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Lesson 12: Guided Meditations and their uses

I know that in previous lessons we went over some points of the Guided Meditation, and that you all got the voice copy of the guided meditation that I made, but in this lesson we will discuss some more on Guided Meditations.

What makes a Guided Meditation so strong on the psyche? What benefits can a Guided Meditation have? What is the use of a Guided Meditation?

We will deal with the questions in reverse order, so the first one up is; What is the use of a Guided Meditation?

A Guided Meditation (GM hereafter) can be a tool for massive changes in your life. Most often it is used as a self-improvement tool, in place, sometimes, of classical psychological and psychiatric counseling. It has been used with great success in many different areas, including medically. To quote Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia (1995):

Guided imagery, alternative therapy that encourages patients through near-trance states to envision themselves doing something or their bodies battling disease; patient guided by therapist or tape recording; believed to reduce chronic pain, shrink tumors, cure chronic infections; may also help patients recover faster and with less pain after surgery by reducing stress; introduced in 1970s to help athletes and musicians perform better.

This kind of treatment is almost exactly the same as a GM. That is why I am listing it here.

To be good, a GM needs to have elements that are almost exactly simmilar to the elements of a meditation. Only instead of self-willing yourself though the environment, someone else takes you through it.

A GM can be seen as hypnosis as well. In that, a hypnotist takes you through a set of steps that induce relaxation and a trance state. This is the same thing that happens in a GM. Only, instead of giving your suggestions to do specific things, you take those actions on yourself. Such as a "break" in the meditation that prompts you to take care of something that is currently wrong in your life, or one that suggests you listen to the Gods for a while and see if they have any messages for you.

Normally, GMs are used in either a group situation, as in a ritual, or in a self-help situation, like happened to me once.

I know I went over this once here, but I will go over it again in greater detail.

There was a time when I was really self-conscious and timid. I believed that everything I did was doomed to failure, and ridicule. This stemmed from many years of emotional abuse by my father, who liked to belittle all of us (myself and mother and my three sisters) all in the name of "kidding" or "making us stronger". To be fair, he grew up in the same environment when he was little and also in a Southern home.

Once I decided to go to a metaphysical shop near to our home and there I found that a lady had a guided meditation machine. Basically it consisted of a tape player and a pair of goggles to cut off vision. The goggles had lights in them that would flash to stimulate the creative processes in the brain.

I asked to see what it was, and the lady kindly consented to allow me to go through a session.

In this session, the meditation consisted of a walk through the woods, in which each area of my body was encased and protected by the light of the sun, and finally a stepping into a clearing.

In that clearing (the GM said) I was to see myself, as I was when I was only about 5 or so years old. I saw me, buck teeth and all, coming through this clearing toward me. Prompted by the GM, I picked the little boy who was me up, hugged him, held him, made him safe from everything. I sheltered him, and he cried on my shoulder. He cried out all the heartache and pain, all the destructive parts of me, he cried for all the anger and hatred we had toward everyone.

(As I write this, I'm starting to cry again. Just remembering this is doing that. Just proves that a GM does not have to be elaborate to be effective.)

Once he was done purging all that, I looked around (prompted by the GM) and saw my family. At that time it consisted of my wife and our child-to-be, as well as my siblings and my mother. My father was there as well, and I spent some time introducing my daughter to everyone. The GM went on saying that everyone who loved me was present in this clearing and that they were there. It further went on to say that everyone who had ever met me was there, also to share in this experience.

All through this I was seeing the entire environment around me, suddenly the clearing was filled with people. They all knew who I was and why they were here. I wanted to love them, but I didn't quite know how since I had a LOT of unresolved issues to deal with.

Prompted by the GM, I felt their love for me pour over me and I truly FELT something inside me start healing. It was like bringing a light into a pitch-dark room and illuminating it. It burned away many years of hate and anger (mainly toward myself). I felt the little boy that is me start perking up, getting more whole, becoming more "normal" for a child. He was healing too.

It burned out a lot of problems. At least I knew the problems existed now, and I could start taking steps to fix them. That is, after all, half the battle of fixing something. Knowing what is broken.

Why do I tell you all this? Because it illustrates the power of a guided meditation.

All of the proceeding can be done in a hypnotic session, it can be done through therapy, it can be done in any number of other means, but the REASON that a GM is so powerful is because it works in a means that makes sense to your conscious mind, as well as your subconscious.

