Happy new year to all readers, clients and students.  I wish you and your loved ones happiness and prosperity in 2012.

In 2011,

I:

• Brought out the Professional Intuitive Training Program and worked with guinea pig students throughout the year to develop the course
• Moved out of Christchurch, NZ and into a semi rural town further up north closer to my mum and her hubby, following the Christchurch earthquake
• Hired an assistant (Ava) who schedules all my sessions and redesigned my site
• Adopted a pussy cat named big boy

2011 was a challenging year for me.

In late January I came back from a dear friend’s wedding in the UK, on a high, ready to start writing my long overdue Professional Intuitive Training Program.

Then in late February, the ground shook and the city I lived in was pretty much destroyed. I wrote about it on this blog so I won’t regale you with another description of what happened.  I grew up in a peaceful country that by and large does not experience natural disasters. I had no reference point for what happened.

It became clear in the months that followed that the main effect of the earthquake was that it brought me back into my body.

Not in a temporary way, but if there was anything left of the spiritual imbalance I used to suffer from, it disappeared overnight, and planted me firmly back into my body. Exactly like a healing does, but it was a lot less pleasant.

In the months following the earthquake, I felt like I’d received a healing. I understood that life can change in an instant and this realisation has changed the way I live my life. Everything is more vivid for me than it used to be.

I attribute some of the strange ‘healing’ effect of this experience to a session of energy release regression therapy that I had with a hypnotherapist several days after the earthquake. This therapy is designed to release psychological and emotional trauma and it worked very well.

As a result I decided to start training in hypnotherapy, so that I will be able to do past life regressions and releases with clients in person, and also I will be able to work with people to release the effects of traumatic experiences.

After the earthquake, I moved away from Christchurch almost immediately, and I got to work on one of my major goals for this year – the professional intuitive course. Writing the course was not hard in itself, but the self imposed solitary confinement of writing full time when I had just moved to a new town in the middle of winter (where I had few friends) was definitely a challenge. But I was determined to get it done. And it did get done.

(And levels two and three will be released in the coming year.)

In 2012

Now I find myself in the strange position of seeking residency in New Zealand (I have been living over here since 2009) and not knowing what I will be doing over the next few years to get it. It will most likely be working in this business or it may be training in another profession. I still have not yet been able to put roots down in this country, as much as I want to. If life goes to plan, that will happen this year.

Whatever I do, I will still be offering courses and sessions via this website, and it is one of the great blessings of my life to be serving clients and readers in this way.

Here are some of the most commented and popular articles written in the last year:

The Psychic Experiments

Very popular and, (I keep being informed), very helpful for readers. If you would like to improve your intuition when it comes to reading other people for character, etc, then you might want to give them a go.

Psychic Experiment 3

Psychic Experiment 4

Psychic Experiment 5

In 2011 I asked lots of questions, and answered them….

Are Law of Attraction Teachings Helpful or a Waste of Time?

Is Psychic Development Dangerous?

Astral Entities & Spirits: Can They Make You Go Insane or Do Crazy Things?

Psychic Dreams – Are you Dreaming of the Future?

Communicating with Spirits that Are Hanging Around Your Home – Should You Do It?

In terms of the classes offered via this website, I have very much enjoyed working with the students, who have inspired many of the article topics above. I am proud of the community that has sprung up in the online forums of both the Psychic Awakening course and the relatively new Professional Intuitive Training Course Level one forum.

So happy new year to all clients, students and readers, thank you for reading, and I hope you will have a fantastic 2012.

PS – If you are looking for a down-to-earth, mystical yet practical yet safe manual for developing your intuitive/psychic ability, with an online support forum that is open for your questions about this topic, come and join us. I regularly have students tell me they think the course is ‘fantastic’. And if you’re not sure, come and check out the recommendations the course has had.

The lady in the picture for psychic experiment #5 is Huguette Clark, an American copper heiress.

She was born in 1906 in Paris and died in 2011 aged 104, in New York City.

Her father, William A Clark mined copper, built railroads and was a US senator. When he died in 1925 she was left with a 500 million dollar inheritance, along with mansions in California, Connecticut and a Fifth Avenue Apartment.

She spoke both French and English, being brought up both in NYC and Paris.

Here she is with her father (who is the man in the centre), at the Easter Day Parade in NYC in 1922.

A lot of people remarked on pain/sadness in her life, and she does have a wistful look in her eyes in the photo I posted for you to read. Well, she lost her father when she was 19, and she lost her beloved sister when she was 13. She married an impoverished law student, William Gower, when she was 22, but the marriage only lasted two years. The photo I posted for you to read (the one at the top) was taken the year her marriage ended. The couple divorced, with her claiming that he had deserted her and he claimed that she would not consummate the marriage. She had no children and never married again. Some articles I have read claim that she first began to withdraw from society around this time.

After that she lived with her mother, until her mother died in 1963. After her mother died, it is reported that she rarely left her home, becoming even more reclusive, and the last 20 years of her life were spent in various hospitals in NYC, under a false name. She was cared for by nurses, and only saw a few close friends, and employees. She was not ill but was frail.

So, why did she become a recluse?

We can only guess, but the following explanation does seem likely:

Some wonder if she became a recluse because she was paranoid that other people were after her money. Perhaps she did not trust outsiders, only allowing a very small circle of friends and advisors into her life. She apparently called money a “menace to happiness”. She was a very private person and spoke French where possible so that any eavesdroppers would not know what she was saying.

She left most of her colossal fortune to an arts charity. The fact that she left so much money to an arts charity belies her passion for art. She owned several famous pieces of art and was proficient both as a musician and an artist. She also had a passion for collecting dolls.

A small portion of her money was left to her goddaughter, doctor, private nurse, accountant and lawyer. Nothing was left to her family.

I saw this lady’s picture in the news, and thought she looked interesting. She has been in the news because she only died last year, and her accountant and lawyer are under investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for mismanagement of her assets. A judge noted in the last day or so that their mistakes and incompetence cost Huguette Clark’s estate $90 million.

Her Character

In the articles I have read, the people who did know her remember her as kind, quiet, and generous but distrusting of outsiders.

A lot of people picked up on a masculine energy with this lady, or perhaps ambivalence over her sexuality. It is impossible to say if she just has some masculine facial features (such as a wide jaw) or if was perhaps a lesbian (although in my experience, picking up on masculine energy does not necessarily mean a woman is a lesbian.) It probably wouldn’t be right or respectful of us to delve further there, so for those who picked up on this energy, we don’t know.

Here are some of the intuitive ‘hits’ those who did this experiment had:

- Wealthy (but that could be seen from the clothes she was wearing in the photo)
- sadness/pain in her personal life
- Not sociable
- Kind
- Doesn’t fit in
- Married at the time of the photo
- Belonged to ‘high society’
- Something broke her heart when she was in her 20′s
- Strong, determined (I have no evidence of this, but it is what I feel when I ‘tuned in’ to her. I felt she was quietly determined.)
- Guarded
- Trapped (perhaps she was trapped by her huge wealth?)
- Kept a low profile
- Uncomfortable in group situations (possibly)
- Interested in the arts and in music
- Had no kids (quite a few people got this)
- Sad about a missing family member
- Artistic
- Train tracks (her father built rail roads)

Lots of people had some really good ‘hits’. Well done.

I was going to make a list of the people who did really well here but reading the comments again, lots of people got two or three things right, and perhaps one thing wrong. So there were too many people to list.

How did you do?

I hope you learned something from it and had fun doing it.

Oh, and merry Christmas to all Psychic but Sane readers who celebrate it. I hope you have a lovely time with family, friends and wherever you are in the world.

And if you’re wondering how you can get to the point of reliably reading other peoples’ auras, then you may be interested in my Psychic Awakening course. In there, among other things, I share the specific technique I use in my readings to give reliable and accurate information about other people.

The 13 week Psychic Awakening course – go from zero to psychic in 13 weeks.

