I learned about the technique of awareness through the work of Belsebuub some years ago. After some time of practicing, I was able to have some conscious experiences in the astral plane (OBEs) and really liked the heightened state of perception I felt during those, as well as after waking up from them. It was a state where I could feel that reality was multi-dimensional and I could still sense the presence of the astral dimension even though I was already back in the physical.
For a lack of better words, I would say I could feel the ‘magic’ around me, that kind of feeling we get when we are aware in the astral plane and feel life and beauty in everything. This heightened awareness never lasted long though, and I would eventually feel it slipping away.
Seeing how this worked, I made a vow to give the technique of awareness a really good go for a longer period of time and see if I can keep that feeling of wonder and magic in my daily life and also to increase the frequency of my astral experiences.
Back then, I was living about 3 minutes from a beautiful old park with all kinds of decorative trees and bushes growing in it, with a lake in the middle, inhabited by a colony of ducks throughout the year. So every single day, usually after dinner, I would go for a short awareness walk to this park.
I was resolved about this and didn’t let any day pass by without my walk. I would usually walk along the lake, stopping at times, trying to get out of my mind and just ‘feel the magic’ of the park and of every little spot that captured my attention.
After about a year of going there, I felt like the park almost became a part of me, I could really feel its various parts; each had its own beauty and atmosphere. A little hill always covered with colourful leaves in autumn, a small island in the middle of the lake where the ducks lived, an umbrella-like tree, or a beautiful lake surface, reflecting all kinds of colours, reminding me of the paintings of the impressionists.
I felt like entering my own, personal sanctuary when coming there, and I didn’t need to push myself anymore to go there every day, I would miss the park if I didn’t. I felt like it was waiting for me, calling me to come and visit every day to see how everything was doing, and to connect with my inner self. There was also an old man visiting the park almost as often as me at that time. He looked like he could possibly be a homeless, but was always dressed cleanly and emanated a sort of peace, sometimes picking the mushrooms in a corner of the park, sometimes just sitting on a bench. I knew he also loved the park, and it felt as if there was a quiet communion between us, like between the people who come every day to the same temple.
A New Experience with Awareness
Then one day I experienced something new. As I was walking, I stopped as usual to ground myself better in awareness and get out of my thoughts as much as possible. This time it was much easier, I could feel myself being a part of the park immediately, the thoughts were not bothering me at all, I just stood there motionless, being perfectly clear and grounded, perceiving everything around me.
I saw a squirrel on a tree, and I felt like the squirrel and me were, in fact, one being/thing/consciousness, just divided into 2 bodies. The squirrel looked at me, and then came down from the tree and started walking towards me. Slowly, it made its way next to my feet where it stopped, looking up on me.
We stared like this at each-other for a while, with me keeping my state, until finally a thought entered my mind, telling me “maybe it has rabies, that’s why it is so tame”. At that exact point, the squirrel ran back on the tree, despite the fact that I was still motionless and nothing around had changed, except of that one thought. Only then I noticed the old man who was observing me from his bench. As I looked at him, he greeted me with a smile and I realised he was also with us there at that moment.
Amazed at the closeness I felt to the squirrel and everything around me, I intensified my efforts in getting out of the mind and feeling the magic around me. A few days had passed and I managed to get into that clear state of awareness again.
This time I was standing at a certain spot next to the lake, being immersed in the beauty of the light that was coming from my right side, with the trees being completely lit by it. I felt like I was also a part of that light, and a part of everything around me. I could not even feel myself as a person anymore, I was just there, merged with everything, in a kind of awe, with my mind totally quiet. As I was standing there in this state, I noticed in the corner of my eye a group of ducks swimming in the lake. I saw they started swimming towards me, but I didn’t pay any special attention to them, they were just a part of the scenery.
However, the ducks quickly came to the shore, clumsily made their way out of the water, and started walking towards me in a perfect, orderly line, with one duck leading the way. When they came about 2 feet close, they made a circle around me, and kept coming even closer.
