Psychic ability is something we all possess to greater or lesser degrees, and it's something that can be consciously developed. Some people do have a an intuitive "gift," just as others may have gifts for art, mathematics, athletics, etc... Through focused desire and concentration, however, we can all enhance the abilities we were born with.

Meditation is the most commonly prescribed practice for spiritual development and increased psychic awareness. The word "meditation," however, tends to be daunting to beginners. What is really needed is simply to get quiet and pay attention. "Visions" and other experiences of extraordinary awareness happen when we're hyper aware of subtle energies and influences. It has been said that genius is simply energy focused intensely and consistently on a certain matter. To become good at perceiving, then, we must practice getting quiet and paying intense attention to small stimuli and subtle energies.

It's important to note that not everyone is visual by nature. There are three main modes of perceiving: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Those who are visual learn best by seeing, and think with pictures in their minds. Those who are auditory learn best by hearing, and "talk" to themselves more in their minds. Those who are kinesthetic learn best by doing, and tend to get "gut" feelings and to process experiences physically through movement or attention to their physical sensations. Just as we all have five physical senses, we all perceive through all three modalities, but most of us have a primary or favored way of perceiving life.

As this article focuses on "visions," we're going to be working with visual perception. We can begin to "flex" our inner vision through some basic exercises. We'll begin by better seeing in our minds something in our physical experience. Pick a simple object like an orange, apple, banana, or even a book, a shoe, etc... Look around and grab something that "catches your eye." Now sit in front of the object and study it for a moment. Study its features, but then "step back" and just take it in as a whole. Now close your eyes and try to reproduce it mentally. Study it again, and then repeat the process of envisioning it within. Your inner vision should get crisper.

Now close your eyes and simply envision color. Begin with red, and work your way up the color spectrum. See a splash of pure red, then imagine two or three objects that are red, then go back to seeing only the color. Then move to orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Take your time and try to move toward a sense of ease as you visualize the colors and objects.

Now we're going to advance our inner vision skills by picturing someone we're presently close to. If you have children, you might pick your child's beloved face, but you can choose anyone you see on a daily basis, as long as it's someone whose face you know well. Close your eyes and try to recreate his or her visage in your mind. Spend as long as it takes until you get a crisp image. You'll find it easier if you try to remember a specific experience and picture that person as you saw them then.

Now pick a person in your mind who you were once very close to, but whom you haven't seen for several years. Again, pick someone whose face you once knew very well, and try to recreate his or her image in your mind. You're likely to find yourself in a memory to do this, and that is fine. Get a very crisp image, and then choose someone you've not seen since childhood, and again recreate a clear image in your mind of this person's face.

Now choose a person you're presently close to but who is at some distance from you. It may be your mother in a nearby city, a child at school, or even your sweetheart at work. Hold a vision of his or her face a moment, and then say to yourself, "Spirit, show me what they're doing." Then trust whatever pops into your mind. Remember that you're playing, experimenting and exercising here. Pay attention to what pops in, versus what your rational mind may reason out. For example, I just said, "Spirit, show me what my mother is doing," and I saw her reading in her bed. I then looked at the clock and thought it was too early for her to be in bed yet. There may be a tendency for you to want to guess first, and base what you see on that. Try to just allow images to pop up, and don't analyze them for now.

Now that you have an image of someone and what they're doing, ask Spirit what they're thinking or feeling. Say, "How does this person feel?" As I do this with my mother, for example, I HEAR, "She's tired, and worried about your brother." I have no reason to think she'd be worried about my brother; now I'm starting to get some information that I would never have "guessed" at, but which must be coming from somewhere.

If you're a very visual person, you may get symbols or other visual information. For example, you may see a happy face, or you may even see something like a sunflower or rainbow if you're being told "happy," or a storm cloud or the color red if the person is angry. At this point, your job is simply to allow perceptions in, and to ask more and more questions in order to interpret what you're shown. For example, you might see a sword, and then you would ask, "Does this mean she's angry?" You might then get a feeling of no or yes, or you may get other information that helps you to understand.

You can set up a system with your own higher self for yes/no answers. You might, for example, assign "to the left" the answer "no," and "to the right" the answer "yes." Then when you ask a question, if you're kinesthetic you'll get a feeling of going left or right. If you're auditory, you might hear yes or no, and if you're visual, you might see a pointer going left or right in your mind. Use whatever symbol feels right to you.

Now ask a simple question. You might ask, "Will it rain tomorrow?" and see what kind of answer you get. It's better, however, to ask a question you care about, for there will be more energy in the answer. However, if you're very attached to the answer being what you want it to be, you may have trouble remaining objective.

Play with this approach, and allow yourself to get creative with it. Improvise, experiment, and above all, have fun with it. The bumpy and harrowing road is the one where we try to will ourselves into greater awareness. The smooth and easy path is one where we simply allow ourselves to play, and to trust what we're shown. Success is much easier to attain when we relax and allow.

Of course, your beliefs and expectations will affect your experiences here, as they do in every aspect of your life. If you don't believe it's possible to develop psychically, you'll find it difficult or impossible. If, however, you believe anything is possible with the proper focus and energy, and you believe in magic, magic will flow over, under, around and through to find you.

