Why Do Some Of Us Have Extra Sensory Gifts?

[Mr. Ed]

It confusing to me I don't think like other people. Three occasions I lost my mind and had to learn how to live again. I realized I'm not like most people. This explains a lack of interest and compatibility of friends. The difficult part is growing up alone and no one to identify with.

I'm intelligent/smart but I don't know the level of intelligence I am.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

Wow…I apparently lost track of this thread! I thank you all for participating in this thread. Love reading your replies and stories!

@Lavinia I think you are right about artistic people tending to be psychic too. Perhaps the sensitivity to experiencing and transmitting the beauty of the world to others is inherent with some psychic, creative people. Re: Skeptics: I speak my truth. If others choose not to believe, that’s on them. Oddly I’ve never been ridiculed although some find my gifts strange and even scary (I’ve been told). But they love me anyway. (smile).

You are also right about relaxing the mind. I find when my mind is cluttered with other concerns, psychic events do not manifest. And sometimes when I am relaxed and not trying to have an experience, I’ll get a premonition or knowing.

@feywon You said “Many such cases---both children and adults often report meeting deceased relatives they didn't know in life during NDE's. When me, my BFF and a good friend of hers took an 8 week metaphysical course at an adult night school, the instructor told us how children are much more receptive to seeing ghosts and having other paranormal experiences. Adults convince them they are just imagining things. At least some do.

You know I believe in reincarnation. Two very prominent proofs IMO come to mind….the little boy who was a reincarnated WW2 fighter pilot and a little girl in India who had never been out of her village but described to her parents where she lived “before”. They went and found it exactly as she described.

@David777 You said: "Many are quite confident about such powers until wondering why they still haven't ever won any lottery prizes." I’ve just come to accept that my psychic gifts come when they want. I am not psychic on demand. I imagine there are many other psychics who can say the same. And my premonitions almost never involve monetary benefit. I did dream a number decades ago. I meant to play it the next day and didn’t make it to the corner store to do so. The number came out that day! I’ll never forget…it was 181. But I can count the times I’ve played the Pick It on one hand. I find it to be a waste of money (especially the pick 3).

 

[OneEyedDiva]

so it pees me off when people dont get it--I think they are stupid, but in fact I have an insight but didnt realize it until late in life empath-instinct intuition synchronicity

I understand when people don't get it. It's like people who don't understand chronic pain or being in poor health until it happens to them. So I feel they are unenlightened. For those who refuse to accept what those of us who have gifts tell them about our very real experiences...they are what we call "born not to know" (which some may interpret as being stupid)

Being an empath is sometimes not easy...feeling others' pain is no fun. Would you mind explaining how your synchronicity works?

 

[MarkD]

This thread is from before my time. I am familiar with intuition and imagination too. Good, solid human capacities. Essential too, but how are they “extra sensory”? I wouldn’t think of it as foretelling the future but intuition can certainly allow you to recognize opportunities and likelihoods which wouldn’t occur to you based on perception and rationality alone. I don’t have any belief in ghosts but am sure if one did then I could imagine objects of intuition might be associated with ghosts as a way of making sense of the experience. I don’t look for any external explanatory principle for intuition. Our consciousness is so much more than the narrow sliver under our immediate direction that intuition needs no further explanation.

 

[MarkD]

PLEASE NOTE: Had to edit first sentence, added what is bold. Sorry for brain glitch -- and not proofreading better.
When younger i would get upset with those who got all pompous insisting 'no such thing', but over the years I've come to feel sorry for them. And take the postion that i will respect their feelngs as long as they respect and don't try to invalidate my experiences.

No one knows what they do not know but sometimes people willfully will not know what they could know if the desire for certainty did not blind them.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

This thread is from before my time. I am familiar with intuition and imagination too. Good, solid human capacities. Essential too, but how are they “extra sensory”? I wouldn’t think of it as foretelling the future but intuition can certainly allow you to recognize opportunities and likelihoods which wouldn’t occur to you based on perception and rationality alone. I don’t have any belief in ghosts but am sure if one did then I could imagine objects of intuition might be associated with ghosts as a way of making sense of the experience. I don’t look for any external explanatory principle for intuition. Our consciousness is so much more than the narrow sliver under our immediate direction that intuition needs no further explanation.

