Please note: The meditations on this page, and any to follow, speak of "astral projection" and the like. Please use this ideas as a "short-hand", a way to look at meditation and guided meditative journeys. You can't actually "go" anywhere outside of your body-- you're looking deeply into your own brain and letting your brain talk to you in a way you don't usually quiet yourself to hear.

Imagination is to be embraced. If things don't feel "perfect" or real, don't worry about it. Meditation takes practice.

Cleansing meditations are a way of ridding one's self of negative thoughts and thought patterns, clearing out the baggage of rubbish we've picked up, working through our mental health issues and troubles, and learning how to let go of things that aren't helping. Cleansing is NOT a way to avoid mental health care, or therapy and/or medication. They are tools to help with those things.

Meditation for the Cleansing of the Mind.

This meditation takes about 15 to 20minutes, but can be done again as necessary. It can be as intense or as easy as you need it to be. I recommend going very slowly, and taking your time. Expect to feel raw and open after.

Begin your meditation as you normally would, by finding a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Set a phone alarm with soothing music timer for about 20 minutes.

Counting every heartbeat, down from 100 to 1, slowly breathing in and out, find yourself relaxing and falling deep into the velvet darkness that is the in-between state of Waking and Sleeping. You are now in the Between. There is no hurry to get to this place, take as long as you need to take, the Journey will wait for you.

When you are fully relaxed, open your "psychic eyes", and look around you, see your body relaxed and limp. Then, stand your Inner self up, out of your body, and stretch. Feel the power that is yourself flexing and enjoy the lack of flesh for a little while. Do you see the blue cord from your physical navel to your Inner self’s navel? That is your life line, and with it, you will never get lost. It will fade from view, but will stretch to the ends of the universe to anchor you to your physical self.

Walk into a room where you have a large mirror, be it the bath or your bedroom. Look at that mirror, and see yourself. You can see the room reflected in it, and as you look in that mirror it begins to grow foggy and smokey. Watch the smoke cloud over the reflection, swirling lazily around, and over itself. Reach up to the side of the Mirror, and hook it with your hand, there is a knob there, like a door. This Mirror is now your Door Way to the Mist of the Between. From Between you can go anywhere you like.

Step through the door way, don’t worry, the Door will stretch, and you will find it allows you to come and go as you please. Close it behind you, and look long and hard at it, can you see the room behind you? You will never lose this door, and this one part of the Between is yours. No one else can come here, no one can bother you, nothing bad or hurtful can come in, and it is yours alone. You are safe here, for as long as you wish to stay, and as often as you wish to return. The mist curls around you, comforting you like a nice blanket, warm and dry. The earth beneath you is firm, and you are safe.

Turn all the way around, look into the Mists, and off in one direction you will see a point of light. That is your destination for tonight. When you move toward that light you see it grows quickly into a castle or fortress. It is strangely familiar to you. The walls are as known as your hands, gate, the buttresses and the towers. This is the Fortress of your Mind, your Psyche is here. This is the innermost You. Walk up to the Gate, and into your Mind. Let the Gate close behind you, keeping you safe, and protected as you Journey farther into yourself.

Walk along the halls and up the stairs to the highest tower. Look at your memories here, and wonder why you have stayed away from so many beautiful things for some long, but don’t be too long. When you ascend the stairs to your Tower. At the top of the stairs is a door, with a key in it. You turn the key, and take it out of the door, feeling the heft of that Key, and knowing only you can touch it. Open the door, when you are ready, and don’t feel shy about waiting a moment before you do. You are about to begin the hardest Work you have done, you are going to Cleanse your inner self.

Open the door and walk in, this is your safe room. Yours alone. Look around you, what do you see? Dust and dirt and other rubbish? Shining things, buried under this and that? Piles of papers? Strange things that might be furniture and tables? Wait, a window over there! Walk carefully over to the window, and throw back those drapes. If you have to tie them back, do so, let the Sun in, and look out of your window into the landscape that is your inner self. The gleaming waters, the verdant forests, the clean lines of the farmer’s crops, the majestic mountains, the desert scrubs and dunes, all of it. The birds singing and the butterflies dancing. That beauty is out there, and we want to bring it in here. Open the window, push it as wide as you can, the casing may be stuck, but push anyway, let the breeze in, and scent of the flowers and the clean breeze. Breathe in that glory, that beauty, and rest for a moment, before you begin. Look way far down, do you see the water there? That Lake? That lake is bottomless, and clear, and the river that flows into it goes all the way to the sea.

