Clairolfaction and self-fulfilling prophecies

I recently joined a group of people who get together on a semi-regular basis to practice all kinds of psychic skills on each other. This week we used several different card decks to give each other intuitive readings. There were three of us, and two of us took turns reading for the third person. One of the things that was read for me was that I had the ability to develop clairolfaction.

All of the five physical senses exist as more subtle inner senses inside the overall psychic sense. They are usually not sensed physically but psychically.

Clairvoyance - the ability to see images with your inner eyes
Clairaudience - the ability to hear voice with your inner ears
Clairsentience - the ability to feel body sensations as a direct result of energy
Clairolfaction - the ability to perceive smells that a physical nose wouldn't

Ever since receiving that prophecy I have been paying more attention to smells. For example, this morning my room suddenly smelled exactly like my sister's room at our parents' house. So far none of the smells have made sense yet but maybe they will eventually and I will be able to incorporate them into my readings.

To all the logical minds out there (including my own): Yes, maybe it's a little too convenient that I started noticing more smells around me right after somebody told me that I might be clairolfactory. Maybe it's just a self-fulfilling prophecy. But so what? If I end up developing clairolfaction and I end up receiving accurate and helpful information for myself and other people via the smells I sense, does it really matter that somebody once seemingly randomly told me about that possibility and that I simply just went and self-fulfilled that? If you are a kindergarten teacher and out of the blue someone tells you that you are going to be a software entrepreneur, and you have absolutely no interest in software, but then you decide to start learning about software and you end up inventing a piece of software that is used all over the world, and you are very happy with your new pursuit - does it really matter then that it was "just a self-fulfilling prophecy?" And if somebody tells you that starting today, you are never going to be depressed again, and you end up never being depressed again, do you care that it was "just a self-fulfilling prophecy?" Wouldn't you love that it can be "just" that simple?

Attention disarms

When I was in 7th grade, it first became clear to me that something becomes much less scary and threatening when you look at it. At that time, an awkward moment such as telling a joke that nobody laughed at would sometimes haunt me for the rest of the day. It would invade my thoughts unexpectedly over and over again, and each time it would sting. But sometimes when I was lying in bed at night, I purposely recalled the painful moment and really paid attention to it. And whenever I did that, it wasn't nearly as painful and uncomfortable as when it popped into my head unexpectedly.

My friend Chris recently said in an email that "things lose their power when they are observed." The way that I had remembered what she said in the email (I had received it about a month ago) was something like "things really aren't all that scary anymore when you look at them." But then when I dug through my emails to find the exact words, they were "things lose their power when they are observed." The meaning is pretty much the same.

I also have been noticing that sometimes when I am by myself and a crowd of people comes my way, I get a little bit intimidated. But if I look at the people, it's not as uncomfortable. They are really only intimidating when I furtively look the other way. Again, things are less scary when you look at them.

Finally, a quote from the book You Are Psychic:

When I am performing a clairvoyant reading, what I am really doing is looking at energy [...]. This energy comes in the form of images, thoughts, sounds, feelings, etc. As soon as I start to look at the energy or image, it begins to change.

From the context of the surrounding paragraphs, I took that to mean that simply looking at another person's painful energy starts to heal and transform that pain. It is all starting to make sense now.

Fields Book Store

Fields Book Store has agreed to host some of my business cards. I'm very excited.

I came across Fields Books on July 4, when I was wandering around in Nob Hill. Nob Hill is not an area I had been drawn to much before, but for the last month or two I have been spending more time there. Fields Books was closed on July 4 but from the window display I could tell that I would really like the store. Their subtitle is "Soulful and scholarly books from the world's spiritual traditions." All the books displayed in the windows were about metaphysical or psychological topics, and there was also a What the Bleep poster. Later that week I went back to the store during my lunch break and bought my first Barbara Marciniak book. I noticed that day that there is a small shelf in the front of the book store where various business cards are displayed. But I was too shy to ask if I could leave mine.

But a few weeks later I overcame my shyness, and my business cards are now part of the collection at Fields Book Store. I am actually more excited that the coolest book store in town agreed to keep my business cards than I am about the potential business this arrangement could bring to me. Thank you, Fields Book Store!

About senses

From The Psychic Healing Book:

Your eyes always see,
your ears always hear,
your skin always feels,
your nose always smells,
your mouth always tastes.
And your emotions are always aware.

