The Life Force

In virtually all cultures, the life force is associated with the breath.

In Eastern culture, it is called Ki or Qi or Chi or Jing.

In Hinduism, it is called prana, the breath of life, or the life principle, which distinguishes animate from inanimate, the vital breath that is equated with atman, the cosmic essence.

The Greek word psyche is believed to have originally meant breath and came to denote spirit. The ancient Egyptian god Amon, or the "Hidden One," was also, "as breath, the mysterious source of life in man and beast."

The Hebrew word rueh also means wind, breath, or spirit.

Christ used the terms healing light and white light.

In Islam, it is known as barraka.

In Hawaiian, it is called Ti or Ki.

In Polynesia, it is known as mana.

It has also been called the odic force, orgone and bioplasma and subtle energy.

In Lakota Sioux, the word niyan means air, life force. It is said the motion of skan (wind) speaks through breath; to acknowledge the life force in each breath is to acknowledge the connection between all living things and to acknowledge the force of the Source, the Creator, life, shared with all life.

The concept of Ki, or Chi, can be summarized as the power which unifies and animates.

Since matter is itself a form of energy vibration, everything in existence is considered to be Ki. However, it's easier to conceptualize as the moving force of life -- "moving" being, of course, our human ability to perceive it.

In this way, the Lakota Sioux view of life force being the breath of the wind that we share inside us and with all living things has special merit; though, the shamanic view that even rocks have life is true within the concept of Ki, as well.

It's a matter of perception or, perhaps, more importantly, connection.

Certainly, those who have heightened knowledge of crystals and gem properties in soul work and daily living can attest to the Ki of Earth stones.

In point of fact, all matter, or anything we can imagine, be it thought or emotion, has Ki.

As noted by Robert Anton Wilson in "Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati, Vol. 1," (New Falcon Publications; Tempe, Ariz.; 1977):
"The notion that 'reality' is a noun, a solid thing like a brick or a baseball bat, derives from the evolutionary fact that our nervous systems normally organize the dance of energy into such block-like 'things' . . . Such 'things,' however, dissolve back into energy dances -- processes, or verbs -- when the nervous system is synergized with certain drugs or transmuted by yogic or shamanic exercises or aided by scientific instruments."

Says Wilson: "In both mysticism and physics, there is general agreement that 'things' are constructed by our nervous systems and that 'realities' (plural) are better described as systems or bundles of energy-functions."

What we perceive as "reality" is not really real.

"All of our perceptions have gone through myriads of neural processes in the brain before they appear to our consciousness," notes Wilson. "At the point of conscious recognition, the identified image is organized into a three-dimensional hologram which we project outside ourselves and call 'reality.' . . . We see the sun 'going down' at twilight, but science assures us that nothing of the sort is happening; instead, the earth is turning. We perceive an orange as really orange, whereas it is actually blue, the orange light being the light bouncing off the real fruit."

In the 1960s, Dr. Timothy Leary conducted ground-breaking experiments with LSD that explored the nature of reality and what really goes on in the human mind (though his bona fide research was overshadowed by the chic novelty of "tune in, drop out").

His conclusions were that we form our "reality" based on game-playing with others, agreeing on what constitutes reality or truth with the majority of observers (or, culture) and excluding sensory input that doesn't fit those concepts of reality.

We have within each of us a "metaprogrammer" that screens out sensory data and actually projects objects into our visual construct within the brain to make our reality conform to how we are culturally imprinted to perceive reality.

So, to access the nature of Ki, to incorporate the Life Force all around us, we must allow its existence to be seen, felt and understood without the cultural conditioning that would exclude it or try to make it conform to our preconceived notions of what constitutes "reality."

Compounding that fact is that even at its basic level, "reality" is what can be perceived by our nervous system.

A camera with an electronic flash can "freeze" movement to a millisecond. Our brains can only process discrete images of about 1/30th of a second consciously and marginally quicker subconsciously (subliminally).

Referring back to physics, remember that there is no such "thing" as a "thing," or matter.

It is all energy or, as it has been called, when our human eyes perceive matter, "frozen energy."

Remember that a piece of wood or a rock that we see with our eyes looks like solid matter.

But, remember, too, that the more closely it is examined, it is actually composed of patterns of molecules which are discovered to be patterns of atoms which turn out to be patterns of subatomic particles.

In other words, that rock that we see with our own eyes and hold solidly in our own hands is actually a series of patterns out of focus composed entirely of energy.

