PART TWO: RELAXATION - MEDITATION
Relaxation
Relaxation techniques are a great means of stress management. Yet they can be something more, as you can achieve the following: reduce stress hormones and muscle tension; improve concentration and memory; ward off negative feelings; boost self-confidence and happiness; have a positive outlook on life; improve your health and enjoy a better quality of life.
However, remember that relaxation techniques take time and practice: At first you might feel unable to reach deeper states of relaxation, but your ability to relax will improve with time, so don't be impatient. Also, keep in mind that some people, who have serious psychological problems, may experience emotional discomfort during relaxation. If this is the case, don't push yourself: Just try a different relaxation technique, something that will make you feel comfortable.
There are many ways of relaxation, and one of them will certainly be the right one for you: yoga, tai chi, breathing exercises, art therapy, music, dance etc.
Basic technique of relaxation
Sit on a chair or lie in bed, just make sure your spinal cord is straight. First, relax your body from toe to top, giving the respective mental orders to each body part separately. For instance: “My feet are relaxing” … “Now my calves relaxing” … “My thighs are relaxing” … and so on, to the head.
Then countdown from 10 to 1, ordering yourself to relax after each number; for example: “10: I feel relaxed” … “9: I relax deeper” … “8: Deeper and deeper” … “7: No external noise can interrupt my relaxation” and so on, till you reach 1. At zero you enter the “Void”, where you let no thought or feeling come inside and disturb you. Stay there, in absolute tranquility, for as much time as you can.
The awakening is done by counting slowly from 1 to 5, while ordering yourself to wake up with all your senses on the alert. After the number 5, open your eyes and stand up at your ease.
Meditation
It includes a variety of techniques, which are more complex than basic relaxation; you had better try them only after you have mastered basic relaxation.
Meditation can be used to self-regulate the mind, get rid of bad habits and improve behaviour; it can also help you tackle certain mental problems such as depression, anxieties, or even obsessions.
Premeditation: After staying in the “Void” for a while, you may choose a subject and meditate on it as thoroughly as possible, taking into account events, thoughts, feelings, ways of action; after the awakening, write everything in a notebook. By following this technique, the subconscious gets clearer and clearer; later on, as you keep practicing, the unconscious reveals itself too, unfolding great cosmic truths which could lead even to enlightenment.
Visualization is an another meditation technique you can use so as to achieve peace of mind. In this case, after staying in the “Void” for some minutes, you start forming mental images which lead you on an imaginary journey to a peaceful, pleasant place or situation. While visualizing, try to use as many senses as you can -sight, sound, smell, and touch. If you are envisaging a coast, for example, try to ''feel'' the smell of sea water, the sound of crashing waves, the warmth of the sun on your skin and so on.
The Key to Awareness: Get out of the house and go for a walk. While walking, observe calmly how the street unfolds before you, step by step, and let yourself realize: The road behind me no longer exists; a new road unfolds before me; time and space around me changes moment by moment; every second a world dies and a world is born...
The Key to Awareness allows you to experience the interrelation between time and space, death and birth every moment, always expecting the unforeseeable. If you keeps practicing, it may also lead to illumination.
Dreams vs Reality
Mental anguish is born when we identify ourselves with everyday reality. Nevertheless, imagination and dreams are real life. The worlds of dream (astral plane) are true. The so-called “everyday reality” is a lie.
It is an indisputable fact that at the end of the day (life, reality) we feel empty and tired. However, at the end of the night (dreams, imagination) we feel rejuvenated, full of energy.
While experiencing everyday reality, the human mind can't roam fast; it is compelled to function as slowly as possible, so that it can be controlled not only by the person but by society as well.
While dreaming, the human mind is free from the bonds of “reality” and it roams about the astral plane at top speed; moreover, the brain functions normally, as if it were receiving stimuli from natural experiences – and this has been proved in scientific laboratories. However, scientists haven't discovered yet what sleep is exactly, nor why we need it so much.
Dream skills
Dream lucidity is an extraordinary state of mind, where you know you are dreaming. It usually starts as a normal dream, but you suddenly realize you are dreaming. Such dreams are more strange, emotional and vivid than regular dreams and they occur during REM sleep, that is the phase of deep sleep characterized by Rapid Eye Movement. Lucid dreaming (conscious control of a dream) shows a higher level of energy. By practicing regularly, it leads to spiritual ascent, self-knowledge and higher awareness. Here are some common examples of dream control:
a) When you dream of being in danger, try to escape; or you can look away and ignore the danger, making it disappear; or, if you are persecuted by enemies, stop running, fight and beat them.
b) If you are having a pleasant dream, try to prolong it: stay calm and delay awakening.
c) You can materialize or make disappear persons and things.
d) You can hover or fly in the air.
e) You can make objects move with the power of your mind.
g) You may also experience night adventures: These are very impressive dreams, not lucid but extremely vivid. Self-sense is very strong, places are delineated in detail, and there is a specific plot with a beginning, a middle, and an ending.
