5 Things Your Psychic Development Teacher Hasn't Taught You About Trance Mediumship - Part 1/5

 

When I made a more serious commitment to my psychic development back in 2006, sitting in a circle of beginners week after week, I started from the same level as everyone else. It wasn't long before it became obvious to me that my development was to be somewhat off the beaten track. I soon began to experience physical changes in my body during the meditation that introduced each session. While my circle peers have come out of meditation with recounts of meeting guides, angels and loved ones who have passed and the like, my experiences were mostly of images of people and energies that didn't seem to fit into any of those categories. I often kept those to myself, fearing that I was being left behind in the development or that there was something wrong with me and guides didn't find me worthy of communicating with.

When I mentioned some of what I was going through during those meditations to my teacher at the time, I was told that I needed to ignore what was happening as this was a beginners class and what I was doing  sounded like trance mediumship and that didn't fit the curriculum. I considered the advice reluctantly but decided to listen to my teacher who had a decade of experience with mediumship by that time. Unable to get instruction on how exactly that could be done, I had to find my own way through the experiences I was having, not knowing at the time, that very process will give me the knowhow to assist people going through the same rites of passage in my own circles years later.

It is my view that people who embark on the road to psychic development and mediumship will have as many different paths of getting there as there are reason for them stepping on it. Therefore the way they learn will be different and the utilisation of this skill and ability will be different as well. That is completely OK! People shouldn't feel that they need to fit the mould their teacher picked out for them, especially that this form of development is very deeply personal for many who participate in it.

In this article I write about some of the knowledge that I wished was passed down to me from some of my teachers about trancemediumship. I hope that there are those out there who will read this and will recognise the learning opportunity and will go forward with their individual psychic development without fear of judgement and with the knowledge that what they are experiencing is real. The below are all based on my personal experiences as a student, teacher and practitioner of trancemediumship. We are all individuals however so you might have a different experience and that is perfectly fine.

Physical Effects of Trancing

• Sudden change in heart rate. This has been happening to me since the very beginning. One moment my heart was beating fine, the next it was almost jumping out of my chest. Very scary to experience it if you don’t know what is going on. It used to last for minutes while I was fighting what was happening to my body and used to exhaust me. It took me about a year of practicing to get it under control. The secret for me was to stop fighting within my body and try to slow my heart down by shear will. I realised that it was just a temporary bodily reaction and the more I let it flow through my body, the easier and quicker it passed.
• Unable to move body. The entry into a trance state is via meditation and the brain goes into an altered state. This, as well as the heart rate change is a temporary condition and passes the same way. As scary as this also is in an in between state, while you're still aware of what you are doing and where you are, if you suddenly want to move your arm for example, you may have some difficulty as your brain is busy putting your body in a relaxed state so that you can get on with your meditation. This was also something I had to learn to overcome myself. What works best for me is that imagine that I am inside my body but am very small, in the centre and I am wearing my physical body as a suit. If I move my tiny body inside the suit then I am able to move the corresponding part of my physical body. This takes some practice too.
• The Fall. This is a sensation that I feel directly before trance state sets in and soon after the above two that I mentioned. I call it The Fall as not matter what position I am in, standing, sitting, reclining, I have the sensation of plummeting down in a never ending 3 dimensional space, rotating in all directions. This too was something I was trying to fight at the beginning of my trance mediumship development. Sometimes I would come out of it by jolting myself awake from this state. I would sit in my chair completely stunned and unable to move, with my heart racing, almost as if the jolt would take me back through the stages of trance within seconds and my body felt like it was going to tear apart. It took me awhile to not get freaked out by the physical sensation of falling. What helped me was the affirmation just before it was happening that I was in a safe place and it too just had to pass.

~End of Part 1/5~

The Spark Within - A Tarot Ritual

By Andrea Kaldy

A few Christmases ago I was given a book called Oil For Your Lamp by the owner of a place I teach at. For a long time it was sitting on the top of my bookshelf, once in a while reminding me while dusting that I should read it. If not for gaining some generic wisdom then at least for the courtesy that I can tell my friend that I have read the book she gave me.

I had a feeling she hadn't picked this title by accident and half-annoyed I think I was avoiding the book on purpose. She asked me from time to time if I had started reading it but I managed to duck having to answer or at least I thought so. She stopped asking me after a while and relieved at the thought of having to be accountable for it, I continued to dust it off on the top of the shelf.