Mark, there are things that simply can't be chalked up to imagination but certainly can be attributed to great intuition. I have foretold (via knowings) the deaths of a few people, one of whom I had no personal contact with for several years. He was the BF of a friend of mine and we used to see him at the club. He was a tall, stocky man. One day, I recognized him walking about 3/4 block ahead of me (his statured hadn't changed) when I was in my car. I was listening to and focusing on some good music when my vibe was interrupted by the thought "Oh...that's "Young' he's not going to be here that long". Sure enough he died two weeks later. I did the same thing with a neighbor; same words popped into my head. I was shocked when I saw the notice of her death on our bulletin board two weeks later . One morning I woke up with the thought "What is Norah Jones going to do when she finds out her father is dead". I wasn't a fan of, nor did I follow the music and goings on for her father Ravi Shankar, so I wondered where the heck that came from. He also died very shortly after I had that thought. Those are what we refer to as knowings. Decades ago, I had a knowing that tortured me for three months. It manifested as one of the most devastating losses of my life.

I've also done several psychometry readings during which I hold someone's object in my hand causing me to see scenes, pertinent objects, places and get impressions about certain of their life events either future or past. I've also had several precognitive dreams in my lifetime. Even my close family members have described me as having a weird brain (my son) and being scary (my honorary daughter) but they say it with love. My son has a saying..."Don't have my mother think about you!" My former co-workers were also very aware of my gifts as I'd tell them I dreamed something and the event would come true usually within a couple of days. Also I "practiced" my psychometry skills by doing readings for them, which I never charged for.

Here's the link to a prior thread about some of my experiences and the ensuing "conversation". You might find entire thread to be interesting.
https://www.seniorforums.com/threads/my-premonitions-psychometry-readings.56690/
@boliverchadsworth @Pecos

 

[MarkD]

Mark, there are things that simply can't be chalked up to imagination but certainly can be attributed to great intuition.

It wasn’t my intention to disparage whatever you had in mind by “intuition” by also mentioning imagination. I certainly didn’t mean to suggest intuition was simply a part of imaging. I’m reading Iain McGilchrist’s book The Matter With Things in which he pays quite a lot of attention to both intuition and imagination, two capacities which are often dismissed as unreliable (intuition) or simply a matter of making things up (imagination). But both characterizations miss the mark. He writes: and I agree that


“There are, it seems to me, four main pathways to the truth: science, reason, intuition and imagination. I also believe strongly that any world view that tries to get by without paying due respect to all four of these is bound to fail. Each on its own has its virtues and its vices, its gifts and its inherent dangers: only by respecting each and all together can we learn to act wisely.”

 

[OneEyedDiva]

It wasn’t my intention to disparage whatever you had in mind by “intuition” by also mentioning imagination. I certainly didn’t mean to suggest intuition was simply a part of imaging. I’m reading Iain McGilchrist’s book The Matter With Things in which he pays quite a lot of attention to both intuition and imagination, two capacities which are often dismissed as unreliable (intuition) or simply a matter of making things up (imagination). But both characterizations miss the mark. He writes: and I agree that


“There are, it seems to me, four main pathways to the truth: science, reason, intuition and imagination. I also believe strongly that any world view that tries to get by without paying due respect to all four of these is bound to fail. Each on its own has its virtues and its vices, its gifts and its inherent dangers: only by respecting each and all together can we learn to act wisely.”

