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Exploring Your Body’s ESP, by Ann Todhunter Brode

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Many people haven't thought much about the connection between their body's sensory awareness and extra-sensory perception. They often consider ESP extra-ordinary and practiced only by adepts or psychics. But, it's actually available to anyone who pays attention to their inner senses. Although we're well acquainted with the external senses (sound, sight, taste, touch, and smell), the internal senses often get overlooked. In order to access your inner knowing, you'll need to become familiar with your inner senses. Let me introduce you.

Your body has four distinct sensory ways to relay information from the inside. Your vestibular system records balance and movement; proprioception registers position and location; nociception detects pain and discomfort; and interoception connects you with internal awareness and emotional feeling. Though all of the inner senses contribute to inner knowing, interoception is the direct link to what we classically think of as the sixth sense or extrasensory perception. For simplicity, let's just call this your body sense.

Because your body sense has been integral to your physical experience since the beginning, you may think of it as no big deal. But, when it comes to being intuitive, it is. Healers and sensitives have resourced their body's inner knowing for precognition, healing, and psychic ability for centuries. More recently, using imagining technology, researchers have tracked the relationship between internal sensory awareness and intuitive behavior. You may experience a bit of this when a hunch plays out or you think of someone just before they call. You may see it show up in an emotional situation, choosing to respond with your heart rather than your head. Even in a poker game, your body sense may be helping you "know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em." All of these could be just pure chance. But they could also be your ESP at work.

ESP has several different channels of communication. Depending on how they present, these are clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognizance, and clairsentience. Clairvoyance, known as second sight, is the one with which you're probably most familiar. But, the other avenues for sensory perception are actually more common. Perhaps, getting a hunch is a kind of inner knowing or claircognizance. Intuiting the emotions of others could be clairsentience, and hearing an inner voice telling you lay down your cards could be an example of clairaudience. When reading the room modifies your delivery, you're definitely being clairsentient. To explore some of these avenues, all you need to do is listen in.

Listening in to your body sense is a good way to bolster your ESP potential. You can listen in while doing mundane tasks, letting go at the end of the day, or anytime you feel emotional. Listen in during romance. Listen in at work or play, Listen in when you exercise or meditate. Without judgement, observe what's going on. Notice how comfort/discomfort, agitation/calm, excitement, joy, and sorrow feel. As you listen in, observe how your body communicates. Often irrational, ridiculously literal, and rooted in imagery, metaphor, and symbol, body speak will require translation. For instance, when your body shuts down and clams up, it's saying no. When it's in the flow, so are you and all is okay. When you hear a story and you get goosebumps, pay attention. If phrases such as, "Got off on the wrong foot," "Do something half-heartedly," or, "A knee-jerk reaction" come to mind, perhaps you need to get balanced, be in touch, and calm down.

ESP Explorations:
You can have fun experimenting with your body sense. Just pose a simple yes-no question, turn inward, and pay attention to what you feel, hear, or sense. Here are some ways this might play out in real life:

• Listen to your heart. If you want to know if your heart is on board with any decision, bring your internal awareness to your heart center and ask. If the area gets compressed, blocked, or agitated, it's asking you reconsider. If it feels open and calm, the answer is yes.
• Listen to your gut. Placing a hand on your stomach, think about a project, relationship, or investment, and notice what happens. If you feel a tense, fluttering, or a sinking feeling, your intuition is saying be careful. If your belly feels soft and content, the answer is yes.
• Listen to your emotional body. If you're with someone, even a stranger, and your body gets a sudden hit of emotion, ask yourself if this is yours or not. If it's yours, it'll feel familiar and informative. If it's not, it's telling you something about the other person's emotional state.
• Listen to your inner voice. If you're mulling over a question, listen to the words that pop up. These can show up as random sayings, something overheard, or the lyrics of a song stuck in your head. Why not mine these words for meaning to get your answer?

Think how many times you've been told to listen to your heart or trust your gut or go with your feelings. Perhaps this is where ESP begins. To take it a step further, set a goal to pay attention to your inner wisdom and put it to use in everyday ways. Let it help you make decisions, fine tune communication, be self-aware, and change your mind. Don't be afraid to put it to the test. To start, let your body sense lead the way in the little things and evaluate the results. Like any work in progress, remember that you're learning as you go along. The more you use it, the more accurate it becomes. Putting it to use simply makes it get stronger. Pretty soon, you'll trust it as valued partner for the big things. When you align intuition with intention, you have a powerful combo.

