Meditations, Melchizedek and MelancholyPart 3 of 4. This part of the last workshop is tough to write down since I have so many conflicting emotions.
This workshop was heavy on various meditation techniques and lots of practice, which I enjoyed. Shamanic journeying (or meditation, if you prefer) has become an effective spiritual technique for me in reaching insights, peace and other good stuff. But I see it as a vehicle to access the subconscious part of ourselves and not literally as a gateway for talking to various beings, entities and others that exist at other levels of consciousness.
I could be wrong, of course. But I'm just leery of believing in yet more ascendant beings (like Jesus) who are supposed to reach down and save humanity if only we'll do their bidding. Or evangelize and convince everyone else to see things our way. Been there, bought that T-shirt!
Angels Among Us?
Some of the meditations, I'm just not comfortable sharing about yet. Some produced feelings of real joy and peace, and others led me on mysterious inner journeys. A few seemed just silly (trip to the star Sirius anyone?), and I'm a little embarrassed about what I "saw" and experienced.
Others were surprising at first and then, upon further reflection, not so much given my Christian background. Since angels have become such a New Age staple now, one of journey's was to hang out with a few. Me--not interested. I know we're lulled into thinking angels are beings who sweetly sing about the baby Jesus' birth, but I know there are plenty of stories in the Bible about angels bringing bad news and being harbingers of doom. Have you read the book of Revelation? So I didn't get much out of this one, no surprise.
But it's all just symbolic, right? Another meditation surprised me with the power of its symbols. Without any specific instructions or anything, I saw a white dove hovering over me in one meditation, its body so close to me it blocked out the sun. And I "heard" the dove speak with the voice of Jesus. Now, as someone who no longer believes Jesus is a divine being or the son of god, this was unsettling. It was "all in my head," and yet the emotions it triggered were familiar to those I once felt when deep in prayer as a devout Christian.
Maybe this only means I shouldn't write off those experiences. Many New Agers or pagans see Jesus as a cool dude or an ascended being from whom we can all learn without pledging our eternal allegiance. Maybe--I'm working on that.
Careful Who You Follow
I guess I'm curious as to whether you can find value in some of these practices without taking all of it literally--which is what got me into trouble with Christianity. We watched a video of a guy named Drunvalo Melchizedek, who I've mentioned before. It's all very complicated, but he basically sees himself as some enlightened being sent here to help the rest of us--if we'll only buy his books and CDs. In fact, he's suing some guy right now for alleged copyright infringement because this guy used his meditation technique without permission.
Interesting. If your meditation technique is key to human evolution and the greater good, shouldn't it be free? Even if Jesus' followers don't always follow this rule, at least Jesus did.
In summary, the Melchizedek guy strikes me as a little stuck on himself and how special he is. I just don't buy it--and yet the facilitator for our workshops is a big fan, and a lot of the stuff we've discussed is based on D. Melchizedek's ideas. Some of the ideas are too far-out for me to accept. It just all seems so complicated and dense and--weird. Sure, it's fun and entertaining--like a great TV show--but I don't know that I want to pattern my life after it. I have that T-shirt, too.
I'm sticking with my gut this time.
If you want an entertaining read about some of these theories from various sources, check out Secret Sun. Blogger Christopher Knowles does an admirable job of exploring some wacky ideas with an appealing blend of curiosity and skepticism. Lots of fun to read.
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