Messages from the Beyond

Accessing trance states shape our world

There were a series of dreams I had in late 2012 that introduced me to people whom I was about to meet in the coming year, showed me what decisions I needed to make in order to heal that path of my life, and provided prophetic visions of a future that I needed to prepare for.

The latter started to seem like something I had put too much emphasis on, until the Spring of 2020 unfolded in a way that resembled what I had written in my journal about those dreams.

In every situation, I was grateful to have been granted these visions and to have had the awareness to act on what they were telling me.

During that time, I had started to undertake a dedicated meditation practice as well as dabble in energy medicine. I was training myself to drop out of our hyper-focused awareness, or what we consider ordinary consciousness in today’s world.

I say in today’s world because it wasn’t so long ago that we humans were more often in states of relaxed awareness. The kind where your mind can wander and drift, making new connections and receiving messages from the beyond.

This is one of the many reasons why the people of today suffer from so many ailments. We stay hyper-aroused by artificial light, caffeine, bells and alarms, sirens, and all the other “super important” things that vie for our attention and awareness. When we stay too long in these states of consciousness, we start to tense up, narrow our focus, and shut ourselves off from the flow of life force energy around us.

But learning how to drop into trance states can start to heal us and the world around us.

The word trance comes from the Latin “transire,” which means to “cross over” or “pass over.” It is also related to the word “trans,” which means “across” or “beyond.”

There are varying levels of trance from the casual daydream all the way to deep trance states like hypnosis or even sleep. Regardless of the type of trance, in addition to physical healing down to the cellular level, each one offers us some bit of information.

Trance brings information from the beyond.

And this beyond could be your subconscious mind or your soul. It could be from the ancestors or the myriad guides that surround you. The information could come from plants, animals, or rocks. Just yesterday I was sitting with cronewort, yarrow, and chickweed, dropping into a light state of trance to hear what they were saying.

They were very chatty and had so much wisdom and support to offer.

It is the same state I drop into when working on people in energy-work sessions. In this space I am able to shift into a state of light trance while also guiding the person in front of me into a deeper state of trance. From this place we are both able to access realms of information that society otherwise tells us is not possible.

But each time, I am always able to bring back verifiable information that I could not have otherwise known, as well as messages from the beyond to support the person on their life’s journey.

This no longer feels unusual to me, and the more I learn about history, the more I understand that we have always consulted what we cannot perceive with our physical senses in order to move in a way that is more harmonious for ourselves and those around us.

Like last year when I became curious about the Oracle at Delphi, which I did not realize was multiple people. No one ever taught me about the women who sat on the throne of the Oracle, women who were initiated into the mysteries in order to access trance states and consult world leaders. Yes, world leaders. Men from around the world would come to visit the Oracle, who would only read for them once a year, to learn which direction they should take in their endeavors.

And it was last year when I started diving deeper into learning about the völva, the shamanesses of the Germanic peoples who played a similar role. Different from the Oracle at Delphi, they acted as guides and diplomats on behalf of their tribes. They would visit neighboring settlements to offer guidance and advice. Their method employed the local women to sing and drum while the völva would enter her trance state. They were revered and respected.

Then of course, most people are familiar with the shamans, medicine men, ayahuasqueros, and other similar positions that are held within indigenous tribes the world over. For those who have not lost the links to their ancestral past, they still have access to these skilled practitioners who can traverse the realms with ease.

But trance is not just for those who have been trained in the mysteries. Trance is something that we all have access to and ideally should be dropping into more often.

Perhaps you are and don’t even realize it.

There is, of course, the trance where we zone out while driving the same path home and upon arrival, realize we weren’t actually conscious for most of it. Then there is the trance that happens when we scroll on social media; somehow half an hour can fly by, and we don’t even know where it went.

But then there are the alternate timelines that we see in our mind’s eye. The ones where we just know it is going to work out with this person. Or the beautiful future that you can feel is *just right there.*

This isn’t an accident. It’s not a daydream to write off. And just because it doesn’t work out doesn’t mean it wasn’t real or valid. Especially those realities that depend on other people.

Because traditionally, when we entered into trance states especially ritually, we would then bring those visions back to the collective and together deliberate. Then once a decision was made around which timeline to pursue, we would collaborate to make the choices that would lead us in that direction.

Something much harder to do in today’s hyper-individualistic society which de-emphasizes the importance of dream and trance states.

One of the most well-known gatherings of people for the purpose of receiving these messages and bringing them back is the moon lodge. Menstruating people would gather together to release the previous month’s energies, to support each other, and to receive new visions and dreams. It is believed in many cultures that the time of menstruation is so powerful, like a vortex through which dense energies are transmuted and visions are pulled down from the ethereal wire.

There have also been vision quests, meditation retreats, whirling, and contemplation in the various traditions from throughout the world.

Francis Crick was visited by the double-helix during an LSD experience, furthering scientific research. Salvador Dali had a download of the melting clocks which would feature in his painting "The Persistence of Memory" while in the space right before falling asleep. Harriet Tubman would fall down with the power of visions that landed upon her, helping her to guide others on the Underground Railroad.

Unfortunately, space for these visions continues to dwindle. What we have seen with the rise of those who wish to dominate and control the world is a divorcing us from our spiritual selves and a choke-hold that is ever-increasing upon our time.

When I had my first full-time job, an 8th-grade teacher in an underserved school, a few months in while driving down the road I realized that was the first time in a long time that I could remember having any real time to myself. Which is funny because driving isn’t all that relaxing, yet it was the little bit of time where I wasn’t either actively teaching, preparing for teaching, or resting from the teaching that I had been doing.

I remember thinking this is exactly why adults seem like they suffer.

In that moment, I understood the importance of time for boredom and daydreaming and unstructured space. I saw a reality where we could be more free and have new ideas and help each other to thrive. I saw an alternate reality where every moment was accounted for, and we drove ourselves further into darkness.

I committed in that moment to doing everything I possibly could to create the more beautiful future.

When Tricia Hersey says rest is an act of resistance, it absolutely is. But you don’t need to be particularly inclined by revolutionary impulses to reclaim your time and space.

If you wish for more peace, the practice of trance is for you. If you seek more guidance from beyond, the practice of trance is for you. If you wish for healing on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels, the practice of trance is for you. If you seek to know a more wonderful world, the practice of trance is for you.

While the trance space can become intimately familiar to those of us who traverse it, we never know exactly what we will see there. This is what terrifies those who want to control the world. It’s not predictable, which means as far as they know it’s not profitable.

But they’re wrong. In the space of trance, we are granted wisdom beyond what we can even conceive of in our ordinary consciousness. We are gifted blessings from the other side.

And the more of us who access it brings more abundance into the world. For everyone.