Creating the New Earth Together

Posts tagged ‘Purification’

Cleansing Our Lens of Perception

Rainbow Heart

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

* * *

IN CHAPTER SIX of EYE OF THE HEART Cynthia Bourgeault’s writing is, for me, the clearest and most pragmatic of all I’ve read of her writings thus far. This essay is about cleansing our “lens” of perception — not only so that we see the world, both physical and spiritual aspects, as they are; but more importantly so that we “see” ourselves as we truly are, and not as we imagine ourselves to be — the “price” of seeing clearly being the self-centered and isolated egoic self in exchange for the “Real I” as part of the greater Whole.

It’s not necessary to synthesize this chapter for the sake of brevity, as it’s already as succinct and comprehensive as it can be. I think it serves my readers best as an excerpt without interpretation or condensation. I think you will thoroughly enjoy reading and flowing with Cynthia’s stream of consciousness. (Note: you may want to refer back to my previous post when she references the various “worlds” through which we travel as we ascend in consciousness.)

IMAGINAL PURIFICATION

IN THE PAST two chapters we’ve been looking at some of the ways in which imaginal causality expresses itself in this world. Now it’s time to look a bit more closely at some of the ways in which this expression can be distorted — or in other words, areas in which some purification of the vehicle is necessary in order to ensure a greater reliability and consistency of connection.

The Sufis call this work “polishing the mirror” or “cleansing the lens of perception.” For Christian readers long accustomed to associating purification with sorrow and penance, this “housecleaning” metaphor may indeed offer a refreshing new take. In this more praxis-oriented context, the issue is not so much remorse for our moral failings (although that never drops out of the picture) as it is a deliberate effort to keep the viewing screen clear so that what falls on it is not immediately distorted by lower-order agendas.

The biggest single area of distortion lies in the tendency to drag the interpretation down to the level of magical thinking. At this level the focus is on individual “signs and wonders,” almost invariably drawn from the stock repertory. An eagle feather drops in your path, a rainbow appears in the sky, a shooting star streaks across the night sky, and suddenly you are in receipt of a personal message from God! Or perhaps you race on ahead and start filling in the pieces of the imaginal puzzle with your own imagi-nation and mental calculations. Then you are in some ways worse off than if you had never begun, conscripted to a scenario that exists only in your own head. In both cases there is a level confusion going on here, and this confusion is what will inevitably switch the message (however accurate it may have been at its initial point of impact) onto a generally unreliable track.

Who is this “I” who is receiving the message? The confusion is between two levels of consciousness, which in the classic typologies of both East and West are known as “psychic” and “subtle.” The bottom line is that imaginal causality belongs to the subtle level of consciousness; all attempts to capture it at the psychic level will lead to distortion — at best innocuous, at worst downright dangerous.

The psychic level of consciousness is that intermediate state at which a growing sensitization to transpersonal (a.k.a. “psychic”) phenomena is still firmly tied to an egoic (or narrative) self-center . . . and insofar as it does signal the initial opening of the imaginal capacities, it represents progress. But it is a very unstable place in the growth curve, and until the tension is ironed out a lot of damage can be done.

I will speak only in passing here of those more dangerous levels of magic and the occult, which happen in exactly this configuration at its extreme negative pole, i.e., a pronounced psychic capacity tied to a strong, amoral personal will. With concentrated attention and training, it is indeed possible to draw down the energy of World 24 and even World 6 to wreak havoc on this earth plane. Gurdjieff called such people “hasnamusses,” but perhaps the old term evil will serve just as well. We see them in the Hitlers, the Jim Joneses, the cult leaders run amuck, and in many more who wreak harm in a much more subtle but pervasive way (I would personally place Ayn Rand in that category): too much psychic power, too little love.

The moral inversion at work here is not only an affront to the image of our common humanity, it also badly misinterprets the nature of the higher energy itself, which appears under this filter to be simply an impersonal, amoral, “spirit in third person,” another mechanistic force to be harnessed — not, as it really is, a powerfully compassionate and coherent relational field bearing the moral heart of God. When Teilhard de Chardin insisted adamantly toward the end of his life that “God is a person, God is person,” he was not picturing an old man with a beard up in the sky. He was saying, rather, that as we proceed further and further into those luminous spheres, we encounter more and more fully the personal, radiant, tender, and intimate presence of the divine heart, which can never be relegated to an “it.” It is always a “thou,” and it pulls us inevitably toward greater thouness, the ultimate sacrifice that is love’s.

The imaginal realm properly corresponds to the subtle level of consciousness, which in turn corresponds to a different kind of selfhood. We move here necessarily from a narrative or egoic seat of selfhood to the beginnings of authentic witnessing selfhood. The concept is not well understood in Christian spiritual theology, which still tends to confuse the mythical beast of “true self” with the high egoic functioning of world 48. Witnessing selfhood is a World 24 phenomenon. That discrete sense of a personal “I” marching along a linear timeline held in place by memory and desire, gradually shifts to a larger and more unboundaried selfhood, the “wave” form of oneself, as it were.

Paying attention not to what you are but to that you are is how the anonymous medieval author of The Cloud of Unknowing summarized this fundamental shift in perspective.’ For Gurdjieff, this would be the beginning of the transition from “essence” to “Real I.” I have written extensively about this transition elsewhere, most recently in my book The Heart of Centering Prayer, so I will not elaborate further here.” But I would want to make very clear, with regard to our present concern, that imaginal causality can only be reliably read beginning at the level of witnessing selfhood and sooner or later demands that one join it at that level. The cost of admission to this new and more intense bandwidth of reality is ultimately your phenomenal self. Those things that you once thought were you — your history, your emotions, your particularities, your “descriptions” (as Beatrice Bruteau calls them) — are precisely those things offered into the refiner’s fires in order to create a being that can reliably listen and respond.

Seeing with the Eye of the Heart

In the Western Inner traditions there is a strong implicit thread that this shift to a new seat of selfhood is inextricably linked to a new operating system of perception, centered in the heart. “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God,” said Jesus, in these words of the sixth beatitude inaugurating not only a new pathway of purification but in fact a new phenomenology of it. The heart is already implicitly identified as the seat of imaginal vision, and as the teaching gets fleshed out over the centuries, particularly in mystical Sufism, the consensus continues to build that the heart (rather than the cognitive mind, i.e., the brain) is the true organ of spiritual perception and the seat of our imaginal selfhood. . . . (All embolden emphases added)

—Bourgeault EYE OF THE HEART

PURIFICATION OF THE HEART OF GOD

Over the past eighty-three years I have re-created my physical body twelve times over. With each new body a new mind was created as well, which allowed me to think anew and see anew, influenced by teachers and friends. What wasn’t created anew was my heart. Not my physical heart but my spiritual heart. That came with my spirit when I incarnated — and to the degree my mind has played its role in protecting my heart, I have retained some innocence. To the degree my mind has been self-centered and self-active, and has failed to protect it, my heart has accumulated such ill patterns as shame, guilt, and blame, to mention but a few of the many impure and disruptive feeling patterns and emotional impulses cluttering and sullying my heart’s lens of perception.

