Transcript from a meeting with James Eaton on 29 January, 2017
Q: I’m just sitting up here if only to get rid of the tightness that’s in my chest
James: So let’s really welcome it, let’s really make friends with it. Because it feels like we want to get rid of these things, but actually, what if it’s an invitation? Here it is.
Q: Now my heart is beating, thumping in my chest.
James: You are alive!
Q: I’m having trouble breathing. My heart is thumping so much that it’s difficult for me to take a breath.
James: Yes, the breath will constrict when there’s a sense of fear, of danger. Really notice all of that, that tightness. Maybe in the legs and thighs too. The whole system squashing up into a ball. Allow it to do whatever it needs to do. Here you are, you’re still here, you, this knowing, this presence, you this infinite space for this contraction to do whatever it needs to do. Here it is. It doesn’t need not be got rid of. Allowing the contraction to learn that it’s ok. Here is your support, here is your true ground, here, this presence, this is you, ‘this’. ‘This’ couldn’t contract, couldn’t expand even. ‘This’ is.
Q: I can feel both those things, I can feel the true ground, and I can feel, exactly at the same time, this acute sense of danger.
James: What we’re doing is we’re bringing them together now. What normally happens is that we can’t fully acknowledge, or fully allow that acute sense of danger, because it’s just too terrifying. So what we’re doing now is we’re bringing those seeming two together, and seeing that they’re not separate. Bringing that intimacy in, so you can actually really feel that sense of danger, really feel it, really feel it whilst being what you truly are, and knowing that it’s ok, that all is well. That’s what the contraction wants, it wants to be felt, to be fully acknowledged, fully included, fully allowed – not just observed but opened to. And that’s terrifying for a ‘me’, but for what you really are – this presence, this aware openness – it’s ok. There can almost be a sense of digesting it, of being nourished by it.
Q: You’re starting to dissolve!
James: Yes. All sorts of things can seem to happen when we allow the sense of danger to open up. I call them trances. For example, the visual image of whatever is making us fearful can actually disappear. It’s an incredible trick we can play, because we don’t want to face it we make it disappear, so it’s as if it’s not even happening. And there are other ones too. Some people get fuzziness, they suddenly can’t understand anything anyone says, nothing is computing, the whole system just goes into shut down. So it’s great to see that. And in the midst of it, here you are, still here. So we allow these mechanisms to operate, to get really clear on what they do. Check in with the body, what’s the body doing now?
Q: There’s still the contraction, and the tightness.
James: Where is that now?
Q: It’s a bit softer, it’s kind of all over actually. More so in my arms and in my shoulders and in my chest.
James: So let’s listen, at the same time as we’re connecting together here, just listen to that. See if it starts to reveal anything, any beliefs or thoughts or images. Don’t try and squeeze them out, but just see if anything comes.
Q: I feel like I’m seeing myself in you.
James: Absolutely. That’s exactly what’s happening.
Q: It’s making me laugh!
James: Yes, it’s joyous. Hello!
Q: You look like you’re made of light. And there is nothing between us, there’s no space between us.
James: Exactly.
Q: We’re one Being, which is really beautiful, quite moving.
James: Yes, it’s love. Totally intimately connected. Not even two pieces actually to intimately connect.
Q: And the tightness is still here. Strange.
James: Yes, so regardless of what we start to understand, there are still areas of our experience that are holding on. This is what happens. This is why the kind of realisation we’re talking about is just the beginning. So now we’re inviting – that’s why I’m saying keep in touch with the body – we’re inviting every aspect to join the party, every part. So that tightness still doesn’t understand, needs to be nurtured and allowed and acknowledged, until it slowly begins to understand, in its own time, in its own way. Bring it in, include it, see what it has to say.
Q: It’s had enough, it’s had enough of being tight, it’s sick of it.
James: Yes. Feel what that feels like. It’s had enough. What’s the feeling in there? Really connect with it, really go there. Go right in.
Q: Something wants to burst out, it’s like alien or something.
James: Yes, tell me more about that.
Q: Something that is pure energy, just wants to express itself in this explosion.
James: So why isn’t it? What’s going on now, why isn’t it? Why isn’t it allowed?
Q: It needs to be contained.
James: Why does it need to be contained? Now you’re getting there. Tell me why.
Q: Because when it’s released, there is no knowing what it’s going to do, what havoc it’s going to create.
James: There it is.
Q: It’s like a wild animal.
James: Yes, that’s the belief. That’s the one that maintains the containment.
Q: It’s the cage.
James: So acknowledge that (breathing deeply together). Still here, feel your feet on the ground. See that ‘this’, ‘this’ that you truly are, ‘this’ isn’t in a cage; that’s a belief. But that belief needs to be acknowledged, needs to be felt into. It can’t be freed up by just seeing that it doesn’t make sense. That’s too superficial.
Q: This tightness I think has seen life as a cage.
James: Yes, a cage within a cage.
Q: And yet I can see that there is no cage, it’s just energy moving around and shining.
James: That understanding needs to permeate, and it will – it takes it’s own time – it needs to permeate through all aspects of experience. The image of a kitchen roll comes to mind: the water making it’s way, seeping into the entire roll.
Q: Saturated.
James: Saturated with this understanding, this knowing. Every pocket, every nook and cranny, every dark corner of experience.
Q: I can feel the hardness, the pockets of density.
James: Yes, beautiful. Sensitivity will open more and more. And you start to notice pockets of density that maybe were never noticed before. And you listen to them, just as we’re doing here, and there’ll be a story in there, or some kind of belief, something that’s been held on, that is not allowed to be seen, because of xyz – too disgusting, or too ugly, or too unacceptable, or too scary or ‘I’ll go mad if’. These are all the stories. There is energy held there, power and creativity held there, expression held there.
Q: I can feel the rest of it moving around amongst these pockets of density. They are just sort of flowing, just energy. It’s funny, looking at you I can see the light that I am. I can see that you are made of light. Therefore me too.
James: Exactly. ‘This’ is you. You’re not over there (pointing to the questioner). Of course that sounds crazy to normal conventional thinking! This is you (includes the whole room). Here you are: the experiencing of ‘James’ right now is you, along with this room of people. You’re not looking, you are being this, this is your Being. Look at your magnificence! You never were only a fragment.
Q: No, that seems crazy now.
James: It does seem crazy. You may find that those dense pockets will reassemble and then it all seems to close down again. That’s ok. It takes it’s own time.
Q: It feels a bit like a glacier: things breaking apart gradually and shifting around.
James: Yes, the great thaw.
Q: Things feel a bit looser. There’s more movement in the density.
James: And you may feel energies moving in the body, sometimes quite strong; it’s a kind of restructuring.
Q: Breathing is easier; the chest is not quite so tight.
James: So it can unfold in it’s own time. It doesn’t need anyone to get involved and try to push the process. That just makes it into a problem to be got rid of.
Q: Yes. I think that was it. I was making it into a problem that I needed to get rid of.
James: I would call it more an invitation.
Q: …to the party! Wow. Thank you James.
James: My pleasure.
Q: That was really quite profound.
