Navigating the Internal Worlds

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We have been explaining how to awaken within dreams, and what is particularly beautiful about the writings of Samael Aun Weor is that he talks about what we can practically experience when we dream, the different possibilities that await a competent investigator of the higher worlds. It is my purpose to end this course by talking about precisely this principle―what is there, what we can do, what we can experience, and more importantly, how do we navigate that landscape, the unknown. I want to help us be inspired in our practice, to know that there are things that are within our consciousness, of which we are capable, and that we can do if we train, if we work, and if we are patient.

​Exploring Our Internal Worlds through Self-Observation

Navigating the higher worlds depends upon knowing the psychological sense of self-observation.
 
How do we perceive ourselves? How do we observe ourselves? In the same way that we learn to walk, to eat, to speak, these are qualities that we learn as we develop maturity and familiarity and experience with the dream state. We learn through experience, and it is essential that we practice self-observation, like we did with the brief meditation. Be aware of our mind, our mood, our body, constantly watching ourselves and looking for any inkling of a disturbance, of agitation, of dis-ease, so that, in a state of perfect serenity and stillness, we acquire new knowledge. It is that faculty that allows us to navigate the higher dimensions.
 
As we may know from personal experience, if we are afraid, if we are angry, if we are fearful, those emotions take us out of the dream. Any intensity of a negative state pulls us out. So what we want is to observe our psychological qualities, to develop and maintain, through mindfulness, that presence of being, not only physically, but when we dream.
 
The reality is that there are dangers to this work―not dangers of a physical type, of receiving a knife wound, but instead, it is psychological, because, if we are observing ourselves, we are learning what states in us are harmful, how our own pride, and anger, and fear may cause pain, not only for ourselves, but for humanity. ​

In the same way that it is indispensable for one to learn how to walk in the external world, so as not to fall into a precipice, or not get lost in the streets of the city, or to select one's friends, or not associate with the perverse ones, or not eat poison, etc., likewise, through the psychological work upon oneself, we learn how to walk in the internal world, which is explorable only through Self-observation. ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology, “The Two Worlds”

We see, in this image, a woman looking in a mirror, and she sees a figure behind her shoulder that is invisible. You cannot physically see your thoughts, but we can sense them. This sense needs to be developed. It is that sense that will teach you how to navigate the higher worlds, because, if you are not seeing the reality of that state, you will not learn how to interact with it.

​Real Occult or Esoteric Knowledge is Experiential 

This is the beginning of a truly infinite knowledge. It is really limitless, and while I am going to talk about a lot of different aspects of astral travel, the truth is that this is very limited to my experience, because, truly, if you have read Samael Aun Weor's writings, you know that there are things that he talks about which are truly mind-boggling. These are things that amaze the heart, which inspire us to want to change, to want to know divinity, to experience the truth.
 
Physical books are a doorway. They offer practices that allow us to experience the truth. But it is that very experience that is the true key to unlocking why we suffer and how we can change. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated in The Major Mysteries:

Occult science is studied in the internal worlds. Therefore, the one who does not know how to be willingly projected in the astral body does not know occultism. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries

​The word "occult" comes from the “hidden," to cultivate that which is invisible, and so we are aspirants to learning how to cultivate this knowledge.
 
So let's talk about how we do it. 

​The Lunar and Solar Astral Bodies

On the left, we have an image of a ghostly feminine figure in prayer, like a blue silhouette, beneath the words kama rupa. Those who are familiar with Theosophy know that this is the body of desire. We travel with this every time we dream. Some people call it the lunar astral body. It is a vehicle made of matter or energy, of substance. It has its biology. It has its chemistry. The lunar astral body eats. This might seem strange for us, because our dreams may be very vague and ephemeral. But if you awaken within the astral world, you find that you consume, and eat, and live like you do physically. We just don’t tend to remember it, but obviously, this matter and energy is of a very subtle type, and this body, which is of a ghostly appearance, is what we all inherit from nature.
 
We are given a body to travel in the astral dimension, because that is how we function and live. You could not live physically if you didn't sleep, and we could not travel in the internal dimensions if we did not have this body. But unfortunately, for us, it is very limited. It is a mechanical vehicle. It is not substantial or real compared to what we call the solar astral body, the body of luminosity, of brilliance, of light.
 
The solar astral body, the authentic vehicle of our spirit, is something that is created. We are not born with it unless, in a past existence, we created it intentionally through a very specific science. We call that the perfect matrimony, where a couple can learn to use the energies of life, to transform them, to conserve them, and to create something different. This is why Jesus said we must be born again (John 3:5). That birth is creating a body, a vehicle in the astral world that can allow you to navigate higher planes with ease. It will not take effort. But it does take effort to create this vehicle, which we can study in Samael Aun Weor's writings.
 
The difference between the two is like looking at the sun and the moon. If you are in the astral plane, and you meet a master who is awakened, they have light. They are brilliant. They are truly terrifying in that they are so divine, and that that compassion, which comes from the heights, is fully expressed in them. We are like a shadow, a beginner, learning to take what we have been given by nature and to create something that is superior. The difference between the two is that, in the beginning, we can learn to travel with our kama rupa, our body of desires. ​

​The Superior and Inferior Astral

But obviously, it attracts us to lower planes of existence, like we see in this image.
 
Some people don't make a distinction about astral travel, that there are superior planes and there are inferior planes, and where we are, psychologically, determines where we gravitate within nature. So if we are burdened or heavy with desire, we will go to planes that resonate with that plane of being. But if we refine our psychology, our mind, our heart, we will elevate to planes of being that truly are heavenly, sacred, eternal.
 
This image here has a bit of a ghostly appearance of a fragmented statue lying in ruin, a ghostly atmosphere, and a shadowy plane. We tend to gravitate in realms like this every time we dream, but we are not aware of it, and the importance of this is serious. It can't be emphasized enough. If you want knowledge, we always approach the people who are most competent, who have maybe trained themselves, or educated, or professionals, have a degree. In the same way, we don't go to a criminal, perhaps, for advice about higher principles. Because the lifestyle and the psychology of those persons are very distinct. In the same way, the higher and lower planes are very distinct, depending on our psychological state.

As we do not go into the lower levels of society to meet great minds, neither do we enter the inferior astral planes for wisdom, for they possess very little of true worth. ―Morya, The Dayspring of Youth

​So we should seek to enter the higher dimensions.

​Receive Divine Teachings

We do that so that we can receive divine teachings. Anybody who approaches astral projection wants to know directly from their inner Being, from God, from the divine, what to do in life. This is, perhaps, the most important thing to accomplish and to practice when we study dream yoga, to receive that teaching directly from our spirit. Our Being can teach us things that we need to know, how to live our life, whether it is through symbols or allegories, situations, dramas, characters, narratives. These things, these symbols, these dream-like narratives, teach us about the story of our life, and these symbols, which come from the higher planes, originate from our Being. The Being takes on forms into the astral world so that we see something about ourselves, and when we receive those experiences, we are inspired. We feel genuine joy, that now we have a message that we can apply. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated in Practical Astrology: The Zodiacal Course:

The disciple must learn how to speak with his own Innermost. He must be demanding with his own Innermost. The disciple must receive instructions from his own Innermost, and the duty of the Innermost is to instruct his bodhisattva, that is to say, his soul, who is anxious for light. ―Samael Aun Weor, Practical Astrology: The Zodiacal Course

​We have to be very demanding. If you really want to know the answer to a question when you are practicing astral projection, I would suggest you maintain your question for as long as it takes, until you get the answer that you want. We have to be very demanding with God. "Please, teach me what I need to know." If you have a thing that you want to investigate and know, whether it is like a past life, or to speak with a certain master, go to bed every night, pray, "Show me this result. Help me to achieve this,” and practice again and again, if necessary, until you get the experience. Could take a year. Could take more. But it can happen, and I speak from my own experience.

​Levitation

Let's talk about some of the metaphysics. When you are in the astral dimension, you can fly. That is always a joyful aspect of dream yoga and astral travel, where you jump in the air, you find that you are levitating. You are floating in the air. Obviously, with the practice we did with the Key of SOL: subject, object, location, you observe your surroundings, you question, "Am I in the astral world?" You jump in the air. You do this physically, and then you would see if you float. If you train yourself over your physical existence, day by day, you will practice this when you dream, and then, when you are in the astral world itself, you can fly. In this way, you get to experience a type of joy that perhaps you can't get in video games or on TV. There is really something magical about the fact of flying in the atmosphere, above the mountains, above the seas, to willingly travel, like you drive your car, but within your astral body. There is no greater feeling of mystical awe when you are able to explore, literally, with more vivid intensity and color and vision than we have physically. It is a joyful experience. It is also very practical when you try to get from place to place, and just in the same way that you physically get your body up to move, with the astral body, you learn to do the same. ​

​The Magnetic Pull

But something can help us. We call this the magnetic pull. You can pray to your Being, "Take me to Egypt." You jump up in the air, and you feel like a force, the presence of your Being carrying you up in the air, will take you where you want, if we deserve it, if we have earned it. But if we are very sincere, and we are working psychologically to improve our behaviors in life, divinity says, "Okay." It takes you there. That way, you don't feel like you are flying solo, but instead, you are literally carried up by this type of energy, the presence of your Being, up into the atmosphere and beyond. You can ask your Being to take you to other planets. You will feel yourself lifting in the air, up and through space. Sometimes, you can invoke a master, and they will―you will sense them―they will take you to where you want to go, so that you can attend, perhaps, a temple or a sacred mystery school. ​

​Teleportation

This also relates to teleportation. We know, from the practice of the mantra Fa Ra On, which you sing and vocalize when you go to sleep, that you can visualize and imagine the pyramids of Egypt. You imagine Giza, because that place is still a temple in the higher dimensions. It is active. There are masters who are working in that part of the world, who are very awake, and who will initiate you into their mysteries if we meet the requisites. So you can imagine, when you are falling asleep, "Take me to this place." You visualize it. You concentrate on it. You pray. You fall asleep. Then suddenly, you will find yourself there. Or, in the astral plane, you are awake, you imagine the place, you visualize it, you pray, "My God, take me there... take me to Egypt." Suddenly, you will appear spontaneously. That is one way of travel, too.

