Communication with ghosts

Letter from a reader:

I'm pretty sure there's a ghost hanging around. This is fine with me, as he's never done anything harmful and actually seems rather friendly. I haven't actually seen or heard him, but occasionally will get a pleasant tingle on my shoulders or have doors open all by themselves...things like that. My question is: Is there any way for me to get better at communicating with him? Or actually seeing him?

AV

I'm actually in the process of writing a follow-up to Living With Your Psychic Gifts that will get into more depth in the details of enhancing psychic ability. That book will feature an entire chapter on spirit communication. In the meantime, there are good books that can help you with your goal - I particularly like The Unquiet Dead by Edith Fiore, and Divine Guidance : How to Have a Dialogue with God and Your Guardian Angels by Doreen Virtue. While Virtue's book is not about spirit or psychic communication exactly, it does have a lot of helpful advice about opening to psychic communication in a safe and positive way (I recommend just about any book of hers you can get your hands on, in fact).

Since this is a very deep topic, forgive me if I only scratch the surface here. I can't help you actually "see" him - people tend to either have that particular ability or they don't. I don't "see" spirits myself - I get a "feeling" for them. I sense emotions, and sometimes I can describe them, but the visions I have are more like memories than actual pictures in my head.

As for communicating with spirits, yes, there are ways to do this better. First - what not to do. Don't use an Ouija board. The Ouija is a powerful tool, but it encourages you to open up to any and all spirits who may come in, and a lot of what does come through is full of mischief. It may well be that the mindset of those using it attracts lower energies, but I have heard nothing but negative stories from people "playing" with it and I recommend against anyone using it under any circumstances.

I do recommend that you first purchase a copy of Living With Your Psychic Gifts, and make yourself familiar with the basic psychic protection techniques in the book before you start attempting to communicate with this spirit. While he may be a friendly spirit (most of them are), you still need to know how to shut down psychic experiences and to know some basic psychic protection techniques before you start enhancing them, or deliberately communicating with spirits. Once you let the genie out of the bottle you can't stuff it back in - all sorts of unanticipated things can start to happen.

Whatever you decide to do, start keeping a journal. Every time you have a spiritual or psychic impression, at each of the following stages, no matter how strange it may seem, write it down.

Once you have decided to try to speak to the spirit, draw a circle of protection (visualize a bright pink, blue or while globe or circle around you in your mind and affirm that only the most positive spiritual energies may enter for the greatest good of all concerned). Ask your spiritual guides (or angels, if you feel more comfortable with that term) to open up your spiritual awareness. Then simply ask your spirit, out loud or in your mind, who he is, and what he wants to tell you. Stay open to the impressions you receive. Write everything down, no matter how wild. Then, see what you can verify.

I also recommend that you "center" yourself or meditate at least twice a day. The Rainbow Lotus meditation in Living With Your Psychic Gifts is very good, there is also an excellent guided centering meditation in Ross Quinn's book Controlling Others for Love and Profit (don't let the title throw you - it's a clever play on words). He's going to offer guided centering CDs soon - when they become available I will let you know about it here.

Brandi

Brandi's Fun Tip:

If you feel that your life has become a bit boring this holiday season, get everyone together for a re-gifting party. Everyone brings clothing, nick-nacks and doo-dads that they no longer need ... puts them in a pile ... then everyone takes something they want. Anything left over? The host/ess takes it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Throw in some potluck snacks ... plus everyone brings something to be donated to the foodbank.