k.i.s.s. mysticism

Wise words from Grant (can’t link you there yet. he’s shy).

Grant has been talking about getting a blog up for a few weeks and he’s finally done it, and he’s really come in with style. He’s got the language skills to say what he means without leaving anyone behind. I like what he has to say. I’m going to just grab on to one of the themes he touched on in his post and run with it, because it’s interested me for about 20 years.

I’ve never been a huge proponent of auras and energy fields, preferring to believe the simplest answer- that we do in fact have highly sensitive… senses (ouch), and we pick up on a lot more than we’re aware of. The energy that so many of us believe in isn’t so much able to be transferred in any sorcerous or mystical way like that at all, but I do strongly believe in biofeedback. The same way that our senses take in a lot more than we are aware of on an immediate conscious level, we can encourage our bodies in numerous ways by focussing our own “energy”.

Try it anytime. I discovered it by getting entirely sick of waiting for my feet to warm up one night in bed. I simply and sternly told them to warm up, and trained my attention on that one desire for maybe fifteen seconds. I then got distracted again by my book, but after suffering cold feet for a good hour I was shocked to suddenly become aware only a minute or two later that they were cozy and content, maybe even a little too warm. Works every time now.

And it works for just about everything like that. I recall a medical news story dealing with hypnotism, where they claimed that some people could be hypnotized into not bleeding during surgery.

True. They showed it on camera.

The same show did a test with another subject, wiring him up in some way so that we could observe when the part of his brain that senses pain was stimulated. Wide awake he inserted his hand into freezing cold water and he had to pull it out after maybe ten seconds, his whole body shivering and the graphical representation of his pain going wild.

And yes, when he was hypnotized into not feeling pain and he inserted his arm into the freezing water he was, to outward appearances, perfectly comfortable for six minutes! (as long as they were willing to perform the test- longer would have damaged his flesh). Now the tricky bit is that the electronic pain meter was again going bonkers the whole time- he just wasn’t aware that he was in pain. I say that’s biofeedback. You tell yourself that the pain is to be ignored as irrelevant, and it just doesn’t hurt (even though there’s a part of your brain screaming in agony).

But perhaps the most convincing argument for biofeedback is another story about a guy (I’ve forgotten almost all the details so you’ll have to just follow along with blind faith that I wouldna tell a lie) whose body couldn’t produce enough white blood cells. Doctors tried everything but there was nothing they could do. Finally, essentially giving up, his doctor told him to visualize his white blood cells multiplying, surviving, and growing stronger.

Sure enough, within two weeks, his white blood cell count was undeniably on an astonishing upswing. He had thought himself to health.

I subscribe to K.I.S.S. theory (when you say it out loud it sounds a lot like Chaos theory- with a stutter, but this one stands up to more intense scrutiny ninety-nine times out of a hundred). This theory holds that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Keep It Simple Stoopid.

My theory is that all this Reiki and Seeing Auras and Energy Manipulation is most likely just our senses, our awareness, working in high gear.

In other words, your body knows a hell of a lot more than you do, and can use that info if you just know how to tell it to.

But, having gone on at some length to say all that, I am the first to admit it’s just theory, and only as valid as any other out there. I don’t begrudge any of us our beliefs. Never have and never will. Because in the end, there’s no difference. It doesn’t matter WHY my feet warmed up. It only matters that they did.