​Elasticity, Plasticity, and Ductility

​Another cool thing about astral travel is that the astral body is elastic. It is ductile, able to bend, move, stretch. You can pass through walls. You can pass through stone. Pass through the waters. Go under the ocean. Be able to breathe underwater without fear.
 
We also talked about pulling your finger to see if it stretches when you are testing to see whether you are dreaming or you are awake. If your finger stretches, you know you are in the astral plane. So you also can take your hand and push it through a window, like glass. It will feel like it is, like, crackling and bending, and you will see the matter bend to your touch. Obviously, physically, you can't do that, so you know that you are dreaming. But what is particularly interesting is that you don't have to fear that you are going to get injured. Sometimes, that state is so vivid and beautiful and awake that you feel that it is physical, because it is so real, and in fact, it is more real than your physical body, the physical life. But the thing to remember is that, if you want to be sure that if you want to, say, perhaps, jump into the atmosphere to go fly, but you are afraid, take your hand, pull your finger, see if you are in the astral dimension. If it does, you know where you are at.

​The Mantra “Open Sesame”

We have a very powerful mantra that we use when we are dreaming. It is very vulgarized today. It comes from The Arabian Nights: “Open Sesame.” If you are in the astral plane, and you are trying to get through a locked door, or trying to get through a wall, you say the mantra. “Open Sesame.” Door will unlock. The wall will move. It was a very powerful practice for dream yogis, which, obviously, people make fun of today. But if you are astral traveling, and you want to get through a locked door, trying to get somewhere, "Open Sesame." Go through. Door opens, like we see in this image. Because some people may find that they are dreaming, and they get into some type of obstacle. You feel like they can't get through. They are being impeded. Try it.

How to Prolong Astral Experiences

There is also another technique you can use to prolong your experiences. We have an image here of Hermes, or the god Mercury, with the winged boots. So what you do is you click your heels together. If you feel that, in the astral plane, that your physical body is going to pull you back, and then you are going to wake up, but perhaps you are talking with a master, and you want to stay in that state, click your heels together. This is the meaning of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz clicking her heels, "I wish I was home," with the red ruby slippers in the film version. These are the winged boots of occult science.
 
There are chakras in the heels of your feet, which relate to your stability. It keeps you grounded, and if you click them together, you form a lock, and even though your body is trying to pull you and wake you up, or maybe your partner is trying to nudge and wake you up from bed because it is time to wake up, but you keep your heels together astrally, you will stay in that state because you are trying to learn and receive something of value, because that happens a lot. If you are talking with an initiate, and suddenly, you feel your body calling you, you may lose something important. Instead, lock your feet together, and then, when it is time to return to your body, release.
 
Some people prematurely end their experiences, and they don't know how to stay practically there, but this is how. It is because, as in relation to Greek mythology, the winged boots of Hermes relate to forces in our feet and our heels, which can also apply to Jinn science, that we have talked about previously, and that we are going to talk about later on. ​

​Transcending the Lower Sephiroth

When you are in the astral plane, or when you are meditating, you can learn to successively enter deeper and deeper states. So physically, you may be practicing meditation whereby you are observing the body. You are relaxing. You are settling in. Your body falls asleep, but you, as a consciousness, are attentive and awake. Suddenly, you find that your body is in bed, or is asleep, and you have entered the vital world.
 
So there are spheres, in this diagram called "the Tree of Life," which relate to spheres of being, dimensions, as well as states of consciousness, from more material states to more subtle and spiritual states, and there are ways to meditate in each sphere in which you are relaxing each body, whether it's the physical body (מלכות Malkuth), the vital body (יסוד Yesod), even the astral body (הוד Hod), the mental body (נצח Netzach), even up through תפארת Tiphereth, the causal body; גבורה Geburah, the body of the spirit, or the spiritual soul; and finally, the Innermost, the Being (חסד Chesed). So these are vehicles and bodies that we inhabit when we dream, and each level becomes more rarefied and subtle. But if you are practicing meditation, and are really deep into it, you can learn to let go of each body and enter more and more inside, deeper, until you reach your inner God. This is how you transcend the lower sephiroth, the lower spheres of the consciousness.
 
Samael Aun Weor gives this practice in his book Igneous Rose. He talks in detail about it. If you want to practice that meditation, he gives it in full. But that is something that you can do, too, is learn to meditate, even in the astral plane. You find that you are awake. You are in your astral body. You can sit in meditation and go even deeper. It is an option. ​

Investigate the Hell Realms

And while you are traveling, you can learn to investigate many spheres of being, and many of them are not even good ones. Obviously, religions talk about hell, the inferior planes. Dante, with Virgil, described his exodus, or, better said, his journey through the different spheres of being in his Divine Comedy. While some people take that poem as a work of literature, and which it is, a great work of art, it is also a practical teaching about astral travel, not only to the heavenly world, but obviously, more famously, Inferno.
 
Some people think of it as a place of fire. Different religions teach different symbols. These are signposts. They are not literal. But you can learn to investigate, for yourself, what those dimensions are like, and there is a practical utility to this. When you see the fate of those people who don't change, or perhaps are afflicted with great anger in life, many vices that we, to a degree, have, we will learn a valuable lesson. It is a place that we ourselves have connections to. Any time we have pride, anger, lust, vanity, fear, those elements, or egos, belong to that sphere of being, and oftentimes, when we dream, we often find ourselves really at the very surface of the hell realms because, unfortunately, if we are honest with ourselves, that is where we gravitate to. It is our level of being. Dante was trying to teach something very powerful about the realities of those dimensions. It is good that, if we wake up in that plane of being, we pray to our God, "Show me what I need to understand that has me connected here, so that, by understanding my own defects that keep me trapped, or gravitating to this place, I can eliminate it.”

​Experience the Absolute

When you know it, and eliminate it, you can experience the heights. Obviously, this image of a beautiful star in the distance, with a spiral cloud, is not literal. But it does capture the symbolic significance of entering what is called the Absolute.
 
So just as there are negative planes of being, there are also heavenly worlds. The Absolute, according to writers like Gurdjieff, as Samael Aun Weor, it even is touched upon by Madam Blavatsky, teaches that this is the origin of all spiritual life and being, even material existence. The Absolute is the cosmic, absolute, abstract space. It is the eternal sum zero from which everything emerges. It is a form of emptiness, but it is the real Being. This is the Buddhist doctrine of Anatman, no self―no pride, no fear, no hatred, no lust, no laziness, no envy, no greed. There is only the absolute plenitude of the spirit, true peace, joy, movement.
 
But if you are at the threshold of entering that from the astral plane, like we see in this image, kind of like going into a portal, obviously, the ego feels fear, because you are feeling like you are going to be annihilated, and that attachment to an identity or an individual sense of self can pull us out.
 
But the way that you get through that is what Samael Aun Weor called “the great jump." You can find that your Divine Mother, in your meditation, takes you, in the astral plane, to the threshold of the Absolute, where you see, basically, a type of darkness, but, strangely enough, there is a luminosity there. It is like shadows and light at the same time. It is really impossible to describe with words, and yet, there is a freedom and liberation there that is so inspiring, and pushes one to want to change, that you approach that and want to enter, because it is the authentic identity of the divine. It is limitless. But obviously, that feeling of limitlessness, the infinite, is terrifying to the individual self that does not want to enter or be destroyed, and so the mind can pull you out.
 
Samael Aun Weor had that experience when he was 18. He was terrified. He came back to his body. Took him three times to learn to enter that state willingly. Eventually, he gave up his pride, jumped in, and entered willingly, and then, in that state, he felt that he was no longer himself, but he was the planets. He was the galaxy. He was the butterfly on a flower. He was a wandering elephant. He was the water entering in torrents along a jungle in Africa. He was everything, but precisely because he was nothing. So that is something to aspire to. ​

​Explore Other Planets

You can also explore other planets. Pray to your God, "Take me to Mars. Take me to another inhabited world of the infinite where I can meet extraterrestrials,” because there are other humanities and beings who exist, not merely on our planet, but throughout the infinite.
 
These are beings that are not malicious or evil, like in our Hollywood propaganda, our entertainment industry, and our television shows. Truly, many of these beings are divine. They are heavenly. They don't have problems like we have on our Earth, and so they often will approach us in the astral plane to teach us how we can better our community.
 
Some people hope that they come physically, and they can, obviously, and there is more records and documentation of this. But, more practically, for us, they approach people who are serious, spiritually speaking. They will approach you in the internal worlds to teach you what you need to know and give you help if we are showing that we're making efforts. But also, your Being, if you can pray sincerely enough, can take you to places like this, where you see planets, and stars, and environments that are not like our physical world, but are like from a sci-fi show, except you are there. It isn't imaginary. It is real, and this is something that can really inspire us.

