 106. Meditation |
As meditation is continued, an understanding of what is taking place in the physical body becomes more important. The readings of Edgar Cayce, which insist that the endocrine gland centers are the physical points of expression for the spiritual or soul body, seem more logical. It is stated like this:
Yet it is found that within the body there are channels; there are ducts; there are glands; there are activities that perform no one knows what! in a living, moving, thinking being. In many individuals such become dormant. Many have become atrophied. Why! Non-usage, non-activity! because only the desires of the appetite, self indulgences and such have glossed over or used up the abilities in these directions that they become only wastes, as it were, in the spiritual life of an individual who has so abused or misused those abilities that have been given him for the greater activity.
The gonads, the sex glands in the body, are described as the motor which during meditation raises energy through the cells of Leydig upward through the other psychic centers to the pineal and pituitary, the higher spiritual centers of the body. Besides those mentioned, the adrenals, the thymus, and the thyroid (and parathyroid) are involved. In Eastern teachings the movement of this energy corresponds to the raising of the Kundalini. "The seed blossom of the human body must be concentrated upward in the empty space," as it is said in a Chinese Book of Life. And it then continues, "The way leads from the sacrum upward in a backward flowing manner to the summit of the creative, and on through the house of the creative; then it sinks through two stones in a downward flowing way into the solar plexus, and warms it." In the summer of 1950 we brought seven young men of college age together in Virginia Beach for a three-week group experiment designed to test suggestions in the Edgar Cayce readings for increasing psychic perception. Prayer and meditation as described were given special attention. A group period of meditation was held from 7 to 7:30 A.M. daily and for one hour, 2 to 3 A.M., for the last three days of each week. Participants were urged to spend time alone in prayer and meditation. According to their reports, all of the young men were devoting as much as two to three hours per day to prayer and meditation by the end of the first ten days. Each of the participants was asked to keep a daily journal in which were noted any reactions to the prayer and meditation periods. These coupled with notes taken at the time of both group and individual interviews are the source of the following comments. One of these young men indicated that he rarely prayed formally prior to the project. As a child he had not been taught to pray; he had never read a book on prayer; he had never before discussed prayer and meditation with anyone. For the first four days his journal was blank. Then he began to record a variety of physical reactions which occurred during his quiet periods. He claimed to feel sensations in his spine.
There seemed to be a movement from side to side, although he knew there was no actual body movement. A fullness in the head was noticed. Pressure seemed to develop in the chest, making breathing difficult. He felt sexually stimulated. However, after some of the quiet periods the body seemed not to exist. A variety of mental images were reported as pouring into consciousness. Included among these were triangles, a shepherd's crook, steps with a large ball on top, a white cup out of which a liquid was flowing, a tall mountain in color, etc. Some of the meditation periods were described as producing strain and irritation. Toward the end of the three weeks the efforts at focusing attention were described as producing relaxation and refreshment. Here are two selections from this young man's journal. They are interesting, considering the fact that this person had so little background in prayer and meditation.
Wednesday, August 16, 1950, 2:40 A.M.: "I started to meditate, I seemed to be aware that H. L. was in the room watching us. I gradually lost the knowledge of where my arms, legs, back and neck were located. I only knew their general direction – sensation was quite blunt. On thinking of my relationship with God, vibrations that started in the spine, went up to end in a fullness in the head – top and back. I managed to blank them out. I could not see whether the internal field of vision became brighter because the light was on in the room. The mental was more difficult to control. I found that in order to control it, I had to keep thinking of God and man's relationship to him. The time went astoundingly fast; I meditated for half an hour. When I stopped I had to look at my hands in order to direct them to unclasp themselves. I feel a lot cleaner now."
