Energy Shielding - Theory & Practice

[Taomeow]

A humorous anecdote -- when learning about this process and a few times since when I have undergone energetic transitions, I have inadvertently over-shielded. The first time, I was at a restaurant with a large family gathering. There were about two dozen of us in a side room where they had pulled several tables together and we had a couple of wait-staff serving us. My siblings soon noticed (although not yet aware that I had begun practicing "some woo-woo hippie stuff") that the waitresses kept skipping me. Take everyone's drink order except me -- oops! Take mine. Bring everyone their drinks except me -- oops! Get mine. Wait! Why don't you have silverware? Like that. I had effectively made myself invisible. Dial that puppy back a little...

 

This past Winter, I underwent an energetic expansion of sorts and found that I was "invisible" again -- this time, it was the energy-saving sensors on light switches which didn't "see" me. Lasted all day. Walk into a room, nothing. Wave my hand in front of the sensor, nothing. Someone else walks in and the lights come on.

 

 

Overshielding to the point of invisibility is a very useful skill in some situations...  not at the restaurant when you're hungry and hope to get a meal though. 

 

I had a few experiences with overshielding too.  When I practiced Kunlun for a while, Max suggested to play music in the background, something I normally never do with any of my practices, and I followed his suggestion, putting on a CD with my favorite classical Han music from the 11th-14th centuries.  The CD was brand new -- I bought it specifically for the practice, didn't want any music that I already listened to in different contexts, this was meant to be a Kunlun soundtrack.  A few of the pieces on that CD were positively sublime, and one, just about the most beautiful melody I'd ever heard.  So, I began the practice, but, ever-cautious, of course I preinstalled the shields and also did a very thorough erasing routine in the end, for any "spirits, entities and energies that may have dropped by, you are hereby removed -- go back to your permanent places of residence."  The next day, to my chagrin, I discovered that I erased most of the CD with this,  and my favorite track, without a trace -- complete nothing.  Aw, drats... 

[link]

Thank you, Taomeow. ☺ All is well. I was playing with and following the idea of problematic entities hiding in junk around the house, and this is where it lead- in imagination. Apologies for not being more clear about my playing before.

 

There might be some discomfort, intensity, or pain in movement of consciousness. Where did it come from? I might think that it is my tall friend compassionately penetrating me with light. Or entity possession or influence. Maybe I need some herbs, less cosmic radiation, or a good massage. In any of these cases and countless others, attention flows into form- and into an altered state of consciousness.

 

In the imaginative story, my dear wife was downstream in the chain of events which began with creating and flowing into form, leading to an obsession with entities living in our boxes and portraits.

 

It is conceivable that one could become that involved with the idea of foreign invaders... giving the forms the power of attention and sustaining them in such a way that before long it becomes a practical matter.

Edited September 14, 2016 by link

[link]

Cheya,

Edited September 14, 2016 by link

[Taomeow]

Link,

 

you were playing -- and what do you think I was doing, chopping liver?   I just played along.

 

I'm sure there's many boxes -- probably billions -- in garages and under beds and in closets and in storage sheds stuffed with no one knows what that don't contain any entities.  I know most photographs are just that, pieces of the soul of the person they were snapped (snatched) from (at least all indigenous people used to believe that, and Carlos Castaneda too, and look at all the celebrities -- what chaos and pathology all the lives that have been subjected so mercilessly to relentless image-taking of them -- from them!) -- yes, most photographs are merely that, not possessed by anything...  rather, something someone was dispossessed of. 

 

But haunted castles are never bright and airy and open and clean and uncluttered.  There's always cobwebs and bat-infested crypts and screechy doors and things falling apart, decaying, broken, and in all the corners, those dust bunnies that the Chinese don't call bunnies.  They call them "grey mice of despair." 

Edited September 14, 2016 by Taomeow

[silent thunder]

decided to delete

Edited December 30, 2020 by silent thunder

[Brian]

OK, Psychic Defense 101.

You're in a restaurant. Or at a movie. Or in chat.

You start to feel... maybe... targeted.... or... influenced.... or just weird....

What, specifically, do you do?

 

How do you train that skill up? (Should you feel the need.)

 

Brian, I really like your approach...

but how do you do it?

 

Anybody...

What is the doing of psychic defense?

Or... actually...not doing maybe.   

