by InnerFire

I've finally pooled enough data to do at least an add-on if not a sequel to the first troubleshooting article. I hope this continues to be useful for people. This will try and follow the same format and general feel of the first article.

What More is There to Know?

First off slap yourself for asking this question, there's *always* more to know. This guide will cover more on what wasn't in the first article. Some topics may be just information that was not included in the first article, but in general more advanced and complicated topics will be covered herein. Considering that, it would be advisable to find and read the first article if you haven't yet. For those who are still having issues performing various activities, the first section contains more information on overcoming some mental roadblocks. For those of you looking for more help on general advancement, the second section contains information on how to better manage your energy, how to use some techniques better, and includes a set of basic guidelines on how to progress in most areas of psionics. The third section contains additional information about special situations, states, etcetera.

I. Trusting Yourself

A New Prelude

The mind is a funny thing. A problem can either be more complicated than it seems or a lot more basic than it seems. This section will go over a lot of situations like that, and also some more common problems. If the information in this section and the information in the last article does not help you, direct your attention to the "How to Ask for Help" section in the third part of this article. So I don't have to put a note in every section here, remember that some of the topics contained pertain to rare or uncommon problems, so you should remember to consider more likely problems first. Hey, and after reading through this far you thought I was going to cheat you out of a random show quote that was oddly applicable... Hell no! It just turned out to be so big and profound that it gets its own section this time.

Truth

"Sunny days make you happy, rainy days make you sad. But you can have fun on a rainy day too." "Your truth can be changed simply by the way you accept it, that's how fragile the truth for a human is"

This particular tidbit is from the last episode of Evangelion, (one of my favorite animes), and I find it particularly useful in many parts of life, not just for psionics. While it is likely that there are *some* absolutes, a great deal of things in life function based on how you perceive or think about them. Without any thought you trust that you're capable of walking when you get out of bed in the morning. It is second nature to you. Now that's a bit of an extreme example, but consider this: especially in athletics, when you go into a situation all psyched and ready to destroy, you can do more. However, when you go into a situation where you think that you can't or don't want to accomplish your goal, you feel like you can't do nearly as much. You are in fact making your own truth, and because of your profound acceptance of it (you usually don't stop to consider these kinds of feelings so your mind lets them in easily), your body changes to match what you accept..

At this point you are probably thinking something like "well if that's true why can't I just levitate that object sitting next to me into the air, I think it's 'truth' that I can do it" or something similar. Unfortunately it is not that easy. Even if you rule out the necessary focus and energy needed to do such an action, as you say or think that statement another part of you doesn't accept it. Although for some things you can do it easily and without much thought, 100% acceptance of an idea is incredibly hard to pull off (as most of the times when it is done easily, it is done on a subconscious level). There is good news however, you rarely need to believe 100% in something. The more you believe in it the easier the action becomes to do, but this does not mean you always *need* a great deal of belief. The next thing is pretty good news too, even if it doesn't count for much, in performing an action you are accepting that it could be possible. If you didn't have any acceptance of the idea, you would not even consider trying it. The point where an action is possible is determined by a possessing a certain amount of trust that the action possible, then of course whether you have the ability to do it. For most situations this is not an issue, since for physical activity you are fairly certain of about most actions being possible or not possible, there are lots of fun medical diagrams demonstrating the proper muscles and such needed to accomplish different activities. What's more theres always people telling you and showing you that it is possible, your friends, relatives, coaches... Psionics typically doesn't have that.

So where's the point in that paragraph? Well, the point is that while belief is not the absolute cure for everything, it does matter. Not in the cliche application you see in most movies when someone starts talking about belief, but in the sense that if you don't want to do the action or think you can't do it, you will not be able to do it even if you are fully capable of doing that action. However, you can change this. Just by knowing this concept you can change the situation, since usually the thing telling you that you can't do it is the result of your own perception. You simply must think of that fact, maybe even think of the quote at the beginning of this section. (Before psionics you might want to try this with some regular real world thing, so you can see whether the idea works for you)

Again don't think of this as an end all cure, if that was true there wouldn't be any sections after this one. Besides just the difficulty of convincing yourself enough, theres other issues that will hinder your ability to gain that necessarily belief. Like I said before, if you don't think you can do it, you have no hope of doing it no matter how good you are. Now having no belief at all is rather rare, or even so little that it would a problem that you could not get over given time, the problem is when a belief problem combines with other problems, then you will have to learn to control this to your favor. This also has some application with emotional issues which we'll talk about more in part three.

Note: My 'don't get people hurt' sense is tingling so its time to give some kind of warning. Be careful what truth you challenge. In the end I can only say so much, but remember that although belief is really important, you still need the necessary ability ability to do the action after you got belief squared away. Also warning signs (i.e. feeling pain in some form) are typically not what you want to dispute. Although you might be able to get more performance in the short run, in the psychic realm of activity you are much more likely to hurt yourself. Now you might surprise me with what's possible, I just want to say 'be careful', for when you challenge something you accept the consequences. When you jump off a cliff to challenge the notion that you cannot fly, you take the risk of hitting the bottom. Take careful consideration of what you go after with the ideas I placed in this section.

Underlying Issues

In most situations it is common sense to go after the source of a problem instead of just repeatedly fighting the effects. You will sometimes have to do this in psionics as well. If a mental block you have seems incredibly resilient there may be some deeper cause for it. If deep down you have some problem with the activity you wish to do, you are going to have trouble doing it. This is where self examination comes in, make sure you have no problems with whatever you're doing. I obviously can't predict every single issue but just to give you an idea some stuff would be:

1. Not wanting your parents/friends/gerbil to find out, thus you should never get to the level where there is something to find out
2. Being scared of what you might be able to do if you continue to advance
3. Deep down not wanting to do that skill in the first place for some reason
4. Having some religious conflict with what you're doing

Mine was incredibly specific but I did have this problem myself. From experience I can say that although treating the underlying issue doesn't instantly fix everything, it certainly does help.

The Good and Bad of Imposing Limits

At the basic level, putting reasonable limits on yourself is a good thing. Control keeps you from going too far and suffering injury. And we all know that hurting yourself is bad. However, you have to remember that sometimes a limit can start to mean to you that it is the highest level you can ever achieve. Going back to the section 'Truth', if you limit yourself enough enough that way, that limit will become your truth and it will become a wall you will have great difficulty getting over. Limits are good as a safety measure, but you should never set them so rigid that you come to believe that it's impossible for you to do anything beyond your limit. Also remember to over a period of time carefully allow yourself to do more, because after a while you should be stronger and able to practice *slightly* longer.

The opposite of that idea applies as well. You can do just as much damage by not setting a limit or setting it too high. A lot of people use the muscle analogy and think that the longer they practice the better they will be. Because of this they strain themselves severely. First off, it is very rarely that simple, there are a lot more factors than just hammering as long as you can to psychic progression. Sometimes you have to stop and take a break, so your mind can process what you have done. Also you must remember to take the muscle analogy the rest of the way, if you practice too hard you'll injure yourself. When you seriously overstrain yourself you get what is called a burnout. If you hit this you'll know it because you'll typically become very tired and be incapable of doing any significant psychic activity until you recover. Note that this is not always only temporary damage, if you manage to overwork yourself enough, you can cause permanent damage. So don't think you can work really hard, wait through the burnout, and then keep going. It will not work. For our readers that worry a lot relax, you have to overwork yourself to a pretty boneheaded level to manage hurt yourself that way. Unfortunately there are some people that do just that.

*Responsible* Forcing

Heads up as there will be a lot of cautions in this paragraph as you can seriously hurt yourself if you do this incorrectly

First before I say anything else note the RESPONSIBLE tag. Ideally nothing or almost nothing should be reckless, angry, or done with frustration, your actions should be controlled. However, sometimes there is a time to apply additional focus. Extra focus at the base level increases the amount of force you're applying on something and thus you can get better output. Also it strengthens your resolve and can help resolve some minor subconscious issues. This should never be too intense, it should be above a relaxed state but below frustrated or agitated. If you get a headache you should cease this IMMEDIATELY. In some areas, especially TK, although this can be helpful, the added strain it puts can be rather dangerous.

Relax (Again)

I know this topic was covered in the last article, but this is just something so important that it can't be overstated. So many people overlook taking time to relax. If you start to get frustrated, trying to struggle through is the worst thing you can do. Your frustration will cause you to do less, which will add more frustration. Eventually you'll follow that loop down to the point where you don't think you can do anything (also you'll probably feel like crap at that point). Take a second, stop, relax, maybe meditate a little, then go back with a fresh mind. Getting frustrated only serves to heighten any problem you might be having, so it should be avoided at all costs. Don't make your break too long however, or you might label it as giving up. And that is bad because it will leave you with a little lingering frustration when you try again, since you will remember failing the last time.

