There’s plenty of new students asked about displacement and I want to address it because displacement can be a problem, regardless of whether you are remote viewing or doing another type of psychic work.
What is “Psychic Displacement”?
A few years ago, I attended a workshop led by a well-known medium. She divided us into 10 groups; seven people in each group were blindfolded and instructed to read for each other. No one was allowed to speak, other than the person doing the reading.
Instantly, a woman in our group protested: “I can’t do this! You see, I am so psychic, I will end up reading for everyone in our circle at once! If I am supposed to be reading you,” she said (pointing to me), “I may end up reading for you!” (pointing to the woman sitting next to me).
What she is describing is known as displacement, and it occurs frequently, especially to those to who are just beginning the intuitive path.
Missing the Mark
As an instructor in the skill known as Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV), I teach my students to be tough, disciplined and versatile. No prima donnas allowed! If someone is supposed to conduct a psychic reading for Person A, but instead accidentally reads for Person B, that does not demonstrate superior psychic ability. It simply indicates a lack of discipline and training.
“But what if the reading for Person B is really accurate?” you ask.
It doesn’t matter, and here’s why:
In archery, if you don’t hit the intended target, you are missing the mark! Consider an archer whose arrow perfectly spears an apple. No points will be awarded if the correct target was the bull’s-eye on a board.
The same applies here: If you are supposed to provide accurate information for Person A, and instead you provide accurate information for Person B, you have missed the intended target completely. Being right about the wrong target helps no one.
As a remote viewer, you may notice that a target viewed a few days ago possesses a lot of correct elements about today’s target. The ego wants to be right so very badly that you may compare the results gained a few days ago to the target viewed today, especially if you totally missed the assigned target a few days ago! In other words, a few days ago, rather than accurately viewing the target in the envelope assigned for that day, your subconscious (which is not limited by time or space) jumped ahead to view today’s assigned target, instead.
Emotions: Candy for the Subconscious
Regardless of the type of psychic work you do, being right is exciting. The thrill of nailing it or getting it right may be compared to the rush a gambler gets the first time he wins at the blackjack table. There is a lot of emotion associated with the concepts of “winning” or “losing.”
Additionally, we are a very accomplishment-oriented society. As children, we may have been rewarded or punished based on report card scores. Sales staff are rewarded or penalized based on how they achieve or miss a monthly sales quota.
It is normal for you to get excited when you realize you were right about something, even if that something is the wrong target.
The key is to remember that emotions are a reward to the subconscious mind. So when you get excited about having viewed the wrong target – whether you are mad, sad or glad – you are rewarding the subconscious mind for having misbehaved.
Think of the subconscious mind as a child, wanting attention. Some children misbehave, because even a scolding is a form of attention. A neglected child would rather receive a spanking than be ignored.
Let’s use an example: On Monday, you do a remote viewing session on a picture in an envelope and describe the Cheops pyramid in Egypt. Excited to get your feedback, you pull the photo out of the envelope and see a group of puppies drinking from a stream. Keenly disappointed, you wonder, “What happened?” You may even feel a sense of strong discouragement and think about quitting!
Two days later, on Wednesday, you decide to give it another try. You do a session. When you pull out the feedback photo, lo and behold, the photo is of the Cheops pyramid in Egypt! You jump up and down, hollering, because you KNOW this is what you viewed on Monday! You run and grab the session summary you did on the Cheops pyramid to compare, so you can see how accurate you were.
Big mistake. Don’t do this!
Again, while it is human nature to get excited about being right about something, the way to discipline the subconscious mind is to simply ignore the connection between the session you did on Monday and the feedback from Wednesday. Just ignore it.
Remember, the emotional reward to the subconscious doesn’t have to be happy excitement. Some viewers fiercely berate themselves: “Darn it! It happened again! What the heck is wrong with me? Why can’t I do this right?” etc.
Either way, you are rewarding the subconscious mind, and you only want to reward the subconscious for describing the correct target accurately.
Temporal Attractors
Another reason that extreme emotions (whether happy or unhappy) about viewing the wrong target will cause psychic displacement to occur are due to what we refer to as temporal attractors. A temporal attractor is anything that attracts the subconscious through time.
