At the very beginning, let me point out that this article mainly deals with ideas that are speculative in their nature, on the edge of the scientific domain. Nevertheless, these concepts are still in line with numerous scientific research which, in my opinion, are not only thought-provoking but can be of great benefit to the psychological and spiritual development of mankind.

I must say that in the case of mental and health problems, a professional medical engagement of an authorized specialist/doctor is necessary, while all of the following techniques and procedures can only be added to the medical treatment. In many cases, however, these techniques will serve as a protective measure and could prevent your need for visiting the doctor.
 
Invisible Realities

Modern physics is getting increasingly closer to the conclusion that parallel universes are real. A few decades ago, this idea existed only in the domain of science fiction and pure speculation. Meanwhile, emerging unexpectedly as an outcome of several serious theoretical approaches, it has become very close to being widely accepted among physicists. For example, string theory and theory of inflation predict the existence of other universes. Also, there is an increasing number of indirect experimental indicators that the parallel universes do exist.

On the other hand, there is clear scientific evidence that this material universe is not only of gargantuan size, but that visible matter and known forms of energy are only a small part of the total matter and energy present in the cosmos. Namely, in the standard Lambda-CDM model of cosmology, the total mass-energy of the universe contains 5% ordinary matter and energy, 27% so-called dark matter and 68% of a mysterious form of energy known as dark energy.

In other words, only about 5% of the matter in the cosmos is visible and detectable, while the remaining 95% falls within these invisible forms of matter and energy. Here, the word “dark” refers to being virtually invisible and unknown to us.

No one still has an answer as to what dark matter and dark energy are, but it is clear that they exist and that they permeate this reality in an invisible and subtle way.

Furthermore, an increasingly important question in science is human consciousness, which remains a complete mystery. Some research even says that consciousness survives the death of physical body and “goes somewhere.” If this is so, is it possible that our consciousness after physical death transitions to one of the parallel universes that the string theory is talking about? Or, maybe, dark matter and dark energy answer the question of the spiritual world’s existence, which may be made up of subtle and invisible particles and fields of these unknown types of matter and energy? In any case, even the most stubborn skeptics cannot refuse these possibilities.

Personally, even though I am by nature a skeptic, I have come to the definitive conclusion that consciousness survives the death of the physical body. Moreover, I believe that consciousness is immortal and ubiquitous and that the “world beyond” does exist.
 
Invisible Beings

So, if we truly believe that consciousness is immortal and omnipresent, that there are other dimensions, parallel universes, and other levels of reality, we must admit that there is a logical possibility that there also exist innumerable conscious beings of various kinds which are present in these worlds.

Also, this material universe is probably inhabited by many types of conscious entities – not only humans and other beings from this planet, but species on other planets, in other solar systems, and different cosmic environments, too. Moreover, there must exist countless beings invisible to us that live in the physical world as well as at all other levels of existence above this one in which we operate. Of course, there are entire groups and hierarchies of these invisible beings.

Quite logically, for some types of entities we could say that they are “neutral” from our perspective, some groups are “good,” others – “bad,” while there are beings so strange that we cannot classify them into any group or even comprehend by our minds.

Of course, the idea of invisible entities that are present here, alongside us or even within us, is very disturbing. And indeed, this is real, but only partially.

Yes, there are beings that we cannot see, hear, nor do we feel their presence in any way. Yet many of them are able to see us, and even have impacts on our lives to some extent. Some of these “Invisibles” are “neutral,” some are “bad” or unpleasant, but we should know that there are many “positive” beings that help us and inspire us on our life course. We will call them here the Beings of Light.

Although all this can be disturbing to someone who faces such ideas for the first time, we need to know that, still, all is up to us. Ultimately, we are in charge.

Every person is fundamentally responsible for their own life because all these “positive” or “negative” influences are only the result of our deepest inner decisions, thoughts, habits, or emotional turmoil.
 
Uninvited Guests

Do you sometimes wonder why people have inexplicable outbursts of rage, uncontrolled fear, or eruptions of other negative emotions, which sometimes lead to horrifying situations and crime? Are the childhood traumas and the existence of various negative psychological aspects within a personality the only explanation for such phenomena?