Many of these patterns were established in early childhood and during my youthful years of “exploring the field,” so-to-speak, mostly with wreckless abandon and blind disregard for how my actions may have impacted and affected those around me. Some of them came with the larger collective body of which I became a member when I incarnated. Looking back now — which can be a dangerous and even fatal exercise — patterns of regret, remorse and self-loathing crop up for release and forgiveness — literally to be given up for transmutation in the purifying fire of unconditional love.

At the end of this eighty-three-year-old tunnel, I find my Self in the Light of this New Day as inseparably part of a Body, having no isolated and insulated existence — in the presence of my LORD God, naked and unashamed, having been freed of shame and guilt in the Presence of unconditional Love. As the lens of my heart continues to be cleansed — largely under the pressure of challenging circumstances and recurring memories of past “moral failings” — I continue to participate in the purification of the Heart of Humanity, which is the Heart of God; and I relinquish all identification with the debris rising up and out of my personal field and the collective field of this Body, of which I am but one member of billions. None of it is who or what I am. I assume identity with my true Self as being one with the angelic Fire of Purification. One with Love. Love is what and who I Am. Love is what and who you are.

I know it to be the truth, for myself and for each and every one of us. We belong to One Body, outside of which we are nothing. That Body is the Body of God on Earth. So, if you think and feel that you are insignificant, a nobody, then I encourage you to let go of that isolated and insignificant self and let go to your true Self. You, as a Human Being and incarnate angel, are essential and vital to the healing and restoration of the Body of God on Earth. That’s no small and insignificant role we are privileged to play while we are on Earth.

Knowing this as truth brings with it a certain responsibility from which these is no escape. There’s work to be done — spiritual, emotional, mental as well as physical — as none of us are free of our past, personal and collective, as long as one of us is bound to it.

Let us not be “burned up” with the debris that’s on fire and disintegrating in Worlds 96 and 192. Neither let us be distraught and destroyed with it. Rather let us identify with the Fire, be one with the Spirit of Purification, whose place of presence is the Heart. Let my heart, one with the Heart of God, be purified in love’s fire so that I may see as God sees me and all the members of His Body.

We belong in Gurdjieff’s World 24 . . . in the “Kingdom of Heaven”. . . where we receive our instructions: the ordinances of heaven from the Holy Absolute in World 1, their “dominion” of which we are ordained to set in the earth and manifest Creation.

Gurdjieff’s map of the worlds may be useful in helping one see where one is currently living: in heaven or in hell . . . or perhaps in between. If you’re moving through hell, as the saying goes, remember that it’s only an illusion, so just keep moving . . . UP! Up, up and away, as the song goes. Leave the world to its own undoing, and just let love radiate through your heart without concern for results. Until my next post,

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

Category:

Conscious Evolution, Cynthia Bourgeault, Dr. Palombo's blog, Fire of Purificaiton, Healing Tones Blog, Imaginal Realm, Kingdom of Heaven, Love, Purification, Purifying your heart, The Imaginal Realm

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Getting Back To Paradise, part 1: Purification First

“It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.”  Black Elk

In the quiet stillness of these times, I will continue sharing my current stream of thought around the theme of “Paradise Remembered.” In this post I revisit Richard Heinberg’s MEMORIES and VISIONS of PARADISE to start bringing this series to a positive finale, starting with this promising passage: 

A new Paradise awaits, but humanity must first undergo a cathar­tic cleansing. Few prophets have looked beyond the day of Purification to describe the events of the restored Golden Age, for the world to come will be inconceivable in terms of the present one. With the return of Paradise, history — as a chronicle of wars and intrigue, of plots and villains — will be finished. Humanity and Nature, Heaven and Earth will once more be joined in peace and harmony as a new Creation-Time begins. 

PURIFICATION OF THE HEART

In the biblical story of the Fall, an angel with a flaming sword was placed at the entrance to Eden guarding the way to the Tree of Life, lest fallen Man partake of its fruit and live forever in his fallen state.  The angel represents the ONE I AM; the sword represents TRUTH; the fire represents the purifying SPIRIT OF LOVE. The story, of course, is a metaphor indicating that in order to return to Eden, we must pass through the fire of purification and prove that we can be true to the Truth of Love, true to our true Self.

The first order of business is the cleansing of the heart, especially of immune-crippling fear and shame. Buried deeply in the heart of humanity are fearful memories of a cataclysmic past in which the human race and all living things were nearly and literally wiped off the face of the earth, such as what occurred in the days of Noah with the Deluge.  We carry shame in our hearts for having brought this calamity, and all those that followed, upon our own heads by forgetting to live by the Law of One, and fear that calamity will happen again. It was said, however, that the Creator would not destroy the world again by water, and that this generation is “reserved unto fire.” What are some of the implications of this prophecy, and by what possible means would such a fiery cleansing take place?

THE CREATING PROCESS

In addressing these questions, I turn to a consideration of the Creative Process in which matter is drawn together for a season and then undone and recycled for future creative purposes.  Integration is an equal partner to dis-integration in this process—and their cycles run concurrently, only integration tends to be a bit more subtle, and dis-integration tends to gain a lot more attention.

As examples: devastating forest fires make news headlines, while new growth in their wake receives little if any media coverage.  Plagues, like the current pandemic, devastate our sense of security, along with the human population — although to little extent compared to the 1.4% current population growth rate — and the daily death toll makes leading story for the morning news. On the other end of the population spectrum, we’re less likely to see announcements of new births in our daily newspaper as we see obituaries. 

Ironically, while we all celebrate new births with congratulatory sentiment, we may harbor reservations about the wisdom of bringing a child into this turbulent and overpopulated world.  We are, after all, leaving our children a mess to clean up.  My concern for our grandchildren is that they will suffer painful hardship in the collapse of this un-civilized world—and I don’t think there’s any doubt remaining that this will come to pass, if not in our lifetime, in theirs.

On our walk a few days ago we met up with a young friend who, with his wife, have agreed not to have children and bring more human beings into this world. Such conscious thinking and wisdom are exemplary.

As a species, we do need to curb population growth, and the starting place is with individuals.  Family-planning is essential, with conception-and-birth control taking precedence over abortion.  For those who do not wish to bring more children into the world, adoption is a beautiful way to fulfill a couple’s desire to have children and a family. If we the people do not take this matter into our hands, the powers that be, that manipulate the masses for profit, will do it in ways that are ungodly and do irreversible damage to the genetics of our species. 

Dan Brown’s INFERNO may be fiction, but the reduction of the human population by means of a viral epidemic, or vaccinations, has been conceived in human consciousness, the matrix in which the patterns of human civilization are set, and out of which our world is born. That said, let us not energize that conception by focusing our mental judgments on it, nor on those “evil-doers out there,” lest the conceived possibility take on a life of its own and become our-worst-fears-realized.

The creating processes of integration and disintegration are unfolding continually.  The question I pose is this: “Is there a ‘critical mass’ in place on earth sufficient to move the Creating Process in a more dominantly integrative direction?”  I sense that we’re getting there, if we’re not there already.  