Coincidental Reinforcement II

Last time I touched on what Coincidental Reinforcement was, but not so much on how to respond to it. Throwing aside the issues about it messing up your energy consumption (since that was sufficiently discussed in the last article), there are some general rules on how to deal with it:

1) It's a lot harder than it sounds, but try to avoid frustration. Refer to the Relax section about that. Coincidental Reinforcement tends to largely correspond to your frustration, so a good way to control it is to avoid getting frustrated.

2) As an alternative to just relaxing (which you might not always be able to do), find a way to bend the 'screwed up' results to fit what you want. You feel frustrated and make the problem worse *because* you see it as a problem. If you try to make it no longer a problem, things will become much better. In my experience this was a big problem in micro-tk. When I was rolling a dice, another number would get forced instead of my intended number. I figured out that it was a response because I was expecting not to have a successful test, and once chance had laid the seed that another number might come up a lot more, the effect kicked in to fulfill my expectation. This died down though after I started taking the Coincidental Reinforcement results when they were really high and counting them as a significant result and walking away happy with the test. Now this problem still can happen but its a lot less common now that I did that. Also the plus with this is even if the problem continues like it did a little for me, you're no longer letting it get to you :)

3) This one will probably not work for some people but it is worth mentioning, Coincidental Reinforcement also comes from the idea that you're expecting it to happen but think you can't stop it from happening. However, if you start experiencing this problem often, you should be able to look at it and see that you do have some level of control, after all at the base level you are expecting something to happen and it happens like you partially wanted. Ignoring the fact that its routed through your subconscious you are in a way controlling things (you can even sometimes purposely start the Coincidental Reinforcement process, and that definitely is controlled). You have to realize that your lack of control is an illusion. Although not being able to stop something is not *good* control, it is not no control at all. If you had no control over the situation you would not be able to anything at all, the fact that you can effect it shows you have some control.

Finishing on a High Note

One of the best ways to avoid frustration is to always try to end your practice with a success (when applicable). It sends an entirely different message to your subconscious then ending with a neutral result or a failure. The last two situations leave you with the expectation that the next test will be just as messed up, and you focus on the negatives. However if you end with a success you end up expecting to do the same or better in your next practice. This is also easy to do, either don't stop (provided that you still feel able to go on; generally spending too much time trying to do something can cause strain) or stop when whatever you were trying to do works. So thus with a little maneuvering you limit frustration and potentially boost your rate of success in the next practice instead of lowering it.

Pulling it All Together

A lot of the stuff in this section is easily said but hard to actually accomplish. From deep down believing what you think you believe to just relaxing, following this advice is going to take some work. *But* if you really work at it you will get a level of control that will carry you through almost anything. At this point if you're still having a problem, I have no clue what is going to fix it, either you're not doing something properly or you are the lucky person that has whatever isn't 'almost anything'. Either way I wish you luck, and for the second case, that's what the asking people for help section is for in part 3.

II. Making Things Work

Opening

A lot of places have articles or documents where you can learn the basics of a technique, or maybe some more advanced applications of it, like after you learn how to make a psiball you can look up an article on how to make a shield or something, but there are so many gaps in between and also so much left out in how to get better with each technique. This I believe is the other part of making things work. In the last article I touched on the basics, understanding energy, practicing, realizing bad times/conditions, this time the focus is more how to progress instead of how to avoid "lack of progression".

Visualizations

Visualization plays a big part in psionics. At the minimal interpretation it just helps you apply your focus better, but however it works it appears to play big role, especially in energy manipulation. For example in building a construct, if you just blandly form a psiball with no special structure or 'feel' put into it, and I go ahead and use one of my designs picturing a slightly complex structure to compose the construct, mine is likely to be much stronger. Since the difference is so easy to see, energy manipulation is a great example to study the effects of visualization, and so I'll focus on that example. However, remember that a good deal of what's said in this section probably extends to other skill areas as well.

There are a couple things to consider in approaching this topic. As you can see from the example mentioned above, you really don't want to apply minimal visualization. That's probably causing minimal focus and thus very poor energy applied and poor energy efficiency. (We'll talk more about those two terms later in the energy section, for now just get the general gist that energy applied is how much you use, and efficiency is how well you use it). However, you also don't want to go overboard, if you try to do an insanely complex visualization or design it is more likely to screw up (if you can't focus enough to properly form the visualization, the construct will be malformed and unstable). You want to find a middle point, something that's *slightly* complex, but not above your ability to do. It should be a little difficult the first couple times you do something like that, and that's a good thing. Besides just lending a more solid 'structure' to your construct (higher energy efficiency), to pull off the visualization you're forced to sit down and focus better. You direct more attention to your construct because you have to in order to properly make it (higher focus leads to being able to devote more of your energy to the task).

Although slightly complicated is good, the most important thing is your visualization has to have meaning for *you*. Since the visualization is the mechanism your subconscious works with, the more meaning or affection you have for the visualization, the better it will work (this goes back to believing it will work). Energy manipulation demonstrates that idea well. When you choose some material for the structure of your construct it has to be something that *you* think will work well. For strength and support it should be something you think is strong. I don't know why but I like reinforced glass (the glass you see with the metal wiring running through it). That might work for you too, or cheese might work for you, I don't know why, maybe you've encountered a rare form of cheese that can stop bullets or something, its what *you* think will fit the purpose. The same idea applies for any other purpose, flexibility, heat resisting, frog catching, etc.

Your Own Way

A lot of articles and people give the impression that theres a way to do something and that way works. They leave it at that. That way might work great, but theres a great deal of ways to do something in most cases. The best way to progress and make things work is to find your own way to do them. Play around, experiment, look for new stuff, or take someone else's idea and see if you can make it better. There is nothing to lose, at the very least you're going to get some good practices in. I said before that there are gaps and missing stuff in the articles and site information, one way to solve that is to try and fill them yourself.

This example relates a lot to sensitivity,which as a passive skill is hard to directly practice. Although there might be a guide or two about it (I think PsiPog has one), the best way to work on your sensitivity is to find your own ways to develop and use it. The skill will develop naturally for most people, so you don't have to really hammer at it to get it to advance, it just needs some form of guidance and practice. This means that you can find your own way to guide it without too much trouble.

Note: This is not permission to be reckless. (This is another 'don't get people hurt warning', whether you listen or not, saying these makes me feel better :) ) If you have any qualms about something you want to attempt, talk to someone experienced about it and see what they think. They might even give you some tips with what you want to do. Experimentation should always be careful and well planned.

Energy II

Last time we talked about how to be aware of energy/energy consumption, and how it plays a role in psionics. In this section we have an equally important idea to talk about, energy efficiency. Although energy consumption relates to the expenditure of an activity, energy efficiency relates to how well the energy is being used, how much is being wasted, etc. A lack in energy efficiency can make it seem like an activity takes more energy than it requires.

A perfect example of this is one of my early attempts at healing (whether this works well is not part of the example so don't nitpick). Part of it involved directing a flow of energy to where I was trying to heal, which I think worked on a small scale. The problem was just holding my hand over the target area and sending the energy left me considerably tired afterwards. It took me a while to realize the problem, just projecting the energy at something meant that it was also spilling every which way thus wasting a good amount. Thus, a lack of efficiency in my process made it take more energy than it should, giving it a seemingly higher energy consumption. Now there are a couple ways to fix this: use better focus to actually target the energy being projected where I want so it wouldn't spill, or the one I chose, put it in a construct (for a contained delivery system). Confirming my theory, the construct packaged variation of what I was doing used a lot less energy and got a comparable effect.

So thus you can make activities consume less energy by making the process more efficient. To help with how to more commonly think 'efficiency' lets go back to the Visualization section with our energy manipulation example. A lot of energy used poorly is outclassed by a little energy used well. Your first step is to look into visualizations that seem to work better with the same amount of energy, this may be more difficult with other areas but for energy manipulation you can just follow what's said in the visualization section. You want to pick a structure to mold your energy into that's resilient as opposed to just doing whatever. Its like using triangles as your building units when making a bridge, its the best use of material. The general idea of how to apply this outside of energy manipulation is just really to think it through, usually the more controlled and/or contained the process is the better (unless it has to *not* be one of these things). To help you learn how to do that there are a couple flags for when you risk wasting energy either directly or through inefficiency:
1)Any process where you don't have full control over an amount of energy being directed to something, if you're not holding onto it, some energy can leak away
2)Not properly shelling a construct, this is why new people's psiballs eventually fade away, they don't keep the energy that composes them inside themselves, slowly but surely it leaks out
3)Anything that uses an extremely complex mechanism that's probably beyond your ability to handle will be prone to inefficiency, either you won't create it properly and it will be the result of faulty construction, or your lack of control over it will leave the creation unstable and the programming will likely degrade and mutate and bring about the same result A lot of it just comes down to being smart with your planning and execution of techniques. Side note, while I cannot *confirm* this it seems that in a lot of cases the first time a new technique is executed it can take more energy to pull off. Considering this, don't jump to conclusions about energy use the first time you use a technique. It is better to take a couple tries and then consider the use again (average the couple trials together). This does not mean throw out the expenditure the first time, as that you should still use to consider any future tries (to properly handle safety concerns and such). Just remember, because of this effect you should save the *final* judgment for later. Also, this does not just apply to the first time you're starting a new area like telekinesis but just anything that's just sufficiently different from any technique you have tried before. Like a shield design different than anything you've attempted before is likely to use more energy on the first try.