​Visit and Enter Temples

Perhaps more inspiring is entering the temples of the mysteries. Pray to your Being, "Take me to the Temple of Giza,” or “Take me to the Aztec temples.” “Take me to the Rosicrucian Lodge.” “Take me to the Gnostic Church,” and like the magnetic pull we talked about previously, your Being can pull you up in the air, send you there. Or you can teleport or merge.

When you approach any temple of mystery, you can basically pray the sacred salutation that we use in our Gnostic studies. Place your left hand on your solar plexus, your right hand out in the form of the pentagram. You have the middle finger, index finger, and thumb extended, pinky and ring finger inside. You say to the guardian, because every temple has a guardian, "Inverential Peace," meaning, “Peace unto your Innermost Being.”
 
Cross your arms on your chest, right over left. Bow to your right, to the pillar of the right, Jachin, then to the left, Boaz. Jachin, Boaz, the white and black columns of the Masonic mysteries, symbolize the two pillars of the Tree of Life, mercy and justice, man and woman. In their balance, it is the equilibrium of the spirit, the harmony of God.
 
Those guardians, if you greet them, and if you are very sincere in your mind and your intentions about wanting to enter, they will make their judgment. If you are clear, they say, "Pass."
 
But if there is a problem, meaning, if we don't come in with the best intentions, and it can happen that way, they say, "No." Or perhaps they will tell you, “You have a particular problem you need to deal with first before we allow you to enter here,” and they will be very transparent. They will tell you, because those guardians are awake. You see them symbolized within Buddhist monasteries, like in Tibetan Buddhism, by the lions, lions of the law, or majestic creatures who are sacred and represent, for us, the severity of the eternal divine hierarchies. So they know exactly how we conduct ourselves in life, what we are doing, and they judge based on our merits and our actions. ​

​Communicate with the Initiates

In this way, we communicate with the initiates across different places and times.
 
There are many spiritual figures, like the pharaohs of Egypt, before those traditions degenerated, that can teach us and communicate with us about things that we need to know. You may find that, for example, you may wake up in the astral plane in your home, and suddenly, you find a group of Gnostics, the real Gnostics, the initiates of the higher worlds, those who were in the mystery schools of the Gnostic Church, and they are just in your home. Obviously, you are happy by this, say, "Welcome,” and they can teach you things. Or Egypt, Egyptian initiates, find that they just appear in your home. You welcome them in. They talk to you, because there are hierarchies and levels of being, from the more inferior beginners to the masters and adepts, and many of them, along the scale, approach you in accordance with your needs, but also out of their necessity to give to you―because we don’t receive anything we don’t give. If we want help in life, we have to learn to sacrifice for others to some degree: to help our communities, to help other people. If we show that we are helping the spiritual caliber of our fellow men and women―our neighbors, our friends―they say, “Let us help you.” They come to you, and they can teach you, such as through the tarot, which are the sacred arcana of the Egyptian mysteries. ​

​Divination

Obviously we use Egyptian iconography to teach something much more ancient than just Egypt, because these symbols are principles, and numbers relate to truths. Each card represents a dynamic of our consciousness, levels of being, actions that we need to take in a particular circumstance of life but also the challenges and ordeals we face in any given situation.
 
We studied the 22 major arcana of the tarot, of which we give a course on our website [The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah]. In each card, if you ask for help from an initiate, such as from Egypt, they can pull up a card. They will show you first, a major arcanum, followed by two minor arcana. As explained in the Eternal Tarot, that we have available through Glorian Publishing, that is how those initiates will show you what you need to know.
 
They will teach you, like, you ask a question, "How do I solve this problem?" They will shuffle their cards, pull out one of the major arcanum, followed by two minor arcana.
 
You add the sum of those digits, and if you get more than 22, you synthesize again because Kabbalah and numbers are the science of intuitive principles. Each card represents an individual force, but also, together, they constitute an entire message. So, you have to consider all the correlations, too.
 
But, something to consider is that, when you are receiving a tarot reading, you may not see the images exactly like you see them here, because the reality is that these principles, first off, as we have in the deck, come from the higher worlds, and those higher dimensions show us an eternal art. That art cannot be limited to one system, because the voices of God are many, but it is unitary because the principles are the same. ​

So, for example, you may see Arcanum 19, over here. The image can be the same, but sometimes, the names can be different. There may be little differences, may not be openly obvious, but they are there. Another name for the card of Inspiration, 19, can be Transience, and that means nothing is permanent. Life is always changing. We are always looking at the connections between ourselves and the external world, with phenomena. But, we receive inspiration when we see that nothing necessarily is limited or permanent. Our psychology changes moment to moment. Our environment changes moment to moment. So, everything is moving. It is transient. But, that which is eternal, obviously, is the Sun of illumination above.
 
So, the cards, the images, may be a little different if you receive a card reading, and the names can be slightly unique or different depending on what they are trying to teach you, and you have to be very intuitive to understand the relationship. That is why we learn the cards themselves and then, we study the way they relate to our life. ​

​Commune with the Elementals

In the astral plane, we can commune with the elementals. Every material organism and entity in life has a spiritual reality, whether it is from the mineral state, plants, animals, to humanoids. Our plant that we may have in our home has a soul. Likewise, minerals, even our pets.
 
The word “anima” means life, to animate, and all living things, even stones, have life, as shown by the Kirlian camera with images of stones with electromagnetic potential that is visually documented in photography. That life, or energy, finds its core within the souls of these individual elements. They are not like us. They are, in fact, much more pure.
 
Like we see the soul of a plant here. Many plants in our home have a soul like this, like a child, innocent, kind, altruistic, patient. It is good to learn how to wake up in the astral plane to communicate with all the members of our household, so to speak, in your home, like a plant, because plants have power. We work a lot of plant magic in our studies, which is where you learn to talk with the souls of plants so that they can help you.
 
The aloe plant is particularly powerful for protecting your home from negativity, and you can meditate, fall asleep, imagine, say, for example, another plant like the Agave americana (century plant), the maguey, which we find the practice given in the book, The Divine Science, where you sit, visualize the plant, fall asleep and then, suddenly, you will be talking with the soul of the plant. They are like a fairy, and they will serve you because, if we treat them with love and respect, they will attend to our call, and all the plants have their own capacities and potentials and abilities that are very useful to learn how to negotiate and work with.​​

Conquer Ordeals

​Speaking of elements, we also talk about conquering our ordeals.
 
In the astral plane, the masters want to test us to see our caliber. They give us difficult situations in the internal worlds to see how we react. If you find yourself in a crowd being spat upon and cursed, mocked, laughed at, provoked, beaten, persecuted, we are facing our ordeal of fire. The fire is rising around us. The temperature of tension is building and the masters want to see, can we be serene in the midst of it, and not only serene, but loving, sweet, to transform a situation of pain into one of knowledge.
 
Likewise, with the element of water, you may find yourself dreaming that you are swimming in the ocean and that you are drowning. The masters want to see whether or not you can adapt, whether you can endure the challenges of life, because these visions and dreams represent for us things that can happen physically, symbolically, but, in a dream, you literally see it represented.
 
You see it, basically, through a symbol. Not knowing how to swim against the current of our existence, but, if we learn to swim against the tide, we are strong. If we endure, we pass.
 
The ordeal of earth: mountains come upon you. You feel yourself being crushed. You want to cry out. If we don't have fearlessness in moments of great trial and adversity, we fail. But, if we are strong and serene, if we are patient, if we wait, the mountains will lift and we will be free. Ordeals in life are like that, where there is no stability or we face opposition or a crushing, imposing situation that seems like it cannot be resolved. The solution is tenacity.
 
Likewise, with air, you find yourself flying above a chasm, falling into a precipice into an abyss. If you cry out of fear, we fail. If you are serene, as a representation of how, in life, we are patient, we are awake, we are vigilant, and we allow life to happen if it is beyond our control, if we accept powerlessness with humility and grace, the law says, "Welcome."

We will submit you to ordeals within the astral plane so that we can get to know your qualities and defects. ―Samael Aun Weor, Aztec Christic Magic

These ordeals are meant to see our potential, but also, how well we are conducting ourselves. 

The Guardian of the Threshold

We also face another terrible ordeal within the astral plane. This is the Guardian of the Threshold mentioned by Steiner and other writers.
 
In the beginning of our path, we have to face ourselves, and the law will take it upon itself to teach us what we are. Like we are seeing in this image, we have a woman facing a demon, but that demon is not outside. It is us. I am sure all of us have recognized moments in our life in which we really, truly saw we are demonic, whether it is from anger, pride, or any negative emotion. Maybe after the fact, we realize, "I had no idea I could be like that." Imagine that one moment magnified across the life span of all your existences from the beginning of being a humanoid such as, in Buddhist philosophy, 108 existences, according to Samael Aun Weor.
 
The Guardian of the Threshold is a mirror in the astral plane, an embodiment of everything we are that is wrong, and that part of us is showing what we are psychologically speaking. If we want to really enter the White Lodge, the superior lodges of the higher dimensions, to become a master, we have to master ourselves. We do that by facing the Guardian of the Threshold, because we are in the threshold between living a life of suffering, of weakness, and of pain, into a fully possessed master of oneself, and so, you have to face this beast, which is not anyone else, but us. We face the monster and, if we are willing to fight tooth and nail to defeat ourselves and to be a conqueror of our weaknesses, we grapple that monster. We pray for divinity, "Help me to defeat this being that is me and to prove myself."

​Celebrate with the Masters

You conquer yourself and then, the masters celebrate.
 
