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Personal Psychic Protection

By Gloria Taylor Brown

When I was young, I would frequently have nightmares. Sometimes, I wasn’t asleep when I experienced these visions. Sometimes they were horrific, with blood and guts everywhere. Sometimes, I just saw people that I knew were dead. They would beg me to get messages to people I had never heard met. Others just didn’t know they were dead, and were delighted to find someone who saw them. I was not so delighted.

At one time, my family rented a house that turned out to be haunted with four separate entities haunting it, and the nightmares and visions became scarier. By then, I was studying psychic phenomenon with an excellent teacher.

I spoke to this teacher and asked her what I should do to stop all this. I thought I might be going crazy – you know, certifiably nuts, men in white coats, lock-me-away crazy. My teacher assured me that I was sane, and that these things did happen to other people. If I wanted to stop it, all I had to do was raise my vibration to a higher level, so I was “invisible” to the spirits that were currently plaguing me. But, she went on to say, “If you want to be able to allow Spirit to talk to you, you also need to learn how to be in contact with that realm as well. As you develop this connection, she said, the shielding you will receive from your Guides would shut out the other entities.

I was willing to do anything to stop the nightmares and visions, so I really applied myself to my studies, and learned all that I could about protecting myself from those I did not want to be in contact with, and about being in contact with those I did want to contact.

One of my lessons was about vibrations: The density of an object is governed by how fast that energy can vibrate. Therefore everything vibrates within certain ranges of frequency in order for human senses to perceive it. Raising your vibration opens you to different levels of consciousness. Raising your vibration heightens your awareness, develops telepathy, intuition, and increases "ESP" abilities in which to live your life in a more conscious manner. This expanded awareness of energy also helps to open and develop channels of communication from other realms of Light Beings, Spirit Guides, and Nature Spirits. Lower vibrations indicate slower, denser beings. Granite, for example, vibrates at a very low, slow rate.

I was trained to develop my psychic connections, and to open myself up to Spirit, so that I could transmit messages, and receive information. At that time, I was trained in elaborate protection methods which included prayer, altar set up and control, and how to develop my boundaries, so that I was aware of which messages came from my subconscious and which ones came from Spirit.

As time went on, I reduced my preparations to the point where I could be in the presence of Spirit in three breaths. I have become very comfortable with the Voices inside my head, and am able to tell the difference between those and any other outside influences, psychic or personal.

As many of you who have heard me on A Voice for Spirit Broadcasts know, I am in contact with a number of different Spirits, some that I have known for a long time, some whom I meet for the first time when I open up to receive the message for that evening. Most mediums or channels allow only one voice to come through them, while those who are in contact with the dead frequently hears many different voices. I am neither a channel nor a person who talks with the dear departed, although I was trained in that work from an early age. I made the choice to limit my contact by always remaining present – or at least as present as I can manage – and keeping my vibration at a level that does not invite contact from the dead. My training has been extensive, and sometimes I forget how ingrained my preparations and protection have become. I know that I will always be safe, and that anyone who is listening to my voice is included in that protection and safety.

At a recent class, I was reminded how dangerous it is to become complacent, and to presume that everyone has developed their own protection. I was confronted with a situation where two different people in the group were briefly inhabited by entities from beyond the vale. I was able to control and amend the situation, however, I know it should never have been allowed to happen. And the fault was mine. As one of the teachers, I did not insist that we teach the basic grounding and centering techniques. No matter how much a teacher thinks that the students in her class have developed the basic skills, it is the responsibility of the teacher to review the basics with the class before they begin to do the work that will take the students into new territory psychically. This event certainly did completely reinforce the idea that my teachers so long ago pounded into my head: You must develop your own protection and safety controls, before you make connection with any kind of Spirit, and you cannot presume that all disembodied beings have your best interest at heart. Some of those that have passed over can be extremely selfish, and demanding, just like they were when they were still in the body.

I am not trying to scare anyone here, but I do want you to hear what I have to say. If you are going traveling on the Spiritual planes, you must develop your inner strength, just as you would not go out and run a marathon, when the only exercise you normally do is walking to the mailbox. Just as being a “couch potato” while watching the Olympics will not build muscles, neither will just reading about developing protection in this article, nor in a book, actually create that protection. If you do not do the exercises, you will not develop the muscles – or the protection.

Here are some simple ways to prepare you for any kind of spiritual work, whether it is going on a shamanic journey, reading tarot cards or contacting Spirits.

Prepare a place in your home where you can maintain an altar. Clean out anything that is not sacred, and do not allow anyone to place unconsecrated objects in this area. To completely clear any existing vibrations from this area, you may use a smudge stick- a small bundle of white sage, sometimes mixed with pine or cedar, which you set fire to, then extinguish the fire, and use the resulting smoke to purify the area, your hands and heart. If someone else is working with you, they should be purified or “smudged” as well. You can also use incense smoke to accomplish this task, or use a crystal that has been cleansed and prepared for this task. Once the area is prepared, you can begin to build your altar.