Pulling it All Together

If you think this part seems kinda similar from section to section, then you're probably right. The same mindset helps work through all the issues here. You use your own way to find the fitting visualization which if you do correctly leads to a greater energy efficiency. Theres really not much more to say on progression, as the 'Your Own Way' section says, there is a point where you just have to figure things out for yourself.

III. More Extenuating Circumstances

Emotions

In the last article we talked about more permanent and long term mental states that could complicate things, this time we'll touch something more people can understand, how everyday emotional changes factor into psionics. Happiness and Sadness are the two common elements that can effect your actions. Now both have some effects that should be able to guess pretty easily. Happiness typically increases your confidence, energy is easier to access and move, and such. Sadness does the opposite, it lessens confidence, energy is harder to move, you get the point. Now there is one distinction most people miss, sadness when it takes on more of a light depression can have its advantage to be yoked as well. After a certain point you *can* (I'm going off experience so this might be different for others) get to a state where you are more largely apathetic. The beauty of this is that at this state your subconscious is going to put up much less of a fight (the effects from any mental blocks you have will likely be reduced). So if you can still get over the reduced ability to pool energy this can be helpful. This also can happen from being tired or a combination of the two. Note practicing while tired means a LITTLE tired, if you're exhausted it is most likely a bad idea to be trying anything. Also note that generally happiness is more valuable to work with (is it just me or does that sound really cheesy? But seriously it is), so you want to do stuff to keep that going. Go back to the 'Finishing on A High Note' section as that's a big part of getting excited/confident/etc. Keeping that state is more tricky, if you instantly get depressed at your first mistake, that's going to make any bonuses rather useless. Part of maintaining your focus during practices is learning how to take a punch, if you screw up, get over it, it's not the end of the world. If you continue to hang on every small problem it will mess up your future attempts (you start to believe that things *are* most certainly going badly even if they weren't, which screws things up, reread the truth section for help on this). Remember the one bonus from sadness is more of a last resort thing, you shouldn't *need* to use this. Don't purposely try to depress yourself to try it out, you can always get the similar effect from just waiting until you are a *little* tired.

Special Subconscious Actions

Along the way we've touched on but not really fully discussed some of the strange things the subconscious can do to either help or hurt your progress. If yoked right the subconscious is a powerful part of yourself that can be very useful, if let run crazy it can be very annoying. The best way to avoid a problem starts with understanding, so even if there isn't a known solution in this section hopefully you can at least take the first step in understanding the problem.

First we have Coincidental Reinforcement, which of the various subconscious actions is the one I've mentioned the most. In reality it is just a blanket term for when you think something is going to happen, you transfer that feeling to the subconscious, and your subconscious fulfills your expectation. While almost any subconscious action could be described this way, it is made special because for some reason you believe that a one-shot action is a constant, which starts a cycle that heightens the effect each time. This ties in a lot to the 'Truth' section, its just a simple case of your mind making something you believe real. The way to avoid this has already been discussed.

Another really fun one is sensitivity effects. This is where you expect to feel something and with nothing there to actually feel (or just not what you want to feel), by various means you change something about your surroundings or yourself to provide the feeling you were expecting. A lot of times this is labeled as Analytical Overlay, where it is the case in parenthesis in that you make yourself perceive what you want to be there instead of what might *actually* be there. However it is not always that. Anyone that's seen a new person come into a chat and complain about someone attacking them is almost always (90-99%) suffering from some form of subconscious sensitivity effect. They don't actually want to feel like they're being attack obviously, but their mind is fearing so strongly that they're receiving some form of attack that their subconscious either makes one for them or makes them feel like they are being attacked. This is how you can give yourself a headache.

Note: The subconscious is the medium from where you do a lot or all psychic actions. That means that it has access to all your abilities. A lot of us know about gheists where telekinesis is randomly and unintentionally used and from my personal experience I know that the subconscious can make constructs on its own (although the 'constructs' usually are just fragments) It applies to other areas areas as well. So don't think all it can do is just mess with the way you're feeling. The subconscious can muck with almost any ability.

On a side note be aware that it usually heightens the problem if you personify the subconscious as another being that's out to get you (which you could get that impression from reading these past paragraphs). That feeds more belief (Truth section again) and gives it more power with which to screw you up more. Also if you see your subconscious as a different person you immediately lose a lot of control over it. Its like comparing the amount of influence you might have over a close friend vs your control over yourself, they don't even begin to compare. Keep the subconscious as a part of yourself, avoid seeing it as a separate thing/person.

People and How to Ask for Help

It is inevitable that there will be a question that does not have an answer in this article or in other sites or articles. This means that you get to go through an experience that can either be incredibly rewarding, incredibly frustrating, or both: asking someone else for help. First off you have to find a person to ask, which can be a task in itself. While I can't make people randomly appear to help you, I have two pointers for what you should be looking for:
1.Before you even consider skill level you want to find someone that you are pretty sure is trustworthy, so you avoid getting told total crap.
2.The next step is to find someone whose skill level is appropriate to answer your question. This should consider who is under-qualified *and* who is overqualified. Most people get that the person has to be knowledgeable in what you're asking (or why else would they be any better than what you could think up on your own?), but the other part is making sure you're not killing someone's time with something really basic. This mainly applies to community leaders, while they're usually the best and brightest, they're really busy. Although they're usually happy to answer your questions, remember that they usually have have things to attend to, so if there is another suitable person you can ask you should probably ask them.

Now that you've found your person here is some things that will help you act in a way that won't annoy people:
1.Remember a lot of communities get a great deal of traffic that tend to ask really basic questions. The first thing most of these guys will do is try and point you to an article. Now if you're asking someone in one of the communities you frequent you should have already read most of the articles, but if that's not the case you should read the articles there, if nothing else you'll be able to say that you have read them and you avoid losing time there.
2.While you shouldn't blindly accept everything thrown at you, when you respond to suggestions that they give remember that YOU are asking for help, so tread very lightly about correcting or disagreeing with people. If you do this a lot in the wrong way they'll get annoyed because it seems like you're asking for help but thinking you're smarter than they are.
3.Avoid melodramatics. Don't overstate your problem, most people will be able to see through this anyway, so it is not going to help you.
4.Be patient. Especially if you are talking to a community leader these people are often very busy, so it may take them some time to answer.
5.If you think you are being looked down on, thought to be just melodramatic, or something similar the worst thing you can do is to show that you're pissed off, that will just make things worse. Keep your cool and try your best to correct the misunderstanding. If you start acting disagreeable, from their perspective it will only confirm what they were thinking about you.
That is all I can pull together, if you follow this stuff you'll at least be on the right track.

Pulling it All Together

This was a wildcard section so it's less fitting to have a conclusion, but I just want to take the time to emphasize there is some very good stuff to consider here. The main idea to look at is when you have a problem that just doesn't seem to add up, look at yourself, then turn to others for help.

Closing

Like before I really hope that you'll find some use out of this, there is really not much more I can think of adding so there is probably not going to be another article like this unless I get a lot more knowledge to impart. If you are really stumped you have the 'how to ask for help section' and my best wishes. Good luck.

by InnerFire

Well here it is I guess, while not as definitive as a guide, this is designed to be a help resource to other people struggling with various issues in psionics.

What's Your Boggle?

Mellow greetings sir or miss, that's what it boils down to for this, you gotta figure out what you need help with. If you got something in mind already, good for you, if not take a look at this part and see if anything lights up. This resource is going to go over areas I've either personally experienced or have a good amount knowledge with. Suffering from the problem myself, the first section will deal with issues of the mind blocking your efforts in psionics to some degree. The second section deals with progressing with psionics, you're somewhere and for some reason you're not getting any farther. The third section deals with those oh so fun anomalies life can throw your way: born with altered energy production (or worrying about being like that), personality issues, and whatever incidents life can throw your way.

I.Trusting In Yourself

Prelude
MONK: Put your hand in the flame.
DANIEL: What?
MONK: Place your hand in the flame.
DANIEL hesitates, then holds his hand over the flame, before pulling back in pain.
DANIEL: Ah! Why did you tell me to do that?
MONK: Why did you do it?
DANIEL: Because you told me to.
MONK: Because you trusted me.
DANIEL: Yes.
MONK: Within you is the capacity for trust. Trust OMA DESALA. Do not believe you can light the candle, believe she can light the candle.