FOUR WORLD AGES COME AND GO

Historically, ages end with cataclysmic events. According to the Ancients, there have been four Ages in our history.  Richard Heinberg cites them:

World Ages

If the magical landscape fixes Paradise in space, its position in time is defined by its placement at the beginning of a series of world ages. We have already noted the Greek and Hindu conceptions of the ages or yugas of the world, respectively; there are also close parallels among other cultures. The Iranians, for example, knew four cosmic ages that, in a lost Mazdaean book, the Sudkar~nask, are referred to as the ages of gold, silver, steel, and “mixed with iron.” In the Iranian conception, as in the Greek and Hindu, each age is a step in the world’s deterioration, a process that is leading to a final apocalyptic cleansing.”

The Mayans counted their world ages as consecutive Suns­ — Water Sun, Earthquake Sun, Hurricane Sun, and Fire Sun — according to the nature of the catastrophe that closed the epoch. The Hopi also spoke of four worlds — Tokpela, Tokpa, Kuskurza, and Tuwaquchi — the first of which is described in paradisal terms.  Following their creation in the Tokpela world, the first people went their directions, were happy, and began to multiply. With the pristine wisdom granted them, they under­stood that the earth was a living entity like themselves. She was their mother; they were made from her flesh …. In their wisdom they also knew their father in two aspects. He was the Sun, the solar god of their universe …. Yet his was but the face through which looked Taiowa, their creator …. These universal entities were their real parents, their human parents being but the instruments through which their power was made manifest . . . . . 

THE END OF A WORLD AGE

We are the generation to see the end of the “mixed-with-iron” age and the beginning of the “Information Age”– the age of “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI.” That has such a foreboding sound to it.  Are we actually relegating our intelligence to the computer?  Sounds like a final step downward in the devolution of our species — from spiritual beings who had access to all knowledge — past, present and future — down to the level of these animal bodies with brains that have limited vision, and down further yet to the mineral kingdom where we hand over our “intelligence” to a computer silicon chip in which our vision and view of reality is determined by “data” rather than spiritual discernment.   

Returning to the question I posed earlier, by what possible means will this generation be cleansed by fire? Heinberg speaks to this question in the final chapters of his book. I will conclude with these excerpts in two or three posts.

To Get Back to the Garden

EDENIC CONSCIOUSNESS MAY BE RECOVERABLE by individuals in rare moments of spiritual insight. Perhaps nearly everyone glimpses Paradise at some instant during his or her lifetime. But is it also possible for all of us together to live in the Garden once again — to return and stay? This final chapter will offer two reasons for thinking that it is possible. We will see, moreover, how signs of strain and disintegration in the founda­tions of our present civilization, together with some intriguing developments at the growing tips of society, suggest that a new Golden Age may already be struggling to be born.

The Attainability of Paradise

The evidence of anthropology and archaeology may not prove (though it certainly does not deny) the former existence of a Golden Age — that is, of a unitary culture in which people were universally and continually telepathic, lived close to Nature, and possessed miraculous powers. But, as we saw in chapter 8, anthropological and archaeologi­cal discoveries have shown, almost beyond a doubt, that two of the most destructive aspects of civilization (the use and justification of violence as a means of social change, and the desire for dominance over other human beings and over Nature) were acquired only re­cently. The findings of archaeologists show that in the past human beings did live — and therefore in principle are capable of living — in peace and harmony both among themselves and with Nature.

Moreover, the evidence of psychology suggests not only that a subjective condition of oneness, peace, and innocence is attainable, but also that it is the natural and healthy mode of human consciousness. If the human body functions best in the absence of the ego-states of blame, fear, and resentment (as medical experiments show that it does), then the fact that we are living in an ego-based world, in which Paradise is the exceptional experience, must therefore be an unusual and temporary state of affairs.

If we were able to live in Paradise once, we ought to be able to do so again. And if the most natural and healthy way of life available to human beings is defined by the expression of the essential paradisal qualities of character and the subsequent experience of universal harmony, then what is natural should in principle also be attainable. In short, we may be designed to live in Paradise.

Why, then, do we routinely assume that Paradise is beyond our reach? Perhaps it is partly because we have an unrealistic concept of what that state is or should be. We tend to think of Paradise as a place or time in which all human desires are satisfied; since people’s desires tend to conflict, we therefore assume that Paradise could never actu­ally exist. But the Paradise of myth and vision is not a state in which conflicting personal desires are somehow all fulfilled. Rather, it is one in which all human desires and motives are completely subsumed within a larger creative purpose. If individual desires are satisfied in Paradise, this is only because it is the overwhelming desire of all individuals that the consummate accord of Nature and Cosmos be nourished and maintained.

The inhabitants of Paradise — whether in myths of the First Age or in near-death visions — are universally characterized by their expres­sion of specific values and qualities of character. And, as Aldous Huxley (among others) has shown, a comparative study of the relig­ions of the world reveals that these values and qualities — honesty, compassion, and love — are universal and innate. Whether it was a historical reality or not, Paradise exists in the eternal present as an image expressing our deepest sense of what is right and true about ourselves.

Looked at in this way, Paradise may be seen as serving a specific function, as a design for living embedded in the circuitry of human consciousness. All biological organisms, including human beings, contain elements of design. We know, for example, that the pattern of the DNA molecules in our cells governs the basic design of our physical bodies. Perhaps we also contain within us a neurological or psychic program for the optimal design of social and spiritual relations between ourselves, the Cosmos, and Nature — a design of telepathic oneness and interspecies communion that represents the goal toward which our individual and collective experience would naturally tend to unfold.

Provided there are no significant interferences, the design inher­ent in the DNA molecules in our cells is expressed automatically and accurately in the formation of our physical bodies. Perhaps the same is potentially true of the neurological design of Paradise: provided its expression is not blocked, the pattern of oneness with the universal currents of life, as well as of miraculous abilities, should be automati­cally and accurately reflected in our ordinary experience.

At present, however, it is not. As we have seen, nearly all of the world’s spiritual traditions agree that the innate paradisal design is being thwarted in its expression by certain now-universal patterns of attitude, thought, and behavior.

Could it be that simple?  Could Paradise be, as Scott Peck imaged, A World Waiting To Be Born ?  Awaiting our expression of it?  Of its Spirit?  Is the “fire” unto which this generation is reserved the fire of Spirit in expression through us?  The spirit of love, of truth and of life?  Energetically, cosmic conditions are just right for the birth of a new world and a new human race, with our conscious participation as “spiritual midwives,” as we travel with the planet and solar system, at breakneck speed, into uncharted waters in space.  Our once clouded vision is clarifying and expanding to encompass the image of a Golden Age coming down from God out of a New Heaven manifesting a New Earth.  Let us welcome it with joy and celebration.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. . . .  Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices. (Song of Solomon) 

The Teacher taught that fear is cast out of the heart by “perfect love”— unconditional love consistently expressed in living.  Shame is cleansed by forgiveness. That’s one means of purifying the heart of humanity.  Another way is by the fire of nuclear fission.  But then there would be no flesh left with which to start over, as in the days of Noah and his family.  Let us opt for the fire of Love — and grant God his wish that none should perish but that all should come to enjoy life eternal in Paradise restored — for, as Black Elk encouraged, “It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.”

