A fellow blogger asked recently about angels, and it was just a loaded topic and I resolved to blog about it instead of commenting. But I think the manner in which I entered the spiritual realm is particularly important to the way I started to talk to angels. And I sort of want to re-trace these memories for myself to remember from where I originated in this process. Most of my friends who are “like me” found it highly unlikely that I would be so involved spiritually coming from my scientific perspective. I feel like the punchline to this story will have to be continued in another post considering its significance. So, without further ado…
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“They don’t have anything that interests me for this year’s colloquial electives,” I said to my roommate as she was preparing herself for a day out. I held the course catalog in my hands open to a certain page; GA took the catalog in her hands and looked.
Colloquium courses were part of our electives, but students always seem so reluctant to start taking them. For one reason, they are three consecutive semesters long to complete for one letter grade. They are a string of highly subjective courses that three professors instruct from different disciplines. One that I had always found so interesting was a course called “Natural Disasters” in which a science professor lectured on the biological standpoint, a theologist lectured on the movement of spirituality in the population, and an economist lectured on what would the monetary implications be in a state of panic. But every semester, the colloquial courses change subjects and professors. Another reason why students didn’t like them so much was the inability to transfer credits to any other school.
But GA seemed to have expressed her own personal interest in one subject, “Holistic Health! If I wasn’t in honors, I would have really wanted to enroll in this class,” she pointed to the course number. It was decided. At least someone had an opinion; the next day, I enrolled for Holistic Health. The first semester was taught by a nursing professor who lectured on Western vs. Eastern medicine; a women & gender studies professor discussed the role of women in medicine in the past (prior to “Western” medicine); and a philosophy professor introduced the culture and mindsetting of Native American healing in the second semester.
Being a science major, I found myself listening hard to every word each of my professors would say to us in the beginning. I learned I had to remove myself from my science background if I wanted to understand anything. But I’d say 100% of the students struggled as much as I did to get the idea behind the class. I learned tremendously through lecture, but what I remembered the most was the meditation session at the end of each class meeting.
Students would make fun of each other for trying, and the professors were peeved at how naive we were as they tried to meditate themselves. It was just so foreign, and perhaps there wasn’t a good understanding to the subject in the beginning. I honestly tried to meditate, but in the beginning I just didn’t get the point like most of the students. One time, I opened my eyes from the meditative exercise. I could feel my pupils working to constrict as I looked about the room, looking out the window, and finally looking to the professors who were somewhat lost in a trance. I studied their calm, blank faces… the way their eyes closed so effortlessly and casually. “I’m not getting it,” I said to myself. That’s when I started to try to understand.
I felt at that point that I was no longer scoffing at the subject like everyone else; I was upholding the philosophy of science: to simply make observations in order to understand. Western society had lost its way in science, and forgot the rudiments to science. I found it…very disrespectful to the people who were on the frontier of the golden age.
After that hurdle, I found it easier to clear my mind and meditate as my professors suggested. The classes became more enjoyable. But the most the most moving part of this topic was the term paper at the end of the course. To be continued~
wonderful introduction. I really am interested in this. When I hear some women’s voices in opera or other high forms of music I think of angels. And I too could use a break from my scientific and logical framework…which is so damn one dimensional isn’t it?
Maybe it’s a sign that the angels were thinking of you too during the music! “Everything in moderation” is a good motto follow. I find people who aren’t flexible to alien ways of thinking are very one dimensional, and they often miss the greater part of life because of it. But we do live in a very advanced time on Earth, and we cannot blame ourselves for being stuck in that framework. Our upbringing and our cultures are ultimately what shapes our way of thinking, but it is quite an awesome feeling when we learn over time that there is more to life when you are open and accepting!