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Revisiting Sitting in the Power - part one
17-Mar-2023
Revisiting Sitting in the Power: Part One.
Meditation is, for many mediums and healers, a regular part of their mediumistic unfoldment. As our past President of the ISF, Eileen Roberts, said in the book the Misconceptions in Mediumship, "Meditative practices are always good if you use them for good purpose. In your development, it will assist the growth and strength of your inner world, of your spirit, struggling to be free in a world of turmoil".
Though not technically a meditation, Sitting in the Power has nevertheless been promoted by many tutors as having potential benefits for individuals looking to explore their own mediumistic potential. Over the years, I have come across many variations to Sitting in the Power. However, I would like the opportunity to revisit this practice and to share it with you over the subsequent three part blog. Before explaining why, I feel there is something quite unique and clever about this practice.
The late Glyn Edwards introduced many of my colleagues and me to this practice back in 1998. I have a clear memory of Glyn explaining to all the students that this was a practice received from the spirit world and communicated through a trusted trance medium. As the story goes…. Glyn frustrated with the lack of support and good development circles available to students to facilitate their continued unfoldment. So took the opportunity during a trance demonstration to ask the spirit control what he could do to assist students so that their unfoldment may continue to progress between attending workshops and courses? The response from the spirit control become the practice of Sitting in the Power.
I intend to discuss and go through each of the steps of this practice as it was taught two decades ago. But first, in this blog, let's recap on the different meditative practices that currently exist.
Broadly speaking, meditation falls into one of three groups. The most commonly known to exponents unfolding their mediumship is probably that of the visualisation or guide meditation. Typically used in many Open circles and takes the form of the circle leader guiding the exponent on some imagery journey. This encourages the exponent to have a sensory experience whilst exploring far off lands, places of comfort, meeting loved ones from the spirit world or even meeting their own spirit team. These are great for those new to meditation and provide a distraction from everyday thoughts, often incorporating physical relaxation. Giving valuable time away from daily living and flowing some instructions to reach a mental and physical relaxation degree.
The second group involves some form of focus-based meditation, controlling thoughts and attempting to inhibit erroneous thoughts that cause the mind of the individual to wander on to other mundane thoughts. An example of focus-based meditation would include some of the more straightforward Mindfulness practices. Here the individual is encouraged to be self-aware of erroneous thoughts and bring themselves back to the point of focus, perhaps their breath or some point in their vision, e.g. candle. Based on the premise that to achieve a degree of stillness, it is essential for the individual to actively learn how to control their minds rather than allow their minds to control them.
When referring to mediation, the phrase 'monkey mind' depicts the uncontrolled mind being like a monkey jumping from branch to branch, from tree to tree, looking for bananas. The aim of focus-based meditation is for the individual to learn to catch and control this monkey and thus control your thoughts.
The last group, referred to as the transcending meditations, take a different perspective to the monkey mind and the depiction of the monkey jumping from branch to branch. Instead of trying to catch and control the monkey, what would happen if we quietly allowed the monkey to find the bananas? In other words, in transcending meditations, the individual allows their thoughts to jump from one to another without their interference or interaction. The result often reported by meditators is that their thoughts become slower and infringe less upon the individual's mind, with periods where the individual transcends into a blissful state.
However, Sitting in the Power doesn't comfortably fit in any of these three groups. So, in part two, I will explain what makes Sitting in the Power unique. Then, in part three, I will discuss how Sitting in the Power might have neurological effects that benefit your mediumistic unfoldment.
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