I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.

~ Sherlock Holmes

Embodiment. If you’re the least bit engaged in the current affairs of the Wonderful World of Woowoo, you will most likely have noticed this is one of the recurring themes on planet earth right now. For good reason. But as it usually goes with mots a la mode, nobody seems to really know what it means exactly. Luckily you are now reading this blog post, and can already start feeling relieved at the prospect of having the burden of your ignorance lifted.

Let me start by saying what, in my experience, is the opposite of embodiment. The quote is a good starting place, and a symbolic illustration of how long people in so-called modern, civilized society have been exalting our human intellectual capacities. The power to influence reality attributed to thought was proven time and time again in the scientific and technological advancements of the 19^th century. It is no coincidence this same time in earth’s history saw the birth of modern psychology and medicine. The basic principle that rules these then-new ways of relating to reality is the same : mind over matter. It is no surprise, and again very symbolic, that this well-known phrase first appeared in writing in the year 1863. Yes, I looked that up. Yes, on Wikipedia.

This is of course not the start of the move away from the body. The groundwork for this exodus had been laid in the preceding millennia, mostly by the festering cancer known as organized religion. The horrors that have been committed throughout history in the name of this or that belief are fairly well documented. The perpetuation of the crimes against the body is less obvious. The religiously motivated repression of sexuality, and its disastrous consequences, repeatedly find themselves in the spotlight, but the dissemination of shame surrounding the less explicit human urges is just as real. It doesn’t make for juicy headlines though.

The point of this messy history lesson is to illustrate and underline just how old and deeply ingrained the rejection of the natural workings of the human body is, culturally and collectively. Again, this goes from the obvious, physical and surface functioning of the body, deep into the subtle emotional and energetic mechanisms that live in the invisible world I talked about in my previous post. And to bring this closer to home and make it tangible – this is your heritage, this is how you have been taught to do reality. And unless you have questioned this status quo intently and intensively, this is how you operate.

A first, tentative definition of embodiment can be found in the idea of questioning the status quo I just described. Still on a mental level, a conversation can occur to determine the validity of thought’s supremacy in your way of doing reality. It won’t take long to find holes and cracks in the crystal carafe that seems to hold what you call your mind. The so-called mind does not rule matter the way it would like to think.

A little side note about what I just dubbed the retrospect effect. Thought operates very well in the realm of memory. It can take things it has stored apart – that is it’s main function. When it tries to reverse the process, usually the proverbial shit show ensues. Trying to make reality conform to previous interpretations of incomplete perception of reality – it doesn’t work. Yet this is the driving principle behind most of the prevailing belief systems in the world, now and throughout our history.

So for now, let us say embodiment is the questioning of the effectiveness of your mental faculty in interacting with the outside world. Is it the best and most appropriate tool to navigate your life? Or an even simpler question – are there other tools to navigate life besides the thinking mind? This is where the shit already starts hitting the fan, because now we are immediately introduced to the prime driver behind the so deeply constitutionalized and culturally praised withdrawal out of the body : Fear. The first time you come to question the validity of the rule of the king that’s occupying the throne that is your life, can be a very scary moment. Traumatic even. And here again, we run into a closed loop. It’s exactly the Fear of Fear that has kept humanity denying its human vessel, all throughout recorded history.

Let me rephrase that whole thing, so you can think about the same conundrum in a different way. You’ve been taught, all throughout your upbringing, that the natural functioning of the non-mental systems that govern your body are untrustworthy. Fear is the first in line to be denied existence, but certainly not the last. And at the same time, Fear is used to get you to accept the belief that there are many, many things inherently wrong with how your body operates. To state the obvious – this belief is a mental construction. Conversely, you have been taught that your thought is the thing that needs to be in control. Here we have both the very old, religious idea of the body’s evil nature, with the more modernist notion that the mind is king stacked on top.

This first tentative definition was barely a nice try. A negation of what it is not is not what the word definition means. So let’s move on, if you still have the patience for it. The reason I seem to be meandering so much on the wordy side of things is because, in my understanding, it is crucial to see how any mental definition of the word and concept of embodiment is flawed at the root. We’ve been going around in circles, just because this is what happens when the intellect wants to gain access to the body. The idea of embodiment, just like all lofty ideas, only has weight in the realm of thought. It has no authority outside of its jurisdiction – it means nothing in the invisible world.

