Altered Presence – When the Slipperiness of Our Soul Arrives

In my morning practices of meditation and Chi Kung, I have found my moments of timeless bliss. This is where my best thinking happens and where business tasks and ideas pop up for me to act on once I finish the practice.

Together with my music, quiet space in my home and my special chair, I get “locked in” for these 10-15 minutes. This practice enables me to open a channel to a voice or data download, where I am the receptor and I trust it. I surrender fully with the utmost faith, without questioning, I can and only act on it. 

The closest thing it resembles is like being in the zone when playing a sport. When you are playing basketball, the outside forces have no effect other than to witness your almost invincible skills in flow. You barely speak, your focus is all there, with every sense you carry, even the unfamiliar senses. Any defensive player covering you stands no chance and becomes disarmed as you line up making every shot. Even the ones you miss are made up with nearly every other play to recuperate it. On fire, ‘en fuego’, when you are in the zone it gives you the superpowers that lie dormant within. That edge is almost indescribable, the closest way to define this feeling is you suddenly become unstoppable.

In the recent book Stealing Fire by Kotler and Wheal, they describe this effect as best as I’ve seen it described as STER. Selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness, and richness are the four elements of this moment of ecstasy. They have described this quite well in modern terms for the state of being immersed in an altered state. Most altered states mentioned are “cheats” for the time-tested benefits of meditation and contemplation. Although, I enjoy my wine and certain ethylic endeavors, the loss of control and non-consciousness falls short in comparison to being in an altered state completely conscious and ‘in control’.

“Although at times, it can last for only a few fleeing moments, it’s when the slipperiness of our soul arrives and all the weight of our world just slips off our shoulders.”

Every time I would play basketball, I would somehow try and find this zone again and it would come gradually at its own time and I couldn’t control it. In Stealing Fire, they speak of the various historical and modern-day ways towards altered states to experience this zone of ecstasy. They include many chemically enhanced methods of reaching this. Now I’m not much of a chemical enhancer so I prefer to try and find this on my own. Considering I’ve felt like this only in sport in the past, it was and is so special for me to find it in my morning practices through meditation and quiet time. I have discovered that over time, giving myself the space, is the closest thing to becoming “locked in on demand” as I’ve learned with lots of practice. Although at times, it can last for only a few fleeing moments, it’s when the slipperiness of our soul arrives and all the weight of our world just slips off our shoulders.

I feel spiritually a spontaneous connection to my Source and it gives me a sense of total peaceful infinite gratitude that only letting go can give you. It is where I have felt most full even when the outside world circumstances have defined me as most empty. It is something I could write pages about but at the same time just leave the page blank.  It is the feeling you wish for all your loved ones and at the same time know you can do nothing for them. This is a personal path and one hopes they find or are interested in finding. It allows me to start the day knowing and certain, rather than hoping and feeling confident. Nothing I mess up on the outside can impact the wholeness and perfection of this on the “inside”. I believe it is ultimately what we are and where we all come from and why many of us consider humanity as a collective consciousness. Although still very incipient in my process, I am discovering what I feel is the tip of the iceberg. I know I’m onto my truest and most powerful form. Communicating in the stillness, timelessness, effortlessness and richness that only an altered state can provide. I prefer this altered state to come naturally and on demand without much more than maybe a pair of headphones and a chair. It is what I like to define as “altered presence”.