Sitting in the Middle Place
I discovered this place a few days ago when I decided to do a small medicinal micro dose of psilocybin mushrooms. Like always, I mixed my favorite tea. It had been a while since I took this medicine, so I didn't need too much, just the crumbs of my last batch. I slowly sipped the tea as I sat on my porch sunbathing. I believe that the warmth of the sun, combined with the warmth of the medicinal tea, contributed to the medicine calmly settling in my body.
Typically, when I go into my mushroom-induced meditations, I like to explore how my spirit resides in my body. To better explain this concept, imagine yourself as having three distinct ‘bodies.’
The physical body, which is the most dense, houses your organs, muscles, and flesh, where physical sensations are felt.
The spiritual body, the lightest of the three, encompasses your intuition and supernatural self.
The mental body is more cranial, containing your thoughts and emotions.
After grasping this idea, envision yourself as a spirit within your physical body. I often ask myself: how does my spirit feel residing in my body? I then pay attention to the sensations that arise.
During a recent meditation session, I noticed a sense of lightness in my body, almost akin to feeling like a butterfly. Last year, I struggled with anxiety in the final months of 2023, vividly recalling the heaviness in my chest, the throbbing of my heart even at rest, and the restlessness that consumed not just my body but also my mind (I was constantly overthinking).
Experiencing this newfound lightness, as if a blockage had been cleared, felt like a moment of divine grace in real-time.
When I say "sitting in the middle place," it can be described as the place where you are not fully awake, but you are also not in full REM sleep. It's the state where your body is resting, and you are able to observe your thoughts while also being aware enough of your body's responses to different thoughts that arise. It's like watching your thoughts on a big screen while your body is the massage chair you're sitting on as you observe those thoughts.
After I get to the middle place, you're wondering, what is the purpose of going there? I like to take this time to purge out the junk. I noticed I had some stuff in my spirit that I didn't want to have there anymore. So, in the middle place, I explored the thoughts as well as the emotions attached to them. I sat with it, explored it, dug up its roots, and let it go.
I think it is important to mention that the setting of my home plays a part in the success of this sacred exploration. I was sure to fast for most of the day, and when I did decide to eat, it was a raw salad, rich in vibrant fresh vegetables. My home was cleaned and organized. This week's fresh flowers were playful and fragrant. And I made sure to include some simple Tibetan singing bowls to ensure that my mind is not being overstimulated or preoccupied. The sounds from the singing bowls give me the sensation of vibrations in my body, so it was as if I was having a light, airy massage.
This practice of "sitting in the middle place" allows me to "face" my problems on a spiritual or energetic level. In one of my favorite books, Anatomy of the Spirit, the author, Caroline Myss, states that all diseases start on an energetic level. Before any physical ailments come to the surface, they first develop on the spiritual or "energetic" level.
So, my reward for practicing this meditation is to do some spiritual house cleaning, removing or "healing" the energetic ailments.
