Of Mind and Body
I’ll be perfectly honest with you: For the longest time, I really wasn’t interested in physical exercise or especially curious about being aware of my own body, preferring intellectual endeavours. Starting with primary school, I really couldn’t be bothered with competitive sports such as soccer which I merely saw as people chasing a ball bumping into each other… While I sometimes played outside, I soon preferred video games to taking long walks in nature, which usually rather bored me. Long-distance running was (and still is) simply exhausting, as I never reached the endorphine-induced peak experience many athletes are fond of. It was only in combination with music that I would become enthusiastic about exercising my bodily potential. As a teenager, it would at first also be tied to an arcade-game setting such as the fabulous Pump It Up, while I later actively sought out to learn established ways of dancing, such as Hip Hop and African styles. During the time my aunt became a Yoga instructor, I also started to be more interested in the relationship between the body and the mind, now doing yoga on a regular basis. [ 1] Through further study in a range of topics and my personal experiences, I now come to understand the importance of the connection between mind and body. In Western society today, it is indeed The Missing Link.
Consciousness Embodied
First off, I should emphasise that I see the body to be born out of consciousness, rather than consciousness emerging out of matter. Still, it is clear that without a connection between these elements, this particular experience we call human life in the material sphere wouldn’t be possible. Our bodies are nothing less than the most perfect sensory vehicle to experience this world. Furthermore, I believe they serve as an effigy of our individual state of mind. Whether through facial expressions, posture or the condition of our skin, the body always accurately reflects the individuated fractal of consciousness it embodies. Left to its own devices, it depicts a congruency rarely observed in our usual social interactions: For once, representation really equals content.
The quality of the connection between body and mind can be thought of as a continuum. On one end we find expansion, joy and relaxation. On the polar opposite there is contraction, depression and paralysis. As exemplified by the pulsing of our heart and the breathing through our lungs, both contraction and expansion are necessary for us to be alive. As beautifully described by the sufi mystic Rumi: “Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror up to where you are bravely working. Expecting the worst, you look, and instead, here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see. Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birdwings.“ Our continued ability to flow between contraction and expansion as well as the baseline of relaxation we maintain throughout our lives is in direct relation to the integration of mind and body.
The Necrophilic Society
On an individual level, many have allowed this most vital of connections between flesh and spirit to deteriorate. Emphasising rationality in the wake of progress is resulting in a merger of man and machine through cars, artificial joints and microchip implants. At the same time, human bodies are easily dismissed as weak, fragile and inefficient. [ 2] Neglecting our bodily nature, we don’t celebrate and enjoy our body any more, but merely want to maintain it so our intellect can keep working. We readily abandon our health and physical centredness for seemingly rational reasons such as financial gain. Not wanting to deal with the often difficult sensations our bodies present us with – feelings incited by thoughts, emotions and the external world – we are looking to disconnect from it, rather distracting ourselves with the newest technological gadgets. Any body which isn’t nurtured by consciousness, anything of which we are not aware, is certain to decay. [ 3] Being the pinnacle of decay, it is hidden in plain sight that we have built a necrophilic society centring on the worship of death and destruction.
Television serves as the epitome of this type of machine consciousness divorced from any embodied feeling. Not just prime-time programming such as blockbuster action movies or your regular newscast on war and massacre, but even whole channels are devoted to the worship and awe of death – crime scene investigations, autopsy reports, war history. [ 4] Others deal with the dead fiction of positive law, the psychology of serial killers, the horrors of mental abuse or deadly gladiatorial fights. Series about zombies such as The Walking Dead are enjoyed by many, but few realise what an accurate allegory such stories are to the state of consciousness – potentially even their own! [ 5] Of course, the TV programmes are merely one highly visible symptom of this fundamental disruption we experience in the connection to our own bodies.
Traumatization and Paralysis
Having been acculturated to the experience of fear, death and destruction, many become used to it. Fear should be seen as a warning signal, indicating the possibility for change. Instead, many find an intense, though short-lived excitement in these experiences and thus adapt a fearful attitude as their personal reality. [ 6] This is how it becomes understandable why many continually submit to the current state of affairs, willingly re-traumatizing themselves through their own anxieties and the fear-promoting culture they surround themselves with. This aggravates the disconnection from the sense of aliveness we are supposed to experience through our bodies. To a certain extent, we are all exposed to negative influences which disrupt our sense of bodily awareness, disconnecting us from the actual reality of existence. After all, the body is our main gate to the material world and most within industrialised countries are free from physical hardship. As the sun rises to warm our skin every day, we can choose to have an indeed heart-warming bodily experience. [ 7] Yet in a traumatized individual with a fearful attitude, the mind continually frightens itself. If we choose, we can spend our days imagining or remembering undesirable experiences. Maintaining this cycle, the mind becomes locked into a fearful state which negatively reflects upon the body. To a certain extent – whether through a stiff neck, a sore shoulder, or an aching belly – most of us are affected by the results of traumatization.