Until my next post,  

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

Category:

Alchemy, Apocalypse, Cataclysms, Creation, Dr. Palombo's blog, Eden, Garden of Paradise, Golden Age, Love, Mythology, New Earth, Overpopulation, Paradise Remembered, Plagues, Purification, Purifying your heart, Restoring Eden, Truth

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Crossing the Dark Threshold into the Light of Day, Cont’d.

And life itself told me this secret: “Behold, I am that which must overcome itself again and again.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus spoke Zarathustra)

Continuing in this series on The Thymus Gland and the Spirit of Purification, and the theme of the previous post, citing Dr. Joan Borysenko’s professional perspective on Plato’s metaphorical description of the process of transformation as an emergence from out of the “cave” of isolation into the light of day — along with my own perspectives shared in my book SACRED ANATOMY:

Crossing the Threshold (cont’d)

    The traditional way [of treating an ill condition] generally prevails as the person proceeds to undertake a life-long regimen of medication to keep the symptoms suppressed and death at bay, and it is sometimes like pulling teeth to get a person to let go of the grip he/she has on the doctor’s “diagnosis.”  This only tends to assure the permanency of the condition by sending the message to the brain that in order to be able to continue treating the diabetes, for instance, the “disease” must be maintained in the body.  As long as the symptoms of dis-ease are being suppressed and not heeded for their message, and the appropriate action to address the cause is withheld, then the healing process is disrupted, thus making the symptoms of dis-ease necessary and prolonging the inappropriate therapeutic action of symptom-suppression. Where this suppression is being accomplished, as with most therapies, by the use of harsh and imposing chemicals, it can become dangerously toxic to the rest of the body over time.

[This also applies to alcohol and drug addictions as well as mental illness. One must maintain one’s identity as an “alcoholic,” for example, in order to participate in an AA program.]

    I hyphenate the word “dis-ease” in order to remind myself as a physician, and to inform my patients,  that we are not treating a “condition,” which the word “disease” implies,  but simply listening to the places where the person is experiencing the discomfort or pain for messages from the subconscious signaling where changes need to be made in one’s life style and attitude, as well as what kind of support can be given to enable the healing process already underway.  Dis-ease is always an indication that a healing process is underway. This process gets underway at the moment of insult or injury and starts with the subconscious mind asking for the cooperation and assistance of the conscious mind.  Pain and discomfort is its way of asking.  When the subconscious is satisfied that help is being given and changes are beginning to be made, the symptoms may be turned off, simply because they are no longer necessary. In the case of a fever, the temperature will be turned down when the purpose for the fever — the incineration of toxins — is satisfied.  What thwarts the healing process most is failure on the part of the physician, and the person experiencing the dis-ease, to hear what the body is trying to convey, and therefore failing to render the appropriate care and assistance. 

   Often that message does not get through to the conscious mind until the individual is at death’s door.  Even then a radical shift in consciousness, or in the vibratory pattern maintaining the ill condition, can bring about miraculous shifts in the healing process and the person suddenly begins to manifest that altered state in the physical body itself.  Remissions of illness occur.   Life prevails.  Sometimes the answer is not available until it becomes evident that one’s life is at stake and death seems imminent. Such intensities of energy create pressure inside the subconscious which engenders the feeling that one has been backed into a corner where it appears there is no way out but death, when suddenly one looks up in prayer to a higher Source of power and the answer comes popping up from out of the subconscious, as though caught up in the sudden upward flow of prayerful energy and sucked into the conscious mind.   Like the proverbial bar of soap that, when squeezed in a fist, will go in the direction it is pointed, we sink or swim in the ocean of life depending on what direction our deepest and most heartfelt response is given.

   Dr. Borysenko sites Victor Frankel’s moving story from his book, Man’s Search For Meaning, in which he relates how he survived four Nazi death camps simply by looking up to a higher power in times of crisis, therein turning his obviously limiting circumstances and horrible suffering into opportunities for discovering the genius of life’s indomitable transforming spirit.

…In those most terrible of times some people succumbed to the inevitable epidemics that swept the camp, dying before the brutality of the Nazis and the fire of the ovens could consume them. But those who were able to find some meaning in their suffering were more likely to hold onto life….  Frankel and others like him created ritual out of horror, growth out of destruction by choosing to believe that there was some transcendent meaning to their suffering.

   She then brings it all home for me when she focuses in on the core purpose for all of life’s experiences and challenges, which can lead us to further spiritual discovery and growth: 

    When we set our sights on a higher meaning, we automatically cast ourselves in the role of the dweller at the threshold, an initiate in a great story.  We’re not powerless, trapped or worthless.  We are passing through the fire on the way to a purification of sufficient value that our suffering becomes worthwhile when weighed against it.  Part of the value of suffering and dwelling at the threshold is that it initiates or intensifies the search for what is most sacred.  For only in placing our minds on the promise of that sacredness can we emerge from the liminal period not only intact but transformed, healed.                          

    The late American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, spoke of the deep need to find not only personal meaning in our lives but trans-personal, or spiritual.  A need is like a biological drive, an instinct.   It’s part of the genes, part of the race memories that form the collective unconscious that all people share.  When a biological drive is thwarted the organism suffers in some way.  The particular kind of suffering that accompanies a thwarted drive for trans-personal meaning is a feeling of emptiness, of meaninglessness about life that can progress to depression if the need isn’t attended to.

   I love where Joan leads in the direction of discovering what is most sacred inside ourselves as the purification process burns away the outer shell of our substitute self only to reveal the authentic Self. The analogy comes to mind of a kettle of molten gold bubbling inside a furnace with the dross floating to the top to be scrapped off and discarded.  What remains is the purified precious metal.  I am, and we each one are, as “gold tried in fire” and found worthy of being called precious and lovable as we emerge through the fire of the Spirit of Purification, which stands guarding the way to the Tree of Life in the fourth plane of being.

   I see the drive inside of us toward spiritual meaning, toward the experience of union with God, as being much more than genetic and biological.  I see it as the irresistible compulsion of spirit, of love itself, to find expression through human hearts in this world, a world which has tried without success to suppress and even destroy its expression down through the ages.  This futile attempt to suppress love has been the basic, underlying cause of all human sufferings, including mental depression — especially mental depression, for it is the false ego usurping control of our lives through the capacity of the human mind that has put forth the greatest effort to both prevent love from governing human hearts and to subdue the natural processes of life to serve its own ends.  The human mind is far too small a capacity for the false ego to use in its attempts to hold back the forces of the natural world and to thwart the purposes of God for humanity.  It may summon the help of the heart, a much larger capacity, by putting up dams of resistance in the form of ill feelings and judgments.  But all the dams it puts up cannot hold back the purifying waters of the Spirit of Purification. They finally break asunder, often bringing untold suffering, mental anguish and insanity into the lives of human beings.  Even through all of this, the truth of love can be revealed. This is so on both the individual and the collective levels. The Spirit of Purification is very much at work today cleansing the hearts of human beings and the collective heart of humanity of fear, hatred and terror.  

