Holotropic breathwork, demonic invocation, ecstatic trance, sleep deprivation, going to a rave, the use of certain teaching plants; all will give you a taste of what hedge riding is like. It can be physically draining, emotionally exhausting and mentally destabilizing, and what are called guided meditations will not take you there. In fact, they are virtually guaranteed to prevent any such thing from happening. The most you will get out of it is a bit of relaxation, a nice feeling and an ego boost. Not spirit flight. And anyone that tells you to hop over a hedge in your imagination has never seen one. Here in the States we call them "wind breaks" and unless you are a racoon, a fox, or an owl...well, you get the picture. A "hedge", in the way that traditional witches might mean it is a way of relating to the liminal. A "hedge" is a border crossing, a transitional zone. It is uncanny, neither here nor there. Cemeteries, back alleys, abandoned building, playgrounds at midnight all can serve as hedges. So can your own interior no-fly zones. But flight happens when you start navigating your inner spaces under intense emotional states, through fantasy and or imagery. It is a bit like a controlled hallucination. Your mind is spinning a story. Gnosis and fantasy braid together, and you let the story take you where it wants to go, but without getting caught up in it. Think of it this way...the story is your broom. Trance is your flight. Insight/power/gnosis is where you are. The hedge is what you end up in if you fall off the broom. It is everything from wish fulfillment to childhood trauma to hang-ups, to what have you.
The most important thing to remember though is that meaning carries charge. If the bland, generic feel-good imagery of a guided meditation means nothing to you, you are not going anywhere with it, right? So if you insist on playing with guided meditations...take note. If the images start to change of their own accord know that you have just approached a hedge. After that? You start flying.