Sorry! Just noticed this specific request.^^^

 

Well...

 

That's the thing -- I don't do anything (and I think this ties in with the discussion rene and Taomeow have been having to some extent -- I'll let them respond).

 

This is not an action but an awareness. The "shield" is already there, in living color. If you ask someone who can wiggle their ears "what they do" their response is likely to be along the lines of "I just wiggle my ears <shrug>." In this case, though, it is simply recognizing that the shield exists.

 

Just as one might gently rest awareness on dan tien, one can gently rest awareness on this aspect of the energy-body. It seems the "shield" is largely dormant, resting in potential (although I suspect it is always functioning at some level much as part of the immune system) -- until it is not. "Until" suggests a "time" component here, however, and my experience suggests that is not so much the case -- or maybe that there's a time-looping thing in play here. Either way, the shield is developed and enhanced by merely touching it with gentle awareness periodically and is modulated in an anticipatory fashion. (There are "physical" analogs here in which the body reacts to something more quickly than a stimulus should have propagated through the nervous system, and experiments in which a physiological response precedes the provoking stimulus). It isn't an act of creating or raising a barrier but an awareness of an extant aspect of "self" which doesn't need direction from the consciousness.

 

Don't know if this is at all helpful or even meaningful...

[cheya]

Wow, Brian!  Very helpful!

 

This whole conversation is extremely interesting, but getting to "what do you DO?" seems to be lacking. To me, this post is a big step in getting to the "doing/not doing" of it. 

 

Hope you'll delve around in there some more for any other insights on the process.... although, for me, this is a great start!

 

Maybe more on locating "this aspect of the energy body,"  this "extant aspect of "self" which doesn't need direction from consciousness"... in order to rest attention there...

[Taomeow]

Brian,

 

wiggling one's ears is exactly like that too!  The ears themselves have no moving parts.  You move your awareness and it moves your auricularis muscles and they move your ears. 

 

Now the next level is to move your arms with your ears... 

 

and then someone else's... 

[rene]

Brian, made sense to me (which is no great endorsement )

 

Cheya, hi, on the rare occasions I perceive the energies you describe - I just watch them from a distance; most are not big enough or strong enough to notice, and those that are dont get close enough to affect the flow going through me... so I guess I'm no help at all with Psychic Defense 101 as I've never had to defend! Sorry! (-:

[cheya]

Hi Rene,

 I've never been much interested in psychic defense either, except for one brief episode a few years back.  I ended up ordering a book from Amazon, but the problem was already over by the time the book arrived.  And no similar issues since... Still haven't read the book 

 

But if we plan to offer some info on psychic shielding to people interested in chat room energy sharing, or even just in plain old chat room, it seems like that information needs to be as specific and useable as we can make it. I feel like Brian is starting to go there. 

[Taomeow]

Wow, Brian!  Very helpful!

 

This whole conversation is extremely interesting, but getting to "what do you DO?" seems to be lacking. To me, this post is a big step in getting to the "doing/not doing" of it. 

 

Hope you'll delve around in there some more for any other insights on the process.... although, for me, this is a great start!

 

Maybe more on locating "this aspect of the energy body,"  this "extant aspect of "self" which doesn't need direction from consciousness"... in order to rest attention there...

 

I think a good way to gain command of the shielding practically is to start by using, at first, what they call your "primary representation system" -- different people use visual or auditory or kinesthetic as their primary, i.e. to remember or to imagine something, they "see" more readily or "hear" more readily or feel the motion more readily.  And then move on to training your non-primary systems.  Ultimately, to use the whole range of your senses to aid in the process of co-creation between memory, imagination, and subtle "energies of the world." 

 

E.g. if you are very visual, you can start building shields by visualizing them.  If you are not, you can train your visualizing ability gradually, it is very trainable.  You start out by visualizing something very plain and simple -- say, a white egg.  You work on it till it gains some dimensionality, clarity, brightness in your mind's eye, then you paint blue polka dots on it.  Once you have admired your work enough, give it little chicken legs to stand on.  Then invite it to dance.  People who are auditory will probably hear the music to which it dances at this point.  People who are kinesthetic might tap their foot or even do a little dance of their own.  And so on. 

 

Like with any skill, you work on acquiring it slowly but then you can apply it instantaneously -- and, as Brian said, "something" in you is more immediate in its responses than your conscious mind, this something is part of your protective qi (part of which is your immune system), and the shield might "inflate" like an air bag before you are consciously aware of the danger.

