I would like to share with you an experience I had in July. You may see it as a dream or vision, or you may call it an astral experience, as I do. It was an amazing and powerful experience that changed me internally in ways that are difficult to name. I would have most likely have written about it eventually and actually meant to, procrastinating Pisces that I am; then events took place that gave my "dream" even more meaning to me. I have found it very helpful over the last month or so given all the turmoil and loss and confusion we have all experienced. The events of the last period prompted me to put all this in print.
I have kept a dream journal on and off for many years. One of the benefits of having a journal is that you can go back to it and look over what you have written, see the results of the magick you have worked and recall the dreams you have had, which sometimes only make sense months or years later. I hadn't used mine much for a few months. However, this past July I was teaching my "Inner Journey" class. Whenever I teach a class, I do whatever homework I ask of my students. Since this class uses a dream journal and works with expanding the experience of dreams and astral journeys, I had dusted off my journal and put it on my bedside table.
I am quite a night owl. I went to bed late at night July 10, which was actually early morning July 11, sometime after midnight anyway. I had been reading before bed and had come across a great passage in a book, The Further Education of Oversoul Seven, by Jane Roberts, which resonated with me quite strongly even though I had reread the book many times. At the end of a chapter about the birth into a new life of one of the characters, a section talked about the perspective of the Universe opening its eyes for the first time again in each newborn's eyes. I was so struck by this, I put the book down and just let that run through me. I had my focus on the Universe and the amazing divinity ever-present as I went to sleep.
I make a lot of comments about "One-ness" in the notes that follow, since that was the most amazing thing that I experienced. There was no conflict between the One-ness and my experience of the specific energies of the gods and goddesses. The One-ness included All without diminishing any of it. That was part of the point in a lot of ways. No conflict was present even in "seeming" paradox.
I include the notes from my journal just as I made them. I have two main entries about this experience. I will share the first one, then comment, then share the second. It feels important to let the words that came to me then reach print as I wrote them. I have gone back and forth on how much to paraphrase what I experienced, since there is a lot of repetition (dream journals can be like that); this is my compromise. When I add a word or two for clarity, I will put it in <brackets>. My journal entries will be shown in italics.
The thing I brought back with me was simple, that conflict only occurs as you get down to the slower/lower levels of vibration.
I was experiencing One-ness and God-ness and Higher Self-ness. Hanging out/expanding understanding at energy levels that are way past the physical. In my experience/dream, it all made sense. In that place, I was aware that I had all the information that I needed. It was ALL just fine. There was no conflict, since it was all One thing. There was no conflict among religions, because they were all really one thing.
As I descended back down toward my body, I came back through more and more dense energy. Even still, I could keep a lot of the information intact, and I could put into words the "nonconflict" feel. Then I got to the place the point at which energy splits into poles/dichotomy: male/female, yin/yang. I saw/knew that there was no conflict above this<point> and that conflict didn't exist at the high levels <of vibration>. I also knew that once I came back to the place of "two" (duality) that conflict was then possible again because things had split into two again.
I still have the memory of, right before I came back to that place, wanting to keep the information and also knowing that to come back to my body I had to re-enter the realm of opposites. I can remember re-entering that realm and descending further and then being above my body and then coming back into my body.
The experience was a visceral experience of God as ONE THING. That we are all already part of or we are one with <God or the Universe; that> we are already that which is at that high vibration and that we drop below the awareness of this when we descend down into physical reality.
The feeling of being in the One-ness is hard to describe. One thing that stays with me was this amazing feeling of peace, a sense of being beyond comfort, because there was absolutely no need to be comforted. Everything was all One, all complete and all whole; everything fit perfectly.
One thing that stuck me was the very definite delineation between the energy where I experienced everything as all One and the line after which things literally split into two. It reminded me of the horizon line that you see when you are flying in an airplane. It also reminded me of quantum physics, something about splitting a photon of light and getting two electrons that each spin oppositely but are related; you can learn about one particle by measuring the other, even when they are separated by distance. This effect is called nonlocality; Albert Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance."
It was clear this place of nondichotomy was a function of how rapidly the energy was vibrating. Dichotomies came into being when the energy wasn't spinning or vibrating as fast. As it slowed, it became slightly denser and differentiated. Above that point, there was only One. Everything below that point was more than one.
After my experience, I continued feeling the One-ness. I had the feeling that I would always feel this way and that there was no reason to write more about it. But when I went to my chiropractor a couple days later, I told him of my experience, and he said to me, "You have been given a wonderful gift. Write down on paper everything you can remember about it, in as much detail as you can!"
I thought about what he had said and realized that everyday life was drawing me back into its embrace and that if I wanted to remember the lessons from this experience, I needed to do so. Those notes follow.
The energy was very high -- I don't remember going there or getting there, more like I woke up there. I did go to sleep that night with a real "aha" from a book I read, which had the perspective of the Universe opening its eyes for the first time again in each newborn's eyes. I was really in that place of "getting" God-ness when I fell asleep. This I am sure is what propelled me since I had my attention on God/The Universe/The all that IS clearly when I went to sleep.
I remember being in this state. I was conscious -- I didn't lose myself, but at the same time I was aware and had the experience that IT was ALL ONE THING -- words don't do it justice. I had the visceral experience (even without my body) of this amazing, incredible ONENESS and the complete knowing beyond any doubt that EVERYTHING was totally fine! Completely fine. There was this complete lack of conflict, and I knew that conflict didn't exist here -- everything was completely fine and good. There was no contention or discord because it was ALL ONE THING!!
