Spiritual Catapult

I grew up on an ashram in the countryside of Denmark. I were five years old, when me and my parents moved there to be part of starting and running this place. The form of mediation that the ashram were centered around is a praxis of moving healing energy between people, things an spaces. This is often done in groups. From time to time in very big groups where people come from all over the world to meditate together. For these  events we would often rent a tent which usually functions as Roskilde Festival’s Arena Stage. The meditation is always done in silence. The experience of sitting with closed eyes shoulder to shoulder among thousands of people and listening to the small sounds that surrounds that silence has been a defining experience for me.

When we moved to Vrads in 1992 healing energy was naturally not a common belief among the locals as it isn’t in any secular society. But If we go 150 years or more back in time the majority of people in European towns were believing in this kind of ability. In some beliefs this might have been exclusively a priest, a druid or the towns witch who could learn this, but nevertheless it was a skill that people believed could be practiced and acquired. By many people in todays secular societies this will very likely be neglected as superstitious, hippieish or sectarian. The risk though I think of neglecting these beliefs in a society is to loose the ability to experience an important part of reality.

All the crises that are present in todays western, secular context are arguably linked to a sensory crisis, which arguably is linked to a crisis of spirituality and imagination. This is a contemporary discussion within the social sciences. In this context a question has risen of how humans can live sustainable lives if they cannot imagine values of other species. In a society where most people don’t believe in religions or mythologies it is not so obvious, what can direct people to believe or even just imagine these values. Storytelling has a potential to address this lack, which is compareble with belief mechanisms in religion and mythology. In mythological stories the swamp e.g. is commonly represented as creatures such as willow-the-whisp, elves or giant snakes. Through storytelling the listeners experience of their surroundings has a potenital to expand, from something that seemingly are dead into something alive.

I think that the deadness of the swamp is eagerly waiting for someone or something to catapult it back into the mysterious realm of otherworldly beings. And the read button to fire this catapult is most probably to sit silently and listen. Moving healing energy between people, things an spaces.

AH, 2024