Peter Levine aptly explains the pattern of these disruptions using animals as an example. [ 8] If a mouse is facing a real threat such as a predatory cat, the distress will usually cause the well-known fight-or-flight response. The mouse will either flee, or – if no escape route is available – ferociously attack the predator in a last-ditch attempt to fight the deadly threat. However, if the mouse is being hit by the cat’s paws or held within its mouth, the overwhelming sense of danger and the inability to effectively flee or fight back will engage the last, most basic survival response available: An almost complete shut-down of bodily functions effectively freezes the mouse – so-called paralysis or tonic immobility. This can serve to decrease the pain felt should death actually occur, but it can also cause the cat to simply lose interest in the mouse. [ 9] Assuming the threat is gone for example because the cat finds something more interesting to play with, the mouse will remain paralysed for a few more seconds. It will then violently shake for a brief moment, immediately restarting its full bodily potential, and be on its way. [ 10]
In humans, the prerequisites for paralysis are the same: Fear for one’s life and the inability to fight back or escape. The key distinction between animals and humans is our ability to create most complex mental representations of the world, which serve as the basis for modern culture and society at large. In a deadly situation, paralysis causes an altered state of consciousness. The mind dissociates itself from the body in order to make the horrendous bearable. Thus, we experience the horrible event as if we weren’t even inside our own bodies! [ 11] While there are actual cases of being in mortal danger and strapped to a chair, the average person luckily never has to make such an experience. But how often do we think, or rather – feel – as if our lives are in danger and we are trapped and helpless? Feeling stuck in a horrible job without seeing alternatives to support ourselves, feeling trapped in an unhealthy relationship with seemingly no escape, feeling helpless in the wake of mounting debt, feeling impotent being confronted with the political leviathan or an unfair court, feeling confused in the face of disease… So we find that our capacity for complex mental processing and imagination is a gift, but it is something which we can also allow to work against our higher good. While neither in immediate mortal danger nor being physically restrained, we can still feel and imagine as if it were the case. This type of worrying about an imagined threat – even in the absence of any actual, real danger – can also lead to traumatization, causing the immobility response to varying degrees.
We thus need to understand that the effects of trauma – numbness, stiffness, depression, chronic disease, impotence – often diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, are actually a survival response which never played out and thus got stuck inside the body. The key to resolving trauma lies in uncoupling the sense of fear from the naturally time-limited immobility response. Re-establishing the link between the formerly dissociated mind and the body allows us to feel the uncomfortable bodily sensations in the absence of fear. The key is to become mindful of one’s own body, actually feeling oneself again and developing body-awareness. As the tension is observed in a safe situation, the fear is uncoupled and starts to dissipate. This may result in violent shaking similar to what animals exhibit, effectively restoring the mind-body link and re-establish the individual sense of aliveness. This process requires courage, as pent-up rage or sadness may emerge. One can work on containing such emotions which had been locked away in the body, eventually integrating them and becoming better at coping with difficult situations [ 12] We should be aware that our amazing body is always striving to be whole and healthy. As soon as it is given the ability by the mind to re-connect, it will seize the opportunity and work towards a quick resolve through natural, self-paced termination of the survival response. It is helpful to work with various body techniques, gradually uncoupling fear and immobility to restore the sense of goodness and arriving in the present as embodied consciousness.
Given this rough outline about the disruption and restoration of the mind-body connection, I would like to show further sources of traumatization and illustrate the aspects we encounter in our everyday lives. Offering my experiences and insights, I’d like to inspire alternative viewpoints leading towards expansion and relaxation. I don’t expect you to agree with any of the arguments, but I invite you to investigate and validate these ideas for yourself and allow the underlying pattern of contrasts to become visible: A bi-polarity of intense peaks and depressive troughs as opposed to a more moderate, continuously positive experience.
Health and Stress
Although being shunned by the medical establishment, Gerd Hamer proposes an interesting theory of health based on five fundamental biological laws. Within this theory, it is proposed that health is the natural, balanced state of the human body. Disease, instead of being blamed on seemingly foreign agents such as viruses or bacteria, is thought to be caused by stress. [ 13] This may be transmitted through low-quality food, air pollution, environmental toxins as well as psychological distress caused by dysfunctional social relations, economic difficulties or depressing media reports. Furthermore, disease isn’t seen as a bodily malfunction, but rather as the body’s attempt to restore internal balance. It should therefore be allowed to proceed uninterrupted by aggressive medical or surgical intervention. While I won’t go into the details of this framework, one parallel to the mouse example above is particularly striking. As the mouse is under duress by fleeing, fighting or being paralysed, an extensive amount of stress builds up through activation of the autonomic nervous system – blood is pumped faster, the lungs expand to supply more oxygen and so on. Within a natural setting such as the cat and mouse situation, this state has to be maintained for mere seconds, usually well below a minute. By that time, the mouse will either be dead or it will have escaped. It can then rest in a safe place, its bodily tissues and nervous system restoring themselves to optimal operation. The process of recovery during which the mouse should be undisturbed might be a few minutes or hours. It will remember the location of the cat’s turf, but it won’t unnecessarily worry about it, instead simply focusing on finding new food sources.
