The root word of "psychic"--"psyche"-- means "soul". Psychic development is ultimately soul or spiritual development. While the idea of psychic development is often confused with the occurrence of strange phenomena or unusual mental powers, these are basically just symptoms of the tremendous potential of human beings that are being expressed in an almost accidental manner.

Healthy Psychic Development

Because the manifestation of these kinds of abilities is very close to the deeper, more unconscious reaches of the mind, it is important to be very grounded in your approach to these types of exploration. It is easy to be distracted by the abilities themselves and think of them as a kind of "goal." In fact, they are not. They are merely manifestations of your mind and its interconnection with all of life, all of the Universe.

The other thing that can also happen is that unresolved psychological material may emerge. For someone with a high degree of self-knowledge, this is generally quite obvious when it occurs and can be easily handled. For the less experienced, however any such material must be taken quite seriously. The aspects of our inner being that are likely to cause discomfort or worse are known in Jungian terms as "The Shadow." It is so called, because it is the part of us that has been repressed and, since it is in the dark, is most difficult to see.

Anger, dysfunctional behaviors and the whole range of human hurt can be hidden here. One of the most important stages of psychic development lies in coming to terms with these parts of yourself. Only then may you safely journey onwards. In undertaking any form of psychic development, many people do not realize they are, in effect, carrying a torch into their own darkness, but that is the case. The wonderful part, however, is discovering the many treasures that you may have neglected or buried within as part of this process. Some of these treasures will even manifest in the form of the wonderful abilities we all think of as "psychic."