<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="2">Dear Fellow 'Spaceniks':<BR>
<BR>
Well, this is going to be weird, be warned.<BR>
<BR>
Wendy wrote:</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3">"This principle is an opportunity to invite the presence of each soul<BR>
gathered--to invite them as fully as possible into the present moment."<BR>
<BR>
This provoked a remembrance in me about what I felt at the time was a profound insight. It may or may not be to others. It has to do with physics and light. And it has to do with being "fully as possible in the present moment" with others. </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I>When</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> is that, anyway?<BR>
<BR>
When we look out at any celestial object, sun, moon, 'star', etc., we are seeing </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I><B>old </I></B></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3">light, that is, the light of the </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I>past moment</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> in time in our </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I>present moment in time</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3">. Thus, from the point of view of us, the viewer, we are seeing the past. As a silly example, the light we get from the sun is about 9 minutes old, as I recall. We don't know if nine minutes from now, or in the next second for that matter, the sun won't 'wink out'. Fortunately, so far, it hasn't.<BR>
<BR>
When we we see an impossible-to-fathom galaxy far, far away, we don't really know that it exists in our </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I>now</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> because it took millions of our years for the light from that galaxy to reach us. Millions of years of linear time have passed for that galaxy. It is really, really "old" light. It could have entered a black hole meanwhile and right now, in this present moment, it might be disappearing. We simply don't know because the light hasn't gotten here yet to tell us of its changed circumstances.<BR>
<BR>
So, what does this have to do with being here, now, in this present moment. Well, when I am standing in front of another person in a room, even just three feet apart, the light coming from that person is in an infinitesimally small bit of time in the past. Scotty could beam that person up and I would realize they were gone a nanosecond later (more silliness). Thus, in physics and light, we are never in the EXACT same time as the person we are talking to</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I> as long as we are not touching.</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> Each is in the infinitesimally small past of the other. <BR>
<BR>
However, the insight was that </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I>when we are touching, and only then, are we able to be fully present in the exact same time-moment with another human being.</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> Thus, hugging is so rewarding on multiple levels. We are truly 'together' at that moment. Holding hands is another example, as is making love, giving a massage, etc. Fully present, fully alive, fully functioning in the same physical time/space moment. Thus, </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I>touching is transformative.</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> It is the moment when healing of all kinds can occur (doesn't necessarily happen, but can occur). It was mind blowing for me at the time and still is. Because the present moment is the only time transformation can occur. Whew!!<BR>
<BR>
Well, what might this have to do with open space sessions? I've often wondered what the energy flow might be if we were connected by holding hands, touching bare feet, etc., during a discussion session (some would be rendered speechless because they can't wave their hands---that thought occurred to me, lol) and whether or not the psychic energy bouncing around </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><I>in the exact same space/time continuum</I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> might not produce insights and aha's of an order of magnitude 'greater' than now is achieved. <BR>
<BR>
I warned you this was going to be weird. :)<BR>
<BR>
Paul Everett<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"></FONT></HTML>
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