© copyright Amoris 2001
Just a few brief examples to stimulate thought on the matter. More to be added when I get time. Enjoy!
#1. Psychic self-defense: You feel threatened, so you just visualize that you're 'inhaling' Elemental Fire into your aura/energy fields (you can actually inhale physically to help with this visualization) and then you 'exhale' it while intending to create an impenetrable sphere around you. Visualize this strongly and BELIEVE in its effectiveness.
#2. Psychic self-defense: While astral or in physical body, you feel something attacking you psychically (either a vampiric entity trying to put its tentacles on you to suck your energy or a jerk who's trying to actually strike at you with energy). So, you inhale more elemental energy (fire or white hot spiritual energy) and then exhale it (mentally) at the attacker with the intention of burning him. If it's a vamp, you burn off the tentacles that you feel in your aura and burn them clear back to their roots so that the entity can't do this again. If it's a human who's being a jerk, you can visualize a gigantic astral hand (it should feel very real to you mentally) and with great force you smack the person astrally (visualize that you are doing this and believe that it is being effective - eventually you'll be able to feel your own energy vividly when you send out parts of it to do things long-distance etc.). If you're dreaming or completely astral (or even just very 'awake' while dreaming) and something tries to attack you, just visualize strongly an astral weapon (sword, gun, fireball, missile etc.) and strike the opponent with it while intending/willing damage in self-defense.
#3. Healing: Someone has a headache. You 'inhale' (again, you don't actually breathe on people, but you can use your breath to learn to control and visualize your control of energy) elemental water (blue energy). Then, either placing your hand on the person's head in the area of the pain (you might be able to sense where the pain originates from with your hand), you 'exhale' the blue energy through your hand and into the pain area while intending to disperse that negative painful energy signature.
#4. Distance Healing: You 'inhale' or power up with the appropriate energy type, and then 'intend' to send it to a specific person for the purpose of healing whatever is wrong with them. Use a picture of the person along with intense visualizations of him/her. Try to involve all of your senses i.e. smell, touch etc. (Use smells, tastes, images, and sounds that remind you of that person in order to open a link to him/her.)
Keep in mind that in any type of healing, you must FIRST have some idea of the nature of the illness or malady. Sending energy without directing it in any specific way will only produce a VAGUE RESULT. (It'll still be a kind and supportive act, but it won't often amount to much more than a 1% - 3% improvement at best, compared to the 30% - 100% recovery possible by a trained energy healer, depending on the nature and severity of the disease.) To heal any disease you must first understand the nature of the illness and how it affects the physical body and mind - right down to the last minute detail.
2005 update: The last paragraph isn't entirely true with regard to practices involving the channeling of advanced spirits for the purpose of healing e.g. Reiki. With those methods, a rigid system of hand positions and conscious knowledge of the disease itself is virtually unnecessary. Success relies on the knowledge and skill of the forces/intelligences being channelled and the ability for the healer to move as directed by them and hold an open meditative state of mind while they work.