The Day the Universe Spoke Back

Meditation... isn't that just for weirdos and monks?

What if I told you meditation has not only helped me manifest numerous positive changes in my life, it's also made me healthier, happier and wealthier? 

My name is Ted Fauster, and I have a rare and aggressive form of multiple sclerosis that keeps me in constant pain. I'm on medication (which helps), I eat right and I exercise. But one thing I only recently started doing has had some amazing results.

Simply stated, meditation has transformed my life. 

I never thought it would work. I though it was a little silly, actually. I really didn't see how just shutting your eyes and thinking of nothing could help... anything.

I tried and failed. Just couldn't get into it. And then I read an article in a science journal that caught my attention.

The article described the quantum makeup of the universe. (Quantum physics and astronomy have always fascinated me.) It explained how energy and matter are interchangeable, but the "information" (the data) that results in the unification of the two never disappears. In brief: the Universe remembers.  

Huh. No shit?

This led to several years of intense, personal exploration, focused on both the macro structures of the Universe (planets, stars, black holes) and the microcosm (quantum structures and fields). I won't bore you with the entirety of it all right here, but I will tell you this:

I now strongly suspect that the entire Universe is alive! 

I know. Sounds crazy. But I bet you didn't know that the Universe itself will die one day? Did you know that? Because it's true. One day, absolutely everything will simply evaporate as entropy envelopes it all. Then... poof!

So...

If the Universe can die... and if every particle in it is actually connected (more years of searching I won't bore you with), and if everything that is assembled through the communion of matter and energy is remembered? Then we all just might be part of a much grander design than we could have ever imagined!

Too far?

Stick with me...

Okay, so the meditation thing.

I tried again, this time with the intention of "talking" to the Universe. (I'm not kidding. I actually said "Hello Universe!") The Universe said nothing back. Which made me wonder if it were incapable of speaking.

Well sure! I mean, it's the Universe! It's everything. It's everything and omnipresent (sound familiar?), and I am a small but significant part of it because I exist, therefore I must be of some importance to the Universe, to this all!

But, what if I'm not?

What if me, and every other living thing, and the entire Universe, and any adjacent Universes (Universi?) are just a bubbling mess of happy accidents? Would that...? could that...?

Would that be so terrible?

I mean, really. What if there is no reason for existing, does that mean we all have no purpose?

But...

Isn't being alive, the simple, sacred act of self-awareness within an enormous other entity who is just trying to exist, just trying to feel joy and purpose, so very beautiful and special enough?

What. If.

So...

Maybe the Universe has trouble communicating, just like we do. Maybe we can't speak to the Universe anymore than an owl can comprehend long division. And that's not saying that owls are stupid. Maybe language, direct contact, verbal summons and anticipated responses, are not how it works at all.

That's when it hit me: emotions, feelings, empathy, gratitude. Maybe all the successful people orbiting around me who kept saying this over and over and over were...

Maybe they were right?

Heaven forbid!

I tried it anyway. Because I had spoken to the Universe, this great and wondrous thing that I was now sure I was a part of and was itself alive, and the Universe had said nothing.

But could it... feel?

What if I could make contact by sending out my emotions? Was that the Universal language?

As foolish as I felt, I gave it a shot.

I still remember the very first time I made contact.

It was eerie. Spooky. Chilling.

No words this time, nothing spoken aloud or in my mind. This time, just... feelings.

I started with what all the successful people I looked up to kept saying to begin with -- gratitude.

Okay. I am 52 years old and disabled. I am in pain every day and all through the night. My memory slips, I sometimes speak funny, I sure as hell can't move properly. What the hell do I have to be thankful for?

I wasn't saying these things in my head, I was feeling them, experiencing them, many of these simple emotions for the first time. And then it happened.

I felt something... feel back.

Many would be lightning quick to point out it was just me, that I was only somehow hypnotizing myself, that there was no connection, no union. That there was nothing there at all. My emotional waves were only bouncing back onto myself like some pathetic security blanket.

It sure didn't feel that way.

In fact, the feeling of something MUCH larger reaching out and connecting with my mind kinda freaked me out. So I stopped for a while. When I summoned the courage to try again, the Universe and I picked up right where we had left off, almost as if it had been patiently waiting.

What about your wife? Your son? Your friends and family?

Had it really... felt that to me?

What about breathing? In and out. How about the way the sun presses against your cheek? How a cold beer tastes on a hot day? What about the happiness you feel in nature, the joy from socializing and conversation, the thrill of cracking open a new novel, the gut wrenching pain of losing someone close...

It was almost too much. But, at the same time, it was everything I needed.

I began to feel. I mean, really freakin' feel! And the Universe felt back. At that moment, we understood each other. It was the first really powerful meditative breakthrough, and I hadn't even really tried.

Holy shit. Could it be this easy?

I described it to someone recently like water skying. When I was younger, I'd always wanted to water ski, but every time I tried, the damn rope just kept getting pulled out of my grip, and I sank into the water. Over and over, time after time. Until a buddy of mine simply said:

"Just let go, man."

I looked up from where I bobbed in the lake. "Yeah, it's kinda hard not to."

"No, I mean just let go. Let go of all your anxiety, all that fear that you can't do this. Then... just stand up."

That simple, huh. Just stand up.

Wouldn't you know it, that actually worked!

I gave up. Let all the bad energy drain out into the water. This time, when the boat pulled away, I watched the slack line straighten. And when I felt that tug, I just...

Stood up.

Like it was nothing.

Like it was the simplest thing of all.

I was standing. On the skis. Water and wind rushing by. It was amazing!

And then I crossed the wake and ate shit in the water.

But I'd done it. I'd let go. I'd tried something simple and it had worked.

I let go. And the Universe felt me. Somehow rotated its focus and found me. And all those beautiful, practically indescribable emotions that flooded into my mind had made me realize how truly grateful I was. For everything. For it all. And when I was done, after I had thanked the Universe for the entire journey of my life up until that point, and all that was yet to come, I felt a warmth pass through me like no other.

I really can't describe it any other way. I felt happy. Infinitely joyful. As if I'd been filled with warm honey.

Damn, that was fun!

So, I kept at it, kept on meditating in my own simple way: just sitting comfortably, closing my eyes, and becoming mindful of all the great things, good and bad, this wild ride of a life had already brought me.

I began imagining a greater life, too, a more significant role for myself, a position where I could find a similar joy in helping others realize how special each and every one of their lives were, too.

Things started to come together. New paths parted. Lights came on. And as this awesome awakening continues, I am truly dumbstruck by how grateful and joyful and absolutely fearless I continue to be.

All because I tried. Because I reached out to where I had been and was able to ground myself in where I will be going.

Start simple. Just try.

This is my life. You can't have it. It's mine and mine alone. Custom crafted out of my own special place in the Universe, my own personal relationship with something massively larger than me who is always looking out.

But you're a part of me, too. And I love you for that. We really are all in this together.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. (Thank you, John Lennon!)

You have a life, too. A bespoke existence all your own like no other. And, just in case you didn't know it, the Universe is waiting for you to reach out and make your own connection.

trulyfearlesslife.com