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By
: Kathryn
Intro to shielding:
Shielding
may sound a bit fancifull at first. The term conjures up images
of children playing tag, and the purely abstract psychological
ways in which they might try to proect themselves from being 'it'.
Or it might conjure up images of fantasy or sci fi or commic book
technologies or magic forms. Shielding in the psychic self deffence
sense is none of these things. Basic shielding is a simple metaphysical
'construct'
designed to create isolation between 'inside' and 'outside'.
Shielding
is usefull for blocking unwanted energy influences from others,
stopping agressive psychic attacks of various kinds, and preventing
energy being transfered either into or out of yourself and another
person In terms of quantity or qualitative effect. This page is
intended to share a bit of what I know on the subject of shielding.
I'm writing it for beginners, but i hope to make it thorough enough
to interest the more experienced. Or Skip ahead to Shielding
201 if you like.
Please
send : comments, suggestions, ideas, notions, information, support,
criticism, et al to
me at :
Please email
me and let me know what on this page was most and least helpfull.
(note, this is a non linked graphic, you'll have to type in the
addy, this helps to filter out a great deal of spam mail).
________________________________________________________
Science or
Superstition?
Is 'shielding'
actually hard science? Or is it just a superstitious practice?
The answer is that it is neither. Shielding is meant to address
some sorts of apparent metaphysical or parapsychological issues
in a pragmatic way. Shielding is based on the assumption that
we all have personal energy, that these energies interact on various
levels, and that we can control or manipulate our personal energies
(and/or external energies) to a degree through practice and technique.
Most areas of the paranormal and metaphysics depend on these assumptions
being true.
Like all forms
of energy manipulation, shielding is a 'working model'. Which
is to say that it is a reliable, repeatable method for achieving
a certain desired cause and effect without fullly understanding
the mechanics in a concrete and scientificly proveable way. The
best illustration of a working model is perhaps the periodic table
of elements in chemisty. It has its origins in alchemy, and later
became a matter of exploritory science in the later renaissance
(as if alchemy was not science). At any rate it was mapped out
in several different models and became mainstream accepted science
long before anyone was able to discover the atoms, the subatomic
particles, the electron shells, the valences, etc. which fully
explained the 'how' and 'why' of elements, their properties, and
how they interact, centuries after the original tables of elements
were mapped out.
The evidence
for shielding (and most para-physical phenominon) being a real
and functional thing is 'dynamic' evidence rather than 'static'
evidence. Likewise the evidence for the existence of personal
energies in the first place. Dynamic evidence is perceptual, you
percieve an effect. Such dynamic evidences are subject to misinterpretation,
placebo effects, personal bias, and the numerous other flaws.
But dynamic evidence is the sort of evidence that is actually
preffered in a courtroom, "I saw John Smith shoot Jane Doe".
It is not a physically tangible, measurable, or repeatable form
of evidence. Dynamic evidence 'happens' and then is gone, leaving
only the perceptual memory. As apposed to Static evidence which
is concrete, measurable, lasting, etc. Such as fingerprints, gunpowder
residues, perhaps a security camera tape. Both are considered
valuble in determining 'truth' in a courtroom. But 'hard' science
leans almost exclusively on static evidence alone, and tends to
dismiss dynamic evidence as inconsequential.
In regards
to scientific explanations for seemingly supernatural occurances...
Some in the scientidic community tend to try vehimately to defuse
any and all possibility of 'supernatural' or 'metaphysical' effect.
The scientific community will offer an explanation with no supporting
scientific evidence as an accepted theory explaining away any
such things. This does not follow the scientific model any more
closely than a metaphysical interpretation of events, but rather
it fits their secular personal perspective. It seems almost 'phobic'
of anything that doesn't fit a certain 'world view'. These explanations
are often either complex and 'reaching', and well past being reasonably
probable. Or they simply invent a more accepted scientific terminology
to describe a phenominon without actually trying to explain it.
Terminology which in itself describes things which are pure speculations
and are not really understood anyway, thus the phenominon is put
in a 'box' so that it doesn't interfere with the secular view,
without really truly knowing anything at all of how it works.
Convoluted explanations for the metaphysical tend to violate a
foundational scientific principal known as Ockham's Razor. This
principal sugests that the simplest explanation which fits all
of the available facts is the most favorable explanation. Why
then offer untested highly contrived theories to explain away
events which seem baffling in terms of conventional modern 'hard'
science? Is not the simpler explanation a humble admission that
there are forces at play in the universe which are as yet undiscovered?
