Park and I recently watched the documentary My Octopus Teacher, which was released in September 2020. It had been "on our list" for over a year.
We do own a TV, but we do not have cable (no daily news on, haunting us all day long in this house) just subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Gaia and Netflix. The telly is never just "on in the background ".
Music sets the stage and backdrop in our house 95% of the time, so when we commit to some TV couch time, we must choose and choose well. There are a lot of sci-fi shows and movies on the docket. In fact, one of our very first dates back in 2012 was Prometheus.
When we finally settled in for this hour and a half Academy Award-winning documentary, I was not quite sure what to expect, but I resonated immediately with Craig Foster, the filmmaker and "pupil".
He was depleted by an insane filming schedule on projects all over the world until he decided, (well, his heart and soul already knew) that he needed to get off the crazy train and get himself centered again. I know all too well that same unraveling; my own prompting event was in Corporate America.
Foster began filming underwater in kelp forests just off the beaches of South Africa, near Cape Town, where he spent a lot of his childhood. It is there that he had a close encounter of the 8th kind, and developed a curious relationship with a female Octopus.
I joked with Park that clearly they must have had a GoPro on this Squid’s head in order to score some of the astounding footage.
Though I know technically an Octopus is not a Squid, I could not resist the word play on Quid Pro Quo and Squid Go Pro.
Towards the end of film, there is a cameo with Foster’s son, reacquainting with both his Father and nature, and fully enjoying being under the sea in the Octopus’s garden in the shade.
As I didn’t see any headgear on the eight-armed beauty, clearly the Teacher was sans a GoPro. I then thought perhaps it was Foster’s son capturing the mesmerizing interaction between mollusk and man.
It turns out that, though never shown in the film, Roger Horrocks is the underwater cinematographer responsible for those wonderful Kodak moments caught on film between the Teacher’s Pet, Foster, and the Teacher herself.
Enter the antagonist of the film, a Pyjama Shark. Foster’s Teacher is now Prey. She survives an attack by escaping his clutches, retreating and burrowing into her den, but she sacrifices an arm in the process. She falls ill from the massacre, but thankfully she recuperates, regenerating her arm in a couple of months.
Regeneration has been weighing on my mind for the past year and a half. After falling rather ill myself three years ago, initially all symptoms seemed a mystery, until all was diagnosed last June.
Due to certain autoimmune issues, I have severe Small Fiber Neuropathy, both length dependent and (the more painful) non-length dependent ... in addition to Autonomic Neuropathy.
Resonating with the Octo theme in this blog ... October is Dysautonomia Awareness Month.
To date, there are no known cures for any of the Dys-Autonomias (dys-functions of the Autonomic Nervous System). I was part of a virtual walk campaign that raised 104K for further research.
The Autonomic Nervous System, ANS, is responsible for all the body functions we don’t (well shouldn’t) have to think about working: blood pressure, heart rate, temperature regulation, digestion and well, breathing, to name a few.
We are told by my Neurologist that my nervous system symptoms can be managed, but not cured. The probability for my regeneration is slim to none, as my test results proved ZERO fibers, truly a complete absence of the fibers ... nothing to be regenerated.
Keeping a pretty hectic pace in corporate America for 30 years, and ignoring my immune system when it was struggling while being attacked ( just like the Octopus Teacher in the film), resulted in my "injuries".
I refer to Park and I as The Princess and The Pea, the famous Hans Christen Andersen fairy-tale. The Princess can feel even just a single pea at the bottom of 20 mattresses, evidence that she is a "true" Princess. That is what neuropathy feels like. The absolute tiniest irritation is so painful. And, it just so happens that Park’s initials are P.E.A. Thus, we are The Princess and The Pea!
There is a constant buzz in the metaphysical and quantum science communities of being able to heal yourself of any ill.
I do agree that mind is over matter … and that we are able to manifest and bring into being our thoughts. But I am referring to the conscious, spiritual mind that is One with all, not the Ego mind. Park and I believe in being as healthy as can be: medically, financially, psychologically, spiritually and metaphysically; therefore we certainly take appropriate actions in all of those areas of Life.
Nevertheless, being less than perfect prompted me to to question my essence as the Resonance Advisor, the Metaphysical Mascot if you will, to A 432 Life.
Am I a fundamental metaphysical fraud that I have medical conditions that cannot be cured, reversed or regenerated? How am I not at the epitome of epigenetics, as I have immersed myself in my metaphysical studies the past three years, after falling ill? (Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work.)
