Why We Travel by Joseph Dispenza

I have always found the question of why we travel a deeply mysterious one. We don�t seem to need to travel. In ages past, only a few people traveled � so few that we know them by name. As recently as hundred years ago, most people on the planet never ventured more than fifty miles from their home.

In my mind, travel is intrinsically associated with expanding consciousness. All travel is inner travel, a way of finding out more about, ultimately, ourselves. Dullards stay home; bright and curious people travel. Think of Marco Polo, on fire with a desire to see distant lands and exotic people. Then think of everyone else in Venice at the time who were perfectly content to stay where they were, except for maybe to take a gondola ride to a neighboring island. Marco Polo served himself by responding to his inner prompting to venture forth into the wide world � and, in so doing, served all of the rest of us down the ages.

As a species, I believe we are in a period of tremendous consciousness expansion and self-discovery. Last year a record 600 million people got into airplanes and flew above the surface of the earth � that is one-tenth of the human race! If you see travel as an inner experience, that means that more of our species than ever before are on journeys of self-discovery. We are awakening to who we are and what we are doing here. And we are doing it in vast numbers and at lightening speeds.

Why do we travel? To find ourselves, I think. Travel is an inner experience as much as, and maybe more than, an outer experience. Travel is the great metaphor for embarking on a journey of emotional, psychological, and spiritual growth. Being essentially materially minded, we undertake physical journeys so that we can better understand the inner process that is at work when we �go out.�

Who hasn�t come back home from a trip feeling �larger� and somehow more complete? A trip is the journey of life in miniature. The very act of going on it is a huge leap of faith that we will eventually discover something about ourselves that we had not known. The encounters along our path are the jewels of knowledge (self-knowledge, remember) that we went out to seek. The next time you encounter a crying baby in the seat next to you on the plane, or you come up against a unexpected delay, see them as metaphors for what we face all the time in �real� life. Whatever the circumstance, it is there for the perfect unfolding of the lesson that our journey has to teach.

Why do we travel? We travel to complete ourselves. We need these journeys to understand how all the pieces of our lives fit together. Every time we go �out� we are going �in� � and seen in that way, all travel is a spiritual experience. All travel is spiritual practice. Every destination we travel toward is a sacred place � because everywhere we stand is holy ground.

May all your travels light your way to self-knowledge.

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