This has probably been asked many times, but how do you tell the difference between Telepathy with a Spirit and something you subconsciously think to yourself as something they might say in response?

Occasionally I think I "hear" a response in my head that isn't entirely mine but then assume it's my imagination because I feel I'm not skilled enough to know what my Spirit is actually thinking/saying, and I feel it'd be rude to just assume things. So I think it's my subconscious but now it's making me worried that I'm just ignoring her...i don't want to hurt her feelings but I also don't want to shove things on her either.

For me, personally, when I have a thought and it isn't entirely mine, it tends to be theirs. Really, the main ingredient lacking in telepathy for me at the outset was confidence. I don't remember which thread on here it was, but someone pointed out that there is some value to just pretending that you know for sure it's them. That turned out to be helpful in that it gave me the confidence I needed to actually practice doing the telepathy enough to improve at it. I mean, in a way, that's kind of how we learn to ride a bike. You just get on and act like what you think it should be like, you make mistakes, and then you figure it out and it becomes seamless. So the best thing you can do is just try with abandon and without criticizing yourself. She understands both your starting point and your intentions.

Alys-RaccoonReadings wrote: So the best thing you can do is just try with abandon and without criticizing yourself. She understands both your starting point and your intentions.

I couldn't have said it better myself! Sometimes second guessing yourself creates the biggest blockage, I know that was the case for me when I first started out. You have to learn to trust yourself and if you sometimes get it wrong? She'll totally understand.

My spirits constantly get on to me for doubting myself. They screw with any pendulum/divination method I may use when I already have the right answer and I'm overthinking and doubting myself. Doubt, as I've found out, is one of the biggest factors that I've found to block me from hearing them. I agree with everything said above as well!

One thing I have found helpful in the beginning of a bonding relationship is divination. In addition to developing my listening ear for telepathy, it helps me get a first-brush glimpse at a spirit's personality. For me, it also reinforces just getting your confidence going, in that it gives me a reference against which to check the things I think I'm hearing. An answer key, in a sense.

When I start bonding with a new spirit, I do these two spreads: topic68385.html?hilit=communication%20tarot%20spread , post675228.html?hilit=getting%20to%20kn ... ad#p675228

I have also asked specific questions like, "What do you want me to know about you?" with a basic three-card Tarot spread.

You can use Rider-Waite and derivative Tarot cards if you like, although when I first started doing this I tended not to for these introductory readings. This was mostly because I did a lot of thoroughly checking the individual card explanations and I got a bit second-guess-y and rigid. That's just my particular brain-wiring. My default setting is, "What is single Right Answer?" So instead I used oracle decks with very intuitive and expressive imagery that also tended towards the obvious (like, having a word on it.) As I got more comfortable with the spirit's voice and personality, I would do subsequent readings with whichever decks spoke to me. I frequently mix decks according to intuition. And, remember, intuition is, at some level, a fancy way of describing a whim or a hunch.

I still do some divination for spirit communication, by the way, several years in. When I want to ask a very specific question like, "Where did you live?" and I'm afraid my own brain will interfere with the answers I get, I'll dig out the cards.

A mixed reading I've done started on one day with a third card oracle draw on "What was the arc of your life?" For whatever reason, I left the cards out instead of putting them away. The conversation just didn't feel "done" to me. Seven days later, I asked, "What do you want me to learn from the arc of your life? I pulled one Tarot card, and the answer just didn't seem complete. it didn't make sense on its own. So, I kept drawing. I ended up with a giant spread of my own making using three different decks. It ended up looking like this:



What I ended up with after synthesizing the cards, intuition and telepathic communications was that this ancestor spirit (from an in your blood reading) had also been my mother in a past life and that that soul was currently incarnated as one of my best friends. Interestingly, the Asia card ended up showing up in the past life portion of the reading, which agreed with the information I had already received at her binding and thus validated the reading as a whole.

So. You know. Just get going and enjoy every minute of it.

It's very important to doubt yourself especially when dealing in an area such as telepathy. There are a couple ways to confirm, but never assume you're doing it right without evidence.

