Psychic Abilities Options

Okay, so a lot of people on here have abilities of some sort or another. Empaths, telepaths, healers, psychics, many with Sight and other magical senses... my question is, do you think these abilities are something you need to be born with? It seems that most of these people have been able to See or whatever it is they do since they were very young. Can one develop these with practice? Is there anyone here who in fact *wasn't* born with an ability, but gained it through their own effort? Any thoughts or methods, throw them in. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wizard.gif)

Okay, so a lot of people on here have abilities of some sort or another. Empaths, telepaths, healers, psychics, many with Sight and other magical senses... my question is, do you think these abilities are something you need to be born with? It seems that most of these people have been able to See or whatever it is they do since they were very young. Can one develop these with practice? Is there anyone here who in fact *wasn't* born with an ability, but gained it through their own effort? Any thoughts or methods, throw them in. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wizard.gif)

I believe that everyone is born with some psychic ability, but that the ability will grow and manifest in people in different ways. I believe that some people never develop the ability into a tangible talent, while others may seem to have natural, effortless talent, and others can develop and improve their talent with practice and concerted effort.

I also believe that the way in which our psychic ability manifests (or doesn't manifest) is highly dependent on the society in which we are bought up, our personality, our childhood conditioning, and the cultural context and paradigm in which we practice. These things may contribute to the way our psyches operate to the point that certain psychic 'talents' are much easier or harder than others. So while we may all be born with the ability, we aren't always capable of reaching a high level of proficiency. And we aren't always capable of developing our ability in every possible way that it can manifest.

I like to use the analogy of art and drawing. Every one is capable of drawing a basic stick figure to represent a person. We all have that talent built into us (though I should qualify that and say providing we have the ability to use our hands and eyes). However, some people seem to be natural artists, who can produce masterpieces with seemingly little effort. Others study and practice for years to develop the ability to draw well. Others will always have a skewed sense of perspective or inability to reproduce an image no matter how much they study and practice (this doesn't mean they can't draw, it just means that they can't reproduce an image, and should therefore focus on a different area of art which utilise the talents and abilities in different ways). And on top of that, our personalities and cultural conditioning will have an affect on what we consider 'good art', and therefore affect in which direction we take our ability and talents, or what area we feel is important enough to study and practice and develop. So while we all may carry the ability, we will all manifest and utilise it in different ways.

So, just like in art, while we may all have the ability to develop a certain level of empathy or clairvoyance or energy manipulation, we aren't all capable of being brilliant mediums or will find scrying or journeying or weather magic easy.