Human Energy

Here is another characteristic of Your Being that you may take for granted; visualization! How visions are formed is a direct reflection between who you are and what you’ve experienced (or going to experience).

Yet, before we really get into this posting, I would encourage you to review a couple posting that are very similar. They are Input & Output – Perceiving and Creating and Intuition & Ego. The only real difference here is that we’ll be investigating vision and a bit about how that personal tool works.

Everyone knows that when light reflects off something it can be seen. The sensing process takes place with the eyes. The general process has been outlined fairly well on Wikipedia under Visual Perception:

The visual system in humans allows individuals to assimilate information from the environment. The act of seeing starts when the lens of the eye focuses an image of its surroundings onto a light-sensitive membrane in the back of the eye, called the retina. The retina is actually part of the brain that is isolated to serve as a transducer^{[citation needed]} for the conversion of patterns of light into neuronal signals. The lens of the eye focuses light on the photoreceptive cells of the retina, which detect the photons of light and respond by producing neural impulses. These signals are processed in a hierarchical fashion by different parts of the brain, from the retina upstream to central ganglia in the brain.

This first part of the definition of Visual Perception really only seems to cover the mechanics of how the body receives the light – the sensory side of things. Sure, that photon of light gets converted from one form of energy into another as it enters the body, but how do we actually see? Where is the perception based on that collection of photons?

If you follow the link on Wikipedia to Perception, we read:

Perception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio) is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information.^[1][2]

So, the perception part would be tied in with the understanding that we get from the visual sensory information. This would imply that there is action involved (on our part) with regards to being aware of what is seen rather than simply seeing it.

This kind makes sense when you think about the philosophical idea that when two people look at the same painting, they see to different things (stories, impressions, etc.). Basically, if you show two different people the exact same item (painting, photo or something else fairly large in visual imagery) they will ‘see’ different things in the picture. When you look closer at how the person actually goes about ‘seeing’ what is in that picture, what gets seen is what the person’s awareness is focused on. As the person’s awareness moves from one area of the picture (image) to another, they become consciously aware of what is in this new area.

So, even though light enters the eyes, the only thing that is ‘seen’ is what you are aware of.

This reminds me of adventures that I’ve had froggin’. At different points in my life I’ve had time to walk streams (or ponds) in order to spot frogs. There have been many times when I’ve stood (or squatted) at the water’s edge and intently looked for frogs with no success. I would thoroughly look over every spot where a frog might sit (or hide) and not see anything – until the frog moved! It is amazing how well (and long) a frog can remain outside of someone’s awareness. They can be sitting right in front of you and you just can’t see it. Even after it moves, if you take your eyes off it, that frog has the magic of blending which can make it really hard to continually remain aware if it’s location.

So even though are light organ (eyes) receives light, it is what our Being is aware of that determines if we actually see it or not.

This gets really interesting when you close your eyes and still experience ‘seeing’ things. How is it that we can get the sense of seeing when we’re not receiving light directly thorough our eyes?

The first thing that would come to mind is that you remember the image. This idea is based upon memory. You simply remember what it looked like. The concept here is that at the moment you remember the image, you are once again bringing your awareness to that experience. This is a situation where, in your mind (where ever that may be) your awareness explores the details of the image a second time.

It would seem that if this is the case – people have the ability to remember an image – it might imply that the light from the original experience becomes part of us. It’s like we eat photons! As we see, that light enters the body and gets stored. This might be more supporting data for the fact that we are light Beings (maybe see Living on Sunlight and the referenced postings). Or, maybe, it’s not the light that is stored, but rather the experience – as part of your awareness. The light was used as a tool so that your awareness could grow.

The end result of taking in all this light really has little to do with the act of visualization. The process of visualizing something is very similar to the process of intuiting something. Visualization is a direct exchange of information from Your Being into the physical world. It is the same whether you’re remembering something or visualizing something.

Maybe a simple exercise could help.

