High strangeness
The last few weeks have brought with them something we in the spiritual space call “high strangeness”.
I define high strangeness as the intrusive, palpable, immersive, and often measurable experience of spirit penetrating mundane everyday life, particularly as it applies to accessing other dimensions and states of consciousness- a somewhat regular occurrence for any shaman or spiritual practitioner.
Some “symptoms” of contact with high strangeness can include:
Enhanced physical senses, to the point of hypersensitivity. This includes taste, smell, sight, hearing, and tactile sensations like pressure or temperature. For me, I tend to get very hypersensitive to smells and tastes, sometimes with foods I’ve previously enjoyed. What used to be a tasty treat will straight up smell like wet cat food, as was the case this past week with my husband’s take-out Pad Thai. The smell overwhelmed me, and once he was done eating, I ran the garbage bag outside as fast as I (politely) could. I also get very sensitive to light, finding myself wearing sunglasses inside, sometimes even on Zoom meetings! When the high strangeness is particularly high, I turn into what my husband and I jokingly refer to as a “sensitive plant”, getting overwhelming sensations of electricity from a simple touch. It’s not a tickle, it’s not repulsion…it’s just A LOT of electricity, so much so that it floods my nervous system.
Seeing things that aren’t there. I know, I know- isn’t this what all psychic experiences are like? Yes…and no. With the quantum nature of high strangeness, I see things that are there- just in a different dimension of space or time. One example from this past week: I was gathering dishes from the table after breakfast and saw a blue flame blasting on one of our oven’s front burners. I placed the dishes in the sink and then turned to the oven turn off the burner, only to discover it wasn’t on. Another example: I was texting with a friend and thought I saw a few text responses come through on my phone while I was writing on my computer. When I unlocked my phone to read the whole text thread, nothing was there. Thinking I was having a phone issue (as I blew out my old phone with psychic high strangeness this past week, too), I called the person and asked, “Hey- did you send X, Y and Z via text? I thought I saw them but now I can’t find them.” They laughed, responding that they didn’t send those text messages…but they did have those exact thoughts. So, that was interesting.
Memories no one else has. This phenomenon is frequently referred to as the Mandela Effect, a reference to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have memories of Nelson Mandela dying- complete with a state funeral on television and press coverage for weeks- decades before he actually died. While at first blush this seems like a large group of people have an unreliable memory of events, but there might be more to the phenomenon. Cynthia Sue Larson, a scientist and Mandela Effect researcher, wrote an incredible book called Quantum Jumps about how to document, explore and even leverage this phenomenon for your benefit. The overall consensus of “believers” is that some of us- particularly psychics- either have access to other dimensions or hold onto an accurate memory of our dimension, while others are perhaps manipulated. It gets super weird…and highly strange.
Cleaning the metaphysical desktop. You may find that mundane and utterly meaningless memories spontaneously open up in your consciousness, almost like a word document on your desktop. I’ve been experiencing a lot of this in the last few weeks, and it comes with the feeling of the memory being put in the proverbial trash bin, expanding my biocomputer’s bandwidth and organizing my energy body. For some of you, this same phenomenon might happen with tactile sensations, sense memories (like suddenly smelling your deceased grandmother’s perfume), and immersive ephemeral experiences. All of this is a sign that your energy body is clearing out unused files and getting ready for something big, like the new operating system that’s coming with this high strangeness’ quantum upgrade.
Rapid expansion of psychic abilities. Whether it’s prophetic dreams, spontaneous intuitive hits, or improved powers of divination and psychic discernment, this current high strangeness seems to be making the discernment between dreams and waking reality very difficult. What’s more: I also think energetic boundaries are particularly hard to enforce at this time. The other day, I started reading an email from a client expressing some anxiety and asking for a reading in the near future. Within seconds, I found myself completely immersed in their emotions. While I have some basic empathy (I’m not a total psycho), I’m not typically an empath, a nuance that allows me to undertake some emotionally stressful psychic sessions without getting overwhelmed. This unusual event convinced me that energetic boundaries are particularly thin at the moment, not to mention the fact that I think our collective psychic abilities feel as though they are magnifying exponentially.