Now for those of you (probably most) that are confused, that's part of a Stargate episode, but forget that and look at the point of it. Replace OMA DESALA with yourself and omit the next line. For a good bit of people including myself, there is more than enough ability there, there just isn't self confidence. You may have had a situation not too different when someone told you to do something a certain way, you did it, and WOH!, it worked incredibly well. Then later it doesn't work as much. The likely reason for this is you trust that person more than you do yourself, and since they said it would work right a certain way way, you believe it will work and you can do it now. You have to look at this and figure out how to skip the middle man and just believe you can do it.

Your Mind and You

The first thing you have to realize is that for many people, your unconscious self is going to try and block you from doing anything "concrete" in psionics, you might be able to do stuff like psiballs, shielding, etc, but you find yourself not able to do stuff like healing or tk that you can you can see and instantly say: that was psionics, it worked, and I did it. That's not uncommon, your subconscious is going to take everything it knows about the world, and say "you can't do that." Don't find it so hard to believe, you were probably thinking it the first time you heard about the "concrete" skill you're having trouble with, you were almost certainly thinking it when you were unsuccessful, and somewhere in your head you might even be thinking it right now. Its not easy to handle, but by reading this you've already got the first part of the battle down. You know what you're fighting against, what you have to direct your focus to change, for a while that alone can improve things but it might not solve everything forever. That's what the next couple parts of this section, here are gathered several methods for trying to defeat that unconscious part of yourself once and for all and win it to your side.

Bash it to Death with Reason

This is the most common method, it will work for some people, but not for all. It's still worth a try however. The method itself is self explanatory, go through every doubt you have one by one and reason it out until you can get past it, if you can do this well enough it should at least make some kind of dent in your problem that is if it is because of a rationally based doubt, reason can beat out reason but reason vs lack of reason can be a different story.

Affirmations

And that's where affirmations come in. Affirmations are another "bash it into submission" technique, but unlike the last, this one can fight lack of reason. Just repeat a single phrase to boost your confidence over and over again. Some tips: don't use negatives, only positive statements, make all conditions immediate not "I will be able to do it", and don't sweat if it doesn't work 100% (like rolling a dice for micro-tk or something similar), if you stop your thought train to get angry or frustrated its going to get you back to doubting again, and that will be taking steps backwards when you're trying to walk forwards. Now for just some examples to illustrate:
I can do telekinesis
I can do telekinesis
I can do telekinesis
(credit: I did pull on some of this from a forum discussion on psipog: post starter Kushimaster )

Tricking Yourself

This is one technique of my own invention. Go back to the first part of this section about being able to believe when you had a middleman that you trusted. Well sometimes you can make yourself the middle man too. Think things like "if I do this in this particular way it will work", like (can you guess how I practice yet?) again with the dice rolling for micro-tk, get yourself to think it will work if you roll the dice a certain way, or hit the dice in the air, or some other clever little action. If it works when you do that you got yourself baited and you can run off that for a little. Now unfortunately if you keep doing this you're not solving anything and it will almost certainly fail given enough time. The way to use this as an actual fix is to look at it after a time and notice that you could do it.

Relax

This is important enough to deserve its own section. Really, relax, chill out. Anger and frustration can hurt your progress by breaking your focus and instilling doubt. You don't have to give up focus, there's a difference between being focused/motivated and frustrated, the first one is good, the other not so much.

The Goods and Bads of Planning

Planning or expectation can be a good or bad thing depending on the way you use it. It follows a general rule, when you think you shall will well you may find that you will do well, but more likely when you think you shall do poorly you will do badly, maybe even very badly. So try not to think you shall do badly as that will sabotage your efforts.

Coincidental Reinforcement

Ah, I've personally had a lot of issues with this one. Coincidental Reinforcement is what I call when randomly a certain event in your practice comes up a couple times, there is a chance if you're frustrated or quick to label things you'll see this not just as random activity, but some constant action. By doing so you will make it real so to speak. Your mind will try to fulfill your expectations (think the Matrix, the mind makes it real). This can be both a plague in general energy use (I'll make mention of that later) and micro tk (for me personally I've gotten a bit of a quirky number that I got into believing it would randomly come up a lot whenever it was not what I wanted. It really throws off results).

Pulling it Together

Hopefully though one of these techniques you'll be able to finally silence that annoying voice in your head, no not the one that tells you to do bad things to that guy you don't like :P , the one that tries to tell you that you can't do that one skill for whatever reason. Remember also the lessons of coincidental reinforcement and expectations, and how these two things can seriously hurt your efforts. If this doesn't work, don't give up, theres enough people with this problem that someone will eventually think up something that will work, or maybe you'll just get lucky one time, or see someone else do it--that will usually melt the problem for you if you're lucky enough to meet another psion in person.

II.Making Things Work

How Psionic Progression Can Work

Sometimes multiple times a day I'll see newbies come out in chats and forums and go into a medium sized thing asking why a particular technique isn't working out fully, commonly its stuff not completely working out for psiballs, they got some stage of it but can't get any farther. Common problems being either they can't get it to maintain its shape for more than a couple seconds, or maybe the psiball sticks around for a little but eventually fades away. These people *could* be doing everything right, which is the hardest thing for them to understand, as they really don't want the answer to be as simple as it is. You probably already know that magical word I'm going to say but lets give it a dramatic pause...
...
...
...
...

Practice!

In all seriousness I found this truth out the hard way, sometimes you just need to hammer it in and things will get better. That's how I was first able to eventually get to where I could make a stable temporary psiball on each try, then I found myself practicing hard again to raise it up to something that would stay together over long terms. Its not as hard as you think, not just for psiballs but for most things we're talking for minimum maybe 2-3 times a week. There is more than enough time to put into practice if you really want to get farther. I know it should seem like its some elusive tweaking you have to do to your technique, but a lot of times psionic progression relies on practice and repetition, which lets your body get used to what you are working on. As a side note you will also notice that enough practice can slowly get you through a mental block, but not always.

Bad Days and Bad Times\Conditions

Yes, most of us have heard it mentioned but I think it needs some more explaining. Bad days are probably unavoidable, maybe it was the weather, maybe you didn't sleep well, maybe little green men from Mars had something to do with it, who knows? Whatever the reason, we all just get some days where we're not at top strength. All across the board we can't do psionics as well. This can put some real issues into progressing, not because it takes a day away, but because if you're like me you are not going to notice it and think you're just doing something wrong. Now you shouldn't blame everything on 'bad days' but you got to be careful in instantly labeling one trial as bad for this reason. Now the other thing, you probably want to know how to cancel these bad days out, I probably can't give a straight answer on that, basically just do whatever you do to get yourself up and going, I'll talk about optimal conditions later so also take look at that since that information can help.

Now bad weeks/months are another story, there it is more likely that there something messing with your ability to generate energy. That you'll likely have to figure out on your own, there's too many causes to go into here, and each one would need a specific solution.

Now for Optimal and Reduced Conditions: This can be key for getting good results when you're starting out. When you're newer to psionics while you have the capacity for psychic activity, your body is going to be undeveloped for the job. This means you're going to have to rely on treating your body well if you want the best possible result. What you need to do should be pretty obvious: reduced conditions can be caused by any lack of a basic bodily need; food or sleep, or by emotional problems (depression). Optimal Condition is when you got everything worked out, you slept well and for a sufficient time (I like a min of 8 hours and ideally around 9 hours), you're feeling alright, you're eating properly, etc. You might also want to avoid activity directly before any session that you think is going to be taking a lot out of you, since psi/energy use if not being directly related runs off the same bodily resources as some physical activities.

Energy

Belief and focus are great things to consider, but let's take a moment to talk about energy, since some people don't fully grasp energy/psi's role in psionics. As far as we know, everything or almost everything in psionics has some amount of energy consumption, while some are negligible amounts. Now don't feel too limited by it, you are going to run into problems in your practices if you worry constantly about the energy consumption. Coincidental Reinforcement can make an activity take more energy than it needs to if you start to think that it will take a ton of energy *when it won't*. Still, be aware there is a difference between knowing how much energy it will take and really worrying about how much energy it will take. While the second thing is harmful, the first is helpful. That said, you should have some understanding about the energy consumption of whatever you do for two purposes. The first is so you can avoid overextension: once you have an idea about how a particular activity will affect you, you can properly plan how much you can do. Ask around, most people can give you some kind of estimate on what a particular activity will take. The second reason is for more advanced purposes. When you start experimenting on your own you will need to do be aware how much a new technique takes out of you. The last thing I personally worked with turned out to be an extremely high energy cost, so I had to be very careful with practicing it. The same idea basically would apply with exploring anything else new.

Pulling it Together

Meh, I don't really have much to say on this one, its three in the morning right now. Maybe you should just pretend you read this section... Nope just kidding. Anyways, you should understand that there are a lot of things that you may not consider that could affect getting what you are practicing to work. Freaking out about one unsuccessful practice is not healthy, while you shouldn't immediately blame anything in this section as always the problem, remember them in the 'no one's perfect' kinda way and try not to stress out. Remember the key lessons of the need for practice and repetition, and how energy use can factor into things, as these are the two things that most newbies do not fully consider.

