Lately I have been doing the pathworkings from The Initiate's Book of Pathworkings by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. I have done the first three of the Egyptian pathworkings. I can't say what effect they have had on me because of confounding factors. Namely, at the same time I have been doing the Qabalah pathworkings, and also exercises from The New Hermetics. So, I have had those epiphanies I just discussed in the previous post. I think I have reached a turning point in my spiritual development; instead of just meditating and doing pathworkings and observing whatever happens, I am now choosing what I want to change about myself and my experiences.
Twice I have done the "Reframing and Pain and Pleasure" exercise from The New Hermetics book, once a week over the last two weeks, and I have been pleased in the results. I think I will do one more since three is such a nice number. The exercise is for taking some undesirable painful reaction one has to something and reframing it as something pleasurable or neutral. For example, suppose you irrationally dislike someone, and being annoyed by them causes conflict and makes your life difficult. The exercise can be used to reframe the situation so that it can be positive, discover the root purpose/cause of the existing situation, and channel that purpose to be satisfied by a more desirable experience. The exercise is basically just about taking the time to sit and think about what we do not want to experience, why we experience it, and then visualizing what we want to happen instead. Also, it is important to connect with elemental Earth while doing this.
I experience the elemental earth plane as golden rolling farmlands. Everything is a little bit golden and faded, it feels like a nostalgic memory. The temple of Malkuth is there, but for this exercise I sit just outside it on a patio. I was met by a cute green anthropomorphic bug I afterwards decided to name "Herbie". I go through the book's instructions for the exercise while sitting there with him and talking to him. After I was done the first time, I was surprised to see the exercise caused a seed to appear on the table while I was not looking. I give the seed to Herbie and he crawls back into the fields and plants it for me, and it immediately and potently springs up into a green vine, that grows huge and high up into the sun and even attaches to it. I wondered at the meaning of this unexpected event, and then a disembodied voice told me that in doing these exercises, I would not just be creating experiences for myself and getting what I want, I would also strengthen the communication between myself and my higher self, making communicating my desires easier and more effective in the future. Come to think of it, that also means I would be more aware of what my Higher Self wants me to do or know. Come to think of it again, that disembodied voice must have been my Higher Self. The second time I did the exercise, more green vines grew, wrapping around the existing ones, making the channel a little bit thicker and stronger.
Although I have been pleased with the results I have gotten so far, I have been reminded of the common warnings about being careful what we wish for. So far it has worked much better than I expected, but never quite in the way I expected it to happen. The most interesting part was that during the process of going through the exercise, I spontaneously started visualizing in my active imagination being in a particular situation. This is not a strange situation, but it is something that has never happened in the way I visualized it... until a few days later that very week. So things happened both in a way I did not expect, and also just like I visualized in some respects. That specific situation just popped into my head, I did not plan it before sitting down to do the exercise, so it makes me wonder whether I had only predicted what was already going to happen, or did I make something happen. I think the truth is that there is not much of a difference between the two.
It looks like it takes a good three days or so for the results of such an exercise to manifest itself. And it's not all fun and games, the day before I started getting the desired results, I got into a bad mood and felt anxious and frustrated. But that was good, I think it was part of the process, because it made me think about relevant related problems, it uncovered more layers of neuroses in my mind I should to work on.
There is also an exercise on "Changing your beliefs". I'll have to try that one soon.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
On Stories and Lies
I saw the movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus the other day. That movie is all about the power of imagination, and how telling stories sustains the universe and reality itself. That idea sounds all pretty and romantic, but there's a dark side to that truth. Stories do not just fill us with awe and noble ideals, they can also trap us and limit us.
