——转载自凯西中国

最佳的冥想时间是凌晨2点。最好让身体和心灵为此做好准备，增益其效果。（凯西解读2982-3）

 我记不清什么时候第一次听说有这么个冥想最优时刻了。也许是45年前我第一次参加凯西总部的一个讲座，或者是我参加的《探索上帝》读书会的一次聚会上：半夜起来冥想，因为此时极其适合调谐和个人蜕变。我的第一反应估计跟大多数人一样，“哦，这样啊，听起来不错噢，不过我肯定起不来的！”

I am not sure when I first heard this strange idea about an optimal time for meditation. It was probably more than 45 years ago-at one of my first A.R.E. conferences, or perhaps at a meeting of my first A Search for God study group.Get up in the middle of the night and meditate at this time that is perfectly suited for attunement and personal transformation. I am sure my initial
reaction was similar to what most anyone else would say or think, “Oh, sure, that sounds great, but there is no way that’s going to happen for me!”

尽管一开始我对这个挑战性的项目不太热心，但随着偶尔一试，慢慢地成为了坚定的实践者。我渐渐认为这是凯西资料里面提及的蜕变工具中最强有力的一种。我们一起来看看他怎么说的，希望能够吸引你也努力一试。

But in spite of my early reluctance to embrace such a radical project, I have had periods in my life where I did, in fact, become a devoted practitioner. And I have come to believe it may be one of the most powerful and accessible tools for transformation that Edgar Cayce ever mentioned. Let’s consider what he had to say. I hope it will convince you to give it a try.

在一个解读里，一位35岁的女士在问：“冥想的最佳时间是什么时候？”凯西给出了一个具体时间，并且强调要诚心坚持：“最佳的冥想时间是凌晨2点。最好让身体和心灵为此做好准备，增益其效果。”（凯西解读2982-3）在给《探索上帝》第一小组的建议也是同样：每日最佳冥想是凌晨2点。那么凌晨两点每个人都适合吗？有什么特别的灵性或者生理学的含义呢？

In one reading, a 35-year-old woman asked, “What are the best hours for meditation?” His answer gave a specific time and emphasized dedication:  “The best hour for
meditation is two o’clock in the morning. The better period would be that which will be set as a period in which the body and mind may be dedicated to that.” (2982-3) The same
advice was given to the original A Search for God study group when they tried to find a time
to meditate together daily. But was 2:00 a.m. the only time when everyone was available? Or was there a deeper spiritual or even physiological significance?  

凯西指出了一个在人类演进史上的一个最基本的重要因素，还有我们的大脑是怎么设计运作的。科学的证据在凯西离世后数十年才慢慢出现。1992年精神病医师ThomasWehr在《睡眠研究》杂志发表研究文章。这是关于对一组志愿者长达一个月的研究报告，志愿者们被置放在长达每天14小时的黑暗空间。在研究开始的前几天，志愿者们平均睡眠达11小时，看上去是在补回长期的睡眠不足。但到了实验的第四周，出现了新模式：四小时的睡眠，然后是1-2小时的自然醒，然后又是四小时多的睡眠。这期间的清醒期与我们讨论的冥想时间很相关。

Cayce may have been pointing to a profoundly important fact of our evolutionary history and the way our brains are designed to operate. Scientific evidence for this possibility emerged more than  four decades after Cayce’s death. In 1992, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr published a study in the Journal of Sleep Research in which he reported on a month-long study done with volunteers who were placed in a controlled environment that had 14 hours daily of darkness. For the first few days the subjects slept an average of 11 hours, seemingly compensating for their longstanding sleep deprivation. By the fourth week a new pattern emerged: approximately four hours of sleep followed by a natural awakening for one or two hours, followed by another phase of about four more hours of sleep. That intermediary period was characterized as a period of quiet wakefulness or calmness that could be likened to meditation.

Roger
Ekirch教授在他的书里《AtDay’s Close》，给出了详尽的证据，指出在当代电灯出现之前，人们睡觉的模式跟Wehr医师在实验室的研究结果一致：第一段睡眠4-5小时，然后是一段1-2小时的寂静清醒期，最后是第二段睡眠。凯西的最佳冥想时刻建议，只不过是很好地利用深藏在我们基因里的最佳时刻而已。

Approaching this as a historical issue, Professor Roger Ekirch’s book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past describes the extensive evidence that before the modern era of electric lighting,
people naturally slept in a pattern like the one Wehr had discovered in his lab: a “first sleep” for four or five hours, then a calm, meditative-like wakefulness for an hour or two, and finally
a “second sleep.” It sounds like Cayce’s advice about a best time to meditate was really just an invitation back to making the best possible use of an hour that is already embedded in our ancestral DNA.  

那么，为什么践行这个建议如此艰难？当然跟我们现代文化有关，24小时新闻娱乐提供了对抗凌晨2点寂静时刻的力量。著名灵性作家ClarkStrand在他的新作《从黑暗中醒来》，给我们提出一个热情洋溢的请求：在晚间离开电脑、电视、手机，与我们内在的光明黑暗的节奏再链接。尽管没有提及凯西，他坚持认为，我们的文明的存在取决于我们是否愿意拥抱黑暗，找回古老神祇的智慧，并且最佳地利用半夜我们的清醒时刻。

So why is it so hard to say “yes” to this advice? Surely, our modern culture of 24-hour news and entertainment provides a strong force to counter this innate tendency to 2:00 a.m. wakeful calm. In his recent book Waking Up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age, Clark Strand makes an impassioned plea for us to have the discipline to disengage from our computer
screens and TVs in the evening and to reconnect with the natural rhythms of light and dark. In fact, he makes the case-without any reference to Edgar Cayce’s work-that the survival of our
civilization depends on our willingness to embrace the darkness, to reclaim the ancient wisdom of the goddess, and to make optimal use of that hour in the middle of the night when we are called to wakefulness.

也许你希望体验一下这个洞见。那么就设定一个28天的实验期吧。如果你一下子坚持不了这么长时间，那么可以试试几个晚上在2点醒来。你可以尝试用这个机会，在夜晚的寂静里与神交流。

Maybe you feel you want to experiment with this in your own life. Try it for 28 days. Even if you don’t feel ready to make such a commitment, you’ll probably still have those nights when you wake up at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., and perhaps you can reframe what is going on. Instead of
insomnia, you can see it as an opportunity to commune with God in the silence of the night.

这个方法已经有数千年的历史，早已编织进我们的大脑和荷尔蒙系统里。明智地使用这样的时刻，冥想吧！

It’s just the way that thousands of years of human history have programmed your brain and hormonal system. It’s an opportunity to use that time wisely, and there’s no better use than a meditation period on those nights.  

作者：Mark
Thurston博士，作家、心理学家，Grorge
Mason大学教授，亚特兰大大学主管，著有《如何解梦》、《探索人生使命》等二十多本灵性书籍。