The Psychological Mechanism
Scrying comes in many forms. Individual scryers will tailor their methods to their own needs, or invent new techniques that work best for them. Regardless of appearance, all forms of scrying rely on the same basic psychological mechanism.
The scryer focuses attention on a physical object or performs a series of mental or physical actions to create a receptive mental state for receiving deep mind information.
Ordinary consciousness blocks the reception of his scried information. That’s why extrasensory perception is rare in our everyday lives. Mediumistic or psychic individuals may experience sudden visual flashes or mental voices issuing urgent commands. These clairvoyant or clairaudient episodes usually concern an urgent matter in their lives, such as a loved one’s injury or a home fire, or foreshadow their own or a relative’s death. They aren’t controlled and thus aren’t scrying. In times of dire need, the unconscious mind can bypass or override the conscious mind’s control to present vital extrasensory information.
Receptive State of Consciousness
Normally, the unconscious mind is unable to break through the barrier of ordinary awareness, regardless of the urgency. Scrying can help here. Scrying (by any method) induces a receptive state of consciousness. We also tell the deep mind that we are open to receiving information that does not come through our five senses.
If we don’t specify what information we want, we could get anything and decipher it. Before we scry, we can tell the deep mind what information we want—for example, the experiences of a specific person in history, the outcome of a future event, or the location of a lost person or object. A narrowly defined topic can yield more useful data, but it is also more difficult to access reliably.
Scrying and Hypnotism
Notably, a scryer’s heightened or receptive consciousness cannot be described as a trance because the scryer usually feels no different while scrying, or at most gains a sense of timelessness. A scryer can still speak, move, and think normally. The scryer’s mind has evolved to allow for the perception of unconscious messages cast into images, sounds, sensations, or other sensory metaphors.
Scrying is actually auto-hypnosis. A hypnotized person is not asleep or unconscious. The induction suggestion “sleep-sleep-sleep” causes hypnotized people to appear to be asleep. In this case, the hypnotized subject will follow the hypnotist’s lead and pretend to sleep. The hypnotized person will appear fully alert and awake while hypnotized, and will be able to carry on a perfectly lucid conversation with anyone.
In ordinary hypnosis, the subject concentrates on a physical object and listens to the hypnotist’s verbal induction. Focusing the mind opens the door to the deep mind’s input. The hypnotist tells the subject to listen to him and obey his commands. When the subject accepts these suggestions, the hypnotist can access the subject’s deep mind and bring up old memories or forgotten incidents, or make the subject see or feel things that are not physically present.
The Post-Hypnotic Suggestion
Post-hypnotic suggestion is a fascinating aspect of hypnotism. The hypnotist can re-hypnotize the same person in seconds by planting a post-hypnotic suggestion during the initial induction that the subject will enter a hypnotic state upon being given a simple signal such as a certain word or finger snapping.
If the hypnotist tells the subject to return to hypnosis after hearing the word “cider,” the subject will do so even if they have been out of hypnosis for days or weeks. The subject will not appear changed when the hypnotist says “cider,” but will have entered a receptive state of consciousness without realizing it. The subject will unconsciously accept the hypnotist’s suggestions as if they were their own.
Determining whether or not she is aware of the change in her state is difficult because it is impossible to predict the outcome of hypnosis. She will wriggle like a fish if he tells her to. If he tells her to forget what she did and return to normal consciousness, she won’t know how to respond.
She may make up an absurd explanation to appease her own mind, such as her back itching or her desire to be silly, but she has no idea why she lay on the floor and wriggled like a fish, as it was not her idea, and she cannot recall receiving the command from the hypnotist.
What happens when we Scry
Scrying puts us in a receptive state of consciousness similar to hypnosis. The difference is that no one else can give us specific advice while we scry. Our minds remain open to new ideas. We can influence the parameters of this receptive state by focusing our attention on the purpose of the scrying session.
For example, we might think that the purpose of scrying is to find out where so-and-so is. It’s like a hypnotist telling us we’ll get a certain sensory impression. Our unconscious mind is driven by our desire to know where someone is and will gather information nonsensorily, translate it into sensory forms that our awareness can comprehend, and deliver it to our consciousness as sounds, images, etc.
First Difficulty of Scrying
The scryer has two challenges. The first step is to achieve receptive consciousness. This is difficult for most people at first but becomes much easier with practice. The mechanics of scrying eventually serve to automatically induce this receptive condition, much like a post-hypnotic command will automatically rehypnotize a previously hypnotized person.
