PREFERRED SENSORY MODES

PREFERRED SENSORY MODES

Perception is a protean capability. With practice a clairaudient can become clairvoyant, a precognitive person can develop psychokinesis, and soforth. Some people are natural abstract thinkers and others prefer simple direct images.

All of these modes are useful and I encourage students to diversify their skills.

I have found that while most people are able to create visual, tactile and olfactory images of a destination, some people prefer to get what they describe as “feelings.” The feelings are described in terms of the emotions they evoke in the viewer.

There is no doubt that this mode of perception is as accurate as any other, but it is less informative than visual and auditory modes.

Once I had a student named Walt. He preferred sensing, as opposed to imaging. Walt had a quirk. He detested water. He had no objection to bathing, but when objects were passed around (wrapped in tissue paper to disguise their outlines) he could infallibly detect anything related to water. Whether it was a shark’s tooth, a seashell or a mother of pearl pendant, he would carefully balance the wrapped object on his palm. Brow furrowed in thought, he would say “I have no idea what this is, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.”

We would all laugh. No one knew what the object was until it was unwrapped at the end of the session, but if Walt didn’t like it, it had to be water related.

He was never wrong.