Today I’ve had an epiphany. A fellow member of a forum I participate on recently wrote a wonderful post on meditation. The point was that meditation is not somethin you do; it is something that happens when you are simply observing, rather than controlling, your experience. The mind will object that it wants a “technique” to make itself feel useful, but there IS no technique. That’s the point.
This is one of those times where I’ve probably heard or read this concept dozens of times, put many different ways, but today something finally clicked. I know my mind has certainly taken to violent protest against this concept of “not-doing.” It occurs to me that while I’ve never had a need or desire to control other people, for various reasons the need to be in control of me at all times has been almost militant. In many ways its been a good thing. With all the medical stuff I had going on when I was younger, not being in control of what happened to me became an ingrained subconscious pattern. Follow that up with a string of controlling and manipulative people in my life, more run-ins with negative entities than I like to think about, and even the typical societal influences that want to tell us who to be, what to think and how to live… and I’ve had to go through a long process of figuring out how to take back control of all aspects of myself. All told, I’m very pleased with my progress.
Unfortunately, psychologically speaking there’s a very human tendency to take a coping mechanism that works well in some situations, and apply it to ALL situations. My tendency is to feel that if I’m not in full control and taking direct action, I’m not accomplishing anything. On an intellectual level I know this is false, since many of the best things in my life seemed to come to me in ways that were seemingly unrelated (or even in spite of) any effort on my part. Obviously there are times when it’s beneficial to “get myself out of the way” and allow things to take their course without trying to micromanage. All the same, for me this mentality of iron fisted self-control has extended to areas where it’s not so productive, like meditation and manifestation. I’ve realized that what I do when I meditate is a lot like what I do when I shield — I found out that I could hold up a sort of mental barrier against straying thoughts, and set part of myself to maintain it while the rest blanks out. And sure, I can maintain a blank mind for a long time now, but it’s not very relaxed, and it’s very difficult for me to reach any deeper trance states required for more specialized exploration.
So it would seem now that I’ve learned how to be in control, the next step is to learn how to deliberately relinquish the need for control when it’s beneficial to do so. Something tells me this has been the biggest sticking point in my efforts to meditate, astral project, deliberately manifest good people and circumstances in my life, as well as recent efforts to establish a more reliable connection with my higher self (or any other source of higher help and guidance that’s interested, really). I’m sure whatever comes of this will find its way into future posts, but hopefully this one has brought some insight to anyone with similar struggles. 
–Palehorse
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September 11th, 2008 - 11:08 am
Hi palehorse,
Yes this is a great post on this subject, I myself came to this while exploring the entry point of the dream world while falling asleep.
Realities from the waking state environment and other realities known as dream realities (for lack of a better name) ,tend to mix and overlap eachother at the forementioned point and it’s hard to distinguish where the waking state reality ends and where it begins .
But when you have enough energy and so not too tired before falling asleep you can go a long way in “not doing” and staying in sort of a meditative state before your consciousness becomes a blur.
You will see in that state it’s just as ‘real’ a reality as it is in the ‘waking state’.
While doing these kind of experiments it really makes me wonder what reality really is but also at the same time what power we have to creating our reality solely through our minds.
My views and experiences changes by this and I discovered there is a lot more behind this thing waiting to discover and unlock the potential we really posess.
This goes beyond the new age bla bla with it’s half truths, we really have to do this ourselves instead of picking up this book or that book or this or that guru and never think any more of it.
It keeps me on the path of discovery and checking what we we forgotten, unearthing the truth what is inside me, my spirit/soul which the ’system’ tries to squash at every turn but i digress.
I keep at my own game about reality and there is a lot ,a lot to re-discover.
Astralkid
October 19th, 2008 - 11:09 pm
Palehorse,
Somewhere along my personal path to self discovery a few years back I was learning a lot about nuero linguistic programing and hypnosis when I came across the best technique that overcomes the deeper trance state issues. I am firmly of the belief that if there is a quicker way to get something done in a rapid manner rather than spending years to cultivate it, sign me up! You can create body triggers that drop you into those deep trance states on cue including the states necessary to astral project, do deep level healings, and even just single mindedness of thought. Here’s the technique, its the same thing actors do to cry on cue for a movie. Any emotion or state of mind you have ever felt before in the past (or even past life times) you can bring back into the present by reliving that memory in your head. You can watch it played back like you are in a movie theater watching it happen. When you do this, that state of mind you were experiencing in that memory, whether it be love, happiness, serenity, alpha or theta brain levels all come back to you in the present. If you replay this memory in your mind 2 or 3 times and do any physical action with your body at the same time of being in that emotion or state of mind you can link that physical body action and have it act as an immediate trigger to bring it into your current and present state of mind regardless of the situation. Let me give you an example. I learned about this while a junior in college so I put it in good effect for taking tests. I would lose concentration towards the end of whatever test I was taking as people started to get up and finish, i’d start looking at the clock, fidgeting, you get the idea. So I went back in my mind and found the emotional state I wanted to be able to achieve any time on cue via body trigger. It was a feeling of being on cloud 9 for an entire week where nothing could get to me, total serenity from a new understanding in life at the time. So I replayed this memory in my head as if I was in a movie theater and while doing that I put my thumb to my middle finger on my right hand and took in one deep breathe. I did it three times everytime while replaying that memory in my mind. This single act of putting my thumb to middle finger and taking a deep breathe now acted as an immediate trigger to that state of mind instantly. So during tests when people would start moving around and I would lose my concentration I would put my thumb and middle finger together and take in a deep breathe and immediately I was back in that emotional state of cloud 9, nothing can bother me mindset. It kicks in so fast! It’s an immediate over ride on any emotional state of mind you are in. Let’s expand upon that. This works whenever, where ever the situation for whatever body triggers you established with chosen emotions and feelings. You had mentioned deep level meditative states. A quick process you can go through is to download a brain wave entrainment mp3 for alpha or theta (the i-doser one’s work really well) and once your brain has slipped into it’s state, do a body trigger. I linked alpha brain state to to rubbing my right middle finger overtop of my pointer finger, theta to the same action on my left hand. So whenever I go into meditation, I can instantly do a body trigger which yanks me immediately to that state of mind. Forget meditating for an hour to hit a good theta when you can do it in 5 seconds.
In the realm of meditation, I have personally found it to be both a passive and a active activity depending upon the intent of the meditation. Not all meditations have the purpose of just shutting off your mind, some of them serve the purpose you give to them. Sometimes when I meditate its just to feel that empty observing of pure self, but more often than not I am consciously sending my meditation towards an end result, a manifestation of some kind, or a healing, or energy work on myself, others, and the planet as a whole. Many of these meditations I guide my self through with verbal commands almost like a self hypnosis, i.e. I do a section by section full body relaxation muscle group by muscle group, so in my head I am verbally saying ‘All the muscles in my legs become completely relaxed’, using this self guided process in conjunction with a theta level mind state can get you to very expansive states of mind but within and without yourself. Your mind goes where you lead it and you can lead it out the universe and back or into the deepest depths of your soul. Namasté.
Mynd