My Associate Dr. Patrick Tribble is one of our Embodied Awareness Faculty.  Among his many talents and gifts, Patrick has a deep understanding of subtle reality.  Usually when we talk about “seeing” we mean physically looking at concrete reality with the organ of our eyes; however, the physical is just the most dense expression of reality.  There are also more subtle levels—emotional, intellectual and spiritual realities.  Patrick happens to be able to see each of these subtle bodies by looking into the physical and beyond it.

If you are not naturally clairvoyant, there are ways of opening your seeing. I learned a trick from Dr. Matthew Prest, a chiropractor who also happens to be clairvoyant, and can ‘see’ into the body.  To help train yourself in seeing Matthew suggested, “If you look at the body, and imagine that there is a color around it . . . what color is it?” Then Matthew would ask, “What does that color feel like to you?”

Patrick is also a chiropractor with a specialization in neurology, biomechanics and functional medicine.  He teaches us how the physical body is one of our greatest metaphors for understanding who and what we are, as both physical energetic and spiritual beings.

In our last Embodied Awareness program, Patrick shared images from his friend Alex Grey—an amazing New York artist who has the ability to draw subtle realities and make them ‘real’ for the rest of us, whose vision is not quite so open.  This one example from Alex Grey’s website had the greatest effect on me.

After that particular class, I found myself visualizing this image by Alex Gray.

I feel my energy body in a completely new way.  I experience expansion when I look at this image.  I feel my head open up when I look at his work, and my body begins to tingle with a new sense of aliveness.

I invite you to check out Alex Grey’s website.

When You look what do you See?  How does it affect you?

Saturday, November 14th I texted my friend Romie to confirm that we were still on for a walk in the labyrinth that sits in a public park close to my home.  She wrote back that she would pick me up at 1:00 and that we would be walking with Paris and Humanity.

“Great!” I replied.  “By the way, who are Paris and Humanity?”  I thought maybe she was bringing along some four-legged friends.  She responded that I had apparently been unplugged from Friday evening’s nonstop news broadcasts about the simultaneous suicide bombings at a rock concert, soccer stadium, and public restaurants in the heart of Paris.

I went onto Facebook and immediately noticed how many of my Friends faces were covered with BLUE, WHITE and RED as a symbol of solidarity.  I almost clicked “change my picture” too . . . and then reflected for a moment.  The French flag across my face could just as easily be interpreted as my support for French President Francois Hollande’s reactionary declaration of WAR and warranting immediate retaliation.  Violence begets violence and terror.  Terrorism is a symptom of seething horror and desperation that distorts our perception.  We become what we hate.  How does this end the war against terror?

What matters most in times like this are the choices each of us make at each turn of this labyrinth we call LIFE.  When confronted with horror I seek to follow the call of those heroes and heroines of Humanity who have gone before me into the maze of fear, reactivity, spin and lies.  Those brave souls who have already discovered the center of the labyrinth and call out from the truth of our collective core.

Like 22 year old Isobel Bowdrey who was shot in the Parisian concert hall Friday night.  She says on her Facebook post:

“…As i lay down in the blood of strangers and waiting for my bullet to end my mere 22 years, I envisioned every face that I have ever loved and whispered I love you. over and over again. reflecting on the highlights of my life. Wishing that those i love knew just how much, wishing that they knew that no matter what happened to me, to keep belieivng in the good in people. to not let those men win. Last night, the lives of many were forever changed and it is up to us to be better people…”

So, Romie and I walked the labyrinth with Paris and Humanity.  We walked with Life and Death and All Souls who are walking the twists and turns, through a maze full of distractions, into the center of deep truth.  Love. Courage. Strength. Compassion . . . the Great Mystery that inspires healing during this epic life we each are graced to live every day.

When was it that you last felt your presence, flowing through you like a river, or embracing you gently like a baby lamb?

Embodiment is a fullness of being.  It holds and reflects so many facets: gentle, fierce, comforting, beautiful, simply present, fully alive.  Ultimately, it sums up the entirety of your lived experience, funneled into and through the present moment.

The energy you are is a constant flow, not an event.

{ Artist Unknown }

In this present moment, the future unfolds.  While it never comes, it arrives constantly, without ever fulfilling itself.  It is that space where you are doing so much, you are doing it all, and by simply being, nothing is left undone.

By breathing into yourself, relaxing your body, opening your heart, and calming your mind, you find yourself.

Self Awareness is a slippery state – when you think you have it, it slips away; when you know you do not have it, it suddenly appears.

There is a state of grace found only through humility, in which one enters the sanctuary of Presence, and the outpouring of Empowerment.