On day 2 of living with the spiritual community I began to make an effort to get to know the other 2 women that were present. As it turns out they were both volunteers from helpex, who had responded to an add about assisting a hostel with guest duties and they actually didn’t know what it was they were coming to. This was of course a far cry from my assumption that everyone would be brain washed cult followers.
It was over a cooking lesson from the lovely Silvaine that I learned more about the girls, their backgrounds, lifestyles in their own countries, belief systems, passions and found out just how damn nice they were.
Silvaine taught us how to make a Tarte Aux Prunes (Plum Tart)
The Base
250g plain flour
125g sugar
1 egg
Mix sugar and eggs together
100g butter
Mix everything together in a bowl
Line a cake or tart tin with baking paper
Roll the pastry flat (can be used immediately or let it rest for 30 minutes)
Press the pastry into the tray to cover the base and sides, ensuring that there are left overs for eating…. mmmmm Yum!
The Topping
5 Nectarines
Cut nectarines into wedges and make one tight layer filling the base
Sprinkle with some sugar or icing sugar
Add any other ingredients you might like such as spices or nuts
Cook in a pre-heated over for 40 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius
DELICIOUS!
Yes Master
In the evening Nikita and I attended the hypnotism of Axel!
Now, I think it is important to know that Axel is Efendi’s most devout follower and some examples of this are:
– Has lived in the same house as Efendi for 20 years, in a room downstairs (not in the main house) with the couch surfers and hostel guests
– Is 1 of 3 people left following Efendi which was originally a group of over 50 people
– Married a woman he wasn’t interested in because Efendi recommended it. No questions asked! Ha!
– When asked if he has ever been ‘in love’ he responded by saying ‘I’m not sure how to answer that, but the closest thing I have felt to true love is what I feel for Efendi’ WOW!
– Has no opinion or free thought, does not appear to ever challenge Efendi even when the most incredulous things come out of his mouth
– Is a spy haha…. As in runs up stairs and tells Efendi any information he has or the goings on in the house
So now that we have a picture of Axel’s devotion you can understand why I was feeling skeptical about the hypnotism that evening. I was definitely interested to see if he would be hypnotized, if he could go into a past life (I’m not even sure I believe in past lives ha), if he would see anything but skeptical because I wasn’t sure if Axel would just ‘play along’ so as not to disappoint his master and skeptical that I wouldn’t witness a true experience. Of course I said none of this as I walked up the stairs with Nikita to watch the session!
The Session
Basically, Axel lay down on a nice flat couch/bed with his head right near a large window that allowed the fading sun and sound of the amazing landscape to drift in (it’s a really a beautiful setting). Efendi then asked Axel to close his eyes and the session began.
At this point there were no swinging pendulums or you are getting very sleepy’s. Rather, it was more Efendi walking Axel through a series of relaxation techniques. Once Axel’s mind and body was relaxed Efendi then painted a picture of a beautiful stair case in Axel’s mind that he was to walk down (the idea being to make the mind go deeper and deeper and then finally into the hypnotic or subconscious state). It was actually really relaxing and as I watched I could feel myself started to nod off and then realised how weird that would be if I just sat there and fell asleep ha.
Regression
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_life_regression
Finally it looked like Axel was asleep, Efendi did some ‘suggestion’ about going into a past life and then started asking Axel questions about where he was, what he could see, could he see his feet, was he in the picture or out of it, what did he look like, who was he, were there other people, where had he come from, what was he doing, could he speak to people, what language, what era etc etc.
Ordinarily I would be thinking ‘whatever’ but not only am I trying to have an open mind these days but I also had been told some wild stories from Efendi about previous sessions that he had conducted where a girl rather than regressing into the past told Efendi that she was on a space ship and she started to talk to aliens or a higher form of person and then their minds became one and Efendi could talk directly to this ‘being’ through her. Now this is the briefest of briefest summaries, the story itself took over an hour to tell and was pretty damn interesting, fiction or no fiction. Infact I know the story really well, because if a new person ever joined in with one of Efendí’s conversations you would hear the same 10 or so stories regurgitated over and over (and so the cracks begin to appear! If I experienced the same stories in 2 or 3 days, imagine the poor bastards who had been following Efendi for the last 20 years ha)
Anyways I digress, the reason I mention the above is because when a person talks about something so often and with such conviction you start to believe that anything is possible. And really, anything is possible, right? I mean, I would have to be stupid to say that I have all the answers. I think we would all be stupid to say that we definitively know what how life works, what is out in the universe, what happens after! Just look at quantum physics! So with an open mind I began to listen to what Axel was saying…..
Initially and after many question Axel really didn’t have alot to say other than he could see a man in the desert, standing alone next to a water well, there was a castle in the distance but he didn’t know what this man was doing there or where he had come from. He did however take some water from the well to drink and then threw the rest onto the desert floor! Hmmm not exactly riveting stuff, so Efendi decided to take him deeper into the hypnosis and try again.
This time the images appeared to be more vivid and Axel spoke of seeing an old man who worked as a blacksmith, he had no family or friends but there were other people walking around. He went with one widowed woman who was carrying wood with her son so that they could bake flat bread in the oven. He spoke to this woman and it was determined that they were in a place called Aer in Africa in the middle ages and that is pretty much all Efendi managed to get out of him before bringing him out of the hypnosis.
By this time it was well and truly dark outside as we had been watching the hypnosis for an hour and a half and of course like all the other nights, we had a group discussion afterwards. Again I heard the same stories from Efendi and I decided to call it a night. I climbed into bed intrigued by the hypnosis and did some research only to find out that this suggested place Aer doesn’t exist!
In the morning I questioned Axel and asked him ‘How much of last night do you think was your subconscious referencing your past life and how much was your imagination?’
Axel told me that he believed that the subconscious and the imagination are one and the same and after a little research on my part it seems that he was partially right. According to all scientific references that I can find the subconscious cannot determine the difference between that which is real or what is imagined!
Hmmmm, well now I am more confused than ever. As a result of that evening I have alot of unresolved questions about hypnotism and the subconscious, so in order to understand better it looks as though I am going to try it myself.
I will ask Efendi, stay tuned!
Open Your Mind More
365 Days of 30 