Parrot Days

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, shine, shine, let it shine." - Unknown

"Him the sun does not illumine, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor the lightning - nor, verily, fires kindled upon the earth. He is the one light that gives light to all. He shines; everything shines. - Upanishads, Hinduism

I used to catch a flash of them, here and there, near the power plant or in the tattered hedgerow by an east-side-of-town Taco Bell. Those rare glimpses were always a mainline of joy into my bloodstream. Despite the traffic and urban life, among the drifting fast food wrappers, eternal road improvements and dreary utility works, these little jewels of exotic beauty, designed for Eden but living here, reminded me that the Garden is everywhere.

The flock of Monk Parakeets, also known as Quaker Parrots, was first spotted in these parts in the 1970s. Natives of Argentina, the prevailing theory is that a few were released after losing their status as house pets, or just escaped. Another theory holds that their predecessors were part of a shipment that made a bid for freedom when their shipping crate broke open at Kennedy airport in 1967. Somehow, perhaps in a misguided attempt to get back to Buenos Aires, a few found themselves in Austin and decided that there were enough attractions here to make a parrot happy.

Whatever their origins, the current flock has fewer than a thousand members. They have not become so commonplace that their brilliant plumage has lost its power to astonish.

Three weeks ago, on my early morning walk around the school track, I happened to look up and see a dozen or so perching parrots on a power line, facing east, and toasting their kiwi-green breasts in the first light of the rising sun. Their hibiscus-colored beaks were tucked into one another as they absorbed all the feeble warmth a winter morning has to give.

The splinter group must have made a nest nearby, because every morning since, I lean against the power pole and we wait for the sun to top the trees together. We bow to the increasing light…the promise of warmer parrot-days to come.

Being out in the world before dawn gives me time to witness the contrast between dark and light, cold and warmth. I've come to appreciate why earlier civilizations worshipped the sun…its mysterious capacity to appear and disappear, both sustain and destroy life still has the power to move us to reverence when the winter has been long. Thus, in that chilly hour, I join my parrot friends in awakening to another day of life, conscious that these days are finite for all assembled.

We know our sun to be a constant…the center of our orbit in infinite space…our primary celestial resource for electromagnetic radiation, or radiant energy, that we perceive as both heat and visible light. Our sun's light sustains us.

And, beyond the physics of electromagnetic radiation, Light has always been a metaphorical description of a spiritual Oneness with the matrix of creation. Spiritual beings carry with them the light of consciousness, and if we get really advanced, we become enlightened. "Moving toward the light" expresses both a state of increased awareness and is a euphemism for passing through the tunnel from this world toward the next.

Light is a poetic device and without its inclusion, poets and philosophers throughout the ages would have lost a vital symbolic idea. Genesis would be far less inspiring if it started out, "In the beginning, there was electromagnetic radiation." True, but not exactly awesome.

Thus, most of us understand that light has two distinct meanings. There is the light that belongs to the world of particle physics and whose properties are described at their very tiniest level by mathematics alone. There is the artificial light that you pay for in your monthly OPALCO bill, and the natural light that you bathe in when you make your winter pilgrimage to Mexico. Then there is this inner Light - a sharp and joyful radiation that a row of parrots on a wire call forth. For lack of better words, we might call the first definition physical and the second, spiritual. Electromagnetic radiation falls squarely into the realm of science, whereas inner Light is left to philosophy and literature.

But these are times of miracle and wonder, and it turns out that physical light and spiritual Light may be, essentially, the same phenomenon. Researchers as far back as the 1920s found experimental evidence that photons played an important role in the functioning and processes of all living cells. Organisms are continuously absorbing and emitting light particles, but the actual role of photonic interaction at the systemic level had only received sporadic attention. Modern optics and imaging are now allowing scientists to explore the role of light in biology and early observations indicate something remarkable is going on, Researchers at the University of Arizona, Tucson, have observed biophoton patterns in geranium leaves. When a leaf is cut or otherwise injured, biophoton emissions increase at the wound, suggesting that light plays a role in healing the injury. However, biophoton patterns are not limited to the immediate site and extend out from the boundaries of the injured plant like a halo or an aura. Even more amazing is that the photon patterns are strengthened between plants in close proximity, suggesting the expression of a type of communication or resonance between the plants.

The findings of the study were published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and would seem to suggest that "sending light", a spiritual idea connected to prayer, healing and visualization, may have a correlation in the world of physical healing and medicine.

The implication for this is that the famous passage from Matthew 5:13-16 - "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house" - is not just a spiritual idea. If biophotons do, indeed, pass between living organisms to the purpose of moving energy around, then we are something completely different than we imagined in both the spiritual and the physical sense. That is, if we resonate with light, we are Light.

It is, of course, wise to proceed cautiously along the path that starts with an observation about geraniums and ends with a grand theory of Life, the Universe and Everything. There are only a few principles in science upon which the entire scientific community agrees. And even when scientists have the confidence in their observations to declare a "Law", there is often some additional tweaking further on down the line. Sir Isaac Newton's "Law of Gravity" got a little polishing when Einstein came along with his "Theory of Relativity" and expanded the explanation for the phenomenon that makes toast always land on the floor butter-side-down.

As much as science craves new worlds to explore, strange new theories can really blow apart existing principles and throw what was, heretofore, believed to be an accurate description of reality into confusion. It's understandable that there would be resistance among the scientific community to every crackpot theory that anyone advances, even when the innovator has solid credentials.

Time, inevitably, takes care of this, however, and truth tends to win out, even though a few centuries may pass. Galileo Galilei got very close to losing his life for heresy when he wrote a letter to the Vatican stating that no scientific position should ever be made on an article of faith. Galileo had proved that Aristotle and the Church were just blowing smoke about the nature of the universe - to wit, the earth is not in a fixed position in the heavens and the universe does not revolve around it. On pain of death, Galileo recanted and mea culpa-ed until the moment of his natural death, when in a final spark of scientific stubbornness he whispered, "But, it does move."

Four hundred years later, the Church got around to agreeing with Galileo's point of view and erected a statue of him inside the Vatican's walls. So, there's no particular hurry. We don't have to rush to biophoton resonance and make it answer all of life's mysteries, or anything. We can stand as curious witnesses to how the edges of scientific research are beginning to blur with ideas that were once regarded as purely spiritual...ealing light, Divine Light, Eternal Light.

In the dark days of winter, when light and warmth are scarce, it good enough to contemplate the light particles within and imagine them streaming out from you like a heat wave, warming the people and parrots that cross your path.

References: Katherine Creath, Gary E. Schwartz. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, December 1, 2005, "Imaging 'Auras' Around and Between Plants: A New Application of Biophoton Imaging."

Lynne McTaggart, "The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe." 2003

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Ingrid lives on San Juan Island.

While Ingrid is spiritually promiscuous, she credits her guru, Jimmy Buffet, for her mantra..."If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." Besides a passion for Tiki Studies, Ingrid is borderline biblio-obsessive. She is an old-school Libran - i.e., she won't be leading the Revolution, but she'll work to make it an attractive affair and hire the musicians and caterers."

Her column appears every other Thursday in San Juan Islander. To contact Ingrid, send emails to ingrid@sanjuanislander.com

editor@sanjuanislander.com

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