III.Extenuating Circumstances to Deal With

Profiles

We all understand that all people are not born the same: some are taller, some are shorter, etc. This applies to psionics as well. As a part of understanding energy and energy consumption, you have to realize the way *you* uniquely work. Just as people can be short or tall, your ability to produce energy or psi can vary. For most people there isn't anything to actually worry about, just remember to get a feel for what you are capable of.

Now the problem is when people *do* over worry about things. Every so often in the psychic community we have a influx of people thinking that they are a 'psi-vamp', i.e. someone born with little to no ability to generate energy, and thus they have to acquire energy from external sources. While there are some actual cases of this happening (I know one but that's a story for another article), they are EXTREMELY rare. Most people just think they are one for various reasons. Now whether you are worrying about being a psi-vamp (or believe you are one), or just think you are a little below average in energy capacity, realize that when that is not the case such beliefs are harmful to your progress. If you have low self-confidence in that way, you won't be able to do nearly as much. Don't jump to conclusions, talk to people and reason it out if you suspect you have a problem.

Now if you actually *do* fall into one of those two cases, being a true psi-vamp is not so easy to help, there might be ways but they're beyond my knowledge, so look around and see what you can find. However, having just slightly below average energy production is fixable. In such as case you may be born like me. In keeping the physical analogy, just like someone that was born a little lacking in physical strength, you are going to have to work harder for a while to get your body into proper shape. Energy manipulation is recommended for this, (slowly at first so you don't overtire yourself) start doing a lot of energy working. This is shown to build up your capacity over a period of time. There are more dramatic ways to fix this problem more quickly, but trust me, coming from someone that's done some of these things, you are much better off just working out with energy manipulation.

Personalities (and mental problems)

Aside from short term emotional problems, some personalities or mental conditions can also give added annoyances to you in your practices. First obvious point, if you have any serious mental conditions, you are practicing at your on risk, we probably don't know everything about what you're suffering from, and we certainly don't know enough about psionics to understand the potential interactions between the two. That aside we go to things that are a little less serious. Depression can put a big cramp in your practices, everyone knows in general when you're feeling sad you're not going to be doing your best in whatever you try to do, also in one of the Psionic Social Club logs, Rainsong cautions that biofeedback it is not recommended is those who are seriously depressed (http://www.psc-online.org/logs/RainTurtle-2004-07-28-Norcan_Conference.html ). There may be (and probably are) other areas also effected that you should look into. Now since I am NOT a psychiatrist I am not capable of going into how to handle depression, so I have to leave solving that to you.

Now personalities are just the way you are, you can't change that most times, but you can be aware of the way they'll effect you, heres some:

Fluff-bunny (my thoughts, other's have their own definition): These are basically a wide category for annoying newbies in the psionic community, they either lie about themselves to try and impress people, expect the people in chat or forums to tell them how to do everything when most of the stuff they want to know is already in articles and we just don't feel like retyping it, those who want unreasonable amount of attention every time they're around (hey we're human we can't be killing every minute on everyone that walks in) , and/or people that come in and in the first hour want to know everything and do it.

Ambitionist (my word damnit): I once described this as wanting to know and be good at everything, and have done so yesterday. Now this is fundamentally different from a fluffbunny as ambitionists can be clever/intelligent, reasonable, and *somewhat* realistic in that unlike the fluffbunny they know they can't learn everything in an hour (they're still going to get angry about not being able to do so but thats in their nature). To some extent this is fine, ambition can be a great motivator in your practice, just don't beat yourself up too much as that can be counter productive. Unless you have some mission I don't know about you really don't need to put yourself under this kind of strain in my opinion.

Scientist: This can cause some serious self-confidence issues. A scientist is not necessarily someone in the actual career but a psion that has a strong scientific or highly logical thinking process. They've been drawing conclusions and finding things out from reason all their life and now although they might believe in psionics, part of them is still going to fervently resist "this bunk" This part of yourself you're going to have to sort out if you're one of these, your best hope is to go back to the Trusting in Yourself section.

Proofer (another one of my words): These are the people that think it is their mission to learn psionics then "prove it" to the world. Either slowly or quickly they want to learn psionics then use it to show enough people until they think the world will accept it (in the case of quickly this becomes very similar to the ambitionist). Now all I can say about this is consider very carefully what you want to do, if you really think the world *needs* to know about all this stuff then so be it, good luck.

Resilient Adaptable Stubbornness: Ah, this is was me for a while. It incorporates the scientist profile along with some other stuff. It is the result of a very strong and stubborn mind. Basically all of the methods in this article will probably have limited effect. Something will work for a while then will slowly reduce effectiveness until its worthless, so you'll find yourself after a while not being able to find a way to do what you want to practice. There are two ways to go about handling this. The first is you have to look at this intelligently, if your mind is being so resistant there is most likely a reason, go over anything you think might be bothering you, both on your own and in talking to people since they might see an issue where you don't. The only other way is through the tricking yourself method, but keep rapidly changing the trick so your subconscious doesn't catch on to any particular one. Remember this is *not* a permanent solution in itself, you have to be able to look at the data afterwards, and use it to reason with yourself.

Ah, Life

That can sum it up a lot of times, life can really put a monkey wrench in your practices. Again obviously depression is going to screw you up, but you also have to look at stress. Stress can do oh so much fun things outside of psionics, and inside psionics it gets even worse. You have to be very careful if you're still trying to practice through times that are high stress (stuff at work, exams, etc.). Some things can fail and/or become downright painful when you try to do them under high stress. Most of the time it will just cause what you're doing to be less successful. This isn't really solvable unless you can eliminate the stress, this is just one of those things you have to be aware of so you don't beat yourself up over not doing as well when its not entirely your fault.

Pulling it All Together

This section was all about things that are naturally a part of you that can affect your psychic activities. Some of it you can solve or compensate for, some of it you can't. If you have any of the problems here take the information in and use it to help you, even if it can't be truly solved, knowledge is half the battle of a lot of times. Take what you learn here and use it to your advantage, and oh yeah, take this as another reason why not to beat yourself up over a single bad practice.

IV.Closing

Well there it was, for right now this is my best attempt to try and help people out through what I've experienced or some nice tidbits I've encountered that I didn't think were emphasized enough in other people's work. At the time of this last revision there's a sequel to this in the works, so hang tight for more information if you are still having trouble

by FrozenFlames

Shelling is the skill of wrapping an extra energy layer around your energy (a psiball for example) and programming that extra energy layer to hold itself together and to also keep any energy that is inside of it, inside. In short, an energy "shell" does the same thing that a physical "shell" does: keeps stuff in. I do not know a single energy manipulator that cannot, and does not, shell. The entire point of creating a construct is to have it do something, and usually that "something" is being done without you focusing on the energy. Occasionally, the energy manipulator will send the energy away, perhaps towards a target.

For example, perhaps the energy manipulator also practices telepathy and empathy. In this case, he wanted to send the thought and feeling of "tiredness" to his sister that lives in California (meanwhile he lives in New York, across the country) because she is having insomnia problems. He can either send the thought for a few minutes until he gets tired of doing it, or he can program a construct to send the thought for him. The construct option, being the most economical decision, is what he would most likely choose to do. So he would make and program the construct. After it was made, he would simply let the construct go and then continue along his daily life. Meanwhile, the construct would go to his sister and send her the feeling of sleepiness all night. Now let us consider the possibility that he never took the time to shell the construct. As soon as he let the construct go, the energy would diffuse into the air, the construct would die, and his energy would have gone to waste. Without shelling, 90% of all energy manipulation wouldn't work.

Density Counts

Before I move onto the "How-To" of shelling, there is something that needs to be addressed: Density. If you're reading this article, chances are that you're a beginner that doesn't know anything about energy manipulation. But now, from the point of this article and on, you're going to have to start realizing some important "laws" of energy. The first and foremost being: Density. In all of energy manipulation, density is better and more preferable than size. This means that - in most situations - a psiball that is large, but not dense, is much worse than a psiball that is small, but very dense.

Don't ask my why this is and how it works, because I don't have the answers to those questions, I simply know that it is true. In relation to this article, this means that your shell would work much better if it was thin and dense than if it large, but not dense. If you did make your shell very large, but with very little energy (so the energy is not densely packed together), it would probably fall apart and let the energy out.

Shelling: How-To

So how do you shell a construct? By now you should be adept in making psiballs and manipulating energy. This translates to: Before you attempt shelling, you should be able to make a decent psiball within three minutes. It would also be a good thing if you can make some psi-cubes and other shapes, so try working on that before moving on. When you create a psiball, you visualize the energy forming into a ball. But for a psi-cube, simply move the energy into a cube shape instead. This is simple for most people, but it helps your energy control, so it is an invaluable practice method for beginners.

