Shields.

[breeze]

Hi Nayru,
I might disappoint you, cause I won't name certain shielding devices in this post. But I hope that none the less its briefness the following is helpful.

Many people are convinced that shielding is very essential. Somehow the forum title 'Psychic Self Defence' even implies that there is a need to defend yourself. But I disagree. In my opinion shielding sucks. It is a nice tool to mark and protect a training ground. It can be a haven in which you can develop your skills as long as you are unfamiliar with your environment, with yourself, with your energies, your emotions and your capability to deal with them. However, it is a crutch you actually should get rid off as soon as possible. Unfortunately people get used to this crutch and fail to keep its side effects in mind. Instead of getting rid off their shields little by little they are developing and strengthening them.
The major side effects of shields are their energy consumption and their affect on someone's clarity to see and perceive reality as it is. But the most important side effect shows itself in case of an attack on someone who does shielding. It is environmental pollution [xx(]. Of course, you might argue that the deflection of negative energy into the environment seems to be the better and healthier choice. A sacrifice you have to make in order to avoid an injury or getting hurt. But there are other and better ways to deal with an attacker.

One is a bit tricky and reminds me on a character in a Japanese anime called 'Dirk Side'. It is to absorb the energy of an attack. You need a very calm mind for this. A mind which is concerning emotions smooth as glass. A mind that is able not to react on thoughts and feelings. A mind that does not cling to an 'I'. A fearless mind that is not assuming that the conscious part of ones self is this notion of 'I' and that this 'I' needs to be protected and pleased. Such a calm mind wouldn't give an attack a handle. The attacking flow of energies and emotions will enter such a person, but as long as this person doesn't react on them, they won't be able to harm. Instead they will transform into something different, lacking any negative quality. This digested energy can be safely drained of into the environment or it can be used internal for strengthening reasons.

Another method is less tricky, though it can be unpleasant for a beginner. Just as the method above it's main emphasise is to make a connection between you and your attacker. If you use a shield, you are deepening the separation between you and your attacker, strengthening the blindness of your mind through which you are watching each other, watching each other in a distorted way. The thing is to search for the energy level of your opponent on which this person is a loving being. But it is not just a searching, you have to move yourself on that level. This can give rise to aversion and may feel disgusting, but as long as you don't give up, you are going to find that level or state of mind. As soon as you have found it, as soon as you are able to see that the other person loves, send as much love as you can. There will be no space for doubt or fear. There is just love. Try to overflow this person with love and see what will happen.
You should try this technique in advance. Just pick people in your surrounding, choose people around you you least like. This will make it easier for you to apply this method in future.

Of course the greatest way to avoid any attack is love and trust. Do not think that your conscious part of your mind is going to save you, e.g. by means of a shield. As one of the greatest mind scientist put it into words, the sub consciousness always protects the consciousness (Milton H. Erickson). It is not the other way around. Learn to trust and to let go. Trust your sub consciousness and trust and love this world. Wu-wei tzu-jan. This way you will fight similar to an experienced Tai Chi practitioner. There just happens no attack and it seems like you are having a cushy job []. Wo-wei-erh-wei.

Greetings,
breeze



Make use of the Infinite Improbability Drive of your personal 'Heart of Gold'.

[Ides315]

Hmmm, Nice answer breeze.

Nayru there is a good thread that has to be buried several pages now caled "Why not just shield". It may have some of what you are looking for. Also read the "counter measures and wards" document by Robert.

For the majority of what someone will encounter breeze has a good response. You can over come a lot like that though I am not sure about things that are out to feed on you rather than attack. Problem is that it is hard to arrive at that point. If something should happen where you come against a truly strong and determined being trying to "get" you you will not have a chance to learn how to shield before they are needed. As far as clouding your perception that is mostly a function of how you program your shield. They can be tied into many different energy sources making them no drain on you (or anyone else except an attacker). Some people only use shields as a "trip" wire to alert them during more mundane tasks that something is up.

Best to you

Ides

[shadowatcher]

Have any of you read the book "Eragon". It has some interesting new thoughts on magic, and has some GREAT parts about people reading minds.

Also, if youve read the fifth Harry Potter book, theres a part where Harry has to take Occlumency (spelling?) lessons from Snape.

Anyone?

[shadowradier]

You can make a shield with the force of fire,wind,water,and ice this can be created by magic power and the will of your mind this is also a impoertant componet with sheild makeing

[Ides315]

I think this post will not get a lot of responses. To tell someone your defensive measures as it allows them to be analyzed for weakness.

