Experience: Yogaville

In 2016, after having turned down a full-time job at Fisher Auto Parts, I decided to set out on my own to travel the world, but before doing that I figured it would be a good idea to get to know myself more by joining the Living Yoga Training (LYT) Program at Yogaville 45 minutes south of Charlottesville, VA for a month before taking flight. Yogaville is a town that was founded in 1986 by Swami Satchidananda, an Indian yogi who brought Integral Yoga to the Western world. This was created, not only as an ashram, but an actual town and is currently still run by his disciples.

What is Integral Yoga?

Yogaville was founded on the belief that there are many paths, but one truth, which aimed to see the correctness in every religion instead of their disparities. One of those paths, was yoga, but not just the workout that people do nowadays, but Integral Yoga which contains 6 branches, all of which combine to forge a well rounded human being (body, mind, and heart)

• Hatha Yoga - the conventional yoga which uses your body as a path to inner stillness, a yoga of union between the physical and mental body. "Ha" meaning "sun", and "tha" meaning moon.
• Raja Yoga - known as the royal yoga; the yoga of meditation, concentration, and focus.
• Bhaki Yoga - known as the yoga of the heart. Includes singing, chanting, puja, and opening your heart in love of the divine.
• Karma Yoga - known as the yoga of service. Aims at serving the divine and humanity with actions without regards for its fruit.
• Jnana Yoga - known as the yoga of wisdom. Based in self-analysis and systemic awareness of the unity of all.
• Japa Yoga - known as the yoga of repetition. Based in repetition of mantras as a gateway to, and awareness of the divine. Which in my mind, is a type of Raja Yoga or meditation, but what do I know.

To that end, the LYT program aims to cultivate these yogas in a yogi every day by waking up at 4:30am to meditate (Raja or Japa) + 2x, do some yoga (Hatha) 2x, eat and or serve (Karma), attend classes/discussions (Jnana), and pujas or weekly kirtan (Bhaki).

The Eight Limbs of Yoga

While going through the program, the first two limbs (Yamas, and Niyamas) are mandatory, and the other limbs are strengthened by adhering to the schedule. Here are the eight limbs:

1. Yamas - Right Actions
2. Niyamas - Right Thoughts
3. Asanas - Postures, like Hatha Yoga
4. Pranayama - Breathing Techniques
5. Pratyahara - Sensory Control
6. Dharana - Focused Concentration
7. Dhyana - Meditation
8. Samadhi - Enlightenment

These all build on each other, leading you, should you wish, further down the path to enlightenment. With a month in hand, I decided to see how far down the path I could get.

#1 Yamas (Right Actions)

Starting with the Yamas:

• Ahimsa (non-violence), 
• Satya (truthfulness), 
• Asteya (non-stealing), 
• Brahmacharya (right use of energy)
• Aparigraha (non-greed or non-hoarding)

I was already pretty good on these. Especially considering the rules of the LYT program, and having everything I needed provided for me, so after learning what each one really meant, I decided to move on to the next one.

#2 Niyamas (Right Thoughts)

• Saucha (cleanliness)
• Santosha (contentment)
• Tapas (discipline or burning of desire)
• Svadhyaya (self-study or self-reflection, and study of spiritual texts) 
• Isvarapranidaha (surrender to a higher power)

I was also actually mostly good on this, but could also consciously work on these, just as well as the Yamas over the course of my daily activities, so again, I decided to move further down the path.

#3 Asanas (Body Postures)

When I got to Asanas, I realized this would take much longer for my body to be able to make changes than it would for my mind, so while I dedicated to going to the Yoga sessions twice a day, I couldn't really help too much how fast my body became more nimble or strong, and since I have been notoriously inflexible, this dedication would have to do for now. Next...

#4 Pranayama (Breathwork)

This one was kind of fun, since it was already included in the morning meditations, all I really had to do was attend the those, which I was already required to do. I also intended to be cognizant of my breath throughout the day, or while doing meditation or yoga.

#5 Pratyahara (Sensory Control)

This one was really fun. Having convinced myself that I could even attempt this, I'd remembered myself getting in the zone in sports, where a crowded basketball gym would go silent, even though everyone was yelling or cheering. Or times when I could force myself to zone out a crying baby on a plane. With those previous experiences in mind, I decided to see if I could do a similar thing, again, on demand. Fortunately for me, I had the perfect teacher, a bird, perched outside the window, had the most consistent call, which was honestly grated on my nerves while trying to meditate. What a perfect opportunity to see if I could do it!