They often appear to you in the form of children, Edenic figures of bliss, serenity and hope. Raphael painted this, the Sistine Madonna, which is a perfect representation of what they look like.
 
From their eyes exude a peace and serenity that is truly indefinable, truly divine, and they accept you with joy, "Welcome." They may have you seated on a couch enjoying some luxuries, eating and drinking, feasting with them, and many of them often are very solemn, very peaceful. They know that this is just the beginning because, while we prove ourselves against the Guardian, they say, "Welcome. You are entering the stream to Nirvana," to use Buddhist philosophy. But, they are silent and often solemn because they know there is work to do.

Witness Your Being’s Initiations

We are also going to experience and witness the initiation of our Being.
 
The term “initiation” refers to beginnings and, in the path of initiation itself, the spiritual work upon ourselves, we, basically, are welcomed and inducted into the higher worlds amongst the gods, and obviously, there are levels of initiation. We see this woman representing with her sword, גבורה Geburah, the justice of God, who is our own conscience, the part of us that says, "This is right and this is wrong." She judges us, but also, honors us with the sword of the Kundalini that we raise in our spine to the perfect matrimony, and as the human soul, תפארת Tiphereth, the warrior, kneels in humility before that truth.
 
Our Being is what gets initiated. The personality, our ego, our mind, does not. Our soul is something else. The soul works, תפארת Tiphereth, the human warrior and then, the Being, גבורה Geburah, as well as the Spirit amongst the congregation of the masters of the divine, receive that glory. We have to work humbly, do our part, but all glory is to God or, as the Muslims and Sufis say, "Alhamdulillah," all praise is to God.

​Invoke and Verify a Master

In the astral, we can invoke and verify a master, and I know, for a lot of people, this is, perhaps, one of the more interesting parts.
 
We live in a world in which we have a plurality of spiritual teachers and gurus and teachings and, oftentimes, it becomes confusing to verify and know what is real and what is not. The way to know is to astral project, invoke, and see for yourself.
 
You pray, “In the name of Christ, by the power of Christ, for the majesty of Christ, I invoke you," say their name, imagine them, intend them, "Come to me. Show me yourself!”
 
Or, if you are in front of a being in the astral, you can do this prayer, and that prayer is invoking the highest principle of the divine, which was personalized through Jesus in a material way, but he is not the only master who incarnated Christ, the energy of the Logos, the Spirit, and so, when you are asking, or praying this, you are asking that this entity that you see is going to vibrate with that level of the divine. If they are true, they will say, "I follow Christ." If they are not, they will reject you and you get your answer.

​The Invocation of Christ

Now, the truth is that, when you invoke in the astral plane, you may have a very particular phenomenon.
 
When you are looking to the astral horizon and invoking, "In the name of Christ, by the power of Christ, for the majesty of Christ," each time, you may hear a bell resound in the atmosphere. Every time you say, "Christ,” (bell sound), like the cathedrals, and the cathedrals in the physical world were built because, originally, people knew this principle. It is like a metallic sound that resounds throughout the infinite, tremendous and all-inspiring. You may even see, when you are looking up through the astral atmosphere, the angels striking the bell, terribly divine beings, sacred, fully awake. They are responding because every time you call, they look; they know.

​Twilight: The Hour of Venus

We rely on this invocation, especially, because it is important to know and to verify what we see. Just as we speak about heavenly beings, there are also demonic beings.
 
Invocations can become dangerous in the early hours of the morning. It is good that, when you wake up in the astral plane, that you do take the time to peruse your environment. 4:00 AM, 3:00 AM, especially, has a very type of fatal atmosphere because, just as there are superior forces at work in the night, in the early hours of dawn, there are negative forces that are also active. Let me read to you what Samael Aun Weor wrote in Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic:​​

During the hour of Venus, the hour of love, the astral atmosphere is filled with a pink light of ineffable beauty. A guru once told me the following, “My son, this is a very dangerous hour for astral projection because all the world is filled with a pink light.” That master was right. If it is true that, in the hour of Venus, the positive ray from the star is filling everything with light, music, and love, it is also true and very real that the negative ray from Lucifer-Venus, that is the ray of the black magician, Lucifer, and all the Luciferian tenebrous initiates of the copper cauldron is also active. Yet, if the disciple lives a pure and chaste life, then he will have nothing to fear of the magicians from the darkness. ―Samael Aun Weor, Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic

If you are in the astral plane and it looks twilight, whether it is a pink, fatal light or perhaps, like a grayish uncertainty, I would withdraw or withhold invoking at that hour, primarily because, where we are at, usually, in the beginning, we have a lot of defects, a lot of ego, and oftentimes, if you are trying to invoke, at that hour, a spiritual master, your own ego can invoke a demon.
 
Now, the thing to remember is that these entities do not physically harm or can harm you like you get harmed in your physical body, but the potential danger lies in entities that try to appear as initiates of the light to teach you how to go down.
 
Many of them will take on a beautiful appearance. Some, particularly like one archdemon whose name I will not say, but we know from the Conjuration of the Seven, has an appearance like a Balrog from The Lord of the Rings, giant demon, horns, but of light, and will try to convince you, perhaps, why his path, the path of the Black Lodge, is good, and the most dangerous demons are not those that try to forcefully attack you, meaning, conjure or to exert negative energy to try to make you lose your consciousness in the astral, but the worst are those that try to talk you into submitting.

​Conjure Demons and Temptations

So, the thing to remember is that, while this is a very scary topic for many people, a very difficult one, the truth is that there are ways to defend oneself in the astral plane.
 
Perhaps the best book I know on the topic is The Divine Science by Samael Aun Weor. We can learn to work with prayers and invocations in order to expel and reject any negative influence.
 
There are many prayers and they all work [see a comprehensive lecture on the topic: Psychic Attacks and Their Remedies]. The way that they work is if we are serene, attentive, patient, and more importantly, compassionate to our persecutors, because there is no better way for manipulation to occur than for us to be in a weak state of mind where we are agitated, angry, resentful, fearful. Fear is a very big tool they use. But, if you don't have fear, you pray to divinity, "Protect me. Reject this entity," whether it is through the Conjuration of the Four, the Conjuration of the Seven, the Invocation of Solomon, Fons Alpha, many prayers within different languages like Latin, Sanskrit, Hebrew. These languages embody codes and are ways to connect with the divine so that we don't forget ourselves, so that we are not afraid and that we are not easily influenced. It is a skill that we learn. It is like training in martial arts. In the beginning, you don't know how to do anything, but, with time, you learn, familiarity.
 
The thing to remember is that these entities have no more control over us than if we have control of ourselves. So, they can't do anything if you are in full possession of your psychology. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated:

The black magicians of the Black Lodge struggle to swerve initiates off the path. This is why it is necessary, urgent, that the devotees defend themselves from the attacks of the tenebrous ones. Thus, it's urgent to learn how to do so. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Divine Science: Logos, Mantra, Theurgy

​Be patient. You will learn with time and don't be afraid. In fact, we should have a lot of love and compassion for beings of this type and people of this type because they are very confused. They don't understand what they do in the full sense. 

​Exercise Astral Powers

In this way, we become powerful.
 
I know this image looks a little silly, perhaps, an initiate using power, electricity from his hand somewhat like Darth, what is it? Darth Sidious from "Star Wars," to electrify this entity.

Comes to my mind one prayer and conjuration that is similar to this. It is the Conjuration of Jupiter. You say, "In the name of Jupiter, father of the Gods, I conjure you," point your fingers, your left hand on your solar plexus, your hand in the form of the pentagram like we explained. You say, "TE VIGOS COSLIM.” You will see like a lightning bolt or light shoot out from your hand, and this entity, or witch, sorceress, sorcerer, black magician, will be disabled.
 
That energy depends upon our capacity to, first, save energy, because the way that we defend ourselves is, if we have energy, a reservoir conserved from our spiritual discipline, whether we do mantras and prayers, meditations, pranayama, or, if we are married, alchemy. When you save energy and you don't waste it through negative habits, you become like a battery, and the more force that you have, the more awake you are, more disciplined, the more you can use that force.
​
Oftentimes, that energy becomes something like a shield. You don't get easily identified with these forces or negative elements. You can dispel them.
 
Some other astral powers can include, for example, not only these types of prayers, but making yourself infinitely small so that you can hide, or big. You expand your body in the astral plane. You do it by will. You do it simply by willing it. You imagine it and, if you feel, in the moment, what you need to do in order to pass the experience, you can do that. ​

Study the Chakras / Churches

In the astral plane, we can also study our chakras, which are the seven energetic centers of the spine. We often pay close attention to the quality of our energies and our spinal medulla in these studies. The chakras are wheels, or vortices of force, which also find symbolic astral representation or significance in temples.
 
Each chakra is a temple and you can meditate, fall asleep, say, for example, upon the Chakra Muladhara, the root chakra, the base of the spine, and suddenly, you will find yourself in the astral plane underground. You can see a pool of cool, tranquil, undisturbed, limpid water in a square stone in the midst of this cavern. Looking down, you will see the four-petal lotus like here. Could be of different light. Could be blue, luminous, clear. Samael Aun Weor even gives a description of this in The Aquarian Message. Literally word for word, it is accurate. In that temple, you see the chakras. These are churches, in the Book of Revelation, the real Gnostic church in a sense.
 
If you ask, "My Divine Mother, show me the Gnostic Church in Egypt," obviously, the answer, in this particular example was, "Egypt is your body," according to one instructor from Glorian Publishing. מצרים Mitzrahim in Hebrew, "The Place of the Waters."
 
