Your Psychic Self

by Melissa Alvarez

  Here’s a scenario for you. Say you’re in the middle of planning a big event. You are suddenly presented with a problem that must be solved immediately, but you can’t make that decision based on the circumstances involved. Suddenly, you come up with an alternate resolution that you’d never considered before that will solve the problem without adversely affecting the rest of the event. Is this your spirit guide or your imagination? It very well could be your mind just giving you an alternative, but if the information feels like it’s coming from outside of you, then it’s more likely that you’re being guided by someone from the Other Side. Many times in life you may have a flash of knowledge that, when you really think about it and examine how the information was received, will feel as if it came from outside of you. When this happens, it is often your spirit guides leading the way.

  An ancestral guide is a spirit guide who has incarnated within your family heritage at some point and thus shares a blood relationship with you. As the name suggests, they are your ancestors, your relatives. It is their role to watch over the lineage and to heal and help resolve family disputes. They may be a father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, sister, brother, or even your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. Ancestral guides appear in your life when you need them and it’s always by their choice, not yours, when they show up. They often appear when least expected, when you’re trying to solve a specific problem, when you’re emotionally in need, or when they just want you to recognize that they are around to support you. You may or may not recognize them, depending upon when they were alive in your family.

  Ancestral guides communicate with you in the same ways that your spirit guides contact you. They may appear in your third eye, visions, or dreams. They may send you messages through music, smells, words, or symbols that bring their memory to mind. Love is the reason that ancestral guides will visit you. They are your family and their presence is a way to let you know that love lives forever. Sometimes they’ll be with you for a short while as you handle a specific situation and other times they appear quite often. When someone passes from your life to the Other Side, they may still watch over you and try to communicate with you, or they may prepare to reincarnate again. If you have developed your mediumistic ability, you will be able to receive messages that the deceased have for you. If you’re not a medium, you can still receive signs that a spirit sends through your intuition. You’ll know in your gut (feel instinctually) that what just happened is a message from someone on the Other Side.

  What types of signs can spirits give you? Most often they will try to communicate in subtle ways. You may discover that the picture of them on the mantle has been moved or laid down, or a photo on the wall is tilted after you just straightened it. They also can project smells that you would associate with them. For instance, if your uncle always smoked a cigar, or your aunt wore a rose perfume, or if your mom always smelled like baking, it is likely that the occurrence of these scents in places where there isn’t a source for them is your ancestral guide telling you they are close by. In my own experience I’ve had spirits get really creative. I’ve had loved ones that have passed shock me out of a crying spell over them by visually appearing in my third eye, shaking their finger at me and saying, “Stop that crying right now!” I’ve had them hug me to let me know everything is okay and that they’re with me, and I’ve had them move things to an impossible location where I had to search and search to find something I was using just moments before, just to let their presence be known. They can also leave items that you would associate with them in impossible places.

  When people pass, you may desperately want to contact them or have them contact you. Sometimes, spirits may not come around right away because emotions are still too raw or because they’re busy on the Other Side. If they choose to come back, when the time is right you’ll be able to sense them if you’re open to their presence. When you open your abilities and mindset to the possibilities of life after death, you also open yourself to the joy of connecting with your loved ones after they have passed.

  Elemental and Nature Spirits

  Throughout the ages, people have reported experiencing contact with elemental spirits, also called nature spirits, which take the form of fairies, elves, leprechauns, gnomes, and sprites to name a few. Many intuitives also have the ability to communicate directly with these entities that live in and help nature. Some elemental spirits can also act as guides. There are many different beliefs about nature spirits and elementals, so I’ll just tell you my take on them from my personal experience.

  My first contact with a nature spirit was when I was told by a spirit that I was “coming into” my natural abilities and that I would get really sick, but afterward I would know things. It happened exactly as I was told and many years later, during a group medium session, this same nature spirit gave me his name, Robert, and reminded me of that first encounter. At that time I hadn’t told anyone about that experience, so there was no way for the medium or anyone else in attendance to have such detailed prior knowledge of exactly what happened that day. During the session, I noticed sparkles of light flitting about the room, often near the ceiling, and found out afterward it was the manifestation of the spirits in attendance. It was the first time I’d seen that happen, but not the last. If you think a nature spirit is nearby, allow your eyes to go a bit out of focus as you look around. Sometimes it makes them easier to see.

  The movie industry often depicts nature spirits as evil, but I disagree with this portrayal. I believe that their purpose is to care for the earth. They are extremely wise, nonjudgmental conscious beings. Since my experience with a nature spirit, I also believe that they help people on their life paths just as guides do. Guides take a more active role than nature spirits as we progress on our life path, but if you’re in tune with your nature spirits, they can be of great assistance by helping you have moments of inspiration or insight, bringing harmony into your life, and helping clear negativity.

