The Free Radical

(Author Narration with musical accompaniment: Breathe by SoulFood. Short version)

(Author Narration with musical accompaniment: A Map of Your Secret World by Kaipa from their 2014 album Sattyg. Long version)

Six directions used to bind us… and the seventh to set us all free!

North, South, East, West, up and down– we have no trouble seeing these as perfectly real– directions we can bodily travel. But the seventh direction is inward, and we’re not quite so sure that this is somewhere we can go; what does that movement look like?

In my world, things are only real when I can feel them. If it doesn’t evoke a feeling within me, it’s not actually real. But I like to extend the benefit of the doubt… ‘cause some things are kinda subtle, I’ve found. The seventh direction is like that. It only seems vague or metaphorical at first, until you begin to actually work with it.

Every spiritual tradition, it seems, utilizes the breath as a tool… for concentrating, for demonstrating, for taking action in the unseen realms. But all of these traditions utilize the breath in the six bound directions; the only inward movement is the basic mechanics of inhalation: aspects of the external world being drawn into the body.

Then one day, while in conversation with a tree, it was suggested to me that inhalation need not always be this movement of experience from the outside in. It works in the opposite direction too– from the inside out. My friend the tree explained that what is most needed in the world right now is the inner Spirit to come out… to act in the Living world… for once.

Regular breathing is an action of recycling… of shuffling around various programs of the soul… inside and out. But what if we breathe FROM the seventh direction? I’ve been working with this for a couple of years now. Our inhalations– the filling of our lungs, our Being– can draw from the infinite inward direction instead, a direct pull of Source energy from the innermost place we can access. Every one of our cells has its very own direct connection to Source. That connection can be activated by an act of Free Will. Try this…

Stand with lungs empty. Spend a moment, internally, to feel every Living cell of your physical body– all 100 trillion of them. Affirm to yourself that each has indeed its own connection to Source; know it. Now inhale from the deepest place you can access from that inward direction, drawing the (energetic) inhalation into each cell; don’t bother thinking about the filling of your lungs– that’s inconsequential here. After a time, with some practice, that inhalation from Source feels electric/ecstatic… buzzing in every cell… in every corner of your body. And then, with the exhalation, release that Source breath to the totality of your body– as a whole, filling it as a fully functional unit. You’ve just brought your Spirit more fully into your body. You’ve suddenly become more aware of your centre; you are grounded inwardly… to the planet, to the sun, to the Source within you.

Spirit wants to be here– fully. Breath is Life… coming from within. Breathe differently and you will experience the world differently– from the inside out.