Expect the Unexpected When You Learn to Meditate

Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

--Mark Twain

The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of an insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flashes, or short-circuits of reasoning.

--Arthur Koestler

Many people look into learning to meditate so they can enjoy more peace. Others hope for greater clarity of thinking. Still others are hoping for spiritual gains.

Having been active in meditating for 13 years, I think it's fair to say that meditation will take you to unexpected results. If you are ready for that kind of exploration, you should learn to meditate. If not, perhaps you should just stay as you are.

Here's my experience:

At the start of 1995, I began studying and practicing Transcendental Meditation. Pleased with the results I felt in terms of increased calmness and mental clarity, I encouraged my wife to do the same. She, too, was pleased with her experience.

We decided we wanted to go even deeper into this discipline and devoted much of our spare time over the spring and summer to taking an advanced program to learn, among other things, levitation. I had visions of floating around in the air 30 feet off the ground; it was exciting to contemplate.

The reality was quite different from my daydreams. We actually learned to hop in the lotus position. A typical hop was a few inches off the ground. Fortunately, all this hopping provided other mental benefits.

Our instructors kept emphasizing that this discipline was independent of our religious beliefs. I began to realize why they repeated this point so often: With more meditation, my thoughts were increasingly focused on spiritual matters. My prayer life was enriched as well as my Bible study.

At the end of this training, I immediately flew off (by plane) for salmon fishing in Labrador with one of my CEO clients. I spent many hours pleasantly casting my line in the virtual solitude of the wilderness on a sparkling river. I didn't care if I caught any fish. The experience was like a week-long meditation.

When I returned from the fishing trip, I kept waking up at about 3 a.m. and wasn't able to get back to sleep. I could feel an idea trying to come to life inside me, but I couldn't identify it. After a few such nights, I began to spend these sleepless hours in prayer.

Weeks passed, and I was getting pretty foggy and tired even though meditation is supposed to help with concentration and alertness. I wondered if I had somehow overdone the meditation.

Then, one morning at around 3:45 a.m., I felt a warm presence fill the room. In response, my body temperature seemed to rise and I felt deliriously happy.

A voice that I didn't recognize filled my mind and told me in tones that were more resonant and powerful than James Earl Jones on his best day that I should hold a meeting for all of my clients to celebrate and share their greatest accomplishments on the autumnal equinox. At the end of the meeting, I should announce that I would be starting a 20 year project to find ways for the whole world to make 400 years of normal progress in only 20 years, beginning in 2015 and finishing in 2035. For the next few weeks, I could think of little else.

What had happened? I prayed over the experience quite a bit and concluded that God had sent me a message. Why me? I have no idea. Maybe He couldn't find anyone else crazy enough to take on such an impossible task. I certainly felt that only God would know how to do it.

Why that timeframe? I don't know, but it later occurred to me as I wrote this book that the 2000th anniversary of Jesus' resurrection would occur during 2015-2035. Perhaps that was an important connection. But who knows except God?

How would I pursue this project? I had no idea, not even a clue. All I knew was that I was supposed to make this announcement at the autumnal equinox . . . and I did. The rest of just amazing history.

I suspect that you, too, should expect the unexpected from mediating. I hope my experience will inspire and encourage you to explore new territory through this inner-directed experience.