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Developing Sensitivity to Energy

 

There is far more to our existence than what is apparent through our physical senses. The vast majority of us live our lives completely unaware of this even though every one of us is capable of perceiving far beyond the limited range of our physical senses. The reasons are many, a number of which I have examined at length in various essays and I will not list them here. A significant one is this: when you focus all your attention on one area it is natural that the other areas would atrophy. We can start to reverse this by spending time doing things that do not involve our physical senses.

We get stuck because we have allowed (and I use that term loosely) our minds to be poorly programmed and as a result manifest needs, wants and desires based on what it, our ego has come to want and desire which has us focusing on the external world. To change this we must start to do things that engage our thinking minds less and which do not allow our physical senses to dominate our perception or attention.

 

Elsa Mora: Walking Thoughts

 

The fact is most of us spend next to no time being mindful or in a state of being rather than always doing (with a goal in mind), to observe without judgments or reactions or in meditation. In order to shift ourselves in this direction we must consciously and deliberately turn our attention away from that which has captured it for most of our lives. This is something each of us can learn to do if we put in the effort to do so.

There is no doubt that turning one’s attention away from the physical and reducing the dominance of our mind or ego isn’t easy because we do not teach such things and so have not developed our non-rational awareness to any significant degree. And by non-rational awareness I am referring to those aspects of our awareness that are not based on either our physical senses or our minds (1).

“I use the term non-rational mind rather than psychic mind or self though both provide an umbrella term for all aspects of us that are not part of the physical world or its “interface”, the rational mind. I use the term “non-rational” to describe these types of aspects of the self. It is a simple way to view aspects that appear separate from one’s physicality.

 

Non-rational awareness would include intuition, precognition, telepathy, empathy and so forth. A common schema for the lower non-physical aspects of the self is the aura, which includes the astral, spiritual and mental bodies. Everyone has an aura with the various vehicles; however, possession of these aspects is not the same as awareness of or conscious access to them. Remember, the rational mind exerts almost total control over what we are aware of consciously. Access to the non-rational aspects of our awareness requires a direct channel through our rational mind (such as the gift of sight etc.) or the presence of thought forms for their expression. Without them, one is likely using little of their non-rational awareness.”

The thinking mind is full of desires, wants and needs that are personal to us. What we desire, want and need are creations of our mind and not actual requirements for life. The only requirements for life are food, water and shelter. Therefore, simply put, we have made them important and by doing so made the “hidden” world less relevant and essentially unimportant. This is not a trend one is going to reverse by spending a few moments here and there being mindful, observing rather than reacting or in meditation. The external world is mesmerizing and unless we work to break the hold it has change is unlikely.

There are many ways to become more mindful, less subjective and more open to that which has remained hidden behind the glare of our physical existence. All of them require one to not only try to look beyond the physical but to also have thought forms in their minds that do not shut them out. One must believe that there is more to us than our physicality or else the burden of proof is so overwhelming that one’s mind is unlikely to let go of its focus on our physicality.

“We are an expression of the Cosmos and each life is established as a result of the needs of our higher self not the lower self or “us”. If we want to fully develop our gifts then we must come to understand this and align ourselves with it. This is not easy to do for we have lived our whole lives as if we independent and are free to make choices and our ego’s become quite strong. The ego protects itself, it wants to remain in control; however, our awareness is restricted by the illusion of “I” we have built, and this illusion must be torn down in order for us to have greater access to our true gifts.

 

We get beyond this by aligning ourselves with the Cosmos, even if we do not quite know what that means. If you have started to work to reduce the notion of independence from everything then the next step is to embrace the interdependence or inter-connectivity we all share. This requires us to realize that everything and everyone is important, that they matter. And with this realization we begin to understand that the struggles we all go through are a necessary step in the process of our higher selves awakening. This leads us to compassion for everything and everyone, and to extend our love beyond ourselves and a few select people to ALL.” (2)

Enabling our non-rational awareness requires that we shift from our ego-centric view, which is based on the notion of each of us being independent from one another, to an open one where we recognize that everything consists of energy and the only walls or barriers between “things” are those our minds have created. This is basically a necessity if we want to break the hold over us that we have given to our rational or thinking mind (our ego). Those with gifts of various forms of clairvoyance do not need to do this as much for they already accept orknow this at a core level and their minds are built upon this knowing or understanding. However, anyone can develop these skills to a certain extent by turning their attention to where they have never put it before.

