Do any of you have any thoughts regarding how phenomenon like psychic readings or remote viewing relate to the subject matter of this thread?
Gotta go back to the original post for this thread in order to refresh my memory of the subject matter:
Nor does it have anything to do with anything magical, mystical, or occult in nature. On the contrary, it simply involves understanding the natural abilities of the human mind, which were an integral part of the hunter/warrior mindset in more primitive times, but now tend to be either ignored or overlooked by people in modern societies.
The simple, yet not so simple, key is thus the ability to adopt a quiet, passive state of mind capable of turning off the constant outward mental transmission in order to more effectively access other information not being generated by your own mental activity. In this regard, any method of personal mind control that develops greater calmness and inner quietude will make you a better intuitive receiver. This is true of regularly structured practices such as meditation, contemplative prayer, self-induced trance, auto-hypnosis states, and other methods which develop more open access to the deeper states of mind where intuitive phenomenon normally reside, beyond the realm of normal wakeful consciousness.
I think a calm mind allows for intuitive knowledge of upcoming events, especially dangerous ones, and that this is a latent ability in all people. However, I think psychic readings and remote viewings have a longstanding position from a Christian perspective as being the result of demonic influence, perhaps not in all cases, but usually.
There is the story of the fakir in Colombo and the priest who apparently interrupted his ability to project images with the Jesus Prayer.
A Fakir's "Miracle" and the Prayer of Jesus. By Archimandrite Nicholas Drobyazgin wrote:Eastern "spirituality" is by no means limited to such mediumistic "tricks" as this fakir practiced; we shall see some of its more sincere aspects in the next chapter. Still, all the power that is given to the practitioners of Eastern religions comes from the same phenomenon of mediumism, whose central characteristic is a passiveness before "spiritual" reality that enables one to enter into contact with the "gods" of the non-Christian religions. This phenomenon may be seen in Eastern Meditation" (even when it may be given the name of "Christian"), and perhaps even in those strange "gifts" which in our days of spiritual decline are mislabeled "charismatic.."
Considering that psychic readings and remote viewings are normally about events much farther into the future than imminent self-defense scenarios, for which a person is innocent of any wrong doing for protecting himself in an emergency, these other types of extrasensory awareness can be cultivated for either benevolent or malevolent reasons.