The Inner Mechanism
The complete sequence from birth to death is happening all the time in various stages. While sickness and decay are occurring in some places, health and growth are going on simultaneously in others, all creating a whole and balanced system. None can be deleted. They work together.
I first became fully acquainted with the potency of the healing mechanism when I witnessed death close-up without distraction. There were bruises that kept healing until the last hours of death, and I wondered why, since the body must have known it was dying. I was entranced by this odd behavior.
The same process occurs everywhere in existence; within human bodies, weather patterns, disasters, famines, wars. You can see the process after a cut on the skin appears and the body instantaneously goes into repair mode. The same mechanism is at work when a bridge collapses. It's part of the healing when the weakness gets to the full stress point and gives. By the time the symptoms are manifest, the curative process is already underway. It's a circuitous route from the unconscious to the conscious world. I think.
The interior universe. Every sensation from birth goes into the body forever. A person can't possibly react to all of them so they enter an inner world and carry on lives of their own after the initial experience. They live on and on doing unpredictable things. Sometimes an outer sensation triggers a memory. Sometimes they travel around unnoticed. Other times they gather together and form a tumor or another disease bringing attention inward.
They're in the same astrological sphere as the exterior world. The Sun, the central battery. Mercury delivering messages and connecting the sensations. Mars carrying the nourishing blood. My theory is that the old displeasures surface as time goes on, as you can see when we age and experience is visibly mapped on our bodies. When the hurts collect and form a disease, it seems they're trying to connect outer experience to this inner universe for purposes of awareness. A navigational view just like the astrological map. People have weak spots where hurts are collected repeatedly and one day they are ready to reveal themselves to the light of day, so the people can recognize the pain, find the remedy, and move forward with relief and renewed vitality.
Conversations with myself. The jazz pianist, Bill Evans, once made an album with this title and it describes an ongoing activity in my own life. When things go awry, I have a consultation to see if I can locate the source of the trouble, knowing full well this source is within. Every experience, bar none.
The instinct is to flee from the location of pain.
M.P.K.
Agreed. Instinct is strong. I vote for recognition, some familiarity, and most of all ability to feel it, maybe know it. I do believe that a great deal of pain is valuable sensation that can be made use of. It's my own. Belongs to me alone. And from my point of view, was self-created. Thus the relief is within my own power, and healing is always a possibility.
So as the disease in the American society cracked the surface and exploded, the regeneration and restoration of health and equilibrium started concurrently. Sometimes it's difficult to see the fix at work in the midst of the discomfort of repair procedures, but eventually the results become manifest, if one doesn't "flee from the location". I remember in the hospital when my friend was undergoing painful reactions and I expressed my distress. He said, "It's part of the healing process". I keep that in mind now. He said it with confidence.
posted by jm at 3:53 AM
26 Comments:
I wish these kinds of thoughts could be communicated to the country at large. Maybe people would stop panicking and flinging themselves off intellectual cliffs on a daily basis.
Healers often describe pain in terms of vibration. They have the ability to detect the part of the body that isn't vibrating correctly relative to the rest of the body, and they have the ability to affect that vibration. Psychosomatic illness is caused by the equivalent of a groove of consciousness. This is like a stuck groove on a record player. So for example if we constantly flee from the pain it becomes a habit, an automatic reaction. The record gets stuck in the groove and the groove gets deeper and deeper as time goes by. We have to become conscious of our habitual response and veto it, over and over again, consciously. This is difficult, to stay conscious and little by little change a deep seated habitual response that reinforces injury, and skip the record out of the groove. We have the ability to change any thought groove. First we must raise them from their habitual, even subconscious state to awareness. Then we have to consciously, and repeatedly change the response until the record skips out the groove. This metaphor isn't just for pain but applies to any habitual damaging thought pattern.
One of my routines is to periodically ask the part of myself that knows how to do it to raise to my awareness patterns that need to be transformed. I then apply this process. It's not easy, especially if you have some pattern you've been hammering into a groove for 20 years. The resistance can be intense, but this process works.
The complete sequence from birth to death is happening all the time in various stages. While sickness and decay are occurring in some places, health and growth are going on simultaneously in others, all creating a whole and balanced system. None can be deleted. They work together.
