Logopraxis as we know encourages us to try to view the text as descriptive of our own states of mind. In other words it all has to do with structures and process of consciousness. Just remembering this or keeping it in the forefront of our mind when we are reading can be an aid to experiencing the text differently to that of a casual reading. Of course the descriptions in the text are overlaid with the natural imagery of person, place, time and space which makes doing this for any length of time challenging. So let me just give you and anyone else who would like to try it a simple exercise in reading with attention…

The aim is to observe while reading how the mind tends to bring you down into what is natural – Select a paragraph of the text and read as you have been doing, making a determination to read with attention. When you recognise your attention has been drawn down into the literal meaning of the words, say to yourself – “This is describing states of consciousness in me” and try to hold your attention in this idea as you read further. You are not reading for meaning here, but training your attention, so just repeat this statement every time you find you are not present to the act of reading. The object of the exercise is simply to get a sense of how strong the pull into the natural features of the text is, without getting frustrated due to the text not yielding what you hoped for. Do this each day using a fresh portion of text for at least 5 minutes.

Here’s a number that gives a rationale for the above exercise…

By repeated experience I have been granted the knowledge that the Word is for man a means of communication with heaven. When I read through the Word, from the first chapter of Isaiah to the end of Malachi, and also the Psalms of David, keeping my thoughts fixed on the spiritual sense, I was granted a clear perception that each verse communicated with some community in heaven, and that thus the whole Word communicated with heaven as a whole. From this fact it became clear that just as the Word is the Lord, so too the Word is heaven, since heaven’s being heaven comes from the Lord, and the Lord by means of the Word is the all in all of heaven.  (True Christian Religion 272)