All religions, all ways of being were all fine, there were no problems -- there was no this and the other. I was not separate. I was a part of it all, yet still self-aware, and that was all EXACTLY fine. I had all the information I needed -- I knew it was all okay and would always be okay
The energy was all one; there was not "other" at this level, and I knew this was very "high" up. The energy was like strata of clouds or bands of energy stacked on one another. I don't know if I had been higher up and came down through that to the point where I knew myself to exist or if I just popped into that state.
It was beyond comforting because there was no discord to be comforted from. It was all incredibly clear, everything, every single thing that exists or once existed was right and included. God was One. Words don't work at all to describe this!
So I know that I had to come back down through all the levels of energy, and I kept a hold of the information that there is no conflict at the higher levels because... THERE IS NOTHING TO BE IN CONFLICT WITH, BECAUSE THERE IS NO "OTHER!"
As I came down through the layers of vibration/energy, I was aware of each of them, and there was this very distinct line that delineated where things split into "two" or "dichotomies." There were a lot of strata between the original place I mentioned and that line. All were slower/lower planes <or> levels/strata but still existing in the One-ness vibration. Then I was aware of that "line," below which was "two." I knew my physical body was below that line, and so I would need to cross it. I was busy remembering the information from that Highest One-ness experience. I was very conscious of my intention to bring as much of this information back to my body as I was able.
I knew that a lot was simply not going to translate. For some reason, the piece that stuck with me was the part about conflict and that it didn't exist at "One-ness" at all. It was not possible for it to exist.
It was kind of like an elevator ride. I kept descending into lower/denser vibrations, then passed through that line and there was then "two," the realm of opposites where things split into pairs and such, Yin/Yang etc. This took place quite a bit higher than where physical reality existed. There was still a number of layers of energy/planes etc. that were between the lines of<that> delineation and physical reality -- so it was still <all> at a much higher vibration, even thought it was in the separating section.
I passed down lower and lower and descended still further and kept my consciousness aware of my journey as much as possible. Then I was aware of being above my body and then coming back into my body and waking up -- the experience was SO profound I just lay there and thought about it. It was with me all day, and I finally thought I should make some notes about it. I didn't right away (I waited a few hours) because it had really become part of me, down to my cells, and it changed me. It was a totally new perspective. It reminded me of having died and then come back. I was not afraid. I had this real sense of how everything was really all right, completely all right. It was with me like a cloak.
I did write stuff down lan hour or so later. I wrote a little more last night<July 13, 2001,> and I did this tonight <July 14, 2001>. The effect has lessened, but the knowledge is still present. It was this amazing totally clear memory of knowing that conflict only happens here and that at the higher/<faster vibratory> level it just can't, since there is only One thing.
All religions and ways of being spirit are all just fine. There is no absolutely NO conflict about any of it! None! And that higher level is all one thing. They are ALL right, every single one of them; there is no dissonance at all.
I can still tap into the feeling and memory. Previous to this experience, I figured I understood the idea of One-ness, since I have been meditating for over 20 years. But this was something far beyond what I had previously experienced. It is funny, because I am saying the same words, but now they have a very different grounding. It was such a blessing.
The Internet being what it is, I sent this off to a friend of mine whom I have never met in body but with whom I correspond via e-mail, a fabulous man whose name is Shail Gulhati. He lives in India and started writing to me after reading my article on divination on the Web. He is the author of a lovely book called The Yogi and the Snake. I had to laugh when I got back his response. He not only understood my experience, but he lives in a culture that has names for it all!
He gave me his permission to include what he wrote in response to my experience.
"My dear Erika, felicitations for your remarkable experience!
"So, now, you have tasted the sky! The sky is the same; we name it differently.
"All esoteric systems have recorded this marvelous state of One-ness. In Shaivic parlance, the entire manifestation is known to be of 36 evolutes of the cosmic spirit. The top five are steeped with the pristine essence and have no forgetfulness of the divine nature of Self. The sixth evolute is Maya (editor's note: the world and its illusions) and its corollaries, and at this stage the creative divinity veils itself in time, space, efficaciousness, bliss, knowledge, so it does not feel eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniblissed or omniscient.... this "it" is us humans in bodies!
"This is all a veil, though, and we are reduced to duality and think we have a host of limitations. Actually, the design is to rediscover our divinity along with its bliss, and this constitutes the play of manifestation. When we begin to meditate and involute to our original nature, we ascend through the very same stages that we descended! The different stages are marked by astonishment at what really is. "Vismayo yogabhumika," the stations of realization, hold the yogi awed.
"There is a time when we actually cross Maya, and in that state of nonduality we are one. Here, there are not even any thoughts, it is be still and know! This leads to the transformation you have had, never to go away again... you do not have to make an effort to `keep' it. It has been rediscovered and will remain that way from now on. So felicitations to you. But the sojourn is not over; it has begun! If you remember, in The Yogi and the Snake, Shiva says, "Life does not end with enlightenment, it rather has just begun."
The day I woke after my spiritual experience, I remember wondering why it seemed so important to bring back the information about One-ness and nonconflict. What finally got me to write all this down more formally was the events of September 11. I have a feeling now why the information was so pronounced. I will conclude with my final journal entry on this event.
When I wrote the date when all this happened, I noticed it was July 11, 2001. Last Tuesday was exactly two months ago to the day that I had the experience. Last Tuesday's date was September 11, 2001, as we will always remember. I wanted to get this information out finally. I knew it needed to be shared, but I didn't know why until this week. I hope that it does some good and gives some comfort.
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Erika Ginnis offers spiritual counseling and coaching, psychic reading, healing and Classes though her practice "Inspiration is the In-Breath of Spirit." The next "Body Wisdom-Meditation" class begins October 22, and the next "Inner Journey" class begins November 27. For more information on Erika and her work, contact her at erika@inbreath.com, see her Web page www.inbreath.com or leave her voice mail at (206) 669-5881.