Space beyond — a glimpse outside our physical realm
What is space to you?
According to the Cambridge dictionary, space is defined as:
“an empty area that is available to be used; the area around everything that exists, continuing in all directions”
Part 1 — Childhood — Is ghosts real?
Ever since I was a child, I wonder what lives beyond our physical realm. I’m always fascinated by those supernatural stories where people can travel out of their bodies, reporting seeing random images or people or other beings beyond our existence. Some even say they saw what’s beyond death and have a life-changing transformation experience, resulting in a change of living mindset ever since they get back into their bodies.
My memory seems vague yet vivid. I was three. Wandering around in the new house as I just moved to Australia with my parents. Settling into the new home, without much furniture, there were weeks that I and my parents would sleep on the new mattress on the floor as there was no bed frame.
It was a usual night in, I finished my dinner and was forced to go to bed early. Of course, as a three-year-old, can’t really contribute much to moving in, and sleeping my way out is probably the best solution for my parents to unwind themselves after a hectic day of unpacking.
I slowly walked up the stairs, walked to the mattress, as usual, feeling cold as it was already wintertime, and I slowly crawled under the blanket. Not sure if it’s the chill or something else, I wanted to go to the toilet again. This is not a comedy, I just feel like there’s chill up my spine.
I quickly jumped off my bed and rush to the loo. There’s some green thingy outside the window!!! Okay, I must have been hallucinating, it’s unreal. Or is it my dad pretending to be a ghost now? This is not funny.
I hold my breath and ran back to the mattress. I’ve decided to hold it in for now. Why did my dad do this to me? Some background information, my dad likes to prank me ever since I am conscious, which I find him both funny and annoying at the same time. Why couldn’t he just treat me normally sometimes? That’s a thought I always have in my head.
Back to this bathroom incident. Throughout the night, I kept running back and forth to the loo and examined if the green blurry thing is real. There’s not only one, but two of them floating outside the window. Holy moly…I was so scared that I hide under my blanket and shivered through the night, holding my pee and wondering how to complain to my dad the next morning.
The night finally pass by and once I saw the sunlight I thought to myself I must go to the loo I can’t stand it anymore. I peeked out the window, gosh the green blurry thingy is still there. I thought they are allergic to sunlight?
Nevertheless, I just can’t hold it anymore so I decided to close my eyes and just let fate decide. I released all from my body into the toilet and planed my exit back to my bed again as I don’t want the green blurry thing to see me.
One, two, three… I changed my strategy. This time, I decided to tiptoe my way through the corridor…but it’s too late. The green thingy paused and saw me looking at “it”. Like an explosion, both of the green thingies beam out some smoke and vanish in front of me in a hindsight. They are gone!
What just happened? I thought it’s my dad the whole way long. It’s something else. I do not want to believe in what I saw so I confronted my dad the next morning when he woke up. He kept saying I’m insane and reassure me that he was sleeping like a pig last night.
After all these years, the memory of this incident did not fade. There’s time I had dreams about it and I remembered more vivid details. I don’t dare to tell anyone, as people might find me making stuff up or just straight-up weird, living an imaginary life. But what if this is real? Perhaps they are trying to communicate through me as a channel?
What if there are beings beyond what our eyes can see in this physical space?
Part 2 — Adulthood — Activate your sensitivity
Fast forward my life, let’s get into the story of me pursuing my path as a spiritual facilitator after I realize there’s much beyond our physical existence.
When I was first exposed to all these alternative therapies and non-invasive healing, I was a skeptic. I am a person that will never believe in what’s been told unless I tried and examine it myself first hand. This is a story that I would like to tell, my first-hand experience to make me believe there are things beyond.
Vipassana Meditation Camp
The famous 10 days meditation camp that supposes to break and rebuild you. With no talking, no killing, no eye contact, no exercise, no phone, no social media, no writing, no 3 meals, no sex, no masturbating. Just you, your body and mind, and sitting straight up for 10 hours every day for 10 days.
S.N. Goenka, the advocate that contributed to spreading this teaching modality around the globe came from Myanmar. Of course, I flew to Myanmar to experience the most authentic way of Vipassana.
I am not going to talk about my whole experience of Vipassana, as this is not what this story is about. In fact, I’m going to dig into how I trained my sensitivity in knowing outer space after this meditation retreat experience.
Vipassana meditation technique includes training your mind to scan your body from head to toe and go round and round, sensing the different sensations, body pain, emotions that come through your body, and not acting on them. Non — reactive, the “Noble Silence”, the whole focus of this teaching.
By observing life as it is, you reach a true equanimity state and understand everything comes and goes, and we are just a part of the universe that exists as part of the big bang theory.
It was a different experience from other meditation techniques. While other techniques may ask you to visualize or say a mantra, this one asks you to do nothing but keep scanning and scanning throughout your body.
At one point it was irritating, to be honest. I am always a sensitive person, I can sense people’s energy and feeling when they are around me. I can sense what’s vibing to me and what’s not. I believe my spiritual practices help to enhance my sensitivity to my surroundings.
I remember it was the 7th day in the camp. 3 more days till I can go out of this meditation prison, and get back my freedom. There were times I would want to give up, or just keep counting down the hours left before I can speak a word again.
