Psychic But Sane

Results of the Psychic Experiment

Anna — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:10:01 +0000

A few days ago, I posted a challenge for readers of this blog to have a go at reading the man in the photo below. (The original post is here.)

Note: If you’d like an opportunity to verify and practise using your intuition, go and read that article before you read this one: How Can You Measure Your Progress in Psychic Development? – Try This Experiment!

Thanks to everyone who took part in this psychic experiment. I was interested to read what you ‘picked up’. In total, there were a few dozen people who left comments, sent emails and posted in a forum about it. I have to say, a lot of what was wrote was spot on, if not close to the mark.

So, who is he?

The man in the photo is Federico Garcia Lorca.

Lorca was a famous Spanish poet and playwright who lived from 1898-1936. He is one of my favourite writers.

Here are some of the intuitive hits many of you had…

Click on the subheadings below to go straight to the theme or hit:

Lorca’s artistic temperament
His early death and a tragic murder
Symbols of his life and art: Blood, darkness, passion and fire
Lorca’s non-comformist side
Suffering and depression
Sex and Homosexuality

Lorca’s career and artistic temperament

Many of you picked up an artistic temperament, which was correct. Lorca was an immensely talented artist, poet and playwright. He was also a lecturer and musician (he was a pianist and guitarist). He was experimental in much of his art. As I mentioned, he is famous and revered (especially) in the Spanish-speaking world. I expect my Spanish readers would have recognized him instantly.

Lorca’s early death and a tragic murder

As most of you picked up, his death was a tragic and violent one – he was murdered at the age of 38. He was executed by the right-wing Nationalists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. He was thought to have been shot. The writer Ian Gibson in his book The Assassination of Garcia Lorca states that he was shot with three others at a place known as the ‘Fuente Grande’, near Granada.

His burial place has never been found.

Eerily, he even foretold his own death in one of his works:

“Then I realised I had been murdered. They looked for me in cafes, cemeteries and churches…but they did not find me. They never found me? No. They never found me.”

Why was he killed?

During the Civil War, the right-wing nationalists kidnapped and murdered many of those who were on the left wing. Lorca was thought to be on the left wing although some actually maintain that he was apolitical. He was also homosexual, which was a possible motive for his murder. Many historians are undecided as to the primary motive.

Death was also one of his artistic preoccupations and features prominently as a theme in many of his poems.

Themes and Symbols of his life and work: blood, darkness, passion and fire

Blood

A lot of people picked up on ‘blood’ – this could be a reference to Lorca’s murder it or could be a reference to one of his most famous plays Bodas de Sangre (‘Blood Wedding’). Blood was also a symbol that popped up frequently throughout much of his art.

Darkness

Many people sense darkness when they tuned into Lorca. The darkness you picked up on could also refer to Lorca’s own personal suffering (see below).

Darkness was also a major theme of his art, witness his Sonetos del Amor Oscuro (Sonnets of Dark Love) as just one example of this. Lorca was also said to be highly superstitious, and the dark forces present in his works were not mere dramatic ploys, they appear to be very present in his psyche. If you haven’t already, read some of his poems and you will see what I mean!

Fire & Passion

Some people picked up on fire. Fire usually translates to passion. This could be in reference to Lorca’s own passionate nature; the passion of Lorca’s works, or the passion of the characters.

I think you can see the dark passion if you tune into his eyes.

I don’t know any other poet who does tormented passion quite like Lorca – there is great emotional intensity in his poetry, although it’s almost ‘veiled’ and there is a hint of repression in it too.

Take a look at this one:

Gacela of Unforseen Love

No one understood the perfume
of the dark magnolia of your womb.
Nobody knew that you tormented
a hummingbird of love between your teeth.

A thousand Persian little horses fell asleep
in the plaza with moon of your forehead,
while through four nights I embraced
your waist, enemy of the snow.

Between plaster and jasmine, your glance
was a pale branch of seeds.
I sought in my heart to give you
the ivory letters that say “siempre”,

“siempre”, “siempre” : garden of my agony,
your body elusive always,
that blood of your veins in my mouth,
your mouth already lightless for my death.

(If you want to read the Spanish you can do so here.)

Lorca’s non-comformist side

His plays were experimental – so much so that his very first play was laughed at, when it came out. Some of his works were avant-garde.

Suffering and depression

Towards his late twenties/early thirties, García Lorca suffered from depression. His depressed state was apparently made worse by his anguish over his homosexuality. From 1925 to 1928 he was emotionally involved with the painter Salvador Dalí although Dali was said to have rejected his romantic advances, much to Lorca’s anguish.

His later collection of poetry ‘Poeta en Nueva York’ (Poet in New York) evokes the loneliness, isolation and alienation that he was suffering at that time. I personally found it a depressing read, which reflects where Lorca was at when he wrote it. It is said that Lorca had two faces: a public one, which was the successful author and the private one, which reflected the passionate and perhaps emotionally tormented side.

Sex

A few of you picked up on sexual deviancy. Lorca’s art expressed a passionate and sometimes odd sexual intensity and sensuality that perhaps remained unexpressed in other areas of life. I feel this creates a vibe of repressed emotion and sexual tension in his work and in his energy. He was homosexual – at a time in Europe when homosexuality was definitely not something you would want to be open about. Sexual drives and homosexuality were general themes in his poetry, as was incest.

Feedback

I think that in the emails and comments I got, almost everyone got at least one accurate ‘hit’ and some were spot on or close to the mark in everything they said. It was interesting that almost everyone got a bad feeling about his death and many picked up on his artistic talents and emotional intensity. I think you’ll agree this was a fascinating character to tune into.

More tips for tuning in:

How did you get your information?

It seems some people got clairvoyant visions, some got feelings and some got impressions.

Tips for Decoding Visions

Visions can be like dreams – they need interpreting. When you get a clairvoyant vision, if you don’t sense what it relates to, do remember to ask your claircognizance what it means. For example, you may see fire or blood (an accurate symbol in this case) but unless you know what it relates to, it can go unverified. Many picked up ‘crime’ but a few didn’t see that the crime had been against Lorca, instead of perpetrated by him. So, clairvoyance has to work in conjunction with another gift, like clairsentience or claircognizance, in order to work well, so remember to dig deeper for more detail, even if you’re unsure of what you’re getting.

Tips for Decoding Feelings

If you get a feeling, like a creepy, dark or eerie feeling when looking at the photo, ask your intuition why – and attempt to get some clarity around it. What does it relate to? There is always another layer of information and more clarity and specificity to be had. A feeling or vision is often the top layer but you can go deeper and find out exactly what the feeling or vision refers to.

Usually you need to be in a meditative state in order to get that extra information. Doing deep breathing will put you there, as will binaural beats. For more information on how to get into a meditative state, read this article: The Alpha State – Why is it Essential to Psychic Development?

How Long Should it Take to Read Someone?

Sometimes it can take 15 minutes or longer to really go deeper and get specific information. I can guarantee that the more time you spend going deeper into reading someone, the better the information will be. If you got very specific information that was wrong, it may have been because you went too fast and took a very specific surface impression. What usually happens with intuitive information is that you follow a trail of breadcrumbs and it can take 10-15 mins to do. You might get information that is very general or vague initially, such as his line of work, then if you go deeper, you get more detail. But it’s unusual to get detailed and specific information right off the bat, unless you are highly skilled and experienced. Usually you get vague info, then you go deeper and get more detail. That’s how it happens for me and for other intuitives I know of. It’s also why I like to prepare for my sessions for at least 10 minutes

How did you do? Leave me a reply if you have any questions or comments.

To all who participated…thanks for taking part in this experiment. I hope you had fun doing it, I know I did. If readers request it, I may do another of these experiments later on.