So, what does this all mean? I have some theories, but I also think much of this high strangeness is meant to be one of life’s true mysteries, up there with birth and death.
That said, there are some great resources that explore this concept in interesting, entertaining ways:
Tanis. Tanis is a serialized, fiction-based-on-fact, bi-weekly podcast that explores the myth of Tanis and the nature of truth, conspiracy, and information.
Check it out here to learn more or to listen. This podcast kind of rocked my world, and offers the listener a series of metaphysical, conspiratorial, and cinematic rabbit holes to go down.
Rabbits. From the same writers and producers of Tanis, Rabbits outlines a story of a curious young women who stumbles upon an ancient- and multidimensional- mysterious game known only as Rabbits. It hinges on chaos magic, quantum mechanics, and the strange attractors detailed in String Theory. Check it out here to learn more or to listen.
The OA. This Netflix show centers on Prairie, a young, blind woman that is reunited with her adoptive family…after having a very unpleasant and very quantum adventure. A must-watch for any energy worker, psychic or intuitive, the OA is a compressed course on shamanism and high strangeness. Check out this trailer for more info.
Legion. Not everything based on a comic book is good, let alone genius, but Legion is a game-changer. This show follows the life of the world’s most powerful psychic mutant, David, otherwise known as “Legion”, as he bends time and rights wrongs through history. Check out this clip for a teaser.
So, you’ve listened to some podcasts or watched a TV show or two- but where do you start if you want to start to incorporate this high strangeness into a spiritual practice? Here are a few tips:
Flower essences. If you want to try to take the edge off of the high strangeness and reground into reality, I always suggest our TOTEM Orange Glow and Dead Grandma Flower Essences. Made of nasturtium and marigold, respectively, both of these Flower Essences connect us with our physical bodies, our energy bodies, and help us to remain as present and connected as possible. That said, it might make sense for you to embrace the strangeness and work to harness it for your spiritual development. In that case, I would suggest taking a Flower Essence designed to open your third eye and/or crown chakra, like our TOTEM Crown of Stars and Oracle Flower Essences. You may also find that your energy comes and goes in dramatic peaks and valleys when you’re navigating the high strangeness, so if you’re feeling all over the place consider taking Desert Alchemy’s Windflower Flower Essence. I take it everyday to help me manage the ups and downs in available energy from doing psychic work with clients.
Tarot cards. There are a few cards that tend to indicate a time of high strangeness is upon us when they emerge in a reading. Our TOTEM Tarot Deck’s Coyote card is one of them, and is inviting you to participate in the spiritual scavenger hunt outlined in ancient Lakota Sioux myths. Another cards, the Two of Trees (referred to as the two of wands in a more standard deck) indicates that your neural pathways and third eye are opening, making psychic data more available to you at this time. Even if neither of these cards emerge in a reading, they can be used as an intentional meditation tool to harness a bit of the high strangeness for yourself.
Meditation. Meditations get super interesting during these windows, and I’ve created a tailored meditation that I regularly use to leverage our multidimensional nature. Karin O’Connor has recorded an audio version of this Quantum Integration Guided Meditation for your use HERE. Thank you, Karin!
Journal and triangulate. This stuff can make us feel crazy, leading us to want to dismiss our high strangeness experiences out of hand. But, if we can journal and/or triangulate the issue by sharing, discussing and confirming it with psychic friends, we just might be able to zero in on the nuggets of spiritual gold. Generally speaking, these experiences come with major spiritual and energetic upgrades, which while temporarily difficult generally also come with incredible quantum leaps in our development. Sometimes, this events only take on meaning as we corroborate and/or assess in hindsight, after the whole picture comes into focus.
As a spiritual practitioner, I can tell you that the nature of our reality is a bit more fungible than we usually assume. And, while this can create cognitive confusion and moments of overwhelm, it does also excite and inspire in its high strangeness.
If you have any questions or want to schedule a session, reach out anytime: rachel@totemreadings.com.