Posting results from yesterday. JReid, I did not read your last message until shortly after I had done my exercise. So, I did not have that information to prep with, but I did receive a lot of visual information on my journey.

I did two meditations, one right after the other. I will report on each one separately. The first was a guided imagery which I have used daily lately. I didn't expect to move so quickly into our exercise, but things happened very fast.

For those who are wondering what the scent/fragrance was that I took with me: cinnamon. I surrounded myself with cinnamon oil so that I was inhaling it deeply during both meditations and hope that I was able to communicate that to someone.

#1
Was at the beach area via guidance on the cd, felt presence of others, feeling of greetings and hugs and loving emotions. As I began to explore with others we picked up some leaves as we were standing in a circle. We were feeling the leaves, the texture of the leaves. One crumbled in my hand. Walked to a trail which led to waterfall made of light and love. Spent some time there. Was wondering why I was in a body, feeling that it was limiting me, when I swiftly became a moving point of light like a firefly. At this point I rose above the scenery so that I could view a landscape, which was lush and hilly. I saw people enjoying themselves on bicycles and amid the pretty landscape, which had the feeling of being an island which was very green.

After this meditation I moved on to use some music with binaural beats. It had some vocals and flute playing, and I was a little worried that would be distracting, but I received quite a bit of imagery during this episode as well.

#2
Someone was giving me a piece of cloth to feel, and it felt rough like burlap. There was a sunset over a landscape, very pretty. Moved into a circle of hugging, loving feelings again. I was trying to get a sense of individuals. At one point I was looking at a dark-skinned man in a white turban. The turban began to grow taller until it looked kind of ridiculous. We were laughing and I joked that most people who wanted to become taller did it with shoes. He gave me a special, strong handshake. His hand was moving. There was a feeling of purple, just a vague purple color. There was a spinning woman, who seemed to be dancing. She spun away in a kind of impossible way. Then I was in some kind of tunnel, which was rather dark. It was not round inside but square, with walls, and went off into the distance. I really didn't know why I was in this tunnel, but I had the feeling of sitting on a bench with a couple of other people there. At the end of the meditation there was an image of a delicious looking large orange in front of me.

That is all I received. I hope this was helpful, and I will be looking forward to reading your results and any comments. Thanks so much for this opportunity.

Thanks for your report, and glad you got to your location before clicking out. I understand how that can happen. I told myself before this exercise that the universe already knew what was going to happen so I didn't need to worry too much about it, and didn't decide on the cinnamon until the last minute.

It is a great exercise in concentration to do this kind of thing because bringing back the memories and writing them down is a challenge. As you can see I don't stick around in one place for very long, which may be something I need to practice, so that I can get more details in one location.

The whole time I was in a state of split mind in which I was letting the images and sensations appear while simultaneously repeating the whole experience several times in my mind so that I could remember the sequence. I rarely do this type of exploration but I always want to bring everything back. It is being an observer and an experiencer at the same time. It is being very conscious.

Then, when I sit up to write it down I have to write fast to get the main experiences down, and the order correct. Otherwise, it will go away, just like a dream. But, by preserving the sequence in my mind, it's terrific. It becomes a memory to enjoy.

For me, it's not all about the "hits" of seeing things the same way as someone else, but about the experiences we have in our minds. Because the events are so spontaneous, and yet we have the ability to make decisions and experiment, it's not only fun but gives me a new perspective.

Hi Vicky, sorry you were disappointed by your sleepiness, but it sounds like the timing for this wasn't ideal for you. Maybe a different day of the week would work better for you. You certainly gave it a valiant effort! We can try again when it is convenient, if there is interest.

I don't know if there might be anyone out there reading who might try on their own but not want to write down their results in public, so I feel that any record of any person's exploration is valuable, and it's good for people to know that clicking out is just something that happens.

In regard to my state of consciousness, I would say that it was a combination of imagination and a special kind of letting go which I learned to do while practicing retrievals. For instance, the first cd had a small amount of guided imagery on it, which was reflected in the initial beach scene, the trail and waterfall. But the rest happened spontaneously, without any verbal prompts from the speaker on the cd. For example, when I found myself wondering why I was in a body I didn't deliberately rise up in the air. It just happened that I felt unconfined to one all of the sudden. I find that I am comfortable with that, and the mixed imagery along the way doesn't disturb me at all.

The second cd was slightly different because there was no guided imagery. What occurred was spontaneous. The only particular focus I brought to the images was a realization that I was supposed to be paying attention to who was actually there, which gave me the ability to tune into a few specific people. The scene changes came without effort. I can't really explain my state of mind except that there was a part of me trying to keep track of events, and a part of me which was open to experiencing them. I'm not so good at knowing what focus levels are what. I just kind of wing it.

Mainly, I have to sort of talk myself down before doing this kind of thing, releasing expectations, having faith that something will happen in its own way. It usually does. I waited until I felt like this was the moment in my day to do it. It just seemed like the right time, for whatever reason.