Open and Clear, Academy | Rev. Devan Jesse Byrne

Imagine that your mind is a crowded room. Thoughts are talking over one another, memories are rearranging the furniture, worries are pacing in the corner. This blessing is like opening a window in that room. Nothing is forced, nothing is argued into place. A quiet breeze of awareness simply moves through, and in that movement you remember that the room is inside a much greater house of consciousness. The blessing does not try to fix your personality. It invites you to feel yourself as part of a single living presence that has always been here.

On the surface the act itself is very simple. Someone who has prepared themselves to offer this blessing places their hands lightly on your head or holds you in focused intention. They do not push their own opinions or energy into you. Instead they relax and allow a deeper current to move through them, like a wire allowing electricity to pass. You are invited to relax as well. Close your eyes, breathe, and let go of trying to manage the experience. The simplicity is intentional so that the mind has less to cling to and control.

What is said to happen inside is like a gentle re–wiring. The mind that constantly judges, compares and protects is given a moment of rest. When that layer softens even a little, raw experience stands out more clearly. Colors may seem brighter, emotions may rise and fall more freely, the body may feel heavy and grounded or light and spacious. Some people feel warmth or tingling on the head. Others feel only a quiet neutrality. The blessing is not measured by fireworks. It moves according to what your system is ready to allow.

Energetically you can think of it as a tuning shift. A radio can pick up many stations, yet you usually hear only the one you are tuned to. Everyday awareness is often tuned to separation and struggle. The blessing briefly nudges the dial toward a station of unity and trust. In that frequency you may sense that life is not happening to you from the outside. Instead everything is arising within one shared field of presence. Even your personal story is seen as a wave on a much larger ocean.

Psychologically it can loosen old patterns. When the sense of separation softens, the need to defend and attack softens with it. Resentments, guilt and fear may come into the light to be felt and released. You may find that certain conflicts in relationships no longer grip you in the same way. The blessing does not erase your history. It changes the place you are standing in while you look at it. From a wider sense of self, forgiveness and understanding become more natural choices.

Over time, receiving this blessing repeatedly is described as a slow ripening. Each time, the mind is reminded that it does not have to carry everything alone. The nervous system learns that safety can be felt without constant control. Moments of unity that once appeared only during the blessing begin to show up in daily life while washing dishes, walking outside or speaking with someone you love. The purpose is not to escape the world but to live in it with the felt knowing that you and all things arise from the same limitless presence.

This Indian blessing is a modern expression of a very ancient idea. At its core it is a transfer of sacred energy from one person to another that is meant to awaken a direct experience of unity. The giver offers themselves as a channel for what they regard as divine or higher consciousness. The receiver simply relaxes and opens to receive. It is not tied to a particular religion or belief system and is often described as a universal grace that can support any sincere path. 

In practice it is usually very simple. The receiver sits quietly, often with eyes closed, while the giver places their hands lightly on the top of the head for a minute or two, or sends the blessing through focused intention or eye contact. The stated intention is that this energy works intelligently, responding to whatever the person most needs at that moment. People report many different effects such as warmth or tingling in the head, waves of peace, tears, joy, or sometimes no obvious sensation at all. The tradition teaches that the process still moves within you even if it feels very ordinary on the surface. 

The way it is often explained is that this blessing affects the brain and nervous system. Descriptions say it helps shift activity away from overactive thinking centers into regions associated with calm presence and integration. This is said to be similar to what long term meditators show in brain scans. As mental chatter softens, perception becomes less filtered by constant commentary. People then may experience moments where colors seem brighter, the body feels lighter, and life feels more intimate and connected. 

Spiritually the blessing is framed as a support for awakening rather than a technique you control. You are encouraged to combine it with honest self reflection, healthy choices and any practices that open the heart such as prayer, meditation or gratitude. The energy is said to help dissolve rigid patterns of fear, guilt and inner conflict. As this softening happens, relationships can feel less driven by blame and more infused with understanding and compassion. Many accounts speak of an increased sense of inner peace and spontaneous joy that is not dependent on outer circumstances. 

Over time repeated blessings are described as cumulative. Each transmission is said to deepen a gradual shift from a sense of being a separate self struggling in the world toward a felt recognition that you are part of one living presence expressing in many forms. In this view the blessing does not give you something from outside. Instead it clears enough inner noise that your natural state of connection, clarity and love can become more obvious and stable in daily life.