It is also suggested that you keep a journal of psychic experiences and record your progress with the exercises you do. That way, you can write down dreams or feelings that later could come true, or isolate which exercises you might have done shortly before experiencing a leap in your abilities. Only by examining your actions and experiences can you find out what works, and putting it in black and white is the best way.

These exercises are collected from various places, but never placed verbatim on this site. The source is credited but the format may be slightly or greatly altered or enhanced, such as the adding of the "purpose" for each one, so that you know why you're doing it.

That said, on to the exercises.

These first few are Mind-Joggers, designed to stimulate your mind in ways that are not particularly oriented toward "psychic" ability but should get your brain accessing bits of itself that it isn't used to using, thus paving the way for more advanced work.

The Time Pie Chart (by Carl Rider, from How to Improve Your Psychic Power)

Purpose: To figure out how much of your life you actually have to devote to improving your abilities.

CONSTRUCT a pie chart of how you spend your waking day. Make a list first of all the activities you perform on an average day, and then categorize them somehow into three to six categories, such as "work, travel, time with family, time for others, time for domestic duties, time for myself alone." Make a pie chart so you can have a visual representation of how much time you actually have to yourself. If that amount of time is going to be unsatisfactory to use for bettering yourself, figure out where you can make the necessary cuts to devote proper time to this.

The Thoughts Pie Chart (by Carl Rider, from How to Improve Your Psychic Power)

Purpose: To better know the workings of your own mind.

CONSTRUCT a pie chart of what thoughts occupy your mind when it is not specifically focused on a necessary task. What do you think about? Make a list of the recurring thoughts in your mind, and then create a pie chart based on how much you think about them. Try to be realistic.

Thinking Backwards (by Carl Rider, from How to Improve Your Psychic Power)

Purpose: To discipline your mind and get it used to moving in directions it may be unused to.

THINK about your day backwards from the time you went to sleep to the time you got up. You do not have to actually watch the events unfold backwards like a movie in rewind, but try to trace the flow of time backwards from sleep until the beginning of your day. Write it down if you wish, but this is not necessary. Do your best to focus on the details. If you like, as an experiment, try writing about your day forwards first, THEN try backwards, and see which way you remember more details.

The "I Know You" List (by Carl Rider, from How to Improve Your Psychic Power)

Purpose: To learn to thoroughly search your brain on one subject, and to dig up pieces of you you might have gotten out of touch with, and then to make judgments on what you find.

Make a list of everyone you know. This includes people you've known in the past. The criteria for whether you "know" someone can vary, so it is suggested you keep it to people that you feel like you knew, this is not an exercise to recall everyone's name. It is okay to write "boy at the bus stop" or "person I had a crush on in seventh grade," if you feel like you knew them. Do not use any references for this! The point is to search your brain's every nook and cranny! If you get tired, take a break and then do it some more.

When you are sure you just can't think of more people, then take the list and organize it . . . put it in order according to how much you like the people. This is a bit silly because there is no way to quantify how much you like people, but it is very revealing about yourself to find out who you like and to really truly examine your relationships with everyone you know. Devote lots of time to this one. It is suggested that you separate the people into categories first, such as your nearest and dearest, then the people you know well and like a lot, people you know and like okay, people you know and don't really like or dislike, people you don't really know but have a positive impression of, people you don't really know but have an okay impression of, people you don't really know but kind of wish you'd never met, people you don't really know but definitely wish you'd never met, people you actively dislike, and people who make you wish murder was legal. Then organize the people within the categories and put them together into one big list.

The Four Levels (by Carl Rider, from How to Improve Your Psychic Power)

Purpose: To find ways to extend meaning and connect ideas in your mind; to develop your powers of association.

Choose an object. It should be something that belongs to you or that you use often, preferably one that you can see right there. Now start on level one: Think about that object and all its attributes. If it is a pen, think about its color, its smoothness, when you got it, all the history you have with it, what you've written with it, whether you've changed its ink, et cetera.

The second level comes now, and you should think about pens in general. Think of other pens you've owned, other pens you've used, favorite pens, different pen techniques, different types of pens like calligraphy pens and fountain pens and expensive ballpoints, and reflect on your favorites and your least favorites, like the ones that leak. Think about everything you can that involves pens before you go to the next level.

Level three is to change from thinking about the pens themselves to thinking about what pens do. Obviously, they write, they make marks. Think about different ways to make marks that are all possible with a pen, and the consequences of making those marks, and the times you've done so in the past.

Finally, think about pens in the most general possible sense: That is, the broadest way. Pens are tools of communication, whether it be to write, to draw, to authorize, et cetera. Think about communication as an idea as best you can; different ways to communicate, be it with other tools or through speech or physical contact; think about communication that goes on between animals, between men and nature, between babies and their mothers. Think of it in a grand sense and encompass all you can about communication with your mind.

Places and Spaces (by Carl Rider, from How to Improve Your Psychic Power)

Purpose: To acknowledge your level of connectedness with your environment.

This is an easy one to do. Think about the town where you live, or your neighborhood if you know it all well. Now think about places you've gone in it, the places you go often or not so often. Imagine how you feel about those places and record your observations. What you want to decide is whether you like or dislike a place. You don't need reasons, just state like or dislike. You might not have a good reason for disliking one corner of a store, but if you share your observations with others, you may be surprised with how often others' feelings coincide with yours!

Shouting Back (by Carl Rider, from How to Improve Your Psychic Power)

Purpose: To think quickly and wake up your power to choose what is true.

This is easy; simply turn on the TV or radio to some program where someone is talking, and listen. Then contradict every sentence out loud. You can simply deny what is said, or rephrase it so that your response is the truth and theirs must be a lie; you can shout and resist, and get really into it. Try to do it for every sentence. Don't do this for more than a minute at a time.

