by Sarah Bowen
Ponder magical mysteries: “Magic is to religion as technology is to science,” suggests Dean Radin, Ph.D., in his Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe. Radin continues: “Rising trends in science suggest that what was once called magic is poised to evolve into a new scientific discipline, just as medieval astrology and alchemy evolved into today’s astronomy and chemistry. The new discipline will be the study of psychophysical nature of reality, that mysterious, interstitial space shimmering between mind and matter.” Take a moment to reflect on your thoughts and feelings about the word magic. How do you relate to the unknown? To mystery? Or to things not easily answered by Wikipedia?
Dig into your dreams: The quandary of consciousness gets downright awesome when we look at dreams. In this alive—but clearly different—state of experience, time, space, images, actions, and even our sense of self becomes malleable and full of mystical symbolism. Then in a snap, what seems to make sense upon waking becomes a hazy remembrance just beyond the edge of our awakened mind. Is the waking state real? Or the sleeping state? Does each show us a piece of the experience of our reality? Do your dreams affect your actions? Place a journal next to your bed tonight, and just upon waking, reflect upon the dream piece of the consciousness puzzle.
DISCOVER DEEPLY
• Read Science and Spiritual Practices: Reconnecting through Direct Experience by Rupert Sheldrake.
• Check out groundbreaking consciousness research from the Institute of Noetic Science at noetic.org.
• Read The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan.
• Watch Tom Shadyac’s I Am.
• Learn about Wiccan beliefs, practices, and traditions at phylliscurott.com.
• Read You Are the Universe by Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos.
NOTES
* In the 1930s, Erwin Schrödinger proposed his infamous thought experiment involving a hypothetical cat. He suggested imagining a cat placed in a steel chamber, along with a device containing a tiny bit of radioactive substance “so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none.” Thus, until we look into the chamber, the cat is simultaneously both dead and alive (known scientifically as quantum superposition). Schrödinger posed the question, “When does a quantum system stop existing as a superposition of states and become one or the other?” (In other words, when is it a dead cat or a live cat?) And can we answer that question without an observer, or do we have to look in the chamber for the state to be determined?
** Panpsychism is the belief that everything made of matter has some element of consciousness to it. This does not necessarily mean everything functions at the same level. So, for example, Sheldrake is not saying that the sun thinks in the same way humans do, but rather that both humans and planets might be imbued with the same mysterious essence that we call consciousness.
Trekking Thursday
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WEEK 3: LEAP OF FAITH
“So basically, I’m just going to run off the side of the mountain, and you can meet me at the bottom,” I tell Sean. He gives me that look, the one that means, “This is not what I wanted to do this morning.”
Let me backtrack and catch you up. At the beginning of my spiritual journey, I decided my path needed an actual journey. An epic one. Whether spurred by the tall stack of Buddhist books on the nightstand or the approaching birthday with a zero at the end, a nagging call eastward appeared. Waking up one day with a heavy-duty urge to go to Nepal, the planning commenced. Pouring over travel guides and websites, I designed a legendary trek starting in Kathmandu, visiting sacred stupas and spiritual hot spots, then culminating in a breathtaking parahawking adventure in Pokhara. Which brings us back to the mountain.
Developed by Scott Mason, the Parahawking Project combines falconry with paragliding, creating an ecoadventure with a conservation message: to raise awareness of the importance of vultures in the ecosystem (who are facing extinction). For me, it was an adventure in faith. Luckily, I didn’t need faith enough to move mountains, just faith enough that I would land safely at the bottom of one.
Onward my husband trekked (on foot for five kilometers) to the landing site, with the conviction that I would meet him, eventually. I jumped into a car with some guys, bunches of gear, and an Egyptian vulture named Bob for a 30-minute ride to the summit. I was given a thick birding glove for my left hand and a fanny pack of raw meat (ewww!) to fasten around my waist; the guide then strapped me tandem to his front and yelled: “Run.” As we caught the wind and took flight, Bob flew gracefully in front of us, showing where the best thermals were. Occasionally, my guide blew a whistle. This signaled me to grab a small piece of meat and stretch out my arm. Bob would land, eat, and hang out briefly before heading in search of the next thermal. After the flight, we landed, much to the relief of my waiting husband, though very ungracefully for me as I did not follow instructions properly.
Of all the things we saw on that trip—the massive colorful Boudhanath Stupa, a live riverside cremation, the rare one-horned rhino of Chitwan—it’s the experience of flying that sticks with me most. In hindsight, the entire trip felt like a pilgrimage to that moment. The journey had been a whirlwind of emotions: wonder and awe from meeting holy sages, incredible sadness at the poverty I saw, tremendous joy from the interactions with people who were previously strangers, and the courage needed to try something dangerous. (None of which were foreseen in our meticulous trip planning.)