It was 10 pm. The lights just went out. Physically I was tired from sitting 10 hours cross leg from the day. Mentally, not so. When you meditation for 70 hours already, your mind does funny things to you. My awareness of the environment was so heightened. I hear the bird sings, the dog barks, the sound of mosquitos flying by, the little noise ants make when they carry the crumble of bread I just ate.
I was lying on my bed, looking into the wall, staring into the clock. My mind was spinning like turbulence and I need to seek the truth. I have decided to speak to myself in my head.
“ Why am I here? Tell me the reasons why am I in this meditation camp now! If there are other realms, other space, show me! Let me experience all of it. I would like to come back exactly 1 hour later, at 11 pm when I open my eyes again. Show me what is beyond all of this. ”
I thought there’s no harm in trying out traveling my consciousness to outer space, since I can just only lie on my bed, and I might just fall asleep anyway. I slowly closed my eyes, and count to three to start scanning my body.
It’s like those matrix movies, the moment I close my eyes, I sense my body is free falling. The sensation is so real, and I feel my consciousness is traveling within me, to outer space. I can sense that I’m falling through layers and layers of dimension, I start hearing very beautiful music and sound that I have never heard before, somewhat like an orchestra playing different musical instruments from all directions. It was like a piece of music mixing album, and slowly the music was transiting out, and here come people talking!
I can hear it clearly in those conversations, people are enjoying a gathering of some sort, chitchatting. I can feel the emotions of the crowd there like they are celebrating some special occasion. In a glimpse of the moment, I’m falling to another layer of dimension again, this time I sense that I’m floating in the space, like a small particle of some sort, just a pure existence of life as part of the universe.
Slowly, I sense myself is elevating, as if my consciousness is a physical thing, and it keeps going up and up. Suddenly I can feel my body again and I quickly opened my eyes. Looking at into the wall, looking into the clock. It was exactly 11 pm.
“I understand I’m on a soul journey, and I’m grateful for the experience you gave me. I will continue my practice diligently and gracefully. Good night.”
I fall back to sleep.
The next morning when I woke up and reflect on my experience, I could not help but wonder if I have unlocked the skills in traveling in space through meditation.
Spider-sense tingerling
Ever since I came out from the Vipassana meditation camp and learned the body scanning meditation technique, it is almost like I have equipped myself with a new sensitivity to everything around me.
There was one time when I visiting a Buddhism temple in Hong Kong, I meditated in one of the Kṣitigarbha Temple*. (* Sanskrit — The Original Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra is a Mahayana Buddhist teachings on the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, who vows to attain the final enlightenment after the hell realm is emptied.)
When I closed my eyes and start meditating, I saw people walking around me, some sat next to me listening to my breathing, I test it out a few rounds, by closing my eyes and opening them again and again. Yep, I’m not dreaming, it is real. I’m seeing another realm when I close my eyes and scan through my body, realizing I’m seeing with my mind. These beings exist in our physical space, yet we could not tap into them unless we close our eyes and focus on our environment.
Part 3 — Motherhood — sensing life from beyond
It was a fascinating journey when I was pregnant with my twin babies.
Despite the hormonal changes, my sensitivity is further heightened. I have been sensing my babies and their emotions throughout all trimesters. I have a sense of their personalities, behavioral traits to-be before they were born. I know one of them is very drawn to music, and the other is more drawn to reading books.
I was teaching sound meditation classes as usual until the 7th month until I can no longer cross my legs and sit on the floor. Whenever I played my singing bowls, I closed my eyes, and I can sense the two beautiful souls in my body working together with me, diving into the emotional bubble of the beings in the space, activating self-healing, and we act as the facilitators, holding space for every one of the participants, in assisting them to complete their self-healing journey in every class.
I continued my practice, meditated every day. I spent time to just tune into my inner being, and created a sacred space to just meet with each of my boys in my little heart space. I talked to them, taught them little things, sending love every day, as if I’m seeing them in person.
The twin boys have finally arrived. As I have expected, their personalities turn out exactly what I had envisioned during my pregnancy period. I was amazed by how accurately I sense their beings as if I have the supernatural power to communicate with beings beyond physical space. It keeps me wonder and continue exploring the possibilities in accessing consciousness beyond what our eyes can see, what our ears can hear. I learn to tune into my inner vision, trust my intuitions in understanding what’s around me.
Continue on the journey…
Throughout these years, I have trained myself to let go of the fear and be not afraid of what lies beyond. My verdict to this is that if we counter reverse our thinking, it may be a reflection of our space from the other side of the realm. Perhaps, this is the gateway for us to co-exist and understand there’s more to our physical realm, to tap into our intuition and sensitivity, and let our senses create our space and reality.
As human beings, a more sophisticated species, should have sensitivity stronger than animals, stronger than spiders. Birds know how to fly away when they sense the thunderstorm approaching. Bats hideaway where there is bright light.
Awareness of our beings, to our space beyond, should be an inborn capability that we should tap into. Understanding our surroundings and reflect on our reality becomes a daily thing to do.
Life is an expansion, to the area around everything that exists, continuing in all directions. How do you feel, if you discover life is a part of the space, as space is a part of life?