The sixth/psychic sense starts with emotions. The more you pay attention to your emotions and let yourself really feel them, the more psychically aware you are.

About voices

In general, we tend to feel kind of sorry for people who "hear voices." We might think that they are schizophrenic, insane, or at the very least delusional. But in truth, we all hear voices. For most of us they are just a lot more subtle than those that, say, a schizophrenic person hears.

Haven't you ever said something like "There is a part of me that wants to move to the country" or "There is this voice in my head that keeps telling me to have a talk with my sister"? If you have, then you "hear voices" too. But you know the difference between the voices coming from another body in the physical world and the voices coming from the spirit world, which includes your own mind/spirit. A schizophrenic person might not be able to tell that difference.

The more clearly you hear the voices while at the same time maintaining a clear understanding of the boundaries of the concrete, physical world around you, the healthier is your psychic sense.

About meditation

There is a strong notion in the psychic and generally spiritual community that you have to meditate as much as possible, that meditation is mandatory, that you won't get anywhere without meditation. But a part of following one's intuition is also to always do what you feel like and to not do what you don't feel like. Feeling is the psychic sense, and doing what you feel like is listening to your psychic sense.

And I haven't felt like meditating all that much. I definitely see the benefits in it - I usually gain a conclusion or clarity about something and feel happy and energetic afterwards, and the days on which I meditate in the morning are often better than the days on which I don't meditate. But it still feels like a chore and I have to force myself to do it. The voice that says "You have to meditate" often sounds just like the voice that says "You have to make your bed every morning" or "You have to get up and go to work." It's just not a very pleasant and kind voice.

I have come to the conclusion that you don't have to meditate if you don't want to. There are other ways to achieve the same quietude and clarity. I, for instance, really like to go swing on the swings near my house, and I often stay there for up to half an hour. The swinging has a very similar effect on me as meditation does. It puts my mind at rest and helps me gain clarity and find answers. I believe that the swinging is very beneficial to fostering my psychic sense. And it's a lot more fun than meditation to me right now!

The bottom line is that you should do whatever feels right to you in the moment. If you feel like meditating, meditate. If you feel like going for a walk in nature, do it. If you feel like sitting on the couch quietly with your eyes open, do that. If you feel like playing in the sand or on the swings, go play. If you feel like drawing, draw. Chances are these activities will achieve the same thing as meditation would. And if it really is necessary for you to meditate but you still don't feel like it, then perhaps you need to do something else first, and then afterwards you will be ready for meditation and actually feel like it. Follow your gut feeling. If you were really meant to meditate, you will feel it.

Psychic flowers

From Barbara Marciniak, Path of Empowerment: New Pleiadian Wisdom for a World in Chaos, pp. 123-124

Spend more time in nature; go for a walk or take a stroll, and allow your attention to drift, like milkweeds in the wind, into the surrounding environment. The trees and flowers sense what you are thinking, and in fulfilling their purpose they will instantly harmonize their energies with yours, orchestrating a special series of vibrations, scents, shapes, colors, and sounds--the most appropriate energies in the moment for you to maintain your harmony and balance.

Isn't that a beautiful concept? It makes sense to me, too. I always feel really good in nature; I think most people do. It is hard to think really negatively when you are in nature, and if you were thinking negative thoughts when you first arrived in nature, it is hard to stay thinking that way. This might also be why people who do mushrooms prefer to do so in nature and during daylight. If the plants around them reflect back to them the colors, shapes and vibrations they need to stay in harmony, the chance of having a bad trip is greatly reduced.

This also reminds me of my favorite quote from the Diary of Anne Frank:

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.

And this brings me to something that happened to me on December 29, 2004. I had a very pivotal moment in the park that day, which marked the turning point between depression and happiness. I had been depressed for over nine months. On this day - a Wednesday - I was at work but nobody else was there because everybody was on Christmas vacation that week whereas I had taken off the previous week. I was feeling shitty, and shortly after lunch I decided to get away from the office and drive to Golden Gate Park. I sat there on a bench amidst the plants and meditated for a few minutes. And that was when I really felt my higher self for the first time, the self that knows all the answers, the self that is highly intuitive. I asked my "better half" questions, and it answered them for me. After that I was a changed person. I have not been depressed since. I have been feeling good every day, and I have felt a strong motivation to tune into my higher self as much as possible. You could say that the plants in Golden Gate Park told me to do it.