Who hasn’t sat by a fire and gazed into the chaos of the flickering flames? Sitting calmly in quiet meditation observing the apparent random flickers of light dancing around chaotically from whatever fuel the flames are consuming. The smell of the smoke swirling up and out that seems to find you periodically no matter where you sit. It is so easy to get lost in thought while watching this seemingly random chaos of consumption.
Mesmerized in the flames you soon start to see symmetry and consistency in what at first had seemed to be so haphazard. It was during one of these fire-inspired ponderments, I became aware of thoughts that didn’t seem to be coming from me but to me. The notion that light, indeed, does have intelligence gave birth to the idea that maybe these thoughts I was having were being projected to me from the fire itself.
Could the biblical fable of Moses going up on the mountain where he received the Ten Commandments from a burning bush be of a similar nature?
I wonder what the first human who came across fire must have thought. I imagine there was a big thunderstorm, with lightning striking a tree catching it on fire. Cautiously this primal person came out of hiding from these blinding flashes of light followed by the loud noises that had thundered down from the sky. He/she curiously surveying the aftermath, stumbled across this stricken tree that had once stood tall, now fallen and seemingly being consumed by some strange multi-colored lights. The perception of the power coming from the sky must have been mind-boggling. To this person, the flame must have seemed to have a life of its own. Not only did it give off light, but heat as well which, up until then, had only come from the sun. Perhaps it inspired the first curse words to be uttered when reaching out to touch these multi-colored flickers of red, orange, and yellow light. Perhaps language was born at this point as respect for the power of the flame was realized. This primal knowledge has been passed on through generations to this very day. Parents teaching their children, don’t touch the fire, it’s hot. Innovations were then born on how to keep this flame burning continually so it would be able to keep passing on its knowledge. Cooking food and the heating of one’s place of residence were two of the most basic advancements to be first realized. We shouldn’t disregard the importance of the hours just sitting staring into the flame with its inevitable inspiration of imagination.
How many of our giant leaps forward in human history were imagined first by gazing into a fire? Perhaps these inspirations haven’t been as haphazard as we have come to believe.
Perhaps natural light does have intelligence and we are the ones who are translating it into the reality we are creating.
Recently science has discovered there is light created between the synapses in our brains. They postulate that thoughts may be transmitted through our brain by light. Suppose the natural light that we receive in nature, fire, sun, moon, is then translated through our bodies by light as well?
Something to ponder next time you are gazing into a fire with its seemingly random flickers of light dancing before you.