Paying Attention: The First Step to Psychic Development

In 1974, a co-worker at The Toronto Star gave me the book, There Is A River - A Story of Edgar Cayce (byThomas Sugrue). He knew that I had a handicapped daughter living in an institution for crippled children, and he thought the book might help. He did not know how skeptical I was about psychic phenomena, but that book gave me hope. The medical experts had all but given up on Cheri and advised that my wife and I get on with our lives. This book showed me that she might be helped after all. Cayce became my hero.

Not long after, I was working in the basement of my home in Toronto, and I got a feeling to go upstairs and see what was on TV. Oprah calls this a “Hmmmmmm” moment - that little nudging from within, telling us to pay attention. I went upstairs and turned on the TV. There in front of me was Ross Peterson on a show called “Worlds of the Unexplained with Allen Spraggett.” He was laying on a couch in a trance state, talking in a monotone voice, giving a health reading for someone who was many miles away. It was just like Cayce! Dr. Logan Stanfield was observing Peterson, and he said, “This man's amazing! He's exactly accurate!” On the strength of that program, my wife and I contacted Ross and had our first-ever psychic reading. It was everything we hoped it would be.

My wife and I drove the 200 kilometres to the institution in Belleville to bring our daughter home. We were young, and all of our friends and family thought we were making a mistake. However, we persisted. In the beginning, things were not easy, but we began to apply the remedies and recommendations in Peterson’s reading. Cheri had a grand mal seizure that lasted eight hours! We followed up with chiropractic, massage, nutrition, and countless other therapies. We even found a medical doctor who was familiar with Cayce’s work. Although she never fully recovered, Cheri lived with us from that day until she was thirty-eight years of age. She was a happy child who lived four times longer than any physician at the time told us she would. But all of those things had to line up for Cheri to come home - the book, the television show, the reading with Ross, and so on - and they did, because it was destiny.

But it all goes back to that moment when I felt inspired to turn on the television - even though I was doing something else at the time. It changed my life! Pay attention to things. Do not dismiss them. This is how you start to develop your intuitive ability. Wherever your attention takes you, follow it. This is a test. Your intuition is guiding you all the time. This is a demonstration of your precognitive, clairvoyant or clairsentient ability telling you to pay attention. How many times in our lives have we said “I just knew I shouldn't have done that!” By paying attention to those things that come to mind, you will begin to develop your intuition. Most people dismiss them, or say they were mere coincidences, but this is a demonstration of the invisible made visible.

When you get the feeling that friends are in trouble, call them on the phone. Tell them, “I just had a premonition that I should call you.” Usually they need something that only you can give. I once had such a feeling about a friend of mine, so I called him on his cell phone, and he said, “I’m stuck in a parking lot and my car won’t start.” I thought he was kidding at first, but he said he was really stuck. Without thinking about it, I asked him if he had the gear selector in park. He tried it, and it was not all the way in the park position. After putting the car into park, he turned the key and the car started.

How did I know that? How did I know he was in trouble? Because I had a premonition, and I knew I had to call him and ask what was going on. When you have these premonitions, pay attention! A doctor friend of mine had a birthday coming up and I went to buy him a card. I ended up in a dollar store and my mind was drawn to a few little items which I put in a bag and gave to him. Just little tokens or joke gifts - some string, a tape measure, and a little knife. After the weekend, he called me and said he went to the cottage. He was amazed that I gave him the exact three items that he absolutely needed that weekend. He needed the tape measure to measure a window for curtains. He needed the string to hang a picture on the wall. He needed the knife to open a jammed door.

How will you know if this is your intuition or your imagination? Because you “just know.” When you are at ease, in a calm state (rather than anxious or worried about things) and some idea or solution just comes to mind. The evidence is that when you have that premonition or precognitive experience, it is accurate. When there is no reason for you to know something - like a television show in another room, a friend in a parked car, or random items at a cottage - that is how you distinguish between your intuitive mind and your own fears, worries, or imaginations.  When you are intuitive, things occur to you that you could not possibly know, because they are not in your conscious or subconscious mind, and there is no way that anybody could have given you the information.

Where does the information come from? This is the age-old question, as no one really knows where thoughts come from. But I teach that we all have a rational, conscious mind; we all have a subconscious mind; and we all have a super-subconscious mind (or soul mind). As Cayce, Peterson and others have said, the way to get to the spiritual mind, is through the subconscious. This is why it is necessary to learn detachment from emotion and from expectation, and why meditation is key. As the rational, ego mind is distracted - such as when you are on a long drive, or walking along the beach, or when you are concentrating on your breathing in meditation - the subconscious and the super-subconscious minds can send information. The same thing as when you are asleep (or in Deep Trance Meditation). This is when sudden inspiration and problem-solving occurs, because you are getting a direct line of communication.

Every time you meet somebody, you connect with them, and you can perceive what is going on with them (and they with you, should they choose to do so). Now imagine everyone you have ever encountered on the Earth with a field radiating around them. The area where the field overlaps with you is the connection you have made. Now imagine an area where all the fields of everyone in the entire world overlap, and this is where I believe the Akashic records exist. All the minds in the world overlap at some point. As we are all connected, this is why you can find out information about anyone or anything you are interested in. When we need to go to that place where you need to invent something, find something out, or get closer to God, this is where the Akashic exists. As we all have special connections with each other, this is why it is important to pay attention.

Begin by paying attention to the little things. As you go out the door, and your attention keeps going to a pen on the table, pick it up. Chances are you are going to need it later that day. The more you demonstrate your willingness to listen to these little things, the more your super-conscious will give you from the Akashic. Many people say that they only get little bits of information and wonder why they do not get the big picture. I tell them to go slow and it will happen. Build upon each experience, step by step. The more you pay attention to the little things, the more likely you are to pay attention to the big ones, when they come. But if you do not pay attention to the little ones now, what evidence is there that you will pay attention to the big ones later?

My advice is to continue to take your steps, and to know that as you develop yourself intuitively, be prepared that you will be challenged. Cayce himself was belittled, doubted, chastised, and even arrested. He had all kinds of negative things happen to him, but what did he do?  He continued on. He persisted. Know that when you are challenged, you must be on the right track. When injustice comes to you, you must be on the right track. When people call you a “devil worshipper,” even when you are doing good, you must be on the right track. Be willing to be a servant, to use your gifts or abilities to perceive something that is going to help other people. Just continue, and your spiritual gifts will develop. Why are you given this gift? Because you have earned it!