To shell something, you first need energy to do it. Begin by creating energy within yourself and moving it around. When you're ready, make a psiball. Try to add as much energy into this psiball as you can, and remember: Density. When you feel good about the amount of energy in the psiball (which should look something like Illustration One), begin to push most of this energy towards the outer rim of the psiball. It should start to look something like Illustrations Two and Three.

You might be wondering how to move the energy as you see in the illustrations. Simple: The same way you moved energy from your stomach, into your hands, and into a ball shape: Visualization - Will - Intent. I'll start you off with a few examples that I use. If your method is visual visualization, the most obvious choice is to use the images you see here in the illustrations. If you want to get creative, you can visualize the energy as snow. As you made the dense psiball, you were "packing" a snowball together. Now you're "pushing" most of the snow towards the edge of the ball. You can even visualize the outer edge freezing into thick, solid ice.

Along the lines of tactile visualization, things get a big harder to describe. You basically want to "feel" the energy creeping towards the edge of the ball. If you want, you can even repeat a phrase over and over in your head (or aloud), to aid you with the visual and/or tactile visualizations. The phrase may be something like, "All the energy is moving towards the edge, all the energy is moving towards the edge, all the energy is....etc.". Or maybe, "I am pushing 90% of the energy in this psiball towards the outer rim, I am pushing 90% of the....etc.". Experiment and do what works.

After you have moved most of the energy towards the outside, as seen in Illustration Three, you want to start forming this part into a shell (as seen in Illustration Four). If you're a visual type person, visualize the energy going from the image you see in Illustration Three, into the image you see in Illustration Four. Remember, your will/intent is a huge factor in all of this, so while you are forming the shell, you need to be thinking strongly about what the shell will do. Think about how the shell is going to hold firmly together, and how it will keep in all the energy inside of it.

For all you tactile people out there, I have a few tactile visualizations as well. Have you ever poured candle wax on your hands or dipped a finger in a container of hot wax? Did you feel the wax slowly hardening? That is a feeling we want to replicate. You can also just use your imagination and create the feeling of something else. If you were using the snow-packing method, you can try visualizing the energy as water or snow and "feel" the outer edge freezing and hardening into ice. The main goal here is to feel the outer energy hardening into a firm shell that will hold all the energy together and inside.

As before, actually more so, repeating a phrase over and over in your head (or aloud), can greatly aid you. A phrase you may like to use would be something along the lines of, "I am forming the energy into a hard shell that will hold itself and the energy inside of it together, I am forming the energy into a hard shell that will hold itself and the energy inside of it together, I am....etc.". You may even like the idea "talking" to the energy. With this example, something like this may work, "You are hardening into a firm shell and you will contain all the energy inside of you, you are hardening into a firm shell and you will....etc.". Feel free to try out what works. Remember, your intent is everything.

After you think you've successfully formed the shell, add energy into the psiball again. Because you used up most of the energy in the psiball to form the shell, the energy inside the shell should be strong and dense, but the energy inside the psiball should be very weak. Add energy the same way you did when you made the psiball. Just visualize the energy going through the shell and becoming "locked" inside, then keep adding more and more psi until your satisfied with the amount you have.

Side Notes and Tips:

A little "extra" you may want to add in is a timer or self-destruct sequence. One thing you must realize is that energy programming (the shell), works just like computer programming. It does exactly what you tell it and will not adapt unless you give it adoption commands. This means that if you program it to hold energy in, as soon as it does that (even if it is for a split second) it may think its job is over and will die out. This calls for something extra. One method is to tell the energy to follow out its programming indefinitely, it will then last until it gets destroyed or until it eventually degrades and dies out. Another method is giving it a timer: Tell the energy to last for five minutes (or some other time), and it will hold together for five minutes (or whatever that other time is) and then automatically die out. Lastly there is the self-destruct sequence. You can tell it to survive until you snap your fingers (or some other physical, mental, or verbal command) and then it will survive until you do so. Visualization ideas are up to you. Try visualizing a timer sinking into the psiball and merging with it. Be creative and do what works for you. I will delve deeper into these aspects in my Programming articles (as this is more on the lines of Programming, not simple Shelling).

How Do You Know It's Shelled?

Well I'm guessing you can't scan energy yet, seeing that you're a beginner. So how can you be sure you shelled the psiball? There are two ways:
(1.) Put the psiball down somewhere and leave it for a few minutes. Come back and see if you can still feel it.
(2.) Have another (,.more experienced) person to scan it for you.

The first method is easier, but less reliable. The reason being that because you're a beginner, you probably aren't that sensitive. Thus, you may not be sure if you're imagining it, or if you're really feeling the energy. Also, if you do feel it, there is a chance it is your brain tricking you into thinking that it is there when it really isn't. The second, assuming the scanner is experienced, is much more reliable. However, it might be a bit harder to get somebody to scan your construct for you. The best way to go about this is to ask the person politely in the chat, explaining what you want and why you want it. If they say "no", you can pose the question, "Will anyone else help me out?" But if nobody answers, then stop right there. The last thing we want is people pestering us. You're not the only one to ask this, so take into account that maybe we just scanned for somebody else, that we're having a bad day, etc.

Conclusion

One of the two big rules in psionics is: "Experiment!" and "Keep Trying!". So if it doesn't work, keep working at it and try out different things. Be creative. Hopefully this article gave you some good ideas to work with, but sometimes it's just best to make up your own visualizations. Shelling a construct is one of the most important things in Energy Manipulation. If a building doesn't have a proper foundation, it will crumble to the ground. Psionics works the same way; if you do not have a proper grasp of the basic skills, you won't be able to move on. The skills you learn in the beginning are built on later, so work at this with perseverance. Keep your goal in mind and think about the future - how good you can be. Practice hard, stay safe, and remember: Experiment with your own visualizations and methods.

by Stony1205

Ah, fork bending. It's what many people think of when it comes to psychic abilities. The "mind over matter" concept seems to pop into mind when one considers bending a nice piece of their mother's cutlery. Actually, there is no telekinesis involved in this method. "What is involved then?" you say. I'll give you a clue, you learned it your first day practicing. No? Energy.

The method mentioned here and on fork-you.com consists of using large amounts of energy in a tight space in order to make metal soft. The method seems to work for most people, although not always the first time. Note that you are not bending the fork with your mind, you have to do the bending with your hands, you are just making the metal pliable enough to easily twist.

So let's begin. First off, you'll need a piece of cutlery (Please don't use knives, I don't need you with metal splinters in your eye.) and you will also need some quiet time. I find it easier to concentrate when there are few or no distractions around me. We'll start by doing a nice channeling process. This is nothing more than energy manipulation really, so it should be quite familiar to you. You can meditate first if that's your cup of tea, but I usually don't. The fork-you method says to use a golden ball of energy above your head, but I just draw from myself, seeing as it comes from there anyway.

I usually pinch grip the area where I want the fork to bend at, but you can hold it anyway you wish. Begin moving the energy to the area you want to bend. I usually picture my energy as a warm kind of haze that starts to heat the fork. Don't just picture the energy either, try to hear it, smell it, feel it. The more senses you use, the more vivid and accurate your energy will be. Remember to keep all that energy moving and swirling in the fork, and to stay concentrated on your task. Keep up this warm energy movement for about ten minutes or so and then move on to the next step.

Now that you have put a good deal of "warm" energy into the fork, it's time to take it up a notch. This is where my method differs from that of fork-you. Take that nice golden warm energy and picture it turning to burning hot magma as soon as it hits the fork. Move the energy more forcefully and make the fork's particles move a bit faster. Sometimes, I like to picture the spot I'm pinch gripping becoming somewhat like mercury; liquid like and slushy, yet still somewhat solid. Keep up the more intense energy for about five to ten minutes. Now try a bend at that spot. You shouldn't have to use any force at all. If you find yourself using any force, stop and bring in more energy.

Now we come to what I like to call "forced inconcentration". Some people like to use this method, others do not. I find that concentrating the whole way through the bend works better, but your mind will probably work differently than mine. If you want to try the "inconcentration", just relax and leisurely push hot "magma energy" into the fork. Chill out, talk in the chat room, have a staring contest with kitty, whatever. After about ten minutes of this, gently try to bend the fork. If it bends easily, try to twist it into something really cool, because the softness won't last very long. I find I only have a maximum of about fifteen seconds before it becomes solid again. If you plan on focusing the whole time, just keep pumping that energy in and "melting" the fork. Personally, I like to focus the entire time, and I see better results from it. Some examples from the PK party are on PsiPog, and I used the full focus method to do those. It's really just up to you.

I've tried bending about twenty-five times and I've only managed to get real nice results about five times. Of course, I didn't practice on it daily, but it is still one of the harder tasks associated with energy manipulation. Perhaps one day I'll be able to make cool looking designs and such, but for now, I'm very intent on the simple bends. If you find yourself frustrated, take a break or, take it out on the fork, that always eases my stress :-D. As with any skill, keep practicing and you'll get it eventually.

by Stony1205

Ever since man made his first psiball, there has been the desire to actually see it. Normally when one makes a construct, there is no visual aspect of it. Many times all you will be able to get are pushes, pulls, or temperature variations. Only if you are very lucky will a construct flare on its own, and even then, the process is highly uncontrolled and doesn’t last very long. My first unintentional flare lasted only a split second, and what whitish in color.

