Mother Mary, Saint Francis, Archangel Michael and all the saints and angels are real. We receive their blessings in our prayers and and we come to know them more deeply through study and contemplation. Guided meditation and guided imagery offer another dimension to our experience, providing the chance to explore our relationship to them further.
Simply put, guided imagery or guided meditation is storytelling combined with relaxation. The words and music help us relax, and invite our imagination to explore. But why do we need this?
The human brain includes the left side, which specializes in logic and analysis, and the right side, which specializes in creativity and imagination. The left side helps us to solve problems, but only by putting together pieces of information we already know. The right side allows us to grasp new ideas, appreciate beauty, and experience love. It’s closely connected with inspiration and all matters of the heart, including spirituality.
In Western culture, human beings have been raised to place the analytic, left brain in charge of our lives. We lead from the head, and not from the heart. The intellect filters everything we believe, and tends to run things in a business-like manner. It says, for example, “Saint Francis died 800 years ago, and dead people are dead. Believing otherwise is crazy.” Well, based solely on the experience of the left brain, that’s entirely true. But fortunately, we have more to work with than just our intellect!
Mystics easily experience the presence of Francis and other spiritual figures as alive and well, and do this not through the intellect, but through the heart. Everyone can do this, but because of all our conditioning, most of us need a little help getting started. Guided meditation provides a bit of leverage for the process.
Guided meditation coaxes the left brain to relax and take a back seat for a short, often entertaining, inner journey. The colorful imagery stimulates the imagination, and encourages us to explore parts of our feelings we don’t usually allow to come to the fore. These may be feelings we experience as a matter of course, but don’t necessarily identify. For example, that lofty sense of peace one experiences in a place of worship, or the serenity that comes over one looking at a beautiful landscape. If we begin to focus on those feelings more intentionally, they can lead us into deeper states of spirituality, where a dimension opens up for us that’s not normally accessible under the auspices of our intellect.
If we relax and allow our heart to lead the way, the experience of Francis and other great spiritual figures can become real and immediate. It begins in the imagination, with inklings, perhaps a sense of warmth. As we continue to open into the experience, we can begin to tap into a deeper experience of Francis, and even receive his love. Repeating the exercise over time, the picture fills in, and our relationship deepens.
All of this happens by relaxing, listening to a story, and imagining. It’s not complicated, it’s just a matter of allowing the heart to lead. Guided meditation is simply a tool to help us get started, and a gift we can enjoy.
