A GUIDE THROUGH

THE SHADOWS OF
INTUITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Douglas James Cottrell

MIND
MASTERING

Mind Mastering
A Guide Through the Shadows
of Intuitive Development

by Douglas James Cottrell, Ph.D.

Edited by Douglas M. Cottrell, B.A., M.A.
ISBN 978-0-9919795-2-3
2013 Douglas James Cottrell
Published by Douglas Cottrell & Assoc. Inc. All rights reserved.
Duplication in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.

www.douglasjamescottrell.com

When you develop yourself spiritually and increase your awareness,

you open yourself up. You learn to quiet your rational, logical mind and to
listen to your larger mind (what I term the contemplative mind or soul
mind). As you become more receptive and sensitive, you allow information
to come to you from sources beyond the seen, physical world. You may start
having prophetic dreams. You may start having communications from spirit
guides. You may be able to perceive energies and the human aura. You may
have premonitions or precognitive experiences. You may find you are becoming increasingly telepathic. You may be developing spiritual healing
abilities. These are all natural functions of the soul (what may be termed
spiritual gifts or abilities) and they are open and available to any who choose
to develop that aspect of mind. It is simply an awareness of what is beyond
the physical senses.
Unfortunately, when you begin to open yourself up, you are opening
yourself up to everything; good, bad, or indifferent. As you become more
open, and allow your clairsentient and telepathic abilities to expand, you can
leave yourself vulnerable to unwanted activity and influences. In this book,
I will give you information to understand how this happens, so you can recognize when you are under psychic attack. I will also give you the tools
and techniques to protect yourself from these intrusions, should you encounter them (intrusions both from without and from within). You should
be aware that I teach from my own experiences in the spiritual world, not
from theory, nor from someone elses ideas or opinions. I have been investigating the psychic or spiritual dimensions since the mid-1970s, when I was
first introduced to genuine intuitive ability, as demonstrated by my mentor,
Ross Peterson (N.B. throughout this guide, the word psychic will be used
3

to mean of the soul).

This book is meant to be a guide to mastering your own mind and
protecting yourself from the dark forces that you may potentially encounter
in your sojourns into the spiritual realms. This book will cover a range of
topics, including: how to fend off anger and bad thought-forms; how to recognize intrusions through the thought process; how to protect yourself from
aura attacks; and what to do when you encounter someone who has been
victim to an invasion by demonic or mischievous (misguided) entities. By
practicing the techniques I will teach you, you will become proficient at
fending off negativity, and returning to an uplifted state of mind from which
all your creative abilities will blossom (and ultimately flourish). Whether
you are a novice beginning your own journey or an expert who has been
delving into the spiritual dimensions for years, you will find something new
in the pages that follow...
The Astral Plane
The first thing you should understand is that there are dimensions
above the Earth, like bands or levels, each one higher than the next, in terms
of awareness. At the highest dimension, pure love exists. It is eternal, unconditional love. You may call this Heaven, or Nirvana, or the Universal
Mind. You may touch upon this in your meditation practice, or in dream
states. You can recognize it by a feeling of total bliss, happiness, or pure
love. It is such a wonderful feeling that you may feel you do not want to
come back from it! If someone were to tell you that your spouse ran away
with your best friend, your house burned to the ground, and your kids have
left you penniless, you would not care at all. In the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, people meditate for years to reach that point of bliss. If it happens
even once in your entire lifetime, you should be supremely happy and feel
blessed, for it is a rare thing indeed.
Now, what would happen if you were to exist in that state of joy or
bliss all the time? Would you really care about this life and your karma or
lifes lessons? No, you would not. You would not care about anything, be4

cause in that state, you have no cares at all. Pleasure puts you to sleep. Pain
wakes you up. Often, pain wakes you up spiritually as well as physically!
This is why we face challenges in our lives. How do our bodies become
physically stronger? By being taxed. You can do pushups and chinups, or
you can lift weights, or you can bear heavy objects around. But only by being
challenged, does growth occur and you become strong. I will tell people that
if you pray for strength, tolerance, and widsom, you will receive problems.
By overcoming a problem (or a challenge), you will gain strength. How do
you learn to be tolerant? By meeting people who treat you poorly, and learning to overlook their shortcomings.
In the beginning, we were given free will and free choice. We were
a part of God (or the Christos, the Universal Mind), and when given this gift,
we chose to leave as a mass, breaking into smaller and smaller fragments,
and ultimately into individual souls. We were illuminated, refined beings
and we chose independence, and individuality. We descended into the other
dimensions to understand matter, and gratify our physical senses. As we did,
we became denser beings (fallen angels, if you will). We got caught up in
physical matter and the temptations of physical gratification and desire. This
took us down a painful path to selfishness and isolationism. We had separated so much that we became lonely, and we realized we did not like it.
After reaching a point of ultimate despair, we remembered the warmth of
the Universal home that we lived in (in the heavens above, or the Christos,
the God-Head) and we wanted to go back. We are like a drop in the ocean
of Gods consciousness seeking to get back to the ocean. Fortunately, there
is a way back, and that path is a process of undoing everything we did that
separated us in the beginning. As we go through this process, we ascend
higher and higher through the different dimensions.
The worlds religions will teach that there are a number of different
planes or heavens. Each teaches a different number, and for our purposes,
how many dimensions there are is not important. It is enough to understand
that there are several of them, and when you advance spiritually, you advance
yourself through these different dimensions. Ultimately you ascend to the
5