  Nature spirits can also help you find things that you’ve lost if you’ll only ask them. This is especially true of small things like a button that has popped off of your shirt, an earring, ring, or other hard-to-find article. Once I lost the back to my earring in a deep plush carpet. I searched and searched and finally I asked my nature spirits to help me find it. A while later, I found it sitting on my dresser in plain view, when I know for a fact it hadn’t been there moments earlier and that no one in my household had entered my room and put it there. Nature spirits are always around when you’re outside, so the next time you’re on a bike ride in the park or are working outside, ask them to give you a sign of their existence.

  Spirit Messengers

  Spirit messengers can come in many different forms. A spirit messenger may be an animal that shows up at a particular time just to stare at you; when you notice the animal, pay attention to what is going on within you in that particular moment and you’ll often realize an important lesson. When you grasp the message, the animal usually leaves. Spirit messengers can also come in the form of a person who walks up to you and says something very profound, which leaves you stunned and enlightened, and then walks away and seems just to vanish, which also makes an impact because you know the person couldn’t have just disappeared like that.

  These messengers come at very specific times in order to make you recognize a moment in your life. When it happens, it may seem odd enough that you become very drawn into that moment and will likely never forget it. This moment may be confirmation that you are on the right path, or it may be an epiphany or turning point in your life. Take a minute right now to think about when a spirit messenger came into your life to make you notice a moment.

  Shadow People

  You see them in your peripheral vision at any time during the day or night—the dark, shadowy, human forms. They lack specific features, like a face, and sometimes appear only as mist. They may be wearing a hooded cloak or a ha
t and may have golden or red eyes, or they may even have a colored glow to them like gold, blue, or purple. You notice them as a darting movement out of the corner of your eye, or you are overwhelmed with the uneasy feeling that someone is watching you until you notice them standing right in front of you. At first you may think it was just your imagination playing tricks on you, and if you tell someone who has never experienced this phenomenon, they’ll likely agree. But when you see this unexplainable occurrence, these dark forms, multiple times and on different occasions, the imagination theory goes out the window because you believe what you saw and start searching for answers. What are these manifestations and why are you seeing them?

  There are many theories about the shadow people phenomenon. While I can’t rule out any possibility since we really don’t know what these forms are yet, and because I work with energy, vibrations, and frequency, I believe you are intuitively seeing into another dimension or energy field and are picking up the movement of beings within these dimensional energy fields. Some of the other theories are that they are ghosts in shadow form, demons or evil entities, time travelers, the astral bodies of people having OBEs while astral traveling, or protective spirits. These entities never seem do to anything but observe our actions, and often appear to flee when noticed.

  While no one can say for sure what these manifestations truly are, one thing is for certain: it’s your clairvoyant ability that allows you to see them and your empathic ability that enables you to feel their presence.

  Trance Channel/Conscious Channel/Channeling

  What does it mean when an intuitive says that they “channel” spirits? Channeling is done by a psychic medium (someone who has the ability to connect to departed loved ones, spirit guides, or other entities on the Other Side). They act as a vessel for those who want to communicate messages from the spirit realm to someone in the physical realm. This can be done by speaking the message, writing it down, or typing it in a document or e-mail.

  Channeling almost always happens in an altered state, but there are different levels of alteration. Because a medium is the vessel for information to come through, you (the medium) will usually forget the details soon after the reading in any type of channeling session. The information can come through a light or deep trance channel or a conscious channel. Regardless of how the message is received by the medium, you’ll usually discover that it is full of important information. The messages can seem prophetic, down-to-earth, wise, enlightening, and conversational, as if your best friend is talking to you. A channeled message is often received in person, via e-mail, or even sometimes over the phone. If you’ve never seen a deep trance channel work in person, it’s a very enlightening experience.

  There are primarily four different types of ways mediums engage in channeling. Let’s take a look at each one.

  Fully Conscious Channel: When you’re engaged in a fully conscious channel, you’re using your intuitive abilities to connect to a spirit who wants to deliver a message to someone else. You feel completely normal, are fully awake, and can start and stop the channeling session if you’re interrupted. You remember the entire channeling session with clarity for a short while after it’s over and may remember parts of it for a much longer time, especially if the information affected you as the intuitive. Sometimes information that comes through can help the intuitive as much as it helps the person they’re reading.

  Altered-State Conscious Channel: This is when you think you are fully conscious during the channeling session, but afterward you realize that you were in more of a heightened state of awareness and were focusing differently than you do when you are fully conscious. You may remember some details of the channeling session but not with the same level of clarity that you experience when you’re doing a fully conscious channeling session.