"If it
looks like a horse, smells like a horse, acts like a horse, feels
like a horse, then it 'might' just be a horse, even if your world
view doesn't include horses." ~ myself.
There are
a great many scientists who do not adhere to this strictly atheistic
stance. Ask any hospital doctor with 20 or more years in practice
if they have seen things that defied explanation. But the prevailing
opinion in scientific circles continues to be rabidly secular,
and my criticism is directed only at this element, not science
or scientists in general. Understandably the scientific community
has throughout the renaissance had to fight religeous dogma to
forward new and intelligent ideas, but this rivalry should not
be allowed to cause science to become dogmatic as well. There
are some who even choose to research the paranormal, or parapsychology,
etc. as a career. I believe many of these people are the sensationalist
quacks they are made out to be. But there is a number of sincere
and interested scientists out there, trying to define and understand
inexplicable phenominon. People who work to find ways of measuring
metaphysical effects through statistical probabillities and other
concrete evidencial methods, since the actual mechanisms by which
they work seem to be outside of our abillity to directly detect
and measure for the moment. A number of them , including the US
Department Of Deffense, and the former Soviet Union's KGB, amoung
various other fairly pragmatic research bodies, have had some
definitive doccumented success at proving the existence of metaphysical
or parapsychological effects.
Perhaps the
scientific fields which actually have taken the most surprising
turns towards providing perspectives which lend an understanding
for a functional basis for the supernatural, are Quantum Mechanics
and Dimensional Theory. Both of these models show clearly how
definite real effects could occur. Also explaining why
the mechanisms of metaphysics (through either quantum mechanics
or intradimensional effects) would be unmeasurable (or nearly
so) using 4th dimensional, hard physical tools for detection and
measuring. But these topics could warrant a small wing of a library,
so I won't get into deep detail about them here.
"Metaphysics,
is just undiscovered physics." ~ unknown.
________________________________________________________
Energy...
There are
many names for metaphysical energy : Psi Energy, Pneuma, Psychic
Energy, Aura, Chi, Prana, Ki, Qi, Mana, Kundalini, Soul, Spiritual
Energy, Ka, Ba, The Subtle Body, The Energy Body, The Astral Body,
Astral Energy, Life Force, The Holy Spirit, The Extradimensional
Self, 'ad infinitum'. Even George Lucas latched onto this idea
in his fictional works, calling it 'The Force'. There are significant
differences between most of these terms. But all have in common
the central charecteristic of describing a model of belief (or
paradigm) which includes the existence of a sort of energy within
people, and which is not usually seen or physically measurable
by conventional 'hard science' or tangible methods.
The two main
camps within energy belief systems are that either :
1) Energy
is universal, that its all the same 'stuff', that its all over,
in everything, and that there are no different types of energy.
2) Or, that
there are more than one general type of energies, with varying
qualities and properties, and which may interact on complex levels.
Personally
I think it is not unlike our periodic table, where yes there are
different types of energy, but that they may be actually made
of the same building blocks, like atoms & elements, while
having disparate qualities. But thats just speculation. I do percieve
differences in various forms of energy so I lean towards the second
paradigm myself. Incidently even most of those in the first paradigm
tend to claim differences in energies, but often they define these
differences as a variation in 'vibration' or frequency. Comparing
that to a paralell in electromagnetic energy, we could say that
xrays, light, heat, and radio are 'the same stuff' technically...
but they still represent very different qualities. So in my opinion
those in the first paradigm may actually be effectively in the
second paradigm, but harbor a perspective of simplification and
focusing on similarities. As apposed to the second paradigm which
focuses on the differences and intricacies of energy.
Regarless
of which terms or definitions, or functional models you ascribe
to, the concept of etheral intangible energies existing within
people is a world wide belief system. They are energies which
everyone has, but for the most part we either ignore them because
they are not really very tangible or noticeable most of the time,
or we simply accept the ideas of our own culture about what they
are and how they work without learning from other cultures and
ideas, or exploring them for ourselves. Most of the terms I mentioned
simply represent 'functional models' for an understanding of these
unseen forces. There are no single universally accepted terms,
definitions, or models for explaining and understanding all of
the percieved experiences people have with this less than tangible
'energy' and its properties and effects. I think it is usefull
to examine many different working models from different cultures,
and to experiment with energy first hand, to form a clearer picture
of things.
(more
on energy)
It is generally
accepted that one has an energy 'health'. Most cultures agree
that one's energy health can be either good, or crappy, or somewhere
inbetween. I think there are 3 main influences on this health
:
- First is
fate. Some people seem to simply have healthy energy without much
effort. Like those people who can eat chocolate all day and not
get fat. While others...