Anna

More sources of information about Lorca:

http://starobor.com/page19.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca

http://kirjasto.sci.fi/fglorca.htm

For Lorca’s poetry in the original language, please see this website: http://www.analitica.com/Bitblio/lorca/romancero.asp

Free downloads for Subscribers: Chapter one of the Psychic Awakening course
Readings: Career and life purpose readings – I can tell you your ideal career
Psychic Awakening course: Anna’s intensive 13 week course
Chakras Kit: Learn to read your own energy body and balance your being

How Can You Measure Your Progress in Psychic Development? – Try This Experiment!

Anna — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:14:40 +0000

Recently I’ve had the same question from three readers of this blog. They want to know how they can find out if their psychic abilities are real. They also want to know how they can measure their progress in psychic development.

One of them wrote:

“What is the feedback loop for psychic development?

A musican can practice and listen to her music to know she’s improving, a sports person can train and perform better, even a bodybuilder can see his muscle growth. A psychic/intuitive can do visualization exercises but how are they to know they are actually improving – what’s their feedback loop?”

I can understand the need for this question. After all, when you are gathering intuitive insights on your OWN path, it’s coming through the filter of your mind, so you can never really know if it’s your higher self speaking – or if you’re just talking to yourself and reframing stuff you already know.

Plus, I do know from personal experience that it’s easy to doubt your intuition. Probably the only reason why I have come to trust mine is because I get continual feedback from clients. And when you get specific information from deceased people that turns out to be true, that pushes you over the edge into trusting.

So, here are some ways to verify your intuitive insights:

Have a go at reading another person
Ask spirit for signs
Keep an ongoing record/journal of all your psychic experiences and impressions. Then come back to it later on to verify it.

In this post, I am going to focus on the first suggestion. This is because I believe the best way to find out if your intuition is actually real is to read for someone else or read another person for character and then get it verified. This is why I dedicate an entire chapter of my psychic awakening course to reading other people.

I also decided to do an experiment here on my blog…

Check out this dude:

Meditate for a few minutes (if you’re not sure what meditation is, there is a quick ‘how-to’ near the end of this article), then ask yourself the following questions:

What type of person is he? What is his character like?
Do you like him? Why/why not?
What do you think his emotional life was like?
What do you think his life was like?
What kind of things happened to him?
What was his death like?

I do know who this person is and will be able to verify many of the impressions you get.

Some tips for getting intuitive insights about other people:

Get into the alpha state and clear your mind as much as possible before you tune into another person – again, the best way to do this is to meditate.
When you look at a photo, you often instantly form a judgment about someone’s character. Often this is unconscious and subtle. They happen very fast too – so fast that they happen before you have thoughts. They are basically the unconscious judgments and assumptions that we habitually put to one side.
Don’t worry if you do not get concrete facts – some people are good at getting information about character and some people are good at picking up information about events.
This is an old photo, but to eliminate this sense of distance you could imagine yourself in a room with this person – talking to them. How do you feel about them?
Remember to ask specific questions and wait for an impression or answer to come to you.

If you often get information through dreams, print off the photo and keep it with you at night. If you don’t get anything initially, carry the photo with you and see if information comes to you throughout the day. Sometimes impressions take a while to form.

If you like you can leave a comment on this post, with your insights. Or you can email me via the contact form with your insights in private. If you’re really shy you could just jot down your insights, put them to one side and check back here later. I will be publishing some information about the person in the photograph next week so that you will be able to verify what you got.

PS – If you do the experiment go into it with some playfulness! You have nothing to lose… After all, one experiment is obviously not representative of what you are able to do. But it could teach you more about what your gifts are.

PPS – If you recognize the man in the photo (which you might), there is no point reading the person and please do NOT leave a comment saying who it is as that obviously ruins the exercise for people. Thanks.

Edit 1/8/2010: You can find out who this man was by reading this article: Results of the Psychic Experiment

Free downloads for Subscribers:

Chapter one of the Psychic Awakening course

Readings:

Career and life purpose readings

Psychic Awakening course:

Anna’s intensive 13 week course

Chakras Kit:

Learn to read your own energy body and balance your being

Does Developing Psychic Abilities Send You To Hell? (Anna’s Journey To Hell And Back!!)

Anna — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:06:06 +0000

I started going to Church in 1995, at age 11. I loved Church, I loved Jesus, I loved (some of) the Bible. Looking back, my interest in religion was as simple as it comes. I wasn’t interested in the ideas, or the chanting where we were pledging allegiance to God. I just loved basking in the energy of love and devotion to spirit that I felt in a Church.

I thought some of the other people who went to Church were a bit weird, and I mostly spent my time in the back pew and in typical anti-social style I would slip out at the end of the service so I didn’t have to talk to anyone.

By 2003, I was at university in the UK and still identified as a Christian.

In 2003, I also met a kindly girl called Catherine.

Catherine

Catherine invited me to come along with her to her bible study group. Being open to anything and in the habit of saying yes to most requests that were put to me, I went along.

I found it was a group comprised only of girls. Many of them seemed emotionally and spiritually troubled – there were eating disorders and mental illnesses among them. There was a lot of crying and sobbing during the study sessions. I remember one session where we were told that we must come to terms with the fact that most of our friends and some of our family would go to hell after death because they hadn’t accepted Jesus as their saviour. This produced a lot of crying and distress among the girls, me included.

Most of the girls who were very extreme were engaged to be married (or already married) to other boys in this Church.

Their Church

At one point, I was invited along to their Church and I went. This was even stranger than the bible study group and I had never experienced anything like it. There was singing, dancing, flag waving. There was a lot of mass hysteria and high emotion during services. People spoke in tongues and fell down with the holy spirit. When someone got a message from God, everyone listened.

It was difficult to hear the sound of my own reactions over what was going on in that place. I couldn’t take it all in. Was this normal?

I went a total of about three times. The third time I was sitting apart from my friends. I remember catching the eyes of a woman who was wearing a veil on her hair. I thought she was a Muslim. I had no idea what she was doing there. I remember seeing desperation in her eyes, as if she had lost someone, and I saw my own feelings reflected right back at me.

I couldn’t take anymore. I hightailed it out of there and then I remember walking along a canal path, crying bitter tears. I felt so, so lost. I didn’t know the angry, jealous God these people told me about. The God that was a tyrant – who gave and then took away; who punished sins and exterminated forever those who didn’t believe.

When I got back to my student room, Catherine rang me. I blurted out words without thinking. I told her that I couldn’t come to her Church anymore. I told her that I was taking a break from religion.

There was a silence on the other end of the phone.

That’s when I saw an even darker side

Catherine told me that the reason I didn’t want to go to their Church was because I was under psychic attack from the devil. She’d seen it happen to people before.

I hung up and rang my grandmother. I was very distressed by this point. I didn’t know how to control the intense pain and negative emotions I was feeling. I told my grandmother what Catherine had said to me and told her about how I felt.

She told me I wasn’t under psychic attack from anything and asked me to come home for a holiday. I took some leave from University and went home for a while.

My Decision

When I came back to University, I decided not to have anything to do with this church again.

They harassed me by letter. I met with them and they told me of God’s pain and anger towards me that I had let him down like this. I had several Christian friends attempt to bring me back onto the righteous path. I was warned that I was heading down the wrong road, and I could expect to see the negative results of this soon.

I knew that those results could not be as bad as what I had experienced in that church.

A few months passed and I felt happy again. I never saw any negative results from leaving the church and at no point did I feel like I had turned my back on God.

Instead I had turned my back on their angry God. A few years later, I was still getting harassing letters from Catherine, who feared for my soul. But in time I got over my anger towards her church and began to feel sorry that they were leading such fearful lives.

Later on, I read books such as Conversations with God and redefined my idea of what God was. I felt that there must be a source of all things. You could call it anything – God, goddess, the mother and father, the universe, the creator. I found hidden under all of this religion stuff, MY simple truth: that all souls were a piece of this source energy, on a journey of remembering who they are. I rediscovered that the universe is kind; that God is kindness. I found that by honouring the voice of the God(dess) within me, I was kind to myself and to others. Kinder than I had ever been.

