QUESTION: Just to be clear, I don’t associate with the New Age-y stuff. However, I am very aware of some of my gifts. Recently, things in my life have been extremely hectic; a loss of a sibling, a sudden move, to be honest… the list is endless. Lots of really big stuff. And sometimes I get a sudden stream of information that comes to me. About people, about places, about myself. I know that not all of it comes true, but some of it does. Well, yesterday I had a premonition about getting into an accident, and today it happened. Some people I know would say “you called it to you”, but then it would be my fault, as if I created it. It was a three-car accident. Thank God, no one was hurt. 

I guess my question is: how do I handle the thoughts, how do I know if they are premonitions or not? I don’t like to run paranoid about this kind of stuff. I just feel like I can be better at understanding more about it. I do have a meditation/grounding practice and I do understand we are all going through a lot of change on this planet. Everything is so fast; it’s sometimes too much to deal with when you are simply trying to make a buck in order to pay your bills. Or just simply live. I wonder about these things all the time. How in the world can I learn my true nature when the world is acting so unnatural, i.e. media, GMOs, war, deforestation. It's very painful to me.

ANSWER: Your question is a tough one. It takes time and experience to differentiate between thoughts and premonitions. Even then, there are different types of premonitions. Sometimes there is a flash of a possible future occurrence that is a warning that one needs to pay attention or alter a behavior to forgo an event. Other times, it is a preview/breakthrough of linear time, which might boggle the rational mind, but certainly is real. On such occasions, I personally have not been able to alter these events, even with prior knowledge of them. I suspect this inability is the experience of most people in similar situations. If you are interested in developing intuitive powers, there are ample avenues to do so. One always needs to question the rationale behind such desires, as they are almost always mere distractions and attempts at control, which is why most spiritual traditions warn us against such pursuits.

The veil is getting thinner by the day now, so many of us are having similar experiences. Grounding is always the key to connect with the inner compass. The hectic life that you describe is not only in the outer, but also in the inner. Our unconscious is being churned up, which is why there is so much chaos. Our group response is to hold on firmly to the mask until it is ripped out of our hands. So all the horrible things that you describe have always been on this plane with us. It is the speed that it is all unraveling at that throws the bodymind in a loop. Again, there is no other way to navigate these waters but to find and keep to our centers. This is not an easy thing; it is a relationship that needs to be administered to daily and moment to moment. Nothing less is asked of all of us now.

You say all of this is painful to you: only a psychopath devoid of feeling would not find the state of affairs painful. But remember, at the same time, that we have all incarnated at this specific time in history for a reason. Radical chaos brings radical opportunity for change and awakening. Internally let go of all that does not serve you while doing the best that you can to provide a livelihood for yourself.