Introduction
We all have experiences of the mystical or occult, whether we consciously realize this or not. Mystical experiences include premonitions, near-death experiences, past-life knowledge, out-of-body travels, to name but a few.
I would like to define what I mean by the mystical or occult before proceeding any further, because there are two slightly different definitions of the word. One meaning is a special knowledge which is revealed only to a few, and another meaning relates to anything supernatural, such as incidents that are outside of our understanding of nature. I say ‘our understanding of nature’ because I feel that the occult is already a part of nature, not outside of it or separate from it; it’s just that our understanding is limited and therefore we see certain inexplicable incidents as unnatural. I see mysticism as a doorway which allows us to see beyond the limitations of physical reality, and gain a deeper awareness of our essential nature. I am not referring to supersensory abilities such as levitation and seeing without one’s eyes. I am referring only to the accessing of knowledge from the spiritual dimension in order to gain a more complete understanding of our true identity and purpose in life.
For me, mystical or occult processes are an opportunity to gain back some long-forgotten knowledge about myself. Whilst here on the physical plane, we have a very limited perspective, which is filtered through our five senses. Incidents which give us knowledge of what lies beyond our everyday reality enable us to tap into a great reservoir of potential self-knowledge. We can begin to understand some fundamental questions like, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ These questions have not been sufficiently answered by our observations of physical reality.
We notice that everything in physical reality is changing, so there is no permanent quality we can use to understand our fundamental nature. A way out of this riddle would be to declare that perhaps we have no fundamental nature at all, yet the very existence of the occult proves that there are some other forces at work. We get glimpses of a uniting reality, but only if we pay close attention. Distortion and hallucination play a small part in mystical experiences, but if these experiences can be verified and if they happen to many people of sound mind, then we can deduce that there is an overriding truth to them. For instance, people sometimes receive some vital information from a deceased loved one, and when verified, the information turns out to be accurate. There is also a great deal of material on NDEs (near-death experiences), and people of all different backgrounds, cultures and age groups experience them in a very similar format (most people see a tunnel leading to a world of light).
My personal experiences with the occult have revolved around three types of experience. One has been out-of-body travel, another has been past-life regression and yet another has been trance messages. I cannot speak about the deeply personal experiences of others, but I can recount what I have learned and also the techniques I have used to gain this awareness. I have experienced great benefit through my experiences, and they have enabled me to heal my own neuroses.
When I was a young child, I did not feel aware of anything much, and dealt with some very tough situations without much concern. But as I grew older, I became very analytical and cynical about the world. A pervading sense of sadness clouded my vision when I thought about the world, the atrocities committed through wars and crime, and the ignorance of the human race as we continue annihilating ourselves and our planet. Another thing I found burdensome was the fact of the physical body – its tendency to get ill, be hurt and experience pain and pleasure in unsettling fluctuations. I wanted a way out from this whole web of turmoil. The only thing I felt content and happy with were some of my relationships, especially the one with my husband, which are a reminder of how much love and joy there could be in life if we all learned a few basic truths about ourselves.
I turned first to meditation as a way of relaxing the mind and becoming more carefree. The first few times I tried this, nothing much happened. But as I concentrated more on the centre of the forehead – the area known as the ‘third eye’ – I began to feel strong vibrations along my spine going up to my crown. Since the age of twelve, I had suffered from a minor condition known as Sleep Paralysis. In this condition, the mind wakes up from sleep while the body is still paralyzed in sleep state. It can be very frustrating as you cannot move your body until it is ready and fully awake. You feel trapped inside an immovable object, your consciousness alive but jailed. Around a year after I started meditating, something peculiar happened during one of my Sleep Paralysis spells. Instead of being trapped in an immovable body, I found I could exit the body completely!
At first I just stood next to my sleeping body, and saw myself standing as a small being of light on two legs which looked like nothing more than beams of light. Then I began rising up into the air. I felt scared, and asked that if there were a God, then for him or her to protect me. As soon as the thought of God entered my mind, I began flying in full speed towards an enormous circle of golden light. But before I could reach it fully, I was back in the physical body and wide awake. This was my first significant out-of-body experience.
