Sitting in the Power: Becoming Familiar with Your Own Condition of Consciousness

A Common Question

What am I supposed to do during Sitting in the Power?

Answer

Very little in the sense of producing an outcome.

Sit comfortably. Remain present. Allow thoughts, sensations, emotions, bodily experience, and changes in attention to come and go without trying to improve them.

You are not waiting for Spirit to arrive.

You are not trying to make communication happen.

You are spending time becoming familiar with your own experience.

That familiarity becomes important later, because it is much easier to notice that something has changed when we have first learned what our own experience is like without trying to change it.

Introduction

Chapter Five established an important distinction.

Our conscious experience can change without trance occurring.

Attention can shift.

Thought can become less prominent.

Time may seem different.

The body may feel different.

We can become deeply absorbed.

None of these experiences, by themselves, tell us that trance mediumship is taking place.

This leaves the developing medium with another question.

If change does not automatically tell us what is happening, how do we learn to understand change more accurately?

One answer begins surprisingly close to home.

Before becoming preoccupied with what Spirit feels like, it is useful to become familiar with what you feel like.

Before trying to identify unusual conditions, it helps to know something about the ordinary variations already present within your own experience.

Before asking:

“Is this Spirit?”

we can first learn to ask:

“What has actually changed?”

This is one of the reasons Sitting in the Power has remained such a valuable practice within mediumship development.

It gives us time in which nothing needs to be accomplished.

No evidence is required.

No communicator needs to be established.

No message needs to be delivered.

No special state has to appear.

We sit.

We remain present.

And over repeated sittings, something surprisingly useful begins to happen.

We become less unfamiliar with ourselves.

Not with a single fixed version of ourselves.

Our condition is not identical every day.

Sometimes thought is active.

Sometimes it is less prominent.

The body may feel settled one day and restless another.

Emotion may be present or absent.

Attention may remain steady for several minutes and then move rapidly.

None of this means the practice is succeeding or failing.

It simply gives us experience.

Gradually, the student begins developing a reference point.

They become more familiar with the ways their own condition naturally varies.

This matters because mediumship also involves change.

Spirit communication may become apparent through thoughts, imagery, feelings, sensations, knowing, or shifts within the overall experience.

Without familiarity, almost any change can appear spiritually significant.

Or the opposite can happen.

A genuine change may be dismissed because it seems too ordinary.

Sitting in the Power helps us move away from both extremes.

We do not need to spiritualize every experience.

And we do not need to dismiss every subtle one.

We begin by learning what is actually present.

Why Familiarity Comes First

Imagine entering a room you have never seen before.

Someone moves a chair several feet.

You might not notice.

You do not yet know the room well enough to know what has changed.

Now imagine the same thing happening in your own home.

You notice immediately.

Not because you were studying the furniture.

Because familiarity already existed.

Our own conscious experience can work in a similar way.

The better we know its ordinary variations, the less we need every new sensation to announce itself loudly before we notice a difference.

This is not about becoming hypervigilant.

It is almost the opposite.

We are not inspecting ourselves constantly.

Repeated experience gradually creates familiarity without the need for constant measurement.

That becomes one of the quiet foundations of later mediumship development.

Something changes.

And rather than immediately deciding what it means, we are better able to notice:

“This is different from what was present before.”

That is enough to begin.

Sitting in the Power is sometimes described in very different ways.

A meditation.

A preparation for mediumship.

A method of connecting with Spirit.

A way of raising vibration.

A trance practice.

A relaxation exercise.

Students can therefore begin the practice without being entirely certain what they are attempting to do.

At Spirit Wisdom Academy, we keep its purpose much simpler.

Sitting in the Power is an opportunity to remain with your own experience without demanding an outcome from it.

That distinction changes everything.

It Is Not About Reaching Spirit

One of the most common misunderstandings is that we sit in order to reach somewhere else.

Spirit is imagined as distant.

The student becomes responsible for closing the distance.

They may visualize moving upward.

