This morning-this quiet still morning. Dogs asleep waiting to be fed. I feel a stillness, calm reflections of mysteries to unfold- (just this moment I look at Ruth's excellent blog, Rumi Days and read- "There is a morning where presence comes over you...").
When I was young- about 13 or 14, I found a book on my parent's bookshelf that really revolutionize my world at that age. The book, The Search for Bridey Murphy, written in 1952 is about a woman named Virginia Tighe of Pueblo, Colorado (my home town) who under a trance by an amateur hypnotist, Morey Bernstein, recalls a previous life as an Irish girl in the 19th century. Being brought up with traditional and somewhat oppressive Christian values, this alternative possibility fascinated me to no end. Could this be true? Do we recycle again and again?
In college I discovered the Don Juan books by Carlos Castenada and open once more to alternative possibilities. I began to read everything on Zen, the Tao and more. I even majored in Transpersonal Psychology (a form of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience).
Later on in my life I discovered Robert Monroe's book, Journeys out of the Body and did indeed have an out of body experience or OBE as it is known in the trade. I found myself floating by my window in my Tijeras, NM mountain home -it was one of the most distinct feeling I've ever had. Just suspended - at first it was incomprehensible, it took me awhile to wrap my head around what was going on - when I did, fear set in - am I dead? Immediately I spiraled and I mean literally spiraled round and round and down and back into my body. An incredible visceral experience - heart beating. rushing movement, I landed safely back in my body. I feared going back to that out of body place for many years, but finally circumstances in my life led me back.
In 2008, Jane, my partner lost her sister, Pam to a airplane accident. We had just been together 7 months when this happened. Jane's pain and her relenting question "Where is she, where's she gone" prompted me back to the question of the mystery of life and death. We read nearly everything on Near Death Experiences (NDE), Out of body Experiences (OBE) and life beyond this physical realm. I began reading a book by Robert Bruce called Mastering Astral Projection, a 90 day guide to Out-of-the-Body-Experience. Initially, I resisted this book as commercial hype. One day I relented, said ok and started doing the exercises it suggested. The book is alright, dry in places, tedious- but a journey none the less I took.
The practices included energy work, relaxation, trance work and learning to reach beyond this realm into the next. Most days were pleasant, peaceful meditations but uneventful. Occasionally they left me without sleep and feeling tired the next day. Yet on some days I would move beyond the 'normality' of everyday life. Yes, I did have some out of body experiences, but what I found most fascinating were the pre-cognitive dreams I began to have. These were not dreams foretelling impending doom and gloom about major events. Mostly they were about the small things in my life- something that would happen with someone, or I would read or watch a video and see my dream coming alive in the words and pictures. Why these so called insignificant occurrences found their way in my dreams, I do not know. Maybe they are messages simply saying,' Hey there's something more going on here! Wake up, don't be stuck in your linear time.'
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