However, as humans, we are faced with the same dilemma as mentioned above in association with traumatization. Our mental capacity to frighten ourselves and remain anxious can maintain the stressed state over hours, days and even years. This framework proposes that diseases largely associated with modern civilization, such as cancer and chronic illness, actually represent a process of recovery from an extensive amount of stress. Notwithstanding individual acceptance of this controversial theory, its core message should be carefully considered. Disease seen as the body’s attempt to restore internal balance forces us to look at our lifestyle and consider which stressful factors we expose ourselves to – and where our own responsibility lies. It also points towards the idea that it is only our intellect, directly controlled by our waking consciousness, but never the body is actually showing a dysfunction. Uneasiness and disease are part of our body’s language, indicating that we may be heading down the wrong path. So instead of trying to fight this bodily sign with aggressive medical intervention or simply ignoring it, it could be healthy to become mindful of the actual condition. As with Levine’s findings on trauma, the capacity of the body to self-regulate is being emphasised. Disease thus doesn’t mean that the body is broken, but rather that it attempts to heal itself from the ordeals we subjected it to. By forcing us to slow down – through a headache or a cold – it is already indicating what we should pay more attention to! Being consciousness, it indicates what part of ourselves – the physical merely representing the mental and spiritual aspects – we should direct ourselves to by actively becoming aware of it. Extensive research and interpretation on the relationship of bodily disease with psychological and spiritual causes has been conducted. [ 14] Of course, admitting that we are solely responsible for our own health is a difficult step, but one which liberates us from outside dependence for restoring our inner equilibrium. Instead of riding the roller-coaster of intense stress and disease – unhealthy contraction and the resulting need for prolonged relaxation – we can choose to be mindful and continually remain in a more balanced state.
Sexuality through Self-Respect
What is a positive attitude towards sexuality? What is a healthy expression of one’s sex drive? Having developed a ground-breaking theory based on his clinical experience, Jack Morin offers many important insights. [ 15] As we can readily observe within most social interactions, the topics of eroticism and sex are usually suppressed or discussed in either a clinically disinfected or deviously distorted manner. Erotic feelings are difficult to deal with, so we often prefer to ignore or suppress them, effectively disconnecting sexual desires and any associated body parts from the totality of our experience. Sexuality, ultimately associated with affection and reproduction, might be one of the largest looming shadows individuals in industrialised societies are unable to cope with.
Without a natural, gentle approach to this most natural of desires: How can anyone be expected to develop a healthy sexuality? Discussion often treated as taboo, sexual education far removed from the reality of social life and overexposure to myriad forms of pornography often only reinforce feelings of confusion, inadequacy, undesirability, performance anxiety as well as worries about birth control. Society’s projection of an ever-looming threat of sexually transmitted disease, whether real or imagined, only serves to make people even more terrified of sexual contact, naturally meant to be the most intimate, loving and relaxing experience. In my evaluation, the HIV-AIDS theory is the most controversial, abhorrent and fiendish of these projected scenarios. [ 16]
It is possible to integrate sexuality within one’s personality by actively looking at, understanding and thus dissolving this most intimate shadow of peculiarities, secret fantasies and potentially unmet desires. This involves understanding how one is most often sexually driven by traumatic experiences of the past. Our bodies and our sex drive aren’t working against us or even betraying us. Rather, we have an in-built desire to re-create troubling scenarios in an effort to resolve them so we may move on with our lives. We are often attracted by those people and situations which represent our deepest psychological and emotional injuries. I contend that this ensures that all fractals of consciousness, including you and me, are driven towards greater integration and unity within themselves and thus with the world as a whole. It is only if we allow ourselves to become trapped in the negative, although often immensely exciting emotions such as shame, sadness and anger, that these so-called erotic patterns turn against our best interest. It is only by reaching an inner consensus – understanding that a negative, destructive pattern no longer serves us – that we may break the vicious cycle for good. This is the manifested desire to have a positive, joyful experience. Self-respect is the key.
The short-lived peaks and severe depressions of an ultimately destructive erotic pattern may be transformed into a potentially less exciting, but more intense and continually positive experience. Sexuality, as the most primal generative force within this world, may then fully blossom, bringing joy and liveliness beyond what one could have dreamed of.
The Ultimate Relaxation – Orgasm
Speaking of dreams – the following elaborations may seem like a fairy tale, but through my own research and experiments I can guarantee that they are worthy of consideration, otherwise I wouldn’t bother to direct your awareness to these lines, my dear reader! As the joke goes – men have been blessed with the ability to urinate while standing – while women have the ability to have multiple, continual orgasms. While a special type of urinal has been designed for women, few know of men’s natural ability to have multiple orgasms.
What is an orgasm, actually? Luckily, the experiences, practices and insights of the millenia-old Taoist traditions are now becoming more widely available. Their definition of what an orgasm actually is clearly illustrates their profound wisdom. An orgasm is simply deep relaxation brought about by the pulsing of any part of the body, such as muscles or organs. [ 17] So we understand the reason why a delicious piece of cake may cause us to moan in pleasure, the best part of our favourite song to have us shuddering with excitement, an intense workout to bring us towards an orgasmic state. [ 18] These are all essentially relaxations of different body parts in varying degrees. In a well-balanced individual a full-body orgasm may also be experienced, usually through sexual arousal. For men, the secret lies in uncoupling the emergence of orgasm from the ejaculatory reflex, which the Taoists see as a quite mundane, involuntary(!) muscle spasm. The energy contained within the semen may then effectively be re-cycled through the body with the help of specifically designed Taoistic practices which have been fine-tuned over the ages. Instead of effectively squandering this pure life-force energy – it is designed to be the seed of the next generation of mankind – it may be withheld and refined within the body to increase physical, mental and spiritual energy. Although women are usually loosing less energy during sexual activity than men, they may apply very similar techniques. Men, instead of experiencing the short-lived pleasure and resulting drowsiness associated with ejaculation, may instead enter a multi-orgasmic state of intense sensations and heightened energy levels – whether alone or with a partner. [ 19] Sex was never meant to deplete one’s reserves, but rather to have a blissful experience of sacred union with one’s partner and generate energy for living! If we become mindful of it, the body proves itself not to be an annoying appendix of our intellect, but rather as a most powerful material embodiment. Again, peaks and troughs – in this case of sexual excitement – may be transformed into a lasting, joyful erotic experience and even bring about greater health.
