These sentiments remind me of the beginnings of a recapitulation experience when the anxiety of yet another memory appears out of nowhere and having no control over the situation the only thing to do is be open and ready for the journey that is about to unfold.
The adventure into the unknown awaits...
“…I begin to feel the anxiety that always sweeps over me when I’m going to a new place… I always get annoyed at myself for not planning ahead, but I almost never do. Plans and beginnings are hard for me; but that doesn’t stop me from going. I guess I know, deep down, that the anxiety is worth the pay-off of yet another adventure.” From Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman.
Here are some excerpts from Out-of-Body Exploring by Preston Dennett.
Dreaming with awareness
“Most advanced astral travelers believe that everyone goes out-of-body every night. At first this seemed absurd to me, but as I began to remember more and more of what happened to me at night, I realized it was true. We may think we are asleep, we may not remember, but the reality is, all of us are very busy every night.”
“If you examine your dreams, you will see that most of them represent your fears and desires. By going out-of-body, you are forced to face these issues head-on.”
“Most out-of-body explorers report that they have spirit guides who assist them on their journeys. Others meet advanced spiritual beings who impart sage advice.”
“The time will come when mankind will understand. The most important scientists will come and pay a visit to the grandmother on her plot of land. Famished, they will ask her to give them a tomato for something to eat. The scientists and their illusory creations are not needed by that grandmother today. She knows nothing of them herself, nor does she want to know. She lives a quiet life without the scientists’ help, while they cannot live without her. They inhabit a world of fruitless illusions, leading nowhere. She is with the natural earth and the whole Universe. The Universe needs her, it does not need them.” —From The Space of Love, Book 3 in The Ringing Cedars of Russia Series.
Often we are dragged into recapitulation, a shamanic term for revisiting memories, by the usher, the moment of collapse of one reality as we enter another. The usher shows us something of cataclysmic proportions, jolting us out of our complacent and compliant life, and asks us to do inner work. We can also do recapitulation volitionally, by choosing to mindfully investigate something about ourselves that constantly needles us, that just won’t go away yet does not interrupt the flow of our lives. Such needles are often the first awakenings that we have deeper issues to resolve.
Not all recapitulation involves memories. It may also involve habits and behaviors that we do automatically, without thinking, though they may in fact be keeping us from evolving and growing. The following quote, from Full Catastrophe Living by John Kabat-Zinn, offers a gentle approach to mindful recapitulation, a nice description of a process that will, as we persist in its practice, aid us on our journey of change. Here is what he says:
Like the cat, be mindful and alert
“The way of mindfulness is to accept ourselves right now, as we are, symptoms or no symptoms, pain or no pain, fear or no fear. Instead of rejecting our experiences as undesirable, we ask, “What is this symptom saying, what is it telling me about my body and my mind right now?” We allow ourselves, for a moment at least, to go right into the full-blown feeling of the symptom. This takes a certain amount of courage, especially if the symptom involves pain or a chronic illness, or fear of death. But you can at least “dip your toe in” by trying it just a little, say for ten seconds, just to move in a little closer for a clearer look.”
Be courageous. Change your world. Change the entire world
I don’t mean to overwhelm with bad news, but I just can’t ignore what I come across. All of this so-called bad news is just pointing out, as I see it, both the manipulated world we live in—and have so readily accepted without question—and the desperate need for all of us not to fall back into it, and, likewise, to question everything. It is only through questioning reality that we can begin to question our own inner process as well, and make the journey to embracing and becoming part of a changing world in alignment with what is real.
With Mother’s Day coming up I’ve felt the need to expound on our real mother, Mother Earth. If we all give her just a little more attention we can help her stay healthy and truly alive. If we keep looking for the signs that show us the truth, we will not fall back into our old complacency that has gotten us into the trouble we are in now. If we all spread a little Mother Earth message every day, perhaps we can help change the world outside of us, while we still concentrate on changing our inner world.
I recently found this update on what really happened at Fukushima in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami, and why we must be vigilant and continually say no to the perpetuation of nuclear power.