In my opinion, they are not. There are many indications of various conscious entities that are attached to us, directly or indirectly affecting our behavior and state of consciousness.

A lot of literature describes research in this field. For example, in his excellent book “Healing Lost Souls,” William J. Baldwin depicts many cases of solving psychic problems and dysfunctional relationships by applying specific techniques for the release of so-called “attached entities.”

There is a vast range of beings and energies that can be “nested” in our aura or within our being, such as souls or energy remnants of deceased people, parts of personalities of living persons, or even the “classical” Beings of Darkness, i.e. demons. What is most interesting, sometimes the attached beings are not originating from this planet at all – they are extraterrestrial beings. But about all this in more detail later.
 
Symptoms of Attachments

It is not so easy to recognize that you have an attached entity. However, you can be pretty certain that this phenomenon has occurred if you identify the following symptoms:

• Sudden change in behavior and habits;
• Sudden occurrence of some kind of addiction, for example, of cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs;
• The onset of depression, suicidal thoughts, panic attacks or anger;
• Abrupt changes in body weight;
• Unexpected and unexplained physical or mental illnesses;
• Strange thoughts and feelings; sometimes the appearance of inner voices, nightmares, etc.

However, for all this, you should be cautious and not to make premature conclusions. You should certainly work on yourself and try using some of the Reintegration Techniques or other proven methods.
 
Souls of the Dead​
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One type of the attached entities are the souls of the dead people who, for assorted reasons, remain tied with the physical world. The term “soul” here denotes the nucleus of an individual which is practically immortal, had existed before and will exist after the individual’s incarnation. In this sense, the nucleus has normally retained almost the whole personality of the deceased person, so the term “soul of the dead” in this text actually means “the nucleus plus its personality.”

These souls stay at the physical level typically due to strong attachment to a person or place, due to complete disorientation and lack of awareness that it is no longer among the living, or for various other reasons. Nevertheless, all these souls eventually find the way to the higher levels of reality, most often with the help and guidance of the Beings of Light.

Although the number of souls of deceased people who remain at the physical plane is relatively small compared to those who find their way to other levels of reality, it still seems that there are plenty of them. For example, many such souls float around sites of mass executions, natural disasters, and other places of unexpected deaths, because they are still in total confusion, unaware that they even died.

These souls sometimes tend to be near people to whom they used to be very emotionally tied in life. In some cases, such a soul “joins” the person to whom it was bound, simply by “entering” into her energy field or joining her aura. This process is often unconscious because these souls are mostly in a dull, semi-conscious state. However, this does not prevent them from exerting influence on the behavior of the “victim,” from the very moment of attaching.

Unfortunately, this influence is usually harmful, because the hooked beings through this person try to fulfill some of their selfish desires and goals, despite the free will of the “host.”

While it is clear that we need to get rid of these entities, which can be achieved through a process of "taking to the Light," I must emphasize that a genuine and lasting relief from such impacts is achieved only when a person heals and reintegrates their own parts of the personality that attract corresponding entities. Thus, again: Ultimately, each of us is completely responsible for their own life, which is excellent news.
 
Astral Shells

​We all want to lead healthy lives and feel good about ourselves. Having positive habits is an effective way to make that happen. Better still, you don't need radical change to see results.
 
Know Your Environment
 
One of the first steps we can take is understanding the root causes of poor health; of course, drinking, smoking, and diet are common reasons for illness. Yet, not getting enough sleep and being inactive can also take their toll on our bodies and minds. Worse, our own homes could contain hazards that can make us sick, so it's important to know if your home contains radon, lead, or mold since these can seriously impact your health. When it comes to mold, water issues and poor ventilation can intensify the problem and even lead to pest infestations. By being aware of your environment and addressing any issues, you can better protect your health.
 
