The Art of Scanning

This is an article on scanning which I hope you will enjoy and perhaps find some use of. It will have the following parts;

1.An introduction to the concept of scanning

2.A few simple scanning exercises.

3.Introduction to sensitivity.

4.Common issues when beggining scanning.

5.Types of scanning.

1. Introduction to scanning;

Scanning is essentially the act of reaching your awareness out to a target in order to obtain information of some sort. It is extremely simple in its basic concept and not nearly so much a black art as it is often made out to be, and once can achieve some success with scanning within a few hours to a few days although one will afterwards spend a lifetime trying to master the skill. One note one has to make about scanning is a consideration of how the mind interprets information and the concept of sensory literals, for example let's consider sight-it is based on the exciting of certain cones and rods within ones eye by electromagnetism in the visible light spectrum which then goes through several types of neurological processing in order to be perceived as colour. One must realize that colour is not the original input but an interpretation of it and a different interpretation would lead to a very different cognitive and perceptual universe, one can see a mild example of this by the reports of those who have synesthesia who can 'hear colour' or 'see sound'-the neurological systems which are associated with one sense get crossed over to one degree or another. Why is this relevant to scanning? Because when scanning a similar process occurs, except for two differences which are a. unless one is a natural clairvoyant or similar, and even then though to a lesser degree, the mind has no pre-set pathway for dealing with this psychic information, so it gets translated in many different and sometimes haphazard ways. Sometimes one will get a series of very bizarre and abstract symbols which one must quite a while to find out how to interpret, other times the information can be very literal. One might get the information channels mixed with sight and then this skill will be called clairvoyance or one might get it as a feeling in one’s gut and it will be called intuition even though energetically speaking there may or may not-in my opinion it depends on the individual case-be any sort of literal difference between them and b. partly as a result of this and partly as a result of the way ones subtle bodies work, ones scanning pathways are in a way infinitely upgradable. One isn't limited to having the information perceived in one way and one can easily obtain a gut feeling or a visual perception depending on what you are looking for. One will have certain natural proclivities due to the way one’s mind works, and will tend to develop certain habits, but one is not limited to those and allowing oneself to be limited to those entirely is destructive to ones development as a scanner and will lead to stagnancy. This isn't to suggest one constantly destroy what one has learned previously, but that one should constantly build upon and add new 'tools', new pathways for the information to manifest itself into conscious awareness, as one develops and practices as a scanner.

2. A few simple scanning exercises;

I will be giving these in a bit of a list format, some basic energy manipulation will be

assumed; 

1. Simple Coordinate RV; while often considered separate from scanning by some, it is in my opinion a subset of it and will train one to open the pathway. While an entire discussion of remote viewing is outside of the purview of this article, and I recommend you pursue it further using whatever research one can, I can give a simple description of the process as well as why it is useful for the development of scanning ability. Firstly, find a practice target, either try to get a friend to give you one or do a search on Google for 'remote viewing practice targets', there are many sites which will be likely to give you some. Get a pen and paper, write the coordinates, which serve as a link in standard remote viewing theory to a sort of informational matrix, on the top of the piece of paper and slowly repeat them to oneself ensuring that the message is given to one subconscious mind via this that one is serious about obtaining information. Loosely rest pen on paper and wait until you get a response from the target, do not try to consciously induce this just wait for it, it will be difficult to recognize as anything, perhaps just a squiggly line or something very similar to that but it will nevertheless represent ones first contact with the target. In standard CRV(which this isn't is, to be truly called standard CRV one must obtain some form of proper training), this is called an ideogram. One must decode the ideogram, finding whatever response it gives, what the 'essence' of it is symbolically to you, and then write it down on the paper-just the essence one obtains, NOT an attempt at identifying the target although if any thoughts of identification come in these must be written down too and declared as AOL's. For example, if drew a sharp, pointed zigzagging line and this 'felt' artificial to you, you would write down maybe 'sharp, pointed, artificial' and if one got an AOL it was say an office building one would write down "AOL 13 story office building” or similar. Do not be discouraged if you get a lot of AOL or have difficulty recognizing AOL from valid data at first, this is part of the process. Once one has obtained this first contact, one can move on as information comes in, being sure to not rush the process and going for example into sensory data, if one gets an impression of darkness after this for example one would write this down, and so on. This is just a VERY basic introduction to RV for the purpose of introducing one to psychic information flow, if you are interested in this I highly recommend you research further.

The use of this in training scanning is this; one needs to obtain some form of initial information flow, this method of gaining a. direct response which to a very large degree bypasses the conscious mind entirely will teach one in a very direct way how to initially obtain a contact with a line of psychic information flow and prepare one for more advanced things, and begins building the pathways up in a way which has very little chance of getting muddied with interpretational data.

