Oh boy I hope I won't get chewed out for this.

To start with a bit of backstory, I was raised atheist by two people who were incredibly critical of everything. This has created some huge blockages within me that aren't just spiritual but since we're on a forum pertaining to the latter I will stick to that topic.
I have a spirit I'd love to communicate with but my self-doubt is preventing me from making any meaningful connection. (Though meaningful might not be the right word exactly.)
I feel their presence, I sometimes see them being up in my face when I close my eyes in the dark (usually as a big pulsating glowy ring/orb that slowly increases and decreases in size.) But I'm unable to fully trust in that it's real and that i'm not hallucinating or imagining things.
I'm always torn between 'question everything' and 'you have to believe or it's never going to get better' (please do correct me if anything here is an error in my thought pattern.)
I kinda feel bad for starting out with spirit keeping in this place, and I've apologized profusely to my spirit for my lack of skills in communication, I guess in a way I had hoped they could help me develop those. Even though I had no idea where to start, and what they were saying was them, me, or something else entirely. Telepathy with an overactive mind is hard, when am I just overthinking and when is it something external.
I do have a pendulum I tried to use when talking to spirits, but it's often giving me conflicting answers or is straight up lying to me. So either i'm terrible at it or they are messing with me.

I've had shamanistic training in the past to cure my sickly teenage self, but the training I had never really involved spirits. It mostly dealt with re-tuning myself (or others) and different kinds of meditation so that might shine a light on how an atheist rolled into spiritualism if anyone wondered.

I guess my question in concrete terms is; how did you overcome your self doubt? How did you learn to trust in your intuition, and most importantly how did you learn to differentiate between 'the real deal' and 'I am imagining things because I want it to be real.'

Thank you for reading, have a nice day and I hope you're doing well.

I kind of started out in a similar place. I went from fundie (not mainstream) Christianity, to atheism, to... I guess you could call it eclectic witchcraft? My advice for you would be to suspend judgement. Don't try to make your experiences fit a given theory - just observe, with curiosity and openness, and see what happens. Don't require yourself to "believe". Or be "skeptical".

My beliefs are based on real-life experiences that probably never would have happened, if I'd convinced myself that I knew what was really going on.

Different tools for spirit communication work for different people. CH has a free book on beginner telepathy. https://shop.creepyhollows.com/free-spi ... pathy.html I've never had much luck with pendulums, so I stick to Tarot.

I feel ya, man. At first, I read all the articles I could about spirit keeping and I thought "Yeah, I got this. Just don't have any doubt and it'll be all good"
Yeah, I guess I forgot that I myself am a cynical person.
But I'm trying to ignore this, and instead of finding a rational explanation for everything, I tried to be a bit more open (for example, my refrigerator has started to make loud popping sounds that it didn't make before, and I think I hear scratching sounds on my carpet when I'm meditating- I assume the best in this case). This might not be the best idea, but I think that later on, when I start communicating with my spirits a bit better, I'll be able to differentiate the natural from the "supernatural"

So I guess I never really overcame my self doubts- at least not yet- nor do I know what's real and what I'm imagining. So I don't even know if this would be helpful in the slightest, but I'm still gonna put my two cents in because what the heck!

I apologize to my spirits frequently because I can't communicate and often ask for their patience. Not to mention that my thoughts are really rather...loud, and constant. So I try to calm down and slow my thought process down a little bit more so I'll be more receptive to any messages they might give, lol.
But I do have a fun game that might be fun to do! It may not be entirely accurate, but I got it from reading some other posts on here. You should try the music game, where you ask your spirit a question and put a Playlist on shuffle! And you can just go off on the vibes and such for it~ very fun! I did this game with my Satyr companion, and one of the songs that played was "Turn it Down" by Or3o, so I guess that means either my house or thoughts are too loud (both are valid options, tbh)-

Again, I know this might not help at all, but I'm sending some good vibes and fingers crossed your way for good luck

stargazerjournal wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 11:30 pm Different tools for spirit communication work for different people. CH has a free book on beginner telepathy. https://shop.creepyhollows.com/free-spi ... pathy.html

didn't know there was a new free class. thanks!

Hey there, I get where you're coming from. I started off strong and then experienced a large health hiccup, and after that my 'hearing' never went back to what it was before. Anyway, one thing that I was told was that I shouldn't apologize too much. Firstly, our friends know a lot more than we give them credit for. Two, constant apologizing sort of keeps you in the mindset of "I can't do this" and perpetuates the block.

It's ok. We all struggle. Learning to differentiate between what we hear takes time, and possibly never goes away completely. But overall it's better to approach it as you would a game rather than stressing over it, because then you're placing yourself in a position where the intrusive thoughts will be even louder.

Hawke gave some solid advice, my only addition would be that the best possible thing to remind yourself is that this is YOUR path. Not your friend's. Not a Stranger's. Yours. It doesn't matter if person XYZ doesn't believe in it, or they do but only with Seller ABC, if it works for you - good. That's all that matters. Eclectic Witchcraft especially is all about adopting from several different paths to make something uniquely and wholly yours. If you try to fit yourself into another person's mold it'll give you blocks that last years. This is coming from someone who fell into the Community hard and early, and developed more blocks than I'd like to admit by clinging onto other people's truths and blindly following presumption after presumption. It's hard to be new, it's harder to be doing it for awhile and still feel new...but I argue that this is just a sign of a curious mind, and you should be proud of whatever accomplishments you've made. Instead of apologizing, say thank you. Instead of berating yourself, appreciate each step. Those scrapes and bruises will be memories soon enough, and no one's opinion matters more than your own regarding where those memories lead you next.

