"The Subtleties of the Psychic" a talk give by Julian Drewett to the Spring Conference 2011– summarised by Rosalind Smith

Julian Drewett is the General Secretary of the Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies, an experienced researcher in the field of parapsychology, with a wonderful way of delivering a talk.  He gently brings to his subject a great degree of sensitivity and a wealth of knowledge as well as a balanced sense of humour.

While he is well aware that there are those who are often sceptical and dismissive of the idea of psychism, he gently reminds us that ‘To dismiss the psychical is to ignore the very workings of God through the Holy Spirit and through us on a soul level’. He also makes us realise that much of our everyday instant and instinctive rapport with others is due to an intuitive response, a sense of something working between us that we recognise but cannot, or do not, quantify.  It is that psychic sense, whether we acknowledge it or not: a deep level of the being of each of us which permeates our lives, often giving rise to subtle impulses and insights, to sudden awarenesses, to empathetic responses, and which can, sometimes, resemble ‘a sharp arrow of darkness …which can warn us and give us a feeling of foreboding.’

He uses the word ‘subtleties’ for aspects of the psychic, no doubt because he finds that people prefer not to use the word ‘psychic’.  In some ways this is unfortunate because another word for the soul is ‘psyche.’ Nothing weird or suspect at all! 

He tells us that in essence we cannot develop or control this faculty, although we can be receptive to it. It is mysterious, evasive, and it can, if allowed to, put a barrier between people. We must remember that sometimes common sense is the best way forward.

After drawing on some of his own experiences, he went on to talk about precognition which ‘can simply be a slip of the experience of time – an ability…to see the future which somehow has already happened or is already happening.’  Sometimes we know that the phone is about to ring, or someone is just going to knock on the door, and we often know who it will be. Or perhaps ‘an email comes through at exactly the same time as we have just sent one to the same correspondent - there may be no meaning in it but just simply an example of this precious contact we have with that other soul.’

We should be aware that ‘It is the dimension we live in now and shall live in after death – so in this life we need to prepare and become more aware of the subtleties of everyday life, to become more sensitive in every way to our vocation as we continue our pilgrimage here on earth.’

Julian says that as with all spiritual gifts, any psychic experiences are to be brought to God for consecration – to be made holy. Then we can begin to say those two important words – Ah! Yes! I see!