Hello, you gorgeous multidimensional life form, you!

It’s confession time: I used to think being psychic meant always knowing everything. Psychics can read everyone’s thoughts all the time, answer every question, and constantly see dead people, right? Well, maybe some of them can. But the more I learn about intuition and explore my own, the more I realize that there are different types of psychic abilities, and many potential ways to have a “psychic” experience.

WHAT DOES “PSYCHIC” TRULY MEAN?

The word “psychic” was coined in 1872 as meaning “of or pertaining to the human soul,” originating from the Greek word psykhikos. (“Of the soul, spirit, or mind.”)

It reminds me of one of my favorite books, The Magnificent Soul, in which George Walter Chyz wrote something along the lines of this:

When you are living from the heart, in tune with the wisdom of your soul, you are psychic.

This makes sense if you consider that being “psychic” is really just being more in tune with the greater web of consciousness, that which our super-conscious soul is intimately connected to. We are all connected to this, so technically, anyone can become “psychic” by working on increasing their awareness. However, some people may find themselves more easily and naturally “tuning in” through different experiences.

When we hear about a psychic experience, we are generally hearing about something “extra” perceived using one or more of the senses – hence, “Extra Sensory Perception.”

Reflecting more on this, there have been many instances in my life where I have felt “psychic” – I will often have a feeling something will happen before it does. Sometimes it will come to me in a dream, sometimes in a “what if this were to happen?” And it does.

A LITTLE PERSONAL “PSYCHIC” EXPERIENCE…

For as long as I can remember, the moment I meet someone, I instantly know their exact personality and very randomly, a couple things about them, usually relating to a dark secret or deep emotional pain. (I spend the entire time I get to know them trying to convince myself that I’m wrong and just making assumptions, because how could I know this? Also, it immediately makes things a bit awkward for me. But every time, over time, my initial “hunch” has always turned out to be correct.)

Strangely, this inner knowing comes not just as a realization, but like a whiff of the feelings someone has. I can’t always even put it into words, but I can feel what they are feeling. This extreme empathy has strengthened with time and I find myself picking up on random facts about people’s emotional complexities even from a distance, which feels strangely overwhelming and intriguing all at once.

So I can’t read everyone’s thoughts, or blindly guess how many fingers you are holding up, but oddly enough, I can meet someone and immediately know their biggest pet peeve, insecurity, or stressor. Life is weird, man.

Throughout my life, I have received random pieces of information, or “downloads” as I call them, that later turn out to be valuable and helpful. For a long time I wrote them off as silly thoughts, but recently I have started to humor them, and am amazed at the guidance they have brought, and their uncanny accuracy. Sometimes I will get a feeling I need to reach out to a friend to comfort them, when they have not even told me they are upset (yet they are). Or I will suddenly decide to do something, later realizing it was the most ideal time possible to do it.

Spending more time alone recently has allowed this intuition to speak more clearly. This inspired me to do some more research to understand the “psychic” phenomenon.

TYPES OF PSYCHIC ABILITIES

Turns out, there are many different ways to be a little (or a lot) psychic. I made this handy graphic to describe a few of the different ways to experience extra sensory perception:

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EMPATHY: You deeply feel the emotions of others as if they were your own.
CLAIRSENTIENCE: “clear feeling;” very vividly perceiving and knowing the emotions of others
CLAIRVOYANCE: “clear seeing;” psychic visions in the mind’s eye
CLAIRCOGNIZANCE: “clear knowing,” knowledge about people / places / things that you come by intuitively
CLAIRAUDIENCE: “clear hearing” of sounds, words, or music in your mind
CLAIRALIENCE / CLAIRGUSTANCE: smelling / tasting something that is not actually there
HIGHLY SENSITIVE: highly sensitive people are extremely observant and deeply feel everything that is going on to the point where it can sometimes be overwhelming. If you are highly sensitive, you are naturally very intuitive and can strengthen your abilities through practicing mindfulness and calm awareness. (Also, please be gentle and patient with yourself, sweet sensitive friends.)

Have you had a psychic experience? The more I speak to others about this, the more common it seems to be to have or know someone who has had predictive dreams, hunches about people that turned out to be true, or unexplainable knowledge.

HOW TO STRENGTHEN YOUR PSYCHIC ABILITIES

If you are looking to develop your psychic abilities further, these are the five ways that seem to help the most:

1. When you do get an intuitive hunch or thought, listen. The more you listen to your intuition, the stronger it will get.
2. Meditate when possible to clear your mind of thoughts that will distract you from listening to the wisdom of your soul.
3. Spend quiet time alone, preferably in nature. (I know I ALWAYS say this, but it is the most helpful thing I have found to quickly step into your magic.)
4. Experiment with divination – Tarot cards, scrying, pendulums, palm reading, etc. will all help strengthen your intuition as you consciously focus on tapping into it.
5. Don’t force it – simply by calmly staying in the present moment, your inner wisdom will start to flow to you naturally.

So tell me… have you had a psychic experience? Are you highly sensitive or empathic? (I’m not psychic enough to know this about you yet, ok?) I love hearing stories about this, so keep me posted on your intuitive adventures, pretty please!