animosity toward his sensitive nature. Most sensitive people whole-heartedly wish they were tougher and more thick-skinned. They feel like their sensitivity is a weakness. They wish things didn’t bother them so much.

[NinjaPuppy]

I would say that I fit your description of a 'sensitive'.

Combine that with an occassional and rare, uncontrollable prediction and you have... me.

What I mean by an uncontrollable prediction would be that there are times when I blurt out something (imagine psychic touretts if you can) that I have NO CLUE where it came from or that I even said it.

[ProfWag]

CW,
I believe that I actually agree with your last post and I can also see that people who are sensitive and creative can also be more "intuitive" to people's feelings. I truthfully still question how that translates into something paranormal as in being able to read the moods of people in the future, but I think you're on the right track as far as being more in tune with a person's inner feelings. Thanks for your post.
Wag

[craig weiler]

ProfWag,
It is not just the sensitivity, it is also the creativity. I think that when you have those two traits you get a psychic cocktail. The creativity is an important part because that kind of thinking is well suited to psychic ability. These include: unconditional acceptance of non standard ideas, the ability to focus intensely, Strong ability to visualize and imagine and a good sense of humor. There are other traits as well. I just don't have them in a neat list.

Ninjapuppy,
Been there, done that. Got a T-Shirt.