Metaphysics Ed
Hey everyone,
Since I posted the blog about Claire Michelle and what I learned from influencers like her, I’ve thought about the people I had learned from books or online who gave a different approach to the awakening process and spiritual growth. Some of these people (mostly men, I admit) were my first sources of information on the spiritual realm. Usually, they also focused more on gaining metaphysical abilities rather than inner healing.
One man that comes to mind is William Buhler. I first heard about him two years ago, through a woman I met in Georgia when we talked about astral projection. She saw how interested I was in developing the skill, so she recommended Buhler’s book, Adventure Beyond the Physical Body: How to Experience out of Body Travel. I ordered a copy online and, after long nights of studying and practice, learned a few techniques to project out of my physical body. Now, I didn’t have success every time I tried it, but when I did it was extremely liberating. The book is something of a memoir as well, giving recollections of pivotal moments in Buhler’s life when he projected for the first time, encountered ghosts of his loved ones, and developed his extrasensory perception.
In addition, I used Ryan Cropper’s videos on YouTube as a source on AP, as well as lucid dreaming. If any of you aren’t familiar with his work, Ryan uses his platform to educate people on how to gain certain abilities, such as AP, telekinesis, astral travel, and so on. He has also talked about using certain crystals to raise your vibration, what kind of creatures you may meet in other realms, and how to interact with them in a way that benefits you.
Like Claire Michelle, influencers like Ryan Cropper touch on the Law of Attraction and the ability to manifest things into reality. However, Ryan, and other YouTubers like Aaron Doughty and Koi Fresco, approaches the topics of invisible realms, spirit beings, and the state of humanity in a more realistic way than Claire would. For instance, they stress the importance of acknowledging and understanding the state of the physical realm we exist in. Specifically, they talk how it’s all an illusion designed to keep the general public under control. Furthermore, they discuss how to separate yourself further from your human self through an ego death in order to reach higher vibrations and connect with the higher self.
In this sense, it looks like the bohemian New Age influencers and the intellectual Light-Worker influencers have common traits: both groups have the good intentions to help humanity and both groups sometimes leave out the most important parts of the spiritual journey. Because so much of their interest and attention is on higher vibrations and beings of Light, they don’t always see the value of lower vibrations, the flawed human self and shadow work.
Now, by no means do I think men Like Ryan Cropper and William Buhler have nothing valuable to bring to the table. Of course they do. There will always be more to this existence than what we can experience physically. But in my case, I needed to learn certain truths in the lower vibrational realms that I wouldn’t have learned if I’d focused on the light all the time.
I haven’t actively practiced astral projection for eight months or so now, though I still lucid dream sometimes. This is possibly a result of focusing more on healing my inner self. I’m not ready to go commune with intergalactic beings until my inner child understands how much I love her. I do still work to raise my vibration, and it’s necessary. However, unless I ground myself with earth energy, my inflated ego will keep me from being honest about what needs to change in me.
This is all to say that by acknowledging and valuing the higher and lower vibrations, I grew up a little more and a little better. This wouldn’t be the case if I kept pouring energy into one and demonizing or belittling the other.
So how do you practice balancing your light and darkness? Have you struggled to ground yourself? How do you keep yourself form getting too drawn to the light or swallowed up in your shadow?
P.S. I may write another blog about how I’ve used my dreams with my shadow work and how that’s helped me. So stay tuned!
