DO I NEED TO ASK FOR PROTECTION?
Previously you said that when we explore the spiritual domain we run the risk of attracting parasites that feed on our energy. You also said we shouldn’t be naive. This implies that when I meditate I should be realistic and protect myself energetically. Is this so? If it is, what works? Should I ask others to protect me? Or can I protect myself?
As in all situations where problems arise and defensive action is required, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to your question. Different situations, and particularly different personalities, require different solutions. So we can immediately answer, yes, energetic protection is appropriate. Just as you use sunblock when going out so as not to burn your skin, so you are advised to ensure that when you finish meditating nothing extraneous is clinging to you. Using protection is merely common sense. What is not so apparent is what is best for you in a particular situation.
As a general exercise, it is useful to do what many meditators are taught, which is to imagine an envelope of pure light surrounding you, then envisage it as providing a protective layer, a kind of spiritual prophylactic. Another common practice is to direct a plea towards your spiritual friends and guides to protect you during meditation. Each of these practices is to be encouraged, as they are certainly effective in many, even most, situations. So by all means do one or both before or after your meditation sessions.
However, there is more to parasites than we have discussed so far. In particular, the use of creative visualisation in your spiritual practices, such as imagining your body being enveloped by protective light, requires further explanation. We’ll begin with this topic.
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In times past the spiritual realm was conceived of as imaginal, a word derived from image. Images have long been associated with visions perceived by mystics in what, as a consequence, were termed visionary states. We prefer to say that when people cross the threshold to explore the spiritual realm, they are entering a visionary realm that is imaginal in nature. The imaginal is a complex concept. As we keep repeating, perhaps annoyingly so, what you are going through as a spiritual identity, occupying a human body and coping with human cultures while simultaneously trying to understand what is occurring to you spiritually, involves an extremely complex psycho-spiritual situation. We introduce the term imaginal here in an attempt to illuminate how you connect with spiritual reality.
The imaginal isn’t limited to visions. It includes deep feelings, fleeting impressions, and illuminating intuitions, none of which are necessarily visual in nature—although they could be— and which come from you don’t know where to provide revealing nuances and perspectives of which you were previously unaware.
It is the case that many people consider such perceptions to be imagined rather than imaginal. They view the imaginal as entirely conjured up in the mind of the experiencer. For those who are sceptical of imaginal communications—which includes many who have actually experienced them—they are so subtle and so fleeting, and speak in such a quiet voice (we mean this metaphorically, of course), that they are easily discarded, often without the individual thinking twice about what has occurred. This is a completely understandable response among those who have never delved into the imaginal realm of experience, or who have been startled by an unsought imaginal experience and were too confused about what was happening, too doubtful of its source, or too fearful of its consequence, to give it serious consideration. As we said earlier, in general people need a reason to engage with subtle impressions. Furthermore, training is required not just to become sensitised to their occurrence, but to process what they mean. Mistakes in interpretation are frequent. Imagination does play a significant part in misinterpretation. So the difference between the imaginal and the imagined needs to be made clear.
Human imagination has two key applications. First there are those who imagine things that aren’t there, such as plots by others to attack them in some way. These people are called paranoid. Their imagination is fuelled by fear, which leads them to interpret otherwise innocent actions as being dangerous to them. This is one example of how imagination fuelled by something else—in this case fear—takes over a person’s psyche and conjures a view of reality that is not actually the case.
But human beings also use their imagination creatively, envisaging possibilities that they then bring into existence. Engineers imagine a bridge, an architect imagines a building. They then carry out the tasks needed to build what they have imagined and make it an existing object. Where the paranoid imagination conjures up a world that doesn’t exist, except within their mind, the creative imagination drives human progress. These are the two principle ways imagination is used by human beings. But there is a third application.
A widely shared maxim states that you aren’t paranoid if they really are out to get you. This is true. But let’s dig into that saying a little further. If others are indeed out to get you, then that is because you engaged in a chain of actions and reactions that has resulted in them wanting to do so. Whether you merely responded to what was already occurring, or whether you initiated what subsequently became a chain of events, you made the choice to engage. Others noticed your engagement and responded by coming to get you, whether that be legally, economically, politically or personally. On both sides of the pursuit—you as pursued, them as pursuers— engagement has occurred. How did you engage? By using your creative imagination.
Let’s imagine a scenario in which you see things happening you don’t like, perhaps by offending your moral sensibility, and you envision an alternative way life could be. As a result, you engage with what you don’t like, your purpose being to interrupt what is occurring. In effect, you wish to change the course of future events so you take action to make this happen. This is creative engagement. Your pursuers in turn respond to whatever you do by using their creative imagination to envision that life would be better if they sustained their current course of action. Accordingly, they push back.
The process of creatively imagining how things could be, then engaging to make that imagined possibility real, is fundamental to human existence. It is responsible for the tremendous advances that have been made in recent centuries, socially, technologically, ethically, educationally, medically. It is also responsible for the huge messes humanity makes when the creative imagination is used to exploit and oppress. People see even the most straightforward of situations in very different ways because they possess diverse assumptions, desires and expectations. Competing visions commonly give rise to disagreements, clashes, and fights. In all cases, people’s differently aligned creative imaginations are responsible. With this understanding of how creative imagination functions in life, we’ll now consider how the use of creative imagination applies to imaginal experiences.
