The raw data of reality is flying past us at millions of bits per second. Most of that time, our normal state of waking consciousness, tuned and calibrated to the “strung-out primate” setting, ignores almost all of it.
The human brain can process 11 million bits of information every second. But our conscious minds can handle only 40 to 50 bits of information in the same timespan. That’s a processing percentage of 0.00003%. We would have to be monoliths to have the sensory capabilities to process the full nature of reality.
To paint a picture, our bodies would far exceed the height of four Kilimanjaros. Our nerves, which are currently microscopic, would grow to the size of highways, and our brains would be the size of a small town.
In short, it is impossible for us to process the full scale of the world’s animate forces.
Despite our technological advancements and accumulated knowledge, we remain dwarfed by the sheer complexity of the world around us. This inability to fully grasp the unseen world leaves us vulnerable to missteps and misunderstandings.
We have never lived with such abundance, yet we have never been so close to a perilous man-made fate. Left brain/ Euro-centric dominance has created an imbalance that is in desperate need of a course correction.
When ants are in a death spiral they are caught in a circular motion as their sensemaking abilities fail them until they die of exhaustion. We too, are swimming in the ocean of possibility with just one arm.
Our narrow focus on that which can be seen is preventing us from addressing complex challenges through our felt experiences with compassion, and a broader understanding of our interconnectedness with the world around us.
“The work of the eyes is done”, Rilke mused: “Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you.”
What exactly are the images imprisoned within us? What remains dormant in the imaginal realm and the feeling body, just beyond the grasp of the modern mind?
As above, so below
The layers that form reality are made up of different realms. Our myths and wisdom traditions had intimate relationships with the beings that populated these spaces. Through deeply somatic experiences, they connected to a world that hummed with vibrancy and aliveness.
Song, dance and art traditionally offered ways we channel energies from the unseen world. The word Olé derives from the word Allah. Nowadays it is associated with bullfighting and football chants, but when it existed in the plains of North Africa before it migrated to the south of Spain and mutated, people would wail “Allah! Allah!” while watching performers dance at sacred moonlit gatherings.
What they were witnessing was a trance-induced movement that was nothing short of a pure expression of divinity. And the chanting from the audience was a collective confirmation that God had entered the room. It is no surprise that these rituals, though they serve no quantifiable purpose, have persisted throughout the years.
And we know it to be true as I can state with some fair confidence that you have experienced something similar yourself. Do you remember that feeling?
Whether it was felt through the transmission of a hypnotic story, the enchantment of the forest, or the kickdrum of the beat, we have all tapped into a mythic realm that points towards a world far beyond what the eye can see.
A world that exists parallel, above, and below us has been central to people's experience throughout 99% of all history. The traditional view of the shamanic journey is that there are three separate realms in which all beings exist.
Lower, upper and middle.
The lower world is most connected to the Earth and there we find animal spirits. The upper realm holds a more ethereal texture and is where we find angelic beings. In the middle realm, we find our immediate reality as well as trapped beings yet to pass over. Even in this realm, our untrained senses are only able to capture a fraction of what exists.
This understanding was not exclusive to shamans and cosmonauts peppered throughout history. This was a reality that was the centre of gravity for the majority of cultures throughout the majority of time.
From Eshu the trickster God of Yorubic traditions to the Elves of Icelandic lore (which over half of Iceland still believe in to this day) deities, pixies, so called “supernatural forces” have been hanging around since man could walk and talk.
Anyone that has tried entheogens, particularly those on the steamier side such as DMT or Mushrooms will be able to confirm this, but the reality is you needn’t have to blow a thunder bolt through a light bulb. These altered states are accessible to any of us given the appropriate ritual context.
So much so that we dedicate countless hours of our free time just to get a taste of this divinity. There is something going on when we fill a stadium. And it’s a lot more than just entertainment. These large gatherings where people come together en masse are a modern-day echo of transcendental gatherings.
They transport us to the same dream time our ancestors shared with the animal herd. But our experiential and intuitive faculties are paved over the same way endless miles of tarmac plaster over the enriching soils of the land.
From the sacred and animate to the rigid and quantifiable.
We have quantified ourselves into oblivion, and the cultural compulsion with materialism and measurable progress has led us to overlook the richness and depth of the human experience that exists beyond Empire consciousness.
Give yourself a month in the wilderness away from the buzz of modernity, and you may discover for yourself, just how important an impeccably curated social media profile is in the grand cosmic unfolding.
Or you may even find out how much you can really flex your intuitive and creative faculties.
And just how many pixies there are in the enchanted forest.
As the Gnostics warned us two thousand years ago, when we create a culture that is divorced from a deeper divine essence and has no alignment to a value greater than objective reality, we get lost in a maze where essential human drivers are mimicked endlessly in a chaos of hollow repetition. Then, as now, the only way out is to connect to the sacred; to an experience that places us more fully in reality.
The ethos of Empire inherently removes all possibility of ‘sacred time,’ and creates space only for debauchery as an antidote to the numbing cycle of the workplace. What do we lose when we divorce the sacred from life? The brilliance of present moment.
It is only here true happiness can be found. It is only here we can truly feel our interconnectedness. And it is only here we all come to understand, when you dig deep enough we are all kind, compassionate and loving beings.
This understanding is very hard to attain when we are disconnected from the web of life, and live our lives outside in as opposed to inside out.
This external focus overshadows the value of the intangible aspects of life that give it meaning and depth. Amidst this story of separation, we find ourselves in an increasingly fragmented world, and on the brink of extinction.
“Two years to save the world'“
Humanity has only two years left “to save the world”, United Nations executive climate secretary Simon Stiell shared just a couple of weeks ago. The worrying part of all of this is we have the minds, tools and even the capabilities to save us from this perilous fate. We are simply lacking the political will.
The political will that sees no issue with building yet more luxury condos on stolen land and wildlife sanctuaries. The political will that builds phallic skyscrapers so high that you can still find them oozing with the semen of inferiority.
Maybe it’s time we stopped looking to the false gods our society has created. Maybe it’s time we all gathered at the end of the road, halting the march of convenience and continuity. To sit in the bewilderment of modernity and pray for guidance from the land and skies.
Maybe we won’t have a choice.
Hey fam, thank you so much for making it this far. To have your attention, the most generous gift of all, means the world. Please share your thoughts and comments below as it keeps me connected to you, the reader, and helps me round out my understanding of the world.
Beautifully written to match the deep meaning left to ponder. Thank you Moe. Ellen x