Chapter 16.

Experiencing the Cells

And you may be wondering, but what about the cells? This is Cell Level Meditation! Yes, we can get all the way down to the cells. In fact, anything that you are doing or thinking is also, in some way, going on in the cells, no? It’s already happening, and you are learning to shift into states of awareness in which you can be co-creative and engaged with what’s already going on! A woman I know got to the bone cells, and what most surprised her is that they were doing their “bone cell thing” independently of what she thought or said or did. We might say that the bone cells already know what to do! Thankfully so!

Everything ultimately is a pattern of energy in expression. The manifest form, if you travel into it, is made of smaller parts, the smaller parts are made of even smaller parts, and so on, until you get down to a level where there is only the sensation of something like vibrancy itself arising from the emptiness. The expression of the energy of a substance running at a certain rate is solid, at another rate it’s liquid, and at another it’s a gas. Every known substance has its parameters, temperature, rate and rhythm, and how it behaves under different circumstances. Similarly, different types of cells in the body have their own “signature” pattern of color, movement, speed, sound, or energetic frequency. Muscle cells have a different kind of pattern than bone cells. And they “feel” different than bone cells in some kind of subjective way. The cells are working along with their own programming, and if you are suffering from an illness, you might find a sense of unease or disturbance when you get there. How do we work with that? Breathe to it! Experience it as it comes to you! Become it! Be responsive. Just keep breathing. Stay curious and simply wonder how to engage the experience fully, looking for clues. It seems counter-intuitive to “become the disease,” but you may have a sense that you will find the road to healing mysteriously revealed to you by doing just that.

Now because I have worked in health care, I have studied such things as biology and anatomy and physiology. So, I have seen the pictures of cells in textbooks and under the microscope. However, the first time I “saw” the cell membrane in Cell Meditation, I was quite moved. It was much more dynamic than I had imagined, and beautiful! A few years later, I was delighted to see a photo of a cell membrane taken with the use of an electron microscope, and I was pretty excited to have my vision corroborated. A couple of times I have had something like this happen.

One time during Cell Meditation I got to a structure in my body that, somehow, I identified as a virus. It was very resistant to being in relationship with the other cells. In fact, it felt very “other” or foreign to me. And it was quite a rascal! A few weeks later, I went to pick up a friend at a doctor’s appointment. While I was in the waiting room, waiting for her, I picked up a magazine, and there on the cover was a picture of the virus I’d seen, taken under an electron microscope!

Sometimes (actually, most of the time), I’ve noticed that the “cellular picture” comes as a metaphor. For example, one patient I work with has some problems with her cholesterol levels, and when she went inside during Cell Meditation, she described to me some pipes. As her description became more vivid and dynamic, I realized she was in the cardiovascular system, working on the plaque on the wall of blood vessels that needed some attention.

Other times, people I’ve worked with have gone into the structure of the cell. There is a kind of geometry with shapes, color, movement, and vibrancy. Participating in the harmony and beauty of this underlying pattern is an experience of great delight.

And! The potential that lies within you may astound you! The cells of the body are quite versatile, noble, and capable of transformation (just like you are)! We have already mentioned stem cells. These are cells that haven’t been programmed yet for a specific job.

We become aware that the cells turn over and that some cells can become any other cell. A cell can go into neutral entropy. It can transform. It becomes the new cell. Breathe with it and allow it to have the experience of itself as a new cell with itself. Then let it have the experience of the Whole.
~Barry

Cells might be considered as an archetypal template for life. They are the smallest unit of life. Life, by its very nature is . . . alive! Because it is alive, it is not just responding in a set, mechanical way, but rather it is responsive to what is needed and helpful and useful. Once they are given a job, a function, they take on an identity and leap into the cell community as participants in life.

Whatever you can imagine opens possibilities that can birth into physical reality. The noble cells of your body can rest, take stock of the situation, and create solutions to problems. They can transform. They use creative solutions. In addition to their versatility, what makes the cells of the body so successful is their ability to cooperate! Sounds like we should be taking classes from them.

Become aware of the liver cell.
Breathe to it.
Become aware of the experience of your liver cell.
Breathe.
Let the liver cell experience that you are there.
Let the liver cell experience itself as itself.
Open the panorama.
Breathe.
Let the liver cell experience itself as part of the community of liver cells.
Breathe.
Now let the community experience itself as a community.
Breathe.
And now let the community of liver cells experience their part of the larger community of the Whole Body.
Breathe.
Breathe.
~Barry