On Spirituality - A Bloke's Take - Natural Medicine Challenge

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Spirituality Challenge

Yesterday, I was tagged in a post by @anaclark, which was a very interesting read about the concept of spirituality and what her take on it was. Looks like the deadline for the Spirituality Challenge ended yesterday but I still had fun writing this one. The post took on a world of its own! Thanks for tagging me @anaclark!

I don't normally post in the Natural Medicine community or talk too much about this in a public online forum, certainly not in large groups. If I'm one-to-one or in a small group of 3-4 then it allows for deeper discussion and conversations can fly.

However, the topic of spirituality has always fascinated me as I'd like to think I'm pretty open minded, curious to learn more and to experience a concept. If you just take a close-minded approach and call it mumbo-jumbo then you probably haven't experienced it in a meaningful way but I've had a series of events in my life that opened my eyes or at least, challenged my previous way of thinking, and you usually get that by going out of your comfort zone and wander in to the unknown.

The Unknown

Going out of my comfort zone and in to the unknown is something I've done multiple times such as travelling on my own to the other side of the world or changing careers, getting in to crypto, setting up contests or online music communities... the list goes on but I guess the point I'm making here is that if you don't open your eyes or challenge your way of thinking, you might be missing opportunities to learn and grow.

Defining Spirituality

Learning is something I always try to do each day and having a scientific background and a strong interest in physics, there will always be events that you can't explain, no matter how much you try! When you take us as humans, the world we live on and the Universe around us, it all boils down to energy. We are made up of atoms that are held together by energy and if you study quantum physics, the world looks even crazier with multiple universe theory, string theory, different dimensions and so on.

For me, spirituality is another form of this energy that travels across various dimensions and universes but it lives within us. Some call it aura, mana, life force... whatever you want to call it, it's a core component of who you are. I'll try and visually describe this so let's consider an orange.

What?

Hear me out.

Web of Oranges

The skin of an orange represents the body and once you peel that back, you have the underlying layer (segments of the orange) that represent the atoms that we're made up of and you know the white stringy bit i.e. the pith? That's the energy or spirituality that holds the orange together. I guess with the multiple universe theory, you can think of different oranges in different fruit bowls (universes) all connected by this pith in a spider's web of Vitamin C!

With that image in mind, déja-vus, apparitions and the like could also potentially be connected in this big web of oranges. In other words, there could well be an energy bridge between all these different worlds and if you're spiritual, you are more likely to believe this or a variation of, than not.

Déja-vu

I've had plenty of déja-vus and my friends and family have talked about apparitions soon after loved ones have passed but there's one event that happened to me that I simply can't explain and not even a former work colleague could, who is an out-and-out critic of anything spiritual!

I was working at a manufacturing company that did material testing a few years ago and I had a really vivid dream that I was sitting in a room that I'd not been in before. Don't worry, I wasn't sleeping on the job! I was with about 5 other people I'd never met and I was sitting down getting some training on one of the instruments when I suddenly felt a really sharp pain in my back and one of the guys in the dream, who sounded like he was from a country in the Middle East, asks me if I'm OK and I say, "Yeah it's just a bit of pain from the crash".

Obviously, it was just a dream and found it funny at the time, didn't think anything of it.

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It was just a dream, phew! Image Source

Fast forward a week...

My manager, out the blue, decides to put me on a training course to learn more about some instruments and on this course were 5 other people (service engineers), including a guy from the Middle East! On the Tuesday, I was driving back home and made it to a traffic light roundabout junction and was first in line. The lights were red and I could hear a siren from an emergency vehicle but wasn't sure where they were coming from, the lights go green and as I peeled away, I could see the ambulance coming from the right so stopped to let them by and before they got passed... CRASH!

The driver behind went in to the back of me and wrote off my car. We couldn't have been going more than 10 miles per hour but he had an SUV and I just had a hatchback. I was shocked but couldn't really feel too much pain as I went to bed that night.

The next day, I woke up and was a little sore on my back and shoulder but had a courtesy car to get to work and continued with the training. We were asked to go to a machine and I sat down on the chair, my back started spasming and the Middle East guy asked if I was OK and although I was fully aware of being in this déja-vu, I still replied saying the same thing... "Yeah it's just a bit of pain from the crash".

It was like an out of body experience and I can't explain this one. Nor do I want to really!

Summing It Up

Personally, I find the concept of spirituality really fascinating and when I think in terms of energy and the web of oranges, it helps me make some sense of it in my own mind but I'm also happy to just roll with events that sometimes defy all logic. I wouldn't say spirituality is a faith or religion as such but with the experiences I have it's definitely something deep within that can't always be explained but can often times be felt, if you are open to it.

Hope you enjoyed this deep journey into spirituality. Feel free to do your own post about it or leave a comment!

Take care

Nicky


Posted on NaturalMedicine.io



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(Edited)

Interesting take on the whole mysterious conundrum of spirit, soul and how we are both part of the universe being created, while interacting with it as a seemingly separate process. I like the orange metaphor, and it works well as an eidetic device to show that paradox I mentioned above.

I've had plenty of déja-vus and my friends and family have talked about apparitions soon after loved ones have passed.