Here are just a few of the things taught in the course:

• Learn to communicate with your spirit guides and angels
• Learn and master the two essential keys to develop psychic abilites – these are not mentioned at all in 90% of courses, books and classes you will find out there.
• Find out which psychic gifts you have
• Know your life purpose & soul gifts
• Learn to read auras & know who other people really are

This is the most complete (and best value) home study course you will find, sold online or offline. I have done countless courses over the last several years, and picked up pieces of my psychic development puzzle that way – through books and various classes. It cost me a lot of money (thousands in fact) because I was passionate about it and I didn’t stop learning. But when I was studying, I thought to myself:

Wouldn’t it be better if I could have just learned all of this stuff in one place, and in a shorter period of time, instead of over years, searching for the pieces of the puzzle?

Then a few years later I made that course. I compiled everything I knew into one place, which you can do over 13 weeks (and pay a LOT less for!) than the years and thousands of dollars I spent on my psychic development. So essentially, you get the same knowledge, but in the order you need it, a lot quicker and a lot cheaper. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve had so many students take my course since it came out last year, who rave about it:

“I’ve taken many intuitive courses in the past and I can say without any doubt that Anna’s Psychic Awakening Course is by far the best I’ve ever done. Being an intuitive counselor myself on and off for 5 years, Anna’s course came as a “breath of fresh air” and taught me very practical and useful techniques that I use daily. ANYONE can do this course. This course is as much for beginners as it is for the professional intuitive….I had many ‘a-ha!’ moments, and in particular, it helped me in building my own confidence in my natural abilities. 13 weeks, that’s all it takes!”

— Frances O’Brien, The Healing Intuitive

“In conclusion, I am very impressed with this course and for the money it offers tremendous advantages for the “rest of us”. I am convinced that you can indeed be rational AND psychic. As long as you are committed to giving 100% of your effort you will be rewarded with new and profound insights into psychic development that will transform you into a more fulfilled person.”

— Joey | Read full review: http://www.rossosoft.com/PsychicButSaneReview.html

And you get access to a mentor (me!) throughout the whole time you’re doing it, for any questions or support you need! (I don’t know of any other psychic development home study course that offers this indefinitely.)

Go here to order or to find out more about the course.

(Or you can simply write them down at home, if you’re shy!)

The purpose of this psychic experiment is for you to improve your intuitive abilities when reading other people and gain some confidence. And of course to enjoy the experiment (no pressure – this is a game not a test!)

Here is the person I chose for this experiment:

In order to tune in, I recommend meditating for a minute to calm your mind, say the name of an Archangel (e.g. Archangel Michael) out loud, take a few deep breaths, and look at the photo, allowing your eyes to lose their focus. What impressions do you get? What do you feel?

Character and personality is usually the easiest thing to read in an aura, so the easiest thing to do is to get an impression about what type of woman she is.

Look into her eyes briefly and fill in the gap:

‘She looks like a ______________ woman.’

What adjective comes to mind straight away? Let one come through without thinking about it. If nothing comes through, take three deep breaths and look into her eyes and try again.

Remember that when you read someone, you will likely pick up on positive information (who she is on the soul level, what she is/was good at, her joys in life) and you may pick up on negative aspects too.

So if you get a bad feeling when you look at her, you may be picking up on some of her ‘stuff’ – her issues and struggles in life. So don’t be put off or worried if you get a bad feeling. A few people in the past have picked up a bad feeling about the person in the photo, and freaked out, assuming the person was somehow dark. But if you’re picking up on something negative, you may just be feeling how the person felt/feels. Just try to analyze the feeling and see if you can put a word on it. It may be relevant so make sure you submit any feelings that you get, too!

Here are some other questions to ask yourself upon tuning in:

(Take three deep breaths before you ask each question.)

1. Do you trust her?

2. Does she remind you of anyone you know or anyone you’ve met in the past? – if so, which characteristics do the two people share?

Remember that everyone is multi-faceted, so don’t be surprised if you receive seemingly contradictory information.

If you get an impression that you don’t understand, you will want to do further questioning around it by asking ‘What does this mean?’ Often, people will get an impression, not know what it means and leave it at that. But sometimes you have to ask follow up questions about your initial impressions in order to clarify them.

I will reveal who the lady in the photo is in three days time.

Please leave a comment letting me know your impressions. In the article that is coming up I will post some feedback and tips based on your collective findings. I am looking forward to reading what you get!

See the results of this Psychic Experiment!

You can find out who this woman was by reading this article: Results of the Psychic Experiment

More Psychic Experiments:

Psychic Experiment #1
Psychic Experiment #2
Psychic Experiment #3
Psychic Experiment #4

Jerry Hicks, who helped to bring the channelled Abraham-Hicks teachings into the world, passed away on November 18^th 2011 after a short battle with cancer. Rest in peace, Jerry Hicks.

Just in case you are unfamiliar with Abraham-Hicks and wondering who this Jerry Hicks guy is: 

Jerry Hicks was married to a lady called Esther Hicks, who claimed to be channelling a group of entities that called itself Abraham. Their teachings have been extremely popular. They have written many books, including one which was #1 on the NY Times Bestseller list. Abraham-Hicks called itself the ‘Secret behind the Secret’ and says that their teachings ‘are that which is at the heart of all religions.’

Here are some of the tenets of their extremely popular spiritual teachings (taken from this page on their website.)

Individuals are physical extensions of the non-physical.

People are in their bodies because they chose to be.

The basis of life is freedom; the purpose of life is joy.

People are creators; they create with their thoughts.

Whatever people can imagine is theirs to be, or do, or have.

Individuals choose their creations as they choose their thoughts.

Emotions indicate what people are creating.

The Universe adores people; it knows their broadest intentions.

Individuals should relax into their natural well-being, and know that all is well.

Life is not meant to be a struggle, but a process of allowing.

People are creators of “thoughtways” on their unique ‘paths of joy’.

Actions and money are by-products of focusing on joy.

Individuals may depart their body without illness or pain.

People cannot die; their lives are everlasting.

I wasn’t sure whether to write an article on the Law of Attraction on the back of Jerry Hicks’ death as I didn’t want to be disrespectful. But then I thought, actually constructive criticism and disagreement isn’t disrespectful. Plus some outrageous things have been written about the Hicks’ by some adoring fans who expect Jerry to be able to manifest eternal life.

Here are some of the ideas above that I DO agree with:

You Are Here in This Body Because You Chose to Be Here

You Can Not Die; You Are Everlasting Life (i.e. your soul is immortal)

In this article I am also going to talk about some of the aspects of their teachings that I personally think are unhelpful for having a great life. The following is not meant to convert anyone round to my way of thinking. We all have our paths to walk, but mine is definitely not the Law of attraction path.

Our work as human beings is to experiment and find the path that is right for us.

I love this quote that a reader of this blog sent to me:

“Do not put your faith in traditions, even though they have been accepted for long generations and in many countries.

Do not believe a thing because many repeat it. Do not accept a thing on the authority of one or another of the sages of old,
nor on the grounds of statements as found in the books.

Never believe anything because probability is in its favor.

Do not believe in that which you yourself have imagined, thinking that a god has inspired it.

Believe nothing merely on the authority of teachers or priests.

After examination, believe that which you have tested for yourself and found reasonable, which is in conformity with your well being and that of others.”

Kalama Sutta – Buddha

If you’re using the extremely popular Law of attraction teachings and you’re no closer to where you want to be, then maybe it’s not for you.

Here’s what I disagree with:

You Are a Creator; You Create With Your Every Thought.

We are not creators – we are co-creators. We do not just create through our thoughts, emotions or vibration. Our lives are partly created for us by our souls. We come into this lifetime with a family already in place for us and of course with a body.

How does this get put in place? Well, my personal belief is that our souls choose the circumstances, lessons, body and family before we even get here. I believe that as immortal souls, we learn through a succession of incarnations, and some may be difficult, while others may be easy and pleasant. As souls and as human beings we can learn a great deal from adversity.

