Guide to the the Inner Journey
What happens when you shut your eyes? Where do you go at night when you are asleep? And more importantly, who are you anyway?
What we are getting at is something all young children know, that the inner world of human beings is just as important as the outer one. Put in psychological terms, how I think about and react to events is just as important as the events themselves. Since the earliest days of humanity, sages and philosophers have recognized the importance of being able to navigate the inner world just as we navigate land and sea. Dream interpretation as practiced in the Old Testament by Joseph to the Egyptians and Daniel to the Babylonians was a means of one person seeing into the inner world of another that changed the course of empires. All forms of prophesy and communication with the Divine have this same quality of a voice from within, 'the still small voice'. In more modern times, psychology has recognized the importance of dreams and the inner world of individuals as a key element in mental and emotional health. In the 20th century the world of imagination took on a more directly tangible quality as movies and then television allowed one person's imagination to become another one's entertainment, as or more vivid than people in the physical world. Everyone alive today recognizes the reality of the imagination, the only question is whether to pay attention to your own or someone else's.
While some people born before the technological revolution may bemoan the oversaturation of visual stimulii, those who are aware of the Living Cosmos recognize that these images always existed, but before they were only visible to those that had a gift, the gift of 'inner sight'. Our current situation is just a speeding up of evolution, a challenge to each person to decide where to put their attention and to define their life purpose with enough certitude to not be distracted by the noise. The purpose of this Guide is to help you to get clear on your own sense of purpose and to strengthen your ability to navigate your own inner world. In order to do this, we are going to give you an outline of steps and then some exercises to practice. Because our goal is to help you on your own inner journey, you will be the sole judge of whether we have succeeded or not. Some people like to read the outline, get the general idea, and then wait till later to actually try it out. Others are ready to dive in right now. Go at your own speed, respect your own rhythm.
Inner Journey Outline - One Step at a Time
Outline of steps:
1) Taking a practice trip - learning to travel in an out of the inner world
2) Developing imagination - learning to get more detailed and vivid
3) Inner safety - learning to stay aligned with protective forces
4) Developing purpose - knowing your reason for each inner journey will help you find what you are looking for
5) Reflecting on / recording the experience - keeping a journal can be a very helpful way of making progress in your quest
6) Action items - creating a list of tasks while your experience is still fresh will complete the circuit
7) Expressing gratitude / Universal prayer for well being will insure a clean connection with your Source
1) Taking a practice trip
Many people are strangers to their own inner world. They spend as much time exploring this reality as a person who never leaves their apartment spends exploring their outer environment. Watching television or movies or even reading a book is a form of exercising imagination, but lets someone else do some or most of the work for you. In order to learn the skills of self-exploration, it is helpful to practice a simple journey into your inner space.
First make sure you have had enough sleep and are not distracted by food (not too hungry or have not eaten too recently) or any issues requiring your immediate attention. Find a quiet comfortable place where you will not be disturbed for at least 10 to 15 minutes. Either sit or stand in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and take some deep breaths first and then find a comfortable slow rhythm for your breathing. Imagine yourself in a beautiful safe place, someplace you are happy to be. Listen to the sounds, see the sights, smell the smells and go as deep as you can while still remaining balanced and calm. When you are done, slowly come back. That's it - just practice doing that enough so you feel comfortable being able to go there and come back without too much effort. When you get good at it, practice doing it in a more noisy and distracting external environment when you have a few free minutes, like standing in line or waiting for someone.
2) Developing imagination
Once you are comfortable going in and out, you can practice envisioning greater levels of detail or more vivid sensual inputs to strengthen your inner connection. Choose the same scene as before or a new one - one in which you will enjoy looking at the intracacies of nature, architecture, creatures, machinery or the sights and sounds of a world of your own construction. Once you have found a scene you like, practice going there multiple times and see how much detail you can add each time. When you come out, try to draw or journal what you saw.
3) Inner safety
Short trips in and out of the inner world do not require any special precautions, but as you get better at it and go for longer, more detailed and sometimes more intense journeys, it is essential that you learn to invoke protective forces if you start to feel any kind of fear or other strong emotions. The most simple and generic form of protection is to imagine yourself immersed in white light, either a beam from above or an egg shaped bubble. If you are spiritually inclined, then you can invoke the protective energies of your chosen ideal. Some people find benefit in sounding a tone or deep breathing. Do whatever helps you feel purified and protected.
4) Developing purpose
Particularly in the West, people find it challenging to just empty themselves of thoughts and feelings as is more common in Eastern traditions of meditation. Active meditation begins with the same process of relaxation and inner attunement, but then intensifies focus on a goal, for example to get more clear on how to proceed in a certain situation, to send healing vibrations to another person or to connect directly with the forces of Light. Having a well-defined purpose based on an ideal or a constructive intention will provide a supportive context for your inner journey.
5) Reflecting on / recording the experience
Because journeys to the inner world can take you into an altered state, it can be very helpful to keep a journal so you can review some of the details of what happened after the experience has subsided. Particularly if you are engaging in Active Meditation to resolve a challenge or focus on a goal, then journaling or voice recording your impressions and reactions (like recording a dream on waking) will allow you to review and learn from your experience without having to tax your memory or be concerned the experience will fade as you regain regular conscious awareness.
6) Action items
Creating a list of tasks while your experience is still fresh will complete the circuit - in a state of attunement, you can often get specific guidance about next steps that will help you to move more gracefully from the inner experience to an appropriate outer action. Sometimes the actions can relate to reviewing or following up on what you have discovered or suggest topics for future journeys.
7) Expressing gratitude
Universal prayer is a non-denominational process that consists of 2 parts: first, making a connection with your ideal / source and second, using that connection to send out constructive thoughts and visualizations for well-being for yourself and others. It helps any journey to express gratitude for life - the intelligence and awareness that let's us travel in the inner world and supports our life in the outer. Attitude is a big part of the success of our travels. Finding what is best in whatever you encounter will help you make the best of whatever comes next.