   The false ego itself, individually and collectively, is deflated in pattern after pattern of failure, until it grows weary and tired of resisting the irresistible spirit of love.  It is in the wake of such failures that the truth of the One present, but heretofore missing in action, has the opportunity to come forth and allow the false ego to dissolve and pass away.  Both mind and heart are thus transformed by the coming forth of the angel and the radiation of love that is even now shining brightly on earth through a growing number of hearts.  Nothing can thwart the compelling and irresistible power of love to transform human beings and to restore the world back into a place of beauty, love and light.

   Actually, the world of beauty, love and light exists already in the fourth plane of being.  All it takes to know it is for each one to cross over the threshold of purification by fire and enter into it.  The kingdom of heaven is then surely known to be within.  Upon entering in, one is wise to simply abide there and from this place bring forth beauty, love and light into one’s world, now seen as a creative field to offer love, truth and life into rather than a world of hell and chaos from which one sought ways to escape.  For what wanted to escape no longer exists, and the one who has come forth, the angel of light and sound, is eternal and is not going anywhere but always lives in heaven and is delighted when received by his/her own in this world. (From SACRED ANATOMY)

I always enjoy hearing from my readers and followers. So, if you have any thoughts you would like to share, I would love hearing them.  I will conclude this series on the thymus gland in my next post. Until then,

Be love. Be loved

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

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Crossing the Dark Threshold . . . . . . into the Light of Day

“Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth . . . .”    (W.H. Auden, September 1,1939)

Plato described the transition from the old self to the authentic Self as moving from out of “the cave” of isolation, where life is observed as confused reflections on the walls of the cave, into the light of day where one is fully engaged as a liver of life rather than an observer only.

Crossing the Threshold                                                    

This passage of the soul from out of the dark cave and into the light of day is made much easier with the assistance of a “spiritual midwife,” or mentor.  One need not go it alone these days with the many spiritual guides and personal transformation facilitators available. 

 One such spiritual midwife, and “guru” to many, is Dr. Joan Borysenko, clinical psychologist and medical scientist, who has done much work in body-mind healing and spiritual transformation.  She offers some professional insight into this process of transformation in a tape series entitled, “The Power of the Mind to Heal.” With her permission, I would like to share with you now an excerpt from these tapes, primarily for the grounding in the work-a-day world her words provide, but also for the profound gift she brings into the healing field through her expression and her deep and compassionate understanding of humanity’s state of amnesia, out of which many today are awakening and struggling to make sense out of the events of a dawning new age which we are all seeing and experiencing in a new way.

From Dr. Borysenko’s tapes:

   “The events that call us forth from Plato’s ‘Cave’ are different for each of us, and perhaps the best prayer in times of trouble is not to pray for the troubles to cease but to pray that our hearts and minds stay open to change so that we’ll emerge from our crisis transformed, wiser and more loving.

   “Unfortunately we’ve lost our cultural understanding of the value of darkness. Suffering and pain are downright unpopular in a culture that’s addicted to ‘positive thinking.’  But a lot of what passes as ‘positive thinking’ isn’t positive at all . . . .  A lot of us slap on a veneer of positivity and phony faith to hide a heart full of pain and fear.

   “The psychologist Carl Jung put it very clearly when he said that we can’t find the light by imagining good things.  The only way to the light is to go back out through the darkness.  Then we can emerge transformed with truly changed minds. 

   “The mythologist, Joseph Campbell, said, ‘one thing that comes out in myths is at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.’”

This has certainly been true in my own experience of dark times.  Another way this has been expressed is “The darkest hour is the one before the dawn.”  Some of my best days have been after two or three days of internal void and mental cloudiness, passing through layers in the veil. We may be fortunate to have had someone represent the light of Being to us so vividly and powerfully that we are able to forge a path all the way to the most sacred and holy place within us and perhaps even fuse in rapturous union with the Beloved, losing ourselves to the world and entirely into the arms of Love.  Sometimes, in such ecstatic experiences “in the light,” the path we forged with the help of another’s light closes up behind us and we lose our way back out into the world.  We leave the world to ascend the mountain of spiritual attainment and enlightenment, where we stay for a season knowing that we must return to the world we left behind.

Often we have to find our way back out on our own through a heart cluttered with fears and doubts and a mind rigidly structured with beliefs and prejudices of sorts we never even imagined were there.  This time, however, we have only our own light, which by now we have learned to shine, to light up the path leading out into the world of hard facts and experiences. For me, finding my way back out into the light of day where I could be of real value and service to others has been the greatest test of my spiritual awakening and transformation.  The most difficult of tasks has been to learn how to reach out and to touch people where they are.  I could not have done it without help, without someone to at least provide a sounding board for clarifying issues and validating my own gut perceptions and new-found sense of true self-worth.  One way and the other, both in going in to find oneself and in coming out to reveal the wonderful one I discovered my Self to be, one has to traverse the darkness of the cave where the false, isolated self spent its entire life wandering around in a solitary way.

Dr. Borysenko describes this transitional period from her professional point of view as represented quite often by physical, mental and emotional symptoms of so-called “dysfunction.”

   “Not only have we lost our appreciation of the value of darkness as an authentic path to the light, we’ve also lost the priesthood whose function it was to bring us through the transitions.  All too often our religious priesthood is as out of touch with sources of wisdom as is our secular priesthood—therapists and psychiatrists [and I would include here health care physicians] who think more in terms of pathology than they do of growth and potential.

   “We can learn a great deal about approaching these times of transition by observing how the priesthood of more primitive societies treats people in transition—whether the transition comes unbidden or whether it is set into motion by a special ritual or rite of passage.

   “The anthropologist, Victor Turner, is well known for his study of the ritual process in different cultures.  He defines a ritual as a ‘rite of passage,’ a transition between two distinct states of being, or stations in society.  The traditional rite of passageway in primitive cultures consists of three distinct stages: the separation from one’s previous state of being; the liminal period during which you dwell between two worlds, not here and not there; and the reincorporation afterwards into some new role or status in the society.

   “The ambiguous intermediate state of liminality is a kind of dwelling at the threshold of a new life.  It’s often compared to being in the womb, in a state of darkness and invisibility, or ‘wandering in the wilderness.’ The Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years when they left bondage in Egypt, a time of dwelling at the threshold before they were re-born to a new life in Palestine. Jesus, too, wandered for forty days in the wilderness when he died to his old self, the carpenter, and was reborn to his God Self.

   “Each of us, in that very same movement from our separate ego to our God Self, has to do some wandering in exile and in this period we may feel confused, unhappy and like we have nothing left to hold onto.  If our culture hadn’t gotten so out of touch with the meaning of ritual and myth, we would know that this ‘no-man’s land’, the ‘dark night of the soul’ between the death of our old self and the birth of our new Self was grace, not ‘mental illness’ or ‘PMS’.”