But how much of this adversity do we create? I feel it is unfair to suggest that anyone consciously attracts hardship, suffering or illness. I believe that we can react and respond to the circumstances and events which are thrown at us, but we do not attract all of them according to our thoughts or preferences. Some of them are just going to show up for us on our path.  Because God, the universe, or our souls (or whatever you want to believe it is) decided that’s our path of learning.

(This is just my belief, of course.)

I believe that there are two forces at work in your life. Your soul or God is the force that throws lemons at you, and you as the conscious human being are the force that makes lemonade out of the lemons (if you wish to.) Obviously this applies most when you experience something that you think is not what you wanted.

In February of this year, I went through a horrible earthquake that destroyed some of the city I lived in, and shook me to my core. Did I attract this, through a dodgy vibrational mis-alignment? Was my energy attuned to earthquakes and disasters, as the Abraham-Hicks teachings would say? I don’t think so.

I was just going about my business when an earthquake struck. The earthquake has been an amazing catalyst for growth in my life. This year I have made more serious plans for my life. I understand more fully what is important to me. I have found more courage and strength, because I have seen planet Earth at its worst (death and destruction!) Either you live or you die, and I survived and I feel I am living life more fully. The earthquake was a catalyst for this.

Basically, I’m saying that life is what you make of it, and some are dealt an easy hand and some are not.  Not all seemingly bad things are created by us because of a ‘vibrational misalignment’ – some are blessings in disguise (at least for me – it wouldn’t be right for me to suppose that those who lost loved ones in the earthquake also feel the same way.)

In my opinion, where some followers of Abraham-Hicks go wrong is that they think you can consciously attract everything through your thoughts and energy, including: illnesses, disasters, financial abundance or lack thereof, and all of life’s opportunities.

I’ve read some crazy articles online about how Jerry Hicks, as a teacher of Law of Attraction and a man in his eighties, should be able to manifest his way out of illness (after all, isn’t this what Abraham taught?) Maybe some people who follow the A-H teachings feel disappointed that he didn’t manage to manifest the illness away.

But you can’t necessarily manifest illness (or make it go away) through your thoughts, because it isn’t JUST you who is creating – it is your soul (or God) too.

Maybe your soul decides that in your life, you’re not going to live longer than 90 (bearing in mind that 90 is a grand old age – I heard that Jerry was in his late eighties). Maybe at age 90, your soul is done on its journey. And so around the age of 89, you get an illness and pass away. No amount of ‘manifesting’ is going to make that illness disappear, because your soul has made its mind up.

Those who follow the teachings of Abraham-Hicks are ignoring that our souls (the non-physical part of us) drive some of what we experience in our lives – the good and the bad. If we fight the reality and tell ourselves that we can make an unpleasant situation (like illness) go away by feeling really good while ignoring reality, or calling it something else, we are disconnected from reality, and less able to actually take the actions that CAN successfully shape our lives – like making the lemonade out of those lemons we were given.  We are also not honouring the fact that as souls we have lessons to learn, stresses that will inevitably show up in our lives, and as humans, we do get sick and die.

I am not saying we should always surrender to destiny as if we control nothing, but I am saying that life will sometimes send us something we do not like (such as an illness or a disaster) and that’s not within our conscious, human control.

I believe that the actions you take can shape your reality much, much more than your thoughts do. 

Other aspects of the Law of Attraction teachings which have never sat well with me:

Anything That You Can Imagine is Yours to Be or Do or Have.

I can imagine becoming an Olympic runner but I know I’m not ever going to be one, being a short-arse (around 5ft tall.)

My talents and capacities are restricted. So are yours. I am good at foreign languages, doing readings and healing sessions with people, and writing. I am not good at music or sewing or most sports. I can imagine being a concert pianist or sewing my own curtains beautifully but I’m better off leaving it to someone else.

I have learned that it’s more helpful to cast the net a little less wide and focus on what you are good at. Rather than imagining all the wild possibilities out there and getting distracted. That way you enjoy more success, waste less time and make more money (or “abundance” as Abraham-Hicks euphemistically call it.)

Yes, part of our path as souls may be to overcome our limitations as we grow and learn. Maybe I could become amazing at sewing or music if I really wanted. But it’s not in alignment with reality to say that we can have anything we want. Having what we want requires much more than simply imagining we can do it, or visualizing it. It may require a shift in mindset and changing our beliefs about who we are. It may require therapy, healing, coaching and developing courage. Not to mention hard work and effort.

On planet Earth, there are most definitely conditions to what we can be, do or have.

As You Are Choosing Your Thoughts, Your Emotions Are Guiding You.

A lot of the teachings of Abraham-Hicks are focused around the idea that if it isn’t fun, don’t do it. Because if you’re sending out bad-feeling vibes, you’ll attract more of that.

I personally don’t agree at all – I don’t always find it fun to do the things that make my life better and more enjoyable in the long run. But doing them makes life better than it was before.

Sometimes your emotions guide you, and sometimes they deceive you. Fear, for example, means you perceive a threat. It doesn’t mean the threat is real. In my experience, the more you can overcome your fears, the greater the rewards.

If you try to feel good all the time, and only do the things that make you feel good, you’ll have a very unremarkable life.

In my opinion.

What do you think?

This is an interview with Lisa Wechtenhiser, who is an intuitive, medium and healer at Practically Intuitive.

One of the reasons why I wanted to interview Lisa is because I regularly get questions from readers about mediumship – the practice of being a medium. Lisa is a medium AND a psychic (a medium is someone who can talk to the dead and pass on messages from the dead.) Whereas a psychic (like me) is someone who can talk to other beings such as spirit guides, and the higher self, but does not talk to the dead.

In this interview Lisa and I talk about all kinds of topics relating to mediumship. Included you’ll find tips and tidbits of info such as:

• How to contact your deceased loved ones
• Lisa’s thoughts on questions such as, ‘Can anyone be a medium?’
• How Lisa discovered her gift of mediumship

And more.

If you have a question about the general topic of mediumship that Lisa and I don’t go into, perhaps you can leave a comment at the end and one of us will do our best to answer it.

Enjoy!

******************************************

Anna: Lisa, how did you discover you had a gift for mediumship? How did you get into this area of work? I’m quite curious to hear about this!

Lisa: I think it truly started when my goddaughter passed away in 2006. I’ve always had the sense that there is more to life than just the physical part and Lauren was a big influence in helping me experience that. While I could ‘hear’ her very clearly, I didn’t think I’d be able to ‘hear’ anyone else. But, doing Reiki healing on others was where it really blossomed for me. I think there’s something about that vibration that makes it easier to tune in. As I was doing sessions for my Reiki clients, I often got their deceased loved ones wanting to share a message. I don’t even recall asking for the gift or even understanding it until I got more used to it happening with my Reiki clients.

Anna: This sort of brings me to the next question. Do you think that mediumship is a gift that everyone can learn, or do you think that there are some people who are just naturally attuned to the vibration of deceased loved ones? More than they are attuned to say, spirit guides or angels? And another thing I was wondering…Maybe it is a common thing for a mediumship gift to show itself when a person has lost a loved one?

Lisa: To answer your last question first, yes. I think there is something about the loss and the grief and the longing for that connection to continue that creates an intention for mediumship. It certainly did for me. But I don’t know that everyone has the ability to connect with the other side just yet. (I think it will come once we get we are all connected and know how to work with telepathy skills.) I think I’ve learned to read the signs and have created my own vocabulary to understand those things, as I have with my psychic skills. It’s just another ‘language’, really. But I do think the intent to connect has to be there, the willingness to be open to what shows up and the ability to take what you get and learn to decipher it.

Anna: A question I personally have: Does receiving messages from deceased loved ones feel much different from receiving messages from spirit guides or a person’s Higher Self? Do you experience it differently?

Lisa: Not overly so, no. The vibration is higher with guides and teachers than it is with the deceased loved one, and I can discern that but the energy of the loved one is very clear.

