How to begin your mystic journey

Step 0 would be learning how to Seek the Silence, to meditate, to pray, to "go to level". There is no one best method, but they all achieve the same point - an inner stillness, a communication with the Universal, a Higher Intelligence, God.

There are several books and programs on this subject. Silva UltraMind offers seminars.

You need to do this daily, preferably several times a day. And get good enough at this such that you can do it almost anywhere and any time you need to - or that it would benefit someone, help solve a situation.

Step 1 is taking care of the body. Get it healthy and not a hindrance to you. It doesn't have to be perfect, just in working condition. You don't have to heal everything in it right off the bat, you just have to get it onto a track for those things to be taken care of eventually.

This means simply: eat healthy, get sufficient rest, get some exercise on a regular basis. What these mean to you will change as you progress. The point is to get it sufficient food such that it isn't sucking your energy and making it impossible to pray or meditate effectively. Same with rest and exercise. You build up the stamina of the body so it is a stable point to operate from.

Step 2 - clean up your room. Doesn't have to be perfect, just tidy enough so you aren't distracted by anything in it. Obviously, a clean room, with everything put away in its proper place will be an easier place to work from. Start with the area you pray/meditate at. Then move outward from this, organizing and cleaning as you go. Eventually, you get your whole house in order.

Then you move outside and start making the environment around you better. If this only means keeping the trash picked up on the street outside your apartment, or talking to the landlord about getting the carpet vacuumed, that's fine.

The idea is that you move your sphere of influence out as you grow your abilities and personal power. The more clean and orderly your environment, the better you will be able to operate in it. Obviously, this includes your work environment. Keep things picked up as you go and encourage others to do the same.

Step 3 - get on a schedule of daily study. Read books, listen to motivational or educational tapes or MP3's. Turn off the TV and put down the latest newsmagazines - at least for a time each day - and start to improve yourself, to learn about how this universe operates and your part in it. There's a wealth of stuff to learn. The point is to improve your power by learning the secrets of the universe.

One of my favorite ways to do this is to find these older texts which are mostly all in the public domain these days, then convert these to straight text and record these with a decent text-to-speech program (AT&T has several good voices) so that I can listen to them on my MP3 player, or burn it to a CD so that I can listen to it in my car/truck's CD player.

There's a lot to study and to understand. But as you go, you'll find these books and tapes (or they'll "find" you) and you'll be able to get the data you need to improve your life. The answers will start coming faster and faster - to every question and situation you run into. But you have to keep the above steps in, so you'll be listening when that answer is spoken to you.

Step 4 - Learn to look at things in more than one level. The oldest traditions we have hold that a person can learn on four levels - a. subjective (the one we mostly use), b. the objective (science uses this almost exclusively for analysis), c. symbolic (what does this mean?), and d. holistic (how does this fit in with what I am doing, or what I already know?)

When you look for all four meanings out of any particular occurrence, then you start seeing more of the secrets to this Universe being explained to you. This is the mystic part of you finding its own in the world around you.

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Really, that is all there is to getting started and finding your own mystic path through life.

Sure, they are underestimated and glossed over. But so are most of the "secrets" which exist in this Universe. It's like the answers are being yelled at you, but you have your own internal music so loud you can't hear.

The whole trick is to learn how to listen. Then the universe starts singing its beautiful chorus - and you can start singing along in perfect harmony.