In the last 7 years I've learned a lot about astral projection, meditation, lucid dreaming, spirit guides, psychic abilities etc. I tried to contact my spirit guides, but I didn't met them consciously yet, only one time. In recent years I had dozens sleep paralysis episodes. Since september I didn't had only 2-3 sleep paralysis episodes. In september 2009 after a few sleep paralysis episodes my spirit guides appear in a dream and told me to think positive and not to be scared. I tried diets, meditation, dreams to meet my guides, my vibrations are higher now, but my emotional state is not good. It's impossible to meditate properly when my heart is empty. I can't quiet my mind, my heart and my mind are too restless. A psychic told me that I have real psychics abilities, but I feel that can do nothing to unlock them. I don't have the power to project in astral planes or to meditate right. Please tell me what should I do to project in astral planes and to contact my spirit guides? How strong are my psychic abilities? Many blessings.

Hello again Adrian,

You have given me quite a tall order here in asking for a single reading to answer so many questions, when most of them could only be answered while attending a psychic development group, either online or preferably in your local area.

You do not need a psychic to tell you that you have psychic abilities as everyone who is a spiritual being temporarily inhabiting a physical body (every human being) does. Yes it is perfectly true that some people are more consciously aware of their psychic abilities and that some people have consciously decided to further develop and use their psychic abilities to help others (we call these people psychics). It is also true that some people are stronger than the average in one or two specific abilities, such as for example psychic seeing, psychic hearing, psychic feeling, etc.

While you may be strong in these, you can of course work to strengthen the other abilities in a psychic development group under the care and supervision of a knowledgeable and understanding person who is themselves a practising psychic who is more advanced than yourself. But generally even though you may work to strengthen them you will probably never get them to the point that a psychic hearer suddenly becomes the greatest psychic seer in the world. Just as you cannot easily change certain things about your own body or personality, your psychic make-up or profile is effectively what it was when you were born.

Also I do not want to spoil things for you, but it had been claimed by those in the know that everyone has episodes of sleep paralysis on a fairly regular basis. This is where our mind is gradually waking up but our bodies are still paralysed as they were while we were still dreaming, in order to stop us doing any harm to ourselves or our sleeping partners or even the furniture in our bedrooms. The only real difference between you and other people is that you can remember some of these episodes, while they cannot.



While I have also experienced sleep paralysis on several occasions, it happened quite spontaneously. There are only very few people living on the planet at any particular time who can consciously project their consciousness outside of their physical bodies and usually only after many years of practice and meditation and spiritual techniques which if used wrong can potentially kill you or only drive you insane if you are lucky. These include the use of psychotropic mind altering drugs and sub starvation diets which are intended to permanently weaken the bonds which keep the spiritual and physical body attached to each other while we are still alive.  The only problem with extreme measures such as this is that it is possible to weaken the bond so far that your spiritual body becomes completely separated from your physical one - you die.

As with regards to meditation I used to be able to do this both in private and in development groups which I both sat in and lran, but have not been able to do it again since the early 1980s.  Not everyone can, and not everyone was meant to. And not everyone who meditates does it the same way. And not everyone who does does it with the intention to meet their spirit guide. Some just meditate to relax or control pain. Some do it to become closer to God, or to communicate with aliens.

I do not know who my spirit guide is, have never contacted him or her or it, and to be honest I really do not care. But it has never stopped me doing readings or helping people to learn about and develop their own psychic abilities. I am not a medium in that I do not consciously communicate or work with a spirit guide. If you are not meant to work in this manner and be a psychic superstar at doing it, then while you can develop this ability to some limited extent, you are what you are. And didn't someone once say that we do not choose the spirits? They choose us. The tragedy of you trying o be a medium when you my not be meant to is that you could be in your enthusiasm to be someone other than yourself be ignoring and neglecting your strong psychic gifts. You could be a psychic prophet, great healer or a gifted medical intuitive, but be wasting your time and energy trying to be a medium instead.

So my advice is to forget trying to consciously astral project, and if it happens spontaneously, allow it to. Stop trying to meditate or meditate the way in which someone else you know meditates. There are many other methods you could try. Use any good internet search engine or your local library as a way of finding out more about these. Find a good and weekly held psychic development group online or in your local area (or both) which is lead by a knowledgeable and understanding practising and more psychically advanced leader.