What a wonderful and empowering attitude to hold toward a health crisis, or a life crisis, that might come our way seemingly just about the time we thought everything was going so well in our lives. I know for a fact, just from my own personal experience with physical illness, that unresolved inner issues come up to be addressed when the physical body is undergoing a viral cleansing, for example. One is compelled to be thankful for such interruptions sent by life perhaps to get one’s attention. It is believed by some psychologists that our own sub-conscious minds create the symptoms of dis-ease in order to alert us to the need to address important issues in our lives.   We can rest in assurance that all is well during times of crisis rather than tense up in fear of the unknown.  Healing can come quickly as we listen to our inner voice for the very specific message that will open the door to us for transformation. It is there if we are quiet enough, and honest enough, to hear it. Joan continues:

“The collective hypnosis—our unconscious adherence to the familiar beliefs that guide our lives—is broken in the liminal period, in that time of exile, in exactly the same way our own uncelebrated life crises strip us of what we know, delivering us to the threshold of the unknown. In times of transition we awaken from the familiar terrain of life and find ourselves in alien territory.  If we know that this frightening, unknown period was a necessary transition, like the transition period of labor, we could more easily ask for whatever help was needed, and more patiently hold on and wait for the birth.  We could take comfort that the process was natural, not pathological.    Each dark night and each little death peals away a layer of conditioning, restoring our sight so that we can see more clearly.  What a difference it would make if a person in the throes of a life crisis were called an ‘initiate’ and then skillfully led to a rebirth. Instead, our psychological initiates are often labeled neurotic, psychotic, addictive or character disordered, labels that create helplessness and low self-esteem. These labels reinforce the fearful story that we are damaged and less than whole.    Some of the power of the ‘Twelve-Step Recovery Program’ comes from the context in which addiction in placed. In anonymous programs, addictions are transitions between a life where the person was out of touch with a higher power and one in which the reality of that power becomes not only the force for recovery but also a renewal of the meaning of life. Addiction as a liminal experience, for those who are willing to see it in that light, creates excitement, empowerment and even gratitude for the addiction as a guide to a new, more self-aware and fulfilling life.”

It is one thing to admit that one’s physical body is addicted to a drug, such as alcohol, and to take the necessary steps toward sobriety and non-dependency.  It is another thing entirely to take on the label of “alcoholic” as one’s identity.  The statements “I am an alcoholic” or “I am a drug addict” can serve to dispel patterns of denial, but it isn’t the truth of who one is.  Such firmly held fixations in consciousness could come to hide awareness of one’s real identity.  This can set up a circular codependent relationship between condition and treatment in which one must continue being an “alcoholic” in order to participate in the process of treatment, and vice versa.  Further, one might be prone to think that, without that identity, one would become as nothing.

In the health field, similar situations arise where one becomes identified with the “disease” for which one is being treated.  To continue saying, for example, “I am a diabetic” fixes the condition of diabetes even more firmly in consciousness, which in turn creates the vibrational terrain that determines health and dis-ease in the body-mind continuum.  What if one were to say instead, for example, “I am fine.  My body, however, is having some difficulty handling sugar at this time, so I will withhold sugar from my diet until such time as I have corrected the reason(s) for the difficulty?” This, in my view, would be more accurate as well as the intelligent and cooperative first step to take toward a holistic approach to healing while engaging orthodox, traditional disciplines and therapeutic methodologies.   (Excerpted from Sacred Anatomy)

I will continue with this theme in my next post.  Thank you for sharing my meditations. I would love to share any thoughts you may have. Until my next post,

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

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Addictions, Angelic Identity, Body Temple, Conscious Evolution, Consciousness, Divine identity, Dr. Palombo's blog, Endocrine system, Energy anatomy, Finding your Self, Healing Tones Blog, Holistic Healing, Purification, Sacred Anatomy, Thymus Gland, Transformation

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The Role of the Thymus Gland Protecting the Body Temple

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ?” (1 Cor. 3:16)

In the previous post, I detailed the functions of the thymus as an endocrine gland as well as a key player in what I have called the “immune alliance” of the body temple.  The following excerpt from SACRED ANATOMY continues to elaborate on this dual function with intricate details that describe a powerful and ruthless process, under the direction and control of the Spirit of Purification, whose primary role it is to protect the body temple. It is imperative, for the sake of the ongoing presence and expression of the Spirit of Life in and through our human capacities, focused in and operating through the Thyroid gland, that nothing is allowed to enter the Holy Place of the heart that would defile it or in any way diminish or hinder the governance of the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Love, focused in the Pituitary and Pineal glands respectively. 

It is my intention and desire in publishing these excerpts from my book to provide enlightenment about the miracle of life transpiring in our bodies, which are, individually and collectively, the temple of the Living God on Earth. In reading this excerpt, one may come to appreciate more fully the intricacies and complexities of interaction and communication between the various parts of our anatomy and physiology, and therein be inspired to maintain a personal atmosphere that is conducive and supportive to the work of the Spirit of Purification in one’s temple, so that Life may continue to manifest its radiance in the form of robust health and happiness.  As stated earlier, the key to protection is a balanced immune system.  

Protecting the Body Temple

   The Thymus is probably the most powerful and active of all the seven endocrine centers when it is functioning in a balanced manner, and balance is the key here to a healthy immunity.  In the healthy person there is just the right amount of immune response to repel infection or heal a wound, and just enough of the system involved to stop the response.  There is neither over-active response nor under-active response as just the right amount and types of white blood cells and immune factors are recruited to meet and resolve each challenging “invader.” An invader, as we have noted, is anything that is not “self” and therefore does not belong in the body-temple.  Over-active response results in auto-immunity and allergies, for example, while under-active response makes the body susceptible to infection.

   The key to a balanced immunity is the body’s ability to distinguish between what is self and what is non-self.  The job is usually easy as virtually every living organism and cell has its own unique set of “antigens” (surface molecules called “barcodes”) that identify them.  Early in life, through real encounters, the young immune system learns to recognize these barcodes if given the opportunity.  That opportunity is all too often missed in early childhood where antibiotics are used indiscriminately.  Should such use continue on a regular basis, the child will grow up to be an adult with an “immature immune system.” Immature immune systems abound today with the widespread use of antibiotics, not only within the human system but also in the animals grown for human consumption.  

   On the other hand, where herbs, such as Echinacea, and phytonutrients found in whole foods rich in Vitamins A and C, are used to support the young immune system, it will fare well in its encounters with antigens and pathogens of all kinds and develop properly into a strong fortress as the child matures into adulthood. The problem arises when too much dependency is placed upon antibiotic medication, both in childhood and in later years.  A weak and immature immune system is easily confused and overwhelmed by an onslaught of bacteria and viruses, many of them made stronger by adapting to antibiotics.  The job of distinguishing between self and non-self becomes more complex as viruses, such as HIV which causes Auto-Immune Disease Syndrome (AIDS), take on the surface protein molecules (barcodes) of the immune cells themselves, leading lymphocytes into a battle with themselves and thereby completely destroying the body’s ability to protect itself against opportunistic scavengers, such as bacteria, parasites, viruses, molds and fungus, many of which are produced by the body itself on site where their services are needed to clean up the debris of decay resulting from infection.  Infection is the body’s way of handling the pathology caused by invaders. 