I first became fully acquainted with the potency of the healing mechanism when I witnessed death close-up without distraction. There were bruises that kept healing until the last hours of death, and I wondered why, since the body must have known it was dying. I was entranced by this odd behavior.
I spent last weekend backpacking in Sequoia national park. I saw exactly what you describe in the forest. Those ancient forests occupy all these states simultaneously. It's fascinating to see a tree nearly dead, still poking out new life, or still one branch growing strong though the rest of the tree is dead -it's still growing toward the light. And the amazing contortions that trees are willing to go thru to survive! Trees that have been blown over, or growing out of rock faces of lonely cliffs, thriving or even just surviving in the most unlikely places. It's stunning to see.
I was asked to come and relay a message. Donnie is fine, and he is taking time off from blogging. I sometimes come to visit him, and I know him. He wanted to let you know that he is ok. The post he did over at his place, talking about his mom not doing well, was to let people know that there is something going on.
The other contributors there are helping out for him. And me? I'm an unkown soldier, and the reaper of republican careers. I'm a close personal friend of his, and I see him as often as I can. His spirits are up, considering what is going on. He got promoted to Lt. and now has a lot of drama to deal with at work. He was called in to step up and weed out the slackers.
Being a Marine, he's doing his job and making some waves. Most have come to like him very much, but the ones that refuse to listen, are finding him all up in their ass. There is one problem spot, and he hit it bright and early in the morning before day break the other day. He got them on the run, and they are not happy! He was waiting on them! He sprung a trap, and blew their minds.
He goes to work early, and gets off late. Things are starting to slow down, but he has a lot of work to do. He wants me to give JM a message too. "You never got to see me in Lt. bars baby!" I take it he likes JM. If you like uniforms, you should see him now! The badge and the other stuff is always shined, and his uniforms are pressed.
Someone asked another person there if he was former military. They said they could tell by the way he carried himself.
Sorry for that being so long.
Joe, your comment is so funny. So well witten.
I think the cliff flingers love the thrill!
I use the needle in the groove analogy all the time. Says it well.
Mpk, this is amazing. I was going to use an example but decided to edit it out. The beetle infestation in the forests here was the example. The sight of the dead and dying trees is distressing to the people, they react and like the stuck needle, perceive something wrong. Chemicals of distress are released in the system. It's a great idea to learn about natural cycles all the way through. Our own, other people's and the earth's. This alone would probably deliver health.
Thanks for the update, rebel.
It's fascinating to see a tree nearly dead, still poking out new life, or still one branch growing strong though the rest of the tree is dead -it's still growing toward the light.
That's it exactly. So healing and growth are separate from death? A separate consciousness?
That's it exactly. So healing and growth are separate from death? A separate consciousness?
I noticed during my walk that some parts of the forest were unhealthy, filled with tons of dead debris, too many dead trees. At some point, the entire forest burns, and that made me think of the release of spirit thru fire you've often mentioned. So there is the healthy forest where we can observe all the stages of renewal, birth, death, survival, and adaptation, but superimposed is the eventual death\renewal of the forest by fire.
In fact, fire plays a critical part in the reproduction of the Sequoias. The ancient giant trees bear fire scars, and survive fire well. Some are completely hollowed out from fire and still thrive. Without the fire, I think it is the cones that can't release their seeds?
This natural cycle's connection to our past discussions just amazes me. It's like the whole story is also written in the forest ecology.
It's a great thing to focus on the natural reflection of the cycles rather than on the interpersonal to their exclusion. The beetle infestation is just about that. Making way for the renewing fires.
It comes back to the weaknesses being strengths in reality. They are the kingpins.
Sequoias are known for resistance to fire. I wonder why. They stand unique in the ecosystem with their long lives and unusual size.
So there is the healthy forest where we can observe all the stages of renewal, birth, death, survival, and adaptation, but superimposed is the eventual death\renewal of the forest by fire.
And the hellfires of human existence. The landscape after a forest fire is reminiscent of the human depiction of hell. I wonder where the image originates. From observing nature? And why is the new growth left out of the human picture?
So this goes back to what we were talking about earlier and the losses people experience in housefires. I wonder if they all get some release of spirit, whether conscious or not.
It's also interesting to me that food preparation is associated with fire. More release of spirit?
And what about me with a grand fire trine. Am I meant to burn lifelong and give up the notion of sustained calm?