The place of the waters is your physical body, because most of your body is water, and יסוד Yesod, or the vital force in Hebrew, is precisely that pool of water in which the Kundalini emerges. So, you can ask to see a church within yourself. "What is the quality of my level of being?" Your Divine Mother will show you what that is.

​Sanctify Your Home

We also can see the results of sanctifying our home. This might seem a little unusual in the context of this lecture, but, if you are practicing many spiritual exercises, we often promote, we could say, spiritual hygiene, having a clean place to meditate and practice, but also, not just physically, but psychologically, because we know, just by visiting the bar or some other place, there are areas that are more dense and heavy psychologically.
 
A hospital has a very different feeling from a church, or a classroom from a bullfighting ring. People's minds and attitudes and feelings saturate the spaces they inhabit. That is why our home has to be very well taken care of and, when you are doing prayers and conjurations and using incense, utilizing the pentagram such as on an altar, it is a symbol of the divine, rejecting the negative, the true human being, those all come together to create a very harmonious and balanced space and we can see the results of this in the astral plane.
 
You wake up, you project out of your body and even look at perhaps, on your altar, for example, the pentagram. If you have been doing conjurations and prayers, especially using this symbol, you can see, basically, the accumulation of that force, because those prayers, specifically, will charge your atmosphere of your home, will cleanse your mind, defend and protect you, but also, you will see the pentagram like fire, igneous, inflamed, because the pentagram is a symbol that assimilates and cultivates, accumulates spiritual potential, and like us, the human being, we are a pentagram with five, four limbs and an apex, the head. That symbol represents us and so, you may see, in your home, perhaps, that beautiful image, meaning that God is watching. Feel great peace from that.
 
One thing to remember, too, is that we often cleanse our homes of astral larvae, elements and creatures such as we, physically, have rodents, pests, bugs, cockroaches. These are, obviously, not healthy for us physically, but internally, there are larvae and elements like little bugs which populate the homes of people who are afflicted with disease, with drugs, with lust. People's minds attract their environment, and then their environment attracts their mind. It is a dynamic cycle. So, if you are using incense and perfume and prayers, you may find that your home is very clean internally. You can even take sulfur powder if you are in a place, such as a hotel, places which have a lot of filth, elements of a psychic type, and sprinkle sulfur powder around. You may fall asleep and see that around you are dead bugs because the fumes from the sulfur powder killed it.
 
Those fumes are not physical, but they are astral. They clean and so, we should consider when we are either traveling or taking care of our home. Try to be pure. Take some precautions. Those things will help affect your mind in the long term.

Petition for Healing

We also petition for healing to the masters of medicine.
 
As there are many masters of humanity in the different lodges, churches, synagogues, mosques within the internal worlds, you also find that there are masters of healing. If we have a particular illness, whether physical, emotional, mental, whatever may be, we can ask for healing from these Masters.
 
Some notable ones: Paracelsus, Archangel Raphael, Galen, Hermes Trismegistus, Archangel Raphael, Master Huiracocha.
 
These masters, if you invoke them and write to them through the practice given in The Revolution of Beelzebub, as well as we gave in a previous lecture on How to Remember Dreams, I believe, you can suddenly find yourself awake in the astral after petitioning for some type of healing and suddenly, you find that they are in front of you. They say, "Welcome!” They take you to a table and the way that Samael Aun Weor describes it was accurate. They take you to a table and there is a type of lens, or apparatus, that has multicolored lenses, one red, one yellow, one blue.
 
Those three primary colors represent the three primary forces, and they use that to look into your astral body to investigate the cause of your sickness. Then, they can treat you with medicines in the astral plane. Might seem very unusual because, again, the astral body is, really, a material vehicle but, for us, we often think it is something vague and insubstantial.
 
So, they can heal you. Even there are doctors in the internal worlds, not only from our planet, but other planets. Suddenly, you may find you are talking to this doctor in the astral plane. You ask him, "What planet is this?" just because you intuitively know you are not on Earth. "This is Neptune."
 
It is good to ask questions because they will tell you what is going on and that will amaze you because you are getting help.
 
So, the petition for healing, basically, is you write a letter to the Temple of Alden, which is a mystery school, any master you want to get help with: Raphael, Paracelsus, whoever it is. You write the letter, "This is my condition. This is how I am sick. Please help me. Here is what I will do in exchange for being helped."
 
Take some frankincense, perfume it, burn the letter. The astral letter will go to that master through your prayer, and then, even when they are with you, they will show you the letter and the fact that they are talking to you when treating you means you got your response.
 
You can also do this petition for another person, too, and always in accordance with the law, the divine.

​Receive Borrowed Light

​Here is a beautiful concept given within Sufism. We call it receiving borrowed light. The Sufis call it ﺑَﺮَﻛَﺔ barakah, “blessings,” or in Hebrew, בָּרוּךְ Baruch, as in, בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה אֲדֹנָי Baruch Ata Adonai, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
 
We see a blind hermit, a beggar, seated, somewhat oblivious, next to an angel with a candle of light.
 
Oftentimes, in our spiritual work, you may find suddenly that you were in the astral plane and that you have a type of awareness and vivid intensity. Your consciousness is magnified. Suddenly, you see more than you possibly have seen before and you don't know how. You gain light and suddenly, you are shown things.
 
Those masters come to you. They teach you. You receive symbolic experiences. We call that receiving borrowed light. Sometimes, the masters of the White Lodge, out of their compassion for us, come to us and will give you a boost. They give you a hope or inclination and an experience. They magnify your perception so much that, because usually, we are so asleep, they want to show us something of value and importance and oftentimes, that borrowed light, obviously, when we reach that state, we suddenly see everything with more luminosity than we do physically. So, it is shocking. Then, they teach you something important, but, obviously, in the end, they retract their light. They say, "Okay, we taught you what you need to know. Now, work." So, in the beginning of our studies, we often get this kind of help, but, with time, they take their light back because they showed you what is possible and what you can do and what is the potential for us, but now they want to see, "Okay, let's see you do it on your own."
 
In the beginning, you are like a beggar, but now, we want to be able to experience that for ourselves, earn it. 

​Interrogate an Ego

So, we have an image here of a mirror. This is an interesting thing to do in the astral as well.
 
Interrogate an ego. In our Gnostic studies, we study ourselves. We want to know the causes of our defects, our vices, our errors. We see this man looking into himself in a mirror and seeing, perhaps, like the Guardian of the Threshold, a reflection of his own demonic self. In the astral plane, if you want to get to the root cause of an ego, you can ask your divinity, "Show me this defect that I want to understand and to eliminate," and suddenly, you can see this entity like yourself or an ego, or actually, many egos. They are like people, usually with very distorted features.

If you have all seen images of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, I've shown in other lectures before, you see creatures that have half-human, half-animal, half-plant figures, true monstrosities that really escape definition. They are, literally, a heterogeneity of forms. So, we can ask ourselves, or Divine Mother, "Show me this ego. Show me this lust or this anger or this pride that I want to eliminate," and you can actually talk with your ego, and try to get data, but in most cases, your ego will attack you.
 
So, be careful because your mind and your ego knows that you are working to kill it if you are really serious about these studies. So, your own mind will try to take you, manipulate you, but, with practice and prayer, you can have a conversation and try to get knowledge that you need to fully eliminate this aggregate, this falsehood.

​Consult the Astral Horizon

​I know I mentioned, in other lectures, especially in the Sufi Principles of Meditation about the need to look at the astral atmosphere when trying to consult or get deep answers about our psychological state.
 
It might seem strange. What does it mean to consult the sky? Oftentimes, divinity, the masters, or your own Being, if you wake up in the internal worlds, you can leave whatever space you are at, go to some free space, look up at the sky, ask, "Show me,” or “Help me to see my level of being. What do I need to see in myself?"
 
The quality of the sky will tell you your answer. Cloudy skies means that we are too asleep, we are foggy, our self-observation is weak. We are obscured. To see the moon can represent pain, suffering, loneliness. The Sun, the life of the Being, the divine. The stars, the heavens. This is beautifully represented in one of the Surahs of the Qur’an, where Abraham, Ibrahim, saw the different constituents of the sky, seeking the recognition of the divine, and these are symbols of psychological states. We go into great detail about this in a lecture called Striving, mujahidah in Arabic, with our courses on the Sufi principles. But the sky will teach you what is your level of Being. So, you want to know, “Where am I at?” If you see galaxies, and planets, and stars, and beautiful celestial objects, it means that you are connected with that. You are seeing clearly. 

​Behold the Glorian

​In a way, too, in our studies, we can behold the highest aspect of the divine, which is the Glorian. You can meet a master, such as Samael Aun Weor, and say “Show me your true self. I want to see.” Moses asked this question, and the Lord said, “I will not show you my true self, because if I do, you will be annihilated. You cannot withhold or stand to see me as I am” (Exodus 33:18-20). But Moses persisted, and when he saw that light, he swooned, and he kneeled, because he saw the light from perhaps his own inner God, showing him, and such as, if you see a master, like Samael Aun Weor, you can ask “Show me your true self. Show me your light,” and he will show you.
 
