The Spiritual Dimension of Dreams

Part III

In this column I cover what it means to be a psychic, a medium or channel, a clairvoyant or clairaudient. Some of these terms are often used interchangeably but they mean very different abilities. All, however, have one thing in common. They allow the person with the ability to communicate with the Spirit world. I am always impressed by anyone who has developed any of these abilities. I think it is from being taught as a child to say prayers but never to listen for the answer. So when I first met a person who could 'hear' answers I was shocked that it was possible! I thought I'd have to wait until I was dead.

Since then I have come to realize that an ability to communicate with spirits and hear their answers is a natural thing. We would easily accept that one spirit can communicate with another. The difficulty comes when we try to consider if a human can communicate with a spirit. But what is a human? A human is a spirit who has taken on a physical body. A human communicating with a spirit can be more correctly phrased as A Spirit in a human body communicating with another Spirit. Now that does not sound nearly as miraculous!

Many people block their spiritual abilities, such as communication with spirits, through believing it to be beyond their reach. What we believe, forms the basis of our reality, so we must clear these blocks to clear the way for our communication ability to work. We accept, or hope, that when we die our Spirit lives on, but our attachment to the body in the short time we have been here, usually means our consciousness has been dragged down to thinking that we are the body. Several things, such as pain and our senses, converge to make us believe this. It is best for everything you do in life to remember that you are a spirit with a body rather than a body with a spirit. This will elevate your consciousness and help you to make choices that are more in line with why you took this spiritual journey in the first place.

As you might expect, our dreams tell us exactly how we each individually communicate with spirit and what, if anything, is preventing us from working that ability. I firmly believe that everyone can communicate with spirits, however, not everyone is here to pass on messages from spirit. Communication is a natural ability we are born with. Children can communicate well before they can use a language. By coincidence as I am writing this my 10 year old son is teaching my 4 year old daughter how to say the word 'binoculars' and laughing at the word she is coming up with. It brings home the effort we each put into learning to speak in the human world. This is a lot more complex than communicating with spirits!

So as you approach communication with spirits, come from the perspective that you are first and foremost a spirit, and that communication with other spirits, whether incarnate or not, is a totally natural thing. Now let's look at the different styles of communication.

Psychic / Intuitive

The world psychic is often used to describe anybody with a spiritual gift so let me explain the true meaning of being psychic. We all have a higher self or soul. It is termed higher self because it is the part of us that never lost awareness and is therefore at a higher state of awareness than our physical self. All souls are connected through love. Therefore our higher self is in tune with all other souls. A psychic has a special connection with their higher self while on the earth plane. Through this connection they can tap into their own higher wisdom but since this is connected to all souls they have the wisdom of all souls at their disposal. A psychic has no need to communicate with other spirits because all their information comes through the special link they have with their higher self.

There is no restriction on the information that can be received over a psychic connection compared to other types of connections. However, one important advantage is that no other soul in the physical or spirit world can interfere with this connection. It is a connection that is tamper proof! The psychic, however, still has their own bias to deal with so their ability to receive information clearly is improved by being as objective as possible about what is being received and what it will be used for. If a psychic would be upset to receive particular information this would affect their ability to pick it up.

An intuitive is the same as a psychic. They are really just two words for the one gift which works through feelings. Most of us would be aware of following our intuition / feelings on at least one occasion, where despite all logic our gut pointed us in a particular direction which we knew would work out. There is no arguing with a feeling. It just is. When developed we can receive an enormous amount of information through this connection and at phenomenal speed. It is like we receive a flash and everything is contained in that flash. It could take hours to expand it all as it is so comprehensive. The way psychics fail is when they cannot discern their own feelings from the information they are tuning into. So a psychic could be convinced they are picking up something when in fact they are tuning into their own hopes or expectations about the subject in question. Learning to tell the difference requires practice.

In dreams a psychic ability is indicated by symbols such as glass doors or unusually large windows on a house or building. It is quite common for psychics to dream of walls in a building being made out of glass, particularly the top half. These all symbolize their special ability to see through things. To the rest of us it appears like they have a special vision to see through our problems and pluck the solution or cause out of thin air. Another common symbol is the moon or anything that illuminates the dark such as a candle or lamp. Again these represent their ability to shine a light in the dark. A psychic is often referred to as having a sixth sense. You will often see an eye, which represents the third eye at the sixth chakra, on their business cards. Therefore dreaming about somebody with a sixth sense or even dreaming of visiting a psychic means that you have the ability yourself. Dreaming about the color indigo, the color of the sixth chakra (at the brow), or silver, the color of the moon also indicates you have this ability.

Psychic abilities work through our female energy so it is important for a budding psychic to deal with any unresolved issues they have with mother. For this reason you will often see dreams about this ability also asking you to cut the ties with your mother. Doing this clears the blocks you are carrying and opens up the pathways for your special power to flow freely.