Lately it's a pet peeve of mine how people always like to tell stories, give reasons and excuses for why something is the way it is, even when those stories are very tenuous, unverifiable, or unnecessary. It's probably not a good example, but a recent one springs to mind: I overheard someone said something like "When I pinch someone it hurts because I play the piano". The piano-playing seemed very irrelevant in the larger context, it seemed like a dumb thing to say at the time... As if pinching people does not usually hurt. More commonly offensive, it will be said that someone has some personality trait because they are Irish, or Latin, Nordic, male or female. Most people today in modern society are taught to understand how unfair and limiting such "stories" based on racism and sexism can be. Note how these labels do not explain or inform in any way yet still they satisfy something inside the mind sometimes; e.g. The amount of melanin in one's skin has no apparent cause-and-effect relationship with dancing ability, but that does not stop people from saying "[white person] can't dance because he is white". Perhaps skin color can be associated with culture and upbringing, but why not just say "[white person] can't dance because of his upbringing". That would make more sense but that is still bullshit, just another "story". A person can be a good or bad dancer regardless of or despite any kind of upbringing.
For another example, consider the ideas of "evolutionism". Now, I'm not debating against evolution, I use the word "evolutionism" here to refer to the way many materialistic folks think these days; they constantly make up stories out of thin air about why people behave the way they do. These stories are completely unverifiable and unfalsifiable, but people relate them to evolution and evolution is all sciency so that is enough proof for them. If there is some tendency for men to behave differently from women, it must be because "men were hunters and women were gatherers and so blah blah blah". It is a simple and satisfying story, so who needs actual facts or evidence?
Feminism, or at least its internet implementation is another pet peeve of mines. I have a bad habit of reading feminist blogs when I'm bored, just so I can feel shocked and disgusted at how warped and deranged the thinking of supposedly sentient beings can be. Feminism likes to tell the story of poor oppressed downtrodden Woman. Woman throughout history has had everything worse than The Man. Forget the reality of the diversity of human experience, forget ordinary men and women living and loving together, sharing their struggles in surviving and raising their families. It would not be so annoying if it was not how most people seem to see the world these days. Most people actually believe that Today is special, and in the past everyone followed the rules and no one thought for themselves. They act like history consists of men sitting in mansions and sipping martinis while women slaved away in cotton fields. They think that somehow in a world that lacked tv and internet and newspapers there existed stronger and more universal and oppressive social norms. Facts about men's disadvantages in life throughout history are ignored and minimized.
So I do not like history books much either, they try too hard to make everything a nice neat little story.
And then people tell stories that completely contradict each other. It really makes me scratch my head. For instance, open the newspaper and read about "kids these days". Read about how all kids are ostracized and gay-bullied and abused all day long, alongside another article about how spoiled kids are these days and how they are constantly rewarded for participating and never criticized and treated with kid-gloves by "helicopter-parents" and with their self-esteem coddled all day long.
I am getting tired of stories. I like facts. Facts can be tricky, but many of them are quite simple. I am typing this using a computer: Fact. I am typing this on a computer because evolution women oppressed gay bullying : Story. Stories help us remember facts, but do not confuse them for facts. I get the impression that that idea is a rabbit hole I have barely begun to explore enough. I use the word "story" here to mean one or more facts or stories strung together in a narrative, often using cause-and-effect.
In physical reality, regular science has found that seemingly solid stable matter is made up of jiggly atoms with plenty of space in-between. And those atoms are made of some particles and more space. And then those particles are made of subatomic particles, but then at the bottom of it all, it's just space with energy trapped within it. Solid matter is an illusion. That's basically what the Qabalah has taught for hundreds or thousands of years, but anyway, my point is just to illustrate using metaphor what perhaps is the truth about metaphysical reality. We conceive of reality with stories, and words which act as labels. But such things only have meaning because they point to something else, they can be broken down into more stories, facts, and labels. Perhaps there is no meaning at the bottom of all these stories and labels. Perhaps metaphysical reality is based not on solid stable meaning, but just the trapped, swirling energy of emotions and desires.
I can philosophize forever, I bore myself. At the end of the day, what use is this knowledge? How can we put it into practice?
First, note that often the purpose of these stories are to deny free will, to pretend we do not have choices, to satisfy desires and emotions. (Unless I am just telling myself a story in saying that). One might be tempted to feel disturbed that we are all trapped in stories that are not necessarily true, there is no apparent way to stop telling them. But perhaps we can take conscious control of this story-telling, we can take an existing story that we do not like anymore and rewrite it. Realizing this is a breakthrough I have had recently, it's really starting to sink in. Yet it's just more of the same along the same vein I have been in for a while: realizing that magic is everywhere, it's been there all along. Men and women are asleep, mired in illusion. The magician, the Initiate, learns to choose his or her illusions.
