Life Time Zones - Quareness Series 217th "Lecture".
There's a great likelihood that immunity, emotional equilibrium, structural alignment and metabolic hygiene all strongly influence an individual's chances of a long and robust existence. Accordingly it would seem rather wise to try to keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog (as some sage once suggested)...in effect taking into account not just the length but also the breath of our human life.
In the field of epigenetics, we apply nutritional, behavioural or lifestyle changes in order to influence gene expression in a positive direction. In the field of flow dynamics, we beneficially modulate the bio-magnetic and bio-electrical systems of the body in order to enhance fluid circulation, detoxification at the cellular level, and revitalisation of our tissues and organs. And together we can regard both of these approaches as keeping the waters of the body clean and coherent.
This water, comprising 99% of the human body at molecular level, is intrinsically coherent and life sustaining. However, its coherency can easily be compromised by toxins, drugs, poor posture, negative emotions, etc. which can end up affecting gene expression in a negative direction. On the other hand if the fluids of the body are kept clean and fresh, healthy longevity is enhanced...like the late Bruce Lee advised - "Be like flowing water."
The cell (cytoplasm) is mostly water. And we know that the brain and spinal column are cushioned and massaged by cerebrospinal fluid which too is mostly water. Indeed the brain itself is over 80% water. All of this tends to support the evidence that our paleo-anthropological forebears likely went through an aquatic phase of wading in coastal waters. We also know that vitamin D is really metabolised energy from the sun and magnesium (plus iodine and a range of trace minerals) is metabolised energy from the sea. And this tells us that when fire and water (sun and ocean) feed into our bodies in harmony, a synergy is produced which sustains and prolongs human life.
Special relativity theory tells us that "objective" time is part of spacetime which is curved because it is subject to gravitational forces. However, "subjective" time (as experienced by us) can seem even stranger than this mere fact that macroscopic spacetime (= what we think of as duration) can be warped by gravitational forces. Time passing more slowly (in effect longer at the microsecond level) can be experienced as more replete with genuine light-filled and reflective responses, thereby enabling our living more fully and thus longer (relatively speaking).
When we are truly immersed in something, we often lose all sense of linear time. Indeed "losing" ourselves in this fashion is often experienced as a deeply satisfying state. Whilst longevity, as conventionally understood, implies an unbroken linear continuum from the past to the future, our lived life experience seems to strongly conflict with this idea.
When "in the zone" we can feel generally hyper-aware and yet totally relaxed. Our senses are heightened, our reflexes extremely attuned and our powers of response greatly enhanced. Our sense of time is also radically changed with everything seemingly occurring simultaneously and enabling us to process unlimited amounts of changing information with ease. It's interesting that such a state of super awareness is commonly reported by those who've had "near death" and other "urgent" experiences. And this all suggests that should we be able to spend more of our lives in these non-linear time modes, our longevity would be altered internally i.e. at the phenomenological level of supra-consciousness. Is there a comparable connection here with the notion of our travelling close to the speed of light and thereby slowing the aging process?
Arriving at this experiential (more wholesome?) longevity requires that we generate fresh and consciously renewed awareness of the present moment intertwined with maintaining our physical tissues with minimal degradation of DNA during cellular replication. In effect we need to foster the seamless renewal of thoughts and emotions at a conscious level in conjunction with undamaged renewal of cells and tissues at a somatic level. How can we have true health and awareness if the range of our thoughts and feelings are not genuinely in tune with both outer reality and deep inner truth...or if we've allowed our streams of consciousness to be manipulated by outside forces (very prevalent in today's world)?
Looking around now it's becoming increasingly apparent that people are in danger of getting lost in a virtual, electronically driven interactive world of synthetic communications. The embryonic phases of the Internet and IT and now AI have with alarming/increasing frequency ushered in a "brave new world" accompanied by a general subjective sense of time speeding up. And if such subjective time is speeding up, are not our lives thereby being experientially shortened?
Given the epidemic proportions of ADD and ADHD in our contemporary developed world, distractibility appears to have become the "new normal". Many seem entranced with the idea of private information of all sorts being stored on-line in virtual versions of two way mirrored rooms. Of course all of those light emitting screens flicker and perhaps our relative incapacity to read flickering light makes us more open to consume virtual information fed to us like a drug. And the more we fall for this, the more we may be in danger of losing our independence of mind as well as our privacy. It's more than likely that the more distracted we are, the less we are in possession of ourselves and the shorter in real terms is our longevity here.
How long any of us may live is partly a matter of chance and partly of choice. However, the length and breath of our lives will depend on what we live for. In truth we have both a right and a responsibility to live with purpose and in pursuit of meaning. Listening to what Life asks of us will ultimately determine how long we are here and whether our stay will have been narrow or great and broad. The choice is ours alone.
Namaste.
Sean.
Dean of Quareness.
February, 2025.