It’s the big question on everyone’s mind: how do you ward off other people’s negative intention — from your interfering co-worker, that grumpy neighbor, even the stranger giving you the evil eye in the supermarket line?

Psychics usually recommend using visualization to create a mental image of protection, such as imagining yourself in a giant bubble. Scientists have tested this idea by putting volunteers into pairs in separate rooms, asking one member of the pair to send an intention to either energize or relax their partners, and having the partner uses images – a shield, a huge concrete wall, a steel fence, a pulsating white light – to act as psychological ‘shield’ to block the senders’ influences. The effect was then measured on the receiver’s autonomic nervous system.

One set of studies showed it worked, and one showed it didn’t.

To my mind, creating a psychic shield around yourself to prevent a barrage of negative influences is likely to require more than an attitude of resistance or a bit of internal imagery.

In fact, it requires the most powerful thought you have.

It’s the big question on everyone’s mind: how do you ward off other people’s negative intention — from your interfering co-worker, that grumpy neighbor, even the stranger giving you the evil eye in the supermarket line?

Psychics usually recommend using visualization to create a mental image of protection, such as imagining yourself in a giant bubble. Scientists have tested this idea by putting volunteers into pairs in separate rooms, asking one member of the pair to send an intention to either energize or relax their partners, and having the partner uses images – a shield, a huge concrete wall, a steel fence, a pulsating white light – to act as psychological ‘shield’ to block the senders’ influences. The effect was then measured on the receiver’s autonomic nervous system.

One set of studies showed it worked, and one showed it didn’t.

To my mind, creating a psychic shield around yourself to prevent a barrage of negative influences is likely to require more than an attitude of resistance or a bit of internal imagery.

In fact, it requires the most powerful thought you have.

Larry Dossey once wrote that the most powerful antidote to negative intention was the line in the Lord’s Prayer: ‘deliver us from evil’. That is one powerful thought.

But there’s an even more powerful thought, which I also came across from the work of Dr John Diamond, who discovered a simple means of grounding yourself against unwelcome influences. Diamond, a psychiatrist and holistic healer, was inspired by George Goodheart, creator of applied kinesiology, which tests the effect of various substances on the body.

Goodheart developed the technique of ‘muscle testing’, now a feature of applied kinesiology. He would ask a patient to stand facing him, with her left arm out, parallel to the floor: he placed his left arm on the patient’s shoulder to steady her, and then asked her to resist with all her strength while he pushed on her arm.

In most instances, the arm would spring back and resist the force of Goodheart’s push. However, when Goodheart exposed that person to noxious substances, such as food additives or allergens, the person’s left arm would be unable to resist the pressure of Goodheart’s push and easily be overcome.

Testing toxic thoughts

Diamond’s genius was to apply this muscle testing to toxic thoughts. When a person was exposed to any unpleasant thought, the ‘indicator muscle’ would test weak. Diamond called it ‘behavioral kinesiology’ and has tested it on thousands of subjects over many years as a means of instantly taking stock of a person’s thoughts and most secret desires.

Diamond discovered one thought that could overcome any sort of negative influence, or debilitating idea or situation. He called it a ‘homing thought’, because it reminded him of his youth in Sydney, Australia, swimming in the surf.

Whenever a large wave threatened, he and his friends would dive to the bottom of the water and hold on to the sand with their fingertips. ‘We had learned that as soon as we were faced with this situation of stress, we could dive down, grab on to our securing handhold and hang on to our “rock” until the stress passed,’ he writes.

Our connection with the divine

The homing thought that each of us can hold on to, Diamond realized, is our ultimate aspiration or purpose in life: each person’s special gift or talent that not only gives one a sense of joy but also union with the Absolute.

The term ‘homing thought’ also reminded him of the direction finder that lost aeroplane pilots use to find their way home. The homing thought can act as a homing beacon for everyone, particularly during the most difficult moments. ‘It holds us steadfast,’ he once wrote, ‘on our course.’

Diamond’s ideas have not been subjected to scientific scrutiny, but he’s used this on thousands of patients, and the sheer weight of his anecdotal evidence lends them a certain significance.

Whenever we are besieged by the darkest of intentions, we might best protect ourselves when holding on to the thought of what we have been born to do.