For a little while it felt a bit like losing my mind. For a day or two I kept questioning everything, any kind of assertion about cause and effect. I realized that you can take any two facts and pretend that one causes the other if you try hard enough. Some illusions work better than others, but in the end it's all illusion.
A person must first look inside of themselves and see which stories they have been telling themselves that they do not want anymore, see which stories have outlived their usefulness.
One may tell themselves the story about how they had abusive, unloving parents, in the context of how they themselves are or will be as parents. Too often that story goes, "I had bad parents, so that means I have no choice but to be a bad parent too." But it would be just as reasonable to say "I had bad parents, so that means I will be a better parent because I have the special opportunity to learn from my own parents' mistakes."
It has sunk in that any story, all stories, without exception, we tell ourselves can be changed, remodeled. One can have the most oppressive, grueling, and cruel existence and then just spin that into a proud story of being strong, brave, and heroic. Or we can pick and choose the facts that we pay attention to.
I read the book Neverending Story a while ago, last year. That book is awesome, the author explains some deep esoteric truths in there. There was that one part where a character explains that when something escapes "Fantastica" into physical reality, it becomes a lie. I still do not really understand the significance of that notion, but this is just my segueway into a discussion about lies:
Despite my better judgement, I saw the movie The Invention of Lying the other day. In this movie we have the high concept story of a world where no one ever lies. I knew in advance I would disagree with how they portrayed such a world, but mostly in the end I thought more about how sorry I felt sorry for Ricky Gervais (he wrote and starred in the movie); the movie was a window into his narrow dysfunctional worldview. Supposedly in such a world where people tell only the truth people would be mean all the time and insult and bully each other constantly, especially him. The most bizarre part is his emphasis on how supposedly ugly his nose his. He wrote the movie, so it is probably safe to assume he thinks his nose is too squat, since someone says so every five minutes in the movie. Meanwhile he has a perfectly nice and regular and unremarkable nose, I suppose he would not be happy unless he looked like Owen Wilson.
Reminds me of those situations where someone can read other people's minds, like Mel Gibson's What Woman Want or that one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I thought it was rather sick and wrong/incorrect how they assume people just think depressing and self-loathing thoughts all day.
Recently I also read an advice column where someone complained about how they dislike having to act fake and cheerful all of the time. I was depressed by the response from the advice columnist and other commentators. They all, without exception agreed that the "truth" is that we all have to act cheerful and fake because society rewards this. Another story that does not make sense. Tomorrow when it is convenient to the purpose of feeling oppressed and hopeless and without choices someone in the same advice column will complain that they are too cheerful and nice and society rewards assholes.
I assert here that deep down people are not so shallow and callous and ugly. At least there is no reason to think so. The things we fear the most have a way of seeming more real than things we are not so afraid of, but they are not any more or less real, or they do not have to be. When we break down and tell the truth, what stands out in our minds is the parts we have to say that are callous and shallow, but that does not mean that the callous and shallow is the truth. Cynics like to think that deep down we are just animals and we are selfish and want to kill and rape and plunder. Those are the parts of us that seem to jump out of us the most forcefully, but that is only because those are the parts of us that we push down the deepest. The image of pushing a flotation device underwater in a swimming pool comes to mind. When people act selfless, nice, and charitable, that is real. People get rewarded for being nice, and people get rewarded for being mean.
I would encourage anyone reading this to be yourself, speak your truth. It feels good to see see people get cranky and angry sometimes, it is good when it means justice, or something others can relate to. People who act cheerful in a fake way are obvious and repellant, in my opinion and experience anyway. If you say something uncalled-for, just apologize, and mean it, and move on. It's sensical and okay to have more than one opinion or feeling about something at the same time. Go ahead and be cranky, just not all the time. The most boring and repellant people are the ones who act the same all the time.
Anyway, for more information about the nature of the illusory stories we tell ourselves, I found material by the channeled individual Vywamus very elucidating.
