A dove was taking a dust bath outside my window when it was suddenly spooked and flew up and crashed into the glass. It flew off a minute later, stunned but fine. I photographed its dusty imprint on the glass.

The image struck me as a metaphor for what humans might be heady towards. Even though we should be able to see the glints and reflections, the evidence,  we need to open our perceptions and imagination or just like birds our flight path may get interrupted abruptly.  

A multi sensory, multi dimensional, experience using meditation and imagination. It is a journey into your inner self and a connection with Nature. The 9 episode soundscapes take you on an experiential journey and asks you to consider a fundamentally different way to think about what it means to be human. Episode~0~ is the prologue,“The Call” (a la Joseph Campbell). 1 through 7 is a path of seven steps ~ aspects of life to consider as we imagine our fullest self and future. The 8th episode is the incubator for imagination. Each step on he path starts with a meditative mind state, being carried and held by sound, then opening and engaging your imagination The imagination is one of the  senses that we need to strengthen right now because it opens us to creativity and insight and to our higher selves.

These soundscapes are part of a larger experience that includes a tent like enclosure. The tent provides a set and setting, with qualities to support deepening ones connection to nature and to ones authentic self. One of the qualities that the enclosures bring is a sense of privacy, this is only about you. The tent is a metaphor for your inner space. With repeated use, there is a Pavlovian quality of easing one’s return to an open and present mindset. The audio starts with rain on a tent,  this represents your personal weather, your thoughts and feelings.  You can hear the weather on the outside and be present to it from a distant and different perspective. ~The visuals are my nature photos put together in different relationships, reflections and juxtaposition, to provide a portal for the imagination. Some serious rorshaching can happen, which leads the imagination further.

Elements of the Journey

~ How we learn~ Each episode has 3 acts based on a Buddhist story that describes the 3 levels of how humans learn. In the story a group of monks are seeking knowledge. First, the monk who can travels the deepest, goes into the void. When he comes back, he shares  the inexpressible to the monk who has the ability to cipher it into meaningful speech. Next the monks ask questions. ~ how does one  embody this?  What would it look like if I saw from this point of view, etc ~    A meaningful question can can point us toward, or connect us to answers.

Act one: You are invited into a meditative mind state.

Act two: You hear the words of poets and mystics who have meaningfully ciphered the indecipherable. Like Rumi, John O'Donoghue, Mark Nepo, and others.

Act three: You are invited to question and imagine.

A high bell sounds between acts.

~7 Chakras~ The seven core steps on the journey have a relationship to the chakras. The first three meditations are  grounding and heart opening. The next four explore energetic levels. Each one is different.

~7 Days~ There is an interesting relationship between the seven days of the week and the seven steps. If you start on Monday, Episode 1, is assessing your Inventory. On Tuesday, examine your inner strength and personal power. Episode three is about The Open Heart and connecting with your body. Thursday is about releasing things that hold you back and exploring your gifts. Friday explores energy and balance, what fractures you and what it feels like to be whole and centered. Saturday is creativity!! Sunday is Transformation.

~ 8 is the incubator for personal intent, creativity and transformation .

~In each act I am bring together and weaving three audio elements. Human music, nature’s music and words/concepts.

~Intentional conditioning. Some pieces have a Tibetan bell that sounds in the Fibonacci sequence, nature's mathematical progression.   The first time the bell sound  is in the deep of a meditation, so, it is to be used as an anchor to help you return to the deep where expanded awareness happens.

A lot of the words that I speak are  notes and songs from a chorus of amazing future thinkers and mystics. I weave them together with  mine and others, with Nature sounds and music, a synergy of sorts, that maybe something novel will arise. I hope that the experience can open a person to other ways of  perceiving; through the heart, the imagination, intuition, and ones higher self.

This tent is intended to be paired with the 3rd episode.

Guidelines for listening to episodes without a "tent".

To maximize your experience make sure you’re in a  private place, where you feel safe. As free of distractions and visual reminders of your duties and responsibilities as you can make it. If the space needs to be small, and if it feels confining, you could experiment with adding “windows” into nature, or art, or something that engages your imagination. But this set and setting could be in your bed or in nature. As long as you can comfortably let go of your external self, uninterrupted, for between 20 and 40 minutes.

NOTE- For episode 3, make sure you have some space to move or dance.

Episode 4 works well in nature.

At some point I’ll make a D I Y video to show how to make the tent structure. The materials list below.

NOTE - please listen with headphones or earbuds.

NOTE - Mixcloud has a couple of things to be aware of ; you can not rewind --  keep your screen on or sometimes it will shut off. --If you need to go back, you have to start a different episode then stop and restart the one you want.