Remote viewers and psychics often look across the horizon of time to view a target that is removed from them in time and space. The subconscious wants to look at the most interesting thing it can find, especially in the beginning when it is untrained and undisciplined. Thus, if you are asked to view an aerial photo of current day Hiroshima, your subconscious mind might instead be drawn to the nuclear bomb exploded there on August 6th, 1945.
Why?
Because the brilliance, noise, and extreme emotions caused by the bomb are much easier to view than a boring aerial photo of the same site. The flashy bombing attracts the subconscious through time, which is why it is called a temporal attractor.
What does this have to do with psychic displacement?
When you express strong emotion, such as jumping up and down, whooping and hollering in joy–
or muttering, “I am such an idiot! What made me think I could do this?!!!” –you are creating a temporal attractor.
A few days ago, when you worked the target, your subconscious could have been drawn forward through time to the moment today when you opened the feedback for today’s target and saw that it was the target you viewed, and you started whooping it up, or crying, or whatever. Those very emotions are what attracted the subconscious mind’s attention in the first place, and are most likely causing the psychic displacement problem.
On the upside, when you describe the assigned target accurately, that is when you really want to make a lot of noise! Pat yourself on the back! Yell and congratulate yourself! Be sure to reward yourself in some physical way, doing something you really enjoy. By doing this, you are creating a temporal attractor that will help your subconscious mind to be drawn to the assigned target! You are making the temporal attractor phenomenon work for you!
Six Tips on How to Avoid Displacement
1. Ignore it. As I frequently tell students, the best way to avoid displacement is to ignore it. You are essentially training the subconscious mind to stop jumping target!
2. Remain emotionally detached. The key to reducing incidents of displacement in your remote viewing or psychic work is to remain calm and neutral when displacement occurs, or you think it has occurred.
3. Today’s target is today’s target. Remind yourself continually, “Yesterday’s target was yesterday’s target. Today’s target is today’s target.”
4. Stop thinking about it. Even if you feel that displacement is occurring more frequently than you would like, don’t give it much thought. Wondering, questioning, and continually looking for links between targets done in the past and the current target only creates an emotional reward.
5. Watch your thoughts! In my training as a hypnotherapist, I was taught that every single thought is tied to an emotion. So when you continually wonder if the elements of yesterday’s session will show up in today’s feedback photo, there is an emotional component to that thought. As a result, you can be increasing the incidents of displacement without meaning to do so.
6. Reward yourself! And lastly, when you are right about the intended target, GET EXCITED! This is the time to reward the subconscious! Jump up and down! Whoop it up! And remember that the physical body is the link between the conscious and subconscious minds. If you reward yourself with a physical reward as well as an emotional reward, it is doubly effective. Some examples of physical rewards include: chocolate, bubble baths, a walk in nature, a massage, etc.
Some examples of physical rewards include: chocolate, bubble baths, a walk in nature, a massage, etc.
Final Words of Advice:
Let it all go… Just have fun! Make your intuitive work FUN. The more playful you can be with this, the better the subconscious mind performs. And when it doesn’t feel fun anymore, find ways to hold your interest. Change the way you practice. Try other types of targets.
The concept of psychic displacement is intriguing, particularly how it parallels the subconscious mind’s behavior with that of an undisciplined child. The analogy of rewarding the correct behaviors to train the subconscious is both insightful and practical.
The explanation of how emotions can act as rewards for the subconscious mind is compelling. It provides a clear rationale for why maintaining a neutral emotional state is important to avoid psychic displacement.
It’s interesting how the subconscious mind can be compared to a child seeking attention, and the implications this has for psychic work. The advice to avoid rewarding incorrect behaviors, even inadvertently, is quite valuable.
The emphasis on discipline and training in Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) is well-argued. The comparison to archery helps underscore the point that accuracy is meaningless if the target is not the intended one.
The idea of temporal attractors is fascinating and makes a lot of sense when you consider the mechanics of human attention and memory. It’s clear that managing emotional responses is crucial in psychic work to avoid displacement issues.