There have been many others since then, and they have revealed a lot to me about the nature of life and the reason for my existence. As my meditations have become more powerful, and I have been able to quieten the chatter of my conscious mind, I have also received messages from my subconscious mind. I have felt the presence of benevolent forces around me and feel that they have been guiding me by communing with me on a subconscious level. I have also begun practicing self-hypnosis, which has lead to the surfacing of some past-life memories. All of these techniques have helped me lessen certain worries and fears.
I hope that, by sharing these experiences, I can help to open others up to the reality that exists beyond our limited awareness.
Out-of-Body
‘There are many paths, but there is only one destination.’
The first thing that became clear to me through OBEs was that I am truly not a physical being. This fact is so obvious to some people and completely alien to others. If all you know is eating, sleeping, talking, moving, and working then how can you know about your non-physical nature?
Theoretically, I had always accepted that I must be more than just the body. All of my identity could not be locked into this one role I was playing on Earth, and all of my thoughts and feelings could not be generated just by chemical reactions in the brain. If that were true, then everything would end with the death of my body, and I felt that there was more to consciousness than that. But I couldn’t be sure what exactly it was which superseded the physical body – what it felt like or looked like. Through the process of OBEs, I was able to experience myself, my true self.
When I came out of the body, I felt myself to be totally free and able – without limitation. I later received a message that told me that ‘the body is a handicap on the soul’, and I really felt the truth of this when I came back to the physical form. The soul has perfect vision, perfect hearing, it can move faster than the speed of light and create any vision it wants to on the astral (spirit) plane. When the soul enters the body, it becomes limited to physical laws of gravity, motion and entropy; it also experiences pain and pleasure arising from the senses.
The soul is pure light energy. When it leaves the body for a temporary time, it remains loosely attached to that body by a silvery chord. It knows to return to that very body, because the soul’s account (karma) is linked to that body. So the soul cannot actually do whatever it wants as long as it has obligations and duties to complete. These obligations are not superimposed by some dictatorial God; they are self-created. The age-old biblical saying, ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap,’ holds true for all of us. We have to take responsibility for our actions and deal with all of their consequences. But the soul chooses all of these experiences as part of its spiritual growth to self-realization, or as William Blake put it, from ‘innocence’ to ‘experience.’ I don’t know why the soul goes on this journey to know itself, but it seems like this is the whole purpose of creation, and it continues endlessly, perhaps even in a repeating cycle from knowledge to ignorance and back to knowledge once again. Knowledge is synonymous with truth.
Another characteristic of the soul is that each soul has a unique vibration of energy, but it cannot be defined as being either masculine or feminine. Some souls may have a likeness with one particular gender due to its quality of vibration, but we cannot say that a soul is either male or female.
The realization that we are souls adopting bodies also helps to dispel some of the fear of death and loss. We cannot lose something which is eternal, and the soul cannot be hurt or destroyed.
After I had experienced being consciously out-of-body, I wanted to be able to do this at will. I eventually learned the technique for this. I could put myself in a state of Sleep Paralysis by using an alarm to wake myself soon after I began falling asleep, or I could oversleep and naturally find myself in a state of Sleep Paralysis when my mind wanted to wake up but the body stayed sleeping. The awful feeling of being trapped would begin, but them I could ‘pull’ myself out of the body with some effort and feel totally free again. It took a lot of effort to pull out of the body in the beginning, because the body seems to have some sort of magnetic charge which draws the soul to itself.
During my third or fourth experience of being in the spirit plane (this happened once every couple of months), I found myself standing next to the globe of light once again. This time, I saw that there were others standing near me. One of the people standing nearby was a well-known spiritual leader of a yoga group. He had died decades ago. Another person standing next to the light was a famous old-time actor, who had also passed away from the physical plane. I asked the light, ‘What is the right path for me to follow?’
The light shone benevolently and answered, ‘There are many paths, but there is only one destination.’ It went on to point to the two people standing near me and said, ‘This one came to me, but that one also came to me.’
This answer helped me greatly to understand how I should live my life. I had been attending various yoga and meditation groups, and each of these groups had a different list of dos and don’ts. I had been feeling very confused and restricted. What the globe said made me realize that there may be a quicker and easier path to reach God, or there may be a longer, more arduous path, but eventually I would find my way back to the Source I had originally come from.
This place which we come from, it is a world of light where each of us is like a drop in an ocean of light. The personality of the whole, collective light is one of pure love, truth and peace. We become individuated from this energy and then we return back to it when our awareness has reached full circle.
Past-life Regression
‘As you discard old clothes for new ones, so your soul leaves the old body and enters another.’