  Light Trance Channel: This is when you’re channeling while in a

  light trance. During the trance you may feel a bit displaced but you’re still the one receiving and delivering the message where it needs to go. You’re still within your body; you’ve just allowed your mind to go out of focus so that you can connect to the spirit you’re trying to communicate with on the Other Side. They best way to describe how this feels is to compare it to the way you feel during a daydream.

  Deep Trance Channel: This is when you’re channeling while in a deep trance. Your being is displaced and you allow another being, spirit, or entity to occupy your body in order to deliver information or messages directly to someone else, using your body and voice as the conduit. Depending on the abilities of the person in the deep trance, they may or may not remember the channeling session. There are some excellent and inspiring books based on information received during deep trance channeling. This method isn’t for everyone, though.

  It doesn’t matter which of these methods you use; you just have to make sure that the one you choose is right for you and that you feel comfortable doing it. You may use one or you may use all four, depending upon the situation. Try these various ways of channeling to discover the one that fits you the best.

  Try It Now: Channeling in a Light Trance

  To do this exercise, you’re going to sit at your computer keyboard with a blank document open. If you don’t have a computer, sit with a notebook and ink pen. Protect yourself with white light and put yourself into a light trance by “zoning out” as if you’re daydreaming. Ask your guides to give you some information that will be beneficial to you in your life. Then type up or write the information that you receive either through a vision, hearing spoken words, or just “knowing” the information. Bring yourself out of the slight trance by refocusing on being “in the now.” Read what you have typed or written from your guides. You may notice that it is in a different tone of voice than how you normally speak or write. Determine how the information is beneficial to you at this time. Make sure that you thank your guides for their assistance.

  Angel Readers/Angel Communication/

  Guardian Angels

  Angels are beings of light who aid us in times of need. Angels are not the same as your spirit guides; they reside on a different dimension of the Other Side. Just as we each have spirit guides who are with us for our entire lifetimes, we also have guardian angels who are with us for our entire existence on earth.

  To receive help from your angels, you have to ask them to assist you. While a spirit guide will try to reach out to you, angels will not interfere or reach out unless you are in a desperate circumstance or if you have asked for their help. Once you have been touched by an angel, especially if they’ve saved your life, you’ll never erase that event from your memory. My husband was in a near-fatal car wreck where he died on the scene and was brought back to life. He was in the hospital for quite a while, and because I didn’t have anyone to watch my son, I had to stay at my parents’ house an hour and a half away. I’d leave the house at five every morning and drive to the hospital so I could be with my husband while my mom watched my son. One morning as I was nearing a curve, I was overwhelmed with the scent of lilacs, roses, wisteria, and lavender all mixed up together and I heard a shout saying “STOP!” I immediately slammed on the brakes, thinking that a wild animal was going to jump out in front of me. But as I went around the curve at about twenty miles per hour, I saw a car’s taillights as it backed out into the road, right in my direct pathway. If my angel hadn’t interfered that day, who knows what would have happened to me? Thank you, angel.

  Intuitively connecting with your angels will help you to live a more spiritual life. Angels can bring peace and happiness and enable you to live life to your fullest potential spiritually—if you sincerely want their help. They can assist you in developing your abilities so that you can fulfill your spiritual quests. All you have to do is ask.

  Angels can also manifest to you in human form, especially if you’ve asked for their help and then don’t listen to their guidance. They may just walk up to you in the grocery store, retail store, or wh
ile you’re sitting on a park bench enjoying nature. They start up a conversation or just deliver a message and then disappear. The disappearing part, I believe, is so that we know that we’ve just had a spiritual encounter, because we know for a fact that there is no way—in the amount of time elapsed and the distance that we can view—that a flesh-and-blood person could have vanished into thin air. An angel can. When you call on your angels, make sure you remain intuitively open to them so that you can receive and understand the help they’re giving at your request.

  Angels are messenger beings who have never incarnated in the earthly realm. They are celestial beings with highly elevated frequencies. From your personal angels to the archangels, they are waiting to help you whenever you trust in them, open your heart, and call on them for assistance. Knowing and communicating with your angels allows you to connect with your own divinity.

  Angel readers are mediums who can specifically connect to your angels, who are with you at all times. Getting an angel reading is a positive experience that helps you to connect to and receive loving guidance from your angels. Angel readers should be able to tell you whether your angels have a male, female, or androgynous energy; each angel’s name; how long they have been with you (as in how many lifetimes); and why they are with you (what life lessons they’re helping you with, if you give them permission to share that information). They can deliver any messages that the angels have for you.

  It is comforting to know that your angels are with you at all times, ready to assist you in all that you do if you only ask them. If you’re curious as to how many angels you have, an angel reader will be able to help you meet them; some angel readers may even teach you to directly connect to your angels. Meeting your angels in this manner can empower you, give you the strength to deal with hard situations in your life, and enable you to make long-term plans through goal setting. Knowing your angels will help you grow as they guide you along your spiritual journey.