But be careful, because when you see the light of divinity, we have to kneel, and those initiates, if you are proud or, perhaps you see that intensity of light, but your own ego reacts because our ego detests the divine, those initiates will knock you to your knees, to teach you reverence, because sometimes that experience is so bewildering, to see the אין סוף Ain Soph, to use Hebrew terms, or in Arabic, الله Allah, or Χριστός Christos, Christ. It is truly overpowering. Your mind or ego will feel like it is being annihilated, and the light of, like, a being like Samael Aun Weor, is a red light because he's the head of the ray of Mars, the power of Samael, the angel of strength. Likewise, with Anubis, relating to the law of karma and dharma, and even Katancia. A being like Anubis, we will talk about in the next slide, is a hierarch of the law of karma or destiny who also has his light that is very brilliant. 

Karma, Dharma, and Katancia

​In dreams, you may have symbols relating to the law of destiny.
 
The wolf or the jackal relates to the impartiality of the law. So, when Anubis, relating to the Egyptian mythology, who judges the dead and the living, wishes to hold court to attest to or either evaluate the conduct of a disciple, they wear a mask like a jackal or a wolf because they are showing you that they are not here to show partiality. They want to show fairness, and so, they either don't basically show favor or disfavor. They look at the merits of your heart, which are evaluated based on the law of the scale. The wolf is a symbol of that.
 
To receive money in dreams is very significant, too, because this law of destiny rewards and punishes based on our conduct, what we have earned. If you receive money, the law is showing you that you are going to get spiritual benefit. It is a beautiful symbol. This is dharma. The word कर्म karma comes from Sanskrit, meaning cause and effect, action and consequence, and that when we do good deeds, we receive blessings from the law, because these laws are spiritual. You can escape the cops, perhaps, in Chicago, but not from Anubis, and so, they, basically, govern our internal life, but also, they manage the circumstances of our physical existence, too, and so, we receive spiritual benefits based on, perhaps, money received in dreams.
 
But the important thing to remember is that there is a superior law related to Katancia. There is karma for ordinary people, which is basically most of us. That karma is related to the symbol of the wolf. It is the law of humanity. But there is a law relating to the gods, meaning, there are beings who were once initiates, masters, awakened ones, angels, and so, they were submitted to a higher law, called Katancia, symbolized with the Lion of Judah, and to have a dream about a lion could mean or, basically, represents that, once, in some past, we were an initiate, but, obviously, we fell. The lion, if it is peaceful, is showing you favor, representing your own inner Christ. But if it roars, it is against us, and truly, to be before that is a terrifying reality. 

​Negotiate Your Karma

​“The lion of the law is fought with the scale,” says Samael Aun Weor. “Do good deeds to pay your debts,” which is why, like Anubis, we learn to equilibrate our heart and mind. We can negotiate our karma.
 
Karma is not a blind law. In our Western attitudes and New Age spiritualities, we think of karma as some type of blind retribution of petty deeds. We get what we deserve, and that, somehow, if you do bad, you will have that inflicted upon you, as if there is no type of conscious management of that, whether for good or for ill.
 
So, if things are rough for us, if we are having a hard time in life, you can basically go to the bank, the divine bank, the Lords of Karma. We approach Anubis. We invoke him. We go to his temple, and we say “I wish to negotiate.” They will ask you, “What will you do in return? We can issue you credit. We can grant you a certain deed, a certain situation, but what are you going to do in exchange? How are you going to positively benefit your community, your relationships, your friends? How are you going to sacrifice for others? What are you going to do, practically, that will earn you the right to receive this boon?” You say, “ABC, this, this, and this.” If they accept, “So be it,” they will tell you. But, if you don't follow through with your agreement, you will pay, and usually with pain, because it is a responsibility to work with the higher law, to balance the feather of our mind with the heart of conscience. So…

In the internal worlds, we can talk with the 42 judges of karma. The chief of those 42 judges is Anubis. The Lords of Karma reward or punish us. We can also request credit from the judges of karma, but every credit has to be paid either with good deeds or with pain. Initiates must attend the palace of Anubis in order to arrange the negotiation. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries

You can also do the Rune Not. The runic practices, such as in The Gnostic Magic of the Runes, you place your hands out, as a form of yoga, making the form of the Nordic alphabet from Futhark, Not. You place your hands to your sides. You pray to Anubis. You can start with your hands over your heart in the Egyptian style. You pray to negotiate. You ask for what you want. Extend your hands. You lift your left hand up, bring your right hand down, a bit of an angle here. You do the mantras: Na, Ne, Ni, No, Nu. You prolong them, “Naaaaaa,” for one movement for each vowel: Nneeeeeee… Nniiiiiii… Nnoooooo.… Nnuuuuuuu…” [See Mantras and Pronunciations].

One round. You can do it five times. You can do it seven times. You can do it more, and be honest. If you can do it, if you can fulfill your promise, do it. If not, don’t ask, because you may get things that you ask for and may not live up to the standard that they ask. Our intentions don’t matter so much as our actions. That is the nature of the law. ​​

​The Kaom or Karma Police

We also have an interesting figure in spiritual studies, such as the Kaom, relating to the law of karma or, to use Radiohead's language, the karma police. I think they got a few things right.
 
There is a part of our Being that we see represented by cops in dreams. They are symbolizing גבורה Geburah, in Hebrew, justice, our divine soul, but also, a part of our conscience that comes to us when we need to make reparations. If we have done something wrong that we need to fix, you will be confronted by your own conscience, your own Kaom, which is a rune in the Nordic language, representing the law, and those cops can do many things. They can talk to you. They can bring a complaint against you.
 
For example, they may tell you, “This woman here is upset because you robbed her in a past life. How are you going to pay her back?” And they will tell you directly. The best thing to say is, “I will pay it all at once.” They will be very pleased, and they are pleased by that, because you are talking to yourself. There are many parts and aspects of your own Being, just as we have many aspects and parts of our own body. There are hands, feet, hair, eyes. They all come together to constitute a sense of unity, but in truth, these are all different aspects of really oneself. The same thing with divinity, like a tree or the Tree of Life, in Hebrew. There are branches, and roots, and trunk and leaves. Likewise, we have the Kaom or part of our Being, the part of us that comes and arrives when we need to make a change.
 
Obviously, if they arrest us in a dream, it is because we deserve it. They are taking us to court. That part of our conscience takes us to the divine hierarchies or tribunals of justice if we have made a wrong and they wish to address something in our behavior or from our past lives, especially. Because, maybe in our current life, we are living like a saint, but in the past, we could have been many things, something you can verify internally.
 
So the Kaom will tell you to, kind of paraphrasing Radiohead again, “This is what you get.” We earned it. So it is good when they confront you. You should be happy about it. It is not always pleasant, especially when we have done something wrong, but you can't run away from your own heart, your conscience, and there is a way to strengthen that voice of conscience, the Kaom, by working with the Rune Rita, again, in The Magic of the Runes. I suggest you study that book if you want to know more.

​The Akashic Records

Speaking of past lives, we can learn all the histories of ourselves and our humanity through what is called the Akashic Records. The astral plane is like a film. In a sense, there is a fluidic quality of the atmosphere because every action, every movement, every thought, every emotion has an imprint. Likewise, physically with our emotions, mind, actions, we create the type of print upon the film of nature. The astral world is a world of imagination, and every action of our life is recorded within that plane. That substance is called akash, the akasha, which is an element that is beyond the four constituents of earth, air, fire, water― Tejas, Apas, Prithvi and Vayu. Four elements. The fifth is akash, and the akasha really permeates everything that we are.
 
So, whatever we do has a recording. It is seen. It is witnessed. This is why the Qur’an teaches, “Truly, We see everything. And that even your own skin will attest against you on the Day of Judgment” (41:20), because the akasha records everything, everything we do, from beginning, middle, to end. Just as our own life is recorded, in truth, everything we are from our past existences is there. If we wish to know more about ourselves in our present life, and how we got here, we study the Akashic Records. Any event leaves its living photograph within the akash. It is obvious that all of our former lives are within those mysterious cosmic records.
 
You can ask to go to the Akashic Records or even ask “What is it?” Your Being can show you, perhaps, an office with a secretary with many shelves and files. They ask you what you want to look at. Some people have recorded seeing a library full of scrolls, and when they opened up a scroll, they entered into that memory like the pensieve in Harry Potter, literally going into a living photograph or video, like a life as depicted in that time. So, it is interesting that J.K. Rowling and some other authors have really picked up on this symbology, although, unconsciously, but it is there, because the collective mind of humanity, as of recently, has been really pushing to study more esoteric subjects. It has become more mainstream, but it is interesting. It is the same principle. You are watching yourself but also living the drama as it happened, whether it is from ancient history, whether it’s your own past life. You live it, and you see yourself there. You are a witness and a participant at the same time. Sometimes it can play out like a film. You are like watching a movie, but you are actually in it. A very dynamic thing. ​

​Cosmogenesis

You can see the birth of the worlds, cosmogenesis. How did our physical planet come to be? What is the actual history of our cosmic evolution? You can see the birth of a planet, a sun, a star, how it all emerged. What I find particularly fascinating is the way that Samael Aun Weor explains some of these things, how he witnessed the beginning of a Mahamanvantara, a great cosmic day, the birth of an entire universe, and he says it with such ease. Some people think he is bragging. But, personally, when I have seen things like this, he is just stating a fact. ​

​Anthropogenesis 

But we can see the ancient history of humanity, the birth of any cosmic celestial unit, but also the ancient races of our planet, civilizations like Egypt, Abraham with his son at the sacrificial altar, the Nativity of Jesus, as well as Mesopotamian and Babylonian images, or the Mayan temples of Kukulkan, the feathered serpent, the Sphinx of Egypt. Our history books are often very limited. We are relying on physical data, and while it is useful to study these things, the truth is that if you really want to go to the heart of what actually happened in some moment in history, go to the Akashic Records, study and see for yourself who these figures were, because a lot of the histories are wrong. People argue about the life of Jesus or Muhammad, many figures. They are based on physical materials that can either be more or less accurate or insufficient.
 
