Years ago, I used to play a game with my grandmother, where we would ‘send’ each other mental images and the other would try to pick up on what was ‘sent’. To be honest, we weren’t that good at it. Sometimes it took many tries before we could pick up the right image, but other times we would be scarily accurate in what we picked from one another. In doing this, we possibly strengthened our telepathic connection to one another and as a result, she often seemed to know when I was having a bad day, even though we were hundreds of miles apart.

Why Empaths Are Natural Telepaths

The word telepathy comes from the Greek ‘tele’ – meaning far away and the word ‘patheia’ which means feeling. It literally means feeling or sensing from a distance. This is one of the gifts that empaths naturally have. Emotional empaths pick up feelings from other people (and this can be at close range or at a distance) and psychological empaths are more likely to pick up on thoughts from those around them.

Both my grandmother and I are empaths so it makes sense that we would pick up on these feelings and thoughts.

Telepathy is also more likely to occur in people who have the gifts of clairaudience and claircognizance. Developing your clairaudience and claircognizance can make you a better telepath, and likewise, developing your telepathy can strengthen your clairaudience and/or claircognizance.

How to Develop Telepathy

It is possible to develop your telepathic skills, if you wish, however there are a few considerations to bear in mind.

If you are going to develop telepathy, do it with the aim of picking up on feelings or thoughts of your loved ones, or those who are closest to you, and who are in agreement with you doing this. For example, couples who are very close and who share everything with one another might be open to developing a telepathic connection. As for other people in your life, they may not be open to you picking up on their private thoughts and feelings.

So for this to work, you should ask to be given access to the information that is useful or relevant to you, but nothing else. So perhaps you pick up when your loved one is having a bad day or upset, so you can give them a call or text.

Or perhaps you pick up on the thoughts of strangers if you can help them in some way. I remember reading in a book about a psychic man who ‘overheard’ thoughts from an employee of his who was planning on committing suicide that evening. He was able to help prevent this from happening by talking to the man about it. So that’s an example of when telepathy might be useful.

Here are some steps to help you develop your telepathy:

1. Set an intention to develop it

“Spirit, please help me to develop the gift of telepathy in ways that are useful and supportive to the people close to me. I ask not to be granted access to the private thoughts and feelings that those close to me would not want to share.”

2. Transmitting mental images

Play this game with a loved one (ideally someone you have a strong and close emotional connection with):

Close your eyes and visualise an object — to make this easier, make it something uncomplicated. For example, a bicycle, a washing line or a teapot.

Focus strongly on this image for a while. See the colours of it and try to make it as vivid as possible. Visualize sending it to your loved one. Take turns in sending images. You may find that one of you is better at transmitting images and the other is better at picking them up.

Once you start to get better at this, you can make your images more complex, with movement or multiple elements to them. Send images like a train coming out of a tunnel, in a mountainous place. Children playing on a beach. Clothes on a clothesline blowing in the breeze.

You may also wish to conjure up a memory and send this to your loved one — memories with strong emotions attached to them work particularly well.

Most people have to practise this exercise many times over in order to have any success at it – most of us get it wrong repeatedly at first.

3. Intend for someone to call you

Think of someone you have not heard from in a while — somebody you have a strong emotional connection with and whom you know would like to hear from you or speak to you.

Focus on the image of you speaking to this person over the phone. Feel how great it would be to hear from them. Hear yourself saying hello to them. Telepathically ask them to call you.

4. Psychic guessing game with playing cards

This is a game that I have played with my nieces and it works well with 2 players. Shuffle a pack of cards and give both players a card. Hold the card in your hand and mentally transmit the number (or if it is a queen, jack, king or ace) on it to the other person. Have the other person do the same. See if a number enters your head when the other person is transmitting it to you.