Later on, when I developed my psychic abilities, I found that developing psychically felt more in tune with my spirit than religion had been. At least with my intuition, I was able to assess for myself and hear what my own spirit had to say about things. I didn’t have to swallow what other people told me.

Psychic Abilities vs. Religion

I know that religion can hold the essence of divine love because I’ve felt it. But I also think that religion can be powerfully unkind and this is evident in what I experienced in that church and in what I read in newspapers. I won’t participate in organized religion – organized anything, where people are told what to believe and swallow it, even when it hurts. I do not feel that men can be priests, but not women. Nor do I feel that God wants us to take an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth. Does the powerful creative force of the universe want us to hide child abuse or discourage the use of contraceptives? I don’t think so.

But I would never ask you to agree with me.

Instead, I am all for developing and practising the capacity to see what sits right in your soul (if you have not already), and hold true to it. In spite of what any religion or belief system tells us.

To me, that’s what intuitive development is. Everyone has their own unique path back to God/Source/Goddess and their own truth.

So, my personal answer to ‘does developing psychic abilities send you to hell’ is no. I do believe in hell – but only the kind you can experience by attending an evangelical church!! )

What do you think? Can you relate to my experiences?

Try These Two Psychic Development Exercises

Anna — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:36:33 +0000

If you want to develop your psychic abilities, you could read some books, do some courses or read my articles on the different clairs, like clairvoyance, claircognizance or clairaudience, for example.

But maybe you’re not sure if you want to invest any time in it yet. Or perhaps you feel like doing some psychic development exercises for fun…

Here are two easy peasy psychic development exercises you can start off with. You don’t have to do hours of practice in order to see results.

Exercise #1: telepathic messages – get someone to call you

You know those times when you just ‘know’ who is calling you on the phone? Or when you call someone and they say “Oh wow, I was just about to call you – we must be psychic!”

My grandmother and I do that a lot. I ring my grandmother perhaps once a month, or maybe less at the moment (being rather busy). When I rang her last time, she told me that she kept thinking about me earlier on, on the day I rang. That sometimes happens.

I bet you’ve had experiences like that too.

How does this work?

It’s because you are thinking – consciously or subconsciously – of calling that person. You’re sending out energetic signals of your intention. It may not actually result in you calling them, but you think about it, and that is enough for those energetic signals to reach that person. If they’re sensitive they will pick up on these signals and start thinking about you for no reason. And maybe they’ll call you. All of this is usually unconscious – not done purposely but you can also make it conscious.

Here are some steps to do this:

1. Decide on somebody you’d like to get back in touch with, or someone that you do not speak to on a regular basis. This is preferably someone with whom you have a rapport and some kind of ongoing friendship.

(Note that it’s not a good idea to use this exercise to attempt to get back with an ex who doesn’t want to hear from you or someone from your past who you know doesn’t want to be reminded of your past together. So do ask yourself if you want to get in touch with the person and if they are likely to want to get in touch with you.)

2. Begin by doing a breathing exercise – breathe in to the count of four, hold your breath to the count of four and exhale to the count of eight. Repeat two more times.

3. Close your eyes and see a movie screen in your mind’s eye (the mind’s eye is what you see when you try to visualize something – for example, visualize the face of a loved one – and it shows up in your mind’s eye.)

4. Then do the following exercise (which is from the book Psychic Development for Beginners by William Hewitt)

Visualize yourself standing in a big park, on a large green lawn, holding seven balloons, of the colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and indigo. Let the balloons go one by one, beginning with the red balloon. Watch them float up to the blue sky until they disappear before you release the next one.

(If you’re not used to visualizing, then this exercise could be quite difficult for you at first. You may find it hard to concentrate or it may be difficult for you to visualize vividly or in colour. It all depends on how developed your imagination muscles are.)

5. Then get rid of the balloons. Now see a cinema screen in your mind’s eye. In one corner of the screen, see a telephone. In the other corner, see your friend. See your friend picking up the telephone happily and asking you how you are. See yourself enjoying a conversation with your friend.

6. Do this once a day for five days, at the same time and see what transpires.

Exercise #2: Knowing the time

One way to start developing your psychic ability is to start guessing the time. Discard your watch as much as is practical and when you need to know the time, close your eyes and ask yourself what the time is. See if a time pops into your head and if it is accurate. It’s best to go with the first thought that comes into your head (it’s not good to even think about this – you need to trust the very first thought you have almost before your conscious mind starts operating.) It can be uncanny how accurate this can be – right down to the minute.

Even though you may feel unaware of time passing, at certain points in your day, your higher self can tap into the time and calendar anyway and let you know the time.

Another way to develop an awareness of your inner clock is to set an intention to wake up at a certain time. It is perhaps best to do this on weekends when you don’t necessarily need to get up.

Here’s what to do:

1. Choose the time you want to wake up (Note: depending on your personality, you might want to choose a time that is reasonable for you – for example, if you never get up before 8am but intend to get up at 6am for the sake of this exercise, you might sabotage yourself if you’re very tired and you like sleeping in. If your true desires do not align with your intention, your higher self might automatically substitute the real time you want to get up.)

2. Then tell your higher self that you want to get up at that time and ask for your higher self to wake you up at this time. For example – 8am. To strengthen the intention, you might want to give your reason why.

3. Don’t set your alarm.

4. See what time you wake up.

Did you do these exercises? Did they work for you?! Leave a comment to share your experiences!

Blog Updates – My New Job, Affiliate Program & Free Resources

Anna — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:53:09 +0000

I had a few announcements to make and various odds and ends to pass on, so I thought I’d do it all in one blog post.

To summarize what’s in this post, I talk about:

Balancing my new full-time job with this business
Free resources for psychic development
Affiliate program details

Job

Quite a few of my professional intuitive friends have wanted to know how it is going with my website now that I have a full-time job (- for the past two years I worked full-time on this website, writing articles and courses and giving readings but I got a full-time job about a month ago).

For those who don’t have an interest in my life or in balancing a self-employed job with a full time outside job, sorry for the waffling in the next few paragraphs and you can just skip to the end for any other odds and ends that might interest you.

No time….

To tell the truth, having a job and a business means that life is a lot more hectic and I am always very tired at the end of the day. But I feel very balanced and happy about it. Being busy and cheating the clock to get as much done as possible feels good. I prefer the faster pace of my life now and I’m enjoying the job too.

In terms of income (I give readings and sell some courses on here) it has not decreased or disappeared because I’m not working on my website full-time – although I’m short on time, I spend the bulk of my time fulfilling reading requests – doing and implementing, instead of thinking (I used to spend a lot of time over-thinking things!)

Although I have to say, it can be a bit frustrating because there are a few projects I have wanted to start in the past month that have remained on the ‘to-do’ list. I seem to have enough time for several readings, a full time job and a couple of blog posts a week, but no more than that. If I had one or two extra days per week it would be fantastic!

I guess I could hire a personal assistant and a cleaner and that might give me an extra day a week for writing but I’m not sure if I can afford that right now (I just moved into a new flat and bought a car.)

Maybe later on.

Overall, I’m happy, but I expect to transition to a part-time job as soon as I can, so that I will have more time for this website.

I also wanted to say that my response times to emails and blog comments can be a bit slower these days, so don’t be offended if I don’t acknowledge your email for a few days or longer, if it’s not an urgent one. I get more email than I can deal with and have to catch up with the non-urgent emails at weekends.

Problems getting free resources

A few people have told me that they haven’t received the free resources when they signed up to my RSS feed (when you subscribe to my RSS feed, you get a free copy of chapter five of my Psychic Awakening course.) There is sometimes a delay with receiving the materials as you get the link to them at the end of new posts on your RSS feed. At times you may have to wait a few days since I don’t blog every day. If you have any problems with subscribing or getting the resources, just let me know and I can send them to you.