This does not mean that the word cannot be defined by other words. But like anything that’s designed to bring us closer to the actual truth of human nature, we need to use words to build a bridge into another realm. An inter-dimensional portal, made out of mental concepts, that will give us the appropriate context to relinquish thought’s supremacy, and which will create the opening in consciousness to explore beyond the reach of the thinking mind. There’s no point exploring the body when the mind doesn’t understand why this is even necessary.

Let’s make a second attempt at defining the word embodiment, in a way that addresses everything I’ve thrown at you so far. If we want to even consider that thinking is not the only way to interact with reality, there needs to be proof. This is very easy : slap yourself in the face. There’s your proof. The thinking mind can come up with a lot of story surrounding this simple act, but it cannot grasp the stinging sensation in your face (and hand, if you really went at it.) You could write an entire book about it, but you still wouldn’t be touching the essence of the experience.

We’re a little step closer to understanding why the word embodiment is from the same family as the word body. But still don’t have a good reason to let our thoughts let go of the steering wheel. It’s obvious that there is more than our thinking to interact with life. This brings us back to the big question – is there a better way? If right now you’re thinking there isn’t, you have been trained well.

To clarify – it is not a question of better, but one of more whole and complete. Thinking, in and of itself, is part of what makes you human, but it is only a small part – much smaller than you’ve been lead to believe, most likely through pain and fear. On its own, the notion that the thinking mind is so powerful, is a natural response to the need for safety. If you’ve been taught to distrust your non-mental functioning, you cannot feel safe in your body. Then, the consensus you’re living by is that the thought “I will be in charge” is an actual fact. And a strangely comforting one at that.

A little mind fuck side note : there is a difference between thinking you are in charge, and taking the thought “I am in charge” to have any substance and weight. The difference is a deeper sense of awareness of the nature of thought. To make a big jump forward in the conversation – thought is just another way your body shapes, processes and moves energy.

Let’s get out of the loop again. The constant need for thought to assert and reassert its position of power is also a natural byproduct of it doing a job it was never intended to do. Doing reality from a purely mental plane requires constant energy, because your human experience is rooted in physical reality. Life force energy might be intangible – it might even be undetectable to you, for now – but your body is not. Life force energy is the mathematical difference between a live cat and a dead cat, which inversely makes the cat’s lifeless body the dwelling place of life force energy. The same applies to you and your body. By itself, the body is just an organized shape of organic matter. But infused with life force energy, it makes it possible for you to read these words and make weird faces of disgust at all my strange logical acrobatics.

All of this is of course written from the basic assumption that you have even the smallest desire to understand this word. This desire, this itching, is what the planet is feeling very acutely at this time in human history, and it is also the reason why the word is so hip. It is a call that comes from deep within (and even beyond) our vessel, from the meeting point of light and matter. And this desire for understanding needs to be part of our definition. Just as building a house is the result of the desire to have a home.

It’s time for a third and final attempt. Thinking can not reach into the body, even though we need to start bridging that gap with a mental concept. What we’re still missing is an actual incentive to explore the body. We know that thought isn’t the all-mighty ruler of reality we were tricked into worshiping. But what is so great about the body anyway? It can feel good stuff, but it can also feel terrible stuff. It’s also very fragile. And in a constant state of decay. It gets smelly fast, unless you stay on top of that hygiene. It can get cancer – or worse. And when it’s broken enough, you die. So why not stay in the safe little bubble in our heads, and pretend everything is A-ok.

Because nothing is ever really A-ok, and if it is, it isn’t for very long. The reason to explore the body is not because it is a better place to dwell. The reason to explore the body is because not dwelling there is the cause of most of your misery. Most of humanity’s misery. Self-inflicted misery – unknowingly, obviously. Which brings us to the final definition of the word embodiment.

The exploration of the relinquished parts of our being, the ongoing conversation between our stubborn, false, inherited beliefs, and the life-giving flow of energy in our vessel. A daily revisiting of the home we were told to abandon, so many years ago, in order to clean it out, little by little, and restore it to the glory inherent in its design. The slow but incessant discovery of forgotten emotions, places and sensations, and the safety that comes from allowing ourselves to feel everything that moves through our home.

Coming home, day by day, step by step, and seeing how warmly welcomed you are on each of your visits.

This is why this word is so hard to define – it has no static, intellectual definition. It is a never-ending and ongoing uncovering of parts of your being that have been pushed out of your awareness by millennia of conditioning. The entire conversation doesn’t take place in the mental sphere, but inside your body. It’s an excruciatingly scary undertaking and the fostering of the most intimate relationship you’ll ever have at the same time. And it is completely necessary – for yourself and for all of humanity – to break with the old ways, and come home to yourself.

To be continued.