Anna: I am asking this I guess because the times when I’ve gotten a message from a deceased relative on behalf of a client, it feels totally different from talking to spirit guides. It’s like I have to strain really hard to understand what they mean – like hearing someone down a crackly phone from a long way away. Whereas talking to spirit guides is like being in the room with someone. Maybe you don’t experience it that way because you’re already attuned to the deceased loved ones.

Lisa: Interesting. For me, it’s pretty much the same. It’s a different vibration when I’m communicating with deceased loved ones, yes, but as clear as the info I get from Spirit Guides.

Anna: I have also got a lot of emotion come through when talking to the deceased. I feel a lot of love coming through, whereas with the guides I don’t get that as much. But it’s only happened to me a few times so I don’t have many experiences to draw on.

Lisa: Yes, exactly. I feel the BIG LOVE that comes through from the deceased. Every once in a while, I get that from a person’s Spirit Guides but it’s not quite the same. I’ve often had the deceased explain things to the person about what happened or how much they love them. It’s kind of nice. Maybe as a medium I feel a lot of emotion from the deceased because they are closer to our vibration than Guides?

Anna: Yeah. I enjoyed it the times it happened. It is nice.

Lisa: My goddaughter always comes through *TWINKLY* – it’s nice.

Anna: That is nice. I’m also thinking about why a person might have the gift of mediumship and be attuned to deceased loved ones. You mentioned that you lost your goddaughter. I think that we are often called to help others with things we’ve been through ourselves. So that we can understand the person’s suffering and help them – just a side thought.

Lisa: Yes, connecting with those on the other side feels like a very sacred thing – like I would never ever do it as a “party trick”.

Anna: Yes. I know what you mean.

Lisa: Which is why I can’t watch TV shows like NJ Medium because it feels like it’s taking something I consider sacred and putting it on for show. For people who aren’t familiar with it, NJ Medium is a television show here in the US about a woman in New Jersey who is a medium. She’s real kitschy and I think it’s the “Hollywood” version of a medium. I don’t like that.

Anna: What about shows like ‘Medium’? Do her experiences as shown on the show bear any resemblence to the reality of channelling a deceased person? For example, do you get hit over the head with a message for someone when you’re out and about, and is it vivid like watching a movie? Because the medium on that program has very dramatic experiences, but maybe that’s because it’s for TV so it has to be dramatic.

Lisa: I think that was inspired by a real life medium with an eye toward it being as realistic as possible. For me, it’s not like a movie. It’s often in the bathroom when I am “visited” by the deceased and it’s always something I hear with my “mind’s ear” (Note from Anna – through clairaudience). I generally don’t get pictures, I get words – sentences, as if they are just chatting with me.

Anna: I see. I have lots of people who comment on this blog who have recently lost someone. Do you think it’s possible to ‘be your own medium’? If so, how can those people contact their loved ones? What are the ways in which deceased loved ones might be getting our attention?

Lisa: I do think it’s possible to receive messages from deceased loved ones. I’ve heard about people receiving a phone call with no one at the other end shortly after their loved one dies. We all got that from Lauren the morning she passed away – I did, her mom did, my other cousin (one of Lauren’s favorites) did – and we all knew it was from her. I know a woman whose deceased husband leaves her playing cards around the nightstand.

Anna: So, they can move objects and our belongings.

Lisa: I think the intent has to be there, first. You have to want to connect with them and if they are available to connect back, they will. Electricity is especially easy for them to work with. Songs are also a good medium (ha!) for connecting.

Anna: My grandparents experienced that too with my mum’s sister, who passed away several years ago.

Lisa: How cool – I love reminders like that. Did it surprise your grandparents?

Anna: No. They believe in the afterlife so it didn’t surprise them.

Lisa: That’s pretty open…good for them!

Anna: I had a dream in which my mother’s sister told me she was messing with the clocks. It was a few months after she passed, and I rang my grandparents and told them. They said that their big old grandfather clock was doing strange things, and they’ve had it for decades. It had only just started malfunctioning. It stopped playing up when they realised it was her.

Lisa: Interesting! I guess she just wanted their attention!

Anna: Yeah. So they can mess with objects, use electricity and come into our dreams. And there’s the songs. What about if we aren’t getting any communication at all from a recently departed loved one, but we want to?

Lisa: Just like our Spirit Guides do, I think the deceased use whatever they can to reach us.

Anna: Can we make more of an effort? Is there anything that can be done?

Lisa: I almost never hear from my mom. She died six months after Lauren and she’s very, very quiet. I think there are things that we can do (for example, intend to connect, and be open to signs) but if nothing shows up, perhaps there are other things that the soul/person needs to be doing on the other side. I think people can feel abandoned because they don’t hear / see / feel but that’s not true that they’ve been abandoned. There just may be other things going on – that’s my sense. Maybe my mom doesn’t want to talk to me! (My mom would talk to a wall if she could!)

Anna: So, in terms of other things that a soul can be doing on the other side — I guess they have somewhere else to be, as part of the next stage in their soul’s evolution.

Lisa: Yes, perhaps the next stage is all-consuming. If my mom rolls around, I’ll have to ask her. It’s just my sense that if they don’t show up, don’t take it personally.

Anna: For example, a soul might be planning their next incarnation, doing a lot of healing on the ‘other side’ or learning about something they need for a subsequent incarnation?

Lisa: Yes. That would be my guess. I’ve heard that there’s a life review when you pass over and perhaps getting some of those lessons and figuring out where to go next is paramount.

Anna: Yes. I have heard that too.

Lisa: I feel bad when people want to connect with a deceased loved one and the person doesn’t show up. My friend’s mom died and she asked me to connect with her and nothing came through. Until one day, in the bathroom, she came to me and said “I’m ready now”. She shared a message that brought tears to my friend.

Anna: Wow, so it’s really when they’re ready. Just because you might not hear anything now doesn’t mean they won’t show up later.

Lisa: Yes, that’s my sense (and experience).

Anna: OK. I read about a technique in a book which I want to share. I don’t know if it works but it seemed like a great technique. It was in a book called Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Michael Newton.

Lisa: I believe I read that a while ago.

Anna: Michael Newton is a hypnotherapist who regresses people to past lives and between lifetimes, in order to help them to understand and heal things about this lifetime. He actually started off as an atheist, I believe, but soon became to believe in the afterlife when the descriptions of the afterlife from his clients who were regressed under hypnosis, seemed to be very similar. This is what some of his clients have said from their memories of being a deceased person and trying to get through to a loved one who was left behind on earth.

1. It’s really hard because when you lose someone, the grief makes it hard to connect. It’s like it clouds the connection, so it can sometimes be easier to connect with a deceased loved one in a dream when you’re grieving, because the grief that clouds things isn’t so huge when you’re asleep.

Lisa: That could very well be true. I wonder if it’s because I was very familiar with my clairaudient gifts that I was able to tune in so clearly.

Anna: 2. If I remember correctly, Michael Newton recommended to take a garment or a possession of the deceased loved one, and hold it, focusing on the person, thinking about them, remembering them and the sound of their voice. And ask them if there is anything they want to say to you, and see what comes to you. It might be a sense of knowing that your deceased loved one is OK. Or it could be a sentence that you get. or a song comes into your head, or you get a vision, or whatever.

Lisa: That’s an interesting idea. Making that connection in the physical as a bridge to them on the other side. The thing there is to trust what you get. That’s where people get hung up. If you do an exercise like that and get a song lyric or something that is meaningful, a lot of people seem to think it’s a “coincidence”. It’s totally not.

Anna: Good point! I know exactly what you mean.

Lisa: So much of what I do in general with my clients, and you too, perhaps, is validate for them what they get. I’d say most of them really ARE picking up the messages and the signs but they don’t always trust themselves.

Anna: Yes, I think you’re right.

Lisa: I always try to point that out – many times I’ll say, “There’s nothing I told you that you didn’t already know. But you just needed some validation on it.” That helps them learn to trust (even just a bit more) what they get. And that’s really the key to all of this whether you’re talking with Guides, loved ones or even animals – TRUST WHAT YOU GET! I grew up trusting what my mom got (she was intuitive too) and it’s served me well.