[cheya]

I was thinking yesterday, maybe there are two or three phases of this:

 

1) How not to pick up the energies, i.e. shielding in the moment

 

2) How to get rid of yucky stuff if you do pick it up, or if you feel like something has managed to stick to you.

 

3) And maybe a third, energy hygiene someone called it I think. Keeping yourself and your environment un-stickable. Psychic teflon (sorry TM! ) by cultivating that aspect of yourself and your surroundings, not just for occasional perceived  "emergencies".

 

I think so far we're doing pretty well on 2) and 3), but need expansion on 1)

[rene]

... "something" in you is more immediate in its responses than your conscious mind, this something is part of your protective qi (part of which is your immune system), and the shield might "inflate" like an air bag before you are consciously aware of the danger.

It does, yes, good analogy! Many times it's brought awareness of a problem or situation before my eyes or ears have seen or heard it. Very informative, this.

 

Great post, TM.

[cheya]

Ha Rene! You beat me to it!

I was just going to quote that very piece of TM's post too!

 

Those words somehow rivet my attention...

And I simultaneously wonder if the only really good way to train that is martial arts...

[rene]

1) How not to pick up the energies, i.e. shielding in the moment

 

Increase the flow through yourself, maybe?

 

Imagine a kid with a squirt-gun trying to affect a high-pressure stream from a fire hose... it just aint gonna happen.

 

Okay, okay, I'll hush now & leave it to those who have a clue.

 

Warm regards (-:

[Wood Dragon-Metal Horse]

As far as shielding goes, I would like to add these representations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the first image is a toroid overlaid with a few sacred geometric shapes, and can be likened to the different aspects of our own fields. The second is a rendering of the human body and its associated magnetic field. The last is a picture of iron filings around a magnet. 

 

Notice how Bai Hui and Hui Yin areas appear open. 

 

This shape is the same as earth and every object with an electro-magnetic field share. From the atomic scale to the galactic, and I assume larger and smaller...

 

Peoples fields will vary. Some will have large fields, some will have very small. Some people will have blockages and where those blockages are in the body will correspond to a point on that field. Interesting to me that a blockage can increase electrical resistance. Where resistance is higher the electric field will most often be measured as higher. When our resistance is low and we have no fire we have a very smooth and integrated field that is closer to mixing and being one with the field of all. 

 

When we have a strong field it can perpetuate an incoming energy. Think about a spacecraft using the gravity of a cosmic body to change its velocity. Now imagine the spacecraft has no control and gets slightly too close. What happens? The gravity consumes the spacecraft. The spacecraft would head towards the well of gravity and as it gets close it will be pulled closer and closer until impact. 

 

What if the the cosmic body was a star "on fire"? The spacecraft would burn up. What if the the cosmic body had control over its gravity? It could lessen the gravity and allow the spacecraft to fly on by. What if there was no field around the object? What it was one with emptiness? The spacecraft would never even have an opportunity to crash. 

 

What does any of this have to do with what y'all are talkin' 'bout? Relax your gravity. Take a moment to face the incoming object. Adjust yourself accordingly. If you are too fire you may not get all the info from the incoming object as it burns on landing.  If your field is too strong (still fire) the ship may just crash and get lodged. The faster it is going and the more mass it has, the deeper in may lodge. If it hits a sinkhole (weak spot in your field or body) it may go deeper. If however you notice the object coming, you may be able to adjust accordingly. Allow it to get close, learn from it, hear its call, understand it, and you may be able to fling it away like a gravity assist.

 

Become one with all and nothing? Well then, what is there for it to hit? 

 

As well, your field is made of tiny fields. Each little field can do the same as your large whole field, and so on. 

 

Of course there is a lot more to this and less. 

 

 

*edit: Also the more you practice the less you have to think about. It becomes natural to allow things to pass over, through, or around. There is a hard way (think hard martial arts) but I am less experienced with that. I think that if you were to just "attack" back at the incoming you would have less interaction and learning. Someone is throwing a punch at you. You punch their fist with more power. You injure their fist, and yours but less. This sends their hand back into the world but it is hurt and looking to regain balance or homeostasis. Your hand is hurt and it needs the same but maybe less. You instead redirect the punch with a circular motion? You have to involve more accumulated learning and information and learn more from the technique. Maybe the energy of the attacker orbits and tries to land again... Maybe it is flung (physically, psychologically, energetically) and will not return. See the aggressor coming before they do? Dissipate the situation and the punch is never thrown at you.

