I picked 3, the spirit realm, but I don't know if that's the right description of it, nor if it's exactly as you describe. I was shown what happens once, in an out of body experience, but was not allowed to retain the full memory when I returned to my body. I know it's quite joyful. I did want to say that the Buddhist teachings I have read are more like 3 than 4. From what I understood of the teachings, the only instant reincarnation is for animals and young children. And everyone can be enlightened at the time of death if they surrender to it. I'm not Buddhist, but did study it at one time in my life, and I never came across what you described in option 4.
(I am not sure how it or if it directly relates to what you shared, but feel moved to share it).
I also want to share this link to an older article I wrote about the true nature of social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, as well as "search engines" like Alphabet Corp's "Google" and how they are used for behavior modification and social engineering operations.
I do think there is evil at play when it comes to social media and the associated behemoths. Certainly toy can quickly create yourself a hell from those tools. And get Otto dissipate when you put down your device and go outside….. 🤣
Clif High suggested reading Thinking and Destiny by Harold W. Percival (pdf available for free on the web), and in it the author says we are already a composite spirit from past lives and when our bodies die, we go back in the queue to be reborn. I'm sort of paraphrasing the book, and still reading it. I think you see evidence of this in your dreams, in that you dream experiences that are totally unrelated to what you have experienced in real life.
Oh and that tube of energy? the tip of it floats above people heads, it can sometimes be seen as a halo. I think there is one below us also. they follow us where ever we go.
when i died, it was super different than we are told, i went shooting up a energy tube, the earth became tiny super fast, but i wanted to see where i was going, so it became clear, i saw stars, and a planet saturn, i think, i was so close i saw no rings but there was a reddish spot, this connects to a bigger band of energy, faster still. then we looped around a star (you know there are colors we cannot see out there) , then i got by a big star bird that eats souls, to Orions belt. the 3 stars not exactly in a line. I could feel a thread in my center being unwound. I was about to be unmade. split into 3 parts, but i was not done. the 3 start tested me with a question, then they sent me back. scrunched my right into my ity bity body. I was just a kid when this happened, but there is an ancient tradition that speak of this, though it took me 50 years to find it-thanks to the invention of the internet. I did not go all the way tho, so that is all i got. I will next time. also, do not look at the moon.
I think the brain limits our intelligence and consciousness to this material plane. When we die, the brain dies and we return to unlimited consciousness and intelligence. It's impossible to describe or imagine what this is like in material terms.
This is just my belief. I haven't had any near death experiences or anything.
I voted none of the above although I am not against the idea that we go to a spirit realm. But I don't think it is that simple either. What greets us upon our death I believe depends on what we expect to see to some extent so it may be very different for everyone. Our essence remains and we have the opportunity to continue with our lessons in beingness in a non corporeal state. That can include at times being reincarnated into other lives, and some of those lives may not be human. I'm not sure it is possible to know really what it is like after death, hard when we are limited in these bodies made of flesh. But I am sure that it is nothing to be afraid of and I agree with the Buddhists that your state of mind at the time of death is incredibly important. (-:
I resonate with the Christian Orthodox view, that we are in God's presence after we die. The reason some people call it hell, it hurts them to be with God. I also believe we'll reincarnate at some point. I think we'll reunite with our family, pets, friends. I don't understand how it'll happen though.
Thank you for the candid comment and sharing your views on this.
May your reunion with God be one of peace, joy, healing, expansive knowing and soul nourishing remembrance of all the courageous and kind choices you have made in this life and others.
