An Introduction to Psychic and Intuition Development by Psychic Jenna

Everyone is born with psychic abilities. While natural intuitive tendencies and strengths can be passed down through family, everyone has psychic abilities, the ability to improve their natural talents, and learn new psychic and intuitive skills. Regardless of whether you’re already an experienced psychic, or if you’re brand new to intuition development, anyone can benefit from expanding their psychic senses, and thus, improve their lives. 

Psychic development doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult. It can be, but the key to improving and achieving real results is keeping a consistent schedule and practice. If you don’t practice your art on a consistent basis, you won’t see the results you’re after, no matter how much money you spend or how many books you read. That doesn’t make you any less psychic, but you won’t achieve magnificent results if you don’t practice! Developing your psychic skills is often just like learning an instrument or sport. You may have a natural-born talent to be an athlete or a musician, but you still need consistent practice in order to excel. As well, as you practice, you’ll learn new ways of doing things INTUITIVELY, without needing instruction!

Start With A Plan

When beginning to explore the world of psychic phenomena, it’s easy to get lost and feel aimless. My first suggestion when beginning this new venture is to lay out a plan, or a list of goals you would like to achieve. What is it, specifically, that you want to learn? What areas do you struggle and want to improve? Without having a firm direction, it’s easy to get lost in the never-ending world of metaphysics. There are limitless ways for you to use and enhance your own, unique psychic abilities, so it’s up to you to explore which path you want to take. Grab a pen and a piece of paper, and list everything that comes to mind immediately when you think about what you’d like to learn how to do. Take some time with it, and you’ll likely surprise yourself at how long that list might get.

Keep in mind that psychic development is not a race, and your journey is your own - not the same as anyone else’s. There’s no end “goal”, because psychic and intuitive development is a continual process. The journey IS the goal. So simply by embarking on this wondrous journey and taking those first steps, you’re actively achieving that goal of becoming a well-rounded psychic. Take that list, and make sure to prioritize anything that holds deep meaning to you, or where you feel you have a lot of interest. Progress is often gradual, so it’s essential that you focus on something that keeps your interest, so that you continue the practice. Some areas you can start and focus on include astrology, numerology, tarot/oracle cards, runes, energy reading/healing (such as aura reading, Reiki, and Pranic Healing), pendulum dowsing, scrying (crystal ball reading), tea leaf or candle wax reading, and so much more! 

There’s no right or wrong way to learn or do anything when it comes to psychic work. What works for you may not work for everyone else, and vice versa. It’s important to keep that in mind, and know that if something doesn’t resonate with you, you should probably find something else that does, or another method to accomplish your goal. However, diving right in is, in my experience, the very best way of starting anything when it comes to intuition development. Start anywhere, wherever you want and feel drawn to. Dive into it and just begin DOING IT. Don’t spend hours studying or trying to understand how or why things work before you try them (you can study WHILE actively practicing). If you want to learn Tarot for instance, you don’t need to know the meanings for every card before you start using them, just start! You can begin by building a relationship to the cards and assigning your own intuitive meaning to them, you can start with simple spreads and looking up the meanings individually as you go, but whatever you do - just start DOING IT. 

Meditation for Developing Psychic Abilities

When it comes to psychic development, the most important tool you could possibly use is meditation, and for a few reasons. Meditation quiets the rational and conscious mind, and allows room for your higher self and intuition to speak. Most often, your intuition is NOT the loudest voice in your headspace, it is often soft, and easy to ignore. Part of developing your gifts is to start listening to your intuition, instead of dismissing it in the noise of your conscious mind. As most people who have tried meditation have learned, meditation is not as easy as it looks! Many people struggle with meditation, because it’s difficult to quiet your rational mind, and let go of our continuous daily distractions. That being said, there are numerous methods of meditation to try until you get comfortable with the practice! While silent meditation is a must for anyone wishing to develop their abilities, other meditations can prove useful in a number of situations, including guided meditations, visualization meditations, breath-oriented meditations, walking meditations, meditations to music, and so much more. 

Contrary to popular belief, meditation does not need to be done for hours on end to achieve wonderful results. Honestly, someone new to meditation should not try for longer than 10-15-minute sessions once or twice a day. Even those experienced with meditation simply need to keep up a regular practice of 30-60-minute sessions a few times a week. If you find meditation boring, you are likely not doing it correctly, and you may want to try a different form of meditation. 