每个人都或多或少有些通灵的本事，而这种本事也可以通过努力得到开发。有些人的确有“天赋异禀”，就像有些人有艺术的天赋、数学的天赋，运动的天赋一样。不过，通过聚焦欲望和高度专注，我们都可以提高这种与生俱来的能力。

冥想是最常见的帮助灵魂成长、提高通灵感应的练习方法。不过对初学者来说，“冥想”这个词让人望而却步。其实你真正需要的只不过是安静下来，集中注意。“幻像” 和其他那些超自然的经验都是在我们对那些细微的能量和影响力洞察入微的时候发生的。有人说，天才就是那些将能量高度且持续集中于某件事物的人。所以，要提高感受力，必须学会安静下来，并对那些微小的刺激和潜在的能量集中高度的注意。

值得注意的是，并不是每个人天生就善于 “看”。我们有三种主要的感受器：视觉、听觉和动觉。那些“视觉系”的人通过视觉能达到最好的学习目的，他们运用图片进行思考。而那些“听觉系”的人最好的学习手段是听，他们更经常在脑袋里和自己说话。而“行动系”的最好的学习方法是通过实际操作，他们会有“内脏”的感觉，并通过运动或关注身体感觉来处理各种经历。就像我们都拥有五种感官一样，我们也能通过这三种方式来感知世界，不过大多数人都有一种最习惯的方式来感受世界。

因为这边文章讨论的是“画面”，我们还是回到视觉感知上。我们可以通过一些基础练习来“柔化”我们的内在洞察力。首先，我们要对那些真实接触的事情有更好的内在影像。拿起一样简单的东西，比如苹果，橘子、香蕉，甚至是一本书、一只鞋。仔细地看着它的所有细节，发现一些能够“抓住眼球”的东西。然后对着这个东西，好好的研究一下。研究它的特征、然后“后退一步”，把它当做一个整体来看待。现在闭上眼睛，试着在脑海里重新画出它的样子。再研究一下这个东西，反复联系在脑海里重现它。这样做能够让你的“内视”更加清晰。

现在闭上眼睛，就想想各种颜色。从红色开始，顺着光谱的颜色一路想下去。你先想想一道纯红色的光，然后想象两三种红色的东西，然后再只想这种颜色。之后再进行橙色、黄色、绿色、青色、蓝色，最后是紫色。不用着急、慢慢来，当你想想这些颜色和物品的时候，尽量让自己越来越平静。

现在，我们要对我们的“内观”能力进行下一项训练，也就是在脑海描绘我们现在很亲密的人。如果你有孩子，你可以想象孩子那可爱的脸。不过，你也可以选择任何一个你平时常见到的人，只要你对那张脸够熟悉。闭上眼睛，试着在脑海里描绘出他的模样。用多长都没关系，直到你可以“看到”一张清晰的面孔。如果能够想到一段特殊的经历，根据那件事来想象那个人的样子可能会容易不少。

现在想这样一个人：你曾经很熟悉，但是有很多年没见过了。同样，选择那些你非常熟悉的面孔，试着在脑海里重建这张脸。你这么做的时候很可能会陷入回忆，不过这样也没关系。“看到”一个清楚的样子。接下来，你需要在脑海里用剑一张童年以后就没再见过的脸。

下面，选择一个虽然很亲密但是并不和你在一起的人。比方说住在其他城市的父母，住在寄宿学校的孩子，甚至是正在工作的爱人。一直想着他的样子，然后对自己说：“神啊，告诉我她们在做什么？”相信所有那些浮现在你脑海的东西。记住，你现在实在玩、在试验、在练习。注意那先出现的画面，和理智告诉你的答案。比方说，我说完：“神啊，告诉我他在做什么？”我就看到她在床上读书。但我看了看表，觉得她不会这么早就上床。我们很容易根据看到的画面，进行一些猜测。尽量暂时不对对那些跳出来的画面进行分析。

现在，你能看到一个人的样子，还有她们正在做什么。问问神，她们在想什么或者有什么感觉：“这个人现在有什么感觉？”比如，当我想到我母亲的时候，我听到：“她很累，在为你的兄弟担心。”我想不出来她为什么会因为我兄弟担心，现在我得到了一些我绝对“猜”不到的信息，但它一定是从什么地方来的。

如果你是那种很视觉化的人，你还可能看到一些标志或者其他的视觉信息。比方说，如果听到“高兴”这个词，你可能会看到一张高兴的脸，甚至是太阳花或者彩虹这种东西；而如果这个人很生气，可能会看到乌云或者红颜色。这个时候你要做的，就是让感觉进来，问更多的问题来解释呈现在你眼前的东西。比如，你可能看到一把剑，就可以问：“这是意味着她很生气么？”然后你可能会感觉到对还是错，或者你会获得另外一个信息帮助你理解。

你可以为自己的直觉设立一个是或否的体系。比方说，向左代表否，向右代表是。当你问一个问题的时候，如果你是感觉系的，就会觉得向左或向右的感觉。如果你是听觉系的，就会听到是或否的答案。如果你是视觉系的，你可能会在脑海里看到一个向左或向右的箭头。选择一种适合自己的方式。

现在，问一个简单的问题。比方说：“明天会下雨么？”看看你会得到什么答案。不过，最好问一个你关心的问题，因为这样答案里会更有能量。但是如果你有一个非常想听到的答案，那么可能会失去客观判断。

试试这种方法，让自己有更多的发挥，更具创造性。即兴发挥、进行尝试，最重要的是，要乐在其中。如果是为了获得更强的洞察力，那么你所面对的会是条崎岖不平、充满痛苦的道路；而如果简单一些，就是让自己找些乐子、相信那些呈现给你的，这条路可就平坦、简单多了。当我们放松、并允许一起可能的时候，成功也就不会太远了。

当然，你的信念和期望会影响你的体验，就像它们影响你生活的所有方面一样。信则灵，不信则不灵。如果你相信只要有恰当的关注和能量通灵就有可能，你还相信魔法，那么魔法也会最终找到你。