The above quote is from the Bhagavad Gita, which is an ancient scripture that explains the process of reincarnation.
As I became more comfortable with my spiritual identity, I began wondering about where I had been before and where I would go after this life. My intuition and awareness were opening up. I had feelings of deja vu, like I had been here before. So, I decided to try hypnosis and past-life regression to try and remember my journey.
Self-hypnosis involves reaching a deep state of relaxation, so that we can access buried memories. The subject gives attention to each part of the body and relaxes it, and then deepens the relaxation by counting backwards. A technique such as visualizing planet Earth from above and then entering any part of the world, or walking through a doorway into a different time, can help to link the mind to different memories. The mind can take suggestions such as ‘Go back to the time that…’ or ‘Go forward and see what happens’. Our conscious mind protects us and does not let us experience anything dangerous during self-hypnosis. Hypnosis by another person or therapist requires a degree of trust, because we need to allow them to direct us and maybe even take our mind into fragments of memory which our conscious mind refuses to let us access. I had read about self-hypnosis through the books of Dr Bian Weiss and Paul McKenna, and decided to practise it in a concentrated way.
Through self-hypnosis, I accessed many images, but wasn’t sure about the accuracy of any of them. I saw myself as a monk in a previous lifetime, living in some part of Europe. I had sandals on my feet and long brown robes. I felt very dedicated and peaceful, living a humble and austere life. I had been something of a recluse, sharing my feeling with God alone. Another memory showed me as a Sufi poet, walking into a mosque and being overcome by its beauty. I remember feeling, as this person, that all attempts to find love and all experiences of falling in love are an attempt to be with the ultimate Beloved, God. They are all imitations of that final experience of finding The One. Yet another fragment of visual memory revealed an image of me on horseback, riding along the riverside of some east European town. These visions may or may not be accurate, but they were not actively created by my imagination; they unfolded quite naturally by themselves. When I first began meditating, images came to me in a more spiritual form. The first time I saw a vision, I was an old man serenely rowing a boat across a tranquil lake. In another image, I was a powerful woman entering a majestic building.
The point of these memories is to see if there is any theme, any solution or answer for current problems, or any overriding messages. I feel that learning to love, accept and forgive were the main messages of my visions. I always wanted union with God, but could not see God in my daily reality, only in deep states such as meditation or trance. But God is the expression of all of our highest and true natures. I tried to find that kind of spiritual ecstasy in everyday life and sometimes became morose when it was not there, but it was not necessary to be in that place all the time. I could still learn from and enjoy life. Another theme was the attempt to perfect myself and become worthy of God’s acceptance. I learned that this is a natural process of awakening to our highest nature, and it cannot be forced otherwise we will fail in achieving what we want. Every time I had tried to follow a rigid religious path, proclaiming its validity over all other religions, I had eventually turned away from that because it went against my natural feeling that everyone has equal standing with God, and will find God in various ways if they truly seek.
Perhaps the greatest awareness that past-life regression gives is that we can play so many roles. We are unlimited actors and creators. But that is not who we essentially are.
Subconscious Messages
‘There will come a time when you will not be able to ignore It.’
We are living in a world where, on one side, New Age philosophy is emerging and proclaiming the dawning of a new era. On the other side, we are continuing in total ignorance to destroy our planet and each other through acts of war, pollution and blind faith. On one level, we are gaining altruistic wisdom and understanding the universal nature of love, the fundamental unity between all life-forms. On another level we are separating ourselves into ‘us and them’. One of these philosophies will eventually destroy the other, and it remains to be seen which one will win out in the end.
During meditation, I sometimes have streams of thoughts coming to me, but I feel as though my mind is silent and I am not actively constructing these thoughts. I write the thoughts down as ‘Streams’ in my diary, and they seem to provide a much higher degree of wisdom than my other diary entries. This maybe because they come from the receptive awareness of the subconscious mind, or it maybe that they are guided by other spiritual influences such as more advanced souls or ‘guides’ on the astral plane.
The general message of these ‘streams’ is that, through personal and spiritual awakening, a shift in human consciousness will take place and will begin to change the world. But there will be upheaval in the process, because the ignorance, violence and decay which exist in our world will have to be removed.