   All this goes to say that our immune system, while powerful when balanced and educated through experience, is impotent when its delicate balance is disrupted and can even be left in a state of incoherence when not allowed to develop.  Therefore a lot of effort and energy is expended by the body balancing white blood cells and immune co-factors to provide exquisite protection and defense against harmful invaders.  Green, living foods are essential as a source of these co-factors. 

   The natural defenses of the immune system consist of an extremely elaborate and complex network of billions of lymphocytes, each one designed for a specific mission.  These cells communicate with one another like construction crew members erecting a tall building.  The result is a sensitive system of checks and balances that produces an immune response that is prompt, appropriate, fierce and  effective, as well as self-limiting.

   As we’ve noted, the thymus is joined by other organs keeping the body cells well fed, repaired and clean. Pockets of white blood cells (leukocytes, from the Greek leukos, meaning “white,” but also “light” or ”brilliant” or clear) can be found throughout the body-temple. The reticuloendothelial tissue of the tonsils, lymph nodes, spleen, and bone marrow are gathering sites for lymphocytes where cells grow and develop.  Though not commonly recognized for this role, the largest immunological organ of the body is the intestine with its “Peyer’s patches” cells embedded within its wall.  It is estimated that twenty-five percent of the intestines is involved in immunity with an additional seventy to eighty percent of all antibody-producing cells being located in our digestive system.  At any given time there are more than 100 trillion bacteria in our digestive system.  The cells that comprise the body are outnumbered ten-to-one by foreign organisms in and on our bodies.

   Leukocytes recognize foreign invaders and coordinate the natural defenses of the body.  There are three different types of leukocytes, or white blood cells: Granulocytes, monocytes and lymphocytes, each group having its own function.   They all originate in bone marrow and circulate from there by way of the bloodstream throughout the body.  About half of them come to rest in the Thymus, where they continue to differentiate and mature before returning to the bloodstream. Hence they are called T lympho-cytes, or “T cells.”  These are involved in the inflammatory process and in destroying foreign invaders such as cancer cells.   First to recognize the presence of foreign cells and infections, they recruit other cells and start up the immune response, releasing different classes of immune co-factors or bio-chemical signals that activate “B Cells” (blood-plasma cells), for example, to produce specific types of antibodies.  Each B Cell is a self-contained factory that manufactures one specific type of antibody (immunoglobulin).  These antibodies, large proteins, are programmed to identify invaders by their antigens (barcodes).

   There are the “Killer Cells” that kill cancer cells and those carrying viruses. “Macra-phages”  inform the white blood cells about the architecture of the invaders so that it can design the right antibody for the job, initiate immune response and scavenge dead organisms and cells.  “Phagocytes” gobble up infected cells like “PAC-Men.”   Eosinophils kill parasites and “Mast Cells” chemically trigger other cells into action and are involved in allergic reactions.  While many white blood cells recognize and react to specific antigens which starts a specific immune response against an individual class of invaders, other types of cells respond in a nonspecific manner, killing any and all invaders.

   Much more could be said about our powerful immune alliance and its many checks and balances that keep its response measured and timely.  It is fascinating, for instance, how the mother passes on her immune cells to her child, first by her blood stream and then by way of her colostrum-rich milk, emphasizing the tremendous value of supportive nutrition during pregnancy and breast-feeding after birth to give the infant all the support it needs in building its own immune alliance.  This is true for the animal kingdom in general wherein each species passes on its collective immunity and adaptations to the progeny through the egg or the milk.

   Much has been written on the subject of stress and the immune system, a system that actually “talks” to our nervous and hormonal systems and vice versa.  All these systems are integrated as one, as we have noted, and work together in governing our emotional as well as physical feelings.  Stress and fatigue depress the immune system while joy and laughter stimulate it.  Balance in all aspects of our lives is what this is all about.

   Perhaps we can learn something from our body’s ruthless intolerance of non-self invaders of the body-temple in developing a sense of diligence in purging from our hearts and minds feelings and thoughts that are not true to our authentic Self but which invade our personal space without notice and threaten to defile our holy place within.  The simple act of tagging them as not you, naming and acknowledging them as being there in your feelings but not identifying with them, allows them to be released into the purifying fires of the Spirit of Purification, where the energy maintaining them may be harvested and blended back into the circulation of Life in and through the body temple and the individual. In this is Life eternal.

One of my blog followers expresses poetically how his heart is like a furnace in this passionate response to my previous post: 

My heart is a cauldron; a fuming, bubbling lava lake in the core of the volcano. Any thought, word, deed that happens to drop into its reach is decomposed, dissolved from its structure into its original component chemistry, purified, and recycled into the system.

My heart is a bottomless lake; the specific weight of any structure of thought, and emotion, drags it down, slowly, under its own weight; ever lower, deeper. Until, crushed by the pressure of the deep, it fragments, floating back to surface in the unrecognizable guise of its pristine origins.

My heart is a drop of pure elixir; the cure for all ills. The most concentrated, refined, the purest essence of ecstasy. It is the stuff of tears of joy. The product of the cellular absorption of the wonderful way all fits into a multi-dimensional Rubik cube.

Our body temples are created to accommodate the incarnate beings we are –“angels from the realms of glory,” if you will. We are each a unique differentiation of the One Great Spirit, from whom we all spring forth through living flesh to appear on earth and co-create a heaven. The purpose of the incarnate angel is to accommodate the creative expression of the Spirit of God.  In my next post, “The Angelic Gland,” I will expand on this theme and show how our sacred energy anatomy facilitates this expression. If you have any thoughts or inspirations to share, please do so. My email address is below. Until my next post,

Be love. Be loved.
Anthony
Email: tpal70@gmail.com

 

 

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The Thymus Gland and . . . The Spirit of Purification

I am the Spirit of Purification

   I protect the life and this temple from harm

I bring heaven and earth together as one

I give assurance to my world that all is well

With this post I begin a new series of consideration on our sacred energy anatomy. In this series I will share excerpts from the chapter in my book, SACRED ANATOMY, that focuses on the Thymus Gland and the cleansing and refining work of the Spirit of Purification. In this first post of the series, I present a brief description of the thymus gland’s role in the body temple, its function as an endocrine gland and its primary role managing and coordinating what I will call the body’s immune alliance.

There is much work to be done in the body preparing substance for ascension through the ceremonial processes of digestion, assimilation, absorption, purification, and elimination. This work of refinement begins in the mouth where gifts from the vegetable, mineral and animal kingdoms are received into the body, bearing vital nutrients and building blocks for the temple.

