5 Easy and Practical Ways to Ground Yourself and Others During Investigations

What is this grounding I speak of? Is this a mystical term only known in the psychic realms? The short answer is, no. It's an exercise that helps you by bringing your mind and your body back into alignment with eachother. Ever been to a party where you just couldn't help but being caught up in the atmosphere, even after it was over? Maybe a sports event where the high of your team winning and the crowd roaring and cheering is still giving you a buzz long after the stadium lights are off? Well, this is where your body is so caught up in a form of vibration that is not its normal state that it finds it difficult to connect with your mind as normal. You might feel light headed, heavy, like swimming in mud or even nauseous, with murky thoughts and in general not being yourself. All in all, you don't want to be sitting in dark, dank buildings in this state and you definitely don't want to get into your car to drive home after a night of intense investigation.

Here are some ideas on what to do when you notice that either you or someone else in your company is "off with the fairies" as I say.

1. You can take the term "grounding" very literally. Having as much bodily contact with the ground as possible is an excellent way to get grounded. Go outside and lie down on the ground. If not possible to go outside, just get onto the ground where you are. For maximum effect, turn the palms of your hand downward. Visualise a flow of energy  from your body down into the earth until you feel like you're back to your normal self. Get up very slowly. First just sit up for a few minutes, then get slowly back onto your feet. If you can't lie down, just sit on the ground and focus on the contact point between the floor and the base of your spine. Use it as an energy highway to ground any excess and unwanted energy.
2. Another excellent way to get back into your body, and this works wonderfully after séances, trance sessions or even lone vigils, is to have a list of information you recite. This allows your thoughts to come back to the present and your everyday being. This list can comprise of simple things such as your full name, address, names of children or friends, your car's number plate, your favourite movies, basically anything that relates your day to day life. If you're helping to ground someone else with this method, just ask them open ended questions about themselves that require simple and routine replies. Eg. list five things in your wallet right now, what do you have in your toolbox, what is your favourite TV show etc. If they have trouble answering those questions, it may very well be an indicator that they are not "fully back" to themselves and further grounding is needed.
3. For those who are into crystal, I can recommend using stones such as black tourmaline, clear or smokey quartz or even hematite or citrine. You should carry at least a few of these in your kit as people may react differently to each stone. I must admit I am somewhat partial to black tourmaline and I find it works best for me. I keep it in my kit away from sunlight and moisture and pop it into my pocket or bra for use during situations when I need some extra oomph with grounding.
4. A much more mundane however sometimes inconvenient way to ground is to sit down for a meal. Digestion and the unavoidable social interaction that comes with eating is a good way to bring the energy down and somewhat force the mind back into alignment with the physical body. Best to avoid foods with any sort of stimulant such as caffeine, sugar or alcohol as they will have a counter-effect to what you want to achieve in the first place. Lots of water during investigations is always a good idea to keep up your electrolytes. You'll thank me for that the day after any investigation. Trust me, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
5. And last but not least, if you can, do some physical exercise. Even brisk walking will do the trick if done long enough. Stop for a few minutes during investigations when you feel like your loosing your connection and have the symptoms described in the first paragraph. Play a game with your team that will require some physical exertion, laugh, move your body, even if just a little. Remember to hydrate well during and after.

As always, observe safety while investigating and use common sense when deciding whether to continue an investigation or not. Safety first, be it psychic or physical. Happy hunting folks!

4 Easy and Practical Exercises to Flex Your Psychic Muscles and Tune Your Intition

That little voice in your head that tells you to take a certain route, you know the one you ignore just before you make a decision to ignore it only to get into a traffic jam later. That feeling that tells you to choose a certain colour paint for your room only to be shoved aside while you end up with the completely wrong shade on your wall. And the one that tells you that it's time to check your emails as there might be something important and urgent, the one you dismiss, only to realise days later that you missed out on a certain important message from mum and she was expecting your reply days ago. Yepp, that's your poor, much overlooked intuition aka gut feeling that we disregard and completely overlook when making decisions, only to end up with regret and thoughts of "should have listened to my instincts".

That niggling feeling, that tightening in your stomach, that knowing, just knowing, that faint, yet very distinct signal is within reach to each and every one of you. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to fine tune it like a delicate instrument of guidance. And it is the one key to aid you in the development of a solid foundation for confident psychic work and mediumship. Here are some simple exercises with minimum or no expenditure that you can use either with some friends or on your own to get you started.

1.       Zener cards are very easy to come by nowadays. Get yourself a pack to do this exercise. Familiarise yourself with the shapes on the cards. Shuffle for a few minutes. Lay the deck on table face down. Pick a card while keeping it face down. Separate it from the deck. Focus on the card, may even out your hand over it if you like. The trick to it is not to attempt to guess what the exact shape on the card is. Go for information such as types of angles, curves, similar shapes in everyday objects etc. Draw if you can or write some notes if that works better for you. Give yourself a time limit with each card. I find that 5 minutes works well. Do a few cards per sitting. Don't be discouraged if you don't get the shape right straight away. This is an exercise where you have the opportunity to learn patience and how to associate objects and shapes with eachother.