- Second are
all the things you can personally do to improve or ruin your energy
condition. Many religeons devote a great deal of their ideology
to this. And learning to better percieve this personal energy,
or to better control/manipulate it, is a part of many religeous
practices.
- Third and
lastly, are the influences other individuals/entities can have
on your energy. This last influence is where 'shielding' can be
helpfull.
Feeling energy
is easy. Have you ever been in a busy store, and felt drained
or irritable or uncomfortable or maybe even somehow intangibly
'bruised' after being surrounded by that chaotic crowd around
you? Did you feel uncomfortable or worn out? Even if the checkout
line was short, and you got a good parking spot? Was it the store
or the crowd? Or have you ever felt a discomfort or a rush when
a complete stranger touches your skin? Even if it was accidental,
like when taking your change from a cashier? Have you ever felt
that someone was standing too close or 'invading your personal
space'? How close before you feel crouded or claustrophobic? Or
have you ever been to a concert, sporting event, riot, etc. and
felt swept up in something greater than yourself? Why is it that
you dont want to go to an overcrouded store, but you do enjoy
a good concert? Would you feel as swept away at a concert if there
was no audience, just you, alone in the seats? If you were being
questioned by the police and they kept leaning in very close to
you, would you feel intimidated or maybe hostile? How do you feel
if someone makes eye contact with you? Does it vary from person
to person and situation to situation? Does eye contact engage
your attention alsmot like magic? Why do we say someone 'blinked
first' in a conflict when eye moisture has nothing to do with
being more assertive? Why do friendly greetings usually involve
touching? Why do lovers touch as often as possible, even when
there is nothing sexual in their touch? Do people behave differently
when they are crammed together in an elevator? why?
Now, psychology
gives terminology to describe these effects, and measures the
degree to which they seem to be evident in people. But does psychology
really adequately explain how and why all of these effects actually
occur? They do describe causal factors and relationships, but
do they describe the root functional mechanisms of such effects?
(as a former psychology major, I don't think so)
These examples
are just a few of the ways we feel an influence from others on
our energy. You don't have to live on a mountain-top and meditate
all day to feel the effects of energy interaction. Maybe you respond
differently to some of the affore mentioned situations, people
vary. But its likely that you do still feel the influence of other
people on your personal energy and psyche. And mostly we dont
think about it much since its not a 'tangible' influence.
99% of the
time, when other people influence our energy, it is not on purpose.
You also infuence other people's energy all the time without even
meaning to. Sometimes people influence each other's energy on
purpose, but don't fully realise what they are doing. And sometimes
people (or other intelligencia), who are more practiced in manipulating
energy, influence someone's energy on purpose (for better or worse)
and know exactly what they are doing.
This last
sort can have the most dramatic effects since it is purposefull
instead of random. It might be as simple as influencing someone
to be more receptive to persuasion. Or it could be an attempt
to heal some energy related ailment. Or it could be an effort
to make someone feel a certain mood or emotion. Or to confuse.
Or could be an effort to take energy away. Or it could be an attempt
to give healing energy. Or a combination of some of these, or
other sorts of interactions which I can't think of at the moment.
Hypnosis is one form of such influence I think, especially where
people use hypnotic influence on large groups. The magician/pastor/cult
leader/politician/performer who can hypnotize whole crowds is
working not only with psychology, but also working with energy
on a large scale, whether they fully understand how it works or
not.
I should
point out that you shouldn't rush to judgement on which of these
are good and which are bad. Energy fueled sugestion might rally
people in a dire situation. Healing might not always nessisarily
be beneficial in a holistic sense, taking energy away from you
is not nessisarily intentional, malicious, or agressive, and attempts
to influence you might be as benign as trying to cheer you up.
Also It's
worth noting that energy interactions can occur over physically
large distances. As such, influences present in your physical
location are not the only factors to consider when dealing with
energetic influences.
(more
on energy influence from afar).
________________________________________________________
Ingredients
of energy manipulation...
The main idea
of shielding is to create a barrier. Thats what a shield is, a
barrier to protect its user from outside influences (or concievably
to protect others from one's own owtward influences). In the case
of energy though, it can be a tricky thing to accomplish. You
block energy with energy.
Sense
for energy is very usefull in trying to control energy. Without
this feeling for it, energy manipulation turns out somewhat like
the products of a blind carpenter (the result might possibly turn
out well, but more likely not). If you are more familiar with
your energy, and have at least a mild sense for it, and have tried
to manipulate it in some ways with at least a little success,
then you'll likely find shielding to be pretty easy. If you do
not have a good sense for energy though, shielding is one of the
best ways I can think of to help develope that sense. Shielding
gives you a sort of control valve to turn your sensation of external
energies on and off, which can really help you tune in to these
things.
