Surfers, Sufis, and Qualia
Posted: Friday, July 29, 2011
by Tony Brussat
http://qualiadelic.com
Learning to appreciate new qualia will change the world. Qualia, of course, is at the heart of how we perceive the world we live in. We have evolved, in qualiadelic relationships, with the environment. Thus, for instance, we have no problem understanding the idea of gravity, while relativity is almost completely baffling. But understanding relativity might not be much more difficult than learning to understand depth perception.
Like me, no doubt, even an electron feels some dismay at the prospect of climbing (or leaping, as the case may be) to the next electron shell – what an exhausting expenditure of energy! What if, however, the electron is standing still, at inertia, and energy (light, other subatomic particles, or whatever) is actually moving toward it like a surging wave. Our electron just rises with the oncoming wave.
Now, back to me and walking up hills...
The key to understanding relativity is being able to see the world, no matter what circumstance we may be in – walking, stuck in prison, on a battle field – as moving around us while we, ourselves, are perfectly still. We are at rest, in a state of inertia, and it is the world which is moving. Now, it is not necessarily (indeed, not at all) our body which is in such a still state, but our mind. That is the gift of God, that little pin-point of stillness which exists in our perception of the world, in our mind, in our imagination. Once we have attained a method of seeing relatively, as in a state of inertia, then we can tap into the energy around us.
And how might I, at 175 pounds, fly up a mountain without draining all my precious ATP (the body's energy)? Well, the body will move, it will expend the energy. The trees will wander past me, too, and even a distant mountain peak will move to and frow across the horizon as my path winds off to the left and back to the right. It is really an amazing thing to watch. One achieves the distinct feeling that one's own body is actually a part of the trees and the mountainside, strolling along with them in their various directions, and that the little, pin-point of stillness we call the mind is not attached to any of it at all. The mind, like the electron, is just being gently lifted up, or carried down, upon the next rising or falling wave (of light, of land, of wind, of water...).
Is it any wonder that surfers become addicted to the waves, seeking ever to rise up and soar down the big kahuna? Is it such a mystery that the mystic can sit by a pond and stare for hours at the misty clouds that dance just above the surface in the morning as the Sun rises? Who doesn't envy a soaring eagle?
This is what the qualiadelic experience is all about; this is why we consciously ritual in order to develop a sense for qualia which is currently beyond our ability to know, such as relativity, or higher dimensions. Those souls who do find extraordinary qualia in their lives, such as surfers, or a sufis, come to understand the Earth in complex ways, just as a farmer understands the weather and the seasons. People have always had their rituals, whether they are conscious of them or not. Farmers have ritualed with the weather, and shamen have ritualed with nature; we need to think long and hard about what it is we are ritualing with in the twenty-first century.
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