What we do know
is that the chi flow appears sub parallel to the nervous system and that does
not say much. More interesting is that
resent work has determined that cells communicate between themselves using
photons never before recognized. Thus
the body appears to have a dense electromagnetic field in which it is both
enveloped and able even to extend.
What is also
clear is that we are still mastering the tools and the art to actually measure
these subtle effects and the scaling relationships introduced by my cloud
cosmology do not suggest that we are anywhere close as yet.
At the same time
DMT is a powerful tool that allows a substantial body of mental issues to be
addressed and in fact outright healed. I
will take it as alternatives are often nonexistent.
Chi and DMT –
Two Accesible Mysteries That Evade Scientific Validation
October 4, 2013
“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of
nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of
nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.” –Max
Planck, ‘Where Is Science Going?’
There are some mysteries in life so common that
nearly anyone can experience them, even though no one can fully explain them.
The phenomenon of Chi, a universal life-force energy, and that of DMT,
the psychedelic visionary compound produced within many plants, mammals and
even humans, are integral parts of natural life that can greatly elevate mind,
body, and spirit when experienced by an ordinary person.
Our society, primarily organized around labor,
consumption, and the ethics of profiteering and exploitation, renders the
spirit and our sense of natural wonder nonessential, for the most part. As a
result, life too easily becomes unfulfilling and dull for people in our
splendid, but meaningless material world, and too many of us come to find
ourselves in a rut, one dull day after another, and life loses its
significance.
Yet whatever toils we may face, we all do so
together under the splendor of the cosmos, as individual sparks of
consciousness amongst a shimmering collective, and we can choose to make
ourselves available to mystery, wonder and curiosity, as not all of the riddles
of this life have been solved. Inspiration is instrumental in the upkeep
of morale and spirit, especially in these toxic times,
and it has forever been a key motivator of human achievement. The ability
to allow for mystery and to give respect to uncertainty is a source of
boundless inspiration at a time when discouragement is the norm.
The personal discovery that a person has real-world
access to the astounding mysteries of Chi and the life-changing effects of DMT
can be a dramatic catalyst for personal transformation. It often forces a
severe re-construction of one’s worldview,
re-informing one of the deep connection we all have to the natural phenomenon
of the earth and instigating a needed re-evaluation of priorities toward those
more openly centered around beneficial and practical habits. These powerful
natural phenomenon have the power, when directly experienced, to wake people up
to their higher potential and to inspire a break from the ordinarily
self-destructive patterns of normal life.
Chi – The
Life-Force of Chinese Medicine
Chi is the common term used in Chinese medicine,
martial arts and internal energy arts for the universal life force which
permeates all things. It is a broad concept used to identify a wide range of
meta-physical and spiritual concepts that play in the balance between life and death
in our universe. Chi, as a philosophical concept, offers a complex and subjective cosmology
which seeks to illuminate the inter-dependent relationships among all living
systems, big and small.
For some, this concept presents an uncomfortable
paradox in our logical world, and the experiential evidence of practicioners of
these arts is incongruent with a scientific denial of the authenticity of the
many phenomenon associated with Chi. Many millions of people regularly
experience exceptional health and wellness, as well as mystical experiences, as
a result from dedication to these arts, but only recently have these
concepts begun to gain credibility in the Western mind.
Acupuncturists and studios offering training in Tai
Chi, Qi Gong and meditation can now be found in most American cities, and there
are growing enrollments in Western schools for the regulated professional
medical science of Chinese medicine. As a healing modality for therapy of pain
and recovery from injury, Chinese energy healing continues to gain credibility
among Western medical disciplines. While
it is difficult, however, for the concept of Chi to be immediately understood
and appreciated by most Westerners, the effects of Chi training are
numerous, beneficial and eye-opening. According to John Vervaeke,
Ph.D., a cognitive scientist and student of Qi Gong, some of the
phenomenological properties of the direct experience of a dedicated practice
cultivating Chi may include:
Synesthetic properties – experiences which bridge the
cognitive and the physical aspects of life.
The sensation of a magnetic force or some guiding
or leading force moving within and without the body.
The accompaniment of a ‘liquid’ intelligence, a
fluidity of thought and action,
a feeling of being in the ‘zone’.
Projected and extended feelings of mentally and
physically operating outside of the body.
Mystical experiences, often inducing ineffability, as they are difficult
to articulate but generate happiness.
A feeling of resonating and of oneness.
A feeling of seeming to be dynamically connected
to the environment.