Meditations that incorporate ALL your senses are extremely beneficial, as they help strengthen your intuitive senses! For each of your physical senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing) you have an intuitive or psychic sense as well!

Here’s an easy meditation to try:

Sit quietly, in a comfortable position (your spine straight). Close your eyes, and visualize a place - any place - you would like to be. It can be a real location, but I recommend building your own, unique place in your mind - so that during subsequent meditations you can return! This can be a wonderful tool for dealing with stress and anxiety, or for relaxing before bed. Once you have decided on a mental place, begin incorporating your senses into it one by one. What do you see? For example, if it’s a beach scene, do you see all the colors in the sand? Look at the water and see the turquoise and shimmering hues of blue and green melding together. Listen to the roaring of the waves, and the sounds of seagulls calling. What do you smell? Can you smell the salt in the ocean? Can you feel the sand between your toes and the warmth of the sun on your skin? Can you hear the waves crashing onto the shore and the sounds of seagulls calling? Spend time focusing on sensing everything in your meditation. The more you practice this, the more you will strengthen your psychic senses, and the better you will get when it comes to doing guided or chakra meditations, or picking up intuitive messages and translating them into something meaningful.

One of my favorite meditations, a simple candle meditation, can be utilized if you have difficulty forming pictures in your mind’s eye or following guided meditations. It’s also wonderful for a very unique reason - it helps bridge the gap between your conscious mind and your intuitive mind, helping them to move more in sync as opposed to operating separately. Candle meditations don’t require any special tools other than a standard candle, and are wonderful exercises to expand your third eye as well. 

Candle Meditation, Part 1:

Sit in a relaxed position, so that you are comfortable. It’s not important how you sit, but that you are comfortable, and your spine is straight, so that If you were to take a string from the top of your head and extend it to your tailbone, it would go perfectly through your body. Take a candle and place it in front of you at eye height. 

Close your eyes, and take several long, deep breaths, until you start to feel the rhythm of your breaths evenly. Take your time, there is no rush to this exercise. 

Starting at the top of your head, visualize a horizontal line above your head, slowly moving downwards. As it reaches your body, relax your muscles when it reaches each part, so as the line descends, relax the body areas where that line is passing over. Continue doing this all the way down to your feet, until your full body is in a calm, comfortable, and relaxed state. 

Open your eyes, and gently gaze at the candle flame. Make sure that you are not straining your eyes, but focusing with a relaxed stare. You will eventually notice that you are mostly using your peripheral vision, and that’s exactly what you want. As you watch the candle, focus on the flame for several minutes. If you find thoughts or feelings enter your mind, allow them to pass and return your attention to the candle, and just the candle. Eliminate all other distractions from your mind. Make sure to keep your breathing deep, slow and steady throughout. 

After about 5 minutes, close your eyes, and visualize the candle in your mind’s eye. Make sure to picture the whole candle and flame. If you have difficulty, at any time you can open your eyes and gaze at the candle, and when you feel comfortable, close your eyes and visualize the candle again. Try to keep this mental image of the candle present in your mind’s eye for at least 5 minutes. You may start to feel heavy and weighed down during this exercise, and that’s completely normal.

With practice, you should be able to accomplish this meditation within 10-15 minutes, and eventually without needing to open your eyes to look at the candle or flame. I would suggest this meditation once per day until you feel comfortable with it. Once you feel that you have accomplished this and are fully comfortable with the meditation, then proceed to the next steps. This next part is a little more difficult, so it’s important to master the first part before attempting the second. 

Candle Meditation, Part 2:

Concentrate on the candle flame. Breathe slowly and deeply as you did with the original candle meditation. Synchronize your thoughts (which should be spoken out loud) with the opening and closing of your eyes. Each time you open your eyes, gently gaze at the candle, and each time you shut your eyes, intensely visualize the candle and flame. Pause only for a brief moment before continuing with the next statement. Compared to earlier, this should be done in a much quicker pace (but not rushed, you should feel completely relaxed throughout). It is of HIGH importance that in order for this meditation to be done effectively, that you are visualizing the candle and flame each time you close your eyes. Do each of these statements 7-10 times. You can do them in any order you choose. 

Start by opening your eyes, looking at the flame, breathe in deep and state “Close Off” as you breathe out. Close your eyes, breathe in deep, and state “Enter In” as you breathe out.

Open your eyes, gaze at the flame, breathe in and state “Inner Awareness” as you breathe out. Close your eyes, breathe in, and state “Higher Awareness” as you breathe out. 