 

 

Earlier I mentioned three things, mindfulness, working to simply observe experiences rather than react to or judging them and meditation as ways we can start to open up our natural gifts. As Albert Einstein suggested if one wants to change then they are not going to change by doing the same things they have been doing. The first part of the change is accepting that what our senses tell us and the world our mind paints for us is essentially an illusion and only part of the picture. The second part is to regularly act in a fashion that supports this for if we have it as a casual thought it will not have much if any impact on us or our perception. Assuming you have started to work on the first part let us look at one way to begin on the second part.

To break our minds focus on the physical requires us to spend time where the mind plays less of a role. We can do this through mindfulness and by trying to observe without reacting. However, this remains challenging to do as the mind is still predominantly engaged in analyzing, judging and making decisions regarding everything we observe and experience. The best way to approach such things is through meditation.

One can use meditation for a variety of purposes (3) and is arguably the best way to work on getting beyond the restrictions that our minds create. It is imperative that one begin to do this or the hidden world will remain hidden and obscured from view.

“There are prerequisites for working with higher vibration energies. First, one must develop the awareness required to become sensitive to them. This does not come simply through meditation. This skill develops through the creation of though forms that allow us to open up to them, and takes a great deal of practice and focused intent. The higher the vibrations one seeks to work with the greater the degree of clarity and refinement of thought and self that is required. You do not make a fine steel blade by including impurities that weaken it. One must prepare.

 

In addition, as with many non-rational or psychic skills, the main challenge to overcome is the rational minds focus on the outside world and the focus on one’s self, on the “I”. The rational minds control over our awareness is very strong. The untrained mind manipulates, interferes with and blocks our ability to work with higher vibration energies.”

In meditation we quiet the mind so that we slow the cacophony of thoughts down to a trickle. This is a necessity if we are going to start to develop our non-rational awareness. Once one can do it in meditation they can start to develop their minds and awareness so that it can be done without having to meditate. I will not cover meditation here as there are numerous meditation resources on the web and I have also covered the topic in both an essay and an exercise. If you need some tips refer to the essay on Relaxation and Meditation (3) or the Meditation exercise (4). Even if you cannot do a basic meditation with any degree success now, that is you either fall asleep or cannot sit still, there is value in trying because if you don’t start you will never learn how.

The purpose of this exercise is to begin to acquaint ourselves with the energy of our thoughts as well as with how interconnected they are. It is not a test or challenge to be figured out and there are no right or wrong answers. It is an exercise in allowing, in stepping outside the bounds of how we normally apply our attention. It will help you to develop your ability at “being rather doing”, at focusing your attention and your awareness of and sensitivity to energy.

This exercise will also help you to develop your patience, acceptance of and trust in yourself and your will as it is unlikely you will get any “tangible” results for the first few times you do it. Anytime we can do things that train our minds to get out of our way, to develop thoughts that allow our non-rational awareness and improve our sensitivity to energy we benefit.

So, remember that doing this exercise one time or even a few times may not make a significant difference. That only comes by repeating the exercise over a period of time. What we want to do is develop the awareness within ourselves so that it becomes as natural to us as using our hands to grasp an object.

 

 

Duration:

Minimum 30 minutes with 10 minutes for getting into a meditative state. I recommend at least 30 minutes with no maximum time as you can do this exercise for as long as you can maintain both a meditative state and your focus.

 

Preparation and Prerequisites:

To prepare for this I recommend that you read the referenced essay on meditation (and the exercise if you are a Twin Powers member). Also you should be familiar with the concepts of grounding (5) as well as clearing your energy and centering (6).

 

Get yourself into a meditative posture so that you are comfortable enough to not be distracted by the need to shift around to get more comfortable and where it is quiet and will not be disturbed. It also helps to meditate when you have time to set aside for it as our minds will often find ways to keep us busy which doesn’t help our meditation. I will interject here with a proverb for you to consider:

“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy. In that case, you should sit for an hour.” –Zen Proverb

 

 

Before you begin read the exercise through so that you do not have to stop to read as this will obviously break your focus. It is critical to maintain your meditative posture throughout the exercise.

 

Step 1:

Once you are in a meditative posture I recommend grounding yourself, clearing your energy and then center yourself so that you are in a balanced and very relaxed state of mind. This is what I do at the beginning of every meditation and if you do it regularly it takes next to no time at all to complete. Do note that you should do this exercise with your eyes closed and in a dark room unless you are experienced at reducing the activities of mind through meditation or some other technique.

