Perceiving Light

Twenty years ago this year, I received my initial Reiki attunement.  I’ll never forget the first thing I noticed afterwards while looking around the room at my fellow classmates.  I thought there was something going on with the lighting but soon realized I was seeing the individual auras of light around each student.  It was as if each person was wearing a different colored helmet of light.  It was both beautiful and unnerving at the same time.

Soon after, I would begin the process of understanding what it all meant.  When the colors appeared more dense and closer to the body, the person was often experiencing a heavier emotion.  When the colors expanded outward and were more translucent, there was a harmonic flow to the energy.

Some days I would walk into the classroom as my teacher was setting up and observe the room bathed in a beautiful golden hue of light.  At other times, orbs of light would appear in response to the energy and information being exchanged.

After a while, as my other intuitive senses became more active, the colors of light didn’t appear as often and now I tend to perceive colored light only when I need to be aware of what is happening with the energy in any given situation.  Sometimes the colored light emerges to confirm what I’m already sensing or thinking and other times it takes the lead by providing me with precise intuitive information.

A couple weeks ago I was listening to a documentary on PBS about how the brain perceives information through the senses and they were discussing how humans and other species perceive color differently as a survival mechanism to alert them to danger as well as to finding the food and shelter they need.

As an energy healer, working with the light body, the documentary brought me back to that first day when I sat down in class and instantly perceived the colors around each person.  It was an initiation of sorts, acknowledging that I had arrived at the threshold of a new way of perceiving life and little did I know just how much my life was about to change for the better.

The other day, while walking around the lake in Central Park, I was watching the light sparkling like diamonds on the water and felt a tingling at the top of my head.  As I looked around, there was a teenage girl in a beautiful bright red quinceañera dress having her picture taken with her parents in one of the alcoves.  She looked like a rose against the greenery.  As I passed the next alcove over, someone was setting up a sign that said, “Marry Me” and arranging rose petals in a pattern around the bench.  There was so much light being anchored in these two adjacent spots and to be a quiet witness to this filled my own heart with so much joy.

As I headed home, I realized that as a healer and lightworker, one of the roles I’ve accepted in this lifetime is to perceive the light in any given situation whether its purpose is for healing and restoring balance or for anchoring it into this three-dimensional world through these moments of celebration. 

It’s often talked about how our thoughts create our reality, but it’s not as simple as that.  I often remind myself that what I perceive ultimately shifts the energy and shapes how my experience unfolds.

In quantum physics, particles are found to behave based on how they’re being observed, so the patterns of perception through which we observe life in turn shape how we think, feel, respond to, and experience any given situation.

On Tuesday, here in New York City, we have the annual phenomenon called “Manhattanhenge” when the sunset lines up with the grid of side streets and is perfectly framed by the buildings no matter which street you’re standing on while facing west. 

Because of the angle of the city, this happens every year, both three weeks before and three weeks after the summer solstice.  It’s a chance to take in the beauty of the sun’s light as it reaches its peak each year and in turn celebrate how you express your own unique light in this world. 

The transition of spring into summer is a fun time to explore what your personal color palette looks like.

What colors are you drawn to?

What colored clothes have you been wearing?

What colored foods are you eating?

How do certain colors make you feel?

As you observe your surroundings, take a few moments to soften your gaze and just take in the lighting and the colors that are prominent.  There’s a reason children are drawn to colorful things. Color invokes the imagination and sparks creativity.  As adults we don’t need to lose that connection as I’ve learned on my own journey as an energy healer, committed to perceiving and anchoring as much light as possible into this material world.