Like most mental things, it isn't quite apparent how to do something that you've done accidentally before, all you have to guide you is just the fact that it is possible. So I decided to try to pull my energy in, to make my ears not be connected to my brain, to be so focused on my internal world, that nothing external would exist, or be important. The interesting thing about this is that when things go silent, you aren't sure if the bird stopped singing, or you actually made it happen, so after making it work I found myself pulsing in and out of sensory control, until I had the confidence to know that the bird was indeed still singing and I had done it! Onwards to the next!

#6 Dharana (Focused Concentration)

Concentration, sweet, sweet, concentration. This one, I'm actually really good at, but I figured I'd need to be MUCH, MUCH better. So I designed myself a series of visual assignments that I could use to train myself. The first one was simple, but intense. I imagined myself digging a ditch in my mind. I imagined the shovel in my hand, the muscles I'd use to force it into the dirt, the feel of the shovel on my foot as I push it further into the dirt, the runaway dirt blowing over my head as I launch the dirt out of the ditch over my shoulder, and again; for an hour. I focused solely on each action, feeling it as realistically as I could possibly muster. If I drifted to a thought, I calmly brought myself back until I was halted by the gong signaling the end of the meditation.

The next day, I decided to try harder, and go further. Since I already had dug a ditch, I figured I should now use that ditch during my next meditation. So I decided to focus on bringing water from my nearby imaginary lake into the ditch with each breath. I expanded the ditch automagically in my mind to form an upside down cross and for the first couple of minutes, just focused on breathing in and drawing the water into the ditch, and breathing out, forcing the water out of the ditch. After noticing this becoming too easy, I upgraded to plant 6 trees along the horizontal part of my ditch and when the water would come in with each breath, the trees would become full of leaves, and as I breathed out, the leaves would fall. Finding this still too easy, I added apples in the trees after the leaves came in. Further still, I made a flock of birds fly in and out, and the sun go up and down and finally...something in my brain snapped. I felt this immense headache with only a couple of minutes to spare. I spent the rest of the day introverted, not wanted to speak, or think, just being, with a subtle worry that I had broken my brain.

#7 Dhyana (Meditation)

The next day, after a deep sleep, my headache was gone, and my brain was better. Still determined, I went to the morning meditation and designed one more visual game for myself to help myself overcome thoughts. I imagined zooming out of my body, out of the building, out of the county, state, country, earth, solar system, galaxy, universe, until everything that existed was a small black dot in my mind. I attempted to make this black dot disappear, along with everything it represented. Each time I tried, it would dodge my minds' attempts, like an internet hyperlink running away from your cursor, until finally I succeeded! Everything went black...

...I woke up, catching myself as I was falling from my meditative pose heading towards a glass cabinet! Whew...

Let's try that again! I went through it quicker this time, and found myself in that dance with the black dot and boom...blacked out again. What had I just done??!?

It's clear that taking the short cut past Asanas costed my body as it wasn't strong enough and flexible enough to stay in a meditative posture without conscious effort. What would have happened if I could have maintained my body without my mind?!

A New Friend

I spent the next couple of days digesting my experience. Trying to understand what had just happened, how it happened, its implications. I found myself getting tired of the routine. I knew I had just hit a wall to my progression and my determination waned. The only way I could move past this wall would be to conquer the weaknesses of my body which would take too much time and dedication. I found myself collapsing into myself, not feeling like talking to anyone.

A couple days later, a new batch of LYTs arrived. The program ran for a month, starting every 2 weeks, so different programs overlapped for 2 weeks with the last group and 2 weeks with a new group which I found incredibly smart as the previous group always served as an anchor for the new batch of LYTs which helped indoctrinate them in this radical life change.

And in this new batch, a young woman, a couple years younger than me approached me and told me we were supposed to be friends and that she had a game to teach me. Curious, we went out to lunch at the cafeteria.

The Color Game

Once we were done eating, I asked her about this game. She explained the rules, saying the game was simple; I would think of a color, and she would guess the color. I chuckled, I love games, and thought this would be interesting, especially considering the epic journey I had just undergone...

I started by thinking of a color, blue, and having worked on my focus, my mind could think of the color so completely that I felt I was glowing that color.

"Blue," she said...wow.

So I thought of a new one. Yellow. And a new one, Green. Purple. White. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct.

I was blown away. I was trying to understand how she could be playing with me. How she could maybe be manipulating my thoughts to be easier to guess. Or how she might be priming me. I couldn't find a single way to deny what had just happened.

Finally, after about 20 of them, all correct, she opened her eyes, "Your turn!" she said with a smile.

