Two Meditations to Contact The Higher Self

by Susan Barber

Hearing tales of mystical experiences in meditation, visiting angels,

channeled messages, and magical signs, many of us are still wishing that we
could get even one clear instruction from the all-knowing level of our Being.

There are many schools of thought on how to do this - or whether it's even a
good thing to "try" it at all. However, if making contact is something we feel
called to do, there are many "eyes-closed" meditations that can be of
assistance.

First, Learn to Quiet the Mind

Our first step in making purposeful contact is to learn to quiet the mind and
relax the body through meditation. If we have tried one style of meditation
and it doesn't seem to resonate for us and is difficult to do, the best thing
may simply be to try another style. There are many meditation approaches in
this issue of the magazine, and not all of them require that we "sit still."
You may find one here that will be harmonious and powerful for your own Being.
For many of us, recorded, guided meditations can make our practice both easy
and rewarding - providing that we resonate with whomever is speaking them.

One way of finding out what to do has always worked really well for me and my
clients, and that is simply to ask for it! If we ask to be led to the
appropriate meditation process for us at this time, and then pay attention for
a few days, I have found that it will always be given to us, and that there
will be no doubt in our minds when we have received our answer. The Rule of
Three seems to operate here: Spirit gives us three "impossible coincidences"
to point the way.

Gauging Our Meditation Experiences

Sometimes in our meditations, once we begin practicing, we will find that we

"go out." We know that this has happened only because, afterward, we find
ourselves startled "back" into physical reality. Time has passed - minutes,
perhaps even hours - but we are absolutely certain that we were not asleep.
This is a universal experience for people who practice meditation on any
regular basis. For some, it happens only very rarely - perhaps even only once
or twice a year. For others, it happens a lot.

But the state of mind in which we want to practice Higher Self meditations is
that place of heightened awareness that comes when we seem "superconscious"
rather than "unconscious." Most people who meditate achieve this state quite
naturally.

So in doing Higher Self meditations, it's a good idea first to go through

whatever practice we are using to quiet the mind and body. Then, select one of
the processes below, or another that seems attractive (there are many books
and websites devoted to this subject), and see how it feels.

How Much Time Should I Give This?

How much time do you have?

As far as I know, raising our consciousness is not an optional part of the

human curriculum, but we are free to put it off for as many lifetimes as we
like. My personal experience of "putting it off" is not all that pleasant.

More specifically: If a process feels good, even though we do not have the
sense that we have "made contact," we might want to just keep at it, simply
allowing whatever is to be. I had a very close friend once who meditated
faithfully twice each day for seven years without achieving any feeling
whatsoever that anything was happening, much less that she had made contact
with her Higher Self. But then "it" happened. And when it did, there was no
looking back. From that moment, contact with her Higher Self was ongoing. She

had become One with that level of consciousness, and could access this Oneness
at any time, simply through intention.

Also, we can be in this level of mind without realizing it - it can just feel
very natural. For nearly a decade, without knowing it, I had been going into
this mind space myself while consulting with people. Then one day my son, who
had overheard a couple of sessions in our home, said, "Mom, do you realize
you're not the same person when you do that stuff?" It was only after this
that I started to notice that my "thoughts" were coming from a different
"place" at those times, that I always received whatever information I needed,
and that I was totally calm, with no agenda except to serve the person who sat
before me. Quite a departure from my everyday personality, believe me!

So the truly wonderful connections often happen at the point where we have
stopped expecting and striving and are just "doing" (or "serving"). It is then
that the Higher Self is able to find an opening to communicate with us. The
length of time that's needed to achieve this is different for each person. But
as Jesus the Christ said, "Seek and ye shall find." If we keep at it, this
channel will open. No one is ever disappointed.

Love Comes First

That said, if we truly want to make connection with the Higher Self, we need
to learn to place ourselves in a loving space. This is why I had contact with
my Higher Self when working with others in a spirit of service, but could not
do it for myself. My self-love was blocked. Until we are able to feel love for
ourselves, we are not going to be totally happy or successful with our
spiritual practice.

Drunvalo's Unity Breath elsewhere in this issue is valuable in learning to

allow the Divine Love to flow both from and to the Self. Another practice that
I've seen to be effective is in our April article titled Relationship 101:
Loving Yourself.