Visualization
is extremely usefull in shielding, especially when starting out.
You are going to try to control a part of you which you might
not even realise is there. And visualizing what you are trying
to acomplish helps you make it happen. Its very like
in the physical rehabilitation of injuries, where a person may
have suffered a spine injury and has very little control over
some limb or body part. They teach visualization as part of learning
to move and control that limb again. Manipulating your energy
can be much like that. Simply picturing it wont nessisarily make
a reality out of your visualization, but with focus and practice,
it can help to make it happen.
Focus
is the completeness and intensity with which you dedicate your
mind to the task at hand. Visualization provides you with a non-literal
model to work in. Its up to your focus to work towards attatching
the different aspects of your visualization to an actual energy
effect. Focus is sometimes sought out through methods such as
meditation. However focus need not be a calm state. The level
of focus you have durring the seconds leading up to a car accident
can be some of the most intense focus you will experience
in your life. Good focus is nothing more than a level of 'undevided
attention' which surpasses your normal day to day attentiveness
to things. To achieve good focus, as a beginner, simply try to
'immerse' yourself deeply in your visualization.
Belief
is another key ingredient. Believing your shield works and is
impenetrable tends to help make it much more effective and sturdy.
Believing your shield is fragile wont exactly help you make an
effective shield. Believing your shield is real is pretty
important too. The more firmly convinced that you are that locked
away safer than fort knox, the more likely it is that you
really are fairly well insulated in your shield. Mind you, most
situations don't call for that much protection. On the other hand
you can believe all day long that you are superman and that doesnt
make you superman. The belief has to be tied to a real effect
or its just a failled effort (which is fine, thats how we learn).
Not all efforts are possible to achieve, but it is usefull to
believe that they are, lest you sabotage your abillity with notions
of limitation. Don't fail to acquire a skill simply because you
don't think its likely to be possible.
Will
is the force which produces results with the other ingredients.
By combining a sense for your energy (and prefferably some practiced
skill manipulating it), visualization, focus, and belief... you
can make your will effective on your energy, in this case
to make a shield. Again, very like learning to move a paralysed
limb. Remember that the force of your will is not in any
way related to how hard your tense your muscles or grunt or grind
your teeth. Will is a mental thing, and don't get it confused
with 'desire'. Desire is what you want, will is what makes
it happen. Wanting something more badly does not equate to having
more will.
Some sources
that I have read sugest that having some practice at 'centering'
& 'grounding', and simple manipulation such as creating
'energy
spheres' or 'psi
balls', are prerequisites to learning to shield. I dissagree
somwhat. If you lack such experience, then trying to shield 'might'
be putting the wagon before the horse, but give it a shot, out
of curiosity if nothing else. It has been my experience that shielding
can be done by anyone with a little coaching. And besides, people
often have a 'knack' for certain things and can do them without
any experience in seemingly prerequisite skills. Myself,
I'm very naturally centered, and contrary to popular belief, grounding
is not essential for effective shielding.
Likewise one does not nessisarily need to know how to make an
energy ball in order to have an intuitive understanding of energy
manipulation. I was able to teach myself to shield fairly well
without having any prior experience in grounding, centering, or
psi balls at the time, perhaps you can too.
With practice,
eventually, some who are more adept with energy can dispense with
'visualization' for more commonly used techniques, as they learn
better to sense and move energy directly. More 'Old School' techniques
for energy manipulation might include using physical objects,
words, etc. in place of a purely mental visualization. But I feel
that visualization is somewhat more direct, and slightly less
prone to seperation of the 'working model' from 'energetic effectiveness'.
Its important to realize that the working model, be it physical
or mental, is only a model for manipulating energy. Simply going
through the motions alone will likely produce no result. It has
to be tied to a real effect on energy, primarily using the above
mentioned skills.
________________________________________________________
The Exercise
: a visualization...
This is intended
as one possible form of shielding visualization, and is no where
near an exhaustive description of psychic self deffence. There
are an infinate number of ways to do this, and a variety of other
deffensive techniques.
