The Psychic Self-Defense Personal Training Manual
Simple exercises that not only start readers on a path of psychic self-mastery, but also demonstrate the power of the mind, and the necessity of training it. Pickands teaches how to recognize psychic disturbance and the procedures for defense, in both everyday and extraordinary situations. She stresses ethical considerations, and illustrates her points with real life situations.
"1002387582"
The Psychic Self-Defense Personal Training Manual
Simple exercises that not only start readers on a path of psychic self-mastery, but also demonstrate the power of the mind, and the necessity of training it. Pickands teaches how to recognize psychic disturbance and the procedures for defense, in both everyday and extraordinary situations. She stresses ethical considerations, and illustrates her points with real life situations.
11.49 In Stock
The Psychic Self-Defense Personal Training Manual

The Psychic Self-Defense Personal Training Manual

by Marcia L. Pickands
The Psychic Self-Defense Personal Training Manual

The Psychic Self-Defense Personal Training Manual

by Marcia L. Pickands

eBook

$11.49  $14.95 Save 23% Current price is $11.49, Original price is $14.95. You Save 23%.

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

Simple exercises that not only start readers on a path of psychic self-mastery, but also demonstrate the power of the mind, and the necessity of training it. Pickands teaches how to recognize psychic disturbance and the procedures for defense, in both everyday and extraordinary situations. She stresses ethical considerations, and illustrates her points with real life situations.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781609254650
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date: 04/01/1997
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 128
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Marcia L. Pickands is a remarkably versatile teacher with training in psychology, theology, ceremonial magic, and many other esoteric, metaphysical and magical topics. In addition to her twentynine years experience as a psychic and spiritual adviser, and her twentytwo years as a mother, she has worked as an archaeological technician, an historic artifact analyst, a New Age bookstore owner, a NeoPagan High Priestess, and a martial arts master and teacher. She is one of the two spiritual successors to the late William G. Gray, renowned author of many fine books on magic and the Western Inner Tradition. In addition, Ms. Pickands is the current Senior Master of the Guardians, a WarriorPriest Order dedicated to preserving, protecting, and promoting the Way of Light within this world by doing Good and averting Evil.

Read an Excerpt

THE PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE PERSONAL TRAINING MANUAL


By Marcia L. Pickands

Samuel Weiser, Inc.

Copyright © 1997 Marcia L. Pickands
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60925-465-0



CHAPTER 1

WHY LEARN TO DEFEND YOURSELF PSYCHICALLY?


Like it or not, you must recognize that you are living in a world which is not always safe, physically or spiritually. In today's world, you would not hesitate to prepare yourself for work, play, or travel with an eye to your physical safety and you should be equally vigilant concerning your psychic/spiritual environment.

You are not just a soul embodied by matter; you are a soul with physical, mental, and spiritual bodies, all of which interpenetrate each other. What happens to one affects all others. For this reason, you must develop awareness on all levels of your being!

Here is an exercise which will show you in no uncertain terms how the invisible bodies that you carry around with you (nearly unconsciously) affect the visible/physical one which you take for granted. Ordinarily, this exercise is best demonstrated by someone familiar with the technique, however anyone can learn and make use of it. The first thing you need in order to practice this exercise is a partner who is about your size and strength. After you have snagged someone to help, simply follow these directions:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]


EXERCISE 1

Aura Stretching Exercise

1. Have your partner stand comfortably, facing you.

2. Have your partner raise the right arm to shoulder level, keeping it out straight, directly in front of the body, while forming the hand into a vertical fist, palm facing to the left, index finger at the top of the fist.

3. Position yourself so that your right shoulder is directly in front of the centerline of your partner's body, two to three feet away. Stand with your feet at shoulder's width and bend your knees slightly.

4. Place your right palm on your partner's outstretched right fist and ask him or her to resist upward as you press downward. This will establish the initial strength relationship between you. If your partner is considerably weaker than you are, you may press down with one or two fingers, instead of with your entire palm (see figure 1, page 2).