These next ones are actual psychic practices that can be repeated and practiced in order to hone your abilities. You should combine some of these with visualization exercises, elemental exercises, and meditation techniques to get the full effect of getting in touch with the inner and outer worlds.

What's the Time? (original)

Purpose: To hone both your clairvoyant skills and your sense of the passing of time.

You should only try this when you haven't very recently seen a clock. Try to anticipate what the time will be when you look at the clock. Try this with other things too, such as how long is left on a timer or how much something is going to weigh. This should help enhance your common sense skills with mental skills, resulting in a more natural underlying awareness of your environment.

Red or Black? (original, traditional)

Purpose: To hone clairvoyant skills.

Take a regular deck of playing cards and make a guess at whether the cards are red or black. Keep track of how many you get right. If you get more than half right, consistently, then you are exhibiting some evidence of clairvoyance. However, if you look at the card immediately after guessing, your subconscious, if not conscious, mind will keep track of how many reds or blacks have gone by, and you will automatically guess a little more correctly toward the end. Therefore, it is best to just make a list of your guesses and check them afterwards.

If you want to try a little more specific, try to guess the suit. Getting more than thirteen right in the deck, consistently, is evidence of getting better. You can automatically do both of these tests if you guess the suit, because if you just write down "hearts" or "spades" then you can still check against whether you got the right color as well.

Finally you might try guessing the correct numbers or the whole card every time. If you get more than one right on, or more than four right for the number, that is positive evidence.

Try several different techniques for this. Try just guessing the first thing that comes into your head; try closing your eyes and trying to "see" the cards; try seeing if you can see the shapes superimposed on the backs of the cards, et cetera. You can also try this to test your telepathic skills if you have a willing volunteer who will look at the cards while you guess.

Rhine Symbols (traditional)

Purpose: To hone clairvoyant abilities.

If you don't know them, look up the five Rhine test card symbols and make your own set of twenty-five. Then do the same exercises as the above, just with these more clear-cut and traditional symbols.

Do you feel it? (original, traditional)

Purpose: To hone psychometric abilities.

Handle an old object or walk into a room which might have a history. Close your eyes and focus, and try to see if any visions or auditory input come to you, any feelings. See if you can sense anything about the object or the room, things you don't already know. It sometimes helps to touch objects to get the psychometric readings. It is best to do this with something you can research later, so that you can confirm whether your feelings were right.

Which one? (original)

Purpose: To hone clairvoyant abilities.

Try putting a bunch of white stones and one black stone (or any variation) into a bag, and then try to pull out the black stone. Shake the bag around, then put your hand in and close your eyes. Picture in your mind the thing you want to pull out, and don't pull it out until something happens that makes you think you've got it.

If you don't get it the first time, try again. If you have twenty stones in the bag, there is only a one in twenty chance that you'll pull it out. See if you can keep ahead of the odds.

Drawing (traditional)

Purpose: To hone telepathic or clairvoyant abilities.

With a friend on the phone or in another room, attempt to draw the same thing. Have one of you "project" and the other "receive," meaning one of you should start first and try to send the drawing to the other, while the receptive person should just keep his or her mind blank and wait for something to show up on the slate. Compare drawings at the end and see if they are at all similar; are they in the same part of the page, do they have similar shapes even if they depict different objects, if you used colors did you choose similar ones, et cetera. If you seem to be better at receiving or projecting, share any tips you have with the other person.

Coins and Dice (original)

Purpose: To hone clairvoyant abilities, to learn to predict.

Try flipping a coin and seeing if you can predict what it is going to land on. If your prediction is correct consistently more than half the time, that is considered positive evidence. To up the stakes a bit, try it with rolling a die and guessing what number will come up; roll the die a number of times that is a multiple of six, and record your results.

Who's it Gonna Be? (original)

Purpose: To hone clairvoyant abilities.

If you work at a job where you answer the phone, try guessing whether it will be a man or a woman who is calling before you pick up. See if you can determine anything else about them, then answer to see if you're right. This is easier to do at home, but there you have an unfair advantage; you're more likely to know the calling practices of people and are therefore likely to know who it is. As a variation, when calling a store or place of business, try to figure out if a man or a woman will answer, and even try to focus on what they might sound like.

Stirring Things Up (contributed by a source who wishes to remain anonymous)

Purpose: To improve telekinetic/psychokinetic skills.

In a closed-off room with no fans, drafts, or air conditioning, try to invite a wind. Visualize a breeze sweeping through the room and try to create some sort of wind pattern.

How Do You Feel? (contributed by a source who wishes to remain anonymous)

Purpose: To improve empathic skills.

This works better with someone you don't know well, but try it with anyone. The exercise is to attempt to figure out someone else's emotions. Try to connect with the subject and feel what they feel; this is more of a true test if you are not reading the person's facial expression. Most people will notice that even with very little effort you will start to feel another person's emotions if you just think about trying to do it; the point is not to just guess their emotion and name it, but to share their emotions in your own self. It also helps to bring people closer together, so if you want to learn more about a person, try it out.

Walking Into a Memory (contributed by a source who wishes to remain anonymous)

Purpose: To hone telepathic skills.

With another person you trust, sit face to face and gaze into the other's eyes. Try to "walk" into the person's past and follow a memory. If you're a beginner you might mention a specific topic, see if you can dredge up the memory, and then share your findings, but you don't have to agree to any subject beforehand. Just see what you can find by walking into another person's memories. The person who contributed this suggested that you visualize the walk into another's mind as a stone passageway. Perhaps walking down stairs. You may see scenes or actually become part of them.