 

Step 2:

When you are fully in a meditative posture and are done grounding, clearing and centering continue to quiet your mind as much as you can. When you have done this visualize something such as a colour or a shape. If you choose a shape make it as simple as possible such as a circle or an oval rather than a square or a triangle and try to pick one you do not have strong feelings about such as a favourite colour or shape. You can alter the visualization in subsequent meditations.  Focus your attention as much as possible on the visualization of it rather than the words that describe it. For instance if you visualize the colour blue, focus on visualizing “blue” rather than thinking it. Continue to do so until you barely or no longer think blue but merely perceive blue as best you can. Do not expect to do so the first time or the first few times you do this exercise as reducing our attention to only one thought or even a few thoughts takes many hours of practice. Even still, you should notice that you “see” flashes of blue but do not concern yourself if you do not.

Do continue to try to perceive blue without thinking it though in at this point it doesn’t matter whether you perceive the colour or shape without engaging your mind or not. It is highly unlikely, without considerable effort and time, that you can experience blue without ANY thoughts about it whatsoever.  Even realizing that it is “blue”, which is what we do when we label it, is a reaction to and hence a thought about it. The goal is to try to focus as much of our attention on perceiving “blue” without thinking “blue” or any other thought as we possibly can.

As you perceive it try to notice the feel of the vibration you perceive as blue. By feel I do not mean an emotional response to the thought or visualization of “blue”, though it is likely you will have one as most have some thoughts about it such as varying degrees of “like or dislike”. Such thoughts will mask the vibration of the “blue” and as a result what you will “feel” will be a combination of energies even though what we are trying to do is feel the energy of the vibration “blue”. And I use the term feel loosely for how you perceive it may be as atone or sound or any one of a number of ways. At this stage it is not important that you are able to isolate the feel of the “blue” or the energy of the visualization you are manifesting (remember that even a visualization of blue in our minds eye is “something” else we wouldn’t be able to perceive it). What is important is that you try to do this with as little thinking as possible.

Note that the individual energy of the “blue” you are trying to perceive is not strong as this is a simple thought rather than a composite or conceptual or complex one (7). What you are more likely to notice, certainly at first, is not only the energy of “blue” but your reaction to it as well or your thoughts about the colour blue. Regardless, try to remember the feel you perceived.

Be patient with yourself for it is not likely you have tried such an act before nor spent much time quieting your mind down enough to be sensitive to a single though or even a small group of thoughts. Also realize that expectations are also an impediment to our sensitivity.

 

Step 3:

Now that you have your perception of the energy a simple thought or at least a small group of thoughts, as well as your reactions to it, change your visualization to a more complex object of some kind (ex. Car, house, building, desk, road and so on). Repeat the same process with this object as you did with the simpler one in Step 2. Pick one object and stick with it so that you do not waffle between objects and thereby get a mix of energies as well as the thoughts you will have doing so. At the same time as you are visualizing the new object try to notice any shift in what you feel from what you remember feeling with the simpler thought construct in Step 2. Again, you will also have some thoughts about the object; do not be concerned about this.

The shift will be subtle and likely unnoticeable the first few times you do this exercise. In fact at first you may not even have been able to notice the vibration of the thought “blue” let alone a shift; again the first few times you do this exercise noticing the energy is not relevant, trying to notice it is. What you want to try to notice in this step is any differences between the simpler and more complex thought forms. In particular you might notice differences in strength, the feel or tone of the energy, and how you react to the thought. The more complex the thought form the more associated thoughts there will be about it so you will have memories related to and thoughts about it, including how you feel about it. Do note that this is not an exam or test so do not push yourself to notice the differences to the point where you get frustrated or anxious about perceiving vibrations or noticing anything at all is counterproductive. If you find this happening take a few minutes to once again ground, clear and center yourself.

 

Step 4:

Again, try not to allow the thoughts about it to grab your attention, allow the vibrations the visualization stirs to be there with as little consideration as possible. After you have noticed the differences focus your attention on the new visualization so that it dominates your “attention”. Do not think of the word over and over again, instead visualize it without words as best as you can.

Do all you can so that you give your visualization your undivided attention. As mentioned do not do so forcibly rather notice when you mind tries to interject or your attention wanders and turn it back to it. You entered the meditation with the sole purpose of doing the exercise and chose a time when you were free to do so hence nothing should matter to you at this point except the exercise. Further, try to stay grounded and centered as this is not a test and you cannot pass or fail the exercise. When you feel you have done this make note of the energy you feel and remember it. Do so even if you are not sure that what you feel is from the energy of what you are visualizing.