I can illustrate this point by saying that I could reprogram your machine in binary, which is the language the computer operates on, or I could also do it in a Windows environment. But, where the binary may be the language that should be used, it does not make sense to my conscious mind, and so I may make a mistake or just get bored with strings of numbers saying "1001010110100101001010001000100100100101010010110101001011100" and on and on. It makes no rational sense to me, so I could easily transpose a number or two and get the whole thing wrong. However, working in a Windows-like environment, I can do all the same thing, but it makes rational sense to me, because while I AM still working with imagery that the Subconscious understands, the same imagery makes sense to my conscious mind as well.

That is what GMs do. It is a therapy tool that allows you to work in an environment where the symbolism is correct and useful for the Subconscious mind as well as the Conscious mind. Opposed to hypnosis in which the same therapy is done in the symbolism of the Subconscious mind only, or self help books or therapy sessions in which the Conscious mind's symbolism is used only.

So, by entering into an in-between world where the symbolism is good for BOTH, greater results are achieved.

This can be related to OOBE in this manner: It's the same state that an AP experience is based on.

In an AP episode, you are creating the environment you interact in. In a Guided Meditation, you are also creating the environment you interact in. The fact that you are given suggestions on the environment to create is immaterial. However, in a hypnosis episode, the hypnotist gives you specific suggestions as to where you find yourself, which may or may not be an environment you feel comfortable in.

So, can GM be used to augment the AP experience? Yes, it can. Through starting out with a GM, one can step into a state where AP is easier. From there, there have been spontaneous projections in the past. Here's another example.

At that same metaphysical store, there was a class on Runes that I took. In the class I went to, we had a GM dealing with the Runes and the Gods those runes related to.

Throughout the GM, we were told that we were in a forest and there was a tree there. In that tree (can you say Yggdrasil) it had runes on individual stones tied in the branches. You were supposed to look at the various runes, and reach up and grab the rune that spoke to you.

What is interesting is that having not seen the runes that this group used (they were from Finland) I saw a rune that we were not working with that night, and it called very strongly to me. Upon taking it and talking about the experience later in a discussion, I found out that that particular rune dealt with multiple things that I was dealing with at the time.

I was able to go from a GM situation to a situation in which I was partially projecting from a conscious state. I came to later call this type of projection "remote viewing" in which there are some environment variables that can be changed by the practitioner and scenes see and people interacted with are constant between others who are also projecting at the same time.

I have found that in some cases, a person who is in a GM situation will sculpt general characteristics for the environment they are in, but the actual place they are projecting to (normally their mind) will flesh out the details.

I'm going to harp on one aspect of a GM and that is the fact that this bypasses the conscious mind while still retaining a symbolism that is significant to it. As we have discovered in some of our exercises and some of our researches, the subconscious mind is the one in control during an AP or OOBE situation. The symbols seen, the environment acted in and the situations presented are all laid out in the subconscious mind.

So, then it is necessary to bypass the conscious mind and interact directly with the subconscious mind in order to affect the subconscious in any way that will hold for a long period of time. In order to do this, we are advised to do things like meditate and to program our dreams, or through such tools as hypnosis.

I like GMs since they use the best of both worlds. They allow changes to the Subconscious mind to occur while still using a group of symbols that have meaning to the conscious.

I harp on this because this is one aspect of GMs that is really useful. The ability to "cure" old hurts and injuries to your psyche.

All of us know that physical abuse and sexual abuse leave scars on the body. Well, emotional and spiritual abuse do as well, but you just don't see those scars on the body. Every time a parent tells their child that they are stupid, worthless, useless, a burden or what have you, another cut to the emotions happens. Done long enough this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

The child actually starts believing that they are useless and stupid. Since they now believe it, they start acting that way and make that belief a reality.

Studies have been done with children where they are told something over and over, like rabbits are bad. After a while, the child starts believing this, and when presented with a rabbit, the child starts crying hysterically, or they react with fear.

This is the same kind of emotional abuse that happens daily all over the world.

GMs give the opportunity to strike to the heart of problems like this while allowing conscious control of the events and the reactions of the psyche.

An example of this is here:

Pretend for a moment that you have been told that you are stupid by your parents for your entire life. After a few years, you begin to believe this and actively act stupid to make their prediction a practical reality.

An example of a guided meditation that may help in this situation is this:

You find yourself in a place that you know. One that you go to all the time to retreat from life. It is your secret place, your haven, your sanctum sanctorum. It is the one place you feel the most safe and loved.

In this place you see multiple files, either in books, CDs, filing cabinets or whatever. It is a written record of your entire life, and it spills over onto the floor from the drawers it is supposed to be filed in. It is knowledge you have gathered on the different subjects you are interested in. You see all this paper laying all over and are appalled.

