🗂 This Week in Work in Progress
Status Update: Deep thoughts on the interrelatedness of all things. Ketamine-induced perceptive shifts that allow me to see empty space and dancing atoms.
Inspiration: You are but a collection of atoms. All you need to do is glow.
Lighter Note: Perception is everything. And perception ≠ truth.
🔔 Status Update
Welcome to week 4 of Write of Passage, the course you’re taking with me vicariously. It’s a joy to return to the steady beat of this newsletter every week, in the midst of a torrent of mental activity. I’m so glad you’re here with me!
I’m basically in a five-week mind-meld with a group of ultra-creative, diverse thinkers from a slew of unrelated fields. This leads to ideas and inspirations that bubble up like lava, burning and burrowing new pathways in my brain. It’s like setting out on a journey to a strange country without a map. I never know where my mind will land from week to week, and how that will impact my writing. My psyche seems to be the decision-maker on that.
This week, I’m touching on the Buddhist concept of interrelatedness (the idea that we’re all connected) and taking it a step further. We’re not simply connected. We’re actually enmeshed.
Human perception is narrow and actively prevents us from seeing what’s right in front of us. Somehow, in this quantum world, we are separate and entwined simultaneously. This is the dance of electromagnetic fields. Nothing woo-woo here. Science provides the proof.
There’s something for everyone in this essay. It ranges from Picasso to particle physics. Much to ponder here.
It’s a thought piece that may be in development for the rest of my life, so consider it a work in progress. But I’m basically presenting the question: What would happen if everyone could actually perceive this level of connection? How would we behave out of instinct rather than effort?
I’m posting an excerpt below, but it definitely is a deeper, more meaningful read in context. You can access the full essay here.
[Art: We All Live in Bubbles by Studio Irma; Music: Drifting Sands by JAde Wii]
Join Me on a Journey
There’s a moment, a specific, startling moment, when the whole world blows apart. What once were people and objects and walls tear apart into fragments, as if Picasso reordered the universe through his minimalist, reductionistic lens. Form dissolves. Structure remains, though it doesn’t resemble realism at all. It’s impossible to determine where one thing begins and another one ends.
This is the moment, early in a ketamine journey, when I realize I’m no longer in Kansas and, in fact, that Kansas no longer exists. I can’t remember what my guide looks like, nor what I look like, nor what this room or any room looks like. In fact, the idea that any of these look like something loses all meaning.
This is the moment when I see things as they truly are. The atoms spread apart and I see the space between. I am the space between.
You see, we humans are 99.99% empty space. In fact, this is true of everything we see. It’s all made of atoms. And atoms are mostly empty space.
Suddenly, I’m able to see this negative space.
Imagine a page’s white space – the background that we never even notice while reading – springing to life like it mattered. Like words and absence of words only existed in concert (which is true; there is no art without this principle.) That’s the truth I’m awakened to.
Psychedelics – and all we see while journeying – is as much a lie as art. We cannot stay in that world we visit. It doesn’t actually exist. But, also like art, psychedelic journeys present a lie that reveals the truth.
Have you ever had a paradigm shift moment, where everything you knew suddenly blew apart? How did it change you? Please share. I’d love to know!!!
💡 Inspiration
Untitled
– Daniel Baylis
you are but a collection of atoms
working together
in temporary harmony
before being dispersed
back into the universe.
your earthly task is to help
those atoms
radiate.
imagine the simplicity;
you need not
achieve anything
but gently glow.
This poem performs at least two functions for me. It’s inspiring and it’s also a pressure-relief valve.
We really and truly are simply a collection of atoms. We don’t need to earn our existence – our place in the world. Our role here is to be present and get out of our own way. When we can allow ourselves to just be – in all our authentic glory – our light shines.
Yes, we’re all composed of atoms – as is the chair I’m sitting upon and the glorious bouquet of lilies in the periphery of my gaze. But the combination of atoms makes each of us a unique compound. We are the same. And we are utterly individual. We, as universal atoms, are all connected. Yet we all emanate a signature glow.
When we settle into that reality, we can relax into life, into being. We become radiant and complete our earthly task.
That’s what this quote triggers in me. What does it say to you?
🤡 On a Lighter Note
Perception is everything. And perception ≠ truth …
Using a slider, you can see perception in action. View the Pillars of Creation through Hubble & Webb’s Telescopic eyes. Same view. But so much deeper! :・゚✧:・.☽˚。・゚✧:・.:
Speaking of physics and space… Neutrons from deep space seem to be speaking to us. Because collections of atoms are unique and, apparently, have their own voice. 🛰
If you ever doubt that we’re all connected, that bits of you mingle with me and are basically everywhere, there’s finally proof. We actually shed DNA everywhere. So much so that people with too much time on their hands are starting to worry about privacy issues. 🧬
Want more on the wonder of creation? Here’s your next read.
🎀 It’s a Wrap
A warm thank you for reading and a hearty welcome to all new subscribers. I’m so glad you’re here!
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Until next week, take care of yourself and someone else if you’re able.