Emboldened, I was excited to try. How hard could this be? She picked a color, and my brain started going crazy! How could I figure out what she was thinking? Maybe I could tell by where she had been looking last, so I studied the room. Or maybe she had a favorite color, what could it be? Or maybe she was gonna be clever and by getting a couple guess wrong I could deduce her strategy? So I made a guess...wrong.

Tried again, trying to be even more aware of what could be happening in her.

Wrong.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Correct! Huzzah! I did it...I was so stoked...but it was just a guess. With another color, my frontal cortex pulsed with activity, but again, I got it wrong.

Like a wise guru she interjected, "Expand the space between your thoughts, and there you will find the answer."

"Expand the space between your thoughts, and there you will find the answer."

"Jeez, thanks guru..." but then after letting go of my frustration, I gave what she said serious thought. I HAD gotten my thoughts to separate, I knew how to do that at least but my ego was opposed to this approach. It felt like the opposite of trying to figure out the answer but trusting her, I went into meditation. I willed my mind to focus on the space between thoughts and all of a sudden a rush of color exploded behind my closed eyes! Excited, I tried to grab onto that vision and name it, but I couldn't, I didn't know what the name of that color was, even though I clearly had seen it, but it now felt so vague and distant. So I guessed a color incorrectly, but when she responded with the color she had been thinking, it felt true, THAT was the color I saw.

Confused, I tried it again. But this time, how could I hold on to the vision, store it, AND name it? I knew that our two hemispheres of our brains work in different worlds. The left being logical, where words and language are stored. The right being visual, where creativity, and images are stored. It seemed to me like I was dreaming, and upon waking, I'd forget my dream. I had to find a way to sit in that dream space longer to allow myself to store the dream before exiting to name it.

With a strategy, I tried it again. And again, I saw the flash of color, but this time, I consciously tried to not get excited by it and sat it that space. I came out and guess the color correctly!

We tried this loads more times and I started to be able to tell that I had the correct answer without even speaking it out loud! Not bad for a first day. We continued playing this game over the next two weeks, and I only got better.

India (6 Years Later)

I've told this story to hundreds of people as I've traveled since then and most of the time, after telling them my story, they want to try it. At first I was excited, but every time I'd get into the state, there'd be nothing. It felt like I was interacting with a concrete wall and I never understood why. Had it been a fluke? Was it something about the energies in Yogaville? Was that woman the one with the ability and she gifted it to me to incite my curiosity?

My questions were answered 8 years later when I was in Auroville chatting to 3 guys I met at a restaurant next to my hostel. After telling them the story, one of the guys, with a glint in his eye, asked me to try it with him.

Curious, I closed my eyes and pictured the most lush green field, and immediately, I felt like he had connected and seen it. Without any delay, I heard him say "Green." I opened my eyes and he smiled. I tried to ask him how he did that, but he quickly started a new topic, like it had been nothing!

Later that evening, they invited me to go to a bar with them, I accepted so I could have more time to inquire about what happened. I sat across from him, and while the others were caught in a conversation, I asked him. How did you guess the color? How did it feel for you? I told him, I had told that story to so many people and NEVER had felt that before.

He looked at me and pondered the questions for a moment then turned the tables back on me. He asked, "Have you ever been in love?"

"Yes." I answered

"Have you ever had your heart broken?"

"Yes."

"Do you still trust people?"

"Absolutely"

"Well, there you go!"

"What? What does that mean?!" I asked

A hint of anger flashed across his face and he told me he'd rather get back to the conversation with the guys.

Conclusion

Since that moment, I've pondered this interaction and believe I've gotten some understanding from his response. Love, heartbreak, trust. Most people have never actually loved. Most people have never had their guard down enough to love. Love as they know it is a transaction. "I'll love you if..." they say. And frankly, that's how most people were taught by their parents, lovers, friends, and by the world. When we were children, we knew love, we had an open wonder about the world but since then we have gotten so hurt, so heartbroken, that we've stopped trusting people. We've stopped being open enough to let them in. And maybe, the key to this skill is the ability to be vulnerable and open.

The other curiousity of this experience was the idea that, compared to all the other people that I had attempted this with, either by being the thinker or guesser, they felt like stone walls, like we weren't connected. But in this one, I knew he had connected. I knew he had read my thoughts. It reminded me of Luke 8:45-46 in the Bible:

⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

I'm not sure I'll ever truly know what happened, but I aim to find out. Could I have just met others who have this ability, and a part of me was open enough to let them use their gift? Could it be that we all have this ability? Could it be that Jesus was just one of the firsts? I'll let you be the judge of that, but it begs the question, what other abilities exist in our world?