The ‘streams’ are also a mode of personal advice for me in my day-to-day challenges. They remind me of the bigger picture when I lose sight of it. The bigger picture involves the practice of good karma, include loving-kindness and positive thoughts. Thoughts have their own power of magnetism. Thoughts influence physical reality. Therefore, it is very important to gain good control over one’s thoughts and only think of things that are beneficial for one’s self or others. Negative thoughts towards others may harm them, and it will also attract negative karmic consequences back to one’s self.
One problem I have always had is indecisiveness. This is very destructive because it means that my mind keeps emitting conflicting thoughts, and when they are realized, they create conflicting circumstances for me. In order to change this tendency, I have worked very deeply to understand what I really want to do in this life.
Other ways in which I receive subconscious messages is through the process of keeping a dream journal, and through the use of tarot and oracle cards. These activities bring subconscious images to the surface of one’s conscious awareness. Most of the time, the messages are conveyed through archetypes – generic symbols which have a metaphoric value and can be interpreted in combination to give a detailed understanding.
Conclusion
‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’
Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’ If you want to live in a peaceful and loving environment, then be an embodiment of peace and love and give those qualities out to the world. The fastest way of bringing something back to yourself is to give it out.
It’s easier said than done. Half of us don’t even realize this basic law, that whatever you give out comes back to you. The other half of us recognize this, but we fail to follow it because anger, guilt, shame and hate have become habit for us.
I used to be a very angry person, feeling wronged by society and hurt by people who should have loved and protected me. But, since I started meditating and delving further into revelations coming from mystical awareness, I realized that there was a big puzzle of actions and consequences, and I was one small piece in that puzzle. All the wrongs in this world were a result of ignorance, and only knowledge can dispel ignorance. And knowledge cannot be forced. It comes.
The occult is not an end in itself. It is not some art or dark magic like some people believe. Occult powers such as seeing without one’s eyes or levitating are a separate issue, which some yogis (those who practice yoga or merging with the divine) may be able to master through concentrated effort. But these powers are not the motivation for learning about the occult. The greatest gift which the spiritual dimension can give us is to provide an awareness of ourselves – our true identity. This awareness can heal our current wounds and enable us to help in the creation of a more harmonious society. It can help us to access the love of the divine, and therefore to lead a deeply fulfilling life.
We all have experiences of the mystical or occult, whether we consciously realize this or not. Mystical experiences include premonitions, near-death experiences, past-life knowledge, out-of-body travels, to name but a few.
I would like to define what I mean by the mystical or occult before proceeding any further, because there are two slightly different definitions of the word. One meaning is a special knowledge which is revealed only to a few, and another meaning relates to anything supernatural, such as incidents that are outside of our understanding of nature. I say ‘our understanding of nature’ because I feel that the occult is already a part of nature, not outside of it or separate from it; it’s just that our understanding is limited and therefore we see certain inexplicable incidents as unnatural. I see mysticism as a doorway which allows us to see beyond the limitations of physical reality, and gain a deeper awareness of our essential nature. I am not referring to supersensory abilities such as levitation and seeing without one’s eyes. I am referring only to the accessing of knowledge from the spiritual dimension in order to gain a more complete understanding of our true identity and purpose in life.
For me, mystical or occult processes are an opportunity to gain back some long-forgotten knowledge about myself. Whilst here on the physical plane, we have a very limited perspective, which is filtered through our five senses. Incidents which give us knowledge of what lies beyond our everyday reality enable us to tap into a great reservoir of potential self-knowledge. We can begin to understand some fundamental questions like, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ These questions have not been sufficiently answered by our observations of physical reality.
We notice that everything in physical reality is changing, so there is no permanent quality we can use to understand our fundamental nature. A way out of this riddle would be to declare that perhaps we have no fundamental nature at all, yet the very existence of the occult proves that there are some other forces at work. We get glimpses of a uniting reality, but only if we pay close attention. Distortion and hallucination play a small part in mystical experiences, but if these experiences can be verified and if they happen to many people of sound mind, then we can deduce that there is an overriding truth to them. For instance, people sometimes receive some vital information from a deceased loved one, and when verified, the information turns out to be accurate. There is also a great deal of material on NDEs (near-death experiences), and people of all different backgrounds, cultures and age groups experience them in a very similar format (most people see a tunnel leading to a world of light).
