In May 1999, I was among a group of seventy people who went on a two-week trip to Egypt led by Melchizedek Method teacher Alton Kamadon. In addition to touring, we performed an energy meditation to establish a permanent spherical merkaba (vortex), imbued with love, at each location (called a hologram of love). Special arrangements had been made with the Egyptian authorities to provide space and time for the meditations, and to allow the group access to places that were supposedly closed to the public.

Egypt is a state of mind. It's not at all what you'd expect. Egypt is a land where the most outrageous contrasts exist side by side. My sense of "rightness" was first assailed when the Egypt Air flight departed from Los Angeles twenty minutes early, which seriously inconvenienced several travelers who missed the plane by being merely on time.

The reordering of consciousness continued on the bus ride from the airport to our hotel. In Egypt, traffic lights are advisory, not mandatory. A red light means "honk as you go through." If you wish to pass others, honk so they'll squeeze over. No need to worry about oncoming traffic; that's what horns are for! The road is shared with pedestrians, donkey carts, camels, and the occasional herd of goats.

Yet beside the insane honk, dodge, and bray of rush-hour traffic, the cities are dotted with venerable domed mosques with minarets; five times a day, the faithful of Islam are led in prayer by haunting refrains sung from the towers. And looming beyond, at the edges of the cities, are the ancient ruins.

The First Temple: Saqqara

Our first visit was to Saqqara, site of Zoser's "step pyramid." Scattered around the complex, straight out of a fairytale, were white-clothed riders on white camels — very picturesque, until we learned that these were armed guards, there to protect us. Tourism is a major business in Egypt, and "rebels" may wish to interfere. All the temples had similar guards. There were also mongrels lying in the shade around the temples, who, I believe, assisted the guards.

Our visit to Saqqara was without incident, and our meditation established a sizable hologram in the courtyard in front of the pyramid. However, we were engulfed by enthusiastic vendors during the walk back to the bus. "Hey lady, where you from? You want postcards? I have statue of Anubis, very rare. How much you want to pay?" "Hey lady, over here! Where you from? Come, I give you ride on my camel. You want picture on camel? Yes? I give you very good price." Such scenes were present at every tourist attraction, and form a substantial element of the tourist economy.

Giza: the Sphinx

Giza was the first place to awaken memories in me. We were granted a few hours to meditate between the paws of the sphinx, from the blackness of 4:00 a.m. through dawn. The Sphinx is a massive stone statue, complete with back haunches and a tail that curls up on the right. It's only a statue — until you get between the paws. There, I felt the presence of a cognizant being, alive, knowing, waiting, guarding a treasure of knowledge within. It felt as if I should be able to walk between the paws, continuing straight through a doorway in to the chest to an educational complex within, but at present the walk dead ends, ridiculously blocked with a stone memorial tablet.

At dawn, after the meditation, we explored the surroundings. The tour guide identified a small "temple" area in front of the sphinx. I "knew" that this had actually been an administrative center to handle all the logistics of the construction project. I "remembered" working there, directing visitors and supplies to their destinations; the use of this space as a temple would occur after the building crew had moved on. Our guide confirmed that, as I'd "guessed," there was always such a "temple" near every pyramid project.

The Temple of Horus at Edfu

The Temple to Horus at Edfu was the second "alive" place for me. Horus, Ra, and the scarab are all connected to the sun, as is my birth sign. After touring the temple, we gathered around a ceremonial altar for the meditation. On other occasions, I sat far back for these, not feeling a need to be close, but at Edfu, as I walked by the altar, I noticed that there was a mark in the rock, pointing my way. All at once, I felt embarrassingly rooted to the spot, standing front and center, blocking other people's view.

The meditation started, and the hologram was installed. Then a flow of energy came in to the altar from above, seemed to slide along the mark, off the altar, crashing through me and flowing out to the world. It felt like a river of liquid sunshine. The meditation mudra that I had been using constricted the energy flow, so I switched to a hand position that focused the energy without hampering it. It felt as if my hair was blowing straight up in the "current," but physically, it probably didn't stir.

At the end of the meditation, when the ability to move returned, I staggered off toward the air-conditioned tour bus. As I left, the sounds of an aum chant floated from the temple.