Turn back to your room, your Safe Place. Walk to the Door, and stand with it at your back. Turn to your Right, and pick up that bin that is there. That bin is sadly unused… the rubbish is all over the room, not in the bin where it belongs.

The room is too cluttered to work on all at once, so, take the one closest pile, the little one, near the door. That is your Work for now. You know you can come back, and clear out some more space. Look at the papers, and boxes and little things here. If the papers are good memories, and pictures, then place them in a nice neat pile. If they are bad memories, or hurts, place them in the bin. The boxes contain larger memories, some that you can keep and some that need to be throw out. All those shining things, the baubles are loving memories. They are the best ones, the ones of your childhood, laughing, the first kiss, the first time you made love, your friendships and all the people who love you are represented here. All these beautiful, loving things. Polish them with a soft silken cloth, see how bright they are now?. Carefully set them aside, they are keepers. Some of these things you cannot clean and brighten back up, and you cannot toss into the bin; set them aside for later.

When you have gone through those hurts and pains, and only have good and loving memories left you notice that the bin never does get full. Look down into it, ahhh! There is all is, and it seems a lot smaller in there, than it was out here. Look at the shelves under your window, they’re empty! All those gorgeous shelves, just waiting for loving memories and beautiful things! Take the dust cloth, and carefully clean off those shelves, and place all your loving memories on them, just the ones you have shined up and set aside. When the light shines down on them, they sparkle like the most precious of jewels, filling even this dark room with light, rainbows, and colour.

There are some memories that you cannot place on the Shelf, and that you can’t place in the bin, now, turn back to them. These are the memories, the “baggage” that cause the most suffering. Think for a moment, why do you keep them? Do they teach you anything? Are they important to you? Do you need them out here where you have to seem them all the time, in the front of your mind? Chances are good, that they need not be out here.

Walk to your closet, and open it up, again, you will see shelves mostly empty, and piled high with boxes of all kinds. These boxes can contain those memories. Take all the empties off the top shelf, better to start here, and work down, and place the ones you need aside, putting the rest back on the lower shelves for later. Take your boxes to the pile you left on the floor, and place each memory, each piece of baggage inside one, one piece for every box. Leave the tops off the boxes for a moment, look down at these boxes, these memories that haunt you, that have made you who you are.

I don’t need you out here, right now. I need to deal with you on my terms, on my terms only. I need to deal with you one at a time, when I decide to take the time, and when I choose to do so. Not when you tell me I need to, or when you decide to walk about and haunt me. Thank you for what you have taught me in the past. Now I need to go on from here. After you have spoken this to these memories, carefully close the boxes, and put them on the top shelf. You see there is a clear spot on the side, so you can see what is in there. Good! Now, when you want to deal with that thing, you can find it right off.

Now, only a few more things, and you can go, for now. There is just a little left over, there, isn’t there? Those are your emotions. Frustration, Love, anger, fatigue, joy, peace, understanding, open-mindedness. All of them are jumbled right there. You use them a lot, so that is why they are all near the door. Pick them up carefully, even though they are a jumbled mess, they are delicate as spiders silk, and so fragile. Look around for your desk, the one place you can work on things in this Safe Place. Oh! There it is! Right near the window, where you can look out and see the view, and enjoy your Good memories, and be covered in their colours. Take your emotions over to the desk, and place them in the drawers. You can separate them now, and place them on their little velvet resting places, or you can place them all together in the large drawer. If you choose to separate them now, or to wait you are making the right decision. When you need them next, they will be here, and maybe it will be easier to separate them later.

Stand up straight, and dust off your hands, take that bin and carry it over to the window. Do you feel the wind picking up? Dump the contents of that bin into the air, and watch the wind carry it all away. As the winds take it, the sun and air and water cause the rubbish to break into tiny tiny pieces, and scatter like ashes. The Sun, Water and Air cleansed that rubbish and took it from you. It is gone, and that part of your Inner self is clean. Now look back at the spot you cleaned out. See how pristine and comforting it is now? See how much work you did, in such a short time? You should be so proud, you have faced some terrible things and you have conquered them.

Take the key out of your pocket, and walk over to the door. Open it, and walk through, back out into the hall way of your mind. Don’t worry about the open window, leave it open, and let the sun into that part until you come back, let the breeze freshen and the butterflies come in and dance. Lock the door behind you, and put the key in your pocket. Take it with you when you leave.

Walk back down the stairs, and back through your Waking Mind. Pause to see the fortress that is yourself, and enjoy the individuality and colour that make up you! This is your place, and yours alone.

