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Veil Lifts on the Cover of the Monthly Aspectarian

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:17:25 +0100

Keeping on the crest of the 2010 wave, my newest piece has been featured on the February cover of The Monthly Aspectarian. This is the most comprehensive monthly publication for anything spiritual-related in the greater Chicago area. It has been a staple of astrological information, visionary artwork, alternative points of view, and life-changing event schedules ever since 1979.

Great artists have been featured on the covers throughout the years, including Robert Venosa, Carey Thompson, Martina Hoffmann, Chris Deschaine, Willow Arlenea, Francene Hart, and countless others. Aside from this, having this piece featured on the Aspectarian has a very special significance for me, as the magazine opened so many doors for me when I first moved to Chicago. It's amazing to know that my art may serve similar purposes for many of its readers.

A Different Veil Lifts?

Surely so. As you can see, this particular version of Veil Lifts is an ode to my dear spiritual teacher, Dr. Claudia Romero. Having her in the piece creates an amplification that is surely to be enjoyed by anyone who views the magazine. The piece is very similar to the one featuring my self-portrait in some respects; but, at the same time, this one has a great deal more profound symbolisms if you look closely.

The Monthly Aspectarian is distributed freely online (click here to view) and at numerous locations throughout Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Here are all the drop sites in case you want to grab a hard copy.

Energy Art Movement Hosts International Exhibit In Chicago - Press Release

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:52:07 +0100

The Energy Art Salon opens Jan 16 at Murphy Hill Gallery, with over 50 top-notch artists

Chicago, IL - The most unusual art movement to date will soon energize Chicago’s cultural scene. Emerging from across the globe, artists in the Energy Art Movement look within, without and about to provide imagery to, and push, our ever-expanding notions of reality.

Energy Art is the depiction of energy using color, form, and composition to create inventive/expressive works that resonate with impact and feeling. In terms of subject matter, it may bridge fields such as quantum physics, alchemy, molecular biology, mysticism, fractal theory, occult anatomy, and consciousness studies. In terms of media and execution, some members are known for building on traditional techniques, including those of the Old Masters, while others prefer the use of cutting edge digital, 3D and algorithmic rendering applications. Yet, a few others look for ways to push the envelope and incorporate these and other types of media.

This show is your opportunity to experience the finest contemporary energetic art available today, in the movement’s first visit to Chicago. The exhibit will feature the winners of the annual -and international- Energy Art Salon Competition, along with artwork from movement members and entries from the We Are Connected Project. The WAC project aims to explore different levels of connections in which we participate and are embedded in, from quantum entanglement and mitochondrial / DNA replication patterns, to advances of the information age. In total, more than 50 top-notch energy artists from around the world will be exhibiting in over 20,000 sq feet of lively gallery space. Speakers in the Salon include Prof. Stuart Hameroff from the University of Arizona / Center for Consciousness studies, and Joan Forest Mage from Life Force Arts Center, among others.

RSVP via Facebook
Reception: Saturday, Jan 16, 2010
Time: Noon to 11:00pm
Location: Murphy Hill Gallery | Map
Address: Historic Sears & Roebuck Building
3333 West Arthington Street, 3rd floor
Chicago, IL 60624
2 blocks South of the Kedzie Blue Line CTA / I-290
Free parking (street or secured lot)
Building is accessible

The exhibit will be open to the public during regular gallery hours through Feb 25, 2010: Tues. Weds. Fri. & Sat.: 10AM - 5PM. Thurs.: 10AM - 9PM.

For gallery appointments, guided tours, other activities and general inquiries, please contact EAM-at-energyartmovement-dot-org and/or diogenes.lamarche-at-energyartmovement-dot-org.

