Psychic Training at Nissa Retreats
Nissa Retreats Psychic Training Practice
One of my favorite practices at Nissa Retreats involves paired guests, watercolors, paper, two minutes.
No artistic skill required. No “right” symbols. No pressure to make something beautiful.
Just paint whatever arrives.
A line. A house. A flower. A self-portrait. One color or five. Abstract or literal. The point is not the painting.
The point is what happens next.
You hand the painting to your partner, and they share what they pick up intuitively from the colors, brushstrokes, shapes, spacing, movement, intensity, softness, edges. Sometimes what comes through is emotional. Sometimes it’s practical. Sometimes it’s oddly specific. Sometimes it’s light and funny. Sometimes it’s exactly what the painter has been carrying privately.
Then you switch.
I provide all the supplies. You bring your willingness.
And here’s why I teach it.
Why two minutes?
Because two minutes changes the brain’s role in the room.
When you paint quickly, you don’t have time to manage your image, craft a story, or “perform” meaning. You create before your inner critic can take the wheel. This is a known principle in expressive arts and art-therapy: speed helps bypass overthinking and gets you closer to what’s actually present underneath the mental noise.
What’s really happening when someone “reads” a painting?
Let’s be clear and grounded: I’m not using this as a diagnostic tool. I’m not “testing” anyone’s personality.
In fact, psychology has a long history of projective drawing methods.
So what are we doing?
We’re training three things at once:
1) Nonverbal perception
A painting is nonverbal communication. Even when it’s abstract, it still contains choices: pressure, pacing, repetition, openness, hesitation, intensity, contrast, containment, chaos, and calm. In everyday life, we read people constantly through nonverbal information from their tone, posture, timing, micro-expressions, energy shifts.
Psychologists call one part of this thin-slicing: our capacity to make surprisingly accurate judgments from very brief “slices” of information.
2) Intuitive translation (without needing proof first)
Intuition isn’t only “psychic.” It’s also pattern recognition + emotional attunement + subtle noticing. The painting becomes a mirror: not because it contains a secret code, but because it invites the reader to sense, name, and offer impressions without grabbing for certainty.
And that’s the muscle most people avoid using.
Not because they can’t do it, because they’re afraid of being wrong.
So we practice being wrong safely. And being right softly. And learning either way.
3) Consent-based connection
This is not “perform a reading and impress me.”
This is:
“Here’s what I noticed.”
“Here’s what I’m curious about.”
“Here’s what I feel invited to say.”
Then the painter gets to respond: Yes. No. Maybe. That lands. That doesn’t.
Why I love pairing people for this
Because intuition gets sharper in relationship.
When you’re face to face with another human being and you’re given permission to listen deeply, without fixing, advising, or selling a story, something opens.
You start to notice:
what you assume
what you project
what you actually perceive
what repeats across different people and different paintings
That’s the real training.
What guests usually experience
This practice has a way of surprising people in both directions:
The “I’m not intuitive” person
They paint something tiny and simple. Then their partner reflects back a theme like “you’ve been holding a lot alone” or “you’re protecting something tender” or “you’re in a threshold moment” and the painter goes quiet because it’s true.
They didn’t need to “believe” in anything for that to happen. They just needed to participate.
The experienced intuitive
They’re challenged in a different way: to stay humble, stay present, and keep it clean. Not to overreach. Not to force meaning. Not to make it about performance.
This practice is a refinement tool.
What I teach before we begin
If you ever do this at home (and you should), keep it simple:
No art critique. Not “good,” not “bad,” not “pretty.”
No diagnosis. This is not therapy, and it’s not a clinical assessment.
Speak in impressions, not pronouncements.
Try: “I’m noticing…” “I’m curious if…” “This feels like…”Stay consent-based. The painter is the authority on their life.
Let it be light OR deep. Both are valid.
Why this belongs in a retreat
Because retreats aren’t just for learning concepts.
They’re for practicing.
This watercolor exchange is a gateway into:
presence
courage
receptivity
self-trust
connection without performance
It’s one of the fastest ways I know to help someone remember:
“I can feel what’s true.”
Even if they can’t explain how.
And the more you practice that, gently and with real feedback, the more reliable you become.
If this practice sparked your curiosity, then learn more about my next retreat at The Horse Shoe Farm in North Carolina. March 1-6, 2026 https://www.nissaretreats.com/north-carolina-25