Best to all

Ides

[Nayru]

I was not looking for learning it, for I can shield. I was just curious to some programmings of people, I thought it would be interesting to see how people like to program their constructs and would be inspiring.

Breeze, I'm very impressed by your post, I did not look at shielding that way yet. Thought I most certainly disagree on some points. I don't know if you have ever suffered a psionic attack. I can tell that in such circumstances, especially when suffering an attack from a advanced psion, it is not very easy to calm down your mind in the way you described, or to send love. Getting empathically overloaded, being illusionated along with the usual telepathy-headache as I call it, or any other pains and energydrains is not really thé excellent situation for trying what you explained. I understand that it takes practice but it seems very hard to me to clear your mind and ignore the attacks, sending LOVE(!) to the person who makes you suffer. I don't know if my emotions would allow me to send love to the person making me or a friend suffer. I think I prefer to stop the attacks by shielding, cloak myself and make sure the guy never senses my psisig again or just attacking back, for that's what my emotions would tell me. I may seem a nice, sweet and patient girl on the boards but I can not control strong emotions at all. If I get attacked I highly doubt I will be able, even if I wanted to at the moment, to do what you said.

Shielding is also very handy by, for example, empathy. I do not know if you're an empath or not, but empathy is very hard to accept. The past year, my empathy has become much stronger, way stronger than I was used to and I started to hate it, dislike myself for my empathy, for the suffer that it causes, for the pain and sadness or anger that is not mine, for the mixed emotions variating from deep love to extreme hate, causing an overload, making me literally roll over the ground, crying. Please note that shielding did not work against it that well, for my shielding was not as good as I want it to be, but at least my shields decreased the strenght of all the incoming emotions. I am now asking you, what should I have done instead of shielding? It's absolutely impossible to ignore it. Accepting it is the only way to make empathy less worse, but then again accepting it is very hard and it took me a year to accept it; caused by an empathy-block. This block made me realize how much I missed and needed empathy..

Shielding is also very handy when you want to go unnoticed.. Cloaking is excellent for that.. Shielding is not only to stop attacks or to help yourself.. When a person is suffering an empathic or telepathic overload or suffering an attack for example, it is nice to shield this person..

quote:Also, if youve read the fifth Harry Potter book, theres a part where Harry has to take Occlumency (spelling?) lessons from Snape.

I have read all Harry Potter books and I have only one thing to say: Rowling is a genius. []

quote: I think this post will not get a lot of responses. To tell someone your defensive measures as it allows them to be analyzed for weakness.

I did not ask for all defensive tricks, I asked for programmings. I explained why in the beginning of my post.

[arakara]

Since this a board about psychic defense, I will post a technique that will directly answer your request. I also have some other techniques from other sources if you want them.

--->[8D]
Below is an article from www.psipog.net that describes various body
shields to use for defensive purposes. The link also has graphics of
the different shields. This is a very informative site. They cover a
variety of topics in the articles section. Their methods of energy
manipulation & making psi constructs are very adaptible for our
purposes. If you really want to shock yourself & raise your psi
belief level click on the media link. They have short vid. clips of
people actually using telekinesis.


http://www.psipog.net/show.php?id=38
Common and Not-So-Common Shields

by Peebrain


The best offence is a good defense. We've all heard this cliché
associated with things like sports or martial arts, but it applies
to the world of psionics as well. The most fundamental way of
protecting oneself against the outside world is a shield. Just like
psi balls, they can be programmed to do an unlimited number of
tasks, ranging from simply stopping negative energy from entering
your body, to interpreting different types energy and responding to
each on an individual basis. The average psion doesn't have a
dictionary of hundreds of shields in their head for different
situations - we each have a small database of regularly practiced
shields that can be "tweaked" slightly to fit a given scenario. I,
myself, use roughly three different types of shields on a given day,
but also have a few advanced shields in mind "just in case".

The most common shield I use is referred to as the Bubble Shield.

Bubble Shield

Bubble Shields are easy to make and can hold up against everyday
annoyances. I primarily use them for blocking "normal" humans'
empathetic projections. Regulating how solid the shield is dictates
how much empathetic information I receive from my environment. I've
personally had trouble using them for blocking telepathic
information, but keep in mind, my telepathic experiences are very
limited. Bubble Shields are also useful against humans who
subconsciously leach energy from others. Basically, in those
situations, your shield has to only be more powerful than the
person's next to you. The "leach" will generally go for the easy
target and not even bother with you.

