Wk 3: How I would explain connectivity

The idea of connectivity can be used in many ways, with as many different meanings as applications.  In our digital age, connectivity usually has to do with various electronic devices and their assorted cables –including- the literal ‘connectors’ that afford us our current technology of connectivity (computers, cell phones, PDAs, electronic entertainment, etc.), that create the illusion that we are more connected with each other than ever (really?). 

Another type of connectivity is what happens in the human organism, be it in the brain itself or one of the other systems (nervous, circulatory, lymphatic, digestive, respiratory), which oversee the homeostasis of a human being in a symphony of self-orchestrated activity.

For me personally, connectivity has to do with the level of awareness or consciousness that we have about ourselves, each other and our place in the world around us.   For me this includes the interconnectivity of all the various expressions of being in the web of life, including the subtle dimensions beyond the 5 senses.  The reason I say this is that that my personal experience of being connected has vastly transformed, based on the changes in my consciousness over my life.  In my early life, when I was decidedly linear, left-brained and an atheist (my initial response to a Catholic upbringing) my experience was more one of dis-connection than of being connected to the world.  I felt alone, isolated and disconnected from a world I saw as hypocritical and false, and frankly wanted no part of.

An accident at work in my early 20’s changed all that, when a sharp blow to my head unleashed a experiences of paranormal activity for which I had no framework for understanding.  I tell folks now, this was one of the worst things for my physical health, yet one of the best things for my spiritual growth.    Over my life, as my spiritual life has grown and developed, I have chosen to consciously expand my understanding of ‘reality’ and with this my understanding of connectivity…in order to understand my purpose and place in the universe.

The unexpected loss of my beloved Mother in 2008 from a sudden stroke has fueled my desire for a deeper spiritual understanding of the universe; as I strive to maintain the connection with my her, even though she has gone through a profound change of form.  Whether in my meditation practice, sacred ceremonies and rituals, drum journeys or dream work the message I receive is always the same: expand your consciousness and raise your vibration.  To the extent that I am able to do so (the yoga shastras tell me), will enable me to expand my consciousness to the fullness of being we are capable of as humans; thus, intentionally increasing my connection with my Mom’s spirit and the rest of life, ten-fold.

Wk 3: Evidence for Synchronicity

Helen Costello - "Gram"

My grandmother, Helen Costello, was the matriarch of our family.  Gram was a 2nd generation Italian immigrant, and though she was less than 5’ in height, she cast a tall shadow and was nicknamed “the General” by her daughters, my Mom and Auntie Sandra.  The loss of their 3rd daughter and middle child, Annette, at 18 years of age only served to make the family trinity of my Mother, Aunt and Grandmother a tighter knit group throughout their lives.  My Aunt’s daughter, Nadine, is like a sister to me (I have 2 brothers) and we considered all of them part of our ‘nuclear’ family growing up.  

One day in the Fall of 1991, when I was working at a small Mom & Pop production company in LA, I walked into the storage room to get some supplies from the cabinet.  But, as I looked up to open the door, instead of seeing the storage cabinets I saw the following vision in my mind’s eye.  I ‘saw’ a vision of my Grandmother, exquisitely beautiful bouquets of flowers surrounding her, laid out in a coffin as if at her funeral.  My perspective was that of someone at her wake, standing beside her coffin to pay their respects.  A cold chill ran through my body.   I shivered and as I did so, the vision vanished.  Needless to say, I was startled, shaken and left wondering what -if anything- that vision meant.  As far as I knew, my Gram’s health was just fine!

My immediate action was to phone my cousin Nadine, who also was living in LA at the time, and see if she knew anything.  As it turned out, she too had just had a weird experience, related to our grandmother.   Although Nadine didn’t see a ‘vision’ or any thing, what did happen is she heard a voice forcefully say “Gram’s dead”, as if someone was standing next to her; but, in fact she was alone in her apartment.