They are lacking detail, and when we study anthropogenesis, the birth of different races and humanities on our planet, we see for ourselves what, say, Blavatsky taught, because some of these writers like Samael Aun Weor did document ancient races, like Lemuria, the Atlantean, and there are some pretty compelling studies and documentaries being made now about how ancient Egypt is much older than the Egyptologists think, because they are finding physical evidence of, literally, laser-hewn stone that is thousands upon thousands of years old, and yet, the technology needed for that is a laser. So, how do you explain that? Or you find, for example, that there is, literally, nuclear blast-infused glass for miles upon miles within, I believe, the Gobi Desert, caused by nuclear explosions, but this is 20, 80,000 years old. Our scientists can’t explain it, and so they fumble with their jargon to explain what really happened. A lot of information is missing.
 
The missing key is learning to go internally to make the connections, because if you internally experience it, but also confirm it with physical facts, you gain more faith. Therefore, you take the best of what science and anthropology offers while also recognizing people’s limitations, especially of a materialistic type.

​Prophesy

We have talked about this quite a bit in previous lectures about prophesy. I know the image looks a little comical, of a diviner or black magician laughing in a plain of holocaust of some type. The word prophesy refers to seeing the future, seeing what is possible for us. So, the Akashic Records, while talking about the past, can also show us the future. It is interesting, right? How it is that something of the past can also demonstrate the future. But the truth is that all potential things are recorded internally, and that what will happen on a grand scale, will happen, and that divinity knows, and can predict it.
 
We can also receive that knowledge in our dreams, where a dream will foretell what will happen in a day or, perhaps, in a future race. You may see, for example, what many prophecies have foretold in the astral world which are not very optimistic for a lot of people. Obviously, this topic can make people uncomfortable, such as the Book of Revelations, which is a book about precisely this type of prophecy, where astrally, Saint John was seeing what is going to happen to our race, our collective humanity, and documented, through symbols, the history of what will occur. Obviously, people grapple with that language because that language is symbolic, and kabbalah, archetypal. The thing to consider, too, is that we have a part to play in all this and that we can make the best decisions that we can in order to, based on our inner visions, how to act in the physical world.
 
So, there are two types of seers, according to Samael Aun Weor. There are beings who are in the dark and in the light, and both can see, to a more or less degree, what will happen. But here is what he said:

The diviners [black magicians] see the images of the abyss and experience dreams of the abyss with which they predict events that do not always crystallize in the physical world. The prophets are seers of the light. They are people of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Their predictions are exact because their pineal and pituitary glands are totally illuminated by the sacred fire. ―Samael Aun Weor, Igneous Rose

So, I know a lot of people do like to go to fortune-tellers or people who can predict the future because we, obviously, have a curiosity that we want to fulfill. But oftentimes, these people tend to be this―especially if they ask for money for your visions. A real prophet does not ask for fees, more specifically, demands, impositions. They offer their teachings. They offer their vision and what they see and respect the individual will of others. They don’t get paid for it. They are illuminated by the sacred fire, called kundalini, or, in Christian terms, the Holy Spirit. Their glands, like the pituitary and pineal gland, are awake. They are not atrophied like in most people, but they are inflamed and hyper-stimulated because they have the energy by which to see clairvoyantly, imaginatively, into the internal worlds, so they can see these things for themselves.
 
Rather than rely on any other people to show us the future, we can simply meditate. Go inside, ask your Being, “Show me what will happen to me. What will happen to Chicago? What will happen to the United States?” And we may see things that can be truly disturbing because, as we have been watching the news and seeing, collectively, the behavior of our humanity, we have actually been getting worse. So, not to instill fear, it is better to instill urgency and wanting to work and what we can change now. This is why dream yoga is really essential for this. ​

​Enter Jinn States

​We will talk about jinn states. I think a lot of people can accept astral projection to a degree, but a lot of people have a hard time with jinn science. But we include this in this lecture because, with jinn science, you are also navigating the internal worlds. But as opposed to astral projection when you are physically going to bed, your soul leaves the body, and it enters the fifth dimension, with jinn science, we learn to take our physical body with us.
 
This is symbolized in many mythologies, such as with Jesus walking on water, performing miracles. His physical body, through prayer, meditation, and drowsiness, and faith, was able to take his physical body and enter the fourth dimension, the vital world. It is called hyperspace, for lack of a better term, the etheric dimension, the fourth dimension of space and time mentioned by Einstein. Hyperspace is the fourth coordinate. Just as we have length, width, and height in our third dimension, we know, from experience, that there is a fourth dimension that we can’t, necessarily, quantify. I mean, we try to quantify it as time, but it is something deeper than just that. It is also about spatiality.
 
How do we see and perceive life as it changes? Music is really interesting because it is fourth-dimensional. There are patterns and notes in the third dimension, but also there is temporality. There is a sequence that occurs. Things are flowing and moving, and we can make meaning of that, based on our emotional states and our mind. Emotionally, we may hear the music, and we resonate with it or we don’t, and intellectually, we can quantify the notes on paper. What is interesting about that reality is that hyperspace, the fourth dimension, is something we verify from experience, but also, our emotional and mental states are what help us register that reality in a deeper sense, to appreciate it.
 
The physical body can vanish from the physical plane, enter the fourth coordinate which is, literally, a dimension of materiality and energy of its own. We do it through many exercises like in The Yellow Book. You can also astral project, and then, in the astral plane, you can call your physical body, bring it to you, and then your physical body will leave its bed, will vanish, enter the internal worlds. But obviously, this type of exercise, which has been symbolized, such as in the ascension of Prophet Muhammad, is a very difficult one for most Westerners, especially, because we are very materialistic and skeptical.
 
Prophet Muhammad, through his faith, his meditation, and by laying his head upon the stone of the Kaaba, the kabbalah, the stone of יסוד Yesod, by working with that vital energy, he rose upon الْبُرَاق Al-Buraq, “the lightning” we call kundalini, the straight path of the Arabic letter أ Alif, up to the seven heavens, the seven chakras. It is one metaphysical symbol related to our physiology, but literally with his faith and through prayer, he entered. He traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem, and then entered the heavenly regions with his physical body.
 
So, one of his detractors said, “How is it possible that you have entered that state?” He said, “Lift your left foot up.” He did. He says, “Lift your right foot up.” Says, “I can’t.” “How can’t you do that if you say you traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem and to the seven heavens?” He said, “I didn’t take myself there. I was taken.” The one who does that is your Divine Mother, the power of kundalini, with sleep, drowsiness, meditation, and faith. 

So that, literally, like this image of the Buddhist murals, you begin to fly in that, literally, the fourth dimension with your physical body. That state is like, because your vital body is penetrated more deeply into your physicality, as Samael Aun Weor described, it is like feeling your feet and your ankles bloated, and you float and levitate. You feel the forces permeating you with a type of vibrancy or, kind of like an electrical sensation. In Buddhist cosmology, there are many saints who are depicted as having flown through walls and mountains. Francis of Assisi floated when he prayed. There are initiates who can do this, but, obviously, it is a tough topic. But something that you can verify from experience, as these mythologies and teachings demonstrate.
 
The fourth dimension is like, it is not only just time, temporality, but it is also marked and defined by very vivid spatiality, like, being aware of your surroundings with more color, light, vibrancy, similar to the astral dimension. The way that you register that is through the quality of your heart, your prayer, your faith. ​

​Experiment and Verify

​So, what does this all boil down to? I will sum it up from Samael Aun Weor's Revolution of the Dialectic:

We have wasted our time miserably if we are imprisoned only in theories, if we have not carried out anything practical, if we have not become conscious about what I have taught in my books, or if we leave the teachings in the memory. Memory is the formative principle of the intellectual center. When a person aspires for something more, looking through the limitations of his subconsciousness, seeing what he has deposited in his memory, analyzing and meditating upon the last occurrence or teachings of an esoteric book, only then will those values move to the emotional phase of the same intellectual center. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic

​So, we may have the knowledge in our mind, but we have to feel it. We feel inspired by it. We want to experience it. We feel the joy of practicing it.

When one wants to know the deep meaning of a certain teaching and surrenders in full to meditation, such teachings obviously move on to the emotional center and then they come to be felt in the depth of the soul. When one has purely experienced these teachings, the cognizable values of the essence, then, at last, they remain deposited in the consciousness and are never again lost. The essence becomes enriched with the same cognizable values. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic

So, the principle to remember is this: if you experience it, you won’t forget it, even if you die. If you memorize, store a lot of information just in the mind, when we die, we don’t take it with us. This is evidenced by, if you have studied dream yoga or Hinduism, transmigration, that, obviously, in our Western life, we don’t remember our previous existences. But if you have experienced it internally in meditation or seen in the Akashic Records your past, you know it is a reality.
 
So the question becomes, why don't we know, or don't remember? Thing is, many times, many of us have perhaps entered into this type of knowledge or studies in other existences, but we reach a certain level, but then forget. That knowledge from those past lives aren’t deposited within our Being. Your Inner God can show you things that you experienced from the past and help you verify it. ​

​Exercises

​But the way that we do so is learning meditation, as the ultimate science. If you can boil all this down to an essential practice, it is, precisely, meditation.

