Orbs at the Beach?

A participant at the Spiritual Philosophy seminar here in Pittsboro on Sunday brought several pictures she had taken while on vacation at the beach. Two pictures were taken from their balcony at night, with the beautiful white moon shining on the water. Here is another, same angle, same camera, same moon. Orbs? :)))) Beautiful! Thanks, Carolyn!

We Are Reflective Beings

Four-Letter Words

What do you think?

This is a fun picture that I took outside my parent's home facing a line of trees. It was dusk and a cool dry evening. I was waiting for my parent's to come outside to take pictures with me. I was clicking away hoping to capture orbs and never saw the "mist." My father and I were reviewing the photos later in the evening and you can image the wonderful surprise that was waiting for us! It is the only photo that has the "mist" as it is my habit to click three pictures in a row.
The best part of the picture is how it promotes a conversation about energy. Who am I? How do I recognize that I am energy? How do I "see" it in my every day life? Should I be afraid?

What do you think of the picture?

“Attachments are strings of the physical world that hold us tied to the consciousness of the physical world.” (xiii) Bridges of Consciousness: Self Discovery in the New Age by Kathy Oddenino.

In my late 20’s, not so long ago, I went along with a group of friends to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to enjoy our friendship and the new experience hang gliding. We gathered on the beach early the next day to sign up and sign out, so to speak to hang glide.
“This is a dangerous sport,” the instructor said. “You need to understand this and sign a waiver." Without thinking in detail about what I was about to do, I signed the waiver. He requested a volunteer to demonstrate how to strap in with the instructor (it was a tandem ride) and glide in the air over the Atlantic Ocean. I raised my hand; in fact, I was the only one to volunteer.
After we were both safely strapped in the harness of the hang glider, attached to a pick-up truck, the truck began to move at a slow speed down the beach. When the truck reached a particular speed, the instructor flipped a switch and the hang glider released from the truck. I felt no panic at this point because even though hang glider released from the truck, I felt a sense of security because there was a long rope tethering us to the truck.
The glider began to rise higher and higher as the air currents went under the wings and picked it up towards the open sky. Then the instructor released the rope that attached to the truck that parked on the beach. My stomach sank and I panicked because I thought I was going to die. I no longer had the rope to keep me safe. I was no longer “attached” by a “string” to the ground. As I let go of the illusion that the rope kept me safe, I began to feel the exhilaration of soaring in complete freedom. The experience of soaring above the clouds over the Atlantic Ocean is a memory that I hold dear in my mind. (Oh yes, I did go for a second ride that day.)

Now in my mid-40's, I can understand that experience was just a preview of what was to come as I begin to understand myself as energy. I look forward to soaring in complete exhilaration each day as I experience, acknowledge and understand myself as energy in matter.

Waving on a Sunday afternoon

An Animation from a friend (energy in action!)

Dualism - by Lucy Eckroth

I would love to share some thoughts that I am thinking about at this time in my life. As a student studying spiritual philosophy with Kathy Oddenino, I am continuing to expand my understanding of self as energy living in physical matter. Kathy suggested that we read BrainScapes by Richard Restak, M.D. before the retreat in April. I loved reading the book because I learned more about the beauty of our great minds and how little the average person really understands about the brain. I have learned more about our primary nervous system (brain) studying with Kathy than through any of my previous experiences studying anatomy and physiology in school and through my employment in the medical field.

As I was reading BrainScapes, I could understand the correlation of the dual soul in relationship to spiritual philosophy. Kathy defines the dual soul as mind and emotions and here is her definition from The Journey Home: Dual soul mind and emotions - Our dual soul consists of a double helix of mental and emotional energy that exists in dual polarities of external negative descending energy and internal positive ascending energy. As an invisible electromagnetic energy our dual soul mind and emotions are seated within the left and right brain and the invisible chemical consciousness vibration becomes the chemical cellular fractal pattern of the DNA as a double helix.

As Restak states in BrainScapes, "Dualism is thus wired into our very biology." As a dual soul with a male thinking mind and female loving emotions, I am processing words spoken through my mental thinking mind and the tone/vibration of the energy of words are processed through my female loving emotions. Each word that is uttered carries an energy field. Using both hemispheres of the mind helps me to understand the energy of the words using my mental thoughts and emotions. This is how we are able to understand when a person is speaking truth or telling a lie. Both hemispheres are processing the information as a whole energy. As words are spoken, the tone and body language are speaking loud and clear to the person receiving the communication as energy.

Is Energy Real?

I looked up (current term "googled")"what is energy" and came up with, of course, multiples of references, web sites, and definitions. Here is one site that has a good imaginary debate about energy.

One way to help me expand/share this Spiritual Philosophy learning venture through communication and my understanding of "energy is real " is to also know more about others' perception and experience of "energy as real."

I've been reading a great little book about the Greek Philosophers. In the first chapter the author writes about Greek Ways of Thinking, and explains (using three examples in particular) the importance of knowing something about the history, cultural environment, and usage of some words that are key to enhance our understanding of the philosophy and philosophers themselves. Without some understanding of the "energy context," we miss a lot in physical translation - through time, through our perceptions as "perfect," through our lack of curiousity about our evolving minds. One of his three examples is the word "virtue." The word "virtue" meant, generally, to the Greeks ('arete'), "efficiency." I especially like this one, because he relates it to the Socratic dictum, "virtue is knowledge." What that may mean to a contemporary, he writes, is You can't be efficient unless you take the trouble to learn the job! (This applies no matter your job, shoemaker, orator, candlestick maker: knowledge is key!)

This brings me back to the question my mother sometimes asks me, and other friends have shared too: What are you going to do with all of that knowledge? My job is, among other "things," to be the best human I can be! (This reminds me of the question my mother asked when we three were born, What are we going to do with 3 babies? My grandmothers' memorable answer was, We're going to love them and feed them like they were one!)As I learn to do this, within my own mind, I invite you to share your internal experiences of growth and change with me and all who read and contribute to this blog. (This is one part of my personal "energy stimulus plan"!)

"It is the exposure to the reality of our invisible energy that creates a change in our intellectual belief system. " (Depression by Kathy Oddenino- 65)