Since you like seeing a clean home, and this is the home of your mind, you decide to start organizing and filing these records where they are supposed to be. You spend time in there, getting to know what is in there.

While you are there, your parents come in and start belittling you about how this is not going to matter. You will still be as stupid as you were, whether or not you put things away neatly. You look at them, and tell them that from the sheer volume of paper in here, you can't be stupid, since you know all that which is around you. You tell them that they don't matter to you any longer and that their opinions and thoughts don't matter.

Finally, they leave you alone.

You spend more time going over everything so that you know it intimately, and you find many files about different aspects of you life, job, home, trivia, and other topics. You discover that you don't have enough filing cabinets to contain all these records you are putting up, since you didn't think that you would need them.

As you put the records away, you start discovering that it cross-references itself for ease of use. You find that all this information is available to you, and has been since you learned it. You also discover a pattern. All the information you learned from your childhood is tinged black, as if the paper itself was held in a fire for a few seconds. You also notice that there is a lot of negative information in there. Much more than you thought there could be.

Once you are done picking everything up and putting it all away, you find that you feel better. The negative information from your childhood is there, and you can get rid of it at any time, but it also encompasses three whole cabinets now. But since that was the only part that was where it was supposed to be, you thought that the negative information was the only one available. Now, with the cross-referencing, you realize that 90% of that information is nothing more than your parent's fears and insecurities being projected on you.

You see now that in multiple other places, you learned that you are not at fault in having these feelings, and that you are not alone in those feelings. Others have had the same feelings of insecurity and stupidity that you have had, and they over came them. You can too.

You open the cabinets that contain the insecurities that your parents projected on you, and still do to a point. You read each paper and then you put it into a fire you kindled. As you rediscover these so-called "fact" that your parents gave you, you feel the hurt again as you read it. However, as you burn that page containing that fact, you feel better again. That fact no longer exists for you, and you can operate without it affecting you any longer.

(pause for a long time)

As the last page enters the flames, you notice that some of the pages you burned still exist, littering your floor. But with your new organization of knowledge, you know that they will not affect you much longer. Many of the minor "facts" that your parents told you that have proven to be untrue, are now nothing but ash at your feet.

You grab a broom and start cleaning up the ash. As you sweep it away, there is an incredible lightness of your spirit that you take as a good sign. If you had to guess, you would think that by getting rid of and purging these negative facts from your life that you are now more fully yourself than you have been for a long time.

You collect those papers that are undestroyed and put them into a new file, one marked "To destroy" and you resolve to work on those parts of your personality until they are resolved to your satisfaction. As you lock the file with those undestroyed papers, you see over your shoulder some of the scars that are on your psyche that have finally healed over and are not so sore any longer.

As you leave the room, you discover that you can find any piece of information that you desire out of that room of information. Thus, proving to yourself and your parents that you are not stupid.

And behind you, in the room, in the locked file, another paper ignites and crisps to ashes.

This is one of the most powerful aspects of not only GM, but also of AP. Once you get the trick of GMs down, and learn the symbolism of your own mind sufficiently, you will be able to go astral and work on these same problems on your own without anyone else guiding you or telling you what you see or what is going on.

In my time, I have not only taken care of a problem that I had with loving myself, but also overcome some inhibitions that my Superconscious put on my subconscious mind that were inhibiting my psychic abilities, beaten up a section of my subconscious who was responsible for destroying everything that I achieved (the self-destructive impulse), found parts of me that thought they were so ugly that no one could stand to be near them, let alone love them, and I helped them and myself. I overcame some phobias and some minor psychosis dealing with my sexuality and other areas relating to my masculinity.

It is good to be able to do something like this to yourself. I say this because you will be able to cure yourself better than someone outside of you will be able to simply because you know yourself better than they could. You know that THIS thought relates to THAT thought and feeling, and there are THESE consequences of those two relating. You can go in and fix yourself without setting up negative behavior patterns and without permanent damage, because you will know EXACTLY where the problem is.

That is the use of Guided Meditations and ultimately Astral Projection.

Yes, it is interesting to visit other places, see other versions of us, see what could have been, meet people that don't exist here, but ultimately, AP is about changing yourself.

You will notice as you go along, that your connection to the IS increases and that you start having more and more inspirational flashes. Just, out of the blue flashes of insight. This is directly attributable to APing. Because you learn that the universe is NOT what most people think, and that it is entirely composed of what you think it is, you will note that it is more probable that you can control your environment by controlling yourself.

That's one of the main benefits of AP. I have already told you about the Guardian at the Gate. Overcoming this entity is only the first part. You will probably face just about every fear you have, and probably many you don't. Death will become something that is transient. You will loose that fear of death since you know, at this point, that your soul is eternal.