First it might
be very usefull to get into a situation where you can strongly
feel some sort of outside effect on your energy. Most sources
I've read do not recomend this. They usually sugest starting out
in a quiet place all alone. But I think it would be very difficult
to shield for the first few times without feedback to let you
feel when the shield is working. It might be helpfull to practice
your sheilding technique alone as a sort of dry test run, and
you should be able to feel slight differences from having the
shield up. But I think its important to get out there and try
it in a situation where you will really feel it working. I learned
to shield while under a prolonged period of 'durress', on my own,
without any preconcieved ideas on how to go about it. And I think
I bennefitted from the 'sink or swim' learning curve. By shielding
with something strongly affecting you, you can imediately feel
when you are doing something right (or wrong), giving you a better
feel for what you are doing. Often you will feel the influence
and the effectiveness of the shield most strongly in your head.
The chest or upper belly area is probably the second most sensitive
area for most people. But with a good shield you should feel a
difference from head to toe. Its far better to learn to shield
before you actually need it in a confronational situation,
learning 'on the go' is the fastest and most expidient way to
learn, but its not as easy. Better to know what you are doing
beforehand, and make adjustments as nessisary in your technique.
Start by closing
your eyes and focusing on the influence you are trying to block
out. You'll wanna keep a keen sense of that so you can feel what
effect you are getting as you are doing it. But, and this may
sound contradictory, do not let this state of 'keeping tabs' on
the outside influence interfere with the completeness of your
visualization immersion and focus, just allow this sense of outside
influence be a part of that visualization, rather than a distraction
from it.
Now picture
yourself floating in a a 'void', an empty space. This is to get
you focused on yourself without distraction. An important (and
often overlooked) part of effective visualization is... do not
picture your body from the third person, instead visualize the
void around you, and feel both your physical body and energy
body in that void. The idea is that you visualize with your perspective
being in the right spot. You should not be picturing
yourself from the outside. Picture yourself from the inside, like
you might in a dream. Then Just relax and focus on what you feel.
You feel your body. You feel the energy influence on you. And
you feel your energy body, which is the part of you which senses
and reacts to that outside energy influence you are going to shield
out.
Now with your
eyes still closed, focus in on your energy body. Feel it as the
part of you which senses the external influence. Feel your energy
flowing through you and around you. Continue to not visualize
yourself from an outside perspective, you should not
see yourself like in a picture, you should see yourself extending
outward from your visual perspective, as you would physically.
Visualize your energy around and inside your physical body as
you do this exercise. Focus more and more on your energy, and
less and less on your physical body. Simply let it gradually dominate
your attention. Your energy is somewhat luminous and glowing.
It gets more faint and mist like further out from you. And it
gets thicker, stronger, and more like almost a mixture of fluids
and solids closer to you and inside you. It has some layers and
currents to it, which may not all be the same color. The color
isnt terribly important for what we are doing now. Colors in aura
and/or energy are a subjective perceptual experience and their
symbolism and meaning is litterally in the eye of the beholder.
Just use whatever color(s) work for you, or no color at all. It
really could be pretty much any color unless you've built up a
preconcieved notion that colors differ in meaning and value etc.
In which case your ideas about colors will be a self fullfilling
prophecy in both sensing and manipulationg energy. But for beginning
shielding, where the person likely does not have any preconcieved
notions about varying qualities relating to different colors,
we can just ignore color entirely.
Now feel your
energy, see it in your mind's eye, and feel it, feel its currents
within your and even outside you a short distance. Now focus on
making your personal energy glow brighter and brighter. As it
glows brighter it flows through you more strongly. Feel the energy
currents flowing in a rush, as you grow ever brighter. The senation
of feeling your energy should be increasing dramatically as well.
If you are able to draw on an external source of energy, you could
do so now to increase the energy intensity even further. Keep
getting brighter till you are absolutely brilliant. Feel the energy
getting very thick and very strong. Feel it building up preasure.
Gathering strength and power. Keep going untill your energy feels
like a drag racing car, engine reving loudly at the starting line,
ready to take off with great force. This 'powering up' gives you
a great deal of energy to work with, and lends confidence to your
will.
Now extend
some of your energy outward all around you, just a little ways,
extend it till it is out of arms reach, out beyond the furthest
reaches of your personal energy. Some may have very widely dispersed
energy extending out a considerable distance, if this is the case
for you, extend this surge of energy from within out a little
further, and work at pulling back in your more stretched out portions
of energy body so as to be fulling inside the border of it. There
is plenty of energy, plenty to extend tons of energy outward,
and even though you extend it outwards from yourself a short distance,
you maintain ownership (control) over the energy. The energy is
still 'part of you', fueling your actions, empowering your will.
