Meditation can be a powerful means for connecting to your higher self and expanding your psychic awareness and abilities.

HJ: Meditation can be a powerful means for connecting to your higher self and expanding your psychic awareness and abilities. This powerful technique from Stephen Barrett at the Chios Healing Institute is a great primer for expanding into the higher states of consciousness.

The Chios Meditation Technique

The meditation technique you are about to learn about is known as the Chios Meditation, which employs the use of a certain symbol, as well as instruction in the correct way to meditate using this symbol. The symbol used is called the Round Orange-Red Ball, and the correct manner of meditating on this symbol is referred to as visualization.

The Round Orange-Red Ball:

The symbol used in Chios Meditation is the Round Orange-Red Ball. The Round Orange-Red Ball is not to be thought of as any particular object (in the external world), but an idealized object; that is, a single object in the awareness that is of this particular shape and color.

It is an object with the shape of roundness, as one would sense the round surface shape of a ball, and the color of orange-redness, which is halfway between orange and red on the visual spectrum, combined into one single whole object of this sensed shape and color. It is not entirely solid, and is without the solidity of a completely solid object, and yet it is not hollow nor is the surface transparent either. Its round ball shape, and its orange-red color, are the focus of awareness.

The Round Orange-Red Ball is not a symbol that has been chosen at random. It is a powerful, effective and complete meditation symbol that will serve for a lifetime of practice.

This particular symbol has, inherent within it, the ability to place the meditator in conscious touch with the field of pure awareness, and in such a way as to release powerful abilities. It is an inner discovery and learning, a journey inward.

It is an unbiased symbol, as well, and bears no connection to any particular religious or spiritual tradition or belief system. It is a powerful and versatile symbol that has, in addition, some advanced uses that you may encounter later, after learning the basic meditation technique.

The Round Orange-Red Ball

You may wish to have some idea of the origin of this symbol. It comes from a deeper spiritual awareness of nature and the source of life. It is also very old. The Round Orange-Red Ball is a symbol that corresponds to our Sun, not merely the physical sun but the Spiritual Sun.

This Spiritual Sun represents the life force, and all that is contained in it, in an active and intelligent form—the force that has been instrumental in bringing life to the earth and that surrounds and supports all life on our world, including all of us. The Round Orange-Red Ball corresponds to this solar logos, this higher spiritual reality that makes life on our planet possible, and also has a holographic relationship to the spiritual source within each of us.

It is the Sun that lies within each of us and in humanity as a whole. It speaks to a racial memory, a deep racial and historic understanding of this spiritual source of all life. It is part of humanity’s evolution, and is a rich and powerful meditation symbol for many reasons. Do not let your knowledge of the origin of this symbol interfere with your practice of it, however.

When meditating on the symbol, do not ascribe any meaning to it; simply let the symbol itself occupy your awareness. The symbol itself connects to all you need to practice meditation powerfully and correctly. You do not need any mental understanding of it or of the process of meditation.

Correct Practice of Visualization:

The Round Orange-Red Ball, by itself, is not sufficient to engage in effective and pure meditation practice. It is also necessary to meditate upon this symbol in the proper manner. This form of correct practice of Chios Meditation, the proper manner in which the symbol of the Round Orange-Red Ball is held in the awareness, is termed visualization.

In Chios Meditation, the Round Orange-Red Ball is visualized, that is, sensed in the awareness in a certain way, and whenever stray thoughts or emotions appear, they are allowed to drop away as the awareness returns just to the Round Orange-Red Ball.

To visualize the symbol, in the proper manner necessary for successful practice of this form of meditation, consists of becoming one with the symbol, instead of merely “thinking about” it in some way. This is necessary, so that the symbol may act to quiet the surface level of the “thinking mind,” instead of merely provide an additional surface phenomenon to the operation of the mind.

Proper practice of visualization consists of establishing a unity, an identity with the Round Orange-Red Ball, and sensing it with the whole being, not just the mind. It is important to understand that you are not just “thinking about” the symbol, and that meditation is not a mental phenomenon.

It is also very important to understand that proper practice of this method requires that the meditator not “pretend to see” the symbol, as would be sensed with ordinary (visual) sensory perception. Like merely “thinking about” the meditation symbol, pretending to see the Round Orange-Red Ball will merely create a surface-level mental state, and not allow for stabilization and descent of the awareness to deeper levels.

