Contrary to popular belief, it may be possible that everyone has potential psychic abilities and the power to literally read each other’s mind. Hogwash? Maybe.

But the fact is there are ancient traditions in nearly every religion that are coming into clear focus in the ever-changing world of modern science, where it seems to be less clear from a genetic basis where one person end and the next begins. Sure, it seems clear to us as individual people, where the differences are noticeable, but genetic scientists would affirm that from the perspective of an alien visiting the planet earth from a genetic viewpoint there is only one human being, and the differences and variation in genetic disposition is really very minor to the point of irrelevance. Moreover, if this is the case, all human beings are essentially united; we all share the same essence and are therefore all a part of the same living, organic, system. Karl Jung built upon this idea when he theorized about a “collective unconscious” filled with archetypes and mythic configurations which are genetically transmitted and manifest themselves symbolically in our dream states.

This being the case, it isn’t a far jump to conclude that having psychic abilities is not only possible, but probable. Psychic abilities may even play a role in the experience of empathy, or the almost manic thrill of being in love, wherein many couples have claimed the ability to read each other’s minds, know how the other is feeling, and experience the beauty and thrill of existence through the subject of one’s love.

Such an idea is not unfamiliar to the world. Kundalini Yoga, for instance, uses its varied positions of Tantric sex, as a method for mutual communion and the awakening of the energy centers of the human body, which are thought to enhance psychic abilities as well.

Please Share with your friends

To say one has a mind like a steel-trap is an idiomatic way of paying a high compliment. It is claiming that a person is able to gather and process information very quickly, come to conclusions, and appreciate subtle differences and definitions. Even though some people are born with this kind of mental disposition, many of us are not. Training your mind to be able to think quickly, clearly and effectively, however, is possible for everyone, no matter what your I.Q. or status in life.

Training your mind is both a science and an art.  It is a science in the same way that physical training follows certain biological laws and rules, and there is a right and a wrong way to go about it. If you work weights you can build up a bicep, and eventually become top-heavy with spindly legs – not very attractive or healthy. But if you have a personal trainer, he can guide you in how to optimize the workout to achieve your premium physical powers. The same is true of training your mind. You need some guidance from those who have gone before you, and can lead you into the world of logic and reason.

Learning to think takes practice, and that’s where the art comes in. Anyone who learns to play a musical instrument, for instance, usually does not sit down and begin playing like Chopin. The same is true in training your mind to think clearly and effectively. You must exercise your mind daily, nurture it with rational games, feed it with books, dwell on puzzles and problems. The more you work out, the stronger your mind will become, until you also are thinking at your maximum potential, clearly, effectively, rationally and like someone who has a mind like a steel-trap!

Please Share with your friends

Ever wonder what techniques “memory champions” use to remember dozens or hundreds of facts and figures, dates and historical events, names and faces and places? Would you like to have this ability next time you are at an important dinner party or company lunch and need to place names with faces? Would you like to have the mind power that enables you to save paper and trees by perfectly recalling your shopping list? It’s possible, and you don’t have to be a genius or a savant to learn how to remember things.

There is an ancient trick to memory called the method of loci whereby one remembers things by associating them with the part of the brain that uses spatial memory. You might try this with a familiar room. You have a list of things you need for work, and a route from your bedroom to your bathroom. On the bed, you mentally place a giant briefcase. On the dresser you have a ream of shredded paper. In the hallway, a huge ringing cellphone, on the toilet a stack of client information, etc. As you mentally trace the route, you can more easily recall the list. It works more elaborately with associating numbers and letters as well by combining images, and is a very effective method of mind power, a path of total recall. A numbered way of accessing information, such as saying, “in the first place” (the bed), and “in the second place” (the dresser), etc., is a remnant of this method of memory work.

Potentially, you could devise a memory mansion of the mind, a multi-roomed artifice filled with tons of associate information, all easily retrievable. The more dramatic the image is that is associated with each familiar spatial place, the more easily it is retrieved. The method of loci is a proven way to use your mind power and master your memory.

Please Share with your friends

In the murky netherworld of sleep, you may find yourself falling to an inexplicable demise, shot by a stranger, strangled, hit by a car, suffocated, knifed, blown to pieces, beheaded, disemboweled or otherwise disembodied; in other words, you may dream that you die. So what does it mean?

Despite the urban legend turned into Hollywood myth that if you die in your dream you will die in real life, death in dreams is a fairly common phenomena and it doesn’t always portend negative omens.  Practitioners of dream interpretation, ranging from Freud and Jung to more recent do-it-yourself gurus, indicate that waking from a dream in which you have died is the usual outcome; in fact, one hundred percent of those who have reported dying in their dreams  also woke up to find themselves among the living.

To understand what dying in your dream means, however, is a matter of dream interpretation, not of popular legend or cinematic mythology.  The answer to the question, however, may depend on who is doing the dream interpretation.

Early psychoanalytic thought beginning with Freud was revolutionary in its symbolic use of dream interpretation in understanding the psychology of the human person. For Freud, death in dreams was a direct route to understanding the sexual impetus that for him subsides in the unconscious, where it is repressed during waking hours.  So for Freud, dying in your own dream might be a sign that one is disgusted with oneself, or of shame for some act one has committed. He thought that usually death in dreams is derived from the natural desire that boys have to murder their fathers, and take their places beside their mothers, a desire strongly repressed in adult life.

Jung, on the other hand, had a more complex theory of dream interpretation that was not nearly so dependent upon Freud’s preoccupation with sexual desire.  Jung saw his own death in his dreams on one occasion to be representative of the shadow self, the ego, which had to be killed before he would ever truly reach a point of authentic self-awareness.

The art of dream interpretation, sprouting from early psychoanalysis, has lately taken a back stage to more prominent methods of therapy and self-discovery. There remains, however, some use of dream interpretation in psychoanalysis, but it is especially prominent among those who follow new age teaching, shamanic experiences, claims by psychics or practitioners of the occult, or among those who follow a drug-induced method for seeking meaningful experiences. Of these, a very popular dream interpretation of the death of oneself is the idea that it signifies an impending change. According to this popular view, the person who dreams of his own death is expressing an awareness of a new stage of development, or an impending, important change about to take place in his life.

Some who are faced with terminal illness have also reported having very pleasant and comforting dreams of their own death, which may be the psyche’s way of preparing the individual for the inevitability of that permanent change.

Please Share with your friends