By Dr. Gil Dekel and Dr. Loykie Lominé.
Drawing from the Platonic idea of anamnesis, and Carl Jung’s practical experiments, Dr. Dekel and Dr. Lominé link creativity, pedagogy and spirituality. Facilitating a guided meditation within academic context, they explore inner-angelic data (A-Learning). Presented at The University of Winchester.
Gil:
We came here today because we were told to… we were asked to do so… It was Francis, Loykie’s angel who inspired Loykie to meet me; and it was Metatron, my angel, who inspired me to meet Loykie, and to facilitate this workshop today.
Loykie:
Francis and Metatron are two of the angels who inspire us most; they are our sources of inspiration, sources of knowledge as well.
We all know what are usually regarded as sources of knowledge in a university: reading, thinking, and talking with colleagues. But for us, other sources of knowledge are important, such as previous lives; becoming aware of what we did in our previous lives. If we have time today, we’ll talk about anamnesis, angels, and dreams. Dreams as a source of knowledge. Not dreams in a Freudian sort of interpretation, but about becoming aware of what the angels try to mediate to us, through our dreams.
The word ‘A-learning’ comes from E-learning. We’re all familiar with e-learning, the use of electronic materials and electronic tools for learning and teaching. E-learning is moving further, and is now known as ‘blended learning’.
We also have ‘M-learning’. M-learning is about the use of mobile phones, mobile devises, iPad, iPods, for pedagogical purposes.
Today, we thought we would go public with A-learning, learning from the angels. That’s not mainstream; It’s not on the list of the higher education academy areas of expertise that people are supposed to have. Nonetheless, we thought we would seize this opportunity to introduce A-learning, and talk about ways in which we can retrieve our angelic inner data.
We have several methods to do that. The one we will be using today is meditation. Why meditation?
Gil:
Meditation is a tool that allows points of references. Usually we think of ourselves as having to live within boundaries. This puts our minds in intellectual and emotional constrains. Sometimes it is good to step outside of the boundaries in order to observe yourself, look back and ask: was there really a boundary at all? or if there was, maybe I’ve created it? Maybe it’s only in my mind?
Within academia (and life as a whole) there are many boundaries around what is accessible and allowed. Today, through meditation, we will try to see if there are other ways to retrieve data. I’m not talking about spiritual or religious data. I’m talking about relevant data to daily lives.
Loykie:
What is the process of meditation?
Gil:
Meditation can take 30 minutes or a few hours… The Dalai Lama is said to meditate 8 hours a day. Today we will only do 8 minutes. I will take you through a process in which you will sit comfortably, you will close your eyes, and try to let go of the mind; not in order to lose the mind but in order to access other elements which exist in the brain or in a source-of-knowledge, which we see as an Angelic source, A-learning.
I will facilitate a short meditation, with your permission, and I will guide you using my voice. This meditation is based on the teaching of Carl Jung:
…Everyone, just feel comfortable. We are in this secure and supportive space. Once you are ready, relax. Take a deep breath… close your eyes… and as you hear the sound of my voice… and as you hear the sounds in this room, begin to notice that they are causing you to relax. Deeper and deeper… into your own vast consciousness.
And now… imagine in front of you a staircase. This is a magical staircase because it can take you down deep inside. There are 10 steps facing downwards. Feel free to take a deep breath. And once you’re ready, go ahead and go to step number 1. The top step.
When you’re ready, go down to step number 2; taking a gentle breath and… step number 3. If you can’t imagine or see anything, just know that there are safe steps around you.
And now, step number 4… going deeper and deeper, down to step number 5… and 6… slowly… step number 7… notice the feelings that come to you, emotions, sensations of relaxation; going to step number 8… and 9… And as you’re ready, the last step. Step number 10, the bottom step.
Notice in front of you: vastness expanding. Behind you: clarity and notion of knowing. Universal compassions of love going to either side of you. Below you, a wholeness of completion; and above you, great sky of wisdom.
