So, you want to travel between worlds. You want to go, but you’re not sure how and maybe psychedelics aren’t for you, and maybe you’re concerned that if you go, you won’t be able to come back. Not to worry, let’s talk about it. You think maybe you’ve already been, maybe just for a moment in the space of a day dream or one of your nightly ventures, maybe a nap jolted you out of your body and suddenly back in again and you wouldn’t have known you were out but for the strange rushing sensation, the sound of a jet engine revving in your ears the shuddering and shaking of your body on the couch. You’re a poet and you find yourself in various states of reverie. How stereotypical of you. Perhaps you find yourself feeling floaty and wonky a little more than you’d like and want to know how to return to solid form. You’d like to know how to go, wherever it is you go, and come back safely to your own sweet little physical body. Don’t worry; you don’t have to explain yourself. Not to me. Not to anyone. You listen to “Dopesmoker” by Sleep or “Metamorphosis” by Philip Glass or whatever it is you listen to and you have an experience. You nod out or nod along until you are soothed and with eyes closed you watch the light, or whatever it is, play across your eyelids and the dark gets darker and while you can tell you’re still breathing, maybe you forget about it, or maybe it’s your breath that takes you to this dark, quiet place, somewhere inside your chest or back behind your eyes. This place is both comforting in its closeness and bewildering in its expansiveness, like the interior of a vast cathedral with all the lights turned out. A thrum reverberates through it and through you. Maybe you hear it as soft static or a single tone. Maybe you see the darkness shift around you as if in waves. Maybe those waves have hints of color. Maybe bursts of blue light appear and fade, letting you know the spirits, or whatever they are, have arrived. What happens here? What is this place for? If you can go here, there must be a use for it, but use can be a bit of a burden. Still, you wonder what you might DO here. What have you already tried? What potential do you feel pulsing at your temples, in the palms of your hands? What questions do you have? Maybe you feel drawn to borders, margins and crossroads. As a poet, you’ve found ways to use words to travel backwards and forwards in time, to disrupt the seemingly solid meanings of words and show their mutable natures, so maybe words can help you here too. Maybe you want to call someone for help. Hecate, Goddess of the crossroads, Persephone’s guide through the underworld. Maybe Persephone herself could be your guide. She has plenty of experience going down and coming back up. In the Vodou tradition, at the beginning of every ritual, the priestess or priest calls Legba, the Haitian loa who acts as intermediary between the loa and humanity. He opens and closes the door and decides if you are ready to cross the threshold. Still, whether we are granted permission or not, we don’t leap across the threshold, we create a tether and we reach across. We create a protective circle, and we learn to reach across its boundary. What we find outside the circle, some might find frightening, monstrous, corrupting, dangerous, and that’s why when we go outside the circle (past the castle gates, leaving our body, our community behind) we become monstrous, corrupted, infected, a little dangerous and ultimately transformed. A professor of mine at The Evergreen State College, Marianne Bailey, described this process and called the person who travels between worlds, who crosses boundaries, a “Monstre Sacre” Sacred Monster. When the Sacred Monster returns to the circle, they share what they’ve learned and infect others with new information, transforming the group as a whole. This is big talk, maybe, but real too, I think. What else are we (poets) here to do if not to bend and shape consciousness, starting with our own, according to a desired effect (will) aka to do MAGIC? We (poets) tend to push our own boundaries, sometimes to the point of masochism (right?) so it is necessary to learn how to do cross our boundaries with care. There’s no need to bully your self. Really. Stop that. One way to play with your own boundaries in a safe way is to trance. Everyone has the ability to trance and chances are you already do it. When you “space-out”, you’re entering a light meditative state or trance. When you find yourself twenty miles down the road and don’t remember driving that distance (highway hypnosis) that’s a form of trance. I’m sure you can think of tons of other examples. Everyone will experience a trance differently, all depending on which of your senses you’re most tuned into and which sense you use most when communicating with your intuition. For example, you get goose bumps when a friend tells you about an uncanny experience or vivid mental images appear when you sense danger. Some people are very visual and will experience their whole trance as if inside a movie, but you may also hear sounds, feel physical sensations or strong emotions with or without any visual content. If you’re very language orientated, like many of us poets, you may find that your trance manifests more like overdubbed narration (James Earl Jones, maybe?). There is no wrong or better way to experience a trance. Honestly. If you’re like me and fall asleep easily, you might try pre-recording the trance induction to play for yourself or have a buddy lead you down and back up. It’s totally fine to fall asleep, but you just might not want to do it every time. Important subconscious work goes on while we’re asleep, but if you’re hoping to write about your experience you’ll have a tough time remembering much if you doze off. Try sitting up if you think you might fall asleep. It turns out that I like sleeping so much that I can fall asleep sitting up while trancing, but, again, that’s not so bad, just something to be aware of. Here’s an easy trance induction I learned recently called “The Rainbow Induction”. You can use it for any trance and adapt it to your own purposes. Set aside 20 minutes to half an hour to do this. Take your time with it. Usually when someone leads you in a trance, they take time to pause between prompts so you can let images or sensations come to you. Be patient with yourself. 1. Before you begin, try setting an intention for the trance. What is the purpose of the trance? What do you want to learn or understand? What do you want to see or find? Setting an intention will help focus your trance and give you something to do while you’re there. Trancing without an intention tends to feel pretty aimless and a little bewildering, but it can be a good way just to get to know your own inner landscape. There are a lot of reasons you might want to trance; you might want to revisit a recent dream that you want to know more about or meet a guide or ally who could help you with a question. You might look for a tool that could help you with a problem you’re dealing with in your regular waking life. If you’re feeling stuck with a creative project, you might set out with a question about your project. For this trance though, I think we should look for your Place of Power, somewhere you can visit when you need to recharge, ask questions or just play around in your own head. This was the first trance I did and I think it’s a good place to start. 