Hello and welcome to the November 2006 edition of Horizons Magazine. Wow! It’s been a whirlwind month of first, my week long stay at The Monroe Institute in Virginia where I took their 6 day Gateway Voyage, then two weekends in Orlando back to back, doing Pranic Healing Level II with Master Stephen Co, and then attending the Hayhouse I Can Do It! Conference where I took the pre-conference workshop with Abraham-Hicks. As you can imagine, my mind has been blown wide open and I can barely keep myself from bouncing off the clouds. Life is good! All things are possible! We are only using a small fraction of our potential. We have inner resources that are amazing. And we all have it, it is in all of us.
Although I’m not yet ready to talk about my Monroe Institute experience, I will say this: Friends have been asking me if I had an out of body experience during the Gateway Voyage program. And that was the first thing I used to ask friends who attended Gateway before me. Hey, we’ve all read Robert Monroe’s book Journeys Out Of The Body, right? And even though the Institute will tell you it is not the purpose of Gateway to give you an OOBE, we all kinda hope and expect that, right? Now that I’ve gone through the program, I know that – in the entire scheme of things – going out of body is only a fraction of what is possible with what Gateway teaches you.
It’s kind of like, on a whirlwind weekend you meet someone that you fall madly in love with, someone completely compatible in every possible way, and you know this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. You go home in a blissful daze, contemplating your everlasting future with this awesome partner, and as you walk in the door, your brother asks: “So, did you get laid?”
Crash back down to Earth. Just by asking his dumb question, he has let you know that his consciousness and yours are not on the same wavelength, so he will only hear an answer that says “yes” or “no”. There is no way he is capable of understanding the immensity of what actually occurred for you during your magical weekend. In the grander scheme of things, it’s irrelevant whether you had sex with your new love or not, because the vastness of the total relationship is and will continue to be more than you could ever have wished for.
One of the first things that happened at Monroe was they took our watches away, and the clock had no hands. We were summoned to events with a bell. This was to ease us out of a time/space mindset so we could experience existence outside a linear time frame. While disorienting at first, it was very freeing and allowed new perceptions to emerge. That was only a warm-up to many very mind expanding sessions using Hemi-Sync technology.
I surprised myself by memorizing everyone’s name after the first session! I thought that alone was a great testament that something important was happening “inside” my mind.
We’d have several morning sessions and several afternoon sessions, with pre-briefings and de-briefings in between.
We also had a group session where we attained the same state of consciousness without the guided recordings, to let us know we did not need the guided tape to access these mind states, that we could also do it on our own.
It reminded me of meditation retreats I’d done in the past, where we spent several days having various intense meditation sessions. We’d begin the day in silence, walking long winding paths thru nature as a group, watching carefully each step we place on the ground, then there would be an hour of gentle yoga and some time to journal before breakfast.
Next we would have silent breakfast as a group, then move on to the hall and chant for an hour and afterward sit in silence for two hours, with the vibrations of the chant still running through us. There would be time to journal before silent lunch as a group and afterward, another walking meditation through the grounds. Then another hour of chanting, 2-3 hours of sitting meditation, then a free hour before dinner.
During dinner sometimes we could talk and, by the end of several days’ silence, everyone’s thoughts had quieted down a lot, so the talk was gentle and sparse. Then back to silence and more yoga before dinner and a group walking meditation afterward, then retire for the evening to journal our thoughts and sleep.
I find retreats like this recharge me like nothing else. I love the silence and love to be alone in nature. I also love to feel the energy of others keeping silence with me, especially in nature. It is very powerful and soothing. You begin to feel the subtle permeating substance around you of Love, pure Love, connecting us all to each other.
The concept that All Is One falls away as you come to feel and to know that All Is One. That We Are All Connected. That whatever you do to another, you indeed do to yourself.
And then, after I’ve rebooted that internal computer in my mind, I must come back to ‘the real world’ and determine how to best apply what I have just learned.
As friend Frank DeMarco says, “Practice, practice, and make it part of your new routine, rather than allowing it to become encapsulated as “something different I did once.” Frank, also a Gateway Voyage graduate, is author of Muddy Tracks: Exploring an Unsuspected Reality wherein he relates his personal quest for finding “what is real” in this life and his need for putting meaning back into it. He shows how to use the universe as our teacher, toolbox and oracle through astral travel, psychic abilities, dream analysis, and distance healing.
How might I apply what I’ve learned this past month?
I will schedule more time to spend in silence and in contemplation.
I will spend more time in meditation, and in creative visualization of what I’d like to be living.
I will spend more time visualizing those things my friends and family want for themselves.
I will spend more time with those I love to spend time with. No more working around the clock.
So, this month I have learned or been reminded of:
It’s refreshing to spend an entire week with like minded others from all over the world, when our focus stays on our common goal with no concerns or discussion over differences. Our sole focus at TMI was the ‘work’ we were there to do.
Coming together with a group that has the same focus and goal gives me a high powered feeling.
When I feel that high level of power, I get very inspired to new thoughts of what is possible for me and for those around me.
When I feel that powerful internal high, I become more artistically creative and everything around me begins to take on deeper meaning.
Spending time in silence shows me just how much time and energy I fritter away in unnecessary talk (and listening to unnecessary talk). In retrospect, I realize all the years I watched tv, that was mostly unnecessary talk I was listening to. What a waste of my thought-time to listen to that. Also, for me, the news is something else I don’t need to listen to. And that has served me well for many years now. If it’s something earth shattering, AOL will flash it on the screen to me, or a friend will let me know. In the meantime, I stay aware of only the good in the world – no wonder I’m such a happy camper!
Removing the concept of linear time encourages me to slow down and appreciate more of what is around me, and it’s easier to be “in the moment” when you are not watching a clock.
Yes, for much of my work I need to watch the clock, since I work by appointments and deadlines, but this week has taught me that I do not need to be on the clock 24 hours a day.
I was concerned that I would be on a different sleeping schedule than everyone else there, since I typically stay up all night working and sleep from about 6:00 until 9:00 twice a day. I see now there is no reason for me to have to look at the clock to see how much more time I get to sleep before I have to get up. If I stop fretting about the sleep time, it will take care of itself.
I also realize, I don’t necessarily need to get more sleep or get on a regular sleep schedule, I just need to alter my perception of how much sleep I am getting and how much sleep I need. Once again, it’s all about perception.
And this past month, my perception has broadened a hundredfold. Enjoy our offering this month. Hari Om.
RELATED: A morning journey out of the body
Monroe Institute, Silent Meditation Retreats and Losing Time
Tulpamancy, Creative Visualization and Deactivating a Thoughtform
The Haunted Chair, De-Activating Thoughtforms, Journeys Out Of The Body, The Monroe Institute Gateway Voyage