“ The wound is the place where the Light enters you”
Rumi, Persian poet & Sufi master
Park and I created an altered Chinese Yin-Yang symbol for our A 432 Life logo. Yin and yang represent Duality; the Taoism idea that two opposite characteristics can actually exist in harmony and complement each other.
It is my personal belief that this body we manifested to be birthed into on this 3rd dimensional plane is the medium and vehicle for our soul to tangibly experience (and moreover learn from) human events of which find ourselves as participants.
I do not believe we (the human body "we") are here to be perfect by design, then there would be nothing to learn by the events we experience in this mortal meat suit that houses our eternal soul here while on this 3rd plane.
Even the Yin-Yang symbol has the dot of the opposite color in each of the "kidneys" to denote there is no separating the two concepts … good vs. bad, light vs. dark, ease vs, dis-ease.
“Quantum Genius: A person who has found as state of wellness in body, mind and spirit and shares their wealth of peace, love, joy and abundance with others”. Adam C. Hall.
If we can refrain from labeling and placing judgment on our human experiences - and their outcomes - in black and white concepts such perfect health vs. injury or illness, then perhaps we can more fully embrace the lesson to be learned from the event. The Yin-Yang symbol of Taoism truly symbolizes the transcendence of the dualistic way of thinking.
I immediately thought of of Bethany Hamilton, the surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack at only age 13, at the time the Teacher lost her arm in the film. Seventeen years later Bethany is still competing. She is a motivational speaker, and has two children. She incorporated and adjusted to the event that resulted in her having one arm and not two.
The morning of the night we watched "My Octopus Teacher", Park and I were chatting over coffee at the breakfast bar. We talk … a lot. I am left-handed. My left arm is in pain … a lot.
I shared with him a dream I had the night before of a shark attacking me in a pool. Just as the shark’s razor-sharp teeth grazed my left forearm, I became Popeye-esque and instinctively grabbed the Jaws Wanna Be and lofted it high above my head, and heaved it out of the pool. Clearly I was having some arm pain in my sleep, and this Wonder Woman scene played out.
Though Bethany has not regenerated her arm, she is not flawed. The Octopus Teacher did regenerate her arm. I did not lose my arm in my dream, but I have not regenerated my nerve fibers. None of us are flawed. Our Lights Shine bright!
I mentioned previously that one of mine and Park’s first dates was seeing “Prometheus” at the movie theater.
As in most sci-fi flicks, wounds and illnesses can be spontaneously healed with futuristic technology. Just go lay in tube much like a suntanning bed and hit some buttons and you are all fixed. No more broken bones, no more cancer, new nerve fibers - now your body is perfect again.
I am not saying it would be "good" or "bad" if such machines existed now, but I’m fairly confident such technologies will exist in the future. Even Star Trek hinted at the first flip phone (way back in the 1964 episode, "The Cage").
At the end of the documentary, our dear Octopus Teacher dies. By now all viewers are on the edge of their seats. And I would suspect most are teary-eyed as well. I know we were.
Prior to this watching this film, I did not know that Octopuses are semelparous animals, which means they reproduce once and then they die.
Our dear Teacher’s sole purpose was to nourish and defend her eggs. Once hatched, she died as she is programmed by her genes to do. She no longer had to put up a fight to survive the clutches of the Pyjama Shark, she was now inherently part of the food chain, the circle of life.
I learned last week in a seminar I was participating in that it is only Dolphins, Orcas and Humans that do not have death programmed in their DNA. Does this mean I, Shawn Elaine Anderson, as a human body, can live forever? Do I want to live forever? Is it my eternal soul’s purpose to stay in only this one body on this third plane for eternity?
Perhaps the human body technology can be perfected to live forever. But perhaps our souls in our flesh casings have a different timeline and agenda. An Agenda higher than the ego mind’s desire to pursue perfect health. After all, "mind" is over "matter" .
Buddhist and Hindu religious texts teach us of "attachment". The inability to practice or embrace "detachment", is viewed as the main obstacle towards a serene and fulfilled life.
Maybe we are not supposed to be too "attached" to a perfectly healthy body 24/7, 365 days a year, and live to 300 years old or longer on this plane? The only way we can grow is from "events" that propel us forward in our development. That growth can't happen in a perfect plastic bubble.
Our Octopus Teacher’s inherent instinct was to to survive until her sole purpose was fulfilled - to give birth, and then die.
Perhaps like Bethany Hamilton, I have more to share with the world, without a perfect body inside and out. As Adam C. Hall states, "finding my own state of wellness" despite my physical non-perfectness ... not in spite of it.
Until next time,
Shawn Elaine Anderson (The “Sh” of Team ShArkFinn … Shawn, Park and Finn.)