2.       A variation on the Zener cards is to work backwards so to speak. Make a spread of the cards with neat rows and columns, face down. This just makes it easier to keep track of this exercise. Pick the shape you want to find. Scan the grid of cards or hold your above the cards as you move from row to row while you keep the image of the wanted shape in focus. When you feel like you have picked the card with your shape on it, just stop and ask yourself, if that's the right card. Pay attention what your gut feeling tells you. Turn over the card you had in mind. With practice you will start pulling out the wanted card or at least come very close in the vicinity. This will teach you how to read yourself and will help you develop your confidence more.

3.       This exercise might be a little more fun for some and can even be practiced while doing something else. In fact, a primary activity is strongly encouraged. Put the radio on while doing housework, in the shower, cooking etc. Have a guess at what band will play next. What the next song will be, what it will be about. Even what the next commercial is. Again, this will help with your confidence while having fun as well as with short term prediction.

4.       Collect pictures of celebrities from magazines and cut them out. Don't worry, this isn't going to turn out to be some creepy stalker fantasy! You will need about 20-25 pictures for this. Put them into sealed and non-transparent envelopes. Make sure you can't see any of the pics through the envelope. Mix up the envelopes and pull one out randomly. Without opening it, keep your mind's focus on the envelope and the picture in it. Pay attention to what images, sounds, feelings come to you. The trick to this one is, again, not to guess who is in the picture but to get deeper information that is not readily represented in the photo. Go for attributes like mood, location, action etc. This can be quite fun as you will try to validate the information you've received by searching in the tabloids for the antics of your favourite celebrities.

Of course the main goal is to have fun while you fine tune your intuition. There is no competition and the more of the above activities you do, the stronger your psychic muscles will become. You don't need to have the desire to read for other people or appear as a stage psychic, but simply just perfect this built in guidance system we all have is a good enough reason to give this a go.

Out and about in uncharted territory. Filming for In Tenebris tonight. Beautiful sunset in stark contrast with the location and all it holds.

5 Easy Ways to Practice Your Paranormal Mediumship In the Field

Paranormal Investigators Series

 

How does paranormal mediumship differ from stage mediumship? What special skills and experience would someone need if they want to get into paranormal investigations? Allow me to share with you some of my experience of working in the field as a paranormal medium.



 

1.       Get someone else to pick a spot on a map for you. Preferably not a well known location but not in the middle of a desert or a jungle either. Somewhere where there are recognisable structures or landscape that can be verified. Can even use a different state or country. Meditate on the location and take note of any features (sights, sounds, smells etc) that you experience. Visit the location after this exercise if you can and take your notes along to compare. Take photos if you can, bearing in mind any privacy issues with private property and individuals. If you are not able to visit the place, just hop on Google Maps and check it out. This exercise will help with your remote viewing skills.

 

2.       While at investigations, can be indoors or outdoors, spend some time absorbing the location. Here is a little exercise you may find useful. Pick a place where you can connect with the location by yourself.  Make sure you are safe, of course. Centre and ground before you continue. Use some music from your mp3 player if you like. Imagine that you project hundreds of little strands of energy tentacles from your body. They stroke the floor, the walls, the objects around you. Let them feed any information back to you. You can do this with just one room or a whole building or only with individual objects where touching is them is not possible for whatever reason. This exercise will help with your extra-sensory perception.

3.       Some locations, by their purpose built nature will give away their nature. Popular places for paranormal investigators are asylums, hospitals, prisons etc. There are very obvious types of information that can be derived just by knowing the purpose of the building that do not require any special psychic or mediumistic skills. While we do pick up on these types of information, we, as field investigators cannot stop at just that. You don't have to be psychic to feel a criminal personality while investigating dank cells of prison blocks. It would be easy to just stop at that level. However as field mediums you want to strive for a lot more. Locations have many levels of activity, let's not limit yourself to describing and only connecting with the purpose of a structure. There are many many human stories to be derived and told. To help achieve that, you should write down your physical observations before you start your spirit connection, just to get that out of the way. It will also help deciphering later on what was actual psychic/spirit information and what was obvious observation.  This will help with strengthening your ability to be critical of your own work and make a distinction between intellectually received information and psychic information

 

4.       Get someone to film you (cheap handycams are easily accessible nowadays) or if that's not possible, take a voice recorder with you and record your findings. Talk about what you experience, not just psychically but physically as well. Look back on the recording after your investigation as you may find information you received that didn't seem relevant beforehand but gained importance and relevance after and in light of the investigation. This will help you to see where your strengths are as well as allow you to make observation on your accuracy. Who doesn't want to give themselves little brownie points for good information produced psychically?

 

5.       There is no need to have your medium hat on for hours on end during an investigation or even if you are out and about alone, doing field work. Make sure you give yourself a break and ground every once in a while. Mix with the team of people you're with, have something to eat, listen to some music, participate in other experiments and activities that don't require your psychic skills. This will give you an opportunity to learn more about team work and how investigations work from a non-psychic point of view. Being a more integral part of a team and learning other skills means that, just like other participants, you can utilise multiple skills and learn how to better incorporate your mediumship with other areas of research.