Lately it's a pet peeve of mine how people always like to tell stories, give reasons and excuses for why something is the way it is, even when those stories are very tenuous, unverifiable, or unnecessary. It's probably not a good example, but a recent one springs to mind: I overheard someone said something like "When I pinch someone it hurts because I play the piano". The piano-playing seemed very irrelevant in the larger context, it seemed like a dumb thing to say at the time... As if pinching people does not usually hurt. More commonly offensive, it will be said that someone has some personality trait because they are Irish, or Latin, Nordic, male or female. Most people today in modern society are taught to understand how unfair and limiting such "stories" based on racism and sexism can be. Note how these labels do not explain or inform in any way yet still they satisfy something inside the mind sometimes; e.g. The amount of melanin in one's skin has no apparent cause-and-effect relationship with dancing ability, but that does not stop people from saying "[white person] can't dance because he is white". Perhaps skin color can be associated with culture and upbringing, but why not just say "[white person] can't dance because of his upbringing". That would make more sense but that is still bullshit, just another "story". A person can be a good or bad dancer regardless of or despite any kind of upbringing.
For another example, consider the ideas of "evolutionism". Now, I'm not debating against evolution, I use the word "evolutionism" here to refer to the way many materialistic folks think these days; they constantly make up stories out of thin air about why people behave the way they do. These stories are completely unverifiable and unfalsifiable, but people relate them to evolution and evolution is all sciency so that is enough proof for them. If there is some tendency for men to behave differently from women, it must be because "men were hunters and women were gatherers and so blah blah blah". It is a simple and satisfying story, so who needs actual facts or evidence?
Feminism, or at least its internet implementation is another pet peeve of mines. I have a bad habit of reading feminist blogs when I'm bored, just so I can feel shocked and disgusted at how warped and deranged the thinking of supposedly sentient beings can be. Feminism likes to tell the story of poor oppressed downtrodden Woman. Woman throughout history has had everything worse than The Man. Forget the reality of the diversity of human experience, forget ordinary men and women living and loving together, sharing their struggles in surviving and raising their families. It would not be so annoying if it was not how most people seem to see the world these days. Most people actually believe that Today is special, and in the past everyone followed the rules and no one thought for themselves. They act like history consists of men sitting in mansions and sipping martinis while women slaved away in cotton fields. They think that somehow in a world that lacked tv and internet and newspapers there existed stronger and more universal and oppressive social norms. Facts about men's disadvantages in life throughout history are ignored and minimized.
So I do not like history books much either, they try too hard to make everything a nice neat little story.
And then people tell stories that completely contradict each other. It really makes me scratch my head. For instance, open the newspaper and read about "kids these days". Read about how all kids are ostracized and gay-bullied and abused all day long, alongside another article about how spoiled kids are these days and how they are constantly rewarded for participating and never criticized and treated with kid-gloves by "helicopter-parents" and with their self-esteem coddled all day long.
I am getting tired of stories. I like facts. Facts can be tricky, but many of them are quite simple. I am typing this using a computer: Fact. I am typing this on a computer because evolution women oppressed gay bullying : Story. Stories help us remember facts, but do not confuse them for facts. I get the impression that that idea is a rabbit hole I have barely begun to explore enough. I use the word "story" here to mean one or more facts or stories strung together in a narrative, often using cause-and-effect.
In physical reality, regular science has found that seemingly solid stable matter is made up of jiggly atoms with plenty of space in-between. And those atoms are made of some particles and more space. And then those particles are made of subatomic particles, but then at the bottom of it all, it's just space with energy trapped within it. Solid matter is an illusion. That's basically what the Qabalah has taught for hundreds or thousands of years, but anyway, my point is just to illustrate using metaphor what perhaps is the truth about metaphysical reality. We conceive of reality with stories, and words which act as labels. But such things only have meaning because they point to something else, they can be broken down into more stories, facts, and labels. Perhaps there is no meaning at the bottom of all these stories and labels. Perhaps metaphysical reality is based not on solid stable meaning, but just the trapped, swirling energy of emotions and desires.