Open your eyes, gaze at the flame, breathe in and state “Rational Mind” or “Conscious Mind”. Close your eyes, visualize the flame, and as you breathe out, state “Intuitive Mind”. 

Repeat the process with the following statements: 

(open eyes) Shut off……. (close eyes) Open

(open eyes) Inner sensing…... (close eyes) Higher sensing

Finish the exercise with 1-3 minutes of silent meditation. 

I encourage you to make this meditation your own, and use whatever phrases or statements you feel drawn to. The point of the meditation is you are solidifying your intention to open your intuition and communicate with your higher self, but also help the connection between your conscious and intuitive minds, and strengthen your mind’s eye. 

Interpreting Messages

When learning psychic development, a common question people have is “How do I know what comes from intuition and what is my imagination?”

Your intuition and your imagination are very different, but can appear in a similar way, which can make it difficult for some (especially creative souls) to know the difference. One way of knowing that a message is from your intuition is that it will not sit in your energy for a long period of time. Generally, an intuitive message will come into your mind or energy, and pass just as easily and quickly as it arrived. It generally will not linger. Thoughts that do tend to linger are often anxiety based, OR you may be picking up on something else in a psychic way. It’s important, then, to take notice of everything that you’re thinking about, and where you’re focusing your attention throughout the day. Intuitive messages will often also be “softer” - and more passive, but feel a bit higher - or detached. Many describe intuitive messages as feeling “floaty”, or as coming from a different part of their mind. As you practice communicating with your intuition, the difference will become clearer the more you work with it.

Something to keep in mind as you begin working with your psychic abilities is that things you pick up psychically or intuitively will not necessarily be straight forward. Symbolism is the language of your intuitive and psychic mind, so anything from colors, feelings, images, shapes, sounds, and more can have a much deeper meaning than just what those things represent in our regular daily lives. For that reason, it is important to grow that connection between your consciousness and your intuition, and develop your psychic senses, so that you can understand messages easier.

Being a psychic is essentially being a translator. While some messages may be literal and to the point, most are not.

You don’t have to buy a book on symbolism though to find meaning. Evaluate what those things mean to you - and how you would interpret them as a meaning. Part of translating what you’re picking up simply comes with practice, and you will also have an easier time interpreting messages as you go. Surprisingly, studying poetry and metaphors can be helpful, as much of poetry is symbolic – and your intuition works in a similar way. Learning to interpret metaphors and symbolism in general can be useful in this regard!

Take a Systems Check

Another thing you can do if you feel you are picking up on something with your psychic senses is to do what I call a “systems check”. Take a moment, and assess how you are feeling right at that moment. Do you have any intense emotions that do not match your current situation and surroundings? Are you noticing any pain, weakness, tingling, or temperature sensations? Do you have any odd thoughts or pictures entering your mind that would usually not be there? Taking a quick moment to analyze your current state while you are picking up on something can provide a great deal of information for you to work with. If possible, write down everything - from what you were picking up on, as well as your systems check notes, so you can review them later. 

As you develop on a spiritual level, you will likely notice changes in your life. The first change you will likely notice is an overall increased awareness, and it may seem distracting or overwhelming at first, but is perfectly normal. You may feel tingling in areas such as your third eye (between your brows and above your nose) or your crown chakra, or other unique sensations! Something most people often start to notice, as they expand their consciousness, are patterns - both in nature, but also in numbers, symbols, and other ways. It’s not uncommon to begin lucid dreaming, have intuitive dreams, or even precognitive dreams (dreams depicting the future). As you develop your psychic abilities, you’ll notice yourself picking up on things far more often than you previously thought possible, and in different ways! The point is to begin paying attention when you do begin picking up on things. 

Working with Psychic Tools

A common misconception about advancing as a psychic is that you must buy a lot of materials - crystals, cards, special candles, oils, incense, etc… However, you don’t need ANY tools to develop your intuition, or to use your psychic abilities. When working on psychic development, tools can be extremely helpful though along the way, as well as being enjoyable in and of themselves. You may find that some tools really bring out your intuition in a way other methods don’t or can be a pathway forward if you’re finding yourself stuck. Some common tools psychics often use include tarot and oracle cards, crystals, pendulums, dowsing rods, scrying mirrors or crystal balls, runes, etc… Some psychics will also do candle wax readings, egg cleansings, and more - so your tools aren’t what’s really important - it’s your intention, and bridging the connection between your conscious and rational mind, and your psychic intuitive mind. Tools can be a wonderful thing to incorporate into your practice, and really beneficial to growth, but remember, they’re tools!