Scarcely three weeks after Sean and I returned from Nepal, we watched The Way, starring Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez. Centered around a 1,000-year-old pilgrimage across Spain, the movie is a tear-jerking portrayal of the 800-kilometer route to the shrine of the apostle St. James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. As the final credits of the movie rolled, I professed to my husband, “We must do the Camino!” Without a pause, Sean declared, “Seriously, Sarah. Can we stay home just a bit before we head out?”
To ensure that Hollywood wasn’t pulling a fast one on me, I checked out Kurt Koontz’s book A Million Steps. “The first third of the trip is for the body, the second for the mind, the third for the soul,” Kurt offered. As I read through his journey, I confirmed that the Camino de Santiago is not for the faint-hearted. The trek is not simply traveling; the Camino is a challenge, often with a personal focus (health, cultural, spiritual, religious, political, and so on). And I wanted to step up to the challenge, so I promptly ordered more books, some maps, and a state-of-the-art pair of hiking boots.
But hardly any time into my “Camino training,” Sean broke his foot, and it still hasn’t returned to a trek-worthy state. I’m tempted to think his fall was to avoid the six-week adventure, but he’s not a manipulative man (and he loves his Harley too much to break anything on purpose). It was just bad timing and poor balance. While I’m waiting for his foot to heal to Camino toughness, I’m living vicariously through my friends, including Barbara Becker, who stumbled auspiciously upon her Camino trip:
One evening I sat in the garden of an Italian restaurant in Little Italy with my friend Viviana and her daughter, who were both visiting from Spain. “I’m turning 50 next year,” I announced. “I want to do something big to mark it.” Viviana suggested, “Like hike the Camino with me?” I replied, “Exactly.” The truth was, I didn’t know much about the Camino at all, other than that it was long and that it was in Spain, a country I love, and I would be with my dear friend. We shook on it right then and there while her 16-year-old daughter looked at us with surprise: “Really?” Clara asked, “Is that how you do things?” That sealed the deal for us—it was our duty to show a young woman of the next generation how lifelong friendship works.
After planning her Camino for over a year, Barbara’s father passed away from a long illness. Reflecting on whether to cancel the trip (and urged by her family not to), she realized, “I inherited my love of the outdo
ors from my father, who hiked at least once a week with his friends. Taking the trip would be a great way to honor his memory.”
Barbara and Viviana walked 225 miles over 10 days during a beautiful September with bright blue skies and no rain. As she walked, Barbara silently recited the 23rd Psalm—“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”—which her mother had said to her dad as he was dying. Thinking about the last words her father had heard before taking his final breath, as well as her own life in relation to the psalm, Barbara contemplated what it means to wander like a sheep does without a shepherd to keep it in line. She pondered the seemingly irreconcilable concepts of certainty and faith.
As the pair marked the end of their hike at Finisterre—a rocky peninsula, whose name means “the end of the earth,” jutting out into the Atlantic coast—Barbara sat on a boulder, high above the waters in the fog, looking westward toward her home far away. Of the moment, she told me, “I knew it was time to go back and to be with my family. I knew I would be leading my father’s memorial service. I knew nothing would be the same again, but it would all be workable.” In her words, I heard certainty and faith working together in hope.
I would speculate that the most meaningful part of our pilgrimages is not the amazing location, nor the number of steps taken. The value is not in the photos or the souvenirs, nor even in the amazing stories and memories we might tell and retell after the journey. No, pilgrimage is about the inward journey, the change that happens along the way, and how we return somehow a different being than the one who left.
From this perspective, our entire lives are pilgrimages. Today our trek will be inward, as we reflect on our life’s journey to where we are now.
HOW IT WORKS
1. Assemble some creative materials. You’ll need paper or cardboard. Even a brown paper bag cut flat will work. Find something to write with, like markers. If you have some old magazines or newspapers around, grab those too. If you have a crafty roommate (or kids), raid the glitter and glue stash.
2. Find a flat space to work. Make it yours. Bring coffee or tea. Light a candle or put on some music. Nest. (If you are working with glitter, for the love of God, put down a sheet or something.)
3. Close your eyes and settle in to the space.
4. Pay attention to your breath. Notice your belly rising and falling, the movements in your chest.
5. Now travel back to the first moment you can remember. Feel it. Open your eyes and visually represent it on your paper. If you want to be literal, go for it. But you don’t have to! Consider drawing the moment with a shape or swash of color. Flip through a magazine to find a word or image that fits. Or work solely in black Sharpie. Anything and everything is okay.
6. Add the steps of your journey. Continue adding more momentous occasions. Think about any leaps of faith or challenges of courage. Jump back and forth between reflection and creation. (If something overwhelming appears, hit pause. Call a friend or your therapist to talk through anything that bubbles up. I once sobbed for 20 minutes over a remembrance of our awesome, wacky cat Max.)
7. When your journey gets to today, decide if there is a next event on the horizon you want to add.
8. As the last step, add an empty shape for the uncertainty of the future.
9. Oops. As the last last step, you might want to clean up.
REBELLIOUS VARIATIONS
Spiritual journey playlist: If creative projects trigger any art-class trauma, instead document your life journey by creating a playlist of tunes that signify influential moments of your life. Start with the first song you remember and end with the last song you heard this week.