Anna: And that’s the name of an e-book you wrote, right Lisa?

Lisa: Yes, funny you mention that!

Anna: Let’s say a person can’t connect to their dearly departed on their own. And needs some help. That’s where a medium can come in, right? So I have some questions about mediumship readings. Is it OK for a person to consult a medium right after someone has died? Is that the best time? Is there an ideal time to consult a medium?

Lisa: Good question. I think there’s no “perfect time” to consult with a medium. It’s when you wish to know something. However, I will say that it’s best to not get dependent on the medium to do this. Say what you need to say, get to some place of peace and resolution and continue to move forward. Meaning, don’t spend all your time trying to communicate with your loved one. They have stuff to do too but it can lead to “spiritual imbalance” or spiritual addiction, as you mention in your course. I don’t talk to my Goddaughter Lauren 24/7, but she pops in once in a while and we say ‘hi’ and then I go back to my life, and she to her work. I don’t want to foster that dependence in any of my work and I know you feel the same.

Anna: That makes sense. Yes. Plus, we will meet again with our loved ones when we ourselves end this lifetime, so it’s not forever.

Lisa: Absolutely. That’s what I remind myself when I’m roaming a store and see something that I Lauren and I would giggle about – I know it’s just a temporary distance. I think understanding the big picture of the soul’s path helps. Even though I desperately didn’t want Lauren to leave, I understood that it was part of her soul’s contract and all I asked for was the courage to walk that path with her. It doesn’t mean I don’t miss her but it does mean that I understand the bigger picture. I know that we’ll be together again.

Anna: Yes, that is good to remember.

Lisa: I’d be sad if I thought this was all there was.

Anna: Yes, me too! I’d be really depressed.

Lisa: For real! I can’t even imagine thinking that.

Anna: Nope. I think that atheists are rather brave!

Lisa: Me too. Good thing I know otherwise. That’s their path of evolution – I’m all for following our path.

Anna: Yes. Another question — before a reading, do you need to know anything about the deceased person you’re trying to connect with? or do you prefer to know nothing? I know some mediums who prefer to know nothing and some who don’t.

Lisa: I prefer to know less than more, but I’ve done it both ways and the information that comes through is good so it’s all in what the person wants to share, I think.

Anna: So, it doesn’t matter so much – basically, whatever the client feels comfortable with?

Lisa: Yes, that’s how I do it. I imagine each person finds what they’re comfortable with doing readings. I love doing “cold” readings where I know nothing. They’re my favorite.

Anna: Do you think that deceased loved ones can become our spirit guides, or reincarnate into our family? What are your experiences with that? Often people think that their deceased relative has become their spirit guide when they’ve passed, for example. Are they just confusing the person popping in with a bit of guidance and advice, with the actual role of being a spirit guide?

Lisa: I’ve heard that asked before and my sense is no, they don’t become our spirit guides. Again, this is just my sense and not “the word of law” but I believe that Guides are much, much more evolved than we are at present and if someone’s recently departed, it’s my feeling that they have not yet reached that point. I think you’re right – there may be some confusion there. The vibrations are very different.

Anna: OK. Perhaps people think this because a deceased person can pop in with guidance from time to time? Or advice? That is, if they’re watching over someone. And a person can confuse that guidance with the guidance that comes from a Spirit Guide. But it’s actually not coming from the same source.

Lisa: That difference is perhaps not something a non-intuitive/psychic can discern easily. I think our loved ones ARE often around but not like our guardian angels. They have their work to do as well.

Anna: Yes. Totally. What happens if the deceased loved one you’re trying to contact has already reincarnated into another incarnation? Can you still contact them?

Lisa: I would say yes – you can still contact them because they communicate from the soul level and not the personality level. Again, that’s my sense.

Anna: Can deceased loved ones incarnate into our families? Say, for example, will a grandparent pass away and then come into the same family as the great grandchild?

Lisa: I suppose that could happen – I don’t see why not. It’s all in the life contracts we make pre-incarnation. I talked with a woman last night – and it became clear that she and her daughter were also mother/daughter in another incarnation and came back to do it again this time. So, sure. Why not? What’s your sense?

Anna: I think it happens often with miscarried babies – as in, if a baby is miscarried, often that baby might come back at a later date and incarnate into that family as a child, if the mother gets pregnant later on.

Lisa: I could see that.

Anna: That’s what I’ve heard and I think that’s where it happens a lot. But I don’t think it happens that a grandparent incarnates as the great grandchild as often as people think it does.

Lisa: If the soul contract was to do that, then yes, I can totally see that happening.

Anna: I think it might happen, but probably not as often as we think.

Lisa: I also heard you can’t reincarnate into an animal but I’m not sure that’s true.

Anna: Yes. I read that in Michael Newton’s book Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives – that animals are on a different soul path from humans. So, it’s highly unlikely they will incarnate as a human. As unlikely as a human would suddenly veer from their path and try out an animal incarnation.

Lisa: I’ll have to dig through my voluminous library and grab that book again!

Anna: It’s a great book!

Lisa: Yes, that’s my understanding as well.

Anna: I just finished it. It’s actually two books. The first is Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives and the second is Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives. They are both good…

Anna:So, what do you think happens after death? Maybe that is a big question. Could you summarise the important bits?

Lisa: You go through your Life review – look at the lessons you learned, set up your next incarnation, float around with harps and send songs to various radio stations to be heard by the ones you left behind! Okay, I made up the last two. I’m not sure about the harps. I am sure, though, about the life review. I’ve heard that the movie with Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep (it’s called ‘Defending Your Life’) – gives an idea.

Anna: I would add healing to those steps as well – what do you think? Maybe for the souls who didn’t do a lot of healing while they were incarnated. Some people can go through a lot of trauma in their lifetime and then when they get to the other side, they have a lot of healing to do.

Lisa: Yes, I’d add healing (and harps). Seriously, though, that’s one of the reasons I think my mom is incommunicado. She had a lot go on in her life and I think she needed a lot of time to process it. Others have communicated with her, though, and she’s told them that she’s around me more than I know.

Anna: I wonder if cutting cords of attachment while you’re alive means you have less to process when you’ve died? That’s just a thought I had.

Lisa: That’s a good question. I’m inclined to say yes.

Anna: Yes, I am too, because you can get the lessons from your relationships in this lifetime, rather than waiting until you cross over.

Lisa: Yes, and move along your path faster. I think I’ll ask my Spirit guides about that. It’s food for thought. I think anything we do here in the physical to facilitate healing and growth helps immensely.

Anna: One last question: What are your favourite books on the afterlife/death/grieving? Any that you’d recommend to readers? I’d recommend Michael Newton’s books Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives and Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives
for anyone who really wants to understand the soul’s path better.

Lisa: I’d agree with you about the two you mentioned. Thanks for interviewing me!

Anna: It was a pleasure. Thank you!

If you have specific questions or want connection or communication with a deceased loved one, you might want to book a private reading with Lisa here.

Or do you have a general question about mediumship that we didn’t answer in this interview? If so, please leave your question in a comment and one of us will respond.

If you know nothing about cords of attachment, or cutting them in order to bring about healing, you might like to read this article: Cord Cutting as a Technique to Improve Relationships and Your Emotional Health.

In response to the question: ‘How many cords of attachment should I have cut?’

Some clients have one cord cut, others have a few, others have several or more cut.

It all depends on how far you want to go with the healing and how much you get out of it. The people who get several cords cut feel a shift afterwards and get good results and so they want to keep on going.

It all depends on how much you like this method of healing and how motivated you are to create healing and change in your life.

I personally love this way of healing and have cut somewhere between 35 and 40 cords (although I don’t cut all of my own cords, I get some of them cut with my lovely friend Kate Strong.)

