Experience Primal Joy

 

Underwater Wild by Craig Foster and Ross Frylinck, 2021, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, New York. 

 

This beautiful book of under sea pictures illustrates the authors’ observations about life on our planet.  The photographer became still and spent the time to comprehend the minute actions of life and death happening around him. 

The photo caption for one image says, “The jellyfish corralled a small fish and harpooned it.  Then the tentacles retracted and placed the poisoned fish inside the jellyfish’s translucent stomach.  This is extremely advanced behavior for a creature without a centralized brain.  So perhaps a centralized brain is not a prerequisite for advanced behavior?

“But there is another, even more fascinating idea.  Perhaps the brains, or neural networks, of animals (including humans) are actually tuning mechanisms for a larger mind or consciousness that resides outside the physical body?  This possibly would explain the many strange and wondrous experiences reported by humans that don’t seem to be coming from inside their heads.  The seemingly simple box jellyfish was a wonderful reminder to me that our world is so multi-layered and complex, always full of mystery and intrigue.”  [p. 131.]

The author uses his own words to describe something you may have experienced yourself.  Would you use different words for your personal account of living?   

 

I remember in my youth, some authority figures ridiculed the song, Rocky Mountain High.  As if everyone should get a High from what they were peddling instead.  

 

The author here relates their experience of “primal joy” in nature.  He says, “I’ve noticed that the cold water, together with the giant three-dimensional floating underwater forest, can bring on a very strong response.  The brain is flooded with natural feel-good chemicals that also expand consciousness.  This experience can seem strange to the modern psyche which is trapped in the small world molded by the corporate-industrial complex of today….”

“The overriding message that came with these experiences was one of unification.  The sense of belonging to one united entity was very useful in forming strong bonds within the group, and with the animals and plants that supported life.  It made people care about the group and the environment, sometimes before their own individual needs…”

“When we are not given access to these experiences, some people retreat deeper and deeper into their own egos.  This can create intense feelings of loneliness and lead to anxiety and depression.  Primal joy is a very powerful antidote to these modern super-predators of the mind, as it lets us experience our wild-born nature.”  [p. 152-153.]  

When meeting the indigenous people of the San group, they wondered how they lived with joy even during troubling times.  What was the answer?  “…their secret had something to do with the way in which they could drop the feeling of being separate individuals and open up to a wider reality in which they felt connected to their environment.  He described this as an ‘ego death.’” [p. 168.]

 

It is interesting to read and hear other people and their descriptions of inner feelings.  To deny their experience is futile.  You can try to translate it and relate it to your own life events.  Maybe we both are talking about the same thing.  Maybe we agree.

I can say that I have benefited by stilling myself and letting nature happen around me.  It’s beautiful to see, hear, smell and feel the wonderful intricacies of creation.  Praise the Creator.