highest dimension that you possibly know about, have experienced, or have
somehow arrived at with your consciousness. How you develop your consciousness is by your activity in the physical world.
The first plane above the physical world, the Earth, is the astral plane.
This is where earth-bound entities have arrived at and reside until they are
aware there are higher dimensions. The astral plane is a dark place. It is a
place of confusion. You can think of it as Purgatory. The earth-bound souls
that are in this dimension do not know that they are physically dead, and
they carry on in their own way as if living their physical life. That is why in
houses that are haunted, you can see a ghost walking down a staircase that
used to be there one hundred years ago but no longer exists. These entities
have created a reality in their own minds that they remember when they were
in the flesh, and they carry on existing in this realm. If you go into a house
and lights flick on and off, or doors slam, or you hear bumps, it is a soul
who does not want you in the house, because it believes it still lives there. It
is trying to scare you away.
I knew two ladies who had an experience where they were viewing
what they believed to be an empty house. They opened the door to walk in,
and something pushed them backwards. At first they thought it was the wind,
but it happened again. They felt hands on their chests pushing them away.
When they told me about this, I asked, Did somebody recently die in this
place? They said that the owner had been a lady who had passed a few
months ago. Apparently this lady was somewhat well-known for her possessions and her situation in society. I told them, It would appear that the
former owner is still there! She saw these two ladies as intruders into her
home and she pushed them out. Needless to say, they did not go back to the
house after they realized what was happening.
Sometimes people believe that when you die, there is nothing. When
they die, they have this expectation in their minds that continues, and they
can lay in a coffin for a hundred and fifty years or longer. We live in the
ever-present moment, which means there is no future, no past, just now. This
is why some people become ghosts. They believe they are still alive and they
6

are tied to their possessions in the physical world.

When a person dies, there is a conciliation time. There is a shedding
of the body, and the life force of the person takes on the shape that is in that
persons mind. It seems that this form often appears around the age of thirty
or forty. Many people who have had dreams about a dead parent or grandparent have reported that they appeared much younger and full of vitality.
They have been reborn in spiritual form. Usually in the three days that follow
the passing, they let go of the Earth and any attachment to this plane. Some
move on more quickly, and some less. If they remain and they do not find
their way to the higher dimensions, then these experiences can go on for
centuries. Remember, there is no time for them.
My grandmother passed away at the age of 90. I was a pall-bearer at
her funeral. I was looking at the body and I saw a little pinkish-purple light
bouncing on her forehead. My mother and sisters were really crying and
wailing. It occurred to me that my grandmother was trying to get back into
her body. Suddenly, through the door, a little blue light appeared. It met up
with the pink one on the forehead. In a moment, the two of them zoomed
straight out the door together. What do you think this was? I believe my
grandfather had come to collect her! I am sure she was trying to get back
into her body to console my mother and her sisters and tell them that she
was all right!
Consciousness does exist after physical death. Entities in the higher
realms can come down and collect their loved ones and take them up. That
can happen when they are lost or stuck in the astral plane too. A higher entity
can come down. The best is to say, Peace be with you. Look up. Look for
the angels. You are all right. Go back home. Cross the bridge. Go above.
Talk to them nicely, as you would like to be talked to, and they will believe
you. You may have been advised to say, Follow the light. If someone were
to tell you to follow the light, would you know what that meant? The term
white light is nebulous, which is why I suggest saying something more
direct, such as, You are dead. Look up. When they look up, they look towards the higher dimensions, the angels, and the heavens above.
7

The astral plane is also a dimension for people who have died and
they are lost. This includes soldiers who have died in battle, people who
were violently killed, or small children who died prematurely. They just do
not know where to go, and so they continue on in a shadow of the life they
knew, sometimes haunting the location where they died. Unfortunately they
can only be helped from above when they ask for it, not before. The Divine
influences, such as angels and spirit guides, wait to be asked because the
great rule is a soul cannot steal the free will and free choice from another. It
is an absolute law. You have to ask for help. These lost souls may wander
for centuries, because time does not exist on the other side; only here in the
physical world. If you encounter such an entity (and you are so inclined),
you can pray on their behalf. You can pray for God to bless them, or that
they find their way into Gods welcoming bosom. Do not become afraid.
They are lost, or misguided. If you encounter a soul haunting a place, you
may say, You are dead. Think of your grandfather or great-grandfather.
Look for them. Give direction. You have power. You have the right to be in
the physical world. They do not.
In addition to souls who are confused or lost in the astral plane, there
are souls of people who have led horrendous lifetimes where they were
mean, nasty people; sociopaths and psychopaths. When you are meditating
and you see people with ugly, grotesque faces coming towards you, this is
what you are touching upon. These entities are the ones involved in demonic possession. They want to get back into the world and take over a
body. Just because you pass on, does not mean you automatically become
smarter or enlightened. The Earth, the physical world is the only dimension
where emotions can be experienced. In the spiritual realms, there is no such
thing as emotion, save for love. The higher you go in the higher realms, love
stays with you. Love is the currency, if you will, to get to the higher realms.
To have love, to be loving, to be compassionate, this is unconditional love.
This is bliss.
Those souls in the astral plane are attached to the physical, material
reality and the experiences of our Earthly emotions. They want to get back
8

