Welcome!

Hello fellow classmates, and welcome to my blog!

This is a blog that charts my progression through the class HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing. I am enjoying this class so far and looking forward to the what it will have to offer, because I have been interested in transpersonal psychology, altered states of consciousness, and alternative ways of looking at the mind-body relationship. A large part of my own spiritual practice involves the use of what Stanislav Grof termed "holotropic states of consciousness" in the context of shamanic practices. I have found this state to be relatively consistently attainable through the use of ritual drumming, and through it I have gained many valuable insights that have helped to guide and transform my life.

For this unit, we were to listen to a relaxation exercise that had us bring our attention to our arms and hands and increase the blood flow to them. I felt a tingling in my arms, palms, and fingers before the narrator said that we would experience that. I also saw a flower's petals unfurling... It looked like a red lotus blooming. The narrator said that it would be difficult to move our arms because they would feel very heavy yet comfortable, and that is exactly how it felt. When the narrator told us to return to a more awakened state, I actually slipped into sleeping for a few minutes. It didn't last long, though.