Tag Archives: altered states of conciousness

Shamanic Explorations: A Trance Workshop

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shamanicThere is a rich history of shamanic traditions in our human evolution. I always enjoy returning to these mystical, ritual practices as a means of connecting with Energy Beings. Today I had the opportunity to help other people explore the altered states of consciousness at the heart of journeying work.

As a medium I am used to working with my Guides in an altered state. My transfiguration work takes place in the space between being wide awake and being fast asleep. In this hypnogogic hinterland I can wander to meet the Beings who wish to share their presence, wisdom and knowledge with us. It’s not simply about allowing other Beings to use my physical body. Or to change and alter my appearance so that they can be seen by others. It’s also about my shamanic journey inwards to a different reality. To a place where there is also access to self and other healing. A place I know is flowing with the energy of creativity.

It’s also a place that can be accessed by anyone who is willing to step through the boundary between here and there. I believe that to step across that boundary it is important to step gently. Because unless I know exactly who I am there is a risk. The possibility that not all of me will return the same as it left. So I work to help people take the first steps in a safe place. A place where I can balance the energies required and they can explore their own energies first. To me that is at the heart of any shamanic practice. Learning to walk before I run. The reward of doing it that way is also the help and support that is given by all the Guides. They step forward to assist everyone.

I also like to think that part of what I do is reclaiming the shamanic tradition as a positive, creative way of navigating the energy world. Until we are used to using our intuition, to process the energy we are in, our attempts to manifest a positive world will only be partially successful. Logic has been a useful tool but I know it is time to take back intuition as the way of creating what exists outside me.

Day 815 of my blogging challenge

Gently Deepening Spirit Connections In Trance

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Go gentlyI’ve had a lovely day running a Trance workshop. I enjoy helping people to gently explore working in altered states of consciousness because letting the connection with Spirit people build in this way can be really rewarding.

I also enjoy helping people to understand what working in trance is all about. And why this form of communication offers different evidence of the way our two worlds can interact. But I know that it’s best to go gently forward because this type of communication does test our beliefs. And push at the boundaries of what people can accept. I also love that there is a long history of trance mediumship. I’ve read many books and reports about the mediums of the past and present who allow Spirit people to use the energy to provide more than words of comfort. When I do my own trance mediumship I have many reports from people who have seen the faces of their loved ones superimposed over mine.

I also appreciate that my Guides have built this form of mediumship gently into what I do. There was no pressure for me to work in this way. They held back until I felt I could take each next step. And they helped me to deal with my anxieties and fears about letting Energy Beings step even closer into my aura. The sensitivity I experienced from my Guides has always been reflected in my teaching of others. Each step is carefully and gently presented to the developing medium. Because I work very closely with their Guides to deliver a trance experience that will build confidence. That’s very important to the people on the Spirit side. They want everyone who wishes to do so to experience this form of connection. To experience it in a positive way.

One thing about learning about my abilities that has stood out is the care my Guides have taken. Leading me gently on to more knowledge and understanding. That’s why I agreed to teach. Because I knew if they took that care with me then they would do so with others. If you want to explore and develop your intuitive abilities, go gently. Find the best teacher you can. Consider the help your Guides can give you. And be kind to yourself. It will be worth it.

Day 685 of my blogging challenge 

Sensing the Veil Between the Worlds

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I’ve been chatting today about the veil between the worlds. Understanding the energy that divides us from each other and from other realities helps us to learn to cross backwards and forwards through that veil.

Because when I consider myself as an energy being I can understand more about the way I experience both the ebb and flow of all the other energies around me. So it starts with recognising my own energy. Then recognising the energy of other physical beings. Finally I can sense and understand the energy of the non-physical beings and places too. I can learn to cross the veil in some way so that I can communicate and experience other realms. Part of this sensing is also learning to pay attention to the Earth’s energy flows too. In a conversation with my good friend Mindie Burgoyne this evening we discussed the Thin Places. Areas on the planet where the veil is easier to cross.

There are lots of locations where energy recordings have been captured. Sometimes called the stone tapes theory it’s as if the events of a place are accessible every time I press the play button on the recorder. This is definitely one way to see beyond the veil that speparates us. Yet the recordings are just that. Repeatable certainly. But providing the same information over and over. There is no opportunity for me to interact. To move the information forward. It is what it is. And it can’t ever be anything more. What I do find interesting about these recordings is that they are often laid down by extremes of emotional energy. And sometimes because the place containing the recording is a high energy point.

That’s also what interests me about the veil places. To move between energy realities requires a lot of additional energy. I have to shift my rather slow human vibration up a level or two just to be able to sense a thin place. To engage with it takes even more of a shift.

It’s much easier to have this experience if I happen to be at a place where there are plenty of ley line connections. These energy lines grid the Earth. Some are extremely powerful. Especially if they are an energy node (a collection of powerful energy streams). Quite a few are damaged. And some have stopped transferring energy altogether. In such a place where the energy is strong it’s possible for most people to sense the veil. That sizzle of energy keeping one reality apart from another. And it’s also possible, if you wish to do so, to cross through the veil in some way. Many people have experiences where they feel they have stepped from one time into another. I know they have been able to sense an alternate reality.

In that other reality our Ego mind feels out of step. Perhaps even a bit threatened. The connection with our usual energy flow has altered. Yet the intuitive mind is, for once, able to process the energy of that place in interesting ways. I know that I have travelled back in time to interact with the Energy Beings of places where our ‘times’ overlap. I’ve also stepped into completely otherworld places to talk to Energy Beings from other planets. Or the Spirit World. Often I’m given guidance. Or knowledge. Even energy to bring back to my personal reality.

These Thin Places can expand our understanding of what human and Spirit life is about by encouraging us to access altered states of consciousness. To explore beyond the surface of life.