Sense we know that in order to ‘see’ something we have to bring our awareness to it, we’ll want to do just that. What I’ve found is that there are different types of sensual stimulation that overpowers the subtle energies so you have to make a conscious effort to ‘remove the noise’. Thus, I’ve found a technique during meditation that works pretty good for me right now. It goes like this.

Assume a meditative posture (this is one of the key reasons why I do yoga). You want to be sitting, maybe cross-legged or in a chair, but the most important part is that you have to be able to completely relax. I sit in Easy Pose. Some days I’ll turn my palms up, other days I’ll cup my knees. But, like I said earlier, the key thing is to be able to get relaxed. This only really happens when you have a straight vertical spine. Now close your eyes and then breathe slow and steady. Your breathing should fill your lungs but only to the point just before you feel the muscles tense up. Now breathe for a while.

During this breathing time where you make a conscious effort to remain completely relaxed, you should feel a change in energy. Or, said differently (and maybe a little more accurately), the energy that you normally use to sense everything on a daily basis is no longer needed and your awareness can expand beyond it’s normal ‘confines’. That is, if you no longer place energy into using your eyes, your sense of hearing becomes heightened. If you no longer place energy into moving your muscles, that energy doesn’t ‘cloud the pond’ so to speak allowing your awareness to explore other subtle energies.

After a little time, you’ll notice that you’re doing the right thing when you start becoming aware of things that you previously didn’t sense. An example might be that when you first start your meditation, you were aware of your posture and breathing. Yet, after a while, the sound of the birds chirping outside resonate loud and clear. Before you got into this relaxed state you had no idea about the birds playing outside, yet after minimizing the dominate energies that rule your life, the sounds they make come to the foreground and grab your attention.

It is at this point where visualizations become easy. It is at this point where you’ve calmed the energy that you emit to the point where subtle energies can be recognized. In other words, it’s like once you’ve removed the energy that creates big waves in a pond, you’re able to see the little waves. (Or when you remove the waves you make you can detect the waves others make.)

The next step is that you have to set an intention for the visualization. If you want to remember something, you have to ‘want’ to remember it. You have to have some type of desire to kick start the communication. For me, this is the point where I use the translator in my head to help drive the experience – yet only in a limited fashion for the energy used by the ego is a crude noisy energy that can create ‘larger waves in the pond.’ Thus, you ask, and then clean the slate so the visualization can occur. Said differently, you make room for your awareness to go to a previous experience and feel it again. Or, you make room for Your Being to share energies about what will be. In either case, if you’re in the state where you’re not putting out much energy (you’re calm) you won’t blow away the imaging that Your Being experiences.

What you might find is that this exercise is very similar to dreaming. But it is a conscious dream where you can either manipulate it or simply experience it. When you relate this to dreaming, Your Being shares visualizations with you in some type of sequence and, at some point, you become conscious that you’re dreaming. At that point, you can either let the dream continue uninterrupted or you might replay it slightly differently if you didn’t like the way it was playing out. In the dream, the visions that you have up to the point of conscious manipulation are an unaltered communication from Your Being. At and after the point of manipulation the dream is a creation influenced by the ego.

Regardless to whether you spend time visualizing or remembering, the art of getting to the point where this can happen is the same and the act of doing it is a matter of bring your awareness to that experience or desire.

After all this, the question should arise, why is this important?

Because time is immaterial to Your Being!

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, when you visualize something it may or may not have actually occurred. If it did occur, it’s a memory. If it has not occurred, it’s a projection. In either case, the visualization energy can stimulate a physical response allowing you to relive the feeling of a past experience or allow you to generate feelings for a future experience! The energy that generates a physical response is the energy that will fulfill your desire.

That’s right. You can visualize events that you want to experience. When your visualizations generate an emotional or physical response, you know that the experience is strong. The stronger the energy that you use for projection, the more likely (or faster) that experience will become reality.

Your inner sight is a wonderful tool that you have to relive previous experiences or shape new ones. This sight is a direct link between Your Being and your physical experiences. If you remove the noise of everyday life, you will see that your awareness can be brought to this aspect of Your Being so as to enrich your experiences and relive treasured emotional experiences.