One with a good reputation and sound moral values who does not charge an arm and a leg  and is not on a huge ego trip. Learn more bout your psychic strengths in the presence of others who are learning about and using theirs. The other members of the group or circle including the leader ill be able to provide you with valuable feedback to help you to determine what information is genuinely psychic, and what is merely wishful thinking or the product of your own fertile imagination. You need to develop this ability of DISCERNMENT, as much as you need to develop your SENSITIVITY, and learn how to protect yourself and temporarily when you are not working psychically turn off your psychic receiver or tune out (CONTROL).  

Remain curious about the identity of your spirit guide, but don't panic if you never do, or it does not happen until you are much older. There are some special guided meditation methods which can be used to try to speed the process up, but basically your spirit guide will decide if and when you are ready to know who they are, if you were ever meant to know.

It has been said many times by people much wiser than either of us that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing in the wrong hands. No more is this more true than when developing your psychic and/or mediumistic abilities. Become much more informed about your psychic strengths, once your development group leader has helped you to discover what they are.

FINALLY BE MORE YOURSELF, AND STOP TRYING TO BE SOMEONE OTHER THAN YOURSELF.

NO PERSON ALIVE ON EARTH AT THE PRESENT MOMENT IS BETTER QUALIFIED TO BE YOU, THAN YOU ARE.

WHY BE A PALE OR SECOND OR THIRD RATE IMITATION OR FAULTY COPY OF SOMEONE ELSE, WHEN YOU COULD INSTEAD BE THE 100% GENUINE ARTICLE OF YOU?
 
SOME LIGHT READING.............

"You Are Psychic!" - An MIT-trained scientist's proven program for expanding your psychic powers" by Pete A. Sanders, Jr, 1989 [Fawcett Columbine New York]

"Channeling How To Reach Out To Your Spirit Guides" - Discovering the astonishing power within you - and expand the horizons of your mind and soul. by Kathryn Ridall, Ph.D.1988 [Bantam Books]

"InnerSource Channeling Your Unlimited Self" A practical guide to channeling in your everyday life by Kathleen Vande Kieft 1988 [Ballantine Books New York]

"The Silva Mind Control Method" The revolutionary program by the founder of the world's most famous mind control course by Jose Silva and Philip Miele 1977 [Pocket Books]

"Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming" A workbook of dream exploration and discovery that will help you put the ideas in Lucid Dreaming into practice by Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. & Howard Rheingold 1990 [Ballantine Books New York]

"Journeys Out Of The Body" by Robert A. Monroe 1975 [Corgi Books]

Note the Out of Body Experiences (OOBEs) and Astral Projection are not technically the same thing as one another. Out Of Body travellers commonly find themselves in normal physical world surroundings, while astral travelling involves them moving within more dream like planes of existence or reality, other than the normal waking one.

Further development questions which are not reading requests should be posted in the main psychic forum, of which this board is only a sub forum.



Hoping that this has helped, and has not unintentionally confused you even further.

EoT

I am not sure that everyone experiences sleep paralysis, and only a few remember it. Although I would not completely cancel that out as a possibility (since I believe we all dream and not everyone remembers it, but some claim "I never dream"). In my experience, sleep paralysis is much like a sleep disorder, such as apnea or snoring or sleep walking. It is actually a physical chemical problem that occurs while the body is in the paralysis state (which is the normal state for a body in a deep sleep, so the muscles are unable to move and go into a complete relaxation). But for those people who do experience frequent sleep paralysis the problem happens because the mind somehow get woken up during this state (which is not normal, I would call it a disorder, or something out of the norm). I would also consider it the opposite of sleep walking, where you don't wake up, but your body does not go into the relaxation state, so instead you are a moving sleeper. Again, a disorder that is likely connected to your brain chemical makeup. That is why it is often found to run in families, because it is in our physical genetic make up. I experience sleep paralysis, and get it from my father's side of the family, for example, whereas my mother's side, and my siblings, do not experience it. I believe that often times, people who are open to specific psychic phenomena, may just find that it has been inherited from a previous family member or ancestor, because it is in our physical chemical makeup in our brains.

