Sekhem Octahedron Practice: Balancing Heaven, Earth, and Awareness

Witnessing the Passage

Witnessing someone move through the final stages of death can be uncomfortable. The breath may become a death rattle, the chest muscles may tighten, and the hands may draw in ways that are difficult to watch. One participant noticed that she began making the same sound and shaping her own hands in a similar way. At first, she was concerned that the person was trapped in a vacuum, unable to move beyond the experience. Then she began to see it differently: the person was moving through a process and continuing toward where she was going, rather than returning to ordinary activities.

The realization was that what appears painful or frightening to those watching may not be experienced that way by the person making the transition. The people witnessing may feel uncomfortable, while the person who is leaving may be having an entirely different experience. This recognition became part of the teaching: remain present, observe carefully, and do not assume that the outward form of a passage tells you what is happening within it.

Entering a Different State of Consciousness

A deep Sekhem experience can arise through breath and attention without needing mushrooms or another substance. One participant described feeling the energy intensify after breathing for a long time. She saw another person's hair become orange and rise upward, then saw a second figure appear beside that form with hair moving in a different way. The visions felt strange, vivid and difficult to explain, while the lower body also became intensely hot, almost burning.

During the shared experience, she sensed that the group had connected in a way she could not define as soul or spirit. The connection seemed to rise from the side and enter a very narrow field of vision, as if attention could rest on only one thing at a time. Pressure then appeared in one ear, followed by a tone. The experience moved into a state of consciousness that was completely different from ordinary awareness.

Experiences of this kind are sometimes compared with those reported after mushrooms or ayahuasca. The point of the comparison is not to reproduce a substance experience, but to recognize that breathwork can open a similar or, for some people, an even deeper state. It is experienced as natural, arising through the practice itself. The experience also shows why it is important to become familiar with these states rather than assuming that unusual perceptions mean something has gone wrong.

Support for the Passage

One participant saw her future and understood that it would be difficult, but that she would be all right. Female ancestors came to her and told her that they would help escort her brother as he died. She had been afraid of this, and the vision gave her a sense that she would not have to meet it alone. She also understood that her daughter might be home by then, and that together they would be able to do what was needed and let him go peacefully, knowing that he was loved.

The vision did not remove the difficulty of the situation. It changed the way she could approach it. Instead of being ruled by fear, she could meet her brother with love, even when their conversations became difficult. The suggestion was to teach him the breathwork, so that he could have access to the practice himself.

She felt her mother's arms around her and heard the reassurance that, although her mother had not been able to be there for her before, she would be there with her now. An aunt would also be present, along with the memory and presence of a beloved grandchild. The meaning became clear to her in the way these presences gathered around the coming passage.

She wished she had been able to do more for the younger people available to her. There were two of them, including one who was twenty-four, and she intended to show them what she was learning through her own example. The teaching here is not to force an explanation onto death or family experience. It is to allow love, ancestry, example and breath to become forms of support when a difficult passage is approaching.