At The Bottom Of The Well

In the movie based upon Dan Brown’s book, The DaVinci Code, character Robert Langdon describes a horrifying childhood experience of falling into a cold dark well and being trapped there for many hours.

As an elementary school kid, I remember peering down into just such a well that was located at the back of our old Dodson Ranch cabin. The well was being cleaned out and dug deeper by my grandfather and some helpers. Grandpa looked awfully small way down at the bottom of that old stone-lined well. I recall how scary it looked way back then.

The mental images of Robert Langdon’s well together with my own memory of the Dodson Ranch well have arisen and lingered in my mind for perhaps the last three months. What is different with the well in my mind now is that instead of treading in deep water at the bottom of it like the Langdon character, I am standing in chest deep water at the bottom of mine. Where the Langdon character fell down into the well, I simply awoke from a restless sleep finding myself standing in the bottom of it.

How did this well image business all come about you ask? The past four and a half months have been the toughest gauntlet for me to steer through as a caregiver since 2004.  The deep well image seems to have arose during this time. 

In October 2012, Beatrice Dodson, my mother, passed away. She had been a resident at the Sherwood Healthcare Center in Sacramento for just over a year. Mom’s heart finally gave out after struggling with both diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. Rest in peace Mom.

Just prior to this, Pop Dodson sustained a minor dog-bite from his beloved dog and bled profusely and dangerously due to his prescription medication Coumadin. He was also laboring with an infected cyst that defied healing up properly and requiring daily manually induced drainage. I executed my amateur nursing duties faithfully each day with that damned cyst. Either on the way to work or after getting off.  Seven straight weeks of draining then redressing, draining then redressing. Puss in the morning, puss in the evening, ain’t we got fun? Sorry Dad, I realize nobody wakes up in the morning asking for a cyst to arrive like some kind of mail order gift fruit basket.

Following mother’s passing and cremation, we hosted a memorial gathering of family, relatives and friends for her in late November. My wife and I handled all of the arrangements.

December had barely begun when my poor father, struggling to care for and live by himself at his home, fell several times sustaining injuries and having a couple more dangerous bleeding sessions and trips to the ER.  With his primary care physicians’ assistance, we finally took Dad off Coumadin. It was also in December that he collapsed a couple of times due to complications from his diabetes. Enough is enough. 

In mid December, with the help of some guardian angel medical personnel at Sutter Hospital, we were able to finally place my Dad in a nursing care facility for long term care. Dad himself chose the place which was Sherwood. He could no longer care for himself and live alone without 24 hour daily medical assistance. That, plus I had used up all of my available sick and vacation time at work to care for Mom & Dad.

Funding for Dad’s stay at Sherwood had to come from somewhere, which necessitated a very quick cash sale of a second home that he owned locally. With the help of an amazing real estate broker and family friend named Kevin Goring, the house sold quickly. Amen.

So now back to the well.

At least once or more each day, my image of standing at the bottom of that well in the cold water occurs. I am in no danger of drowning but there is no chance that someone is coming to assist in hoisting me out of this deep dark wet place. I am on my own in this predicament of my mind. I must use my own ingenuity and craft my own escape. 

Just this morning, in my mind’s eye, I began to examine the layers of old wet stones that line the depth of the well and noticed something I had not seen before. The faint outlines of cut out notches spaced evenly and rising up along one side of the well lining. A kind of ladder! Perhaps it is my own version of Jacob’s Ladder. Not  up to some kind of heavenly place: just a way up and out of where I am now. The possibility of climbing out successfully, one niche at a time. It will require strength of will hot sparks to ignite my campfire of stamina and start to climb. 

Though I have been feeling less powerful than my norm for some time, I am not powerless.

I can do this, however many hours or days it may take. Climb out of the place that I awoke within. No storm or adverse setback lasts forever. Not even being stuck in a well.

The warmth of the sunshine and dry footing beckons.

Jeff Dodson

February 17th 2013

A Book Review Of: Is Your Life Mapped Out?

We are all connected in some way. Connected with each other, connected cultures, connected nations, and, connected to our planet. It  has come down through time this way since the occurrence of what we have come to know as the Big Bang.

I was surprised to read and learn about for the first time, the scientific principles and facts behind all of this connectedness through Dr. David R. Hamilton’s book, Is Your Life Mapped Out?

This was my first exposure to this writer and his work which I found to be compelling and informative. Yes, it is a book about science, but it is also a book about the wonder of our origins and our intertwined relationship with a devine source and the cosmos. 

Dr. Hamilton shares the surprising foundational science that is behind our connectedness. He packs a lot of information within the confines of a 264 page book. While he writes about dozens of amazing topics, I chose to share some of the ones that I found most interesting here.

