Edge Work

Edge Work

Section 106. Edge Work, from “The Psychic Vampire Codex, A Manual of Magick and Energy Work,” by Michelle Belanger

Extending yourself so that you interact more completely with the spiritual realm while yet retaining a thin hold upon the physical world is termed Edge Work. Anyone with sufficient mastery in directing energy can with practice learn these techniques.

Edge Work takes advantage of the threshold state. While remaining anchored to the body, you can stretch yourself beyond the realm of flesh to what lies beyond. With this technique, you can effectively travel great distances without leaving your room, and you can with practice even maintain a presence in multiple “places” at once. When doing Edge Work, there are always at least two points of awareness: the anchor of the physical body and its physical location, and the extension of the spirit and whatever Otherside “place” it has extended to.

Edge Work can be used to achieve effects such as bilocation, but it can also be applied to various clairvoyant and extrasensory tech­niques as well. Thus, you can extend yourself and see through anothers eyes or hear through anothers ears. You are also not limited to travel only through the physical realm, but can use this technique to extend yourself to various Otherside locations as well.

Unlike traditional astral travel, where the physical body is left behind completely, in Edge Work, awareness of the physical body is retained. This splits your perceptions between the physical and subtle realities. You perceive and can potentially interact with both “places” at once, so long as you are able to balance your perceptions along the edge of these two places. Invariably, such interaction uses a great deal of energy, so if you practice Edge Work you will find that you have a heightened level of need.

Various techniques make use of different levels of Edge Work. Storm magick, for example, can be accomplished by extending the Self energetically up into the clouds and spreading your energy through the atmosphere. As you extend your energy, your perceptions will expand along with the energy, allowing you to sense the forces and currents among the clouds. Depending on your level of skill, this per­ception can be limited to your immediate area or can extend for miles. .As you perceive the currents and eddies in the atmosphere, it becomes a small matter to extend energy into them in order to harness them, pulling in cold or warm fronts, encouraging an increase in wind, or inspiring the clash of forces that will produce a thunderstorm.

Interacting with spirits within their own territory of the subtle real­ity also qualifies as Edge Work. While many can hear or in some man­ner perceive spirits from the vantage point of the physical realm, a more involved interaction and communication can occur when you step mostly outside of your body and meet the spirits as equals and peers. The process here is almost identical to that described for storm magick. You must simply split your perception between physical and spiritual realms, then extend your spiritual, subtle Self to the location of the subtle reality. This is rather like stepping sideways from one real­ity to the next, as the subtle reality is woven within and throughout the physical realm. Once you have extended yourself energetically to the subtle reality, you can expand your perceptions along with your energy and focus your energy to harness or interact with the other energies present.

With weather magick, you project your subtle Self far above the body among the clouds. With spirit work, you project your Self simply to the Otherside. This may be the Otherside as it exists near the immediate vicinity of your physical body, although it does not have to be. Space and distance are very different in the subtle reality, so with a thought and a concentrated effort of Will, it is possible to extend the Self to just about any “place” in the subtle reality. (We) seem to be limited to the subtle reality immediately attached to this physical realm, although it is sometimes possible to reach through to realms verging on or adjacent to this subtle reality. While (we) often cannot access further realms, we can nevertheless Call into them, thereby inviting beings from other realms into the Between space, which seems to serve as a common ground for many diverse places and realms.

Edge Work is a very versatile technique with numerous potential applications. You are limited only by your level of concentration and your ability to focus your energy and perceptions between both realms. You should take care, however, that you know how to handle yourself when spiritually attacked, for Edge Work can make you vulnerable to other entities. As you walk Between, you are essentially a spirit your­self, and you can act and be acted upon by other spirits just as if you were native to the subtle reality. If you are attacked in that state, it can potentially do more significant damage to your subtle body, and this can also place a greater strain on your physical self.

In what I do with Healing Earth, the term “telegnosis” – apparent knowledge of distant events without using sensory perceptions – is also applicable. ~Don