The Cure
It's likely that your mind isn't inside your brain.
It's equally likely that your thinking is a dance between your brain, your body, and the world
We've always been taught that everything about ourselves is "inside" us: our mind, our identity, our memory, our thoughts, our identity. But perhaps things aren't quite like that, human experience isn't relegated or locked away in our physical bodies. Several medical studies have shown that connective tissue, which, to put it simply, is a nervous material like brain matter, extends throughout the body, enveloping muscles, organs, and bones. That is, your brain branches out throughout your body, well beyond your braincase. Therefore, the statement "think with the body" is not at all risky; that is, you also think with the copro, and the body influences your thinking. Our thoughts arise not only in our heads, but also in our bodies, and the body in turn is strongly influenced by our thoughts and moods. The body itself often reflects the mental characteristics of our personality, with its rigidity, fluidity of movement, posture, and other manifestations that we strictly believe to be of "physical" origin.
Thought is a living system, a dynamic field that pervades us and "invades" us, but it is external to us and our brain and body buy themselves as receiving-transmitting antennas, and enter into relation with this field, in relation to the world pervaded by thoughts, perhaps constituted precisely by thoughts. Living isn't just about processing the information we receive, it's about being positioned in the world: listening, learning, and changing, in a continuous flow. In this way we create a consciousness, which is not something that is positioned at the center of ourselves, but is a field of mental energy that extends and interacts with the external world. A fluid continuity between interior and exterior, where the boundaries are labile, illusory, transitory. A dynamic structure. Dichotomous concepts like you and I, internal and external, subjective and objective, are probably too approximate concepts and I don't fully correspond to the reality of things.
Imagine the thought, yours and that of others, and also that of animals, trees and rocks, imagine them as if they were a liquid, as if they were sea water, and your brain imagine it as a sponge thrown into this sea: soaked, soaked in water, that is, full of thoughts absorbed from everywhere, the same water that is inside is outside, if something changes in the sea, it also changes in the sponge, Your brain receives thoughts and then processes and organizes them, but essentially we could say by contradiction that more than thinking, our brain is thought, or receives thoughts. From this perspective, we also understand the importance of solitude and occasionally isolating yourself in distant places, to rediscover a little of yourself, out of reach of "broadcasts." Our mind then extends far beyond our skull: when we are on top of a mountain, our mind is literally immersed in the energy field of the sky, when we are in a forest, our brain is literally crossed by "thinking", by the vibrational activity of trees... and if this may seem a little disturbing, It is at the same time exciting because awareness of these interactions radically changes the perspective and relationship with which we place ourselves in the world, just as the concept of "ourselves" radically changes.
For these reasons, the environments we frequent are very important, they influence us much more than we can imagine. Places can poison us, intoxicate us, and even take over us, literally take control of our mind and body, the psychology of crowds teaches! It's important to carefully choose the places to frequent, in tune with your heart, because the places we love belong to us and we belong to them, in a communion of intent that constitutes and establishes our very person and their protection when we find ourselves in "hostile environments," that is, for most of our lives!
Based on this knowledge, it cannot fail to radically change the way we conceive of the reality around us, when with your eyes you look at the world and perceive that you are not simply and passively looking at a complete and defined universe that is placed before you, but are participating in its constant "construction" through your experience, your memory and your consciousness, then the perspective of your life and your responsibility to the world also changes. You are no longer an insignificant speck lost in an infinite universe, accidentally stumbled upon a random planet doing random things, but you are an active part of an immense living system with infinite possibilities, where even a simple thought is important and has repercussions. A world that is not a fixed and given external construct, but is a constant dialogue between what lies outside and what lies within you, this dialogue creates and organizes thought, consciousness, and matter, three aspects that are the foundation of the world itself. And in this vision, in this perspective, the famous bi-public phrase "...and in the beginning was the Word" takes on a more tangible meaning, closer to our experience.
At least these are the latest frontiers of quantum physics research, which in many respects perfectly match the theses of all the oldest initiatory, esoteric, mythological and philosophical traditions of every civilization, on every continent, they are not the ravings of a visionary in a feverish state!
The idea of a self locked up and imprisoned in a physical body is perhaps to be revised, it is certainly reductive of the human being and perhaps it is functional to a certain state of affairs that requires small and insignificant little beings in an infinite and indifferent universe! Perhaps it is time to shake off these deleterious conceptions and begin to open our minds to a more sincere and profound dialogue with the world, that is, with ourselves.
I don't know if you noticed, but in recent years the word "therapy" has been abused: today we no longer go for a walk in the woods but go for a therapeutic forest bath, we go for a run to do cardio, we do music therapy, we do pet therapy, new therapies flourish every day left and right, as if we were all sick and had a spasmodic need to heal ourselves, to heal. Yeah, but healing from what?