Channel / Medium

A channel is a person who specifically talks with discarnate spirits. When giving you a reading they will tell you who is giving them the message. Mostly we go to a channel in the hope that our deceased father, mother or a loved one that we miss will come through. Often we are surprised at who does actually show up. People who have wronged us while living often appear in our readings to apologize for their behavior. Many people are initially unreceptive to these apologies. However, the fact that they happen is very revealing. To me it shows that the spirit world does indeed have a view of the bigger picture. When a soul passes over and sees things from this higher perspective they can clearly see the damage they have caused their victim.

A channel is not limited to communicating with souls who have crossed over. They can also communicate with other spirits. Anyone who knows about their involvement in our lives wants to hear from their Angels or Guides. Almost everyone has had the sense in childhood that they were being watched over. The souls doing the watching are our guides. At least one of our guides will remain with us from birth right through until death. At various points along the way our guides will organize other guides to help us in areas that require expertise best provided by other souls. Quite often guides will use a departed loved one to communicate with us. This is for three main reasons. The first is that we will accept more easily a message from someone we loved dearly while on earth. The second is that it adds a touch of earthiness to what can often appear to be a cold message from a spirit who has long since evolved past the level we are at on earth. Lastly it is much easier for a channel to communicate with a soul who recently shared the same plane as the channel. Communicating with a guide requires the channel to elevate their vibration to quite a high level. This takes a lot of energy. Communicating with any soul takes energy, and the higher the vibration of the soul being connected with the more energy it takes. Conversely it is far easier to connect with souls who are at a lower level of awareness.

A channel has a particular guide working with them specifically controlling the channelling gateway from the spirit side. This is very important to realize as it is best to allow this guide to control who can gain a connection to the channel. After all they can clearly see the level of each spirit who comes along. It takes time to develop trust with this guide but it is well worth the effort. Start by asking your guides to never allow anyone come through who would harm you. This is very easy for guides to do and you only need to ask them once. Once you ask trust that they know what they are doing. Don't ask them and then continue to worry about it as you are then keeping control and blocking their help. It is like you keep a foot in the door when they want to close it! It is your body and your connection after all so you have the ultimate say.

As a channel begins to develop their ability they are likely to first connect with earth bound souls. These are the easiest to connect with as they have not really left the vibration we exist in. It is best to be aware of how to help these souls before you begin. Explaining to them that they have guides and all the need to do is ask them for assistance is quite often sufficient. However, you can come across souls who have been stuck for a long time and it can take longer to help them move on. Usually it will take at most twenty minutes to help someone who is fairly stuck. Others can be helped in a lot less time. 

This brings me on to a point that is very important for channels. There are souls whose level of awareness is so low that they amuse themselves by interfering with a budding channel. This interference can be in many ways. It can be pestering you constantly so you can't think straight or sleep properly. It can be pretending to be your Guide and giving you false direction or it can be downright malicious, prophesizing the death of those close to you or claiming that it will bring that about. Even before a person realizes that they are a channel, souls in the spirit world can see their ability shining like a beacon. This can draw these undesirable souls into their life and many channels experience this problem. Part of developing as a channel is learning how to protect yourself from this. Protection is quite easy and like most things awareness is the key. First you must realize the level of awareness held by any soul who would intend to do you harm is akin to that of a child. If a three your old child picked up a knife with the intention of hurting you you would realize that the child is more likely to hurt himself than you. With considerable ease you can remove the knife from the child. You will also realize that the child needs love and nurturing and has obviously been influenced in the wrong direction. So too it is with souls who would harm you. They don't have any real power, despite their claims, and the best thing you can do for them is to send them love. This problem only happens with channels. A psychic is not open to the influence of other spirits unless they are also a channel. So a psychic can happily wade into getting information for any client that comes to them whereas a channel must first test the energy the client brings with them. Once they tune into that they will know whether to only connect with their own guides for information or whether they are safe to allow souls around the client to come through. In some cases it is best to just send the client on their way and explain that the connection is not working. Never put yourself through an ordeal that you don't need. As your experience grows you can take on more complex situations with ease.

None of this has to happen a channel. The key is to developing yourself is by getting into the right circle and only connecting when the energy is conducive to development. On my courses I briefly touch on how to do this and also how to tell whether a psychic or channel you are getting a reading from is actually connecting with the spirit world or not. My wife, who is a channel by profession, runs courses on how to communicate with Angels and at least the first half of the course is taken up by learning how to tune into the energy around you to determine whether it is a good space for connecting with the spirit world. This is learned as a series of simple exercises. Ensure that any course you take covers this. While it not essential that you are shown how to do this on the course it is important that the facilitator creates a 'safe place' for the participants. Many facilitators do this for you without pointing it out. They tune into the energy of souls around and even the energy of the participants. All who would drag the energy down are excluded from the session through various techniques employed by the facilitator. For example, if a participant is depressed over something their energy must not be tied in with the rest of the group for that session.