New Website Feedback

I’ve had some wonderful feedback from people about my new website – thanks to everyone who has emailed me to give their feedback. The new website has definitely changed the way people are using the site – how long people spend on the site (longer) and how many people visit the site and then click away again immediately (the bounce rate) – this has decreased, which means that the site is doing its job. It just shows that when you send out a clear message in terms of what the website is about, it helps!

Affiliate program

I didn’t properly announce when I opened my affiliate program a few months ago for the psychic awakening course. I’m announcing it now. If you are a psychic and don’t have your own course or you have a blog about psychic development, you may be interested in recommending it. I pay out 35% commission when you sell a copy (that’s about $87 US). I’ve had really great feedback from the people who have done it so far and would love to get it out to more people. Just get in touch via this page if you’re interested in recommending it to your clients/readers.

If you’ve got any questions or comments just leave me a reply.

Cord-cutting: a spiritual technology that changed my life

Anna — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:12:47 +0000

Writing the words spiritual technology made me chuckle a bit. I know it sounds a bit lame

I decided to write an article about cord-cutting as a DIY healing technique because it has made a big difference to me and to my relationships. Anyone who has had a difficult relationship with a significant other or parent figure can benefit from this article. At the end I recommend some resources (including a free book chapter) along with a way to learn how to cut your own cords. But first of all, I’m going to begin by explaining what cords are exactly.

What are cords and why cut them?

A cord is a negative energetic structure that ties you and another person together.

When you form a relationship with a person, you make two types of connection. The first type of connection is the spiritual, positive bond that contains energies like unconditional love, good times and lesson learned together, fondness, affection – stuff like that. This is a positive cord that we never sever because it contains all that is good about the relationship.

The second type of connection is a negative cord of attachment – this energetic structure is very different from the positive type because it contains all the negative energies that have ever been a feature of your relationship. For example, let’s say you have a cord of attachment to an unfaithful ex-boyfriend. Encoded within this cord are the feelings you had when you found out he was cheating on you. This could be feelings of paranoia, energies of inadequacy; feelings of rage. Also encoded within the cord could be the pattern of wanting to please your boyfriend, so that he wouldn’t ever leave you.

When you split up, you may never see each other again, but the negative structure (the cord of attachment) between you remains. And this cord that connects you two contains those unhelpful patterns and dynamics: rage, inadequacy, paranoia; keeping quiet and pleasing others at your own expense.

Even though you are supposed to have moved on from the relationship, those energies circulate between you both and still affect you. For example, you still think of your ex-partner and you still despise him even though you wish you didn’t. When you get into a different relationship, you feel the same old paranoia. And things that happen remind you of the old relationship – even though it bears no resemblance, in reality. This happens because those negative energies from the cord are flowing into your aura 24/7 and affecting your ability to move on; or feel, think and act differently.

This relationship is just one (dramatic) example. You can form cords with literally anyone you come into contact with and each one is draining in its own way.

What is cord cutting?

Cord-cutting is a process that severs that negative attachment between you and another person so that the shadow of that past relationship does not hang over you or affect your behaviour in the present. This means that the rage, paranoia and inadequacy (that have NO relevance to the present), particular to that fore-mentioned relationship can be eliminated. And obviously other relationships can be improved too because of it. It does not mean that you lose contact with the person or that it weakens the positive connection. Cord-cutting will never mean the person disappears from your life unless you consciously make that happen by severing contact. If anything, that pure, positive connection is improved because it is no longer overshadowed by negative energies.

Who do we form cords to?

Most major cords are formed with:

Lovers, spouses (exes and present), children, parents, siblings, close friends, sexual abusers, any sexual partners.

More minor cords are often formed with: clients, teachers, bosses, co-workers, friends, acquaintances.

Every relationship is unique so you could have a major cord to your boss but a minor cord to your favourite sibling. Sometimes cords are so minor that they don’t affect you at all.

You will usually be able to tell who you have the most toxic cords with, because there will be a certain negativity associated with the relationship, no matter how much you love or respect the person.

The most impactful cord cutting I’ve seen happens through cutting cords to parents, partners and ex-lovers.

How does cord-cutting happen?

An effective cord-cutting process will usually involve at least 10 steps and will take at least 35-40 minutes.

Effective cord-cutting does not happen through simply asking the archangels to sever the cords, seeing them do it and then thanking them. Believe me, I’ve tried it and it doesn’t work. I’ve been on the receiving and giving end of that “quickie” method. I wasted time and money on it myself as a client. And I’ve wasted my client’s time three years ago when I trained in a modality which teaches you to cut cords this way. As part of a reading around that time, I cut a cord for a friend. He got back to me the next day saying that he really didn’t feel any different. I checked my work and lo and behold, the cord was still there even though I had asked for it to be cut. I was puzzled as to how this could be so.

I got my answer later on when I read Rose Rosetree’s book: Cut Cords of Attachment: Heal Yourself and Others with Energy Spirituality

The golden rule of cord cutting is this:

In order to cut cords effectively, you have to discuss (and understand) what negative patterns are a feature of your relationship with that person. You need to learn from those patterns and impact other relationships. Obviously you also need some intuitive ability to be able to find out what patterns are present within the cord.

The client really has to realize what these are so that other relationships can be impacted and so they move on from these negative patterns. Obviously you can’t do this if you just ask Archangel Michael to sever all cords to everyone you’ve ever known. After all, the cords contain valuable learnings and so Archangel Michael won’t eliminate all those wonderful opportunities for learning, by just obliterating the cords. That would be like the earthly equivalent of cheating on a computer game. And it’s not possible to do because the divine beings who cut cords for us don’t oblige when we ask for their assistance in that regard.

When you cut a cord properly, you should never have to cut a cord to a person more than once. And you only ever have one cord to one person. If a practitioner claims you need to do it more than once or on a regular basis, it’s because it wasn’t done properly the first time.

My personal experiences with cord-cutting

When I first came across cord cutting in 2008, I was sceptical about how cord-cutting could benefit me. Being a doubter, I thought it was just weird that a well-known expert in cord-cutting, Rose Rosetree was the only healer I knew who claimed that cords had to be cut in a session that lasted 55 minutes and that most people were doing it wrong. Either she was wrong or she was right (and this meant that most healers I knew were doing it wrong.)

Being the gambling kind I booked a session with her to find out whether she was right. And I was amazed to find she was. In the first session I had, we cut a cord to an ex-boyfriend and by the time we had finished I felt totally different – as if the relationship had happened 100 years ago. I couldn’t imagine how it had ever had a negative impact on my life, it felt so long ago. The shadow of that relationship has not been back to haunt me since.

I’ve also cut cords to both my parents and believe that has improved my relationship to both. I’ve become aware of patterns that affect me in those relationships and so I’ve become much more conscious and clear not to be affected by them.

The cord I cut to my dad was probably the most dramatic. I have two dads – a step-dad (my mum’s present husband) and my real dad. I have always had a strong bond and a close friendship with my mother. And my real dad is a loving, kind and generous man who gave us kids a fantastic childhood. But I’ve had a rather complicated relationship with him because of things that have happened in the past. A lot has gone on in our family but I won’t go into any more details here because it concerns people other than me. Suffice to say that I wasn’t surprised to find that this cord was an extremely toxic one. And removing it made a dramatic difference to my life.

How cord-cutting made life better

I’ve always been a head-in-the-clouds kind of person. I spent much of my early life wanting to escape from the reality of life. Although I had a lovely childhood, I would say I probably never engaged with life all that much, and spent much of my childhood absorbed in studies and in a make-believe world. I would have made a great nun because I had no taste for the real, outside world until about the age of 25. I was deeply absorbed in the spirit realm, with a strong connection to my guides, spirit and non-physical teachers, yet it felt like I was not cut out for the practicalities of real, earthly life – ever.

Until I cut the cord to my father. I literally changed overnight in terms of groundedness about 9 months ago and it has been like that since then.