The very next thing I did was to call my Grandmother’s house (in Lackawanna, New York) directly to find out what was really happening.  As it turned out, my Aunt Sandra (Nadine’s Mom) answered the phone.  Both she and my Mom were at our Gram’s house together.  It seems that earlier in the day Gram had failed to answer her phone when they both had called, independent of one another.  So, when my Mom and Aunt converged on our Grandmother’s house they found her cool to the touch, ashen colored, with breathing shallow –and- though she was seated on the couch, she was so weak that she had been unable to move by herself for some time.

My Mom and Aunt quickly managed to get my Grandmother into the car and took her to the Emergency room at a nearby hospital (they decided not to call 911, lest they freak Gram out).  At the hospital, it was determined that the battery in Gram’s pacemaker had run out of juice, and that’s what had caused all the alarm. Once they replaced the battery in Gram’s pacemaker she was like the ‘Energizer Bunny’ and good as new!

We found out later that it was a good thing that my Mom and Aunt arrived when they did, or there could have been a very different outcome to the day’s events. 

Wk 2: Is the Universe Weird?

I think, like with most things, our experience of something is a reflection of our individual perspective; hence “Believing is Seeing”…

To me, the universe is beautiful and magical, limitless and profound.  It defies our description and limitations…just when I think I think I have things figured out, some other rare or unfathomable experience, being, expression sweeps me off my feet and turns my current paradigm on it’s head… and expands my consciousness and horizons in the process.

Oh, the universe can also be disturbing and terrifying…especially the natural elements of the weather…violent storms that spring up from nowhere without warning and do huge damage to flora and fauna.   Or life forms that defy understanding; here I’m thinking of the ‘pink dolphins’ we experienced in  the Amazon, which were neither pink nor dolphins…but, rather some huge, prehistoric sturgeon looking fish that the locals say are actually shamans (and our experiences after encountering them would support that supposition)!

And then there are the black and white holes, the nebula –or- star nurseries and the countless galaxies with their suns, planets and multitudinous life forms we may never know.

The breadth and depth of the universe is at once breathtaking, inspiring and disturbing in it’s scope.   It our challenge is to meaningfully hold this paradoxical information in some way that purposely informs our experience while we are here living, learning and loving what is.

Wk 2: My comments on Causality…

Cause and effect, from a Vedic standpoint (which is how I have come to see the world), is a function of karma (the resultant effects of previous actions) and a reflection of the essential nature of Maya, which is duality.  As such, our experience is that we have a continuous flux between two poles or opposites, be they dark and light, day and night, good and evil or Yin and Yang.  This duality and dance between opposites is also seen in Traditonal Chinese Medicine…where Yin and Yang both contain the seed of each other and are continuously transforming one into the other.

But, it seems that this dualistic reality is just an illusory projection of our ‘mind stuff’ or consciousness.  Which is why, in Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda recounts story after story of seeming miraculous events performed by swamis and yogis…healings from otherwise fatal diseases, sages who live for eons without aging or dying, saints who seem t live on nothing but air, and on and on.  What Yogananda explains is what is has learned from his own experience with his teacher Sri Yukteshwar: there is a greater reality behind this fleeting mirage we experience as our lives…and this eternal, perennial, undying divine origin…the world behind this one, the unified field that is the true ground state of our being.  And it seems that those who have found a path to access that greater reality, leave behind the laws and rules of this one, namely: cause & effect!

Wk 2: My reflections on Uncertainty…

It seems that when you get down to the most minute elements in the universe, “atomic scale physical particles”, that they display multiple personalities: we are confounded by them because they embody both the characteristics of particles and of waves…depending on what is attempting to be done with these particles and what is trying to be observed. We learned that this wave-particle duality is at the core of the Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle. Which is further complicated by the fact that the ‘quantities’ ascribed to such wave-particles, such as momentum and position-in-space, are impossible to measure and know simultaneously.

I think the underlying problem is that we as humans are attempting to interpret the universe through our limited senses…and we are determined to interpret it’s behavior through the lens of our limitations. And yet, what we know for certain is that the only constant in the universe is the speed of light…which no material thing can reach, because in order to do so, the mass would have to be so huge that it is virtually impossible.

