Tuesday, July 5, 2011

What Kind of Psychic are You?

With spiritual awareness and acceptance on the rise, it seems that more and more gifted individuals are emerging offering various services. It would be naive to think that there are not some charlatans in the mix, or those that exaggerate their abilities. But I feel it's important to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and those with less than moral intentions will eventually be exposed. The big difference in current times are the various titles sensitives are using to describe what they can do. In the past, simple terms like psychic or fortuneteller were the staple titles; but now the terms have become much broader and can become confusing.

It's human nature to have the need to give names and definitions to everything. This fact also holds true when it comes to defining the various types of psychic abilities. I'd like to give a brief description of common terms you may see individuals use to describe what they can do. I believe intentions are pure, trying to describe in detail how they can help others; but not everyone fully understands this terminology.

Psychic: This is an umbrella term used to describe anyone with extra sensory abilities. All of the other terms described in this article fall under the umbrella of psychic abilities, with the exception of medium (which I will touch on the reasons for this separation). The term psychic often conjures up images of the stereotypical palm readers, fortune tellers, and seems to have some negative connotations attached to it. I believe it's because of experiences and the exposure of charlatans that caused damaged to this name, which may be part of why we have so many different terms now. But regardless, this defines all abilities from aura reading to scrying.

Sensitive: This term is synonymous with Psychic. This is also an umbrella, and it seems more and more gifted individuals prefer this term, possibly because of the negative stigma surrounding the word "psychic". As the word implies, it describes those who can perceive things others cannot through heightened sensitivities. Though the two terms mean virtually the same thing, psychic is often seen as "other worldly", and sensitive simply seen as enhanced natural abilities. Though there is still some taboo surrounding psychic abilities, "sensitive" seems to be considered a more socially excepted alternative to "psychic".

Medium: A medium is simply an instrument or tool for the spirit world to speak through. Mediums are able to sense and engage in back and forth communication with spirits, and pass on that information to the living. The spirits a medium can communicate with range from earthbound souls, to passed loved ones who have moved on to the other side. This ability is seen as being separate from the umbrella of common psychic abilities because of it's specialization working with the spirit world. There is a saying that "all mediums are psychic, but not all psychics are mediums". This basically means that all mediums possess an extra sensory ability, but the gifts of a psychic may be limited to the physical plane. There are also many subdivisions of mediums defining how they receive information. Just a couple examples:
Trance Medium: One who receives information from spirits via a meditative or "trance" state.
Physical Medium: Those who allow spirits to enter their bodies gaining temporary control of the medium. This is so the spirit can communicate in their own words and expressions.

Channeler: Can be synonymous with medium, and seems to be an older term used to describe those who communicate with spirits.One difference is channelers usually open up communication with spirit guides rather than directly with other spirits. Mediums receive information this way as well, but a channeler is more specialized in this method and are said to receive information from a more pure or divine source.

Empath: These are the individuals who can feel and experience the emotions of others. This can be one of the most draining and difficult abilities to manage. It's imperative that empaths focus on self awareness, and learn how to differentiate what is their emotions from the emotions of others. This gift is not only limited to feeling emotions of living persons, but also earthbound spirits. I've seen the term empathic medium used before, describing how they sense and feel the emotions of spirits.Through feeling emotions, sometimes an empath can also gain insights and impressions, giving them a view of details.

Discernment: This is the ability to sense the presence of spirits and often gain insight into it's nature. Regardless of it's simplicity, this gift is very useful in paranormal investigating. This term you will often seen coupled with another title. For example: Discernment Demonologist

Remote Viewer: This is a seemingly rare ability that many may not be familiar with. A remote viewer will go into a meditative state, and allow their consciousness to travel to another location. In doing so, they are able to see from a third persons perspective what is happening at this location in real time. I've heard of many instances where sensitives will receive a flash vision of something taking place. This experience falls into the category of remote viewing,. but gaining conscious control of this ability is extremely difficult. Documents have show the during the Cold War, both the United States and Soviet Union experimented with remote viewers to try and spy on one another. That might sound silly but it's true. Trying to use such a gift for selfish reasons they both had mixed results.

These definitions become even broader, as some use terms of how they receive information to describe their abilities. Examples: Clairvoyant Medium, Clairaudient Channeler, etc. Clairvoyant for example, simply means receiving information visually; Clairaudience through sound, and Clairsentience through sensation. Many gifted individuals use psychometry as well, which means they receive information and impressions through touching objects. It's important to remember that these are not abilities on their own, just descriptive terms used to further explain the nature of one's ability.

The list goes on to those who use specific tools to aid them: tarot cards, pendulums, various scrying devices, and so on. This is not a complete list of abilities as there are many more that are less easily defined. But I hope these brief descriptions help to give a better understanding of the gifts some posses. Personally, I do not care for titles as we are people first and no single term can define us as a whole. So regardless of any titles, when it comes to using our gifts to help others, it is accurately portraying what we can do that matters most of all.

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