Our Perceptions are Vital
Vitalism recognizes the potency of the human mind, as integrated with the body, soul and spirit. If illness is rooted in the disintegration of the individual, we must return to its root to restore it.
This post began as an inspiration after listening to an interview while driving this morning, but quickly went down a different path I didn’t anticipate but have been feeling deeply for many reasons.
My sense is this material may be more relevant to the reader than they may currently know so I encourage you to pay attention to your perceptions and acknowledge what you feel as you read this post. And please feel free to comment below to share your response or reactions to this material. Thank you.
Spending time in Nature has a way of shifting our perspective on things. It rejuvenates the senses and may cause spontaneous creative thoughts to arise.
Although being in Nature is restorative to our mind, body & spirit, when chronic imbalances are present, yet another (deeper) level of consciousness may be awaiting our recognition.
This deeper level of consciousness is at least a tad closer to our primary soul being, that once-removed derivative of the primal source from which we all derive and by which we feel a part of the life that’s all around us.
Getting closer to our soul awareness state is another step towards knowing who we truly are; the latent creative prowess, the cosmic sovereign being that resides within.
To be separated, in any way, from our soul awareness state, is a stage of disintegration of our being. This is not uncommon, not uncommon at all. I feel that this is the status quo in amongst the ‘civilized world’. This is not a comment to disparage who we are and where we come from/reside (the world of “progress”) so much as it is a recognition of a sort of fabric that holds itself together.
To be separated from our soul awareness state is to begin to feel lonely, to feel alone (consciously or unconsciously). It is to know ourselves separate from.
In Ayurveda, this is the origin of disease - to begin to perceive oneself as separate from, aka “the mistake of the intellect”.
However, is it truly a ‘mistake’ or is it a natural turn of events in response to a triggering occurrence, an occurrence so commonplace so as to be looked past, an occurrence so embedded into the prevailing concepts of ‘progress’ in all its forms such that it can occur and persist right before our eyes virtually unnoticed?
What is the response and what is the occurrence?
Trauma. We are all post-traumatic experience in some way or another. It is not so much what happened to you but how you responded to it, OR what was the context of the situation that caused you to respond, or react, this way?
This is one major reason why I believe there are no one-size-fits-all remedies to trauma, so much as there is a latent need within the unresolved experience that calls for a particular type of approach; the need to be witnessed and acknowledged.
(I may be stretching this across many points, but please stay with me…)
The response is a logical and understandable, if not appropriate, response under a given set of circumstances as part of a ‘natural turn of events’.
It may be all that’s available to a given individual under their particular set of circumstances, and may be perceived uniquely by each individual regardless of how similar or unique the circumstances may be outwardly perceived by another.
The occurrence, or variety of occurrences, would have to be an essential part of life such that none would leave unscathed. A portal through which each of us had to pass in order to be part of this reality in which we live.
Now there may be a variety of such things that either applies to most people or applies to all people of a particular culture or geography, but how many such occurrences apply to ALL people??
What is one thing all people who live, for however long or short, must endure in order to be part of this world, even for a moment or two? Yes, birth.
No matter where you are on the Earth, where you end up going or what you end up doing with whomever, you, we all have experienced birth.
It may be experienced in a, let’s say, natural way, via the vagina and all the myriad possibilities that can occur. Or it may be experienced in some other way, ie. non-vaginal birth.
As essentially traumatizing as the latter is, or may be, the former has its own share of potentially traumatizing scenarios.
But here’s the real kicker: to what extent does an onlooker or participant understand what the experience was like for the newborn?
As difficult as this may be to consider or comprehend, how often have any of us either begun to attempt to consider it for ourselves and our own birth or for that of another?
When the experience of birth is traumatizing to a newborn (ie. strong feelings are experienced and then held unresolved, unwitnessed, unacknowledged), this inherently creates a compartmentalization within the individual (a significant threat was perceived and an immediate need was unmet) so as to sequester these unresolved feelings that may be too overwhelming to continue to hold, and a process of disintegration within the individual, thus, can be experienced.
