Meditation and the Sweat Lodge

Yeah, we’re still on lockdown! They are letting us out a few at a time for a couple of hours to shower and contact our families. The location of my cell prevents me from having much chance at the phone 😦 But, I can get to the computer. So, here’s something I wrote and meant to send you in Feburary, but, was sidetracked by needing to update you on the Corona in here. Anyway. I’m good.

Meditation and the Sweat Lodge

Many years ago, I was in the United States Penitentiary at Florence, Colorado. I began an active meditation program, believing then, as I do now, that meditation is the most important spiritual practice, EVER! While there I had a like-minded friend named Richard Haworth.
When Richard and I first met there was an instant connection, and some of the experiences described in my book, “A POET DREAMS: a prisoner’s search for meaning” was shared by him. Together Richard and I experienced the Rosicrucian’s, Eastern Philosophy, Ceremonial Magick, Reiki, and what I call the Matrix – not the movie dummy, the real matrix. All of those experiences are outlined in that book.
After Richard and I had been on our quest for a few years, Richard convinced the Chaplain’s Office to buy us a meditation course called “Remote Experiencing/Remote Viewing” by a man named Gerald O Donnel. This was a major coup for us because, this complete course cost around $300, which is a lot to get from a prison Chaplain if you aren’t a Muslim or a Christian. No I ain’t shootin’ slugs at them folks, it’s that the budget that the Chaplain has to draw from is allocated according to the number of folks participating in each various religious group, and truth is, there’s a hell of a lot of folks in prison who claim to be Muslims and Christians and almost none who claim to be what Richard and I are, which is well, is a couple of guys trying to improve ourselves. Point is, there was no money available for a couple of guys like us, no matter how sincere we were. But, Richard somehow convinced them to buy that course for us, and OMG!!! It was awesome.
Now, I can’t speak for Richard or anyone else who has taken this course, but for me, I didn’t use this course to Remote View. For me this course was for one thing, and one thing only – to learn how to meditate at the deepest levels of consciousness and I can assure you that this course works for that purpose, in fact that O Donnel Course was more than I could have dreamed of. But – as I would learn first hand, there is a negative aspect of meditation that is never talked about. Let me explain.

One day Richard and I went to the Chapel to listen to the Remote Influencing Course and meditate. At the end of our forty-five minute sesson Richard opens his eyes, takes out his ear buds he says, I paraphrase, “You know that Sacred Heart of Jesus …” I stopped him and said something like, “Get the hell outta here!!” then I proceeded to tell him what he was gonna tell ME about the secret of the Sacred Heart. You see, while we had been meditating, I, had been praying, and one of the things I had asked about was, to understand the purpose of the Catholic practice of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary. As often happens when meditating at the deepest levels, your consciousness, exits the physical world, allowing you to access a pure consciousness. I guess a simple way to illustrate this would be this way: The mind is a computer and when we meditate we go on-line and access the web. Once on the Web we can ask questions and receive answers to those questions, in addition to this we can oftentimes receive information on things we haven’t consciously contemplated – I know, it’s damned complicated but I have experienced it first-hand and so I know it’s true. Yeah, I have a reason for telling you meatheads all this unbelievable stuff, here goes.

When two or more are gathered together ( sound familiar? ) while meditating at deep levels of consciousness, somehow, someway, the minds of these mediators overlap one with the other, and you pick up each others thoughts, intentions, beliefs and energy. Sounds crazy, I know, but I can tell you that this transference of thought between Richard and I, as we meditated happened more than once. It actually became like a game to me as I quietly listened to Richard explain things he’d experienced while meditating, never telling him that I had often put those thoughts out to him with my own thoughts – powerful thing the mind. To make a long story short, I realized that I had to be careful who I altered my consciousness around, because if my thoughts and intentions could be received by them, then most certainly their thoughts were being received by me. Why am I telling you this?

The Sweat Lodge

In prison you are exposed to all manner of people, and that’s a good thing. During my 20 plus years behind bars I’ve met a lot of real American Indians or Native Americans as some prefer to call ’em. I say real because the Hollywood image of the “Noble Native” has caused a shipload of white folks to falsely claim Native ancestry – you don’t have to look any further than Senator Elizabeth Warren to see what I’m talkin’ about. For the record – the REAL Indians I’ve been exposed to, laugh at folks like that. Yeah, they even have a name for those Indian wannabes – they call ’em “Cherokrackers” obviously a play on the two words, “Cherokee” and “Kracker,” Cherokee od course is an Indian tribe and, for my European friends, a “kracker” is a slang word for an ignorant white person – it aint a complimentary name, but, some folks, like me, have taken pride in it! Point is: the real Indians laugh behind the backs of these wannabes, ok, alright you got me! I laugh at their stupid asses too!

In Prison we have very few rights, but one of ’em is the right to worship our Creator by whatever means we choose. This is the function of the Prison Chaplain, to ensure that all people are equally allowed to practice their own religion, or to practice no religion at all. As for the American Indians, well, some are Christians and some practice their own faith, based on the religious practices of their ancestors, in the manner of their pre-Christian exposure. Anyway, one of the old practices of the Natives is the Sweat Lodge Ritual. If you don’t know what a Sweat Lodge is, look it up. FYI: Most Federal Prisons provide a Sweat Lodge of some form for these guys to use. We have one at 3RVS.

The Chief who speaks for the Indians here at 3RVS is an old friend of mine and many are the times that he’s invited me to come and sweat with him and his people – I have always declined.

Why? Y’all obviously have a short damned attention span!

I just spent an hour explaining that I don’t like to alter my consciousness in the company of other folks! Crazy? No I aint crazy, well, not completely crazy anyways. But after my experience with Richard, I came to realize that when folks get together with any type of spiritual practice, that they potentially have a spiritual mixing with those around ’em. Hell, I don’t know how to explain it, but having experienced it first-hand, I know for certain how real this phenomenon is.

Yeah, I’m unwilling to alter my conscious around other folks. Sorry, but, I believe in the that truth and there’s definitely something negative or maybe even evil goin’ on in the hearts and minds of one hell of a lot of folks… don’t get me started here… but you can bet your pretty little ol’ behind that I have an opinion on it. (read my reinterpretation of Genesis) because I assure you, I have encountered this entity within others and even within myself. I know, everyone has an opinion on who and what this negative entity or entities are, everything from a misguided Collective Consciousness, Reptilian Aliens, Fallen Angels, to a Devil. But whatever you call it, I know from experience that it’s real. Therefore, I’m cautious when purposefully altering my consciousness. To make a long story short – the Big Chief is a close friend of mine and he asked me to celebrate his Birthday by attending the Sweat Lodge Ritual with him. Bummer right!? What did I do? What could I do? I went. Next time I’ll tell you what happened.

Peace be with You

To read my Genesis reinterpretation go to Pre-Genesis and Genesis the unauthorized version

But, remember what I told you before. I DO NOT BELIEVE the Old Testament to be anything other than a history book. So when you read my take on it, don’t be fooled thining otherwise. Love God, just don’t believe he would say things like “Go down ther and kill them all, even the women and children” I explain all that in my work.

Three Rivers, 4-15-20