Consider this: In wanting to make contact with the Higher Self, we are asking
to have a relationship with this level of our Being. If loving ourselves is

important to earthly relationships - and we all know that it is - doesn't it

make sense that loving ourselves would be vitally important to creating strong
and abiding spiritual relationships?

Two Meditations for Contacting Higher Self

Both of these practices are conducted with eyes closed, and begin after we
have achieved a state of mental quiet and physical relaxation. I personally
find it helpful to call upon my guides to be with me and assist me through any
process of this type.

Chi Kung Shamanic Journey

This process is adapted from Ken Cohen's valuable audio series on Chi Kung
(also Qi Gong). In previous millennia, meditations of this type were the
exclusive province of high-level adepts, and were kept secret from the
"masses." Today, Spirit has removed all restrictions of this kind, and the
revelations of the Ancient Mysteries are ours to pursue.

1. Imagine that you are a very tiny version of yourself located within your
own head in the area of the pineal gland; but you are a "higher version." You
are glowing with white light.

2. See or feel or imagine yourself moving down your spine, down through your
body toward the part that's called by the Chinese the "tan tien" - an area a
couple inches-plus in diameter whose center is just a bit below the navel
(exact measurements are not required - you can sense the size and shape for
yourself). There's a little room there, and you enter it.

3. Here, within this room, you suddenly find yourself clothed in robes of
white, and notice a red, spinning field developing beneath your feet. It seems
like fire, but it does not burn. It spins faster and faster.

4. As this field keeps spinning, its momentum lifts you up. Slowly, poised
above this spinning field, you feel yourself rising back up through your body,
and out through the crown chakra.

5. You keep rising until you can see your own physical body below, then the
place where your body sits. Then you reach the point where trees, houses, and
cars are tiny dots below; and then, only large geological features are visible
and you can see the curve of the Earth. On and on you keep rising, beyond the
Earth until it, too, is a tiny dot below. You move past the planets of the
Solar System and on beyond, always with the red disk of fire spinning beneath
your feet.

6. Now, you become aware that you are headed for a Star that is your own
central core of Being. Perhaps it is in this universe. Perhaps in another one.
Perhaps it lies in some timeless space beyond all universes. But your Inner
Being knows how to take you there. Feel yourself moving through the far
reaches of All That Is until you reach this Star.

7. Now you are hovering in space, poised easily upon your spinning disk, and
the Star is "speaking" to you. Perhaps you will hear words, perhaps not.
Perhaps information will simply be "downloaded" for you to use later, when it
is needed. Perhaps you will see images, or simply receive a sense of
indescribable love and Oneness with the core of your Being. You can remain
there with your Star for as long as you like.

8. When it's time to return, you can move faster than when you went out, but
go through all the steps, returning through the cosmos to earth, down through
the crown chakra to your little room in the tan tien - casting off your white
robes, returning up the spine, then becoming once more yourself, meditating.

9. If you have called in your guides, it's good to thank them for being there,
for helping. Then, when you are ready, open your eyes.

Sacred Journey to the Higher Self

This process is a variation of one given by Lazaris as channeled by Joch

Purcell (see Lazaris website). The meditation is done gradually, a piece at a
time, until - after perhaps six weeks or even six months - you find that you
have reached the place of the Higher Self.

1. You are walking through an ancient forest. See the tall trees reaching so
high you can barely see their tips. Feel the soft forest floor you walk upon,
and reach out and touch the bark of the trees. Hear a bird calling, and the
wind whispering in the branches above, the leaves crunching beneath your feet,
the only sounds amid this ancient hush. Smell the rich, loamy scents of the
forest, the spicy pine, perhaps a hint of nearby water. Can you hear a
babbling brook off to the right somewhere?

2. It is late afternoon - the sunshine slants down through the trees, reaching
the forest floor in little patches - and you are traveling a well-known but
long-neglected path. Perhaps it is overgrown and you make your way along it
only with difficulty. You may even find a fallen log across the way, but you
simply climb over it and go on. You may come to clearings where you wish to
stop for a while. Then you go on. (At subsequent repetitions of this
meditation, the path becomes clearer and clearer. One day, someone seems to
have come along and moved that old log!)

3. Just as the sun sinks and the sky has become dark, you step into a
clearing. Above, the night is filled with stars. In the center of the
clearing, a fire is burning. At the edge of the clearing, there is a Gateway
"to the beyond" - but it is closed. You sit down and warm yourself at the
fire. (3a. when you are at peace, return to your body the way you came, open
your eyes, and thank your guides.)