2. To begin, get comfortable sitting or laying down. You probably want to wear something comfortable, but yoga gear is not required. It’s good to be cozy, but not so cozy that you’ll fall asleep, and it’s best to trance inside to avoid being disturbed. If you like, you can play some droney, music to help get you in the mood. I don't have any recommendations, but I bet you know someone who does. 3. Take a few breaths. Notice how your body feels, sitting or laying where you are. Feel what it feels like to be in your particular body, in this room, in this city, exactly right where you are. Notice if you have any aches or pains. With each breath relax a little more, as if you are melting into the floor beneath you. Feel yourself connect with the ground, with the earth under the floor. You are grounded and perfectly safe in this room. Your body will be completely safe while you go on your trance journey. 4. Close your eyes and continue to take relaxing breaths. You are fully relaxed now. Begin to visualize a red mist swirling around you. You reach out your hands and notice that it is cool to the touch. You breathe in the red mist and breathe it out. What does the mist taste like? Does it have a smell? It is your favorite color of red. The red mist begins to fade and is replaced by bright orange. What does this mist feel like? Does it have a taste or smell? You breathe the orange mist in and breathe it out. The orange lightens to a yellow and you feel it brush past you, against your cheeks and hands, breathing the yellow mist in and breathing it back out. Now the yellow darkens to a rich green, your favorite shade of green. How does this green feel? Does it make a sound as it swirls around you? How does it make you feel? You breathe it in and breathe it back out. And the green shifts again to blue. Take a moment to notice the way the blue is different from the green and breathe in the blue and breathe it back out. Now the blue darkens to a rich indigo that swirls around your feet and up your legs. Notice how this indigo feels against your skin. Is it cool or warm? Is it a gentle breeze or a more forceful one? You breathe in the indigo and breathe it out. Now the indigo shifts to violet. Notice the gradation of color, how it moves in waves around you, blanketing your shoulders, swirling around your neck like a scarf. Breathe in the violet and breathe it back out. And now the violet begins to lighten and lighten to a bright and gleaming silvery white fog, almost too bright to look at and as this silvery mist begins to part, you begin to make out a landscape in front of you. You are now in your Place of Power. 5. Now that you’re here, have a look around. What do you sense? What do you hear? Are there any smells in the air? Can you reach out and touch anything? How does it feel to be here? 6. Take a few steps forward in your place of power. and begin to explore. 7. Turn to face East. When you travel East, what do you find? Take a few breaths and notice what the air feels like, smells like, tastes like as you breathe it in and breathe it back out. Think about what you might be able to cut away, to let go of, to make yourself lighter, clearer, more focused. Are you alone or are there are other people or animals? You may want to stop and talk with them. Do they have a message for you? Is there something there that you want to take with you? Say thank you and goodbye to the East. 8. Now turn to the South. When you travel South, what do you find? Who or what lives in the South? How do you feel here? Is there something that you want? Feel that desire inside your body as if it is a flame that you can feed until it fills you with warmth. Does someone or something have a message for you? Look around for something to bring back with you. Say thank you and goodbye to the South. 9. Turn to the West. When you travel to the West, what do you find? How do you feel in the West? Notice how your emotions shift and change, moving through you like water. Notice how your emotions effect how you feel in your body. Notice how your emotions effect your breath. Is there a message for you here in the West? Is there something here that you want to take with you? Say thank you and goodbye to the West. 10. Now turn to the North. As you travel North, what do you find? What does the ground feel like beneath your feet? How does your body feel here? Try sitting down on the ground and noticing how it feels. What plants or animals live in the North? Is there a message for you here? What do you want to bring back with you? Say thank you and goodbye to the North. 11. Now go back to where you started, to your original Place of Power. Take a few breaths here and remember the messages you gathered. Notice the things that you’re bringing back with you. Notice how it feels to be here in this place that is specifically for you. You can come here anytime. Make a note to yourself to come back. Say thank you and goodbye to your Place of Power. 12. Now you notice that a fog is rolling in, a bright white silvery fog. (Repeat the rainbow induction, this time in reverse: Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red). 13. As the red mist parts, notice that you are back in your room in your city, in your very own particular body. Feel how the ground feels beneath you. Notice how your arms and legs and back feel. Begin to move your fingers and toes. Begin to open your eyes. You have arrived safely back where you started. 14. If you’re still feeling a bit groggy, or a little reluctant to fully return to human form, pat yourself on your arms and legs, scratch your scalp and stamp your feet. Say your name out loud to yourself 3 times. Remember what you had for breakfast today. You are back in the physical world and it’s good to be here! 15. Take some notes in a notebook. Describe your Place of Power in as much detail as you can muster. Record the messages you were given and the tools or objects you brought back with you from each of the 4 directions. How do you think you might use these in your waking life? 16. Eat something. Seriously. It’s always a good idea to ground your self by having a snack. Otherwise, you might feel floaty and wonky the rest of your day. Honestly. I tend to like that floaty wonky feeling a little too much, so I have to remind myself to eat and get grounded. 17. You’re done! Way to go. Okay, Sacred Monster. How was that? Now take what you’ve learned and use it for the good of all harming none!   - LINDSEY BOLDT Lindsey Boldt is a poet, performer, editor and educator living in Oakland. She is the author of the full-length book, "Overboard", and the chapbooks, "Oh My, Hell Yes" and "Titties for Lindsey". With her partner Steve Orth, she co-edits Summer BF Press and writes, directs and performs plays in the style of "Oakland Poetic Realism". Recent productions include "Dating by Consensus" and "The Reading". She is also an editor with The Post-Apollo Press.