pixabay.com

In some esoteric circles it is believed that what mystics see and feel while in their ecstasies is so disengaged from everyday reality there are no words to describe them. What of the everyday Joe? Is a person who experiences episodes that defy nature in fact truly being shown another reality or realm or are they merely being tricked by their senses?

The human mind is a powerful agent. The annals of psychiatry hold numerous cases of seemingly normal people who have experienced ‘tactile’ hallucinations. They have seen, touched, heard and smelled and communicated with solid forms which acted as solid forms blocking out light and casting reflections. Science says if this happens outside of objective reality, how can any light travel from such forms to the eye to register an image the brain?

Dreams can be considered hallucinations so can oob. Ever wake up from an intense dream or nightmare that for a minute or two you were so shaken that it was hard to believe it was not real? Did fragments of it stick with you throughout the day yet you could not make rational sense of why your mind kept returning to those seemingly real segments? What of those dreams which ended up bearing physical marks upon the body? This is nothing new. Psychiatrists today consider these incidences as serious phenomena … i.e. a woman relays to a doctor what she calls a spectral rape complete with horrific details and marks, scratches and bite marks that could not have possible been self-inflicted despite any medical writing off of these things being a result of sexual repression.

According to various sleep studies, there are two twilight times in everyone’s day when people are most open these tactile events. The scientific term for these are hypnagogic and hypnopomic – basically when wakefulness is merging into sleep and when sleep is merging into wakefulness – the in-between times. The images and events produced at these times are so real even hardened sceptics find it impossible to believe they did not happen.

Today, esotericists use the term Out Of Body. It is not anything new and very akin to the Somnambules that are written about in ancient texts who had all sorts of experiences talking to angels, the Christ and even a devil or too depending upon cultural conditioning and expectation. “Tripping” via drugs is also included as well as hypnosis. All these things can make a person see all those ‘real things’ that are not really there – or are they? The common denominator is that all of these instances easily fall under the label of altered states of consciousness. Are they welcomed trips that take us all away from daily reality and help us to recognize through a moment of insight how insignificant our troubles are?

I leave you with a true story about a bereaved mother who lost a beloved child in an accident which unfortunately was the mother’s fault. In her time of grief and while fully conscious, the child appeared to her and spoke to her and even sat on her lap. The child was a solid form, warm and mobile. She visited with the mother for a while and then bid her adieu. After the event, the mother was able to begin her healing process in full.

Trick of the mind? Hallucination brought on by the need to assuage guilt? A momentary step into another reality?

I will leave that speculation to you. It has been my experience that it is all quite real.

Baraka                                                            

سيد الروحي