Both of these forms of incorrect practice have, intrinsic within them, a subject/object distinction, which is the modus operandi of the “thinking mind,” as it thinks within or perceives the ordinary surface level of reality.

Becoming one with the symbol, so that the subject/object distinction disappears, is the essence of proper practice of visualization. This is the form of practice which serves to allow the “thinking mind” to wind down, and provide the resulting expansion of awareness that is desirable in meditation practice.

It is important to understand that the term “visualization,” as used in this meditation method, is not the same as pretending to see a visual image, as with the physical eyes. It is necessary to let go of the idea of “seeing” as something that is only done with the physical eyes. This is a great step forward. Visualization is done with the mind’s eye.

When you are “visualizing,” you are sensing with your entire consciousness, not merely with the mind or one physical sense. This is visualization, and distinctly so. It is a knowledge of the Round Orange-Red Ball which is not dependent on the visual sense. It is focusing the awareness upon the Round Orange-Red Ball using the entire consciousness. It is learning to “visualize” in an altogether new manner. You will acquire a feeling for what this means after some practice.

If you find yourself “pretending to see” the symbol, you must release the visual part of your experience. Meditation is usually practiced with eyes closed, yet you could have your eyes open, seeing the objects around you, and still be visualizing the Round Orange-Red Ball.

Some also think of this as “putting the symbol in the mind’s eye, or third eye,” as visualization is practiced with the aid of the forehead (third eye) chakra. If you find yourself “thinking about” the Round Orange-Red Ball, you must likewise release yourself from your “thinking mind” as it attempts to grasp it merely through the thinking process.

It is not necessary to “think about” the Orange-Red Ball to sense it with the consciousness—all that is required is that you become the Orange-Red Ball, with your entire conscious awareness.

Potential Benefits of Chios Meditation:

Chios Meditation, when practiced correctly, may give the following benefits:

A deeper sense of the true self beyond the ego, and deeper intuitive knowings. This may include a deeper knowledge of the nature of the individual self, in the form of a fundamental connection to pure consciousness within the individual self of the meditator, beneath the emotions, perceptions, mental ideas and preconceptions of self that exist at the surface level of the mind. Other knowledge pertaining to self may also be gained, such as insight into the life experience. The practice of meditation places the practitioner in closer touch with his or her inner conscious resources, and the regular meditator frequently enjoys an overall acceleration and refinement of spiritual growth.

Enhanced sensitivity to all things, from which communication may result—such as the reception of impressions, guidance or thought communication (“telepathy”). All these various forms of communication are related, for all take place through the field of pure consciousness. The “thinking mind,” in its activity, serves as an obstruction and a filtering process, preventing the conscious awareness from effectively receiving such communication. Acquiring the ability to quiet the “thinking mind” and come into greater contact with the state of pure consciousness enhances the receptivity of the awareness to these various forms of communication.

The ability to visualize, to “see” psychically, which has also been called “psychic sight,” “high sense perception,” “second sight,” and other names. This may include intuitive forms of “seeing,” in the mind’s eye, as well as experiences involving physical sight. These abilities come from a development of the abilities of the sixth chakra, as a result of the proper practice of visualization, and visions, various forms of “remote viewing,” precognition, and the ability to see the human aura are some examples of the receptive aspect of the visualization ability that results. Greater overall intuitive awareness, in whatever form it manifests, is commonly present.

Later, after some practice, the ability to use your visualization ability in the sense of sending or directing energy (rather than receiving it, as with psychic sight). Various kinds of energy, color, light or qualities may be sent. This active visualization ability is also the result of regular practice of meditation. It is particularly useful in healing work, where the ability to visualize in this way is a necessary prerequisite to proper performance of the many advanced healing techniques which require that energy, color and light be directed to certain locations in certain particular ways.

Various other “supernormal” abilities, which will vary from person to person.

These abilities are developed over a period of months and years, and will vary from student to student. They may manifest not only while meditating, but in daily life as well. It is a great advantage to develop the habit of engaging in the regular practice of meditation, at a daily time and place of one’s choosing, and persevering in the practice. This is the way that the maximum benefits will be gained.

By: Stephen H. Barrett | Chios Healing