Expanding outward.

Opening something.

Sending their attention toward another realm.

Waiting for Spirit to come closer.

This creates a problem before the sitting has properly begun.

The student is already trying to manufacture a relationship.

Sitting in the Power does not require this.

You do not need to reach.

You do not need to call.

You do not need to create a bridge.

You do not need to decide where Spirit is.

The practice can remain entirely with what is presently occurring.

If mediumistic communication becomes relevant at another time, that relationship can be explored as mediumship.

During Sitting in the Power, no communication is required to justify the sitting.

It Is Not About Emptying the Mind

Students also sometimes believe they should stop thinking.

Then a thought appears.

They become frustrated.

Another appears.

Now the session seems unsuccessful.

But thoughts are part of human experience.

Their presence does not mean anything has gone wrong.

The purpose is not to create an empty mind.

Nor is it to become detached from being human.

A thought may arise.

You may notice it.

Attention may follow it for a while.

At some point you notice that too.

Nothing needs to be corrected aggressively.

The sitting continues.

Over time, students often become less concerned with whether thought is present and more interested in the entire condition in which thought is occurring.

It Is Not Relaxation Training

Relaxation may happen.

It may not.

Some sittings feel comfortable.

Others do not.

The body can feel restless.

Emotion can be present.

The mind can remain busy.

If we decide beforehand that Sitting in the Power should produce peace, relaxation becomes another result we attempt to manufacture.

The practice is more inclusive than that.

Whatever condition is present becomes the condition with which we begin.

We do not need to approve of it.

We simply do not need to pretend it is something else.

It Is Not Trance Practice

This distinction is especially important after Chapter Five.

A student may sit and notice changes.

The body feels heavier.

The room seems less prominent.

Time passes quickly.

Speech or thought feels different afterward.

Those observations may be interesting.

But Sitting in the Power should not become an attempt to reproduce them.

Nor should the student conclude that the practice is successful only when the condition changes substantially.

The purpose is not to enter trance.

If trance mediumship eventually becomes part of the student’s development, it will require its own relationship, context, and understanding.

Sitting in the Power gives us something more basic.

Familiarity before classification.

The phrase “your own condition of consciousness” can sound more complicated than the experience itself.

We do not need a complete philosophy of consciousness in order to begin.

Simply notice how much changes within an ordinary day.

Thought.

Emotion.

Attention.

Bodily sensation.

Energy.

Interest.

Restlessness.

Focus.

Our sense of time.

The prominence of our surroundings.

Sometimes an experience occupies almost everything.

At other times it passes with little impact.

The condition through which life is being experienced continually varies.

Sitting in the Power gives us an opportunity to spend enough time with those variations that they gradually become less unfamiliar.

There Is No Perfect Baseline

It would be misleading to suggest that each person has one fixed “normal state” that can be memorized.

We do not.

The purpose is not to establish a single baseline and compare every future experience against it.

Instead, we become familiar with a range.

How does thought generally behave?

What does physical restlessness feel like before we interpret it?

What happens when attention becomes absorbed?

What is different when we are tired?

What changes when emotion is present?

How quickly do we normally assign meaning to a sensation?

How often do we search for an explanation before an experience has finished unfolding?

Repeated sittings begin answering these questions indirectly.

We do not need to interrogate ourselves during every session.

Familiarity accumulates through experience.

Attention Will Move

One of the most useful things a beginner can learn is that attention moving does not mean the sitting has failed.

A sound may attract it.

A thought may carry it away.

An itch may suddenly become important.

A memory may appear.

You may begin planning tomorrow.

Then at some point, you notice where attention has gone.

That movement is part of the experience.

There is no need to punish yourself for it.

Nor is there a need to hold attention rigidly in one place.

You can simply return to the whole experience of sitting.

This becomes important later in mediumship.

Students who believe attention must remain perfectly controlled often become anxious whenever it moves.

Students who have already experienced its natural movement are less likely to treat every shift as a problem.