Your story resonated with me. I have had similar experiences in my teenage years, in fact more than I can remember, for a while my family thought I was going mad because of the amount of déja-vu experiences I was reporting... but they got less as I got older. It is always interesting to hear other peoples stories of these experiences, and to an extent it makes me feel less sheepish about believing in the ones I had myself.

I see those seemingly inexplicable strong déja-vus where a future event happens in a dream, or waking vision as kind of like echoes resonating between alternative realities. If you subscribe to the many universe theory, it only makes sense to me that time wouldn't flow in a linear way from one dimension to another. I also think that as we create a vast part of our reality through thought, and identification with thought, that often profound spiritual events happen at times when we shut down our thoughts and catch a glimpse of the universe beyond the veil of thought, beyond what we make it through naming, thinking and personal interpretation.

It is surprising how much of modern day theoretical physics supports spiritual ideas.

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Thanks for reading and sharing your experiences too Rowan!

I was pretty skeptical of the multiverse theory at first as it just sounded like something out of a fantasy but fast forward 15 years, many deja vus and other experiences (not just my own) and you can't help but feel there's something more going on and the multiverse theory starts making sense when you dig deep!

The future echoes and non linear time is a nice, poetic extension to my bowl of oranges analogy and I believe that science, religion, spirituality etc at their core have the same foundation but it's just using a different language to portray it. Of course, you still have some absolute "bread and butters" in each camp 😂

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I love your response and how you used oranges to explain how our spirituality is a part of us and in fact holds us together, what a wonderful analogy very nicely done. I have experienced many deja-vu oments as well. Thank you for participating and I hope that we get to see you write some more about naturalmedicine Nicky xxxx
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Thanks a lot @trucklife-family and glad you found the analogy helpful (considering I made it up in this blog post haha)!

I do find the whole universe fascinating with its many facets and deja vus have always entertained me. I tend to smile when I experience one, often leaving the person I'm speaking to wondering what is actually wrong with me. Even though the deja vu incident I described in my post was generally painful, I still smiled inside through the whiplash haha!

I'll do my best to remember to post mental health awareness in Nat Med going forward 😊

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That accident did sound super scary. Glad you were okay, in a sense anyhow.
I do look forward to reading more from you around health, I love the way you approached this question. hope you are having an awesome weekend xxxxx

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Thanks @trucklife-family - got over it in the end, now I'm even more careful driving but you can't mitigate for other drivers not paying attention!

I had a great weekend thanks, hope you did too

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Your great story about your premonition of the crash gave me chills. I am fascinated by experiences and revelations like yours.

I’m so happy that you joined in the challenge, even if it was technically over. I don’t involve myself with many Hive challenges but should do so more frequently. They inspire.

Thank you for sharing.

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Thank you for tagging me in this challenge, I had fun reading your post and enjoyed writing this one! Made a change from the usual stuff!

You're right, challenges do inspire and gives you a chance to get creative and stay motivated. I'm doing the #hiveblopomo where you post every day in April which has been tough but worthwhile. Will hit the back burner after the 30th though!

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Okay here's something funny - I was just putting together a travel post and went to put the pin on the map from our mini adventure on the weekend, and there was your post from 15 minutes up the road at the 12 Apostles. Then I come here and the first post I see is yours - doo doo doo doo.

I had a dream where someone smashed into the back of us and when we tried to open the boot, we couldn't because there was something stuck and stopping us from opening it.

Two days later, my boyfriend at the time changed lanes and smashed into the car in front of us. Helping them out, we tried to open the boot, and we couldn't open it as there was a boogie board stuck.

Lots of things can't be explained. I'm not sure what it is. I know when it's deja vu, it's just likely that your brain is just making connections with lots of things that have happened before, so when they arrive in a particular order it seems out of the ordinary.

Great post, nice to see you writing in our community lovely! xxx Hope you are well xx

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Our universes aligned for the moment hey! Yes I loved the 12 Apostles, went there twice and just looked over them for a long time!

Wow that's a crazy deja vu experience you had too! I've read that theory too about how the brain just picks different memories and puts them together. Sometimes it's nice not to be able to explain these things and just accept that the universe is some cool shit and roll with it! It's such a vast topic that will forever fascinate!

Thanks for checking out this one and happy to share some thoughts with Natural Medicine!

I'm doing better than I was a few months ago - thank you for the well wishes! Hope it's all going well your side!

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Excelente publicación. Ser espiritual no es pertenecer a una religión en particular,es esa coneccion con la energía que proviene de un ser superior.

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Thank you for reading and I agree with you too about being spiritual 😃

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Natural medicine is under attack in the 21st century. It’s gone full insanity I’m this world. I am only half sarcastic here like they might make zinc illegal one day. It’s clown world

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You have a good point there, the world is pretty insane, needs its own straight jacket!

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Thanks for taking part in this challenge. I also like the reference to a web of oranges. I learned a lot of expressions and proverbs concerning oranges while living in Albania. Turns out human life and oranges have a lot in common. One of the expressions I remember compares peeling the orange to mystery of life, basically meaning that the orange peel keeps going and going, revealing more and more with time.


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Posted on NaturalMedicine.io

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Haha, they must have a lot in common - humans and oranges! I like the expression you shared, I kinda feel the same way! I knew that oranges were a badass fruit but not this badass! Glad to have taken part in the challenge, it was fun to get involved with :)


Posted on NaturalMedicine.io

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