The cord from my father and the troubled relationship we’d had meant that I was receiving huge amounts of negative energies that I wanted to escape from – hence my desire to escape from the world. When I’d got readings with other intuitives, they’d tell me that I was carrying and running away from someone else’s emotional burdens. Although that was useful information in some ways, it also wasn’t useful because I didn’t know what to do about it. Life was very heavy and I felt very drained, until I cut that cord.

In the days after I cut that cord, emotions flooded out of me and it feels like I became 10x more grounded overnight. and I wrote this article in the months after the cord cutting: CRISIS! My life fell apart two months ago. Please forgive me. The Anna you knew no longer exists. The cord-cutting was the catalyst for that change.

I was then inspired to change the name of this site to psychicbutsane.com and wanted to focus on a more down-to-earth approach to psychic development.

It wasn’t easy coming back to earth in the weeks following the cord cutting. In fact, it was really painful. I had to face emotions I’d buried for years. But I’ve been a lot happier since I cut it. So that’s why I know cord-cutting works (as Rose Rosetree teaches it) and that’s also why I offer it. I only offer services that I am sure help people and have first-hand evidence that they work because even if this is from the ego, I need to know that I’m actually making a positive difference.

If you’re interested in finding out more about cord cutting, Rose has written a book about it, called: Cut Cords of Attachment: Heal Yourself and Others with Energy Spirituality You can learn to cut your own cords using that. You can also download chapter one of this book here. If there’s one skill I recommend you learn as a psychic-developer/intuitive, it is this one.

I also offer cord-cutting sessions on my readings page, as does Rose on her website. I find it does help to have your biggest cords cut by someone else, who is an impartial person. For example, if your relationship to your mother is very fraught, it may be hard for you to get some objectivity and know what patterns are present in the relationship.

My sessions take around 45-55 minutes. I currently charge for half an hour but am finding it’s taking a lot longer than that (sometimes up to an hour), so I will be raising my prices by about 10% in one week. Cord-cutting sessions are still cheaper than readings though (they use up less energy).

If you have any questions or comments about this article or cord-cutting, leave me a comment.

3 Ways For Busy People To Get Intuitive Guidance

Anna — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:47:52 +0000

Getting intuitive guidance on a regular basis helps you to stay on track with your purpose and alerts you to opportunities, problems and issues. But not everyone has time to meditate for two hours a day. Some people want to be in tune with their spirit guides and spirit but don’t have the time for psychic development. If this is you, don’t worry – if you get into the habit of requesting guidance in one way or another, even if it’s only for five minutes a day, it can still come to you.

Here Are My Favourite Quick Ways to Get Intuition:

Dreaming

Dreaming is such a quick and brilliant way to receive intuition. You don’t have to do much to receive it: it just comes to you. Dreams are especially useful because they often give you messages that you are unable or unwilling to receive when you’re awake. Sometimes those messages can go unheeded because they’re the inconvenient ones we’d rather ignore. But it is helpful to pay attention to the dreams that come up for you – especially the repetitive dreams.

In this blog post I wrote that I sometimes have difficulties receiving intuition in the area of relationships because my emotions get in the way. Well, in the last two relationships I’ve been in, that didn’t work out, I had dreams about the problems that would surface before I even met one of the guys and for the other one, before we even started dating. And that was before I knew either of those people very well.

My dreams were warning me and I didn’t really have to do a whole lot to get the messages. I just had to notice them. For the record, I didn’t heed them I just noticed them. These days, I heed the messages in my dreams as much as is practical.

How to receive more messages in dreams

Some people are naturally attuned to receiving intuition in dreams and some people are not. If you want to increase the intuition that comes to you through dreams, you can take these steps:

1. Request messages to come to you via dreams. Write down a question on a piece of paper before you go to bed and request that your higher self helps you with the issue or question.

2. When you wake up, take a few minutes to just lie in bed, close your eyes and be still – dream memories can slip away from you fast if you let them. If you do this, you’ll have better dream recall.

3. If you have time, take five minutes to write about the dream in a notebook and ask for further intuitive messages around it.

If you find that you’re not much of a dreamer, then you might like my second suggestion:

Five minutes at the end of the day to simply tune into yourself

Tuning into yourself doesn’t mean navel gazing and obsessing over yourself. It just means checking in with yourself intuitively and emotionally so that you can check that you’re going in the direction you want to go in.

At the end of each day, when I’m lying in bed I always take some time to tune into myself. I ask the following:

How am I feeling? What is the strongest emotion present in me?
If it’s a negative one, why?
How do I feel about my life?

Those are such simple questions, yet you can get as much information from asking yourself those questions at the end of the day, as you might get in an intuitive reading. Often I get information about people that they already know and have gotten themselves, over and over. You just need to be willing to listen to your answers, even if they’re inconvenient ones.

In response to those questions, some people might get the answers through their inner voice (clairaudience), some might just know the answers. Sometimes you’ll see situations pop up in your mind in relation to these questions. Or if you’re a clairsentient or emotional person, it’s easy to get a lot of feedback through your emotions. The problem with emotions is that when you bury them and don’t acknowledge them, they can pile up and just turn into this constant background buzz of discontent. And it’s difficult to sort through that and find out what is actually making you unhappy and where you want to go from there. In those cases, it’s good to get someone to help with to sort it out, like a friend or coach.

Once you are in touch with your emotions, they are a great tool to guide you in your life, when you check in with them consciously.

If you lack the time for tuning in, then don’t worry because…

Instead of tuning in, you can ask for intuition to hit you as you need it

You can set up a request to get intuition as you need it. Tell your higher self you want your messages this way. This will mean that intuitive thoughts, ideas and gut feelings come to you as you go through your day.

However, getting intuition in the moment has a few conditions.

It’s difficult to get intuition spontaneously if you’re anxious and stressed. So remember that your emotional state can affect it. Really, the closest you can get to a meditative state, the better. For example, if you’re driving or doing repetitive tasks, that creates a state of mindlessness, where you don’t need to actively concentrate and the intuition you need comes through very easily at those times.

I used to get a lot of intuition in the moment. These days I get a lot through tuning in at the end of the day. I also do readings most days so this also gives me an opportunity to receive more messages – before I tune into my client, I am often sidetracked and given a message that applies to my life.

If you’re not in the habit of ‘tuning in’ regularly like this, you are in a good position to receive intuition spontaneously, because intuition will be there, there may be a ‘backlog’ of it and it will want to come through.

Invite spontaneous intuition into your life by writing down a request for it from your higher self.

And if you’re worried about recognizing the intuition once you’ve got it, read these articles:

Intuition vs Imagination

2 Secrets to Recognizing Intuition

Do you like my suggestions?

Busy people – how do you get your intuition?

Why I Cringe When I Hear the Words ‘Old Soul’

Anna — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:43:23 +0000

Has anyone read the book Journey of Souls by Michael Newton?

I get this book recommended to me on a regular basis. From what I’ve gathered, it’s supposed to be a really good book about the soul’s evolution – what we do in between lifetimes and plenty of information about the bigger picture of the soul’s path.

When I began to read it, I opened it and then shut it again pretty quickly.

The reason why was that it talked about hierarchy in terms of the soul’s evolution – some people are more evolved than others. Some people are young souls and some people are old souls. Old souls are wiser. They tend to be into spiritual stuff. Young souls are like the kids that don’t know what they’re doing, they’re usually doing things like messing up the planet or destroying things.

This idea has been in other books too, like Conversations with God. I sometimes refer to people as old souls meaning that they are tapped into their soul’s wisdom. But it always makes me a cringe more than a little. I promise to you and myself not to use this cliché in future. Here’s why:

I don’t agree with this idea of a spiritual wisdom heirarchy.

Firstly, how do you measure evolution of the soul?

Does anyone remain enlightened, once they’re enlightened?

I don’t think so.

Here’s what I have been told about the soul’s evolution during readings:

There is less continuity in the soul’s journey than we realize. It is not as linear as people think.

We may believe that souls have a number of lifetimes where they start out as a young soul, amass wisdom and then gradually become an older soul. The older you get, the wiser you get.