I can philosophize forever, I bore myself. At the end of the day, what use is this knowledge? How can we put it into practice?
First, note that often the purpose of these stories are to deny free will, to pretend we do not have choices, to satisfy desires and emotions. (Unless I am just telling myself a story in saying that). One might be tempted to feel disturbed that we are all trapped in stories that are not necessarily true, there is no apparent way to stop telling them. But perhaps we can take conscious control of this story-telling, we can take an existing story that we do not like anymore and rewrite it. Realizing this is a breakthrough I have had recently, it's really starting to sink in. Yet it's just more of the same along the same vein I have been in for a while: realizing that magic is everywhere, it's been there all along. Men and women are asleep, mired in illusion. The magician, the Initiate, learns to choose his or her illusions.
For a little while it felt a bit like losing my mind. For a day or two I kept questioning everything, any kind of assertion about cause and effect. I realized that you can take any two facts and pretend that one causes the other if you try hard enough. Some illusions work better than others, but in the end it's all illusion.
A person must first look inside of themselves and see which stories they have been telling themselves that they do not want anymore, see which stories have outlived their usefulness.
One may tell themselves the story about how they had abusive, unloving parents, in the context of how they themselves are or will be as parents. Too often that story goes, "I had bad parents, so that means I have no choice but to be a bad parent too." But it would be just as reasonable to say "I had bad parents, so that means I will be a better parent because I have the special opportunity to learn from my own parents' mistakes."
It has sunk in that any story, all stories, without exception, we tell ourselves can be changed, remodeled. One can have the most oppressive, grueling, and cruel existence and then just spin that into a proud story of being strong, brave, and heroic. Or we can pick and choose the facts that we pay attention to.
I read the book Neverending Story a while ago, last year. That book is awesome, the author explains some deep esoteric truths in there. There was that one part where a character explains that when something escapes "Fantastica" into physical reality, it becomes a lie. I still do not really understand the significance of that notion, but this is just my segueway into a discussion about lies:
Despite my better judgement, I saw the movie The Invention of Lying the other day. In this movie we have the high concept story of a world where no one ever lies. I knew in advance I would disagree with how they portrayed such a world, but mostly in the end I thought more about how sorry I felt sorry for Ricky Gervais (he wrote and starred in the movie); the movie was a window into his narrow dysfunctional worldview. Supposedly in such a world where people tell only the truth people would be mean all the time and insult and bully each other constantly, especially him. The most bizarre part is his emphasis on how supposedly ugly his nose his. He wrote the movie, so it is probably safe to assume he thinks his nose is too squat, since someone says so every five minutes in the movie. Meanwhile he has a perfectly nice and regular and unremarkable nose, I suppose he would not be happy unless he looked like Owen Wilson.
Reminds me of those situations where someone can read other people's minds, like Mel Gibson's What Woman Want or that one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I thought it was rather sick and wrong/incorrect how they assume people just think depressing and self-loathing thoughts all day.
Recently I also read an advice column where someone complained about how they dislike having to act fake and cheerful all of the time. I was depressed by the response from the advice columnist and other commentators. They all, without exception agreed that the "truth" is that we all have to act cheerful and fake because society rewards this. Another story that does not make sense. Tomorrow when it is convenient to the purpose of feeling oppressed and hopeless and without choices someone in the same advice column will complain that they are too cheerful and nice and society rewards assholes.
I assert here that deep down people are not so shallow and callous and ugly. At least there is no reason to think so. The things we fear the most have a way of seeming more real than things we are not so afraid of, but they are not any more or less real, or they do not have to be. When we break down and tell the truth, what stands out in our minds is the parts we have to say that are callous and shallow, but that does not mean that the callous and shallow is the truth. Cynics like to think that deep down we are just animals and we are selfish and want to kill and rape and plunder. Those are the parts of us that seem to jump out of us the most forcefully, but that is only because those are the parts of us that we push down the deepest. The image of pushing a flotation device underwater in a swimming pool comes to mind. When people act selfless, nice, and charitable, that is real. People get rewarded for being nice, and people get rewarded for being mean.
