It all starts with the body, short story

It all starts with the body

It all starts with the body

The end of all wars starts with the body. That’s what a group of researchers told the people of our planet for years. 

Years! 

At some point, we were so annoyed by their reiterations that we agreed to partake in an experiment. Not because we believed what they said but in the hope that they would leave us be afterwards.

To be absolutely honest with you, there was another reason why many of us agreed. The wars had destroyed much of nature, crops kept failing, and many of us often lacked food and clean water. 

The researchers had promised no shortage of food, clean water, and a twelve week stay in a remote place, far away from all bombs and bullets.

Save! Fed!

We were told that the experiment had two stages. Stage one, getting to know our own body. Stage two, and that scared me a lot more, getting to know the bodies of others. There was an optional stage three where we could train to set up the experiment ourselves. But that was not for me. I wanted a break from the bleeding wars and food. If that meant to do something with my body, so be it, I thought.

I smile, remembering how I talked myself into applying while being both scared and annoyed. What did the body have to do with anything? We all knew that we were ultimately cannon fodder. No need to get cosy with my doomed shell.

Big sigh. The wars were terrible. And we were— we were numbed, many of us dead inside already.

Anyway.

The researchers said, the more people participated the better the chances of creating a momentum which would allow us to end all our wars.

All our wars!

I shook my head then and I shake it again now. Ending all wars!

No one believed it. 

No one.

No idealists left on our planet.

Anyway.

Eventually, every region on our planet assembled three groups, each with a hundred and twenty volunteers. There were whispers that the warmonger only agreed so that their shoulders could regain some strength, and that more children could be born for their armies.

Big sigh!

Anyway.

Each group travelled to a remote place. I was with a group who took a train into the mountains. The mountains! I hadn’t seen the mountains in decades. What a sight! 

When we got off the train, we were welcome with soup, bread and water. It was delicious. Delicious. After the meal, we entered a large barn full of clothes, soaps, tents, sleeping bags, knives, bows, spates— anything really that a camper might need. We each got an empty backpack and, with big unbelieving eyes and sheepish smiles, we filled our backpacks, occasionally getting into a heated discussion what we would really need. After all, we were to carry all our stuff ourselves.

I pride myself that I packed quite well. I even took a bar of chocolate, a glass of honey and a small bottle of whiskey. All of these are, in my opinion, undervalued lifesavers.

Anyway, we had to hike to our final destinations. I say destinations because for the first six weeks, stage one, we were on our own, with the closest person about a half an hour walk away.

We started out together with twelve of the researchers as guides. Every now and again, a group of twelve would split from the main group and take another track. Later the twelve would split into six, then into three, and eventually, the three of us went our separate way at the marking our guide had left.

I’ll be honest again. When I reached my spot, marked by two wooden poles and a washing line, I wept. I wept so bitterly because this place was so beautiful: a mixed forest in the north, a river in the south and rich sloping meadows in between. There were few birds and insects, many of them had gone extinct, but there were still more than I had heard in a long while.

Anyway.

I was overwhelmed by the beauty, the peace, the clear water, the lush green, the earthy smells from the forest.

Overwhelmed but also energised, I lost no time to build my camp.

After that I must have slept three days. I was still sleeping when my guide visited and made me eat. I hadn’t even noticed how weak I had become.

Anyway.

When I was better, it was time to begin with the actual experiment. We had some reading material (with graphics :-)), but overall the task sounded simple: focus on your body. How? Washing and moisturising, and noticing all the different limps, skin textures, smells, noises, sensations, and organs that make up a body. It was bizarre. All of it. But I swore not to get into details on that because it’s really something best done without preconceptions, exploring in your own way, on your own terms, in your own time. It was all the naked body at first, and for me much swimming and floating in the river. Next, I received a large delivery of clothes. Not to keep them all for myself but to use them to play around with different looks, feels, stretches. I never thought I could have this much fun with clothes. Honestly. I danced in front of the mirror in combinations that were just fun, and that had a liberating effect on me: to break away from expectations, from what I knew and to just play, test, dance. It was fantastic, and in the conclusion a way of finding out what I looked like and what I wanted to look like. 

Oh, food.

We got frequent deliveries of basics and we each had a patch of garden, and I also took to finding food in the forest which was rich in berries, and the first mushrooms were appearing.

What else?

Ah, yes. I learned and practiced breathing exercises, three times a day. I did strength training, gymnastics and balancing, and dancing, each once a day. Whenever I was fed and trained, I immersed myself again in washing, massaging and moisturising. 

I heard later, that for most it was a strange experience to spend so much time just with noticing their body, caring for it, shaping and stretching it. 

But as the weeks passed, I became more aware of my being, of my body, mind and soul. I became more present — and, to be honest with you again, I began to fall in love with myself.

Yes! In love!

Anyway.

After six weeks of self-care and self-discovery, the next stage began: getting to know and appreciate the bodies of the other members of my group of twelve. We had come across each other while out hunting, walking or twice while swimming in the river. But it was only now that we began to spend time together.

Each day, we would meet, first share a herbal tea, mostly made with nettle, peppermint or sage, we had found. Afterwards we’d do some mediative breathing together and then blush. Yes. We blushed a lot at the beginning. We all understood the task, the idea and by now it even seemed to make sense that you can’t expect anything from a species who hasn’t gotten to grips with their own bodies and the bodies of their species fellows. So, blushing, we began to take off a piece of clothes. Actually that’s not true. First we explored all the body parts which were thankfully uncovered already. It was so strange when we began to trace the lines on the other’s hands, when we tried to sketch the other’s shape of their earlobe, when we — and that was scary — when we smelled the other’s hair. Later, we began to undress, one piece more each session, and we explored what we saw, we carefully touched each other, and then, often still blushing, we dressed each other again.

