The alternative.

Reflecting on this month's series of posts addressing the intersection of consciousness, psi & psychic abilities, ESP, neurodivergence, trauma, nervous & sensory systems (yep it was lot ...scroll back through my feed), I've been considering what an alternative support, health & education service would look like.

The alternative to the mind/logic dominant, top-down, medicalised, pathologising, dehumanising, paradigm we have been operating & living within.

From my lived personal & professional experience, the alternative would include:

Earlier appreciation & understanding sensory (&extra sensory) processing & perception differences

Acceptance, validation, role modelling & mentorship around how to live well regardless of bodymind human diversity &difference 

To be neither labelled superhuman & gifted nor medicalised & pathologised 

To be taught from preschool through to university:

physical, sensory, social, energetic & psychic boundaries (& have them respected)

how our nervous systems work & how to support regulation

how to safely release survival energies & stress

how to ground - energetic & psychic hygiene

how I can contribute to society & where our skills would be valued

conflict management & resolution skills

To receive a holistic education that integrates mind, body, energy, & spirit—encompassing a variety of worldviews and accommodating different ways of knowing—from externally regulated, trained teachers who have both academically studied this modalities & possess lived experience mastery.

Rehumanising spaces across society - making places humane, hospitable, humanitarian, low-arousal, sensory-friendly

Integrating relational & regulatory principles into workplaces, along with the values of connection, belonging, creativity, flexible working arrangements, role carving, & strengths-based recruitment.

This would be a start.
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#educateevolveembody #embodiment #spirituality #depathologise #rehumanise

The intersection of #neurodivergence #nervoussystem #regulation, and #psychic abilities is complex from my lived experience.

As someone who is multiple neurodivergent, I experience hyperempathy and mirror-touch synesthesia—terms that the current systems and services are able to recognise.

 But for me, these experiences are also part of my psychic abilities, such as clairsentience (feeling others' emotions) and clairtangency (feeling energies).

Living in our society as multiple neurodivergent has made nervous system regulation challenging. My body, mind, and energy haven’t always worked in harmony, and I’ve struggled with dysregulation and trauma, which has been a constant undercurrent due to sensory, social, and information-processing differences.

Because of these challenges, I’ve had to rely on my extrasensory perception and psychic abilities—they weren’t “gifts” but rather survival mechanisms. They were how I could gather information, assess situations, and respond. 

These abilities are just one part of my overall bodymind experience, alongside embodied knowledge (feelings, sensations, emotions), logical/rational thinking, and ways of knowing through the nervous system (interoception and neuroception), as well as consciousness and awareness.

From my perspective, no single way of knowing is superior to another. 

The key is to support the vast diversity of human bodyminds and ensure they are seen, heard, and valued.

To do that, we need to open our minds (hearts & empathy), think holistically, and embrace a range of worldviews and ways of receiving and giving information—because, at the end of the day, that’s what communication is.
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We need to depathologise and rehumanise.

Do I think I'm special, gifted or 'superhuman' in experiencing clairvoyance, claircognisance, clairsentience & clairtangency? NO!

Do I think that I have clear & direct access to these (very human) psychic abilities because I'm multiple neurodivergent? YES!

Do I think they are a pathology? NO!

Do I think that humans have a diverse range of bodymind experiences, abilities, skilled, senses across neurotype & life circumstances? YES!

Do I think they need 'treatment' or 'curing'? NO!

Do I think that trauma can 'activate' people's psychic abilities? YES!

Do I think they are a medical or psychiatric 'problem'? NO!

I could go on ...

Yes, psychic emergence can cause a huge amount of distress & destabilisation but these abilities are not inherently a problem or pathology.

It's societal attitudes & a lack of support that is the problem.

And the spiritual 'industry' - that's a BIG problem (for another post!) But unfortunately that's the only place people can go outside of religion and psychiatry at the moment - also the problem.

So, what to do?

Depathologise and rehumanise. Educate the person about what is happening. Help them make sense of the experiences & find meaning. Deescalate & normalise. Support regulation & embodied, felt-sense safety. Resolve trauma & educate about the nervous system. Ground & stabilise. Teach the person boundaries in relation to these abilities. Support mastery.

Bridge, anchor & root these abilities & skills into the mundane.

Encourage people & workplaces to integrate these abilities into their daily lives in practical, innovative ways - to support societal change & systems evolution.

Education, health, mental health, spiritual & community care services - DO ALL OF THIS 👆

#educateevolveembody #embodiment #spirituality #depathologise #rehumanise

It’s already considered taboo that I advocate for accepting, validating, and integrating embodied ways of knowing—the intelligence of the body, and the wisdom carried in our sensations and emotions—into education, healthcare, mental health, and spiritual care.

