Developing Clairvoyance – “Seeing the Spiritual World”

I often get asked if clairvoyance or intuition is something we can learn and develop in ourselves, or are we just born with the ability as a gift? And I usually reply . . . it’s both, it’s a natural faculty we’re all born with, that is usually chalked up to a “vivid imagination†and eventually “taught out of usâ€, or we suppress it because we’re being ridiculed in some way, or because it can often seem a bit “spookyâ€. What we refer to as the “spiritual world†or “plane of existence†is primarily invisible to the material senses, and is filled with the mental activity of invisible forces as living forms of some kind. While these forms can seem different in many ways, but the two main ones are whether or not they’re caused by an object or a being. Our “world of thought and imagination†is the part of us that lives in and is a coherent part of the spiritual world. All thought is invisible in nature and can’t be seen or felt by anyone outside of us; yet exists as real for us internally and is what acts to ultimately make up our experience of reality.

Astral Plane and the World of Formation

Our mind as our feelings and thoughts are a natural part of the spiritual plane of natural forces that acts naturally to organize “light essence†into living forms in the faculty of the imagination. Our thoughts are also the way we naturally enter into relationship with these animated light forms and act, usually without knowing it, to influence them to different degrees, causing them to morph and fluctuate into unique variations of themselves. Our own thoughts that are heavily concentrated on for prolonged periods of time with strong feelings and emotions connected to them produce “thought-forms†within this plane that can linger for quite some time before eventually dissolving. The etheric body of the human spirit is also created within this plane, and is what’s used to create the lower soul of the material body as its blueprint for formation and regeneration, also called its double or twin, and though its mortal and dies with the body, also lingers for a period of time as the soul’s apparition before disintegrating.

This plane of “light form†is traditionally called the Astral Plane in Esoteric Sciences, the World of Formation in Kabbalistic Philosophy, and has a broad range as higher (barely formed and still fluctuating) and lower (well-formed and stationary) regions within it as a “range of expression†that moves an idea from pure essence (unformed) as a universal archetype (thematic idea) to a well-formed idea as a personalization of that idea. The traditional “four elements†of the material world are what provides the primordial substance of the Astral Plane which is shaped by the mind into living forms that underlie and provide the basis for the material world as a dynamic living matrix of evolving forms.  All forms within this plane that characteristically change with our every thought or feeling, are all formed by the mineral elements and are made by humans as a “thought-formâ€. Those formed by the plant element change less readily in response to our thoughts and feelings, and those of animals, which have a personality of their own, change even less so.

Though the astral-etheric world is invisible, it acts to impress the mind (which is of the same plane) with distinct mental impressions that form subtle realities in the imagination. The imagination is the faculty of the mind that receives knowledge of the spirit through the astral plane of imaginary form. These mental impressions, while never solid or opaque like the forms of the physical plane, can still be quite distinct as a “feeling about something†that forms a series of mental impressions as a chain of association that connect a series of ideas through their “inner nature†and the qualities they share in common. While many of us believe the spiritual world exists as a symbolic representation of the physical, it’s actually the opposite way around.  The material plane is actually comprised of symbolic representations of concentrated energy that are formed out of the universal archetypes of the spiritual plane.

These astral forms remain in a constant state of evolutionary flow as transformation taking place based on energetic influences from all levels of consciousness surrounding and interacting with it, most of which exists on the same plane as human thoughts, feelings, and emotions. These forms have a luster and iridescent quality that’s consistently shifting and fluctuating through sympathetic resonance and the acquisition and assimilation of similar frequencies in near proximity of it. They shift and reform slightly based on how they’re being influenced or directly interacted with, which is mostly being done unconsciously through our own thoughts and feelings in direct or indirect response to them.

These energetic forms are the active primal intelligence’s of the subconscious mind that forms the Collective Unconscious of the instinctual field of Nature and are full of life and movement. Their mobility is largely due to the influence of our own thoughts and feelings, and to other causes that are beyond our control. Some of these forms are independent of the human mind and exist outside of our ability to influence them, and as a result, they act to influence us instead. Others are always interacting with us energetically as feelings and thoughts that form “in us†as a natural response to the feeling sensations we’re always acting as a receiver for that produce most of our subconscious activity. Because they operate in us at an unconscious level, we often have no direct awareness of the influence our thoughts and feelings are having on others and the world around us.