To perceive the Life Force, then, we must perceive its effects that are observable and can be inferred (just as we perceive visible light not as the light itself, which is invisible, but by its reflection, in colors and objects that reflect light; remember, an orange is really blue).

Given that "things" become cohesive into patterns that make an interrelated informational system (which also includes human beings, as well as all matter), we can say that this energy, the Life Force, which by its nature is animation, is also aware.

It has a wisdom of its own.

The universe and all "things" in it is a vibrating system of conscious energy.

That "conscious energy" is the Life Force, or Ki.

Now, think again to the scientific concepts of life itself, as we can measure it on Earth.

For a working model of the universe itself, we have only to look at verifiable findings in genetics with DNA, the very building blocks of life that are unique to every living thing, the code that makes each one of us who we are.

In DNA testing, it has been found and proven that every cell in the human body contains the master DNA library on how to create an entire human being, that every cell is a "hologram" of the whole.

The universe itself may be seen as operating as a hologram where each piece contains a blueprint of the entirety within it; and every piece of "matter" is both linked to and affected by other "matter" elsewhere by subtle energy systems we cannot measure.

If The Kingdom of God is within you, so are the secrets of the universe.

We are patterns of Ki, connected in interrelated ways with all other patterns of Ki.

Native peoples of the Earth know this, from shamans stating with certainty that all matter -- rocks, trees, every "thing" -- has life and can be contacted through altered states of reality, brought on by shamanic practices.

Native peoples also know that it's not necessary to have technology to communicate, that we each have within us the ability to "connect" to others, as wonderfully related by Marlo Morgan in "Mutant Message" (Harper Perennial; New York; 1995).

Morgan spent more than a year with a tribe of aborigines in the Outback of Australia, people who have been relatively untouched by human "civilization" for 40,000 years or more.

She relates this tale of telepathy:
"We faced east in our morning prayer service and gave thanks for all our blessings. We sent our daily message out to the food kingdom. . . . One of the younger men took a turn in the center. It was explained he had offered to perform a special task that day. He left camp early and ran on ahead. We had walked several hours when the Elder stopped and fell to his knees...gently swaying. I asked Ooota what was happening. He motioned for me to remain quiet. No one was saying anything but all their faces were intent. Finally, Ooota turned to me and said the young scout who had left us earlier was sending in a message. . . . It finally dawned on me why it was quiet every day as we walked. These people used mental telepathy to communicate most of the time. I was witnessing it. There was absolutely no sound to be heard, but messages were being relayed between people twenty miles apart. . . . A silent telepathic reply was sent. . Several hours later, into our camp walked the young man, carrying the huge gutted kangaroo . . ."

We routinely communicate telepathically with one another, though we usually dismiss it as "coincidence" or just shut it from our minds. Clairvoyance is dismissed because people "aren't supposed to do that" or we're told it's impossible.

It's a gift of the Life Force, Ki.

But, the most common form, deja vu, still holds many enthralled. Deja vu is actually a past moment of clairvoyance remembered, so the experience is an eerie recreation of an event already perceived, encompassing past, present and future.

Memories are more difficult to block out than present events, so they are compounded when past, present and future seem to converge.

In shamanism and in employing advanced vibrational techniques, "no-time, all-time, this-time" is reached. It is the locus of each individual's inner and outer world and it is the key to inner/outer transmutation.

In Morgan's book, the aborigine idea of this non-ordinary reality that is at once inside us and outside of us, within us and without us, everywhere and nowhere, is described as "Dreamtime."

Carlos Castaneda in his Don Juan teachings speaks often of this non-ordinary reality that is the essential, real world behind the dream world we consciously create and exist within in daily life, deluding ourselves about what is "real."

Among the aborigines Morgan lived with, Dreamtime is divided into three parts:

-- Time before time; Time after the land on Earth appeared; but it had no character (the people living in it then had to create the features of the Earth we see today through their consciousness); The time of our dreaming today, as we create the world with our consciousness.

In core shamanism, there are basically three worlds in non-ordinary reality that anyone can access: -- The underworld, where power animals and lost and captured soul parts may be kept. -- The middle world, where we live; but it can be seen in a different way. -- The upper world, where our guides and teachers reside.

Further exploration of these worlds in shamanic journeying (dream state) can find whole universes of what psychologists might call archetypes or universal symbols. But everyone has access to these worlds in our daily lives; sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.