But in fact, souls play roles. During the life of your soul, I’ll bet you’ve played every role imaginable. Male, female, prince, pauper, ordinary, exceptional, saintly, monstrous, dumb, intelligent, person-who-’gets-it-right’, professional-maker-of-mistakes.

The soul knows itself better through contrast.

I do past life readings for people where the person they were feels unrecognizable and incredibly different to who they are now. Your personal identity changes over lifetimes and you end up in many different circumstances, some of them that you would never imagine.

In one lifetime you can seem incredibly ‘evolved’ and in the next, you choose to play a role that looks like the total opposite.

No-one ever ranks higher than anyone else in terms of spiritual wisdom.

But in some incarnations, you will naturally be closer to the source (i.e. to your soul) than in others. So it seems like you are more evolved and wise somehow. This is only temporary and next time could be different.

All souls have different types of wisdom. Those who appear to be ‘old souls’ are usually tapped into the wisdom centred around the upper chakras. But that’s not the only type of wisdom. Other people are tapped into the soul through the wisdom of the body, even the mind, the emotions, the senses, the earth, the blood.

Permanent enlightenment is a myth. Enlightenment is an arbitrary, relative, temporary state that you can attain in your lifetime, but it can disappear in any moment because it’s a state. This is why terms like ascension are illusory. Those terms are arbitrary measures of perceived evolution. Perceived being the important word.

The soul sees and realizes more of itself in every lifetime that it goes through. When you tap into some of that wisdom, it may seem like you evolve all of a sudden, but all that is happening is that you get closer to your soul. The soul will reveal itself to you when you go looking.

So the real question is not how can I evolve further and accelerate my development, but how close can you get to the source/to your soul? How can you tap into the soul’s wisdom and learning that is already there? That wisdom is not something you can become, but something you tap into – and everyone does it in different ways.

As I mentioned, the wisdom that we recognize is usually the spiritual kind and is focused around the upper chakras. And you can definitely tap into the soul’s wisdom through seeking self-knowledge and intuitive development. But the thing is that many people think we can get close to the source and more in tune with spirit ONLY by spiritual seeking, and for some people it works, but it’s not for everyone.

What are the ways that you personally tap into spirit?

You can also get closer to your soul by eating, enjoying your body, doing the things you love, being creative, being around animals, helping others, helping yourself, using your gifts, recognizing your shadow side, listening to music, creating music, being human, giving to yourself, asking for what you’re worth, saying no to others, saying yes, doing something that seems stupid, making a good choice, spending a night in front of a roaring fire with a glass of good wine, exploring, traveling, mathematics, taking risks, staying safe. Whatever appeals to you.

I believe that the souls that are closest to the source are those who access the wisdom of the soul through all the chakras, and that looks different for everyone.

Balance. To me, if we’re going to use the word enlightenment, that’s what it would mean. To live life and enjoy it to the full and use your gifts.

Meditating for seven hours a day and appearing to be full of spiritual wisdom just means that you tapped into your soul, through the upper chakras. But how about tapping into your soul through all your chakras? Power, stability, fun, sensuality, heart, vulnerability, mouth, intuition, wisdom. That appeals to me more.

Masses of spiritual greatness and wisdom can often be instability and imbalance masquerading as wisdom. Those who overwhelm others with their great and inspiring wisdom can sometimes be on the verge of a breakdown because we’re not designed to access wisdom only through the upper chakras at the expense of the lower ones. It leads to imbalance. Spiritual genius and madness are not that different.

Your thoughts on my opinions? Do you see evolution differently? Have I been too harsh?

Psychic But Sane – New Website Design and Name

Anna — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:46:00 +0000

If you have visited this website before, you’ll probably notice that it’s got a totally different look and name than it had before.

It’s gone from healingandinsight.com to psychicbutsane.com.

Why the new name and design?

A few months ago, I realized that I didn’t like my design anymore. It was a website that a friend had set up for me two years ago, and I’d never been totally happy with the picture on the banner either. I’d outgrown the way it looked.

At the same time, I began to stop telling people what I do for a living when I met them. It’s easier that way.

Having a profession like mine is sometimes hard in this respect, because sceptical people assume that you’re off with the fairies or really stupid or insane. I’ve been called crazy. I’ve been told that for a well-educated person, I’m pretty stupid and should know better. I thought: if I am tired of being stereotyped and judged in a certain way for what I do, so much so that I keep my work a secret from people these days (when I first meet them), then what about people who are just getting into psychic development?

The easiest thing to do when you begin to get interested in a subject that the rest of the population might judge you for, is to withdraw from those that are judgmental. Or hide that part of you. Or spend so much time around like-minded people that you no longer hang around with people who are not like you, and aren’t spiritual.

That way, you don’t feel crazy.

I used to withdraw, hide and avoid people who wanted to give me a religious lecture on why God doesn’t approve of me.

To some extent, I guess I still do those things, when I don’t tell people I meet what I do for a living.

But whether or not I shout about being a professional psychic offline to people like my parents’ friends, my co-workers or strangers – I’m still going to be here and say on the internet (with my real name and my real picture):

Psychics are not insane.

They are normal people.

Their experiences are real.

Psychic experiences are not supernatural – they’re super natural

Psychics, sensitives and empaths are people who have been around since the beginning of time. People who were born that way and people who learned to become that way. People outside of religion and people with a religion. In some civilizations, they were oracles. In some they were revered and in some they were burnt as witches.

They are still psychics, sensitives and empaths. People who are in tune with the rest of humanity on a deeper level, people who can’t forget about other peoples’ suffering because it’s their suffering too, people who can feel it in their bodies when some major geographical event is about to occur, people who can bring a level of clarity to other people that helps move others forward on their path. The world needs people like that.

And these days, these souls don’t live in monasteries or oracles high up on a mountain. They’re often people with families and non-spiritual work who wonder why they are so sensitive and whether they’re crazy because they perceive things that other people don’t.

And sometimes they’re afraid to talk about it, can’t tell anyone and start looking on the internet. I get emails from those people.

Psychics may not be persecuted minorities on the same scale as certain other groups. But psychics are still being executed for witchcraft in places like the Middle East (more recently, I found out about one in Saudi Arabia who was arrested by the religious police there.) As my friend Kate pointed out to me tonight, witch trials and persecution is deep in the soul’s memory. Without wanting to sound dramatic, it’s in mine. And in spite of that, welcome to my new website

Things That Are Different

You’ll notice that there is a new free resources page where you can subscribe to this blog and get access to free resources at the same time.

There’s also a new Facebook page. If you were on the old Facebook page and you’d like to be a fan of the new one, then you can visit it here.

Thank you to Taryn Wallis at Phenomenoodle for doing the design and creating this site. If you need some help with WordPress or want a customized site, I highly recommend her – she’s a fantastic all round tech-y person/website designer, a lovely person and such a pleasure to work with.

In terms of the site design and direction, I am really pleased with it.

What do you think?

Recommended Books on Psychic and Spiritual Topics

Anna — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 07:30:09 +0000

I often get clients and readers asking me for book recommendations.

These days, I don’t read a lot of books on psychic or spiritual development (doing psychic readings for people gives you more than your fill of learnings in those areas…)

However, in the last several years I have read lots of them. Below are the ones that still stand out in my mind as being really good. I don’t include full reviews, but next to each book I include a description telling you why I am recommending it.

There are 19 books in this list. I’ll add new ones as I find them. Some of these are affiliate links, so I get about 30 cents or something like that if you buy the book through my link I promise not to spend it all at once!

Click on the subheadings below to go straight to the book reviews in that category:

The Chakra System
Psychic Development
Overcoming Overactive Empathy
Weird & Woo Woo Stuff
Reading Other People
Relationships, Dating & Love
Emotional and Spiritual Healing
General Spirituality

Books about Chakras

Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing by Caroline Myss

This book is good for beginners who want a thorough introduction to the human chakra system and for anyone who wants to learn about the common blockages which affect us at the various chakras (especially practising healers and intuitives.) If you’re interested in self-healing, this book is highly recommended.