2. Shield Scanning; as far as energetic scanning goes, this is the absolute basic's and a great way to build confidence and gain conscious control over the initial making of contact with a target. You will need two people for this, one to make the shield and one to scan, after the shield is made the scanner will begin... well, scanning. You reach your awareness out to the shield, just focus on it and allow part of your essential self to be aspect of ones being which can be defined as what is traditionally known as a subtle body, which is basically the body one has on another level of existence. Some of these bodies are the ones which one detaches from ones physical body in order to perform astral projection, if you're familiar with chakra's you are already partially familiar with the concept. Some might disagree about whether or not these literally exist, my own view tends towards them being very literally existent as well as symbolically and subjectively existent, but they are a very useful concept to use when performing scanning either way. In order to achieve a psychic perception according to this theory, there must be some form of impact upon these bodies; hence, making these bodies more sensitive to such impacts is very much in a scanners interest. The two exercises which I have practiced to directly increase such sensitivity are: having someone scan you at ones chakra points, scanning at a certain point and just basically waiting there with ones awareness, while you try to feel what chakra point is being scanned. This will directly sensitive these points and allow one to receive other perceptions from them with a far increased clarity.

Using them as adjuncts in scanning; this has to come with a warning, it is very easy to accidentally overload yourself while doing this but basically one scans a target, any sort of target, and when one has obtained some form of contact one then sort of 'asks' part of ones subtle bodies what it can receive about the target, for example one might ask ones astral hands what they are receiving and get a gooey, tingling feeling, then ask ones third eye and get an intuition of a spherical shape and then ask ones etheric eyes and get an impression of a bunch of bright lines shooting upwards. Then you get feedback and learn it was a soft-textured power gathering constructs made out of two spheres circling around each other gathering ambient energy and storing them in the ceiling or something similar.

This is just a very basic idea of how to increase your sensitivity, with some creativity you will come up with many others of equal or greater use.

4: Common issues when beginning scanning:

1. Scaling; this is something talked about in an article at the Psion guild, basically it means one will often lose ones point of reference while scanning. The most common form of this is scanning something and smacking your awareness right into the target, an amusing example would be scanning someone’s sword construct and smacking right against the point; you get a sudden headache and an impression of a dot as your perceptions. The best way to avoid this at least at first is to avoid jumping to conclusions and be sure to try to scan the target from multiple angles, zooming in and out and thus getting a good grip on it.

2. "I can't see anything!"; this issue has multiple components, one being a visual bias with the expectation that information has to come in sight when it could just as easily come in the form of a gut feeling, a texture or just a sudden idea, another being a lack of sensitivity which can be dealt with by practicing more and another being pre-judging of perceptions-basically your deeper mind did present you with a perception, but it was very subtle, perhaps a slight flash of red with a slick texture and you just shrugged it off and decided it was nothing or passed it off as part of your thoughts. Your mind then decides you are not going to take what it gives seriously and in simple terms decides to just not bother anymore.

3. Too much AOL; The best ways of correcting this are; mental fluidity, describing rather than identifying and breaking ones perceptions apart, eventually one gets a feel for what is valid data and what is AOL and until then one just has to keep on practicing until this develops.

4. Too much information; Often when scanning, once your mind has decided you are going to act on what it gives, you will get all the information in a sudden flash-flood. Just work with it, pick through it for whatever you can get and clear your mind and basically ask yourself for the pieces of it.

5. Types of scanning;

Here are a few types of scanning you can try out to expand your perceptions and build your perceptual instrument:

Field scanning; basically one scans someone’s energetic field, this is very simple to do and

is much like shield scanning, and in fact it can sometimes be very easy to confuse someone’s field with a shield depending on how toughened their initial field layer is, which often does become toughened to such a degree it functions as a natural shield, and how well-programmed the shield is. One small game to play with this is to have one person’s try to alter their field and then have the other scan it, compare results and see how well they match.

Telepathic scanning; basically like any other form of scan except you will look into their minds, just look for the general 'frequency' of their telepathy and you will come across it. Don't be impatient if it's fragmented or hard to navigate at first, and also don't neccasarily jump on it if it comes extremely clear at first. Just let the perceptions flow, and move your awareness around to try to find what you need.

Systems scanning; Scanning peoples subtle bodies. There are many models for how to do this, the four-plane model of etheric, astral, mental and spiritual being a very common one. If you become known for scanning you will get scanning requests which amount to a systems scanning request a lot of the time, for just practice you can have one person do anything which involves working with their own systems, self-modifications to qi gong, and then scan it and then compare results.

