As a result of my study/research (which includes visual research) and the psycho-spiritual journey I have been on, I have had some very necessary insights into life/death and myself. One of them is about the role of the 'body' in the process of 'spiritual' evolution. In a way I can't believe I fell into the same trap as most of my forbears in Western culture, but then why wouldn't I? It has been the accepted model after all. Head straight for the spiritual, deny/ignore the body.
It's safe to say there are those who are either focused on the body, the mind or spirit, and there are of course various permutations of these. But we tend to favour one or a couple. I now think that it is really necessary to develop all of these. If we are indeed spirit incarnate, made in the image of God, then the physical is a reflection of God also - hence the statements about the need to treat the body as a temple. Of course I haven't done that, in fact, I have had very unrealistic expectations about my body - I have treated it really badly - in all the ways you might expect of a child of the 60s living a life of Western decadence. I have been pretty good about diet, and some of the toxins I imbibed were thrust upon me because of debilitating pain - like anti-inflammatories for 30 years. But really, if I am honest, I have treated my body like crap!
In a way I have come full circle because I now have to re-integrate the physical into the spiritual (see my previous 'Gryphon' post). Which means I have to deal with the body properly. My injury last November forced me to STOP - something I never do - take a good hard look at my attitudes and what I was doing. I started in a small way - 20 mins of yoga/meditation every morning for nearly a year now. I knew a bit about health, but I've done a lot more research, particularly in relation to deficiencies in vitamins and minerals, had a long course of acupuncture and spent a fortune on supplements on-line because you can't buy some of them in Australia.
I still go with the 'image', that is, I guess I trust in an intuitive way the image/ideas/feelings that arise. Like feeling 'blocked', 'congested', 'toxic' - I have had the most extraordinary series of random pains in various parts of my body. A feeling of 'heaviness' has also been with me for some time, no doubt exacerbated by the type of study I am doing for my thesis, but there is also a physical component to it.
I have been an artist for about 35 years which means I have been dealing with toxic substances for that long also. Add to that being a passive smoker for 10 years before I left home, working and living on boats for years during which I used to handle anti-fouling, sand the hulls, grind fibre-glass, use fibreglass resin, all with only a rudimentary mask. I noticed that every time I had a surgical procedure I seemed to over-react to the anaesthetic and felt really toxic afterward. I still get an instant headache if I am near anything like spray varnish or volatile paints/substances. I think what topped it off was building and moving into a brand new house with all the chemicals that involves. My body had reached saturation point.
Modern life ensures that, unless we live on a desert island, we are all over-exposed to chemicals and eat foods deficient in vitamins & minerals. We can't avoid it. We breathe in lead and other pollutants from cars, we imbibe chemical fertilisers and pesticides/herbicides every time we eat. Even if we try and grow our own or buy organic it is difficult to avoid the environment we live in - the water, the soil, the air.
Recently I decided I needed a detox. I have been on Malic acid and Magnesium for a few weeks now and have just spent $300 on the internet for a course of Chelorex to get rid of the heavy metals in my system. It is made up of natural ingredients and does not put pressure on the liver as some other systems do (EDTA for example) I will let you know how I go. My significant other is more than happy to consider me the guinea pig before he tries it himself!
image: Frantom, small experiment with Artisan paints (water miscible oils)
4 comments:
Joan Campbell said:
Experimental image rather mysterious: does it have a title? Quite erotic.
'Floating Head'.
Mmm interesting MF. I'd like to hear how you go. I didn't realise you could eliminate heavy metals at all.
Apparently you can eliminate heavy metals. The malic acid and magnesium deals with aluminium, but I reckon I need something for lead, cadmium etc. It will take 3 months, 3 lots of capsules - hence the $300 price tag. And maybe also cos this is not mainstream, just a small operation for a small market. I'll blog about the results. I start in a week or so.
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