Psychic ability is something we all possess to greater or lesser degrees, and it's something that can be consciously developed. Some people do have a an intuitive "gift," just as others may have gifts for art, mathematics, athletics, etc... Through focused desire and concentration, however, we can all enhance the abilities we were born with.

    Meditation is the most commonly prescribed practice for spiritual development and increased psychic awareness. The word "meditation," however, tends to be daunting to beginners. What is really needed is simply to get quiet and pay attention. "Visions" and other experiences of extraordinary awareness happen when we're hyper aware of subtle energies and influences. It has been said that genius is simply energy focused intensely and consistently on a certain matter. To become good at perceiving, then, we must practice getting quiet and paying intense attention to small stimuli and subtle energies.

    It's important to note that not everyone is visual by nature. There are three main modes of perceiving: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Those who are visual learn best by seeing, and think with pictures in their minds. Those who are auditory learn best by hearing, and "talk" to themselves more in their minds. Those who are kinesthetic learn best by doing, and tend to get "gut" feelings and to process experiences physically through movement or attention to their physical sensations. Just as we all have five physical senses, we all perceive through all three modalities, but most of us have a primary or favored way of perceiving life.

    As this article focuses on "visions," we're going to be working with visual perception. We can begin to "flex" our inner vision through some basic exercises. We'll begin by better seeing in our minds something in our physical experience. Pick a simple object like an orange, apple, banana, or even a book, a shoe, etc... Look around and grab something that "catches your eye." Now sit in front of the object and study it for a moment. Study its features, but then "step back" and just take it in as a whole. Now close your eyes and try to reproduce it mentally. Study it again, and then repeat the process of envisioning it within. Your inner vision should get crisper.

    Now close your eyes and simply envision color. Begin with red, and work your way up the color spectrum. See a splash of pure red, then imagine two or three objects that are red, then go back to seeing only the color. Then move to orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Take your time and try to move toward a sense of ease as you visualize the colors and objects.

    Now we're going to advance our inner vision skills by picturing someone we're presently close to. If you have children, you might pick your child's beloved face, but you can choose anyone you see on a daily basis, as long as it's someone whose face you know well. Close your eyes and try to recreate his or her visage in your mind. Spend as long as it takes until you get a crisp image. You'll find it easier if you try to remember a specific experience and picture that person as you saw them then.

    Now pick a person in your mind who you were once very close to, but whom you haven't seen for several years. Again, pick someone whose face you once knew very well, and try to recreate his or her image in your mind. You're likely to find yourself in a memory to do this, and that is fine. Get a very crisp image, and then choose someone you've not seen since childhood, and again recreate a clear image in your mind of this person's face.

    Now choose a person you're presently close to but who is at some distance from you. It may be your mother in a nearby city, a child at school, or even your sweetheart at work. Hold a vision of his or her face a moment, and then say to yourself, "Spirit, show me what they're doing." Then trust whatever pops into your mind. Remember that you're playing, experimenting and exercising here. Pay attention to what pops in, versus what your rational mind may reason out. For example, I just said, "Spirit, show me what my mother is doing," and I saw her reading in her bed. I then looked at the clock and thought it was too early for her to be in bed yet. There may be a tendency for you to want to guess first, and base what you see on that. Try to just allow images to pop up, and don't analyze them for now.

    Now that you have an image of someone and what they're doing, ask Spirit what they're thinking or feeling. Say, "How does this person feel?" As I do this with my mother, for example, I HEAR, "She's tired, and worried about your brother." I have no reason to think she'd be worried about my brother; now I'm starting to get some information that I would never have "guessed" at, but which must be coming from somewhere.

    If you're a very visual person, you may get symbols or other visual information. For example, you may see a happy face, or you may even see something like a sunflower or rainbow if you're being told "happy," or a storm cloud or the color red if the person is angry. At this point, your job is simply to allow perceptions in, and to ask more and more questions in order to interpret what you're shown. For example, you might see a sword, and then you would ask, "Does this mean she's angry?" You might then get a feeling of no or yes, or you may get other information that helps you to understand.

    You can set up a system with your own higher self for yes/no answers. You might, for example, assign "to the left" the answer "no," and "to the right" the answer "yes." Then when you ask a question, if you're kinesthetic you'll get a feeling of going left or right. If you're auditory, you might hear yes or no, and if you're visual, you might see a pointer going left or right in your mind. Use whatever symbol feels right to you.

    Now ask a simple question. You might ask, "Will it rain tomorrow?" and see what kind of answer you get. It's better, however, to ask a question you care about, for there will be more energy in the answer. However, if you're very attached to the answer being what you want it to be, you may have trouble remaining objective.

    Play with this approach, and allow yourself to get creative with it. Improvise, experiment, and above all, have fun with it. The bumpy and harrowing road is the one where we try to will ourselves into greater awareness. The smooth and easy path is one where we simply allow ourselves to play, and to trust what we're shown. Success is much easier to attain when we relax and allow.

    Of course, your beliefs and expectations will affect your experiences here, as they do in every aspect of your life. If you don't believe it's possible to develop psychically, you'll find it difficult or impossible. If, however, you believe anything is possible with the proper focus and energy, and you believe in magic, magic will flow over, under, around and through to find you.

