Active Meditation

This is the advanced form of meditation, because it combines remaining mentally active with meditating.

As always, get yourself relaxed and comfortable using whatever method is best for you, such as relaxing your muscles one by one. You might even light candles or incense, or use aromatic oils.

Now, instead of picturing a static image, choose a scenario. This should be like acting in a movie, or watching and directing one, depending on your viewpoint. You can practice with scenarios for entertainment, like flying on a magic carpet, surfing the waves, or walking through a calm forest.

When you concentrate on the scene for long enough, you will slip into a dream-like alpha state. You will be aware and awake, without taking notice of outside distractions.

Passive Meditation

Find a place where you aren't going to be disturbed and sit or lie comfortably.

You can put on some soothing music low in the background, and dim the lights.

Choose an image to focus on within your mind- the key is to choose a mental picture and not a physical one. What might your choose as your image? Maybe a star, or a cloud, or even a flame. You might choose your favorite plant or flower- or the image of a famous person. Whatever you decide on, it should be something pleasant to look at, and an image that you can hold for a long period of time.

As you picture that stationary image you'll slowly slip into an alpha state. This is meditation, and what you do from here depends on your own decision-making.

Deep Relaxation

A technique to completely relax the body and mind to a near-sleep state goes as follows. This one is popular among practitioners of martial arts.

Lay down with your arms by your side.

Begin breathing as though you are pretending to be asleep. Breathe in deeply, hold it for 5 seconds, and breathe out, hold for 5 seconds, breathe in again and repeat the pattern.

Focus on your feet. Feel them relax, feel the tension leaving you. Then focus on your legs, your stomach, your arms, your hands, and face.... feel them releasing, and relaxing.

Once your entire body is relaxed, it will begin to feel heavy. Imagine yourself drifting towards sleep, floating downward like a pearl in a stream. Drift deeper and deeper. Begin counting to ten, slowly. Once you reach ten, you will be in a state of total relaxation and meditation.

When you are done with the relaxation exercise, count backwards from 10 to 1. When you reach one, you will be revitalized and full of energy. Sit up whenever you feel ready, take however much time you need to get back in movement.

Creating Your Own Meditation

Consider your favorite place, or somewhere you'd like to be that has a lot to interest you and would keep your mind busy. Make sure you are comfortable, and take a few deep breaths. Take yourself to that place. Imagine all the things you would see and respond to them just as if it were real life, meet people and create scenarios. Rather than having an unorganized array of disconnected thoughts, you can concentrate on the scene. As you get deeper into the meditation you will find the scenery and schemes simplifying until you are basically "gone" with the meditation. You can even make a tape recording to guide you on a meditation journey. One can also use this method to go somewhere to find an answer- this would again require personal devising.

Another more difficult method is to choose one image and focus on that. I find this hard as I am always straying around from thought to thought. But if you find an image that interests you, keep your "sight" on that and nothing else. (This is more for the visual person, you can do the exact same thing with music or a feeling... this is the reason petting an animal for a long time can be relaxing, and listening to certain music can put a person in a trance.) The native americans did this with the monotonous sound of drumming. You could use a mellow instrumental piece and just focus on each note, going from one note to the next. Remember that monotony, if you can stand it, is like instant meditation. (If you have ever done the "counting sheep" thing to get to sleep, you know what I mean.)

The final method of meditation (which I am adding now, but did not include in the response) is to choose a calm, monotonous experience to visualize. That doesn't make much sense, so here is an example. A long, winding river on a warm summer day is serene and continual. Imagine drifting freely like a leaf down the river. It is relaxing and unchanging. Imagine how it would feel, and nothing else. You could also use driving down a long deserted road, coasting down an unending slope on a sled, or walking down the path in a forest with plain, simple scenery (just trees, trees, and more trees). Similar to the previous meditation, the monotony is what makes this work. Just make sure to choose an "activity" which you are familiar with, enjoy, and can identify with.

Know that the mind is constantly bombarded with thoughts, it's not anything one can really help. Meditation essentially is focusing those thoughts on one point until you reach another state

Getting the Truth

Picture the word that is most applicable to the problem you now have, and see it clearly in huge block letters marked on a door. Pick the door carefully and note the details of it. Perhaps it is an ornately carved antique door or it is a very simple wooden or painted door. Now see the word you've chosen standing out clearly on that door.

Very gently open that door and look in front of you, to the left and to the right to see what is there, just as you would if you went into a room you had never been in before.

If you see a person, begin to talk with that person about your problem. If you see nothing but a vast horizon, continue on and see another door, and go through that one until you can find a person or an animal with whom you can talk about your problem or a place where you can be alone with it.

Give yourself time to be with the problem. Then give yourself time to see what the truth about the situation is. Old memories and people associated with them may come into your mental screen (or picture).

See how they relate to it. See them as they "ARE", even if it's different from the way "YOU THINK" they are.

Now open your eyes and put your left-brain to work by deliberately figuring out what the images are saying to you. You can now take those insights into your life and put them to work for you. What they've told you is what you need to know.

Only YOU know what's true for you. And only by going beneath what you "BELIEVE" to be true, and being willing to "EXPERIENCE" what's true for you at the moment, can you really know what the truth is.

Past Lives Meditation

Begin with a personal inner-cleansing ritual.