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Links and Images

*Movement Homepage:
http://www.energyartmovement.org

*Flickr slideshow of some of the works to be exhibited:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/energyart/sets/72157622943803395/show/

*We Are Connected Project Page:
http://www.energyartmovement.org/projects/we-are-connected/

*Energy Art Salon Competition (including images of works to be exhibited):
http://www.energyartmovement.org/projects/competition/results-2009/

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11:11:11 Portal and Triple Helix DNA

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:34:19 +0100

This image deals directly with the energetic shifts we are experiencing at different levels: as part of the human race, as inhabitants of Gaia, and as part of our Solar System in its moment of ascension from three dimensional reality into more accelerated frequencies. The green cubic structures represent both the dissolution and crystallization of matter-consciousness, and our increasing capacity to see beyond and into the inner worlds.

The meditator, seated within the tree of life, is embracing the realization of his multi-dimensionality at the moment of transition from double- to triple- helix DNA; adding the third etheric strand, providing for the triangulation of the DNA structure and the anchoring of changes to come.

The pillars, each with a double helix within, make reference to the lessons learned in our current reality and the 11:11 portal that guides the synchronicity for collective transformation. The third (etheric / light) pillar, at the center, again makes reference to triangulation (11:11:11 also November 11, 2009; 2 + 9 = 11, Nov. 29, 2009, and Nov. 11, 2011) and to the incorporation of the blueprint for light-body consciousness.

The violet-light structure at the center holds different keys to the sacred geometry and cosmometry for the alignment of the 12 full strands of DNA that we will eventually gain access to. Angelic presences shield and assist in this exciting task, transmuting quickly between the colors of our visible spectrum and beyond, sustaining yet more sacred cosmometry patterns such as the sri yantra, the chakana, Metatron's cube, and other beacons of ancient wisdom which take on new meanings. The 12 pointed star, four times trinity, again makes reference to the blueprint for the recoding of 12-strand DNA.

Stepping into this threshold, the realization comes quick: all of our choices in this plane of manifestation, here on earth, also influence the outcomes of other bio-cellular, planetary, and stellar experiences. We are all connected, as are all avenues and units of time-space and thought-matter-energy-vibration, in the process of evolution of consciousness. The more you give, the more you get, in order to keep giving. Step into this portal and manifest all that you want in your life, right now, today. By getting someone across the river, you cross the river yourself.

The original artwork, titled "Veil Lifts / Retrieving the Third Strand", is available as 40" x 60" Acrylic over Gyclée on Hahnemühle Torchon. Limited edition fine art prints are also available in different sizes and formats - contact me for more info.

Hydro Genesis - Hydro Energen

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:10:38 +0100

Here is my newest piece, my entry for the Energy Art Movement's Green Energy Project. Making this piece has been an experience in growing and molting, and in letting go of myself and channeling the creative flows into directions previously unexplored. This time I ventured more freely into the world of acrylics and brush strokes, mixing digital and traditional media so the finished piece is 34" x 20", acrylic over Gicleé on Hahnemuhle Torchon. The Giclée was dry mounted and my dear friend Ryan conjured up an amazing white wooden frame with silver inlets. Here's some info on how I started this piece, and below is a bit of preliminary info on the piece itself.

Hydro Genesis / Hydro Energen: inner glimpse at the fluid nature of etheric universal energy and how it becomes manifest in the production of hydrogen, and its application as a source of clean, renewable, inexhaustible fuel.

The platonic solids illustrate the conscious interchange of the mystic elements of old, including liquid (icosahedron), gas (octahedron) and aether (dodecahedron).

Different experimenters and observers have reported that hydrogen can apparently be produced from the vacuum of space (PDF) by electrical discharge. Perhaps less other-worldly is the notion of extracting hydrogen via electrolysis, separating the two gases from the universal solvent, and joining them once more in a fuel cell: the by-products of the energy synthesis being heat and again the universal solvent, yet in a purified, drinkable form.

