I had a thought the other day while I was out jogging.
Actually, it was more like a cascade of thoughts that my brain does when it’s desperate to take all that mind-body spiritual stuff (which I know for a fact works if you try) and link it up to a language my less airy-fairy rational brethren can comprehend. And you know what? I think, I’ve at least – in part – got it. I suppose the first thing we have to be willing to agree on is that, yes, there’s such thing as a mind-body connection. Hopefully you’re reading this and thinking “There are still people who don’t believe that?” Unfortunately, actions speak louder than words. And in a world of people who don’t even try to see if their own breathing, postural, or overall body habits might be at fault before going into the doctor for a pill – I’ve gotta say, yeah. There must still be people who don’t believe in the mind-body connection. Because they aren’t doing anything to prove me wrong. Good thing you and I aren’t among ‘em, right?
Alright, sometimes we all falter.
But that whole mind-body connection can accomplish some next-level shiz when we apply it.
I’m not even talking about overcoming cancer with the power of positive thought (though that’s awesome if you have). I mean to say that I believe all that stuff about “chi” and your “third eye” and your “heart chakra” isn’t BS. Rather it can be understood in a language with which you’re probably more familiar. Science. What’s more, it can be achieved – so long as you hone your mind-body muscle. Let’s demystify some of them first, though, shall we? (Keep in mind, this is all supposition based on research and random readings my brain’s collected along the way.)
THE THIRD EYE
For those of us who don’t guzzle suspicious looking teas made of mystery leaves, we hafta access this the tough way.
But I’ll try my best to ‘xplain:
Alright, you know that game you used to play with your playground friends when you were little? (No, not that one, ya creep.) I mean the one where one of you would close your eyes, the other would hover their pointer finger over your forehead, and – even though you couldn’t see it – you could feel it? That’s, in part, the sensation I get when I’m doing a “third eye” meditation. That ticklish, giggle-inducing tingling in the center of my forehead. Usually it’ll also be accompanied by a euphoric tingling in the back of neck at the base of my skull, too. If I remain focused on this region and feeling for a bit, before I know it, a flood of inspiration and intuition pours into my head, prompting me to get off my ass and hit the laptop (although who knows what wondrous feats I could accomplish if I were to actually be patient and sit there a bit longer).
Interestingly enough, this is exactly what the yogi folk say your tri-eye’s meant to accomplish.
But why? And how? Supernatural skills? Maybe, but as we’re sticking to science here, I’ve got at least one article I read last month from Psychology Today banging around in my brain that I can’t help but train-link up to this seemingly mythical track car. And that’s this: that those “Aha!” epiphany outta nowhere ideas (which some might say is the same thing as what the third eye claims to do) comes from that same area at the base of my skull that starts to get all those fun sensations when I’m doing a “third eye” meditation: the suboccipital lobe region. And you know where that lobe innervates? Into the front’a your face. And since the latter part of “suboccipital” = vision, as you might expect, it handles your eyes’s bizz. That’s the two blinking ones and (mayhaps)… the one in question here too?
There’s another nerve of importance at work here, called the vagus:
It’s responsible for the sense of well-being you also may notice when you’re doin’ it right.
(Keep it mind, ‘cause it’s the thing that links up all this stuff later.)
So, when my ajna chakra (that’s what they call it, the Hindus) is opening up ali baba style cuzza my steely focus and I acquire what I deem to be intellectual, creative, cosmological gifts… is that just me mind-stimulating my occipital lobe? The place from whence epiphanies arise? Until I feel it in that area? Which in turn, sends the feeling down my nerves and into the eyeball area? Where our ghostly glaz-ball lives?
But more importantly:
Is it meta that this was a genuine “Aha!” moment about “Aha!” moments?
(Move onto “Demystifying CHI”)