However, I believe that anyone can potentially unlock certain channels into the psychic realm by finding the right practice to exercise that brain chemistry. And I agree that the best way to do this is find someone trained and skilled and experienced in whatever it is that you are looking to achieve, who can guide you.

I also believe anyone can meditate, however, part of meditation is that we must be present to it and actually do it. I think the problem with most people is we don't know how to experience meditation "properly" BECAUSE we think there is some proper way we have not yet tapped into. Actually meditation is a test of our patience to sit there and, not so much find, as much as wait for a moment when we are meditating, and we are not waiting for meditation to begin, and understanding that moment, take it into the rest of the moments we are meditating. I find it hard to explain, but I don't think there's a wrong or right way to meditate, just a right way to understand what we are doing while we meditate. It's okay to have our thoughts, but the goal is to correct ourselves each time our thoughts come and then eventually after correcting ourselves enough our minds get used to being in meditation without over[thinking, constantly being in the past and future and just letting the mind be in the moment it is. I think just practicing that, we can move on to say guided meditations soon after, that may bring us to our goals, such as contacting higher self or spirit guides, however, we need to prepare ourselves, much like a professional athlete needs to train, to warm up before doing their sport or activity, and spend most of the time preparing for the big game or tournament or race, etc. Just always think of the mind as a muscle that needs to be always bulked up, always exercised, and always worked on in preparation for what we want to achieve.

Moving back to sleep paralysis and astral projection, what have you been trying so far to achieve your goals? I spent a good amount of time working on my sleep paralysis, to a point where I could go into it consciously when I chose by simply doing a very simple meditation before bed, I would then blank out and wake up almost instantly in the state I was trying to achieve. However, when I stopped having the time for it, I lost that practice and it stopped happening, and I could not go forward with that practice. Pretty much you have to do something every day in order to move forward with it, or at least regularly several times a week to feel like you are moving forward. I was attempting to work on astral projection. I was able to roll myself out of my body, however I would just end up in this jumbled dreamlike world as I was projecting. So the projection got muddied by my dream imagination, I think it was a lower vibration than was my goal to be at. But that had a lot also to do with my physical health which effects my focus and concentration in every conscious state anyway. It really needs to be a holistic practice that you balance yourself physically, mentally, spiritually, before you can reach your goals. Because any imbalances are going to effect your ability to be at the right vibration, and you will be presented with any blocks in your journey that you already have in your regular waking state. It's like not being able to do a math problem because you didn't eat breakfast or didn't sleep enough or something like that.

Also know that you are not the only one who feels blocked from these goals. I also struggle with meditation (don't practice it though, I'm lazy or make up excuses "I have to concentrate on this part of my life right now though, so I have no time!" etc.) and I struggle with my dream work, sleeping work because I simply don't have clear direction or goals and simply don't stick with a routine. I think it really does come down to routine, and unfortunately for me routine is one of my biggest blocks in life, I find myself unable to establish one in ANY aspect of my life. Maybe you could also look into specifically what you feel is blocking you, in any part of your life. You might find a key to unlocking what you are trying to unlock by discovering your blocks, and working from there.

Also realize that perhaps there is a reason, if you do have some kind of inherent channel within you (like I feel I do, and have been told so), that is being currently blocked or laying dormant, perhaps you are not ready for it, or there are other things in your life right now you are going through that you are still developing with. And you will know when you are ready to take on that next step. For me, personal development happens so slowly it can often look like it is not moving forward, but it is good to keep journals, so that you can look back through the years and realize to yourself you've come a long way in developing yourself to become who you want.

Another thing about "consciously" meeting your spirit guides. I think if you are anything like me and do get really drawn into dream-work, you should consider that your psychic channel is NOT one that is a direct link from spirit to consciousness. There is a possibility you are meant to interpret your dreams, and you should look into symbolism and the like, because if anything, I believe, this is a more accurate language to communicate with spirit in. Spirit does not speak consciousness--that being why spirit does not exist in our conscious plane. So I wonder if part of the problem is that you need to change the angle you are looking at your abilities from?