Here are times when you might want to consider having another cord cutting session:

• When you have something you want to change or heal about your life

You can bring virtually any intention to a cord cutting session, including ‘I want to be more empowered’ or ‘I want to be more effective in life’ or ‘I want to have a better relationship with my father’ or whatever. It can be about your relationships, ability to earn money, self-expression, self-care, empowerment, etc. The intentions have to be in the realm of thought, feeling or behaviour. The only intentions you can’t bring are intentions relating to your physicality like ‘I want to heal X disease’. 

Those clients who get several sessions of aura healing are the ones who are passionate about their personal development and always wishing to move forwards and heal.

More reasons why people get a cord cutting session…

• When memories and relationships from the past are bothering you

If you are haunted by memories which make you feel ashamed, bad, regretful, sad etc., cutting the cords of attachment to the people involved can help to close the door on those past events.

I personally have received the most benefits from cutting cords of attachment to parents, siblings, a teacher from high school who bullied and humiliated me for years when I was in her class, someone who physically attacked me, and difficult former employers and co-workers.

Think of the most troubled and difficult relationships you’ve had in your life – you can guarantee that you will have a pretty nasty cord of attachment to those people. I’m thinking of relationships where there has been bullying, manipulating, attacking, acrimony and particularly nasty conflict.

• When you are having relationship problems

People get a lot out of cutting the cord of attachment to their present partner or spouse.

If you have a difficult relationship with a parent or anyone else in your family, cord cutting can also help. I’m not saying it will change the other person, but it can help to change how you feel when you interact with the person with whom you’re having difficulties.

One of my clients Mandeep gave me a testimonial because he has found his relationships with his family have become more harmonious following the work we did:

I’ve worked with Anna several times over the last few months, and it has been a real pleasure. She has always made me feel safe and at ease with her lack of judgement and understanding.

Through our cord cutting sessions she has successfully highlighted a number of patterns that were affecting my wellbeing and helped me to clear those from my daily life. Her insights were infinitely beyond guesswork as she was able to pinpoint exact details of events and thought patterns that existed in my relationships. Since my sessions, my relationships with my family are so much more improved and I feel much calmer around them. Although there are certain times where I may still get a reactionary feeling, it’s like I have a deep understanding that it’s just a pattern that’s running and I have a choice and control of how I react in a situation.

I feel that a lot has shifted for me and would recommend a cord cutting session to people looking to increase the emotional stability and foundation in a particular relationship.”

Cutting a cord of attachment is not the only service I offer for aura healing. Sometimes I may suggest another type of session for you, which can help you to bring about your intention, such as removing astral debris.

Here are more articles on cutting cords of attachment:

What Happens in a Cord-cutting Session

Cord Cutting – Client Experiences

Got questions about this type of healing or curious about something related to cord cutting? Please leave me a comment if you do.

Over the last 12 months I’ve had plenty of questions about ghosts, poltergeists and general spooky stuff.  Seeing as my website is all about the practical aspects of developing intuition, I tend not to focus too much on the spooky stuff. But today is different, being Halloween! So in this short article I’m going to look at one of the spooky questions from the last year.

Question:

I’ve become aware of a presence of a spirit in my apartment. I have started to channel it through automatic writing and dowsing with a necklace. Do you have any tips that can help me to communicate with this spirit?

– Nathaniel

My Thoughts:

Nathaniel, my recommendation would be not to channel it.

There is a huge difference between a roaming spirit that is present in your apartment and the spirits you’re meant to communicate with – your Spirit Guides and your Higher Self.

In my experience, it’s OK to channel your spirit guides, but it’s not good to communicate with random spirits who might be present in your apartment.

Here’s why:

The random spirit in your apartment is called an astral entity. That is the technical name for it.  It’s also commonly called a ghost.

An astral entity is a dead person who has not fully crossed over to the astral realm and so a part of them (their emotional or mental body) is still on Earth.

The spirits of dead people (aka astral entities) often hang around hospitals, police stations, funeral parlours, cemeteries, bars, clubs, and hotels.

Why do some people not cross over after death? Well, there can be lots of reasons.  One of them is that the person might have been an addict when they were alive, and they are not willing to cross over into a place where there is no alcohol or whatever drug they were addicted to when they were alive.

Another reason might be that the person believed in hell when they were alive, and they’re afraid they’re going there. The reasons are always negative ones, meaning that dead people who stick around here are generally fearful and/or stuck.

So if you communicate with the astral entity (or dead person) in your apartment, you can be sure that you will not be getting good advice. It’s like going up to a homeless drug addict and channelling them.  You might get some strange and not so coherent answers. They might mess you around a bit. Try it and see (or preferably just take my word for it!) Channelling a dead person is pretty strange. They change their mind a lot and say weird things.

They also draw on your energy and attach to your aura. This is a little bit draining. But mostly they’re pesky because they give rubbish advice.

(You can find out more about astral entities by reading this article.)

Just because a spirit is not in a body does not make it worth channelling!

This topic is quite timely really, because it has a lot to do with Halloween!

Halloween actually originated with the Ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Originally people lit fires and wore costumes in order to ward off roaming ghosts (i.e. the spirits of dead people that I’ve been talking about.)  There was a reason why they did this: 

They knew that we should not channel or have random dead people hanging around, unless they are our ancestors (who are different from lost spirits who are just roaming around) or unless we are helping them to cross over.  Astral entities are draining and unhelpful.

Anyone who does psychic development needs to remember this.

Instead, channel your Spirit Guides or your Higher Self.

What are Spirit Guides?

Spirit Guides are very different from random dead people.  Spirit Guides were the spirits who were assigned to you at birth and sometimes even before you were even born, to give you advice and guidance throughout your earthly life.  These spirits do not draw on your energy at all.

If you’re interested in learning more about spirit guides, read this article: What Are Spirit Guides & How to Work with Them

Your Spirit Guides (unlike random dead people) know you inside out.  They know your soul’s path and lessons.  They are also high vibrational and can see your life from a high vantage point.

Dead people are simply not very useful beings to have around. So save yourself the trouble of channelling this random spirit in your apartment, Nathaniel, and instead learn to communicate with your Spirit Guides or your Higher Self.

In my Psychic Awakening course we learn how to channel your spirit guides and of course your own soul (also called your ‘higher self’.) We stay away from the astral entities.

I’ve also got some free articles and a free e-book which can start you off.

Here’s the link to download my free e-book if you have not already: 9 Essential Steps to Develop Psychic Abilities

And here are some links to useful articles which focus on spirit guides and other good sources of guidance:

5 Tips and Insights to Help You Work with Your Spirit Guides

How to Do Automatic Writing

Which Is your Strongest Intuitive Gift?

Connecting with Your Higher Self

Happy Halloween!

Did you ever wonder why it’s so exhausting to be around someone who thinks they know what is ‘best for you’ – and lets you know about it, all the time?

I’m talking about those people in your life who dish out persistent advice and recommendations about very personal subjects like:

• What your religious/spiritual path and beliefs should be
• How you should spend your money
• What your priorities in life should be
• What you should do to fix your health/love life/finances/social life/career, etc.
• How you should dress

Etc.

I’m sure you have at some point come across someone who constantly offers well-meaning (but unwanted) advice in one of those areas?

The thing about being around someone who offers constant unwanted prescriptions and advice for your life is that it’s not just draining in a surface way. It can affect your aura in an unexpected way.

When I read for someone who has been bossed around a lot (and who has never been able to say ‘Please stop bossing me around’) it shows up in their aura as a kind of negative ‘stuff’ called psychic coercion.

Psychic coercion is astral level clutter that gets deposited in your aura when you are nagged, bossed around and told what to do. But it doesn’t get deposited every time this happens. The nagging and bossing needs to happen more than once, and usually as a result of the person on the receiving end of the coercion FAILING to tell someone to back off.