When I make energy connections on this side of the veil, or beyond it, I am open to being much more than a human being. I am exploring the Spirit within me from different realities. I’m not religious. I feel religion is something we have manufactured to keep ourselves small. But I do believe in Spirit. And that the Spirit within each of us is a spark of some Divine existence. Connecting all of these sparks on this and every other side of the veil, in every reality, is important to me. That way we become a cosmic oneness once more. Not the illusion of individuality that I currently sense in my physical body.

Have you tried stepping into your energy? Have you visited a Thin Place and travelled beyond the veil? I know that if you do you will understand the beauty of the energy you are. And the beauty of the energy ocean we all share. Once you connect to the vast possibilities of alternate realities I know you will take to heart the idea behind “what you give is what you get”. There is more you and I than we can know in this life unless we use our energy to approach the veil and find out. I know that we can change the world for the better with our combined positive energies. Let’s look at ourselves differently, approach the veil and allow our beautiful energy to flow.

Day 454 of my blogging challenge.

Pulling Viewpoints Together

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img_2217I’ve had a lovely day doing one of my favourite things. I love to run workshops. Sharing knowledge and information with others is so enjoyable. I also love that I can present different viewpoints of the same subject matter.

Today it was all about Trance. Sometimes that refers to working in altered states of consciousness. Other times it can mean transfiguration i.e. when an energy being overshadows the physical features of the medium with their own appearance. That’s where working through different viewpoints can be really helpful. And trance work can also lead on to physical mediumship too. Interestingly most people are unclear about the differences between these terms. Understanding what is happening can also become confused if you are approaching this experience from different beliefs about what trance represents. It was my pleasure to help the students arrive as some view of what trance meant for them.

I really like to mix traditions. So I used shamanic, spiritualist and psychological models in the workshop today. Each one practices working in altered states of consciousness but for different reasons. Helping the students to experience a trance state using techniques from each viewpoint allowed them to compare and contrast. If that sounds like an exam question I admit to enjoying getting people to think in that way. After all, to understand my experiences I want to test out what happens each time. Then I can make my mind up about what I believe is the process going on. I can also find the common threads that work across all of the trance techniques.

I know that when I approach my own learning like this I am much more open. If I am not stuck with only one point of view I have flexibility and options. I can change my understanding as I get new information.

Being open minded and willing to put different elements of a model together in new ways has opened up what I can achieve with my trance/physical mediumship work. And that is why I like sharing things the way I do. Hopefully my students found something they could take and use from each viewpoint. They may also be encouraged to research these traditions or look for others that contain an element of working in an altered state. That’s the exciting bit for me. What will they go on to discover for themselves? How will their own experiences of trance enhance their spiritual journey? Next week I’m doing a workshop for personal development using circles and spirals. I can’t wait to share more viewpoints!

Day 329 of my blogging challenge.

Keeping an Open Mind

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imageIt’s been a busy day! I ran a Trance Mediumship workshop at the Centre then rushed across to Leeds to do a church service. Both of these are part of my life because I was prepared to keep my mind open.

Although I came into Spiritualism sceptical about being able to actually communicate with the Afterlife I had spent a lot of my life exploring spirituality. Some of the things I learned, like how to meditate, hypnosis and shamanistic practises, made me think about altered states of conciousness in the mind. I wanted to understand what happened in the space between being wide awake and fast asleep. As well as reading about altered states I was also prepared to experience some of them.

Getting first hand experience was a great benefit. First it kept me open to looking for information. Then it provided me with a lot of things to think about. Finally, by experiencing hypnogogic states for myself I learned a lot about how to, why, when and where. I’m sure I have my Guides to thank for a very through training course in Trance even if I didn’t know I was in training.

So when I decided it was time to open up my psychic senses and find out about mediumship I headed off to a Spiritualist church keen to find out more. Not necessarily about trance states or transfiguration. I wanted to understand if Spirits were ‘real’ and how mediums contacted them.

As I found out more about how mediumship works I realised that it also involved a shift in brain wave patterns. That shift is what produces altered states. There is a point when the concious mind is occupied with something. The unconscious mind gets to push intuitive information into the concious mind. At least enough information for a message to emerge from the medium. Keeping my mind open was a way to allow the intuitive stuff to surface so I could recognise it and speak it out.

What I also noticed was that the more open I was to practicing my mediumship the stronger the connections became. It became easier to slip into a different brainwave pattern and achieve a deeper blend of energy. Then I noticed that I was open to connections with lots of Energy Beings. Spiritualism is mainly about contacting loved ones who are in the Afterlife. Yet I was also being contacted by other Beings who had a conciousness but not a physical body. Fortunately some of my earlier experiences were a great help in accepting the communications.

It was at this point that my Trance mediumship also departed from the expected Spiritualist route. As I worked to develop deeper altered states I found that the other Energy Beings were also willing to come forward and show themselves.

Over time I collected enough reports from observers to confirm that Angels, Elementals, Aliens and others also overshadowed me. They had become visible to others. I was open to this contact. I wanted repeatable evidence obtained by observations made by lots of different people. I work in half or full light for this reason. It’s important to me to move away from the traditions of the past so that we are open to new ways of finding evidence. I’m passionate about evidence. I feel it’s long past time when the connections with Energy Beings can move into mainstream science.

I have no doubt that some people will approach the idea that Energy Beings are around us with a closed mind. If they do they are unlikely to experience any. I know I was questioning but open to finding out. Having experienced these beings for myself I am still open minded. I am still questioning. I want to learn more. I’d like to understand why they have to work with us this way. Though I’m sure the answer would be something connected with closed minds. So next time you wonder about Spirits and Energy Beings have an open mind. Let yourself experience the information they want to share. Then decide for yourself if the are really there.

Day 244 of my blogging challenge.