Spiritual experiences have been known to occur in orgasmic states – such as feeling one with the sexual partner. I contend that this type of intense, full-body orgasm which may be reached by different means such as Taoist practice actually causes an altered state of individuated consciousness through profound relaxation. As the body is overwhelmed with pleasurable sensations, the overworked intellect is disarmed and the arrival in the present moment is achieved. This is the experience of being consciousness fully embodied within this particular time-space, yet simultaneously realizing the unity with the whole of material creation and whatever may lie beyond. This deep relaxation, as opposed to our normal stiff and contracted condition, effectively causes an expansion of consciousness. I think the capacity of transforming sexual energy within one’s own body is what causes saints and enlightened masters to renounce the carnal aspect of sexuality. Instead of being dependent on a partner for temporary relief, through their spiritual refinement, they are able to live in a state of continued, deep relaxation. Just as the heart pulsates with life, love and compassion – they may well be able to live in an eternal state of orgasmic bliss. This represents the marriage of spirituality and sexuality on which I will elaborate further below.
Food for Thought
While sexuality is only discussed, let alone practised behind closed doors, the consumption of food is a glorified and often public act. Culinary culture has become an unquestioned given and so few are aware of the stress they put their bodies under through unhealthy food consumption habits. While most are aware that a diet based on Chinese fast-food take-out or double-chocolate cake might not be the most wholesome choice – meat, milk and white bread are not that closely examined.
Coming back to the concept of the necrophilic society, modern food production and consumption patterns closely reflect this idea. Large-scale livestock farming with the application of hormones to artificially speed-up growth, a tiny and threatening environment to save space as well as an appalling disrespect for animal life clearly demonstrates our disconnectedness from the inherent vitality of existence. It could be said that we treat our own bodies just as we treat these animals – merely maintaining them, hoping they won’t get in the way. As Waltner-Toews states, food is to the human in relation with nature like sex is to the relationship between two humans – you can hardly get any more intimate than that. Yet, just as sex has been industrialised, food is currently an industry as well – and just as void of empathy and compassion. [ 20] Death, rather than life, lies at the centre of industrialised food production. As we focus on the production of dead matter, it logically follows that we also mostly eat dead matter. While the absorption of stress hormones and drugs through eating the meat of animals which were subjected to anxiety and medication sounds quite reasonable, the negative side-effects of consuming bread and milk are less well understood. Both bread and milk release opiates within the brain, which effectively causes addiction. Furthermore, the fast conversion of carbohydrates into sugar causes a sudden surge in blood sugar levels, which may also result in compulsive eating and a craving for sweet food. While I won’t get into the intricacies of different dieting choices, often considered a highly personal and emotional matter, I will leave you with this simple example: A meatball and an apple are put into the earth. The dead meatball will rot – but out of the living apple, a tree may grow! [ 21]
Again, we may find the correlation with the underlying pattern of peaks and troughs – stress and relaxation. A traditional Western diet delivers peak eating experiences, releasing hormones and raising blood sugar levels for a brief moment. However, this goes at the expense of the digestive tract – a main component of our immune system – and the hunger is soon to return. A diet focused on living matter such as fresh plants and seeds doesn’t produce such cravings since it only slowly and moderately increases blood sugar. It is easier to digest and also better suited to meet nutritional needs, ultimately promoting our health and well-being. Furthermore, I think it is highly beneficial to uncover the reasons why we eat. Peanut butter can only suppress the emotion of love-sickness for so long – a closer look at our motivations for eating might thus be in order. [ 22] If we choose to become aware of our taste, digestion and energy levels, our body naturally tells us what type of food is best for us. A clear mind and a more vibrant sense of aliveness are among the benefits of taking time to listen to ourselves.