Our awareness can be captured by needful "things" from these non-ordinary realities through coincidence or synchronicity.

This fits with quantum physics, which says that particles that were once in contact continue to influence one another, no matter how far apart they move, instantaneously, even if the particles are at opposite ends of the universe.

Our point of contact is, literally, "all in our minds" -- or Body/Mind.

It has almost become common in the vernacular to talk about "right-brained" and "left-brained" people. But, there's a reason for this.

The left hemisphere does all the talking, rationalizing; it is the seat of the conscious ego. It is the shaper and explainer of our world, what we consider to be "reality."

The right hemisphere is often called the silent hemisphere because it communicates in symbols, images and seems most active in prayer, meditation, while listening to music or other rhythmic stimuli. It usually communicates through dreams while sleeping or consciously through shamanic journeying.

When the right brain tries to tell the left something, and the left doesn't hear, it makes itself known through synchronicity, drawing the principles of quantum mechanics, dream state and telepathy together. Or, it may produce a "catalytic" event. That is where your right brain, in trying to urgently communicate, will cause an event, such as a window to smash or book to fall to floor -- something to dramatically attract attention to what it is trying to communicate.

In learning to get in touch with our authentic self, it shouldn't take "catalytic events" to get our attention. By relying on intuition more heavily and acting on what the universe, our guides and angels tell us, we can be led to whatever is needed to complete our life's purpose.

So, how do we "connect" with this universal intelligence?

One way is through applying the scientific concept of "entrainment."

Entrainment is shown by the example of two metronomes, the clicking devices that musicians use to keep a beat. If one metronome is set at a beat, say 4/4 and another, smaller one, is brought in and set at 4/3, they will attune to each other, with the smaller accommodating the larger.

Each human being and every "thing" in the universe, being made up of patterns of energy, are constantly pulsating. It is proven that our bodies, our minds, our hearts, nerves, put out frequencies of electromagnetic energy that can be measured.

One of the oldest systems of classifying the body according to vibration is that of the chakras, a Sanskrit word that means "wheel of light."

In the Hindu view, there are seven major chakras or power points in the human body (with two outside the body). They are points that generally correspond with the groin (first chakra) to the navel, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow (third eye) and crown (seventh chakra).

For those who can see the human aura, each has its own color: red (first chakra), orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and white (crown).

Each traditionally has its own type of energy, ranging from sexuality (first) to sainthood (seventh -- have you noticed all the medieval paintings of the saints with halos around their heads?).

Using the chakra system to explain behavior, dispositions and dis-ease is thousands of years old.

But, in recent years, the actual frequencies of the body have been measured, most notably with a famous study conducted by Dr. Valerie Hunt at the Department of Kinesiology at UCLA in the 1970s. It showed that frequency patterns and strengths vary in the body, with muscles ranging from zero to 250 cycles per second; brain waves operating at up to 20 cycles per second; the heart operating at about 225 cycles per second.

But the most important result of this study was that it was able to accurately measure the field surrounding the body (the chakra system) and how it differs when healing takes place.

That study, according to Rosalyn L. Brueyere in "Wheels of Light: Chakras, Auras, and the Healing Energy of the Body" (Simon & Schuster; New York; 1989), gave the measurements of each chakra, 1-7, as:

1. 640-800 Cycles per Second, or Hertz
2. 600-740 Hz
3. 400-600 Hz
4. 240-400 Hz
5. 100-240 (with a subwave at 800) Hz
6. 100-200, 740-900 Hz
7. 1100-1200 Hz

Brueyere notes that nothing actually happens "in" a chakra, it is only a point of origin, where human life energy is concentrated and released. A chakra is "a unique electromagnetic wave generator" that creates a particular frequency.

Later, more refined measurements found that the body as a whole is an oscillator that vibrates at a measurable rate of 7 Hz; our atoms vibrate at a much higher rate 10(to the 15th power) Hz -- in fact, a frequency too high to measure.

(An interesting sidelight is that when the electromagnetic frequencies of the chakras are graphed out and compared with the visible light spectrum, they actually roughly correspond to the colors handed down in ancient Vedic work -- red, orange, etc., all the way up to white.)

