Excerpt: Someone asked during the retreat about hypnosis. The ego is a state of hypnosis, a self -reinforcing hypnosis through the suggestions that the ego is constantly filling your mind with. That is why we say, at the end of every meditation, the words Aum, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. The word Shanti means both peace and silence and it is said three times because the triple silence is necessary to shift the energy field. The triple silence... of outer silence, no intention of speaking to an other, the silence of the mind, in which there is no inner speaking between fragments of the ego or superego, and the Ultimate Supreme Silence of the Presence of the Supreme Self. It is when all those three levels are in alignment that the energy field shifts. (Event: Ego Death and Divine Rebirth, Retreat. Recorded on the afternoon of Thursday, April 5, 2012.)