Begin shaping
the energy you extended out from you into a sphere shape around
you. Make it a perfect sphere, around your front, back, left,
right, over, and underneath you, equally in all directions. Make
it large enough to move within it comfortably without touching
its inside. Make it spin if you have trouble visualizing the entire
shield around you all at once, this helps some people to picture
it whole while also visualizing it from the inside. Remember,
in your mind you are looking outward at this sphere in
all directions. If you can, abandon directional vision in your
visualization and picture it all around you in 360 degrees at
once as though you had eyes in the back of your head (and top,
and feet) that would be the ideal way to go about it. It is not
physical, and your visualization is in your mind's eye, not your
physical eyeballs, so don't let your familiar way of percieving
detract from the completeness of your visualization.
Focus on your
sphere, It is a complete sphere, there are no gaps in it, and
it is so dense with energy that even if there were a gap it would
fill itself in imediately. And make the energy so that it will
not let any spiritual, personal energy, psychic energy, emotional
energy, etc. influences pass through it, while physical things
are unaffected by it. This is a quality which you are trying to
imbue it with, there is no special trick to making the shield
take on a charecteristic like this. Just like you moved the energy
around, and changed its shape in your visualization, now you are
narrarating a change in its nature. It is just another facet to
your visualization.
Now make the
energy even more dense, Denser than lead. So dense it is like
the mass of a freight train compressed into a sphere shape around
you, only a few inches thick. And then begin to make it harder.
Its already very hard from its density, but now you are visualizing
that the energy itself is changing into a very hard type of substance
as well, shifting its state and properties. Harder and harder,
the energy now takes on a glossy finish, as it turns hard like
steel. Then harder than steel. Still harder till it is as hard
as diamond, but then past diamond. Till it is the hardest substance
that you can imagine. Overkill is the goal here.
Make it totally
opaque, totally immovable. It is, however, centered to you, so
it goes where you go, but nothing else can move it. You are its
sense of 'center' so the fact that it goes where you go physically
does not really seem like movement at all to your shield, just
as you do not feel like you are moving just because you are on
the earth and the earth is moving. The earth is your sense of
center, and movement is relative to it.
Now focus
on keeping it just as it is for a bit, make it stabalize as it
is. Focus on making it have resliliency of form. Push on its nature
to stay the same for a prolonged period of time. It is now unchangeable,
unscratchable, impenetrable. Imagine that anything going against
the outside of your sphere could not dent it, could not scratch
it, could not pierce it, could not take any of the energy from
it, its a totally sealed indestructible hollow object of energy
with you inside.
Now let your
focus on the shield itself diminish slightly by returning to your
sense of self, surroundings, and the physical. Keep the shield
in your minds eye, but pay attention now to how your energy body
feels that outside influence. Can you feel it yet? If you pay
attention to all of your senses, including the physical, you still
hear all of the physical things around you, but there is something
missing from your senses. But you cant quite put your finger on
what it is. The sensation of the outside energy influence should
be gone, but also a general subtle sense of isolation. Its like
a a background sound has been shut off. You feel isolated, insulated,
enclosed. Even if you are outdoors. On some intangible level,
you feel like you are in a bank vault, cool and soundless,
but not a physical absence of temperature or sound. Pay
close attention to everything that feels different or missing
from your sense of your surroundings. Whats missing is your 6th
sense, if you will. Sometimes called the second sight, third eye,
etc. lots of esoteric terms for it. But whats missing is all of
the influences which effect your emotional/psychic/spiritual/astral
energy sensitivities. And if you were in a situation where you
were being strongly influenced or even attacked, then you should
(most likely) feel that is gone too.
Open your
eyes for a moment and notice that you can see everything, and
hear everything, but you can't sense anything. Spend a
good amount of time just soaking up these sensations and developing
a good feel for them. Become familiar with the difference in feel
between being 'closed' and being 'open', energeticly, to your
environment.
Now close
your eyes and focus exclusively on your shield again. This may
take a few moments to redirect your focus to the shield exclusively.
Once you have, make it gradually shift from opaque to clear and
transparent, so you can see through it. But no energy can pass
through it still. Then loosen up your focus on the shield, and
feel your newly developing sense for energy. Does this transparency
affect what you can 'sense' around you? What other ways might
you expiriment with the qualities of your shield? If you were
trying to keep out a focused 'on purpose' attack on your energy,
what qualities might you add to your shield to make it less inviting
for someone/thing trying to attack? What qualities would be most
distatesfull to your attacker?
Now return
your shield to opaque again. This time open a hole in it on either
your right or your left side, but not both sides. Just pick one
side. If you were spinning the shield, just turn the axis of spin
so that it runs from left to right, and open a hole at one of
the poles it is spinning on. That way the hole will remain stationary
relative to you. Then shift again to your sense of energy feeling.
