Leave your cares behind
Come with us and find
The pleasures of a journey to the center of the mindCome along if you care
Come along if you dare
Take a ride to the land inside of your mindBeyond the seas of thought
Beyond the realm of what
Across the streams of hopes and dreams where things are really not — Amboy Dukes; Ted Nugent and Steve Farmer
OK, so Ted Nugent went from writing psychedelic rock to being a conservative political activist. There may be some kind of meaning there.
The 1960s witnessed a spiritual revival. Not religious. Spiritual. Some of the spiritual quest was, well, illegal. This song was no doubt an attempt to write about “psychedelic” experience.
But as often happens in poetry, there are meanings beyond what you write.
In meditation, you suspend thought and facts. You focus on God. Perhaps a story like maybe an interaction that Jesus had with someone. Or a parable. And you don’t analyze. You experience.
And sometimes God breaks through. And you experience.
And you believe in God, not because you read somewhere that you should or someone told you that you should. You know.
And now spiritual truths make more sense.
Psychologists will sometimes instruct patients to go somewhere where they can be alone with their thoughts. Then settle in and just tune in to the inside.
A patient once told Carl Jung, the famed Swiss psychologist, that he couldn’t imagine anyone worse to be with than himself. I think Dr. Jung probably thought, “You’re right. And I’m trying to help you get over that.”
Find 15 minutes today. Slow down, concentrate on God, a story, a bird, a leaf, a bug, whatever is around. Relax. Become aware of where you are and what you’re doing.
Your blood pressure will thank you. Your brain will thank you. People around you will thank you.
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