Everything you need to know may well be right there in front of you, but where to start? This chapter is about practicalities. If you have flipped straight to this page without reading the rest of the book, you will find it totally baffling, so go back and read all about it first! These tips are based on the findings of my research and the tried and trusted methods I have used to predict the shape of things as they appear to be forming and to work out how to change them into the shape of things I prefer.

To develop precognition and use it for positive change, you need to start by observing yourself and your life. Buy a large exercise book, preferably one you will take pleasure in owning to help instil a sense of self-nurturing and contemplation. Make the commitment to set aside time each day to dedicate to your journal and the improvements that it will bring into your life.

Use each right hand page to record your dreams, whether or not you understand them. Date each dream and give it a gut-reaction title, then keep a record of the titles and dates at the back of your journal for easy reference. If you have difficulty recalling dreams, simply start by writing down your waking emotions and thoughts each morning. In Sleep On It, my first book, I explain how to recall your dreams, how to interpret them and how to take correct action. To use precognition meaningfully and effectively in your life you will need to understand basic dream interpretation.

Divide each left hand page into three columns. Head one 'Daily Journal' and use this to record in short note form general events, conflicts, thoughts or insights of the day. Listing these in point form only will help you keep it brief and easy to refer back to.

Head the second column 'Synchronicity' and use it to record, again in simple point form, any synchronicities which relate to either your dreams or your daily journal. You will find that synchronicities may occur a few days later than your dreams or may string out over a week or so. Simply go back and record each synchronicity, with its date, alongside the dream or daily journal entry it relates to.

Mark the third column 'Dream Interpretation' and use this to jot down in point form your understanding of each dream. In the early days it may take a while to get the hang of dream interpretation. In this case, record all your dreams, but interpret only one for each week; choose the most striking one, or a recurring theme.

You will note that there is no column for 'Precognition'. Since precognition is really a special case of synchronicity, I feel there is no need. If you have a burning desire to make predictions and test to see if they come true, set aside some pages towards the back of your journal and record the date, the prediction and the predicted date of the event. In this way you can check them off as they occur. However, I feel it is more instructive to record any visions or precognitive feelings in your 'Daily Journal' column, and then the events, when they occur, in your 'Synchronicity' column.

Most important of all, please allow yourself several weeks just to record your observations without analysis and brain work, to help cultivate a sense of peace and contemplation with this process. This is special time to dedicate to yourself. In this way you can establish the habit of keeping your journal without the pressure of the detective work.

After an allotted time, go back over your journal and look for patterns between the columns. Take the occasional double-page spread in your journal to record any overall patterns you see. These patterns will develop into insights about your life and the way in which your inner thoughts, through your dreams and daily journal notes, are reflecting in your outer world through daily events and synchronicities. Look specifically for the following clues:

Who is in your life or your dreams? Who symbolises 'like attracts like' and who represents dealing with balance and extremes through 'opposites attract'? Who appears and who disappears (in life or in your dreams) and how do these timings reflect your inner thoughts and changes? What do each of these people tell you about your own thoughts and attitudes?

Can you identify any cliches or sayings being acted out in your life or your dreams? These may be clues about your unconscious conditioning. If you don't like the effect they are having on your life, resolve to change them by understanding why you have been conditioned that way. Acknowledgment is usually all it takes to break the cycle.

Look for clues (predictions) in early pages which became events in later pages. Begin to see how you can use similar clues in the future to foresee the shape of things to come and how to act on these clues to accelerate or defuse your predicted outcome.

Look deeper than face value at the synchronicities which arise. This is easier when several synchronicities clump together, as in my 'Carol and Moving' series (Chapter 8). Use your knowledge of dream symbolism and your own personal associations to crack the codes and identify the breakthrough emerging from your unconscious. Keeping the journal allows you to look back months later when the breakthrough has occurred and then you will be able to see the obvious connection. This is a bit like getting stuck on the crossword puzzle and waiting for next week's paper to get the answers. With the solution in front of you, the clues are so clear! So it is with the symbolism of synchronicity: when the insight has broken through, the symbolism is obvious.

With practice you will learn to predict the shape of things to come by reading your synchronicities, then you can decide on your action according to what you see.