5. Take your right hand and cup it, with your palm facing away from your partner. Bring this hand down the centerline of your partner's body (about 4 inches from the body surface) from head to groin level. At this point, scoop your right hand away from your partner and past the left side of your body, before arching it up and then back over your head to the original position in front of your partner's head. Repeat this with increasing speed three to six more times, while visualizing yourself stretching your partner's normally invisible psychic body/aura out and away. Finally, throw your right arm directly away from your partner's body while visualizing yourself hanging the outer edge of his or her psychic body up on the opposite wall or some other appropriate place several feet or more away from you both (see figure 2).

6. Repeat Step 4 and notice the difference. Your partner's arm should not be able to resist your pressure as well as it did originally and may indeed simply drop to the side. Why might this happen? (see figure 3, page 6).

7. Stand facing your partner and place your two thumbs together upon the center of his or her forehead (the third-eye area), while wrapping your fingers lightly around the head. Mentally unhook your partner's psychic body from wherever you left it and allow it to flow back through your body and thumbs into its original position (extending six to eight inches from your partner's physical body). Don't worry if it happens to settle slightly closer to your partner's body than it did originally (see figure 4, page 7).

8. Repeat Step 4 and notice the difference. Your strength, relative to your partner's, should be back to its original level, or your partner may feel slightly stronger than initially. Ask yourself why this happens.

9. Repeat Step 5 while asking your partner to assert mentally the following: "This is my energy and you may not take it away from me!"

10. Repeat Step 4 and notice the result. Your strength, relative to your partner's, should have remained at its original level.

11. Reverse roles and allow your partner to try all of the above with you.

12. Try the same exercise using only the visualizations without the circular hand motions when you intend to stretch your partner's psychic body.


This exercise should have demonstrated quite effectively that you are capable of affecting others physically without the necessity of physical contact. Only a person who is consciously blocking such an attempt, or who has well-developed mental and psychic shields, will be able to keep this from happening.

Learning the art of psychic self-defense is simply part of learning total self-defense. Even if all you wish to do is to prevent other people from unintentionally or deliberately draining your vital life force, you will need to gain knowledge of and proficiency in the art of psychic self-defense. I'm sure you know someone who can make you tired simply by being around and talking "at you" for more than five minutes. We all have this type of acquaintance or relative in our lives. Knowingly or not, this variety of individual is a psychic vampire! You can defend against them by choosing to learn to take care of yourself. This requires that you effectively discover, study, and explore body and mind through the media of soul and spirit, while simultaneously exploring the soul and spirit through the media of body and mind.

Most people would agree that we should be prepared to ward off or neutralize physical attacks against ourselves and our loved ones, but far too many people refuse to acknowledge the possibilities of attacks on any other level. They therefore never learn how to defend themselves fully. The power of "positive thinking" is all well and good, as is the theory that no one can harm you along spiritual lines unless you allow them to do so. The truth is that, unless you are trained to back up your "positive thinking" with effective technique, you are allowing others to control you by default. Since most of the evil that you will encounter in your lifetime will be generated by other humans, this can be a very dangerous oversight!

CHAPTER 2

THE BASICS OF SELF-DEFENSE


The exercise that you learned in chapter 1 makes several things abundantly clear once you practice for a while:

1. A minor shift in your mental state can make a major difference in your apparent physical strength relative to other people.

2. Acting as if someone has what we think of as an invisible but very real psychic body or aura allows you to manipulate that psychic body at will. Doing so will also affect all other related bodies, unless the person you are attempting to work on actively prevents you from doing so through the use of his or her own mental commands or well-developed psychic shield.

3. If you are able to manipulate someone mentally and/or psychically with very little experience and practice, it stands to reason that you can also be manipulated that way by others.


Bearing these points in mind, practice Exercise 1 (page 2) for six months and then pick out a brand new partner. After your new partner has gained some success in preventing you from disturbing the psychic body by asserting mentally: "This is my energy and you may not take it away!" try it again, with the same assertion being made while you remind yourself silently that you have had more practice than your new partner has and can overpower him or her at will. You should have no trouble doing so!