My personal experiences with the occult have revolved around three types of experience. One has been out-of-body travel, another has been past-life regression and yet another has been trance messages. I cannot speak about the deeply personal experiences of others, but I can recount what I have learned and also the techniques I have used to gain this awareness. I have experienced great benefit through my experiences, and they have enabled me to heal my own neuroses.
When I was a young child, I did not feel aware of anything much, and dealt with some very tough situations without much concern. But as I grew older, I became very analytical and cynical about the world. A pervading sense of sadness clouded my vision when I thought about the world, the atrocities committed through wars and crime, and the ignorance of the human race as we continue annihilating ourselves and our planet. Another thing I found burdensome was the fact of the physical body – its tendency to get ill, be hurt and experience pain and pleasure in unsettling fluctuations. I wanted a way out from this whole web of turmoil. The only thing I felt content and happy with were some of my relationships, especially the one with my husband, which are a reminder of how much love and joy there could be in life if we all learned a few basic truths about ourselves.
I turned first to meditation as a way of relaxing the mind and becoming more carefree. The first few times I tried this, nothing much happened. But as I concentrated more on the centre of the forehead – the area known as the ‘third eye’ – I began to feel strong vibrations along my spine going up to my crown. Since the age of twelve, I had suffered from a minor condition known as Sleep Paralysis. In this condition, the mind wakes up from sleep while the body is still paralyzed in sleep state. It can be very frustrating as you cannot move your body until it is ready and fully awake. You feel trapped inside an immovable object, your consciousness alive but jailed. Around a year after I started meditating, something peculiar happened during one of my Sleep Paralysis spells. Instead of being trapped in an immovable body, I found I could exit the body completely!
At first I just stood next to my sleeping body, and saw myself standing as a small being of light on two legs which looked like nothing more than beams of light. Then I began rising up into the air. I felt scared, and asked that if there were a God, then for him or her to protect me. As soon as the thought of God entered my mind, I began flying in full speed towards an enormous circle of golden light. But before I could reach it fully, I was back in the physical body and wide awake. This was my first significant out-of-body experience.
There have been many others since then, and they have revealed a lot to me about the nature of life and the reason for my existence. As my meditations have become more powerful, and I have been able to quieten the chatter of my conscious mind, I have also received messages from my subconscious mind. I have felt the presence of benevolent forces around me and feel that they have been guiding me by communing with me on a subconscious level. I have also begun practicing self-hypnosis, which has lead to the surfacing of some past-life memories. All of these techniques have helped me lessen certain worries and fears.
I hope that, by sharing these experiences, I can help to open others up to the reality that exists beyond our limited awareness.
Out-of-Body
‘There are many paths, but there is only one destination.’
The first thing that became clear to me through OBEs was that I am truly not a physical being. This fact is so obvious to some people and completely alien to others. If all you know is eating, sleeping, talking, moving, and working then how can you know about your non-physical nature?
Theoretically, I had always accepted that I must be more than just the body. All of my identity could not be locked into this one role I was playing on Earth, and all of my thoughts and feelings could not be generated just by chemical reactions in the brain. If that were true, then everything would end with the death of my body, and I felt that there was more to consciousness than that. But I couldn’t be sure what exactly it was which superseded the physical body – what it felt like or looked like. Through the process of OBEs, I was able to experience myself, my true self.
When I came out of the body, I felt myself to be totally free and able – without limitation. I later received a message that told me that ‘the body is a handicap on the soul’, and I really felt the truth of this when I came back to the physical form. The soul has perfect vision, perfect hearing, it can move faster than the speed of light and create any vision it wants to on the astral (spirit) plane. When the soul enters the body, it becomes limited to physical laws of gravity, motion and entropy; it also experiences pain and pleasure arising from the senses.
The soul is pure light energy. When it leaves the body for a temporary time, it remains loosely attached to that body by a silvery chord. It knows to return to that very body, because the soul’s account (karma) is linked to that body. So the soul cannot actually do whatever it wants as long as it has obligations and duties to complete. These obligations are not superimposed by some dictatorial God; they are self-created. The age-old biblical saying, ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap,’ holds true for all of us. We have to take responsibility for our actions and deal with all of their consequences. But the soul chooses all of these experiences as part of its spiritual growth to self-realization, or as William Blake put it, from ‘innocence’ to ‘experience.’ I don’t know why the soul goes on this journey to know itself, but it seems like this is the whole purpose of creation, and it continues endlessly, perhaps even in a repeating cycle from knowledge to ignorance and back to knowledge once again. Knowledge is synonymous with truth.