 

Different levels of attainment, training, thought, awareness...

Edited September 14, 2016 by Wood Dragon-Metal Horse

[dwai]

Sorry! Just noticed this specific request.^^^

 

Well...

 

That's the thing -- I don't do anything (and I think this ties in with the discussion rene and Taomeow have been having to some extent -- I'll let them respond).

 

This is not an action but an awareness. The "shield" is already there, in living color. If you ask someone who can wiggle their ears "what they do" their response is likely to be along the lines of "I just wiggle my ears <shrug>." In this case, though, it is simply recognizing that the shield exists.

 

Just as one might gently rest awareness on dan tien, one can gently rest awareness on this aspect of the energy-body. It seems the "shield" is largely dormant, resting in potential (although I suspect it is always functioning at some level much as part of the immune system) -- until it is not. "Until" suggests a "time" component here, however, and my experience suggests that is not so much the case -- or maybe that there's a time-looping thing in play here. Either way, the shield is developed and enhanced by merely touching it with gentle awareness periodically and is modulated in an anticipatory fashion. (There are "physical" analogs here in which the body reacts to something more quickly than a stimulus should have propagated through the nervous system, and experiments in which a physiological response precedes the provoking stimulus). It isn't an act of creating or raising a barrier but an awareness of an extant aspect of "self" which doesn't need direction from the consciousness.

 

Don't know if this is at all helpful or even meaningful...

 

Interesting. I've had this happen to me a lot a few years into practicing Tai chi. I asked my teacher about it and he said "its okay...better to fly under the radar than draw attention".

 

But the ego doesn't like to be ignored. And if this happens unbeknownst to someone (like with me, though I felt intuitively it had something to do with my tai chi practice), it was bewildering and aggravating (to keep getting ignored at restaurants, stores, etc). 

 

Another thing I wonder about is the "ward off" energy (Peng). When we develop some cultivation, a Peng force-field builds around us (I don't know whether I have it as I can't feel it myself, but my practice partners claim it feels like a hard-to-penetrate wall). I do know what that feels like on others though - I was pushing hands with one of Master's senior-most students and he had that quality. I felt like my confidence was just draining into a void and he bounced me a few times like I was a unstable drunk

 

I wonder if this Peng energy can be applied to ward off unwanted attention?

[cold]

My folks were by nature very open and kind. From early childhood I would see complete strangers drawn to them for assistance, be it directions, or suggestions. In the grocery, walking the dog, shopping was always interesting to watch them draw in and help complete strangers. Often with very personal issues

 I am cut from the same cloth, sort of a magnet for distressed folks (if I let my guard down). I don't think my parents felt the need to have a guard be it simpler times, and or the strength of their character and or both. But I find it tiresome to be available to strangers.

 I limit my time in crowds, and shop do odds and ends at off times. I am often aware of real needs and am drawn to them. For example I was driving by a shopping center mid afternoon had no intention or need to go in but was drawn to an older Subaru with a women and a dog in the car full sun, windows down but its like 100 degrees.

I grabbed them up and went to a small grocer and got ice water for the lady and the dog, gratis from the store keeper, whom was reluctant, but came around quickly.

 

I went out to try to trouble shoot the non starting Subaru, no joy and the heat soon drove me back to the grocer. Women meanwhile was a bit addled by the heat. I asked if she had a tow service a trusted mechanic etc. she hands me her purse look in there she says. Her AAA membership had expired a year ago as best as I could determine. Its fast approaching 5 o'clock on a Friday no less. I get AAA on my phone they talk thru me agree if she joins the can have towed that day. Using my cc we get her enrolled. Six o'clock and tow truck arrives. we get it towed to nearest repair station now closed but closer to her home. I had her and the dog in my van ac blasting when I got an inspiration and asked for her keys.

 

Yup her car started. You saw that coming didn't you? Lol. I followed her home just a few miles. I don't frequent that grocer often, but I do mail at the post office there 2 or so times a week. I passed the lady in the Subaru a few times no notice on her part nor the grocers either. I have been known to send others in as I am plainly ignored. Lol

 Yup she paid me in cash (or on edit reimbursed me for her AAA renewal) once she got home, or nearby anyway.