You must be aware, when learning how to protect yourself psychically, that, although the techniques are not difficult, they require practice to make them powerful enough to be useful in most situations. After all, you can hardly be expected to walk around all day long mentally chanting, "This is my energy and no one can take it away from me." Technically you could do so, but you would get absolutely nothing else done. The idea is to make each technique as easy and as natural as walking or talking. This means that you will have to practice each exercise until your subconscious mind takes over and handles the process involved automatically. We will start by modifying Exercise 1 (page 3) so that we can isolate the important factors at work in it.


EXERCISE 2

Experiencing the Effects of Aura Displacement

1. Have your partner stand comfortably, facing you.

2. Have him or her raise the right arm to shoulder level, keeping it out straight, directly in front of the body, while forming the hand into a vertical fist, palm facing to the left, index finger at the top of the fist.

3. Position yourself so that your right shoulder is directly in front of the centerline of your partner's body, two to three feet away. Stand with your feet at shoulder's width and bend your knees slightly.

4. Place your right palm on your partner's outstretched right fist and ask him or her to resist upward as you press downward. This will establish the initial strength relationship between you. If your partner is considerably weaker than you are, you may press down with one or two fingers, instead of with your entire palm (see figure 1, page 2).

5. Take your right hand and cup it, with your palm facing away from your partner. Bring this hand down the centerline of your partner's body (about four inches from the body surface) from head to groin level. At this point, scoop your right hand away from your partner and past the left side of your body before arching it up and then back over your head to the original position in front of your partner's head. Repeat this with increasing speed three to six times, while visualizing yourself stretching your partner's normally invisible psychic body/aura out and away. Finally, throw your right arm directly away from your partner's body while visualizing yourself hanging the outer edge of his or her psychic body up on the opposite wall or some other appropriate place several feet or more away from you both (see figure 2, page 4).

6. Repeat Step 4 and notice the difference. Ask what your partner notices and/or feels (see figure 3, page 6).

7. Change places and repeat this exercise.

8. Practice this exercise until you both are very aware of what it feels like when someone is pulling on the energy belonging to your psychic body.


EXERCISE 3

Disciplining Your Aura to Remain in Place No Matter What Others Try to Do to You

1. Repeat Step 5 from Exercise 2 while asking your partner to assert mentally the following: "This is my energy and you may not take it away from me!"

2. Repeat Step 4 from Exercise 2 and notice the result. Your strength, relative to your partner's, should have returned to its original level. Ask what your partner felt and also relate what you felt.

3. Try this same exercise using only the visualizations, without the circular hand motions, when you intend to stretch your partner's psychic body. Tell each other what you feel.

4. Try the version of this exercise suggested in Step 3, but assert your power over your partner (mentally, of course). Who ended up the stronger? Practice until neither one of you can affect the other adversely.

5. Make sure you both practice each side of these exercises until you know the feeling of pulling in the energy of your psychic body so that it fully supports and protects your physical body, etc.

6. The next time you see your partner, ask him or her to assume the test position indicated in Exercise 2, Step 4; then see if you can disrupt the energy balance in your favor without any further warm-up. What happened? Practice this type of impromptu testing on each other until neither of you can affect the other adversely. This could take several months.


EXERCISE 4

Also known as Tanith's Exercise

1. Choose a partner who is unaware of your recent experiments. He or she should be quite obviously larger and stronger than you are, from a strictly physical point of view.

2. Ask this new partner to play a game of Indian arm wrestling with you, but add that you'd like to borrow some energy since he or she is so much bigger than you are.

3. If, and only if, your new partner agrees to this request voluntarily, mentally pull his or her psychic body past your body and hang it up on the wall behind you. Then arm wrestle. Note what happens. Should you merely tie, try again and mentally assert that you are adding enough of your partner's inner strength to yours in order to win the match.

4. Once you have succeeded, return your partner's psychic body to its normal condition.

5. Should your partner ask you how you managed to win, go ahead and explain it.

Better yet, show how it is done!


Note: This exercise was developed from an experience my then 15-year old daughter, Tanith, had in her high school lunch room. A large football "jock" sat down next to her and challenged her to an arm-wrestling session (with a bit more on his mind than that, I suspect!). Tanith immediately agreed, as long as he didn't mind lending some of his energy to her. She won, hands down! She also freaked the poor guy out rather badly. Needless to say, I couldn't argue with her logic that she had played fairly since she had asked him for his energy before she borrowed it. We did, however, talk about the necessity of explaining what happened in a way that wouldn't upset other people in the future.

