How to Hone Your Psychic Abilites: Ghostwritten by Shana Braff for Cindi Sansone-Braff

            Few things beat the excitement of the day when your long-awaited appointment with the psychic medium, that your friends have all been raving about, finally arrives! But, there are so many questions to ask and so little time: Am I on the right career path? Will my finances ever improve? Will my kids turn out ok? Are my loved ones who've crossed over at peace? Is this THE ONE?

            Wouldn't it be great to be able to carry that same spiritual compass and inner knowing with you wherever you go? Psychic ability is not just something that certain special people are blessed with, while some certainly have an easier time accessing the spiritual world than others, learning how to channel — which means to receive messages from benevolent beings on the other side as well as your own higher self — is a skill that can be learned. An excellent book to help you get started is Opening To Channel: How to Connect With Your Guide by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer, in addition to the mystical tome, Cindi Sansone-Braff's magnum opus Grant Me A Higher Love: How to Go from the Relationship from Hell to One that's Heaven Sent by Scaling the Ladder of Love.

            The ability to channel is fine-tuned by learning how to access a higher consciousness which facilitates a clear pathway to divine guidance. While you do not need to have been effortlessly intuitive all your life, this skill will require patience, dedication and a burning desire to achieve a spiritual connection. While developing your psychic abilities requires time, commitment, study, spiritual practice and discipline as well as surrender it is well worth the effort. For through the act of channeling it is possible to gain access to the holy grail of libraries: the Akashic Records, which house all the ideas, knowledge and wisdom that is and ever will be known. Think of it as the 'Other Worldly Wide Web.'

            One exercise found in Opening to Channel is called 'Looking into Probable Futures' and it is a phenomenal way to extend your psychic feelers and focus your inner eye. The intention is to travel into the future and bring through guidance to help on your present path. In order to get started first 'slip into something a little more comfortable', and get into a relaxed seated position. Dim the lights, light a scented candle, burn some incense or dab on some essential oil such as lavender, as desired. Make sure it is completely quiet and that you will remain undisturbed for a length of time.

            Then close your eyes and try to sense a connection with your spirit guides. It's ok to use your imagination to get things started. Visualize a symbol for the future you most desire and let it represent your highest, most light-filled path for the coming year. As this year winds to a close it is a perfect time to give this a try. While you are concentrating, psychically "send" that symbol — which could be, for example, a microphone for someone who wants a successful career as a stand-up comic or a caduceus for someone who wishes to recover from an illness and regain optimal health, or a yin-yang for someone who is seeking balance in their life or an ideal counterpart for a soul mate relationship. Imagine this symbolic representation starting to broadcast information back to you like the signal on a radio and tune in to just the right frequency to avoid static and pick up the message without interference.

            When you feel ready, ask yourself what choices and decisions you can make at this juncture in your life to align with your highest potential. Now, begin to intuit what actions, thoughts and behaviors would be most conducive to your goals in the next week, month or year. Pay attention to any flashes of insight, visions or thought-forms and use a tape recorder or journal to record all the messages received. When finished be sure to express gratitude to your guides and then spend a few moments meditating and processing your perceptions. Determine if they ring true for you on a 'gut' level. Learning to follow your hunches and listening to that little voice inside of you is crucial to honing one's psychic abilities. As you listen to that small voice it will increase in intensity until it can no longer be ignored.

            In addition, tools such as tarot cards, runes and the I Ching can help to jumpstart psychic impressions. While activities such as yoga, tai chi, belly dancing,  relaxing massage, prayer, mediation and eating healthy, wholesome foods can help to raise your vibration to the level of spirit, Practicing acts of kindness, forgiveness, respect and love toward all beings and to yourself is also of enormous benefit to aligning with the divine.

            Trusting oneself and learning to look within instead of constantly seeking external validation, approval and recognition is imperative to developing the psychic abilities that lie latent within us all. Who hasn't experienced moments when we thought of someone with whom we haven't spoken to in months or even years, only to pick-up the phone moments later and hear them on the other end of the line. Perhaps, you've had a dream about someone from your past or future and then run into him or her the next day completely 'out of nowhere'.

            We're also all familiar with the ill effects of ignoring our instincts which warn us to say no to that job offer or relationship that on a gut level we just have a feeling is wrong for us only to later find out — usually the hard way — that our sneaking suspicions were correct. Henry Wheeler Shaw said, "One-half the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough."

            So, the next time you're about to brush off that inner hunch, keep in mind this quote by Albert Einstein, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." It's now time to remember!