What's it like meditating in extreme places

[hagar]

A man I met on a retreat did some qigong practice on top of a hill near Henley in England.

He practiced there for a good half hour, and got nauseous, vomited, and felt ill.

 

Later he asked my teacher what he thought, and he said that the place was not good due to it having been a place of worship in ancient times and had been energetically "rigged".

 

We went there with the whole group, and on top of the hill my teacher showed us a depression in the ground.

There, he said, someone probably had been holding rituals infused with energy, and the area had "traps", so to protect the site. He started walking towards the centre of the pit, and started walking in very strange patterns, almost like in an invisible maze or labyrinth. After a covering 10 meters in about 5 minutes of back-and-forth stepping he stopped in the middle and said he felt very comfortable.

 

h

[三江源]

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Edited March 23, 2015 by 三江源

[rex]

I've been to some ancient sites in the UK and it felt like my blood was having a dialogue with the place quite apart from my rational mind and in one country graveyard it felt like the bones of the village ancestors were transmitting something through the ground as the soil had a certain sentience to it. Brings to mind the pagan belief that our bodies are an extension of the land.

[hagar]

v, interesting, Hagar.

 

I've been to places in Cornwall which were just no good at all. You have trees, you have earth, you have sky, you have sea, it should all be great, but it just isnt... it's BAD. Negative imprinting.

 

Generally, being in nature where there has been less human repetetive action is best. Sometimes you will find particular Trees /areas of woods that are traumatised by human action/emotion, and it is a good job to heal them shamanically. Set them free.. it's a kind of haunting, which of course is a kind of paralysis of energy.

 

Fascinating Cat!

I've felt that the English countryside is infused with alot of old patterns since the history of human interaction with the surroundings go way back. My feeling is that the earth or ground itself also sometimes have energetic aspects that affect the perception of energy of the area. My teacher says that when he came to Norway the first time he couldn't sleep because the earth chi was so strong.

 

I feel that there are "bad" energies everywhere, but that also, these have alot to do with human lack of ability to take the context they practice into consideration. I've felt that asking for "permission" to practice some places works wonders. My teacher's wife, who is also a qigong master, says that one should be careful with practicing in the wilderness due to the strong energies there, and that it's better to choose parks and gardens, where the energy is "garden variety". This is not my experience, yet I am not that sensitive. In my experience, I "go native", meaning I tap into much stronger and more nourishing aspects of energy in unspoiled nature. But the times when I've done so for longer periods of time, I tend to become abit like the dude in the movie "The big blue"; the ocean starts to call for him, and he loses interest in the human side of things. This is also my experience.

 

When there is alot of human activity into a natural setting, things start to get messy. Like the smell of newly cut grass; its actually the stress signal of the grass leaves as they are cut =)

 

h

Edited May 8, 2012 by hagar

[三江源]

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Edited March 23, 2015 by 三江源

[hagar]

Was that Zhendi recommending you all stay in parks? She is protective and cautious for you!

 

I have the same point of view about 'asking'... and I experienced places that said something like, 'if you keep asking I will begin to get verry verry pissed off' ... when I worked with Martin Prechtel he was very pish pish about people asking politely to be in a place that could easily be the home of a powerful spirit which would like to devour you.. asking is fine as long as you really listen for the answer..

 

and I also experienced the intriguing aspect of some places and plants that are needy for human relationship and energy, and really quite clingy.. this is the call of the siren in nature that takes us into a lotus eaters paradise that you speak of.. is it us, or is it them, or is the interplay? I tend to think it is the nature spirits there want food.. and numb us out to anything but them.

 

I feel that jungles have the right balance for me of deep energy and enliveningness. It's as if jungles have got enough going on that they dont feel hungry for more. But, having said that, I think of jungle a lot.. it could easily be a kind of narcotic to my soul. There must be a reason for taoists liking mountains.. no such place - seductions seem to occurr around mountains pure and simple. Just Love and Space.

 

Have you been to swampland/fenland that has been reclaimed... aaaaarrrgh... famously dour places.

 

=) Yes it was Zhendi, LOL. I always felt like she had this direct way of showing concern, especially towards us (relatively) young boys, being recless and full of it.

 

Lotus eaters paradise. Wonderful...

I took naps in the forest during my student years. I always felt that really nourishing. Yet it also made me "taken", especially if I mixed these outings with practice. Yet it was more like the human world lost it's appeal, and something inside found rest.

I've really haven't percieved malevolent enteties, yet certain trees are not good to do practice with. Can't remember which ones, but they make you sick and dizzy, and sometimes can throw you back if you work with them.

Other trees will befriend you. I have one or two such trees, and just tuning into them, even remotely, gives me the quality of their essence. They also miss you when you are gone, according to Erwann, ZWs protegee.

 

Never really found "clingy" enteties in nature, atleast not in this country. But I've run across some places with really bad mojo. And I accidently practiced near swampland once, and got cold and sick and depleted. Yuck!

 

h

[Owledge]

Could it be that those experiences are less about sympathy, but about balance? That you opened yourself to the swamp and thus accumulated a type of energy that you didn't need and thus created an imbalance in yourself?

Trees are associated to certain of the five elements. If you e.g. already have a slight excess of water element and meditate next to a tree representing the water element, maybe it feels as if the tree doesn't like you, when in fact it's all happening in yourself.

[三江源]

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Edited March 23, 2015 by 三江源

[三江源]

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Edited March 23, 2015 by 三江源

[hagar]

Uh! I very aware of the trees that miss me when I've gone. Sometimes very hard to leave them.. eh, the holiday romances I've had..... but yes,as you say, one can keep contact on a shen level with intent. Be part of the web.

 

I think I told you once that I made an assignation with a tree on a croatian island, to meet early in the am on my last day, so we could spend quality time. And I got woken very early on that morning, and woke all sparkly and ready to go, before everyone was awake. This was definitely the tree giving me the wake up call.

 

I dont know Erwann.. I will looksee.

 

"taken" is a good way of putting it. Maybe this is what all the old stories of being kidnapped by the leprechauns or abducted by fairies is all about. If part of us doesnt 'return' from the wild when we rejoin the human world... what part of us might it be?

 

You haven't told me that story before. Thank you.

 

As for which part remains in the wild? In my experience, it is the part which never left in the first place, but got rekindled. We all stem from this time when everything was engulfed by darkness, and not very long ago, we all woke up just listening to the rustle of leaves.

 

That said, many places in nature are not good for practice at all!

There is actually an art in placing one self and finding places to practice in nature.

And indoors for that matter.

 

The Norwegian folklore tradition abounds with stores of "Huldra" which is a kind of fairy that lures men into the woods and then beneath ground. People in rural areas of Norway claim to have seen her to this day. =) And the trolls and small "santas" are pretty well accounted for =)

 

Huldra spotted

 

h