Every thing you have ever seen was simply a reflection of light.
#13 - But thankfully we are never left fully “in the dark”…
“The time has come in the history of man’s journey from his material jungle to his spiritual mountain top when it is imperative that he must live more and more in the cosmic Light universe of knowing, and less in the electric wave universe of sensing…”
-Walter Russell, “The Secret of Light”
Right now, move yourself to a room where you can create pure darkness. Go into that room, turn off all sources of light, and then look around. How many things can you see once the lights go out? Try this now, and then come back here to your backlit screen when ready…
If there was truly no ambient light in the room with you, then you just saw no thing(s) at all once the source of light was removed. You should not have been able to see your own hand held directly out in front of your face in that dark room. But as soon as you turned the lights back on you could once again see every thing in the room, right? Your hand is still there too, yeah? Ok good, you still need it to scroll onward :-P
It is not difficult to predict what you observed when you turned the lights off because every single thing that you and I have ever seen has been a reflection of light. The experiment you just did could be replicated infinitely and would always yield the same results. When the lights turn on you can see things, and when the lights turn off, you can not. That is just the way it works, and the light is the key.
A light source is absolutely necessary for us to visually observe the environment that we live within. As the light waves/particles bounce off of various things, we use our visual sensory organs to collect the light data for meaningful translation within the brain. Think again about what the things in your room look like when it is completely dark, versus when the lights are on. What kind of data is your brain actually processing when you observe a red vase, or a brown couch, or a green car, or any other thing you could imagine?
When we think about how we form our individualized perceptions of the reality we share, the first thing that comes to mind is more than likely based on our ability to see. Sight is a sensory process that most humans are gifted with, and it is one of the greatest cognitive tools that we possess for use in creating meaning. Not only do we have the ability to see though, we also have other senses that still continue to function when the lights go out each day.
When a light source is present, "reality” can been observed by the Human Eye. When no light source is present, other senses like Touch, Hearing, and Smell still help the observer to discern meaning about objects and things within the environment, though they can not actually see them. While we are never fully “in the dark”, we do not always have our sight to rely on, as each day presents the light for only part of the whole.
Now we will use our imagination again. Envision that you are out walking on a remote and wooded hiking trail. The woods are peacefully serene as you walk along the trail enjoying the sounds of a creek trickling alongside you. All that you see fills you with wonder, and your appreciation for nature widens. The bush rustles next to you and you look down to see a squirrel darting across the trail to a tree on the opposite side. A white tail dear appears, and then flees back into the misty woods where she just came from. There are trees all around you, as far as you can see, and a haze lingers between them, softening the lines of the upturned trunks in the distance.
After hiking all day, the sun waxes and begins to set, and you find that you are still on the trail and can not seem to find where you parked your car. The sun goes down and without the light from your phone you can not see a thing in front of or behind you on the same trail you’ve been on all day. There are no signs to point you in the right direction, and you start to hear movement deeper in the woods from farther than your light will shine. The bushes rustle loudly only steps away from you, and you jump back, gasping in anticipation.
OK, now that your skin is crawling just a little bit…
How do you feel being alone on that trail in the woods when the sun is up, versus after it goes down? Do you feel comfortable and confident there as you envision the situation unfolding into a long night of car searching? What would you do in that situation when every thing goes dark and you are left with only your other senses to help you figure your way out? Where can you apply this type of thinking to other situations / experiences in your life?
Realize that the trail was unchanged by the sun’s place within the sky. Only your perception of the trail changed with the setting sun. Our eyes now reveal why they are so important to how we form our perceptions of the world we live in. It seems that what we can see sometimes seems less scary than what we can not. Even if it is the same thing at a different hour.
Since we need light to see our world, then we must also learn to trust our feelings to help guide us through the dark. Perhaps our eyes are the strongest input sense that aids us in forming our uniquely individualized perceptions of reality, but our other senses combine with our sight to help us create meaning from beyond what we can see. And then, moving beyond all senses, is our ability to know.
Though you could not see your outstretched hand in the dark, you still knew it was there, and that knowing is unshakeable. Though you can not see love, you always know when you feel it, right? What else do you know without being able to see?
It seems that we each render our own version of reality within our brains as light enables our eyes to observe it. We have only ever seen the environment we live within when the lights are on, yet the world still exists when it is dark out. The light stretches from its source, bounces off of things, and then we can observe them, but we are each co-creating what we see with the light. Without the observer there to co-create the reality, it is hard to say if that reality actually exists or not.
When you turn the lights off to go to bed tonight and you are safely laying in your warm throne within the darkness of your room, ask yourself who you are in those pitch black moments where neither you or anyone else can see you. What does your inner knowing say? Are you simply how you feel? And does what you can see ever get in the way of that?
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In this week’s practice we use our observational power to examine the situations we find ourselves in from both the light side, and the dark side. Observe the world as you walk through it, and then imagine what your surroundings look like when the lights go off for the night, and how you feel as the change happens. Can certain things still be felt when the eyes can not see? Can you feel the difference between knowing and sensing as you practice?
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If you are asking yourself, “Who the f&#@ is this guy and why am I sitting here reading what he has to say”, then start here at #1.
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Until next week - xoxo, hue-man