So is this disintegration a ‘mistake’ or is it a reasonable, if not understandable response to a highly untenable experience in which one’s sense of safety feels highly threatened, albeit, within one of the most vulnerable positions that a human being may experience - the birthing process.
Nonetheless, this ‘mistake’ is made, per se, and an adjustment to the inner psyche is made in accordance with the perceived threat and the instinctual response of assessing one’s immediate resources to tend to the problem. Then the internal disintegration is underway and remains present until there comes an opportunity to be authentically witnessed and acknowledged for the experience one has undergone.
This must be perceived by the caring adults around the newborn who have somehow perceived the event as it took place (unlikely) or have felt into the experience of the newborn to begin the processing by accurately and authentically witnessing and acknowledging (still unlikely) what the newborn has undergone.
In the absence of either of those unlikely events, the individual, over time (and many layers of obscurity) must uncover what lays hidden within in order to recover oneself and re-establish core integrity.
Pattern recognition in our lives - with not only an eye on the details, but attuning to the concurrent perceptions within the heart - is an essential means to getting to the primary nature of our soul being.
A rare gift in one’s life may be to meet another who not only sees but also feels into the nature of our soul being. It was the Irish author John O’Donohue who introduced me to the concept of anam cara. It is his concept that I hold in mind here as he refers to ‘two beings molded from the same piece of primordial clay’ such that you can sense each other as not only familiar but almost a part of yourself.
To have an individual like this, an anam cara, in one’s life is not only a tremendous gift but a way to recover one’s primary soul being (anam being Irish for “soul”). This “friend” (cara) may see into us or simply resonate beside us in such a way as to cause a stirring within the deep unconscious that begins to murmur from the depths causing nearly imperceptible stirrings and rumblings at the surface that may appear incoherent or scarcely unrelated to anything whatsoever.
But it is this ‘soul recognition’ that is vital to help us recover the connection to the path to reintegration. Thus the modern phrase, “your vibe attracts your tribe”. To the extent that such a feeling of connection is authentic and vital, it will lead one to a greater state of soul awareness. Here, discernment is key.
Dr. Cowan’s interview with David Icke (Feb. 2024) initially inspired me to write today. I took it another direction, I believe, but I’d still encourage you to listen to this interview as it conveys some important elements that I at least had in mind while writing it.
I’ll leave you with one parting thought from the talk that directly relates to the subject matter above (and the story behind it).
Beings such as Archons were mentioned in the interview. According to Gnostic writings, Archons are entities of the astral plane which feed off of our fear and ignorance. Rudolph Steiner wrote about archons and the Gnostics describe in The Nature of the Rulers these ‘authorities of the darkness’, or ‘spirits of wickedness’.
“When humans have no anxiety and fear, then these creatures starve.” ~ Rudolph Steiner
It is these “authorities” which I have come to see as a silent, unseen hand behind the wicked doings of men. The ‘occurrences’ which precipitate these disintegrations of the human being causing us to persist in states of suffering (of mind, body, and/or spirit), feeling separate and alone.
Vitality, thus, is experienced in stages and is always relative to the individual. The old addage, “comparison is the thief of joy” comes to mind as vitality cannot be assessed by comparing oneself to another but instead how one feels within.
The perception of how one feels must be rooted in a place of integrity (full integration) to be known as complete and trustworthy. Arguably, all maladies of the mind and body are but vital attempts to rescue our awareness from the isolated shores of separation and call our conscious selves back into the fight of reclaiming our right to choose to be whole and reject all that seeks to make us this otherwise about ourselves.
Is life on Earth meant to be an eternal battle of Dark vs. Light in ebbs and flows over eons, ages, yugas?
Or is that another perception we have acquired by way of our experience of disintegration of self, and by which, we may persist in that state of being?
Ultimately, it’s a matter of perception.