William Buhlman  - Adventures beyond the body

Take several deep breaths and completely relax. Begin to visualize a majestic, bright orange hot air balloon. As you approach the balloon, you can clearly see that it’s ready for lift off. The familiar smile of your guide welcomes you to another adventure beyond the limits of matter. As you step inside the basket, you look forward to another exciting journey.

With absolute joy, you cast off the ropes holding you to the earth. With an upward surge, your balloon begins to rise. An intense feeling of exhilaration builds as you effortlessly rise higher and higher and slowly drift over the treetops. Below, the homes and cars begin to look like toys - small and insignificant.  Looking down over the edge of the balloon’s basket, you notice several large canvas bags. The bags look extremely full and heavy. On closer inspection, you recognize that the bags are filled with your fears and limits. Each bag is clearly labelled: fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of failure, fear of new challenges, fear of death. Whatever fear or limit you currently experience in your life is clearly marked on the bags. Take a moment and recognize your individual fears and limits and see them hanging in the canvas bags.

As you drift above the treetops, you realize that you have stopped rising. The weight from the bags of fear and limits is holding you back, holding you down. Peering over the edge of your balloon, you can see that each bag is tied securely to your basket. With overflowing joy, you begin to untie bags of fear and watch each one plummet to earth. As each bag of fear is released, you can feel your balloon surge upward, going higher and higher.

With childlike excitement, you can feel each fear drop away. You absolutely know that each fear is gone forever, that each limitation is a thing of the past.  Some of the bags of fear are so tightly tied that you need to cut them free. Your guide hands you a pocket knife, and with delight you begin cutting the tough strands of rope securing the remaining bags. As each rope is cut, you experience your lightness and freedom expanding. You feel the thrill of total liberation flowing through you as you go higher and higher. As you rise to new heights, your fears and limits are gone forever.