The Psychic Sceptic

I have yet to meet a true psychic who doesn't, at some time in their careers, doubt their abilities. Many psychics wonder how they receive their information, and often ask themselves whether what they are feeling is 'authentic'.

Call it psychic ability, intuition, 'gut feeling', sixth sense, but when I meet psychics who don't question their abilities, the proverbial red flag flaps itself at me so violently, it ends up wrapping itself around my neck.....

I had one such experience this weekend.

In an attempt to meet like minded people in my adopted homeland, I have signed up with many 'Meetup' groups. Some of them have been interesting, some of them informative, some I have felt as though I have wanted to run screaming from.

Last Friday, I attended such a Meetup... The organizer had advertised some sort of healing session, with a nominal charge. The idea of the healing was to banish lost souls who might have inhabited our bodies, who might be causing us to display uncharacteristic personality traits.

In my line of work, I am very aware of the need to protect myself psychically, and thought that the Meetup might be informative, if not beneficial.

As soon as I walked into the meeting, I had the feeling that I had happened across some sort of pseudo cult setting… but I assured the doubting Thomas’s amongst my spirit guides that “all was ok”, my mind was still open, and it was too early to make a judgment.

After singing a couple of songs to ‘raise the level of the proceedings’, the healers got to work on each of us in turn. I found the healings ‘interesting’ to say the least. Everyone seemed to have only two lost souls ‘inhabiting’ their bodies (convenient, as there were two healers…) and although some of what the healers had picked up on seemed to resonate with some of the ‘receivers’, it all seemed a bit ‘unspecific’ for me. I wanted to see something that was really going to convince me – many of the healer’s explanations of ‘soul invasion’ could have been explained away by many things, including unresolved past conflicts, mild depression, and day to day fall out from living in the ‘real world’. I presumed that when it came for my turn to be ‘healed’ that I would see things more clearly, and really understand what was going on... I might even benefit from the experience.

So, my turn came. I stood, I stated my name. I was asked whether I had the healers permission to ‘go into my body. The session started.

The first soul they identified was apparently a child of mine who had died in the 1940’s who was making me feel as though I should be doing more. I couldn’t honestly say that I ever feel like this – I seem to do procrastination very well. I get around to projects eventually (I must say, at work I am much more disciplined) but I never have the last minute panic attacks of the “if only’s”… I was asked whether I believed in reincarnation (but of course), at that time I was doing the maths… If I had been a mother in the 1940’s, I would have had to get death and rebirth over with pretty quickly if I was going to succeed in getting into my current body. Then again, there might be the possibility of ‘soul division’ and the prospect of inhabiting two bodies at the same time; but that seemed a bit on the far fetched side…. OK, so that didn’t resonate with me… You can’t be right all the time. I didn’t have any of the ‘light’ or ‘cleansed’ feelings that I presume would follow such a ‘cleansing’, but I had hope for the second trapped soul to deliver something I could at least identify as an unwanted behaviour pattern I could discover and banish.

I might just mention, during the first part of the healing I began to feel a light tapping on my left thigh. At first I thought I might be experiencing some sort of ‘sitting in the wrong position spasm’, so moved so as to be more comfortable. The ‘tapping’ became more insistent, and I at last recognised it to be a message I get from my spirit guides from time to time that tells me that what I am hearing is not quite kosher…

The second soul was apparently a soldier from the Civil War. This, I could sort of identify with to a degree. On a recent trip to Hollywood Cemetery with my husband and anthropologist Sandra Belanger, I received some pretty powerful images and physical sensations. If a lost soul had ‘jumped on for the ride’ I wouldn’t have been at all surprised. What would have surprised me though is his resilience to leave my mortal shell. I am in the habit of ‘cleansing’ on a daily basis. But hey, we are all human – perhaps I hadn’t done a thorough job on a few occasions… I would have thought my omnipresent spirit guides would have given me a warning by way of the usual unpleasant tingles on the back of my head. OK, so they were napping on the job – no biggy. I made a mental note to have it out with them when I got home.

So, I heard some more about this civil war dude – I forget now what inappropriate emotion he was supposed to be making me feel, but my ears did prick up at the healers mention of ‘being with them’ – “Hey, multi infestation” I thought at the prospect of having many lost souls inhabiting my lowly mortal body, and was momentarily excited. Can’t say I felt fit to burst, but then again, I wasn’t the ‘expert’ here…
Now the ‘tapping’ had changed into a rapid ‘thwack thwack thwack’ – someone was really trying to get their message across. “OK,OK – it’s almost over…” I tried to reassure ‘them’.

There the session ended. The thwacking abated. We cleansed, we parted.

Before we went our separate ways, I learnt a little more about this group. If you want to part with your cash, you are told what psychic abilities you possess. You can receive healing – you are told what inhabits you that might be causing you to behave in the way that you do, not taking into account external stimuli or learned behaviour patterns due to some past trauma. They say they have no room for Gurus in their practice, even though they are not open to any other way but theirs.

It is healthy to doubt and to question. That is the way you learn. If you feel something, research what you are feeling. Seek impartial advice. Keep an open mind. Don’t accept any dogma as being ‘the way’. And watch out for people who offer to cure you of something you are not aware of suffering from; take note of the spiritual thwack on the leg – it’s trying to tell you something.

Oh yes, and if you meet the Buddha on the road to enlightenment, hang on to your wallet…

©2007 L.Matthews