I use two techniques to create Bubble Shields (though sometimes I do
outlandish things just to spice it up little ). The first is a
simple visualization of a shell building from the ground to up,
around your body, and finally meeting up over your head. Eggshells
and plastic bubbles are typical visualizations.
The second generates the shield from inside the abs, and expands it
until it's around the entire body. This is useful for pushing energy
off of you, while the first might trap it inside the shield.


Unfortunately, you can't just learn the Bubble Shield and be set for
life. If you engage in any psychic combat, you'll find that your
Bubble Shield doesn't amount to crap. A focused attack can go right
through or shatter it, depending on the attackers skill and
objective. Reconstructing and maintaining it during a fight isn't
worth the effort. As mentioned above, the Bubble Shield is very
basic. It's great for everyday problems, but for more serious
events, it's wiser to make a better type of shield, than trying to
hold together a small Bubble Shield.

One shield I'd like to discuss has a specific purpose. I invented it
a year or so ago when I nearly got hit by lightning a couple times
in a row, and still use it every time there's a storm outside. It
has no formal name as far as I know, but I call it the Diffuse
Shield.

Diffuse Shield

As implied above, I use this shield for fending off lightning. It
started when I was first dabbling in energy manipulation. The first
time, I was home alone at night, and it was storming pretty heavy
out. I was playing around with psi balls and throwing them around,
when I bolt of lighting hit within 30 yards of my house. I didn't
see it directly, but everything lit up (and I mean EVERYTHING - I
was blinded for about twenty seconds), and my entire house rattled
and vibrated. I was scared senseless, of course, so I stopped
practicing psi balls until the storm was over. Thinking it could
have been a fluke, I didn't worry about it after that.

After a couple of similar experiences, I didn't take any action
until the last time (I think almost a year ago exactly). I was
outside, and it wasn't storming at all. There were clouds above, but
no rain and no lightning. I suddenly heard a "click click click"
sound and looked up. For some reason I dove into the garage (I don't
remember seeing anything), and the lightning nearly hit me again. As
before, everything shook and our house was rattling like crazy.
Being nearly hit while it wasn't even raining made me think it
wasn't just a "coincidence". I didn't know exactly how the lightning
was targeting me, but I figured that I must be giving off a
different charge (of some sort) than my surrounding environment. To
solve this, I kept my internal charge the same (whatever it was),
but made a shield to "diffuse" my charge into my environments
charge. Any energy I emitted would be the same as my environment,
but my energy would still be the same. I assume it's worked because
I've yet to have another experience like that, but I do have to
create the shield every time it starts to look like it's going to
rain. Of course, I'd rather do that than get struck by lightning, so
I don't complain .

The technique is simple and the shield can be created in about the
same amount of time as a Bubble Shield. First I create a thick
Bubble Shield (not necessarily strong, just thick). Then I push some
parts out to form a spike, and some parts in to form a spike. When
I'm finished, it's similar to a furry ball - the spikes becoming so
thin they're like fibers. It's made very "loose" and the fibers flow
around freely. (I apologize for the cheesy animation , it's much
easier to visualize than it is to draw).


I've yet to find another use for this shield other than the one
stated. It'll fall apart in an hour or so (depending how you program
it), and I can't think of any way it would be useful in a combat
situation. Nonetheless, it's served it's purpose: I've yet to be
struck . If you find yourself in a situation similar to mine, give
this shield a try.

While the Diffuse Shield is made for a very specific purpose, the
next shield I'm going to discuss can be used for a variety of
applications. It's commonly referred to as the Mirror Shield because
of its ability to bounce incoming energy in the opposite direction.

Mirror Shield

To be completely honest, I have little experience with this type of
shield. I've used it on occasion while "sparring" with people, but I
usually like creating something more complex (mainly because the
Mirror Shield is kinda boring, in my opinion ). Despite my lack of
interest, it is a popular and useful shield.

The technique is predictable given the name of the shield, but I'll
go over it to be complete. Create it as you would any other shield,
but program it to reflect incoming attacks. This can be accomplished
by a nice "mirror" visualization or a slick silver color.
There are some pitfalls to this shield that can trick-up a newbie.
The first is to make sure you create it so you can send energy out
through the shield. It's no good if you go to attack and your attack
bounces off the inside and nails yourself. Another is to make sure
you make it's on the outside of all your other shields. The reason
for this is that if you create it inside a Bubble Shield, for
example, and the attacker breaks through part of the Bubble Shield,
the energy will bounce off, and hit the Bubble Shield again on the
way out. Two hits with one stone.



