Videos hosted by Michael Erlewine

Solar flares continue to roll in, although only the three X-Class flares so far. Two M-Class flares (2nd highest class) occurred Wednesday, June 11th. Some of you have written asking for a better understanding of how massive solar influx affects our sense of self, so here are some comments.

What we call our "self," while tenacious as hell in terms of its attachments, is still a relatively fragile construct. The Buddhists point out that although what we call the "Self" has no true existence and is but a useful fabrication, it is "permanent" in its function as a control center or glorified personal secretary. If we did not have a self, we would have to invent one, which is exactly what we have done. However, the self is a "persona delicata," so to speak, and easily upset, as we all should well know.

We are all used to the more gradual influx of solar energy and information via the rays of sunlight each day and have built our routine and consciousness around that level of solar change. When a massive surge of solar energy (such as a solar flare takes place), we are almost instantly inundated not only externally (radio and communications interrupts) but also internally, consciousness-wise, and this house of cards we call a self is the first to break down.

Part of the problem is our own memory or lack of it. When sudden change is injected into our mindstream as happens with these solar flare eruptions, it kind of blows out what we might call our mental transformers – ways of handling change. Our mind gets blown out and we short-circuit whatever we have been working on often find ourselves unable to think clearly. Sudden solar flux blows out the highs and the lows and we lose the filigree -- the fine connections -- leaving us stuck somewhere in our own mind with no clear direction and often a disjointed memory of exactly who we are or what we were doing before the solar flare took place.

As mentioned, with sudden solar events it is common to lose our directionality and perhaps even a sense of the path we were on. This manifests as an inability to remember just what we were doing or at least why we were doing it, or it can be as simple as suddenly having no juice for a particular direction. We literally forget what we were doing (or why) and no longer have any motivation to do it. This scenario should be familiar to all of us if we will just take a look.

Anytime the Self is severely upset and modified by change, there is a remedial period during which the 'self' attempts to reorganize and pull itself back together, and here is the rub. More often than not we are no longer quite the same self we were before going into the change, but we don't realize this because it is our very self that has changed.

The self we paste back together or collect after a solar flare may be at an earlier or later stage than where we left it when we vacated or it was shattered. Of course it feels like the same self to us, but there is no guarantee it is. And we have no way of ever knowing, one way or the other. Let me run through the phases:

We are cruising along in our day-to-day life and a strong solar flare occurs. It could also be some sudden or tragic event in life, but let's stick with the sudden solar influx for now. The intense solar energy injects itself into our mindstream carrying with it not only the sheer power of change, but probably also new information. The two may be identical. The upshot is that we are popped out of whatever groove we have managed to created and find ourselves out-of-sorts, quite literally beside ourselves and looking around. Here we are, suddenly high and dry, with no clear past, present, or future. By necessity we have to shut down to some degree and wait this inner storm out until it corrects itself and that takes time. We often just come to a standstill, but may not fully realize it.

Under the stress of change the self has broken down to some degree and may even have been shattered. Our conservative self-preserving forces attempt to re-start or reanimate the self and use whatever it can pull around us as cover. When that process has run its course, we arise again as a self, more-or-less reconnected and attached (however we are), but with perhaps little to no memory of exactly what went before. No matter, we are back, up and running again.

Gradually we relax and re-establish some groove. Things start to take on form and direction once again. The modem of the self has reset. We are reanimated. Life continues on a track and we like that. It is what we are used to.

As we all know, it is relatively easy to upset ourselves and feel out of sorts. It can be as simple as a dirty look or a failed exam or job interview. More severe shock sets in when we lose a loved one or a job, and so it goes. The interesting thing about solar events like flares and CMEs is that they are not initiated by anything we have done or that is done to us, but are relatively impersonal, yet they are powerful.

I don't want to take the time here to lay out a rap on how close we all are to the Sun, internally – consciousness-wise. Let's just say we depend on the Sun for all light, warmth, and life. That should do it. I would also point out that our flickering consciousness is identical to the activity in the Sun. When the Sun gets tickled, we sneeze -- that sort of thing.

As a solar flare from the sun explodes, hurling a huge mass of solar plasma into space, it takes about 8 minutes for that sunlight to reach Earth, and somewhat longer (at times) for the solar plasma to reach us, no more than a day or so, but sometimes much sooner.

Let me ask you a question. Where do you think real inner change comes from? I will spare you the lecture, but change in the Sun is change in ourselves. A huge quantity of change from the Sun (like a solar flare) blows our mind to the degree of shutting down the self and scattering (at least for a time) whatever house of cards we have been building. And solar change is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand it breaks down our self and causes us to draw a blank for a time, until we can reconstruct it. On the other hand it brings needed change and information suddenly, not in the gradual daily stream of sunlight we are used to, but in quantum leaps. It blows our mind like the proverbial seven angels of the Apocalypse blow their trumpets. Intense solar change is a little Biblical my friends.

Our knee-jerk response is always to rebuild our self once again as fast as possible, often from the ground up. In that sense we are like Sisyphus, condemned to push a rock uphill forever, only to have it roll back down, an endless rebuilding of a self that obviously has no permanent existence or meaning – an exercise in futility, but, still, an integral part of our life.

This whole cycle is what the Buddhists call Samsara, the unenlightened world. I like to play on that word and say "Some Sorrow." Unenlightened in that we ignore or are unaware of what is taking place. Is it no wonder that sooner or later we might want to learn to see beyond the curtain of the self or see through the mirror of the self and beyond our own reflection?

Solar flares are relatively rare opportunities when we have no choice but to change. We can learn to take this intense change as a sailboat takes the wind. We can set our own sails. That is what mind-training practice is all about.

[Photo taken yesterday of daisies following the path of the sun.]