I have not shared much – neither publicly nor privately – about these topics before. But lately, I’ve felt prompted to speak about my own story of experiencing what I will call a psychic opening. People may refer to similar kinds of experiences under various different labels – and I don’t normally like to use labels, because they can be constricting. But in this blog post I will – as I want to open a dialogue, bringing sometimes abstract concepts into a framework that we can start to work with in everyday communication.
When I refer to “psychic opening”, what I’m talking about is an opening or expansion of the awareness – to the point that things become visible or audible beyond this three-dimensional reality. I now experience much deeper, multi-textured, levels of sensory information – all whilst completely sober (and as an aside: I don’t use psychedelics, and I do not work with psychedelic plant medicines). If this sounds odd to you, please don’t switch off. We know (according to science) that there are many more dimensions to our reality than the one we live in. We also know that there is so much in the universe that we don’t know or have not yet observed.
So if what I’m saying sounds strange, bear with me for a few minutes. Open the mind, to the vast array of possibility in this existence. With a slight shift in perspective, suddenly these things are not so extraordinary.
These days, I live my day-to-day life perceiving a lot. I used to get very overwhelmed, distressed, and also afraid of what “normal” people would think if they knew. Now, I’ve arrived to my own deep inner-standing of myself; and how I can use my awareness to better serve me and my world, as opposed to hinder me.
I’ve decided to share my story – and some of the techniques I use to stay “tethered” to reality – because I know of many people who experience total sensory overload and overwhelm, and who struggle to cope in a society that may at best dismiss them as being “too sensitive”, and at worst label them as “insane”.
My goal in sharing is to make these subjects a little more accessible and relatable, normalise these kinds of experiences, and share some tools that have helped me and continue to support me. Because how to manage heightened sensory observation is not something that we are taught as part of a typical education. Those who really struggle may think something is wrong with them – turning to the medical system for help. They are likely to be misunderstood – perhaps they will end up dosed on anti-psychotic medication that has negative knock-on ramifications for their physical and psychological wellbeing. Or perhaps they will turn towards an “alternative” path – which is riddled with just as many pitfalls, given the commercialisation of holistic wellness, fake shamans and practitioners feeding off their own spiritual ego trip.
I’ll start with some brief background of what happened to me. I’ll be talking here about my “adult” psychic opening – because I now realise that as a child, I experienced heightened awareness. It then “shut down” when I was about eleven years old, coinciding with the time I began wearing glasses (which literally started to limit my “inner” sight – my vision journey is a whole other story), and funnelled down the academic system. For the next fifteen years my life was highly “mental”. I was predominantly in my mind, as opposed to my body: extremely academically and then career oriented. It wasn’t until I suffered chronic (physical) illness that I started to come back to my body, and I feel it was my deep embodiment that laid the foundation for my senses to once again truly feel and open up. By coming back to myself, as opposed to getting lost in mental distraction and the rat-race of academic work and career goals, I had the time and space to actually listen and observe at deeper levels again.
I’d had various whacky experiences before, but things went to a whole new level from December 2020 onwards. It began when I was stung by a scorpion, and for a week suffered on and off feverish hallucinations. I’ve heard that in some indigenous tribes, scorpion poison is used in initiation ceremonies: and this was certainly an initiation of sorts. Something altered in my bio-chemistry and opened within me: or rather, as I like to see it, it was a re-activation of what had already been there. Obviously, that particular week, I was under the influence of a foreign substance in my body. But things continued long after the poison left me – and so began a new chapter in my adult life.
My sensitivities suddenly heightened – prompting me to reduce my consumption of stimulants and any mind-altering substances (in particular, alcohol and caffeine – not that I even used much to begin with).
In the following months, all whilst completely sober, I experienced vivid daydreams where suddenly it was like the fabric of my reality opened up and I witnessed things from elsewhere, playing on little TV screens around me. My vision would get a lot of “static” in it and I’d be bombarded with sights and sounds from these other places. When this happened, I’d often get totally incapacitated and have to lay down – dizzy, weak, and overloaded. It also often hurt to move, because it was like my physical body was in contact with other places and had this added density and weight to it, as it perceived sensations beyond just this current physical existence.