Archetypes and Thought-Forms

While all natural living and non-living objects have energy fields which are impressed with the shapes of the qualities it possesses that forms its characteristics as a form of organic patterning that are produced as a natural emanation, there are many “thought-forms†that have been created and maintained for extended periods of time by people’s emotions, instincts, passions, and so on. These man-made thought-forms are similar to archetypes as universal memory that fluently populates the astral plane and can be “tuned into†and absorbed by the individual mind where they appear in the mind’s eye much like a normal memory or inspired idea does. Through meditative observation we can realize that while our thoughts and feelings bear an influence on these man-made thought-forms, it’s only slight, unless we’re directly interacting with them. We only have a negligible effect at best on most other forms, depending on what it is that causing them.

Sensing Energy

When we learn how to reverse our normal thinking in terms of the spiritual world being symbolic of the material, and instead realize that all material form exists as the symbolic forms of the spiritual-energetic realm, we can realize that many behavioral characteristics of people are seen as an animalistic quality in the spiritual essence of their presence. So when energy is “sensed†it takes on or is perceived as the natural qualities themselves as they would exist in the natural world. They appear as animal-like, or as bearing the sensations of evil, grotesque, demonic, scheming, envious, lashing out, bitter, sulking, scared, dominating and aggressive, or as angelic like, soft, patient, calm, centered, reserved, protective, flowing, loving, and so on. The quality of the energy takes on whatever physical characteristics correspond to it. While animals always bear the energy of their species as a form of instinct, and remain somewhat consistent, humans possess many different qualities that make up their persona, and their energy is sensed as analogous forms to the natural world, and because of this, may completely contradict their physical appearance.

Emotions can be thought of as natural forces or actual entities (demons) that have a singular nature and express by creating realities that are of the same emotional nature. As we act to “receive an emotion†from outside of us through a form of transmission, it initiates a chain of association that determines what we focus on, remember and access as a past memory of the same emotion, what we think about and form into an internal representation, and how we behave and act as an automated pattern. This imagined reality creates a “thought-form†on the astral-etheric plane made up of light essence, which is what we shape in our imagination as a self-produced expression of that energy as an actual reality. The energy itself as an emotion exists in its universal form as containing endless potential for expression, that when drawn into a specific person, undergoes a whole series of modification that adapt it to the individual, and based on how it enters into relationship with the personal reality, forms into one potential and expresses “through us†by forming a corresponding reality of the same nature. The reality created through our reaction as an expression of it, amplifies and multiplies it, and we then draw more of the same emotion back into us as a memory of it.

Example – anger, while being universal in nature within the lower astral plane, is expressed in a somewhat different manner by every individual who experiences it, yet is still interpreted as anger. It comes across as anger and acts to systematically activate or trigger anger in everyone around them, all of which will express it in a somewhat unique way while maintaining the basic characteristics assigned to anger, such as violent outbursts, yelling, criticizing, belittling, intimidating, attacking, aggression, hostility, or in other cases as intense feelings of frustration, overwhelm, severe anxiety, crying, or a temper tantrum of sorts. It’s an intense energy that’s expansive and has an explosive quality to it.

While everyone expresses anger in a way that’s unique to them, the basic feeling of anger as producing distinct characteristics and behaviors remains constant as a kind of theme. When energy is being “sensed†around a person, regardless of how they appear, it’s experienced internally by activating these same qualities within us. A perfectly calm and sullen person can be raging inside with anger, which is not only “felt†by the clairvoyant, but “seen†as distinct mental impressions that are surrounding them in their mental sphere or aura. This is a form of tuning into the inner (spiritually outer) thought-life of the individual and “reading their thoughts†as impressions that are not necessarily unique to the individual as a personal creation, but rather the universal and neutral expression of the quality itself as a possible variation.

Attributes, Qualities, and Characteristics

The spiritual world is not an ethereal, hazy or an illusory replication of the physical world, but reveals itself instead as forms that are quite different. Qualities that permeate and surround a physical form are seen as the images that are associated to the qualities that form possesses and actively expresses. The attributes of the forms “match†the quality of consciousness as shapes, behaviors or processes that are being expressed through or by a physical body or entity. This is the basis for why the spiritual realm is “seen†or portrayed as “animal powers†and plants, is because certain qualities that produce specific behaviors in what we could think of as the instinctual field of the collective unconscious, which governs all of life on the planet earth, expresses through different species of animals as the form that’s associated with those behaviors as a “classification of the consciousness†that governs and produces them.