When you have had a life full of being bossed around (say if you have had domineering family members or partners), your aura can be so full of psychic coercion that it’s like clutter that stands in the way of you knowing what it is YOU want, and taking action on that, confidently. It can make it harder for you to move forwards.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate this:

Several years ago, when I got my first job as an English teacher in France, I was pretty irresponsible with my money.  I was having financial crises every month because I’d spend my money on silly things that I didn’t need, then not be able to afford the basics. And it took me months to stop doing that. I was going through that phase some people go through when they first have a salary.  At the time I had a friend who saw me lurch from one crisis to another. She used to lend me money here and there as I needed it and although I always paid her back, suffice to say she wasn’t too impressed at how irresponsible I was with my money.

She would constantly nag, boss me and moan about my behaviour. She stopped lending me money (rightly so.)  Later on, when I wouldn’t be able to afford something she wanted to do with me, she would be annoyed with me and the lectures would start up.

In the end I got fed up of the constant negativity coming from her about how I was irresponsible, so one evening I snapped. I angrily told her that I didn’t want any more advice or comments from her ever again. We fell out for a few weeks and then we made up again. She didn’t dish out any more advice after that and I starting learning how to be more sensible with money (this happened on its own later on.)

The falling out could have been prevented by me firmly saying pretty early on:

“Thanks for your advice, but I don’t want to talk about my financial situation anymore. It is mine to deal with, not yours.”

But I didn’t, instead I just got very resentful over a period of months about the bossing and nagging that came from this person, and then exploded in the end.

Sound familiar?

Being nagged and bossed (and unable to tell someone to ‘push off’) can create negative ‘stuff’ for you in your aura and psychic coercion is the most common kind of stuff to show up for people in a situation like this.

How Can You Know if Psychic Coercion is a Problem for You?

Here are some signs that psychic coercion is the number 1 form of astral debris or ‘clutter’ you need to clear from your aura:

• You feel unclear about what it is that YOU want/think/feel
• Other peoples’ expectations and judgments weigh heavily on you
• You feel guilty if you do something that YOU want (as opposed to something you’ve been told/advised to do)
• You find it hard to speak up and say when you disagree with something someone is prescribing or recommending for you
• You worry about what others will think of you if you do your own thing and ignore their advice

When psychic coercion is an issue, you can get stuck in a cycle of doing as you’re told, then you wonder why you’re so frustrated.  Clearing psychic coercion can be very freeing and empowering, allowing you to reconnect with what you want, and act on that.  If you find it hard to tell people to back off, you may indeed have a lot of psychic coercion cluttering up your aura.

How to Prevent Psychic Coercion from Affecting You

In order to avoid psychic coercion being deposited in your aura, you need to let people know their advice for how you live your life is not needed or wanted.  Often we have no idea how to do this (some people don’t even possess the language for it), especially if we’ve never seen parents or care-givers do it with others.

Phrases like the following ones are helpful:

“Please don’t make comments or judgments on my finances/social life/spiritual path again. It is up to me to decide what’s right for me, not you.”

“Thanks for your advice, but I don’t agree. I don’t want to talk about this again.”

If someone is persistently pestering or nagging you after you have told them to back off, there is always the option of deleting their email/ending the conversation/leaving the room (and letting them know ahead of time that this is what is going to happen if they bring up the subject.)

Remember, the best way to prevent psychic coercion from cluttering up your aura is to politely but firmly let people know that their advice/nagging/bossing is unwanted.   Don’t assume that people already know this. Sometimes they don’t realise until you tell them. Most often, people who send you the most psychic coercion are those who just desperately want you to do something differently, because they are sure you’d be happier. And they don’t realise that this has an unwanted energetic consequence.

To avoid causing psychic coercion for anyone else, remember that everyone is on THEIR path for a reason, whether or not you agree with that path. All paths have value in the eyes of the soul. We can learn something from every experience, even if it seems painful or needless in the eyes of others.

I personally learned how to be more careful with money, partly through experiencing the consequences of being irresponsible with money.

Want to Clear Astral Debris such as Psychic Coercion?

Claring astral ‘clutter’ from your aura makes you feel lighter and stronger.

I offer healing sessions for removing all kinds of astral debris from your aura. This is one of my favourite sessions to do. All you need to do is bring an intention to your session, and within a couple of minutes, I will know what is the most pressing issue to resolve. It may indeed be psychic coercion, especially if you recognised yourself in one of the statements above.

For clearing psychic coercion, here are some common intentions:

‘I want to feel more empowered’

‘I want to feel more confident about my decisions and actions’

‘I want to care less about what others think’

You can book a healing session with Anna here.

Did you recognise yourself in the description above? Have a question for Anna? Please leave a comment below.

Her real name was Franziska Schanzkowsky but she was known as Anna Anderson throughout most of her life.

She was born in Poland in 1896. She was a Polish factory worker who first came to the attention of the authorities in Germany when she was 24 – she attempted to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge in Berlin. She was subsequently institutionalized in a mental asylum. At first she was known as ‘fräulein unbekannt’ (unknown young lady), since she refused to reveal her identity and the authorities did not know who she was. Later on she claimed she was Anastasia – the daughter of the Russian Tsar who had been shot, along with his Empress and their five children, by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918. Since at this time, their bodies had not been found, some people (including those who personally knew the Russian royal family) believed that she really was Anastasia.

After a lawsuit lasting many years, the German courts ruled that Anderson was not Anastasia, but through media coverage, her claim gained notoriety and some people continued to believe her.

Between 1922 and 1968, she lived in Germany and the US, spending time in nursing homes, at least one mental asylum and in homes of people who supported her claims.

In 1968, just before her visa for the US expired, she married an eccentric history professor from Charlottesville, Virginia and she lived with him for the remainder of her life.

The claim that she was Anastasia was debunked after her death, when posthumous DNA evidence finally proved that she was in fact Franziska Schanzkowsky.

You can read more about her life here.

The Purpose of this Exercise

Before I talk about your intuitive ‘hits’, I just wanted to clarify what I see as the purpose of this exercise. I post the Psychic experiments partly because it seems to really give people a chance to refine their intuitive awareness, for free and in an anonymous way. I tend to get two kinds of emails after I post the results of one of these experiments. The first kind is an encouraged email, where someone has their findings (or some of them) validated. The second is a ‘I didn’t do so well but I learned something through this’ email, which is great. People often come to a conclusion about how their intuition speaks to them through these exercises. So if you didn’t seem to get much right, that’s OK. You will actually benefit more by getting it wrong. Below I talk about what you might learn about your intuitive process through this exercise in particular. See if any of them apply to you.

Intuitive ‘Hits’

What you got right…

Insanity

Many people, when they tuned into this person, felt uncomfortable or uneasy. Other phrases which came up included: sick to the stomach, anxious, negative, frightened.

Some people then talked about insanity, which was spot on.

I think that insanity is one of the easier things to spot in an aura once you know how it feels. I can feel it within a minute of tuning in and it seems quite a few people did spot it here.

When I tune into someone and feel very frightened, chaotic or very lost that is very often a sign of insanity or severe mental illness. With this lady, I sensed extreme, almost childlike vulnerability (which is another energy that seems to be consistently present with insanity and severe forms of mental illness, when it presents with the other energy I mentioned above.)

So if you picked up on the madness, remember how it felt to you and file it away for future reference. You might pick up on that again another time.

Some of those who didn’t pick up on this directly did pick up on the fact that this woman was troubled.

Evil

A few people picked up on wickedness in this woman. I was interested to hear why – perhaps those of you who picked up on wickedness interpreted the ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘frightened’ energies incorrectly? I do think that this woman had the capacity to do a lot of damage indirectly to people, without understanding the consequences of what she says and does. I also agree that when you tune into her, her energy is very unattractive and repellent, to the point that it sends chills down your spine. You’re probably picking up on madness, in this case. When I tune into the aura of a mad person, it may feel repellent, but I also usually pick up on a ‘frightened’ energy, like being alone, very vulnerable and lost at sea, tossed around on the waves. That’s what some types of mental illness feel like to me, as an empath. It would be interesting to hear if others perceive the same thing. I am aware that you may be different.

Other details that were picked up on:

Murders

As far as we know, this woman did not murder anyone. If you picked up on murder, it might have been related to the murder of the Russian royal family.

