If we intentionally practice trusting and relying on our intuitive promptings, we find ourselves awakening more to them.

Dear Friends,

The interview I have to share with you today is near and dear to my heart. I'm speaking with Max Highstein about his course, Develop Your Psychic and Intuitive Ability. It has been through the use of my own intuition that I bring you a new DailyOM essay each day. I'm grateful for the time I've spent honing my talent. Max is a world-renowned teacher in this field and has been a DailyOM colleague for many years. It is my hope you will find some new and interesting information in this interview about being psychic and intuitive!


Madisyn Taylor: The idea of being psychic is still scary to most people, which is interesting because we are all born with intuition and it is a natural part of being human. As a child I assumed everybody saw spirits and "knew" things like I did. Talk to me about this.

Max Highstein: The word "psychic" is such a loaded term that "intuitives" recently began using that word instead to define themselves. But psychic actually stems from a Greek word meaning "of or relating to the soul!" It simply means a kind of natural knowing that we all share. For example, we've all felt the difference between the energy in a church and that in a bar or on a beach. Something just "feels" different. That feeling is extrasensory perception or ESP. We are all psychic to some degree just as we all have at least some musical, artistic, or athletic ability, and if we cultivate our natural abilities we can bring out and enhance them. But Western culture and education has tended to minimize intuition in favor of intellect, so that by the time a child is seven years old, a lot of their "fairy" experiences drop by the wayside from neglect. Developing one's intuitive ability is about waking some of that up again. Everyone has met someone new and had a kind of "off" inkling about them, a sense that they might be best avoided. If we intentionally practice trusting and relying on those intuitive promptings, we find ourselves awakening to them more. Our natural intuition begins to come to the fore. You could say we then become more psychic, but really we're just learning to pay attention to what's already there. I call that "turning on the equipment." We all have the intuition equipment, but not everyone's is activated.

MT: You teach about using some helpful tools such as card decks, pendulums, muscle testing, etc. I personally find all of these tools to be very helpful, especially to deepen an answer to a problem. Why did you include these tools in your course?

MH: We humans typically spend most of our time in the part of our mind called the "intellect," but the intellect is very limited when it comes to knowing ourselves. Like a computer, the intellect just knows what it's been programmed to know; it only puts out the information it's been filled with. But fortunately we all have a higher mind that goes far beyond the intellect. In our higher mind we have access to much more. It's the place where we can find inspiration, new ideas, and connection to all sorts of higher guidance and support. The oracles you mentioned - decks, pendulums, and so on - provide a kind of bridge for us to go beyond our intellect and tune in higher. We can use these tools as a jumping-off point, not only at the beginning of our training but later. Many accomplished psychics still use decks, runes, and so on as a way to jump-start their sessions.

MT: Most people on the path to increasing their intuition go through a phase of "I'm just making this up." There is no belief in the information they are receiving, or they are scared of being wrong. How can people get through this phase?

MH: There's no substitute for practice! We have to be willing to be wrong, look foolish, and make mistakes in order to excel at any field. It's the same for musicians, actors, and engineers. Musicians have to play a lot of wrong notes, actors have to feel free enough to experiment, and engineers have to try out different approaches.

By risking thinking or saying something that you might be "making up," you begin to free up your imagination. I've talked about decks and other oracles being a bridge to the higher mind. The imagination is another very important bridge. Suppose there's an angel nearby waiting for you to be open enough so that they can provide you with some crucial guidance for your next step in life. But you've been spending all your time in your intellect and haven't left an opening for them. If you're willing to experiment and lean into your imagination, you can create a kind of "in-between" place where you and your angel/guide can connect. You might begin by imagining you're somewhere in the clouds, and there are lots of angels nearby. What if you're wrong? It doesn't matter! You're working on expanding your awareness, and you're willing to experiment. By "making things up," we make a bridge to higher consciousness and create an opening. Later on, we can filter and edit as needed. But first, we have to be open.

MT: Humans fall into one or more of the eight categories of sensitivity: clairvoyance (clear seeing), claircognizance (clear knowing), clairaudience (clear hearing), clairempathy (clear emotional feeling), clairsentience (clear physical feeling), clairtangency (clear touching), clairsalience (clear smelling), and clairgustance (clear tasting). In your work, which of these do you feel is most important to explore?

MH: Most people lean toward one or two main ways of receiving input. I encourage students to explore different senses to determine where they will get the most traction. Once you find your sweet spot, work deeply there, and then push into the others to try and gain a different perspective. I put the main emphasis with students on feeling, hearing, and seeing since those seem to be the big three.

MT: One of the only drawbacks of being psychic is knowing when to share information with people. I have really learned to stay silent with the information I know unless I'm directly asked. What is the responsibility of those with heightened awareness?