to Earth because they only know the pleasure of physical, carnal experience
and they wish to regain the experience of emotion. Think of Incubus and
Succubus. They are not able to let go, for one reason or another. They inhabit
a location that is meaningful to them, or they may even possess a human
being (temporarily). They are stuck looking down towards the material dimensions of the physical plane and not upwards to God Almighty. These are
not spiritually-advanced souls. Are they evil? What is evil, but the absence
of love. If they are not loving, then, yes, they are evil.
From time to time, at my energy healing events, I have encountered
people who require an expulsion of such an entity (also known as an exorcism). Typically a person will come to me, suffering from a mental condition
such as paranoia, depression or schizophrenia. They look just like everyone
else. People who are under the influence of an astral entity do not carry signs
telling you they are possessed! But when they receive a healing, or a blessing, they will exhibit extraordinary behavior. They wobble. They rock back
and forth. They vibrate violently. They spit. The person is usually unaware
they are doing these things, and when they catch themselves, they ask me,
What happened? It is usually quite dramatic to witness an expulsion. I will
address the co-habiting entity and command it to leave. It has to. The entity
that has come into the persons body does not belong there. Only the person
belongs there.
Only once was I nervous when performing one of these blessings. A
few years ago, I met a young man who I was informed was having trouble
with addiction. He was a little taller than me. He began swinging his fists
over the top of my head. He was red-faced, grunting and spitting. I stood in
front of him with my hand over his heart chakra, commanding the influence
to leave. He was pushing hard against my hand on his chest. I thought to
myself, Lord, you got me into this. I am not running away. Afterwards, he
collapsed, crying, and soaking wet with sweat, but he looked visibly lighter.
His whole demeanor changed.
Your aura is like the ozone layer that protects the Earth. When it becomes depleted or degraded, however, it shrinks. This can happen when you
9

are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. When you are intoxicated, your
life force degrades to the point where the top of your head is exposed. This
leaves you open and unprotected, vulnerable for an astral plane entity to
jump in. This explains why people who drink too much do things that are
out of character, including very mean, nasty, or crazy things. Sometimes people commit acts of violence under the influences of these unloving minds.
If you are inebriated and you find yourself doing things that you have no
memory of, there is a good chance that you may have been influenced by
some mischievous entity. People who are in pain cause pain. People who are
in love are loving.
The souls who are stuck in the astral plane are attempting to soak up
a materialistic feeling. They crave the heavier emotions the most: anger, fear,
greed, lust. They thrive on it. This is where the concept of vampires comes
from. In the real world, blood-sucking humanoid beings do not exist, but in
the spiritual realms, they do. These entities feed off of emotion and the energy of living beings, not actual blood. Throughout history, blood has represented life, life energy. Interestingly, many physicians and operating-room
nurses have reported having felt a cool sensation along their shins when surgery is being performed. I believe this is an awareness of discarnate entities,
because they are attracted to blood. Blood has vitality and energy, and by
coming close to it, an astral plane entity can have an experience of vitality.
Keep in mind that this is an attraction at the lowest of the low levels.
These entities exist in the ethers of the astral plane, not in physical
form. They have no right to be in a physical form, or be on the Earth. They
are supposed to be in the heavenly, spiritual dimensions above. They do not
know to look up to the light of God, so they are stuck, looking down. They
are only looking where they know, and that is back to the Earth. They are
misguided in their intentions. They can slurp the life-force from you by entering your aura. At first it is a trickle. Then, as you become afraid, it becomes a flood of excited energy. They slurp the life energy away from you
and get stronger. Are they powerful? No, they are not. They are weak. They
are afraid of you (unless you are afraid of them).
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They jump into a body, any body, in order to experience life again.
They do not care which, as long as it is open to them. Refined souls with a
higher consciousness have an understanding, and carefully choose a body
and the conditions of life to meet a higher purpose in the advancement of
the soul. This is what happened before we were born. In the spiritual world,
we chose this life, our parents, our environment, and the conditions of entering into the physical world. By contrast, these discarnate entities do not
choose. They see an opportunity, an opening, and they take it.
Now when you are here on Earth and the rest of the Universe is
above, you can be lost too. God Almighty, in its infinite wisdom, sends angels, saints, guides, avatars to watch over us. As we reach up and ask for
help, they can help us up into the higher levels of consciousness. Choose to
communicate with these higher beings, instead of those who are stuck in the
astral plane. How do you know the difference between the two? An angel or
holy being may appear just like a human. A few years ago, on a trip to India,
my friend, Ramesh, and I were lost. Two Indian men approached us and said,
Stop. It appears that you are lost. I said that we were, and asked the men,
Which way to the bus station? I was expecting them to give us directions,
but instead they replied, Come, we will take you. They walked behind us,
without saying another word. After a walk up a very, very long street, we
reached a corner, and one of the men said, There, just across the street. That
is the bus. I thanked them, and they turned around and proceeded to walk
away. Ramesh and I were relieved to see the bus and taxi cab driver that we
had seen the other day. We turned around, and the two men were gone. They
did not have time to walk all the way back down the street, and there were
no places they could have turned off. They were just gone!
In your dreams or visions, you might see angels appear hovering
above you, and they will say something that is meaningful to you. It is usually a short communication consisting of just a few words. In some instances,
they talk over you, not directly to you. They make suggestions, because they
cannot interfere in your free will or free choice. You have the free choice to
listen to their suggestions, or not. Sometimes, an angelic influence will be a
11