I would encourage anyone reading this to be yourself, speak your truth. It feels good to see see people get cranky and angry sometimes, it is good when it means justice, or something others can relate to. People who act cheerful in a fake way are obvious and repellant, in my opinion and experience anyway. If you say something uncalled-for, just apologize, and mean it, and move on. It's sensical and okay to have more than one opinion or feeling about something at the same time. Go ahead and be cranky, just not all the time. The most boring and repellant people are the ones who act the same all the time.
Anyway, for more information about the nature of the illusory stories we tell ourselves, I found material by the channeled individual Vywamus very elucidating.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Spiritual Development for Beginners
Here I will write a few words of advice for the beginner spiritual seeker. I feel compelled to because I remember being a very beginner. Through the years I often found myself thinking, "I wish someone had told me this before!" Or, "I wish someone had explained this to me in this way!"
To start with, meditation is very important, perhaps the most important thing, especially for a beginner. It might seem very difficult but a little goes a long way. I know from experience, starting the day with merely 20 minutes of meditation makes the rest of the day go by so much more smoothly. I am not particularly good at meditating, sometimes my sessions consist of mostly just sitting and thinking and forgetting that I am supposed to be clearing my mind, but I still find it very beneficial. The benefit is that it becomes much easier to pay attention and do what I am supposed to do throughout the day, instead of it being a struggle to be disciplined and have willpower.
And so I would recommend meditating for 20 minutes sessions, 2-3 times a day. Do not be discouraged if you cannot clear your mind, take it slow, consider a success to merely take the time to sit in silence. My issue with meditating was that I felt like if I did not do it right then it was a waste of time. I am saying here for those who listen: It is never a waste of time! There are other levels of reality, levels of consciousness that are difficult to perceive, and on some of those levels a great deal is being accomplished.
Here I will emphasize that a crucial, central part of spiritual development is communication with discarnate entities. If you are reading this, you have probably heard of "spirit guides", angels, ultraterrestrials, ascended masters. There are the Plaedians, the Cassiopaens, Jane Roberts channeling "Seth", The Law of One/Ra Material, The Great White Brotherhood. You might wonder, "how can I open up communication with beings like that?"
A major hurdle for the beginner is appreciating the communication that is already there so that he or she may build on it. So, my advice to someone who wants to accelerate their understanding and communication with such entities would be to meditate every day, and to practice Qabbalistic pathworking. Pay attention to what you are doing when you daydream or talk to "yourself". Do visualization exercises designed for contacting the Higher Self. Don't just read about them, go out and do them and be confident they will work even though [insert excuse here]. That's what worked for me anyway. Talking to "spirits" or whatever one may call it might seem like something only special people can do, but that truly is not the case at all. It is very common and normal, and most of all should not be automatically equated with mental illness.
I really started being perceptive of such entities after this sequence of events: First, I found the willpower to meditate every day. After a few weeks or so I was inspired to learn about Qabbalistic pathworking. Then I started doing those. After doing the third one I tried, the one associated The Moon tarot card (Netzach to Malkuth), I was then inspired to try an "Initiation" exercise from The New Hermetics: 21st Century Magick for Illumination and Power by Jason Augustus Newcomb. I did that exercise once and the very next day, my life was changed. (You can read the exercise on page 75 of the amazon dot com preview of the book if you do a search). I won't bore you with details, but the very next day I became very aware and perceptive of a great teacher entity. I did not hallucinate, but could see her in minds eye, and distinctly felt a great presence, and had some other interesting incidents later. My point is it did not take very long to make this happen for me. Although I must admit, for a few years before I studied magic(k), the qabbalah, and supernatural phenomena, and that probably helped too.
Once one becomes comfortable with and aware of these communications, they will guide your learning process. You will be inspired with epiphanies, and be guided towards various books and people and situations. This experience is pretty cool and exciting, but sometimes you still will feel lost, confused and alone. It is just like the tv shows Joan of Arcadia or Wonderfalls. You will be guided to do things you do not understand at first, or see the purpose of, but you will feel comfortable to just go with it. Or maybe not comfortable, I suppose many people doubt their sanity in living like that. Society teaches us that that kind of thinking is insane, but I realized at a young age that society is dumb.
