An evening with the OTO

This evening I attended a meditation session with the OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis - an occult group made famous by Aleister Crowley). I'm not sure what I expected, but the session was advertised as a welcoming environment where it was okay to attend but not participate. This sentiment was echoed by the host when myself, Bronwyn Rideout and others arrived at the event. We were walked through several meditation techniques, starting with singing a song accompanied by a live guitar - Kiss the Earth by Ajeet Kaur (you can have a listen at the top of this article).

This song was followed by a guided meditation session, and then we had six minutes of silent meditation, and finally a closing which consisted of us singing three vowels while making hand gestures and imagining we were the centre of the universe.

Now, I'm not a fan of meditation. The whole idea of clearing my mind and thinking of nothing feels like a futile task (there are always thoughts popping into my head) and also doesn't appear to have any tangible benefits. So what if you can clear your mind of thoughts - does it help you in any way? Does it make your life any better? I have my doubts. The guided meditation was interesting, and we were walked through a scenario that was described to us sentence by sentence, with us imagining the scene as the story unfolded. However it also incorporated an idea that this act could have a healing effect, and I'm pretty sure that's nonsense.

But, for all that, I think I enjoyed this more than any other meditation session I've ever attended. It was more enjoyable than silent contemplation and prayer in some of the many church services I've been to. It was more relaxing than a silent meditation session I found myself in with Sam Harris and a thousand other atheists. And it was a lot less uncomfortable and weird than a 30 minute meditation session I had with a Solfeggio frequency scalar wave device made out of spray painted storm water pipe and a few blue LEDs.