Girl: About Eliciting Loving Bliss {Synopsis}, Harbin Art, Cradling

About eliciting loving bliss {a synopsis}:

Eliciting the neurophysiology of loving bliss naturally is an exploration for me. In the context of evolution (tens of thousands of generations that precede us), I've found this to be possible experientially.

I think that evolutionary biology has 'given shape to' or encoded our bodyminds as biological (input~output) systems; sociocultural processes influence much of our daily lives, as do our choices.

I see ecstasy (MDMA) as a reference experience for loving bliss, - a kind of neurophysiological response which might be emblematic of a metaphorical 'on / off switch.' I'm interested in exploring how similar, natural-only loving bliss experiences work. I go 'there' ~ to an experience of loving bliss ~ regularly when I listen to some Mozart arias {Der Hoelle Rache, for example, and others}, and when I do New England contra-dance. {And you?} I imagine that ecstasy (MDMA) also doesn't make possible a range of qualities of this brain neurochemistry in ways we might elicit through engaging great art (Yo-yo Ma's Bach "Cello Suites"), or being in nature, etc.; a great range of qualities of loving bliss are possible. Ecstasy (MDMA) may, however, amplify some of these. Moving between the hot and cold pools at Harbin, as well as its milieu also helps me elicit bliss, but not with the same regularity as Mozart and contra-dance. {I think of Mozart's music and contra-dance sometimes as technologies for eliciting bliss, because they do so repetitively}. I continue to be curious about how naturally to find the metaphorical 'on/off switch' for loving bliss, ~ through awareness ~ but think that the legacy of evolutionary history, and the pragmatics of daily life in modernity make this complicated.

I've found the relaxation response {relaxationresponse.org/steps} to provide a useful basis for eliciting loving bliss, but that it isn't a 'switch.' Rather, it's a way to soften and open ~ to elicit a biological process ~ as well as become aware of how to ease, - and what this experience is. From this bliss bubbles up for me sometimes.

I'm sharing through writing how this might work with people, because I see eliciting loving bliss as one of the best experiences there is in life. I'd also like to come into dialogue with others about this.

Here's one letter I've written that explores loving bliss practices explicitly:

scottmacleod.com/LovingBlissPractices.htm

And I think our bodyminds can be like musical instruments, and that we may be able to play them, like musical instruments, vis-a-vis loving bliss:

scottmacleod.com/GuidelinesPracticingLovingBlissvavMusicalInstrument.htm

Memory - a simple memory of an extraordinary time in life - is one way for me to start this process of eliciting loving bliss, but I've found it difficult to both sustain this and let it unfold richly, as well as a lack of intensity which I know from past experience. But playing one's mind vis-a-vis nature or music to elicit bliss is one process I engage somewhat regularly, but feel like a beginner.

But I'd like to go much further with this, - open much further into it, - in ways that great art can also facilitate.


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I returned to Harbin Hot Springs yesterday. The weather is great for early March, and Harbin's fabric of life, centering around the pools, goes on. The qualities of creativity and openness I see emerging there continually are fascinating, in that the water keeps flowing out of the ground, and people are open and easy, and things just flow there uniquely.

Art: Local Harbin artists often display their paintings and sculpture in the restaurant or the Blue Room cafe. Harbin has held many art shows through the years, so that Harbin-like art seems to be gaining some 'contours.' The nude, water, folk art, abstraction, 'New Age' art, and the erotic are all rich themes I've seen. Some Harbin residents actively cultivate open a space for artists there.


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On weekends there are often kids at Harbin in the heart-shaped pool.

In general at Harbin, women cradle men in the pools, men cradle women, and women women, and men men. Most people in the pools are naked.

And parents cradle their kids in the warm water, - in the heart-shaped pool only - but rarely do girls or boys cradle other girls and boys. They play together, sometimes too loudly for some long-time Harbin residents, but they don't cradle or float one another.

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