Acting/creativity/writing

Some people commented on acting and her having a split personality. This was obviously correct. Some people mentioned writing. Much has been written about Anna Anderson’s claims (plus a film was made about her story) but as far as I know, she didn’t write anything herself.

People suggested she was abused. I was unable to find any information on her childhood, but if you are interested in having your findings validated (if they weren’t covered here), you could do some more research by Googling it. As one of the commenters (Janet) mentioned:

“Even if you don’t sense what others sense, it doesn’t mean that what you sense is wrong.”

It’s true. What we do know about this woman is limited to my research of what is widely known about her. I am sure there are more facts to be uncovered.

What I Learned from this Experiment

I learn a lot from these experiments too.

Here’s what I realised through reading your responses:

When we tune into someone, we don’t always get access to the facts of what happened in their life. That is because we don’t always have permission to see what happened to them and to see what they did while they were alive.

One thing that we can count on having permission to read, however, is a person’s character. We are all endowed with being able to ascertain who a person really is, underneath. This can tell us a lot.

Occasionally, out of interest and curiosity, I read the auras of people in the news who have been accused of dreadful crimes, especially when they are appealing their sentence and insist they did not commit the crime. Last week I read the aura of Amanda Knox, who (in case you don’t read the news) is an American student who was in 2009 convicted of murdering her roommate in Italy. (Incidentally, she won her appeal yesterday.)

When I do this, I am aware that I cannot know for sure if the person did it or not. When I tune in, I do not have a spirit popping up telling me all about what happened. Instead I research the person’s inner life – what they are feeling (or not feeling). I research a variety of different chakra databanks which paint a clear picture of what is REALLY going on with that person at the moment, and with their true character. I bypass all the facades that the person projects to the world to see what is underneath. It’s a fascinating exercise. Sometimes it’s wildly different from the way they are come across on the surface or the way they are portrayed in court or by the media. By doing this, you can establish whether their inner life and character is consistent with having murdered someone or not. And you will get a definite sense either way.

But you don’t necessarily get factual information about the person that no-one else knows apart from you and the spirit who told you. That’s not how it works.

So if you picked up on facts about this person that weren’t correct, you may have been searching for objective facts which you may or may not get. I am saying that it is much easier to research who the person really is, and what they are like. You can depend on being able to read that. Plus once you have done that, you may get information on what the person is likely to have done in their life, perhaps their interests, gifts and profession. But it is good to start with ‘what kind of person is this?’

If you are interested in reading more tips on improving for this kind of exercise, you can read the tips I gave for the other psychic experiments here, here and here (they apply to this kind of exercise in general.)

So that was psychic experiment #4. I hope you learned something from it and had fun doing it.

And if you’re wondering how you can get to the point of reliably reading other peoples’ auras, then you may be interested in my Psychic Awakening course. In there, among other things, I share the specific technique I use in my readings to give reliable and accurate information about other people.

The 13 week Psychic Awakening course – go from zero to psychic in 13 weeks.

Here are just a few of the things taught in the course:

• Learn to communicate with your spirit guides and angels
• Learn and master the two essential keys to develop psychic abilites – these are not mentioned at all in 90% of courses, books and classes you will find out there.
• Find out which psychic gifts you have
• Know your life purpose & soul gifts
• Learn to read auras & know who other people really are

This is the most complete (and best value) home study course you will find, sold online or offline. I have done countless courses over the last several years, and picked up pieces of my psychic development puzzle that way – through books and various classes. It cost me a lot of money (thousands in fact) because I was passionate about it and I didn’t stop learning. But when I was studying, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be better if I could have just learned all of this stuff in one place, and in a shorter period of time, instead of over years, searching for the pieces of the puzzle?

Then a few years later I made that course. I compiled everything I knew into one place, which you can do over 13 weeks (and pay a LOT less for!) than the years and thousands of dollars I spent on my psychic development. So essentially, you get the same knowledge, but in the order you need it, a lot quicker and a lot cheaper. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve had scores of students taken my course since it came out last year, who rave about it:

“In conclusion, I am very impressed with this course and for the money it offers tremendous advantages for the “rest of us”. I am convinced that you can indeed be rational AND psychic. As long as you are committed to giving 100% of your effort you will be rewarded with new and profound insights into psychic development that will transform you into a more fulfilled person.”

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“Psychic Awakening, a course that aspires to teach you how to wake up your psychic abilities, is a gem. Truly, it is. Anna has the rare ability to teach on several different levels so no matter what your skill set or training, your time is well spent.”

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http://www.practicallyintuitive.com/psychicawakeningreview

And you get access to a mentor (me!) throughout the whole time you’re doing it, for any questions or support you need! (I don’t know of any other psychic development home study course that offers this indefinitely.)

Go here to order or to find out more about the course.

How did you do on this one?

If you have any comments or questions for me about your results or how your intuition works, please post them below too and if I can help, I will reply.

I thought I would do another experiment seeing as it’s the most requested kind of article on this blog.

The aim of the psychic experiments is for you to strengthen your intuitive abilities and gain some confidence in reading other people (and to have fun doing it!)

For this psychic experiment, you are invited to ‘tune in’ to the person below, and submit your thoughts and impressions via the comments section below or via the contact form (if you’re shy).

Here is the person I chose for this experiment:

(you can click on the images to enlarge them)

In order to tune in, I recommend meditating for a minute to calm your mind, take a few deep breaths, and look at the photo, allowing your eyes to lose their focus. What impressions do you get? What do you feel?

Character and personality is usually the easiest thing to read in an aura, so the easiest thing to do is to get an impression about what type of woman she is.

Look into her eyes briefly and fill in the gap:

‘She looks like a ______________ woman.’

What adjective comes to mind straight away? Let one come through without thinking about it. If nothing comes through, take three deep breaths and look into her eyes and try again.

For this psychic experiment, I invite you to use your claircognizance and clairsentience (your impressions and what your gut is telling you.) I have noticed that a lot of the incorrect impressions that people have got in previous experiments resulted from using clairvoyance and attempting to ‘see’ the details of the person’s life (which is hard, because you’re not necessarily going to get that level of detail). So, basically I’m saying that using your clairvoyance is more risky than using your gut and your claircognizance (although by all means go ahead and use it if that’s how you operate).

One thing you can count on being able to read from a photo, however, is what a person is really like. So instead, use your gut to give you information about the person’s character. What impression did you receive about the person even before you had time to think?

Be aware of all impressions you get BEFORE your mind starts chattering or thinking. If you are focusing really hard and not getting anything at all, relax your mind instead and just observe (without straining or focusing) and see what is wanting to slip in when you relax.

Here are some other questions to ask yourself upon tuning in:

(Take three deep breaths before you ask each question.)

• Do you trust her?
• Does she remind you of anyone you know or anyone you’ve met in the past? – if so, which characteristics do the two people share?
• Do you get a positive or negative vibe from her (or neither)? Why? What is it that you don’t/do like about her?

Remember that everyone is multi-faceted, with pleasant and not so pleasant aspects, so don’t be surprised if you receive seemingly contradictory information.

If you already have some impressions about her character and personality, you might like to build on those and go deeper. Rather than trying to get a huge quantity of information, focus on quality – look at one impression and detail at a time, and let it lead you to the next detail or impression.

If you get an impression that you don’t understand, please REMEMBER to do FURTHER QUESTIONING around it by asking ‘What does this mean?’ Often, students will get an impression, not know what it means and leave it at that. Often you have to ask follow up questions about your initial impressions in order to clarify them.

I will reveal who the lady in the photo is in four days time.

Please leave a comment letting me know your impressions. In the article that is coming up I will post some feedback and tips based on your collective findings. I am looking forward to hearing what you get!

See the results of this Psychic Experiment!

You can find out who this woman was by reading this article: Results of the Psychic Experiment

More Psychic Experiments:

Psychic Experiment #1
Psychic Experiment #2
Psychic Experiment #3