Claiming the Most Special Hour of the Day
The best hour for meditation is two o'clock in the morning. The better period would be that…in which the body and mind may be dedicated to that.
(Edgar Cayce Reading 2982-3)
我記不清什麼時候第一次聽說有這麼個冥想最優時刻了。也許是45年前我第一次參加凱西總部的一個講座，或者是我參加的《探索上帝》讀書會的一次聚會上：半夜起來冥想，因為此時極其適合調諧和個人蛻變。我的第一反應估計跟大多數人一樣，「哦，這樣啊，聽起來不錯噢，不過我肯定起不來的！」
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!"
儘管一開始我對這個挑戰性的項目不太熱心，但隨著偶爾一試，慢慢地成為了堅定的實踐者。我漸漸認為這是凱西資料裡面提及的蛻變工具中最強有力的一種。我們一起來看看他怎麼說的，希望能夠吸引你也努力一試。
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.
在一個解讀裡，一位35歲的女士在問：「冥想的最佳時間是什麼時候？」凱西給出了一個具體時間，並且強調要誠心堅持：「最佳的冥想時間是凌晨2點。最好讓身體和心靈為此做好準備，增益其效果。」（凱西解讀2982-3）在給《探索上帝》第一小組的建議也是同樣：每日最佳冥想是凌晨2點。那麼凌晨兩點每個人都適合嗎？有什麼特別的靈性或者生理學的含義呢？
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?
凱西指出了一個在人類演進史上的一個最基本的重要因素，還有我們的大腦是怎麼設計運作的。科學的證據在凱西離世後數十年才慢慢出現。1992年精神病醫師Thomas Wehr在《睡眠研究》雜誌發表研究文章。這是關於對一組志願者長達一個月的研究報告，志願者們被置放在長達每天14小時的黑暗空間。在研究開始的前幾天，志願者們平均睡眠達11小時，看上去是在補回長期的睡眠不足。但到了實驗的第四周，出現了新模式：四小時的睡眠，然後是1-2小時的自然醒，然後又是四小時多的睡眠。這期間的清醒期與我們討論的冥想時間很相關。
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教授在他的書裡《At Day』s Close》，給出了詳盡的證據，指出在當代電燈出現之前，人們睡覺的模式跟Wehr醫師在實驗室的研究結果一致：第一段睡眠4-5小時，然後是一段1-2小時的寂靜清醒期，最後是第二段睡眠。凱西的最佳冥想時刻建議，只不過是很好地利用深藏在我們基因裡的最佳時刻而已。
Approaching this as a historical issue, Professor Roger Ekirch's bookAt 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.
那麼，為什麼踐行這個建議如此艱難？當然跟我們現代文化有關，24小時新聞娛樂提供了對抗凌晨2點寂靜時刻的力量。著名靈性作家Clark Strand在他的新作《從黑暗中醒來》，給我們提出一個熱情洋溢的請求：在晚間離開電腦、電視、手機，與我們內在的光明黑暗的節奏再連接。儘管沒有提及凱西，他堅持認為，我們的文明的存在取決於我們是否願意擁抱黑暗，找回古老神祇的智慧，並且最佳地利用半夜我們的清醒時刻。
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.
也許你希望體驗一下這個洞見。那麼就設定一個28天的實驗期吧。如果你一下子堅持不了這麼長時間，那麼可以試試幾個晚上在2點醒來。您可以嘗試用這個機會，在夜晚的寂靜裡與神交流。
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.
這個方法已經有數千年的歷史，早已編織進我們的大腦和荷爾蒙系統裡。明智地使用這樣的時刻，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.
By Mark Thurston, PhD
作者：Mark Thurston博士，作家、心理學家，Grorge Mason大學教授，亞特蘭大大學主管，著有《如何解夢》、《探索人生使命》等二十多本靈性書籍。他受凱西中國的邀請，在2016年5月底來華講座和工作坊。
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