What is further confounding is that when examined under an electron microscope these elementary particles, display their essential nature…that of points of light. What if, as the ancient rishis and sages have cognized, reality as we know it is an extravagant play of creative consciousness? What if we are actually creating our reality as we go along and projecting that which we expect to see out in the world…just as a motion picture image is created on a screen by the projection of light through moving images? Are we not chasing shadows in our own minds? We think the world is finite, because the organs of perception are limited and finite in their interpretation. But, that doesn’t mean that is an accurate reflection of the essential nature of the universe. Perhaps this misperception is what is at the crux of the uncertainty principle that confounds us.

Wk 1: Reflections on the Meaning of Time

The concept of time, and hence the meaning we assign it, is a function of humanity’s collective agreement regarding the nature of ordinary reality. We may not even realize that we are participating in the construction of our experience of reality. However, there are those who have a different concept of time, or lack thereof. Shamans, frequently inhabit what they would call non-ordinary reality, and in this state of consciousness, time as we know it does not exit. It is common for a shaman on an ecstatic journey to inhabit multiple locations or dimensions in time/space simultaneously, for the purpose of healing someone’s soul by returning parts that have been lost during trauma, illness or an accident.

Similarly, swamis and yogis frequently access higher vibrational states of awareness through, meditation and yoga, in an effort to know the essence of themselves and the nature of reality more deeply and fully. These states are completely outside of what most folks would identify with as our normal, waking state consciousness, that we inhabit daily.

So, as I see it, the meaning of time is a construct and tool -which- reflects the state of consciousness we inhabit.

Wk 1: Have I experienced time slowing down or speeding up?

Well, last week, I took a few days off to celebrate my birthday at the coast with my sweetie…and boy did time fly! I spent the time reading and studying for my various classes, and while I inhabited the ‘left’ side of my brain…it seemed that the hours were speeding by. Even though I was in a very relaxed state, being in the linear part of my brain kept me in that logical space ruled by time and space.

By comparison, the last time we took a few days off at the coast we stayed at the same place for the same amount of time…but there was one difference: we created a sacred space and had a ceremony with plant medicine. I spent the day in the right side of my brain meditating and doing yoga…and conversely, time seemed to stand still. It seemed as though I was inhabiting a timeless space outside of the normal linear paradigm, and the experience was refreshing and rejuvenating to my body, mind and soul in a very deep way. And my experience of being outside of time (as a mental construct) was radically different as well.

Wk 1: What do I honestly think of Physics, really?

To me the study of Quantum Physics is a method to assuage the worries of my intellectual mind and help it to understand the perennial truths of the mystics and ancient seers down through the ages, which my heart holds to be true. Books like the Tao of Physics and the Dancing Wu Li Masters spoke volumes to me in my early life as a closeted spiritual person. Back then, I started having some weird experiences after a severe head injury…I thought for sure I was losing my mind and cracking up! But, luckily for me, my friend Thomas, assured me I wasn’t going crazy, just leaving my body and astral travelling, terms I had not heard before then. Thomas pointed me to the above books in an effort to help me open my mind and calm my nerves. Needless to say, an entire world opened up to me, and I never looked back. The world has become a much more magical, alive and conscious place to inhabit since!

Wk 1: What attracts me to Chinese Medicine?

What attracted me to Chinese Medicine, essentially, was my personal experience with the gentle, yet powerful healing capabilities of this medicine embodied in both the philosophy of TCM as well as the healing modalities of acupuncture, herbal medicine, body work, food therapy, tai chi and qi gong. I love that this medicine is a wholistic approach that takes into consideration the macrocosm as well as the microcosm, the individual and their world -all the while- recognizing that we are each as different as individual snowflakes and as such the approach we take to each person must be as unique as they are. While the study of TCM is highly intellectual and demanding, for those who are interested, there is a profoundly deep spiritual and philosophical basis at the root of TCM whose flower can be seen at blossoming in the life of those who practice and follow the teachings. As such, I find that TCM feeds both my heart and my mind…and, in time, I hope to use these many gifts in service to others in need.