But there are methods out there that will allow you to control this phenomenon. Although I’m only mentioning one of them here, feel free to experiment and be playful, perhaps you’ll find one that works better for you. So what exactly is a flare? Simply put, flaring is the process in which a construct becomes visible to the average person, either with programming or visualization. Flares can usually be programmed to come in an unlimited range of colors and textures. There are some good examples in our media section of some psiballs that I recently flared.

There is still some argument as to whether or not constructs reflect or give off light. The small amount of reliable photos that have been taken do not always give the best photographic angle to research on, but seeing as many of them are shown in the dark (or poorly lit) conditions, the assumption has been made that constructs give off light when they are flared. Using the method described below, you can do your own research, and make up your own mind on the mechanics.

Begin by creating your average, run of the mill psiball. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, it just needs to be solid and dense. Density is important when flaring, if you don’t have the right amount of psi, your results may not turn out. A rule of thumb: denser is always better. Visualization is going to be key in construct flaring. You may use either Visual or Tactical, it doesn’t really matter, but you must be very experienced with your preferred method, or you won’t be able to pull off the flare. I personally use a visual method, so that’s what I’ll be describing here.

Once you have your psiball nice and dense, picture the outer layer beginning to swirl around, similar to Cirrus clouds. Begin to move that outer layer faster, but do so at a regular pace. Do this with each “layer” (I usually have about 10 or so) of the psiball, until you get close to the “core”. Do not spin this core. Instead, have the core glow the color you wish to flare the ball as. Let’s make it green in this example. The core should be brighter than the rest of the ball, and you may feel a small bit of warmth if the visualization is vivid. Now, start to slowly condense the layers into the core of the ball, and remember to keep them spinning. Once you have condensed the ball to about one-half its original size, condense it the rest of the way using one quick motion. You may want to picture a “snap” effect, where the layers cling tight to the core, and meld as one. As soon as these layers “snap” on, visualize your construct igniting and erupting to the color of the glow, but this time add more intensity. If the flare hasn’t started yet, picture the ball erupting into a bright flash, and even expanding rapidly.

Although this method has worked very well for me, it took me a while to get it just how I wanted it. Each person is different, and your mind will take everything a different way. Be playful and loose with this method, and keep chipping at it until you get the results that you want. I’m going to assure you, you probably will not get it the first, nor the second, nor the third time. Flaring is a difficult skill to learn, especially for newbies. Do not try more than two of these in one sitting, as it should take a very large amount of energy to accomplish. If you get any flares on film, feel free to e-mail them to me by clicking on the “Contact” button on the sidebar. Good luck, and keep practicing!

Hosted by Cullen and Stony1205

*** stony1205 changed topic to 'Cullen's Energy Manipulation Class 2'
Cullen: Hello everyone and welcome to my second class on Energy Manipulation
Cullen: FrozenFlames will be handling questions today
stony1205: `voice FrozenFlames
*** ChanServ gives voice to FrozenFlames
Cullen: so please direct questions to him Via Pms
* FrozenFlames waves
Cullen: In the last class, we covered a basic method of generating psi
Cullen: creation of a shelled psiball
Cullen: and attaching basic constructs to physical objects
Cullen: Today, we will spend about the first half of the class working on simply moving energy around in more complex ways
Cullen: and the second part working on generating multiple shelled psiballs
Cullen: any questions on what we will be doing?
Cullen: Alright then, lets begin
Cullen: everybody gather up some psi and store it in your chest
Cullen: similar to how we did it last time (except you don't have to shake your hands, unless you really need to to remember the sensation)
Cullen: let it grow there and spread throughout your whole body
Cullen: feel the warmth of it
Cullen: once you have what you feel to be a good amount, PM frozen with a "ready"
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stony1205: PM all questions and comments to FrozenFlames, snyper
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Cullen: alright
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Cullen: now that you have a good amount, like last time ,move it to whichever hand you feel most comfortable with
Cullen: inside your body, move it around.
Cullen: from hand to hand
Cullen: down to feet
Cullen: and back up
Cullen: all the time keep adding energy to it
Cullen: let it build
Cullen: once you feel you have warmed up enough in this way, PM frozen with a "ready"
Cullen: good
Cullen: go ahead and move it back to your main hand
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Cullen: alright
Cullen: now move the energy out of your hand, into just a semi-cohesive blob of psi in the air in front of your palm
Cullen: once you have that, picture the psi like water
Cullen: let it flow around your hand. moving around it clock wise in a flow
Cullen: but never touching it
Cullen: just flowing outside your hand
Cullen: and around it
Cullen: from here, allow the flow to move up your arm, but still away from it
Cullen: move it entirely while it is outside your body
Cullen: let it flow up an down your arm in a band, as a snake would
Cullen: once you feel you can do that well, PM frozen either a "ready" or any questions you might have
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FrozenFlames: 01,0701,00feel free to ask me questions whenever you feel the need as well, not just when cullen says
Cullen: yes, please do
FrozenFlames: 01,00flyboy: I can't move it up my arm but my hand is freezing
FrozenFlames: flyboy: it seems that it is only staying in my hand
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Cullen: it takes focus to control the movement of the psi
Cullen: you have to know how it is going to move, before it will
Cullen: therefor try moving it back into your hand, and forming the psi-glob in your palm again
Cullen: then work on moving it around your hand, and then up your arm.
Cullen: Alright, save flyboy, let us move on
Cullen: now move the flow of energy all around your body, around the outside of it
FrozenFlames: 01,00KMiller once said something like, "those fools think its all passive, its not, grab the dang energy and move it! force it."
Cullen: make it longer, so it can stretch out
Cullen: make it shorter
Cullen: make it thicker, make it thinner
Cullen: just play around with it
Cullen: feel it move over your body
Cullen: feel the sensations over the parts it passes over
Cullen: if you wish, try adding more energy and split it into two
Cullen: keeping track of two takes more focus than one (obviously) and is a good practice
Cullen: make them move in different ways
FrozenFlames: 01,00Anyone who isn't idling PM me with a number sign (#)
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FrozenFlames: 01,00and if you're only observing, no participation, PM me with an exclamation point !
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Cullen: alright
Cullen: if you have all been having fun with that, now try to do four if you can
Cullen: control precisely how each band of energy moves around you
Cullen: try pushing them farther away from your body while still controlling the motion
Cullen: then bring them back closer
Cullen: please PM frozen with how many you were able to control
Cullen: alright
Cullen: very good everyone
Cullen: now is when we will take a five minute break
Cullen: go grab some water or OJ or Gator-Aid
Cullen: or whatever
*** stony1205 changed topic to 'Cullen's Energy Manipulation Class 2: BREAK TIME'
*** stony1205 sets mode -m on

