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There’s a link on the e-mail version of this post. You can use it to download my most popular book, This Endless Moment.
Reasons for Hope is a great collection of "hopeful stories," collected by my buddy Boogie Jack Gaskill. I contributed one of the stories. Right click on the link and save the pdf file.
Unless you’re closed to being open…
What might it mean to "come out to the edges, and play?"
I just watched a TED lecture on perception. If you go and look and listen, (DO IT!!!) you’ll hear a lot of Zen, and have a few interesting experiences with how we see the world.
In the presentation, Beau Lotto mentions one of those hard to process ideas: we have no contact at all with the outside world. All we have is sensory data about the outside world, which is not the same thing.
For example, step on a carpet, then step on a wood floor, then step on grass. In each case, what do you feel?
Wait for it…
Your foot! What the heck did you think you were feeling?
You are experiencing (your brain is instantaneously interpreting) the stimulation of the nerves on the sole of your foot. Your brain, based upon past experience, makes a guess about what’s being felt (remember, your brain is not directly experiencing the floor—it’s experiencing changing electrical currents) based on it’s history with floors.
This is not just semantics! ALL of our experiences are interpreted (one-step-removed.)
If you watched the TED video, you’ll have seen several illustrations of this, using what could be called optical illusions. In actuality, Lotto explains how your mind is tricked into making assumptions that have nothing to do with the things being perceived.
Another way to put this is, context determines perception.
If you tried the "mango experiment" last week, you might have discovered new information regarding your experiences with mangoes. What really happened was that your data bank now has more data in it.
For most people, life is experienced mostly through narrative, which is why (2 articles ago,) we mentioned that narrative is the default mind and living state. Direct experience, on the other hand, is something we must actually work on achieving.
And, of course, given the bit about never really experiencing anything directly, it’s a bit of a mystery.
Nonetheless, let’s just have at it.
I’m all wrapped up in my stories!
Most people are strangely disconnected from their bodily experience. Sort of like this photo, taken decades ago, featuring of a model I knew, wrapped in cellophane. It demonstrates the one step removed thing.
You can picture the cellophane as narrative, if that helps.
Try this: without cellophane
=open=experience,
with cellophane
=closed=narrative.
The reason I like the top photo of the restaurant sign is that it describes living in our bodies. In a sense, we’re "always open," in that data is always coming in.
Example: If you’ve ever spent time in a sensory deprivation tank, you’ll know that you still experience stuff—the feel of the water, the sensation of no sound, no light. (Yes, absence of sensation is a sensation…)
It requires effort to "close down."
In truth, the sensory data is still streaming in—what happens is you force your attention away from the input by going off into your head. You do this through narrative.
Now, remember, this is not a condemnation of narrative. We’re looking at this in depth to suggest that direct experience is equally valid. Since all of us default to narrative, it takes force of will to let the narrative go background, and to have a full body experience, sans story.
Full Body Experiencing
Let’s extend last week’s taste experiments with stuff you can do to begin to really feel your body. These exercises require "friends" to help you.
Sensate Massage
A sensate massage uses objects and substances. For example, tactile: silk, feathers, loofa, leather, chopsticks, yarn balls, etc.
The idea is for the recipient to wear a blindfold, and the giver to massage the recipient’s body with tactile substances. In this way, you get to "feel" the sensations of hard, soft, smooth, coarse, etc. The massage should be "whole body." Notice how the items feel, and how the feeling shifts, depending on which part of the body is being massaged.
Now, think temperature. When I do this exercise with clients, I often use warmed coconut oil, along with hot and cold stones. Again, using your body, feel the temperature.
Massage
Perhaps one of the best ways to get into your body is to use massage. While "going for a massage" will work, I’m thinking about exchanging touch with friends.
The recipient should be blindfolded, as is usual with these exercises. As I just mentioned, in bodywork, I’ve sometimes use coconut oil on resistant places, as this means I can press harder and go deeper.
Resisting or story-telling? Breathe! Let the touch in!
As you receive a massage, simply notice when you are experiencing the sensation, and when you are leaving your body and going into story telling.
See how often you can breathe, let the story go, and come back to your experience.
(Hint: if there are parts of your body you are reluctant to have massaged, have your partner focus on those areas.)
Another idea is what is called ‘four-handed massage.‘ You need 2 friends for this one – the recipient is massaged by 2 people, thus 4-hands. Again, this is different from what one normally experiences. (I once received a massage from 6 people at once – that’s another story.)
Now, think about other ways you could experience things with your body. Roll around on sand, in mud, on grass, in snow. Experience the textures.
Hug people and relax while you do. Find several people and make a hug pact with them. In other words, make the hugs ‘full bodied’ (as opposed to A frame hugs, which are an abomination…) and held for a while.
Treat your body to baths, hot tubs, saunas, and stay focussed on your body (as opposed to being in your head, thinking of all the other things you could be doing.)
We’ll talk about more sensate focus ideas next week…
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