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Following my travels in Israel and Egypt, I spent six months in the U.S. researching, writing, and giving public lectures about my experiences at the power places. I also spent a few months camping on a number of sacred mountains in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Atop one those mountains, the 13,323-foot Mt. Hesperus in Colorado, I had one of the most extraordinary visionary experiences of all my years of pilgrimage travels. I was taught a simple meditation technique that simultaneously develops in the practitioner two remarkable things: a way of connecting with the spirit or energy of the Earth, and a way of empowering and directing a beam of healing energy into the Earth.
This experience began in a most unusual way. After climbing for five hours to the snow-covered peak of the mountain, I descended a few hundred feet to a small flat area that was out of the cold wind yet warmed by the brilliant autumn sunshine. I planned to meditate for a few moments and then make my way back down the mountain. Less than five minutes had passed, however, when I heard a powerful voice speak to me in my mind. Very distinctly it said, "Prepare yourself. A transmission is coming." As was similar in other visionary experiences over the years, these words seemed to be telepathically transmitted into my consciousness from some external source. After these initial words no others were spoken, yet a wonderful teaching began to be communicated. A presence entered my body like a hand slipping into a glove or water pouring into and filling a bottle. While I could feel this presence throughout my body and mind, I was not under its control. I could easily have removed it whenever I wished. As I became comfortable with the mysterious presence, it began gently to guide my breathing through a repeating sequence of three distinct breaths. This guidance continued for some minutes until I clearly recognized the pattern. As the sequence of three breaths was impressed upon my memory I became aware of a subtle energy, distinct from the initial presence, flowing in and out of my body. This energy came from two places: the sky above my head and the ground beneath me. Next, my sequential breathing pattern and the movement of this energy through my body came into harmony with one another. When this occurred, the breathing pattern became completely automatic, and my attention was drawn to the energy flow itself.
On a nonverbal level I learned that this particular energy was always present and that, through the meditative practice of the breathing sequence, one could quickly access the energy and establish a connection with the Earth spirit. Furthermore through the practice of the breathing sequence the energy could be utilized to create a human energy beam that could be used to direct healing energy into the Earth or other people. The breathing sequence would assist in the focusing of mental attention, which itself gathers and concentrates the subtle energies coming into the body. The energies were gathered in the center of my body where the fourth or heart chakra is located. Once gathered at this point the subtle energies were amplified by the addition of my own consciousness and then directed outward from my body as the human energy beam.
For approximately 30 minutes the mysterious presence guided my breath and attention while my eyes were closed. During the latter portion of this time I was only barely conscious of myself as having a physical body. I had become one with the energy flow. At some point my eyes opened. While the breathing sequence continued, a most amazing state of awareness began to develop in my mind. In this state of awareness I perceived that while I did indeed inhabit a physical body that occupied a definite location in space, I was simultaneously part of the larger energetic fabric of space all around me. Looking at my body I was able to see the perimeter of its structure as defined by the surface of its skin, yet I was also able to see a translucent envelope of luminous energy completely surrounding my body. The envelope of energy and my body were different, yet they were also the same. Think of an ice cube in a glass of water. The ice and the surrounding water are actually the same substance; only because they are in different energy states do they manifest different physical forms.
Recognizing that my body, the mountain rocks, and the sky above were merely different forms of the same energetic essence, I was able to merge with everything surrounding me by focusing my consciousness and directing it outward. With my eyes open I sat for some time and watched as a radiance of love flowed outward from the area of my fourth chakra. With each exhalation of my breath during the three-breath sequence came a pulse of this love energy. On the first exhalation the pulse would be directed into the ground below me, on the second exhalation into the sky above, and on the third into all the space surrounding me. The first two pulses of directed energy were in the form of a beam; the third took the form of an ever-expanding sphere. I was able to see and feel these pulses of radiated love energy until they were perhaps eighty feet from my body. As they extended beyond this distance I lost touch with them (as another exhalation and its own energy pulse began) but I understood that they continued to expand. The beams flowed into the ground and sky while the spherical pulse expanded to flow out and touch every living thing on Earth.
After some time the presence began to depart from my being. Then, totally of my own volition, I was able to practice the breathing sequence and radiate the energy beam from my heart. I did this for some time before the mysterious voice again spoke to me. I was instructed to practice the meditation for a few minutes each day, and for longer periods of time at each of the power places I would henceforth visit. Lastly, I was told to teach the meditation to people all around the world. Following these directions, the presence completely departed and I regained my normal awareness. The hour was late and dark swirling clouds warned of an impending snow storm. I began the long trek down the mountain. While descending, I alternately thought about what had happened to me and practiced the breathing technique. I wanted to consider every detail of the extraordinary experience I had just gone through, yet I found it difficult to exercise my memory and intellect. Each time I began to practice the breathing technique an overwhelming sense of oneness with and love for the Earth would surge through my body and empty my mind of all thought. It is not possible to convey this sensation in words, but I felt as if I had become part of the mountain. More accurately, I came to recognize I had never not been a part. For many years I had felt extremely close to the Earth. Now I knew that I was, in fact, one with the Earth. I am the Earth and the Earth is me.
