THE VOICE IN MY HEAD, A TOUCH, A SENSE OF PRESENCE

Eyvonne Carter-Riley was a dance teacher on the same faculty with me when I taught drama in Phoenix. She recently wrote to me about her experiences of an inner presence: "I love the paranormal too and have had my share of things happen. Sometimes frightening at first- but always turns out a good message, right? One happened while I was living in Wickenburg in March of 2002 after a day of sobbing my eyes out because my daughter said she wanted to live with her father (a year & 1/2 after the divorce). My little ballet studio was falling apart, and I was just feeling lost what to do. I cried so hard I made myself literally sick and went to bed at 7 pm. In the middle of the night I felt something on my shoulder, and it woke me up. Then I heard a voice say clear as a bell, 'Eyvonne you're going to be ok, you've done nothing wrong. Good will happen for you.' The voice was female but no one I recognized. Well..... I lay there frozen with my eyes wide open, scared to pieces and trembling! Then I fell asleep for another 10 hours. About 6 weeks later I decided to move out of Arizona to Nevada for a teaching job- that fell in my face - but at least to a new life that picked up from there."
 
An inner voice that speaks in our mind or a physical touch with no one present—such experiences can provoke many responses—from wonder to comfort to fear for our sanity. How should we react? What should our attitude be? I say look at the outcomes.
 
Eyvonne relates what happened to her on another occasion when she sensed a presence, rather than hearing a voice or a touch on her shoulder: "April of 2003 the day after our wedding is when I get rushed to the hospital (by hubby) at 2 am because I had severe stomach pains and found out it was gall bladder (no warning really- I thought the squeezy tummy was nerves from all the TV cameras at my wedding!) I had emergency gall bladder surgery 14 hours later. The surgeon said I had only hours or it may have been fatal - it was that badly infected. But besides hubby with me I felt someone else there also!"
 
Again in a life-threatening situation, Eyvonne heard a voice that saved her life.  She said of that encounter: "Then Jan 2004 2 weeks before my 50th birthday I'm in a car accident! It happened so fast yet everything seemed slow motion. I heard 'relax' (that female voice again) from somewhere! I was driving a company car - a taxi helping out to move the company from the old office to a new office area. (I was dispatching limos at the time.) I also had gotten a taxi license, but it's a pit of a job. I begged to do dispatching. It's 4:30 am (ugh) and at a 4 way stop sign I looked and saw no one but me at the intersection over by the New Orleans Casino. I saw a truck coming from the opposite direction but it was safe for me to go, so I thought. I get T-Boned from a mini-van that was clocked at 95 in a 25-mile zone- a stolen vehicle with Mexican guys that spoke no English.
 
"My car was bent into a U and it had spun 3 times before I came to a stop. The guy in the truck saw the whole thing. I got badly bruised from the air bag, cuts on arms and face from glass, my back wrenched and bruised, and whiplash. I was hanging out the side of the car in the seat! After the truck guy got me unbuckled, I stood up and fainted! Then I came back to consciousness to see the ambulance pull up. I walked to the sidewalk at first not knowing it was all for me! Really crazy. I go back to the car and used the radio system to alert the office. The taxi authority and the limo office people were there within minutes to see the smushed taxi and me standing there and the Mexican guys all pissed because they've been arrested.
 
"I felt my angel was there. This accident made the news and everyone that saw the car said it's a miracle I was standing there. I was sent home for the rest of the day, too shook up to do anything. I was home by 7:30 am and sat in our Jacuzzi for about 4 hours. But my dancing will never be the same after that. So had to put away ever teaching ballet again. But main thing I survived it. And someone was there, my guardian angel for sure."
 
Whether you label them imagination, delusion, or divine intervention, these stories show undeniable facts. They happened when the experiencer was in great emotional need or physical danger. They comforted her and preserved her life. The outcomes have always been positive and good. That tells me that Eyvonne's paranormal experiences are the kind that can be trusted.
 
Not all such experiences are so benevolent and beneficial. If the voice in your head is overly emotional or tries to get you to do something you wouldn't normally do like take drugs or harm another person, there is reason for concern. In such a case, it's best to see a psychological or spiritual counselor, someone you trust to give you a fair hearing.
 
I am grateful to Eyvonne for sharing her experiences. Today she has a business in Las Vegas. Here's her contact info:
Talking Dogs Mobile Grooming
www.talkingdogsmobile.com

PURPOSEFUL PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES

"I visited your blogspot," wrote Hope King of Tempe."I understand well about psychic experiences. Dreaming about plane crashes and earthquakes prior to their happening nearly ten years ago was terribly frightening and led me to avoid the news at all costs for many years. Other than that horrible summer, I tend to find my psychic experiences comforting. When loved ones pass on I often get a visit within the next two weeks. I worried when my father did not come to me after his passing last May. Finally, I felt him, but his energy was filled with fear. I let him stay with me for maybe ten minutes, then surrounded his presence with white light, and called upon Jesus to take him to heaven. Several months later, I wondered what the outcome of all of that was. I shuddered to recall his fear and wondered if he was in a good place. Within two or three days, I came home one day to see my father - plain as day - sitting on my couch comfortably and with a smile on his face. It was only an instantaneous vision, but I know that he came to give me my answer. He is in a good place."

Hope is, in my opinion, a wise young woman who is coming to trust her psychic experiences to help support her life. One of her strengths is acknowledging her intention to receive a visit from a loved one who has passed on. If she believed such events would be impossible, she could have hampered her ability to see her father.

Sometimes we think that psychic experiences happen to us. Maybe we imagine they are visited on us by an unkind or even malevolent force. "The devil is behind it" style of thinking. Conversely sometimes people believe positive forces are behind psychic moments, often attributing them to angels or divine intervention.

For a long time I believed I had no control over psychic experiences. This is what happened to me: I spoke with the ghost of my dead friend then convinced myself it didn't happen. I had dreams that came true and decided not to continue to have those dreams. A guide or angel or some ineffable presence spoke into my mind, and I thought I was going crazy. Over the years, I've been my own worst enemy when it came to such matters by intentionally suppressing them. It has taken years of study and effort to come to trust these aspects of myself.

I believe intention is the most important element. By that I mean a conscious state of will. People can decide to have precognitive dreams or decide not to have any. They can decide to acknowledge their intuition or to ignore it. These experiences are far more under conscious control than many of us realize or admit. If this weren't so, how could people who consult psychics or mediums, including yours truly, ever trust the people we go to see? We pay them money to invoke their own psychic abilities. Why not invest in our own?

The websites listed below will help you wrap your mind around your own intention as a major player in psychic awareness. I realize that trusting science and scientists is an imperfect path to truth, but it's an important one, nevertheless.

An American born Swiss researcher, Dr. Arthur T. Funkhouser says intention can be employed to create precognitive dreams. If you'd like to participate in his research, you can do so at this URL: http://www.deja-experience-research.org/index.php/everydayde

Lynne McTaggart, a British author, sponsors a website and occasional scientific experiments on intention. http://theintentionexperiment.ning.com/

If you just want to play some games instead of doing research, try http://psiarcade.com/. The psi arcade is fun but it's sponsored by a serious research institution, The Institute of Noetic Sciences, http://ions.org/. Perhaps you read about them in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.

Whatever approach you take, know that it's all in your power. It's all in your intention!
Love and light,
Toby

Out of the Psychic Closet: The Quest to Trust My True Nature by Toby Fesler Heathcotte