Have you ever wondered if there is more to your interest in stones than just collecting beautiful pieces and perhaps feeling the pleasurable sensations of their energies? Have you ever felt that there is something about stones that calls to you on a deep level, but you have yet to cross the threshold into the other world that seems to beckon from them? I did, and that longing is what set me on the path to writing Stones of the New Consciousness. In the process of investigating the possibilities for relationship with the stones as Beings, I discovered that what I and most others had learned about the spiritual potentials for working with stones was only scratching the surface. We had merely opened the door to a vast mansion, or perhaps it’s better to say it’s as if we had just met Someone with whom we are destined to share a lifetime of love and creating activity.
Following this path made me revise my ideas, not only about who the stones are, but also who and what I am, and where we all may be going. After twenty-three years of working with and writing about crystals and minerals, my interest was suddenly reinvigorated. It was as if I had been living, relatively happily, in a semi-darkened room, and when the lights came on, I suddenly realized that all the objects in the room were living treasures beyond price. So I wrote my new book with a passion that was stronger than any I had felt in all my years with crystals, and I felt compelled to share what I found with anyone who wanted to experience it for themselves. That’s why, in addition to writing the book, I am offering an inten-sive experiential workshop in Vermont, this coming May 20-23. For info visit www.stonesof thenewconsciousness.com
One of the classic reports of people who have strong inner experiences with stones is the experience of interior light. Such phenomena often appear to me when I am meditating with high-vibration stones such as Herderite, Phenacite and Azeztulite. When we stop to think of it, however, this is quite remarkable. Where is the light coming from, and why does it occur? I don’t have definite answers to these questions, but thinking about them has led me to some interesting discoveries.
As I did my research for Stones of the New Consciousness, I found that I was led to investigate the Light Body. This term is well known in metaphysical circles, and the usual idea one hears about is that it is a semi-transparent image of one’s physical body that is spiritually alive and is not limited by the constraints of the physical world.
The Light Body is, in the simplest sense, a refined living mirror-image of the human body, composed of spiritual Light and radiant from within. Those who have seen a Light Body almost universally describe it as being of unearthly beauty, emanating qualities of bliss, peace, love and divinity. Most spiritual traditions that address the Light Body maintain that all human beings have a Body of Light, at least potentially. The majority of these suggest that attaining the Light Body during one’s lifetime involves mastering certain inner practices.
One of the most important questions about the Light Body is its degree of materiality. Can it simultaneously be both Light and matter, or is it an immaterial projection of a spiritual image? Herein lies the mystery of our destiny. Can we become beings of Light while remaining in the physical world? And if we can, what will the Earth do? Will it also transfigure into its Body of Light?
The Light Body has a long multicultural history. It is known as "the resurrection body" and "the glorified body" in Christianity. In Sufism it is called "the most sacred body" (wujud al-aqdas) and "supracelestial body" (jism asli haqiqi). In Taoism it is named "the diamond body." In Kriya Yoga it is "the body of bliss." In Hermeticism it is known as "the immortal body" (soma athanaton). Tibetan Buddhism has several names for it: Vajrayana, "the light body" or "rainbow body." In the alchemical tradition, the Emerald Tablet calls it "the Glory of the Whole Universe" and "the golden body." All of these spiritual streams hold that the achievement of union with this luminous form of the self is among the highest potentials of the spiritual aspirant.
Traditions appear to differ in regard to what attainment of the Light Body entails, and whether the Light Body is meant to be experienced in an out-of-body or in-body state (in regard to our physical form). Gnostic groups have been portrayed as believing that our descent to Earth from the spiritual realms entailed a fall from grace that included loss of the Light Body, or the "robe of glory." Much of the attention in these groups was on recovery of the Light Body, either through gnosis in this life or after death. The idea that we assume a Body of Light after death is implicit in much Christian mythology, and it has been corroborated by the reports of numerous people who have undergone near-death experiences. Dream experiences or visitations featuring appearances of those who have died frequently reveal them in radiant bodies.
In writing Stones of the New Consciousness, I began to put together the stone-induced inner experiences of spiritual Light with the "body consciousness" of the Liquid Crystal Body Matrix. In what we call normal life, the Light Body is dormant, but a significant heightening of our internal body currents and spiritual awareness can occur through working with the angelic Stone Beings. To awaken the Light Body is to move into another mode of being, one in which we experience the integrated consciousness of the body, the heart and the brain, in union with the non-local, all pervasive consciousness of the Divine. In this state we are filled with blissful awareness and spiritual Light, and we literally "shine."
One rather amazing fact I came upon is that the DNA in every cell of our bodies periodically emits light. In other words, even in our everyday state, our physical body echoes the Light Body. I believe that when we pull together our fragmented selves and become whole, the light flowing through the liquid crystal DNA in every cell will increase vastly. There is even scientific evidence to confirm this.
Practitioners of the Chinese discipline called Chi Gung (or Qi Gong) are known to have refined their capacity to enter into a resonate state of inner coherence which corresponds to an increased inner coherence of their bodies’ liquid crystallinity. Those same people, when directing "healing" currents through their hands, emit up to one hundred times the amount of biophotons (units of light) as do "normal" people. In other words, increased inner crystallinity equates with increased light. Thus we can see a path toward awakening the Light Body while still remaining physical.
I became most excited about the work with stones when I realized that meditation with solid crystals (the stones and minerals discussed in my books and others) was likely to bring about, through the resonance of our energies with the stone currents, an increased coherence of our own bodily liquid crystallinity, in conjunction with increased capacities of mind and heart. All of these are aided, in my view, by the living intent of the angelic Stone Beings, and the Divine Mother whom they serve.
The fact that our DNA is itself a crystalline molecule that emanates visible-spectrum light, just as a quartz crystal emits light through the piezoelectric effect, seemed to indicate that our Light Body is already here, ready to awaken when we inwardly crystallize and open ourselves to Spirit. (DNA is, in this vision, more than a molecule. It is a living activity through which spiritual Light, not just physical light, finds its way into the world.)
Much of the exploration we will do in the Stones of the New Consciousness Intensive will focus on learning how to enter deeper levels of inner coherence though feeling the highly coherent vibrations of the stones and inviting those patterns to establish themselves in our bodies. In many cases we are likely to have experiences of inner Light, and we will work towards increasing the frequency and duration of these experiences, with the aim of moving into a new way of being in which we are living conduits for Light to enter the world.
It is important to remember that the world, the Earth, must also become Light-filled, in unison with our own awakening. We are not separate from the Earth. This is something we immediately realize in heightened states of awareness, and it is essential to hold the intent for this co-evolution with the World Soul in order for the real potential of ourselves and the world to unfold together.
Robert Simmons is the proprietor of Heaven and Earth, LLC (www.heavenandearthjewelry.com ) and the author of several books including Stones of the New Consciousness.