4. One day during this meditation, after the path has become clear, you will
notice that the Gateway is open! Now, you may go on, but first there are four
things you must do, and they are represented by four packages that you see
near the Gateway. Unwrap them and see what they contain. Then ask what you are
to do with the contents. One box usually contains photographs, or pieces of
paper with writing on them. Whether in pictures or words, they represent the
things from the past that we wish to release from our lives. After making note
of them, you may feel guided to put them into the fire - one by one. A second
box may contain gifts for you. Accept them in gratitude. Each time you do this
meditation, the gift may be different. Another box may contain magical
sparkles which you can simply sprinkle over yourself from head to toe, feeling

the Lightness of Being they bring. The fourth box always contains glistening
robes of power, which you will put on for your journey through the Gateway.

5. Walk through the Gateway. And lo! Where it was night before, now it is a
crystalline morning, and you are in a beautiful land, standing upon a hill.
Before you a road stretches far into the distance. To each side are forests
and fields, all more beautiful than anything you have seen before except
perhaps in your dreams. You feel a little bit like Dorothy awakening in the
Land of Oz. And you know that it is time for you, like Dorothy on the Yellow
Brick Road, to follow the road that lies before you.

6. Upon this road, you may have adventures. These will have meaning to you.
And at some point upon this road, you may get that it is time for you to
return. When that happens, repeat the final instructions in 3a, returning to
your body.

7. And one day, your path may contain no adventures, and you will simply come
upon the end of the road, where there is a Temple, and this you will enter.
Inside, filtered sunshine comes through clerestory windows. It is a golden,
holy place, hushed with the same ancient quiet you experienced in that forest
you walked through so long ago. This temple contains your Akashic records, the
history of your adventures as a Being in all of the Fields of Reality. There
is a marble-topped table in this room where you may sit and read or meditate.
There is also a back door, but it is closed. You spend some time in this room,
soaking up whatever knowledge is there for you, and then return to your body.

8. One day, you will find that the back door of the Temple is open. Beyond it
there is a hill. At the top of this hill are an old Medicine Man and what
seems to be a ball of light. The old man is the Keeper of the Final Gateway,
and the ball of light is the corridor that leads to your meeting with the
Higher Self. So you go out and climb the hill, and you embrace the old man who
has been waiting so long for your coming. And then you go on, moving into the
ball of Light, which becomes a corridor of Light. And at the end is a huge
globe-shaped chamber of Light which is the space of your Self - where you may
float in peace, and bask in the feeling of total safety and Oneness with All
That Is. Does it feel lonely in there? No need! All that you love, every One
you have ever loved, is a part of who you are. All are with you there in this
chamber of Light. Spend as much time there as you want, then returns to your
body.

9. One day, in moving through the corridor of Light, you will notice a new
pathway has opened for you. If you decide to take this pathway, it will open
out into whatever type of landscape is the one you cherish most, be it a sunny
mountain meadow, a shadowed, gurgling stream, the ocean, a lakeside - it's
different for everyone. It's your place. And as you step out into this place,
you see a Being moving toward you, and it is your Higher Self. This Being may
look human, and if so, it may be male, female, or androgenous. It may be some
kind of animal, or mythic Being. Many people see the Higher Self as a ball of
light, a wise old sage, or even a young, beautiful girl. You may see your
Higher Self differently at different times, or it may always appear the same.
Hug your Higher Self and feel His/Her energy enclosing you with Love and
Peace. Then "hear" what your Higher Self has to say. Receive any gifts that
your Higher Self has to give you. Ask that your path of life be revealed to
you. And accept the answers, whether in words, pictures, or simply feelings
that will become clearer in the process of life itself. Relinquish judgment.
Trust that whatever happens is what is supposed to happen.

Conclusions

Whether we take the long journey through the forest - the Gateway, the road of
adventures, the Temple, and the final corridor of Light - or move directly to
the Core Star of our Being on a disk of fire, or use some other type of
journey or meditation, we will receive gifts and revelations from the Higher
Self, and messages we need to hear. Whatever is offered is always positive.
Sometimes we get clear answers, and sometimes we don't know what has been
communicated until later, at the very time that we "need" it.

But whatever happens in our meetings, the moment will come when we know that
the place of our Higher Self is simply where we are.

And in that moment, we realize that we have always been there.