Degrees of Freedom – Music and Movement
As a last example of everyday interactions between mind and body, I would like to mention the wonderful aspects of music and movement. In the beginning was the word… and being vibration, it may indeed what constructs this reality at its root. [ 23] As you can easily prove to yourself, different types of vibration, like in its cultural form as music, can have a great impact on the mood – promoting emotions such as joy, anxiety, rage or depression. Recognizing this relationship, I have always been mindful of the type of music I subject myself to. The popular music society presents us with is often monotonous, boring and repetitive. It is instilling a machine-like, piece-rate worker mindset of permanent stress and agitation. This is a far cry from the variation and orgasmic excitement such as conveyed in classical or ethnic music, which allows us to relax more easily. [ 24] A parallel can be drawn to our bodily movements. What are the stiff and jerky movements of the stressed individual compared to the flowing grace of a yogi or a dancer? I see all movement as an expression of potentiality. The ideas and concepts from the higher realms are translated into the material plane through concrete, physical movement of bodies. We can choose to follow certain accepted patterns of movements – gestures, walk, dancing style and travel behaviour – or we may choose to express what we find within us. Practicing yoga and just dancing to one’s heart’s content can help us explore ourselves and increase the degree of potentiality we can manifest. Accordingly, it also helps to relieve tension and restore a relaxed state of mind and body. [ 25]
Limiting ourselves to the expected pattern of behaviour in music, movement and thus behaviour – being stiff during work and going crazy on the weekend – is another type of contraction-relaxation roller-coaster. Unfortunately, the heightened need for relaxation is rarely met through the traditional forms – neither binge-drinking in pubs nor ultimately stressful holidays in remote countries. However, breaking out of the accepted norms and adopting a generally more open, relaxed and natural stance might make the desire for relief during our spare time vanish altogether. A more stable and satisfying way of movement can emerge if every day is met with a gently flowing, flexible and relaxed posture – represented by both the body and the mind.
Spiritual Vibrations and Formless Bliss
Connecting the various dots, a nexus emerges at the heart of spirituality and consciousness. The release of a pent-up survival response, the emergence of suppressed feelings, the sense of aliveness attained through orgasm and dancing – these are all the result of reinforcing the link between the mind and the body. Essentially, this process characterises itself through a form of violent shaking and intense vibration of the body. Students of the sacred arts have long been aware of the most intimate connection between spirituality and sexuality. The most refined but hidden sephira in the Quabbalistic Tree of Life – Daath, representing awakened knowledge – is located in exact correlation with Yesod, representing the sexual-unconscious power-self. The generative force thus flows from the highest spiritual realm through our intellect, manifested as creativity, down to our sexuality, manifested as desire. The ways of releasing stress and contraction through vibration allows us to open this channel, enabling spiritual realisation, creative insight and increased sexual energy – ultimately fuelling our life-force. I contend that they allow us to take a step back from this most dense, concrete material plane into the higher realms of spirit. These vibrations thus enable us to re-connect with our true nature. The deeper the relaxation, the more information there is to transmit, the more dramatic this process may be. It is essentially a synchronisation with the inner core of our being. The expansion of ourselves as consciousness allow us to move from the ego-driven, tense and defined state into a spiritually awakened, more relaxed and formless state. At its pinnacle stands the ultimate, paradoxical realisation of ourselves as creator-consciousness, our unity and immortality with the all-one of creation. If you understand yourself to be everything there is – every other person, every tree and every stone – what is there to be stressed out about? This realization is indeed a state of formless bliss. In such a profoundly relaxed state, we can act in accordance with ourselves, both as embodied consciousness and reflection within the whole of creation – and maybe even with whatever may lie beyond! [ 26]
The Body as Temple – An Expansion of Consciousness
If our body is the temple, then our will and intellect is the priest, our nature as consciousness being the god. The priest, in his ignorance, has ignored and sometimes even wilfully devastated the temple. Therefore, it comes to no surprise that the god, while always being there, has more difficulty to properly manifest himself unless the priest does a major clean-up. With each dusted shelf and every chalice put back into its place, the glory of the god will shine brighter within the temple – to the priest’s pleasure and delight. It might take great will and courage to get up and re-establish order in such a messy place. We intuitively know that it will be well worth the ordeal in order to reap the ultimate reward: The eternal celebration of god in his temple by the priest – really, the celebration of life through body-awareness. This is the timeless state of the individual will to live in the present as fully embodied consciousness.
As everything within the material world, the body can only be sustained by consciousness. If we are continually distracted and neglect our own body, it will certainly decay. An ignored body is a doomed body, as a temple without god has no reason to exist. However, if we choose to become conscious of our most magnificent effigy within this material world, this awareness and our resulting actions will support it in becoming wholesome. And there’s a reason why wholly is just a few letters away from holy… [ 27] Re-establishing the missing link between the mind and the body through the actions of our will can lead us to discover its wonders and enjoy its incredible capacities. [ 28] We may then feel complete and integrated within ourselves, more grounded and at peace within this world. Enthusiasm and a sense of liveliness are allowed to emerge.
I hope I could give you a sense of the underlying pattern of contraction and expansion – stress and relaxation – which is found in such diverse areas as trauma, health, eroticism, sexuality and even mundane activities such as moving about and eating. A bi-polar ride between excitation and depression can be transformed into a loving, joyful and steady life-experience. While the first step is certainly the most difficult decision, we are readily supported by the universal life-force. The drive towards unity-consciousness is deeply ingrained within our bodies, no matter how ignorant our intellect has become. All of the body’s actions and signals point towards healing and greater integration – ultimately acceptance and self-love, for we as consciousness are contained within everything. The body’s incredible capacity for healing through self-regulation should serve us as a role model for society at large. Left to its own devices, uninterrupted by a controlling intellect, the body reveals his tremendous ability to restore and maintain order. Left to their own devices, undisrupted by the desire to control others, autonomous individuals reveal their capacity to build self-regulating systems of economic and social interaction. So it seems that everything starts with yourself, the decision being made within your own body as microcosmic representation of the whole universe. As the Sufi proverb goes: “The body is the sore of the ocean of being.” [ 29]
Re-establishing the missing link, connecting with our lower, material embodiment may indeed represent the change from below so many are hoping for. Have you realised that this revolution – choosing fear over love – may actually have to be manifested within yourself emotionally, intellectually and spiritually first, before any outside change can take place? Body-awareness brings the incredible power of creation surging through us so we may be fully embodied consciousness within the gift of the present moment. The manifestation of Love and Life shall blossom. As every so often, I agree with M.P. Hall: “God was the Word and that the Word was made flesh. Man’s task now is to make flesh reflect the glory of that Word, which is within the soul of himself.”