I gazed around at the forest and felt my kinship with the trees. How different was I from them? Not much. Their roots were physical and mine ethereal, yet we both lived only by the grace of the living Earth. I began embracing trees and, strange as it may sound, the spirit essence of the trees spoke to me. They joyfully honored my new awareness and expressed their amazement at how humans thought themselves to be separate from and better than the rest of the natural world. While I was communing with the trees, a small herd of elk came upon me. They had a curious look in their eyes as if they were wondering why a human being was embracing a tree. I began again to practice the breathing technique and directed the energy beam toward the elk. Immediately their apprehension with my presence disappeared and they began to graze within a few feet of me. I lay down in the grass and looked into the sky. Many different kinds of birds were flying above me, and the spirits of these winged beings showered love down upon me. A sensuous euphoria, a sweet enchantment swept over me. I realized that the trees and the elk and the birds were welcoming me home. These other living beings were actually expressing their delight that I had recognized my oneness with the Earth and all of life.
After leaving Mt. Hesperus I began to practice the meditation technique every day, and have continued to do so for many years. Practicing the meditation has brought a wonderful sense of hope to my heart and mind. Previously, I had been saddened about the health of the Earth and my inability to do much to help. Now, through the practice of the meditation, I have a way of deeply connecting to the Earth and actively contributing to its healing. In chapter 8 (also featured on this web site) I will explain how to do the meditation technique. Here, I want to say a few words about the so-called environmental problem, our current failure to 'fix' the problem, and the explanation for this failure. A brief discussion of these matters will reveal the value to be gained from practicing the meditation technique.
The Earth has, in its four and one half billion years of life, given birth to an inestimable number of living forms from microscopic protozoa to the vast forests, grasslands, and seas to our own species. All these parts are interwoven in an enormously complex tapestry of service relationships. Each species and each individual member within those species serves and is served by every other species upon the Earth. All of these species - let us call them the cells of the planetary body - are united in their interrelatedness and interdependency by this fundamental principle of service to the whole. Service to the whole is service to all the parts, and service to the parts is service to the whole. Each cell of the planetary body plays a role in the maintenance of the entirety of life. Disturbance of any species' role affects not only the other species in its immediate ecological niche, but, inevitably, the well-being of all living things.
Within the last 200 years the species homo sapiens has experienced an exponential increase in its population size and technological capacities but has not developed an equivalent growth in its understanding of the planet's fundamental life dynamics. This imbalance has resulted in humanity's increasingly inharmonious interactions with other life forms, as well as a disturbance of many delicate energy balances that regulate the well being of the biosphere. Presently Homo sapiens (which in Latin means 'wise being') are very unwisely eradicating more than twenty thousand species of life each year. Through ignorance and lack of concern for planetary dynamics we are polluting the skies, the lands, and the seas. We are irrevocably destroying forests and rich agricultural topsoils and are wasting nearly all of the Earth's vital natural resources.
For thirty years the environmental movement has cautioned against these excesses and stressed the importance of humanity developing a sustainable and regenerative relationship with the ecosystem. However, since environmentalists are usually branded as eccentric reactionaries, ignorant of the economic necessities of modern life, no government has yet developed an infrastructure capable of addressing humanity's multiple abuses to the environment. Short-term economic gain is always relegated more importance than long-term ecological loss. Because of this, the present-day rate of achievement of the world environmental effort is far below the speed at which the carrying capacity of the planet is falling. The situation is serious and gets worse with each passing day. Our governments and industrial institutions must fully awaken to the actions they have taken in causing the environmental problems and the roles they must now take to alleviate those problems. The critical need for enforcement of existing environmental protection laws and the creation of additional safeguards is undeniable. Yet it must be understood that laws, policies, and technological solutions are external to and thus ineffective in alleviating the basic cause of the problems.
The causes of the environmental problems that plague the planet are not the steel foundries of Great Britain (creating acid rain in Scandinavia), or the Japanese fishing fleets (eradicating entire Pacific Ocean fish stocks), or the American petrochemical industry (causing pesticide-induced poisoning of food chains in developing countries), nor Central American deforestation (clearing cheap land to raise cattle for U.S. hamburgers). The problem is the human race and our extreme alienation from the grand planetary ecosystem upon which our existence depends. Environmental degradation, in its most fundamental analysis, results from the lack of human awareness rather than from the machines that humans make. Given the six billion - and rapidly growing - human population, enormous logistical support systems will always be required to maintain our presence on the planet. Steel mills, fishing fleets, chemical industries, and agricultural corporations have become and will remain facts of human life. We have developed such structures by virtue of the incredible capacity of human innovation. Now we must further harness our innovation to adjust and adapt those structures so they begin to function in accordance with the inalienable laws of the natural world.