 

Its second hand to me now, being ignored for the most part, and being drawn to troubled souls seeking solace (or often cash).

Not so much for $ when I am out of the truck on foot as it looks like I be broke and often am low or no cash.

 

Today at the food bank I was approached by a counselor for person of development handicaps. Could I would I use them at the farm? The season is coming to an end sadly but rightly so. So No But Thanks!

 

Carried 358 pounds squash to the food bank today before I ran out of boxes.

 

My practice when I can remember is simplicity, humility, and charity.

 

Peace!

Edited September 14, 2016 by cold

[Taomeow]

I was thinking yesterday, maybe there are two or three phases of this:

 

1) How not to pick up the energies, i.e. shielding in the moment

 

2) How to get rid of yucky stuff if you do pick it up, or if you feel like something has managed to stick to you.

 

3) And maybe a third, energy hygiene someone called it I think. Keeping yourself and your environment un-stickable. Psychic teflon (sorry TM! ) by cultivating that aspect of yourself and your surroundings, not just for occasional perceived  "emergencies".

 

I think so far we're doing pretty well on 2) and 3), but need expansion on 1)

 

The 1) might spark some controversy...  but I'll risk giving my perspective.

 

The reason people can attract more than their fair share of subtle adversities is the same they might attract not-so-subtle ones: they are not neutral/average enough to go unnoticed.  They are closer to some extremes  -- not absolute extremes, mind you, we live in a skewed world completely out of balance, so their being at some outer extreme of the status quo does not necessarily mean something is wrong with them or they are doing something wrong, and in fact may mean the opposite.  A canary in a coal mine is extremely uncomfortable -- but it doesn't mean something is wrong with the canary, it means something is wrong with the coal mine.  Or as that saying goes that used to make rounds on the internet, "don't adjust your mind.  There's a fault in reality."  Some people feel it more.  Others have thicker skins, they don't feel the bad stuff -- but at the expense of armoring/numbing out that robs them of a chance to feel the good stuff fully as well.  

 

About those extremes -- here's a few examples.  One can be weaker than average ("spiritually," which invites other kinds of weakness into her life), or stronger than average.  The weaker-than-average is an easy target, easy prey.  The stronger-than-average is going to be challenged (by whoever or whatever perceives her as a threat, e.g.), is going to be tested (by whoever or whatever might have plans for her in the "subtle" realms -- e.g. a shaman looking to transmit the power, a teacher looking for a worthy student, or a subtle being in distress on a quest for a strong enough savior.)  

 

Those existing in an amorphous zone where you are not strong and not weak, just "average," may be of little interest for either side.  Not weak enough to be easily targeted, not strong enough to be meaningfully challenged.  So, the majority living in this zone are usually left alone by subtle energies and entities, and tend to even "not believe in them" or "not worry about them"-- for lack of first hand exposure.  

 

On the very drastic outer extremes of the spectrum we might encounter a "sitting duck victim" and a "walking challenge warrior."  These people might have to live a lifelong battle, but for diametrically opposite reasons.

 

It would appear that taking some safe neutral stance and not getting noticed too much ought to be the goal because it is indeed this spot to which stuff "sticks" a lot less.  But here's a surprise.  There's been (e.g.) a study that showed that people who firmly believe that they are either very good or very evil live considerably longer than people who don't hold such beliefs about themselves.  Whether it is the belief that prolongs their lives, or the mission (either for good or for evil) that generates the belief, or just this central idea, focus, that organizes everything they do and everything they are in some coherent pattern, no one knows -- but that's the surprising fact.  Sitting on the fence may mean that neither side is particularly interested in you, but more people, and sooner, die from sitting on that fence than from jumping off and taking a side.  

 

So, this 1) can't be addressed overtly.  To determine how prone one might be to attracting unwanted energies, one may need to do a thorough accounting along the lines of 'who am I," along the inevitable "know thyself" lines.  Depending on the answers, there's choices to make.  The answers of course are strictly individual, so there's no generic recipes... 