Notes
[ 1] My aunt Jutta Kaun offers a combination of yoga exercises and free movement meditation. Through accessing the body, trauma may be treated and chronic illness relieved. [back]
[ 2] Note the German word “Leib”, which describes the body as being alive, rather than just being a bunch of matter. I deal with the broader issue and insufficiency of the materialist worldview in The Definition of the Material World. [back]
[ 3] I explore the relationship between consciousness and matter in A Conscious Decision. The referenced rice hado experiment by Emoto is especially revealing. [back]
[ 4] The word “programming” in relation to humans reveals a mechanistic view of humans and the world. A computer can be programmed, a distracted mind may be misled and manipulated. Vigilant Citizen details this process in Mind Control Theories and Techniques used by Mass Medias. [back]
[ 5] While disciples of the occult seem to reside in Hollywood, I was still surprised to detect this quite obvious message (“Wake Up“) during an episode of The Walking Dead. In a sense, we live in a world full of people which function, but don’t really live out their lives. Aan analogy and a stretch of imagination, but actually not that far removed from the horrible situation depicted in the series. Unless you wake up to the dream – you may never even know what it means to live. I write about this process in Awakening to Creator-Consciousness. [back]
[ 6] Roman Christian Hafner, gifted with a special sense of perception, describes this idea in this German interview. In a spiritual sense, love is the only reality. If fear is recognised as the illusion it is, then we may stop generating it. According to Hafner, the excessive amount of fear generated today might also have the purpose to allow more people to see through this play. [back]
[ 7] And even if the sun doesn’t shine, many meditation techniques teach the rising of an inner, spiritual sun which is absolutely independent of outside circumstances. Examples include Israel Regardie’s The Middle Pillar exercise or the Taoist’s Inner Smile. [back]
[ 8] In his book In An Unspoken Voice, Psychologist Peter Levine confirms the theory of a triune brain with a combined reptilian, mammalian and human component. David Icke has long been ridiculed for seeing the world’s power elite as reptiles – but the fearful, controlling and self-serving manner in which they act are characteristic of the reptilian brain functions, working solely to ensure individual survival. [back]
[ 9] It seems that becoming completely inert – playing possum – serves to distract the predator. As it is advised for humans coming in contact with wild animals, remaining calm may be better than running away so as not to incite further agitation. The immobility response is described in detail in Levine’s book (p.49). [back]
[ 10] If further traumatizing events occur within a short period of time, especially fear combined with restraint, the paralysis lasts longer as the rebooting time increases (p.54). [back]
[ 11] Paralysation is also the reason why many victims are unable to defend themselves. The experience of being outside of one’s body is shared by many who lived through traumatic events. While there is a psychological basis for these perceptions, I think it very possible that the individual as consciousness actually leaves the body, causing a perception from a different angle such as described in Bruce’s Astral Dynamics. Dissociation is also employed as a mind control technique. If the person’s actual consciousness is completely disconnected from the body, it can effectively become a vessel to serve another’s will. The process of effectively creating split personalities for economic exploitation and power is detailed in Origins and Techniques of Monarch Mind Control by the Vigilant Citizen. The societal dimension is explored by Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. [back]
[ 12] Levine quotes Sigmund Freud: “The mind has forgotten but the body has not-thankfully.” Negative, unresolved experiences are indeed stored in the body, which is the reason Levine proposes to re-name post-traumatic stress disorder into post-traumatic injury. It points to the fact that it isn’t a chronic condition which can never be resolved, but should rather be likened to an injury which can be remedied given appropriate treatment! [back]
[ 13] These five fundamental biological laws are explained within this documentary. I think the time invested is well spent in understanding an alternative way of looking at health and disease. It includes interesting ideas such as raised by Dr. Herbert Shelton: Just like the medieval fight against demons possessing the sick body, the contemporary war against viruses might actually be a crusade against an imagined enemy. Rather than externalizing the cause, this framework encourages us to look for the reason of disease within ourselves. [back]
[ 14] See Rüdiger Dahlke’s Krankheit als Symptom and his related books. [back]
[ 15] I highly recommend Jack Morin’s The Erotic Mind. This book encourages you to discover your own so-called core erotic theme in order to advance within your personal life and develop a more positive attitude towards sexuality in general, promoting respect and acceptance. [back]
[ 16] The huge amounts of money spent on medical research which ultimately still leads to the afflicted leading a troubled life has always baffled me. Therefore, I conducted my own research and came across the most enlightening book by Nancy Turner Banks M.D. Entitled AIDS, Opium, Diamonds and Empire, it clearly illustrates the the economic interest and historical background of the mainstream HIV/AIDS thesis. Furthermore, it shows its insufficiency and proposes a more comprehensive explanation: The symptoms known as AIDS being caused by the various stressors we put our bodies under, rather than an unlucky instance of unprotected sexual contact. I recommend the extensive research on these biological relationships by my dear friend, biologist Christl Meyer. [back]
[ 17] Most interestingly, Hamer’s theory mentioned above also includes the idea that disease is represented by the equivalent brain area being pressurised as observed through a non-contrast brain scan. [back]