Nurture Balance
 
Unfortunately, it can be easy to lose sight of things to be grateful for. Our day-to-day routines can put our focus on stressful situations and leave us overwhelmed. Thankfully, we can counter that with acts of mindfulness throughout the day. In particular, practicing gratitude encourages us to be more aware of the positives in our lives. In fact, even writing down everything that we are thankful for, both big and small, can meaningfully raise our emotional well-being. How you practice mindfulness will be personal and could be as simple as watching birds from your porch.
 
Find Your Peace
 
Taking up meditation may sound impractical, particularly as our daily lives can be hectic or full of distractions. Yet, you don't need to spend hours in silent contemplation to see the health benefits, as just three to five minutes of meditation can be a promising start. Over time, you could experiment with different styles to find the one that works for you. With that in mind, consider devoting a part of your home to meditate and center your thoughts in peace. Indeed, an office, attic, even a bedroom, can be transformed with plants, calming pictures, and spiritual objects. Once you have a place set up, you can practice meditation, yoga, or otherwise explore your soul in a spiritually uplifting environment.
 
Speak Your Mind
 
Being true and open about our feelings can give us new outlooks and strengthen our relationships. Unfortunately, we may worry about being judged or becoming vulnerable with others, even loved ones. Yet, sharing our thoughts can improve self-esteem and turn negativity into something psychologically positive. For instance, the Reintegration System emphasizes the importance of not fighting negativity, but facing and accepting it. Through that, you transform it and potentially find benefits from it. By speaking up, you acknowledge what you are going through and give yourself the confidence to move forward.
 
Nourish Your Health
 
Pursuing a healthier emotional and physical lifestyle will benefit from nutritious food. After all, a balanced diet can boost our hearts, protect us from strokes and cancer, and counter the symptoms of depression. Best of all, changing up our diets doesn't mean eating bland meals or spending a lot of time in the kitchen. At the least, add plenty of vegetables, nuts, fruits, eggs, and fish in place of processed foods and sugar-heavy drinks. While that might sound pretty intense, there are countless recipes featuring those ingredients that can be done in less than 30 minutes. Beyond those changes, look to a dietician for further advice, as they may have information specific to your needs.
 
Being healthier doesn't happen overnight. However, taking small steps to change your diet, find peace and calm, and appreciate the good in your life can all add up. You deserve the rewards that come with a more uplifting lifestyle.

An unquenchable thirst for knowledge 

“Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” are possibly the two oldest questions that human beings have ever asked. We have been grappling with life, the universe and everything almost since the beginning of our time.

Our hunger to understand the movements of the planets, the changes of the seasons and whether or not the body and soul are one or two separate entities are just some of the questions that have kept scientists, philosophers and mystics busy researching, experimenting, discussing and debating.
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What is knowledge? 

“I think. Therefore, I am.” Right? If it’s good enough for Descartes, it’s good enough for me. Sometimes we are adamant we know something, but we can’t prove it to anybody else. We have dreams that seem so real while we are in them, but no trace of them remains once we have woken up. Does that mean dreams are not true? Surely, they represent some kind of truth. What is true is that we experience them.

The scientific method has brought us a long way. Not only have we gained greater understanding of the way the world is, we have learnt to harness its forces and to create all kinds of things. But in the end, the answers we gain from our scientific endeavours only lead to more questions. And that’s where we go full circle. We end up back where we started: who am I, and why am I here?

Consciousness 

At the centre of the big questions is consciousness. We cannot see consciousness, and yet we are conscious. We cannot see other people’s consciousness, but they can share their experiences. Therefore, whereas any serious discussion around the nature of gravity or heat or energy will revolve around the things we can observe – the apple falling from the tree, water coming to the boil, or steam driving a turbine – any proper conversation about consciousness needs to be concerned with experience.

One collective consciousness, many individual souls or none of the above? 

This is a key question. When we hear the language of spiritualists and many of the world’s religions, there is an assumption that each of us is a self-contained unit of consciousness, a soul, which is accountable for its actions. However, when we try to pin down the self, we come across obstacles.

Our bodies are in a constant state of change and eventually all bodies die, so clearly, none of us can say we are the body. Likewise, our minds can be changed significantly because of life events that have a major impact on our psyche or because of brain injury. Head injuries often bring about profound changes in personality. So, it is fair to say we are not the mind.

