From http://www.psychics4you.co.uk/psychic-articles/Psychic_Phenomenon58__Gifts_Powers_or_Abiliti.htm
by Christin Snyder

In my work as a psychic who seeks to mentor those developing their own skills, I find it important to mention this subject. I refer to psychic abilities as just what they are - skills or abilities. The other terms I find to be damaging as they infer that this is unatainable by others, or that psychic senses are much more “supernatural” than they actually are.

Often I hear others speak of their developing abilities as “gifts”, as though they were so special that God gave them this unique and special ability and not others. Unfortunately, many famous psychics also do this, insinuate that some great mystical super-secret society power has been bestowed on them. This is harmful to those who would love to develop psychically but feel that they “aren't enough” somehow, or haven't been “chosen”.

Are psychic abilities gifts? Indeed they are. Those of us who have developed them recognize that we are blessed, but I also recognize that every breath I take on this planet is also a gift. I also know that we all breathe. Therefor oxygen, while still a beautiful, precious gift that should not be taken for granted, is something that we can all partake in. Psychic ability is no different. Just as everyone can pick up a pencil and write with it, everyone can also learn to develop some form of psychic skill set. Not everyone will become a pulitzer prize winning novelist, or famous poet, but that doesn't stop all of the rest of us from writing, so why should it stop beginners in Metaphysical studies from even trying? It is amazing to me the number of people who come to me and say “I don't think I am gifted?” or “Can you tell me if I have gifts?”. My answer: Are you standing here, breathing, having a life experience right now? then yes you are gifted. The key is not focusing on lack or what one doesn't have, but appreciating what is.

Psychic abilities are not elusive foreign phenomenon that only the chosen few can bring forward, they are an innate set of senses, hidden deep within the psyche and soul of each being that must be allowed to be brought forward. Many people don't agree with this, they believe that because they want psychic abilities that they must already be allowing it and it just isn't coming. This is very untrue. Developing these skills means adjusting to a different reality that what is presently understood and accepted both by society and the individual. The body/mind have a natural resistance to this in place as a protective mechanism. In order to reach our fullest potential psychically, we have to work at peeling away the barriers. It can take considerable time and effort to allow these abilities to manifest to their fullest potential, and as with anything worth having they require persistence and dedication.

We live in a society that pushes heavily the “instant gratification” syndrome, and this tends to cause many developing psychics to throw in the towel much to soon. When we add the stigma of “being gifted” to it, many don't even try at all. They are falsely led to believe that these abilities just manifest in others who have been fortunate enough to have them bestowed upon them by Creator. News Flash, God/Creator loves all of creation, so why then would He/She/It only give gifts to some of the Earths children and not to all? That's not unconditional love, but it is a human condition ;). Everyone of you reading this also has psychic ability, and yes it is a gift, but so is everything else.

Another word I hear misused a lot is “powers”. Psychic ability does not give us “power” over anyone, and those psychics who believe it does usually find their careers short lived, or find that Karma catches up eventually. Any genuine psychic is humble enough to tell people that they too can do what he/she is doing. A good psychics goal is to empower others not to wield some false sense of power over them. When I hear psychics and/or aspirants refer to their “powers” it is one of my biggest pet peeves. That word implies not only that it is a super secret society elite thing again, but also propogates fear and contributes to the already abounding social ignorance surrounding psychic phenomenon. Those who do this to puff up their own egos by portending they have super-hero like “powers” make it difficult for genuine psychics to get established and the outlook for ever being taken seriously in our field becomes even more grim.

I have the upmost respect for psychics and healers as well, who seek to empower others by demystifying this process. John Edward is one prime example of a mainstream psychic who has done a lot of work in this area. Thanks to his work, more people are seeing this as something that is not just a power for the chosen ones, but something anyone with the dedication to do so can develop. I hope that as more of us establish our careers we will also take the “high road” and continue to promote more personal empowerment and less hocus-pocus. Knowledge is the true “power”.