I voted none of the above. I have a Christian faith, and won’t start waxing lyrical - but my firmly held and strongly rooted belief system does not coalesce with the traditional ideas of heaven and hell even a tiny bit. For these, I believe there is no Biblical or truly human basis. When read properly and in context, that hell isn’t mentioned in the Bible. Neither can I possibly buy into the idea that we float away to some unembodied realm. How quintessentially bleak and frankly, boring. Karma is in and of itself a detestably bleak concept (I could elaborate if pushed, but the “do good get good” idea of energy reduced to its most disrespectfully shallow representation is simply neither true nor edifying, and in the end oppressive). I think we consistently fail to grasp what the reality of heaven might be, but suffice to say I am sure it is solid, true, breathtakingly like coming home and so far removed from “good people playing harps on clouds” as to be unrecognisable to the peddlars of that image. We shall see clearly, we shall be free - but I think the idea of death as portal is also a misrepresentation - we focus too much on the death. What about the power of life and defeat of death, in the end rendering the latter almost useless in the conversation? What about a continuum of beauty that has already begun, and to which we can contribute meaningfully in this life, in a way that reverberates in heaven now and will make lasting connections to that realm so that something feels familiar yet completely unexpected once we get to inhabit it?
It is 4.40 am and I have to feed the baby. Please excuse the ramblings. Abi
Warm Greetings from across the pond (10:28 AM here in the eastern woodlands of Turtle Island).
Thanks so much for the detailed and sincere comment.
"What about a continuum of beauty that has already begun, and to which we can contribute meaningfully in this life, in a way that reverberates in heaven now and will make lasting connections to that realm so that something feels familiar yet completely unexpected once we get to inhabit it?"
What a wonderful, expansive, imagination cultivating and heart opening question! Thanks for that Abi.
Thank you so much for understanding my cadre and for your reply. Eisenstein has prophecy for sure. I sometimes feel he loses his way when he wades into politics - his heart doesn’t beat to that rhythm.
I shall re watch these films and respond thoughtfully.
Sending late summer warm wishes from this little island (what IS the UK in non statist geography? I’d be fascinated to know. I imagine it’s probably a pigeon to your turtle, or perhaps a hedgehog! Maybe a fox.)
I agree with regards to what you said about how "Eisenstein ... loses his way when he wades into politics". In his book Sacred Economics he clearly points out the intrinsically connected corruptibility of fractional reserve lending fiat money systems and the existing "democratic" political model, yet in the last couple years he seems to have been seduced by the alluring promises of statists offering to solve all our problems for us. I am not immune to such propaganda, and have wavered in moments (even though I knew better) so I can relate. Perhaps someone close to him is invested in that sphere of thinking and keeps encouraging him to engage in the obsolete and parasitic game of involuntary governance? Not sure, but you described his recent inclinations in that realm in your comment well.
That is an excellent question (RE: the non statist linguistic identification of the geography now known as the United Kingdom). I am also emotionally invested in that question as my blood relatives rise from the Scottish Highlands, the shores of Ireland and the well travelled lands of Sussex.
I do not know the answer to that question at this point in time but I shall endeavor to answer it in the future (if possible). As you may know, the Roman empire (and subsequent Roman Church) was quite comprehensive in its efforts to erase all indigenous Gaelic cultural knowledge, language and artifacts from the Isles, but thanks to the courage of some valiant Ogham script carvers, Harpers, Bards, and Poets, we do have bits and pieces that survived the cultural massacre despite their efforts.
So far all I can find is this.
Albion is the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain. It appears to be related to the Proto-Indo-European word for white, possibly referring to the White Cliffs of Dover which would have been the first part of the island that a traveller from the continent would have seen.
A number of ancient writers refer to the Prettanic (Pretani being a Celtic word that means "the painted ones") or Britannic Isles, the two largest of which are usually named either Albion and Ierne or Great Britain and Little Britain. The former appear to be the native names adapted to Latin and Greek. When the Romans conquered southern Albion they named the province Britain, perhaps in the expectation of incorporating the remainder of the archipelago at a later date, but since this failed to happen the name Britain was gradually applied only to the Roman province and to the island on which it was located. Albion fell out of regular use.
The Irish, however, since they were beyond any significant Roman influence, continued to speak of Albion or Alba, especially in regards to the non-Roman northern part of the island. During the Middle Ages, when the Irish-speaking Scots started to take over from the Picts as the dominant group in the north, Alba therefore became the official name of the area. From there the name was imported into English (as Albany) and into Welsh (as Yr Alban), and it remains as the official Gaelic name for Scotland.