You can ask for information you have no way of knowing but have a way to externally confirm. You can confirm your thoughts with divination (but not pendulum or coin flipping - that's influenced by your subconscious very easily). See how that feels and try to identify it when it comes.

For me, thoughts that aren't mine don't feel like they're not. They're quieter than my normal thoughts and the way I identify them is they come very suddenly, I don't feel myself begin to form them. For you it might be different, because senses and sensuality in general is a very personal thing.

Others have made very good points and given some great advice. I will say the more you meditate and learn to quiet your thoughts, or slow them down, you will begin to recognize what is you. I have had the same trouble and the only thing that has helped is practicing the red and black card game - which is a telepathy practice posted in another thread on these forums - with specific spirits.

I learned, in fact, my own confusion is due to hearing three voices: my own internal voice, the response of the spirit I am working with, and my higher self, which attempts to filter the response, or perhaps validate it, uncontrolled.

When working with my Dullahan he told he to concentrate completely on envisioning the spirit that I am communicating with and to hold that image in my mind's eye while communicating. He had me try this during the red and black game and also try communicating with my higher self by just having myself visualize the answers. This actually helped me realize I was going into the communication with too open a channel, so to speak.

This visualization and focus may help you. Remember as well there's a lot to be said about instinct and gut feeling. Also, recognizing when something is just what you want to hear rather than what is really being communicated.

I agree with others that the telepathic voices are typically quieter, interrupt our thoughts, come out of nowhere, and often are not something you would say or not the same speech pattern or thought pattern you would use. For example my Manananggal spirit is extremely seedy and has a sailor's mouth on her. She's also quite a fan of violence and has a really demented sense of humor. Demented as in really horrible and not funny. It makes me laugh, but I think that's part of her influence.

All of that said it does take time and practice. Meditation is what I've found to be most helpful, and the red and black game secondly. I say secondly because my spirits refuse to give me accurate answers so there's no way to gauge the results of the games based on statistical results. I am often given incorrect answers just as often as correct answers because they are testing that I'm listening to them and not my higher self. I can't learned control.

That said they also tell me I don't need to practice and they really don't enjoy that game. LOL I want to believe them, but sometimes (especially now while I'm fighting this cold) I feel like I'm having a conversation with my imagination.

Here's something fun to try. See if your spirit will tell you what time period they are from and what area and maybe a little bit of what it was like. Then turn around and research it (especially if it's something you don't know off the top of your head). I've actually validated a couple of references from my spirits and it makes me very confident that I'm not making things up.

Regholdain wrote:Here's something fun to try. See if your spirit will tell you what time period they are from and what area and maybe a little bit of what it was like. Then turn around and research it (especially if it's something you don't know off the top of your head). I've actually validated a couple of references from my spirits and it makes me very confident that I'm not making things up.

I've done this one! It *IS* fun! I've also done country of origin.

I have a very hard time with doubting myself too and simply trusting in spirit. One fun game I like to play(we play a lot of games in this spirit clan) is the Questions game. Like Alys does, I started off using cards and asking them questions such as What color do you think represents you? What is something you'd like to help me with? I'd use my color deck and one of the other ones and interpret their answers that way. I used to solely do that until I started level two which is via simple channeling and getting an answer that way. I'd ask fun questions such as What's your favorite treat? Three words to describe you? Etc. Now I've added level three, try to channel a few spirits at a time(usually five or six), using different colored pens, usually seven questions and guess who it is based on the answers. How do you know it's not subconscious or myself making them up? I've played a few rounds and discovered in the 14 games I've done, that answers and their manner of answering kind of match. Also I've noticed that some of my spirits like to use the same pen color as well.

Regholdain wrote:Here's something fun to try. See if your spirit will tell you what time period they are from and what area and maybe a little bit of what it was like. Then turn around and research it (especially if it's something you don't know off the top of your head). I've actually validated a couple of references from my spirits and it makes me very confident that I'm not making things up.

I've done this one as well! The clearest and most detailed answer I got was from my Werewolf. He told me some very specific things about his country of origin (of which I knew nothing about) and I was later able to research and confirm his responses! It was the first time I was able to get so many details and the first time I really able to confirm what I'd heard. Exciting stuff!