I have always felt a powerful connection to to my intuition. I consider my ability to have a pretty reliable "hunch" about situations or people simply another one of my senses at this point. Call me crazy or overly imaginative, but I have also had many experiences where I have particular visions or images or ideas come to my mind, especially when I meditate or fall asleep, which don't always seem like they are coming from my own head. Have I, on more than one occasion, asked myself the question, "Am I psychic?" You better believe it.
And while I do think everyone has intuitive or clairvoyant abilities to some extent, learning how to harness your psychic abilities is a whole other story. Plus, though I connect to these things, I don't often feel like I have as much command over them as I might like.
Now, just to give a little context, to have psychic abilities means you possess certain faculties that seem inexplicable by natural laws, particularly in relation to telepathy or clairvoyance. It means being able to see, know, or hear things about others or situations (sometimes even past or future events) without any "logically" explicable reason.
Think about it this way: It's not always quite as cut-and-dry as seeing a clear and correct vision of your roommate getting a new job, or knowing the name of someone's dead pet. Sometimes your intuition kicks in when you have a bad feeling about someone, or maybe knowing your mom is going to call just before she does, or sensing something unfortunate is going on with a friend even though they haven't told you.
It can even involve really simple things that you might also explain by chance or coincidence, but it still relies on a certain sense of "knowing" that isn't based on readily available information.
If you're skeptical about all of this, remember that even science is not without intuition. In fact, Einstein called the intuitive mind "a sacred gift" and the rational mind "a faithful servant." He added that we live in a culture that honors the servant and forgets the gift.
Elite Daily had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Athena Perrakis about ways you can develop and refine your psychic and intuitive abilities. Perrakis has over 30 years of experience in the metaphysical space, which also led to the launch of her company, Sage Goddess.
Trust me when I say this woman knows what's she's talking about. Here are a few of her tips for harnessing your own psychic abilities, even if you're not even sure you have them in the first place.
Dr. Perrakis says we all have powerful intuition, some more than others, but not everyone actually taps into it or uses it.
So allowing yourself to get quiet and sit with yourself is definitely the most important way to learn to cultivate that. Dr. Perrakis believes part of the reason that can be difficult for people is because "we are cultured to fear silence and trained to fill it with noise."
She tells Elite Daily,
The prospect of being alone with our thoughts is frightening to people, but you will never cultivate intuition if you can't stand silence.
Put those fears aside, because in the silence, you might just hear your intuition begin to speak to you.
Dr. Perrakis says the information you can receive in a psychic vision comes in different forms, which is why it's important to learn the specific way in which it comes to you as an individual.
While people have different, conflicting ideas about where that information comes from exactly, Dr. Perrakis believes the sources are spirit guides and ancestors.
In her experience, there are three main ways people receive information. She tells Elite Daily,
There is clairvoyance, which means clearly seeing images or pictures of things. See if they communicate with you through images. If you start to chart when you see what, you might see some images that relate to people in your life. Over time, you start to connect the dots.
There is clairaudience, when you hear things, hear voices in or outside of your head.
There is clairsentience, or clear sensing. A clear feeling or hunch. Physically, sometimes, it comes as cold chills or something like that. It is the most common of the three.
But not like, Metallica, necessarily.
Dr. Perrakis tells Elite Daily music is one of the most powerful ways to reach a meditative state, which she says can be difficult even for her, as she identifies herself as having a type A personality and a busy mind that has trouble simmering down.
She recommends laying on a yoga mat and playing a five- to seven-minute song of drumming or mantras, adding that there are many powerful musicians in the metaphysical space specifically. A favorite of hers is Deva Premal, whose music you can listen to above.
Listening to this type of music can help shift your busy mind to a deep state of awareness and into a form of meditation, allowing you to tune in that much more to your psychic abilities.
Dr. Perrakis highly recommends using spiritual tools to boost your intuition and add a protective element to your practice — in particular, gem stones and essential oils.
She recommends azurite, sapphire, and lazuli as gems for connecting to intuition and opening your third eye chakra (located between your two eyebrows), which is an intuitive energy center. Essential oils like cedar, opoponax, and blue lotus are also particularly potent for intuition.
Dr. Perrakis says that people are always waiting for huge insights to knock them on the head, for something really literal.
Well, don't hold your breath waiting for anything of the sort.
"That’s not how the spirit realm communicates," she tells Elite Daily. "It’s much more symbolic, ethereal, and mysterious how we get communicated with."
And if we can do the first four steps, she adds, we'll not only be more excited, but also more able, to use what we actually find.
