I spend a lot of time practicing yoga, meditating, playing my gong. Like so many of us, I’m ADHD, dopamine deficient, have PTSD, so on and so forth. In my world there’s a lot of talk about frequency, light and quantum technology. This is what excites me—because really, I just want to be able to do normal things like open mail without an anxiety attack. So when I heard about the Lucia Light and how its’ hypnagogic affects can trigger deep healing, I had to try it. First, I had to find one.
My search ultimately took me to InnerLight Journeys in Asheville, NC where a “trippy light dude” literally blew my mind with his whole set-up. But first, I met up with good friends Sammy and Joe, in Greenville, SC for a trip to Drift Spa.
If you live anywhere within a days’ drive of Greenville, get yourself to Drift Spa. Kelly, the owner, has curated top-of-the-line services and technologies, including floatation therapy, Infared sauna, cold plunge, the Lucia Light, massage modalities and even CRM counseling—a neurologically based trauma treatment. All in a beautiful setting in downtown Greenville. And Greenville itself is pretty hip these days.
My friend Sammy, in her late 70’s, has been staving off cancer for 6 years. Her doctors are stupefied. She wants to live and she’s found some innovative ways to keep going. She and I did a Lucia light session together. Gina, our light technician, ushered us into a dark room with high ceilings and calm décor. She positioned two anti-gravity chairs back-to-back so that when we reclined, the Lucia light came down on our foreheads. There were headphones for us to put on and Gina asked what we’d like to listen to. Sammy said she didn’t care so I chose Tibetan Singing Bowl music by Karma Moffett. Gina gave us a “test run” with the Lucia light at a third of the intensity and gradually increased the dose until we were at full capacity. We relaxed, reclining with the light pulsing our third eye for 25 minutes. It was incredibly peaceful, inducing patterns of soft, gem-colored light in geometric patterns. Sammy loved it.
“You were dancing in your chair!” Gina said as she helped Sammy up.
“It was wonderful, just wonderful, I feel soooo good, so light!” Sammy oozed as we made our way to the door.
Joe, Sammy’s husband, had dozed off on a bouclé lounger outside the treatment room.
“I’ll tell you what, I got my own kind of treatment right here on this couch, this place is nice,” he said.
In the reception area, we chatted with Kelly, who told us a little about her journey and what led her and her business-partner, (her mom) to open Drift Spa. They also offered Kundalini yoga classes—progressive and virtually unheard of in a spa setting. Kelly is a true innovator. As we were talking about the Lucia light, she mentioned a guy in Asheville, who was building her a copper pyramid frame for the Lucia light.
“Wait, does he also have a Lucia light? I think I saw his website,” I asked.
“Yeah, Chris. He built a whole experience around it, it’s incredible,” she said.
“I’m actually on my way to Asheville,” I said.
“I’ll text you his number, definitely worth checking out,” Kelly said.
Over sandwiches at Swamp Rabbit Café, Sammy, Joe and I agreed that Drift Spa was exceptional and warranted a longer visit. Not only was it aesthetically pleasing, but the staff exuded calm and a warm, caring feeling. After lunch, they went back to Atlanta and I headed for Asheville.
The next day, I got in touch with Chris, of Inner Light Journeys. My GPS took me to a nondescript building. He met me at the door and I followed him up a set of stairs and down a long corridor. It was a rather benign office building but at the end of the hallway was a door with purple LED lights around it, my first clue that this was going to be interesting.
The door is a gateway, reminiscent to Spencer’s Gifts in the 1970’s, or inside an art installation at Burning Man. Black-lights and neon murals of swirling patterns, mandalas and goddesses gave me the feeling that I’d taken something but I hadn’t.
Chris shows me around, talking to Alexa, “Alexa turn on the back bay lights,” and we walked through a door into another space. It’s like we went from Burning Man to a robotics lab at MIT. There were shelves of gadgets and hardware neatly organized and labeled in bins, with a meticulous technical drawing of some neurosciencey-type device. As much as I like neon trippy stuff, the functionality of the lab was really appealing to my Virgo-rising nature. He shows me the prototype of a new invention, which I don’t dare disclose here. But trust me, it’s gonna be good.
It was hard not to start asking a million questions because this is really up my alley but I held back. I was here for the Lucia light experience, even if Chris was a perfect combination of techno genius and cool trippy light dude, I had to keep it together.
We went back into the light chamber where I was directed to a big leather recliner, surrounded by speakers, colored lights and the Lucia light hanging overhead. He offers me a blanket because his wife says it’s too cold in there, which is good because unless you’re a genius working on a new invention, it is cold.