There might have been a bit of confusion when trying to understand my precious article Intuition & Ego. In that posting, I didn’t clearly define the terms that I used and used a number of different words in order to try to explain the same (or similar) thing. Hopefully, the information below will help clarify what I’d intended to say.

To begin, I’d like to make sure my understanding of Your Being is clear. To help, I’d like to bring in what the Wikipedia has to say as a reference. But, in doing so, we have to look at how they describe Being, for I want to deal with the concept Your Being. So, the Wikipedia states:

Being (i.e. be+-ing, by synecdoche), is an English word used for conceptualizing subjective and objective aspects of reality, including those fundamental to the self —related to and somewhat interchangeable with terms like “existence” and “living“. In its objective usage —as in “a being,” or “[a] human being” —it refers to a discrete life form that has properties of mind (sentience), which are deemed to constitute a more complex state than simple organisms (i.e. that have only “life functions“).^{[citation needed]}

In abstract usage, “the being” or “one’s being” is the mind’s concept of the self as a whole entity —including both mind and body —wherein the being is in the mind, and the “body” is all sensory aspects within the being. Heidegger coined the Germanic term “dasein” for this property of being in his influential work Sein und Zeit (“this entity which each of us is himself…we shall denote by the term “dasein.””^[1]), in which he argued that being or “dasein” links one’s sense of one’s body to one’s perception of world. Heidegger, amongst others, referred to an innate language as the foundation of being, which gives signal to (and from, cf. cognition) all aspects of being.

The way that I used the word Being in the previous posting fit directly with the first part of the second paragraph where it refers to the “concept of the self”. The difference is that in that quote it’s stated that “…the being is in the mind, and the “body” is all sensory aspects within the being.”

With my current understanding, I would word this differently. Something like: Your Being encompasses all that you are including your mind, body and everything else that makes up who and what You are. Your Being is the root of who you are. Your Being is the ‘I’ in I am. In the context in which I’ll write, Your Being is a unique living entity that has a whole bunch of tools at its disposal in which to enhance the experience of life.

I would also like to clarify what it means to sense something for it’s a pretty abstract concept that most people have come to understand as being fairly limited. To me, there are clear differences between a sense organ and the act of sensing. One is the tool and the other is how it interacts with Your Being. The Wikipedia has also made the distinction where they list “Sense” and “Sense (disambiguation)”. From Sense, we read the sense organ type definition:

Senses are the physiological capacities within organisms that provide inputs for perception.

From Sense (disambiguation) we read:

A sense in biology and psychology, is a physiological method of perception. In common usage, a sense may also mean an understanding or awareness of something in particular.

This second definition is in line with what I’m referring to when I write sensing. But to fill it out more, sensing, and the act of perception, are really closely intertwined. For when you perceive something, you’ve applied your understanding to what you’ve sensed. The semiformal definition of perception comes across like:

Perception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio) is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information.^[1][2] All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs.^[3] For example, vision involves light striking the retinas of the eyes, smell is mediated by odor molecules and hearing involves pressure waves. Perception is not the passive receipt of these signals, but can be shaped by learning, memory and expectation.^[4][5] Perception involves these “top-down” effects as well as the “bottom-up” process of processing sensory input.^[5] Perception depends on complex functions of the nervous system, but subjectively seems mostly effortless because this processing happens outside conscious awareness.^[3]

This definition is mostly in line with my understanding. The part that I somewhat disagree with is the part “All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs.^[3]”. If the definition of nervous system was Your Being and they dropped the part about “… which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs” I might feel better about what’s been collectively written.

I might write the definition like; Perception is the process of understanding or becoming aware of sensory information. Perception is a conscious activity, yet sensory stimulation quite often happens outside of conscious awareness.

Let’s now bring these three together.

• Your Being perceives by sensing.  

That came together pretty easy! In a way, it seems so simple. This, to me, is the input side of life.