I didn't take your remarks as disparaging at all but felt you were offering other options to explain what might be taking place during our gifted experiences. I know someone who is quite gifted who also looks for other explanations before labeling events paranormal. Maybe not so coincidentally, @Lavinia mentioned that creative people often have extrasensory gifts. Certainly to be creative requires a very active imagination. @feywon

 

[feywon]

It wasn’t my intention to disparage whatever you had in mind by “intuition” by also mentioning imagination. I certainly didn’t mean to suggest intuition was simply a part of imaging. I’m reading Iain McGilchrist’s book The Matter With Things in which he pays quite a lot of attention to both intuition and imagination, two capacities which are often dismissed as unreliable (intuition) or simply a matter of making things up (imagination). But both characterizations miss the mark. He writes: and I agree that


“There are, it seems to me, four main pathways to the truth: science, reason, intuition and imagination. I also believe strongly that any world view that tries to get by without paying due respect to all four of these is bound to fail. Each on its own has its virtues and its vices, its gifts and its inherent dangers: only by respecting each and all together can we learn to act wisely.”

Have you read Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink'? In which he talks about the fact our mind can process info quickly at a 'subconscious' level? There are up and down sides to the fact that it happens. But if you read enough neurobiology you know that we are not actually consciously aware of all the data bits our physical senses gather. Intuition and 'snap decisions' we make that turn out to be accurate (and at times life saving) could in part be a matter of our minds somehow accessing that info when needed.

i might add that i've long thought, before neurobiologists began confirming it, that our 'subconscious' processes were not only the foundation of intuition but also responsible for so-called 'epiphanies' where someone finally grasps a concept or reality they've struggled with, or has an inspirational solution to a problem. In my view such experiences, including dreaming where to find a lost item or how fix/solve a problem, are built on data that does not make it into our conscious awareness. When a sufficient amount of data to reach meaningful conclusions, resolve issues or solve problems has accumulated--somehow it opens a flood gate and gives us access.

While i am in agreement with Diva about there also being much more to 'knowings', psychometry, predictions than just the electro-chemical processes of the brain i think the more we understand about those processes the more obvious it becomes to rational people that consciousness is more than just a byproduct of those physical processes and psychological conditioning by families/society. For me, because of personal experiences i have a much broader view of it. i don't believe in a personified 'God' but i do believe there is a Universal or Cosmic Consciousness that is our source and our destination, that we are linked to both it and each other (and not just terran humanoids) living beings and disincarnate beings.

 

[feywon]

@MarkD Wanted to add that i don't consider any of it--psychometry, precognition, telepathy, astral travel, reincarnat ion, OBE/NDE--'supernatural'--to me they are a natural function of true reality. i've felt this since my teens and have become more certain of it over the decades due to a combination of personal experiences and new insights from neurobiologists and other scientists. And what has to come to light our limited physical perceptions and highly edited processing of data received is why i won't waste time arguing with anyone who's mind is total closed--the 'no such thing', the 'I only believe what I can perceive' folks---because over the decades scientists have come to acknowledge that we don't consciously acknowledge all the data we perceive--it doesn't make it to our 'waking' conscious minds consistently, to the same degree in everyone but it does sometimes 'inform' us, usually when there is a need or strong emotional imperative.

Years ago, i read a book about Quantum Entanglement where the author bemoans in his intro that there is no real world analogy for the phenomenon. As a Mother of Twins i was flabbergasted. Almost stopped reading because clearly he'd never known twins 'telepathically' linked. (i kept reading because he had promised to cover the history of what is known being uncovered.) Twins that do the 'twin thing' are the best possible analogy to describe quantum entanglement. On every level atomic and subatomic, they came into being together--they are linked no matter what distance separates them .

 

[MarkD]

@MarkD Wanted to add that i don't consider any of it--psychometry, precognition, telepathy, astral travel, reincarnat ion, OBE/NDE--'supernatural'--to me they are a natural function of true reality.