In its deeper meanings, this piece illustrates several principles of spiritual alchemy: the distilling of feeling and desire (astral plane, water) to give way to clearer mental forms and facilitate the expression/manifestation of the etheric. Water is transformative, the agent of metamorphosis linked to the alchemical operation of Solutio and an important part in Solve et Coagula. The Toltecs speak of water as the mirror holding the secret of sight; that which flows, connects and neutralizes, having an equilibrium which is dynamic and descendent.

Green Energy Project Entries Unveiled!

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:57:42 +0100

Happy World Environment Day!

Today the Energy Art Movement unveils the Green Energy Project - with work by 23 artists including De Es, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffman, Helena Nelson-Reed, Simon Haiduk, Shahla Rosa, Giorgio Vaselli, Adam Scott Miller, and Ken D. Matheson. I am humbly grateful for having my work amongst such an awesome group of artists!

My Entry for the Green Energy Art Project: Hydrogen Energy

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:04:51 +0100

As I said in my previous post, The Energy Art Movement has launched an initiative to promote Green, Renewable, Clean Energy with the use of Dynamic, Energetic, and Visionary Art. I spent a few weeks thinking about which type of energy to work with, and didn't really come up with anything. Then, during finals week of course, I decided I wanted to work with water. Hydroelectric energy? Tidal power? Marine Current power? Ocean thermal energy conversion? Osmotic Power? Water. Blue.

I woke up to find myself playing around with a photograph of ocean waves and quickly all ideas sunk in and subsided. After a few days of work on the image I'll post next week, it became apparent that I was looking into the actual structure of water and the energy released from splitting and joining hydrogen and oxygen. Hence, my entry was about Hydrogen Energy. And this post has a bit of info about this particular type of energy.

Hydrogen and Hydrogen Energy

Contemporary scientists say that hydrogen is the simplest element we know of. Its atomic structure can be observed with as little as one electron and one proton. Hydrogen also appears as the lightest element, behaving as a gas at earthly temperatures and pressures. Apparently, hydrogen is one of the most abundant gases in the universe as we currently understand it.

Through fusion in the Sun’s core, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms, giving off radiant energy. In one way or another, the Sun’s energy sustains life on earth as we commonly understand it. The Sun makes the air come into movement, the air acts upon the water, and the water acts upon the earth. Plants use sunlight for photosynthesis, making energy available to other life forms. The Sun’s energy is also stored as chemical energy in fossil fuels. The combination of hydrogen and carbon yields different compounds such as methane (CH4), coal, and petroleum. Hydrogen is readily found in water (H2O) and in all growing things (as biomass). It is also an abundant element in the earth's crust.

Hydrogen has the highest energy content of any common fuel by weight (about three times more than gasoline), but the lowest energy content by volume (about four times less than gasoline). Like electricity, hydrogen can behave as an energy carrier. Hydrogen can be produced or extracted from a variety of resources, including water (via biological production in an algae bioreactor, or by electrolysis), as a byproduct of other chemical processes (such the production of chlorine), with the use of heat (by thermolysis), or via extraction from biomass. Unlike electricity, large quantities of hydrogen (in liquid or gas) can be easily stored and transported to be used when needed.

Electrolysis is the decomposition of water (H2O) into oxygen (O2) and hydrogen gas (H2) due to an electric current being passed through the water. It results in no emissions. Nonetheless, current technological, economic, social, and political arrangements can make this technology seem somewhat expensive and/or inefficient. Renewable energy can be used to power electrolyzers, providing a sustainable system that is independent of petroleum products and is nonpolluting. After the hydrogen is produced it can be used in a fuel cell to produce electricity. The fuel cell process yields water and heat as by-products. If fuel cells operate at high temperatures the system can be set up as a co-generator, with the “waste” energy used for heating.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is the primary user of hydrogen as an energy fuel; it has used hydrogen for years in the space program. Liquid hydrogen fuel lifts the space shuttles through the atmosphere and into orbit or beyond. Hydrogen batteries power the shuttle’s electrical systems. The only by-product is pure water, which the crew uses as drinking water.

