QA159 QUESTION: I have a somewhat mystical temperament and I often go into periods of intense meditation. I am worried whether sometimes this becomes an unhealthy thing, a sort of schizophrenic withdrawal. At other times, it seems to be a natural and necessary part of my development. I have a hard time distinguishing.

ANSWER: Yes. It can be both. You’re quite right. Now, a very good way for you to gauge this is if the main tenor of your meditations is directed toward facing the truth in yourself, not toward a relief or a pleasurable state – which would come anyway, but in a real and very safe and very sane way, if you go about looking at yourself in truth.

If you fortify yourself by the kind of approach that says, “I have the courage, the integrity and the honesty to look at myself in truth, and to change that which is destructive and illusory into being constructive and real. And I request the divine forces within myself to inspire and guide me toward that end. I, as a manifestation of God, have the inalienable right – it is my destiny – to be happy, to live in pleasure, to live in fulfillment. But I wish to do so in the real way that does not run away from myself, that looks and dissolves and resolves the problems within me, so as to come to a realization of the divine in me, not in a false way.”

This kind of approach will always make it safe for you. Then you will remain in reality. To the extent you wish and want this wholeheartedly, the guidance will manifest more and more, and help you how to go about it and put it through in practice.

QA182 QUESTION: I am rather confused by the state that I’ve been in when I meditate in the evening. I go through periods when and I relax and I feel and I think. And then all of a sudden I lose complete contact with my body, and I feel that I don’t know what’s happened – if I’ve hypnotized myself or if my spirit has really left my body, because I have experienced that and I know I have before. I was told that this state that I’m in was very dangerous – being alone.

ANSWER: Yes. It is not good.

QUESTION: I feel very peaceful in this state and I have a desire to go beyond it. This desire is very strong within me, and I discussed it with someone who sent me to you. I don’t know if it’s an escape. I feel there is something there and I need to be guided through this state.

ANSWER: It is right, there is an escape there, an escape because there are many aspects of your life you do not yet dare to deal with, where you withdraw from rich, vital relationships, and where you use your spirituality as a supplement. In that sense, spiritual experiences – whatever they may be – become invalidated, no matter how beautiful they may be or how much truth may come forth, for what it may be worth, and how good it may feel.

It invalidates it because the wholeness of the person is not established. Spiritual experiences should be the natural result of a wholeness and a richness of fulfillment within the body, with other people, in a vital exchange where the fears of the self – the ego self, the ego consciousness that deals with relating – no longer exist, where you handle your everyday life in a perfectly harmonious and full way. Then such spiritual experiences become meaningful.

They will not give you even an ounce of fear, because you will sense that there is an order. There is an organic thing in it, a self-regulating aspect in it. But in this way, I would suggest that you seek a very intense experience – and I do not mean intense in the sense of tension, I mean in an evolved and concentrated way of understanding what keeps you from the vital relationship and experiences with others – and that you concentrate on this, much rather than on the spiritual experiences first.

Or rather, you should use those only for the sake of furnishing you with these answers. For there are misconceptions embedded in you, in which you truly have fears and denials of human contact, contact with your innermost self in relation to other people. You do not have that fear in relation to yourself, all alone. You are pretty clear on that. That is not always true, for many people fear this, being by themselves, just as much. But you do not have that.

When you are by yourself, you feel fairly secure and anchored and are capable of contacting inner resources and inner realities. But you are very much afraid in doing so in relationship with others, and this ought to be explored. Do you understand?

QUESTION: Yes, I think so.

ANSWER: Use the answers you can get for that purpose. Focus your questions very concisely into this channel. What is it that you feel? What are your misconceptions? What keeps you from being in a vital, beautiful contact with others? And open yourself for the truth of these answers.

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