Spiritual Alchemy: Scrying, Spirit Communication, and Alchemical Wisdom - Jenny Tyson 2016

Meditation and Focus
Practical Applications

Nothing can be achieved in spiritual development, mediumship, or occult work without the practice of going inward, opening, and focusing. Meditation and trance were of central importance to my training prior to the initiation ritual itself, and they continue to be vital in my current practice. These three items—going inward, opening, and focusing—are the primary techniques that are the foundation to all the work I have done with Edward, from the moment I started down the path of initiation right up until the present day. Meditation and trance were taught to me in a unique way by Edward, and I believe it to be an effective technique that will be useful to anyone interested in learning how to meditate.

I had previously worked with meditation, ritual, and scrying. Edward took what I already knew and used that as a foundation for the quantum leaps forward that we achieved together. There is an Eastern saying of ancient origin that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. How very true that is.

The equipment in the previous chapters provides a bridge to effective spirit communication and the mastery of spiritual skills, but the foundation for the bridge must be well constructed before the bridge will stand up to the flood. In this chapter I will discuss with you the bridge’s foundation.

Opening the heart and trance induction are essential skills, regardless of what the interests of the practitioner may be. They have applications in traditional mediumship, as well as in magical practices such as evocation. Scrying, though not essential in itself, is an effective tool in learning to achieve trance and open the heart.

DEFINITION OF TRANCE

I define trance as a physical, mental, and spiritual state where the practitioner is focusing inward and away from their physical body, opening their spirit as they go further and further within.

Trance seeks to take the consciousness inward and away from the physical body. I believe that trance is a type of meditation. It is the foundation for any mediumistic activity such as physical and mental mediumship, divination, scrying, astral projection, and the evocation of spirits.

Trance is a skill that must be learned. It is similar to the state attained with self-hypnosis. It is also closely related to deep meditation. I use the terms “trance” and “meditation” interchangeably, depending on the goal of the procedure. The methods that are employed to attain the state, as well as the goals attained while in the state, are the primary differences. Trance is a skill I was attempting to develop prior to meeting Edward. I will describe the procedure for attaining a trance that was taught to me by Edward, as well as some things that I had learned prior to meeting him.

BODY POSITION

When I started my practice with Edward, I initially used a padded armchair. The arms of the chair supported my lower body so that only my head was free. I could not fall off the chair. It was padded well enough to be comfortable, but not so comfortable that I was inclined to fall asleep. As our sessions progressed, I bought a recliner that supported my head. I prefer using the recliner to this day. For some of the sessions I am awakened at night, usually after about two hours of sleep, when I’m relaxed but not too drowsy. For these sessions I stay in bed.

Initially when I started to learn trance, I attempted to do it while sitting in the cross-legged posture used in traditional Eastern practices. I found this uncomfortable, and it caused severe leg cramps and lameness afterward. Eventually, as I started to develop more of an interest in astral projection, I began to work while lying on my back. This was a bit more successful. I was able to stay awake because I have difficulty sleeping on my back and managed to move my focus of awareness away from my body from time to time, but I never achieved complete success in astral projection during this period.

In my husband’s book Soul Flight, which concerns the mediumistic skill of astral projection, Donald recommends either a lying or sitting position without the legs being crossed. The practitioner needs to be able to hold whatever position is chosen for an hour or so, sometimes longer. I found that I was able to work better if I was in a reasonably comfortable position. The work Edward did with me was difficult enough as it was without having to be distracted by the discomfort of the body.

The rationale for using the uncomfortable and unnatural positions you sometimes find in traditional meditation is to increase the ability to focus the awareness. Focus during meditation and trance is of highest importance to successfully overcoming mental and emotional obstacles to initiation or spiritual awakening. However, in my case, Edward taught me to focus my mind using methods that did not require an uncomfortable posture to be held while working. During my training with Edward this was my daily practice, and I continue to use Edward’s method of trance induction today.

PHYSICAL RELAXATION

Physical relaxation was an initial requirement before further work could be attempted. I would sit in the recliner and focus on relaxing tense areas in my head and neck. My shoulders and chest tended to tense up while I was working, so this relaxation had to be repeated regularly. Edward, or whichever spirit was working with me, prevented me from dozing. His help gave me one less thing to worry about while I was trying to learn how to meditate.