whisper in your ear. Try not to follow human nature and do the opposite
when a Divine or angelic influence makes a suggestion! Part of the process
of becoming a spiritually-advanced person is to give up your willfulness. In
order to achieve spiritual illumination or fulfillment, you give up your individuality, which is willfulness. You surrender to God.
When someone is being influenced by an astral plane entity, things
are different. What I have seen are little faces inside a persons aura. It looks
like a circle with two eyes and a line for a mouth, but no expression. When
I look at these entities, they disappear. They hide behind the person, or they
flee. They are afraid when you see them. You have power in your eyes. It is
a natural power. So when you look at discarnate entities, you are actually
penetrating them with energy, and because you are intuitive and can perceive
them, they are afraid. The only element they have is secrecy. All evil hides
in darkness. What happens to the darkness in a room when you turn on the
light? It scatters and flees, hiding in the nooks and crannies of the room, because darkness is afraid of light. Darkness is afraid of light. You are light.
When you perceive these entities, it scares them.
In 1979 or 1980, there was a man who came to me for an appointment. He sat across a table from me in my office and talked about his problems. He had a gray shadow on his face, and he confessed to me that he was
an addict. I sensed that he was not exactly telling me everything. As I looked
at him, I saw a little face appear over his shoulder. Now, I have a belief that
whatever intuitively comes to mind, I say to a client. I said to him, I have
to stop you for a moment. Have you ever thought that maybe you were possessed? Immediately, he started to cry.
He said, You are the first person - psychiatrist, doctor, or psychic who has told me the truth!
I asked him how this happened. He told me that when he was fourteen years old, he saw a black cloud approach him and cover him. When he
saw the black cloud go away, he was forty-seven. Throughout that time, he
had been in and out of jail, with a history of violence. He was a different
person.
12

This man remained a client of mine until he died, decades later. Now,
I have also seen people who tell me they have been hearing voices. When
you hear a voice that pretends to be your deceased father, beware! I was in
a meditation group, once, and while sitting and meditating, I heard a voice
in my head say, Doug, its your father. My father had passed away in 1998,
and I was glad to hear from him.
I replied, Really? How are you?
The voice said, Im fine. You are a good boy.
Suddenly it dawned on me that my father and I had never had a rapport like this when he was alive. I was getting sucked in. I was being deceived. This was some other entity in the astral plane trying to engage me in
conversation and make a connection while I was opening myself during meditation.
Any spiritual influence from high above, any Divine being such as a
guardian angel, will not speak to you any more than a few words, a phrase,
or perhaps a sentence. That is all. They will never tell you what to do, for
they cannot interfere in your free will and free choice (even to your own
detriment). Your guardian angels or spirit guides have to stand back and
watch you suffer. They can only intervene if you ask them. You have to ask.
If you do not ask, they cannot help. When you are meditating, it is important
that you begin by asking for protection. Dear Lord, please protect me from
any and all negative influences, regardless of their source. Amen. This
prayer is said at the beginning of every one of my Deep Trance Meditation
sessions. It is the most powerful statement you can say.
Command unwanted souls to leave, because you have power (physical as well as spiritual). You are a soul in possession of a body. You have
the right to be here, in the world. They do not. They are supposed to be in
other dimensions. They are not supposed to be Earth-bound. They are powerless. If you are being bothered by an astral plane entity and you want it to
leave you alone, you must ask. I suggest saying something such as, Be gone,
until I ask you to come back. When you talk to one of these misguided entities in this way, it leaves the door open and gives them some hope that they
13

can communicate with you at a future time (should you choose to do so). It
is not final.
However, if these entities are causing you pain and suffering, or they
are upsetting you, you may need to call in someone with more authority. I
learned a lesson one day when a female client came to my house for an appointment. For the entire duration of her drive (which was over an hour),
she heard a voice in her head. It was continuously berating her. The voice
said that I was going to rape her, torture her, murder her, and cut her into
pieces. As soon as she came onto my property, however, the voice disappeared. My property is an extension of my mind, as is yours. You have complete control over it. Mischievous entities cannot come onto your property
without your permission.
When you are having trouble, go to a place that is holy, such as a
church, shrine, or temple. You can also be with friends who are loving and
happy. Surround yourself with well-meaning, happy people, and the energy
from those people will rub off onto you. As I will explain a little later, you
can be influenced by the thoughts and minds of other people. Welcome the
loving energies from those who like you. Put pleasant fragrances in the room.
Light candles. Chime bells, or play beautiful and uplifting music. These
things are part of many religious ceremonies. Why? Because they work.
Do not be afraid. Pray for intervention. These are misguided entities
that are playing on your emotions. They feed on emotions of lust, hate, anger,
and it gives them some temporary, pleasurable, physical experience. You
have your own will-power. You are a solid, physical being. These derogatory
or misguided influences are afraid of your power.
Negative Influences
How, then, can we be affected by negative influences if we have the
power to be in the physical world when they do not? One way is by inviting
them in. Ouija boards, pendulums and automatic writing are gateways to
allow a discarnate entity to come into you. You are giving permission for
something from the Great Beyond to take you over. This is very risky, espe14