Quotable quotes: If you’re addicted to underlining or highlighting lines that grab you in books as you read them, journey into your favorite titles. Create a list of key quotes that have influenced your life from childhood (Dr. Seuss?) to the book now resting on your nightstand.
Poetry pilgrimage: Poet Donna Knutson, known affectionately to her readers as “the Poet Preacher,” has written as a spiritual practice every day for 12 years: “My writing is my soul work. Without it, I bleep out and get too busy with the world.” Having amassed thousands of writings, she embarked on a journey to create Finding God on Mayberry Street: Seasons of Spirituality in Poems and Reflections, a collection of poems organized into four seasons, accompanied by her own nature photographs. Knutson notes, “I love that I can speak through the beauty of poetry in a language that does not separate but unites and resonates within the soul of people.” Follow her lead, and embark on a poetry pilgrimage, writing each day on this question from the book: “Where did you see beauty today?” (Or answer a question you hear arise from inside.)
Make your travel sacred: If you hear a call to pilgrimage, start a planning journal to a pilgrimage-worthy location, such as:
• Shikoku Junrei (Japan)
• Israel’s National Trail (Israel)
• The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (Peru)
• Mount Kailash Pilgrimage (Tibet)
• Pilgrims’ Way to Canterbury (England)
• Char Dham (India)
• And of course, the Camino de Santiago (Spain)
DISCOVER DEEPLY
• Watch The Way.
• Read The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred by Phil Cousineau.
• Listen to The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life by Chris Guillebeau.
• Read Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains: Misadventures on a Buddhist Pilgrimage by Paul Barach.
• Watch Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler.
• Read Walking Home from Mongolia: Ten Million Steps through China from the Gobi Desert to the South China Sea by Rob Lilwall.
• Read A Million Steps: A Camino de Santiago Book by Kurt Koontz.
Fearless Friday
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WEEK 3: FROM FEAR TO ETERNITY
Nothing can bring on the F-emotions—fear and fright—followed by a loud utterance—fuck!—quite like the D-words disease and diagnosis. I should know, I’ve got the papers for both. I’ve spent weeks in bed, months homebound, and countless years healing.
Before I got sick, I thought health was finding the perfect combination of a nutritious diet and strenuous exercise (neither of which held much interest for me). Further, I thought my mind, body, and spirit were three different things requiring different care and handling.
When traditional medicine could not resolve all my complaints, I added so-called alternative medicine. Just like my decision to try out spiritual practices that I had previously judged as odd, weird, superstitious, or bat-shit crazy, I looked into healing modalities I had formerly deemed quackery, pseudoscience, or unprovable. I slipped into the space where spirituality and wellness meet, soon acquiring an entire stable of wellness support: massage therapist, acupuncturist, holistic psychotherapist, Ayurvedic nutritionist, spiritual counselor, and chakra balancer.
As one modality led to another, I learned (surprise, surprise) everything is indeed connected. My mind/body/spirit was influenced by myriad factors, not just diet and exercise. I went from heavily medicated to decidedly meditated and firmly motivated. Eventually, I moved from needing a lot of outside support to being self-regulated.
Which brings me to Dr. Deepak Chopra, who is often at the forefront of conversations about wellness and spirituality. An endocrinologist, alternative medicine advocate, public speaker, and prolific writer, he suggests we think of the body as a process—a verb, not a noun. What we experience as our physical body is not static but continually being transformed. (And here’s a freaky detail: What you experience as your body is only 10 percent human cells and 90 percent microbial cells—let’s call one Sporos!)
Deepak’s formula for a balanced life: Wake up every day with the intention that you are going to experience a joyful, energetic body and a restful, alert mind. Cultivate the emotions of peace, joy, love, compassion, empathy, and equanimity. Experience lightness of soul. To ac
hieve this, he suggests six pillars for human wellbeing: natural sleep, daily meditation, movement, emotional balance, a healthy diet, and grounding. About now you may be wondering what this has to do with spirituality. The answer is wholeness. Chopra notes in his book Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: “Wholeness is the result of connecting body, mind, and soul. In wholeness you aren’t divided against yourself; therefore the choices you make are beneficial at every level.”
If we are only focused on spiritual matters, not keeping an appropriate level of care for our bodies, all hell can break loose. Healthy bodies help us be resilient in the face of fear, allow us to tolerate stress and dis-ease, and to live longer, more joyful lives. Healthy bodies create the strong foundation we need underneath our spiritual endeavors. Case in point: Have you ever tried to meditate when you were hungry or sleepy?
Many of us have an annual physical with a doctor to see how our body is doing, but how often do we take focused time to assess what condition our body/mind/spirit is in, and create plans for good self-care? Well, if you are overdue, here’s the perfect chance for a quick check-in. These questions are not meant to shame us because we haven’t met our goals or to be used in judging us against others. Instead, use them as a gentle inquiry: notice and inquire.
HOW IT WORKS