Please let me know if you uncover anything regarding the ancient (pre-colonial, pre-statist, pre-roman) name for what people now call The United Kingdom.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, I look forward to hearing what you think of those Charles video stories on a second watch through.
I’m too am Christian and resonate with your words very much. I believe death is to be absorbed into timeless heavenly bliss. It is nothing to fear. Well that’s what I think at least. I think humans create their own hells. I can’t help but think of the third panel on the heironymus bosch painting “garden of earthly delights painting” that depicts a human created hell (that unfortunately I think we may be creating with earth desecration and exploitative way of life).
Jesus didn’t die. He came rose back up. Is that resurrection or reincarnation? And what is the difference? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s an unanswerable question.
I do believe in death. I think Jesus’s death is the whole point. I do not think it is good to make it into something else, and the reality of that death is the basis of a rock solid Christian faith. I believe he fully died, dead as dead can be, and was raised again - without that belief, the inflection point in history means nothing. I do not think we can belittle the truth and defeat of death. And I also do believe that those who die, die. (I am sure many of us grieve for lost loved ones; I do.) For me the point is something much more concrete than all the other religious offerings out there - real bodily resurrection - and yes death happens and has been dealt with. Death is horrible and tragic and sad - I just think it’s not part of the longer term plan, and though we naturally recoil from it (even Jesus did), it has been conquered through love beyond what we could do for ourselves.
I do agree about people creating their own hells - I think people can reject love and life and can make choices that end that way. Hell is a construct of humans. Not a place made by the God who is love.
I can dig it. Maybe some beings spend a bit more "time" recuperating at home in the spiritual realm before embarking down here again (I use the term "time" quite loosely there as based on my own intuitive knowings and glimpses in near death and deep meditative experiences I would say that "time" as we perceive it here, is not so linear and rigid when one is looking upon reality from the perspective of one's eternal spirit in one's whole and complete form).
Also, perhaps some souls have some unfinished business to attend to before they head back to the multidimensional realms of home and begin the process of skydiving their soul back onto planet Earth (or some other troubled world in the Milky Way or beyond that needs some serious help?) to embark upon a different sort of sacred work once again?
I have had some interactions with very vividly present non-physical conscious entities a few times (while completely sober) some just felt lost, some were malicious/angry and others were almost like angels, embodying a sort of kindness and wisdom seldom embodied in humans.
That is an admirable, enriching and practical endeavor to embark upon.
While the cynical, anthropocentric, self-important and egotistical worldviews of mainstream modern western scientific institutions may scoff at the idea of talking to trees (in a meaningful, dynamic and productive way that involves the potential for a two way dialogue) and dismiss it as "silly hippy nonsense", that only exemplifies how ignorant, shortsighted and limited the thinking of our dominant modern industrialized culture is, after all, many ancient cultures consulted with the rooted beings as a daily practice and it was not silly to them, but in fact, was a sacred duty and served to inform their societal organization structure, engineering techniques, crop gathering schedule and more.
I remember as a little kid I would lay on the moss beneath large old growth trees in the coastal range of BC and look up at their massive canopy for hours. After some time I began to sense a conscious mind behind each individual tree and I could visually perceive a translucent field of energy that surrounded the branches and trunk of each tree. I remember asking my parents if trees had thoughts and a spirit and they discouraged such thinking (describing it as "just a trick of the imagination" etc). Later in life as an adult (after I learned to move beyond depending on only the 5 senses to perceive this world and the beings I share it with and use other organs of perception) I began to be capable of perceiving this field of energy that encompasses trees (and other plants) again (in a distinct and precise way).
As I read the book I am currently reviewing for the Book Club series ( https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/book-club-poll-results-for-augustseptember ) and learn about the electromagnetic fields that are produced by trees I am reminded of my perception of the tree "auras" and the conscious minds of rooted beings when I was younger.
Thus, I too will be striving to spend more time developing that skill set of being able to listen to, and talk to trees in the years ahead. I feel that our elder rooted beings have much to teach those who are willing to be still enough and humble enough to listen and perceive them outside the lenses of seeing that our dominant culture has conditioned us to depend upon.
Thanks for the comment and for evoking that memory from my childhood my friend.
