For some time now, I’ve been doing a meditative practice, usually at bedtime. I’ve found that it’s helpful in accessing information that would otherwise remain hidden to me.
I’m not making any metaphysical claims about the source of this information. However, the way I conduct these meditations is to pretend or assume that I am talking to my "spirit guide."
Now, I don’t know if I actually have a spirit guide, or if there is any such thing as a spirit guide. I do know that thinking in these terms assists the meditative process. It is not necessary to believe wholeheartedly in the idea of spirit guides. It is only necessary to act as if you believe it.
Basically, here’s what I do. Lying down with eyes closed, I relax myself as deeply as possible. The standard methods employed in relaxation exercises will work. The goal is to place myself in a state somewhere between alertness and sleep. It is difficult to define exactly what this state consists of, but I have found that, with practice, you learn to recognize it when you get there. You can just feel that you are "in the zone."
In this half-asleep state, your thoughts will tend to wander, and you will have to gently bring them back on track. Also, you will probably find that any questions you wished to bring up have suddenly escaped you. It takes deliberate concentration to recall the questions you had in mind, and even then, you may not be able to recall all of them. I’ve found that it’s useful to recite the questions several times before entering the meditative state in order to cement them as securely as possible in your memory.
When I began this practice, I would go through a fairly elaborate fantasy based on shamanic rituals. It consisted of imagining myself leaving my body and traveling down into the earth through a series of tunnels that led me into another realm. In this other realm, which I would visualize as distinctly as possible, I would meet my spirit guide — a person I visualized as a specific individual, though not anyone I know (or know of) in my earthly life. Later, I dispensed with the tunnels and simply imagined myself in one of the various environments I had constructed where these meetings took place. Even more recently, I have largely dispensed with the visualization process altogether, and I simply ask the questions and hear the answers.
There’s a tendency to fall asleep at the end of one of the sessions. When your concentration falters, you may simply drift off. This is not necessarily a bad thing — it is, in fact, a useful aid if you suffer from insomnia — but it does mean that some of the information from your meditative session may be lost. The next day, when you try to recall it, you may not be able to get it all back. Generally speaking, you will remember more of the session if you become alert immediately after it ends. Otherwise, at least try to recall it as soon as you wake up. It is good to write it down. The process of writing helps you to recall material that you may have initially forgotten.
I’m not claiming that I get any newsworthy predictions or new scientific facts out of the sessions. Mainly, I receive useful information or a new perspective on some problem or issue that I’m dealing with. Here’s a very minor example.
I found myself thinking repeatedly of certain subjects that really don’t interest me all anymore, and I wondered why my mind kept going back to them. In one of my "spirit guide" sessions, I asked about this. The answer I received was that some circumstances in my life at the moment are similar to circumstances that I found myself in some years ago. At that time I was interested in the subjects in question. By some process of subconscious association, my mind kept going back to those subjects, prompted by the parallels in my life situation. There was no actual significance to these thought patterns — they were more like old tapes that were being replayed automatically in response to a certain stimulus. After getting this new (and I believe correct) perspective on the issue, I stopped having these thoughts almost at once.
Could this information have come from my subconscious? Yes, absolutely. Could it have come from some outside source, such as a spirit guide? I believe this is possible, since I believe in life after death, spiritual beings, and other such things. Or could it be a combination of the two? Could I be getting some insights from spiritual helpers blended with insights surfacing from my subconscious? This may be the most likely explanation of all.
Pragmatically, I’m not sure it matters very much what the source of the information is. The real question, at least for me, is whether or not it’s useful. I have found that it is. It helps in resolving dilemmas, alleviating anxieties, obtaining creative insights, and assessing my own conduct.
The "conversations" that I have with the figure that I visualize as my spirit guide are not entirely spontaneous. It’s not as if the answers come to me completely unbidden. It’s more like I have to coax and urge the answers along. You could say that I’m prompting my subconscious or, alternatively, that I’m maintaining a tenuous and fragile connection with a spiritual adviser.
Another point I should make is that I find that it’s easier to have these "conversations" if the dialogue is only partly articulated. In other words, it seems preferable to accelerate your thinking by dropping out unnecessary words or allowing images or impressions to stand in for words. If there is any truth to the notion that spiritual beings operate at a faster "vibration" (whatever that means) than we do on Earth, then perhaps it’s necessary to speed up your thinking in order to match the tempo of their thoughts.
As an example, if I were trying to ask, Should I give my friend advice about finding a new job?, I might think something like, Advice … friend … job, while the gist of the question is held in my mind in an unverbalized form. And I might get the answer the same way.
In general, I’ve found that the answers I get in these meditative sessions are wiser than answers I would come up with by purely conscious ratiocination. By "wiser," I mean that they are more aware — more self-aware, more aware of the total context, and more aware of how other people are affected by my actions. You might say that I’m getting in touch with my Higher Self. Is there a difference between the subconscious and the Higher Self? Or is the Higher Self just another word for spirit guide? Are all these things ultimately interconnected, or are they one and the same? I don’t know. As I said at the start, I’m not making metaphysical claims.
The method I described has been useful to me and it may be useful to others, and its usefulness does not seem to depend on any strong belief in its metaphysical underpinnings. You may want to give it a try. Be patient and don’t be afraid to role-play a little bit in the beginning just to get the ball rolling. It’s an intuitive process, and you learn it by trial and error. You may want to start with pretty elaborate visualizations, as I did. But what worked for me may not work for you.
The real test of the technique is whether it gives you valid and helpful insights into personal issues on a regular basis. If it does, then it’s worth doing. You can’t argue with results.