Twixmas
Basking in the Spirit
Merry Twixmas from the Virgin Islands! Here are several thoughts/stories appropriate in their randomness to this weird between time.
Today I had one of those adrenaline-spiking near misses driving home from the beach. Here on St. John they engage in that nonsense of driving on the left side despite this being the US Virgin Islands, NOT the British. I got used to it faster than I thought I would. It’s only seven miles from one end of this place to the other and most of it is national park, so it’s simple. Simple, but not easy because the roads are very narrow, winding, and STEEP. Even so, since the other drivers are chill, I have been chill. At least I was until this morning driving home, about thirty seconds before I reached the driveway of the house where I’m staying, when out of nowhere I started feeling excessively cautious. The thought sprung into my mind, “Some drivers are not mindful.” I had not been thinking about anything driving related. I was about to swing around and back up into the driveway, but instead I pulled over and stopped. Right then a very unmindful driver recklessly sped past me. If I had swung out to back up the driveway like I was about to do, we would have collided.
This is the second time in two weeks I’ve had this situation where I’ve narrowly avoided an accident by suddenly being extra cautious for no reason except that my intuition clearly and unmistakably warned me to be cautious.
I can’t tell you the number of times heeding my intuition has kept me safe physically, emotionally, mentally, etc. And yes of course there have been other times I’ve not heeded, and suffered the consequences.
In this video I explain how I cured myself of motion sickness with my imagination.
It was, in fact, a charm that I worked on myself.
Now some thoughts on meditation, and this is somewhat related to both the video and the story about the near miss, so maybe this post isn’t so random after all. Listening to and understanding your intuition is a skill, just as using your imagination to manipulate subtle energies (as I did to relieve my motion sickness) is a skill.
But let’s back up. Why do we meditate? What’s the point? What I’m finding is that people try to develop a meditation practice because they heard somewhere it’s healthy, so they should. WRONG. lol. Well, maybe that’s a valid reason to meditate for some people and I shouldn’t knock it. It’s dreary as hell but ok. That’s not why I meditate. I meditate to increase my power and pleasure, and for no other purpose.
This morning after I awoke I was able to meditate myself into a gentle ecstatic state in less than five minutes. I say “gentle” as opposed to some of the ecstatic episodes I’ve had that were heavier on the Divine dread and awe and lighter on the pleasure. I like to start my day with a little substance-free ecstasy. To clarify, I’m not talking about masturbation. This ecstasy has nothing to do with drugs or sex. I’m talking about an altered state I mentally self-induce in which I feel some physical, nonsexual euphoria and my brain waves are somewhere between alpha and theta. This state includes practical epiphanies. That’s what I’m up to most mornings these days and I’m not apologizing.
I call this type of meditation “basking in Spirit.” I’ve heard it called “sitting in the Power.” Sometimes I don’t feel much and it seems like it isn’t really working but if I stop doing it for a while, I realize that yeah, it’s always working. When I consistently start the morning this way just as I’m waking up, it’s as if when I step out of bed and into my day, I’m entering an enchanted world where everything works in my favor. It’s a charm. I say “as if,” but actually it’s real. My world is literally enchanted because I say so. Everything works in my favor because that’s how I roll.
I meditate to work magic.
If you want to sharpen your intuition skills and increase your power to manipulate subtle energies, in other words if you want to work magic, the most effective muscle to build is your meditation muscle. You’re doing it to expand and fine tune your awareness. You’re doing it to remember a way of perceiving you were actually born with and used for years before it was discarded in favor of reliance on the strictly physical. Some of you remember your early childhood trippyness, right? Our original senses are the inner senses with which we perceive and interact with the unseen world. The physical senses we think of as “real” are only extensions of our spiritual senses. It shouldn’t be called the “third” eye, it should be called the first! The eyes poking through our face are second and third.
There are so many ways to meditate I can’t list them all here. I’ve been sitting here for a few minutes trying to remember exactly how I bask in Spirit in the morning so I can teach you. What is my process? How do I start? It’s not easy to put into words and this is one reason, I suspect, people get discouraged and give up on meditation.
Wow! Something very cool just happened. I wrote the above paragraph and decided to get up and do a little housework and see if anything came to me about how to describe my basking in Spirit process. I’m listening to the audiobook Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn and I put that on. A few minutes in, he addressed this very topic of why it can be difficult to describe how to get into altered states and why there’s frustration. The answer is: When you try too hard, it doesn’t happen. As Mat puts it, “A flower doesn’t bloom by being pried open by force.” And that is exactly what basking in Spirit feels like to me—the gentle opening of a flower.
In our modern world we use our force of will to accomplish many a thing, especially in Western culture. And if we want to do it more or better we try even harder. That tripped me up for years when as an adult I tried to consciously get back into the unseen worlds I fell into so effortlessly as a child. It would happen sometimes if I didn’t try, but if I tried to force the unfolding, nope. It’s got to be strain-free and from a place of non-attachment.
What’s great about meditating in the morning when you’re just waking up is that you’re already as relaxed as you can be and your monkey mind isn’t quite online yet. There aren’t as many thoughts to get in the way. I used to listen to guided meditations before getting out of bed, but now I usually just bask because it feels so good and it sets the best possible tone.
When I bask, I’m not trying to meditate or trying to connect with Spirit. I’m inviting, receptive, and playful. I’m not a fan of the phrase “focus on your breathing” because focusing puts me in mind of trying too hard. It’s more like I’m enjoying my breathing. I’m taking pleasure in the air entering and exiting my lungs
Sometimes I get into such a state, it’s like nothing has every felt better to me than breathing. And I think the fact that I call it “basking” rather than meditating says all of this. There are so many things in life that are best approached obliquely, and for me the pleasure/enjoyment route has consistently proven itself to be the best way to go. I don’t know why people don’t join me more often on this route. Actually, I do know why not, and I’ll talk about that in an upcoming post!
Here’s my practical tip for the week: If you want to try basking, before you go to sleep, ask your Inner Being/God/Source/Spirit, “What is basking? Show me how to bask as I’m waking up in the morning.” As you awake in the morning, take note of any images, sensations, sounds, textures, etc. that come into your awareness.
I hope everyone is enjoying a restorative and relaxing Twixmas!
Love,
Lindsay
I'm going to try that! A question: is it harder for you to bask after not sleeping well? I ask because if I don't feel like I've slept well I feel frustration and I'm usually achy and sweaty, too.