Small hydrogen fuel cells can power electric cars. Large fuel cells can provide electricity in remote places with no power lines. Currently, portable hydrogen fuel cells are being sold to provide longer power for laptop computers, cell phones, and military applications.

Hydrogen, manufactured locally using water, wind and sun, can serve as a secure, renewable, inexhaustible, emission-free fuel for just about any application we can think of. We just have to find ways to make the technology more popular and a lot cheaper!

Links and Sources

Energy Information Administration: The Impact of Increased Use of Hydrogen on Petroleum Consumption and Carbon Dioxide Emissions, August 2008
Energy Information Administration: Alternatives to Traditional Transportation Fuels 2006, May 2008.
The National Energy Education Development Project (2005), Intermediate Energy Infobook.
Rowe, Paul E. (2006) An Unexpected Source of Clean Energy? Infinite Energy, Issue 67, 2006. [Link to PDF, opens in new tab or right click to download]
Hydrogen Energy Center
Alternative Energy News on Hydrogen
Wikipedia articles on Hydrogen Energy, Hydrogen Production, and Electrolysis.

The Energy Art Movement's Green Energy Project

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:05:49 +0100

The Energy Art Movement has launched an initiative to promote Green, Renewable, Clean Energy with the use of Dynamic, Energetic, and Visionary Art. The Green Energy Project was publicly announced on April 22nd and counts with the acknowledgment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Members of the movement have been working on their entries and so far we are all really excited with what promises to be a breakthrough collaboration. All entries will be featured at the Energy Art Movement's website on World Environment Day (June 5). Gallery exhibits are yet to be announced. With this project we are taking a collective stand to raise consciousness and provide a vision for sustainable alternatives for energy production. It's time to say goodbye to petroleum and petrochemicals!

I've been tirelessly working on my entry as the semester comes to a close, amidst nights with few hours of sleep, papers, grading, and a wonderful gallery opening last weekend... Stay tuned for more!

Using Vibratory Octaves to Describe the Spectrum of Perceptible Reality

Thu, 07 May 2009 22:06:06 +0100

As I wrote in the first post of this series (Energy as the Structure and Fabric of the Universe), the evolution of consciousness and its journey through physicality has given us the possibility to develop and awaken different senses and schemas of perception. With these, and along with other processes and aspects of consciousness, we are able to perceive, experience, and consciously interact with different segments of what we call reality.

In subsequent posts we explored some of the ways in which our conditioning, through experience and through life in a social context, influences what and how we are able to perceive. In part, we make new perceptions match with old perceptions in terms of what we’ve learned, our expectations, and the collective experiences and expectations of our culture and those around. The Toltecs say that tending to all this, we are not really perceiving what is “out there”, instead, we are taking part in different sets of dreams – some collective, some individual; all interrelated.

In this post, we’ll take a different approach into considering other ways in which our perceptions and ideas of the “real world” may be challenged. I will be drawing on spectroscopy, electromagnetic field studies, and psychology of perception, as well as on Rosicrucian philosophy and other schools of mysticism. This post is just a very brief (and perhaps problematic) overview of some of the points I find interesting in these broad fields of inquiry. The purpose is not to exhaust all possibilities in detailed depth, but rather to point out some similarities and to set a ground work for posts to come (and for some of the places you can end up in when looking around this site). Before going there though, it’s important to reconsider one of the premises we started with: envisioning reality as the fluid manifestation of energy, in different vibrations and bands of frequencies. Most of us are able to come into contact, via our physical, inner, and higher senses, with different segments or bands of frequencies of the broad spectrum of reality/consciousness we are in. Lets look at which senses tap into what, using vibratory octaves as described by Isabelle Padovani in "El Sendero de los Angeles" and mapping these octaves to findings from other schools of thought.