Do you feel anything different on the side with the hole as apposed
to the other side? Are outside influences coming in through this
opening? While keeping your relaxed and focused mental state,
get up from your sitting position and turn your physical body
around a bit, and pay attention to the difference the hole makes
in what you feel. Remember your shield is centered on you, so
the shield will turn with you. Just feel what you can through
the hole as you turn your 'portal' in different directions. Now
try moving the hole around your shield while your body remains
still. To do this you have to focus on making your shield move.
If you had the hole at the pole of a spinning shield, just move
the axis of spin around, with the hole at one pole, to make your
portal move about. Get as much of a feel for these things as you
can. And then close up your hole, making the shield complete and
sealed again.
Ok, now start
sucking up some of the energy off the inside surface of your shield,
drawing it back into yourself. This is slowly making your shield
thinner. Keep drawing some back in till the shield is thinner,
and considerably less heavy with power and solidity. Now change
the basic nature of the shield, make it so that energy and emotions
can pass through it again, but with slight resistance from your
shield. Visualize the shield growing softer and less dense. It
should be mostly clear and kinda soft now, somewhat like a tough
gooey bubble. Its now only a buffer against incoming influences
on your energy. You should be able to feel some outside energy
influences peeking through now. But you could make your shield
harder and thicker again if you didn't like a certain influence.
And finally
try shrinking the bubble to your skin, like plastic-wrap but somewhat
tougher. You could imbue it with the permeability of a camera
shutter, able to snap from clear and porous to hard and impervious
instantly to block anything you dont want to pass through. Even
though it moves with your motions now, you can still make its
surface very hard if you need to. This form of shielding is not
the strongest but can be usefull. The fact that it flexes to move
with your movements does not affect how hard and impervious its
surface can be. It is centered to you, so your movements and flexibility
are baseline to the shield, and it will move to match your shape
even though it is rigid to anything else. This is usefull for
situations of people being too close in your 'personal space',
for hectic crowds, or to block any energy exchange which commonly
results from touching other people or objects. In particular for
blocking the energy exchanges involved with touching, just make
sure the shield is shrink wrapped right down to your skin, and
make it impervious. This should greatly reduce or eliminate odd
sensations resulting from touching.
If you feel
stiffled or claustrophobic by having the shield up still, then
concentrate on drawing the energy back into yourself, dismantling
the shield completely. If you feel as though you have too much
energy in you, then ground. If not then enjoy the energy buzz.
If you still feel closed up, go back to your shield visualization
and work on building up very complete focus on it. Then work through
a series of elaborate steps (of your own design), dismatling the
shield and opening yourself up to feeling outside energy again.
If you still feel somewhat disconected from the outside world,
try focusing on another person in conversation. Take an interest
in their feelings, and let curiosity draw your energy back out
in a more sensitive fashion again.
________________________________________________________
Conclusions
This visualization
exercise may have seemed like a little bit of overkill for some,
or maybe a bit fancifull to others. There was some melodrama and
exageration, but it was intended, the idea is focus, and i hope
to help stimulate that focus with a bit of dramic flair in the
visualization. And overkill of force is usefull, especially when
first learning how to manipulate energy. We are talking about
*real* energy not make believe. The visualization may not be a
perfectly literal interpretation of what's going on energy wise,
but a strong visualization is usefull for begining shielders,
especially those with little or no existing extra sensory abillity.
And while the visualization is a fictional framework for manipulating
energy, the energy itself and its effects are real.
* This
technique is NOT impenetrable, but it is usefull for purposes
of visualization to believe that it is. What I'm saying is, this
is entry level stuff here. It should work for 95% of situations
where a little energy insulation is desired, but dont be misguided
into thinking it makes you bulletproof to some of the more deliberate
energy inflences out there.
** It will
NOT block any sort of physical object, fire, etc. It won't block
the ground if you fall from a building. Won't insulate your ears
against yelling, nor your body if you piss someone off and they
physically hurt you. It does not physically protect you in any
way. It can however set up a boundry through which many people
may be unconciously reluctant to pass.
*** This
particular visualization is not very effective in regard to deliberate
energy theft. Someone skilled at energy draining could take energy
directly from the surface of the shield, or might work around
the shield with a variety of techniques. Using the technique described
here, your only chance would be if you are better at hardening
and holding onto your energy than they are at taking your energy.
No matter how skilled you are at shielding, you will not always
have the advantage in this situation. For some more advanced shielding
ideas that might help in dealing with this sort of attack, see
Shielding
201
________________________________________________________
Other Sources,
Ideas, Links, Ect. Some
of these may conflict wildly on some details, I wanted a well
rounded representation of differing ideas to be represented.