1. So, throughout the day, practice self-observation, the key of SOL and meditative retrospection.
2. Relax your body, heart, and mind. Concentrate upon, visualize and pray to your inner divinity to teach you an aspect of astral travel. If you get distracted, return to your concentration, prayer and visualization. Fall asleep in a state of meditation.

 
Highly recommend, if you want to learn meditation, go on to Glorian Publishing’s website, learn Meditation Essentials. It is a great place to start.
 
You can now ask questions.

​Questions and Answers

Question: You mentioned the tarot. If you receive, let's say, images from the French Tarot de Marseilles, or maybe the symbolic deck of Oswald Wirth based off of, or at least I believe, it is Samael’s teachings, does that hold as much significance as the Eternal Tarot of the Gnostics?
 
Instructor: Yeah. If you are being shown internally something from that deck, it is because your Being is using something familiar to you. Oftentimes, divinity will teach you in a language that we can understand. Obviously, God is not going to talk to us. Well, it might seem that way, talk to us in a language that we don't know. But, usually, the symbols and the iconography, the images that are presented to us in a dream are usually things that are familiar to us from our own life. Personally, I have had experiences before where I was being shown an aspect about magic in relation to a video game I played years ago when I was a kid. So, it is interesting. Like I was remembering what that interface in game was like and how magic was being performed, and I was being shown, taught something of importance. So, your Inner Being will use any experience in your life and frame it in a way that is something that you need to know more. So, it is like with good teaching. A teacher will go to a student, will meet them at their level of understanding, perhaps activate their previous knowledge on a topic, and then we will build more. We will add to it. That is how God talks to us, too. So, that deck, whatever knowledge you receive from it and then what the dream is showing you, it is good. So have faith in that.
 
Question: When you mentioned about going into the astral and meditating there, are you speaking of the dreams, conscious dreams, or you are speaking of maybe going into the astral or other realms during meditation?
 
Instructor: Good question. What I am talking about when you are meditating, you can do both in both cases. You may find that you are meditating physically, you abandon your physical body, you enter the astral plane, and then you can suddenly decide to meditate in that state, go further. Other times you may just fall asleep, you go to bed, you astral project, and then decide, “I am going to meditate while I am here.” So in either case, you can do the same. So long as you have conscious recognition that you are dreaming is the important thing. If we don’t have recognition that we are dreaming it means that we don’t know what is going on. Right?
 
Question: Sometimes there is a layer or when for example when I am dreaming, I am unconscious most of the time. But then it comes to the point that I feel like I am in vigil, then I start praying. Is it conscious dreaming?
 
Instructor: Sure. If you recognize that you are dreaming and you are seeing more vivid intensity, you are aware, yes, you are recognizing that you are dreaming. Yes, it is a lucid dream. There are qualities of lucid dreams.
 
Another Instructor:  I was also going to add, there are degrees of consciousness, right? So it sounds like you recognize you have some cognizance of being in the dream, and you are more conscious than you might be if you were just totally asleep and identified. But maybe we are not as conscious as a master would be on that plane where they would feel no fear because they see through the illusion of it, right? Of course, yeah. But I think it is a good sign.
 
Question: When you do the greetings for the gatekeeper, what book is it?
 
Instructor: It has been mentioned in Practical Astrology, because when you want to enter any zodiacal temple or other planetary sanctuary, you do that prayer. So other temples you can visit, too. I know I mentioned some on our planet but you can also travel to the heart temple of the planet Mars where is the abode of Samael. Many other sacred precincts you can enter or visit, the way you do it is with that prayer I have mentioned.
 
Question: So you said in the realm of spiritual debt, it is paid either through good deeds or pain. Is there a way to measure that? Like the intensity or choosing, because you said it was a choice? You get to discern that?
 
Instructor: It all depends on the magnitude of your credits. If you ask for more, more is expected, and if we don’t fulfill that then obviously we get compensated. If it is a small petition which usually for most people is not going to be, I think, we all like to aim high, at least in principle. But the greater the magnitude of the credit, the more that is demanded of us, and the more that we fail to accomplish our own responsibilities, the greater we pay.
 
Question: I wanted to mention in kabbalah and Judaic practices, there is often when we want to gain something, we have to give it. Not necessarily pain, of course it can come as pain, too, but it has to be a sacrifice. So when we talk about sacrifice and Judaic practices, sometimes it is actually sacrificing animals, his blood, or red wine now. We always mention that this sacrifice is our conscious sacrifice like our emotions, our desires, and so on. So why then are we still practicing in Judaism, there are some remnants of the physical sacrifice?
 
Instructor: Sure, good question. Traditions are born, they have their life, and then they die. That symbol of sacrifice or the narrative itself was a symbol of sacrificing our own animality. Now, like the Maya and the Aztecs who once had a culture of sacrifice, they originally sacrificed their pride, their anger, their lust, symbolized by animals, because internally, in dreams, our egos take on those forms. But obviously, as we are seeing even in North America, societies build up and then they crumble. So people lose the meaning of their traditions.
 
A lot of the Jewish tradition itself, while still having many remnants that are beautiful and necessary to study, there are also many aspects like of any tradition that have been infiltrated. Like in the symbol of Abraham sacrificing Isaac when he was showing his faith. In the story there is that ordeal of sacrificing the thing he loves the most, which is his son. That is a symbol. We often struggle to sacrifice the things that we love the most, not recognizing that it is harmful, and so in exchange, the angel says “Take this animal, this goat.” The goat, obviously, is a symbol of, I mean astrologically, Capricorn, the ego, negative elements. So traditions, they have their peak. They give their teachings. They die. But hopefully people can learn to re-energize or revitalize their traditions, and as you might know from Samael Aun Weor, he does that with pretty much every religion. So, it is good to look at the symbology there.
 
Question: So I tried to observe myself falling asleep but I can’t maintain the drowsy state no matter how much I try. It gets to a point where I just lose consciousness and I do everything I can. Even I appointed people who were near me to keep me awake, but I appear to be awake but I am actually asleep. I am unconscious. Do you have feedback or any suggestions?
 
Instructor: So you are saying that you have a hard time falling asleep when you need to, like consciously falling asleep, consciously. It is a balance. Meditation is what is going to teach that. Meditation properly practiced is balancing a state of watchfulness with drowsiness, and it might seem like a very strange dichotomy. How can you be watchful when you are drowsy?
 
The truth is that we have to be attentive to what is paying attention. The consciousness, the Essence, the soul needs to be hyper-vigilant. The physical body needs to go to sleep. Oftentimes, psychologically speaking, we tend to be very identified with our body. So these energies, its fluctuations and flow―maybe we have more energy in the morning than the afternoon, or however our particular idiosyncrasy is. Now, the particular thing to remember is that when you are conscious, as a soul, your body can be in any state. Could be physically very hyperactive, maybe if you have had a lot of coffee or or very attentive, maybe your body, you have a lot of energy, but it doesn’t mean that we are conscious, psychologically speaking. You can have a lot of energy emotionally, mentally, chemically, vitally, physically, and yet not be paying attention at all. Such as when you are playing a sport, you are not very attentive to what you are doing. To some degree, there is a level of consciousness there and you have a lot of energy and vitality, but you could be driving your car after four cups of coffee, and yet suddenly you are lost in thought. You are not seeing the environment that you are in. You are not awake―or daydreaming.
 
The quality that we need to develop that has to be hyper-attentive is the soul, and the physical body needs to learn how to cooperate. Obviously, if you struggle with maintaining energy at certain times of the day, like for some people, they may find it easier to meditate at the end of the day when they are drowsy. Or, you don’t have time in the evenings, try drinking something like passionflower tea. You know, if your body is very agitated, you have a tough time sitting, or if you are having a tough time relaxing enough to enter meditation, drink an herbal tea. Chamomile, passionflower is exceptionally good. Helps reduce the nerves, the stress, or perhaps maybe an underlying tension that is there that we are not aware of, and with time, you will learn to negotiate that threshold between conscious awakening and physical sleep.
 
When you willingly enter meditation in that state of hyperactive conscious activity, you are basically training your body to come along with the ride. Because in the beginning our body rules us. You know, if you physically have too much energy, we don’t know how to manage it. Or if we are too drowsy, we don’t know how to wake up. The consciousness has got to be the one driving the car. We have to learn to take the reins, so to speak, and when you practice meditation, you learn what is called pliancy in Buddhist philosophy. Pliancy is when your mind, your heart, and your body, like in the image of the elephant we showed on the slide, becomes a serviceable and useful tool in our spiritual life. Doesn’t become an enemy. It is not something we are fighting. Instead, it learns to obey. You do that by learning concentration. So I really recommend if you want to learn that balance between wakefulness and dreaming, and how to consciously manage it, study Meditation Essentials on Glorian. Very effective.
 
Comment: One of the things that has happened for me in that situation is I noticed that in our world we use a lot of energy trying to transform impressions, especially in a city like Chicago. So at the end of the day when you are trying to do your practice, which I still keep trying to do, I find that I’m so exhausted, and I fall straight to sleep. So I have to do the practice, especially on a day when I am not working, when I have nothing going on, I have gotten a full night of sleep, maybe had a healthy breakfast, and then trying around in the afternoon or early afternoon when I still have a lot of energy, then I find that I am able to keep consciousness awake, even while my body is getting kind of sleepy, you know, like a nap time. And that seems to work best for me to stay, keep the consciousness awake even while the body is getting sleepy.
 
Instructor: Any final comments or questions? So, thank you. Appreciate the turnout. We’ll have uh, some lectures online soon. And We appreciate the attendance and feedback. Thank you all for coming!