Shielding 

A shield is a bubble of energy that works like a window screen. It filters the energy that moves through it and defends against other’s negative energy. It also prevents people with psychic abilities from using them with you. Shields help empaths keep others' emotions separate from their own.

Creation

Begin by clearly thinking through your purpose for the shield. Why do you want a shield? What exactly do you want it to do? Will it keep out all energy, or just bad energy? Will it be temporary, or will it be permanent? Will it only be defensive, or will it attack in response to negative energy?

Once you have a clear intent, begin drawing energy and swirling it around you. Picture the energy as anything you wish. Common visualizations are soap bubbles, waterfalls, balls of light, fire, trees/vines, crystals, feathered wings or fur, tank metal, and armor. Choose an image that you enjoy thinking about and that isn’t cramped or heavy. Swirl the energy around you.

When you feel the shield is strong enough, let go. It will maintain itself with whatever purpose you gave it as you created it. If the shield depletes over time, repeat to add more energy.

Effects

A shield can have many effects, alone or in combination. A shield can keep energy on one side or the other, or act as a filter to allow only certain energy inside. It can convert energy from one form to another so that a filter is unnecessary. Shields help empaths keep out some of the extra emotional energy so they don't feel overwhelmed.

Shields also define boundaries in the physical world, which people will usually not to cross. Often they won’t even realize why they stopped there. The edge of a shield works as a psychic alarm. When someone physically crosses it, the shield gives the owner a psychic warning that someone is nearby.

Shields cause any effects you intend them to have when you create them. Just like any psychic ability, energy follows thought. Whatever you think about when you create the shield affects how it is created. Shield effects are not at all limited to what is listed here; anything you can think of, you can do.

Maintenance

Stress sometimes interferes with maintaining a shield. Under normal circumstances, a shield maintains itself for quite a while. However, large amounts of negative energy, attacks, illness, and lack of sleep all weaken a shield. This section explains how to maintain a shield under stressful conditions.

Daily Stress

Daily stress is the most common difficulty with shielding. While a shield often prevents psychic energy from adding to the stress, eventually the shield weakens. More rest, planned time alone, meditation, and avoiding stress are the best cures. Daily or weekly meditation replenishes a drained shield and helps relax you.

Empathic Overload

Empathic overload is similar to, but can be more intense than, normal stress. Large crowds, schools, and cities are filled with intense emotional energy. Empaths who are particularly sensitive to this learn to build very strong shields to keep other people's emotions separate from their own. The first few days of an emotionally intense environment can be particularly tiring if the empath has not yet made a strong enough shield.

Meditation and self-examination are important to protect from the empathic pounding of emotionally intense environments. Meditation helps relieve the stress and emotional energy in a controlled way. It also gives time to identify the difference between empathic emotions and personal emotions. By identifying yourself carefully (especially emotionally), you add an extra layer to the shield which defines "self" and "other." This helps external emotions bounce off harmlessly.

Electromagnetic Fields

Sometimes electromagnetic fields, from power lines or electronic equipment, can tear at a shield and cause it to weaken. If a person has grown up near power lines, his or her shield may already be adjusted to compensate.

For people who have just entered electric fields, though, it can be rather intense. Experiment with drawing energy from the field and changing it into a more useful form of energy. Also, try matching your own energy to the existing electricity. With some practice, adjusting your shield to that energy takes little effort.

Psychic Battle

Shields also become weakened by psychic battles. Though most people will never need to deal with this, some can't avoid it. They may have known they were dealing with it before ever reading a book on psychic abilities. Shielding is a natural defense to psychic attacks.

During psychic battle, people hold their shields in place by willpower and energy. Willpower controls the shield the most. Calm confidence is the best way to prevent a shield from being drained. If you are uncomfortable trusting in your own endurance, trust in the universe to do what is best for you, whether or not that is protection.

If the shield does feeling drained, draw additional energy from a comfortable source to replenish it. Keep drawing until you know you are safe. If you cannot hold up the strength any longer, place your psychic self some place safe (or even shut down) to avoid being attacked. A safe place is any place, real or imagined, where you feel secure. Attack rarely causes any symptoms worse than a headache, but headaches can be bad. Avoiding fighting is best.

Common Problems

For this, and all future skills, first check your grounding and centering. You should be strongly grounded, and strongly centered. You also need relax and avoid pressuring yourself.

Suggestuions

Ground, center, and relax. Draw energy just as you would to create a psiball. Instead of directing it through your hands, direct it outward around your body, as if you are inside the ball. If you want, use your hands to trace out the size and shape of the shield in the air. Add energy until you feel it strengthen and hold its shape.

Your shield strength is very closely tied to your grounding and centering. Be sure they are both very strong and stable. Relax and stay playful. Your shield should be somewhat flexible, not brittle. Keep it flowing and swirling around you.

Drop the shield for a minute, and push away the energy you don’t like. Clear the space around you. Before you put up a shield, push a lot of energy out away from you. Start the shield tiny inside of you, and make grow bigger like a balloon until it’s around you. This prevents energy from being trapped inside it.

Other people may be affecting your shields, either purposely or accidentally. Staying grounded and well centered will help that. You also may be getting interference from power lines, or an electromagnetic field. Adjust your energy to match it, instead of fighting it, and the shield will work again.

Psychic Skills