Korpo

Imagine a seismograph, maybe an old-fashioned one. Picture a needle on paper, going back and forth when a shock is registered, leaving a wider mark for stronger shocks, and a narrow mark for minor shocks.

Such a seismograph is an instrument for registering subtle shocks that we usually cannot detect. Of course, when there is an earthquake we will notice ourselves, but most minor shocks don't register - that's part of what the seismograph is for.

Now imagine our simple seismograph is set up on a table and someone bumps into. The balanced needle would register a strong shock from the side and register it, like an earthquake, while somebody else in the room (besides the person bumping the table) would probably not register it at all. Now, on our imaginary paper we have a seismic event that never existed.

If we can register earthquakes ourselves, what good is a seismograph? We can detect far away seismic events we can not notice else. We can detect fore- and aftershocks that might help predict events.

In my opinion, the psychic senses work similarly. We register psychic events with them, most of them are really not apparent to most people. They are subtle, registering on our subtle senses. When we activate these senses, we start to write on that paper.

I named this post psychic robustness - what is that?

Let's look at what it is not: Remember our imaginary person bumping into the table, creating a fake seismic event. For this moment we will never know what really happened, as the distortion from the bump created so much error we cannot even guess.

Similar to this setup are psychic senses connected with an agitated mind. What ends up on the paper - our experience - is distorted by what the mind registers. When somebody bumps into a table you get the actual seismic event and the fake seismic event added together on the paper. Similarly the accuracy of the psychic information varies with the agitation of the mind. Did I imagine it, was it real? Most people's minds are so agitated, they cannot detect the psychic events at all - it's like they bump so much into the table the events are ignored.

But let's say somebody has gone from just feeling what everybody feels to greater psychic ability. The difference is that you are now the seismograph! What you register is what's on the paper, not what others experience. Psychics aren't called sensitives for nothing - they register more and they register it more strongly. It can be like listening to the world around you through a cranked up hearing aid, sometimes delivering unexpected psychic shocks into your system.

Living as a seismograph in a world of psychically noisy people can be very challenging, and many people have recorded their problems with this in blogs, books and on forums. Being psychic can be a mixed blessing or for some even an outright curse. They'd like to hide or be able to turn it off and on on demand. It's happing to them, and can in some cases be like an affliction. Imagine if you couldn't turn that hearing aid off, blaring into your ears on any noise, or maybe because of a fault. Even auditory events can be painful.

The psychic senses are what they are. They register events. They report them. Some people look for the senses and wish to shut them off to control them. And I'm not excluding that option, but I want to suggest something else.

In Buddhist thought there's a connection between the senses and the mind. But the most important thing to learn from them is not to control the senses, but the reaction. The mind will always react to events. If you want to crank down that psychic volume, the key might be in the mind, not in your psychic ears or eyes.

The intensity of any event is one thing. But what determines pain or suffering is our reaction. Even physical pain is a reaction to extreme nerve input. If this weren't so, hypnosis could not take pain away. The nerves still fire, but the mind reacts differently.

So there exists the physical event of nerves firing, indicating some sort of damage to the body. And there is a reaction in the mind - either pain or another sensation. And there is a psychic event and a reaction to it. But what is a reaction to a psychic event? I'd suggest that would be "judgement."

Many psychics report that certain circumstances get them down, let's say negative environments, which essentially means negative people. They strongly react to the energies surrounding them, and these energies are generated of people who don't follow psychic hygiene and therefore pollute the M-Band around them, their astral surroundings. Similarly, entering an environment with people who work at controlling these impulses and otherwise keeping their mental balance can feel like a breather.

This all comes on top of the state of the mind itself - both psychic and regular events are met with reactions, and if these reactions/judgements are strong, a constant state of agitation and suffering can occur. It seems like this can only magnify with greater psychic prowess.

This is why being psychic and following a spiritual path may overlap, but are not the same. Many spiritual traditions emphasize the need to limit judgement. If you can complete this training, for example by practicing Metta meditation (expressing goodwill towards all kinds of people or sentient beings), you essentially limit the shocks all kinds of events have on your system. As judgement of others becomes less strong, so do your reactions to what your senses tell you about them.

This improves the quality of life both of psychics and non-psychics. Life no longer seems like a series of shocks or upsets, but more and more takes on a quality of peace. Shocks may occur, but like a wave on a quiet pond their energy is eventually spent. Only mild ripples occur.

And just like a leaf dropping in this clear pond, psychic events are detected easily by their ripples. But more importantly, not only they come, but they also fade and peace is restored. They become discernible, and also one can quietly reflect which ones interact (like two sets of ripples will interact) and what is what. The mind moves closer to understanding itself and the surrounding events and how they relate, and experiences the peace of bliss.

And that I would call psychic robustness.