Social distancing has given us time to slow down and pay attention close at home. Why not take some time and explore something old to find something new? All you have to do is direct your attention inward and be a curious observer. Exploring a bit of ESP is no longer fringy, esoteric stuff. It's literally part of who you are.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2022. All rights reserved.

For as long as I can remember, I have been petrified of flying insects that make any kind of buzzing sound. This is my only phobia. I absolutely freak out when I hear that noise in spite of being rationally aware that insects can't harm me. I have been led to believe that I may have had a past life as one of the children of Israel held captive in Egypt, and I wonder if this could have anything to do with a plague of locusts. What can you tell me about this and how can I erase this irrational fear? Thank you for the work you do!

Love,
Mags

Dreamchaser:

Mags, I just love your question. We all have irrational fears from past lives. One of mine is of fire. It turns out I was burned at the stake, so that makes sense to me. In your case, you have had a few past lives that involved buzzing insects. The one you mention was not really the worst. The locusts descending on Egypt scared you because it was so loud, but the locusts did not harm you or your family.

I am very hesitant to say this because it sounds like such doom and gloom. You asked, however, so I will tell you what I hear: You are most afraid of the buzzing sound because it reminds you of the flies that were around you when you lay dying in at least three different lives. One was on a battlefield when you were a male soldier. Another was in a desert, where you had been left to die. In yet another, the buzzards and/or vultures had already started to feast on you, so you can imagine how traumatic THAT was. You associate that buzzing with horrible death.

I have always been terrified of snakes. When I say terrified, Mags, I mean I stop breathing, stop moving, time itself just stops. I started to realize, however, that the more spiritually evolved I became, the closer I could get to the snakes at the pet store. One day I was standing in line there and I turned around and a man was holding a corn snake directly behind me. The first thing I noticed was the incredible coloring on this snake's body. I then noticed the fluidity of the snake's movements. I had a sudden urge to reach out and touch it like I do every other animal that I am allowed to touch. Trust me though - I resisted that urge!

I then started to look at the other snakes in the store and notice their coloring, etc. I realized that they were not going to hurt me. I realized that they are much like a Great White Shark or any other misunderstood creature. If I am going to say I live in the NOW with everything that is, I guess I better figure out how to get along with everything.

I've told you this story because I want you to try to stay present in the NOW so you can really see insects and appreciate their coloring and the way they move. If you learn about your nemesis, especially as a being that shares this Universe with you, you are less likely to be afraid of it. I wish you loving encounters!

*****

Astrea:

Mags! You've lived a lot of past lives. With your birthday, there's NO WAY you could be here for the first time! The plague of locusts in Egypt is probably just ONE experience that has built this phobia and fear into your Harmony. There must have been several incarnations where you encountered noise at a higher level than most people can stand. If you examine this, you'll find that it's more than bug noises: trains, loud cars - anything uncomfortably loud is going to upset you. Bugs are just one manifestation of this for you.

Many Geminis seem to live around lots of noise. You draw it to you for some reason. Whether it's a past life issue or current life issue doesn't really matter; I see noise following Geminis around. The double energy that you have around you makes things that are noisy seek you out. How many times have you been watching television when the phone rings, and then sirens tear down the street while you're trying to have a conversation with someone? Then a dog starts to bark, the cats in the neighborhood start a fight - it goes on and on!

You can't go through life worrying about buzzing insects, and you can't wear earplugs all the time. I recommend you find and see a local past life regressionist who can help you find out why the bugs bug you so much! That lifetime in Egypt is a great place to start with someone who can guide you in exploring where all of this began for you.

If there isn't anyone specializing in this kind of therapy in your area, you can begin to discover these past lives for yourself by using ordinary Rider Waite Tarot cards and a lovely book by Edain McCoy called Entering the Summerland. The book itself is about Death, but it's not depressing. In the appendix, you'll find a system for discovering your past Incarnations with Tarot cards. As a first step, this system works well and is very accurate. If you can't find it in the store, your local library should have a copy.

While all the information you get from whatever path you choose will be ENLIGHTENING, I must warn you, Kiddo. I don't feel that Egypt was the ONLY unpleasant encounter you've had with insects during other Incarnations. Prepare yourself before you begin for some unpleasant images, and remember: the truth may be upsetting, but it will ultimately set you free.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.