(It is also interesting to note that when Tibetan Buddhist meditators use Ting-Sha's, two small bells shaped like tiny cymbals when they are rung together, each producing a slightly different tone, the tonal difference causes the bells to emit Extremely Low Frequency sounds between 4 and 8 Hz, the range of brain waves that occurs during meditation; the rhythmic beating of shamanic drumming encompasses a frequency range of .8 to 5.0 Hz, which is theta brain wave driving capacity -- see "Sounds of Healing: A Physician Reveals the Therapeutic Power of Sound, Voice and Music" by Mitchell L. Gaynor, M.D.; Broadway Books; New York; 1999).

(At the Institute of HeartMath, a nonprofit research and training organization in Boulder Creek, Calif., it has been found that meditation on the heart can cause all other systems in the body to follow entrainment, with frequencies flattening out to .1 Hz; focusing on concepts of love, care and compassion, and deliberately holding them causes this whole-body entrainment of nonlinear biological oscillators in the brain stem, intestines, vascular system and other areas of the body.)

Chakras are the Life Force (Ki) regulators in the human body and a person's health can be determined by how these areas of the body are balanced. But, just as the chakras can be used for personal healing, they also serve to show how each of us is intimately connected to the universe.

Since the human body transmits Life Force energy, measurable through the chakras and in the aura, it can be seen as a pattern of energy, as well as an informational system.

As the measurements in the Hunt study at UCLA show, the human body is a pattern of patterns, with various systems in the body (heart waves, brain waves, electrical nerve pulses, breathing) actually operating at different frequencies within the body.

(Dr. John E. Upledger has detailed in his CranioSacral work a differentiation in measurable "pulses" of the energetic system of the body that can produce rapid healing; consistent with findings in Reiki.)

Thus, each second, a human body can be seen as an "event," a pattern of patterns with measurable frequencies (just as rocks, trees, other "matter" can also be seen as "events"), constantly pulsating and constantly changing.

It is through these pulsations of Life Force energy that we project ourselves into the universe.

We each create around us a "prayer field" that is our current state of emotion, health, intent, our very "being" in a constant information field that both connects us with everything around us and the universe.

With that prayer field, we are constantly sending out into the universe our thoughts, perceptions, orientations and beliefs and literally creating our reality.

(Sandra Ingerman of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies gives a useful test for us each to judge how we are transmuting the thoughts and energy we are constantly beaming: "Close your eyes and with your imagination picture two beings. One being you will label positive thoughts, words, and energy. The other will represent your negative thoughts, words, and energy. For the next month throughout the day check in to see whom you are feeding. Notice who you are nurturing the most during your day. If you really take this practice seriously you will notice what you are calling to yourself and your environment by whether you feed the positive or the negative more. Being on a spiritual path is like walking on the edge of a razor. Don't judge yourself when you fall off, just get back on the path.")

It is a universal truth: Like attracts Like.

The principle of synchronicity brings to us the things which attract us (and them to us) to lead us through life.

Similar "things" (whether they are human bodies or metronomes) pulsate in a similar way and instantly communicate with and influence one another (entrainment) at subtle levels through a kind of synchronized resonation, says Belleruth Naparstek in "Your Sixth Sense: Unlocking the Power of Your Intuition" (HarperSanFrancisco; New York; 1997).

And we can change our "likes," our being, our world. Remember the holographic theory? We are each part of the whole!

As these "like things" resonate, together they pulse their influence back into the universe in a stronger pattern, helping to reshape and reform the universe in holographic manner.

In science, this is given a foundation through various theories about the universe:

• As Gary Zukov says, as for as light (patterns of energy) and matter (patterns of energy) are concerned, there is no distinction between "what is" and "what happens." The dance and the dancer are one.
• Observation, our thoughts, our emotions, our intellect can change matter and energy. This is what physicists call QUIP, the Quantum Inseparability Principle, that every particle affects every other particle, everywhere.
• This idea has been further elaborated by Dr. Fritjof Capra ("The Taos of Physics"; Shambala; Berkley; 1975), a University of California at Berkely physicist, who supports the "Bootstrap Theory," that everything is the cause of everything, every which way in time.
• This idea is even further defined by physicist David Bohm, that the universe is pure movement, vibration loaded with the potential to manifest into an infinite array of patterns; "probability in motion." In total, it is a vibrating system of conscious energy, from which all things are composed -- a protointelligence found in realities of greater and greater subtlety, each plane or dimension orders of magnitude removed from the next.
• Even more, biologist Rupert Sheldrake in "A new Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation" (Tarcher; Los Angeles; 1981) posits that fields that have existed as a result of human lives still exist; when a certain number of individuals in a particular species learn something, it seems to affect the learning of all other individuals of that species, including advancing learning of the next generation.