I don’t argue that they’re not but I find plenty to wonder at in how consciousness works and how what separates us as individual relates to what is transcendent. Things like OBE/NDE, prophesy, waking dreams. astral projection and much else are simply things I set aside to use my attention for what strikes me as more promising.

i've felt this since my teens and have become more certain of it over the decades due to a combination of personal experiences and new insights from neurobiologists and other scientists. And what has to come to light our limited physical perceptions and highly edited processing of data received is why i won't waste time arguing with anyone who's mind is total closed--the 'no such thing', the 'I only believe what I can perceive' folks-

I likewise prefer discussing important things with anyone who starts off assuming nothing at all is sacred. Nonetheless that doesn’t mean I look to Find room for everything under the sun that is the least bit out of the ordinary. There is much I’m skeptical of but much else which I have faith in though I know I can say nothing that will justify what that is to everyone. That is just the way it is; no one has to agree about what if anything is sacred. So definitely I also prefer to choose my battles.

--because over the decades scientists have come to acknowledge that we don't consciously acknowledge all the data we perceive--it doesn't make it to our 'waking' conscious minds consistently, to the same degree in everyone but it does sometimes 'inform' us, usually when there is a need or strong emotional imperative.

Here I strongly agree with you. I think it is commonly believed by most non theists that the little bit that is on our ordinary waking consciousness is all there is to us. I know that isn’t true but I also know you can’t show how much or what else there is. To the unwilling. Heck I know people who would love to experience something of the sacred but never have and still believe it. Knowledge of what is more is consensual. No one who would prefer not to believe can be shown they are wrong or persuaded by rational argument.

in my experience, most believing Christians have no direct experience with it and seem to like it better that way. For them belief amounts to cognitive assent to series of creedal propositions and wonders can wait until after life is over. In meantime, doctrine and dogma become a kind of calling card to demonstrate belonging to the community of the like minded.

I find myself in the middle neither denying nor affirming those doctrine and yet grateful for the rare experiences I’ve enjoyed of the sacred as well as the easy reminders I have access to that through nature, arts, music and literature. I put no store in any life after death. As far as I can tell only what is transcendent continues; what sets us apart from one another ends with us and that’s okay. The important thing is to serve what is greater while you can. We have an important role to play which is simply to carry what is more with us for our time here, being mindful of how our choices serve the greater good and fulfill ourselves.

 

[MarkD]

Have you read Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink'? In which he talks about the fact our mind can process info quickly at a 'subconscious' level? There are up and down sides to the fact that it happens. But if you read enough neurobiology you know that we are not actually consciously aware of all the data bits our physical senses gather. Intuition and 'snap decisions' we make that turn out to be accurate (and at times life saving) could in part be a matter of our minds somehow accessing that info when needed.

I haven’t read it but have heard of it. I’m probably a little further out there in terms of what I think is going on there. I don’t think of it as a kind of thinking we do. It is more like a kind of cognition which functions on auto pilot.

i might add that i've long thought, before neurobiologists began confirming it, that our 'subconscious' processes were not only the foundation of intuition but also responsible for so-called 'epiphanies' where someone finally grasps a concept or reality they've struggled with, or has an inspirational solution to a problem.
In my view such experiences, including dreaming where to find a lost item or how fix/solve a problem, are built on data that does not make it into our conscious awareness. When a sufficient amount of data to reach meaningful conclusions, resolve issues or solve problems has accumulated--somehow it opens a flood gate and gives us access.

Based on first hand experience I do believe that is true. The two hemispheres of the brain do and should interact but whether and to what end depends on how we spend our attention.

.. the more we understand about those processes the more obvious it becomes to rational people that consciousness is more than just a byproduct of those physical processes and psychological conditioning by families/society.

Yes. I always would have said consciousness is just an emergent property of life which itself is an emergent property of everything else in reality. Now I don’t find that is a slam dunk conclusion. In fact I’m leaning toward the position that matter and consciousness are co-basic elements of the whatever this is. Neither gives rise to the other, but the two are linked in some hard fathom way

For me, because of personal experiences i have a much broader view of it. i don't believe in a personified 'God' but i do believe there is a Universal or Cosmic Consciousness that is our source and our destination, that we are linked to both it and each other (and not just terran humanoids) living beings and disincarnate beings.