cially when you are just starting out in your sojourns into the spiritual realms.
If you are sensitive, if you live alone, you are even more susceptible. Unless
you have comprehensive training from a skilled instructor, I would caution
you against such practices. As I mentioned earlier, it is very easy to become
tricked into a relationship with one of these souls. Because their perspective
is a little higher than ours, they can give information to you which may be
correct in the beginning, as a way to gain your trust and engage in communication. If a voice or mind tells you to do something - anything - beware!
You can also be influenced when you are feeling so discouraged or
depressed with life that you are willing to give up your life, your will, and
allow some other soul to take you over. This is called a walk-in. It is similar
to mediumship, where a person enters a light trance and a discarnate entity
enters and speaks to them or through them. Without the proper training, this
practice can leave you vulnerable to being taken over by an astral plane entity. Anyone who believes that a highly-developed, enlightened being will
jump into the body of someone who is unwilling to face their own karma,
spiritual lessons, or situations and take over that life for them is delusional.
You chose your life and your circumstances to meet your karma. It is your
duty to go through these experiences. The rule of thumb is: if you think you
dislike or despise this place, the Earth, and you want to get out of here and
never come back, I can guarantee that you will be back in another life (and
sooner than you thought possible).
Thought Power
There are two types of prayer. There are constructive prayers (also
known as blessings) and there are destructive prayers (also known as curses).
Prayer is little more than thought, exacerbated by intensity of emotion. I
often teach people the difference between prayers that are answered and
those which are not is the belief and intensity. When you absolutely need
something (versus wanting something), you become desperate, and think
about it constantly. You do everything you can to attain it, and you do not
stop until it is obtained. Your mind is like the engine of a car. If the engine
15

is idling, there is not much power. But when you add emotion, and you focus
your mind, you put a lot of energy behind your thought, as if you are stepping
on the accelerator.
When prayers are used for constructive purpose and healing, it is Divine. Dear Lord, I pray that my daughter will be relieved of her illness.
This is a constructive prayer. When prayers are uttered for derogatory means,
they are evil (because they are not loving). Dear Lord, I hope the guy who
just cut me off in traffic spins out of control and dies! This is a destructive
prayer. Jesus taught us about destructive prayer in the story of cursing the
fig tree. By cursing someone or something, you cause destruction. The only
difference between a constructive prayer and a destructive prayer is intention.
They are both equally powerful, because they are both thoughts, and
thoughts are real things.
You can accept thoughts, and you can reject thoughts. This is true of
thoughts from your own mind, as well as thoughts from the minds of others.
Becoming a master of your mind is learning to control it, and not allowing
yourself to get triggered. It takes a great deal of discipline to do this. For example, you believe you are following the spiritual path and you are a good
person, but then someone makes a comment to you and suddenly your mood
changes, your frame of mind changes from positive to negative. You are triggered into a negative thought-form. The solution is to catch yourself. Take
a deep breath. Say, I love myself. God loves me. That was in the past. I
cannot control the past. I can only affect the present. I cannot control the
thoughts or opinions of others. I cannot control what they say or do. I can
only control myself.
Reach your hand out in front of you. From the reach of your fingertips backward is where you control the world. Many of us believe it is the
other way around. It is human nature to try to change others, but it is a spiritual discipline to change only yourself. It is not easy.
You are a sensitive person. When you are triggered into that negative
mind-frame, catch yourself. Mind mastery starts with recognition at the very
first barb, and the realization that you are letting yourself get triggered. You
16