Second I can't grab my own comment box so I'll weigh in here.
Apologies John.
__________________
I can't know what happens next. I can know what sounds beautiful to me or resonates with me.
I like the idea of being human as a stage of being born or transformation, and death as a liberation from this form. Becoming purely light, energy. Not continuing as human consciousness but liberation from.
Becoming part of everything. Something I think we always were and often, maybe, cannot see.
As we are pushed to judge and separate from each other so often.
Maybe we dance in and around each other and become one.
I picked 3 because it’s closest to what I experienced which is currently called a ‘near death experience’.
I picked 3, the spirit realm, but I don't know if that's the right description of it, nor if it's exactly as you describe. I was shown what happens once, in an out of body experience, but was not allowed to retain the full memory when I returned to my body. I know it's quite joyful. I did want to say that the Buddhist teachings I have read are more like 3 than 4. From what I understood of the teachings, the only instant reincarnation is for animals and young children. And everyone can be enlightened at the time of death if they surrender to it. I'm not Buddhist, but did study it at one time in my life, and I never came across what you described in option 4.
I found this podcast episode with Carla Adams interesting. She talks about merging with "The Oneness" after death.
https://www.youtube.com/live/ZZzRQZGalP8
Thanks Kathy, added to my watch later list.
Morning Gavin,
Living inside a genocide makes your question rather relevant. I’m told great Tibetan teacher once suggested there are only three possibilities:
1) fade to black
2) Your essence is transported to another world by UPS
3) You freak out because you don’t have a bodying find the nearest womb available.
In the emailbox this morning with your poll, was an rare virtual screening announcement for
Khyentse Norbu’s new (bardo) film PIG AT THE CROSSING. I’ll be watching this window on the afterlife for the third time this weekend.
PIG CROSSING shifts the question somewhat: It’s not so much what happens to you, as when exactly will you stop checking your phone?
https://www.pigcrossing.film/
Thanks so much for Mirrors For The Mind, Heart and Soul!
Ken
Good evening brother
As always, I appreciate your detailed, intriguing and candid input.
I`ll check out the film when I can.
Upon reading your comment and the description of the film I am intuitively moved to ask if you have ever seen a documentary called "Baraka"?
(here is a link to the full film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tc2Q8ojWO4 )
(I am not sure how it or if it directly relates to what you shared, but feel moved to share it).
I also want to share this link to an older article I wrote about the true nature of social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, as well as "search engines" like Alphabet Corp's "Google" and how they are used for behavior modification and social engineering operations.
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/self-education-vs-behavior-modification
Thanks for holding up the candle to the mirror and sharing what reflections are illuminated!
-Gavin
I do think there is evil at play when it comes to social media and the associated behemoths. Certainly toy can quickly create yourself a hell from those tools. And get Otto dissipate when you put down your device and go outside….. 🤣
Said device sluggish today hence typos - an old and infirm phone. Great discussion.
Clif High suggested reading Thinking and Destiny by Harold W. Percival (pdf available for free on the web), and in it the author says we are already a composite spirit from past lives and when our bodies die, we go back in the queue to be reborn. I'm sort of paraphrasing the book, and still reading it. I think you see evidence of this in your dreams, in that you dream experiences that are totally unrelated to what you have experienced in real life.
Oh and that tube of energy? the tip of it floats above people heads, it can sometimes be seen as a halo. I think there is one below us also. they follow us where ever we go.
when i died, it was super different than we are told, i went shooting up a energy tube, the earth became tiny super fast, but i wanted to see where i was going, so it became clear, i saw stars, and a planet saturn, i think, i was so close i saw no rings but there was a reddish spot, this connects to a bigger band of energy, faster still. then we looped around a star (you know there are colors we cannot see out there) , then i got by a big star bird that eats souls, to Orions belt. the 3 stars not exactly in a line. I could feel a thread in my center being unwound. I was about to be unmade. split into 3 parts, but i was not done. the 3 start tested me with a question, then they sent me back. scrunched my right into my ity bity body. I was just a kid when this happened, but there is an ancient tradition that speak of this, though it took me 50 years to find it-thanks to the invention of the internet. I did not go all the way tho, so that is all i got. I will next time. also, do not look at the moon.
