(Read:  Part 1  Part 2)

Opening to the Source

"Power is everything.  Without it they don't talk to us, they don't correct their trajectory, they don't turn the heat shield around…"  EECOM Arthur (Loren Dean), Apollo 13

This column is about living energy, your energy, my energy.  Engineers make a distinction between power and energy, where energy (colloquially) is the capacity of doing something and power is the rate of doing it.  Complex microscopic processes in our bodies use the air, food, and water we take in to supply the energy needed to make our macroscopic lives possible.

Energy is everything!

Consider the following paragraph from my previous column:

"The engine of human progress … is the creative mind; the act of creation turns the key to the portal of wealth and general abundance.  The act of creation is a natural effect of the healthy living energy or life force of human beings, and will occur widely to the extent this living energy is not blocked internally or suppressed externally by others."

Then in that column we looked at the effects of the ultimate external human energy block: the state.  What I want to explore today is what lies beneath the surface of that blockage, hoping eventually to remove the block entirely from human existence.  The more people who are encouraged toward positive internal energy flow, the fewer people will interfere with me and "my people" through coercive external institutions.

In James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy(1) the protagonist is led through discovery of a series of ancient manuscripts to an understanding of the nature of living energy (aka, chi, the life force, the field, etc.).  From that understanding, he proposes a simple psychotherapeutic model and suggests a road to spiritual fulfillment, by naturally engaging the flow of cosmic energy.

At the risk of apostasy to Objectivist(2) metaphysics, I bring up the Celestine's notions because they provide a simple alternative view of ethical issues we must face.  Whereas Aristotle and Rand would start the argument for rational self-interest with a syllogism, "Life therefore reason," Celestine begins with an experience "Positive life energy therefore flow (growth)."

The syllogism and the experience are consistent with each other.

David Leadbetter and Butch Harmon look at a golf swing from different angles, yet their students wind up competing at the ultimate level with essentially the same great swing.  In the case of the Celestine energy proposal, I like how it teaches successful living on an intuitive/emotional basis.  Which, in due course, needs to be followed by a conceptual/analytical one—e.g. rational philosophy.

Celestine suggests that human beings inhabit the universe as bundles of integrated living energy, and these bundles draw their energy from natural sources.  If we come to obtain the energy directly from the source, that's good.  If we seek to draw the energy from other people or fictitious external needs, that's not good.  An ideal society develops from each of us tapping the source directly and trading this positive energy with others.

The immediate energy source is the oxygen we breathe, which comes from the photosynthesis of green plants.  The fundamental planet-Earth source is the solar power that enables plant life.  Combined with intermediate sources—food, water—we have what we need to sustain life and achieve our values (a value is something we act to gain/keep).  Ideally, our bodies and minds further refine energy to achieve happiness or, as several of latter-day Objectivists would advocate, "to flourish."(3)

In our hierarchy of values we have the potential for contradictions.  An example of a contradiction is: one wishes to become a concert pianist but chooses to play baseball every day instead of studying or practicing the piano.  Similarly, and fundamentally, one cannot realize the benefit of first-hand energy by seeking it second hand.

The origin of the contradictions?

As children we were dependent for survival on parent-types.  These parent-types could steal our energy—mainly through imposition of guilt and feelings of inferiority—and pass along the energy contradiction to us, and then we to subsequent generations, as well as to our peers. 

Energy poverty, which is largely a reaction to the control dramas imposed on us by our parent-types, can also result in addiction.  This is where we seek pleasure in something besides our own creative life and relationships, a contradiction.  Speaking of addiction, let's discuss America's whopper, obesity.  The point I want to make is, even in the absence of other energy pathology, widespread obesity indicates serious underlying energy sickness in society. 

I currently spend a lot of time in the Southeast Michigan area, suburbs of Detroit.  Whenever I go to the supermarket or mall or theater or airport, wherever large numbers of people can be found, I notice these people are overwhelmingly overweight: "I see fat people."  In fact a recent article in the Detroit News reports that Michigan ranks third in the nation in medical costs related to obesity.

According to the article, excess adipose tissue costs Michigan $3 billion/year.  More than half of Michigan residents are technically overweight, and more than a quarter of Michigan residents are obese, which technically means way overweight.  What a vast drain on the zest for life! 

Other energy sicknesses besides obesity abound:  Briefly, simply consider where you work.  My former salt mine had a banking history, and it just seemed too many people were energy misshapen—effeminate men, battleaxish women, too-literal Christians, corporate sellouts, nicotine fiends, chatty layabouts, pornsurfers, pretenders and poseurs of all sorts, and even one or two functioning alcoholics—misshapen enough that any productivity was truly remarkable.  And work life must be a superior microcosm of society!

The point is the natural energy available to people is largely warped into neurosis and psychosis, into false needs.

It's only a small step from a society full of energy-stealing and energy-needy people to a government that literally steals and kills.  The state's continued existence requires a society of energy-sick people.  Those of us who remain comparatively energy healthy need to throw a lifesaver to the others; or they'll surely drag us under as they drown.  Here's my lifesaver du jour.

Proceed from the ground up.  From the physical to the mental.  Redfield advocates becoming increasingly aware of the meaning of events in our lives, overcoming one's personal control dramas, and engaging the flow of living energy through meditation.  In particular, through meditation he would like to see us appreciate and achieve a holistic, direct connection to the energy source in nature.  There are a host of books and tapes that instruct the vital link of meditation.  I am only scratching the surface of its potential here.

Also in the physical area, consider embracing regular therapeutic whole-body massage.  Further, massage is the perfect handmaiden—no pun intended—to any psychological counseling.  Most people can also benefit from regular visits to a reputable chiropractor.  The combination of massage and chiropractic encourages one's physical energy to flow easily and abundantly.  Especially with good nutrition and regular exercise (which massage and chiropractic also encourage).

Get into shape and make it a habit.  Nonoptional!  [My next column provides a life-extension nutritional supplement and health-care product regimen.]

Finally, bodywork is for naught, and it won't last, if you don't get your mind right.

Candidly, most of you will need to do a lot more reading…  You can certainly benefit from continuing to read this column.  :)  I do have a basic healthy-energy reading list, which I'll share with readers in due course.  But for now, let me simply allude to the fundamental ethic of Objectivism: act rationally for your own self-interest, neither sacrificing yourself to others nor others to yourself.  Rational in this context means thinking for yourself and making it a lifelong project to think well and often.

The body has a head(4).  Learn to take pride in yours.

Reason must be seen as integral to man's life in nature, and more pertinent, as the specific form in which our individual living energy is actualized.  It provides the ultimate evidence that we are opening to the creative source.  When all systems are humming, when your chi is in perfect harmony, you experience being alive as being at one with the world.  The divine quality of this experience is peak conceptual awareness.

Get into the creative flow, into the zone, as a daily experience.  Ideally this will be your productive work.  At that point, it will seem natural to share the experience with others, to seek the fellowship of kindred souls, to find a mate who shares your values and with whom the remainder of life becomes an unending positive-energy feedback loop.  Then children become an expression of love.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  These days a single step is more like a two-mile run.  And we're going to reach our destination a lot sooner than dismal everyday appearances might indicate.  I definitely hope to see you at the end of the journey.  We'll know we've arrived when there are no taxes!  Sorry, let me rephrase to avoid utopian excess: we'll have arrived when total American tax bill is < 10% of earnings.

Read:  Part 1  Part 2