Walk back out the gate, and feel the sun on your face, and head as you turn to face the Mists. The Mist has waited for you, and will cover the path to your Inner self, so that only you can come here. Walk into the Mist, and within moments you are standing in front of your Door. You can still see your room, like looking through a window. Turn the knob and step back into your room. Close the Mirror Door behind you and see that it is again, just a mirror.

Walk back to your body, see it? There are probably tears on your face, and hurt there. You know that hurt, and that pain, and when you enter your body you will feel it again. But you also have that inner peace from knowing that some of that rubbish is gone, that some of the hurt is put away, and cannot come out until you go get it, that you have accomplished much.

Carefully settle back into your body, feeling your legs and feet, your pelvis, your stomach, your arms, shoulders, neck and finally your head. Everything hurts, now, doesn’t it? Your heart, your mind, your head? You probably feel like you have run a marathon, and then towed a car right after. That is normal. Feeling weak, hurt, and exhausted is also normal.

Carefully stretch your entire body, do not stand up, just stretch where you are. If you can, take a little bit of water or tea to drink, and then go right to sleep. If you cannot sleep, then have a little something to eat, a small snack, something to ground you back into yourself. If you need to weep, then weep. But also, think and remember those beautiful memories, catching the sun in your Mind, showering the room with colours and joy. Hang on to those more, and let the dark fade for now.

*****Meditation end. Notes: you can go back as often as you need to go, until you have things packaged up and cleaned out. Try not to go more than two or three times a week, less if your mind will let it lay. When you have cleared it up, and set it in order to your liking, then, spend a week or more looking over your happiness, over the gorgeous gems of memory that sit on those shelves. There are always enough shelves and you will find that most of the room is shelves, and brackets, and cupboards. All of these should be full of wonderful things. Keep your emotions in the desk, so you have them handy when you want to go to the Closet and take down a problem, or old memory, and deal with it.

Sit at the desk emotionless, and open the box, then, choose the emotion and get it out. Doing it this way, you are forcing yourself to decide what memory you need, and think about why. Are you angry because you think you are “supposed” to be? Are you hurt because it is expected? Or are you happy and joyful for the same reasons? This helps when dealing with particularly hard things, as you are consciously choosing your reaction. I also recommend having a snack ready for after, as this is exhausting work, and you will need something to centre and calm you. I try to have a peanut butter sandwich or cheese and crackers, and a cup of tea.

Cleansing with the Elemental Places:

The way to the Elemental Places: Begin the Meditation with music or something to focus your breathing on, I use drumming or my own heartbeat. Let the muscle groups relax, one at a time, starting with your feet and ending with your head. When you are fully relaxed in your body, allow your eyes to close and your third eye to open. You are surrounded by soft velvet blackness, floating there in the dark, safe and protected. Find your centre here, this is a safe place for you; you are still within yourself. You can also take some time to meditate on any pressing problems you are facing right now. Take as long as you need, there is never any hurry.

Slowly come to remember that you are not out meditating merely for the relaxation of it, and focus on your body. Your inner person, your soul, reminds you that you have work to do.

Envision or imagine yourself sitting up, leaving your body behind.

Imagine/visualize standing in front of a large mirror. You can see yourself and the dark, velvet blackness behind you, but you’re standing in a pool of light. As you relax and just look at the mirror,it will begin to seem like a fog is covering the mirror. You can see it swirling about, and slowly it fills up the mirror, making your reflection disappear. Hook your thumb or hand under the side of the mirror and open it, this is your door. When you walk through, close the door behind you, and let the Mists of the Between cover and surround you. Stand still, marveling at this place, this Between.

If at any time you’re feeling upset, frightened or scared, just put out your hand, and you’ll feel a door knob. That’s your Mirror, and you can return to your body any time you want to. Think of your feet, flex your toes, and you’ll “shoot” right back to wakefulness. It might be a little jarring to come out of a meditation like that, but it’s better than a “bad trip”.

From here you can go anywhere and any when. Turn to the left and right, and listen for your direction. You will know which way to walk, and when you do, and you travel in that direction you will come to another door. When you open it, you are standing inside a stone circle… it looks something like the Stonehenge but is much smaller and newer. There are 4 Paths out of this standing stone circle, one for each element, and going into the Cardinal Directions. The North Path is green cobblestone signifying Earth; the East Path is white stones, signifying Air; the South Path is red/orange, signifying Fire; and the West Path is blue stones, signifying Water. While many people choose to begin in the East and work one-way or the other around the compass, I leave the beginning and ending elements to you; you best know which you have affinity with, and which ones you do not. I would recommend that you begin at the Element that opposes your “favourite” one and across, in that manner. [This is the reason I personally start with Earth, then to Air, then Water and Fire.] You don’t need to go in any particular order, whatever is most comfortable.

Walk down the Path, and soon you will come to a change in the landscape. The order in which you visit them will be different, however, I will give you a short description of the Planes as well as a suggested Working place. If you would rather not do the Cleansing in the places I suggest, that will not automatically nullify the work; listen to the landscape, it will tell you where to go, and where the cleansing will be most effective. Let your own imagination visualize what would be best for this space, if it’s radically different from my vision-- that’s perfect!

The Elemental Place of the Earth: green, lush, large trees, huge flowers, animals abound; the trees will look at you as you walk through, and often will speak, point or otherwise help you find your way; Primeval Forest. For the Cleaning: find a clearing to work in, small enough so that you feel comfortable and not exposed, but large enough that you can stretch out your arms and not touch anything [approximately 8 feet in diametre or larger]; you also want to be able to lay down so that you can absorb the Elemental energies.

Air: Often a cliff face that leads to air currents so strong that you can fly or walk on them, clouds, birds, but no ground under you, just ride the wind currents like floating on a raft along a river. For the Cleansing, find a solid "bank" along the air currents where you can stand still, but still touch the wind. For absorption of the energies you just need to step back into the "river of air".

Water: can be oceanic, but is often a large river or lake, bordered with stone and sand, clear water, the perfect temperature, and animals and fish cavort. For the Cleansing, you will need to wade into the water far enough that you can place your hands into it, perhaps waist deep; I recommend sitting down so the water can cover you to your shoulders, and you can lay back into it for absorbing the element after the cleansing.

Fire: volcanic, blasted, hard, sharp, often with a red, angry sky, the heart of this Plane is a volcano, but it does not erupt so you will be safe. You may wish to find a magma pit to put your negativity in, and from that area around it you can absorb the Elemental energies.

When you have arrived at your place of working, stand proudly, and place your hands before you. Concentrate upon the negativity [hurts, nervousness, anxiety, pain, anger etc] within you, let it flow out of your outstretched fingers. Often it looks like black, inky smoke, and it will wrap up your legs, trunk and arms as it flows into a ball before you. Keep all the negativity wrapped into a ball, you want to be able to manipulate it; when the energies flowing from your hands into the ball are becoming white or clear [passing from black to grey to white or clear] stop. Hold that ball of energy before you and look at it. It may be large or small; but it is important that it is solid. When you have looked at this ball, imprint it into your memory, see the ugly things, the hurt, the pain- all of the negative emotions that it contains. Yes, life is grey, but negativity harms us, and causes us to harm those we care about, so ridding ourselves of it is necessary.

Now, slowly and precisely press the energy ball into the Elemental place [for instance, press the ball into the Earth, or under the Water]. You may have to use quite a bit of force, as the negativity often seems to have a mind of its own and will not want to be separated from you. Completely submerge the ball into the Element, this disperses the negativity.

Now that you have purged all of that negativity you may feel drained, this is normal. Sit or lie down [with Air and Water, you can submerge yourself with in the Element] and draw the Elemental energies into yourself. A coloured mist will slowly surround you, filling you, covering you; when you feel as though you can take not a drop more of that energy, you are cleansed by that Element.

Sit and rest after this, just enjoying the peace of the Place you are resting within. When you are sure that the Elemental energies you have filled yourself with are not going to flow out of you [you seek balance, and your soulself will know when you are filled] stand and walk back to the centre of the stone circle.

When you have filled yourself with all four of the Elemental energies it is time to return to the Waking World. Walk to the stone circle, and open the Door that is there waiting for you. You will find yourself back in the Between. From there you can open the Mirror Door back into your home. Sit down with your physical body, stretching back into your flesh. Be fully there, be fully then. Always be in the Now.

When you have stretched fully into your body, sit up slowly and stretch, every muscle, every tendon. Take the time to adjust, as you have probably been meditating for half an hour, and that can be a long time to sit still. I recommend that you eat something small, cheese and crackers, peanut butter and celery, just something to help you ground yourself. The act of eating always helps. I also suggest you write down what your impressions were, how you feel, and what, if anything you learned about yourself on this Dream Walk. If you are tired, or you do your Work before bed, you can also go right to sleep.