Great idea for a poll by the way, and fascinating comments/discussion.
I think the brain limits our intelligence and consciousness to this material plane. When we die, the brain dies and we return to unlimited consciousness and intelligence. It's impossible to describe or imagine what this is like in material terms.
This is just my belief. I haven't had any near death experiences or anything.
I voted none of the above because I don’t know, and that’s okay.
I don't think anyone could say they know with any credibility. I spoke to the assumption I am currently favouring.
I voted none of the above although I am not against the idea that we go to a spirit realm. But I don't think it is that simple either. What greets us upon our death I believe depends on what we expect to see to some extent so it may be very different for everyone. Our essence remains and we have the opportunity to continue with our lessons in beingness in a non corporeal state. That can include at times being reincarnated into other lives, and some of those lives may not be human. I'm not sure it is possible to know really what it is like after death, hard when we are limited in these bodies made of flesh. But I am sure that it is nothing to be afraid of and I agree with the Buddhists that your state of mind at the time of death is incredibly important. (-:
I resonate with the Christian Orthodox view, that we are in God's presence after we die. The reason some people call it hell, it hurts them to be with God. I also believe we'll reincarnate at some point. I think we'll reunite with our family, pets, friends. I don't understand how it'll happen though.
Thank you for the candid comment and sharing your views on this.
May your reunion with God be one of peace, joy, healing, expansive knowing and soul nourishing remembrance of all the courageous and kind choices you have made in this life and others.
I voted none of the above. I have a Christian faith, and won’t start waxing lyrical - but my firmly held and strongly rooted belief system does not coalesce with the traditional ideas of heaven and hell even a tiny bit. For these, I believe there is no Biblical or truly human basis. When read properly and in context, that hell isn’t mentioned in the Bible. Neither can I possibly buy into the idea that we float away to some unembodied realm. How quintessentially bleak and frankly, boring. Karma is in and of itself a detestably bleak concept (I could elaborate if pushed, but the “do good get good” idea of energy reduced to its most disrespectfully shallow representation is simply neither true nor edifying, and in the end oppressive). I think we consistently fail to grasp what the reality of heaven might be, but suffice to say I am sure it is solid, true, breathtakingly like coming home and so far removed from “good people playing harps on clouds” as to be unrecognisable to the peddlars of that image. We shall see clearly, we shall be free - but I think the idea of death as portal is also a misrepresentation - we focus too much on the death. What about the power of life and defeat of death, in the end rendering the latter almost useless in the conversation? What about a continuum of beauty that has already begun, and to which we can contribute meaningfully in this life, in a way that reverberates in heaven now and will make lasting connections to that realm so that something feels familiar yet completely unexpected once we get to inhabit it?
It is 4.40 am and I have to feed the baby. Please excuse the ramblings. Abi
Warm Greetings from across the pond (10:28 AM here in the eastern woodlands of Turtle Island).
Thanks so much for the detailed and sincere comment.
"What about a continuum of beauty that has already begun, and to which we can contribute meaningfully in this life, in a way that reverberates in heaven now and will make lasting connections to that realm so that something feels familiar yet completely unexpected once we get to inhabit it?"
What a wonderful, expansive, imagination cultivating and heart opening question! Thanks for that Abi.
I would be interested to hear your interpretation and opinions on those short films that Charles Eisenstein wrote/narrated called "A Gathering of the Tribe" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XinVOpdcbVc ) and "The Fall" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkxpMX5UF5A ).
Your "ramblings" are always welcome, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on this.
Thank you so much for understanding my cadre and for your reply. Eisenstein has prophecy for sure. I sometimes feel he loses his way when he wades into politics - his heart doesn’t beat to that rhythm.
I shall re watch these films and respond thoughtfully.