Which area of your life would you like to improve? Relationships, career, finances, leisure time? Whatever it is, you probably go through cycles of sheer frustration because things don't seem to go the way you want them to, no matter how many times you try. There will be a pattern, a cycle, associated with this. Look through your journal and flip back through your memory until you identify what it is. If, for example, it's a new partner you seem unable to find, you may identify a cycle of, say, twelve weeks for each hopeful relationship, travelling from the heights of passion to carbon copy rejections that leave you totally mystified each time. Once you've found the repeating cycle, look through your journal for evidence of recurring dreams that cycle with the relationship, or whichever area it is you've elected to change. Look for evidence of repeating manifestations, of work situations, people or other issues that seem to cycle in the same way. With continued observation you will discover the unconscious thoughts which are barring you from the future you really want.

Synchronicities are the kick-start signs to look for: the ones that can get you out of the endless repeating grooves, if you know how to interpret them. Remember that synchronicities generally herald emerging breakthroughs related to change, overcoming previous limitations, realisation of wrong direction, death of the old, birth of the new and integration. They often present as travel, accident, death, birth and reunion. Remember that your symbolic dreams can be seen as the blueprints of the shape of possible things to come. When synchronicities are occurring, look for signs of change in the blueprints of your dreams. Determine whether the synchronicities are signs to follow or to avoid. Finally, in full awareness of the rumblings of your unconscious thoughts, select the blueprint you want and act on it to bring it into your life.

As the hypnotism project and dream incubation experiments showed, focusing conscious thoughts under conditions of optimum access to the inner world challenges the unconscious to reveal its thoughts on the matter. Meditation, day dreaming, prayer and quiet contemplation can also provide ideal conditions for this process. Revealed unconscious thoughts take the shape of visions in meditation, symbolism within dreams, insights from prayer or actual manifestation through synchronicity in the outer world. Remember that the unconscious responds symbolically, so while you may not get what you focus on, you will certainly challenge the unconscious to give you its symbolic version and all the added insight that endows.

Record any focused thoughts you deliberately introduce into these states and watch to see which synchronicities occur. Use symbolism and dream interpretation to crack your unconscious thoughts on your chosen subject and to understand how these have determined the shape of your life.

Listen to yourself as you talk with people. Notice words or phrases you use frequently. Hear your automatic reactions to certain topics. Take money, for example. How often do you hear yourself say, 'I can't afford it', or 'My salary is just enough to put food on the table', or 'It all goes on bills' or 'There's never enough to go round'? Check back through your journal and look for evidence of your words manifesting in your life. How often are things priced just out of reach? How often do you eat well but have little cash left over?

Ask friends to alert you to words and phrases you use repetitively. Once you can clearly see the connection between your patterns of speech and the way your life works, you will realise how accurately you can make predictions for someone simply by listening to the way they express themselves. Remember that not all words and phrases are manifested literally. The right brain loves symbolism, so the predictable patterns of your life will often be right brain symbolic interpretations of your speech (unconscious thoughts patterns) rather than your conscious intentions.

Set aside the occasional double-page spread in your journal to record your 'old' speech patterns alongside examples of how these have shaped your 'old' life. Underneath each one, write out the 'new' words and phrases you choose to replace them with, alongside your prediction of the 'new' shape of things to come. Ask your family and friends to alert you if you fall back into the old expressions and enlist their help to prompt you with the new ones. Occasionally select one to reinforce aloud, as an affirmation, perhaps repeating it several times daily for a week. There is no need to think hard about affirmations. Just let the sound, resonance and shape of the words reprogramme your blueprint. Watch your life carefully for feedback in case your right brain has selected an alternative interpretation!

Example

Affirmation:              'I will be successful'
Likely outcome:           May occur, but future tense may delay success.

Affirmation:              'I always try my best'
Likely outcome:           Plenty of trying, no achieving.

Affirmation:              'I am successful'
Likely outcome:           Successful, but in which area?

As you can see, precision is vital. Remember that we generally get exactly what we ask for! Words, phrases and affirmations are powerful determinants of the shape of things to come whether we choose to use them or not. Awareness is infinitely better than sticking your head in the sand - even though that may stop you talking for a while!

Your life has taken shape according to the guidelines you have set. Now that you know how to predict your future, you can turn the tide by changing your rules. Knowing that you alone are empowered to make those changes, the choice is entirely yours.