WESTERN MEDITATION AND CONCLUSION
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It is a common mistake to think that meditation is the prerogative of the East. In fact, the West has practised meditation since ancient times, and has achieved a very high level. Meditation was the essential means of training for prophecy-making in the ancient Greek world, such as at the famous oracle at Delphi and at Dodona. Christian saints practised meditation, and used it to perform miracles. Goleman says that
The meditation practices and rules for living of these earliest Christian monks bear strong similarity to those of their Hindu and Buddhist renunciate brethren several kingdoms to the east.
In modern times meditation, in the forms of deep relaxation and going into the alpha level, is a necessary condition used by western parapsychologists for developing ESP. D. Scott Rogo, in his impressive book "Our Psychic Potentials", stresses that
Learning to be psychic does not entail sending the mind "out" someplace and bringing information back to the brain and body. ESP is not a process like radar in which we must be alert for any significant incoming signals. It is a process of going deep within the self and retrieving information that is already there.
The aim of Western types of meditation is to train the mind to reach higher levels of consciousness, so as to communicate with gods and goddesses as in the case of the ancient oracles; or to develop psychic powers as in modern parapsychology.
The ancients taught, as at the famous Temple of Wisdom at Eleusis, that "every human being has two bodies, the other physical garment which may be seen and touched and another more subtle body which inter-penetrates and fits into the outer body, corresponding exactly with all of its parts." This astral body is the animating principle of the physical body. Meditation is the way to reach this astral body and use its esoteric abilities.
The following is the gist of a technique taught to Solon at the mystery school at Eleusis.
Sit or recline in a comfortable position. Concentrate on the small toe on the right foot. Then turn your attention to the toe next to it. Gradually spread your attention to the whole foot, then the shin, the knee, the thigh, and then the whole leg. In this way, successively turn your attention to the hip, buttock, sex organ, base of the spine, kidneys, stomach, liver, solar plexus, heart, lungs, throat, mouth, and ears.
Conclude with concentration on the forehead and finally on the eyes and the centre of the head. As attention is turned on various parts of the body, energy flows to those parts, and if the thought you hold is constructive, the energy is beneficial and stimulating to both the physical and the astral body.
This exercise, which the great Solon performed dutifully and consistently, was responsible eventually for developing in him fantastic abilities like telepathy, clairvoyance and the ability to read the Akashic records, that is, the ability to recall any action, any event that has taken place on this planet no matter how far back in the remote past!
Conclusion
Meditation has been the method used by peoples from different ages and cultures to train the most powerful thing in the world -- the human mind. Understandably, it must be done with the utmost care and reverence under the expert guidance of a master.
Trifling with it or abusing its powers will bring great harm to the practitioner. But pursued correctly and with the right intentions, the art of meditation will certainly bring you some of the most wonderful benefits you can ever imagine.
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