Just as we must understand that the environmental problems that plague our planet are not caused by machines and factories but rather by the humans behind the machines and factories, we must also understand that no group of people or nations can be held totally responsible for the problems. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In the planetary chain of life, the weakest links are the millions upon millions of individual human beings who presently lack awareness of the interdependence of all living things. Lacking this awareness, humans live out of harmony with the ecological order of the natural world, thus causing the myriad 'little' problems that, added together, cause the 'big' problems of environmental degradation, ozone depletion, deforestation, and species decimation. While various political, military, and economic institutions are convenient scapegoats for such environmental problems, they are not the real cause of the problems, nor is the cessation of their activities the ultimate solution. We are all responsible. We are all members of a global culture based on an extractive economy with no love for the Earth. That means you and me. We must each take responsibility for our own consciousness and actions. We must each recognize and cherish the oneness of life. We must each realize that we live within a fragile ecosystem with a finite quantity of resources. Most important, we must recognize that we are not separate from the Earth but are an actual part of it, just like a tree or a rock or a mountain stream.
This recognition of our individual connection to and complete dependence upon the Earth for all our needs is the most important understanding that we humans need to gain. From this recognition flows a deep love for the ground we stand on, the water we drink, the air we breath, and the food we eat. Such love is more effective in healing the Earth than a thousand years of environmental studies, policies, and laws. No policy or law can ever be substituted for the relationship between the human spirit and the planetary spirit. Policies and laws, whether they be the problem-causing variety deriving from contemporary military, industrial and political institutions or the new category with environmental considerations, are in the final analysis much the same. Both tend to alienate human beings from the land they live on. There is a pervasive tendency in contemporary culture for people to abdicate their sense of personal power to institutions and organizations. This tendency continues to manifest in the creation of so-called environmentally appropriate laws and social policies. While these policies (when enforced) may indeed have some limited effect, they tend to maintain peoples' alienation from the Earth by addressing environmental problems from a position that says "science will fix it" or "we need a stricter law."
I do support scientific and legal endeavors to address the world's environmental problems. Legislation, however, does not inspire people to connect with, care for, or love the Earth, and it will never be entirely effective in healing the Earth. A more fundamental step is the awakening in each and every human being of an understanding that the best way of healing the Earth is to begin with touching, knowing, and loving the land we live on. I am speaking about people having an actual relationship with the living Earth. Only when people are deeply and passionately in love with the Earth will they begin to practice ways of healing the Earth.
Over the years of practicing the meditation it has become a precious and vital part of my daily life. It has given me the ability to more fully connect with and benefit from the energy fields of the sacred sites. It has given me a way to practically and consistently express my love to the Earth. And it has brought deep serenity to my heart and mind. In the hundreds of slide shows I have given around the US. I have taught the meditation to tens of thousands of people. From the many letters I have received after these slide shows it is evident that the meditation has brought similar benefit to other peoples' lives. I encourage all my readers to begin practicing this meditation and thereby bring a healing energy to both their own heart and the Earth.
This meditation may be done anywhere at anytime. It is, however, most enjoyable to do it in a quiet place and when you are not rushed for time. Indoors is fine; outside, sitting directly on the earth, is even better. The technique, explained in the illustrations below, is quite simple to learn. To begin, sit with your eyes closed. Gently regulate your breathing so that each breath is long, slow, and easy, with the inhalation and exhalation being of equal duration. Breathe slow enough so that you are able to feel each part of each breath. The slowing down of your breath serves to focus your attention so that you can begin to feel the celestial and terrestrial energies passing through your body. These energies do not come into the body through the breath, rather they pass through the top of your head and base of your spine (the location of the first and seventh chakras according to esoteric Hinduism). Breathing in a slow, regular manner allows you to feel these energies, add your own energy of love to them, and then direct this combined energy outward from your body as a life-energy beam.
Do the three breath sequence at least ten times whenever you sit to practice. If you have more time and want to develop an intimate relationship with these energies, then practice the sequence for thirty minutes to an hour a few times each week. During the first month of practicing the meditation it may be necessary for you to mentally visualize the celestial and terrestrial energies passing through your body. With consistent practice you will begin to physically feel the energies, and will soon realize that they are in fact always flowing through your body. The more you practice this technique, the deeper will you experience connection with and love for the living Earth.
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That is why the old Indian sits upon the Earth instead of propping
himself up and away from its life giving forces. For him to sit or
lie upon the ground is to be able to think more clearly and feel more
keenly. The old Lakota knew that man's heart away from nature
becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for living things soon
led to lack of respect for humans too.
Luther Standing Bear
Within and around the earth,
Within and around the hills,
Within and around the mountains,
Your power returns to you.
A Tewa Prayer
(Copyright 1983-1999 by Martin Gray - All rights reserved. No part of these writings or drawings may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the author.)
Visit his website at Places of Peace and Power: The Sacred Site Pilgrimage of Martin Gray