I have now accepted and embrace that I perceive what I shall label “alternative” or “parallel” realities. My experiences (as well as scientific background – because throughout my life I’ve had a keen interest in physics) have led me to believe that there are many realities all co-existing at once at the same time.
If this is the case, perhaps it is not so strange that some people can perceive these other places then? At least in some states.
I am also clairaudient. I “hear” things from other places. I need a lot of silence in my day-to-day – because my base-line existence is so full of sound. It’s constant, even when I meditate and clear my mind, and feel like I’m totally clear, I hear.
Now you might say – what’s the use of all this? How can all this sensory stimulation be a good thing? Well, since I embraced my unique way of perceiving as a tool (instead of thinking something was “wrong” with me), I’ve found myself in fact feeling more in control of my own life, and a master of my own destiny.
I’ll go right to an extreme example: but it’s an important one.
I’ve had a number of near-death experiences in my life, and since my sensory awareness began expanding again, I’ve had moments of literally observing, like a fork in the road, where other timelines have led to my own death. The most vivid was in January 2021, shortly after my channels re-opened, when I was a passenger in a car that nearly went off a cliff in the mountains of central Costa Rica. It was a foggy night, and the GPS had taken a friend and me up a road which then stopped without warning – leading into thin air, the earth collapsed. My friend had stopped the car just in time as though feeling the danger instead of seeing it, because visibility was so poor. A second later and we would have tumbled to our death into the crater below, but instead there we were: safe, at the top of a cliff. From out of the mist, I saw my own ghost staring back at me.
The week leading up to this incident, I’d had a series of vivid dreams and “messages’ that I’d been given a second chance in this lifetime, which was nearly over. I heard voices telling me to forgive a number of people who had wronged me – and I spent a week in deep meditation, observing various traumas in my life, and “releasing” the grudges I had subconsciously kept against the people responsible. The night of the near-car-accident, I saw the fork in the road: what would have happened, had I not shifted my attitudes.
Whatever you choose to believe about my story, or my experience, is up to you. My point in sharing is to illustrate the power of perception as a tool: how do we use what we observe to shape our lives for the better, becoming the masters of our own destiny? Do we let our senses rule and overwhelm us, or do we use our senses to serve us?
The key is mastery of your perception. And just like meditation can support mastery of emotions, to allow them to flow through instead of rule us, various practices can help you ground and stay anchored in this reality – whilst perceiving the multi-textured greater framework of this universe. Here are just a few quick examples of tools that helped me:
- Grounding practices of connecting with the earth: walking barefoot, taking time to connect with nature, observing this present reality.
- Eating hearty (but clean and healthy!) meals, that incorporate animal products – red meat and fish. Veganism and vegetarianism can make you feel very “light”, and if you’re having trouble anchoring in this reality, it may actually help you to eat heavier foods.
- Keeping your home and physical space tidy and organised: the more you perceive elsewhere, the more important it is to have order in this reality. Make caring for your physical space a ritual: making your bed in the morning, sweeping the floors, doing your dishes.
- Eliminate/reduce stimulants such as caffeine, eliminate/reduce any mind-altering substances.
- Slowing down in general, and in particular around the hours of sunrise and sunset. At these times, the “veil” between worlds and dimensions is thinnest and so this is when you are likely to be perceiving the most. I normally spend these times in silence, in meditation or doing gentle yoga/stretching, or writing – to record any messages I’m “hearing’ that may be of use to me in my life.
- Create a routine with structure and discipline: plan your week, creating an organised framework in this reality.
- Incorporate embodiment practices and movement into your daily routine. The more your sense perception opens to other places, the more your “awareness” expands, the more important it is to deepen connection with your roots and this physical body.
- Turn off your phone and WiFi router overnight/when not in use – when your sense perception is heightened, EMF can affect you much more.
- Herbal supplementation to support the brain and nervous system.
If you’re privileged enough to see more to this existence than meets the physical eye – I encourage you to embrace it. See it as a gift, your special super power. Don’t dim your light. I know it can seem tough and overwhelming at times, and maybe others won’t understand. But what’s more important – living your life to your fullest, or what other people think?
And as always, reach out if you need any additional support – I will be happy to help how I can.
With love,
Cara