Across the Universe with John Lennon by, Linda Keen

It was Saturday morning, March 21, 1987. I was sitting anxiously alone in my study. Outside my window it was cold and damp, so I reached over to turn up the heater. Every year there seemed to be less and less of a springtime in the nds and, as a native Californian, I often found the Dutch climate hard to get used to.

Luckily I knew I could change anything inside my own mind—even bad weather—and that’s exactly what I was planning to do this morning as I sat in my swivel chair, trying to relax and enter a deep trance by means of focused concentration. It had taken me about nine months to find the courage to do this; I think I’d been afraid it wouldn’t work out. Or had I been afraid it would?

With the help of a cassette tape of an English meadow with birdsong playing through my headphones and another tape for recording my voice, I slowly permitted myself to travel with full concentration to an imaginary meadow. It was here I was planning to meet my friendly and faithful advisor, Basil, and, hopefully, the specter of John Lennon—if he decided to show up. Since childhood, I was used to hearing inner conversations with various intangible beings. Now I was prepared to repeat everything which might be conveyed to me into the tape recorder.

In a state of suspended animation, I projected myself into the meadow. It was a technique I often taught others as a means of coming into contact with deeper layers of reality, especially those relating to the nonphysical world.