    每個人都或多或少有些通靈的本事，而這種本事也可以通過努力得到開發。有些人的確有“天賦異稟”，就像有些人有藝術的天賦、數學的天賦，運動的天賦一樣。不過，通過聚焦欲望和高度專注，我們都可以提高這種與生俱來的能力。

    冥想是最常見的幫助靈魂成長、提高通靈感應的練習方法。不過對初學者來說，“冥想”這個詞讓人望而卻步。其實你真正需要的只不過是安靜下來，集中注意。“幻像” 和其他那些超自然的經驗都是在我們對那些細微的能量和影響力洞察入微的時候發生的。有人說，天才就是那些將能量高度且持續集中于某件事物的人。所以，要提高感受力，必須學會安靜下來，并對那些微小的刺激和潛在的能量集中高度的注意。

    值得注意的是，并不是每個人天生就善于 “看”。我們有三種主要的感受器：視覺、聽覺和動覺。那些“視覺系”的人通過視覺能達到最好的學習目的，他們運用圖片進行思考。而那些“聽覺系”的人最好的學習手段是聽，他們更經常在腦袋里和自己說話。而“行動系”的最好的學習方法是通過實際操作，他們會有“內臟”的感覺，并通過運動或關注身體感覺來處理各種經歷。就像我們都擁有五種感官一樣，我們也能通過這三種方式來感知世界，不過大多數人都有一種最習慣的方式來感受世界。

    因為這邊文章討論的是“畫面”，我們還是回到視覺感知上。我們可以通過一些基礎練習來“柔化”我們的內在洞察力。首先，我們要對那些真實接觸的事情有更好的內在影像。拿起一樣簡單的東西，比如蘋果，橘子、香蕉，甚至是一本書、一只鞋。仔細地看著它的所有細節，發現一些能夠“抓住眼球”的東西。然后對著這個東西，好好的研究一下。研究它的特征、然后“后退一步”，把它當做一個整體來看待。現在閉上眼睛，試著在腦海里重新畫出它的樣子。再研究一下這個東西，反復聯系在腦海里重現它。這樣做能夠讓你的“內視”更加清晰。

    現在閉上眼睛，就想想各種顏色。從紅色開始，順著光譜的顏色一路想下去。你先想想一道純紅色的光，然后想象兩三種紅色的東西，然后再只想這種顏色。之后再進行橙色、黃色、綠色、青色、藍色，最后是紫色。不用著急、慢慢來，當你想想這些顏色和物品的時候，盡量讓自己越來越平靜。

    現在，我們要對我們的“內觀”能力進行下一項訓練，也就是在腦海描繪我們現在很親密的人。如果你有孩子，你可以想象孩子那可愛的臉。不過，你也可以選擇任何一個你平時常見到的人，只要你對那張臉夠熟悉。閉上眼睛，試著在腦海里描繪出他的模樣。用多長都沒關系，直到你可以“看到”一張清晰的面孔。如果能夠想到一段特殊的經歷，根據那件事來想象那個人的樣子可能會容易不少。

    現在想這樣一個人：你曾經很熟悉，但是有很多年沒見過了。同樣，選擇那些你非常熟悉的面孔，試著在腦海里重建這張臉。你這么做的時候很可能會陷入回憶，不過這樣也沒關系。“看到”一個清楚的樣子。接下來，你需要在腦海里用劍一張童年以后就沒再見過的臉。

    下面，選擇一個雖然很親密但是并不和你在一起的人。比方說住在其他城市的父母，住在寄宿學校的孩子，甚至是正在工作的愛人。一直想著他的樣子，然后對自己說：“神啊，告訴我她們在做什么？”相信所有那些浮現在你腦海的東西。記住，你現在實在玩、在試驗、在練習。注意那先出現的畫面，和理智告訴你的答案。比方說，我說完：“神啊，告訴我他在做什么？”我就看到她在床上讀書。但我看了看表，覺得她不會這么早就上床。我們很容易根據看到的畫面，進行一些猜測。盡量暫時不對對那些跳出來的畫面進行分析。

    現在，你能看到一個人的樣子，還有她們正在做什么。問問神，她們在想什么或者有什么感覺：“這個人現在有什么感覺？”比如，當我想到我母親的時候，我聽到：“她很累，在為你的兄弟擔心。”我想不出來她為什么會因為我兄弟擔心，現在我得到了一些我絕對“猜”不到的信息，但它一定是從什么地方來的。

    如果你是那種很視覺化的人，你還可能看到一些標志或者其他的視覺信息。比方說，如果聽到“高興”這個詞，你可能會看到一張高興的臉，甚至是太陽花或者彩虹這種東西；而如果這個人很生氣，可能會看到烏云或者紅顏色。這個時候你要做的，就是讓感覺進來，問更多的問題來解釋呈現在你眼前的東西。比如，你可能看到一把劍，就可以問：“這是意味著她很生氣么？”然后你可能會感覺到對還是錯，或者你會獲得另外一個信息幫助你理解。

    你可以為自己的直覺設立一個是或否的體系。比方說，向左代表否，向右代表是。當你問一個問題的時候，如果你是感覺系的，就會覺得向左或向右的感覺。如果你是聽覺系的，就會聽到是或否的答案。如果你是視覺系的，你可能會在腦海里看到一個向左或向右的箭頭。選擇一種適合自己的方式。

    現在，問一個簡單的問題。比方說：“明天會下雨么？”看看你會得到什么答案。不過，最好問一個你關心的問題，因為這樣答案里會更有能量。但是如果你有一個非常想聽到的答案，那么可能會失去客觀判斷。

    試試這種方法，讓自己有更多的發揮，更具創造性。即興發揮、進行嘗試，最重要的是，要樂在其中。如果是為了獲得更強的洞察力，那么你所面對的會是條崎嶇不平、充滿痛苦的道路；而如果簡單一些，就是讓自己找些樂子、相信那些呈現給你的，這條路可就平坦、簡單多了。當我們放松、并允許一起可能的時候，成功也就不會太遠了。

    當然，你的信念和期望會影響你的體驗，就像它們影響你生活的所有方面一樣。信則靈，不信則不靈。如果你相信只要有恰當的關注和能量通靈就有可能，你還相信魔法，那么魔法也會最終找到你。