At that point, I started losing my state as it all felt too surreal and unbelievable. The ducks, just like the squirrel before, didn’t even feel like ducks anymore, they felt like the particles of the same thing as me. At the same time, a very subtle ego of fear entered, making me worry that they will start climbing on me or something, and what I was going to do, etc… It was nothing big, not even formulated into a thought yet, just a feeling that wanted to develop into a thought, and I was fighting hard to keep it at bay and maintain my peaceful state.
The ducks, however, started to feel the difference, leaving the circle. Yet, for a little while, I managed to regain back my state, and they started tightening the circle around me again, but then eventually I lost it, and the ducks walked away in the same perfect orderly line as they came, one by one jumped back into the water and swam away.
These experiences showed me that everything living is connected together in a much more intimate way than I previously thought and by being aware I could tap into this higher reality of my consciousness.
I found your awareness experiences so beautiful and inspiring Lucia! Thank you for sharing. It is so interesting and a big lesson that on both of these two occasions the squirrel an the ducks felt your state and the connection and felt comfortable enough to come closer to you. It is not every day that animals or birds come towards us. Usually, the opposite happens. Thanks again for sharing :).
Awww Lucia, that’s so lovely! Its especially inspiring to read about the oneness and unity you felt in nature. I can relate to having a special sanctuary in nature to find and nurture those feelings of peace and consciousness.
Its really amazing how the vibration you emitted from your personal state of being had an effect on life around you. Imagine that, how beauty and peaceful creatures can be attracted to you when you are in peace, makes me wonder what we attract otherwise when we live without peace..
Your experience with animals reminds me of how when I was much younger and throughout my teens I used to love animals so much, I would love trying to connect with them, from cats, dogs, deer, whatever I came across really, and was usually disappointed when they usually went off. As time went by, especially after discovering a way to become more peaceful inside, I definitely noticed a change in the length of time animals would stay around me or approach me without knowing me.
Its a great point Olga – about what we are actually attracting to ourselves (on different levels) when we are not in peace, but instead submerged in different subjective states and constant mind chatter that tends to hide a lot of negativity…
One thing that stood out to me when I watched one of the videos of the former satanist J. Ramirez recently, was what he said that each time we say something in a quarrel, or let our negativity be expressed and so on – we open a sort of “gate”, which then allows the negative forces to come in and make things even worse, without us knowing. That made me more inspired to watch out my behavior more closely, to not make myself open to those influences.
Hi Lucia, thank you for sharing this beautiful experience. It was really nourishing to read it as the way you’ve described awareness made me remember and connect to the feeling of some of my awareness walks in the past.
It’s beautiful how animals responded to your states. It is a great lesson!
I’ve been surprised in the past how animals can be moved by consciousness/love.
This is such an amazing experience, Lucia. I love how the park became like a temple to you, and that you would miss it if you didn’t go one day. It must have been wonderful to feel at one with the squirrel, the ducks, if only for a moment. I guess these animals have a peaceful state naturally and are afraid of us because of what’s inside of us. I wonder if they somehow feel at one with the things around them. At times I feel that nature is very calm, very still, and well…I’m not. I’m very separate from it. Perhaps this is partly why I like to touch and be near trees, to feel some of that stillness 🙂
Thanks Lucia for the wonderful experiences of awareness in the park. It was really nice to read. I read the first part of it yesterday, and today during a walk started paying attention to noticing things in the way you described about visiting every day to see how everyone is doing. It was a new way to pay attention and helped me to come out of myself.
Just now I read about your animal communication. I am really amazed at the animals being able to perceive your state. I always thought of squirrels as being engrossed in their own world, but I guess I was wrong. It sounds like we humans are more engrossed than them.
Thank you Aleks, it is nice to hear my approach was somewhat useful to you as well. 🙂
Regarding animals being aware, my impression is that even though they are also often engrossed in their ego-world, fighting, making nests, gathering food, etc…, they are still very perceptive of what’s happening around them much more than us, because they are not so much lost in the day-dreams. And so they can feel a threat very well, but also love and peace. Also my impression is they would be naturally seeking humans’ company more if we were in better inner state.