________________________________________________________
Basic Shielding
--- this article, reprinted here with permission, was written
by Fiona, operator of Dark
Renaissance dark spirituality forum in Delphi Forums.
Our psychic
space consists of our personal energy field and may be open or
closed, or more generally, partially open and partially closed.
The extent of openness determines the extent to which we are vulnerable
or susceptible to external impressions and depends on our relative
level of health physically, mentally and psychically.Ideally our
psychic space remains closed to external impressions or influences
that we have not consciously acknowledged, with due awareness
of their source. This is highly idealistic, for even those that
are highly trained may be susceptible to lapses in psychic cleanliness,
precautions and defenses.
It is possible
to experience disruption to our psychic space for a number of
reasons. Illness, addiction, stress, fatigue, emotional distress
may open us on one or more levels; energetic/psychic, physical,
emotional, and concrete mental - all in varying degrees. If we
are energetically open we will lack vitality due to the continuous
drain of our personal energetic resources. If we remain substantially
open on psychic levels we will lack stability and will experience
emotional mood swings as a result of our proximity to other people
(and astral entities) who are emotionally imposing. If we are
open at a psychological level we are vulnerable to psychic impression:
telepathic, telempathic or empathic influence.
In order to
retain psychic well-being it is very important to learn to shield
and hold that shielding in place. The first basic form of shielding
is that of a protective "bubble" and it is very simple both to
do and maintain. The purpose of this bubble is primarily protective
and will safeguard you against negative energetic vibrations.
This is something you will want to work at establishing and maintaining
- and something you will want to be particularly conscious of
reinforcing in situations that you feel will be stressful.
Allow yourself
to Center and Ground and then allow your consciousness to extend
outside of your body. Imagine now that you inhale positive and
pure energy and as you exhale, you create a comfortable and transparent
bubble that covers your head and feet, protecting your back and
surrounding you completely. Sense that this bubble allows your
own energy to exit easily and allows positive vibrations to enter
without difficult, yet inhibits any negativity or unpleasant external
energies from entering. Experiment with the size and distance
of your bubble until you find a comfortable fit for you. Some
people like the bubble to extend at arms length around their body,
others prefer to wear it close to the body like a glove, or wet
suit. Shielding is a highly personal working and needs to be perfect
for you.
You will want
to spend some time every day working at building your protective
bubble, until it becomes effortless to do so. The duration of
time you can sustain its effectiveness will be dependent, especially
initially, in your strength of focus as you create it. Soon you
will begin to sense when it is working and when you need to reinforce
it by returning your focus to reinforce it. You will want to experiment
with creating and reinforcing your shielding under duress; a stressful
meeting at work, an unpleasant sales clerk, a cranky child or
partner. You need to remember that others will not find you less
yourself, or approachable as you retain all your normal energetic
connectivity. Only those that attempt to bombard you with negative
vibrations may sense that they are unable to gain access or reactivity
from you. Experiment with your protective bubble - it is a natural
extension of yourself and your energy, all that is needed is your
consciousness, visualization, focus and will to create and maintain
its protective benefits.
________________________________________________________
Shielding
articles in PsiPog.net --- PsiPog, ever a usefull resourse
for metaphysical ideas and perspectives.
Shielding
in House Kheperu --- I don't agree with everything on this
website, but its a huge and well written reading source.This links
directly to thier shielding article.
Shielding
in The Playfull Psychic --- This site is interesting, and covers
much much more than just shielding. It also has a Q&A thing
at the end of the shielding section which might help those having
difficulty creating a shield.
From Magickal
Musings: Protect
Yourself --- Some thoughts regarding shielding, and when
& how to use it. Centering
and Grounding --- A look at some skills which relate to
shielding. And Shielding
--- Shielding from a witch's perspective, and a brief discussion
of 'warding' as well.
'Psychic
Vampires, Shielding, & Magic' by Ulfric, in Drink Deeply
and Dream --- The author makes a GREAT (and often overlooked)
point about shielding, however... I feel there *are* effective
shielding techniques against a deliberate attack by an experienced
psi vamp, as well as other deffensive techniques.
'Shielding
& Stuff' by Jesa Macbeth --- This author presents a
view furthest from my own, but the article contains a lot of ideas
on shielding. The latter portions of the article (starting at
'Shielding as First Aid' i felt included the more usefull insights.
Its written with new age/psychic traditions in mind.
Psychic
Protection, by Koren
--- This article is largely about using ritual magic in shielding...
not my way of doing things, but i thought i'd include it.
________________________________________________________
 On
to Shielding
201
On
to Shielding
301
|