So let’s see what happens now that I’m openly speaking about the need to depathologise & rehumanise, validate & support, #psionic (#psi) abilities, #psychic experiences, and #extrasensoryperception (ESP).

As these abilities emerge a spiritual crisis / emergency can unfold. 

Practitioners who support need to have both lived experience expertise & be grounded, regulated, trauma & nervous system informed.

They need to anchor, translate, bridge & integrate.

#educateevolveembody #embodiment #spirituality #depathologise #rehumanise

Depathologising & rehumanising the Clair (clear) senses - our #psychic abilities

Clairsentience: clear feeling - The ability to perceive information from people, places, objects, through emotional, physical or energetic feelings and sensations.

I experience this.

Claircognisance: clear knowing

The ability to know and receive knowledge without logical processing or explanation.

I experience this.

Clairaudience: clear hearing

The ability to hear voices or sounds, words, music in our own mind's voice that are not physically audible.

I don't experience this (thankfully!)

Clairalience: clear smelling

The ability to smell or perceive scents that are not physically present, often with accompanying psychic insight.

I don't experience this (thankfully!)

Clairgustance: clear smelling

The ability to taste things that are not physically present.

I don't experience this (thankfully!)

Clairvoyance: clear sight

The ability to see visions, images, or events beyond the physical realm, involving the past, present or future events.

I experience this (& with appropriate boundaries remote viewing, lucid dreaming, precognition and retrocognition)

Clairtangency: clear touch

Also known as psychometry, this is the ability to receive information by touching an object, building, or living being.

I experience this.

Twenty years after I wrote my Recovering a Theology of the Erotic dissertation, as part of my Theology & Religious Studies Masters, I had the opportunity to dust off the paper copy & embrace the digital age, pre-recording a presentation on it which was shown at this year's @sst_theology #SST25 Flesh and Blood Theologies Conference at Warwick.

"Recognising the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world" Audre Lorde

Theologically, what is the erotic and its purpose? 

Here are some of the research findings. I reference the work of Catherine Keller, Rita Brock & Carter Heyward.

It's dated to me - ironically in the lack of the eros in the writing & my collusion with the dissociative academic traditions - its style, structure & thought form - BUT what I concluded (post reel) remains entirely relevant.
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#educateevolveembody #embodiment #spirituality #depathologise #rehumanise #inandthrough #embodimentspirituality #embodiededucation #fleshyknowing #theology #fleshandblood #erotic #recovery

Creating space between the stimulus & our response.

This was the overarching aim for the Becoming Nervous System, Trauma & Neurodivergent Informed training I delivered at Chalice Well Trust in Glastonbury.

In the space between stimulus & response, according to Victor Frankl, is our GROWTH & FREEDOM.

In the space there is a CHOICE ...

to react or to respond
to repeat or to repair
to be unconscious or conscious

to be extractive & dominating or reciprocal & relational
to move from I to we
to consider logic AND emotions & sensations

to choose who we want to be as a collective
to be humane & humanitarian & value diversity
to tend to our survival responses & regulation

Becoming a Nervous System, Trauma & Neurodivergent Informed organisation means ...

CHOOSING - to become educated about:
bodymind & it's diversity
the nervous system & how bodies respond to stressors
how to create space between stimulus & response

ENGAGING - individually & organisationally:
in space creating practices, resourcing & engaging in change-agency & evolution

EMBODYING - individually & as leaders:
regulation, co regulation & conscious, holistic, responsive relating.

#educateevolveembody #embodiededucation

​Delivering a three day training earlier this month at Chalice Well in Glastonbury to support the staff & trustees to become nervous system & trauma informed through a neurodiversity affirming lens, was one of the greatest honours of my life.

I've never felt more welcomed, heard & respected as a facilitator & have never had a more conscious, reflective & heart-led group of training participants.

A beautiful community which I hope to be a more active part of going forward.

Grateful.

#educateevolveembody #embodiededucation #embodimentspirituality #inandthrough #fleshyknowing #glastonbury #chalicewell #conscious #community #consciousliving #nervoussysteminformed #traumainformed #neurodiversityaffirming

​Our human need for & experience of meaning, purpose, belonging & connection (to something greater than ourselves)

The quality of being concerned with the spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things

I depathologise & educate about our spiritual needs & experiences & advocate for them to be met across society & institutional spaces.

#educateevolveembody #spirituality