Mum's side of my family has psychic talent running through it.  I use the word talent in the same sense as I would speak of sporting talent.  Something untrained which just seems to manifest.  I've heard that often, due to the generally more highly developed logic/math (and thus "rationalality") center (Notice I said generally!  I don't want female aerospace engineers jumping down my throat over that) of the male brain, males don't tend to carry their talents beyond childhood, if they have them at all.  I, apparantly, am the only male of mum's line, to have/keep my talents beyond childhood (I'm 18 now).  They seem to manifest differently in each person on mum's side though, so there seems to be very little system to them.  I, personally, have short-range (no more than a couple of days), extremely vivid and explicit premonitions, and occasionally I can hear what someone's thinking.  I don't like to call it "mind reading" because that sounds invasive.  In truth, it feels more to me like sometimes people are screaming their thoughts out and I can't help but overhear.  Also, one night while I was asleep, I had a nightmare full of blood and screaming and fire, and it felt as if someone was pleading at me to save them.  I woke up to find out about the events of September 11 - did the math and found that I was asleep when it happened.

My mother always knows when a family member dies, because she has the same dream the night before it happens, but that's about as much as I know about her talents.  I don't know anything about my nanna's, but my great grandmother always had some sort of presence when I was around her (Not just because she was positively ancient to me when I was little :P).  Mum tells me that when I was a toddler my great grandmother would often say I'm "an old soul" or that I've "been here before".

I've tried to learn to control what talents I have, to some small measure of success.  My ex girlfriend was also psychic, stronger than me, I think, but with no control at all.  Even though it was a (very) long-distance relationship.  She being in Montreal with me being in Mackay, Australia, so that's over 15,000km, it always felt like we were right next to eachother, because we could feel eachother.  I'd often project my emotions to her to cheer her up when she was sad, or calm her down when pressure was getting too much.  It seemed to work better with her than with other people because of our deeper connection.

Sometimes I've tried to actively feel what other people are feeling, which works well sometimes.  Much more like empathy than sympathy - sympathy implies an "i've been there before" mentality, but empathy means you are actually feeling it.  Once, I even tried powers of suggestion, just as well that I'm no good at it, because there are so many ethical concerns involved.  I always tried with something small like, completly without speaking or making eye contact with someone, convincing them their leg was itching, or that they are thirsty.  It worked, to a small extent, but it was a lot of work.  I think I need to refine my talents more - turn them into skills instead of the raw, unpolished implication of "talent" :P

Anyway, that's just a breakdown of my psychic talents.  I wouldn't say they're anything special, I'm sure I'm by no means unique in that I have these.  I also seem to have rambled and waffled quite a bit here.  I'm interested to hear what abilities other people have, and how they learned to control or refine them

I have none that I can remember of, but would like to listen to what others have. But Noobix ur explantion was very good, (the benefits of learning English for professional use is that u can say stuff more clearly), & I have to say I am impressed by ur "talent's", which I am again sure u will turn it into skills in the very near future.

I hate to sound like I'm tooting my own horn here, but I'm not able to articulate things in text easily because of my study.  I've just always been a languages-oriented person since I was a child.  I don't remember a time when I couldn't read, and I've got memories of when I'm two years old, and whenever I read a European language, I can usually understand the gist of it, mainly because most English words are based on other European languages, and I just happen to know a lot of English.  Japanese is the only other language I've ever actually tried to learn though, which is a shame, had I the oportunity to learn more when I was a child, I'd probably know German, French and Spanish by now too :P   They're all on the list.  I have a list of languages to learn once I'm fluent in Japanese :P

Psychic abilities are available to all...they are based in the 5 senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch) that are used in the material vibration and taking them (along with 2 others: Intuition and I Know...this comes from the heart...it neither sees nor hears...it just knows) into the sensitivities of our psyche.  Some say we have a gland for this purpose...the pineal...but this is still conjecture.

The tools of development are available in our consciousness (visualization, meditation, affirmation) and they help ground and spiritualize the exercise of psychic unfoldment.  Begin with affirmation for positive focus.  Then using meditation techniques and exercises, attune with your own individual spirit guidance for deeper input into mediumship.