Chapter 9: Connecting to Spirit by Rewinding Time

In the Introduction to this series, I observed that, because the spiritualization of matter occurs in consciousness, photography is an ideal medium for personal growth and spiritual development. In my experience, the most powerful and effective practice for expanding perception, illuminating the spirit within a photographic subject and connecting to Spirit (Source, Divine Unity), is through journeys of imagination—contemplation of an enlarged and printed photograph. Remember, to contemplate a photograph is to hold your attention on it and delve deeply into its identity, substance, history and meaning—what does it “say” about the universe, the world, society, humanity, the times and you? Why did you choose to photograph this?

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Albert Einstein, physicist

Taking “history” for example, I select the photograph of this wrench made at a mushroom farm. In a place where I won’t be interrupted and in a semi-meditative state with my eyes open ready to write (or not), I let the photograph prompt my imagination—someone, likely a man with dirty hands, placed the wrench on an oil drum. I wonder, where was it before that? Might it have been used in a factory, a gas station or railroad yard? Did it hang on a pegboard above someone’s basement workbench? Had it been cherished or even used? Had it sat in a metal or wooden drawer filled with other wrenches? With each of these possibilities I extend my imagining to the environment, what the user would have been wearing, the grease on his hands, dirt under his fingernails—the calendar on the wall, the smell of oil and gasoline, the sound of a baseball announcer coming from a cheap plastic radio and the voices of workmen talking, perhaps yelling, sounds absorbed and held in this object’s metallic memory cells. Yes, these are stereotypical images. But flights of imagination, like pieces of a puzzle, contribute to the picture of human evolution, the strengths and vulnerabilities that spark appreciation and evoke compassion.

God has ordained that imagination be stronger than reason in the soul of the artist, which makes the artist build bridges between the possible and the seemingly impossible.

Alex Gray, artist

My imagination shifts to when the wrench was new, when it looked its best, gleaming bright steel with the manufacturer’s name stamped on it. Was it on display in a window? Or was it one of many wrapped in brown paper and put in a box with a drawing or photo on top, specifications and serial numbers on the side? There are no right or wrong imaginings in contemplation. As well as enabling the exploration of times, places, events and abstractions that we could not otherwise experience physically, and sidestepping everyday thinking, imagination inspires creativity and fuels our appreciation of what was and is, as it is.

Back to the wrench. I see the manufacturing process, the minerals being scooped from the ground by giant, loud and smoke-belching diggers. They’re crushed and dumped into a crucible where rock transforms into molten, smoking and fiery liquid. Sparks fly. Gloved men with black goggles handle the controls in a dark factory with a dirt floor. The cars parked outside are vintage 1930’s. Men in the office wear double-breasted, three button suits, starched collars and ties with finger-length clips to hold them in place. Their office managers wear suits, and secretaries wear dresses with nylons that have seams down the back.

Rewinding, I see a gray-haired man sitting at a drafting table wearing spectacles. He wears a wide tie, but his sleeves are rolled up and he smokes unfiltered cigarettes. With a fine-pointed pencil in hand, he transposes a sketch of the wrench with notes on its dimension and weight into a blueprint that will be used to create a model and mold. The more detailed the imagining the more fun it is.

Much farther back is the visionary who met the challenge of a connection problem. How can I connect two pieces of metal in a way that they’ll almost never come apart without purposefully being separated? Trial and error. After many attempts and failures, someone imagines a threaded bolt with flat sides and a tool with a handle that would turn it—tighten and untighten. Brilliant!

Further down the historical ladder, where did the iron ore for this particular wrench come from? China most likely. Other possibilities include Australia, Brazil, South Africa Michigan. Another someone, probably a chemist who understood geology imagined a molten soup consisting of iron oxide, magnetite, hematite, goethite, limonite and siderite. With these minerals scattered around the world, someone in an office did the research and placed orders to get them to the manufacturing site. Prior to that, I think about motivation, a company needing a material harder than rock and a desire to build with steel—and win wars. Motivation leads to innovation.

The mundane in life is supremely sacred. The Infinite Creator is emerging right then and there for us.

Doug Scott, Mental Health Counselor, minister

In another example, rewinding space-time in this way can take just minutes by asking the seminal question: What had to happen for this to exist? We begin with identity and work back to Source.

This complex but prosaic item exists because someone imagined an efficient and stylish way to flush a urinal. It required engineering knowledge to imagine such a system and there had to be an established process for manufacturing and electroplating metal to produce the chromed surfaces. That required the evolution of water and waste management systems, the plumbing profession, the discovery of metal manufacturing, iron ore mining, all of human evolution, plate tectonics, volcanology, the formation of the earth 4.5 billion years ago, the birth of the sun and solar system 4.6 billion years ago, emergence of the Milky Way galaxy approximately 13.6 billion years ago and the Great Expansion between 10 and 20 billion years ago. What happened before that is the Great Mystery—or whatever word we choose to reference the infinite, eternal or absolute consciousness. Everything we put in the frame of a camera can be traced to Source.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

                        Carl Sagan, astronomer

Recommended Practice

Select a photograph of an object, preferably one from your collection. Sit with it where you won’t be disturbed. Be prepared to write. Using your imagination, backtime or rewind the evolution of that item, step by step, marking each short sentence with a bullet point. Only list the steps that you can actually visualize. (The more we learn about biology, earth sciences, physics and cosmology the better will be the quality and number of our visualizations).  See how many bullets you can create.

When you do this with several objects, you’ll be amazed at how your perception and perspective on the world has been enriched and expanded. Now, everything you focus on will generate feelings of appreciation and gratitude. Your aesthetic eye will take a leap and you’ll see how profoundly it improves the quality of your photographing. Why? Because you’re consciousness has expanded. You will have tapped into the Source of all that is.