Visualization-Meditation Exercise: Go To Your Room
September 24th, 2005 by Erin
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This is a guest post from my wife, Erin.
It’s a visualization / meditation exercise for communicating with your subconscious mind (or your higher self, spiritual guides, a higher power, etc.). Feel free to adapt the paradigm she uses to fit into your current belief system. She taught me this about 11 years ago, and I’ve been practicing it ever since.
Go To Your Room
Wouldn’t it be great if your subconscious mind could leave you messages the same way someone might leave you a message on voicemail? How valuable would it be to receive a direct message from your subconscious or higher self? What if you could not only get a message but have a back-and-forth conversation with your subconscious mind?
When I was a teenager a friend of mine taught me a method for doing just that. I’d like to share it with you and see if you find it as amazing and valuable as I do. It’s a method I still practice today when I want to receive a direct message from my higher self. Here’s what you do:
You can do this lying down or in a comfortable chair. I usually do it at night before I go to sleep since I know I won’t be interrupted, and it also helps prepare me for sleep and interesting dreams.
Close your eyes and relax. Imagine you are walking into an elevator and the doors close. You are on the 21st floor, and you are on your way down. See the numbered display above the elevator doors, and notice that the light for the 21st floor is lit. Now you are going down the elevator, and you see the light for the 20th floor turn on. Breathe deeply in between floors. Next you see “19″ and so on. Feel the motion of the elevator as you go down, see the numbered lights counting down, and count them in your mind as you breathe deeply once or twice in between floors. When you reach the first floor, the doors open. Step out.
Now you see a staircase, going down. There are exactly 21 steps. Imagine yourself walking down the staircase, but pause for a moment on each step, and take a deep breath before stepping down to the next one. Count in your mind, and really feel yourself walking down the stairs. When you reach “1″ you are at the bottom of the staircase.
Now you see a door that is slightly ajar. You walk up to it, open it, and see a brightly lit corridor with dozens of closed doors along the way. A guardian is standing there, and you ask him or her to be led to “your room.” Imagine you are being led down the corridor to your room. Open the door.
What you see inside as you step into your room is entirely up to you and your imagination. Explore the room and take note of what you see in there. Is it cluttered or neat? Is it sterile or cozy? Does it look futuristic or antiquated? Is there furniture or is it bare? Whatever you see is fine. Just take note of it.
Find a place to sit down and ask to speak to your subconscious, or your higher self, or even your spirit guides. See who shows up. Have a conversation with them and ask them what they want you to know. Then listen. When you are through, thank them and exit your room. Be sure to close the door. Back track your way to the staircase and climb it, counting up from 1 to 21. Then step into the elevator and do the same, count up from 1 to 21 and step out. You’re done.
Now that is the setup. Later you can go back to your room any time and talk to whomever you find there.
Then experiment! When I go to my room, there is a chalkboard. And on that chalkboard is always a written message from my higher self. Perhaps in your room there is an answering machine, and you simply need to press play to hear the message. Or perhaps when you enter your room a phone is ringing, and you answer it and hear your message on the other end. Come up with a way for your subconscious or higher self to leave you messages that you can check when you don’t want to have a lengthy conversation.
You can use this method to get clarity on a problem by asking a specific question, then going into your room and seeing your answer on the chalkboard, or dry erase board, or hear it on your spiritual answering machine. Or you can use this method to have a long talk with your higher self or subconscious mind.
I’ve even gone so far as to lay down on the couch in my “room” and proceed to mentally enter another elevator and go down another 21 floors, then 21 steps, then into another corridor with another room! Talk about a trip! You could also try asking the corridor guardian to be taken to someone else’s room (perhaps a spouse or family member) and meet their higher self! See what happens and what their room looks like to you.
You can redecorate or make other changes to your room. If it’s cluttered, clean it up! You might find that your life is getting “cleaned up” by doing this. I’ve also done a room addition on mine so that now there is a cozy, comfortable bedroom for me to sleep in when I don’t feel like going all the way back up the stairs and elevator. 
The insights on this journey are invaluable. And the dreams you’ll have after doing this exercise may be a little more clear than usual. Pay attention to them and what they might be trying to tell you. And the next time you’re feeling unsettled or unclear about something in your life, just go to your room!
If you find this exercise useful, you might also enjoy this other visualization/meditation for meeting your future self.
September 24th, 2005 at 8:20 am
I frequently have trouble falling asleep at night because my mind won’t turn off the jumbled thoughts of the day. I sometimes lay there fretting over all that needs to be done on the following day. I’m going to try this! My hope is that it will not only help me organize my thoughts, but maybe give me insight for the next day that will calm me down…at least enough to fall asleep.
September 24th, 2005 at 10:29 am
Weird. But I can already see the benefits of a meditation like this. Keep up the great work, Steve!
September 24th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Annie, yes, this meditation keeps your mind from wandering. Sometimes, when I’m really tired, I fall asleep by the time the elevator is only at floor 16. This is a great method to use when you’re sick or with fever as it keeps your mind from racing and lets you fall asleep quicker.
September 24th, 2005 at 1:07 pm
Looks like a nice meditation. It somehow reminds me the methods of Jose Silva. Erin, is this a variation on Jose Silva’s meditations (laboratory and other methods)?
September 24th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
It’s funny because if I hadn’t experienced this myself, I would have been skeptical of this post. I love that feeling of semi-consciousness. Every time I reach that state, I love to look around the room and see what images my mind comes up with. It’s like being in a virtual world without limits.
This technique seems to be an expansion of the “counting backwards from 100″ technique; I’ll definitely have to try it. Thank you very much!