Great description Lucia and I can really imagine how you built up strength and connection to that place by going to visit so regularly. When I was a child I used to go riding in a wood so often, the same route… I also felt like I had to visit it, that I was pulled there, and that while I was there I was one with the land around. I recall one experience trying clairvoyance as an adult in a forest – just sitting there for hours, practising the mantra for the faculty, and trying to ‘loosen’ my gaze. Eventually I saw the whole scene kind of merge into one vibratory picture that I felt just a part of.
I wonder who that old man was …
Hi Ella, just wanted to comment on the “vibratory picture” you said you got after practicing in the forest. It reminded me of the Impressionists painters again, as they also perceived the sceneries not divided into different objects (people, grass, sky, etc.), but as a whole “mass” of different patches of colors, lights and shadows, no matter if these shades and colors were on a person or on the sky – everything was just an equal part of one scenery. I always thought there was something on this perception of reality, and now your observation reminded me of that.
Oh, wow Lucia. This made me feel happy, reading your experience 🙂 How the exercise of awareness that is so simple can give rise to such powerful experiences.
It’s amazing how the squirrel and the ducks could immediately sense both your spiritual state and that one seed of a thought or a feeling forming, and they immediately related to you based on that. I’ve been observing and listening to the little birds when I go for walks in the forest by our house, and I love their innocence and beauty and feel a longing to connect with them, to know more about them, but they always want to stay far away from me. So here is a clue how that could be achieved 🙂
I know what you mean about wanting to go to a beautiful place of nature you go daily, to see ‘how it’s doing’. I feel this, and if I don’t get to go, I feel like I’m missing out and that I need the nourishment from it. There’s a joy about observing the landscape in different weather, season, light, time of day, this simple magic, especially if you take that time like you did to stop and become more grounded and really look and perceive what’s going on around. I feel like there is a secret life going on there and if I’m not very clear but full of thoughts and feelings, I can just vaguely sense it and regret how I can’t get into it, and then there is not that much nourishment from it either.
Also, isn’t it interesting how the nature in your home country feels like ‘you’? At least that’s what I feel. I can connect to nature anywhere, but when I go back to my native country, even if it isn’t my forest or anywhere close to where I grew up, I can just recognise myself in the way the nature is. This made me reflect on how the environment/climate/nature we grow up in makes some kind of an imprint deep within us and shapes the way we are as people.
Hi Laura, yes I also feel inspired to watch the same landscape in different seasons, light or times of the day. It is amazing how different atmosphere/energy the same spot can have based on these different conditions. Almost like a person being in different states. 😉
Hey Laura,
I know what you mean about feeling a greater affinity with the nature of the country you were born in. And it does seem like the weather/climate/landscape in part molds the personality. But whether the weather and the ‘chatacter’ of a country has a deeper impact – like being linked to the lessons of the essence or the dominant egos … that’s a mystery I’ve pondered.
I feel the same. There’s always something interesting to notice, no matter the season, or time of day. I also like what you said about there being a secret life happening out there. Sometimes I feel that everything in nature is in harmony with everything else, but I’m not. So I’m not part of that secret life, and secret voice of nature.
And I know what you mean about how the nature of your home country leaves an imprint on you. I think things from our childhood goes deep.
I can just imagine how much you enjoyed these experiences, Lucia. This feeling of oneness with everything is something that I also felt at times when I managed to get out of my mind and connect with the environment I was in.
It always strikes me how animals are sensitive to us humans and our state of mind. Once a baby deer walked towards me as though it wasn’t frightened of me. I was talking to her/him and couldn’t believe what was happening but it soon walked away. I thought it must have felt an energy that was created by some 15 people who attended a retreat there.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful experience Lucia,I have lived in the country for years
and have had my share of deep experiences with nature but like you say this can only
be done with awareness and is truly magical.