The marked ability to see deeper into reality.
The interplay
of polarity, such as the dynamic between intense concentration and absolute
effortlessness.
Mystical experience leading to permanent changes in
personality and a sense of openness.
Enhanced cognitive properties like insight,
mind-sight, and foresight, such as picking up on people’s mental states.
Although the Chinese have been studying and
developing a system of holistic medicine around the concept of Chi for thousands
of years, the scientific evidence to support the existence of chi is still
largely limited to the experiences of those who practice and work with Chi,
meaning that, as an actual science, it has yet to even become a fully-developed
hypothesis. Skeptics are keen to argue that personal, direct experience
with Chi is most likely a response to expectation conditioning and a repeated
anticipation of response, but this explanation is unacceptable given the vast
numbers of people who experience practical results by following proper
training guidelines. Who feels it, knows it.
Part of the confusion over Chi is the magical
language traditionally involved in Chinese martial arts training. For
example, the colorful metaphors and visualizations that are a part of the
advanced integration of mind and body, which is a main focus of Chi training,
are rather poetic and mystical, frequently drawing on nature and the
characteristics of animals in order to explain relationship and form. For
example, the simple movement of raising the hands above the head may be
referred to as ‘pulling down heaven’, or the posture of lifting one leg and the
opposing palm upward in a balanced stance may carry an elegant name such as
‘golden rooster stands on one leg’.
In Chinese medicinal philosophy, Chi travels
throughout the body along meridians, which are looked at as vessels for energy
that are not directly associated with cellular tissue. These meridians cannot
be seen, but can be sensed with such certainty that a commonly-accepted map of
the body’s meridian lines and acupressure points is widely utilized by
acupuncturists and healers as a scientific expression of the body’s energetic
system.
The closest Western scientific concept similar to
this is bio-electricity, which involves viewing the passages of the
nervous system and other body tissue as conduits for the low-voltage
electricity that is produced within the human body. The study of
bio-electricity is practical and is aimed at many of the same goals as the
energy meditation practice of Qi Gong, such as maintaining optimal health and a
swift recovery from injury. The US Army has even developed bandages that cover
wounds with a material that creates pathways for bio-electricity to flow around
the wound, greatly reducing the pain of severe injuries and shortening
healing time.
Still, there is no repeatable experimentation
that translates the concept of Chi into the measurable electro-magnetic
spectrum of material science, and, therefore, it remains a mystery and food
for skeptics.
In spite of this, there are many accessible methods
of training for the cultivation of Chi and its employment in optimal health,
wellness and longevity. There are competent schools and teachers of many forms
of the Chinese energetic arts in most areas. Additionally, one can begin to
develop a personal practice starting with the straightforward Taoist meditation
techniques of Mantak Chia, or begin
learning from the more elaborate instructional programs of medical and sports Qi Gong offered by Dr. Jwing-Ming Yang of the YMAA, author ofThe Root of Chinese Qi Gong.
DMT – The Spirit
Molecule
DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, the visionary chemical
compound found in abundance throughout the plant kingdom and in many mammals,
is naturally produced inside the human body. It is most plentiful in the pineal gland,
which is considered to be the potential biological locus of human consciousness
and the seat
of the soul. The pineal
gland is known
as the third eye,
or the point source from which consciousness manifests itself in the human
body. It is suspected that, when a persona falls asleep, DMT is released
into the brain from the pineal gland to
induce dream states of consciousness, and also that, when a person dies, a
flood of this chemical is released, accounting for the
consciousness-expanding effects of near-death experiences and for the movement of the psyche into realms
beyond waking life.
[ In short it is
plausible that this DMT releases the consciousness back into the super
consciousness in order to preserve the self as the physical body shuts down. Arclein ]
The molecule itself is simple in structure and can
be synthesized or extracted directly from plants. Dubbed the ‘spirit molecule’, by researcher Dr. Rick Strassman, this commonly-found compound baffles modern
science because of the effects it has on human consciousness.
Although the substance is naturally occurring and
apparently a necessary part of conscious life, at present it is listed by the
United States Federal Government as a Schedule I controlled substance and is
illegal to produce, distribute or possess. The suppression of DMT, a substance
so commonly found in nature, is construed by many as a sign of an established ‘war on consciousness’. Speculation exists that visionary states reached
under the effects of DMT are intentionally kept out of reach of the masses
because the lasting psychological effects of the DMT experience can have a
markedly culture-busting and paradigm-shifting result. Causing people to
question primary cultural narratives and mainstream societal programming,
psychedelic transformation with DMT is dangerous to the status quo; if too many
people experience these effects, then our cultural bias towards exploitation
and annihilation would be redressed.