I think the forest symbolizes the human subconscious, where sicknes and health originate. So a pain could be "seen" as a natural disturbance in the whole balancing meachanism. If the debris overwhelms, a catastrophic illness occurs, just like a fire.
Sometimes I'm inclined to be completely objective about minor pains. To let them be. I used to want to tackle every one, but they're supposed to be there. The ecosystem.
The dilemma of pain never seems to be resolved by humans within all the other advancements. Sometimes I think it's the "wrong" attachment to the phenomenon that's more of a problem.
So here's my question.
The beetles devour the trees that are weak until fire takes care of the weakness completely and new growth arises. The same thing happens in human societies as the weak civilzations decline and perish, the fires of war, so far being one way this is accomplished.
So why do humans have this dichotomy finding moral weakness in natural behaviors, trying to save dying species, glorifying and romanticizing dead civilizations, trying to end disease, prolong life and weakness, etc? What would be the evolutionary advantage? Where is our position in natural cycles?
I still think we are in a somewhat blind intermediary stage of evolution. Maybe that's it. The awareness of self that is human is just developing.
Tough area to think about. :-) As I understand it, evolution in the natural sense isn't necessarily about being a competitively stronger or faster individual. As far as survival advantage goes, cooperation helps. We know, of course, that animal societies have cooperation, too, insects included. Saving species from human-created conditions helps maintain natural diversity, which is generally beneficial to the whole ecological system of which we are part. I think our general preferences are towards more enduring richness.
Humans do take altruistic impulses to a new level. I'm inclined to think of human sensibilities as a kind of extension from the biological ones through which our species evolved. We are a part of Nature exploring new territories, creating and mapping the landscapes of psyche.
Taking a systems approach, people are part of larger systems of thought and feeling that influence them to behave in ways that perpetuate the survival of the system, and that often exaggerate or constrain the individual's basic biological and psychological nature.
As a species we are increasingly conscious of our social and cultural systems. We compare them. We begin to edit them, consciously reshape or create them. I feel that we are gradually learning to steer the collective boat. Part of that is the releasing of archaic, simplistic forms of dualistic moralizing, and taking a broader perspective.
Letting things sort out gradually enough minimizes problems of overreaction. So, I agree that we are in a mixed state, and things will clarify further in time.
"I still think we are in a somewhat blind intermediary stage of evolution. Maybe that's it. The awareness of self that is human is just developing."
Very interesting to think on, though. :-)
Oh, before I got distracted, I meant to say: Excellent blog article and comments. :-)
We know, of course, that animal societies have cooperation, too, insects included
Excellent point. Insects especially. And they're highly successful.
Letting things sort out gradually enough minimizes problems of overreaction.
Very very good approach. There is a built in sorting mechanism like the healing one. Gradually is good because one thing gets a chance to lead to another in empathy.
As a species we are increasingly conscious of our social and cultural systems.
This is my theory of developing self awareness.
"Very very good approach. There is a built in sorting mechanism like the healing one. Gradually is good because one thing gets a chance to lead to another in empathy."
:-) I was thinking of a healing analogy, but edited it out.
mpk,
enjoyed your comment on healing. many moons ago, back when it was 'the thing' to do, i was rolfed. the process broke up the scar tissue surrounding the wound, or to use your description, groove, to facilitate healing. fascinating adventure that continues to this day. your words, i thought, described the process in a nutshell, whether you intended that, or not!
also, wondered if you're familiar with Joseph Rael's work? One of his books is titled "Being and Vibration"?
~~kj
also, i use ice. and self massage. @;-)
during this packing process, parts of my body (most especially my right index finger) have decided to rebel (and swell!) had to laugh when, almost as an of course!, i bashed that finger!, hard, into a doorway yesterday. time to stop and apply ice! don't know what the deal is with the finger, but i'm giving it the attention its calling out for and it seems to be calming down.
bodies are funny things. so intense, so needy!
That's it exactly. So healing and growth are separate from death? A separate consciousness?
JM, have you ever read any Clarissa Pinkola Estes? In one of her many paragraphs she describes burning of part of her land to promote new growth.