So, for example, another human who embodies and demonstrates certain behaviors are “sensed†as their animal quality. An aggressive or deceptive  person might be seen as having lion or panther-like qualities; someone who constantly complains might be seen as a dog barking or whining; a docile and meek person like a lamb or sheep. In a similar way, negative emotions being embodied and expressed are seen as attributes of that emotion; anger is perceived as jagged, sharp, chaotic, loud and aggressive energy that expands and clashes or shocks; whereas sadness is sensed as dull, vague, dark, tired energy that pulls within and almost disappears; loving emotions are very warm, buzzy and sensuous, gratifying and intoxicating, relaxing, and are attractive. When these feelings are experienced, mental impressions often rise up as thoughts of a corresponding nature, and we have a kind of translucent vision as transparent imagery, or energetic composite that forms in our imagination that’s very different in the normal sense from the actual outer “appearance†of the person expressing the energy as emotional states. Their energetic form can be a combination of animal, plant, and mineral features that are also imbued with geometric designs that hold them together, and can be either comprised of neutral colors of mostly greys, or of vivid prismatic colors that are pure and intense.

Time, Eternity, and Evolution

The “forms†of the spiritual realm, which are really personal translations of feelings in their corresponding forms, reflects the “qualities of consciousness†being projected and acted out through the physical form, and often doesn’t resemble the flesh body at all. Though the flesh body does begin to take on characteristics similar to the emotions habitually expressed, this takes time and is subject to evolution on the physical plane, which is a slow and gradual process, whereas on the spiritual plane evolution is a constant movement that transforms instantly, and moves in and out of energy that stimulates a variety of images as a flux and flow that reforms based on the qualities it absorbs from the environment, which when assimilated through a form of equilibrium as coherence, reshapes instantly as the immediate expression of the new vibration.

Time doesn’t exist as a linear process within the spiritual realm, which has no sense of past or future, but remains eternally in the present, and like a growth process of latent energies coming from the inner, invisible realm to the outer (somewhat) visible realm, is an unfolding process of becoming, rather than a linear process of modifications to an original form, which only takes place through habitual tendencies developed over extended periods of time. Change in the physical world is gradual and process oriented, whereas in the spiritual it’s instantaneous and synchronistic.

In the physical realm, even the images produced by the individual mind are based on memory of some form, which while that memory may play out as vivid in our mind, usually differs significantly from the actual event that produced it. We form our own interpretation of the event as a re-presentation, where each time its recalled, it’s modified by how we use it to form a similar interpretation of our current situation to make it “mean†the same thing. Through constant recall and new applications we evolve and transform the memory throughout our life, retelling it slightly different each time, until eventually, it doesn’t even resemble the actual event or original memory.

Spiritual experience is much like a personal memory, except it doesn’t refer to the past in any way, but rather to the present and the spiritual aspects of our environment and the events taking place in the moment. These “soul-like†memories, similar to what are commonly called archetypes as a form of universal memory or holograms, don’t have anything to do with the personal conditioned memories of the body, but of the memory as a classification of standardized forms and qualities that animate them that are of the larger, universal soul-mind, which we’re always tuning into and sensing within our present situation, that serve to stimulate and call forth our personal memories as a correlation.

The Cosmic Mirror of the Imagination

When we refrain from the need to interpret our experiences, and we simply observe them with a neutral and unbiased mind, they form the same type of mental impressions as a personal memory does as scenarios or moving images that form mental impressions in our imagination. The primary difference is these mental impressions lack “meaning†(in the personal sense), and exist purely by reasons that are independent of us. The spiritual realm is perceived in much the same way as a form of invisible reality viewed in the mind, though not actually seen with the physical senses, that’s alive “within†the present situation, rather than being a form of personal memory resurrected from the past and reused to create the present as an illusion.

The mental impressions formed intuitively in the mind in response to feelings and the sensations they give rise to, is how we “perceive†(see) the spiritual within the physical. Not as a mirror image that duplicates it, but as an image that resembles the reflection seen on glass or a dark shiny surface. Yet the images themselves seldom ever resemble the physical body they inhabit and act to animate, but rather the nature of the consciousness and behaviors being demonstrated as their “inner natureâ€. The images are symbolic in nature as a form of metaphor, rather than literal. The idea of a mirror image is referring more to the nature and quality of the mental impressions themselves, rather than the actual image, which in spiritual terms is quite different.