So, how does such a tiny, insignificant creature as a mere human affect the universe? Surely, a single heartbeat has little effect upon all of creation.

Itzhak Bentov in "Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness" (Destiny Books; Rochester, VT; 1988), explains our interaction with the universe with the analogy of the pendulum. Each time a pendulum swings back and forth, it has two moments when it is absolutely at rest; when it has traveled as far as it can in one direction and reaches a still point before reversing in the other direction.

As for any object that is at absolute rest, the theory of relatively tells us with mathematical certainty, there is a point when for a very short time, it is nonmaterial and expands into space at infinite velocity.

"Then," explains Naparstek, "when it returns to a state of motion, it reenters the three-dimensional world and regains business as usual."

Naparstek explains that our bodies act like a pendulum that oscillates at a rate of about seven cycles per second and therefore reaches a state of rest at the rate of fourteen times a second.

"This means that fourteen times every second . . . we are expanding at a very high speed through subjective time into objective space. In no time at all, we come back again, but during that 'no-time,' we have been out into other dimensions and realities, dispensing and collecting information."

We may not be aware of the information we bring back because it is so fast, but can occasionally catch glimpses -- insights, or intuition.

Says Naparstek: "Both Bohm and Bentov felt that meditation was the best way to train the mind to spend longer periods of subjective time out there in space-time during those blinks away. This is because meditation lowers the frequencies of our brain waves and, in so doing, expands the perceived time that we are 'out'."

Since our atoms oscillate at a much higher rate, 10(to the 15th power) Hz, a lot of us is "out" at any given time.

If the techniques of meditation (which is the appreciation of eternity, oneness, universal love) and prayer (which is an active principle of attracting realities or tapping the Life Force's potential to manifest into an infinite array of patterns) are easily accessible to everyone, a single human being is anything but insignificant.

From all this, we can form some conclusions about the Life Force, Ki:

• The value of this expression of Life Force in our bodies as it relates to the universe is that we each individually have a tremendous amount of power available to us not only to change ourselves, but physical matter in a very real way.

   

• The key to harnessing the power of Ki, the Life Force, is through increasing our affinity for Ki and finding a balance within ourselves and surroundings to maximize, sustain and strengthen available Ki (such as opening the Body/Mind channels through therapeutic massage, meditating to find "entrainment" with heart or earth healing, practicing Reiki, focusing prayer/healing in drumming circles and engaging in shamanic journey).

   

• Achieving self-healing through Ki or energy work brings us closer to the spiritual source of our beings. It enriches life and helps illuminate our purpose for being on Earth by giving us a greater "connection" with ourselves, our lives, other human beings and the universe.

So, how do we get past this cultural/physiological/neurological soup of projections, filters, programming and imprinting to connect with the Life Force, what is really real?

The most important activity is to simply Be Here Now.

An appreciation of the reality of any given moment is one of the most important practices in Buddhism -- learning to be in each moment without judging, reflecting, thinking about the future, or being attached to outcomes.

Zen masters refer to life when it is lived fully in the moment as the "supreme meal."

Native American traditions look to the immediacy of nature as instruction in living in the present. The vision quest, the sweat lodge, spiritual healing ceremonies, daily honoring of the four directions, above and below, are centering devices that bring connection to matter and spirit, earth and sky.

As Rosalyn Brueyere says in "Wheels of Light": "As far as I can tell, Native Americans are the only people who have a natural relationship with the chakra system that has not been dogmatized."

We can each find centeredness and connection, the real "power" of being on this planet in human form by simply being Here Now.

As Henry David Thoreau wrote in "Walden": "In eternity, there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages."

Through practicing ancient and modern technologies, applying prayer, compassion, forgiveness, we can both Be Here Now and touch the universe, healing the Earth/ourselves.

And that requires change, transmutation of our inner and outer worlds.

Can human beings through their belief substantially affect matter down to the cellular level, effect change? The world's greatest spiritual leaders throughout time have believed so.

The question is: Will our modern minds heed the ancient voices and their lessons that have resonated throughout time even to today?

If Ki is the "active force," through which we can change ourselves and our world, we must find the place within ourselves where we can make space to appreciate it, organize it (and become organized by it) and direct it.

That place is The Source.