Meditation technique for lucid dreaming
It is advisable not to experiment with this technique unless you are experienced in relaxation and meditation -at least of one year. If you are not ready, you may neither be able to control your astral self properly nor evaluate your experiences; as a result, you will be easily discouraged.
First of all, you will need two rosaries: one with 22 knots and one with 72 knots (instead of a rosary, you may use a string of beads).
You may sit on a chair or lie in bed, as long as the spinal cord is kept straight.
Take 5 rhythmical breaths: 4 times inhale – 2 times hold – 4 times exhale – 2 times hold.
Recite a mantra 22 times mentally, for example “The universe and I are one”, counting with the small rosary in hand. Choose a mantra according to your own inner needs, a phrase that makes you feel calm, confident, happy.
Then recite 144 (72+72) mental mantras in co-ordination with breathing: Inhale + mantra ‒ exhale + mantra, counting with the the big rosary in hand, twice.
All mantras will take you about ten minutes.
Stay in the “Void” for some minutes -the longer, the better. Then, give yourself a mental order such as “Tonight I'll get out of my body and I'll be conscious in the astral realms”, nine times.
Alternatively, you may give a more specific order: “I ask my inner self to give me advice and guidance”; then you make a question, such as: “How can I solve my problems at work?” Or “Is there life after death?” etc.
Stay in the “Void” for some more minutes, then let yourself go to sleep.
When you wake up, write down your experience.
Keep a dream journal. It should be near your bed at night, so that you can use it right after waking up. While writing, make sure to include as many details, feelings and sensations as possible. In this way you will soon be able to remember more of your dreams, which, in turn, will induce lucid dreaming.
Attention: Do not take any kind of medicine, drugs or food supplements so as to induce lucid dreaming. Such substances may cause unpleasant side effects such as nightmares, insomnia, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, or even worsen diseases like asthma or heart issues.
Astral projection
Astral projection is an out-of-body experience that happens either while awake or during lucid dreaming or deep meditation. Lucid dreaming can be considered as a kind of astral projection, since dreams belong to the astral realms. While astral travelling, the spirit leaves the physical body and enters another dimension of existence, known as the astral plane.
Many people believe that astral travel is carried out by an ''aetheric body'', which consciously gets out of the physical body and wanders freely in the astral realms. This subtle body is supposed to be connected to the physical one with a kind of energy line that looks like a silver cord attached to the traveller's head.
Nevertheless, it is not possible to actually leave your body unless you are dead; it all comes down to the vast spectrum of consciousness that lies between astral worlds and everyday reality. When somebody has an astral projection, their mind just falls into into another phase of consciousness and experiences a different perspective of reality. Most astral travellers neither feel as if they were coming out of their physical body, nor see some “silver cord” connecting their astral body to the physical one.
Technique for astral projection
You can sit on a chair or squat down, as long as you feel comfortable and your spinal cord is kept straight.
Focus on the flame of a candle placed in front of you.
Recite a mantra mentally (for instance ''the universe and I are one'') for a few minutes.
Proceed to physical relaxation.
Countdown mentally from 10 to 0.
When you reach the “Void”, observe the image of the flame shaped in the darkness of our shut eyes.
Open your eyes slowly, then close them again.
Once again, countdown mentally from 10 to 0.
Envisage coming out of your physical body, flying to the place you wish to go. Try to imagine the scene in all its details.
* If this doesn't work at once, don't be disappointed; perfection takes practice.
* Alternatively, after awakening lie on bed and go to sleep; in all probability, you will have a very interesting lucid dream experience!
Precautions
When you practice advanced techniques of meditation such as lucid dreaming and astral projection, make sure you observe silence. Do not narrate your experiences to others, since it won't be possible for you to ignore their opinion entirely. The others usually show disbelief, boredom or envy; even when they seem to be interested in your experiences, you had better be reserved and keep silent.
Many people tend to talk a lot and ask for approval because they feel insecure inside. Some believe that the narration of psychic experiences will make them more popular -but this is not true: the great majority of people are not at all interested in spiritual development, and they will find you boring, disagreeable, or crazy. They will show you disapproval, disbelief, irony. As a result, you will be affected negatively, you will start doubting about yourself and this may block your inner development.