color and form | Alisa Battaglia

The intelligent coordination of life consists of four parts: the soul, the mind and the senses of the physical body. Each of these has a specific function that contributes to the wholeness we experience as life and focus to maintain these specific functions leads to a balanced integrated relationship. When imbalance in the physical, emotional or mental arises the inner subjective life that cannot be apprehended by the five senses and the outer physical objective areas of life of the five senses are bifurcated producing duality consciousness. Disconnecting ego (outer life) from the soul (inner life) from the stream of universal consciousness is the contributor of conflict producing human resistance, struggle, disease and pain.

The senses are a fundamental property that arises out of the five elements because they act as a bridge between the non-physical world of soul and mind to the physical body and environment. Without the five senses our internal reality would be completely devoid from an external reality, as the senses gather information from the outer world and perceptions are relayed to the mind in the form of sound; touch and temperature; light; color and form; taste and flavor; and smell.

Our state of consciousness is a vital factor in how we apply or misapply our sense energies. It shapes our reality, as it is the perception we carry of life that shows us where we are in resistance or bondage. If our perception is impaired or diminished, it eventually produces wrong or negative physical and external conditions because our inner source is dis-eased. We do not see things clearly as our emotional biases impair our functions and therefore misapply or misdirect our senses.

The hostility, bitterness, disappointments, deprivation, deficiencies, and antagonisms of our sufferings that comprise our inner state from sensory misapplication turns outward into manifestation, onto the body and onto others. They become our patterns through repetition and reinforcement. Faulty patterns that run deeply within us negate who we are by the inhibition of natural processes and flexibility of movement that results in an imbalance of all the interrelated physiological systems and subtle energies of the chakra system.

When we misuse our senses (touch, sight, taste, hearing and smell) with their objects we have the potential to suffer and create disease. For instance, excessive sensory stimuli borne out of living in the syncopated rhythms of modernity overload the senses from loud music; noisy environments such as living near an airports or train station and traffic; watching too much T.V. or working too long on the computer and reading too much; and talking excessively on the phone. These are considered over-stimulated states of the senses affecting the chakras.

Another example of how we misuse our senses is insufficient sensory input or psychical starvation, a form of deprivation that leads to deficiency and apathetic states where it becomes difficult to react to a situation. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a clear physiological example that occurs during winter months affecting mood changes from little sunlight that feeds the pineal gland whose lack causes depression and disease. Isolation or solitary confinement in prison and war camps also creates agitation and mental imbalance from the inhibition of sensory stimulation from the outside world.

The third way that we misuse our senses is by sensory intake of something traumatic that is morally and emotionally repugnant such as witnessing violence, whether in real life situations, bad relationships or on TV, watching shows that continually feature cruelty, emotional and physical violence. The sensory impression of seeing and hearing distress has a strong impact on the nervous system that disrupts the balance between the mind and body.

Misuse of the senses in general has an adverse effect that weakens and damages the coordination between the mind and body, harming the mind and damaging the body. To engage and strengthen the five senses we use them together as often as we can.

By Alisa Battaglia