Hey Lucia,
What a lovely experience! I’ve heard of people at times chanting mantra or doing meditation and when opening their eyes, seeing various animals had come close to them when in nature – it seems that even though animals are animals with a limited ‘consciousness’ of themselves / of time / of the world around them, they are able to sense things more directly than us, perhaps because egos are so much simpler for them, and not so distorted? In any case, it was really inspiring and beautiful to read your experience of feeling that unity yet knowing that you were still separate, but from the same source so to speak.
Hi Geraldine, yes that unity I felt was very interesting. Especially in the case of the squirrel, I almost felt like she was me and I was her, just experiencing Life through different bodies.
Thank you, Lucia, for sharing those beautiful and amazing experiences. Wow…
Reading what happened both with the squirrel and especially with the circle of ducks is remarkable. I think I’ve felt those sorts of things, in small glimpses, but your experiences were so deep.
I really want to get out in nature now.
I’m also amazed that despite your first successful experience of oneness, you were able to attain that again and even go deeper! Normally when I have success with a practice, my mind becomes an obstacle in future attempts, and the same spontaneity is seldom achieved. A similar trap to what Steve described here: https://selfdiscoverylife.com/2017/02/02/overcoming-a-deceptive-ego/
I’m curious if you can offer any tips on this. How did you manage to keep an open mind again, and not have any expectations limiting your experience?
Same here Mike. I’m looking forward to the local weather turning around a bit more in order to g out for some walks in nature!
Hi Mike,
Regarding “repeating” the experience, this happened during the period when I practiced awareness and getting out of my thoughts every day, walking around the same route. So I built things up and then when the experience with the squirrel happened, I literally could not wait to go again and try to feel this closeness again. I remembered how I felt when in that state, not that I would try to mentally recreate it or anything like that, but I kept walking, eliminating thoughts, perceiving and enjoying everything. Then when I achieved that state for the second time, I knew I got it, and it felt even more powerful than the first time. Actually during that time period I managed to get to this state a few more times and again attract the animals or communicate with them. This made me think that by regular training like this, this could actually be something normal, a state we could be in much more often. Years later, when watching some videos with animal communicator Anna Breytenbach and listening to her description of how she communicates with animals, it reminded me the state I was in back then. Basically, a very peaceful, focused and wonder-filled state in which you can connect to everything, including animals.
Thanks for your elaboration, Lucia. I guess that does make sense, that after having built up so much momentum, the results would be more natural, and your approach would be more based in efforts to be aware, etc., rather than in the mind.
I think I’ve seen a documentary about Anna. It is pretty incredible to imagine we could have that sort of connection with animals, and that it could be “normal”!
That sounds like a really beautiful experience Lucia! I had a somewhat similar experience when I was with some friends once.
I snuck away for a quiet moment in a field of wild garlic by a nearby forest and started practicing a mantra. I had gotten into a good state, and when I opened my eyes afterwards I saw a young deer had come up close to me.
It seemed to be quite curious, like it was trying to learn what was making the sounds of the mantra, but it hadn’t felt threatened by the noise or the sight of a human. It stayed for a few moments up until the exact moment an emotional ego came up in me, and then it bolted quickly away.
Something similar had happened with a group of us in the same forest on another occasion. It really shows the different way we’d relate to the natural world of we could change within in a more permanent way.
Yup, those emotional egos are so quick, aren’t they? I really became aware at those times how strong these egos are and that they are, in fact, the main obstacle to being in permanent state of peace and friendship with all animals. I think if we didn’t have these emotional egos, especially anxiety, maybe we would be able to walk in nature and feel safe at all times.
I would have been waaay too busy collecting as much wild garlic as I could fit in whatever bags and pockets were on my person! 😉 And probably not had such a good vibe!
Seems like you acquired a good insight into oneself there 😉
Your story along with the photos gave a nice sense of your time there in the park Lucia. So nice!
The moments with the local animals do sound magical, very Disney 😉 And I like the analogy of seeing the man as a fellow temple goer in the sanctuary of nature.
