When the subject for this syncro blog was first suggested my mind raced in all kinds of different directions ( though some may say that is nothing unusual), what could I blog about..?
My experiences with Journey Into Wholeness and Mind Body and Soul Exhibitions offer me a whole host of examples I could use to talk about interacting with folk for whom entering onto or into a different spiritual plane is nothing unusual, in fact they seek to do so, to become more enlightened, to seek peace and perspective.... others try to contact the spiritual realms searching for answers. I am not going to debate the rights and wrongs of the methods and motives of these folk here, it is a complicated area and one where we do well to really listen and enter into a constructive and healthy dialogue...who knows we may learn something!
I am going to tell one story, and how this story has caused me to question whether prayer either is or should enable us to become conscious of the spiritual realms, taking us beyond, though not separating us from our physical bodies, and asking whether this is a place where we can meet God...
I met John at a Mind Body Soul Exhibition, he was very interested in our rainbow coloured display of promise cards- on each of these cards was a verse or two of scripture, we asked folk which one they felt drawn to. John chose a verse from Jn 15. and identified the words as those Jesus spoke , he went on to explain the whole chapter to us( none of the cards had references on them)... curious to find how John knew the scriptures so well we asked him if he had read the Bible... no he didn't and never had, but he was meeting with Jesus regularly whilst Astral Travelling. As we talked more, it became clear that John was truly encountering the risen Christ in a way that many of us would be tempted to criticise or condemn.
John was and is a genuine truth seeker, he meets Jesus and discusses deep questions of life with him- John tells of how this is personal one to one encounter enriches him and guides him through life.
Friends who minister in India report visions and " out of body" experiences are accepted and talked about as valid prayer encounters....
So how about us here in the rather timid west- have we so prescribed and ring fenced methods and patterns of prayer that it looses something vital? Are we afraid of the spiritual realms, do we go to the opposite extreme from some in the New Age Movement who call everything spiritual good by secretly hiding from the spiritual realms believing them to be dangerous and scary?
In the Christian West one accepted manifestation of the otherness of prayer is Glossiola/ or praying in tongues unfortunately it is often misunderstood or abused by teachers who claim that without the manifestation of this gift people are not Spirit Filled. It is not unusual to hear people claim that Spiritual Gifts are not for these days... and we retreat into our intellects, giving assent to the spiritual realms but staying safely away from them....
Putting the debate about gifts and tongues aside however, I wonder if prayer can lead us to a place of alternate consciousness, and if so, is this a useful and valuable exercise for our Christian lives. I don't think for a moment that any Christian would argue the huge benefits of and necessity for prayer, but is there a deeper place, a place where we can walk with and receive from God in a new and life transforming way?
Another story- a Minister friend often tells of an elderly farm worker, who would enter the church at lunch-time every day and simply sit, his face would take on a peaceful, almost glowing quality- and yet it seemed to the casual observer that the man was doing nothing. Finally my friends curiosity was aroused, and he asked the old man why he came into the church every day, was something troubling him? The reply has stayed etched on my friend memory- " no young man" he replied, " I come in here to look at God; every day I come in here, and I look at him, and he looks at me and we tell each other how much we love each other....".
Every day the elderly man entered into a state of alternate consciousness far from the fields and labour of the rest of his day, a place where he simply soaked up God's love, and found himself able to love in return. (Echoes of 1 John :4.)
How about the cry from Psalm 42- "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, where can I go to meet with God?".... then "Deep calls to deep, in the roar of your waterfalls..." dare we take the plunge into deep prayer....
Could the visions and mystical writings of of Julian of Norwich, of Joan of Arc, St John of the Cross, Thomas A Kempis, and countless others including the Desert Mothers and Fathers have come about through their own entrance into that deeper place?
Can we enter into it?
I would like to contend that we can... it is something I have both had personal experience of, and intentionally withdrawn from, it is a place to which I sense I am being called to return to, for without entering into prayer in this way I block the work of the Holy Spirit in my life- something I fear is all to common in the west. I am not suggesting that we disengage our brains and become " too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use" ... but I am suggesting that we need to recognise welcome and affirm the Spirits presence in our lives- I am also suggesting that in doing so we can safely enter into the spiritual realms in prayer.... we can ask for gifts of wisdom and discernment, and when we do entrust ourselves to God in this way we will begin to see how wide and long, how high and deep, the love of Christ is, and know this love that surpasses all knowledge- that we might be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph:3: 18-21).
I wonder what the impact on the church would be, if we, like the elderly farm worker were simply to sit every day and soak ourselves in the love of God, for just one hour, allowing Her to penetrate the deeper places of our hearts minds and souls, places we hide from ourselves, brought into the light and loved into healing?
I wonder if we would begin to see ourselves and others from God's perspective, that things we have been fearful of might just recede into the background as we saw His truth unveiled? Would we be more able to stand up for what we know is right?
As I read the Scriptures I read of the way God opens us up to more and more possibilities- God is always bigger and more than I have previously found Her/ Him to be....
Dare be open to an alternate consciousness, a deeper place of prayer?
Lots of questions... all I know is that I need to answer the call to go deeper..so my prayer must be, Come Holy Spirit, lead me on...
Who knows, if we dare to step beyond the confines of our current thinking we might find ourselves in a better place to form an informed dialogue with those we currently see as "the other"...
Other Syncro bloggers this month:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
at Mike's Musings
Shamanic Vision and Apocalyptic Scripture
at Phil Wyman's Square No More
Can prayer be an example of Alternate Conciousness?
at Eternal Echoes
Better Than I Was [at times], Not Better Than You Are
by Mike of Earthsea
Emotionalism vs Rationalism
at Adam Gonnerman's Igneous Quill
Consciousness of the absurd and the absurdity of consciousness
at Steve's Notes from the Underground
The Unconscious Christian
by Matt Stone
Hypnochristians
at Jamie's More Than Stone
The extreme consciousness of the Spirit
by Les Chatwin
Picture by Melanie Weidner
