As you know, absolutely everything in our solar system depends upon the unrelenting warmth, light, & power of the sun. It is the ancient engine of all life on Earth. In my experience, I have noticed a direct correlation to my wellbeing & me improving my relationship with our star (enhanced mood, sharper eyesight, greater ability to concentrate / think, better sleep, & a sense of being included). The desire to intentionally commune with it began from my deteriorating psychological & bodily health. On my path of building a business, I decided to use the stability of a typical 9-5 corporate job to fuel my dreams. For many people, these situations can be soul crushing, which it was for a time, until I began to understand the mechanics of how to optimize my health through trusting my sensitivity as opposed to running from the pain.
Within this circumstance I placed myself in for various reasons, it has connected my nervous system to extended periods of time indoors, no sun exposure, & fluorescent lights. There was a particular day where I felt especially distraught. Almost as if my experience was being oppressed. & instead of pulling the obvious “I’m at a job I don’t enjoy. That’s why I’m upset.” I looked deeper because the problem seemed to be a biological issue. My intuition then led me to focus on the lighting. The aspect of office culture that is so pervasive it almost becomes invisible. It’s almost like noticing that grass is green, & your skin is brown. Yes we all know these simple things we gloss over, but we can become aware of the effect of these aesthetics if we employ our sensitivity. So I began observing the objects around me very closely, noticing how the light reflected off of them & into my eyes & understood instinctually that something was wrong. I then conducted research on fluorescent light discovering that it’s basically an abominable invention to make the inside of man made structures visible. They are the unnatural illuminators in unnatural environments that emit subliminal flickers. These are registered as chaotic signals that get sent to the brain causing increased blood pressure, panic attacks, anxiety, depression, & fatigue. “According to some experts, just 6 hours of exposure to artificial light is enough to impair your cells ability to produce energy efficiently. This rate of production also decreases as the duration of exposure increases. Besides contributing to fatigue-induced glare, fluorescent lights have been shown to trigger autoimmune conditions, slow down metabolism, disrupt the immune system, interfere with focus & concentration, & contribute to skin aging” (Molly Duong). So the mechanism which allows people to see & operate inside & be excluded from the elements for forty hours a week contributes to a slow death. Just as we shouldn’t consume processed foods because of their well documented degrading effects on our system, so shouldn't we consume processed light. We need whole foods & whole light that can only be provided by nature. I believe most people don’t perceive light as something we consume, but it has a profound effect on the development of our bodies which translates into mental health or lack thereof. All other diurnal (as opposed to nocturnal) creatures depend on sunlight to support their activities except human beings.
This led me to question with our levels of intelligence & sensitivity, why have we created environments which displace us from the source of our health? I’ve theorized it arises from our fear of the dark. An age old paranoia we have yet to integrate in our lives. It is in this darkness that our greatest dread lies: the possibility of death due to unforeseen danger. As human beings, we are incredibly reliant on our eyesight to the point where we are pretty much useless without light. & this ability to see & manipulate the world & protect ourselves which would naturally be stripped from us while the sun is on momentary leave has freaked us to our core. The invention of the lightbulb, I believe, is deeply rooted in this primal attitude. As a modern person living in the year twenty twenty four, I’m sure you’ve never experienced pure, open darkness (unless you’ve been fortunate enough to leave the metropolis & camp). I feel there’s always been some sort of way to see at all times whether it be from streetlights, city lights, flashlights, etc. Our society is created in such a way that the stage is always prepared to act upon; even crowning our commerce headquarters of New York as the city that never sleeps. A city which is always awake. Did you know that if you endure twenty four hours of wakefulness, you’ll experience similar symptoms as if you were exposed to fluorescent light? If you’re awake for thirty six hours, you may experience blurred vision, confusion, anger, & illusions. At forty eight you’ll be met with depression, hostility, extreme emotional dysregulation, poor auditory judgment, memory loss, & an inability to form coherent thoughts or sentences. With seventy two hours of sleep deprivation, your brain will produce vivid hallucinations you wouldn’t be able to discern from reality. These are of course, extreme examples, but look within yourself & around our society & you will clearly notice these symptoms sprinkled across the human race. In our fear of darkness, of the void which holds all of creation together, we have completely removed it from our lives along with its profound physical, psychological, & spiritual benefits. Because we have become so intellectually focused which drives us to control (rather than cooperate with) nature, we have praised light as being our only companion to live well. With the use of light, we are able to notice distinct parts of the whole we can then use for our purposes. But in the darkness, we can see nothing. No-thing. The nondual existence of life that supports the dualistic. If you consider this truth carefully you will see that darkness is actually the foundation of light itself, so it must be profoundly important to commune with & understand because it cannot be destroyed. Even the sun can explode into nothing, but darkness is immortal. In our incessant desire for comfort & convenience, we have built our civilizations from the materials of the Earth but have picked which parts we like to keep & which to leave. In our ignorance caused by personal preference, we’ve concocted unbalanced, nutrient deficient environments. Just as we have with processed food.