A person is either born a channel or they are not a channel at all. Channelling requires both male and female energy working in balance and as such is often indicated in dreams by weddings or attention being drawn to the aisle in a church. A church is obviously a spiritual location so indicates the dream is about the dreamer's spiritual dimension. The aisle is a channel between the seats in the church which separates the left side from the right. The left and right indicate male and female sides and the channel is a pun on the word itself. In fact any pun on the word channel will do in a dream. For instance, the Channel Isles or the English Channel would also indicate the gift. A symbol which is perhaps more common than any other is a post office or a mailman. A post office is where messages are sent for sorting and delivering. A mailman is the agent who carries out this function. A channel does the same thing with spiritual messages. It is their job to pick up messages and deliver them to the correct recipient! A common symbol which always amuses people is a whale. They symbolize a channel with their special ability to live in the sea (the spirit world) despite the fact that they are air breathing mammals like us. 

Flying with a Guide in a dream also indicates that the dreamer is a channel through the ability to rise up to the level of the spirit world. Dreams about music indicate it as music comes to us from the spirit world. Film stars are a common symbol as they don't say their own lines - they say what they are given to say. Again this is what a channel does. Symbols which are not as common are tubes or cylinders especially if they are open at both ends. A channel is open at both ends with one end being the physical world and the other being the spirit world. Usually some trauma around the time of a person's birth is what makes them a channel. Life being threatening, either through physical danger such as being premature, or through emotional trauma causes the soul to step back from the earth plane rather than come into it fully. This action causes them to have one foot in the spirit world and one foot in the physical world. This is maintained throughout their life. While it is indeed a trauma it is something that is most likely planned to happen well in advance. There is almost always more than just maintaining the connection with the spirit world that is the reason for this being part of their life.

Lastly if you dream of a medium or channel then you clearly have that ability.

Clairvoyant

This is another word that is wrongly used to indicate anyone with a channelling gift. Clairvoyant literally means to see clearly. A clairvoyant receives messages from the spirit world through images or symbols. It is always best for the clairvoyant to interpret these images for their client rather than to just pass a description of them on. If this is how communication works for you push yourself to make sense of the images. Just say what comes to you. Remember the words do not need to make sense to you - it is the person you are reading for that can best make sense of the message. Give yourself time as quite often a clairvoyant needs to think about what they have received to decipher it. 

A clairvoyant can also see the aura and spirits very clearly. On my courses I find that one person in twenty five or more has this ability. While others describe the aura they are seeing as something with a touch of color here and there the clairvoyant comes out with such detail that everyone else in the group stops to listen to what they get. Invariably clairvoyants are also good artists and can also draw what they are seeing. They can also explain the meaning of the colors and energy they see when looking at a person's aura. When we move on to seeing spirits they shine again. They can see the clothes a spirit is appearing in and describe the features with amazing detail.

The two main symbols in dreams that indicate you are a clairvoyant are eyes and television sets. It can also show up in dreams alongside other gifts. So to dream of being a channel and a clairvoyant means that a lot of your channelling will work through imagery. 

Clairaudient

Clairaudient means to hear clearly and a clairaudient hears messages from the spirit world. The symbols that indicate this in dreams are ears and radio sets. This is always connected with the channelling gift so you would usually see other symbols in the same dream indicating channelling is a gift of the dreamer. The beauty of getting communication this way is that you don't have to decipher it. You hear the words and you repeat them!

This gift is in more of us than you'd think. When we are off guard our guides can pass us a message by giving us the line of a song. You could wake up with it on your mind or it could just pop into your head when you're walking down the street. Take note of this and see if it is an answer to a question you were pondering. Then wait to see what else you get. You find that the line or song stays with you until you acknowledge it. Then it just stops. Wait to see if another song or line pops into your head. Don't try to force one. It will come spontaneously. Putting all the lines together will make a message that requires little to decipher.

For the true clairaudient, however, the words they hear are just like they are talking to another person in the room. Many report that they hear the words in their own voice while others hear it differently. Whatever way it works for you just take the time to become familiar with it so that you can be sure that you are being given a message rather than putting words into your own head!

Many channels start off with getting messages one way but it changes as they become more experienced. My wife, for example, used to hear her guides. Now she gets all her communication through feelings. Ironically the depth of information she now gets is much greater now than when it worked through hearing. As you progress allow that your communication techniques may be varied and change over time. Channeling works mainly through three methods; feelings (similar to a psychic connection), clairvoyance and clairaudience.

That’s it for now. In part IV I continue with more gifts and the symbols from your dreams that indicate you have them.