Another characteristic of the soul is that each soul has a unique vibration of energy, but it cannot be defined as being either masculine or feminine. Some souls may have a likeness with one particular gender due to its quality of vibration, but we cannot say that a soul is either male or female.
The realization that we are souls adopting bodies also helps to dispel some of the fear of death and loss. We cannot lose something which is eternal, and the soul cannot be hurt or destroyed.
After I had experienced being consciously out-of-body, I wanted to be able to do this at will. I eventually learned the technique for this. I could put myself in a state of Sleep Paralysis by using an alarm to wake myself soon after I began falling asleep, or I could oversleep and naturally find myself in a state of Sleep Paralysis when my mind wanted to wake up but the body stayed sleeping. The awful feeling of being trapped would begin, but them I could ‘pull’ myself out of the body with some effort and feel totally free again. It took a lot of effort to pull out of the body in the beginning, because the body seems to have some sort of magnetic charge which draws the soul to itself.
During my third or fourth experience of being in the spirit plane (this happened once every couple of months), I found myself standing next to the globe of light once again. This time, I saw that there were others standing near me. One of the people standing nearby was a well-known spiritual leader of a yoga group. He had died decades ago. Another person standing next to the light was a famous old-time actor, who had also passed away from the physical plane. I asked the light, ‘What is the right path for me to follow?’
The light shone benevolently and answered, ‘There are many paths, but there is only one destination.’ It went on to point to the two people standing near me and said, ‘This one came to me, but that one also came to me.’
This answer helped me greatly to understand how I should live my life. I had been attending various yoga and meditation groups, and each of these groups had a different list of dos and don’ts. I had been feeling very confused and restricted. What the globe said made me realize that there may be a quicker and easier path to reach God, or there may be a longer, more arduous path, but eventually I would find my way back to the Source I had originally come from.
This place which we come from, it is a world of light where each of us is like a drop in an ocean of light. The personality of the whole, collective light is one of pure love, truth and peace. We become individuated from this energy and then we return back to it when our awareness has reached full circle.
Past-life Regression
‘As you discard old clothes for new ones, so your soul leaves the old body and enters another.’
The above quote is from the Bhagavad Gita, which is an ancient scripture that explains the process of reincarnation.
As I became more comfortable with my spiritual identity, I began wondering about where I had been before and where I would go after this life. My intuition and awareness were opening up. I had feelings of deja vu, like I had been here before. So, I decided to try hypnosis and past-life regression to try and remember my journey.
Self-hypnosis involves reaching a deep state of relaxation, so that we can access buried memories. The subject gives attention to each part of the body and relaxes it, and then deepens the relaxation by counting backwards. A technique such as visualizing planet Earth from above and then entering any part of the world, or walking through a doorway into a different time, can help to link the mind to different memories. The mind can take suggestions such as ‘Go back to the time that…’ or ‘Go forward and see what happens’. Our conscious mind protects us and does not let us experience anything dangerous during self-hypnosis. Hypnosis by another person or therapist requires a degree of trust, because we need to allow them to direct us and maybe even take our mind into fragments of memory which our conscious mind refuses to let us access. I had read about self-hypnosis through the books of Dr Bian Weiss and Paul McKenna, and decided to practise it in a concentrated way.
Through self-hypnosis, I accessed many images, but wasn’t sure about the accuracy of any of them. I saw myself as a monk in a previous lifetime, living in some part of Europe. I had sandals on my feet and long brown robes. I felt very dedicated and peaceful, living a humble and austere life. I had been something of a recluse, sharing my feeling with God alone. Another memory showed me as a Sufi poet, walking into a mosque and being overcome by its beauty. I remember feeling, as this person, that all attempts to find love and all experiences of falling in love are an attempt to be with the ultimate Beloved, God. They are all imitations of that final experience of finding The One. Yet another fragment of visual memory revealed an image of me on horseback, riding along the riverside of some east European town. These visions may or may not be accurate, but they were not actively created by my imagination; they unfolded quite naturally by themselves. When I first began meditating, images came to me in a more spiritual form. The first time I saw a vision, I was an old man serenely rowing a boat across a tranquil lake. In another image, I was a powerful woman entering a majestic building.