I even forgot about it soon afterwards until one day one of my kids picked it up for some reason. It was only a small book with colourful photos in it so it was appealing with its smart cover design and stood out from the rest of the pile of books I was about to take out into the garage. I felt it, I knew it, I had to read it.

I defiantly picked it up and opened it in the middle somewhere, I have this bad habit of doing this to books, to read a few pages from the middle to see if I like the writer's style. An hour later almost in tears I was sitting next to my bed on the floor fully immersed in this little wonder. Reading about other women and how they have overcome challenges in their lives and how they have triumphed over tragedies or even how they kept their lives together after cataclysmic changes that turned everything around them upside down.

I still don't know what grabbed me about this book so much. Why it touched me so deeply, why I was a crying mess as I recognised so much of myself in many of the stories and narrations that were packed into that tiny book. I couldn't read all of it, I had to put it down and I had to allow myself to understand my strong reaction to what I was reading. It took me about 6 months to pick it up again and when I did I started reading the book from the very beginning, savouring each story as I was going and letting its meaning seep into my consciousness.

I started to understand why my friend gave me that book. On the verge of a burn-out, how apt a name is that, she intuitively knew that it was exactly what I needed. I wasn't ready just then but when I was, the guidance was there. I was burning out from disbursing my energy too much, from wanting fix everyone's problems for them, from being frustrated that the travel on my spiritual path wasn't as fast as I wanted it to be, that I had no focal point when all I heard from those I looked up to that I had to have one.

I was vegetating day by day, going through the motions, robot-like, no emotions, no passion, no fire in my belly. It felt like this cold piece of stone, heavy and grey sitting in my stomach, making it harder and harder every day to get up and start the day. I was in depression.  I felt it, I knew it, I had to cut my way through it.

Day by the day that book game me comfort, gave me examples on how I may empower myself with small things. It started a small spark in my belly like an ancient flint stone and with each day as I kindled that spark it grew. It became a focal point of mine and every single decision I made afterward concerning my well being was directed by that spark. I listened to that small warmth in my belly and only allowed things and people in my life that fed that warmth and supported its growth. When I needed guidance I asked myself and if the feeling went cold I pushed back but when I felt the warmth coming through my solar plexus chakra I accepted.

One day I noticed that the tiny kindling that I protected from mal intent for so long has grown into a strong, ferocious, independent fire that was my path and my passion. It was no big revelation, no fanfare, no red carpet, no chorus of angels. It was just a quiet knowing that crept up on me one day and I just knew. The oil for my lamp has been refilled and through my renewed connection with the universal force it has now found a never-ending well of divine replenishment.

I now take time on a regular basis to honour that well and to share it with others and help them find their own source of this life-fuel and through that work I constantly replenish mine.

Here is a simple Tarot ritual that may help you find your focal point and put the fire back into your belly, lift you out of the darkness and replenish your faith in yourself as well as the divine. For this you will need The Hermit from the Major Arcana, a candle of your choice and incense that you find most soothing. It's this simple.

I want you to light your incense and sit in your sacred space with The Hermit in your hands. Now look deeply into the card and absorb all the features that this image has. Become the Hermit yourself. Your mission is to find your light. The single light by which you will travel, the one that will be your guiding light, the one that will assist you in your search of finding yourself. Close your eyes and imagine the path before you with a faint light in the distance. Say a prayer and ask that you may find this light with ease and be able to keep focus on it no matter what it on the path before you. Start walking towards the light in your visualisation, always keeping it in your sight. Feel how easy it is to move towards and when you come across a challenge on the path ask your divinity to remove it for you and then wait for the road to clear and start moving again. You may not get to the light on your first go so try again the next day. When you reach the light during your meditation, take it and own it. Notice how different you feel when you claim it. Enjoy this experience and know that you can come back to anytime you like. When you come out of the meditation light your candle and put it in a place where you can see it every day. Light it every day with a simple affirmation that you are now kindling the light in you. Before the candle burns down completely, light a new candle off the old one to have a representation of the continuation of your intent. Revisit this exercise when you feel like you need to find focus within yourself and your light replenished.