We’ve seen lots of different advice on meditation and instructions on techniques, and it’s true that a practice is intensely personal, and that everyone has their own methods.

However, we’ve never seen anything like this. Oregon artist and energy worker Sara Mapelli meditates while wearing a ‘blouse’ of bees covering her bare torso. Her intention? To commune with nature and assist others in overcoming their fears. In an interview with National Geographic, she said:

I’ve danced for people who were really afraid of bees…Many people come to me for deep intense personal issues. When I approached one of my clients with the bees [during the dance] he leaned back so astonished, but then came a huge smile as he realized he was safe. It was like watching someone transform. He was so heartfelt and emotional afterwards.

The dance with honey bees covering much of her body is just one aspect of her alternative medicine practice. She says that it helps people who feel detached from or have a fear of nature.

Mapelli said that her fascination with bees stems from childhood, where a sense of community was instilled in her at an early age.

As I got to know bees, I realized their world is all about community. Each bee has a job, and they take turns doing different things to help the whole. That interconnectedness, the idea that if you take a piece out the group is incomplete and doesn’t function as well—that’s part of the message I want to share.

The idea for the ‘bee blouse’ came to Mapelli in a vision while driving once through the beautiful Columbia Gorge. “I could visualize this bee blouse, but it took me a long time to find people to help me make it happen,” she said. “I finally found an entomologist to work with me, and I’m also connected with beekeepers all over the country. I plan to do a bee-dance tour in Europe next.”

She gets the bees to cover her body using a pheromone derived from the queen bee, after which a beekeeper lifts as frame full of bees from the hive and brings it near. Soon, she is covered in a ‘tornado,’ which soon covers the top part of her body with an 8-inch thick layer of nearly 15,000 bees.

“There is magic and fantasy in what I do, that’s part of my job. Not just to heal and educate, but to inspire magic. The bees help me do that,” she concludes in the interview (read the full transcript here). Check out this fascinating video below of her meditative honeybee dance!