Exercise for Physical Relaxation

This is the exercise I recommend. Settle into your chair and relax your body all over. Clear your mind of any thoughts and distractions. Bring your focus to your heart. Take a slow, deep breath.

Once you feel relaxed and settled, focus on your shoulders. Gently move your head from side to side to determine if there is any tension, and then relax it. Take a deep breath and shift your attention to your jaw. Let the jaw drop a little bit. Do not hold your jaw clenched, but with your lips closed, allow your jaw to fall open. Next, move up to the eyes. With a deep breath, allow your eyelids to gently and naturally close. The forehead tends to be tense when you are concentrating, so move your eyebrows together, then relax them. Return your attention to your shoulders. Take a deep breath and relax them again.

Now, starting at the top of your head and going to your feet, let a wave of relaxation pass through your body. With each exhalation, allow that wave to go from your head to your toes, going deeper into your heart each time you exhale. Do not breathe too rapidly or too deeply. Let the breaths be slow and gentle. Continue this for several minutes.

Initiating and Deepening Trance

To initiate the trance, once you have relaxed your body, focus on your heart. In my work with Edward, the heart does not mean the actual physical organ of the heart but the entire center of the chest. When focusing on the heart, do not tense up. Gently place your attention on the center of your chest under your breastbone. While your attention is focused on your heart, relax your body as though you were leaning into the chair. Think of Universe behind you and lean on her. The chair is part of Universe too, as is your body. Lean back, and, like a small child, allow her to carry you once again. Let her carry you deep within your heart.

Leaning back is not a forceful act; it is an act of acceptance and trust. You allow yourself to be carried by Universe deeper and deeper within yourself. It is like settling into a comfortable chair when you are tired. You exhale and just relax back into it.

It’s a little tricky to both focus on your heart and lean back at the same time, but with a little practice it will become easier. When you are working toward initiation you cannot do this too much. Frequent sessions are desirable.

If you wake up at night and practice, you may find these sessions even more interesting. Follow your natural sleep cycle. Don’t get up when you awaken but reposition your body for comfort. Focus on your heart and lean back. If your attention wanders, bring it back to your heart while leaning back into the bed.

The imagery of leaning and being carried by Universe has the effect of placing the mind correctly to allow the deepening of the trance. Rather than forcing the trance deeper, the mind is in a passive mode that allows the trance to deepen naturally. Focus must be maintained on the heart and on leaning. I have a tendency to fall asleep if my focus drifts off for too long. If this happens, just resume where you left off when you wake up.

SENSATIONS, IMAGES, AND VOICES

At some point while you are deepening your trance, you will start to see lights and images. These are random, dreamlike images of people, places, and objects. Some I recognize and others are strange to me, but they convey no significant information and make no sense. The lights are usually blotchy and sometimes multicolored.

You will also likely start to hear random sounds such as whistling wind, bells and chimes, music, or even voices. These shadow voices will reflect your mental and emotional state at the time you conduct the exercise. As your body is tuned out and you are tuning into spirit, the first thing that you will encounter is your own shadows.

You will also feel odd sensations. I sometimes feel heat in my chest or my head and buzzing sensations in random parts of my body. If this buzzing occurs on the face, it causes the face to itch. Do not try to scratch this itch or you will break your trance. If it becomes too annoying, ask Universe to help you tolerate it.

All these sights, sounds, and sensations should be ignored at this point. The trance should be allowed to deepen beyond these transitory phenomena. Once the body is fully tuned out, you will be able to perceive and possibly hear Universe and the Cosmic Father, who will guide you from that point on.

DEFINITION OF FOCUS

Focus is an important component of meditation, as it is of any other spiritual endeavour. I define focus as full mental attention to a task in which physical and mental distractions are disregarded to the point where the external stimuli are no longer perceived. It is the most difficult component of learning to induce trance.

Identifying Distractions

The first step in creating an intense focus is to identify the distractions that you face when meditating or doing any other task that requires mental concentration. Observe while you are engaged in a task or in meditation how often your attention wanders to other things. When you are studying or at work, do you daydream? Do you worry about money at night while you are trying to sleep? Do you think about what you are going to do next when involved in a series of tasks? When you are in trance, are you able to hold your mind blank, without thoughts, feelings, or words flying around? What tends to make mental distractions worse? What kinds of things improve your focus?

