Not quite psycho but close

The term psycho babble was coined in the 1960's. As the word babble suggests, it is a derogatory term.

But today, psychology is a highly respected social science. It is taught at every major university and its theories are generally accepted as valid and scientific.

But what about psychic babble? When will supernatural concepts and esoteric theories from the psychic realm be accepted by society?

For clues, I looked at Wikipedia's definition of psycho babble, and was (not really) surprised to see that the same definition can be applied to psychic babble almost verbatim.

Here it is, edited [by me] to make it fit psychic rather than psychological concepts:

[Psychic babble] is a term that serves to dismiss [psychic theory] as a non-science, both in a specific instance of an argument based upon the current principles of [psychic theory], and in general as a science that can derive a factual prediction [!!!] of real-world behavior. The underlying basis for this dismissal is the argument that [psychic theory] has been characterized by cycles of fad and fashion, followed by discard and disenchantment, rather than by evolving theory and scientific methodology. [...]

On a different scale, the term [psychic babble] may also disparagingly refer to grandiloquent but allegedly empty jargon or buzzwords with a [psychic] tinge. This is a use of the term that is internal; that is, those who [use psychic powers] of one form or another are typically those who would use it in this fashion.

As with any self-respecting jargon, practitioners find these shorthand usages normal and useful, referring to valid concepts; thus they are very likely to reject the label of "[psychic babble]." But the vagueness inherent in many [psychic] concepts also permits the use of "real" terminology in ways that may seem inappropriate to others. Some who are accused of [psychic babble] suspect that this may be because certain [psychic] concepts [...] themselves so lack precision as to become meaningless, and that true believers only frown upon [psychic babble] because it represents use by non-practitioners. This is one of the key points of the argument that [psychic theory] is not a science. Science demands that ideas be testable, that experimental results be repeatable, that ideas that fail this regime be discarded. The very phrase "certain [psychic] concepts [...] themselves so lack precision" is manifestly un-scientific.

Users of [psychic] jargon have argued that critics have invented the term as a defense against the critics' own deep, repressed fears and traumas. By attacking and undermining the whole language of personal exploration, the critics attempt to ensure that the time when they may have to acknowledge these parts of their psyches gets pushed into the distant future. Critics would probably reject this argument -- because to them, it is [psychic babble].

[...]

Sources that are often suggested to be using [psychic babble] include the phraseology of New Agers [!!!], self-help groups, personal development coaching and LGATs (Large Group Awareness Training).

I think that in the present, this definition fits psychic babble even better than psycho babble because psychology has gained so much in reputation. And if psychology is any indication, then psychic theory will be taught in major universities and psychic treatment will be prescribed by physicians within about ten years.

Soul matters

Today I was walking home from work. I tried to cross 16th Street at Arkansas, but then intuition led me to keep walking on 16th Street and cross at Connecticut. I didn't know why but would soon find out. First, on Connecticut Street between 16th and 17th Streets, I saw another family of the african lily, my new favorite flower that is my own personal symbol of future support. Then, on Connecticut between Mariposa and 18th, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while. If I had crossed the street at Arkansas, I would have walked Arkansas all the way up to 18th and would have missed both the african lily and my friend (hi Mandy!).

Mandy told me something that I found very interesting. She is a fashion design student but is hesitant about continuing her studies because "fashion is so external." That statement really resonated with me. These days I find myself attaching much less importance to fashion than I did, say, a year ago, and that is true for a lot of other external things as well. I simply don't have an interest in external things right now. All I care about is internal goings-on. When I talk to a friend, I don't want to hear about their new iPod or about programming code or the house that they bought. I want to hear about how their soul is feeling, and how their soul was feeling a year ago, and where their soul has been.

And on a professional level, I feel the same way. I don't want use logic to help create more external stuff. I want to use my soul to communicate with other souls and to create and reorganize internal stuff in myself and in them. The soul, the psyche, is the only thing that matters to me right now. You could say that I have tunnel vision, but really, it is funnel vision.

Another Osho quote

And remember never to get confused between intellect and intelligence. Intellect is only a part of intelligence. Intelligence is a far bigger phenomenon; it contains much more than intellect, because life is not only intellectual, life is intuitive too. Intelligence contains intuition. So many great discoveries have been made not by intellect but by intuition. In fact, all the great discoveries have been made by the intuition.

Something far deeper exists in you. You should not forget it. Intellect is only the periphery, the circumference, it is not the center of your being. The center of your being is intution. [...]

That's why the mystics come to know about the oneness of existence--because it depends on intuition. Science goes on dividing, splitting; it reaches to the minutest particle. The world becomes a multiplicity, it is no longer a universe.

In fact, scientists should start using a new word, multiverse. Universe has a mystical tone--universe means one. The mystic reaches to one; that is the experience of the center. But the center can function only when you move from the circumference to the center. It needs a quantum leap.

From Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic by Osho, pp. 58-60

My last post was about scientific theory and psychic theory reminding me of each other. This quote is about the division of intellect (scientific theory) and intuition (psychic theory). Maybe after humanity experiences that quantum leap Osho talks of and we finally operate from true intelligence, one that incorporates both intellect and intuition, maybe then scientific theory and psychic theory will completely overlap.

Quantum mechanics and time travel

An article came out on Friday titled New model 'permits time travel' [via Alison]. According to it, some physics professors have started to clear up some of the logical paradoxes that exist concerning time travel, the most prevalent being the one about going back in time and splitting up your parents - what would happen to the present you? According to Professor Greenberger of the City University of New York, you wouldn't be able to.

"You go back to kill your father, but you'd arrive after he'd left the room, you wouldn't find him, or you'd change your mind," said Professor Greenberger.

"You wouldn't be able to kill him because the very fact that he is alive today is going to conspire against you so that you'll never end up taking that path that leads you to killing him."

Oh. My. God. That sounds so much like "psychic theory".* It all goes back to knowing and believing. Knowing that your father is alive will ensure that you can't kill him. This supports my belief** that things in your head - something that you know or believe - directly influence what you can and cannot do, physically.

Ever since watching What the Bleep Do We Know, quantum physics and quantum mechanics have given me a lot of hope. This article takes it to a new level. Soon we may find that physics theory and psychic theory are one and the same! I feel like there is a whole new universe just around the corner. Let's go.

*Just wait. In a few years I won't have to put that in quotes anymore.
**Just wait. Soon I won't have to say "my belief" anymore; it will be established as a fact.

The Flower of Love

I have a new favorite flower. I had never really noticed it until this year, but I have been seeing it around San Francisco and had started to like it more and more. It's a flower with a very long stem and purple petals that are arranged like a burst.



Last weekend I went to Los Angeles, and I saw that flower EVERYWHERE. I started to feel an even stronger affinity for it, and every time I saw it, I had to smile. Incidentally I was casually looking for a new journal book to write in during my trip. I kind of expected that my new book would have a dragonfly or butterfly on it, but then I saw a purple and green one which I felt had a cartoonish version of this flower on it. I knew immediately that that was going to be my new journal.

Since the flower was definitely a theme over the weekend, I tried to find out more about it after I got back from my trip. Its official name is Agapanthus, which is Greek for 'love flower', and it is also known as African Lily or Lily of the Nile. According to one website, one of its spiritual effects is said to be stimulation of psychic abilities. That didn't surprise me at all. But then I found another website which had this to say:

Abundance consciousness; money issues; willingness to receive.

For avariciousness and poverty consciousness, an over-identification with possessions and the material dimension, for those who have money issues in their lives, hoarding what they have, feeling that there is never enough [...]. It is also for those who fear being deprived of physical resources. This essence allows abundance consciousness, an inner knowing that money is energy, that there is no limitation imposed from outside oneself, that one can have it all if one will open to receive it and that fear and avarice are a certain way to keep oneself in short supply.

I felt like that paragraph was specifically written for me right now because it talks about something I am really struggling with. I am scared shitless that I won't be able to support myself financially in my new calling as an intuitive counselor, and I am saving up as much money as I can before I make the big scary leap off the cliff, and am constantly trying to figure out how to make future ends meet. But now the african lily has come into my life to deliver a message. The message is that I shouldn't worry about that, and that there is an abundance of resources out there just waiting for me, and that the only thing standing in my way are my own fear and attachment.

Now that I am back in San Francisco, I continue to see that flower everywhere. It keeps appearing to remind me to let go of the worry. I even found some in the backyard behind my building! So this morning I decided to put one in the vase of my VW Beetle.

Intuition by Osho

Today is my mom's 57th birthday, and I bought her the book Intuition by Osho. I read some of the first few pages of the book on Amazon and found it very profound. This is how the book starts out:

When the body functions spontaneously,
that is called instinct.
When the soul functions spontaneously,
that is called intuition.
They are alike and yet
far away from each other.
Instinct is of the body--the gross;
and intuition is of the soul--the subtle.
And between the two is the mind, the expert,
which never functions spontaneously.
Mind means knowledge.
Knowledge can never be spontaneous.
Instinct is deeper than intellect and
intuition is higher than intellect.
Both are beyond the intellect, and both are good.

Quotes from the Pleiadian Times

I just read Barbara Marciniak's Pleiadian newsletter for the first time and found some pieces in there that made a lot of sense to me. Don't worry if you don't know who Barbara Marciniak is or what 'Pleiadian' means. Just take these quotes for what they stand for, regardless of the context:

Symbols represent ideas about reality; they are an interface between the field of existence and consciousness.

