MEETING OF THE TWO WORLDS

---

I saw, in my lucid meditation state, that I was both conscious and entering into and living in another world. This is the world behind the retina. This is the world which comprises the subtle realms. It is in contrast to the three dimensional, material realm in which we ordinarily live.

It has be been said by the Masters, the Greeks, and by Plato, that this other world, this world of the subtle energies, this world of the dream, is more real than the world of materiality. There is growing evidence that this is true. But it isn't so much a matter of a contrast between the two worlds; it is a better thing to live in both at once. This occurs in lucid dreaming and lucid meditation. The injunctions of teachers such as Castaneda, Steiner, and Aurobindo give us instruction to cultivate the lucid meditative and lucid dreaming mind.

We are moving toward that as we leave this age of Kali-Yuga and enter into the better times of Sat-Yuga. More and more we can appreciate, realize and give validation to the world of subtle life.

The latest in this respect comes in the book "Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones." This is a book by Raymond Moody (the discover, as his book says, of "Life After Life") along with Paul Perry.

Moody, who brought us to realization of the frequency of near-death (and nowadays even after-death) experiences, the realization of their uniformity and reality, described meetings with the departed loved ones in these near-death occurrences. Moody has now developed a method in which he enables a client to experience a natural meeting with the dear departed. Moody studied ancient literature, and learned that in Greece (and many other places) meetings with the departed were accepted as a reality. He studied their method. He found that in Greece as well as in other cultures, the encounter arrived as one stared into a polished surface. Thereupon he created a "psychomanteum," a theatre of the mind.

He prepared his client by having them review their past, thinking of their loved ones, and detaching progressively from this rush-a-day world -- relaxing into a peaceful, near-altered state.They then entered the psychomanteum, a structure of darkness, lit dimly by a 15 watt bulb through a Tiffany shade. The experiencer sat in a low chair, looking up into a mirror, 4 by 5 feet. In this situation, the subject could not see the own reflection, instead an almost darkness. After a time, clouds and colors formed, mists and smoke, and indeed, the dear departed returned. In many cases, not the ones that were expected, but another, and always someone who had an important mission of healing of the patient, helping him/her to come to resolution about a problem. Many times, the subject entered into the mirror itself! Moving about in an entirely different environment, along with others of the departed. This was very much like the experience of those who had near-death encounters.

At other times the spirits came though the mirror into this environment; and sometimes the subject moved back and forth across the mirror. Thus the mirror represents the borderland between our waking reality and our dream reality. In fact the moving back and forth is much like lucid meditation and lucid dreaming, where the junction between the two worlds occurs. This is our ideal state, and a condition into which we are moving with the increasing validation and knowledge of the power of the subtle realms.

When we think of the work of Prof. William Tiller, who shows us that subtle energy can actually charge the room and the room then can create healing; when we see James Oschman showing and proving the power of magnetic energy throughout the body, magnetic energies that emanate from the hands of the Reiki healer; when we see instruction like this, we begin to see the reality on the other side of the mirror. When we see the frequency of ESP experiences, and accept more and more the power of healing modalities that are beyond the physical world, we enter into the other side of the mirror.

The meeting of the two worlds is seen again in the work of James Austin, M.D., a neurologist who demonstrates the connection between Zen meditative materialization of enlightenment and insight-wisdom, with the flow of chemicals across the various neurons of the brain. When we see all of this, we see that we approach a greater and wider knowledge of how things work. We see the meeting of the two worlds.

Maurie D. Pressman, M.D.
200 Locust Street
Philadelphia, Pa. 19106
www.mauriepressman.com
Email: mauriedavid@earthlink.net
Tel: 215/922-0204

---

Maurie D. Pressman, M.D. is the author of Enter the Supermind, Visions From the Soul and co-author (with Patricia Joudry) of Twin Souls: A Guide to Finding Your True Spiritual Partner. Dr. Pressman is Emeritus Chairman of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Temple University Health Sciences Center. He is Medical Director at the Center for Psychiatric Wellness, clinics that operate in Philadelphia and Haddonfield, N.J. These clinics bridge traditional and spiritual psychotherapy. Dr. Pressman can be reached at 200 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106; telephone: 215/922-0204; fax: 215/922-3008; email: mauriedavid@earthlink.net; website: www.mauriepressman.com.

---