But eventually, the blushing was replaced by curiosity, and as we used sketches, poems and sculptures (we had found clay and same carved) to explore the bodies of the others more deeply, we would often be impatient for the next sitting to compare our work with the real body.

I think it was because of our curiosity that the day when we were finally fully naked didn’t register as something that special, and since it was summer, we stayed naked for the rest of the day.

The researchers had explained that sex would not be part of the experiment, because sex, while great, can become too much of a distraction, and the experiment was about forming a deep connection with the body, our own and to some extent to those of others — but the latter in a more general sense that we learned to own our own bodies, and be curious about the other without comparing ourselves to it, rather as an extension of all the wondrous human forms nature makes possible.

It was some days into our nudity that it finally hit us. We are all naked, we are absolutely fine with it, and there isn’t a shred of tension between us. That day we put aside our other works and celebrated. Naked, we exercised, ate, swam, played, and washed together. A week later, we began to wash and moisture each other. And yes, we checked each other for fleas!

An absolute mystic highlight for was that day, when we danced naked in a summer thunderstorm. No words can describe the energy, freedom, pure joy, merging with the natural forces. Magnificent!

At the end of the first three months, three of the researchers, who frequently visited but often just watched, called us to a meeting. We assembled on the meadow near the riverbank, dressed because of a chill in the air, and shared our thoughts about our experiences with the researchers. We all agreed that being a uniquely bodied person is fantastic, and that it’s amazing how different everyone is — and yet, every body is warm, every skin soft, every smell unique, every safe touch nurturing for the whole body, the mind and the soul.

We also spoke about how energised we felt. ‘It’s strange,’ one of us said. ‘I have come to love myself. I love these stranger who have become friends, and I feel like embracing the world. I feel strong and centred. It’s like nothing can unbalance me. I think I’m ready to go home. I love being with all of you, but the exploration of the body has already worked its magic on me, and I want to tell my people.’

The researchers smiled and told the group that earlier small-scale experiments suggested that it was important to keep practicing and nurturing the new found connections in order to fully internalise the progress. But it would be helpful if some people decided to leave so that the researchers could find out whether the initial observations would be confirmed.

In all groups about a third of the participants left. 

Two weeks most of them were back.

Makes me smile.

I didn’t leave then. I wasn’t ready to go back to the wars. But I was growing hopeful that if we could get more people to make peace with themselves and with the natural world, then we might have a chance to turn the table on our destructions.

I left after six months. For about eighty percent of all participants six months were sufficient to strengthen their newly found connections to their bodies and to the bodies of others, sufficient to harness the energies these connections set free.

It wasn’t easy to be back. In fact, it was like arriving on a different planet, one you vaguely remember but you can’t believe it could still exist. Why? Because it made absolutely no sense. There is no sense in wars. There is no sense in fighting nature. There is no sense in hating oneself and others. It must be some kind of hallucination, I thought back then.

Well.

Our testimonies had an impact.

I sometimes have nightmares where people just killed us for telling them about our experience.

Luckily, that’s not what happened.

Over the following years, every person on our planet, no matter the age, went to one of these body discovery camps, and as more of our people connected to their bodies and to the bodies of others, wars began to dwindle — until no one could be bothered to get this upset or stupid any more. Instead curiosity, love and the thrill of connecting filled our thoughts and lives.

After some years of peace, we had to face some difficulties. 

Peace and our energised selfs brought waves of creativity, potentials unfolded, ideas filling our minds, our hands busy with putting the ideas to a test. 

It was wonderful to experience this enormous energy. 

However, as we immersed ourselves in new tasks, time for ourselves became scarce again. And as we took less care of ourselves, our energies faltered. 

It was then that we realised: to stay safe and strong, we need to integrate time for self-connection and for connecting with others because connections are peace builders. We had to make time for that.

Around the same time, we reformed our education system, having noticed that we could make life so much easier by learning all the essentials of caring for ourselves as a child: How to nurture, strengthen, love and care for the body, how to breathe and how to use breathing to relax or refresh our body, how to use our minds, how to cook, clean, build, garden, exercise, sing, dance, dress, repair. In short: much of the things we were supposed to figure our by ourselves or in our families while learning dull tales about warmongers and profiteers. 

As adults we had deprived ourselves off self-care and love because we were too busy, too superior, too entangled in the ideas of competition and wars. ‘Your greatest strength will be the connections you forged to nature, to other people and to your body,’ is a motto every child learns early by exploring the body, nature, animals, by learning how we can shape our minds and use them mindfully, how to shape our bodies, be aware of them and giving them the nutrition the need, by enjoying everything the body can do and shaping it into a healthy fully functional, balanced and flexible part of ourselves.

Afterthought. Many have tried to indoctrinate people. But we aren’t having it. We are physical beings. A strong and loved body is the best vessel for a clear and wise mind.

And one more. For something to stick it needs to become familiar, even a kind of habit. Routines on the other hand can dull a person and should only be used sparingly.

Good speed if you are in need to end all wars, those against nature, against the body, against people and all others.

It all starts with the body.