Touch

According to psychophysicists, spectroscopists, other modern scientists, and yes, mystics and students of holistic sciences, our skin as a sensory organ (endowed with the sense of touch) is usually capable of feeling energy/matter vibrating within the first three octaves, at 2, 4, and 8 cycles per second. Water disintegrates in the fifteenth octave, at 42800 vibrations per second. Matter/energy beyond this octave does not regularly stimulate the skin in terms of touch and texture, yet the stimuli can take more of an auditory or olfactory nature, depending on the case. Our skin is also sensitive to temperature, and I'll touch briefly on this further down.

Audition

Our ears, endowed with the faculty to perceive sound, are usually sensitive to frequencies from the fourth to the twentieth octave, which correspond, respectively, to 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 32768, and 1048576 vibrations per second. Frequencies from the twenty-fifth to thirty-fifth octaves (or of 33554432 and 34359738368 vibrations per second) move towards the realm of ultrasound, and escape the conscious hearing capabilities of most humans. Other animal species (like cats and dogs) feel right at home listening in on some of these frequencies.

Taste and Smell

It’s interesting to note that our senses of smell and taste usually lie within the seventeenth octave, somehow nested within the spectrum of what we can hear. Straight out, this questions any conception of linearity that we might want to assume while describing reality as a spectrum of frequencies and our experiences with it. Touch and smell are sensitive to energy/matter vibrating at (or) around 131072 cycles per second – they map onto very similar sets of frequencies when studied from this point of view, and as some gourmet chefs may argue, 70% of taste is actually smell. Taste buds on our tongues can usually make general differentiations (salty, sweet, sour, bitter, etc), yet the subtle variations we perceive as taste are intermingled with smell. It’s interesting to look at how different species in our animal kingdom have developed different ways of interacting with the bands of frequencies that we distinguish as touch, smell, and taste. Crabs can actually taste by grabbing things with their claws, flies can taste with their feet, and many aquatic animals actually don’t distinguish between smell and taste as we understand them. In some cases, we can also tell if something is spicy-hot by rubbing it on our skin.

A Big Gap in our Perception Capabilities

Shortly after the twentieth octave (where most of our ears cease to perceive sound) and right before the forty-ninth octave (where most of our eyes begin to pick up reddish colors) comes a broad range of frequencies that most humans are blind and deaf to. These include different types of radio waves, VHF, UHF, and cell phone signals. It’s interesting to note that these waves are around us most of the time, and we can “tune in” to them with the use of devices capable of “perceiving” them. These devices (radios, tv’s, cell phones) can zoom in at specific parts of this spectrum with the use of dials – and we can access “stations” and “channels”, or “send and receive calls”. Our denser and more perceptible thoughts are also close to these ranges, even though many may come from subtler octaves. The Rosicrucians speak of the thirty-sixth to forty-fifth octaves as the range where many of the more usual and lower astral phenomena and projections occur. (We can perhaps discuss this in another post dealing with alchemy and materialization.)

Close along and overlapping a bit comes infrared, occupying from the fortieth to the forty-eighth octave (that is, starting at 1099511627776 and going up to 281474979710656 vibrations per second). This band of vibrations also escapes what most humans have been trained to see with their physical eyes. Yet, parts of the infrared spectrum we can feel as heat, and others we can see depending on the circumstances.

Vision and Colors

The light (and the colors) that most contemporary humans more readily see usually occupies the forty-ninth and fiftieth octaves. The forty-ninth octave starts at 562949953421312 vibrations per second, and begins with red at the bottom of the spectrum. These light waves are relatively long, slow, and the easiest to see. Then, to name a few, come orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and, finally violet, which tops off at 1125899906842624 vibrations per second. When looking at the color spectrum, it is interesting to note that (unlike the illustration) there are no clear-cut boundaries between one color and the next.

We can find a great variety of colors by zooming in at the “mixture” in between the “primary” tones that we are more accustomed to seeing, and by looking below and beyond the color band.