So, in conclusion, I could say much more about spiritual development, but I want to keep this advice relatively short. To summarize: Meditation and visualization exercises open the door to spirit-guide communication, and then those guides can point you the rest of the way. Don't spend too much time reading books, many of those who have reached enlightenment can't read or write a word. Just read the books that are right for you, and be receptive to the communications you already receive every day.
To start with, meditation is very important, perhaps the most important thing, especially for a beginner. It might seem very difficult but a little goes a long way. I know from experience, starting the day with merely 20 minutes of meditation makes the rest of the day go by so much more smoothly. I am not particularly good at meditating, sometimes my sessions consist of mostly just sitting and thinking and forgetting that I am supposed to be clearing my mind, but I still find it very beneficial. The benefit is that it becomes much easier to pay attention and do what I am supposed to do throughout the day, instead of it being a struggle to be disciplined and have willpower.
And so I would recommend meditating for 20 minutes sessions, 2-3 times a day. Do not be discouraged if you cannot clear your mind, take it slow, consider a success to merely take the time to sit in silence. My issue with meditating was that I felt like if I did not do it right then it was a waste of time. I am saying here for those who listen: It is never a waste of time! There are other levels of reality, levels of consciousness that are difficult to perceive, and on some of those levels a great deal is being accomplished.
Here I will emphasize that a crucial, central part of spiritual development is communication with discarnate entities. If you are reading this, you have probably heard of "spirit guides", angels, ultraterrestrials, ascended masters. There are the Plaedians, the Cassiopaens, Jane Roberts channeling "Seth", The Law of One/Ra Material, The Great White Brotherhood. You might wonder, "how can I open up communication with beings like that?"
A major hurdle for the beginner is appreciating the communication that is already there so that he or she may build on it. So, my advice to someone who wants to accelerate their understanding and communication with such entities would be to meditate every day, and to practice Qabbalistic pathworking. Pay attention to what you are doing when you daydream or talk to "yourself". Do visualization exercises designed for contacting the Higher Self. Don't just read about them, go out and do them and be confident they will work even though [insert excuse here]. That's what worked for me anyway. Talking to "spirits" or whatever one may call it might seem like something only special people can do, but that truly is not the case at all. It is very common and normal, and most of all should not be automatically equated with mental illness.
I really started being perceptive of such entities after this sequence of events: First, I found the willpower to meditate every day. After a few weeks or so I was inspired to learn about Qabbalistic pathworking. Then I started doing those. After doing the third one I tried, the one associated The Moon tarot card (Netzach to Malkuth), I was then inspired to try an "Initiation" exercise from The New Hermetics: 21st Century Magick for Illumination and Power by Jason Augustus Newcomb. I did that exercise once and the very next day, my life was changed. (You can read the exercise on page 75 of the amazon dot com preview of the book if you do a search). I won't bore you with details, but the very next day I became very aware and perceptive of a great teacher entity. I did not hallucinate, but could see her in minds eye, and distinctly felt a great presence, and had some other interesting incidents later. My point is it did not take very long to make this happen for me. Although I must admit, for a few years before I studied magic(k), the qabbalah, and supernatural phenomena, and that probably helped too.
Once one becomes comfortable with and aware of these communications, they will guide your learning process. You will be inspired with epiphanies, and be guided towards various books and people and situations. This experience is pretty cool and exciting, but sometimes you still will feel lost, confused and alone. It is just like the tv shows Joan of Arcadia or Wonderfalls. You will be guided to do things you do not understand at first, or see the purpose of, but you will feel comfortable to just go with it. Or maybe not comfortable, I suppose many people doubt their sanity in living like that. Society teaches us that that kind of thinking is insane, but I realized at a young age that society is dumb.
So, in conclusion, I could say much more about spiritual development, but I want to keep this advice relatively short. To summarize: Meditation and visualization exercises open the door to spirit-guide communication, and then those guides can point you the rest of the way. Don't spend too much time reading books, many of those who have reached enlightenment can't read or write a word. Just read the books that are right for you, and be receptive to the communications you already receive every day.
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