These are only some basic tips but will highlight the differences between stage mediumship and field mediumship. If your passion is to work as a paranormal medium and want to know how to make the switch, the above is a good way to start. Enjoy and grow! Oh and always have latex gloves and hand sanitiser handy in your kit! Trust me on that one.

Hanging out in the temple, Skull and I, pottering about, drinking steaming hot tea, restocking candles, burning incense, listening to music. This is my bliss <3

To Ouija or Not to Ouija

Much controversy surrounds the use of psychic/ouija boards in spiritual and paranormal circles. Instead of debating its perceived (or not) hazards or even validity and usefulness, here are some suggestions to try while using it. I have carried out all of the below experiments with various results. As much as I get annoyed when people publish research they have done but without having the gumption to add their own conclusion, I have to admit that while I have encountered some astounding results on occasion, the jury is still out for me due to lack of hard evidence on this tool. So here we go, try some or all of the suggestions by themselves or in combination with eachother and see how you go. I would suggest this to those who have at least some experience using this tool. 

1) use it at a location that is not known or considered to be haunted

2) have all the participants blindfolded

3) turn the board face down

4) have a designated person who isn't touching the board to ask the questions

5) ask open ended questions that require a reply with which the rest of the participants are not familiar with

6) utilize the knowledge of a person in the circle who speaks a foreign language

7) use a voice recorder to record the session and listen back later for possible EVPs

8) get everyone to write names of people they might like to contact during a particular session on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope without showing anyone else in the circle

9) nominate someone to be the scribe and jot down all questions and any responses that are presented on the board, this person can also move around the location in case instructions come through while using the board 

10) use two boards at the same time at the same location 

No Fluff Paranormal Mediumship

There are many types of spirits I have encountered during my years of being in the paranormal field. From the cheeky to the sad, the impostor to the flaky. I found that to get the most out of a communication it's best to match the energy of the spirit that I am interacting with. Similarly, if I want to make contact with a particular entity, I adjust my approach to the vibration of the one I want to connect with.

It was the case last Saturday when the plan was to contact an entity at a location that we have been investigating since 2007. I knew its energy and I knew its tactic so the communication and language I used was commensurate to that. This is something primordial, something dense and heavy, and in my mediumship experience barely human . A collection of lingering energies perhaps, it has amazed us time and time again before with its intensity and uncanning ability to connect with and draw out the darkness from within those it chooses to encounter.

I raised my voice while attempting to awaken it and we could feel the energy rising and the atmosphere changing. Our chosen primary instrument for communication this time was a talking board, a tool we have  used many times before. I was leading the séance, so to adhere to protocol I didn't have my hand on the planchette but was standing by. Without debating the pros and cons or the validity of this method in this article I'd like to write about what had happened.

After some general information being conveyed via the board, the tone changed and became threatening. Phrases of "heathen go to hell", "burn in hell heathen" and "get f&*#ed" were thrown around, we knew we weren't dealing with the elemental type entity we were aiming for. This was human. We let the tirade continue for a short time while I was assessing the situation and where to go next with this session. There were a number of people in the team that were working with us at the time that are pagan and follow the Old Ways of Witchcraft, including myself so the remark of "heathen" was not a surprise. We decided to play the religion card, as it were, and went back with equal force. We questioned the state and belief of the one who was communicating with us through the board and we did that aggressively. It was spewing hate at us and we were not going to just take it with love and light. If it was a living person we would have done the same, so didn't see why we would have to treat this one any different.

Now, in a decent paranormal movie, this is the point where objects start to fly and someone starts talking with the voice of the Devil while talking board catches fire and people fall to the ground in fits. You will be able to see in one of the episodes of In Tenebris what happened. Let me just say that the "throw some love at it" approach is the weakest argument and doesn't stand up as it doesn't stand up real life either. I don't believe in turning the other cheek. I don't believe in worshipping the dead as if they had some sort of magickal power. I believe that there are those who are decent human beings and they remain so once they pass to the Other Side. At the same time though I believe that there are bigots and egotists that remain that way even after death. I don't believe in sending spirits to the light with force and I don't believe people change into enlightened and almighty holy beings as soon as they die. I do, however believe in personal responsibility and accountability on this side as well as the Other Side and if anyone from the spiritworld is as judgemental as the one we have encountered as above they should be met with an equal force of reckoning and accountability from me and my team. "Calling out" I believe the term is. There are enough wishy washy people around who preach love to all on the surface but deep down are hateful and false. Dealing with them is the same as dealing with those types of spirits in the spiritworld. Facing them head on and with equal force to expose their hate and falseness. I found that with this approach either one of two things happen. One, they pull their heads in and realise that at the soul level we are all equal or two, they continue with their hate even more. Why that is, I don't know. One things is for sure though, I haven't encountered any fire and brimstones yet.