It is also interesting to note that vision and the ability to perceive colors operates in sometimes starkly different ways from one animal phylum, class, and/or order to the next. Considering just humans, it's interesting to note that our visual capabilities change over time, both in terms of the evolution of our species, in terms of the evolution of single individuals, and in terms of the types of training our specific cultural medium provides for our senses. Reviewing ancient literature and the way scenery is described can perhaps hint at these changes. The Odyssey and the Iliad, for example, speak of the Mediterranean as a wine-dark sea. Perhaps it was darker and more reddish back then, or the author(s?) chose to describe it this way for metaphorical purposes (although the metaphor gets old pretty soon as it’s the only one used to describe the color of the sea, and it spans both stories!). On similar and perhaps more convincing notes, Aristotle straightforwardly states that the rainbow has only three colors: red, yellow, and green.

Light in the ranges of blue, violet and indigo has short wavelengths and moves rapidly, and for us, seeing colors in this spectrum of light may require a more focused use of attention and intention. Next time you see a rainbow, or light going through a prism, try looking at the colors that appear on the upper and lower edges. Take a little break from your routine and play with your vision. How far can you see?

Related Posts:

Reality as Dream (Perception and Experience Part III)

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:46:16 +0100

Engaging in the world as those around us perceive it is how we engage in what the Toltecs call the dream of the planet. In so-called innocence, kids manifest mostly love and little fear. The latter they have to learn or be taught: you can fall down, fire burns, ooh that hurt, some spiders may be poisonous, you have to behave, you have to follow these rules, being of a particular racial group informs your position in the world and your relationships with others, you can’t play in the mud, you have to do as you’re told, sexuality is supposed to be for marriage, that doesn’t go in your mouth, you should be attracted to people of the opposite sex, you are supposed to get good grades, the sexes are actually opposite, boys behave this way and girls behave this other, we don’t talk to imaginary friends, you have to work to earn a living, etc.

In other words, each of us has to undergo domestication in order to be accepted, fit in, be civilized, reasonable, and whatever else our society holds in high standard. Domestication is so powerful that after a while part of it stays with us kind of like an internal voice – don’t do this, you did it, what a dumbass, you should’ve known; you’ll look dumb, what will people think; you’re supposed to be this way, are you going crazy, what kind of idea is that, etc. We keep ourselves in check by assuming most of the rules that those around us attempt to enforce on us.

So tending to all this, we do not perceive and understand the world “as it is”, but as we learn and are taught to perceive it. Same can be said about our perceptions and understandings of ourselves and everything else. E.g., we learn to perceive a spider as danger, the mud as dirty, our sexuality as inappropriate or as something we have to wait on, our identities as fixed, the world as a place that’s round, time as something that passes, etc. The language that we learn names the world, and the things that happen, from a particular point of view. Not everything is named and not everything is offered equal amounts of attention and thought. Nonetheless, the ways in which we train our perception, and the ideas that go hand in hand with it, are subject to change.

It’s interesting to note how wine tasters can put many of their senses into experiencing and describing wine: they can distinguish a myriad of colors where most people might just say “red”. They can identify a bunch of aromas, flavors and aftertastes that can be traced to a type of grape, a region, a year; where most people might just say “sweet”. The sense of touch is also important: a prickly mouthfeel may tell of a wine that is young, whereas velvety and flat sensations tell stories of their own. Most people might not even experience any tactile sensations consciously, and when asked might describe the wine as feeling “liquid”… and on it goes. There are so many things which we can perceive that we simply don’t have names, categories, training, or attention for. This disconnect between what is out there and what we think or perceive to be out there is a very important part of the dream.

As might seem more than obvious by now, there are different collective dreams that span entire populations and epochs, and that usually go unquestioned. Whoever questions them publicly may face negative consequences (like being burned at the stake, being labeled as a freak, an outcast, a looney, an idealist dreamer, the ones discussed above, etc). Believing that the earth is the center of the universe and interpreting all events according to this can serve as an example. Following the code of conduct as put forth by the Sutras, Vedas, Koran, Torah, or by the Old vs. the New Testament can serve as examples as well. It’s interesting to note how social rules, scripts, norms, concepts, values and language change and are fluid depending on socio-historic and particular contexts. The way most people understand and interpret these books can serve as examples.

