It seemed to me that the opportunity for some sort of collective breakthrough presented itself at this meditation camp. If as a large group of people in harmony we could reach that trusting point beyond fear, then perhaps it really would be possible to move something in the mass psyche of the world.
The present World Dream is running to a script which decrees that greed, domination and revenge are primary motives. Control. Moving beyond the present world agenda is of the essence. Recommended background reading for the camp included “The Celestine Prophecy”, which, though a work of fiction, nonetheless purports to offer a blueprint to do just that. At bottom it is a worldview which says that we create our own future realities by the energy that we put out and the corresponding energy we attract back. If we put out love and trust to the Universe then we can expect it to lead us on, but one of the main lessons of the book is how fragile this reality can be to the invasion and destructiveness of fear. I thought my faith was strong enough to allow me to face my fears, but all the weirdness that I had ever known before was nothing to the abyss into which I was eventually to peer.
As the summer progressed last minute updates and information about the camp arrived. We were to be gathered in a number of campfire circles, meals were to be had in the cafe marquee served by the crew, morning meditation was at 10 a.m. followed by Allting till lunch. Afternoon was to be taken up with small group workshops led by people with unusual skills and experience. I didn’t actually pay much attention to this at the time, although they included various references to such subjects as native American practices and psychic work. Late afternoon and the evening were to be taken up with a variety of one-off optional talks and workshops. We were invited to bring devotional objects with which to create altars, and to wear colourful or shamanic dress. Every morning we were to have the opportunity to join in with the Dance of Life, a sacred dance of the Cherokee people, and besides being a vegetarian camp, there were also to be no generators or power cables on the site at all and no electricity except for batteries giving low voltage D.C. for torches and suchlike. Acoustic instruments and music only were to be allowed. Electronic games were not. There was a children’s programme so that parents could attend meditations and groups knowing their kids were being taken care of, a shower, hot tub, and shop. It was so well organised by the sound of things I thought that I had really stumbled onto a total bunch of post-peace convoy New Age adepts who had every angle covered. It was to be a full on attempt to cut ourselves off from the outside world for a week, and not be involved with anything out there except what we might pick up in our meditations.
Certain advice was given; not to have any ongoing business which might require your attention during the camp, and not to leave the camp. This is sound advice for any closed group process, and since one of the phrases that Palden had used was ‘pressure cooking the worlds problems’, it would hardly be suitable to have a pressure leak. There would be designated people who would be empowered to deal with whatever necessary and unavoidable interactions there might be with the outside world, like milk deliveries, or collections of medicine from local pharmacies. The literature stated that the organisers unashamedly wanted to run a tight ship, indeed one factor in this was that the location was to be kept a secret, and participants were requested not to divulge it when it was disclosed shortly before the starting date. There was on the part of the organisers a feeling that we might be considered fair game by gatecrashers if the venue became known in certain quarters of the alternative world. Events at a number of Glastonbury festivals with the so-called Peace Convoy had perpetually raised the spectre of disruption at this sort of outdoor summer event, and splits within the Camps movement had led to the development of groups with a somewhat more anarchistic frame of mind who it was feared might wish to join in the proceedings uninvited as if it were some kind of impromptu and open party.
Consequently there was an edge of military espionage about it all. We were even warned that we might experience elements of psychic attack and attempts to prevent us from reaching the camp by the appointed time. copyright © 2011 Claire Rae Randall
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