Now, notice to your right, there is something. It could be light, an image, colours, a feeling… Maybe someone you trust, someone who you love, someone from your past. Try to sense that being. Just there to your right, and as you do, notice how it reaches its hands towards you; it may be a hand, or light, maybe a beam of knowledge… maybe a word that you remember from your past… within that energy, that is coming towards you, there is a note for you. There is a message just for you.
Open your heart, spread out your hands and accept this loving gift; this loving message of compassion. Hold it with your hands or within your heart.
Try to open the paper if it is sealed; Try to unveil the message. There’s a message written with the energy of the angels. There is something there for you.
And as you read this message, hold it tight in your hand and put it in your pocket, in your jacket’s left pocket… This message is not going away; it is coming back with you, as we’re slowly going to return to reality.
Now, thank your angel, thank your messenger. And slowly turn around, walking back towards the staircase, hopping back to step number 10, the bottom step; remembering the message is in your pocket. And climbing up to step number 9… and 8… 7… 6… going upwards… start sensing yourself sitting in the room; step number 5… 4, and 3… getting a sense of your body, you can stretch a bit, noticing your breathing, going up to step number 2… and 1…
And when you’re ready, gently open your eyes and refresh yourself. Notice that we are back in this room at the University of Winchester, coming back from the source of our own self…
Take a few seconds to look at that message that you’ve received. I will give you one minute now for yourself. Feel free to write anything down…
Loykie:
Okay, colleagues, thank you for doing that. There is always a feeling of peace, of appeasement after a meditation, yet this one was very short.
Now, it’s rather unorthodox and marginal of course, to do meditation as part of a learning and teaching day conference, at a University… but what we did was to link spirituality and pedagogy.
Now, we can try to step back and ask ourselves: how about telling people that we believe in angels, and in previous lives? if Gil and I do so, it will probably raise eyebrows. Some people will think, ‘is that rational? Is this serious?’ So the question is then: when do we come up with those issues, or is it better to keep it a secret?… because later on Charlotte may think, ‘Loykie should not be working in this university.’ And Marianna who is doing my MA would think, ‘I don’t want to have a tutor who tells us he believes in angels.’
We tend to react that way because we are still very much prisoner of the Cartesian paradigm in the way we consider what a university is – a place of knowledge; knowledge validated by science or at least validated by systematic, rigorous research.
But how do we present evidence of conversations we have with angels in a research paper? Can we mention a conversation with an angel as part of primary research? How do you reference a dream, how do you reference previous lives? Should it be: ‘I know that thanks to my past life experience as Loykie in 15th century, 1st edition?…’
There are social and cultural implications, and the expectations of the academic community – ‘this is rigorous, this is research’; and on the other hand, the individual experiments of communicating with angels… A-learning; working with angels, learning from them.
Angels don’t really have at the moment a space at universities, with the sort of mental frameworks that we have. Can we communicate to people that we communicate with angels?…
Some people may think, ‘this is a joke’, and maybe it is all a big joke?… but then angels have a big sense of humour… Or maybe we are mad, but then Foucault showed us that madness is just a social-cultural discourse.
– a participant feedback:
I had a powerful experience. I received a message.
– a participant feedback:
There is difference between talking about these experiences, that you had yourself, and trying to influence other people. I do not see a problem talking about this, as long as we do not try to impose it on other people.
Gil:
Yes, of course. You cannot impose these things on others. People must feel it themselves…
– a participant feedback:
It is good to place this in context, using specific language – maybe using angels as a metaphor for inspiration?
Loykie:
Yes, Gil’s PhD was exactly on that; on creativity and inspiration in art.
Gil:
Today we followed a short guided meditation, to open-up to information, and explore some insight into communication.
Loykie:
There is no doubt that this session was different from other sessions delivered today, but we felt it is not our ‘fault’… we were told by Francis and Metatron to do this session with you, and our aim was to bring learning and teaching into a new area of research and enquiry.
Thank you.
20 May 2013.
© Dr. Loykie Lominé & Dr. Gil Dekel.
A-Learning – Learning for the Angels. Presented at The University of Winchester, 27 April 2011. This transcript edited in May 2013.
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