The Reason for Spiritual Habits and Disciplines   Why are we supposed to pray before a meal or before going to bed? Why are we supposed to meditate? Why should we practice energy healing such as Reiki? Why should we make a potent effort each day to actively love those around us?   These questions are usually answered from only one angle, and as a result, the answer doesn’t usually get down to a better understanding of how things work.   The usual answer is that we do these things to evolve. In order to evolve, apparently:   * We need to be grateful for what we’re given and we need to be humble about our shortcomings and ask for help. (Praying.)   * We need to learn how to remain at peace amidst chaos and to use the powers of concentration and creativity. (Meditation.)   * We need to show compassion for the pains of others and heal them so that they can better fulfill their uses on this earth. (Energy healing.)   * We need to otherwise care for others, supporting their spiritual purposes, through various means. (Active love.)   But doing these things because we’re told we'll evolve doesn’t help us to understand what’s really going on, and as more and more people begin approaching the first major initiation, it’s important that we do start to understand. When we really get why we need to do these things, it may just put a fire under our butts to get in gear!   The reason is really more about self-preservation!   Let me put it this way: if you underwent the first initiation tomorrow (presuming you are still only in preparation for it), your body would fry.   I’m not talking about spontaneous combustion. It would not be quite so dramatic … which means the process would actually be more agonizing for you, because it would be drawn out.   Once initiated, a person has so much energy passing through them that, if the body hasn’t been first prepared, they will experience a number of physical debilities. The body will begin to shake almost imperceptibly, but actually and constantly. (In other words, it’s an actual shake — not just something imagined.) This is because the atoms are in a hyper-agitated state, moving faster than before, and this effects everything on up.   Just as if you were made to run a marathon without any preparation, this new exertion exhausts the whole body and, after a while, it begins to shut down. It has been fried, as I said. This will manifest as a number of diseases.   Prior to actually getting fried (which would take various amounts of time — potentially months or years if one had been very nearly prepared but still couldn’t bring the body “up to speed”), you could suddenly find yourself moving at hyper speeds in other regards; for instance, because this new influx comes directly from the soul, it is possible to be completely unbalanced (in terms of societal norms) regarding love expression. You could literally find yourself wanting to drop to the ground and kiss the feet of every person who passed.   Even if you weren’t locked up for that kind of behavior, the insights and mental experiences you had could well drive you mad, simply because they’re too much for the brain to handle. Even many of the famous mystics and occultists from ages past were known to struggle with the forces playing with their bodies, and mental agitation is probably the most recognized symptom in them.   Luckily for us, it is usually the case that we only achieve initiation once our bodies have been well prepared — and by what? By praying, meditating, healing, and loving … not because someone told us those things are right and good, but because all of those things pass greater energies through our bodies and raise our vibrations.   In other words, when you get down to principles, initiation is nothing more than having achieved a certain level of vibration.   Is there any danger then? There is in this: that we all tend to develop different aspects of ourselves (bodies, emotions, minds) at different rates, and if one were to develop the mind and emotions without developing purity of body and without passing energies through the body, the body still could suffer upon reaching initiation.   Prayer, then, with hands held out over the food (as if to allow God’s blessing in the form of Reiki to pour onto the food) and given with real gratitude can indeed help in body preparation. Meditation can bring through great forces of energy for the body. (Have you ever felt yourself vibrating or “shaking” after meditation?) Reiki can assist, and any act of true love in the world passes much energy through the body. We do these things to raise our vibrations, and in doing so, we prepare ourselves in every sense of the word for our eventual initiation.