are letting yourself get triggered. Choose not to react adversely. This is the
first step. When you keep your peace, your enthusiasm grows. Your mind
can only be filled with one thing at a time. If it is not love, is it evil (because
evil is the absence of love). Many people choose not to watch the news or
read a newspaper because many of the articles are about negative things.
They choose not to clutter their minds with negativity.
When something happens to you in a moment (and everything in life
happens in a moment, and then it is on to the next moment) you choose how
you will react. If someone screams in your face, you could get angry, or you
can choose not to. You can choose to think, Poor soul. If there is no action
to take, you should not react emotionally. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that you go over that event in your mind long after it has occurred.
You talk about it on your way home from work. You talk about it over dinner.
You talk about it in bed. You talk about it days later (or even weeks). You
continue to relive that negative or derogatory moment. You are stuck in a
moment that is rapidly receding further and further into the past. That
thought-form is still in the proximity of your mind. The more you think of
adverse or derogatory experiences, the larger the thought-form becomes in
your aura. There, it erodes your aura, making you even more vulnerable to
negativity. Mind mastery says, Evil, get ye behind me! I choose not to get
angry. I change my mind. Think of your aura as a wool blanket, and
thought-forms as spiky burrs. Keep your peace of mind, and the burrs will
not stick.
Dealing with Psychic Attacks
As you develop your awareness, you become susceptible to picking
up the mental and emotional states of others. These are not your thoughts.
Do not accept them as your own. When you are developing your spirituality,
and someone telepathically attacks you, it hurts. This is different from someone yelling in your face, which can only hurt you emotionally (should you
allow it). A telepathic attack hurts physically. It can feel like a screwdriver
going into your forehead. You may feel as if someone has pushed their finger
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into your skull, just above your ear. This is someone attacking you. The more
sensitive you are, the more acute the pain. If you feel it in the back of your
head, someone is giving you a whack in the head, or someone is taking a
swipe at you. If you feel a sharp pain in your back, below the shoulder blade,
someone is betraying you (stabbing you in the back). They are contemplating your demise and want to stick it to you. If you feel a pain in your
heart, this is someone close to you, like a partner or relative, who is thinking
ill of you, and it is breaking your heart.
What do you do when you feel a pain over your heart? Usually, you
hold a hand to your chest. You may even hug yourself. You naturally protect
your heart by crossing or folding your arms in front of you. This is a way to
close down telepathic communication. We do it all the time without thinking.
When you are in a meeting, watch the body language of the other people.
The ones who lean back, or cross their arms or legs in front of them are detaching themselves. They do not agree with the person talking.
I want to teach you some techniques that you can do consciously to
protect yourself when you are experiencing a psychic attack or intrusion.
First, fold your hands across your solar plexus. This is just above your navel,
below your ribs. Now, interlace your fingers, and point your two index fingers forward. Your thumbs will point upward. Take a few deep breaths, and
you should feel immediate relief. You have shut down, preventing your life
energy from leaving you, and not allowing negative energy from entering
you. When you walk into a room and you are feeling fine one moment and
then poorly the next - tired, drained, lethargic, agitated - you are picking up
on someone elses emotional state. Do this exercise and you should improve
quickly.
Now if you feel pain over your heart, or head, or in your back (I call
these zingers), you need to cut off this connection at the point of entry.
Imagine it as a dart that has been thrown at you by someone. There is a long
ribbon connecting that person to you at the point where the dart hit. Cut this
tether of energy coming toward you with your hand. Take your hand and
quickly slice it through that spot, as if you are cutting the ribbon. It is some18

what like a karate chop motion. You are disconnecting the tether from that
other mind, cutting it off. Simultaneously you are smoothing out your aura
with your hand to fill in any holes or degradation where it had embedded itself. The tether snaps back and is gone. You can feel relief immediately and
the pain disappears.
It is important to know that what you give out comes back to you.
When you throw out thoughts (derogatory or otherwise), they come back.
What goes around, comes around. The more spiritually-aware you become, the more you have to consider your thoughts and be careful. You
throw out negativity and it comes right back. You throw out love, and it
comes right back. This is why it is important that when someone makes an
aggressive move (or sends you a barb), you do not react, because the ball of
energy you throw out will come back.
That said, you do not have to befriend your enemies. You are not obligated to send love to those who do not like you. In fact, it is illogical to do
so. It is a contradiction inside you. When you have a contradiction inside,
you suffer. When you do good for someone who does ill towards you, you
tend to go over it again and again in your subconscious mind that this person
is harming or stealing from you. You can tolerate them. You can forgive
them. You do not have to love them.
The rule is: Stand up to the strong when they are in the wrong, but
make concessions for the weak. When someone is strong enough to know
better, you can go on the offensive for the sake of righteousness. But if someone is weak (physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually) and they harm
you, you can forgive them, because they are weak. You look at the child who
kicks you in the shin, or the old man who curses you and calls you names,
and you think to yourself, This person is just weak. Then you put it out of
your mind. Do not let things come into your mind that ought not to be there.
When you put them out of your mind, you will feel neutral.
One of the easiest things you can do when someone telepathically
sends you that zinger of energy is to call them on the phone. Ask them why
they are angry with you. I have been known to do this when I feel one of
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those coming my way. Immediately, I call them and say, Get out of my
head. It floors them! People forget that in the spiritual world, there is no
hiding. We are all connected.
In ancient times, people wore headdresses and would place pieces
of copper on their foreheads. Covering your forehead (the third eye chakra)
with a headband protects you from telepathic intrusion. You may also take
a wet cloth and splash water on your forehead or face, or take a shower. This
will remove negativity that has accumulated in your aura. Because it is made
of gases, water tends to neutralize or cut off any attachments in the aura.
When I lay my hands on people at an energy healing event, for example, and
I pick up a pain in my hands from someone, I release it out of my hand by
putting it into a bowl of water. This is where the practice of hand-washing
came from. Spiritually speaking, you are washing away the thought-form or
the attachment. Baptism does the same thing.
Now, have you ever watched two Kung Fu fighters squaring off
against one another? They stand twenty feet apart, facing one another, and
before they fight, they make crazy, clawing gestures towards one another.
Some are slashing movements, and some are cupping and smoothing movements. What do you think they are doing? They are slashing and clawing
apart the aura or energy field of their opponent, and at the same time, they
are smoothing out and repairing their own. When you rip apart someones
aura, you make them vulnerable and weak. I usually do a demonstration of
this in my workshops to show how important it is to keep your aura vibrant
and solid.
When you cut off the tethers of a thought-form from your aura, the
pain should go away immediately. If the pain goes away, and you forget
about it, then that is enough. But what happens if the pain persists? Let us
say you find yourself in a situation where someone is really, really angry
with you, and they will not let up. They are continually sending you negative vibes that come at you like waves. You may feel it as pressure or pain,
or you may just become lethargic, as if your life force has been drained. It
comes upon you suddenly at a time when you should be otherwise at peace.
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When you recognize this is happening, visualize yourself behind a parabola.

