The Experience of Ritual Body Postures

An Ancient Practice Revived for Today: Deep history reveals many secrets, and this speaks to the many states of mind our ancestors enjoyed, beyond the rational and linear with which we navigate our everyday waking state. We can also enjoy into a ‘waking dream’ visionary state in which the part of you that is so often has the stage for a brief spell. This simple, safe method has a 50+ year track record of safe use for we moderns, and a 50,000+ history with ancient cultures the world over.

Still Effective and Relevant for Us Today: We share the same physiological blueprint with those ancestors of old. They knew how, efficiently and effectively, to ‘dial up on demand’ that numinous state ‘betwixt and between’ where ‘the center is everywhere, the boundaries are nowhere’ — seemingly beyond time and space as we know it — and cross the threshold from our ordinary reality to a non-ordinary reality and ‘touch the hem of something larger than ourselves’. The sages of the ages have been describing this for millennia, and its readily accessible. You already hold the key to this portal. We just show you how to throw open the door. First-time participants have extraordinary experiences. This may not be common, but it is certainly normal. We are all born with this capacity.

Benefits on Many Levels: Activating this profound and visionary state and “expand our bandwidth” leads us, in peak moments, to direct experience of the high-energy life force pulsing through the Cosmos. This brings much direct-knowing, self-knowledge, and a deep sense of peace. Participants report finding balance, healing, emotional resilience, and reduced stress. There’s the sense of coming ‘home’, feeling comfortable in one’s own skin, being ‘one with the universe’, filled to overflowing with gratitude, compassion, and bliss. These hallmarks of flourishing extend beyond the trance and into everyday life, with downloads of intuitive insights, expanded awareness, and deepening connection to all parts of oneself and the Web of Life.

Mystical Moments are for Us All: We can only conclude that mystical moments are a birthright, we are designed for ‘plugging in’ to this Source that informs, inspires, and makes itself known in this way. That we have spontaneous mystical experiences shows how easily and naturally we enter this state. There are no outside agents, no botanicals or plant medicine needed. You already have everything you need.

You Hold the Key, Here are the Access Codes: This ‘inner technology’ is our physiology. The capacity for these expanded states of awareness was issued at birth, built into our DNA. Your true sacred space is within. We share the same physiological blueprint as our ancestors, and their activation codes for bridging two realms, with one foot in this world, we can bridge the threshold and simultaneously enter this non-ordinary state while alert and awake in a deep inwardly focused reverie — a ‘waking dream’. It’s a part of us that has much to share, and little opportunity in our everyday waking state. It’s less a matter of learning or trying, simply allowing, transmitting and receiving, being a conduit for an exchange with the sacred.

In an Embodied Practice, the Body is the Key: We have just a glimpse into the physiological shift that support this state of the ‘waking dream’. Lab tests show a surge of beta-endorphins in the blood, and dramatic decrease of stress hormones, underscoring our experience of an ecstatic state of joy and well-being. We also see a drop in blood pressure, yet rise in pulse rate, which indicates both something out of the ordinary, and ‘paradoxical relaxation/arousal’. EEG tests show Beta Waves throughout, joined simultaneously by Theta Waves. Another EEG test of direct current showed a dramatic rise from the standard 250 microvolts levels of ordinary waking state, to 2,500 – 3,000 microvolts in peak moments. Scroll down for details and references. We know going back to the lab will reveal much more. We can feel these gears shifting!

We have no handy or ready terms for this state or this method of reaching it. Just as we in the West lost this practice, we lost the language to easily describe our experiences, and the practice itself. So let’s unpack this string of terms and see how close we get:

Ecstatic: From Greek “ex-stasis” = outside of norm, There is also that sense of ecstasy, of overwhelming joy, bliss, universal love and gratitude — in all degrees, from feeling better to peak experience.

Trance: Among the many modes of meditative, contemplative inwardly focused states, ecstatic trance is quite distinct. This is a highly active, visionary state encompassing all the senses — those you know, those you didn’t know you have. This is sacred ground, ultimately between you and this transcendent force, that knows you better than you know yourself, that takes you on a spirit journey, beyond the small self, to the ends of the universe and back. It’s quite a ride.

Ritual: Ritual is the activator that throws open the door and grants us passage to this non-ordinary realm. Each step contains cues that sign our body-brain-mind to shift gears and enter this hybrid state of a ‘waking dream”. The simple yet profound ritual is comprised of what the world’s rituals have in common, the essentials steps. Scroll down to for more on the steps of the ritual and their purpose.

Body Postures: In decoding select ancient artifacts as “ritual instructions” we add the unique step of standing or sitting in the postures depicted in artifacts. We use one posture per session, and rotate through over a 100 different postures, based on ancient artifacts all over the world, the oldest is 40,000 years old. Scroll down for more on what postures add to the experience.