*** stony1205 changed topic to 'Cullen's Energy Manipulation Class 2: '
*** stony1205 sets mode +m on
FrozenFlames: 01,00later no one
Cullen: Alright
Cullen: glad you all enjoyed that last exercise
*** stony1205 changed topic to 'Cullen's Energy Manipulation Class 2: Soft music: http://68.79.94.131:5000/listen.pls'
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Cullen: lets move on
Cullen: now then, lets go back over the shelling method from last time
Cullen: gather energy
Cullen: make a psiball
Cullen: make a "cloth" of psi programed to let psi through one way, but hold it in the other
Cullen: then wrap the cloth around the ball, and let it harden as cheese cloth does after being dipped in starch
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Cullen: once you have made one, PM Frozen. Or send him questions
FrozenFlames: 01,00whoops, sorry, I'm back. i was doing the first exercise. Got up to twenty.
* stony1205 rolls eyes
FrozenFlames: 01,00:-P
FrozenFlames: 01,00they were the weakest little snakes you'd ever see
Cullen: anyay, back on topic
Cullen: alright, now this is going to be a bit more interesting
Cullen: gather up a large amount of energy and move it in front of you
Cullen: making a very large area filled with raw energy
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Cullen: pick out anywhere from 3-6 points inside this large area
Cullen: and just have all the psi congeal onto those points
Cullen: making each one a psiball
Cullen: then create a second large sheet of psi
Cullen: and program it the same way you did the cloth
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Cullen: once you have your field of psiballs, and your large cloth, separate the cloth into equaly sized segments, numbering the same among as the psiballs you made
Cullen: wrap them all up simultaneously
Cullen: PM comments about this exercise to Frozen please
Cullen: or questions
Cullen: AtlaRedux askers: Sorry for nagging you again...I found it easier to "cut" the ball in 3 pieces and then concentrating them even more...is that wrong? Also, the second cloth I stretched over the top field until it kind of "broke" down onto the other, folding in equally large pieces...I got the feeling I do it in a cheap way...
Cullen: this is a very good question
Cullen: there are several ways of doing an exercise like this
Cullen: separating one large psiball into smaller ones, and then adding more energy is as valid as creating a bunch from scratch
Cullen: the only difference is how you focus, and how you choose to go about it
FrozenFlames: 01,00sometimes we do things the slow way, for the point of the exercise. but it all depends on what we're doing
Cullen: excatly
Cullen: doing things a slower way, or a more difficult way in learning, makes it easier to do it other ways
FrozenFlames: 01,00i'm willing to take a quick glance at anyone who asks
Cullen: alright
Cullen: any other major questions?
FrozenFlames: 01,00if you're ready to move on, PM me. if you're not, thats fine too, PM me as well
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Cullen: Ok, time for the last thing today
Cullen: and that will be focusing on sensitivity
Cullen: when i say "go" i want everyone to close their eyes, and then do the following
Cullen: gather up a large amount of energy, and branch it out from you, creating an even field of psi spreading out as far as you can send it
Cullen: then feel your way through the field. feel for where the energy intersects any tangible surfaces, like desks and floors
Cullen: any questions on what we are about to do?
Cullen: alright then, "go"
FrozenFlames: 01,00nobody PM me for at least 30 seconds
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FrozenFlames: 01,00and then you can PM again
FrozenFlames: 01,00nobody PM me for at least 30 seconds
*** flyboy has quit (Exit: thanks, had fun!)
FrozenFlames: 01,00and then you can PM again
FrozenFlames: 01,00alright guys, I'd like to see some progress PMs
FrozenFlames: 01,00i'm looking at all of you, but I'd still like to know what you have to say
stony1205: This music is rather depressing, now that I think about it...
Cullen: ok, good job everyone. That was a tough exercise
Cullen: that is as far as we are going today
Cullen: Homework
Cullen: I would like you all to work one the energy snaking exercise
Cullen: try to do that at least once a day
Cullen: and if you can work on moving energy around you in different paterns almost constantly during a day
Cullen: it is good practice and builds the more you do it
Cullen: experiment with different patterns
Cullen: also, please do the multiple psiball exercise a couple of times before the next class
Cullen: thank you all for coming, this concludes today's class.

Hosted by Cullen and Stony1205

*Improved by SupernaturalGuy for readability*

* ChanServ changes topic to 'Energy Manipulation Class 1 (Cullen)
Cullen: First off we are going to do a basic warm up exercise
Cullen: Everyone just relax, stretch out a little, and get comfortable
* FrozenFlames raises hand
Cullen: What we are going to do, is draw/create energy, pool it, move it around, and then make a couple of basic psiballs
Cullen: FrozenFlames asked" If one were to trance, would now be the time?
Cullen: If you want to meditate or trance, just try to clear your mind for a minute... we will continue in one minute
Cullen: while we wait, again, please direct all questions to Mind via PM
Cullen: Ok, minds clear, lets get down to the first basic exercise
Cullen: Please wait until i say "begin" to start
Cullen: the exercise goes as follows:
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Cullen: 1. Shake your hands, not too hard, but strongly for about 30 seconds.
Cullen: 2. when you stop, your hands will tingle, this is blood flowing too them, but gives you a guide on what to feel
Cullen: 3. draw that tingling sensation up your arms, into your shoulders, and into your chest
Cullen: 4. let that sensation grow and warm you, feel it continue to grow untill it is within your entire body from head to toe.
Cullen: now please begin
Cullen: please PM me when you are holding the energy within your body
Cullen: a simple "ready" is fine
Cullen: Ok, that looks to be about everyone
Cullen: next condense all of that energy into one hand, whichever your prefer
Cullen: keep producing more energy in your chest as you do that, and feed that into that hand as well
Cullen: once you feel a strong amount of energy in that hand, move it to your other hand
Cullen: pass it back and fourth a couple of times, all the while adding to it from the energy growing in your chest
Cullen: then move it to each of your feet
Cullen: and alternate between feet and hands
Cullen: once you feel you have a strong control over where the energy is, please PM me another ready
Mind: SNG wants to know if there is a certain way to position hands
Cullen: Whatever is comfortable will work fine
Cullen: as long as you are not tense
Cullen: ok, now move the energy back into whatever hand you started with
Cullen: Picture in your mind a perfect sphere
Cullen: look at every aspect of it, the smooth surface, how it would catch light from the sun or a light bulb
Cullen: maybe even rotate it around in your mind
Cullen: once you have a good picture of it, flow the energy inside your hand into your palm, and 'feel' the sphere form out of the psi
Cullen: once you have a smooth sphere of psi, PM me with a ready, if you are having any trouble, PM mind with questions
Cullen: Alright, that seems to be working well. Congratulations on the psiballs.
Cullen: Now, keep an energy flow going into it while you hold it in your hand
Cullen: but don't let it get any bigger, let it get denser
Cullen: once you feel you have it dense enough, create a second flow of energy into your other hand.
Cullen: make sure your psiball stays intact while you do this
Cullen: with the second flow
Cullen: create a smaller psiball
Cullen: once you have the smaller ball, change its shape the same way you made it a sphere
Cullen: change it into a cloth
* Mind has left #psionline
Cullen: Because Mind has to go, from this point on please relay questions to Frozen
Cullen: once you have the Psi in a cloth shape
Cullen: feel in your mind an effect of psi being drawn from one side of the cloth to the other. Think of it as a one way gate
Cullen: energy will flow through one way, but not back the other way
Cullen: once you have impressed this into the psi-cloth, wrap it around the psiball in your other hand.
Cullen: orient it so that energy will be pulled 'in' towards the ball, and not let out of the ball. Then change the psicloth into a hard shell
Cullen: as an example, think of it as cheese cloth. When you starch it it is all wet, but if you put it around a balloon and let it dry, it grows hard
Cullen: and maintains that shape
Cullen: once you have it nice and hardened, push a flow of energy into the ball. The ball should grow denser
Cullen: also, psi should not leek out
Cullen: This is a shelled psiball. Once you have it, please PM Frozen with a Ready. Frozen, please tell me once everyone has checked in.
Cullen: Alright, good job everyone
Cullen: so, now we have one shelled psiball. Now practice changing the shape a little. Picture different shapes for the ball, and change the shape ofthe shell
Cullen: Feel that shape with your hands. Run them over any rigs or points.
Cullen: I recommend trying cubes, Pyramids, and dodecahedrons
Cullen: (the last one is a joke )
Cullen: Now i am going to recommend a 3 minute break
Cullen: go ahead and drink some Gatorade or water if you want to
Cullen: or just relax
* FrozenFlames shakes his head at his annoying dog sniffing his psiballs and goes back to eating pasta....
jaci: lol
no_one_2000: Mmm, pasta
Cullen: ok, back to the next part of the class
Cullen: Everybody, please make three shelled psiballs now
Cullen: PM Frozen with a ready when you have them...well... ready
Cullen: *also grab a penny or a plastic cup or a pen or something*
Cullen: No one asks no_one_2000: Where are we gonna put all three? I only have two hands Should I like... set 'em on the table or something? They'll keep there if I do that, right?
Cullen: Go ahead and place two of them on a table or desk, they should stay there. keep one in your hand, and the object you picked in your other hand
Cullen: Please get your psiballs ready
Cullen: Ok,
Cullen: now take your object in your other hand and study it a bit, flow some of your energy through it.
Cullen: once you have a 'feel' for the object
Cullen: take one of your shelled psiballs, and change the shelling to the shape of the object
Cullen: make it identical in shape and size
Cullen: shrink it down if you have to
Cullen: then move it so that the psi-shape and the object occupy the exact same space
Cullen: once they are together, visualize the psi-shape and the object merging into one. So that the psi is part of the object, intermixed between all its atoms and molecules
Cullen: if you want a sample visualization, think of it as a zipper with the psi as one side, and the object as the other. When you "zip" it onto the object, they form one solid piece
Cullen: if it doesn't work out the first time, discard the psi-shape and pick up afresh psiball
Cullen: and try it again
Cullen: Once you succeed, PM frozen with a "Done"
Cullen: Alright... so it seems like the majority of you were successful
Cullen: Congratulations
Cullen: Just so you know, if you want to keep track of a psiball, you can "zip" part of it to a desk or table so that you know where it is
Cullen: then just "unzip" it and you can take it with you
Cullen: that way only a small part is zipped on, and you can find your psiballs when you are trying to practice with several
Cullen: Alright, now the part you have all be dreading... Homework
Cullen: I am going to ask that everyone makes at least five psiballs a day. Try to manipulate energy inside your body as much as possible.
Cullen: Also, try to flow energy around outside your body
Cullen: and the last thing is, try to attack psiballs to at least three different objects by the next class
Cullen: If you had trouble doing it, just keep trying, and we will go over the last part of it in the next class
Cullen: Thank you all for coming, this concludes the class