True Balance: A Commonsense Guide for Renewing Your Spirit by Sonia Choquette

I love this book – I refer to it all the time when working with clients. It’s the most down-to-earth and practical book about chakras that I’ve read. Unlike other books I’ve read about the energy system, it helps you to diagnose your own energy imbalances easily AND gives practical suggestions and remedies for imbalances. If you want to buy one book about the chakra system and you’re a beginner, I would recommend this one first.

Psychic Development

I have read a lot of books on psychic development. Some of them I didn’t find useful. Hence a fairly short list, but these were the memorable ones.

Psychic Development for Beginners: An Easy Guide to Developing & Releasing Your Psychic Abilities by William Hewitt

I loved this book. It was the first book I read on how to develop your abilities, as a beginner. I’d read tons of books about the paranormal and the spirit realm in my teens, but nothing that demystified it and made it easy, quite like this book did. There are lots of stories and examples in there too which make it entertaining. Plus there are some useful exercises to start you off.

Unlock Your Intuition by Andrea Hess

This book has some valuable information about how to formulate your questions when asking your guides or higher self for information. Asking the right questions is really important (I devoted a chapter to it in my course) because the quality of the answers you get from the spirit realm is determined by the quality of the questions you asked.

This book also teaches you a practical process for dowsing, which is very useful. However, I would like to have seen a troubleshooting guide for when dowsing doesn’t work well for you (as it doesn’t work for everyone). The book can also be a bit dry in places and I would have liked more stories, but I don’t know of any other authors on intuitive development who address such practical topics like asking the right questions in this way. And if you like dowsing as a divination method, you will probably find this book helpful.

Books on Overactive Empathy and Energetic Sensitivity

Empowered by Empathy : 25 Ways to Fly in Spirit by Rose Rosetree

Become The Most Important Person in the Room: Your 30-Day Plan for Empath Empowerment by Rose Rosetree

Both of the books mentioned above are unique. I say this because there is no-one else out there who teaches empaths how to turn off their empathy to get a better quality of life. The books really teach you about the importance of learning to turn off empathy and give you actual methods and techniques to do this. In case you’re wondering if these books would be right for you, I have written a few articles on overactive empathy where you can find out if you’re an empath – they are here:

If you recognize yourself as having overactive empathy from those articles, you need to read Rose’s books. They are what brought me back from the brink of being so sensitive to other people’s emotions and experiences that I didn’t want to be around people anymore. There are lots of books that have good ideas in them and you can put them down and think ‘that was a great book’. Rose’s books go beyond that, I would say she’s the author that’s helped me to improve my life the most in a practical, concrete way.

If I had to choose between the two, I’d say I prefer Become The Most Important Person in the Room, just because it is a 30 day program, so it’s slightly more practical than the other one. If you can afford it, buy both. If you can only buy one, I’d recommend Become the Most Important Person in the Room.

You can also buy both books on Rose’s website.

Weird and Woo-Woo Stuff

The Hidden Oracle: The Mystery of India’s Naadi Palm Leaf Readers by Angela and Andrew Donovan

On the author’s website, it says:

“If someone said they could read your Past, Present and Future from ancient Sanskrit inscriptions written thousands of years ago on a dusty old palm leaf in a country you’ve never been to before, would you be skeptical?”

In this (non-fictional!) book, that is exactly what happens. Angela Donovan (a well-known psychic-medium based in the UK) and her skeptical husband Andrew were visiting India when they got the chance to have a naadi palm leaf reading. Many of the souls incarnated here on earth have their own naadi palm leaves – upon which are written all the details of their life, past and future. They were most surprised about the specific details of the reading – on the palm leaves there were details about the parents’ names, where they studied, what they studied and some information known only to the couple. As Andrew was a skeptic prior to the experience, it was a bit of a rude awakening for him and they decided to write a book about it.

The palm leaves were written thousands of years ago and they even detail when you will be coming for your reading. It is said that the information was channelled from the Akashic Records and transcribed on the leaves. I’m not sure if I would like to go to India and find out what my palm leaf says about my future (if I even have one!) but this book is a fascinating read nonetheless. As Andrew was an architect, there are a couple of chapters devoted to descriptions of buildings in India, which I found quite boring so I skipped them. I was mostly interested in the metaphysical side to the book.

You are sort of left wondering how the naadi palm leaves contain so much information about some people. You could even suspect that Angela set the whole experience up to bring her skeptical husband around to believing in the spiritual side of life. I did an akashic record reading for Angela a couple of years ago (she gave me a testimonial) and I found her to be a good person with a lot of integrity, so I believe they are genuine.

Discover Atlantis: A Guide to Reclaiming the Wisdom of the Ancients by Diana Cooper and Shaaron Hutton

I went through a phase a few years ago when I was absolutely fascinated by the civilization of Atlantis. Most people have heard of Atlantis but just in case you haven’t, Atlantis was supposed to be an ancient civilization that had advanced spiritual technologies. Some scholars believe Atlantis is just a legend and others believe it was a real civilization. I don’t know if Atlantis was a real civilization here on earth or something we’ve confused with a memory of life in another star system, but I do know that I was absolutely fascinated by the idea of it. I also know that it says in some people’s Akashic Records that they incarnated during such a time, in such a civilization. When I had my reading done, I was told I had incarnated many times during the Atlantean civilization.

This book was the best one I found on the topic. It gives information on the spiritual technologies available in the era of Atlantis, it details how people lived, including the society, spiritual life and relationships. It also details how the civilization fell. Whether you believe in Atlantis or not, it is a stimulating read that will get you thinking about humanity and civilization in general, and how we live our lives.

Soul Mastery: Accessing the Gifts of Your Soul by Susann Taylor Schier

This is the book I recommend to people when they ask how they can find out more about the different soul groups and star systems that souls can incarnate in. You may or may not be aware that some souls who incarnate here on earth are ‘star traveller’ souls, which means they have experienced life in other star systems too. Your soul group is governed by where you experienced your very first incarnation. Unfortunately, there are only two sources of information on the different soul groups. The first is Andrea Hess’s Soul Realignment course, which costs nearly $1000 (US dollars). It’s designed mostly for people who want to do professional level Akashic record readings for others, hence the cost – it is a bit of an investment. The only other source of information on this topic is this book.

It’s definitely an interesting read, but I was frustrated a little by the vague and wordy descriptions of a few soul groups. I felt it could be a bit clearer. But if you want to find out about the soul groups, it’s the only reliable source of information I know of, besides the Soul Realignment course. Actually, it does contain information about some soul groups that weren’t in the Soul Realigment course, so it did expand my understanding of the soul groups, even after I’d done the course. That’s why I’m recommending it here. (Edit: there are some websites online that offer descriptions of the soul groups, but much of what I’ve come across doesn’t resonate with me one bit. So when researching soul groups online, make sure you use your good judgment and listen to your gut feelings too. I feel this book is a reliable source of information on the soul groups, compared to much of what is online.)

Reading Other People

Aura Reading Through All Your Senses: Celestial Perception Made Practical by Rose Rosetree

This book teaches you over 100 practical techniques for reading auras. It’s also packed with information about the points of access for aura reading – like the chakras. It’s very down-to-earth and practical, but like many of Rose’s books, it reads a bit like a text book and is very dense. I can’t help thinking that she could have made a long e-course out of the book, or even made it into a series of shorter books – there’s that much information in it. So you definitely get value for money. Rose also offers techniques which suit each of the gifts, so you won’t be stuck if you’re not sure if you’re very clairvoyant or clairsentient, for example. If you want the ‘how-to’ of reading chakras and auras, this book will definitely suit you. If you just want a general book on auras, you may find this too dense and I’d recommend one of the books above on the chakra system, like Carolyn Myss’s.