Redirection of Your Focus

Determine ahead of time what your mental focus needs to be. In trance work it will be on deepening your trance. If you are doing another task, identify what you need to focus on that is directly related to that task. This is a wonderful exercise for improving work and school performance. Decide on the length of time for your session or your task, and if your mind wanders from what you have designated to be your point of focus during that time, gently redirect it back to your goal. In the beginning this will have to be repeated many times through the session.

Tools to Help Focus

The use of mental tools to help with focus is common in the spiritual arts. Mantra is an example of a tool to improve focus in meditation and trance. A mantra is a word or phrase repeated continuously during meditation to achieve a specific effect. In Buddhism and yoga mantras are believed to have a spiritual effect by virtue of the words themselves. In the ancient Tantric texts of India translated by Sir John Woodroffe, mantra is described as a primary act of worship of Brahman, who is the supreme being.

In yoga and Buddhism visual symbols are used along with mantra to aid mental focus in meditation. The combination has proven effective for many practitioners. The symbols are often written in a sacred language, which is believed to have a talismanic effect on the practitioner who is using them in this way.

Concepts such as love and unity are embodied in the mantra. Repeating the mantra during meditation incorporates these qualities into the heart and changes the nature of the person who is doing the meditation. Mantras are used for many different purposes, from healing to spiritual development.

Western esoteric traditions have mantras as well. An example of a Christian mantra would be the recitation of the Catholic rosary, a series of prayers and meditations associated with a string of beads. As the prayer is recited, these beads are slipped between the fingers, one by one, to count the number of repetitions. The purpose of the beads is to prevent the mind from focusing on the count. With practice, the use of the beads becomes automatic and requires no mental energy. These prayers are repeated from two to seven times daily and are associated with purification and spiritual development.

When the secret drawer in which John Dee had hidden half of the Enochian diaries was opened decades after his death, a rosary was found with the documents. This shows that Dr. Dee employed a rosary in his own spiritual practice.

For our purposes, the mantra is used only for improving mental focus. Any positive word or sentence can become a mantra. Beads on a string may be employed to count the repetitions. The number of repetitions can then be increased as your focus improves. When you are able to maintain your focus easily on the word or sentence of the mantra without wavering, the mantra and counting beads may be discarded.

BEYOND TOOLS

As your ability to focus improves, you must discard the symbology and mantra. After you are able to hold the phrase of the mantra or the image of the symbol solely in your mind without wavering, you will have reached a point in your development where you must discard these aids in order to go deeper into your heart. If you do not discard them, the symbol and mantra will keep you too near the physical level and prevent you from progressing.

The goal of focus when working with trance is to go deeper within your heart. To do this, the focus must lead away from the physical body and the physical world. Deepening your trance depends on the focus of your mind moving steadily into spirit and away from the physical. In a normal state of consciousness our focus is fully attuned to the physical world. You see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the world around you. You perceive communication with other people and animals that are also living in the physical world. When your consciousness alters, as in meditation or sleep, your focus changes to include part of the spiritual world. How much you perceive of the spiritual world depends on your ability to focus on it and your acceptance of its existence.

It is very important that the senses be focused either in the physical or the spiritual but not both at the same time. Normal consciousness should shut down spiritual psychic sense perception for the most part. If it does not, you may find yourself mistaking spiritual sense perceptions for physical sense perceptions. This can be an annoying distraction.

You must be able to focus your mind on either physical or spiritual sense perceptions, depending on your need. This applies to clairvoyant and clairaudient skills. Training psychic focus was something that was strongly emphasized by Edward. Even though I can hear the spiritual world quite well, I had to learn to shut down my perception of spirit when I am focused on my physical life and open it only to specific spirits when I need to communicate with them.

Turning off psycho-spiritual perceptions does not turn off the spiritual awareness of the Divine. This is a little different. Our awareness and unity with the Cosmic Father and Universe increase with our development. As spiritual growth progresses, the physical life diminishes in meaning, and the spiritual increases. As that spiritual connection with the Father increases, an awareness of the divine presence within and without also increases.

This is not a psychic ability but a matter of spiritual maturity. It is this perception that allows me to know when a spirit message needs to come through when my communication channel is closed, and this divine channel is the only channel that should be open when you are not actively engaged in spirit communication.