• Then, when you have a really clear picture of the outcome in your mind’s eye, STOP the movie, DROP into your gut, and take note of how it feels. Write this down if needed.
• Now repeat for the other scenario(s). Whichever makes you feel the most content, confident, and excited—the one that feels like home—is the one to go with, regardless of which looks better on paper. That’s the “just ROLL with it” part.
Of course, it can be hard to distinguish between some gut feelings, like, say, fear (usually of the unknown, and as such no reason not to go for it) and anxiety (usually about a less-than-ideal future outcome your spirit senses is potentially up ahead, suggesting probably not such a wise move). One breed of butterflies in the gut can look a lot like another after all, especially if you’ve been drinking a lot of coffee or you’re really hungover, ’cos there’s a whole other species of stomach-dwelling creepy-crawlies right there. In his workshop, Gahl suggested another fun exercise to help distinguish the difference (see box opposite).
To simplify things even further for you, having done my own extensive work in the (unified) field, the best analogy I can come up with is this: the “right” decision always feels to me like the truth. Which suggests that every time you go against what your intuition is telling you … it could also be said you’re living a lie.
INTUITION VERSUS FEAR: HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE
“How do you know if it’s your gut or your fear telling you to act? The sensations can be similar so train your body to tell the difference.”
—GAHL SASSON
• Download some music you know you will really hate. For some people this might be gabber house; for others, anything by Justin Bieber.
• Force yourself to listen to it, loud.
• Take note: Where do you feel the sensation of disgust in your body? What does it feel like?
• Repeat with a piece of music you really love.
• Take note: Where do you feel the sensation of pleasure and happiness in your body? What does it feel like?
• Remember the difference between your physical experiences of aversion and attraction. This is your body’s way of communicating what you need to know.
(N.B. This experiment can also be conducted using food.)
FEEL THE FEAR … AND PRACTICE BEING PSYCHIC ANYWAY
As Betsy hinted at during the séance, it can take years of practice (or rather unconditioning) to really begin to trust your intuition—not least because many of us have learned to be “afraid” of delving into our psychic or intuitive abilities, “mainly because we’re afraid to look inside ourselves,” she says. But also because “we’re all afraid of dark places. And are there darker forces in the spirit world? Absolutely. But you’ll only attract them to you if you’re fearful of them. I always think about Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer, and how he can transform a dog’s energy with his energy, which is always calm and assertive. It’s about a shift in thinking toward ‘I have the power.’ Which, in the spirit world, we always do.”
As with developing any “muscle,” she continues, “the practice of feeling into the meanings of symbols (psychic impressions) isn’t easy, but it gets easier with time and repetition.” When she decided to develop her gift, she took classes at the Spiritualist Church of NYC and has even developed her own six-week course to help others do the same—but there are some simple ways we can all begin to dial up our inner Voice in our everyday lives.
First, to bring it back to astrology, Gahl Sasson suggests looking at the area of your birth chart ruled by Pisces—the sign that rules our connection to Carl Jung’s “collective unconscious.” In fact, “wherever Pisces shows up in your chart is where you will benefit most in life from what your intuition is telling you” (in my chart, Pisces rules my Third house of ideas and communication, for example). Meanwhile, “any activity that gets you closer to your inner Pisces is a good way to get your intuition flowing—so go for a swim, take a salt bath, take a yoga class, or read some poetry.” Yep, I’ve had many a flash of insight doing laps in the pool!
Another way to begin to recognize the psychic “hits” we’re getting all the time is to keep an intuition diary to make a note of symbols, noises, and smells that light a psychic spark in you, so you can track the daily musings of your higher Self. Same goes for taking note of the “messages” in your dreams, since Jung (not to mention his colleague Sigmund Freud) was also a staunch believer that our nighttime visions (also ruled by Pisces) are direct communications with our unconscious, Universal Voice.
The tarot, as discussed, is another way to spark this kind of internal “conversation” with your higher Self—while Gahl also suggests opening a book at random, selecting one sentence from the page, and using this passage to work with your intuition (what he describes as “the ‘tuition’ that comes from with ‘in’ us”).
And whatever ways you discover to get more intimately connected to this Voice—for anybody invested in living the full TRUTH of their divinely ordained purpose in this life, it is my humble suggestion that you take whatever opportunities you can to get tuned in.
HOW PSYCHIC ARE YOU?
Louise Androlia shares four ways your soul may already be speaking to you.
• Scent memories. Have you ever suddenly had the scent of, for example, your grandmother’s perfume waft into a space? This is a way of connecting to people who have passed.
• Knowing that someone is about to call before they do. This is you being tuned in to the energy of friends and family, so you have simply picked up their intention.
• Picking up a mood or feeling from a person or a space. This is an example again of being tuned in to a person’s energy, which is all psychic ability is. When you feel sad because your friend is, that’s a perfect example of “tapping in.”
• Songs. Often when you get a song in your head from nowhere, making a point of listening to the lyrics often gives you a useful message that you can use.
DO YOUR DHARMA, FIX YOUR KARMA
Public speaking is most definitely not my jam, and here’s why. No matter what kind of group I’m speaking to, the moment I vocalize anything that feels remotely meaningful to me (which is most of what I think about and want to speak about, so), my voice cracks, my face collapses, and I begin to cry.
And when I say “meaningful,” I’m not necessarily talking about baring my soul or revealing my most personal inner truths—this could be anything from reading a killer quote out loud to mentioning a particularly potent astrological aspect and the way I feel it is impacting our lives. To be honest, I think it’s one of the reasons I became a writer for a living: I’m just so much more comfortable expressing myself in the written, as opposed to the spoken, word.
So you can imagine my relief when my first real public speaking gig, for the spirituality “un-conference” Higher Selfie, was scheduled to take place over Skype. When the day came, this meant delivering my talk into my laptop, with the Skype camera directed at nothing but a blank white wall on the other end. It was more like talking to myself than a room of 250 expectant faces. But as it turned out, it didn’t make any difference with the crying.
I still