Reading the Walls

Not all the carvings on the temple walls are religious or historical. Many are decorative, with information about what occurred in that room. Food-related pictures mark a kitchen; surgical tools, herbs, and potions decorate the healing rooms; vibratory maps of the temples are present; and frequent rows of "ankhs holding hands" (see drawing) remind workers that it's all in the service of the gods.

I later learned that in Edfu, after the meditation, my roommate had found a hall with interesting writing on the wall, and had begun to do the aum chant. As she chanted, a beam of red light seemed to appear in her head and had begun to engulf her. She felt that it was a dimensional doorway, but she pulled back, not wanting to miss the rest of the scheduled tour. Another one of our group entered the room, and at my roommate's suggestion, tried the aum chant. She also experienced the red light.

The Temple of Horus at Edfu is definitely active!

The Temple of Hathor at Dendera

Mainstream books on Egypt describe Hathor as the cow goddess, a sky goddess, worshipped as goddess of beauty, love, joy, healing, and music, with references to the "seven Hathors." Hathor is symbolized as a cow, cow-headed woman, or woman wearing horns with a disk.

Others, however, tell us a different story: that Hathor was/is not one being, but a race from Venus with outposts in Egypt. They appeared as though carved, humanoid with a narrow chin, wide temples, and ears that stuck out horizontally (see this month's cover photo). Their technology was based on the use of sound and vibration to affect matter, and their temples were devoted to healing and other aspects of the science of frequencies.

Where then, did the cow part come from? We rarely consider the possibility that the ancients had a sense of humor. It seems to me that the ancient scribes and carvers assigned written symbols to their celebrities with all the reverence of editorial cartoonists. (Thoth, for instance, said to have a prominent nose, was given the symbol of the ibis, a bird with a most prominent beak.) In the case of the Hathor, well, the ears could not be ignored. They stick out just like a cow's ears; hence the cow symbols, but always combined with a disk on the head, symbolizing a sky god.

Giza: the Pyramid of Cheops

The last visit of our tour was to the Cheops pyramid at Giza. This is closed to the public for renovations, but our group was allowed to go in. We had been asked to wear white, and so walked quietly through the dark, at 4:00 a.m., like priests of old. There is very little inside the pyramid, just the four areas that you can see in books: an upward-slanting tunnel with an area of high walls known as the "grand gallery"; the queen's chamber, whose entrance is part way up the tunnel; the king's chamber at the top of the tunnel; and, from the bottom of the main tunnel, a descent to a roughhewn room with a "bottomless pit" and a small horizontal tunnel, whose entrance is barred. The pyramid is obviously not a tomb, as the carvings and paintings that cover the walls of every other Egyptian monument to a person are not present.

Have you ever spent time in a little meditation pyramid, even if it's just the pyramid frame, without solid sides? I have always been able to feel the trickle of pyramid energy coming directly down from the center of mine.

In the queen's chamber, the same pyramid energy is present, only it's not a trickle; it is a torrent, like hot sunlight beating down on a beach. I walked into the queen's chamber to see the floor littered with my tour-mates, stretched flat out, basking in the energy, soaking it up, smiling, silently confirming my own perceptions.

The Marvels of Egypt

On the long flight home, it occurred to me that not all the marvels of Egypt were in the past. Those things that had seemed most incongruous now seemed most wonderful.

There were the vendors; on the last day, I'd watched one in action in the marketplace. He always started with, "Where you from?" but from then on, he spoke whatever language was appropriate. In twenty minutes, he'd conversed with tourists in French, German, Italian, English (to me), and, yes, in Arabic to his father, for this salesperson was a shop owner's son, probably 11 years old.

And there was the wonder of traffic. Despite the Keystone Cops style of driving, I had neither seen nor heard of any accidents during our stay. One member of our group had seen a dog wander into the street and lie down for a nap. The dog was unharmed; all the traffic drove around him. It's as if everyone was tuned in to the "flow," and each knew how everyone else was going to move. Perhaps this was the key to the early departure of the plane to Egypt; Egyptians would simply have known that the plane was going to move out early.

Egypt is, after all, a state of mind.