Healing Metaphysics Home > Archive> Signals

Article by Michael Finn
Copyright Michael Finn

Multifarious signal phenomena are omnipresent in everyday life. Take for example the most omnipresent signal of them all; the celestial traffic, the circadian nature of time, as denoted by the cyclical passage of the sun, moon and other celestial eminences.

Shift workers are often more vulnerable to certain stress-triggered disease processes, quite possibly because they've hauled themselves out of the diurnal/nocturnal norm, and suffer 'time lag'. Thus the dawn, which signals the start of a day for most, is often the shifter worker's signal of repose.

Human beings certainly respond to this most basic 'signal dance', betwixt light and dark, yin and yang.

The alarm clock heralds movement. Traffic lights dictate the same and so on.

Other signal phenomena, such as facial expressions and body language, not to mention voice intonations of our peers and those we answer to, and gravitate around, will instigate certain mood states and responses, some positive, some not.

Everywhere we 'experience', we're responding to signals which move through a myriad of channels.

All signals are a form of Qi, a universal information and signal processor.

An acupuncturist modulates signals (qi) as they are transmitted throughout the body. An observant practitioner unravels the signal activity present within the client and in the treatment room (see Connectedness – Therapeutic Relationship) ,making it coherent, cohesive and useful.

Research into characteristics of brain functions and activities, and mind processes, show that people develop automatic habits (of perception) which the brain becomes grooved and comfortable in.

Certain signals habitually receive less priority, others, receive more attention.

At this level of 'signal filtering', our world is largely 'what we make it' (though not absolutely). I feel that the 'brain-grooves' once established, are persevere according to one's degrees of expectations regarding the unfolding of time, space and events. In many respects, we do have groundhog days; i.e. who, apart from diehard Buddhists awaken each day with a notion that “I could die today” ?

One's expectations and unexamined presumptions, one's framing of reality for each day, doesn't, as a rule, include the ego's extinction.

One a less dramatic scale, one doesn't factor in motor vehicle accidents, scalding the tongue with hot coffee, nor discovering that a close friend has cancer. One's filter for each day is more optimistic, and we carry on as creatures of habit.I call this the 'disney ' version of everyday life.

The point is that perceptual filters, organise attention given to and the overall importance of, phenomena, to signals around us and to deeper impulses, like instincts, gut feelings and disquiets such as physical symptoms and developing disease processes. Should no striking event(s) occur to disrupt one's virtual harmony then I believe our sensitivities and receptors become dulled over time.

This idea is important and relevant to pathological states within the body. The more dulled one's receptors (i.e. attention to the subtle and not so subtle promptings) the less likely one will heed the genesis and development of a body disturbance; issuing in the roots of chronic ill health.

Remember a signal is a communication of information from one part to another. So what happens to information we disregard? One day, the recycle bin becomes overwhelmed and stagnant energies seek further expressive channels. Here are the makings of more acute symptoms.

Reflection: Ask:

• Where, when did this headache begin to manifest?
• In what way/fashion do I feel depressed?
• Where does this fatigue/tiredness emanate from and to and if I surrender to it, what body state emerges?
• What is it within my insomnia, I can't fathom?
• Why does that face annoy me?
• Why do I keep dreaming about my car breaking down?
• Where do my skin breakouts emerge from?

As I've suggested elsewhere in my writings, our bodies seem to be provoking ongoing interest and intrigue and its in our best interests to be so led.

Next, simply start with the idea that maybe there is a level of awareness, attention, consciousness that's (like a parallel universe) available and occurring all around me.

Fix your whole attention, initially on something (a signal) which disturbs you.

NOW, by listening, sensing, feeling, reflecting, moving, slower and longer than usual, discover something possibly new or unusual about it.

Be patient; all these avenues lie outside one's ingrained, habitual perceptual filters and therefore, outside comfort zones.

What is it we want?
To fully experience our aliveness.
To feel in our bodies a streaming, like the rush of the river over stones.
To be awake alert and responsive in our limbs, and sensitive in our fingertips.
To feel as if our inner and outer reality is congruent and that our efforts are rewarded by a sense of satisfaction.
We aspire to have our private lives nestle within the valley of a public world, which we can affirm.
We long to feel connected to each other.
We want to be able to embrace and be embraced.
We want to live the lives of our bodies, to permit us to fully live our lives;
Chinese Medicine is a beginning."
(Ballantine)

Healing Metaphysics Home > Archive> Signals