Journey Inward to Source

Connecting With Your Inner Most Self

Oliver W. Markley, Ph.D. 1

What It Is

Journey Inward to Source is an amazingly simple and effective path for achieving transcendental awareness of the Source of your consciousness now. It opens a new level of experience in consciousness for both experienced meditators, and for those with little or now experience with the art of meditation, and who may even be skeptical about this sort of thing.

Depending on the reasons why it is undertaken, it can lead to a portal into an “alternate probable reality” containing what your Soul has to show you regarding your ideal expression in life at this time. Or it can simply be a great way to hang out with your innermost Self, and let the process of revitalization just happen as part of a vacation, spiritual retreat, or recreational relaxation.

Two Case Examples

Several years ago I gave a speech to a group at the Foundation for Mind-Being Research in Palo Alto, California, most of whom were experienced meditators. To conclude my presentation experientially, I led the audience in the Journey into Source guided meditation. Afterwards, in the Q&A/Discussion period, a woman at the back of the room, stuck up her hand and said, “How is it that in such a short time, you were able to bring us to a place that I have not been able to achieve in fifteen years of meditation?”

Another illustrative case is provided by a workshop I did for the World-Wide Human Resource Directors of the Baker-Hughes Corporation, a Fortune Fifty oil services conglomerate based in Houston, Texas. I had been hired by the Vice President of Human Resources to lead an “out of the box” workshop for their annual meeting, which I entitled, “Consciousness, Creativity and the Future.”

As many such corporate groups do, it included at least one individual who was extremely “left brained,” and outspokenly judgmental about anything that he didn’t consider real. Toward the end of this workshop, when we had time for only one more experiential exercise, this man rather tauntingly tried to bait me with the challenge that although I had told them about lots of “out of the box” things that might happen in the future,2 I hadn’t really given them an “out of the box” experience of creativity—and would I please do what I had been hired to do!

Rising to the bait, I rather cheekily replied, “O.K… you ask for it, you get it!” And with that, I led them in the Journey Into Source meditation, which up to then I hadn’t really let myself plan to do because I was afraid it would be too far out for them. However I did make sure I had it on the ready in case the opportunity presented itself—which it most assuredly did, and from the most skeptical man in the group.

After the experience was completed I gave the group several minutes of quiet reflection to inwardly integrate their experiences before talking about them in the group—something that is a very important component of INWARD BOUND Adventures. When the invitation to share was given, all eyes turned to the group skeptic, who without any hesitation blurted out, “Well I don’t know what to make of where ever it was that you took us, but that was just about the best bath of my entire life….I feel so clean!”—at which the entire group of corporate HR executives totally broke up in laughter.

The Method

As a process, the Journey Into Source guided meditation is safe, non-sectarian, and the essence of simplicity, requiring little more of the participant than to relax and let the process work.

Although it is best done with a single person at a time or with a couple or small group who have already established a strong sense of cohesiveness and alignment with each other, it can also be done quite effectively with a group of strangers who have come together for some purpose. For example, I have used it numerous times as part of my “Consciousness, Creativity and the Future” speech/workshop for both large and small audiences in corporations and not-for-profit agencies.

The essential sequence of the method is to first choose an objective for the journey, such as:

· To simply experience the Source of your Consciousness, and to go with whatever it opens up for you

· To discern what appears to be your ideal expression (or preferable future) for your life, your work, your country, etc.

· To explore other possible, probable, or preferable alternative realities of interest.

As the guide gives you suggestions to help you relax, you envision standing at the base of a very high circular stair case while you feel weighted down by all the duties, cares, worries, challenges, etc. that you normally carry as a customary part of being alive and living the lifestyle that is yours.

Then, in the theater of your mind, the guide gives you gentle suggestions that enable you to experientially ascend the circular staircase, a step at a time, while letting go of or “jettisoning” various aspects of the things that you previously envisioned as weighing you down: possessions, relationships, emotional reactions, judgmental beliefs, unfulfilled agenda, etc.; gradually ascending beyond conscious awareness of the physical body; floating upward as you release ever more subtle aspects of yourself; moving through and beyond the vibrational zone of probable reality; beyond and through the zone of possible reality; through the zone of creative emergence; and into Source.

After soaking in the vibrantly joyous and invigorating Light of Source for an appropriate interval, you either return back down the staircase to normal body awareness, or you pass back through Creative Emergence and see a Path or Doorway—whatever appears to your inner vision—that takes you to an Inner Vision Quest that has great wisdom regarding whatever your life situation is and you are seeking for.

At this point it isn’t really appropriate to describe what might come next, other than to say that the guide is guided by the spirit of the process. [Some investigators use the word Shakti meaning intelligent energy to point to transpersonal phenomena that are natural in the regions of consciousness being explored here.]

Following the exploration of whatever alternative realities were of interest, the guide bring the you back to present time, often doing it in a way that imprints the memory of what you experienced in your body, mind and spirit, so that it has a better chance of manifesting in your life.

Depending on the situation, this is a good time to do deep breathing and to listen to music specifically picked for the purpose of helping to integrate the experience into your normal state of consciousness, which the guide facilitates for you as you continue to lay back in a reverie of contemplation.

Conclusion

It can’t be emphasized enough how simple, but powerful and of lasting value the Journey Into Source usually proves to be. It is something that you will never forget, whether or not you choose to learn the mental discipline necessary to re-experience Source on your own.