Expert water dowsers pick up a dowsing rod. The wand in their hands automatically shifts them into a receptive state of consciousness without their knowledge. Their deep mind directs their hands to turn the wand downward when they move over a water source picked up by their unconscious through extrasensory means. To the dowser, the wand appears to turn of its own accord.
We all salivate involuntarily when we think of a slice of lemon in our mouth when we pick up the dowsing wand. It’s a learned response. The change is subliminal. Scrying would be impossible without conditioned response.
When we first use a crystal ball to scry, nothing happens. With regular practice, our mind learns to enter a receptive state simply by uncovering the crystal and gazing at it for a few moments.
Second Difficulty of Scrying
The second challenge faced by scryers is controlling and directing the subject. Uncontrolled visions could be about anything. Because scried visions are often cryptic, we would have no frame of reference to make sense of them. For example, if we saw a horse fall and break its leg, we wouldn’t know what to make of it. If we specify that the scrying session is only for our upcoming vacation and the horse breaks its leg, we might interpret this to mean that our travel plans will be disrupted.
In regular hypnosis, it is never difficult to limit the deep mind’s impressions. The hypnotist tells the subject to recall a specific event or scene. Even if the hypnotized person’s visions are cryptic, the hypnotist is confident that they relate to the area of interest.
There is no hypnotist present to give specific commands while the subject is in a receptive state. But a mind in a receptive state of consciousness can’t give itself instructions. The mind leaves the receptive state when commands are formed in consciousness, and they do not reach the deep mind.
This is similar to when we dream and suddenly realize we are dreaming. Most people wake up when they realize they are dreaming. Consciousness is incompatible with dreaming. It wakes them up.
Split Consciousness
Fortunately, strong desire and repeated practice can create a split consciousness that allows one level of awareness to continue dreaming while another level of awareness becomes aware that it is dreaming. Similarly, during scrying, it is possible to achieve and maintain a receptive mental state while also examining the visions or other deep mind impressions. You can direct the subject of your scryed visions while scrying them.
The way to do this is not easily described. It’s like learning to ride a bike or swim: it takes practice. This is a learning process. Traditional scrying can only provide a framework and set of tools that have worked for other scryers over the centuries.
The Tools of the Trade
Scrying works without a crystal ball, a black mirror, or a Ouija board. These are strictly scrying aids. They have no power in themselves. A good scryer can scry with only his or her mind. However, crystals and other tools have been used for scrying for thousands of years. However, they help create a favorable mental state that facilitates the formation of the required receptive state.
A specific object, such as a crystal ball, can be trained to quickly induce the desired mental state for scrying. This is what it means when it is said that a magician’s tools gain power over time. Similarly, a scryer’s tools gain power through repeated use. Sadly, these same tools will not work for someone else because they lack the conditioned reflex patterns that allow them to act as triggers to induce receptive awareness.
Things of the Moon
The traditional selection of scrying tools followed a set of very clear symbolic laws. Scrying instruments, substances, symbols, and times are those that relate to the Moon. While any object can be used as a focus for scrying (a rock, a stick, a nail), scryers have long accepted lunar objects and substances like the crystal ball as more successful. It would be both arrogant and foolish to ignore the Moon’s connection to scrying. True, you can scry with a cantaloupe, but using a crystal has historically been more successful.
The Moon controls the ocean tides and the monthly cycle of women’s menstruation. Visual scrying instruments are often watery. Water, ink, oil, obsidian, jet, glass, various watery gem-stones, silver (which reflects images like water’s surface), and mirrors of all kinds are examples.
Water and the Unconscious
Water is archetypally linked to the unconscious mind. We can debate why this is, but it is undeniable after Carl Jung defined the human mind’s primary archetypes. Water is the realm of mystery and unseen forces in all cultures’ myths. The dragon of chaos lives in water because these forces are dangerous.
Water reflects images. It was our only mirror. A mirror allows us to see ourselves. Naturally, a mirror was deemed suitable for peering into our own subconscious. It’s a window into the endless sea of chaos, where all images are hidden.
Using lunar materials for scrying allows us to access this ancient link between water and the unconscious. The use of rock crystal and other Moon-related substances predisposes the conscious awareness to sensory metaphors created by the deep mind. These things happen to us whether we want them or not. It does not guarantee success in scrying, but it opens a channel between consciousness and the unconscious that greatly increases our chances.