September 24th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
@Chris: Don’t credit me for this post — my wife wrote the whole thing.
September 24th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
Wow! What an excellent post - I can totally see myself changing my meditation habits to incorporate these ideas. I was going to say that this was your best yet Steve but it would seem that your wife outdid you ;). Perhaps we will see more posts from Erin - or maybe her own personal development blog? Congrats to both of you!
September 24th, 2005 at 5:40 pm
Jacob, I’m not familiar with Jose Silva, but like I mentioned a friend taught me this when I was in high school so maybe he had learned it from Jose.
Thank you all for your kind words. It means a lot to me, and now you’ve gone and encouraged me to write more!
September 24th, 2005 at 7:47 pm
Can’t wait to try it later tonight!
It reminds me of a labyrinth. The Chartres catherdral labyrinth and the usual labyrinth template is 42 turns - 7 left towards the centre, 7 right towards the centre, hang out at the centre, 7 right towards the outside, 7 left towards the outside. Everytime you change directions on a labyrinth path you switch which side of the brain is processing information when you reach the middle you’ve done left and right brain and are thinking more unified, then you go out and are more unified in the everyday world. Little finger labyrinth’s are also a great tool for meditation.
The visualization part sounds interesting, can’t wait to see what’s down there!
September 25th, 2005 at 8:33 am
I missed the first sentence; my bad. Great post, Erin!
September 25th, 2005 at 11:35 am
Do you know if there is any special significance of using 21?
September 25th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
I’m not sure of the significance, though I suspect there is one. Three 7’s spring to mind. I learned this so long ago that most of what I know of its origin is lost.
September 25th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
Thanks Steve for this lovely gift, in facty for both of them as i also went to your other meditation.
Please also thank the lovely Mrs P as well.
Not only will this be used in my world, i’ll be blogging and linking on this in the future so i can share the gift with my readers as well.
I’m so glad i found this blog. You’ve moved up very quickly into my daily reading group!
Regards Chris
September 26th, 2005 at 6:11 am
I can’t get out of the elevator. LOL
I fall asleep watching the numbers change (It’s a slow elevator).
I tried this excercise upon retiring to bed, and also upon waking in
the middle of the night and becoming restless. I don’t know how that
works (making me fall asleep by counting backwards), but I’ve linked this
blog on a discussion board where sleep (and lack thereof) is being discussed.
When I finally get to “my room”, It better be worth the wait!
P.S. Is this the basis of the whole “counting sheep” thing?
September 26th, 2005 at 6:59 am
@Annie: If you fall asleep (and don’t want to), try doing it sitting up in a comfortable chair. I often fall asleep if I try to do visualizations while lying down — I find them easier to do in a sitting position where I’m comfortable but not too comfortable.
I believe the counting part is intended to help you concentrate and let go of distracting thoughts. There are many meditations which begin with counting or focusing on your breath.
September 26th, 2005 at 11:29 am
Annie, LOL, yes, I also recommend this for trying to fall asleep. If you want to get to your room, you may have to start at least 30 minutes before you’re tired enough to go to bed.
If I’m tired, but also really wanting to read the chalkboard in my room, I will take the “express” elevator down, and slide down the banister on my staircase (careful so you won’t fall
) and then get to my room faster that way. It’s cheating, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!
September 26th, 2005 at 5:46 pm
Erin and Steve,
I have a problem with visualizing in general. I find it hard to see anything at all clearly. For example, I can’t really see the elevator as a whole - it’s kind of hazy, but if I choose to focus on any one part of it, I can see that part a little clearly. I’m far better with sounds, but its hard to build a scene/message with only sounds. Is it common for people to find it difficult to see images in their head? Any books or methods you can suggest to improve visualization?
September 26th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
@moony: For me it was largely a matter of practice, practice, practice. You can start by visualizing physical objects. Involve all of your senses. For example, imagine a lemon. In your mind see the color, feel the texture and temperature, smell the scent, taste the juice. Strive to reach the point where your visualization becomes so real that you actually begin to salivate. Take 3-4 minutes just to focus on visualizing the lemon as vividly as possible.
Then graduate to visualizing more complex objects like a lemon tree. Once you get the hang of seeing still objects clearly, then you can begin to animate them.
Many people find it difficult to visualize, and certainly some of us are more natural visualizers than others. It’s a skill that can be developed with practice though.
Eventually you can even develop the skill of visualizing scenes that are beyond the limits of your physical eyes. For example, I am becoming decent at visualizing scenes that I can see with a 360-degree field of view in my mind’s eye. I can also imagine what it feels like to pass through solid objects like a wall or window, feeling the sensation of drag as I imagine myself passing through it.
September 27th, 2005 at 6:00 am
Erin and Steve, thank you. I was having one of my ever more frequently occurring nervous breakdowns last night (work and relationship stress), and my ideal future self really comforted me. Not to mention my room was totally rad.
I nearly did fall asleep, but it’s amazing how going back up those stairs and through the elevator transitions you back to awareness. I could have fallen back asleep, but at that point I needed a hug, so I went and got one.
One of the things that surprised me the most was future-me’s occupation. I’ve been struggling with where my future is going, but she was confident, and happily in the career path I’d been doubting that I should even start. Guess it’s time to get a move-on!
September 27th, 2005 at 5:53 pm
That’s wonderful, Elaine.
One of the reasons I added a bedroom onto my “room” was so that I could go there to sleep if I didn’t feel like going all the way back up the stairs and elevator. It’s nice and cozy in there, I picked a gorgeous autumnal bed spread.