Clinical Corner
Psychic Protection
Loyd Auerbach
A
version of this article appeared in my column, Psychic Frontiers, in the
April 2004 issue of FATE Magazine.
I and many of my colleagues, as well as all sorts of psychic practitioners get many phone calls and emails from people asking for advice in dealing with psychic matters. Many, naturally, have to do with ghost and poltergeist experiences since that’s what I’m best known for. Some are from people wanting to get a handle on one or more psychic experiences. Unfortunately, many are from people who believe they are under some form of psychic attack or are having a psychic opening..
These folks report suffering from a variety of “symptoms,” from continually hearing voices (telepathically, they say) to extraordinary illness or even bad luck. They generally report they are “under attack,” most often from person or persons unknown. Sometimes, they claim to know who’s “doing it” to them. Sometimes it’s “the Government,” sometimes “a bunch of Satanists” and sometimes “just some people who are experimenting with their psychic powers of control.” Almost never can they come up with any sort of motive for the “attackers” to have chosen them.
Sadly, some of these people suffer from some psychological or neurological disorder. Some suffer from a relatively sudden psychic opening. Some suffer simply from misunderstanding their own psychic experiences. And a few may have misinterpreted events around them as psychic. Let me start with the last one first.
I often hear from people that when they reported what was going on in their home to some other source – usually a university – they were told to “seek help” of a psychological nature. No questioning over the phone as to what might be really happening, just a snap judgment that the callers are disturbed.
I had one situation that exemplifies the “misinterpretation” possibility to the extreme. I received a call from a man living in a mobile home. He reported that he believed his neighbor was using technology to beam thoughts at him, causing him to develop strong headaches, nausea and other symptoms. He said his neighbor had all sorts of equipment in his (the neighbor’s) mobile home next door. He said when he tried to get help from a couple of local universities, each time he was told he was “in serious need of psychological help.”
After much questioning, something about the story and the person reporting it made me think something more was going on than a psychological disturbance. One key point was that he said the neighbor was taping into his electricity to power all the equipment. He figured this out because his own bill was outrageously high, and he traced some extra cables where he felt they ought not to have been. Now this was something I knew I could work with.
I suggested he call the local utilities company to report the “theft” of electricity, and coached him to avoid mentioning anything about “beaming thoughts” or anything else out of the ordinary. The utilities folks came, checked and confirmed the caller was correct.
It turned out the neighbor had in fact tapped into the electric lines of the caller and several other neighbors. He was actually a disturbed individual who had so much technology (stereo and other electronic equipment) around his place, it was emitting low frequency sound that was giving people around his house serious headaches and other symptoms. By the way, the neighbor believed he needed the tech to prevent the Government from taking over his mind.
In that case, the “crazy person” was not the person having the experience. He’d just made some incorrect assumptions and conclusions. Unfortunately for so many people, mistakes like this reported to the wrong people could end up getting them the wrong kind of “diagnosis” and help.
People do experience an increase in their psi abilities from time to time – sometimes suddenly. Depending on how psi rears its head, this could mean suddenly picking up the “louder” thoughts of people around them since we all have things we seem to broadcast. Or they may pick up information about people or events totally disconnected to them, or even sudden spurts of psychokinetic activity. People experience informational psi in different ways, not just the typical “visions” we think of. People may “hear” or “feel” or even “smell” things psychically. The extra signals may be strong enough to frighten someone not used to them.
Psychic openings typically settle down after a while. For some people, there is some unconscious reason for the opening and the experiences might even escalate unless the individuals recognize them for what they are and begin to integrate them into their lives. Some people are so startled by the experiences and afraid of them that they would never dream that their own psi is responsible. Unfortunately, we humans seem to like to believe responsibility is elsewhere, at least in most cultures.
Since the experiences are often so non-normal, they must be caused by someone wishing to do harm, since they’re often so disruptive. This is a dangerous road to go down, as these people will begin to look for people who might have it in for them. Finding none that are appropriate, they may extrapolate that it’s some unsavory group of people choosing them for whatever reason. Or the Government. Or aliens. Or some Satanic group (or, depending on their religious beliefs, the Devil himself).
Many people know about ESP and other psychic phenomena, though most may not know more than what they see on TV – which is often a very skewed view. They may have religious beliefs that put psi in a particular (usually bad) light. They might have read some bad fiction depicting psi as bad. They might believe psychics are scam artists while in the same train of thought believe that the scam artists have real power to harm people psychically. In any event, there are many people who have a fear of psi.
