I have had many conversations over the last weeks about transcendence and channeling. For many, these are difficult concepts to grasp. This isn’t surprising, since westerners have very few words to describe them. Our vocabulary reflects the world around us. Consider, for example, that the Inuit people have dozens of words to describe snow––it is an important part of their environment, and being able to describe different types is critical. In terms of transcendence, Westerners have been discouraged from describing it. We have been hemmed in by religious structures that ask us to divorce the mind of from the body, as if the body itself is sinful.

Transcendence, however, requires not only acknowledgement of our physical Being, but full integration of the body and the mind. Transcendence cannot be figured out using the intellect. It cannot be willed to happen. It is something that is felt. It is a sensation, an expansion of energy. A parallel example would be love, the feeling of love. It is impossible to describe love using words only, because it is a feeling.

Gaining an understanding of transcendence requires energy practice. You can come to it through meditation, martial arts, music, art, nature, spirituality. Once this feeling is recorded as a memory in your body, you can come back to it over and over. People like the Dalai Lama have practiced it so much that it is their usual state of being.

Ancient cultures used this wisdom to communicate with plants and animals and the spiritual flow of life. It was necessary for survival. We are here today because our ancestors relied on this knowledge. Western culture is in its infancy, in terms of making transcendence a common experience. But everyone alive today came from ancient cultures. In order to experience transcendence, we only need to return to something that our cells already know.