Lay down.

Make sure you either tape your experience and/or have your partner write down what you say.

(This can be said out loud by your partner or you can do this internally; but, if your partner is saying it out loud, you must visualize this scenario.)

Picture a huge library with beautiful architecture. (Let your imagination run wild!) There are 10 giant steps leading up to the front door. Very slowly climb up the stairs counting each one. Your partner may want to count you through this. This is the meditative steps to put you into the mental state to accept the information. When you get to the top of the stairs, imagine a huge door, with a giant knocker. Knock.

Someone will answer the door. This is your spirit guide. Tell him/her what it is you would like to see (as in a certain past life, or something in general). At this point you may or may not have a lengthy conversation with your guide, he/she might be concerned with how you are going to handle this information, etc.

Next, Ask your guide to lead you to where you can get this information. Picture another door behind the guide, and have the guide walk you through here. He/she will lead you into another room, and sit you down. At this point, whether you are audio, visual, written, or any combination, comes into play.You might take down a book, and start to read the story of a past life... look at pictures like a photo album... watch a movie... listen to someone narrate the story. Or, like I said, any combination.

When you are done, thank your guide. Your parting words and actions will be based on how comfortable you are with your guide at this point. Open the main door to go back down the stairs, and count your way back down. This will lead you back out of the trance.

Play back the tape, or read what your partner has written. You may or may not remember what it is you have just experienced and/or said out loud.

River of Life

Find a comfortable place where you can relax and be completely quiet...relax...allow your thought snow to just come and go...come and go...and take a deep breath in and hold it...(pause)...now gather up the tension in your body, and release it as you exhale...take another deep breath, and as you exhale, let go of anybody else's energy or thoughts you may be carrying...and breathe in new energy...breathe in new possibilities...and allow your body to fill with lightness...feel it becoming lighter and lighter as you relax more and more...relaxing deeply...going deeper...feeling very light now...so light you could almost float away...

And as you relax, imagine a beautiful colored mist is swirling up around you, billowing up around you into a cushiony, soft, cloud of energy...and you are resting completely upon this cloud...and you are safe...as you breathe in and out, let your thoughts just come and go...relaxing more and more...and the cloud of energy now lifts you up into the air and carries your down into your own inner world...down between the boundaries of time and space...to a place of timeless beauty and infinite possibilities...floating down now, going deeper and deeper, leaving the outer world and its concerns far behind, as you drift and float on this beautiful cloud...going further and further...down below you is a rock, a giant rock...and the cloud gently and effortlessly lands upon the rock and you step off it, as the cloud swirls back into a mist and disappears for now...

Stand upon this rock now, and feel the strength of it under your feet...and as you turn around, you look out upon a great river...flowing as far as you can see...seeming to come from some infinite place...and disappearing into an infinite place, a flowing, endless river of energy...this is the river of all life waters...all of life draws upon the life-force that moves through its steaming currents...look closely at the water...what color is it? it may look like liquid light to you...look deeply into it, and sense the power and depth of the river...what sound does it make as it courses through its channels?...as you stand securely upon your rock, notice and fragrance...and bend down and cup your hands in the living water, and splash some of it on your face...feel the life giving force on your skin...take a sip of the water...allow the river of life to nourish you...

Now relax a moment upon the rock...and bring into your mind the magical intention that never seemed to go anywhere...what were you trying to accomplish?...what was the basic intention you had?...what was the emotion behind the intention?...feel the energy of that emotion moving onto the palms of your hands now...feel the energy glowing...pulsating...breathe and allow your intention that you're still clinging to externalize...the energy of it is now shimmering, glowing...swirling into a sphere...allow all of your desire to flow into this sphere...and allow this sphere to appear to you however it appears...and just observe what you see...you may see pictures or symbols emerging within the sphere...whatever you see is fine...

When your sphere is completely filled with the last of your desire, emotion, and intention, hold it aloft...feel the power of it in you hands, a globe of power that you can now release...and look out into the river of life...watch as its currents of possibility flow for ever and ever, as far as you can see...and whenever you're ready, with as much and as little force as you need, throw the pulsating sphere into the river...and give this intention to the life force of this great river...watch as the sphere touches the water...and gradually disappears into the current...

Take a deep breath...as the sphere disappears the last of your intention and emotion and desire merges with the source of all life, from which it originally came...and leaves you...

Now complete any business here that you need to finish...take a few moments to enjoy the flowing river of life, and know that the possibilities it nourishes can bring miracles into you life too...

Take another deep breath, and notice the colored mist is once again swirling around you...billowing up underneath you to form a beautiful cloud of cushiony energy, which is lifted up into the air, with you upon it...relaxing into the cloud you are returning the way you came...lifting up through time and space, coming back from the inner world...coming up...further and further...floating and drifting back...coming back...bringing you all the way back into your body now, into this room...brining your attention completely back into this time and place...take a deep breath and begin to re-orient yourself to the outer world...and when you're ready, count to three..., and on the count of three open your eyes, and return feeling relaxed, alert and at peace

As always, change any of the wording or images in this meditation if it suits your purpose better. The important part is just to finally and completely let go of your intention, so that the energy can be recycled in whatever form the creative force and your own consciousness will allow. Out of this release, new lives, new opportunities, and new magical opportunities are born!