The exercises that you have learned so far will help you become sensitive to what it feels like when the energy from your psychic body is being pulled away from you. Not everyone is nice enough to return the energy they take from you; therefore, you must learn to notice when and if something like that is going on in order to stop it.

Some people can (either knowingly or not) cut off a good-sized chunk of your psychic body and take it with them. This is a bit like being forced to give someone a pint or two of blood. Just as with blood, the substance of your psychic body will replenish itself over time, however you will feel decidedly weaker in all ways until this regeneration process is complete.

My own brother got a taste of this when I first showed him the four initial steps of Exercise 1. I was 21 at the time and he was a very active and athletic 16-year old. After I stretched out Bobby's psychic body and hung it up on one of the walls of the basement in my family's Connecticut home, he got so "weirded out" from experiencing the results that he wouldn't let me return his psychic body to its original condition. I finally left for my apartment. During the next week, my normally well-coordinated brother became an incredible "klutz" and was chronically tired. This eventually prompted my father (an orthopedic surgeon) to call me at the martial arts school where I worked and demand that I come home and undo whatever I had done to my brother. I, of course, did exactly that. I found that Bobby's psychic body had simply stayed stretched out because I had never unhooked it from the basement wall. I took care of it and my brother returned to normal almost immediately. Live and learn!!!

These exercises will also make you aware of both the mental switch that brings your psychic body in close to your physical body (contracting your energy), and the feeling that accompanies its use, so that it can only be used to your benefit. Finally, they will show you how to combine the psychic energy of others with your own to make your physical being stronger. Next, I will describe a series of exercises designed to strengthen your psychic/spiritual body.


EXERCISE 5

Centering

1. Sit down in a comfortable but preferably straight-backed chair. Set your feet flat on the floor. Allow your hands to rest quietly in your lap.

2. Close your eyes and listen to the sound of your own heartbeat.

3. Begin to tune your breathing to the beating of your heart. Breathe in to a four-beat; hold your breath in for a four-beat; exhale to a four-beat; and hold your breath out for a four-beat. This is known as four-fold breathing and should be done so that you breathe in and out through your nose while resting the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth slightly behind your front teeth.

4. Gradually slow down your breathing. Notice that your heart rate follows your breath now. Notice that your thinking processes begin to relax as well. Continue to slow down your breathing until you feel calm, relaxed, and develop a warm pleasant feeling in your belly. Once you achieve this, you will know what it feels like to be "centered."


EXERCISE 6

Grounding

1. Center yourself, following the steps in Exercise 5.

2. Forget about your heartbeat and place your attention on the soles of your feet. Allow a sensation of heat to build up under your arches.

3. Imagine that a beam of golden light extends from the bottom of each of your feet.

4. Each time you exhale imagine that these two beams of golden light extend farther from your feet and into the earth below you. (This may mean going through several floors and a building foundation first!) When your feet are firmly anchored in the earth, so that it seems it would be hard to move them if you tried, you have experienced the feeling of being "grounded."
(Continues...)


Excerpted from THE PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE PERSONAL TRAINING MANUAL by Marcia L. Pickands. Copyright © 1997 Marcia L. Pickands. Excerpted by permission of Samuel Weiser, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Figures and Tables          

Preface          

Chapter 1: Why Learn to Defend Yourself Psychically?          

Chapter 2: The Basics of Self-Defense          

Chapter 3: Spiritual Survival Training Versus Psychic Self-Defense          

Chapter 4: Signs of Psychic Disturbance and Psychic First Aid          

Chapter 5: The Best Defense is a Good Offense          

Chapter 6: Applied Psychic Self-Defense in Everyday Situations          

Chapter 7: Applied Psychic Self-Defense in Non-Ordinary Situations,
including "The Battle Arcane"          

Appendix A: Daily Psychic Awareness and Self-Defense Exercise Forms          

Appendix B: Daily Journal of Spiritual Insights Forms          

Bibliography          

Index          

About the Author          

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews