The typical language of our head is thinking. The head is probably the most familiar to all of us. But in mystical inner knowing we have to reach deeper than just our normal, mental, egoic thoughts. We need to clear our mind to be open to receiving deeper and higher wisdom.

The most common path offered on meditation today through books, articles, and teachers is usually a version of what is considered to be the superior quiet mind path. To follow this path, you can use one of the many forms of meditation such as Centering Prayer or Self-Inquiry. These many different meditation techniques tend to lead to similar experiences of emptiness, bliss, and infinite stillness which are then interpreted with different labels and worldviews.

We’ve found the best way to a cleared mind is to first access the heart space. Getting in touch with the radiating heart energy of warmth and love can produce deep peace and even powerful levels of bliss. When you then move from your heart to your head, your mind is already in a cleared state because of the power of the radiating heart energy. Most, even those of us with a very busy mind, then experience at least a sense of a vibrant, cleared mind.

When the mind is cleared, the way is opened for mystical forms to emerge from your deeper awakened mind. These are not distractions but spiritual gifts. We do not hold that transcendence or what some call the causal state where the mind is still and remains so is a “higher” state than the mystical awakened mind. The mystical awakened mind, which some call the subtle state, is where spiritual knowing occurs. Neither is superior to the other, just different.

Embodying Mind

Sometimes we think of “embodiment” as getting out of our head. Going back into our body and living more deeply in the physical, not always stuck in our thoughts or jumping with monkey mind. Being “disembodied” is sometimes even pictured as a detached cranium, like an old sci-fi cartoon with just a head flying around in a glass container.

The shadow side of the great evolution of our mental consciousness has been to negate the body. But in returning to the body, we certainly don’t want to fall prey to the same error, which would be to negate the head.

The head is part of the body—a pretty important one! And we’re not going to get very far without it.

Many spiritual practices of embodiment and otherwise primarily cultivate a temporary escape. Maybe even a benign war with the mind during the time of practice, especially in some forms of contemplative practice. When it works—and “success” rates vary greatly—this feels good as a brief reprieve (or is maddeningly frustrating when we “fail”), but usually afterward we find ourselves returning to everyday-mind consciousness. In the healthier forms, over time we will find that our mind becomes freer, identifying with a more expansive awareness and non-attached ease.

This battle with the ego or compulsive mind too often leaves us in a state of either/or. Times of “practice” become further separated from “everyday” reality, and the integration of these different states of mind very often proves extremely difficult. Even for those living in a monastery, let alone modern society.

In the mystical mind, we awaken to our healthy participation with our mind, with our thoughts, with a liberating and loving wisdom that flows into our life like a gentle breeze. Our heads are cleared and vibrant with a lucidity that opens us to insight and awareness that emerges a little differently, like the stirring of the wind.

It is the crucial waypoint, the go-between from nonattachment and ordinary consciousness. We are able to be present with a deeply engaged and open mind, less caught up in our own worries, comparisons, schemes, and all the compulsive pathways our thoughts run down. And genuinely inhabiting the fullness of the present realities of our life with a wise, free mind.

(Terminology note: “Mind” is largely used synonymously with “brain” or head, but can sometimes also convey a broader sense of knowing. As in most common usage there is little difference, we usually follow this connotation and reserve other terms for more holistic, embodied knowing.)

The Mystical Language of the Mind

Since the brain is located close to eyes and ears, the mystical knowing language of the mind is often associated with images and words. This can be imagery and visionary pictures that seem to appear out of nowhere. They may range from fleeting impressions to vivid eyes open visions with objects appearing before you, real as life.

“We speak not what we already know, but what we are about to know.”

Words can emerge in the same way. These are not words that we arrive at by reason or by figuring things out. We do not speak what we know, but what we are about to know. If we speak what we already know, we are probably giving others or ourselves advice. We also hear, speak, or write the words before they are all complete, expecting the entire message to come as we listen, speak or write it.

These words suddenly appear in our heads. The voice speaking them usually sounds like us, not some holy, disembodied, echoing voice like we hear in the movies. That is because the words come from God-Being-Us. This means we are the physical hands and feet, heart and voice of God. So God looks like us, moves like us, and sounds like us. In time we learn to recognize the tenor of voice in the words that are originating from our divine source as opposed to our normal mental chatter or indigestion.

Mystical States of the Head

Our entry state in our head is a little different because we are usually already there—we don’t need to enter! But in fact, we are trying to enter into a different state of mind than usual. And to get there, we need our compulsive thoughts and hyper-activity to quiet down a bit. Though if you’ve ever tried to quiet the mind with the mind, it’s sort of like trying to not think of an elephant. Good luck!

We’ve found that this is most effectively enacted by, in a sense, leaving before coming back. When we enter into the awakened energy of our body, particularly our heart center, and then return to our head, we find ourselves already in this different state. Our minds are often unusually calm, with a cleared vibrant stillness. A quiet spaciousness that is open and ready to receive.

It is the body that frees the mind. Not as an escape, but as an “exfoliation of our consciousness” in the words of Jean Gebser.

Often, especially at first, we like to just enjoy this state. What a relief! Thoughts might arise, but as we stay connected to our heart and body energy, they will be much less frequent or arresting. It is here that we can actively and intentionally move into our awakened state, where we are less focused on “maintaining” the still mind and become welcoming.

Rather than dismiss thoughts as distractions, we are becoming aware of the arisings of our mystical mind. In our head center, these arisings can look like images of visionary knowing, a sort of “imaginative” arising that comes without our calling it forth. We can hear words from spirit guides or other forms of God-Beside-Us, not usually audibly but in our minds’ ear. We may even find smells or tastes arising, as the forms of these knowings from our head center often draw on our physical senses—our most common modes of perception.

In full, integrated participation, our head center is noticing and receiving impressions, sensations, and other forms of mystical knowing from our other centers as well. In the open, awakened mind, we don’t need to interpret, define, or systematize these arisings. We simply welcome and receive them, take a moment to discern if this is coming from awakened spirit, and then absorb it.

With practice, we grow in the discernment of arisings that are coming from our awakened consciousness and those that are coming from our own compulsive thoughts, which often draw on random associations we perceive, unrelated visual cues, or are even driven by an ego need to perform, to quell anxiety, or in response to our own current feelings.

When we receive from the awakened mind, the source feels different. This discernment is best cultivated in community, where others can reflect the resonance and give feedback on the truth of what we’ve shared as coming from the awakened mind. Then we begin to get more of a sense of the feel of those sorts of arisings compared to others that tend to fall flat or dissolve away easily.

This is beginning to dwell in the divine consciousness of our awakened mind. The mind of Christ, full of incarnated wisdom and love.

Our next state can be to expand through our open mind into the unified state of transcendence. When we wake up to this vast, spacious awareness, our transcendent mind consciousness can then be identified with and experienced as God-Beyond-Us.

This mind transcendence is knowing that is not knowing. Here we are not aware of images, pictures, words, sensations as we are in the awakened field of knowing. We find outer space the best metaphor for the vast openness of transcendence in the head dimension. We often “go there” by visualizing our awareness expanding into the space above and beyond our own head, and then even all the way out into the cosmos. This is a movement into Mystery, into a cosmic witness state of vastness. Participation in the infinite, beyond all.

The WeSpace of the Head

The collective mind space is most often encountered as the shared field of information, of knowledge, of wisdom. Like the digital internet, with information stored in distant servers, the noosphere is the global, mystical cloud that holds the immaterial data and intelligence beyond anything we could ascribe to particular individuals—even though we may often encounter this reality in personal forms, spirit guides from the cloud of witnesses.

When we say that “something is in the air,” we are intimating this reality. Like the phenomena of scientific inventions and breakthroughs happening in multiple locations at very similar times—despite no direct contact or awareness of the others’ work. We see it in the animal kingdom in what is sometimes called “hive mind” or perhaps observed in murmuration.

Humans tap into this regularly, even if we don’t always think of it this way. Like when we get into a groove of collaborative work and the ideas just start flowing. There is a shadow side to this as well, such as the occurrence of “group think,” which is often one of its more pernicious expressions.

In the mystical WeSpace of the mind, we participate in this flow of ideas and knowledge with an access to this form of visionary knowing. Where we are “seeing” into this state could be called the spirit realm, or the collective field of awareness, or maybe even heaven on earth. In this mystical mind, we are not alone with/in our thoughts.

The more we access and encounter this reality, the more will our individual minds adapt and connect the new synapses, joining into the neural pathways of the mind of God as we cultivate our mystical neuroplasticity.

WHOLE-BODY MYSTICAL AWAKENING
HEAD PRACTICE

Clearing into the Mystically Awakened Mind

1. Breathe mindfully

The easiest way for most of us to start is to pay attention to our breathing. In the Bible the word for divine and human spirit also means breath, consciousness, and life-force. See yourself breathing God —God’s spirit (consciousness) and life force. Follow each in-breath and out-breath from beginning to end. Do not attempt to control your breath, simply observe it silently. When your mind wanders, bring it back to your breathing. Do this for a few moments to feel your awareness flowing from your head.

2. Drop down into your heart

Center down into your heart space of awareness. Use the techniques from the previous chapter on the heart, or simply be present in the radiant center of your heart space. Dwell in the energy of love and bliss there.

3. Return back to your head and wait for images, pictures, or words to arise

Usually when returning from our heart, we will discover our minds are unusually clear. If there is still mental chatter, just return to your heart a little longer. In the cleared mind, we rest in the vibrant stillness of awakened consciousness, open to mystical forms emerging in spiritual knowing.

4. Move into transcendent mind consciousness

Expand out beyond into vast, spacious awareness, resting in infinite consciousness.

Integrating Your Mystical Mind with Awakened Wisdom

Our minds are certainly one of our greatest components to our embodied being. When we awaken to our mystical mind, we discover more and more all that our ordinary mind did not and could not know.

As we come into this visionary knowing and mystical insight, it is especially important to stay grounded and connected to our other centers. It may be our most vital integration even, to keep our minds in tune and flowing with the whole of our being—so as to not let our minds run us off down errant mystical pathways.

No matter the power of our mind, if we are not suffused with love in our hearts, if we do not have the vital energy from the source of our divine being in our wombs, if we are not grounded in the earth and our interconnectedness, then we will eventually find ourselves blown about, disconnected, and remote from ourselves and the world. For this same reason, we also need loving community with one another and personal spirit forms of God-Beside-Us.

When our mystical mind is in harmony with our embodied wholeness, we are dwelling in the flow of spirit, the fullness of God-Being-Us coming out in our lives. Where we can be present with wisdom, knowledge, clarity, and discernment in all of our life situations. We can offer to others what we have learned and what we see in truly liberating ways—not just a passing along of information for the storehouse, but mystical intelligence for the transformation of our lives.

Another pathway of integration for our mind is with what we call “mental health” and healing. Our mental health crisis and the effects on numerous individuals and our societies connect to much more than just our head center, and integration can often be a vital aspect of healing. Some forms of mysticism and their associated states can further reinforce dissociation and avoidance of areas of our lives that need healing. In its many forms and approaches, the healing path is crucial and necessary to be whole and integrated in the fullness of our embodied being.

Sometimes I (Luke) think that the world’s problems would be solved if people just had the right information. If they knew what I knew, or what “my group” knows. And while there are plenty of helpful things to be learned, education alone is not enough. Wisdom even, is not enough. Our embodied mind is best lived in harmony with our whole body, just like all of our centers and the spaces in between.

Questions for Reflection:

1. How are you living in freedom and healthy relationship with your head?

2. What pathways of integration do you experience between your head and body? Or between your personal mind and the collective?

3. How do you experience transcendence through your head center? What processes or inspirations help you move into this state?

All Images are open-source, used with permission, or created by ICN

The Vibrant, Cleared Mind of Spiritual Knowing