As we chew our food, salivary glands secrete enzymes to activate digestive chemistry in the stomach. A mixture of water, mucus, antibacterial substances, and digestive enzymes, saliva lubricates the mouth and the alimentary canal for the passage of food down through the esophagus and into the stomach. Here in the oral cavity amylase breaks down the starch in our food into simple sugars like glucose and maltose, obviating the importance of thorough mastication. In the stomach, pepsin is activated by hydrochloric acid (HCl) released from parietal cells in the stomach lining to break down meat and other protein substances.  Carried in along with these raw materials are numerous toxins that will have to be bound, rendered harmless and then eliminated from the body. This protective activity begins in the mouth and is operative throughout the journey of the food substances through the body’s digestive and elimination systems. 

Vibrationally this work actually begins in the kitchen where the food is prepared, hopefully by happy hands and hearts, and even before that in the garden and produce market.  Food has a way of absorbing the vibrations of those who handle it and passing them on to those who consume it. Coarse vibrations are disruptive to the flow of subtle energy in the body and can be refined by a blessing before meals. Refinement of the atoms themselves that comprise the food, bringing with them their memories of where they’ve been, is carried out at higher levels yet, as we have already seen in our meditation on the Pineal Body and will explore in greater depth in the chapter on the Gonads.  

The Young Thymus      Gland inside the     chest cavity

The Thymus gland—a large, flat grayish structure located just behind the sternum (breastbone) and in front of the heart, like a shield protecting this vital organ—plays a key role in this process of the distribution of nutrients and the elimination of toxins.  Here is the heart of what is referred to as the “immune system,” situated at about the level of the paps on a man’s chest. 

In the vibratory context and order of the frequencies in the light spectrum, it would radiate a wavelength of yellow-gold and a frequency correlating with  the musical pitch C natural, the third harmonic in the F Major triad: F,A,C, [the significance of which I explore in my book Attunement With Sacred Sound.]

John the Beloved Disciple, in his Book of Revelation in the Bible, described the One in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks as being “…girt about the paps with a golden girdle.” This area would include the entire upper thorax contained within the rib cage—the lungs, the heart, the thymus and spleen, and the solar plexus.  This entire section of the anatomy is taken up with activities relating to protection, circulation, purification, and ascension.  The golden glow of love fills this area with substance so that these activities are carried out as gently and thoroughly as possible.

   The Thymus accomplishes its tasks largely by way of the lymphatic system. The function of the lymphatic system is to pick up the excess fluid and metabolic waste between the cells and tissues, destroy what does not belong in the body and put it all back into circulation through the subclavian artery (just below the left clavicle, from whence it derives its name).  Much like a cleanup crew on a construction site, lymph brings building blocks of nutrients to the cells and distributes lymphocytes (white blood cells) throughout the body to destroy pathogens as it sweeps up and carries away the metabolic waste. There are some 75 million on these lymphocytes at work among the approximately 75 trillion cells in the body temple.   Having no pump to move it, as does the bloodstream, lymphatic fluid depends on the movement of muscles for its circulation.  Exercise, especially brisk walking and rebounding, as well as massage, helps to move this fluid around throughout the body.                          

An Immune Alliance

   The Thymus is the control center for the electromagnetic energy of the body.  It is with this energy that the body maintains its integrity and protective hedge. Although we speak of an “immune system,” the reality is that the body does not have an immune system in as much as it is an immune system in its functional totality, considering the vast distribution of lymphocytes throughout the body temple.  Systems such as the skeletal, respiratory, reproductive, endocrine, central nervous system, and others are complete functioning systems with a clear set of organs and responses.  Our immune system may best be described as an immune alliance between various systems and organs which, when signaled and coordinated by the brain, give an immune response to the presence of any and all non-self elements and associated dis-ease factors that are not a natural part of the internal landscape of the body.

   This immune alliance is composed of the thymus gland, which develops the immature lymphocytes; the spleen which produces antibodies and which includes the lymphatic and blood circulatory systems; the long bones of the skeletal system which house bone-marrow that gives birth to leukocytes (white blood cells). Then there are the organs of the digestive system: the stomach and pancreas, which make Hydrochloric acid and enzymes that destroy ingested parasites and carcinogens, the intestinal flora which destroy pathogenic microbes and manufacture B12, and the liver which detoxifies the blood and produces enzymes that break down dead tissue cells and repair those that are damaged.  So when I speak of the “immune system,” it is to this alliance that I am referring and not to some specific system in the body. 

    We also commonly and erroneously speak of “fortifying” and “stimulating” the immune system.  The reality is that we cannot enhance our immunity without enhancing the overall health of the whole person in complete immunity to the various and sundry elements of disease.  With the above in mind, it becomes clear that a multifaceted approach must be made to nourish and strengthen the whole man, which includes the diverse aspects of the body’s major immune players along with the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of the whole person. Today we understand that building our immunity is as much a spiritual function as it is a physical one. The health of the immune system is actually the health of the whole person. Detoxification is always the more immediate priority in this process, after which fortification and maintenance come into play as more long-term functions in maintaining immunity.

   It has been said by many who work in this field of health care that the simple and easy act of throwing your shoulders back and putting a smile on your face does much to empower your immune system, along with any nutritional supplement you might also be taking. This speaks to the invisible aspect of our immunity: our personal atmosphere. The atmosphere around a person plays at least an equal role, if not greater, in the protection of the body temple as do the various players of the immune alliance inside the body.  It attracts both trouble or happiness depending on the quality of its vibrancy, and that depends largely on what is going on in a person’s mind and heart in the way of thought patterns and harbored feelings.  So we see that our so-called “immune system” is comprised of a whole lot more than meets our eyes and each part of that whole has its unique role to play, physically, mentally, emotionally, as well as spiritually. 

   The physical and chemical role of the Thymus in this immune alliance is the production of antibodies.  More specifically, it seeds the lymphatic tissue, which then produces the antibodies.  When you are exposed to bacteria, your thymus gland should immediately seed the lymphatic tissue to start the production of antibodies.  It takes seven days to completely produce enough antibodies to destroy the bacteria. This is why organ transplant patients only live seven days unless something is done to prevent the formation of antibodies.  The foreign protein in the donor’s organ does not fit the chromosome pattern of the recipient’s body.  When a foreign protein enters your system, it is treated just like harmful bacteria.  The thymus gland seeds the lymphatic tissue to produce antibodies, which then destroy the protein.  This defines pretty much the primary function of the Thymus gland as a key player in the immune system of the body.

The Thymus is probably the most powerful and active of all the seven endocrine centers when it is functioning in a balanced manner, and balance is the key here to a healthy immunity. . . .

This will be the topic of consideration in my next post, Protecting the Body Temple, the primary role of the thymus gland and the Spirit of Purification.  Until then,

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

Email: tpal70@gmail.com

 

   

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Attunement, Cosmic events, Dr. Palombo's blog, Endocrine system, Energy, Energy anatomy, Healing Tones, Healing Tones Blog, Holistic Healing, Purification, Sacred Anatomy, Thymus Gland, Transformation, Transmutation

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