[ 18] Directing awareness towards different body parts such as muscles, skin or organs, it is quite easy to feel some type of sensation. Depending on whether the area is associated with previous traumatization, the feeling might be uncomfortable at first – but the underlying goodness is certain to be discovered through gentle persistence. Directing and circulating one’s life-force, any part of the body can relax and eventually experience the pulsation of orgasm. The Taoist’s Six Healing Sounds are a great starting point to become aware of previously neglected inner world of one’s body. Please note that all such exercises are essentially a method of directing yourself as consciousness towards your body as your material effigy in order to support its existence. Without a continued influx of nurturing energy from consciousness, nothing in the material world can persist in a healthy state. For a humorous artistic elaboration on exercise-induced orgasm see The Pump. [back]
[ 19] For men, the core part of the equation is the prostate. Being located a few centimetres in and below the navel, it may be stimulated through gentle pressure from the pelvic area. More direct methods include the contraction of the sphincter, pubococcygeus and associated muscles, which are also involuntarily activated during penile stimulation and without which high levels of arousal are hardly possible. Mantak Chia has written books for both men and women on attaining a multi-orgasmic state. I personally recommend Taoist Yoga and Sexual Energy by Chia-trained Taoist Master Eric Yudelove. For those who would like a material anchor to potentially speed up the process, I can recommend the tools developed by Aneros and as well as their insightful formus and wiki. [back]
[ 20] In Manu Coeman’s documentary (German version) on large-scale livestock production, epidemiologist Waltner-Toews explains this analogy. Including consciousness within the analysis, not only chemicals and hormones within the animal’s body might be harmful for us: The information encoded through treating animals in a derogatory and unworthy manner isn’t something I would recommend consuming, as individually verifiable through Masaru Emoto’s rice hado experiment. [back]
[ 21] Within the last year, I gradually went from omnivore to eating mostly vegetarian, experimenting with eating mostly raw vegan and now most likely arriving at gourmet omnivorism. I find the concepts of Attentive Eating and Sequential Eating (similar to Ayurvedic Food Combining) by Stanley Bass worthy of consideration. Although I didn’t suffer from any particular disease, I chose to change my diet in order to increase my energy levels. Voluntarily leaving bread aside and only eating meat, fish and dairy products of high quality leaves me with easier digestible and nutritionally dense meals. Aside from simply eating raw vegetables and fruits, I can make my own seed-based crackers, plant-based smoothies, spreads and variations of raw vegan chocolate. Once you are brave enough to explore and try different types of food for yourself, you will naturally be drawn to the healthiest choices. Then, it will be about what your body really craves: Nutritious, delicious and wholesome food. [back]
[ 22] For an introduction to this topic, I can highly recommend the documentary Hungry for Change. It seems that a main reason for obesity and bad health is simply pollution of the body. This includes environmental toxins such as bad food as well as internally-produced hormones caused by psychological stress such as cortisol. The theory espoused by Hamer above proposes that a continually anxious state causes the body to enter an emergency mode, deliberately storing all available nutrients within the body, thus increasing body fat. A theory based on the relation of acidic and alkaline nutrition proposes that we should mostly eat alkaline, anti-oxidant foods to stay healthy. However, the prevalence of acidic foods in many diets requires the body to isolate and store their toxic elements within fat since they can’t be processed and expelled fast enough. A change towards a mostly plant-based, naturally alkaline diet avoiding empty carbohydrates and industrial sugar allows the accumulated toxins to be flushed out and excess weight is lost naturally. Anyone interested in learning about a more radical step, living solely off the universal life force, should check out the Austrian documentary Am Anfang war das Licht. [back]
[ 23] Experiments in cymatics by scientist Hans Jenny show how vibrations directly influence matter. This extensive documentary on Ancient Knowledge also explains how the universe is built on frequencies. [back]
[ 24] My love for the joy of dancing and high quality music also stems from the fact that it allows for relaxation and inspiration. In a relaxed state, it’s much easier to zoom out, allowing the bigger picture to come together. Plenty of reasons for me to DJ and make my own musical blends as General Unique. [back]
[ 25] Every posture and every position you can represent with your body is essentially a concept of its own. The more extensive your physical degree of freedom, the more varied your movements and thus your ability to represent myriad thoughts through your physical embodiment. The intimate relationship between mind and body postulates that being physically flexible, exploring different dancing styles and expressing your personal patterns of motion increases not just your physical, but also your mental and spiritual freedom. Allow your energy to circulate between these realms. Don’t mind who’s looking as you express yourself: I was even dancing in the subway in Vienna and some people were delighted. Freedom of movement is freedom of thought. In times of universal paralysis, dancing in public is a revolutionary act! [back]
[ 26] I contend that spirituality is essentially eroticism and also tightly connected to creativity. Great insight and creativity – Eureka moments – mostly occur in a relaxed state, when the connecting channels of spirit, intellect and body are open. Magic rituals often work with erotic polarities. If you truly follow your erotic desire as described in the book by Morin mentioned above, then you are always driven towards your own completion and self-realisation – which is of course a spiritual journey. In turn, a spiritual journey towards self-completion is also always an exploration of your innermost desires.