As mentioned above, people who have not had a lot of psychic experiences in their lives may come to a conclusion that the new experiences are caused by some outside force or intelligence. If they believe in Satan and demons, that’s often the path their thoughts tread. Most do not, and conclude that it’s some people causing the problems.
PROTECTION OR PREVENTION?
There’s a basic technique with minor variations taught by many psychics that can help in situations of uncontrolled psi. This technique can work both as protection from outside negativity and can continually prevent one’s psi from extending too far and picking up the wrong thing. The technique’s success is based on a couple of assumptions:
1) Everyone has some degree of psychic ability, even though it may be accessible to the subconscious most often.
2) Telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition are receptive abilities, even though we generally broadcast our own thoughts and objects – and people – have something about them that allows people to pick up information. In other words, ESP is like a radio. Turn it on and one picks up various signals broadcast by people and events.
3) Psychokinesis is an expressive ability, however studies have shown that affecting another person with PK – such as in psychic healing – requires conscious or unconscious cooperation by the target person. Can’t be healed if you don’t want to. Can’t be harmed if you don’t want to.
Studies in the 1980s in parapsychology by groups such as the Mind Science Foundation indicated that visualization techniques could allow a person to avoid receiving telepathically projected information. This supported the claim by many psychics that a simple visualization technique exists for psychic self-defense.
I spoke with renowned psychic Annette Martin about the technique. I’ve been working with Annette for quite some time.
“People need to be very cognizant of their electromagnetic field or aura,” said Annette. It is this field that our bodies project that can help protect us psychically and prevent us from receiving too much negativity.
One needs to come up with some kind of visualization of this field, even though one can’t physically see it around oneself. Personally, I think of it as a force field, as in science fiction. “Visualize the field in your mind,” said Annette, and visualize pumping energy into it. “Put white light into the field as a form of protectiveness. The white light blocks negative thoughts being sent at you.” People project negative emotions and thoughts simply because they feel and think them. “The best thing to do is to protect yourself so their negativity just bounces off and doesn’t come near you.”
Annette believes “White light is pure energy which is protectiveness.” Here she speaks of visualized white light as similar to full spectrum light. Merge all colors together in the physical world and you get white light. Other colors, according to Annette, simply don’t work as well. “Put the white light in the aura and to keep it there all the time.”
She recommends doing this as a regular practice, not just when you feel like your receiving negativity. “Then you don’t get bombarded by other people’s garbage as well.” Annette makes this her regular routine. We have negativity all around us, especially these days, and this technique prevents one’s psi from receiving other people’s bad stuff, and even allows our own PK to actively keep any directed energy away from us.
She mentioned one other fine point. “Keep the aura away from your body, not close to the body. At least a good 13 or 14 inches away from the body to create a protective shield. Like a bubble.”
Negativity in “the air” or even directed at you “just slides off.” Best of all, this technique is easy and does indeed work, “and it’s free!” she said with a smile.
I’ve gotten great feedback regarding this technique when recommended to folks with the strongest sense of being “attacked.” However, many of the most fearful who have already concluded that others are “out to get” them are unwilling to believe that such a technique can work. This is mainly because they can’t accept that their own psi may be used to protect them, or they can’t accept the responsibility to help themselves. Generally, they don’t even accept that they have any psi abilities – they usually claim such is the purview of “special” people, such as the people “attacking” them.
What it amounts to is that belief is important in this case. If you don’t believe it’s even possible to do psychic protection, it won’t be. You’re essentially opening yourself up to negativity. Interestingly, the disbelievers in psi have automatic protection. Their belief in the nonexistence of psi and outside influences is often so strong that their subconscious automatically prevents any influence that could challenge that belief.
One last thing if you are on the receiving end of such phone calls: Some of these people may be psychologically disturbed or may have a neurological or other disorder. Recommendations that they see a psychologist – preferably someone open to psi’s existence – may be more than appropriate. I often suggest people go to their medical doctors to check out any physical symptoms, such as intense headaches or unusual illness, which could be misinterpreted as being caused by psychic attack.
In addition, it’s totally appropriate to recommend that any of these folks see a therapist or counselor to deal with the emotional upsets caused by the situation. Such reactions can have longer-term consequences than the negative psychic experiences themselves.