Chris sits down at a desk across the room and explains how the session will go, saying he sees himself as a lifeguard, just there to make sure no one drowns or freaks out. Similar to the session at Drift, it starts out easy, with some classical music and a third of Lucia light intensity. He asked what music I like.
“All kinds, especially sound healing music,” I said.
“Well, you can take the lazy river, you know, nice and slow, or you can take the roller coaster, up to you. I’ll check in as we go,” he said.
Duh. Of course. I realized that whatever one was listening to while under the light would invariably affect the experience. Since the Lucia light is beaming into the third eye and optic nerve, the more intense the music, the more intense the visual action. I wanted the roller coaster.
As predicted, the experience started out calm and soothing with the Lucia light pulsing to a Bach orchestral suite in D. Chris had killer speakers set up at ear-level, a key detail as to why it worked so well. I felt an immense wave of relief as my nervous system let go. And because the Lucia light was concentrated on my forehead, not diffused as it was when I was sharing the light with Sammy, the focussed beam really made a difference. Immediately I was seeing intense, bright colors and patterns morphing in continuous, liquid emergence. After a few minutes, the music and light stopped and Chris asked how I was doing.
“Great!” I said.
The next section was a little groovier and the intensity of light was now at fifty percent. The patterns were very similar to what I had seen on John Stuart Reid’s CymaScope, in an Advanced Science of Sound Healing course I took in 2022, only more colorful.
The final song before we launched into 40 minutes of uninterrupted Lucia light at full strength was Tool’s ‘Fear Inoculum’. Whoa. Intense patterns of light began eviscerating brain flotsam and limiting thought patterns at warp speed. Drums and electric guitars made the light quiver in fast and furious cyamatic designs. It was reminiscent of an Ayahuasca journey. Even the reverb was visually depicted. I couldn’t make out all the lyrics but when I went back and looked them up, they were spot on.
Exhale, expel
Recast my tale
Weave my allegorical elegy…
That’s what the light is doing, if you let it, blowing away old stories and false narratives by reminding you, that you are light.
For the remainder of the session, I deferred to Chris as DJ and let the Lucia light do its thing. It was impossible to try and think about anything; very similar to when the gong is played. Since you can’t control it, your ego, your personality self, stops trying and the witnessing awareness, (usually banished to the basement of consciousness), emerges. After a while, I started getting imagery over imagery. Glimpses of the Great Mystery began dissolving in and out.
I was floating in the clouds, over the mountains of Asheville with a native shaman as a guide when my time was up. And just like that, the show was over.
“How you doing?” Chris asked
“Whoa, good, really good,” was all I could manage.
Chris grabbed a pen and paper and told me to write down any sort of images I remembered. His theory, after spending many hours under the Lucia light himself, was that your subconscious uses images in strange and non-linear ways to send you messages. Imagery of the deeper subconscious mind, like in dreams, begins to emerge over the patterns, like a double exposure. I scribbled down my visions and peeled myself out of the recliner. I could have stayed under the light another few hours, easily. As I got out of the chair, Chris pointed to the copper pyramid above the light, complete with ‘12 synergy stones’ wrapped around the corners.
It was getting late and Chris had to go. As he was getting ready to leave, he showed me the “waiting room” for clients, another universe unto itself complete with an altar, tarot decks and a meditation cushion, in case you want to do things the old-fashioned way.
I was already wondering how I could come back. How could I get more of this? If I could just do more of this, my brain would be better. Part of what made the experience at Inner Light Journeys so special, was the lifeguard, Chris. He’s really committed to helping you get whatever consciousness-expanding experience you’re ready for. In today’s world where countless voices hawk spiritual disciplines, self-help programs, expensive tools and devices, Inner Light Journeys was like a gateway back to yourself.
When I returned home I called Sammy and asked if she’d had any “aha moments” or shifts after her experience with the Lucia light.
“Sure,” she said, “I loved where it took me; the lightness of being. It was enlightening, very enlightening.”
As we left the office, Chris told me to pay attention to my dreams. That night I had no dreams but over the next week or two, I had some incredible dreams featuring babies, crystals and a shaman at a whiteboard pulling out multi-dimensional shapes of light and sand.
A great benefit of the Lucia light is that there is no hangover or depletion of your energy. Quite the opposite, in the days following my session, I felt activated and alive. You can read more about how it works here, https://lucialightexperience.com/
My google review of Inner Light Journeys!!