Sending late summer warm wishes from this little island (what IS the UK in non statist geography? I’d be fascinated to know. I imagine it’s probably a pigeon to your turtle, or perhaps a hedgehog! Maybe a fox.)
a
I agree with regards to what you said about how "Eisenstein ... loses his way when he wades into politics". In his book Sacred Economics he clearly points out the intrinsically connected corruptibility of fractional reserve lending fiat money systems and the existing "democratic" political model, yet in the last couple years he seems to have been seduced by the alluring promises of statists offering to solve all our problems for us. I am not immune to such propaganda, and have wavered in moments (even though I knew better) so I can relate. Perhaps someone close to him is invested in that sphere of thinking and keeps encouraging him to engage in the obsolete and parasitic game of involuntary governance? Not sure, but you described his recent inclinations in that realm in your comment well.
That is an excellent question (RE: the non statist linguistic identification of the geography now known as the United Kingdom). I am also emotionally invested in that question as my blood relatives rise from the Scottish Highlands, the shores of Ireland and the well travelled lands of Sussex.
I do not know the answer to that question at this point in time but I shall endeavor to answer it in the future (if possible). As you may know, the Roman empire (and subsequent Roman Church) was quite comprehensive in its efforts to erase all indigenous Gaelic cultural knowledge, language and artifacts from the Isles, but thanks to the courage of some valiant Ogham script carvers, Harpers, Bards, and Poets, we do have bits and pieces that survived the cultural massacre despite their efforts.
So far all I can find is this.
Albion is the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain. It appears to be related to the Proto-Indo-European word for white, possibly referring to the White Cliffs of Dover which would have been the first part of the island that a traveller from the continent would have seen.
A number of ancient writers refer to the Prettanic (Pretani being a Celtic word that means "the painted ones") or Britannic Isles, the two largest of which are usually named either Albion and Ierne or Great Britain and Little Britain. The former appear to be the native names adapted to Latin and Greek. When the Romans conquered southern Albion they named the province Britain, perhaps in the expectation of incorporating the remainder of the archipelago at a later date, but since this failed to happen the name Britain was gradually applied only to the Roman province and to the island on which it was located. Albion fell out of regular use.
The Irish, however, since they were beyond any significant Roman influence, continued to speak of Albion or Alba, especially in regards to the non-Roman northern part of the island. During the Middle Ages, when the Irish-speaking Scots started to take over from the Picts as the dominant group in the north, Alba therefore became the official name of the area. From there the name was imported into English (as Albany) and into Welsh (as Yr Alban), and it remains as the official Gaelic name for Scotland.
Please let me know if you uncover anything regarding the ancient (pre-colonial, pre-statist, pre-roman) name for what people now call The United Kingdom.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, I look forward to hearing what you think of those Charles video stories on a second watch through.
I’m too am Christian and resonate with your words very much. I believe death is to be absorbed into timeless heavenly bliss. It is nothing to fear. Well that’s what I think at least. I think humans create their own hells. I can’t help but think of the third panel on the heironymus bosch painting “garden of earthly delights painting” that depicts a human created hell (that unfortunately I think we may be creating with earth desecration and exploitative way of life).
Jesus didn’t die. He came rose back up. Is that resurrection or reincarnation? And what is the difference? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s an unanswerable question.
Thank you Alissa.
I do believe in death. I think Jesus’s death is the whole point. I do not think it is good to make it into something else, and the reality of that death is the basis of a rock solid Christian faith. I believe he fully died, dead as dead can be, and was raised again - without that belief, the inflection point in history means nothing. I do not think we can belittle the truth and defeat of death. And I also do believe that those who die, die. (I am sure many of us grieve for lost loved ones; I do.) For me the point is something much more concrete than all the other religious offerings out there - real bodily resurrection - and yes death happens and has been dealt with. Death is horrible and tragic and sad - I just think it’s not part of the longer term plan, and though we naturally recoil from it (even Jesus did), it has been conquered through love beyond what we could do for ourselves.
I do agree about people creating their own hells - I think people can reject love and life and can make choices that end that way. Hell is a construct of humans. Not a place made by the God who is love.
Thank you so much for reading my comment.
💖
You reincarnate, but not necessarily right away. This is Clif, so it's Clif, but I like it and he sure does weave a good story around it.
