Hello, potentially long post ahead. I wanted to share a meditation/trance technique that I essentially stumbled into not long ago, which has been working very reliably for me. It has also raised some questions which I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on.
Lately I have been spending a good chunk of time roaming around my own brain in a meditative and/or trance state. Initially I thought of it as “meditation”, but after reading further, I believe “trance” is a better way of describing it.
I will share the technique first:
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I get comfortable in a seated position, eyes closed. Headphones on, playing a binaural track - this one is my favourite: Detachment from Overthinking & Stress | Boost Positive Healing Energy | DEEP THETA Binaural Beats HD - YouTube
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Focus on steadily inhaling/exhaling for a few moments. If my thoughts wander, I detach myself from the thought by observing it without judgement, and bring my thoughts back to my breath. Eyes closed, and unfocused, fixed above my line of sight, in the middle-distance. Imagine it as fixing your gaze on your third eye, but from the inside of your skull. Interestingly I find that fixing your eyes in this way seems to mimic REM.
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In my mind’s eye, first-person perspective, I picture a white void with a plain white door.
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I open the door; inside is a black void, with a black staircase descending.
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I descend the staircase. In first-person I watch my feet tread down each step, and hear my breath steadily inhaling and exhaling.
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As I continue descending the staircase I begin to count backwards from 10. So inhale/exhale - 10. Inhale/exhale - nine. Inhale/exhale - eight.
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Generally when I reach six or five, I feel a shift in my brain and I slip deeper into a relaxed state.
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When I reach the inhale/exhale count of one, I step off the staircase and into a black and featureless void. I view it in first-person, I hear myself inhaling and exhaling, and the faint drip of water in the distance.
When I wish to leave the void, I return to the staircase and begin to ascend. I count upwards from one to 10 on each inhale/exhale as I climb the stairs. Inhale/exhale - one. Inhale/exhale - two. And so on. On the final exhale, at ten, I step through a doorway into pure white as I open my eyes.
Hopefully some of you can make use of this technique.
Now my question — this doesn’t appear to be standard meditation (as I thought it was when I first stumbled across it). Would this be better defined as the trance state?
If so, what or where is the void that I step into? I do not feel attached to my physical body, but nor do I feel untethered from it. I am just unaware of it. Time passes by easily when I am in this state, but I have no sense of time passing, and my consciousness is fully invested in being in the void. I experience it in first-person, with flashes of third-person.
Is it the void, the abyss, the astral plane, the inner world? Are those all interchangeable terms?
The only feature that marks my void is a red pentagram sigil of Baphomet in the middle distance. Normally, I approach the sigil and sit in the middle of the pentagram.
From the void I have traveled to my “happy place”, for lack of a better word, and was surprised by the amount of detail I felt in first person; like the chill of the air, the wind blowing my hair, the crunch of gravel under my feet as I walked. Or I can see the void fall away, and I stand upon a pillar in the cosmos, with the four angels from the LBRP standing over me in gigantic form. Or I step through a white portal into a holy temple where I first called my higher self. I have evoked entities, meditated, called upon the higher selves of others, travelled to others to “view” them.
Reality is subjective, and these are things that I feel comfortable saying I have “experienced” and “done”. But reading about others’ experiences doesn’t fully convey what it is like - it simply makes me curious to know more, so I have tried to be as detailed as possible.
Reality, or imagination? Is there even any significant difference when in this state?
I would love to hear others’ thoughts on this.