So, I think that answers the question of "what use is AP."

Guided Meditation is a means to an end. It is something that will allow practice in controlling and envisioning your environment. It will allow you to overcome many things that you know about, and many things you didn't know about too.

Okay, this is the end of what I wanted to tell you about today. I will leave you with another Guided Meditation now. This is one to have a conversation with the Goddess.

To walk with the Goddess. 

By Taarna of the Unicorn Glade

We sit or lay upon the ground and close our mortal eyes, and gaze out upon the mythic realm of our spiritual eye, seeing only darkness. We float freely and gently without care. As we gaze about the darkness, we feel no fear, for we are protected by our Lady the Goddess. It gives us comfort to know this, and we can relax.

We are at peace with ourselves, in our own hearts and in our own minds. Our mundane worries and concerns placed into the suitcases of our meditation and placed away from us for the time being. There is no need to carry the mundane with us.

As we float, here in the darkness, we see in the distance a bright light. It is a curious light. It is a warm light. It is a pleasant light. It is a light that beckons us closer. There is something unknown, and yet familiar about this light. Something that makes us want to go there. It draws our spirit with goodness and happiness.

We will ourselves closer to this light, and as we do, we feel the sensation of motion. It is not as if there were wind rushing at us, nor the feeling of falling, merely the feeling of moving from place to place. We realize that it is through our own will that we travel towards that light. That oh so wonderful light. Like the rhythm of the tides, we move closer.

We are closer to the light. It is so warm and happy a light. It makes us feel vibrant and youthful. We can only wonder at the source of such a light. Our curiosity drives our will even stronger. We must see where this light comes from. We as Icarus flying high to the sun out of wonder. It drives us onward with its goodness and its ever-growing promise of discovery.

As we approach the light, we start to smell the scents of spring and new born growth. Flowers just budding. Trees' gaining their first leaves. And we realize that the bright light that has driven us so far, is the light of the morning sun. The Lord, the God burning brightly in the sky. Giving life to all He sees.

As dawn's light approaches us, we see that we are at a clearing, a glade of wondrous beauty. Here we can smell the scents of life. We see grand, old trees all around with the sunlight, bright and warm shining on the grassy center. We sit upon the ground and lay back. The sky is of the purest azure blue, interrupted only by the occasional cottony white cloud passing by, and the glowing orb that warms us.

On the far side of the glade, we see a small child. A young girl, singing , laughing, and playing those games that children play. Our curiosity again draws us near. We watch the young girl go from flower to flower, singing and the birds and the animals of the glade.

Wildlife abounds. Peace is everywhere. The young girl wears a flowing gown of cloud-like material, loose and wispy, with a gossamer texture, free and airy.

The young girl doesn't show any sign of seeing us as she plays. And yet, we feel that she is aware of us and all we do. We feel innocence from her, the innocence of youth. And yet we also feel tremendous power from her. She radiates power rivaling the God in the sky.

The young girl starts a dancing skip down a path amongst the old trees. We follow behind her, watching her frolic amongst the trees. As we follow her, we notice that the sun, the fiery God, is rising higher in the sky. The scents of spring that we had smelled are slowly fading.

The air grows warmer. Hotter still. Heated by the power of the God, rising in the sky. And we notice, as we follow this playful young girl, that her step grow more solid, her playfulness lessens, her demeanor more serious. She grows taller, older. She is blossoming into a young woman, strong and full of fighting spirit. Her gossamer thin clothing changes with her to become armour, her bouquet of flowers, a sword. She is no longer the little girl of the glade, frolicking carefree. She is a protector and a defender.

We notice that the forest gives way to the open desert. The young woman, grown, yet not quite mature, walks firmly and with purpose, as if on a mission. The God has risen to his highest in the sky. He burns down relentlessly. Lending his fire to all he touches.

We feel the fires of the high noontime sun. It is hot, it is summer. We bath in the heat. But we do not burn. For we know the protectress is ahead of us, and she will not allow us to be harmed. Within the desolation of the desert we do see the beauty that is there, the life that resides within these wastelands. This we see in the light of the young woman we follow.

As our journey continues, the desert gives way to open fields. Grain is ready for harvesting. The once fiery God grows lower, older, and colder in the western sky. The God travels towards the evening of his life. The scents of autumn are in the air. The fields abound with golden grain, ripe and ready. The occasional tree we pass has a rainbow of colours painted by its leaves.