Because during the process of life we interact with our environment, there is a similar path for the output side of life.

To get a better feel for this let’s play with the idea of creativity. What does it mean to create? The common idea for creativity (similar to the common five senses) comes across like this:

Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art, a novel, a joke, etc.) that has some kind of value. What counts as “new” may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs. What counts as “valuable” is similarly defined in a variety of ways.

If you look at this common definition while keeping the idea of senses in mind, you’ll get the feeling that the type of things that they list as being ‘created’ are things that are clearly discoverable by the standard five senses.

To get a better feel for how I’m using it, we want to go a little deeper.

It is generally thought that “creativity” in Western culture was originally seen as a matter of divine inspiration.^[1]

Following the link to divine inspiration we can see that they broke it up into different sections. The one that looks most promising is:

Epiphany (feeling), the sudden realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something

Linking again:

An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, “manifestation, striking appearance”) is the sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something. The term is used in either a philosophical or literal sense to signify that the claimant has “found the last piece of the puzzle and now sees the whole picture,” or has new information or experience, often insignificant by itself, that illuminates a deeper or numinous foundational frame of reference.

What we see here is that when someone has an epiphany, they have a sudden realization or comprehension of something. Simply put, how I would interpret this is that Your Being suddenly becames conscious of something (new). The knowledge or understanding that already existed now becomes something you can consciously act upon.

And if you’re taking notes, this is similar to what we saw in the previous posting regarding intuition!

When we go to put these ideas together, I generally refer to creativity as the process by which Your Being transfers knowledge or understanding (which is generally thought of as an epiphany or intuitive understanding) where you actively express that new understanding in some form. Typically, someone may verbalize the experience to someone, it may be written down or acted out or felt. In general, it is the act where Your Being communicates in a way that is detected consciously and acted upon.

Thus we have our output path:

• Your Being creates consciously.

 

The thing that unites these two different key characteristics that make up how you function is energy! I will leave the energy discussion for another day, but for Your Being to be able to either receive or transmit information, that information, however subtle it is, needs to flow to the tools that we have that can interpret it.

The most interesting part is not the energy, but rather the energy flow. The energy flow is what we experience and call life! That is what needs to happen for us to either sense or create something. The stronger the energy flow, the larger the impression on Your Being. If the energy flow is subtle, than the more stimulating energy flows need to be calmed so that the tools that receive the subtle flows can actually sense or intuit it!

I am so looking forward to expanding upon these ideas with more detailed postings. For now, I hope you have a better understanding with regards to the words I used in my previous posting (and some even earlier postings).

No matter how many times I think about it or study it, the fact that our bodies run on light never fails to fascinate me. Some people say that our bodies are electric, which I’m sure they are in some form, but even that electricity links back to light. We actually physically run on light. Our bodies are so efficient that is really doesn’t take much either!

You can go study all the metaphysical books that you want too, but if you leave out some physical science, you’ll miss making some of the biggest connections between spirit and matter that can actually be pretty obvious.

I love YouTube! It’s amazing to be able to view the words of others as their journeys unfold. Everyone has different worldly experiences and unique points of view, but when you get to view things in a high information environment (like we have today with the net), you can start making connections with topics that the authors of the videos might know, but in a different way. Hopefully, the ideas will come together so that everyone can benefit.

On to the idea of Life-Force Energy.

I’d like to share a couple videos that I’ve come across in the last few months. This first one is from John at okraw.com. He’s interviewing Dr. Flora about her raw food experiences. He asks a couple simple questions. This video is 7:36 minutes long, but they get into the idea of living foods right off the bat. Pay special attention to Dr Flora’s words, for I’m not sure if John’s getting it the way that she’s intending it to come across.

Here is the video from John at okraw:

I love how she says “Just go all electric food” at the end. When John comes around to sum things up, he says get fresh fruits and vegetables. It comes across as if John knows eating raw fruits and vegetables is the right thing to do, but it seems like the good Doctor has spent some time – philosophically – thinking about why you eat raw fruits and vegetables.

