Whenever I conduct a workshop on mind reading, my students are pleasantly surprised to find that they're already good at reading minds. In fact, they began doing it when they were babies. As a baby, you would have recognized the expressions on people's faces, and knew if someone was likely to be friendly or not. As you grew, these skills continued to develop. Today, a casual glance is likely to tell you if someone is happy, sad, angry, or tense. You unconsciously observe people's body language all the time. You can, for instance, tell if someone is nervous but is trying to conceal it. People's posture tells you how they're feeling. Someone who is standing tall and straight with head up, feet apart, and arms by the side is feeling confident. Someone who is standing with his or her arms and legs crossed is likely to be feeling uncomfortable. If you happen to walk into a room after two people have had an argument, you'll be able to feel the atmosphere, even if the people concerned are trying to act as if nothing's wrong.

Of course, while you're gaining information from other people, they're learning about you. All day long, you're subconsciously revealing your thoughts and emotions. If, for example, you dislike someone with whom you work, you'll unconsciously and telepathically transmit your feelings to the other person. There's bound to be emotion attached to these thoughts, and this ensures the other person cannot fail to receive them. The same thing applies to thoughts of love and affection; your feelings will be subconsciously picked up by the object of your affection. These are common examples of an old saying: "Where your thoughts go, energy flows." This shows that it pays to be careful what you think about.

Have you ever tried to contact someone at the exact moment they were trying to contact you? Do you sometimes know exactly what someone is going to say before they've said a single word? Have you ever thought of someone you haven't spoken to for a long time, and then been contacted by them shortly afterwards? Incidents of this sort show that you can, and do, send and receive thoughts. These are all perfectly natural abilities that enable you to understand others and get along well with them. People who lack these abilities find it hard to function well in society. In actuality, you're reading minds in almost every communication you have with others. You use your powers of observation, along with memories, emotions, and reason, to work out what the other person is thinking about.

You may even have done some of this deliberately. When you were at school you might have stared at the back of the head of the person sitting in front of you willing him or her to turn around. Once you'd achieved success, you may have continued doing this with other people in your class. You may have willed someone to contact you when you had no other way of contacting them.

To develop your mind reading skills you need to find a partner who is also interested in the subject. Ideally, you need someone who is prepared to suspend disbelief and act on his or her intuition. With practice, you'll be able to work with almost anyone, but it's important to take your time and choose your first partner carefully. Hopefully, you already know someone who'd be willing to work with you. Like-minded people tend to attract each other. I met someone by chance at an airport, and after getting to know each other, we conducted a number of experiments together. You can also meet people at new age stores; psychic development classes; or the mind, body, spirit sections of public libraries. Even today, many people find it hard to talk about their interests in telepathy and other psychic subjects. Be brave, and make a few comments when you're with a group of people. You're likely to already know a number of people who share your interests in the paranormal.

You'll find it helpful to do one or two warm-up exercises before starting more serious work. You should start every exercise with confidence and a sense of expectation. Many people destroy their psychic perception by feeling anxious and trying too hard. Allow yourself to feel calm, relaxed, and grounded. Most importantly, retain your sense of fun. Laughter and a light-hearted approach can enhance your intuition.

One preliminary exercise that I enjoy involves you and your partner sending bursts of energy to each other. To do this, your partner should stand facing away from you. Stand about ten feet behind him or her and gaze at your partner's back. Close your eyes and visualize energy coming from every part of your body and collecting in your heart. Once your heart feels overflowing with energy, open your eyes and raise your right hand high in the air with your fingers extended. Take a slow, deep breath, and as you exhale, lower your arm so your fingers point directly at the center of your partner's back. As you do this, visualize all the energy gathered in your heart shooting down your arm and into your partner's back. The whole process from lowering your arm and firing the energy should take only a second or two.

Your partner is waiting to receive this energy. As soon as it is received, he or she needs to do something to let you know that the energy was received at the moment you sent it. Your partner might turn around, raise both hands in the air, say something, or do anything else to let you know the experiment was, or wasn't, a success.

You may not experience success when you first try this, as it might take time for the other person to feel the transfer of energy. However, once your partner has become familiar with the sensation, he or she will sense it every time. You should swap roles once your partner has successfully received the energy.

In this exercise, you're sending energy from your heart. Once you've gained experience at this, you can experiment by sending energy from your solar plexus, head, or any other part of your body, to see if your partner can differentiate between the different energies.

This exercise also works well with a group of people. Everyone stands in a circle facing inward. The person who is chosen to start the exercise looks across the circle and chooses the person he or she will send energy to. He or she gather as much energy as possible, looks the chosen person in the eye, raises his or her hand in the air for a moment, lowers it and shoots the energy at the person's heart.

As soon as this person receives the energy, he or she fires the energy at someone else. This continues until everyone in the circle has received energy at least three times. After this, everyone will feel ready to carry on with their experiments in telepathy.

There are an almost unlimited range of tests that can be conducted. I found using five cards, drawings, or objects the ideal number to start with. The choice is not too large, and both the sender and receiver know what the five objects are before the test begins. In my classes I often use five soft animal toys that I kept in a box. The receiver sits with his or her back to the sender. The sender mixes up the animals in the box, and then, without looking, removes one of the animals. The box is closed again to make sure the sender ignores the other animals. The sender focuses on the randomly chosen animal, thinking of its shape, color, and any other distinguishing features it may have. He or she then sends the thought of these to the receiver. This is repeated five times, and the results recorded. After this the roles change to give both people an opportunity to be both sender and receiver.

The advantage of this simple test is that virtually everyone experiences at least some degree of success. This provides motivation and encouragement as my students progress on to more challenging experiments.

The ability to read minds can be practical and useful in everyday life. I hope you enjoy experimenting with it.