An altar can be as simple as a couple of pictures, representing your sacred connection, and objects that represent your intentions, or it can be extremely complicated, with many different objects and photos. For our purposes, this altar is intended to provide you with extended protection beyond your home, so a photo of yourself out in the world is a particularly appropriate object to place on your altar. There are a number of very good books on building an altar, which go into much more detail.

Once your altar is built, it should be consecrated to whatever Spiritual connection you feel most connected to, whether it be an individual Spirit, such as Anubis or St. Michael, or to a particular religion or belief system, or, if you are like most of my friends, you just include all the belief systems that you hold dear. Consecration means to make sacred, and by calling in the Spirit to your altar, you have changed the vibration of this place, these objects, and yourself, from the mundane to the Sacred. You will then be able to call upon the Spirit of this altar to be present with you, wherever you are, even if you are away from home.

You can also create a small portable altar that you carry with you, and can set up quickly, whenever you want to reinforce the connection.

A simple rule of thumb suggests that any altar should have something that represents the four elements: air, water, fire and earth – and whatever Spiritual connection you believe in. An example would be a candle, which represents fire, a crystal for earth, a feather for air, and a small bottle or bowl of water, and a picture of your Spiritual connection and something that represents you – which could be a piece of jewelry that you frequently wear, or a photo of yourself.

Once you have your altar, you are ready to move on to the next step in creating your personal protection.

Sit before your altar, and allow yourself to get very quiet. This may take some time, if you have not tried to do this before, but if you persist, you will be able to still your mind.

Offer a prayer to Spirit, requesting their help in keeping you safe and protected.

Visualize yourself surrounded with white light, allowing your aura to expand around you to create an area that is your personal space. I used to have a lot of trouble in maintaining my personal boundaries, and had to learn how to “build” my boundaries, so I used a visualization of blocks of adobe, each one carefully put in place with mortar, encircling me and reaching up over my head, where I installed a “ceiling” of wood boughs, with a single hole in the center, that would maintain the spiritual connection, but keep out anything else. I would sit and “see” this as it was built around me, consciously clearing the space around me. I used this visualization for several years, whenever I felt I need reinforcement of my personal space. As an empath and a psychic, I was extremely “porous” and you may not need this level of protection, if you know your personal boundaries are good.

Send a grounding cord, or wire, down from the center of your being, allowing it to reach out and support you, wherever you may travel. Whenever you are in a place or class that requires you to travel outside your body, or receive messages from outside yourself, reinforce this grounding by visualizing a cord or root, running down from the center of your being, into the earth. If you plan on traveling out into the universe, remember that the further you go, the deeper you need to plant your grounding cord in this planet. Visualize a small flame, like a candle flame, in the center of your being, or in your heart, and feed the flame with love, until it begins to glow and grow.

Open up your connection with Spirit, pulling down the energy from above, into the center of your being, so that it will meet and marry with the grounding cord, as well as the flame in your heart.

You can reinforce these connections every time you sit before your altar, or by creating sacred space wherever you are working.

If you do not want to maintain an altar, you can create a sacred space within your being. When you are first starting out, however, a physical representation in three-dimensional reality will help you maintain this connection.

Once you have created your sacred space, and grounded and centered yourself, you are ready to reach out and make your connection with the spiritual realm. You are the only one who can determine whom you want to work with.

Developing consciousness around what it takes to be grounded and centered, whom you want to work with, and how you want to work with them is not always easy. Remember, you are the gatekeeper and you are in control. It is rewarding, and will provide you with many opportunities to look within yourself and create new connections and healing for you and your family.

If you find yourself at the other end of the spectrum of spiritual connection – you want connect with Spirit, receive messages, or obtain information and all you are getting is your own “mind noise”- realize that this Spiritual connection, too, is like developing a muscle. If you keep working at it, you will develop the ability to connect and communicate. Do not blame yourself or others, just set aside a time when you can ground and center, focus and bring up your heart flame, breathe deeply and slowly, and allow yourself to listen. Allow yourself a set amount of time – 10-15 minutes is usually good to start with – and if after that amount of time, you still have not connected, thank your Guides, acknowledge yourself for making the effort, and return to try again at a future time.

One last caveat – if you think you are getting messages that suggest that you hurt yourself or others, or if you are finding yourself doing things that you believe are wrong – don’t blame it on Spirit. It is from within our own human brains that these messages come, and if you are receiving them, it is time for you to find help immediately. If someone else says they are getting these kinds of messages, please get them to a doctor who deals in disorders of the mind as soon as possible. Spirit will NEVER tell you to do anything that will harm you, or harm another! If you work from a place of being where you are grounded and centered and connected to Spirit, you will always be safe.

I love working with Spirit, and doing this kind of work for a living, but I will not forget again how important it is to make sure everybody is trained in the basics, before I take them flying to Inner Space. I hope you can join me in listening to upcoming A Voice for Spirit Broadcasts, as well as future classes. I will be teaching a new class called Beyond the Stargate soon.

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