This is something I have been thinking quite a bit myself lately. Symbols are a bridge between the invisible worlds and our own consciousness. They have concrete, physical messages that help us in the physical world, but the messages come from the invisible world.

In the past humanity collectively chose to close down their psychic intuition, and now they are paying the full price of self-imposed ignorance.

This is on my mind a lot as well. We were all born with a sixth sense but we have been raised to believe that we only have five senses. We believe the things we can see, touch, hear, smell and taste. But when it comes to the things we feel, we are always doubting ourselves. We are unsure whether what we feel is real or whether we are allowed or justified to feel what we feel. But I believe that feeling is the sixth sense, and that all psychic awareness starts with feeling.

Saturn in Cancer works to restructure your psychic abilities by taking you into the depths of your identity to meet yourself and accept responsibility for who you are.

This is so relevant to my current situation, it's uncanny. My Saturn is in Cancer, and I am going through my Saturn Return right now. During my first phase of Saturn being direct last fall, I really started to feel the desire to strengthen my psychic abilities. And starting this Thursday I am going to embark on another week of Saturn being direct, and one of my main goals right now is to yes, accept responsibility for who I am - a spiritual being, an embodied soul, a bug with antennas, a psychic reader, an intuitive counselor. I have accepted the responsibility on the inside, but it hasn't quite translated to my external world yet.

Each year, the summer solstice sun takes you to the peak of perceptual attunement. Tune in by paying attention during this time; new energy always arrives and you certainly do not want to miss the latest news from the sun.

Well. The summer solstice is today. And tomorrow is the full moon. The full moon often stands for something ending or completing. AND my Saturn Return is about to have its last push. Big changes are so imminent, I can almost taste them.

Use your attention to focus on the dance of subtle energy; remember when you do not focus your attention with your own volition, others will grab it for a roller coaster ride through their own versions of reality.

Yes. This is why it's so important to know what you want. What are YOU going to focus your energy on this summer full moon solstice?

Great example of intuition in action

I came across this blog post yesterday:

Since deciding to once again seek employment outside the house, I've encountered two possible jobs that appealed to me.
The first was a full-time position, which wasn't really what I wanted, but it was with an arts organization that I love. I interviewed, and that went well. [...]
The trouble was that this was a demanding position involving a lot of stress and day to day activities for which I don't think I would have been a good fit. After I had some time to sit with my thoughts, I realized the idea of doing this job was making me very apprehensive. Even though from the outside it seemed perfect, I knew in my heart that I was the wrong person for this position.
A weakness isn't necessarily something you're not good at. It's something that weakens you, and even though I felt the urgency of finding a job and didn't see many prospects out there, I decided to listen to my intuition instead of my logic and remove my name from consideration before the second round of interviews.
Almost simultaneously, I heard about a very different job opening. This was a part-time position, which would mean less money, but a much better schedule for me. It would also involve me doing something that I am genuinely passionate about. I interviewed for it as well and left feeling excited and hopeful.
Yesterday, I found out that I got the job! In the fall, I will be the lead teacher in an extended day program for first through fifth graders. [...]
I'm thrilled that I listened to my little voice of doom, because I believe it led me correctly, away from my weaknesses and toward my strengths.

First of all, I love the idea that a weakness is not something you're not good at, but something that weakens you. Secondly, I love the way Lori-Lyn listened to her intuition, said no thanks to the first position and then immediately found about the second position, a position that was not going to weaken but strengthen her. I truly believe that it was necessary for her to turn down the first position in order for the second one to appear. I keep seeing examples of that in my own and in other people's life.

For example, a girl I know was seeing a guy that she was feeling lukewarm about, but the sex was good. She was also seeing another guy that she felt much more excited about but it wasn't clear if they were going to be any more than friends. She finally decided to tell the first guy that she wasn't feeling it and broke it off with him completely. Just a few days later the second guy told her that he was really excited about what their relationship could turn into and finally made it clear that he wanted to be more than just friends. I honestly don't think it was a coincidence that the second guy opened up right after she rejected the first one.

I cannot emphasize this enough. If you have something in your life that you feel half-assed about, get rid of it. CLEAR SOME SPACE so that the thing that you REALLY WANT can come in instead.

I need to just relax

Lately I have noticed that I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to tune into my psychic sense ALL THE TIME. I constantly feel the need to know who it is when the phone is ringing, and every time I close my eyes, I try to interpret whatever I see behind my eye lids, in case there is an important message in there, and when somebody sits next to me on the bus, I find myself trying to determine if they have kids, etc.

Then the other night I took a cab home after being out with some co-workers. Both the cab driver and I were feeling chatty and I told him that I was hoping to become a professional psychic. He said "Oh, you're psychic? Tell me something about myself." I closed my eyes and tried for a second and was about to say "You are single. You miss your family." First I dismissed it as being a mere guess. But then I panicked at the thought that it might not be true. Maybe he was married and his whole family, including his parents, were all here in this country. So I ended up telling him that I couldn't do it right now. I said that I had been drinking and that I was in a moving vehicle and that I just didn't feel up to it.