Edited September 15, 2016 by Taomeow

[Jetsun]

The only real way for energies not to get stuck is to have worked through your issues and liberated all pockets of identity which remain in your system. For example someone aggressively calls you an idiot if you have personal emotional issues about either being stupid or an identity with being intelligent that verbal attack is going to stick and probably hurt, and you could be chewing it over for hours or even your whole life, whereas if you have no issue and identity with that then it can just slide off or through you without getting stuck at all and you will have forgotten it very quickly. Shielding isn't going to do the graft of working through your issues, it is more like an emergency plaster.

 

The great masters aren't shielded, they are full open and fluid because nothing sticks, everything just moves through them. Or rather there is no personal identity for anything to attach to. For example if you go see Ammaachi one second she is laughing, next weeping, next seriously instructing, then consoling, it all just pours through her while she fully embraces everyone's problems and negative energies. There is no fear of putting herself out there or head above the parapet either, as nothing touches her so what is there to be afraid of or to shield from?

 

Half the problem is that we are all shielded already or using most of our energy attempting to maintain our Shields, many of which were erected in childhood or in situations which are no longer present or relevant. Adding extra shields may just be another egoic trick to keep us under its spell to maintain its barriers.

[Brian]

Some may find this odd but I agree with much that has been said by several people.

 

Ultimately, there is no need for shielding. I have not yet encountered, however, anyone inhabiting a meat suit who has fully let go. Instead, we are in various states along that path.

 

As we polish and refine our energetic lens (for lack of a better phrase) and burn through our own unrecognized filters and raise our vibrational energies, we become increasingly clear and vibrant. The occlusions and impurities and rough spots are where the energies passing through us "stick" -- just as a beam of light coming in through the window illuminates the dust floating in the air. Until we reach that state of clarity, though, we do have "sticking points" and stuff sticks to those points (hence the clever name...)

 

This is compounded by us having a greater flux as we grow. Even as the sticking points become fewer and smaller, the flow also increases. On top of that, we may also become "attractive."

 

Taomeow touched on this -- as we raise our vibrational frequency and increase our flux capacity (not to be confused with a flux capacitor, mind you! ), we become increasingly vibrant. This is especially true for those who realize their purpose this time around is to be a healer. It is like a big neon sign, or a chalice-shaped beacon atop a castle. Eventually, I may reach the point where my windshield stays bug-free but, until then, I occasionally need to put a hood over my lantern. (Pardon the mixed metaphors...)

 

An exercise sometimes suggested is to take two trips to a "big box store" like Wal*mart. First trip, sit in your car for a bit first and rest in stillness, and then walk into the store with the intent to be open and inviting and receptive. Wander the store with no particular objective or destination in mind and just passively observe people. You will probably find that some people "bend towards you" as if pulled by gravity, subconsciously sensing your energy and recognizing on some level that you might be able to help you. Some may literally ask for help or ask for money or what have you.

 

Repeat the experiment -- perhaps another day -- but this time walk into the store with the intent of being shielded, cloaked, invisible. Again, just wander the store and passively observe. You will probably find you attract far less attention.

 

It is good to let your light shine but there are sometimes advantages to travelling incognito, too.

[Taomeow]

I think some people may confuse "energy shields" with "character armoring."

 

Not the same thing, folks.  Energy shields are not aimed to address childhood trauma-induced or conditioning-induced vulnerabilities, they are not that kind of "defenses."  They are older than human life on earth, as old and as indispensable as life itself, and serve a different purpose altogether.  To wit, the purpose of counteracting the second law of thermodynamics.   They are shielding the world of the living against chaos, against dedifferrentiation (the mechanism behind the change of healthy cells into cancer cells that "don't care for their identity"), against a uniform "energy soup" in which life cannot exist.

 

For one thing, the difference between normal healthy shields and trauma or conditioning induced defenses, character armoring, is selective permeability of healthy shields.  Armoring is crude; shielding is subtle.  Armoring is blocking; shielding works much like cell membranes in your body work, exercising fine discernment, letting through nutrients and signal messages, discarding metabolites before they accumulate to a toxic level, not letting through pathogens, poisons, assorted disruptive non-meaning-transmitting electrochemical noise, molecules too large to fit in, too distorted to be useful, and so on.  Shields are everywhere and that's how they work. 