The parabola is like a satellite dish. It collects the negative energy and sends
it back.
You can also create a mental image of yourself behind a mirror. The
mirror reflects the negativity back. Your concern is not who sent it, but just
to keep your peace and protect yourself, allowing this energy to go back to
wherever it originated. You can also pray, Dear Lord, this is not mine. I do
not own it. Please send it back to wherever it came from. If this is coming
from someone with a strong connection to you (such as a relative), you may
feel as if you are having a heart attack. You may even find yourself having
an argument in your mind. Recognize that someone is criticizing you. Reject
it and reflect it.
Spies and those in the secret service are always under attack, and
have to keep their energy. People try to tune into them, just like they try to
tune into you. I had a client come to me some time ago. Before I began the
consultation for him, he told me he needed to do something. He closed his
eyes and I could see him shedding something shimmery, like many tiny mirrors all over his body. He caught me looking and asked if I could see that. I
told him that I could. He then told me that he was in the secret service, and
as a part of his protection, he routinely did a mental exercise of putting on
reflective armor. You can do this as well. Protect yourself and keep your energy in, by putting up a mental mirror. The negativity goes away. You feel
relief immediately.
The Number One Mental Protection
This next technique is the most important thing you can do to protect
yourself against mental or psychic attack. It involves encapsulating your attacker in their own destructive thoughts. Someone who is upset with you
may be having an argument with you in their mind. You may perceive this
as a slow burn on your forehead, or a buzzing in your ear. Remember that
thoughts are real things, and that person who is angry with you is generating
energy. See that person in your mind. Now imagine them covered in a trans21

parent bubble or dome; a jar of plastic or glass. Remember to picture a floor

as well. Now visualize a smoky energy going all around that person. This
represents their thoughts. Their own evil is engulfing them. The attacker disappears in this fog of negative thought. When the pressure disappears, you
know the process is complete. If the pressure has not abated, then either you
have the wrong person, or there is more than one.
This process is harmless, and there is no karma created. You do not
cause any harm, but you have used their own energy against them. You are
just temporarily putting them in a container, and they have to deal with the
thoughts they have created. When they feel the negativity, they stop thinking
about you, and they break the connection. A soon as the pressure releases
from you, you will forget about it too. It is a blessing in disguise. You may
use this with anyone who is upset with you, even a friend or family member.
It is harmless. It is self-protecting. It is not interfering in anyone elses karma,
or life, or their free will or free choice. They are the ones choosing to be destructive, not you.
Now if you have someone who really, really does not like you and
you are under constant attack from them, instead of a glass jar, you can put
that person in a lead box. Their energy just rebounds back at them. If you
have to, imagine a bomb exploding in that box. I have had to use this technique only once in my life. As you feel relief and you forget about them, the
box disappears.
Some have been taught that a way to protect yourself is to visualize
your body in a bubble. What happens when you put yourself in a bubble?
You are trapped! You are isolated! When you pull a sleeping bag over your
head, you cannot see the light. You hide from the negative influences, but
the creative, benevolent forces cannot help you either. Do not cut yourself
off from the Divine like that. Instead, appeal to the creative forces for help
by saying the prayer of protection.
The Power of One Mind
When someone hates you, gives you a hard time, telepathically in22