If we are not the mind and we are not the body, what are we?

Meditation 

Practitioners of meditation often report feelings of being part of something much bigger than themselves while they are meditating and of feeling more connected and in harmony with other living beings after a meditation session. Buddhists speak of a state of no-mind, a purer state of awareness which transcends our thoughts, memories, habits and emotions. And they speak of a concept of no-self – again pointing to a state of being aware without being attached to any particular sense of identity.

Biologists tell us that consciousness is a phenomenon which arises from brain activity, that when the brain dies, so does consciousness – there is no separate soul that inhabits the body or moves on after the body’s death. Advocates of artificial intelligence believe that programming will advance to the level that machines will develop consciousness.

Human experience: spirits, mediums and psychics 

Human experience is the stuff of consciousness. If we are to explore the nature of consciousness, then we need to look at experience. Those who support the idea of individual souls will point to well-documented psychic phenomena as evidence.

While the majority of stories about ghosts, poltergeists, mediums and psychics are usually easy to pull apart, there are isolated yet profound exceptions that leave even the most cynical scientists scratching their heads and wondering what’s gone on. Therefore, for the sake of discussion, let’s suppose that some of these incidents are genuine.
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How would we explain some of the more mystical psychic experiences within the wider context of consciousness, and do these phenomena lead us to conclude that the psychical world comprises countless individual souls or are we all reflections of one collective consciousness?

Can a cloth cap have a ghost? 
​
Many reports of spirits include beings from another time or place being fully clothed or having other objects with them such as walking sticks or cloth caps, and some even report seeing other aspects of the ghost’s environment coming through – horse and cart, steam trains or other indications of bygone days. How can we explain this?

Although many teachers would rightfully say that mindfulness and meditation ultimately do not have any goal, let us be honest: the basic aim of these practices is entering the state of Presence. It is a thoughtless state of mind, which we could also call Pure Consciousness or Awareness. Meditation and mindfulness practitioners aspire not only to remain in this state but to deepen and expand it as much as possible.

However, it is not an easy task, especially for beginners. This time we will focus on entering the thoughtless state. Here are a few pieces of advice on how to do this quickly and efficiently.

1, Focus on here and now.

​This is the most obvious and very simple way of entering the state of Presence. You have to become aware of yourself, the surroundings, and everything that is happening in you and around you at this moment. Be here. Become aware of the present moment, enter the now. You will dive into the thoughtless state of Pure Consciousness immediately. If any thoughts, emotions, or external events distract you, just return to the here and now.

Focusing on the present moment is the essence of mindfulness practice.

2. Become aware of yourself.

Ask yourself: "Who is watching this?" or "What is watching this?" This is a variation of the practice of self-inquiry, which can ultimately lead you to spiritual liberation, but meanwhile, among many other benefits, it will always anchor you into the present moment. It is thoroughly described here.  

3. Verbal interruption.

This is the quickest way of discontinuing the stream of thoughts. Just say swiftly and decisively to yourself: “NOW!” and feel the Now, which consists of the totality of your experience at this moment, here and now, including the feeling of your body, your whole being, and auditory and visual sensing of your environment. Or, for example, say “STOP!” and become aware of stopping every activity, including your thinking process.

Feel free to use any other word or phrase that might work fine for you. For example, “ENOUGH!” “HERE AND NOW,” “SILENCE,” “STILLNESS,” “I AM,” “I EXIST,” “WHERE AM I?” “ATTENTION!” “I DON’T KNOW” …
You may speak these words out loud to yourself, or say them in your head.

4. Dissolving the Temporary I (DTI).

Being one of the basic Reintegration techniques, the DTI is certainly one of the most efficient methods for entering the state of pure consciousness. This method will not only bring you into the thoughtless state for a while, but it'll do a more useful thing - removal of your unwanted mind content (thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations).

5. Conscious breathing.[1]

There are several variations of the mindfulness of breath. In all of them, you should consciously follow the movement of air into your body and out of it, along with any sensations that the movement produces. However, you could focus on other areas of your body.