I can dig it. Maybe some beings spend a bit more "time" recuperating at home in the spiritual realm before embarking down here again (I use the term "time" quite loosely there as based on my own intuitive knowings and glimpses in near death and deep meditative experiences I would say that "time" as we perceive it here, is not so linear and rigid when one is looking upon reality from the perspective of one's eternal spirit in one's whole and complete form).
Also, perhaps some souls have some unfinished business to attend to before they head back to the multidimensional realms of home and begin the process of skydiving their soul back onto planet Earth (or some other troubled world in the Milky Way or beyond that needs some serious help?) to embark upon a different sort of sacred work once again?
I have had some interactions with very vividly present non-physical conscious entities a few times (while completely sober) some just felt lost, some were malicious/angry and others were almost like angels, embodying a sort of kindness and wisdom seldom embodied in humans.
Thanks for the comment my friend.
Working on talking to trees Gavin. Possible experience as you have had when I was 6. I remember it.
That is an admirable, enriching and practical endeavor to embark upon.
While the cynical, anthropocentric, self-important and egotistical worldviews of mainstream modern western scientific institutions may scoff at the idea of talking to trees (in a meaningful, dynamic and productive way that involves the potential for a two way dialogue) and dismiss it as "silly hippy nonsense", that only exemplifies how ignorant, shortsighted and limited the thinking of our dominant modern industrialized culture is, after all, many ancient cultures consulted with the rooted beings as a daily practice and it was not silly to them, but in fact, was a sacred duty and served to inform their societal organization structure, engineering techniques, crop gathering schedule and more.
I shared an essay written by Robin Wall Kimmerer from a book called "In The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence" in my old article on Eastern White Pines which you may find interesting ( https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/an-encounter-with-an-ancient-healer ).
I remember as a little kid I would lay on the moss beneath large old growth trees in the coastal range of BC and look up at their massive canopy for hours. After some time I began to sense a conscious mind behind each individual tree and I could visually perceive a translucent field of energy that surrounded the branches and trunk of each tree. I remember asking my parents if trees had thoughts and a spirit and they discouraged such thinking (describing it as "just a trick of the imagination" etc). Later in life as an adult (after I learned to move beyond depending on only the 5 senses to perceive this world and the beings I share it with and use other organs of perception) I began to be capable of perceiving this field of energy that encompasses trees (and other plants) again (in a distinct and precise way).
As I read the book I am currently reviewing for the Book Club series ( https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/book-club-poll-results-for-augustseptember ) and learn about the electromagnetic fields that are produced by trees I am reminded of my perception of the tree "auras" and the conscious minds of rooted beings when I was younger.
Thus, I too will be striving to spend more time developing that skill set of being able to listen to, and talk to trees in the years ahead. I feel that our elder rooted beings have much to teach those who are willing to be still enough and humble enough to listen and perceive them outside the lenses of seeing that our dominant culture has conditioned us to depend upon.
Thanks for the comment and for evoking that memory from my childhood my friend.
Well Gavin, if you can talk to white pines, have I ever got a lot of friends you should meet!
I don't think I've ever had a sense of awareness with a tree, maybe, but definitely in a forest, possibly just a feeling of serenity.
Gavin, First hi.
Second I can't grab my own comment box so I'll weigh in here.
Apologies John.
__________________
I can't know what happens next. I can know what sounds beautiful to me or resonates with me.
I like the idea of being human as a stage of being born or transformation, and death as a liberation from this form. Becoming purely light, energy. Not continuing as human consciousness but liberation from.
Becoming part of everything. Something I think we always were and often, maybe, cannot see.
As we are pushed to judge and separate from each other so often.
Maybe we dance in and around each other and become one.
Dry beautifully put. What a wonderful sentiment.
Thank you Abigail! I'm sure what I wrote came from someone else, although I've lost track of who.
(I figured out your typo!!!)
*very*!
Hey there!
I like the way you put that and I shall meditate on it for a bit before responding in full.
Thanks for swinging by, your comments are always appreciated.
Thanks Gavin,
You're so welcoming I deeply appreciate it.