Introduction. Our perception of the world

 

    What makes up the world as we know it? It is perceived through our senses. But our senses are like narrow rays of light that brighten the world to a limited extent. The narrowness of our perception creates barriers, separating us from certain aspects of our environment. We cannot hear ultrasound, and we can see neither ultraviolet nor infrared rays, but that does not mean that they do not exist. We perceive only partial manifestations of the world around us.

Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch register waves and vibrations. We see the color red because our eyes tune into this flux, perceiving a specific wave–length, and our brain attributes the notion “red” to this particular flux. When we smell a rose, our olfactory system receives pulsations from the energy enveloping the rose and decodes them as a known, characteristic fragrance. Each of our senses has its own way of functioning, and most humans have about the same capacity, although a few have a wider perception.

 Painters perceive a wider than average range of colors, and as they are able to distinguish the faintest nuances, they can process a large number of fluxes. “Smellers” are capable of distinguishing among thousands of odors that go unnoticed by an ordinary person, and they have a particularly developed perception of those pulsations we define as odor.

 There are people who can see stars that we can only see with a telescope, etc. These are examples of very developed systems of sensory perception. They indicate an ability to distinguish one energy flux or type of vibration from another, but also a capacity to describe them in a commonly adopted language. But how often do we come across manifestations that are difficult to explain, how many nuances do we see without being able to name them, and how many fragrances do we smell without being able to define them? The same is true of our senses of taste, hearing and touch. The system of perception that captures the energies around us belongs to another register: an “unknown”, unconscious register—a system that we are unable to include in the usual classifications, but which is becominh more and more apparent in our era.
 Usually we experience the world through our five classical senses. If you try to deprive yourself of one of them, you will immediately see your universe change completely. In a safe and comfortable situation, try spending a day with your eyes closed in a room that you know by heart, while trying to find the same sensations and keep the same pace as with your eyes open. And what if we closed our eyes for a year, or for several years? Absurd? And yet that’s exactly what we do on the level of our perception of energy.

 

At birth we possess numerous sensory systems from which we will sever ourselves little by little, as we grow up, thus depriving ourselves of the possibility of controlling and manipulating of our own energy. More precisely, we forget them, due to lack of use. We close our “energetic” eyes, and thus we rid ourselves of the perception of a multi-dimensional world. There are people, though, who are trying to remember, to assimilate and to name other systems of relating to the world, systems that existed prior to and independently of our relationship to it.

Everything happens as though you could not hear a thing. From the moment of your birth, your ears were plugged up and that seemed normal to you, since everyone had their ears plugged up. But one day, someone unstopped his ears and was able to hear the world around him. Then a second person, a third, and so on, until finally everyone could hear an environment enriched by the “sonorous” fireworks of bird calls, music, voices, murmuring brooks, thunder, rain. . .

This is what happens with energetic sensations and vision. Around us already there are those who feel, see and knock at our doors to expand and beautify our world. They write and speak, doing their best to rid us of this dark blindfold. Some, on the other hand, cloak this system of perception with a cloud of mysticism, while others use their new capacities for their own ends. Some, such as healers, help their patients to the best of their ability, and still others try to teach…

For those who practice Wushu, Qigong, Taijiquan, meditation… “energetic” perception gradually begins to function again. For some, the system, already prepared, will be activated during the first lesson. For others, this system will be operational after a month, and for some, only a year later. Each person has his own rhythm, depending on his degree of “intoxication”, on his experience, on what rules he lives by (or limits himself by) and on the number of stereotypes implanted in him by his upbringing.

As it is natural for man to doubt his own capacities, if you are someone who questions your ability to succeed, we suggest the following test: close your eyes and feel the middle finger of your right hand This means simply finding it among your physical sensations. Then in the same fashion find the corresponding toe on your right foot. You know and you can feel that they exist. Thus, it is evident that linked to these body parts, there are systems of perception other than your five senses. Through lack of use, some of these systems are “asleep”, but we can waken them and get them functioning through appropriate exercises. You, too, have an energy system, and in this book we describe methods for getting it to function. If you are able to widen the span of your perception of the world, we will be happy to have contributed to this process.