vades your space, or tries to hurt you, it is best to try to keep your peace in
any way you can. Be spiritual, but be aware. Adopt a Samurai warrior mentality. There is an old Persian proverb which says: Trust in Allah (God), but
tie up your camel. It means have faith, but be prudent. If you know where
you are not welcome, you can avoid violence by not going there. That might
mean you may have to leave the dinner table when relatives are being rambunctious. It is better than sitting there, fuming over the food you are about
to eat, putting even more negative thoughts into your body! As an aside, in
Hinduism, gossip is not tolerated in the temple when food is being prepared,
because the thought goes into the food. When you hold your hands over your
food and pray, the energy goes into the food and transmutes it. You eat the
food, and you give yourself a blessing.
Surround yourself with happy, enthusiastic, joyful people. Wherever
there is love, there is God. If you are paying attention, you will be guided
from above. If you are hurting, angry, and frustrated, you are looking down,
and not paying attention to above (because you can only look in one direction
at a time). When you pay attention, you become aware. When you become
more aware, you become self-aware, and then ultimately you become realized and then fully-realized. When you become fully-realized, you become
an Avatar or Divine: a living, spiritual soul in a human body. This is our ultimate destiny.
Remember, in the beginning, there was God. God gave us the gift of
free will and free choice, and we separated, like droplets of water separating
from the ocean. The souls went out into physical dimensions to experience
life from a physical perspective. Doing so, they became engrained in the material, and became further self-absorbed and isolated. In its infinite wisdom,
God Almighty created a mechanism where souls could return. Whatever a
soul does, it has to undo. As we left and fragmented, we have to assimilate
and come back together, so that we can reunite with God. Those souls who
have already realized this and have gone ahead in their progression are advanced beings. They are standing at the top of the ladder, ready to give you
a hand up. They cannot go down the ladder and pull you up, nor can they
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show you the way. You have to find the way yourself. They are allowed to
intervene in your life, but they may not interfere in your free will and free
choice.
If you need protection, ask the Divine to intervene. All those wise
and loving beings and minds above - the angels, the celestial beings, the
Saints, the Avatars - can help. It is a wise person who recognizes when help
is being offered, or an opportunity is at hand.
Remember, there are two aspects of prayer. There is the asking for
help, and there is the taking. When you pray for something, and it presents
itself to you, seize it. Most likely it will not come in the manner you expect.
When you have a very powerful mind, you can cause destruction and
difficulty to people. Being spiritually illuminated, you can stop the lower
energy or negativity coming at you. But you have to be mindful not to send
it out yourself. You have immense power. You can change your mind. You
can change the world. Try it. Love is contagious. By that I mean enthusiasm,
well-being, happiness. Go to work and have a smile on your face, no matter
what happens to you. The whole workplace will change. The whole planet
will change. One person can be the rudder in a family, a household, a company, or a community. One person! I have always said, if the world is on a
course in one direction, and one person changes their mind and says, Im
going to make the world a little better today, and does something good, then
the path of the world has changed. Even a change of one degree will change
the course of the planet! It is no longer going in the same direction.
What stops you is your belief, or your uncertainty. Trust that whatever comes at you is really not going to hurt you. It is your fear or anticipation that is hurting you right at this moment. Do not be afraid. Put love in
your heart. What you think about, you attract, because prayer is little more
than thinking (and what you are thinking about all the time is your prayer).
Are you thinking about being attacked, hurt, robbed? Then, no matter what
you do, you will be. Instead, fill your mind with positive thoughts. Learn
the discipline of self-control. If you can collect yourself and maintain a mental control, you are in control of yourself spiritually, psychically, and also
24

intellectually and emotionally.

Replace fear with enthusiasm and laughter. Laughter is medicine for
the soul, the mind, and the body. When you laugh, the chakras excite themselves, the aura expands, you are vibrant and healthy. Mind mastering
teaches that we can be influenced by others, but we are even more susceptible to our own destructive, derogatory, incriminating, or belittling thoughts.
Change your thought, and your aura immediately responds. Instead of turning inward, the energy goes outward.
To be in a good frame of mind all the time is not possible, because
we think chaotically. We constantly vacillate between the two pillars of despair and hope, of enthusiasm and condemnation. That is the way we are.
When you are feeling down, ask yourself what you can do about it. Do something enjoyable. Catch yourself from getting triggered into negativity. If you
feel you are being influenced by unseen forces, then do everything you can
to detach from the influence.
The key is to remember that there is no good or bad, positive or negative. There is only what you like (or what is pleasing to you), and what you
do not like (or what displeases you). We live in a world of duality. We dance
through life between two extremes of helping and hurting. Do not fear the
dance. Get to the end of the road. Let your prayer be, Dear Lord, let me
live my life. Let me live it to the fullest. Let me be in harmony with the Divine forces from above. Please give me the life I want, and when hard times
come at me, please give me the faith that I can get through these difficult
times. Life always has difficult times. Sometimes you have to deal with
harsh or hard things in life. It is your duty, destiny, or karma, and you cannot
avoid those things. When I walk out in the world, I say, Okay, bring the
world on, because I believe that whatever comes at me, I can handle it.
Summary
Ask for, and seek, Divine intervention, and know the difference between intervening and interfering. Voices that dictate or tell you what to do,
or force you to do something, or make you feel so embarrassed or intimidated
25

that you will do something against your will are not in the light. That is on
the dark side. The light side encourages you, and you will know that you are
doing right because you will have a good feeling inside. Pay attention to
your clairsentient ability. Do you feel calm, comfortable, and warm in your
heart? Then you are on the right path.
Do not be afraid. Instead, be welcoming. Usually if you are in some
predicament, you are doing something right. Think of all the Saints throughout history, and all the holy people who are in the world currently. Did any
of them have an easy life? No. They were condemned by their families, by
the authorities, by politicians, and the religious leaders of the day. Even their
friends abandoned them when they were in need the most. That is the path
to spiritual power, enlightenment, and closeness to God. When God has put
something in your path, do not walk away. As you progress through life, you
will be challenged spiritually because we all have to be tested. It is how we
grow.
Recognize that as you develop yourself, and you move through the
spiritual realms in your meditation practices, you will need some protection.
You are entering a new neighborhood, and you need a light to guide your
way through the shadows, so you can focus on what is new. What happens
to the darkness when you turn on a light?
You are appealing to God. You are accepting of the light of God. You
are accepting affection and good thoughts from God. God can come into
your life and illuminate things. If you have to go through some difficult time
(which you may have to, from time to time), it will not be vicious. It will be
comfortable to go through. Accept your fate, and remember that your soul
chose to be here for its own purposes, its own progression. It is undoing all
that it had done that separated it from God. Life is a struggle, so learn to
enjoy the struggle, and you will go through all circumstances with peace in
your mind and joy in your heart, to the last of your days.
There is no darkness. There is no night. There is simply love and
light. Choose what you wish to choose, but as for us, we would choose light
and life.
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