Meeting Catherine

When William James explored spiritual and mystical experiences in his 1902 book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, one of the experience qualities he noted was ineffability. No matter how articulate a person is, human language doesn’t have words to adequately capture the meaning, the feeling, and the transformational quality. 

Even so, when the right person witnesses the story and listens deeply, the words become less elusive and the experiencer’s expressive ability expands. I’m amazed at how much more I can say about what happened to me to a person who is truly interested and asks questions.

Brenda Ueland, best known for her book, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit, understood this. 

She wrote, “Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force…When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” 

Seven years after my experience I found someone who could listen this way. I met Catherine at a yoga class in a mutual friend’s living room. We connected right away. We had lunch together in a local café’s sunny walled garden and four hours slipped by trading stories and discussing the ins and outs of spiritual experiences. Catherine, a marriage and family therapist, had also trained as an energy healer. She was fifteen years older than I, and she’d had her own spiritual experiences. She was the first person to validate my experiences as real and the first person to mention the word “integration” in this context. She had humor, compassion, depth, and personal authority – so I knew she’d make a great mentor and friend. 

We began trading sessions. I did hypnotherapy for Catherine and she did energy work for me. I’d do the hypnotic relaxation induction for her and then she’d take it from there, dwelling in a sacred in-between place, having mystical experiences while I silently watched over her and held the space. This is my favorite thing to do in hypnosis too. When she raised her finger to give me the signal she was ready, I’d bring her back to present time and space. 

In my energy sessions at her home office, I’d be resting on the massage table and hear her comment: “There’s almost no energy in your legs and feet. You’re not inhabiting your body!” She would shake her head and tell me that most of my energy was in my brain or flying around my head. Catherine was well-grounded. She seemed to think I should be too. I wanted to be as strong and effective as she was, but I guessed I’d been scared out of my body as a kid. Up to that point, I hadn’t seen any real advantage to re-inhabiting it. I preferred inner journeys and the life of the mind. 

Now with Catherine’s help and explanations, I finally understood why a person might want to be fully embodied. Once I understood that being fully present in the physical made me more effective at meeting my life goals, I began to do activities that grounded me: gardening, walking in nature and exercising. Even after touching a greater reality, if I wanted to feel balanced, I couldn’t focus only on the Other Side. We’re in earthly vehicles for a reason, even if we don’t always know what that reason is. I decided to make the most of it.

Did a particular person or a practice help you after your spiritual or mystical experience? I’d love to hear about it. You can email me at: Cynnaseagrove@protonmail.com