A friend kept forgetting she has her speaker system hooked up to her lap top, turned low, and the other day she was looking around to see where the voices were coming from, thinking… is that someone outside of the house?  No…perhaps the spirits are just being louder than normal.  It reminded me of an interesting story I have about seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary in my east garden a few years ago.  Seeing a vision of the Blessed Mother?  Am I crazy?  Not at all.  Through the years I’ve had my share of visions and one on one experiences.  I have a daily meditation and prayer practice, so I figure the visions are the natural result of that.  Just another way for the Universe to get my attention and communicate with me.  I’d first seen the Blessed Mother in the mid 90’s at a particular spot in my east garden, and afterward I cleared a small space there for her.  I even had my bedroom window removed and a sliding glass door installed afterward, so I could use that area as a daily contemplation focus.  During the vision, she spoke with me and we interacted in a very real way.  I had no doubt who she was, and the sense of peace and comfort she brought has never left me.   

Years later, it was a chilly wintery day and the windows were all closed, and I was in my bedroom, sewing.  In front of the sewing machine where I sat was a mirror that reflected the garden outside, behind me.  I’d been contemplating some situation going on, and waiting for an answer to come to me.  Suddenly I see, reflected in the mirror, Blessed Mother in the garden again.

I turned my chair around and it took my eyes a moment to focus and find her.  This time she looked different.  This time she felt different.  This time it didn’t feel like anything; there was no sensory input except the visual.  Suddenly into my head popped an answer to the situation I’d been contemplating.  I thought, “Yay, she came thru for me again” and I sat a moment to look out the glass door toward her.  But something wasn’t right.

Then I laughed as it came to me, what I was seeing was the reflected reflection of a nightlamp I have of the Blessed Virgin that sat on my healing bench.  What looked weird about the “vision” was that it was stationary, it was not moving, there was no animation.  That’s because it was a nightlight.  And because it was a nightlight, it had an inner glow. But not a luminous inner glow. Not an energetically animated glow.  What felt weird about it was that there was no interaction.  She wasn’t looking at me, she wasn’t talking to me.

But she answered the question I had!  Well, not really.  Actually, it was clear I’d answered the question myself and I thought how fun that the Universe pulled the old bait and switch on me: it eased me into a state of mind, while sewing, that I was receptive enough to allow the answer to my question to come to me.  It let me initially see the reflected image as a trigger to shock me into bringing to mind that I know what I know (i.e. the answer I sought).

And if I had to manufacture and project that vision in order to attract the answer, so be it.  The important thing is I quickly saw through the illusion and realized I was the source of my own answer.  I find that’s usually true, once I get out of my own way.

And it’s important for me to know the difference between “seeing” a vision of something, and actually experiencing a vision in an interactive, sensory way.  That experience made me remember that I can be fooled by what my eyes see, to continually look deeper to see what’s real and what’s not real.  And that in itself is a daily yoga.