It does make me reminisce about my park :’-) When I first learned about awareness, from Belsebuub’s ‘Searching Within’ course material, I also used to go walks for every day, multiple times even. That wonderful park where I walked, I loved it so much! because it’s where I got acquainted again with being the real me. Perceiving the freshness and beauty of life again. Stepping out of the subconscious world. I could go on and on about that park, but won’t. 🙂 However, perhaps similar to you Lucia, after a time when walking along the paths making efforts for the awareness again and again and again for years, it felt like my ‘astral signature’ was everywhere.
Having a park like that around is such a gift.
Yes Karim, exactly! Each time I go to Slovakia, I feel such a strong urge to go and visit that park, but its out of the way to where my mom lives, so I rarely go there. 🙁 But it definitely feels as a home of sorts, and if I ever have a way around, I make super efforts to stop there and walk around, visiting and especially “feeling” all the familiar spots again…
Actually, during this time of my closeness to the park and the animals there, I had a dream and in that dream I met a pigeon, and it told me “I know you, you come to the park”. 😀 Not sure if it was from my subconscious or if it was a real entity from the park communicating with me in the astral, but i thought it was nice to have these “neighbors” who were recognizing me as somebody familiar.
Yes I have a ‘my’ park too … and a special tree-friend that I used to commune with, a ginormous birch with branches that almost touched the ground around it that you could sit under. When I go back to my city it’s one of the first friends I go and visit! :-O
That sounds nice Lucia 🙂
I remember I would always speak to my friends the birds! aka try to reenact their whistle while trying to telepathically send my message. I think they thought ‘what a strange bird’ as I hadn’t quite gotten their language down. I think they appreciate the attempt though 😉
Ha ha, I can relate about re-encting the bird’s whistles. They seem to be always trying the new melodies and enjoy them. Once a friend told me that he read somewhere that in today’s cities birds are even re-creating the mobile-phone rings. I guess the birds adapted and maybe felt inspired by those tunes, or maybe thought those were some fancy birds… 😉
Yes, I think the birds are aware of us trying to connect with them… I was walking in a park once, there were lots of little birds. I can’t whistle but I was trying to, for them. I was looking at this one little bird in a tree, trying to whistle but managing to just hiss and puff 😀 and then suddenly I could make a small pure whistle, for a few times. Not sure if it was just my mind, but I felt a bit like the bird was helping me do it 🙂 Afterwards again I couldn’t whistle…
Yay, that’s cute Laura! 🙂
Thanks for sharing those experiences of nature Lucia. I can relate to the magical feeling you described, which can be found when we tune into the beauty of nature. I was also lucky to have some areas of natural beauty close to home, which I used to enjoy spending time in.
Your encounters with the squirrels and ducks sounded very special! 🙂 I also saw the effect my inner state could have upon the wildlife around me, when I was doing some spiritual practices with some friends and a group of deer came wandering past us in a docile way. It was the first time I’d seen the deer being so calm in the presence of humans, as they would usually be running and jumping over hedges to get away from me, when I was walking along in a less aware state! 🙂
It’s amazing how such subtle thoughts were perceived by the creatures around you, and I have to say I smiled at your thoughts about the squirrel having rabies or the ducks climbing on you. They seem such silly thoughts and yet if we saw a transcript of all our thoughts during the day, including the most subtle ones, we would most probably see some even sillier ones! 🙂
I think your experience shows how out of tune we are with nature as a humanity, as even though you didn’t move, the squirrel and ducks were still able to perceive the subtle differences in your inner state. Imagine how different it would be if we were able to live in a more harmonious way with our natural environment all the time! It would be much better us, the wildlife and for the planet. I’m sure we could learn a lot through interacting with animals too.
I was also laughing a bit at the particular forms Lucia’s thoughts took on 🙂 But I know thoughts like that, illogical as the may be, can come on so quickly.
Like others I’ve also experienced similar encounters in nature with animals. Where I would be in a peaceful state and be in harmony with them and yet when an emotion (such as fear or pride) would manifest they would notice I had this weirdness inside and move away.