Feelings, State, and the Nature of Vibration

In the reverse sense, as we are stimulated by a feeling (vibration) it naturally forms a very distinct mental image as a “reality†(pattern) that expresses the feeling as a physical form. Vibration organizes astral light as “essence†into material forms through a self-organizing mechanism in the faculty of the imagination as our higher, spiritual senses. While many of us have been taught that the spiritual exists as symbolic of the material, in reality, the exact opposite is true. The spiritual, which is pure energy in its potential state, is what precedes and “organizes†the material form as being of the same “nature†(internal consciousness that emanates a pattern).  We have to reverse our way of thinking about things.

The spiritual is the “feeling state†(vibration) that acts to produce and give rise to a correlating physical reality as animated imagery that forms composite images, scenarios, or live-events that are the processes inherent in the feeling as spiritual law. The living patterns of vibration create processes as structure and function. They shape astral light (starlight) into forms with distinct behaviors that express the principles governing them. These astral shapes are formed as variations of the same idea (archetype) based on the adaptation they undergo through the relationship they form with all other factors involved in the situation or circumstances that act to modify it to some degree as a kind of reformulation of the same fundamental properties, changing what’s emphasized and enhanced, yet, forming out of the same fundamental properties as a formulae or dynamic patterning.

Thematic Patterns and Symbolic Correspondences

When we move from thinking that the physical world is the basis that gives rise to the spiritual, which seems symbolic in comparison, and fully realize instead that it’s the spiritual as vibration that exists in its potential state as a “thematic pattern†that gives rise to the physical as a symbolic correspondence, then we can begin to understand the spiritual world through feelings that when held in a calm and open mind form into natural imagery that’s in a constant state of movement as fluctuating qualities that transform through a state of “becoming†while maintaining the same thematic form as an archetypal idea. For example, if we hold the archetypal idea of a lamp in our mind, and we’re simply present with that idea, we may form impressions of all sorts of different types of lamps, yet they’re all still a “lamp†and they all represent the same type of idea.  As we hold an idea in our mind, a form of free-association as a chain of associated ideas naturally unfolds in our imagination as correlating and corresponding ideas of the same nature.

An archetype can be thought of as a kind of universal (non-personal) idea as a pattern, living template or prototype that forms a mental impression as a specific “type of form†in the imagination of the individual, which uses it just like a personal memory to create experiences in their life that are of the same idea, modified by how its embodied and applied, not only through the consciousness of the individual, but to their exact set of circumstances and conditions. We “conceive of†an idea whole and intact as a form of insight, that we then personalize by how we think about it, what emotions we associate to it, what scenarios we apply it to in order to create it, and we reform it into a personalize version.

The idea conceived as an insight or inspiration is “pictured in the mind†in much the same way as a memory is. It appears like a reflection on glass as a see-through or translucent image. The imagery is the translation as an interpretation from pure feeling to a full-fledged physical reality as a mental construct or internal representation. We modify the original idea by how we apply it to our current life situation that presents it to us in a new way as a modified format or configuration. The basic idea being used as a theme for creating is modified through the process of adaptation that serves to reform it.

The feeling that we get that are present in any moment as an emanation of the energies involved, when we create an open space in our mind for the feeling to take hold within us and rise up in our mind as a living scenario or animated form within our imagination, reveals to us the nature of the energies as the forms their vibration naturally creates. These symbolic forms are the expression of the “qualities of consciousness†acting to birth them as realities on the astral plane of mental formation. All vibration has a pattern inherent in it as a theme along with a self-organizing mechanism that shapes essence into forms in the faculty of the imagination in a spontaneous and involuntary manner.

The imagination is the faculty of the mind that shapes astral light (plasma) as infused essence (electrified) into forms as the expression of the vibratory frequency it’s programmed with. The vibration as movement (life-force) organizes and structures light – the astral remnant of movement between two poles that form dimension – and a matrix of tension (electromagnetic field) that hold everything into fluctuating, shimmering, lustrous patterns. These patterns as shapes translate into living realities of the physical plane. The physical plane is produced, maintained, and governed by spiritual laws, which are the energetic intelligence’s as information that form and express as properties that naturally undergo certain types of processes and form natural behaviors based on the chemical properties of their form and the level of consciousness equated to it.

The Field of Potential and the Particle of Existence

The spiritual world and the physical world are extreme aspects of the same plane comprised of multiple dimensions where pure consciousness as a wave-form containing billions of potential is drawn down through the planes and into physical reality as the expression of the information inherent in the wave-form. As it’s drawn down into an individual mind, the wave-form collapses around “one†potential as a possibility that’s used to form a single personalized reality. That reality then forms into a personal memory through the unique expression of it, and is then drawn back up the astral planes where it’s returned to its universal state as an archetype or pattern or generalized idea. This general idea as a kind of theme and basic form can then be used to create more experiences through using the memory as a general idea or template for creating more experiences of the same nature. All reality as an “experience†is shaped by the meaning it has for the individual receiving and interpreting it that evolves it through a series of modifications by how it’s adapted to fit a new set of conditions or a unique set of circumstances.