 

Native Americans called all living things walking-in-skins and saw this peculiarity as the defining peculiarity of what live things are.  They -- we -- have shields, we walk in skins.  A man, a jaguar, a frog, a fish, a tree, a bee -- we all organize our participation in the Great Spirit (or tao) just so that we can exist as ourselves.  Qi "blowing on ten thousand things in a different way so each can be itself." (Zhuangzi).

 

The fragrance of a flower is an example of such permeable shield.   There's species that will get attracted to it and pollinate the plant and let it propagate and live.  And there's species that will get poisoned by the plant if they were to get attracted to it -- for them this same fragrance acts as a repellant.  How wise mother Nature is.

 

People who take some half-baked, made-up, or thoroughly misunderstood abstract ideal for guidance instead of her ways....  not so much.

 

Dead things have no distinct boundaries.  They don't protect themselves from intermixing with "whatever."  They are open to everything.  Anything goes.  Ask any dumpster.  It's wide open to "all" flow. 

 

Don't confuse the rules of engagement in the world of the living with those in the world of the dead and the undead.  Living things don't block themselves against the flow -- they  protect themselves within the flow -- they are alive to the flow, and it means able to differentiate.  Dead things don't care what flows and don't discriminate.  Laozi's "followers of death" follow suit.  Followers of life do something different entirely.    

Edited September 15, 2016 by Taomeow

[Brian]

I think some people may confuse "energy shields" with "character armoring."

 

Not the same thing, folks.  Energy shields are not aimed to address childhood trauma-induced or conditioning-induced vulnerabilities, they are not that kind of "defenses."  They are older than human life on earth, as old and as indispensable as life itself, and serve a different purpose altogether.  To wit, the purpose of counteracting the second law of thermodynamics.   They are shielding the world of the living against chaos, against dedifferrentiation (the mechanism behind the change of healthy cells into cancer cells that "don't care for their identity"), against a uniform "energy soup" in which life cannot exist.

 

For one thing, the difference between normal healthy shields and trauma or conditioning induced defenses, character armoring, is selective permeability of healthy shields.  Armoring is crude; shielding is subtle.  Armoring is blocking; shielding works much like cell membranes in your body work, exercising fine discernment, letting through nutrients and signal messages, discarding metabolites before they accumulate to a toxic level, not letting through pathogens, poisons, assorted disruptive non-meaning-transmitting electrochemical noise, molecules too large to fit in, too distorted to be useful, and so on.  Shields are everywhere and that's how they work. 

 

Native Americans called all living things walking-in-skins and saw this peculiarity as the defining peculiarity of what live things are.  They -- we -- have shields, we walk in skins.  A man, a jaguar, a frog, a fish, a tree, a bee -- we all organize our participation in the Great Spirit (or tao) just so that we can exist as ourselves.  Qi "blowing on ten thousand things in a different way so each can be itself." (Zhuangzi).

 

The fragrance of a flower is an example of such permeable shield.   There's species that will get attracted to it and pollinate the plant and let it propagate and live.  And there's species that will get poisoned by the plant if they were to get attracted to it -- for them this same fragrance acts as a repellant.  How wise mother Nature is.

 

People who take some half-baked, made-up, or thoroughly misunderstood abstract ideal for guidance instead of her ways....  not so much.

 

Dead things have no distinct boundaries.  They don't protect themselves from intermixing with "whatever."  They are open to everything.  Anything goes.  Ask any dumpster.  It's wide open to "all" flow. 

 

Don't confuse the rules of engagement in the world of the living with those in the world of the dead and the undead.  Living things don't block themselves against the flow -- they  protect themselves within the flow -- they are alive to the flow, and it means able to differentiate.  Dead things don't care what flows and don't discriminate.  Laozi's "followers of death" follow suit.  Followers of life do something different entirely.

Very nicely put!

[lessdaomorebum]

I have no idea what I am talking about, but it's not possible that you folks do either since there's so much different advice, so I agree with this guy:

https://youtu.be/_VFxKiwKvYA?t=1h4m48s

Cheers

Edited September 16, 2016 by lessdaomorebum

[dawei]

I have no idea what I am talking about, but it's not possible that you folks do either since there's so much different advice, so I agree with this guy:

https://youtu.be/_VFxKiwKvYA?t=1h4m48s

Cheers

 

Thanks for sharing... he is interesting and amusing

 

In Medical Qigong, we did shielding of self, bubbles on patient and a trash can to boot... 

 

Later... I threw the shielding in the trash can