Those experiencing full-body orgasms speak of a wave of pleasure and relaxation expanding from below the navel and flushing over the whole body. This is the centre of consciousness, quoting D.H. Lawrence in Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious: “The first seat of our primal consciousness is the solar plexus, the great nerve-centre situated behind the stomach. From this centre we are first dynamically conscious.” Those who attained multiple orgasms report that the first few result in a more violent shaking than the latter ones. I would say that the first burst of information in the synchronisation with oneself simply causes a stronger vibration. The first wave of vibration, being the content of the communication, contains more data than the following waves which occur after a stronger connection has been established. A parallel would be the trance states in Shamanism, which are also often accompanied by dancing and violent shaking. Within this synchronisation with oneself as both creator and the whole of creation, the illusion of separation is destroyed. In the state of formlessness, all desires – material, sexual, emotional, intellectual, spiritual – are fulfilled without any precondition or valuation. This is manifested awareness of the individual’s profound-paradoxical connection with everything. In this synchronisation with your higher state of consciousness – god – you can be at peace with yourself, being the world. Orgasm is thus relaxation in the consciousness of formlessness – the boundaries of body and thought being relinquished, awareness of being extended towards infinity. Even if relaxation is only achieved to a lower extent, feelings of fear and anxiety may easily be shed.
Occultist Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki explains how Daath can be mapped to Yesod, talks about the state of non-being and offers many other interesting insights in this interview: “There is in some people, such a desire for knowledge, such a desire for understanding, that they will go into a state of non-being to look for it. You do, you get whirled into this point, where the point is you, and you are also everything outside the point. That brings on an enormous sorrow, because you’re everything and you’re nothing. You want to get back, and yet you don’t want to leave, and you go into a state of total acceptance. You give up yourself. Then you move into Hockmah.” I write about form in The Definition of the Material World and the realization of paradoxical all-unity in Awakening to Creator-Consciousness. [back]
[ 27] Please note that the word “whole” is similar to “holy”. A holy person is one who is whole within himself. Although the equivalent words in other languages might not share the orthographic similarity, e.g. the Hungarian “egészség” for “health” also means “wholeness”. [back]
[ 28] Did you know that you have kinaesthetic, proprioceptive, vestibular and visceral receptors within your body? They allow you to know the state of tension of your muscles, the position of your joints, your position in respect to gravity and velocity and also give you access to your gut instinct. Of how many of these senses do you become consciously aware on a daily basis? We should be thankful for the proper functioning of our bodies, for we would be lost without its senses, our interface to the material world. See the aforementioned book by Levine (p.140). Antonio Damasio in The Feeling of What Happens: “We use our minds not to discover facts but to hide them. One of the things the screen hides most effectively is the body, our own body, by which I mean, the ins and outs of it, its interiors. Like a veil thrown over the skin to secure its modesty, the screen partially removes from the mind the inner states of the body, those that constitute the flow of life as it wanders in the journey of each day.” [back]
[ 29] Your body being the perfect representation of the macrocosm, it is possible to experience and recognise everything within. However, due to the lack of body-awareness, we have focused more and more on the outside to fulfil our desires. We use the outside world to serve as our reflection in order to attain self-recognition. Levine (p.275) talking about this development: “By the so-called age of reason, in the mid-seventeenth century, the importance of rationality ascended to new heights. Disembodiment, in the alleged service of this rationality, had become the norm. Instincts and the immediacy of physical drives (such as sex) had become an embarassment or worse. The subjugating power of the church reinforced this deepening split between mind and body. Finally, the supremacy of rationality congealed in Descartes’ “I think; therefore I am,” an iconic statement for modernity.” Trying to integrate our shadows, often hidden away within our bodies, really means integrating ourselves. As Alan Watts talks on Selfishness – loving self is really loving the universe.
I had previously used this quote by Nikola Tesla, but it also fits in well at this position: “From childhood I was compelled to concentrate attention upon myself. This caused me much suffering, but to my present view, it was a blessing in disguise for it has taught me to appreciate the inestimable value of introspection in the preservation of life, as well as a means of achievement. The pressure of occupation and the incessant stream of impressions pouring into our consciousness through all the gateways of knowledge make modern existence hazardous in many ways. Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves. The premature death of millions is primarily traceable to this cause. Even among those who exercise care, it is a common mistake to avoid imaginary, and ignore the real dangers. And what is true of an individual also applies, more or less, to a people as a whole.” [back]
Image credits (as available)
Jacob’s Ladder by William Blake
The Scream by Edvard Munch
Vertemus by Guiseppe Arcimboldo
Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci
The Chariot by Adam Fergurson
In autumn of 2007 I had the opportunity to visit Japan with a friend of mine. During the travel, I really enjoyed the contrast of modern technology and lush temple gardens. I also loved to sample the d
