The Heart’s My Beat… by Garrett Campbell
The Heart’s My Beat…
By Garrett Campbell
A few years ago, I heard through word of mouth that a new New Age store would be opening it’s doors here in North Bay. I was forever a regular patron of The Green Unicorn owned by psychic Norah of the North. Actually, that is where my quest in becoming a seeker began. The yellow pages and a phone call. In more recent years, Norah decided it was high time to semi-retire and move south. I don’t know if it was pre-ordained or just good timing, but Heart of Unity opened up right when Norah left. When one walks into the new shop, Heart of Unity, one is greeted by Monica, a psychic and Tarot Reader. Monica has been reading cards for sometime and apparently sees light energy and orbs around people. Recently, she claims she doesn’t have to look at the Cards as much as she feels the energy of the subject and goes from there. Her reading room has a table in the center and is occupied by various decks of cards for pilgrims to initiate their own divination. Divination is the practice of looking for messages and finding answers through occult means. This may be looking for signs in a deck of cards or reading an astrological chart. Pilgrims and believers say that the universe can give us certain little pieces of knowledge about life here on Earth and the cosmos through these divining practices.
I attend one of Monica’s weekly meditation circles to see where her guidance will take my inner psyche tonight. As I look around, I see different rooms for different services offered. Enlightenment can come in many forms to pilgrims nowadays and is not restricted to so-called conventional worship. And, many of the practitioners and healers working with her are local talent. In one corner, there’s prints by local artists and eco-friendly handbags crafted by another local woman. I must admit, there’s a certain calm and serenity upon entering this place. One often leaves the outside world at the door and joins in the path of self-realization. It is no ordinary meditation circle tonight, for it is a special night. In Numerology, followers claim numbers from 0 to 9 and the numbers 11, 22 and 33 have hidden meaning. Each person has a birth number and life path number and so on. These all have special significance. One, naturally being first is the number of the leader and 3 is Creativity. Ones personal numbers are found by adding the sum total of ones name and birth date, then reducing that to a singular number. In the last singular number, apparently, resides one’s destiny. The theory the universe works in numbers and mathematics may not be far-fetched at all. Tonight the special number being celebrated is the number 3. Threes are creative and three has to do with everything pertaining to creativity. The date is March 3, 2010. 2010 is a number three year so followers claim this is a good year for all creative pursuits. Across the room, there a guy named Tim, who is on a path himself and searching for answers. It’s his first time here. The usual chatter and a bit of nervousness permeates the place as we’re all looking for the same thing, but that ‘same thing’ is different to each of us. The meditation is soon getting underway and I have been invited to set up the centerpiece for tonight. I believe in symmetry and feng-shui and that there is a natural order of things in the universe, so I set up the ‘alter’ in that way. I decide to set it up accordingly. The lights are dimmed. Monica enters the room and some general announcements are made. She tells the group of about ten or fifteen assembled tonight that though it’s a guided meditation and she guides, the journey is highly personal. One lets it take you where one is led. For example, she may instruct you to visualize a golden box in your mind but each individual takes a different thing from the box. Or, visualize a color, but she doesn’t tell you which color to visualize. Here it’s highly personal to the subject. Tonight it’s all about creativity. The room is now silent except for Monica’s voice talking over all the crossed legs and relaxed, semi-conscious states.
Meditation is a feeling I find hard to explain in everyday words. It’s like the outside room is still there but it’s not. The feeling I get is almost like paralysis as your so relaxed and something is holding you down from getting up. One just gives in to the inner recesses of the mind. Back to number three. Tonight is all about creativity and manifesting. I hear Monica’s voice instruct us to visualize somewhat of a perfect utopian world or utopia. To create that. The first thing that comes to me is a utopian world where everyone has their own trees, plants and animals and there are abundant fruit trees everywhere. The closest time period I gather is before the industrial revolution where there were more farms and people relied less on corporations to feed them. Reproduction never runs out, living things turn to dust and dirt and they replenish themselves for another round of the cycle of life. Would everyone have enough? My color tonight is an indigo color. I don’t know if it was just the power of suggestion or was something really coming to me from apparently beyond this realm. I do know it all seemed real to me at that moment.
Others meditate for other reasons. To find peace, look inside themselves to solve everyday problems or just for the apparent trance-state and out-of-body experience. Monica instructs the group now to come back to Earth, so to speak. Again, people come out of the trance-meditative state at different speeds and methods. I’ve heard of one woman who would not come out but started to channel and apparent spirit-entity from the other side, known only as the Grandmother, giving a message similar to the late John Lennon‘s: live in harmony and peace. I’ve seen this actually at another meditation I attended.
I slowly become aware again of the room around me. Monica instructs the group to wiggle their fingers and toes and stretch and open their eyes slowly. This is an important aspect of ‘coming-down’ from the meditative process. As mentioned above, some people tend not to ‘come back’ right away and can get ‘lost’ in the realms, so to speak. Everyone arrives back safely. The way Monica goes about this is she goes around the circle, starting from her left and everyone shares his or her experiences. One guy named Doug, says he experienced nothing. Just pure calmness and tranquility. I sit back and listen and wonder if nothing can teach someone too. Maybe one doesn’t have to experience, say, another plane or their favourite color. Maybe the gods were just trying to appease him and make Doug enjoy the tranquillity of the moment without him having to explain what he saw. For I heard one time nothingness can be a great spiritual teacher for it can teach us patience and restraint. I tell what I saw, everybody nods and then we go around the circle and this meditation draws to a close. Monica decides to keep my alter up all night for positive energies. I agree and let her.
I must admit, there’s something about that place (and meditation) that’s leaves one with a tranquil feeling. I felt refreshed and recharged after I left that night. Whether it’s just the power of suggestion and a placebo or if there’s some otherworldly energy at work to it, is open to question. Each person is on their own path and if they believe what they experience is genuine, then it’s true to them. That’s their reality. As I’ve always said, “I’ll never know all the answers, I’ll only know when I’m dead and even then I may not know…”