I agree. As odd as it sounds to say it does seem that consciousness is not just something that emerges from brains of sufficient complexity. Consciousness has been operative all along though I agree not like some ancient watchmaker pulling all the strings. Whatever it is it is beyond our reach to say. But I think to personify it is actually insulting while taking ourselves as the true measure of everything. The transcendent from our point of view is simply a mystery if a greater an order far beyond our ability to characterize.

Iain McGilchrist’s Zthe Matter With Things is what is making me rethink everything. Today I read a list of the 30 books he considers his biggest influences in writing that book. One book and author was entirely new to me. So I went to Goodreads and read through some quotes. Here are a couple I especially liked followed by a video of a talk he gave that I still haven’t finished watching but interesting through the first 9 minutes at least.


Some quotes from David Bentley Hart’s The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss

So much of what we imagine to be the testimony of reason or the clear and unequivocal evidence of our senses is really only an interpretive reflex, determined by mental habits impressed in us by an intellectual and cultural history. Even our notion of what might constitute a “rational” or “realistic” view of things is largely a product not of a dispassionate attention to facts, but of an ideological legacy.

The very notion of nature as a closed system entirely sufficient to itself is plainly one that cannot be verified, deductively or empirically, from within the system of nature. It is a metaphysical (which is to say “extra-natural”) conclusion regarding the whole of reality, which neither reason nor experience legitimately warrants.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Why Do Some Of Us Have Extra Sensory Gifts?​

I assume you are talking about the overflow of abundance? Haven't a clue. You might want to ask Mr. Owl.

 

[boliverchadsworth]

I understand when people don't get it. It's like people who don't understand chronic pain or being in poor health until it happens to them. So I feel they are unenlightened. For those who refuse to accept what those of us who have gifts tell them about our very real experiences...they are what we call "born not to know" (which some may interpret as being stupid)

Being an empath is sometimes not easy...feeling others' pain is no fun. Would you mind explaining how your synchronicity works?

I dont have the skill or the vocabulary to put it in writing but in short "Jefe" my supervisor subconcious is the gateway to the realm where there is no time gravity sound....dreamland in other words.he is the gatekeeper --the dispensor of insticnts intuitions etc. most often I wake up with it ..webcam if you like.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

I dont have the skill or the vocabulary to put it in writing but in short "Jefe" my supervisor subconcious is the gateway to the realm where there is no time gravity sound....dreamland in other words.he is the gatekeeper --the dispensor of insticnts intuitions etc. most often I wake up with it ..webcam if you like.

Thank you for explaining as best you can.

 

[DGM]

IMHO everyone's brain works differently. Idiot savants fascinate me. I easily believe some peoples' brains are wired to have the such gifts. Others have other gifts: Barry Gibb was once asked how he came up with so many of the songs he wrote "I just hear them" was his reply. Ever watch my favorite Steeler Troy Polamalu jump JUST as the ball was being snapped without being called "offsides". He described it as "instinctive". It was his gift. I'm sure as you can tell from my babbling..........I have no such gifts. Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[Right Now]

Wow…I apparently lost track of this thread! I thank you all for participating in this thread. Love reading your replies and stories!

You are also right about relaxing the mind. I find when my mind is cluttered with other concerns, psychic events do not manifest. And sometimes when I am relaxed and not trying to have an experience, I’ll get a premonition or knowing.


@David777 You said: "Many are quite confident about such powers until wondering why they still haven't ever won any lottery prizes." I’ve just come to accept that my psychic gifts come when they want. I am not psychic on demand.

In my own experiences, it doesn't seem to matter whether I am relaxed, stressed, focused or unfocused, my psychic events happen randomly. I get this premonition flash, and I usually heed it. In fact, most times I welcome it. I do not dwell on why or when, but have accepted it all my life. Only one time in my life did it actually scare me.

I will share this.... at times when I least expect it, I can feel a presence about me, and I know I will need help with whatever is sure to be a crisis in my life. So many times, and each time I recognize it. I even named this presence when in my 30s.

 

[Chet]

I think it might be that you just get lucky that an event mirrors a thought or dream you might have had. There's a lot of events going on in our lives and the mind works constantly so ....