Tech scanning; 'Tech' is a form of energy working much more efficient than constructs, in order to scan tech be prepared for a lot of symbolism when trying to interpret the data and concentrate a lot on how the information is flowing through the piece of tech. Omnimancy have some information on tech, despite their very regrettable decision to keep their own tech 'closed source' as it were.

I hope you enjoyed this article,

Sincerely Felidae-ICTX


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This article is slightly outdated and the views of the author has since changed in many ways.

An introduction

<@Unknown> So, we plan on creating a community to encourage the development of the occult beyond the basics towards a malefic currents as is implicited in the 'fight' part of'psifight.' To back that up, we plan on encouraging acquiring one or more practice partners. Along with a blog kind of place to post logs with valuable information among other things,perhaps ramblings of a subject or an article, etc.  <@Fenzir> Without restricting freedom of the mage or his or her path <@Unknown> And hope to build a place where a mage can speak up without being attacked from every side for having an opposing belief to that of the channel.  <@SeekInfinity-ICTX> I do agree though with the development beyond the basics I do think keeping in mind the analogy to the idea of a technology singularity would be usefull in what it implies for how far we wish to go beyond the basics.  <Zorak> I Agree, feli. I just use the word god because its a common term for the type of being oyu described <@Fenzir> So what does everything think of our plans for psifight? <Zorak> Excuse me, i will say i agree with the connection to existence parts. I dont follow "systems" I just look and find. I think the plan is good for those who have the time to blog their experiments. The matter of concern i have is the partnering, incompatible partners would lessen the potential for a successful and/or groundbreaking experiment <Brilenus|ICTX> I'm neutral towards it. I dislike working closely with others, but don't mind sharing what I learn and attempting to help others. *shrugs*<@Unknown> We were only encouraging it, and was supposed to be entirely optional. A way for those looking for some extra practice to find someone to learn with.  <@Unknown> Then again, most of it is still foundational and we are looking for your inputs so everyone is in agreement and can live with it.<Kazasu> I like the idea in general, and would be interested in joining the community, I might even speak more than once or twice a day<Brilenus|ICTX> Hmm... Quick suggestion... We form a sort of 'pool' of useful creations that can be accessed by anyone within the channel. Shouldn't be too difficult to manage, I don't think. <@Fenzir> Yeah it is optional of course. It will be like having someone to participate in a working if need be or someone, if you choose, you can practice with. I too, at most times work alone, but I do appreciate having the opportunity to work with people :)
<Brilenus|ICTX> I realized it could be useful when thinking of how my creations work (all at least semi-intelligent and can act based on instructions given to them) and how if everyone had access to them, they could be studied more, and possibly set up to help people if something such as their systems failing occurs.  <Fenzir_> Thanks, I accidentally closed my client   <Brilenus|ICTX> <SeekInfinity-ICTX> Zorak-I'm not bound by any systems but do find them usefull... I use more than one system ultimately though... and you have a valid point about incompatible practice partners, but with a 'list' format you could see everyone who is looking for one and choose from that. Also, while practices with low-compatability partners can be frustrating it can also be usefull-i've had alot of benefit before from partners I <Brilenus|ICTX> wasn't the most compatible wit  <Brilenus|ICTX> --> Fenzir_ (Fenzir@***.***.***.*****) has joined #psifight <Fenzir_> Thank you   <Leaf> Any kind of optional systems of doing things are great IMO. A forum of sorts might even be active now.  <Fenzir_> I am heading to bed, good night.   *** Fenzir quit (Ping timeout)  <Leaf> Cya.  <Leaf> Pong.   <Zorak> Seek, if i work with someone who isnt open minded, i can easily say the project wont be a success  <Brilenus|ICTX> I don't think any of us are not openminded.  <Kazasu> I think its more about the path rather than the destination when working with someone you're incompatible with   <@SeekInfinity-ICTX> That's why experimental projects aren't the best use for those partners but the more basic exercises-learning to get an image from someones mind when you and them are both of almost no psychic compatability and even less personality compatability and so are almost expecting each other to fail can do wonders for ones telepathic sensitivity. Also an incredibly annoying experience, worse than chalk grinding on ones ears, but valuable. Some hate those kinds of exercises in themeselves and wouldn't find   <@SeekInfinity-ICTX> much value in the experience because of that, or don't want to go through with it, but it still can be a valuable experience*shrugs*  <@SeekInfinity-ICTX> Though not one i'd like to repeat too often... heh  <Zorak> That is a very good point seek. I was referring to those who just swear something isnt doable at all, just fluff. I guess ill go eat now since my low blood sugar makes me talk weird  <Kazasu> Huh[  <Kazasu> Why place limits on something when you can't yet see them? <Fenzir_> Zorak, you needn't work with anyone, it was a suggestion <@Fenzir> Brilenus, that is a useful suggestion :)