If you believe that both the mind and body are part of who you are and then make plans to promote or protect this “self,” you will strengthen the belief that both mind and body share the same attributes of being weak and vulnerable. It is this belief that insures it is the body that should suffer the effects of the guilt you have imposed upon this self. And by associating the mind with the body’s “sins” it limits your ability to forgive and heal either one. We must learn to experience the body as quite apart from the mind and the self we imagine ourselves to be. This would allow it to be a healthy tool thru which the mind can function while we still feel a need for it.
The following is a suggestion for a meditation to help your mind open to the feeling of being free of the body. It can facilitate an “out of body” experience if you will allow it.
An Exercise to release the experience of being a body
Purpose: To disassociate with the belief we are a body.
Pick a time when you do not feel a pressure to make other decisions and have no other time constraints.
First, invite the Presence of your God Self to be in charge of your experience. Then begin by reminding yourself that your purpose for doing the exercise is to challenge your belief that the body is a part of, plays some role in who you are.
As a kind of mantra, begin to repeat “I am not a body. I am free. I am as God created me.” Do this slowly, feeling the words reinforce your purpose until you know they express what you want.
As you relax, see a picture of yourself sitting in the chair where you are. Continue with the mantra, but being more specific, “I am not this body. I am free. I am as God created me.” Do this until you feel a real sense that what you are saying is true.
Now remind yourself: “What I am seeing is not a body with a mind inside. This is an image of an idea within my mind. My mind is not within this body. This body / image is within my mind.” Continue repeating, “My mind is not within this body. This body / image is within my mind.” Again, do this until you feel its truth.
Now say: “I release this body-image from all I have judged it for, and choose to use it instead as a witness to forgiveness.” Watch as the image begins to glow and becomes transformed into a soft white light. See it begin to rise and separate from what you first pictured as a body. As it does, you may feel your mind begin to lift and leave your body. If you are comfortable with this experience, again acknowledge the God Self Presence being in control and just relax with no attempt to guide the outcome. Awareness will come to support your purpose for doing this.