Experience Before Meaning

Another useful distinction begins developing here.

Something can be experienced before we decide what it means.

A pressure in the forehead is a pressure in the forehead before it becomes:

“Spirit is touching my third eye.”

A warm hand is a warm hand before it becomes:

“Healing energy has arrived.”

A sudden image is an image before we decide whether it belongs to memory, imagination, psychic perception, or Spirit communication.

This does not mean spiritual interpretations are always wrong.

It means interpretation should not outrun experience.

Sitting in the Power gives students repeated opportunities to practice this without even turning it into an exercise.

Something is present.

We allow it to be present.

Meaning does not have to arrive immediately.

That small change in our relationship with experience becomes extremely valuable later.

Familiarity Is Different From Certainty

The goal is not to know ourselves so completely that uncertainty disappears.

That would be unrealistic.

Familiarity is more modest.

We begin knowing the landscape.

Not every detail.

Not every future condition.

But enough that difference becomes easier to notice.

This is one reason Sitting in the Power can support mediumship without itself needing to become a mediumistic sitting.

It gives us context.

And context helps us become more precise.

Sitting in the Power does not need a complicated method.

In fact, too many instructions can turn the practice into another performance.

What follows is therefore an orientation rather than a rigid technique.

Beginning the Sitting

Choose a place where you can remain reasonably undisturbed.

Sit in a position that is comfortable enough that the body does not require constant adjustment.

Allow yourself a period of time in which you are not trying to achieve anything else.

There is no need to create a spiritual atmosphere.

No special visualization is required.

No particular breathing pattern is necessary.

You may take a few natural breaths and allow yourself to arrive.

Nothing Is Required

This may be the most important instruction.

Nothing has to happen.

You are not waiting for a sign.

You are not asking for evidence.

You are not listening for a voice.

You are not measuring whether Spirit feels near.

You are not trying to move into another state.

You are sitting with what is already present.

At first, this can feel surprisingly difficult.

Human beings are accustomed to purpose.

If we sit, we want the sitting to do something.

If nothing obvious happens, the mind quickly asks:

“What is the point?”

That question can simply be noticed too.

The sitting does not need to answer it.

Allow the Experience to Be Ordinary

A session may contain thoughts about dinner.

An uncomfortable leg.

Sounds outside.

A memory.

Boredom.

A pleasant sense of ease.

Nothing noticeable at all.

Another sitting may feel quite different.

Neither needs to be given greater spiritual value.

Ordinary experience is not an obstacle to the practice.

It is where the practice begins.

When Attention Wanders

Do not fight it.

When you notice that you have become completely involved in thought, gently reorient yourself to the experience of sitting.

The body.

The room.

Breathing.

Sound.

Whatever is presently available.

Then allow things to continue.

There is no need to repeatedly say:

“I must focus.”

The effort to monitor attention can become more consuming than the original distraction.

If Something Unusual Happens

Do not chase it.

Suppose the body suddenly feels lighter.

A vivid image appears.

You experience unexpected emotion.

The sense of time changes.

You feel an unusual presence.

The temptation is to leave the sitting mentally and begin investigating:

“What is this?”

“Is this Spirit?”

“Am I blending?”

“Is this trance?”

“Does this mean I am developing?”

You do not need to answer those questions immediately.

Notice what occurred.

Allow the experience to continue.

Interpretation can wait.

This does not mean surrendering judgment.

It means giving yourself enough information before using it.

If Communication Seems to Appear

There is also no need to force it away.

Sitting in the Power is not a battle against spiritual experience.

If something seems mediumistic, you can notice that without immediately turning the sitting into a reading.

The purpose of the practice remains familiarity.

There will be other times when communication itself becomes the focus.

Ending the Sitting

When the sitting is complete, take a moment before moving on.

You might briefly ask:

What was the general quality of my experience today?

What changed during the sitting?

What remained fairly consistent?

Where did I begin trying to make something happen?

Did I assign meaning before enough information was present?

