You may choose to light a few scented white candles, spray some aromatic mist around the room, or burn some incense before beginning this meditative technique which is aimed at developing your astral or psychic body. The positive effects of this development will be felt in hypnagogia and lucid dreaming.
First and foremost I want you to find a comfortable space on the floor and lie down flat on your back with the toes of your feet and the palms of your hands facing upwards. Once you have found the right spot close your eyes and start taking long, deep breaths. Breathe in and breathe out. Breathe in and out. Whilst you are coordinating your slow, rhythmic breathing imagine that a silvery white dot has materialized directly before you and is growing in size. It expands like a helium balloon, getting bigger and bigger until you notice that it is the full moon itself. Slivers of romantic light bounce off its crater-ravaged body and hit you, inciting a warm tingly blush along the entire length of your body. It feels so good to bathe in these silvery rays which stimulate every porous crevice and orifice in your body and infuse you with vital life force. The light which is now penetrating your body is eradicating the stresses of everyday life and replacing them with the languor of deep relaxation. Your breathing has slowed down considerably now. As you take those long, deep breaths you realize that time has also decelerated to match your breathing. Anything that might transpire about you from now on will exhibit similarities to a slow-motion cartoon where pitch, tone, and images become protracted, exaggerated and skewed.
Breathe in and breathe out. Breathe in; breathe out. You should now be completely relaxed. You should no longer be able to discern external noises and distractions clearly. They should merely constitute very faint hums or echoes that rear their heads only slightly from that wide and boundless sea of unconsciousness and then plunge back down again. In fact, the only thing you should be able to hear is the command of my voice instructing you to remain relaxed and receptive to the romantic silver light emanating from the lunar disk. The only external stimulus of which you remain fully attentive and conscious to is my voice. Listen to the vibrations of my voice as they form a harmonic confluence with the romantic light interpenetrating your body. Now shift all your attention to your left arm and visualize how it feels from the top of your shoulders right down along the length of your upper arm to your forearm; further down to your palm and your knuckles; and finally all the way down to your fingertips.
There is no longer just one arm now. There are two; your material arm and another immaculate chalk white arm inside it. The romantic light emanating from the moon has created it for you. Slowly coil your fingers into a fist and then open them up again. Then raise your left upturned arm up and curl it over your right shoulder. Do it in a fluid, continuous motion. Do it nice and slowly. Leave the palm of your hand there for a few seconds before returning it to its initial resting position. Now repeat that movement over your chest to your shoulder and back again as slowly and as steadily as you can. Don’t allow your awareness to drift from the sensations in your left arm and don’t stop taking those long, deep, and rhythmic breaths. Breathe in and breathe out. Once your left hand has completed that round, let it rest for a few seconds before repeating the brief action three more times. Now allow part of your awareness to heed to the commands of my voice as your arm drifts sluggishly and mindlessly back and forth. Listen carefully to the sound of my hypnotic voice as it describes that second arm.
Inside your material arm is another flawless, translucent, snow-white arm. The second arm fits inside the first as one Russian Matryoshka doll fit inside another. Or, better still, in the manner that a white glove fits a hand. You were previously unaware of the existence of this impeccable limb, but today the full moon has illuminated it for you to see and permeated it with the power to move and act. It’s always been there with you, waiting for an opportunity to reveal all evidence of its brilliance in the manner that a butterfly hopes to show the inwardly turned, unassuming, oblivious, and grounded caterpillar the wonders of flight. You couldn’t quite perceive it before, but now the moon has lighted up that beautiful second hand encased within the first. There are two left arms, not one; they begin from two shoulders and run down to two upper arms, two forearms, two palms, two sets of knuckles, and two sets of fingertips. As I speak to you do not allow your attentiveness to drift from the body part in question. Restrict your focus to that area and don’t allow any changes to come to your established breathing pattern.
The time has now come for its animation. See and feel that second arm; the supernal light coming from the moon above you has energized it with enough vital force as to allow you a range of movement that takes the physical completely out of the equation. You will now use your thought and only your thought to enact the imminent undertaking. Please permit your left arm to remain completely motionless whilst you shift your attention to your unprecedented limb, the one you were hitherto unconscious of. Without shifting the trajectory of your awareness, lift your white arm up over your chest and rest the palm on your right shoulder. Don’t do it in a way that you would move any material limb comprised of muscle and bone but instead visualize the movement with your mind. Lift it up with your thought, allowing the concrete image of how it looks and what it feels like fully formed to possess your mind’s eye. Don’t allow the image you have to lose its physical demarcations or disintegrate from view. Gradually follow its allotted range of action to the starting position as if it were your material arm and visualize it slipping back into the latter.
I want you to consciously repeat that mentation four more times as you listen to the sound of my voice. Let the sound of my voice guide your immaterial left arm as it courses up and over your chest to your shoulder; let it repose there for a few seconds, and then withdraw it back to its initiatory position. Make sure that the movement is slow and smooth. Make sure that your breathing is slow and relaxed and that you refrain from letting any external stimuli or foreign thoughts from poisoning that deep level of concentration. Again, allow the sound of my voice to guide your immaterial left arm as it courses up and over your chest to your shoulder; let it repose there for a few seconds, and then withdraw it back to its initiatory position. Inhale very slowly and cordially and then exhale again. Breathe in and then breathe out. Let’s try that again now. Keep your material arm immobile and only mobilize the ethereal one. Trace the projected pathway across your chest and let the ethereal palm rest on the head of your shoulder for a few seconds before crossing it back to its original locus. Breathe in and out, concentrating on that flawless white arm that resonates with penetrating vital life force. Now repeat the said action one final time; methodically, slowly, and without any distractions. Deliberate on the arc. Don’t forget that time has decelerated to a near stop and that everything is unfolding at turtle and snail trail pace. Never lose sight of your objective which is to complete the full range of action without any break or alteration of attention.
You can gradually open your eyes once you’ve finished completing the last sequence. A most appropriate way to finish the exercise is by doing a few light stretches and then drinking a glass of water. To get the most out of it I suggest you practice it every night before going to sleep and subsequently follow it up with a five to ten minute session on self-reflection. (Refer to my article on self-reflection for more details.)Once you have been practicing for a while, you might elect to change things up by doing it with one of your other limbs; your right hand instead of your left or with either one of your legs. If you opt for a leg exercise the trajectory of motion should involve lifting your foot directly up into the air and crossing it over the motionless one so that the former touches the calcaneus (heel bone) of the latter.