Maybe we really need to heal, but I think the disease is not so much physical, but rather spiritual, soulful. The cause of our discomfort could be precisely this: an interrupted dialogue, a disconnection, a retreat into oneself as if there were an antagonistic inside and outside! A desperate need to stand out, to attract attention, to compete, to be right, to be more....
Illness is this disconnection from the cosmos and from ourselves, living identities that do not belong to us. From here great diseases, here is the need for great doctors, great psychologists and great nutritionists. So I take the liberty of advising you of my very personal specialists in the field, all esteemed and renowned, but too often seen and considered in the wrong perspective!
MY DOCTOR
Authoritative, severe, symbolic, imposing capacitor of energy, ready to draw you into its magnetic vortex to rebalance and ground you, to make you perceive yourself in relation to the world. Not an insignificant "miserable being," but a part of the whole, bridge, antenna, mediator between worlds, realities, and possibilities. This is the mountain, infallible doctor, capable of making you perceive your limits, of crushing them on your face if you dare to be presumptuous, but he also knows how to put you in touch with your greatness, and your meaning. And in that moment, when you understand and connect, your whole being harmonizes, the world of human worries disappears, with all its toxic negativity charge, and only the important things remain, the elevated, more spiritual, more subtle thoughts, awareness and fullness remain, which take you home and accompany you for a while, like a reserve of energy., while experience shapes and shapes you indelibly.
Perhaps for these reasons that mountains have always been considered deities, not as the seat of a deity, but themselves deities, as materialization, a visible and tangible expression, of a superior power and intelligence
In the mountains, you understand proportions, relationships, value, and respect. You understand that even "just" a beautiful view must be earned through hard work, tenacity, and willpower. You understand that everything is paid for, but not with money. There are other values, more absolute and more moral, and that every effort is always worth it and the efforts are rewarded, because you are in a dimension different from the human one. If you don't get alienated from that alienating dimension called "civilization," then you get nothing, or just some fleeting ego spike, which is like a glycemic spike, meaning harmful!
I'm also convinced that it's not for everyone; we need a willingness to listen. Those who go to the mountains with the spirit of those who go to a playground, or go with friends to continue chatting, bringing the small things of everyday life up there, will probably perceive no benefit, except the fleeting fun, which is only drunkenness that distracts. It's something already anyway.
If there is no dialogue with the doctor, there is no cure. You have to open up and be yourself without hiding behind superficial identities or ego masks, you have to merge, "scatter your heart" to put it in Neruda's words, then the doctor will read you inside and give you his medicine, a magic potion tailored just for you.
To literally fill oneself with beauty and freedom, to let them enter through the eyes, the ears, to breathe them into the lungs and through every single pore, this is sacred medicine.
Beyond appearances and clichés, to my perception the mountain is androgynous, it has both feminine and masculine characteristics within itself. In fact, beyond the virile and phallic appearance, the term "mountain" is grammatically feminine. The mountain is always of an elegant beauty, fascinating to take your breath away, loves to be looked at, rises for the pleasure of showing itself, dents from afar, enchants and frightens up close. At the same time he can be as rough, severe and spartan as a warrior, it is in fact the disruptive result of a direct, violent and frontal geological clash, but it is also the result of the generating force that comes directly from the mysterious belly of Mother Earth.
MY PSYCHOLOGIST
I happened to enter a forest with my head that was all a buzz of thoughts, news, commitments, and after five minutes of walking I felt like a "snap" in my body, physically, a sudden change in psychophysical state, almost as if someone had flipped a switch, to instantly move from a state of "normal" heaviness and banality to a state of lightness, of more subtle and vivid perception, a completely opposite vitality, so, lightning-fast! It's probably the woods that control this switch. This is the magic of the forest, a psychologist very skilled in his craft, he knows how to capture and reformat your mind, nourish and fertilize and your soul and he knows how to transport you to another, parallel world, to another dimension of feeling and feeling.
In the woods I never feel alone, in fact, other presences would be almost inappropriate often, such as violated intimacy. In the woods I find balance, serenity, depth, peace and calm, security and comfort. I find mystery and answers, and new questions. Thought wanders light and far away, as in a dream, time expands and flows differently than in sunlight, it is literally another dimension. I dare say it is almost aphrodisiac, revitalizing, exciting and invigorating, but above all it is sacred and powerfully magical.
It doesn't surprise me that many depictions of the sacred and its manifestations are set in the woods, think of all the magnificent classical dipindi depicting the God Pan and all the sacred processions and rituals of the ancient world. The forest is the sacred place par excellence, where the most misterior and most arcane energies manifest themselves.
