I'll See It When I Believe It

I've been seeing ghosts since I was a little girl. That's not a boast. It's not even a desirable thing, necessarily. I can feel invisible presences, and I can "read" energy. I don't know why. And because no one ever talked about these things, I just kept it to myself.

Because I've been aware of these, um, talents from a young age, I figure they must be a real thing and not a figment of an overactive imagination. At age 4, I really had no reason to welcome frightening spectres to my bedside. Or, to just "know" what someone is thinking or feeling without having to ask.

Thankfully, I've had so much experience of not paying attention to the energies that I can quite readily turn them off or on at will. Mostly, it's off for self-preservation. If I let it, it can get crowded and noisy in my head. And for an introvert, fewer people, alive or dead, is preferable. This would also explain my antipathy toward social media - too much pushy and intrusive noise where no one really says anything.

I know there are a lot of people who can do what I do. In fact, I will venture to guess that pretty much anyone can. It's really just a matter of giving oneself permission to pay attention. I don't buy that it is a special gift. Mysterious, yes, absolutely. But special? Unique? Not so much.

There are some cultures that fully embrace these otherworldly abilities. For them, seeing the dead, feeling the dead is a natural state of things. The veil between this very physical world of ours and the ephemeral one that exists outside of the mind's eye is thin indeed.

I wonder if the discovery of DNA and generational lineage is the science we need to lead our culture to accepting the existence of that which we cannot see. Science is not anti-magic. But we do tend to believe that if science can't explain it then it musn't be real. However, millions of people, anecdotally, have experienced visions, sensations, past lives, near death, spontaneous healing, etc. That has to count for something.

At any rate, I can only speak to my own experiences. It felt like a curse for a good part of my life because I didn't understand what was going on and I had no one to ask. And, well, to a kid, it was scary as shit hearing ghostly apparitions swishing down the dark hallway in the middle of the night, having the radio turn itself on and lights being switched off, feeling oppressively heavy-weighted energies, having dead people appearing in the window of an abandoned house, and standing next to my bed.

I offer energy work as a complementary aspect of my counselling practice. Interestingly, I shied away from publicly claiming this ability but as soon as I embraced it and let it be known, I've had more clients than ever. I think people are craving this alternative to a strictly intellectual approach to mental health. Healing comes in many forms and some folks instinctively know that it is this mystery that is the key to their emotional and spiritual growth.

Dogma says, "I'll believe it when I see it."

An open mind and heart says, "I'll see it when I believe it."

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