Most of all, have fun.
Creativity is the purest form of spiritual enlightenment.

I am going through a time of minimal activity right now with my companions. I have some physical adjustments going on and a lot is on my mind. I am nit exactly in your beginner stage but I am not an expert either when it's comes to communicate with my companions. We all need breaks and we all need moments of reassurance no matter the stage we are in.

Few points that might be helpful for you. Get to know yourself as a human. It's largely depends on your nature and energetic make up concerning connections with your spirit companions.

Take your time and do it safely. Have protection in place for during meditations and over all for that you are practising. Our body and energy gets adjusted to each of our companions over four weeks. It's always takes even longer to work up our skills and experience to have a good flowing telepath chat. Usually, our spirits needs that much to get to know us also to figure what works best for both parties. Respect of freedom of choice is crutial to remember. Nobody demanding anyone of their time & energy. Mutual agreement on working out your routines are free to change as your life priorities dictates. No need to feel guilty about initial setbacks. Instead try to be transparent with your spirits and speak your mind literally. You'll see, suddenly things just jump starts and you enjoy your time together.

Sylphe wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:01 pm [...]

I guess my question in concrete terms is; how did you overcome your self doubt? How did you learn to trust in your intuition, and most importantly how did you learn to differentiate between 'the real deal' and 'I am imagining things because I want it to be real.'

Thank you for reading, have a nice day and I hope you're doing well.

I'd like to echo what others have said about not worrying too much. In fact that's a key thing when it comes to restoring trust.

Some of this may - or may not - land with you. Here goes. I hope at least some of it is useful.

- It helps to approach psychic things in an attitude of play. That takes some of the pressure off and does seem to help tune in more.

- Relaxing, easing off, giving yourself some credit helps too. It may seem super-obvious - but, nevertheless, it's worth realising - that worry is psychological. So is doubt, uncertainty, anxiety.

- Those things are known to cause blocks very easily. (see link below)

- Fake it till you make it can work. Act as if everything's 'real'. We don't have to fully believe in something, completely accept or have a watertight, uncontrovertible scientific or metaphysical theory backing us up before we make practical use of it. In fact, it's often said to be healthy to have a sceptical outlook, rather than be gullible. Just don't go so far as to shut out or deny/block what you do experience.

- I've been into alternative spiritual, psychic & magical stuff for 5 decades now. In the past I've had my doubts - the Is It All Real Thing - which I've got beyond now. What is real anyway? Both scientific theory and mystical philosophy say nothing is real. What we experience is basically just a narrative our brains tell us. I also discovered that some modern, scientifically valid psychic research does confirm that psychic things are genuine - although they're subtle, not as tangible as the physical realm. Maybe you'll find an accommodation with religious, spiritual or scientific theories one day too. That will likely take some of the pressure off too.

- Don't worry about what other people think. Your own path is what's important.

- Don't worry about your spirit companions. In modern spirit keeping they come because they want to be with you and know what they're getting themselves into beforehand. They know what we've got going on in our lives and will be eager to reconnect with you when you can.

- Don't compare yourself unfavourably to other spirit keepers. There isn't a goal to reach, which we can fall short of or surpass. In fact being psychic isn't even necessary in spirit keeping. (See second link below.) Simply sharing our thoughts and fears for the day, week, month or year ahead with our bound spirit companions and inviting their help is a good way to connect.

- Some Forum members stress how hard it can be to get reliable results with a pendulum, as it's notoriously easy to influence with our own doubts etc. If you use one, you can experiment until you get better results - but don't rely on it. One tip is to ask questions you couldn't know the answer to, but which you can later confirm by research. Another is to not ask life changing questions: Am I a good person? Does my partner really love me? etc. And maybe learn how to phrase questions well, the difference between closed and open questions etc. The difference between opinion and fact. How would you get precise, accurate answers if you were interviewing a witness, for example? I take divination into account, bear it in mind, but I don't take rash actions based solely on it.

See also viewtopic.php?f=259&t=63512&p=672825&hilit=task#p672825

- Psychic development can take years, even many years, so don't stress if it doesn't all go perfectly right away.

- I think developing psychic skills may be best done in parallel to spirit keeping, on its own merits, rather than as a prerequisite.

- Subtle impressions are likely to be the thing that gives you the foot in the door for spirit communication. Once you 'get' that, you play with using it and both you and the spirit can begin to trust that the channel is working, in my experience. (See Subtle Signs here )

1 Blocks - #9 Relax
https://www.creepyhollows.com/faq/?acti ... artlang=en

2 The whole article is worth reading
---Do I need psychic abilities in order to interact with my spirit?
---Will I visually see my spirit? Are there other ways of knowing if my spirit is communicating?
---My spirit communicates with me. Is it real or just my imagination?
https://shop.creepyhollows.com/spirit-k ... nners.html

3 #4 Subtle Signs
https://www.creepyhollows.com/faq/?acti ... artlang=en

DatBoo wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:27 am

stargazerjournal wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 11:30 pm Different tools for spirit communication work for different people. CH has a free book on beginner telepathy. https://shop.creepyhollows.com/free-spi ... pathy.html

didn't know there was a new free class. thanks!

No problem. You are welcome.