The ancient Lombards dug pits in the woods where they "buried" their wounded warriors, and there, immersed in mud up to their necks, the wounds healed. The forest looks... yes but from what? From everything, the forest looks first to the soul, and let us remember that no disease arises in the body, but in the body it descends from a previous problem in the soul. Illness is not a physical process, but a psychic one. Heal your soul, and you will be healthy of firless even in the body.
They taught us to be afraid of the forest, in all fairy tales there is a dark and fearful forest, dark and dangerous, a cursed, haunted forest, where you get lost and attacked by wild beasts. Obviously, man must not know of the great power of the forest, he must live miserably in its filthy villages, or worse in its crowded cities, prey to every form of vampirism possible!
The forest is your soul, do not be afraid of the forest, day or night, winter or summer, love it as he loves you. And to think that today many people go into the woods just to pick mushrooms, what a misery! At least they were looking for the right ones...
Il bosco, nonostante ospiti e protegga molte creature femminili, per me è una forza prettamente virile e maschile
The forest, despite hosting and protecting many female creatures, for me is a purely virile and masculine force
MY NUTRITIONIST
These places are my charging hubs, here I literally feed and strengthen myself, I literally fill myself with vital energy, I breathe it, I absorb it through the pores of the skin, beauty enters my eyes, and the "noise" that reverberates inside me shakes me and awakens me. Rivers, streams, waterfalls, lakes and beaches, every place where there is moving water is a place of magic and energy. Water is literally fluid life, it is no coincidence that many rivers were and still are considered sacred in many places and cultures. There are springs and rivers in India that are revered and loved because it is not simply water that flows there, but "liquid love".
Water is not only the basis of our lives, but contains the information and memory of life itself. This bond is probably felt on a soul, spiritual, and physical level, a magnetic, hypnotic enchantment, the feeling of being in the vortex of life, the eternal flow of the passage of time, cyclical, circular, like the water cycle. Past, present and future, always present, at the same time, but in different places, such as the river water, a perpetual, enriching flow that brings life and memory.
It's very pleasant to sit on the riverbank and watch the water flow, it helps you reflect on the highest systems, and the corpses of enemies don't necessarily have to pass through (there are no enemies, but mirrors of ourselves), in these places you forget about enemies, you also forget about yourself, so absorbed are you by the flow of energy!
Sit on the shore and watch the water flow: where is the present? Where is the past? And where the future? The present is the water in front of you right now, the past is the water that is a little further ahead, and the future is the water that is coming, but these waters are all present at the same time, they are just located in different places, time is an illusion, it depends on you, where and how you look at the world! Rivers are great masters of life.
The great ancient civilizations were born around rivers, think of Egypt in particular, the river materially brings nourishment, nourishes the earth and by reflection man and his civilization. But nourishment is not just physical and material, there are other levels, there is perhaps a more important and deeper nourishment, it is the nourishment of the spirit, the nourishment of the subtle, energetic part of the human being. And the flowing, living water also transmits this invisible and precious nourishment.
It is no coincidence that a deity always lives next to a spring, a protective spirit is always present, always feminine, because it generates life, and in rivers one immerses oneself from the dawn of man to be reborn to a new life, as the rite of baptism teaches and not only in "our" culture. One immerses oneself to purify oneself, in body and spirit, one immerses oneself in the memory of primordial waters, to re-emerge to new life, as if water had the energy and capacity to penetrate the body's barrier to absorb and wash away the material and spiritual waste accumulated within us, causing us to return to a state of primordial purity.
When I'm in these places, whether it's a mountain, a forest, or a river, I realize that I'm literally feeding myself, and I realize this on a physical level, because lately I no longer feel the urge to hunger. In my daily life, I'm always hungry, inexplicably insatiable, but when I'm immersed in these powerful and pure energies, I forget the hunger, I feel in full shape, full of vitality and optimism, I feel fatigue and tiredness in the lounges, and this makes me think a lot... nourished by light, by color, by beauty, perhaps it's possible, there are those who already do it...
Material, "heavy" nourishment perhaps also serves this purpose, to weigh us down, to fill us with ballast to keep us perched on the ground, tied to a low, dense, material world, and thus prevent us from "flying," from accessing lighter, higher, more spiritual states of experience.
One final consideration, water is notoriously the feminine element par excellence, but in the end these considerations are a bit of a waste of time, as in every man there is a feminine part, and every woman contains a masculine part. The androgynous appears to be an original primordial unit.
It's a game of mirrors, the dialogue of apparent opposites who dance and chase each other, courting each other endlessly, a little theater desired by who knows who, and who knows why.
Going beyond appearances is the imperative!