The real magic comes from you, not what you’re using. 

When choosing a tool or tools, focus on the ones that attract you the most - the ones you feel drawn to. You will have a much higher degree of success if you start with something that inspires you - and you feel that spiritual connection with. Crystals, for example, are a wonderful tool for both novice and advanced psychics, and can be used in energy healing, psychic reading, or in psychic and spiritual development to name just a few uses! You don’t need large, expensive pieces either! Small specimens work just fine.

Crystals

One way to begin working with crystals, for example, is to buy a few small stones from your local metaphysical store or rock shop. Remember to keep the names of the stones so you can look up their metaphysical properties later, but to start, just hold the stones in your hand, and go into a light meditative state. Clear your mind, and focus on the crystal in your hand, and notice any changes you may feel emotionally, energetically, mentally or physically. Write down your impressions, and then look up the stones and see if what you picked up from the stone matches the stone’s properties. This is a wonderful way to get used to feeling and interpreting energy too, especially if you have interest in doing energy healing or reading!

Don’t be dismayed if what you picked up differs from the stone’s traditional metaphysical properties - many stones (such as quartz, for example) can shift their properties depending on intention, how they’re used, or who is holding them! Your energy can affect a crystal and vice versa! How it interacts and can be used with YOUR energy is the key!

Tarot Cards

Some other commonly used tools are tarot and oracle cards! Tarot/Oracle cards can be wonderful for new psychics to learn. While many people believe that you must be gifted a tarot deck, or may hold some other beliefs regarding them - they’re still just cards. Your intuition and psychic ability are what picks up on messages within the cards, otherwise they’re just a deck of cards - made by some publishing company! Pick a deck that fits you, as well as your spiritual beliefs! There are all kinds of tarot and oracle cards, and there’s no “best” deck for everyone. Most psychics use several different decks, so I encourage you to try what draws you the most!

The first step in using cards in your readings is to know what spreads to use. A spread is the way the cards are laid out, and tell you what that card represents in your reading (past, future, current situation, etc…). Learning several spreads is helpful for different situations or for getting more insight into specific topics. Some card decks do have specific ways they are to be used - and will have helpful booklets/guides with them to assist you. After learning a spread or two, begin using your cards! I wouldn’t suggest starting with memorizing the cards, but simply begin working with them. As you practice, you’ll memorize the original card meanings naturally (assuming you’re looking up the meaning for each card each time you do a reading). However, if you simply use memorization for the card meanings and the spreads, then you’re playing a card game, not doing a psychic reading. You must channel your intuition into the reading, and look further into the cards to get deeper meaning.

For example, the Sun card in Tarot depicts a baby on a white horse, surrounded by sunflowers under a large smiling sun. This card often represents happiness, positivity, freedom, etc… That symbolism can also be seen in the card itself! But, when doing a reading, you might especially be drawn to the infant in the card, and find it difficult to move past it without acknowledging the importance of that child. So, in THAT reading, you may be dealing with an upcoming pregnancy, the “birth” of a new opportunity, or you could take it as a sign of fertility. The intuitive meaning you pick up on from the cards may not be the literal meaning, and that’s fine, because NOW you’re doing a psychic reading! It’s still important to take note of the original meaning, as that can provide even more detail as well (such as, positivity and excitement about an unexpected upcoming birth). For even more on Tarot, visit the comprehensive Psychic Source Guide to Tarot Readings.

There is SO much to learn in the psychic realm that you could spend your whole life studying, and STILL have more you could learn! It’s truly limitless, so if you get stuck, try to not get frustrated and try different approaches to resolve your obstacle. Creating a “sacred space” or a place where you can completely focus in your home can be really helpful, especially when it comes to concentrating and focus. Try to find ways of exercising your intuition and psychic abilities throughout your day is a wonderful way of making “practice” not seem so much like work. If the phone rings, take a few moments to see if you can sense who may be on the other line (Male? Female? What is it regarding? Do you know this person?). If you’re with a friend, with their permission, see if you can read their energy! You can have them face away from you, and ask them to recall a memory that evokes a strong emotion. Give it a few moments, then see if you can pick up on what emotion they are experiencing! You can also use your intuition when traveling, to see if you pick up on any memories or energy attached to a certain place, or what you’re picking up on in a building!

Anywhere you go, you can have the opportunity to pick up on things and exercise those unique psychic abilities each of us possess!