I like the way Dr. Flora mentions Chi as the deciding (or defining) factor with regards to the foods that she chooses. She links it in with picking the food fresh and eating it on the spot. It seems to me that she stresses the importance of eating food that is still vibrant with Chi more so than simply eating the food raw.

I did a quick search to see if I could find a good definition of Chi. Turns out there is a great explanation at TheBuddhaGarden.com. I’ve selected a bit of it to repeat here:

Most martial arts practitioners have some idea about the concept of Chi energy. Chi refers to the natural energy of the Universe, which permeates everything. All matter, from the smallest atoms and molecules to the largest planets and stars, is made up of this energy. It is the vital force of life. It is the source of every existing thing. Chi has many manifestations. To the kung fu and taiji practitioners of China it is known as “Chi,” but different philosophies and cultures call it by different names. Japanese martial arts call it “Ki.” Metaphysical science calls it “vital force.” Friedrich Mesmer called it “animal magnetism.” The Indian and Hindu yogis call it “Prana.” Western science defines it as “biorhythm,” and New Age thinkers simply call it “cosmic energy.”

Naturally, in each manifestation the Chi is viewed and defined differently, but basically it is the same thing. It is the power which enables us to think, move, breathe, and live – the power that makes gravity act like gravity. It is what makes electricity electric. It is the link between our perception of the inner and outer worlds.

It is our connection to the very flow of the universe and the prime moving force within the human body. Chi is not breath; it is the power that makes it possible for us to breathe. Chi is not simply “energy,” it is what gives energy the power to be energy. Chi is the power behind movement and thought…and it is everywhere. It is in the oxygen we breathe and the blood that flows through us.

If I’d written that last sentence, I might have said that “it is in the oxygen, but it is not oxygen. It is in our blood. It is the flow that gives us life.” Chi is life force energy. I really like the part where they say “It is the power which enables us to think, move, breathe, and live…”

Later in the same article by Aaron Hoopes at TheBuddhaGarden we read:

Chi within the body is like power in a rechargeable battery. Occasionally it needs to be replenished. The Chi of the universe is inexhaustible, yet the body needs fresh Chi to maintain its vitality. When you are exchanging the Chi within you with the Chi of the universe, you feel healthy and vigorous. By energizing the body with Chi it is revitalized naturally, enabling it to fight off illness and maintain good health. The true secret to replenishing Chi resides in our breathing.

All living things have Chi. I believe that Dr Flora understands the concept of Chi when she states that you want to eat foods that contain Chi.

It’s also interesting that Chi is not constant. It is something that you want to constantly replenish. Breathing is one way, food is another.

Let’s move on to the second video. Here, sometimes I can’t help but think that Matt Monarch is a modern day Forrest Gump as he works his way through life. He’s on a great journey. It appears that he’s doing the right things yet it comes across that he really doesn’t know why.

The first part of this video really isn’t all that interesting. I highly recommend skipping ahead to the 5 minute mark. That’s where he starts into the topic of interest for this article. Also be for warned that he’s a little rough under the edges in this video.

I love his phrase “I’ve evolved!” He’s pretty passionate about that. Matt’s living through a personal transformation (alchemy in a way) that allows for his body to pick up subtle energy systems in a conscious way. I’m looking forward to his future videos where his understanding leads to be being able to explain this process just a little bit better.

The first thing I wanted to reference here is his comments about eating less. He’s claiming that people don’t need to eat as much as they do for they are doing more harm than good. My take on this is slightly different, you see, what Matt doesn’t cover here is the content of what is eaten rather than how much is eaten. Matt has a lifestyle where he eats foods in a way that allows his body to get extra Chi – he’s eating live food! If you were to compare what he eats against a standard western civilization citizen, you’d probably find that Matt eats in one day what other people eat in weeks with regards to Chi in their food. In other words, it probably takes someone eating a standard diet a month’s worth of eating to acquire the Chi that Matt gets in one day.

