The Psychic Energy Codex is one of those books you wish you had when you first started practicing magic. It addresses all the questions that come up, especially the very difficult one of “Am I crazy? Am I making myself crazy by doing this?” It also gives you clear exercises and a solid foundation in everything from chakra assignment to moving meditation to find exactly how your own psychic perceptions work so you can apply them to your personal studies.
Typically energy workings and psychic training are broken up into entire books by themselves, and while they certainly deserve to be (the Tarot alone merited more than 22,000 hits on Amazon) the sheer volume of volumes leaves beginners adrift on a sea of too much information. With the Psychic Energy Codex as a central guide, it becomes possible to take an organized approach to psychic exercises, and includes the much-needed addition of skeptical reasoning, including a checklist to determine whether a perception is internal or external and at what point it might become necessary to seek professional help.
The chapter on the subtle body involves concepts alluded to by other authors, usually attributed to theosophic texts. Since much theosophy gets murky to the 21st century mind, Belanger thankfully retranslates these concepts about the body and aura in an easy-to-understand way. She also closes each chapter with a series of questions about the exercises and the student’s experience with them for their personal journal. Some younger readers may never fully appreciate that she rescues them from the ramblings of Blavatsky.
Does this book answer everything about psychic study? No, nothing can. But it thoroughly covers all the basics, including multiple techniques for grounding and centering, and it gives an intellectual basis for the more analytical readers to start at. All too often those who want to experiment with psychic phenomenon can’t because they are unable to move past their own ideas of objective reality. Belanger addresses this at the very beginning not by quelling or criticizing those fears and questions but by addressing them. Few things establish a comfort zone quite like total honesty.
The style is resolutely personal, with Belanger drawing frequently from her own experience that removes the “spooky” from the psychic, and gives the reader several simple, practical suggestions for practicing their techniques in places where the techniques will come in handy. Having the ability to read the psychic state of your co-workers is definitely a useful skill, as is the opportunity to get a better understanding of your neighbors before you resort to stealing each others’ lawn signs.
The very human tone of the book is what makes this a first choice for psychic skill exercises. The Psychic Energy Codex is an excellent foundation book for classes and personal studies in aura reading, meditation and the slew of other psychic skills that an interested person can develop. If you’re looking for a good way to start your psychic training, start with this book.
~review by Diana Rajchel
Author: Michelle Belanger
Weiser Books, 2007
pp. 264, $19.95
