As the waves of light roll on in increasing frequency, the green of the heart chakra ascends to the blue of the throat chakra. If you think of each oscillation of a wave as a bit of experience, the higher frequencies provide a richer texture of sensory information. At this frequency, we can convey and understand very complicated abstract thought through verbal communication. Listening and speaking depend on the sense of hearing, and the element relating to this and all of the higher frequency chakras is the intangible fifth element known as ether.Clearly this is a departure from the physicality of the lower chakras. What is ether anyway? What role could it possibly have in any serious discussion when, despite thorough research by dedicated scientific geniuses, the only thing known is that it doesn't exist? Hearing can be measured by the touch of sound waves moving through air to vibrate organs in the ears, but all that is meaningless if the nerves don't transmit and organize that information into recognizable sound images in the brain. For the purpose of this discussion, ether can be understood as a medium for the transmission of sensory information. As the empty space between matter, it is an uber-element that combines the qualities of the other four in a quantum realm of probabilities which has no density and is only realized at the moment of use. In hearing, the transmission involves the earth element of electron particles, the disturbance of air molecules, the liquid of an ion channel, and the fiery spark of an action potential. To a conscious being, the result is more than an electric crackle that easily dissipates. It becomes a sense image, a piece of qualia in the brain, a particular pattern that can be uniquely identified and compared to a pre-existing image, an element of self.
When the self reflects on the incoming sense patterns and creates associations with itself, an act beyond instinct, beyond emotion, then a higher order of intelligence comes into play. Ether is the element of that thought, that consciousness, which brings personal meaning into all experience. Naturally, its expression is completely interior to the individual, whose next best resort is formation of language and the action of speech. In order even to develop abstract complexity of thought, let alone communicate it, the brain requires vocabulary and syntax. Fortunately our brains come equipped with a universal syntax able to process any language, but they must receive the stimulation of speech (or sign) to recognize and remember linguistic patterns and to build syntactical analogies between them. In this way, language and communication between individuals fosters intelligence, which in turn reflects back on itself and develops the urge toward self-expression.
The interior realm of idea and imagination, the world of the self, is limitless and invisible like the eternal vastness of celestial space. The far-reaching blue of heaven's dome inspires poets and mystics, as well as anyone else who lies back on the grass on a balmy day and lets his mind wander among the clouds. High frequency blue light, such as the sun produces, stimulates the pineal gland, which regulates wakefulness and arousal. Unlike the visceral arousal of lower frequency light, this arousal brings mental alertness without an accompanying physical reaction. Concentration and meditation blossom in that restful dynamism, a fact well exploited by the designers of most computer programs to the extent that blue is the default color for desktops, buttons, links, and a whole host of icons. I have 24 application icons on my dock at the bottom of my screen here, more than half of them are predominately some shade of blue. In this internet age, it is more than apparent that blue is the ubiquitous color of communication and information processing.
We rest on the ground and know the earth for the solid security of its gravity. We feel the flow of blood and cellular fluids that keep us alive and stir us to procreate. We turn to the sun for its bright warmth and use its illumination to understand what is within our reach. We breathe life with each inhalation and feel connection through our awakened skin. Yet we are more than these experiences, more than what our bodies do and how we react to that. We influence each other with language, culture, narrative, myth, shared information not directly sensed, and all the communications of our curious, intelligent selves. Our personalities grow multiple facets through experience, through thought, through archiving and annotating for future reflection. Where we bring our attention we enrich ourselves, and human civilization has acquired an enormous wealth of written communication over the last few thousand years, now more accessible than ever thanks to the highways and byways of the information age. Language is the bridge that crosses chasms of time and space, tightens the globe to a linked in society, and spans distance between the questions "Who am I" and "Who are you?".
Having talked the proverbial blue streak, I will next drift out past the sky's cerulean blue toward the thinning edges of the earth's atmosphere. In the shift to indigo, etheric emphasis moves from hearing and communicating to listening. There, truly, awaits the music of the spheres.