These questions do not need lengthy answers.

Sometimes a single sentence is enough.

The purpose is not to create a perfect journal of consciousness.

It is simply to allow experience to become a teacher.

Over Time

No single sitting needs to prove anything.

This is why the practice becomes valuable through return rather than intensity.

One session may seem uneventful.

Another may contain noticeable change.

Over many sittings, patterns become easier to see.

The student begins knowing their own experience from the inside rather than only through theory.

That familiarity cannot be rushed.

Nor does it need to be.

At Spirit Wisdom Academy, Sitting in the Power is not a technique for producing Spirit communication.

It does not train awareness.

It does not call Spirit closer.

It does not require the mind to become empty.

It does not manufacture trance.

And it does not ask the student to become less human.

Its value is simpler and, in many ways, more important.

It gives us repeated experience of our own condition without requiring an outcome.

Through that experience, we begin distinguishing what is present from what we immediately assume about it.

We become more familiar with the ordinary movement of attention, thought, sensation, emotion, and bodily experience.

We discover how quickly we try to interpret.

How easily expectation influences what we notice.

How often effort enters when uncertainty appears.

And how different experience can look when we allow it enough room to unfold before deciding what it means.

This creates a foundation for mediumship.

Not because Sitting in the Power secretly causes communication.

Because familiarity gives change context.

Later, when Spirit communication is taking place, something may shift.

An impression becomes present.

The quality of thought changes.

A feeling arrives that does not seem connected to what came before.

The medium notices something different.

They still need relationship, continuation, context, and evidence before deciding what that difference means.

But they are no longer beginning entirely without reference.

They know something about their own landscape.

That is one of the quiet strengths of the practice.

The student does not learn how to control consciousness.

They learn how to meet experience without immediately controlling its meaning.

And perhaps that is why Sitting in the Power can remain valuable long after the beginner has learned how to communicate.

Its purpose was never simply to create a better sitting.

It was to establish a more precise relationship with experience itself.

Common Questions

Is Sitting in the Power the same as meditation?

They can share certain qualities, such as sitting without distraction and allowing experience to settle naturally, but their purposes need not be identical. Within the Academy, Sitting in the Power is specifically used to develop familiarity with one’s own conscious condition as a foundation for mediumship development.

Should I ask Spirit to come closer while Sitting in the Power?

No. You do not need to reach toward Spirit or ask Spirit to approach. Sitting in the Power is not a communication exercise. Its value does not depend upon a Spirit communicator becoming present.

What if my mind never becomes still?

Nothing has gone wrong. Thoughts can remain present. The practice does not require an empty mind. Over time, you may become less concerned with eliminating thought and more familiar with how thought behaves within your overall experience.

What if I feel nothing?

“Nothing” often means that nothing especially unusual occurred. That can still be a useful sitting. Familiarity is built not only through striking changes but also through ordinary experience.

How long should I sit?

There is no single duration that every student must follow. Choose a period you can approach without strain and allow the practice to become sustainable. The value comes from genuine experience rather than reaching a particular number of minutes.

Can Sitting in the Power lead to trance?

Sitting in the Power can support the broader familiarity and stability useful throughout spiritual development, but it should not be treated as a technique for entering trance. Changes that occur during a sitting do not, by themselves, establish trance mediumship.

Continue Your Journey

You Have Reached the End of Chapter Six

This chapter began with a practical question:

If changing consciousness does not automatically tell us that Spirit communication or trance is occurring, how can we become more precise about what changes?

Sitting in the Power gives us a foundation.

Not by creating a special state, but by allowing us to become increasingly familiar with our own experience without demanding an outcome.

And once we begin learning through direct experience, another question naturally follows:

Must mediumship development always happen alone?

Chapter Seven moves from individual familiarity into shared development. You will explore what a development circle provides that solitary practice cannot: the opportunity to observe communication through different practitioners, receive feedback, learn through the experiences of others, and participate within a community where development is supported without becoming performance.