~~kj
So this goes back to what we were talking about earlier and the losses people experience in housefires. I wonder if they all get some release of spirit, whether conscious or not.
can't speak to house fires, but sorting through 25 years of accumulated possessions, and discarding (one way or another) half or more of the items, has certainly offered a sense of release! physical, spiritual, emotional. cleansing.
anyone watch Dennis Leary's "Rescue Me?" The characters are fire fighters in New York City in the present day. Fire is ever present, in their every day lives, in their dreams, in their rages. Fire as healer and a destroyer, a character in itself. brilliant, brilliant writing.
~~kj
I seem to have missed the conversation on house fires. Having experienced a fully consuming family housefire when I was young, I can confirm there is great release of spirit on many levels. For example, there is the releasing of so many expectations: that home is permanent; that familial love is all powerful, all protecting and constant; that memory is contained in the objects we keep.
Healing from both physical and psychic burns is a slow gradual process and the scars last much longer. But it is the things that remain that allow us to pick up our lives and move forward to that place of healing: our hopes, our values and our memories. Losing a home to fire emphasizes the transitional nature of life and the importance for making the most of the present.
My mother had brought many beautiful objects back from when my father was station in Japan, which were always kept in storage for fear of becoming broken. After the fire a fraction of those objects remained, so my mother came to a realization of how beauty has no value unless it is appreciated. After that, no matter how poor we were, we always ate off of beautiful gold-rimmed dishes, which before had been saved for formal occasions that never materialized.
If while using the dishes, one was dropped and broken, tempers did rise but my mother was careful to remind us of the fire and how important it is to appreciate what you have now.
oh wow, nathan, what a lesson to learn young! are you the same way as your mother? in other words, do you "use the good china?"
loved your phrase: "...that memory is contained in the objects we keep."
i collect pottery, some quite expensive and unique Native American pieces. also stone carvings and fossils. nearly every one of them has a chip or crack that i caused. some immediately after i obtained them. (maybe to reduce their value so i wouldn't ever have to sell them? i wonder sometimes why i 'marked' them via damage!)
and, the rule here is, if something breaks, it breaks. we had a gorgeous, large piece of coral, well over 12-15 inches around. it has been broken many times, always by accident. always with an immediate pang followed by a relieved "so it broke, it's okay."
i am not careless when i pack items for transport, but if they're broken or chipped or dropped in the act of day-to-day living, so be it.
as you said: "beauty has no value unless it is appreciated.
there was this woman, i met her only once, but her influence is all around me. she passed away nearly a quarter of a century ago. anyway, she buried gorgeous pieces of turquoise and crystals in her yard. all over. many are still there, buried.
i like to think she gave the stones back to the earth, but really, i have no idea why she did what she did. she loved crystals and gave them to friends and family as well. i have one of the large ones she gave away. someday i hope to bury it somewhere.
sometimes beauty is also meant to be found. beauty too, a healing force in this universe.
well, am quite chatty today. tea all around for JM's guests, until she arrives, and graces us with more stories and images. :-)
Losing a home to fire emphasizes the transitional nature of life and the importance for making the most of the present.
Great one there. So few have mastered it. Look at all of our fortresses.
Everyone has a unique relationship with possessions so the karma around them is unique too.
Memories around objects can be both comforting bothersome. And there is an individual relationship with fire, one thing that's good about our society. Lots of free choice when it comes to disposing of our bodies after death.
I wonder if those that choose cremation do it for themselves or the survivors.
internal government.
kj, I'm glad to see my words touched you. I find it interesting that you relate to the items you value by your influence on them. When talking about value of an object, the stories told about it carry the verisimilitude which adds the value. The object doesn't really have value, it is our memory of it and how we relate to the object that carries value.
Having a Sun and North Node both in Taurus, value for me comes from how I relate to objects. I've never had the beautiful objects my mother had, because when I need beauty I create it for myself. Still, even this is something I learned from my mother. She has Saturn conjunct Jupiter right on top of my Sun and Mars in Taurus. I attempt to appreciate objects on their own terms, so yes, you could say I "always use the good china". But more times than not that "good china" is green lined "diner ware", sturdy and well worn.
Thank you, JM. I tend to think cremation is the fastest way to release spirit for everyone concerned. Rapid oxidation breaks all matter down to its most basic forms, therefore the stored energy more easily returns to source, instead of the more gradual release through decay. Those who choose it perhaps understand this.
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