The Power of Face Reading (2nd Edition) by Rose Rosetree

Learning to read faces can help you to recognize other people’s personality traits, know their talents (and know your own talents). If you’re a professional intuitive, face reading can be a good prop during readings. Face reading is a bit like palm reading or tarot in that regard because it helps you to get more information about a client. If you look at someone’s wrinkles, that can also tell you a lot about how the person has grown in their lifetime. If you’re interested in the meaning of wrinkles and learning to read how faces change over time, you may be interested in Rose’s more advanced face reading book: Wrinkles are God’s Make-up. You can order it through her website.

Relationships, Dating and Love

Dating from the Inside Out: How to Use the Law of Attraction in Matters of the Heart by Paulette Kouffman Sherman

Maybe it’s best not to take book recommendations from me in the category of romantic relationships! (I have had some disastrous relationships) but then again they were actually before I read this book

The premise of this book is that you attract who you are, so it’s about becoming the best person (and partner) that you can be. It also teaches you that in order to attract love, you have to love yourself and accept yourself, and only then will you attract a partner who resonates on that level. I liked this book because it was full of practical exercises – including an examination of past dating history so you can become aware of what you are attracting that you don’t want. There are also exercises to help you to re-write your unconscious dating ad that you broadcast to other people, and to become more conscious of what you want. I highly recommend this book if you have had a series of unhappy or abusive relationships, or if you are frustrated in dating but ready to meet the right one.

The Secret Laws of Attraction: The Effortless Way to Get the Relationship You Want by Talane Miedaner

This is another book on relationships that I read more recently. I was really impressed with this one. The premise of this book is similar to Dating From the Inside Out – it’s best to know what your own needs are and find ways to meet them, that don’t necessarily involve a relationship. Then you are much more likely to attract the relationship you want. When you have major needs that are being unmet (like the need for validation, recognition, independence, peace, love, etc.) you broadcast neediness to other people and you automatically have less to give as a partner.

The book also includes a quiz which helps you to identify your top needs and offers ideas to get them met in your life. This was really eye-opening for me. My top needs at the time that I read it, turned out to be the needs for order, independence, recognition and the need to be listened to. This made me understand and accept my personality more. I have a linear way of thinking and I like to be thorough in the way I do things. I love making lists and ticking things off the list and I hate being in an untidy, cluttered house. That was the need for order which was my #1 need in life. Talk about anal! I thought my top need would turn out to be the need to be cherished or loved, but no. It’s all about the order

I am also very independent and need space in a relationship and the results of this quiz made me accept that more as well. Overall, I would say that this book gives you invaluable self-knowledge for all kinds of relationships – but especially beneficial for the relationship you have with yourself, so that you can give yourself what you need. This is probably the most useful book I’ve ever read on improving my relationships.

He’s Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

This is a really eye-opening book on dating for women. I know a lot of people don’t like it, and think it’s too black-and-white in the advice it gives. But I found it to be a hilarious and interesting read.

From the back cover: “Based on a popular episode of Sex and the City, this book educates smart women on how to tell when a guy just doesn’t like them enough, so they can stop making excuses for a dead-end relationship”

I read this book at a time when I was in a relationship with someone who just didn’t appreciate me and I was the driving force behind it. Once I took my energy out of the relationship, I realized I was the only one doing the running.

If you are a woman who somehow finds yourself doing all the chasing in your love relationships, you need to read this book. I doubt it applies to every single man you will ever date, but it can help to wake you up when you’re trying too hard in a relationship that is going nowhere…

Books on Healing

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay

This is Louise Hay’s best-selling, ground-breaking book on the mind-body connection. In the book, you’ll read Louise’s story of how she overcame cancer, along with the moving story of her childhood and life. In the book, she includes a list of physical ailments, along with the mental and emotional patterns associated with them. She also provides affirmations to help you treat the emotional side of your illness.

How useful is this? I’m not sure. I am including it in this list because it is a very unique and original book. Yet I have had limited success with it. Throughout most of my teenage years and adult life, I’ve suffered from moderate acne on and off. The thought pattern associated with acne is not loving the self or not accepting the self. I still get acne on and off despite reaching a point in my life where I feel I am really quite kind to myself. I put mine down to stress and rootlessness. Every time I move to a new country or to a new home (which I have done a lot in the last several years), the acne flares up and then goes down again after about a month. I suppose moving around when I want to settle down is one way of not loving the self, but it is really down to circumstance, not some form of self abuse.

Interestingly, as a child I suffered from Perthes disease which is a hip disorder. I can’t do any high impact exercise (like running) because of it. According to Louise Hay, the hips carry the body in balance and are related to life balance in general. My primary life lesson for this lifetime (according to what is in my akashic record) is moderation/balance. So that is my area of growth and perhaps weakness. It is also the physiological weakness when I was a child which is kind of a link between the two. Or maybe I’m just reading into it way too much!

You Can Heal Your Life – the movie by Louise Hay

This is the online movie of the book I mentioned above (it’s much cheaper to watch the move online than it is to buy it on Amazon). The theme of the movie is changing your attitude and thoughts from negative to positive so you can enjoy your life much more. I don’t really have anything specific to say about this movie except that I really enjoyed it and I was so impressed I watched it a few times (I don’t usually watch anything more than once.)

Cut Cords of Attachment: Heal Yourself and Others with Energy Spirituality by Rose Rosetree

If you are familiar with energy/spiritual healing, you have probably heard of cord-cutting and the benefits of cutting cords – especially the cords to family members and lovers.

Cord-cutting doesn’t mean you sever the relationship – the spiritual ties of love remain intact. You just become free of the tugging and pulling of negative energy patterns that affect your relationship – like caring what others think, worrying, fear, resentment, pain, to name a few. Many practitioners and energy healers claim that you can cut negative cords of attachment just by asking for it to be so (and calling on an Archangel). I witnessed first hand just how ineffective this incomplete method is, when I trained in a modality which teaches you to cut cords in this manner. I cut a cord for someone that came back. What a waste of time (and it made me look like I didn’t know what I was doing – which of course I didn’t, at that time.)

It wasn’t until I read Rose’s book that I understood why what I had done was so ineffective. You can’t cut cords by willing it to be so and calling on an archangel to cut them for you. You must find out what energies are contained within the cords, address them, and learn from them. I would say this book is aimed more at practitioners than general readers. And it is extremely dense, like a text book. But if you read it from cover to cover and practise the method, you’ll soon know how to cut cords – properly. I recommend this for all energy healers. I’ve had several sessions with Rose. And despite being a little skeptical at first regarding how much cutting a cord can actually improve a relationship, it is a skill I decided to add to my skill set and I now offer sessions on cord cutting too because I find them to be a million times more helpful than just doing a reading for someone on their relationships. Plus I’ve had life-changing results from this method. At some point I’ll write a more in-depth post on cutting cords of attachment and about my experiences.

You can download chapter one of this book here and you can also buy the book on Rose’s website.

A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are by Byron Katie

Byron Katie teaches something called The Work, which is a method for questioning your most negative and stressful thoughts about the world, yourself and other people. It is good for those who have a lot of fear or pain in them and who want to open their mind and get beyond the fear, resentment or pain that is running them and affecting their life. I went to see Byron Katie at an event in London a couple of years ago and she exudes a level of patience, fun and serenity that is very rare, despite suffering from a degenerative eye disease where she can’t see much anymore.

General Spirituality

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Many people have heard of this book because it’s quite famous. For those who haven’t, it calls itself a ‘guide to spiritual enlightenment’. I’m not sure whether anyone can be enlightened permanently, but I do believe this book can help people to enjoy their lives more, because it teaches you to exist in the present moment. It also teaches you to take your focus away from fearful thoughts of the future and thoughts that weigh you down from the past. What I took away from this book was that you can only be happy when you are focusing on the present moment. That helped me to change what I focus on, and I believe I am less stressed these days because of it. I highly recommend this book.

Would you like to recommend other books? Please leave a comment if you know of other must-read books in the areas of psychic or spiritual development.