This memory (whether universal or personal – because one is used to create the other) when used repeatedly to perceive reality, creates a field of energy (consciousness) as an electromagnetic field that habituates it into a fixed pattern. Once it becomes a habitual thought process it acts as a theme for creating our life story by solidifying it as a thought-form (memory that’s used to create more memories of the same nature). This idea, once concentrated on by replaying it over and over in the imagination as a way of interpreting other ideas to mean the same thing, is cast into the astral light of mass consciousness as a fixed form, where it becomes a form of substitute for an original thematic idea as an universal archetype, and can be tuned into, accessed, and received by other minds who are of the same nature (frequency), who then also use it to create in a similar fashion as a basic life theme. In this way, archetypes are not only evolved constantly by how they’re applied and modified, but birth new archetypes through the same method as a form of genetic (information) modification (re-configuration).

The world of thought-forms as a form of collection or accumulation of archetypes evolved by humans through various applications and personalization, is also what we refer to a mass consciousness or the “instinctual field†of the collective unconscious that produce natural behaviors that are conceived of unconsciously. This unified field of imprinted information is also referred to as the “Book of Life†or “Hall of Records†where every action (as a new vibration) is “recorded†(impressed) in the Akashic Field. These terms are all referring to the same idea, and is also the basis for the modern scientific discovery of morphogenic and torsion fields that act to populate the field of human instinct with subtle energy as the ghost-like, invisible energy that’s constantly being transmitted and received by like-minds, and serves to produce distinct physical properties as qualities and characteristics that produce behaviors as the expression of those characteristics.

Unconscious ideas are natural thought processes that form basic behaviors that are thematic in nature and natural to us. These are ideas that we didn’t acquire through awareness or intentionally as a deliberate act, but that “came to us†without our direct awareness (naturally). These thought-forms are imprinted within the soul-field or astral plane that we tune into and draw into us as natural and automatic thoughts that we begin expressing by creating experiences as internal representations that form the basis for creating our personal memories out of. These universal ideas that populate our internal awareness become themes that govern our whole life because we continue to use memories of the past to create more of the same type of experiences in the present, usually without ever realizing that that’s what we’re doing.

Accurate and Objective Perception

One of the most basic mistakes we make in forming intuitive perceptions comes when we feel the need to interpret what we’re sensing by making it “mean somethingâ€. As soon as we start telling ourselves a story about what things mean, we move it from a neutral and universal status into a “personal creationâ€. The active component of our mind as the “story-teller†is always interacting with energy to reform it and change how it appears. As we think about something we change how it appears to us. We start making it about us instead of about the person, object, or situation that it’s a part of as their (its) internal nature. This is how we are always acting to “shape others to be like usâ€. Things only mean what we say they mean. What something means to us may be very different than what it means to the person demonstrating or emanating it. So in order to accurately perceive intuitively we have to resist the natural tendency to want to interpret it to make it mean something.

The most natural way to form a truly neutral observation of something is to form a detached perspective, where you dissociate from it and take on a passive form of observation called “witnessingâ€. The mind has the natural ability to influence and shape energy, and when in an active state of interpretation, it changes how things appear, distorting and corrupting it to fit its own needs and beliefs about it. In order to “receive information in its original and true form†we have to subdue the active component of our “thinking and storytelling mindâ€, and enter into a passive state where we observe it without any need to change it. We have to relinquish any needs, desires, or judgments we have regarding it.

As we create and maintain a calm sense of inner peace and detach from everything around us while taking on a perspective of simply observing it from a neutral state, we can begin seeing things as they truly are apart from us. As we take a position of simply witnessing something without needing to make it mean something, we begin seeing others and the world around us with new eyes. The witnessing faculty of the mind that simply observes things from a neutral state is the same faculty we use in order to act as a “receiver†for higher knowledge that comes to us only through meditative states where we simply act to absorb an idea and allow it to unfold within us without the need to “act on it†(interact with it) to change it in any way. This is the basis for the idea of being a “purified vessel†that’s necessary in order to conceive of higher knowledge without corrupting it to personal means.

Dr. Linda Gadbois

Transpersonal Psychology, Integrative Mind-Body Health Consultant, and Spiritual Mentor