MH: The instinct to want to help people is a natural one most of us share. But often it comes from our own ego's need to be helpful or special in some way. It takes maturity to quietly hold a loving space for someone and not rush in to tell them what we know. But don't fret for others. Life has a way of bringing us each the information we need when we are ready to receive it. The only time I tell people what I know (or think I know) about them is when they have specifically asked. Recently someone called me up and wanted to know if I'd be able to help them uncover something they've been blocked about, something holding them back. I knew immediately what the issue was because I could hear it in their voice. But I also knew they were blocked about it for a good reason. Telling them right there and then would not have been fair to them, or to myself for that matter, because without a lot of rapport established between us they would have simply rejected the information and blamed me for telling them.

MT: I think a lot of people get caught up in where the message is coming from. Is it god, guides, angels, inner guidance, etc. Talk to me about this.

MH: I think it's a fair question, but my answer may surprise you! Often when you go to a psychic for a reading you'll hear them say, "They're saying..." and then they give you a message of some kind. Some psychics have a particular guide they work with on a regular basis. Others may tune into whatever guide is privy to you in particular and has things to say. Some psychics have a whole cast of characters who inform their work, and their sessions can be quite entertaining! However, identifying the source might not be a measure of how valuable or accurate the information may be. Not everyone who develops their psychic and intuitive ability will open to the degree where they can identify the specific guide, angel, or source of the information they receive. And while it's true that you'd want to know you're dealing with a reliable source, and that you would hopefully be dealing with as high a source as possible, ultimately it doesn't matter!

No matter what information we receive, and no matter whom it's from, we're responsible for weighing it ourselves and deciding whether to hold it close or let it go. That's part of what life is about here in Earth School: We learn to trust ourselves by trusting ourselves, making mistakes, and trusting ourselves again. No matter what information we receive, we're responsible for deciding what to do with it.

MT: Why do you believe it is important for humans to learn to work with this natural ability?

MH: I'll answer this in terms of my own experience. I was raised in an environment where God was an empty and meaningless religious concept, and anything beyond the physical world was a silly fairy tale. When I was in my late teens, I began experiencing a connection with guides and higher support that completely changed my way of looking at life. The opening I experienced left no doubt in me as to the existence of a spiritual reality. For me this was a huge gift. At first that connection and transformation was bewildering to me, but it was also so compelling that I began doing all I could to study and enhance my ability to tune in, which at the time seemed to come and go. Learning to open and trust my intuition has enriched my life in every conceivable way. In my case it also helped me understand much about the emotional factors and misunderstandings within me that stood in the way of my own happiness. Ultimately, this path has led me to busting free and letting go of much of what held me back. My higher support has been with me every step of the way, and my ability to tune in and connect there has made the whole process far richer than it might have been otherwise.

Today I live a highly creative life in which each day I call upon my higher support to help me know where to focus next, what to work on, who to be in touch with, and so on. By paying close attention for so many years, I've learned to recognize when I'm going off balance and right myself quickly. And I've learned to pay attention when life puts gold in my path and pick it up. Through practice, experience, and increasing awareness, the natural sensitivities I was born with have now become key allies. For your readers, who wouldn't be reading this if they were not at least beginning to be ready, I would encourage pursuing this inquiry, this opening. They'll not regret it.

Course Overview

You have the same potential that professional intuitives and psychics have. Your intuitive guidance system is available to assist you 24/7, and is constantly providing some level of input. The more aware you are of this input, the more intuitive you are. But how aware you are of this input is subject to how available you are to receive it. Your intuition is like a muscle: It grows stronger when you use it in a steady, healthy way. In this course, intuitive guide and teacher Max Highstein provides the training and practice you need to develop your natural intuitive and psychic gifts, and begin fulfilling that potential. Each week you'll receive new instruction, information and techniques to practice and experiment with. You'll get 13 audio guided meditations to download, another 12 exercises in the written instructions, and a wealth of practical guidance and encouragement from a seasoned intuitive mentor. Also included in the program is an intuition card deck you can download and print out. Working with this deck you'll learn a dousing technique (a way of making decisions), and begin to tune in to key "nuggets" of information, the way practicing psychics and intuitives do. The cards are fun and easy to use.


How Does It Work?

Starting today, you will receive a new lesson every week for 16 weeks (total of 16 lessons). Each lesson is yours to keep and you'll be able to refer back to it whenever you want. And if you miss a lesson or are too busy to get to it that day, each lesson will conveniently remain in your account so you won't have to search for it when you're ready to get back to it.


Get Started Now

We are offering this course with the option of selecting how much you want to pay. No matter how much you pay, you'll be getting the same course as everybody else. We simply trust that people are honest and will support the author of the course with whatever they can afford. And if you are not 100% satisfied, we will refund your money.


How much do you want to pay?

$15$35$50

This is the total amount for all 16 lessons


Thank you, Max. I feel the same way about using intuitive skills in everyday life, it is immensely helpful! Over 3,200 DailyOM readers have taken this course already, strengthening their connection to their higher support! If you would like to start on this amazing journey to develop your intuition, click on the button! Until next time.

Be well,

Madisyn Taylor
Cofounder, Editor-in-Chief
DailyOM