 

Step 5:

In this step we continue the process by picking a more complex thought form from the previous two. This time pick a conceptual thought rather than one about “a thing”. This would include such thoughts as government, country, organization, business and so on. As in Step 3, when you start to shift to this new visualization try to notice any changes in what you feel or perceive. Do not dwell on it, simply note it and continue to visualize the concept you have chosen until the old visualization is gone and the new one has your full attention. Notice I do not say to think about it, we can focus our attention without thinking though we are not accustomed to doing so.

When you have visualized your conceptual thoughts you may notice a difference between the thought of a simple object and a far more complex one. The primary reason is such thoughts are far more connected to and have many relationships with other thoughts than those of “simple objects”. This will activate many of the thoughts that are connected to the object you have chosen. For example, most people have strong opinions about governments, so when you try to visualize governments they will be activated and will cause more resonance at the emotional level bring in emotional feelings. Try to not let these vibrations get you to start thinking words. Stay focused on the concept you have chosen.

As explained in Step 3, once this visualization is strong and other thoughts or visualizations have been set aside try to remember the overall feel of what you perceive.

 

Step 6:

In this last step we are going to choose to try to visualize that which is at the limits or beyond our capabilities to comprehend such as infinity, the beginning of “time”, the nature of consciousness, the meaning of life or the sound of one hand clapping. When you do this notice the shift in the energy or vibrations you perceive. You may notice the shift when you try to visualize or imagine the concept, even with very little practice. This is because such concepts tend to engage the higher aspect of our minds and such concepts are highly connected to other thoughts.

After you notice the shift you should then continue to focus your attention on your visualization or imagination of whatever you chose. Again what you are trying to do is to try to feel the vibration of what you are visualizing rather than think about them consciously.

 

Step 7:

You are done the exercise but do not end your meditation quickly because it can have a negative effect on you energy and cause some distress. As stated in the essay on meditation (3):

“Meditation raises your vibrancy rate. As a result, when you are ready to stop and return to normal awareness do so slowly. I start by using my rational mind a little more and reconnecting to my physical body first through perception then through little movements. Depending on how long the meditation is it can take up to ten minutes for me to get back to waking consciousness and be physically active. My focus is on a gradual and relaxed return to waking consciousness, I am mindful of not being in a hurry.”

 

 

Follow-up:

As mentioned above this exercise is intended to help you expand your awareness. After you have done it you still may feel that you did nothing especially if you were unable to feel the energy of the various visualizations or the transitions between them. This is perfectly normal and I encourage you to not concern yourself with what you may feel is your lack of ability. It takes time to develop sensitivity and our thoughts can continue to block our perception of subtle energies unlike our physical senses. By this I mean that while thoughts generally do not prevent us from seeing with our eyes we all know that what we notice is certainly affected by what we are thinking.

When it comes to developing our awareness what we are trying to do is akin to trying to walk with legs you cannot see or feel. The fact is most people spend next to no time whatsoever trying to perceive the subtle vibrations. I have examined this at length in numerous essays, but to summarize it is because most do not actually believe beyond any significant doubt that everything is comprised of energy in various states and relationships, that consciousness is the foundation of our existence or that everything is interconnected. In addition the external world is very compelling and consumes virtually all of our attention.

Be mindful that developing our non-rational awareness takes a great deal of dedication and significant changes in the way one thinks and acts. You are not likely to develop them without frequent and regular effort. Further, selfishness, greed, anger, malice, guilt, blame and so forth block access to such awareness’s and impedes the gifts of those who have them.

A side benefit to this exercise and others like it is that when we start to shift the kinds of thoughts we have and where we place our attention we also start to take down the barriers that have us reacting in selfish ways. We may not even spend much time consciously trying to do so because acts such as this meditation and working on the thoughts in our mental house make a difference. They do so because our non-conscious mind takes its cues from our self-conscious awareness and when we start to care less about the needs and desires of our mind or ego our attention turns towards our connectivity to ALL. It is far harder to be angry at someone when you feel connected to them. Such connections start to bring in empathy and compassion which start to shine a light on the dark places in our minds and developing these qualities helps our awareness immensely!

© 2013 Allan Beveridge

 

References ((*- denotes essays only available to site members):

  1. *The Non-Rational Mind
  2. Awakening Our Gifts Part 5: The One and the All
  3. Relaxation and Meditation
  4. *Exercise 4: Meditation
  5. Grounding
  6. *Clearing and Centering
  7. Learning to Learn