The point of these memories is to see if there is any theme, any solution or answer for current problems, or any overriding messages. I feel that learning to love, accept and forgive were the main messages of my visions. I always wanted union with God, but could not see God in my daily reality, only in deep states such as meditation or trance. But God is the expression of all of our highest and true natures. I tried to find that kind of spiritual ecstasy in everyday life and sometimes became morose when it was not there, but it was not necessary to be in that place all the time. I could still learn from and enjoy life. Another theme was the attempt to perfect myself and become worthy of God’s acceptance. I learned that this is a natural process of awakening to our highest nature, and it cannot be forced otherwise we will fail in achieving what we want. Every time I had tried to follow a rigid religious path, proclaiming its validity over all other religions, I had eventually turned away from that because it went against my natural feeling that everyone has equal standing with God, and will find God in various ways if they truly seek.
Perhaps the greatest awareness that past-life regression gives is that we can play so many roles. We are unlimited actors and creators. But that is not who we essentially are.
Subconscious Messages
‘There will come a time when you will not be able to ignore It.’
We are living in a world where, on one side, New Age philosophy is emerging and proclaiming the dawning of a new era. On the other side, we are continuing in total ignorance to destroy our planet and each other through acts of war, pollution and blind faith. On one level, we are gaining altruistic wisdom and understanding the universal nature of love, the fundamental unity between all life-forms. On another level we are separating ourselves into ‘us and them’. One of these philosophies will eventually destroy the other, and it remains to be seen which one will win out in the end.
During meditation, I sometimes have streams of thoughts coming to me, but I feel as though my mind is silent and I am not actively constructing these thoughts. I write the thoughts down as ‘Streams’ in my diary, and they seem to provide a much higher degree of wisdom than my other diary entries. This maybe because they come from the receptive awareness of the subconscious mind, or it maybe that they are guided by other spiritual influences such as more advanced souls or ‘guides’ on the astral plane.
The general message of these ‘streams’ is that, through personal and spiritual awakening, a shift in human consciousness will take place and will begin to change the world. But there will be upheaval in the process, because the ignorance, violence and decay which exist in our world will have to be removed.
The ‘streams’ are also a mode of personal advice for me in my day-to-day challenges. They remind me of the bigger picture when I lose sight of it. The bigger picture involves the practice of good karma, include loving-kindness and positive thoughts. Thoughts have their own power of magnetism. Thoughts influence physical reality. Therefore, it is very important to gain good control over one’s thoughts and only think of things that are beneficial for one’s self or others. Negative thoughts towards others may harm them, and it will also attract negative karmic consequences back to one’s self.
One problem I have always had is indecisiveness. This is very destructive because it means that my mind keeps emitting conflicting thoughts, and when they are realized, they create conflicting circumstances for me. In order to change this tendency, I have worked very deeply to understand what I really want to do in this life.
Other ways in which I receive subconscious messages is through the process of keeping a dream journal, and through the use of tarot and oracle cards. These activities bring subconscious images to the surface of one’s conscious awareness. Most of the time, the messages are conveyed through archetypes – generic symbols which have a metaphoric value and can be interpreted in combination to give a detailed understanding.
Conclusion
‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’
Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’ If you want to live in a peaceful and loving environment, then be an embodiment of peace and love and give those qualities out to the world. The fastest way of bringing something back to yourself is to give it out.
It’s easier said than done. Half of us don’t even realize this basic law, that whatever you give out comes back to you. The other half of us recognize this, but we fail to follow it because anger, guilt, shame and hate have become habit for us.
I used to be a very angry person, feeling wronged by society and hurt by people who should have loved and protected me. But, since I started meditating and delving further into revelations coming from mystical awareness, I realized that there was a big puzzle of actions and consequences, and I was one small piece in that puzzle. All the wrongs in this world were a result of ignorance, and only knowledge can dispel ignorance. And knowledge cannot be forced. It comes.
The occult is not an end in itself. It is not some art or dark magic like some people believe. Occult powers such as seeing without one’s eyes or levitating are a separate issue, which some yogis (those who practice yoga or merging with the divine) may be able to master through concentrated effort. But these powers are not the motivation for learning about the occult. The greatest gift which the spiritual dimension can give us is to provide an awareness of ourselves – our true identity. This awareness can heal our current wounds and enable us to help in the creation of a more harmonious society. It can help us to access the love of the divine, and therefore to lead a deeply fulfilling life.