It's no coincidence that egos become large in cities where artificial lights never shut off, & the people there have effectively hidden the night sky. The same sky which naturally would be the visual opening to observe the rest of the cosmos off in the great distance. Imagine how small & quiet your mind would feel if each night when there was a clear sky, you were able to experience the majesty of our galaxy in which we live. You would wonder each night what created this incredible brilliance, & understand completely that you aren’t the center of life. That the creation in which we live is beyond our comprehension. The lack of light pollution would dissolve any limited & separate identity because you would see yourself as a citizen of the universe. Your mind would be blown with the nightly reminder. But we have become intrigued by our own creations to the point where we have become unknowingly trapped in them where we develop a myopic context. Within this safety we created enclosures where we can fall asleep to entertainment while we’re designed to be vibrantly awake. In cities if you look towards the sky, all you’ll see is a blankness which more than anything draws the attention away because the eyesight is drawn towards points which it can fixate on. There’s no opportunity to see as far as you are capable. & this limitation, on our human being, creates the sensation of being caged. Our consciousness, a boundless tool to experience any dimension of human life, becomes suffocated to only see a sliver of life. & mostly within this sliver are the processed environments we created where we are hoping to find fulfillment. But because we are inventions of the Universe, only other inventions of the Universe will fulfill our desires as they are within the same system designed by the same architect. There is a wholesome unison. This is the key to wellbeing. Our awareness, our consciousness, can expand without limit, so we need to enter an arena which stretches without limit which is complete darkness.
Our identification with the intellect has caused us to attach to its voice & attribute who we are to the mind & body. As a result we keep the lights on to support mind & body pursuits. But as we are seeing in society, this simply is not working to generate long term wellbeing. It is the accessories of life we can be involved with while we have physical visibility, but our true self is discovered only in the dark. Beyond our ideas, our social identities, our possessions, our lifestyles, etc. It is in the embrace of the night that we become intune with our intuitive genius by merging with the great rest which provides insight for activity of the next day. Our 24 hour society ultimately breeds human mediocrity because it removes the opportunity to abide within a sacred space. The crawling caterpillar only evolves into a flying butterfly after its hiatus from all activity within its cocoon. A great oak tree only sprouts against gravity, pushing through the ground only after its seed has spent time becoming situated underground. & all mammals develop within their mother’s womb before they are born, where some creatures can even walk & run upon reaching the world.
The Earth & its natural cycles serve as an additional womb after birth where we continue to grow our energy. There are finely tuned periods of contraction in stimulated activity, moving against resistance powered by sunlight, & sections of expansion in inactivity existing without friction while darkness pervades your plot of land. If we praise one side of this coin & forget the other, we will become a people out of balance that will eventually be unsensible enough to create our own cages with their complementary lights which never shut off. In this state we will never truly sleep. We will become inspired by fatigued induced thought patterns woven with fear & believe building walls around ourselves is an excellent epiphany of genius, when in actuality it is the digging of our own graves. This sleep deprived ideology which translates into action all around the developed world is the ax with which we use to cut the brand we sit on.
Now, that’s enough ranting. I hope I’ve painted the picture well in your mind. I know most of us are entrenched in this nonstop metropolis lifestyle, so it’s hard to leave. But, with intentional action, it is possible to accumulate the resources to create a life that is intune with the sun & the moon. Not the marketplace. It is my dream to be aligned with the natural celestial rhythm. It will be so in due time. & I’m sure I’ll have countless mystical experiences & insights & share them with you. Until then, I work with patience.
