QUESTION: I’ve been told by a healer/medium that I would be a very good healer, but I feel lost. A lot of spiritual things have happened to me - as a child and as an adult. They are not as often now as an adult, I think because it scared me as child. I have a daughter, and also have been told that she is the same, and I noticed before even seeing the medium that my daughter reminds me of myself when I was younger. I just try to help her deal rather than tell her she is imagining things or make her fearful like my parents did to me. It is crazy because my father who is supposedly a Kahuna (I am part-Hawaiian) should have understood.

How can I protect myself and my daughter? I have been told to pray, light a white candle, and meditate. I have always loved crystals and sage, but I feel I can't learn from just a book, or can I?

ANSWER: Many of us have the potential to be good at many different things. The important thing is our intention. Why would you consider being a healer? What drives you to that desire? In my own experience as a healer, it is arduous on body and mind. One must be clear why one wants to pursue that path. For most of us healers, it starts as a (usually unconscious) drive to grapple with and heal one’s own childhood pain. That can be addressed without having to pursue becoming a healer.

Yes, most of us are shamed out of being present with “extraordinary” experiences as young children because it scares the adults around us. That is how culture propagates itself: by enforcing accepted ideas of reality and discarding contrary experiences. Just because someone is titled a healer means nothing, as you have come to realize. The proof of any human being’s presence is their actions.

Why do you feel that you need protection? Are you having specific experiences that are informing you of the need for protection? Dig deep into this question. Fear amplifies and draws in these unwanted energies. Psychic protection is a function of intent. Many of the rituals that different cultures use are mainly a vessel for concentrating the mind. Regular meditation and grounding is one of the most reliable and powerful ways of keeping negativity at bay.

One can use chants, be they Gregorian, Sanskrit, etc., playing in a loop at a low volume in a space to clear it. One can also use all the different types of incense, holy wood, sage, etc. The trick here is to be grounded/feel one’s feet as one moves around a space with the incense to clear it. Moving clockwise around the space and paying attention to corners is how I was taught. Again, all of this is about intention. Pay attention to yours.