Maybe he thought I was a fraud. But that's okay. Sometimes I myself think that I am a fraud. My panic in the cab clearly shows my own doubts. In continuing the conversation with the cab driver, I found out that I was indeed right. He *was* single and he *did* miss his family, and he was planning to go back to Palestine within the next couple of years, and he was trying to figure out if he should get married here or there.

I think I should stop being so hard on myself. I don't need to be psychic ALL THE TIME. I only need to when I have a specific question or when someone else does. Just like not everything I see with my eyes or hear with my ears everyday is crucial information, not everything I pick up with the sixth sense is noteworty either. As the title already says, I need to just relax. The important information will be there when I need it.

This work IS rewarding

Something very exciting happened today. For the first time I received money for a reading.

This is a big deal for me because I feel that this is my new calling. I would like to make a living as a psychic. But of course, like everybody, I have all these doubts about whether I will be able to support myself. It has been hard for me to break away from the idea that the only way to support myself is by working for someone else, by working 9 to 5, by working in a cubicle.

So the money I received today is a sign that it is possible. Hopefully this is just the beginning. Hopefully more people and more people will see value in intuitive counseling, so that it will soon be accepted as a profession by the mainstream.

THANK YOU, Paula!

The future and psychic research

I came across an interesting blurb on a livejournal page this morning:

I have an odd relationship with Tarot. I claim no psychic abilities. I do not claim to be able to read the future, nor do I believe that it is actually possible for anyone to do so. However, I do believe that the cards can be an amazingly useful tool for analysing a situation and suggesting courses of action. I do believe that they can provide people with useful advice and insights.

That is pretty much how I feel about any psychic information, whether it comes to me via a feeling, a vision, or via a card. I believe that the information reveals the situation, and that situation gives me clues about what will happen to that person next. The energy of that person carries all sorts of trajectories that have already been started, but it is always up to the person to complete or interrupt any of their trajectories, which is why it is not always possible to predict their future.

Then Amy said something today that is in line with the first blurb:

while i don't necessarily *believe* in psychic powers in the popular sense, i do believe that some people have a great gift of clarity and vision, and the ability to see connections and assess the world based on those connections in an objective way, even from a distance.

I don't know if any research has been done on the accuracy of psychic readings. The kind of research I would like to do is this:

Have 50 or so different psychics do readings on 10 or so different people. Then compare the results.

I bet you that the psychics would see a lot of the same things for each person they are looking at.

The emphasis should not be on the accuracy of the predictions but on the accuracy of the reading of the present moment. In other words, it's not as important to be able to tell the future than to understand what is going on with the person right NOW. My fantasy research would focus on the current situation rather than the future.

While I do believe that is it possible to predict the future, it is not necessarily all that useful for the person receiving that information. It is more useful to receive information about the present, along with some direction on how to attract the changes they are trying to attract.

Graduation

My Hello Kitty calendar for this month of June has a picture of a graduating Kitty. When I turned over the new calendar page on June 1, I took the image to mean that this month I am graduating myself. I am graduating from a psychic student and apprentice to a grown-up psychic!

Believing is seeing

Most people operate under the principle of "seeing is believing." I did too for a long time. I always needed proof. I always needed to see it before I believed it.

But now I believe that the reverse is true. Believing is seeing. And the mere fact that I believe it makes it true. Get it?

You cannot see butterflies unless you believe that they exist.
You cannot see monsters unless you believe that they exist.
You cannot have an orgasm unless you believe that you can.
You cannot become president unless you believe that you can.

The critic will say "But just because I can't do something if I don't believe it doesn't automatically mean that I can do it if I do believe it." And that critic is welcome to continue to believe that. But I urge her to give the reverse a try. She has nothing to lose.

Believing is seeing. From

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Changing the world

The thought that I could change the world never entered my mind. Of course I couldn't. I was just one little person without much influence. So I never had the desire or intention to change the world.

Some of the leos I have known have a very different attitude towards changing the world. They are much more ambitious and can easily see themselves as leaders, superstars and visionaries. I recently remembered a conversation I had a little over a year ago with one of my leo friends. He was always talking about a revolution and I asked him if he ever dreamt about changing the world. He said yes. I told him that I didn't because I didn't think that my influence would be far-reaching enough to change the world. I told him that I only focused on the small circles around me. I wanted to positively affect the small circles of people around me. At that time those circles consisted mostly of Flash developers and hoopers. Compared to my leo friend's ambitions, my own seemed very small and unextravagant.

It's June 1, 2005 and I am done being unassuming. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Let it be known that I am starting this new website - dragonflypsychic.com - in hopes of changing the world.