We see that the young woman seems to have grown older, more mature. And like children we follow her. Her armour has changed. Slowly before our eyes, as we follow her, what was once leather and steel become linen and bone. Her clothing is practical. She is now the Mother. We see she is now holding a baby. Nurturing and caring for this child. Loving and protecting this infant in a way only a Mother can. We see the signs of aging on her face. But still we are filled with her strength and kindness as we follow behind her. Though she is no longer the Warrior, we feel protected, and comfortable.

The sun descends beneath the horizon, and the God in a final blaze of glory paints the dusk sky with his remaining fire of oranges and red. The air grows chilled and crisp. We begin to see our breath in the cold air. We notice traces of snow around us. That which once was the autumnal beauty of color seems to be blending into a scenery of white. The trees and flowers all lie dormant, and fruitless, dead to the eye. The God's fire and warmth has passed on. All is cold.

The motherly woman, now seems to be bending under the weight of her years. She is old and her children grown. Her once practical dresses of linen give way to tattered and worn robes of wool. She carries a staff to aid her. Her strength is no longer of body, rather it is of mind. Wisdom radiates from her. She has the wisdom of the ages. Her presence warms us from the crisp winter's air. The scene is all white, glistening by the light of the Lady, the Moon. As the old Crone trudges onward, we see her aging, more and more, but growing wiser with each and every step.

Now we see clouds starting to cover the Lady, our Goddess, the Moon. There feels to be a storm in the air. The wind rises, and the air chills. We feel the storm approach. The snow is whipped about, obscuring our vision of the old woman. We long to keep our eyes upon her.

The storm is upon us. The Lady, the moon is obscured by the clouds. There is Wind, and Rain, it melts the snow. There is Lightning and Thunder flashing all about. The noise is very nearly deafening. We can no longer see the Old Crone. Winter's snow has been stripped from the landscape and all has become colorless.

The tempest has the winds blowing from the East, the South, the West, and the North. The very earth beneath is blown up into the winds to be mixed with the rain and the lightning. The downpour washes everything away. All that once was has perished. We have watched it pass away.

The storm has silenced. All is still. All is quiet. It is very eerie. We feel we are on the verge of a great and wondrous happening. The clouds recede, and we see the night sky, with the Goddess still shining upon us. The path is still there, and beckons us onward. Though, the Old Crone is nowhere to be seen. The landscape is barren, devoid of life. The air is still and without the sounds or the smells of life. The path is narrow and straight.

In the silence and the stillness of the night air we look up at our Lady, and we notice the night sky brightening to the east. Lo and behold, it is the God! In a fanfare of red Fire, he climbs above the horizon to give forth his warmth to the barren lands. And under his light of dawn, we see seedlings breaking up from the earth. New life, fresh and alive, reborn from the death of winter's cold clutches. The barren landscape slowly gives way to the new growth.

As we follow the path around a hill we are startled to see that we have arrived at the place where we started. Here at the glade. The spring warmth, once again, fills our senses with the new life.

And, here, playing in the field, is a young girl. The same young girl we saw when we started this journey. We realize that the Goddess has led us on a journey, full circle, from youth, through maturity to old age, to death, and then to rebirth.

But now it is time to return to our mortal lives, to those who love us, so that we may continue on our own paths of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Air, fire, water, and earth. Maiden, Mother, Warrior, Crone.

Let us will ourselves back. Leave this place of light, refreshed to have seen such wondrous sights. We float freely away on the tides of life. The glade shrinking away in the distance. Becoming only a single point of light. We feel ourselves returning, returning. And though we have returned to our mundane baggage of our toils, we still carry an inner peace from what we have seen.

Let us open our mortal eyes, now. Awake, awake, awake.

And on that note, I will end this lesson.

Stars light your path.

Daven

Assignment:

To turn in: I want you to do a review of one of DeGarcia's books in his bibliography. Post to the list which book you will review AS SOON AS YOU READ THIS AND DECIDE so that no one else decides to review the same book.

The reason for this exercise is for you to learn from another source, and to tell us all (including me) what you think of that particular book. The things I'm looking for are; Did it make sense? Did you enjoy it? Did you find something of value from it? Did you think it was worth the money, or was it simply a waste of paper? And other such things. 1-2 pages will be sufficient. Grade it on a 5-star scale (with half stars allowed) and once I have it, I shall repost them (with full credit) on my site.

To read: I think the reading of another book will be sufficient this time. ;-)

To keep: Write a guided meditation for yourself. Make sure that it speaks to the emotional side of yourself, and then record it and play it back to yourself and see how good it is. You may publish this if you wish to and I would like to see it. However if you don't want to share it, then don't. Sharing this is not a requirement.

 

 

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