When you imagine an envelope of protective light surrounding you—the colours of either white or gold are suggested—you are using your creative imagination. That is, the envelope of light isn’t actually there. Instead, you are envisioning it being there, just like an engineer looks at a gorge and envisions a bridge crossing it. The engineer then uses practical processes to bring the bridge into existence, in ways that are clear and widely appreciated. In contrast, the imaginal process by which envisioned white light comes to actually surround a meditating individual does not involve anything physical, and is neither clearly nor widely appreciated. This is the way with the spiritual layers of reality. They involve real outcomes, but they are subtle, non-physical outcomes, and so difficult to comprehend.
What happens is that by directing your attention towards the spiritual domain and envisioning an envelope of light, you are extending an invitation. Your invitation leads to a response. Often it is your spiritual self that responds, by creating an energetic envelope around you. More precisely, it adds an energetic quality to the envelope that already surrounds you, because your aura envelopes your body from before its birth to after its death. In this case, it may be said you are energising your aura yourself. Occasionally, your invitation results in a separate spiritual identity adding protective energy to your aura. This is usually a mentor or friend coming to your aid. Very occasionally, someone outside your familial and peer circles will help you, for reasons you will likely not know until after your incarnation is complete.
This, then, is how your awareness uses creative imagination to generate imaginal effects. You creatively visualise a state of reality, open yourself up to a subtle result, and that result indeed comes to be. However, imaginal impressions are so ephemeral in comparison to physical reality that they are often felt to hover on a borderline between what is real and what is merely imagined, between what is actually present and what is not. This is the tricky aspect of imaginal perceptions, an aspect spiritual explorers usually take some time to comprehend.
When spiritual explorers first start receiving impressions from the spiritual domain those impressions are elusive. Seekers aren’t certain they have actually perceived anything at all. The situation is analogous to perceiving gossamer, which are very fine webs spun by small spiders. Gossamer webs are so fine and delicate you often can’t see them. It is only when dew has settled on them, and sunlight catches the droplets, that you realise a web actually hangs before you. It takes looking from a certain perspective, with the right illumination, to realise a web is present. Otherwise you could walk through the web, think you feel something brush your arm, look down, see nothing, and shrug off the impression as merely being your imagination at play.
The same applies to imaginal impressions. You need to see them from a certain angle, in a particular light, to perceive them at all. Otherwise you’ll likely shrug them off as being your imagination at play. Imaginal impressions have a visionary, dreamlike quality. Sometimes they strike you powerfully. More usually they are tantalising whispers that you have to concentrate on to hear. Given the lack of physical confirmation, it is easy to rationalise them away as imagined. In fact, you need to switch off your imagination to perceive the imaginal. You do this by stilling your mind and opening up your awareness. Then what are initially felt to be quiet, distant impressions come closer, and the subtle and ephemeral starts being perceived.
In energetic terms, what you are doing is lifting your awareness to a more refined level, until you resonate at the same energetic level as the imaginal. It is when you are on the same wavelength that the imaginal becomes apparent. All this takes practice. Through repeated effort you become more proficient at switching your awareness to the required energetic level, and as a result ephemeral imaginal impressions become increasingly accessible and real to you.
At this stage, however, another difficulty presents itself. This is that imagination can embroider what is perceived. This is common within religions, when some important individual has put a particular interpretation on an imaginal event. Usually a sound intent lies behind the interpretation, such as when a mystic visionary attempts to explain an ephemeral experience using a metaphor drawn from everyday life. Others then misinterpret the explanation, most often by adopting the metaphor as a literal truth. Occasionally, people are mischievous and invent fantastical explanations.
In your own exploring, be careful how you explain what you perceive, not just to others but to yourself. As we have previously warned, easy explanations, made using what you already know, are not necessarily correct explanations. Reality is more diverse, contains a wider variety of processes, and is often far stranger, than anything you can know. Ultimately, the imaginal is far beyond what you could ever imagine. So be careful about projecting what you know onto what you do not. The explanations we are offering here, and in our other books and channelled information, are attempts to give you a fresh context for appreciating what is mysterious and arcane.
As for there being more to parasites than we have so far discussed, much learning awaits you as you repeatedly enter the spiritual domain. There will be surprises. There will be times when you don’t believe what you have encountered. And there will be occasions when you ask yourself, “What the (bleep) was that!”
This is entirely natural. It is also what makes exploration so fascinating. If we already knew everything, how insipid life would be. Parasites are of this same order of surprises. They are not simply bugs, like leeches, to be shrugged off. They have their own intelligence and perceptions. They have been many places. Because they exist spiritually, yet interact with the physical energetically—as you do, but in a different way—they have their own view of reality. Furthermore, you can talk to them and ask them all about it. So when you discover an energetic parasite has attached itself to you, while the temptation is to remove it as soon as possible, entering first into communication might be informative for you.
The last comment we will make regarding parasites is that the experience of removing one is an important learning experience. You’ll need to draw on resources you perhaps didn’t realise you had. It is, as is said, more grist to the mill as you work to grow.
