Activating the Subtle Senses

This isn’t an article or essay, so I can write whatever I want. Today a realization came to me. It wasn’t the first time it has come; I don’t know about you, but I keep having these realizations and then forget them again. Then when they come back, they sink in deeper.

The context this time was two contradictory criticisms. The first is, “Charles, I used to respect you as a thought leader, but you’ve become too political. I wish you would return to more spiritual topics.”

The second is, “Charles, I used to respect you as a thought leader, but you’ve become too new-agey. I wish you would return to economics, systems change, and ecology.”

And the realization was that the reunion of these two realms, the spiritual and the practical, is central to my work in the world. This was a major theme in my early books—healing the artificial separation of spirit and matter. The universe is not split in two. The export of sacredness onto a non-material, spiritual realm is what allows us to treat the material as if it were not sacred. But actually, sacredness folds into everything. Spirit folds into matter. The soul folds into the body. Every cell, every atom is infused with it. Every cell, every atom, is it.

The human story will not appreciably change merely by being more clever, designing smarter systems, quantifying everything for AI-powered optimization, or finally getting everyone to agree on the most rational policies. We MUST bring all that has been banished into the “spiritual” realm back into the material—back into economics, systems change, and yes, back into politics.

OK, this is a long-winded introduction to a recording I’d like to share. It is unapologetically “spiritual.” It also is very practical. It is about activating the subtle senses. The subtle senses are not immaterial. They simply operate on aspects of the material that dominant paradigms do not recognize.

The video isn’t just about activating the subtle senses. It is an activation of the subtle senses. The people on the call say it worked, at least those who weren’t trying to do the meditation segment while driving. It certainly worked for me. I know an hour-long video is a lot these days, but I encourage you to watch (or listen) to the entirety. It is an integral whole.

I am considering reviving the Sanity Project this year. Videos and live sessions like this will be a major element of it. Let me know in the comments how this particular one lands.