Another example we might consider involves the different dreams around categories of identity. For example, what it means to be a woman or a man, and how we’re taught to be (or not be) either of these, varies amongst a host of contemporary societies and cultures. What it means to be a woman or a man today, in each of these cultures, may be different than what it was twenty or three-hundred years ago. Then of course, there are different types of men and women within and across each culture or societal arrangement, tending to categories of race, class, education, religion, etc. And then of course we would have to look at language: which concepts and/or categories do we have for beings that don’t neatly map into the categories of man or woman as we’ve constructed them? what happens to people that challenge these categories be it willingly and/or unwillingly?

National and political discourse can also serve as collective dreams, and our history is full of readily identifiable examples. Think of the Nazis and the way that their particular dream spread to fuel genocide and war, or think of neoliberalism and the way it operates today. Another interesting set of dreams has to do with seeing the world as a hostile place that is out to get you; seeing planet Earth as a resource or commodity to be hoarded, dissected, and sold; or living in a world that is enchanted, peaceful, abundant, and full of mystery. Of course, these dreams are not mutually exclusive and we can shift back and forth between them in different moments and circumstances. What’s interesting about them is how most of the time we operate within them, and perceive the world and ourselves according to them, without realizing it.

Dreams play out at family and individual levels as well. A family dream might be revealed in statements such as “this is a family of [insert profession, social status, religious, ideological, and political persuasions and/or other identifiers here] and you better start acting like we do”. These statements are not always explicit, of course, and failure to comply can result in punishment, exclusion, expulsion, or as mentioned above, medicalization, trips to psychiatric facilities, etc. Think about the power dynamics that play in: how much can you really challenge family and social structures, when your very material and symbolic existence may appear to completely depend on them?

Your personal dream has to do with every idea you’ve accepted about yourself, be it consciously or not. Successful domestication relies specifically on this: becoming someone in relationship to others and matching this identity to your “self”. So, to a certain extent and for those of us living in some sort of social arrangement, domestication and living a personal and/or collective dream is inevitable. Nonetheless, becoming aware of the specific dreams that influence our lives enable us to change these dreams – to have a lucid dream, to wake up. Different ongoing personal dreams have to do with appraisals of self-worth, self-capabilities, self-performance, self-righteousness, self-trust, identity, and on it goes. Having specific ideas about yourself can get in the way of letting you perceive otherwise.

For me, one of the most curious dreams is one that states that the whole of our experience can be reduced to physical, mechanicistic, and logical factors and explanations. This dream goes hand in hand with one that states that “believing is seeing”, or that the full spectrum of reality is accessible to us via our conditioned senses and reasoning. This dream has implications in terms of the roles western science and modernity play in the lives of many people alive today. It also has implications at the individual level, when we discard some of our perceptions because they do not seem logical according to our understanding of perception and what the world is like. Explorations into these dreams is, in part, what got this post going.

All these factors and examples partially point at the difficulty of perceiving, thinking and speaking about phenomena that go beyond our consensual understandings of reality, and language as we’ve learned to use it. All of these dreams end up having material, physical, biological, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual consequences for each of us – they end up defining our reality. If you whole-heartedly believe that what you see, hear, smell, taste and feel with your senses as they are now is all that the world has to offer, you may miss out on a lot of experiences, or you may not know how to deal with an experience that pushes you beyond these senses. If you arrive at a personal dream in which you are clumsy and physically incapable, you can increase your chances of hampering your physical and biological development. A neoliberal economicist perspective may lead to the commodification of everything, including other human beings and forms of life. And on it goes. So, how shall we wake up?

