Despite the accent on horror in the film The Sixth Sense, your own sixth sense is likely to be quite helpful in everyday life. Also helpful will be your seventh, eighth and ninth senses, according to scientist and brain researcher Pete Sanders. 

In his book, You are Psychic, (Simon & Schuster, N.Y., 1989). Sanders describes four extrasensory abilities. They involve beyond-the-normal feeling, intuition, vision, and hearing.  Each of us have all four of these extra senses in some degree, even though unrecognized or untapped. It makes sense, according to Sanders, to know and develop your top ESP talents to help improve your life.

 It's not difficult to discover what your strongest ESP talents may be from your own past experiences. You can also find them indicated in your astrological chart if you know where to look. 

Psychic Feeling

 From his research, Sanders points out that Psychic Feeling is the most accessible and easiest to interpret. It's manifested in that "gut feeling" you get about some situation. Astrologically, I've found that if you're strong in this ability you may have the sensitive, emotional sign Cancer prominent in your chart. Your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant may be in Cancer. Or the ruler of Cancer, the Moon, may be prominent in your chart. The Moon may be in or ruling the first house of self, in the supersensitive twelfth house of the unconscious mind, or elevated above the other planets. The Moon and the sign Cancer rule the stomach and solar plexus area of the body, the area where you're most apt to experience these "gut feelings." 

Psychic Feelers are especially vulnerable to the emotions and feelings of those in their general vicinity. As children, they feel very uncomfortable when the adults in their life are angry or upset. These sensitive individuals need to learn to recognize their own borders, where they stop and others begin, so that they don't unconsciously take on the ills, pains or negative emotions of the people around them. On the positive side, the Feelers can learn to gain useful information and improve their judgment of events and people by listening to the feelings that a person or situation evokes in them. 

The planet Pluto and sign Scorpio are also important in another type of sensory feeling. This is perception--whether conscious or unconscious--of the unseen energies of the universe, the "vibes" one feels from people and places. This type of sensing includes what is termed psychometry, an ability to tell something about a person or situation from an object that person has had in his possession. An individual with Scorpio or Pluto placed prominently in his chart can be extra aware of these unseen energies and, if of a positive nature, may have a very healing touch and presence. Many good physicians, healers, and spiritual leaders have a Scorpio Sun, Moon or Ascendant, or have Pluto, the ruler of Scorpio, importantly placed in their horoscopes.

 Psychic Intuition

 If you experience strong flashes of unexpected insight, you may be high in Psychic Intuition, the extra-sense that is the easiest to use helpfully in your life. Inspiration comes easily and from out of the blue for this type of person, and first impressions are usually the correct ones. You may have experienced this at times when you felt you just knew who was calling you on the phone before you picked it up. Or when the answer to a perplexing situation came to you suddenly and turned out to be the right answer.

 In some area, you'll have a touch of genius associated with you if you're strong in this ability. You may also have important planets or placements strong in the sign of Aquarius or have the planet Uranus rising or near the Midheaven of your chart. The key words for the sign Aquarius are "I know," which certainly describes Psychic Intuition and answers that come to you "off the top of your head."

 Not so strangely, the top of one's head is the area of the body associated with this sense. Put your attention there when you want to tune into inspiration, creative ideas, and insight about your life. You'll find that you go into a more relaxed, alpha state when you do, and ideas will flow more easily. 

Psychic Vision 

The ability to gain information from the pictures that flash across your mind's eye is the next kind of sensing. It also includes the ability sometimes to "see" the auric energies surrounding a person. The part of the body associated with Psychic Vision is the middle of the forehead, often called the "third eye." When you close your eyes, you automatically shift your visual attention to this area of the forehead. If you are extremely developed in this ability, you may be more apt than most to see into another dimension of reality, but this is not an everyday type of expression of this talent. 

This ability is most often associated with professional psychics--at least those who are genuine. Those who receive their impressions in this way are often called "clairvoyants" which is a term meaning "clear seeing." Although this is the ability most often seen as psychic ability, it is, according to Sanders, just one of the four main abilities. It's most often associated with a powerful Neptune or strong Pisces or 12th house energy in one's chart. But the visions and pictures this type of person sees need to be correctly interpreted. So this is not always the most accurate way of gaining extrasensory information, writes Sanders.

 Psychic Hearing 

The fourth ESP ability is Psychic Hearing. The auditory type will often hear an "inner voice" that seems to give answers or inner guidance. This ability, according to Sanders, is more likely to be found in practical and down-to-earth types who often confuse their inner voice with "talking to oneself" and coming up with answers. Sanders says that these people are the best transmitters of their own thoughts as well as coming up with specific answers to questions. 

But this is one of the hardest abilities to develop, and answers may be confused with one's own thoughts. Since Taurus rules the throat and voice, I would say that a prominent Venus or the sign Taurus might be involved in this ability--or Capricorn and its planet, Saturn, which rules hearing. The part of the body to focus on for this ability is the area of the head right above the ears. 

So, we are all "psychic" to some extent. Everyone has these extra senses, but one or two of the four are usually most prominent in each of us. If you wish to develop your own extrasensory skills, it's best to determine which are the strongest and work with these, says Sanders.

 My Own Novel Approach

 In writing novels, I rely heavily on my own two strongest extrasensory skills, Intuition and Feeling. I find that ideas flow most easily if I put myself in a relaxed, meditative mood. Some of my plot ideas have even come from dreams. And because of my fascination with the world beyond the mundane, I often include in my plots interesting ESP experiences from my own life.

 My e-novel, The Runaway Fiancee,which was published by Wordbeams in May 2000, contained an incident of this type. In the novel, the heroine, Zan Forrest, is stranded in Venice, California, hungry and homeless, with only a pack of tarot cards to her name--and no idea of how to read them. It's a sunny summer weekend. Tourists looking for diversion crowd the boardwalk. Zan, on the run from a dangerous fiance, must somehow find a way to survive on her own, and the tarot cards seem to hold the answer to earning her next meal. 

Fortunately, I've never been in that situation, but I did use an encounter of mine with tarot cards to solve Zan's predicament in the novel. Once for a costume party, I had dressed as a gypsy, borrowing a pack of tarot cards to carry for a prop.

During the party, a friend suggested playfully that I give her a tarot card reading with my prop cards. 

I just laughed. "You know I don't do tarot cards." 

"Oh, you don't know what you can do," she suggested. A Pisces, she was deeply into many studies about metaphysical and psychic abilities. "Why don't you just shuffle and lay out three cards on the table."

 "I wouldn't have any idea how to read them," I insisted. There was a little instruction sheet with the cards, so I knew each one had an assigned meaning. And I knew many books had been written on the elaborate pictures and symbols and how to interpret them. But I just wasn't interested in the subject. I found astrology much more scientific and meaningful. 

My friend, who has Gemini rising, has always been interested in doing things the fun way. "Well, just say the first thing that comes into your head," she suggested with a laugh.

 "Okay." I've got a good imagination so it was easy to look at the symbols and quickly make up a story to go with each. My friend seemed to like her reading. 

But others were observing us. Soon people I didn't know were asking me to read the cards for them. In the spirit of fun, I did so. Soon I found myself tuning into situations in the lives of these strangers that were of deep concern to them. At one point, I looked up from the table to see that a line of about twenty people had formed. All waiting for a reading.

 Although I really prefer astrology, I probably did well that evening because, with Uranus at the top of my chart, intuition is my primary ESP ability. It's most reliable when you're relaxed and at ease and just trust the first impression that pops into your head.