Thanks Alan. The bit that's interesting about what you say (my experience is that it's true) is that yet again it points to intellectual effort and beliefs as barriers to 'knowing'.

The issue as taught for millenia by all the great spiritual traditions seems to be that the 'static' or 'noise' produced by our ever frantic and overactive monkey minds (or at least minds made that way by a combination of circumstances, cultural training and a lack of awareness that the mind needs training by meditation and the like, pre-cognitive commitment, and the resulting selective perception - the edifice of ego) blocks the low intensity signals coming through on the subtle channels.

The trick in a sense seems to be to cultivate the art of 'not doing'. Of simply resting with a still mind and an open awareness, and waiting for what comes in. Passively seeing 'what is'. And not reacting with thought to the resulting experience.

Meditation is taught as being the primary means of cultivating the ability to drop easily into and remain in this sort of state, although the bit that's hard to figure is how some (not necessarily very calm) people seem to be so naturally talented in this regard.

The catch 22 is of course that the moment you think or apply intellectual effort the state is gone.

There's an old Buddhist story that says that it's like when you catch sight of a mouse sneaking across the floor out of the corner of your eye - you must not turn your gaze properly on him, or he will take fright and instantly be gone....

    Hi alan and all I dont know how this happens but as soon as i am asked to think of something for someone it automatically comes in my mind with the picture of what it is,what i mean is that when matthew asked about what his rug looked like in his office i saw it straight away without even thinking about it and the same happened with you alan when you did the telepathy as soon as i read it same minute i saw it,it happens that quick,it always has done though,it could be the fact that i am a practising medium that my mind is so open to everything.

Love and God bless      love juditha

Buddhism is full of psychic and much more exotic stuff than that Alan. But it's not talked about all that openly. The logic being that you should work with a teacher who is bound to only reveal stuff as you reach the stage where it's appropriate to you.

On the basis that as Recoverer has often said that it's with the emergence of these energies and abilities that a very real potential to get fixated on as well as misuse them develops. Which quite apart from doing serious harm to the self or others also is potentially a very big impediment to progress towards realisation.

There seem to be some very real dangers that arise, and for this reason a great deal of caution is applied regarding the transmission of detail teachings around this sort of stuff - out of fear of potentially very serious  karmic consequences. My personal sense is that this is very much for real - that when one reaches the rarefied stages of working with the sort of very powerful energies and influences that are ultimately accessible it gets to be a very serious business indeed.

It's normal at a certain point to take a vow to keep on being reborn to help all beings reach enlightenment until all have made it - the sense seems to be that beyond this stage it's something that happens naturally anyway as a result of the intense empathy and compassion that arises for others.

The sanskrit (?) word 'siddhi' is used to describe a non ordinary capability of this sort. Maybe try googling it. Manifestation of the higher level varieties of siddhis (stuff like the ability to transcend space and time, to manipulate apparently solid material and so on) is regarded as the hallmark of a realised master.

While many teachers probably do not have genuine capability at this level, it's fairly clear that some (especially the guys that reincarnate time and again out of compassion to help people after realisation) do. But they undergo the most rigorous training to get there - many many years of solitary and often dark retreats and so on.

This is actually something that seems increasingly to be getting lost (life circumstances make it difficult to do this) with the close down of the monastic system, loss of the supporting culture and the secularisation of Tibet by the Chinese. Don't for example go down to your local Tibetan Buddhist centre expecting to find a resident master at this level, and don't expect all using the title Rinpoche (teacher) to be at this level. Most of all don't expect somebody who is to demonstrate their capability to all and sundry.

Please pardon if I'm speaking out of turn Juditha, but it seems likely to me that you may be a very clear case of psychic ability coinciding with a very high degree of emotional sensitivity/openness. That this opening is as above both the source of your abilities, and also of the discomfort you experience in many situations.

Buddhism teaches a very refined view on love, practical wisdom and compassion that can help greatly in this sort of situation. Those of us with a lot of sensitivity can find the rough and tumble of life hard going, the teachings can if we're lucky enough to click help us to find a space where we don't get forced to close down our sensitivity (adopt a mind made mask) in the way most do, but at the same time avoid getting sucked into places where we get hurt or routinely give more than is required of us or is wise...

It's a tough road Juditha, and not one that's possible to avoid 100% unless you bottle it all up. I've at different times found myself ridiculed, hurt or even the target of hostility, although not to a level I couldn't cope with  - e.g. my Mother who has a hang up about conventional religious observance. (being seen going to church)  I've no idea why, because she's never been in the least bit religious in any sense that it influences how she lives.

Luckily a few have noticed the positive benefit of spiritual work on me in the past 15 years too.

I suppose in the end life requires and teaches us all to develop a certain 'street smarts' or wisdom in how we handle ourselves in this space.

Buddhism for example is very clear that you only teach or make stuff explicit to people at the level they can accept, and that to do otherwise is both an invitation to trouble and damaging to the teaching as it brings it into disrepute.

There's for example not much point in describing an exotic experience that to you is quite normal to a person  that's rooted solely in the physical, and has a lot invested in this - as in is actually scared by any serious suggestion that existence might be rather more interesting than that.

You're in effect threatening that person with a belief system crash.

At best he'll rationalise that you are a nutter and have laugh about you with his friends, with the result that you get branded as the crazy guy/lady. Really get through to him (or her), and you risk possibly triggering the sort of emotions that result in intense fear and hostility.  Luckily burning at the stake went out years ago.

What you can get away with depends a lot on your audience and your ability to come across in other ways to them as 'normal'. ( what's normal?) I do OK up to a point, and at times can pass myself off as ordinary but there's other times I can be very wacky indeed.

I know from experience to be very cautious around pious/conservative/religious (includes supposedly spiritual)/institutionalised and frightened people with a very picky approach to things (which of course is indicative of a fear that things might be other than as they imagine) - because I just can't lock myself down tight enough not to trigger them. (e.g. I had a 'fun' experience with our local protestant vicar a few years ago when i though I'd lucked into a chance to discuss comparative religion - he preached the most awful prejudices about Buddhism and spirituality to me when I thought he'd have had enough training to know it for what it was)

I've found it best to be cautious in what I say. I'll quietly mention the benefits of meditation to a person I know who might benefit from it. I'll go on to conversationally add some practical stuff I've been taught about relating to life and existence if it's likely to help. Buddhism, or the fact that I'm drawing on teaching from very old traditions gets a mention to somebody who seems more open. And if it naturally leads there I'll talk some of the more exotic possibilities like the opening of compassion as above.

I'd almost never get beyond barely mentioning the possibility of the sort of experience we routinely share notes on here, and almost never would discuss it overtly. Even among Buddhists there's many that react badly to too much information - there's this sort of primal fear that kicks in.

I think it's ultimately a consciousness, openness or experience issue. When you've been there and processed the experience with the help of study and others in the same space it's wholly natural, but it's bewildering to somebody who's just not. Most are not very good at just letting stuff be, so it's inevitable that their minds will grasp for a support that makes them feel better  - resulting in their ridiculing or even being aggressive towards the person in question.

It's in the end a matter of compassion too. We shouldn't try to force stuff on people at a rate faster than what they can handle. Nor are we required to bring trouble on ourselves. Skillful means are required.

It's easier said than done, and I'm sure you've heard most of this before -  but go carefully and hang in there Juditha...