changes. It is not a head-trip, conjured up by overactive neural synapses.

The only way to do this is through a very personal and private self-management in which we take responsibility for how we guide our spiritual lives.

Candace Pert, a leading researcher in the field, called ‘the molecules of emotion’.2

Once more, the lesson is about the attitude you have to your body. It needs to be a kind and attentive relationship.

If you are not grounded in your body, you cannot feel the spiritual experience fully.

As she realised all this, her low self-esteem simply dissolved. She knew now that she had nothing to prove to anyone and that she was part of a wondrous universe.

The tenth-century Indian mystic and philosopher Abhinavagupta said to his students, ‘Listen carefully. Stop holding on to this or that, inhabit your true absolute nature, and peacefully enjoy the essence of what it is to be alive.’

To cooperate with this experience and deepen it or explore it, you need to press your pause button and notice it properly. You need to stop. Wake up. Be more aware. Be conscious and recognise that something good is happening.

There is a difference between listening to music and making music, between eating and cooking, between being a spectator and being engaged. What we are focusing on here is the engagement and activity.