Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 "CHECK YOUR MAILBOX": RITUAL, SYNCHRONICITY, AND INNER GUIDANCE Larissa Vilenskaya (Laura V. Faith) Monterey, California within our reach lies every path we ever dream of taking. Within our power lies every step we ever dream of making. within our range lies every joy we ever dream of seeing... Within ourselves lies everything we ever dream of being. Amanda Bradley Introduction On the Labor Day weekend in 1990, my f riend and I arrived at St. Sabina Center in San Rafael, California, with some time to spare before the beginning of the Seventh International Conference on the Study of Shamanism. After we registered and found our room, I started telling to my friend, Charlotte Berney, about a workshop on development of intuition and creative problem solving that I conducted a month ago, in early August, during a conference at Carleton College in Minnesota. The idea of the workshop came to me after reading 11ite Between Life by Joel L. Whitton and Joe Fisher (1986), and I elaborated on their method, combined it with some work with Earth and Cosmic energies, as described by Stevens (1984:172-173), added some intuitively gleaned details, and was surprised by the results. To make a long story short, I led the workshop participants in "reading Akashic records." "Perhaps there is a message for you waiting there, and you need to go and retrieve it," I said, relating to her the phrase I told the workshop participants. About half an hour later, when Dr. Ruth-inge Heinze began her presentation about the ritual process, I was utterly astonished by her phrase about looking for messages in "our mailbox" (Heinze, 1990:12) , for this was exactly what I asked the workshop participants to do and I Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : 61A-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 what I was telling my friend minites ago! Furthermore, I found that I intuitively used the process which incorporated the same seven steps of a ritual, discussed by Heinze (1990:11), without ever thinking about them. This coincidence (or synchronicity) prompted me to write about the workshops and to share my approach as well as some "messages" received by workshop participants. Instructions to Participants There were about 30 participants in the ages from early 20s to middle 60s. All of them had at least some experience in meditation, and many meditated regularly. All had some experience in the study of spiritual traditions. I first talked about the importance of listening to our inner guidance, about universal "Akashic records" which are believed to contain all information about the past, present and possible/probable futures of humankind, and the power of every one of us to access them. The participants were given instructions as follows: You are about to enter a Sacred Space. There is a great value in symbolism. whatever you can imagine clearly, visualize clearly, see clearly has power. And therefore it can connect you with the Sacred realm, the realm you are striving to contact. Before we begin, you can ask a question and send it to the Universe--if you have a specific question and want it answered. or you can go and see what comes . . . . Perhaps there is a message for you waiting there, and you need to go and retrieve it. Relax and let go . . . don't force it . . . it will come (pause). I in a minute, I will turn on the music, and you will close your eyes and enter a meditative state. You will become a channel of healing, revitalizing energies. The music is on now. close your eyes. Allow 2 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 yourself to relax and be in the present moment. Notice a tiny light in the center of your head. Be in the center of your head and be that light, your Inner self, your soul (pause). Now place your attention in your pelvic cradle at the base of your spine. Imagine that with every breath you breathe in, you are drawing thousands and thousands of tiny threads of energy into your pelvic cradle. As the many, many threads of energy meet, they intertwine and become a rope of golden energy. Feel the weight of that golden ball of energy holding you to the chair. Allow a portion of that golden twined energy to drop down between your legs . . . and gather it into a small dense ball of 14-karat gold, still attached to the golden twined rope. Allow the golden weight and the golden rope of energy to drop down into the center of the Earth . . . ail the way down to the exact geographic center of the Earth, through all layers of soil and rock, water, gases, crystals, and into the iron core of the Earth. Allow the golden ball to fuse with the core of the Earth. Feel a tug at the base of your spine, and notice that there is a golden beam of energy from the base of your spine into the center of the Earth (pause). Leave your grounding cord there. Be in the center of your head (pause). Now place your attention on the arches of your feet and bring a pink Earth energy into your feet. Allow this energy to travel up your leg channels and into your pelvic cradle and hold this energy there for a moment (pause). Row place your attention on the crown of your head. Bring a blue cosmic energy into your crown. Pull it down the back part of your spine and into your pelvic cradle (pause). Combine, balance, and blend these energies in your pelvic cradle. Allow the mixture of energies to run up the f ront 3 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 part of your spine and out the crown of your head (pause) Allow the energy to flow through you (pause) . Earth energy into your feet (pause) Cosmic energy into your crown and down the back of your spine (pause) mixing these energies in your pelvic cradle. The energy then goes up the front of your spine and out the crown of your head. The energy flows as water, cleansing you, allowing you to flow with the current of the Universe (pause). Be in the center of your head (pause). Now you will focus on your chakras, beginning with the solar plexus and up--the solar plexus (pause), the heart chakra (pause), the throat chakra (pause), the adjna chakra--your third eye (pause), and the crown chakra (pause). You see as they start glowing, full of energy, full of light, beautiful revitalizing light (pause). Now you will see your Sacred Temple and enter it. What this temple will look like it is up to you--a church, a synagogue, a mosque, a chapel, whatever comes to you (pause). You enter the temple. Now you are inside. in one of its corners, you see a long stairway going up. You are going up the stairs (pause). I don't know how long you will need to go. It's different for me every time I go. It is maybe long and maybe not (pause). Keep going (pause). And then you see a corridor, a hallway with many doors. maybe some of these doors have signs on them, maybe not. Maybe there is one which has a sign with your name, or a sign inviting you to enter. Or maybe you will just feel that this particular door is for yqjj, specially for you. And you enter this door (pause) . I What you see there--it can be different for everyone of you. I usually see there a big library, with many shelves and many books, and they look the same from the outside. But you go to a particular shelf , 4 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3 and you know where to go--something guides you. You take one of those books and open it, and read what is there for you to read. But it is maybe different for everyone. You can see a room where, instead of the shelves with books, there will be shelves with tapes, many of them, and a cassette player in the middle of the room. You can choose a tape, put it into the player and listen to the message. or it can be a room with many video tapes and a video player. or, in our technology-oriented world, it can be a computer, it may he a computer, and you will be able to see your message on its screen, or on any type of screen. It may be a symbol, a text, or a combination of the two. You will see what is there for you. Now I will be silent and allow you to concentrate on your message which you are about to see or hear. I still will be helping you. At some point in time I will ask you to come back and to celebrate your return. Coming back, you won't need to descend the stairs, you will just come back, and we will share what transpires, what happens (pause). You are there . . . I am appealing to Cosmic forces to help you . . . maybe I will meet some of you there or ask someone to be your guide. If you meet someone there, it's all right. Have a good journey! I went into meditation. In about 20 minutes I came back, asked everyone to return, to open their eyes, to stand up, and to embrace the person next to him or her. I congratulated everyone on coming back and asked them to sing Russian Hymn to the Earth: If the peWe lived their lives as if it were a song for singing out of light, providing music for the stars to be dancing circles in the night. Then I asked everyone to thank the forces, inside and outside of us, within and without, that enabled us to make this journey. 5 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0300380001-3