There is growing popular interest in the psychoactive
effects of this drug, especially after the work of Dr. Strassman, who
clinically observed the mysterious similarities among the psychedelic visions
of over 400 subjects during his legally-sanctioned exploration of this chemical
in the 1990’s. Given the large number of subjects who vividly described
having life-altering spiritual experiences that seemed to dissolve the ego and
support the idea that all life forms are inter-connected at a common spiritual
level, DMT has acquired the popular nickname ‘the spirit molecule’. Many of
the individual experiences recorded in Dr. Strassman’s experiments exhibit
unexplainable similarities to each other, leading to the question: Does DMT
bring human consciousness into attunement with spiritual dimensions that exist
in parallel to our commonly-shared material world?
The proper use of this substance has traditionally
been the domain of Amazonian shaman who for thousands of years have been
drinking the thick and unpleasant-tasting psychedelic brew Ayahuasca. This ancient concoction of at least two common
Amazonian plants is widely accepted in South America as a tool in shamanic
healing practices. It allows experienced healers to mitigate the
individual suffrages of one’s psyche occurring between the physical and
spiritual realms while also radically purging the body and psyche of latent
negative energies.
The process of healing and cleansing through the use
of Ayahuasca is legal in South America. It is also legally accessible to
Americans domestically through commitment to the church of Santo Daime, which
regularly serves this brew to its parishioners in ceremonies taking
place in many major cities throughout the US, including New York and
Washington, DC. There is also a growing popularity in tourism that brings Westerners to ceremonies with legitimate healers and shaman who
are trained in the usage of Ayahuasca and where ordinary people can
experience firsthand the potent and life-changing effects of this medicine.
The author and consciousness explorer Daniel Pinchbeck has helped to bring recognition of the
transformational aspects of Ayahuasca and concentrated DMT, rationally
advocating them as a means of reconfiguring one’s psyche so that a
re-prioritization of values can occur, ultimately alleviating a dependence on
cultural norms, which contribute to exacerbating world calamities. In his epic
and thoughtful account of some of his harrowing journeys with
psychedelics, Breaking Open the Head, Pinchbeck makes the rather compelling case that
the powerful and paradigm-shifting effects of Ayahuasca have found a rightful
place in our modern society as a tool for drastically recalibrating our
relationship to the earth and for re-thinking our societal institutions and the
purpose of our culture.
Jonathon Miller-Weisberg, enthno-botanist and conservationist, presents
in his book, Rainforest Medicine, the fascinating cosmology of an Ayahuasca shaman
from the Sequoia tribe in Ecuador. He makes the case that Ayahuasca is a
celestial consciousness that is currently working to introduce itself to as
many Westerners as possible as a means of self-preservation in the face of an
overwhelming ecological assault on the Amazon, its indigenous people and
traditions. In his book, Weisberger describes in colorful detail the cosmology
and mythology woven into the mystique of Ayahuasca medicine, while also
offering to Westerners practical and critical advice on respecting and honoring
the sacred importance of this visionary experience.
The effects of DMT on human consciousness can be
profound and permanent, and many vocal proponents of this experience, such
as Terence McKenna or Graham Hancock, attribute profound psychological and philosophical
awakenings to this experience. Perhaps the greatest benefit of experiencing DMT
may be the reintroduction of the sacred into contemporary consciousness and into ordinary life. It also has the
curious side-effect of inviting mystery and inspiration that can powerfully
renew daily life.
Conclusion
In the world of interesting and unexplainable
phenomenon, the curious examples of human Chi and the visionary effects of
DMT stand out as two mysteries that have been influencing human health and
well-being for thousands of years, but still defy logical explanation. The
greatest barrier to the experience of these phenomenon is the preclusion that
they don’t really exist, just because they are yet unexplained by science.
These are mysteries that lie in wait of scientific explanation, not mysteries
that owe an explanation to science.
About the Author
Dylan Charles is a student and teacher of
Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, a practitioner of Yoga and Taoist
esoteric arts, and an activist and idealist passionately engaged in the
struggle for a more sustainable and just world for future generations. He is
the editor of WakingTimes.com,
the proprietor of OffgridOutpost.com, a grateful father and a man who seeks to enlighten
and assist others with the power of inspiring information and action. He may be
contacted at wakingtimes@gmail.com.
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