For example, you might prefer concentrating on the sensation of flowing air, moving in and out of your body in its entirety, however you feel it. Personally, I prefer this variant because it takes me more easily into a state of self-awareness. In this approach, you are trying to be fully conscious of your chest’s motions during inhaling and exhaling, of the whole volume of air going in and out from you, and of the entire feeling of its gentle contact with your inner organs—nostrils, throat, and lungs.

You may also practice breath mindfulness by focusing only on the sensations within your nostrils during inhale and exhale circles. Alternatively, you could orient your attention to the sensation of the air filling and emptying the interior of your lungs.

Try out all these approaches. Use whichever one is most suitable for you and enjoy mindfulness on many occasions—immediately after waking up, during driving, walking, working on the computer, while doing various daily errands, in the midst of emotional bursts, before sleep, or many other situations, at your will. Mindfulness of breath can bring you deep peace in every situation, help you in releasing stress and raise your overall level of consciousness.

6. Become aware of space.

The perception of space or nothingness generates deep peace and tranquility in our being. Some people even call the sensing of space the "shortcut to enlightenment."

Become aware of space (or nothingness) within you, the room you are in, in the background of everything you see. Imagine space extending from you in all directions, infinitely. Sense its vastness. This will quickly bring your mind into the so-called alpha state, in which your brain functions at a lower frequency of neural waves. It is a deeply relaxing, tranquil, and creative state of being, in which you will feel the present moment easily.

[1] Excerpt from Inner Peace, Outer Success.

​Travel is not something you should put off until retirement. It is one of the only real ways to open your mind to other cultures and to experience all the world has to offer. Traveling can serve as emotional therapy and may even help you better appreciate your profession. If you’re considering walking away from it all for a spiritual, mental, and physical sabbatical, here are a few things you can do to prepare for your extended absence.
 
Let go of fear
 
The first thing you have to do is learn to let go of the fear that taking time away will hurt your career. Chances are, it won’t, and when you return, you will have an interesting story about your “pretirement.” If you’re worried about returning to your industry after a sabbatical, Monster.com offers tips on how to explain your sabbatical during the interview process.
 
Plan ahead
 
There is no doubt about it, if you want to get the most out of your personal retreat, you will need to plan ahead, and that means planning for how you’ll afford your journeys. Obviously, you need to have money saved up, but it does not hurt to have a source of income while you’re away. One great way to do that is to set your own home up as a rental property. This starts by getting it ready. You will need to stage it, stock it, and secure it. Angie’s List recently published a guide on rental property preparation, it’s a five-minute read with plenty of great tips. Also, don’t forget to plan for your pets, let your neighbors know what’s going on, and alert the Post Office.
 
Know when to go
 
Timing is everything. There are a couple of considerations here, and it starts with talking to your boss well ahead of your planned departure. The more notice, the better, especially if you are working on a crucial project. Give your employer at least a six month’s heads up so that you can coordinate your leave for a time when it will not be harmful to the company. Even if you are not a full-time employee (such as a freelancer or consultant), this is necessary if you do not want to part ways on bad terms.
 
Financial considerations
 
Even if you rent your home while you’re gone, you probably will not have the same amount of money coming in as you did when you were getting a regular paycheck. Transunion recommends saving the equivalent of one year’s salary for a sabbatical lasting six to nine months. This will keep you from running up your credit and give you a small cushion of funds to live off of when you return.
 
Have a purpose
 
Finally, and most importantly, know what you expect to get out of your time away. This is an excellent opportunity to connect with your higher power and make your trip a meaningful travel experience. Plan to do things that put you in touch with your inner self and remain mindful at all times of the beauty of your surroundings. It doesn’t matter if you are traveling alone or with your closest friends or family, make it purposeful and you’ll take away more than memories. You will gain a new perspective and may find out who you really are along the way.
 
If the idea of taking an extended vacation is intimidating, keep in mind that the longer you wait, the more entwined you become with your current surroundings. The last thing you want is to become so involved that you can’t break away.