Field trip intentions - 2005
During spring, summer and fall I offer Intuitive, participatory
field trips to prehistoric and sacred sites in Montana. Each year these
trips evolve with my own exploration and research. I am excited to be
entering into warmer weather and more explorations of this landscape
with exciting groups of people.
One of the basic intentions for all my field trips, workshops and classes
is to set up a safe, comfortable container within which individuals
can open a communication with their unconscious, and through their unconscious,
access higher consciousness potentials like intuition, inner spirit-guided
insight and even healing. This communication is elicited by validating
what we are experiencing inside and communicating it, either just to
ourselves or to others.
If you are new to using your intuition, I recommend beginning with the
Intuition and remote viewing classes. In these classes we share with
each other an exploration of sensory awareness and practical intuitive
exercises. We start the process of validating our inner awareness by
communicating what we are experiencing to ourselves and others.
This personal exploration takes on new dimensions in a group setting.
With the field trips, we explore as a group with a larger intention.
In this format one person’s inner experience may relate solely
to their own intent, but it also may relate to other’s or even
the whole group’s focus. We find our experiences also communicate
the intentions and energy of the specific site we are visiting. Thus
we learn about ourselves and our own energies and heal at these sites,
but we also activate these sites with our energy and awareness.
These field trips and workshops are not isolated events in our lives,
they exist within the flow of our lives. You may look forward to one
event with ideas and images in your conscious mind such as; an image
of pictographs, water or land, a group of people, or an emotional feeling.
Those events will be real. But they are only how you define them in
your mind. There is another energetic level of activity that has already
begun and will resound for a long time after the actual event. Even
now, thinking about participating in one of these events, you begin
activating your energies at a deeper, unconscious level. This is partly
how you are able to decide which events you are interested in; they
already resonate with you in some way. You can sense it. In this way
the energy and spaces we engage with are not bound in time. We are experiencing
a continual process of self - exploration. We don’t really have
to do anything consciously to make it happen, that’s the beauty
of working with the unconscious. But we can ‘sense’ these
events outside of time, and move towards it with fuller conscious intention
in the present.
Working with trance
This year marks a shift in my workshops. Being a hypnotherapist, I have
always utilize an awareness of trance in my work, but I am beginning
to do this more intentionally. In March I facilitated an all-night trance
drumming workshop that was very profound and healing. I am adding this
component to some of the field trips. We will be using trance at the
overnight workshop at the Blacktail Ranch, and later on this summer
with a two-night workshop on the Smith River.
Within each activity we create a container where we use trance intentionally.
Trance occurs anytime we focus our awareness in such a way that our
normal orientation to reality changes. In this sense we go in and out
of trance every day, sometimes many times in a single day. For example,
when we daydream or experience a strong emotion, we are in trance. This
ability to focus allows us to immerse ourselves in our focus and absorb
more information without conscious resistance. We usually don’t
pay attention to these day-to-day trances though, since they are an
accepted part of who we are. The meaning of trance can expand though
in more profound directions. It’s linguistic roots are connected
to words like; passage, vision, to go over or across, and even to die.
This is not a physical crossing over, but a release from normal consciousness.
This release can be experienced as a passage or a journey, which is
why this kind of trance work is often called journeying. Most indigenous
cultures use some form of trance to get a clearer perspective and understanding
of reality. It is more than can be contained in conscious awareness.
In trance-drumming we are intentionally using the sound of the drum
as an entry point into a deeper trance. By deeper, I only mean more
altered from normal awareness. The further we go, the more we leave
the limitations of our conscious beliefs behind and enter into other
ways of knowing.
Writing down and communicating our thoughts, beliefs, and experiences
while working with trance allows us to let go of the energy of our past.
We communicate and we release. Not only does this allow us to be more
present with ourselves, each other, and the energy we experience but
this brings in an important intention of trance work - integrating these
states with ‘normal’ states of consciousness. We don’t
only seek to leave this normal consciousness, but we seek to transform
and heal our normal lives through our experiences and understandings
that come from trance.
Thinking of the meaningful events that manifest in our lives, something
reaches out and touches us. A fascination, a lightness, a warmth in
the heart, the presence of spirit. We can dream these things into our
lives.
Come along on the adventure!
Warm regards - Patrick
More background information
on field trips...