Though I personally don't find this shield "fun", it is very useful.
A skilled psion can easily fend off a series of attacks with this
one shield. The next shield is another simple concept, but a little
harder to construct, in my opinion. I call it the Marshmallow
Shield, though I'm not sure if that's the formal name .

Marshmallow Shield

The Marshmallow Shield is a thick, gooey, and sticky type of shield.
Its primary purpose is to absorb attacks and hold them there for
later. It can be programmed to de-patternize the simple attack or
just spit it back out. It's hard to break because of its nature, but
at best it can slow down a skilled attack.

One downfall (for me) is that it takes some time to construct
properly. The visualization is simple, but it just requires a lot of
energy. Basically, you want to picture a thick (probably at least
one foot) wall of goo. Use semi-melted marshmallows for
visualization. If you construct it in layers (which I do sometimes,
to make it easier), you'll want to make sure the layers melt into
each other completely - they can be a pain and separate on their own
sometimes. You might want to put some Bubble Shields on the outside
and inside of it if you're making it really gooey. It should hold
it's own shape for some time, but it might require some maintenance
depending on how you make it.


As I stated above - it can take a while to make, even if you are
somewhat skilled. It's not particularly good at handling sharp
objects, but it's not meant to be used as the only line of defense.
Combine it with other defensive shields to provide better
protection. After it's made it can be repaired somewhat easily, so
you can keep it up for long periods of time.

One shield that can be combined well with the Marshmallow Shield is
the Force-Bubble Shield. It takes longer to construct, but provides
some of the best protection.

Force-Bubble Shield

In my opinion, the Force-Bubble Shield is one of the coolest out
there . Just recently I've been experimenting with Force-Bubble
Constructs, and the shield version is very useful and holds up
against a lot of force. I can be used in combat or in any situation
where you need to physically put force on an object. The downside is
that it is pretty advanced and takes a lot of time to make (in most
cases). Skill in telekinesis is useful.

The visualization is fairly simple but tedious. The one I use is to
visualize a bunch of "psi-bricks" stacking up and forming a brick
wall around myself. You'll also need some "psi-mortar" as well to
stick it all together .
Also, to incorporate the idea of force, I visualize a bunch of
arrows pointing outwards on the bricks. In physics, force is usually
shown by an arrow, so it works well for me (having a somewhat
scientific mind). Think of something that means "force" to you and
use it. The key isn't necessarily the visualization, but the
practice. This shield takes a lot of skill to construct properly.



The Force-Bubble Shield is extremely useful and powerful. While the
previous combat shields address the issue of dealing with an attack,
the last shield's purpose is to help you not get in situations where
you'll get attacked. It's known as the Cloaking Shield, or in some
cases, the "Hedge" Shield.

Cloaking Shield

I find this shield the most fun to play with. With it, you can walk
up to someone while their looking right at you and scare the crap
out of them (yes, that is fun! ). Previous experience with
telepathic suggestion will help you with this shield's properties.

To create it, you'll want to form a mental image of what you want to
project onto others. You can project yourself as "invisible" or
something static (for example, a hedge, box, etc...). Whatever you
choose, you should have a clear understanding of what the objects
energy is like. You'll want to create a shield that emits this same
type of energy. The goal isn't to physically make yourself look like
a hedge, but rather to get the attacker to glance over you.
Broadcast something like "Nothing to see here, just a hedge".

Another form of this shield would be to emit a "normal" human's
energy field. When the attacker sees you, they'll either
underestimate your ability, or ignore you completely. Obviously,
visualizations of whatever you want to become work well for forming
this shield. Remember though, you're not just creating a shield,
your clouding the mind of your opponent. This is where telepathy is
useful. Incorporate telepathic suggestion and broadcasting into the
shield. Visualize your opponent becoming confused.

This isn't an easy shield to make, but it is useful. It doesn't take
that long to make, just skill. With anything, practice makes
perfect, and this shield is fun to practice .

Conclusion

Shields are essential to psions - from newbie to advanced. One last
note: keep in mind that the two shields are better than one. Combine
shields and layer them wisely to significantly increase your
protection. Any shield can be cracked, but having backups for the
backups ensures you'll have time to react to an attack.

[Nayru]

Lol, thanks. ^.^ I know those, I have read them at Psipog too... Thanks anyway. [:X]

[Nayru]

Please share your best programmed shields and other defensive constructs here. ^.^" Again, the little Zelda-fan is just curious.. ^.^