Related Posts:

The Social Components of Perception (Perception & Experience Part II)

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:46:32 +0100

Cultural-historical and socio-cultural psychologists have studied the way in which cognition develops; paying close attention to how it is embedded in a given place and time, in biology, and in different sets of social relationships and meanings.

Scholars following a Vygotskian perspective have shown how ‘higher mental functions’ develop through social interaction, by mediating and reinterpreting biological needs in terms of socio-cultural understandings. This example does an awesome job at illustrating the basic principles of cultural mediation. This approach is strongly concerned with meanings. To some extent, we can analyze how these meanings change from culture to culture and throughout history, and yet there is a bulk of perceptive potential that may be left unexplored. Of course, the question emerges: can we effectively disentangle perception and meaning?

It would seem logical to think that perception precedes meaning: how can we have a meaning for something we’ve not yet perceived? But then, we have a bunch of meanings for things we have not ‘directly’ or ‘individually’ perceived and/or experienced. A great deal of people may claim to have never seen, heard, smelled, or touched and angel. Yet they may associate meanings, ideas, shapes, colors, and other sensory information as to what this would entail. Perceiving an angel then, would be preceded by meanings and ideas; and these ideas would shape how (or if) the perception itself takes place, if the perception is at all valued, considered, or talked about.

In communicating, speaking about, and referring to reality, we have developed consensual interpretations, understandings, and concepts of what is real. Language, as we have crafted it in this process, serves as a frame for our perceptions and what we focus our attention on. At some point, we need to learn to perceive, interpret, understand or at least acknowledge reality in terms of what the majority of the people around us deem as real. Along with this come the distinctions of what’s ‘imaginary’, ‘paranormal’, or just plain ‘crazy’. This hooks our attention into specific bands of frequencies. Failure to engage in reality as defined by those around may result in punishment, rejection, medicalization, trips to psychiatric facilities, and/or death (imagine someone that never learned to perceive that cars can hit them when crossing the street).

There is also a power component to what is usually considered as reality. Even though anybody can potentially come up with new words, concepts and ways to define and speak about reality, not everyone's reality is validated equally by society at large. For reality to be ‘really real’, there has to be some sort of consensual agreement. Some people and groups of people have more power to enforce the ‘consensual’ agreements that they see fit. As kids, our caregivers and other authority figures bring forth specific definitions and parameters of what’s real. In a sense, we can resist, but the act of resistance entails us having to deal with whatever we are resisting. We can add to this all the ‘official’ versions of reality as put forth by the media and institutions in power, including modern western science... “Roswell was a hoax,” “evidence of the chupacabra”, “acupuncture is superstitious folk remedy”, “the earth is flat... err, round,” “ethelial is not really a word”, “global warming is not really an issue, oh wait, it really is”, etc.

According to Toltec wisdom and a broad range of cognitive theorists, every stimulus that we are able to perceive via our organs travels through channels of perception. Some of these stimuli, and whatever meanings we attach to them, stick around in our memory (or not, as we dismiss a broad range of what we can potentially perceive at any given moment). As said in a previous post (Energy as Structure and Fabric of the Universe), the Toltecs came to the realization that light is what makes up everything in our universe. So, to a certain extent, we perceive different gradations of this ‘light’. In perceiving (considering socio-cultural mediation, construction of meaning, and individual experience) we store and qualify specific vibratory segments of this ‘light’, and the old, stored light distorts the incoming light.

Modern science has shown that perception accords not with the features of the stimulus or the properties of the underlying ‘objects’, but with what the same or similar stimuli have typically signified in the past. As recent scientific research has shown, a probabilistic strategy based on past experience may explain the remarkable difference between what we perceive and physical reality. In part, we make new perceptions match with old perceptions in terms of our own experiences and what we’ve learned. According to Toltec wisdom, this is the way in which we begin to dream. Part of this dream has to do with the meanings of these perceptions, yet part of it has to do with the act of perception itself. Now the question is, can we actually disentangle perception, consciousness, and awareness?

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