Chronobiology

This is the study of how living organisms adapt to the cyclical rhythms of the sun and the moon to produce biological rhythm patterns. These rhythmic patterns are part of our daily lives as they effect our sleeping and waking cycles. We also possess biological rhythmic patterns  that are influenced by solar and lunar cycles.  There is an actual clock gene that initiates our internal chronobiology. Discovered in 1994, it is called the Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput gene. It works by generating certain proteins that turn on the  biological pathways that control our rhythm cycles. I have been aware, since my teens, of some of these biological patterns but was not aware as to just how many there are and how deeply we are all influenced by them. I was also surprised to learn that the above mentioned clock gene actually exists.

Solar Flares And Our Earths Geomagnetic Activity

The rise and fall of the solar activity of our sun has it’s own 11 year cycle. Research has shown that blood pressure increases along with geomagnetic storm intensity. This was a surprise to me.

Geomagnetic storms are also known for affecting our satellites and our worldwide power grids. Some of our animal species have been found to use the Earth’s geomagnetic field for navigation. 

Animals using geomagnetic fields to maneuver and travel would explain how fish and birds, for example, can execute their amazing migratory journeys each year with GPS like  final destination accuracy. Dr. Hamilton writes that some people  possess this same ability.

Epigenetics

This is the science that looks at the influence of the environment and personal human choices on the actual behavior of genes. We may be born with certain genes that carry with them the risk of various kinds of disease, yet they may never become active. Both destiny and free will have a hand in what genes will activate and which will not. 

Loving nurture and human contact, for example, act to ensure that the genes that produce human growth hormone (HGH) and the hormone oxytocin are activated as much as they  need to be for normal  growth.  Take away the loving nurture and contact and the genes are less active. 

Life experiences have an influence on gene activity. We are not mere prisoners of the genes that we inherited.

The Three Levels of Creation

David Hamilton writes that there are three levels of creation. The first is the need for action, or as someone once said, “start turning the flywheel.” The second one is  the principle of interconnectedness. According to the author, this principle means that there are many opportunities that are available to us via social networks, family members, friends and business associates with which to share and commit to what we want to achieve. The third is embedded consciousness, described as a field of energy or information that is everywhere and in everything. Since consciousness is part of the fabric of reality, we thus are already connected to the things we want.

We attract to us that which we focus upon so be mindful of what it is that you really want.

Quantum Interconnections

All particles are connected regardless of the distance or space between them. This is due to what  physicists call entanglement which arose during the Big Bang. Put another way, the author writes that not only are these particles connected but they can be aware of each other’s experiences. Whew!

Fixed Destiny or Multiple Possible Futures?

Dr. Hamilton, using the metaphor of a tree, talks about what he describes as the ‘tree of probable life.’ Picture your life starting out at the base of a tree. While your early life seems to begin growing like the vertical trunk of the tree and primarily in one direction. As we get older and begin to act upon our own choices, the tree begins to grow branches which represent the probable futures that each choice would bring. Viewing the pathway of life in this manner, each of us then would face the future with several possibilities instead of one set or single destiny.

Near Death Experiences

Near Death Experiences are discussed as well. They are more common than what has been reported. According to Dr. Hamilton, a Gallup poll, conducted in the 1980’s disclosed that 1 in 20 Americans reported that they had had one. A common feature of those experiencing such a phenomenon is looking down upon their own bodies, often in a hospital setting, calmly observing what is being done to them as well as the activity of others within the same room. This looking down from above vantage point has a name. It is called veridical perception. One thing that Dr. Hamilton wrote about that we do not give much thought to is that there are a substantial number of nurses in the medical profession who have personally seen or experienced patient NDE phenomena but are reluctant to share their experiences with outsiders.

One poignant case of a NDE was recently shared by author, Anita Moorjani, in her book, Dying To Be Me, which I previously reviewed and posted in a blog.

As a reader and blog writer about caregiving and spiritual topics, I enjoyed learning that there is substantial body of scientific research that appears to validate the striking intuitive powers we possess, our ability to positively influence our physical and mental health in spite of the genetics we were born with, and  how we are all connected: right down to the subatomic level according to particle physics. 

For me, a couple of the chapters read a little heavy when I first went through my copy so I spent some time contemplating what was being shared, then went back and reread those chapters again. I loved and admired how this author invested the time to provide us common folk with an understandable overview of intimidating subjects such as quantum physics, particle entanglement and the phenomenon of wave-particle duality. Pretty amazing stuff.

Dr. Hamilton’s book, Is Your Life Mapped Out?, is  a thought provoking read. If you  possess a sense of wonder about both science and metaphysics, I believe you will will enjoy this book.

Jeff Dodson

2/10/13

FTC Disclosure

I received this book free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and reflect my honest judgment of the product.