Standard foods are processed, refined, cooked and distorted so far beyond the living state that the Chi that it had when it was living is long gone. As Dr. Flora mentioned, you want to eat it while it’s still full of life. The volume of food that he talks about may very well be related to the volume of Chi one consumes. If they do a good job eating high Chi foods the body will do just fine on smaller volumes of food.

Now Matt’s case is also interesting because he’s witnessing his body becoming more efficient. This is not the first time in his videos where he talks about it, yet it still comes across as if it’s completely due to his clean body or his practice of getting colonics. This is where I’m not sure if Matt gives enough credit to his consumption of life-force energy (Chi).

I would almost turn Matt’s comments upside down and build off the idea that because he’s living a lifestyle that is high in Chi, his body doesn’t need standard fuels (food) like others. And, in the process of doing so, the side-effects (by products) of eating doesn’t ‘cloud his vision’ (so to speak) with regards to his body’s ability to attune to subtle energies.

The basic idea is that if your body is full of Chi and you remove the debris that clouds the flow of light (mud, molecules, waste), your body functions more efficiently. In the act of functioning more efficiently, the subtle things in life start to stand out as he references with his third eye. You start to feel things. You’re connection with spirit becomes highlighted.

Now, this gets even more interesting if you don’t believe another comment made by Aaron Hoopes at TheBuddhaGarden. He states:

It is difficult to define Chi concretely. It cannot be seen or measured, it cannot be touched or captured. It is everywhere, yet we have no way to touch it, make it tangible, or even prove its existence. Therefore Chi is a difficult concept to accept. The Western mind likes the tangible, the concrete and the specific. It likes a scientific explanation which defines, dissects, and categorizes. Chi transcends this kind of explanation. It doesn’t fit easily into a strict biomedical framework. It is simply indefinable in those terms.

You could stay very similar things about radio waves. If you put yourself a couple hundred years into the past, radio waves could not be measured, touched or captured, yet they are still everywhere (in varying degrees of strength). Yet, radio waves exist. Just because mankind hasn’t figured out how to capture and/or create something doesn’t mean that is doesn’t exist.

With Chi, it would seem, mankind simply hasn’t figured out how to measure it, capture it or recreate it. We may, or may not ever be able to do this, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t exist.

In a way, this idea of Chi, and how it acts in the body, seems to align with properties that seem to follow the Philosopher’s Stone; at least to some degree. Doing a quick search of the net brings up a posting at the Temple of Mars website which reads:

… when the Elixir of Life is properly prepared and ingested it greatly increases your mental abilities, including intuition and awareness(of God), Artistic Ability and Creatitivity. It also activates you beta recpetors and allows you to recieve transmissions, as thoughts, from the netherworld. Messages from God, and other spiritual entities.

From the Wikipedia’s version of the Philosopher’s Stone, we read:

… It is said that consuming even a small portion of the philosopher’s stone will instantaneously heal all forms of illness without exception. It is sometimes further claimed that a senior person will become once more fit and youthful.

The traits associated with the philosopher’s stone really seem to align well with the experiences that people have when they change their diet to raw and living foods. Not only do they find that the body transforms itself (spiritual alchemy) but the body becomes more sensitive to subtle energy (physical alchemy). Things like – feeling – become natural and your connection with spirit becomes enhanced.

At this point, I have to wonder if it could be possible to capture Chi. Or, better yet, if it could be refined so as to concentrate it. I would also have to wonder if there is a link between the historical philosopher’s stone – as being life energy – and Chi – being life energy. There are a lot of similar characteristic shared here.

Did I say that it makes you wonder?

Even if the common person doesn’t come to learn how to create the philosopher’s stone, it would seem to me that attributes associated with the stone align well with what people have come to understand as Chi. There is a Life-Force Energy that flows through us and it seems to be related to living in perfection.

There is also nothing stopping you from making the personal decisions to transform your own life to one that is more in touch with living Life-Force Energy by learning how to consume this Life-Force Energy by consciously breathing and consciously eating.

The choice is yours.