White Holes

Cosmologists have speculated about the essence of the black holes they think are located at the centre of every galaxy. They say a black hole forms when collapsing planets form such dense concentrations of matter that the gravitational pull created prevents even light from escaping. Such extreme forces are at the very limits of our imagination. Some theorists extend this thought further in claiming that Black Holes play a vital part in the creation of matter and that streams of energy emerge from black holes tangentially to their orbit of spin, rather like the axle of a wheel. There may be lots of complex mathematics to predict such behaviour which draws gifted thinkers together in the quest for ever deeper understanding of our universe. So be it. It is the imagery which is of value to me. In particular I ponder on the model of a ‘White Hole’ as a reverse vortex of infinite power, whose energy flows in along the axle and which then radiates tangentially outwards. For me the power is Love itself. I breathe it in through the top of my head as if in a stream of blinding light and then radiate it outward in waves / wishes of warmth and wellbeing to all creation. In its own way this force of Divine love forms a protective field within which each of us is free to express the Divine purpose of creation itself. At once I’ve collapsed the galactic scale of the black hole into a tangible concept for right living in harmony and love. Perhaps even more amazing is that I no longer have hair into which to plant flowers and I’ve never taken LSD. Recently I began to investigate Mindfulness as a means of applying the curiosity of ‘the Beginner’s Mind’ to the creation of an exquisite level of awareness of the NOW. Several of us are being expertly guided into this reality by a seasoned seeker. As the weeks have passed and we learn to sit in meditation I feel an ever stronger bond not only to my colleagues but to all creation. This seems to fit comfortably within my being as though I am in fact only an infinitesimally small and very transient part of creation and that radiating love and appreciation to others is to bathe in such love radiating eternally back to me. To walk in the hills and forests of my home-place immerses me in the perfection of the natural world. At every turn the unfolding panorama is breathtakingly beautiful and this comes freely and abundantly to me with every step. I feel truly blessed, very privileged and deeply protective. Beside such majesty I am humbled and, without the intelligence to create a tree, a bird, babbling brook or humming bee, am reduced to contributing in the only way I know how; I collect litter. I cannot improve on the perfection of nature but I certainly have a responsibility to protect it. The White Hole has been a useful idea in support of my Mindfulness journey and a component part of my developing practice of ‘Spiritual Detoxification’. I’m starting to feel its value in allowing me to release myself from the hold of formative, often painful, experiences in my life so that I can enter into new situations equipped with lightweight learning rather than being hindered by heavy baggage. Only today I mused at what a spectacle I must appear as I run around filling plastic bags with rubbish. This evening I can grin at the thought that the majority of people watching me would be bewildered but if they knew what I was thinking it might just confirm their suspicions, - Paul’s harmless, but truly bonkers 

OTT - Oxytocin Tops Testosterone

Paul Zak’s fabulous book ‘The Moral Molecule’ presents an explanation of how these powerful hormones have contributed to human evolution from the first Hunter Gatherer tribes to our modern society. It’s a story of Yin and Yang of Competition and Collaboration of Differentiation and Integration. Throughout history societal health has been optimised when these hormones have been in balance. The understanding afforded by Zak’s work offers us an opportunity to choose the type of society that will best suit our future development. Are we best served by a continuation of the Dog-Eat-Dog stock market economics that almost brought us to ruin or is it time to forge a new era of co-opetition where we sincerely seek human fulfilment? Around the world we pay homage to Mammon with steel and glass cities built by greed. Communities that have cultivated the lands for centuries get bulldozed aside in the name of progress. The weak get trampled over, rights are ignored or ruthlessly redefined so that the rich can get richer as testosterone triumphs. Deep in our hearts we each know that greed diminishes us if not physically, through illness or wars of attrition, then spiritually through corruption and loss of human dignity. The truth is easily ignored however when big money’s involved and forever we have been devising ways to ensnare humanity with alluring visions of la dolce vita tied to crippling financial burdens. I believe that although the world has always loved a winner it loves lovers even more. There’s something so intoxicating about being in love that when we recognise it in young lovers we are invariably happy for them. It’s the one form of madness that society is entirely happy with. At its core it’s what drives our propagation as a species. Oxytocin, the family hormone, is released in response to lovemaking and stimulates lactation in the mother at the sound of her infant crying. It encourages bonding, togetherness and community building. We all want it. Genocidal acts and atrocities of war can result when the meme of oxytocin fragments societies such that if you’re not one of us, you’re the enemy. Tribalism has been the cause of some of humanity’s worst crimes as though the bonding effects of oxytocin establish clear demarcation lines between communities and testosterone then rallies to ‘protect’ them. The history books are filled with the most apocalyptic accounts from the crusades to world wars and other acts of barbarism. The rapid expansion of the internet and social media provides humanity with an extremely powerful tool with which to enhance our sense of Oneness and community in this global village. We can use it to serve humanity or, unconsciously, to hasten its destruction if we allow it to be exploited as a propaganda tool or worse. Weaponising the internet to inflict cyber attack on foreign infrastructure is a very real danger but arguably its more corrosive effects result from daily acts of cyber-bullying on social media. Human evolution has taken us far from the hunter gatherer tribes that evolved through the beneficial effects of oxytocin balanced with testosterone but today’s society needs this family hormone more than ever. We need to recognise the international family of humanity as a component of creation rather than its master. Let the meme of oxytocin encourage harmonious relationships between nations and with nature itself and bring a new meaning to ‘OTT’.