Revisiting the Concept of Following One’s Heart

And the difference between pure feelings and those corrupted by emotions, thoughts, and others’ expectations

Thanks to Jenine "Jeni" Baines dropping a link to Randall Snyder’s My Father’s Colt 1911 in one of her comments on my suicide awareness and prevention essay, There’s No Shame in Contemplating Suicide, I became aware of Randall. Upon scanning his profile and reading his The Worldwide Society of the Profoundly Gullible, Sometimes well-intended, the style and energy of which reminded me of White Feather, I promptly subscribed.

Yet as Randall said in his profound contemplation of the wonders of nature and the vagaries of life and death, Truer than True, that is not what this piece is about.

Last night I read Randall’s exploration of the human race’s capacity for both so much good and so much evil, I Get It,

“Take heed,” they say, “for man was made with just as much capacity for evil as for good.”

which he concludes with the question, “Do you get it?”

I commented:

I share the sentiments you expressed. As for getting why there is such darkness in the world, I have my own takes on it. One is there cannot be light without darkness. Here are a few lines from my poem https://readmedium.com/lifes-contradictions-and-paradoxes-8c99c537a3c0:

Try viewing life as an amusement park Rides for both thrill seekers and faint-of-heart Do you see light or only dark or realize that one cannot exist without another

Another take is reflected in this tanka that I wrote as a comment on 𝓓𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓪 𝓒’s poem (I Am Not A Victim) nine months ago:

villains and victims roles we play on stage called life yet do not dismiss very real we all witness screw those insist otherwise

I wrote an essay describing the thoughts behind my tanka, https://readmedium.com/lets-talk-about-villains-and-victims-c7795f2fa91e, which included this:

“many soul contracts/lesson plans, or improv scripts, which term I prefer because that encompasses the reality of free will, require villains and someone has to agree to play those parts — they could do so just for the experience of what it feels to perpetrate evil, they could do it just because someone has to for all this to work.”

Yet that is not what this piece is about.

Randall replied:

Thank you, Marcus. I enjoyed your thorough and intelligent response. Sometimes truth is not something that the emotional heart is conditioned to handle well.

Sometimes truth is not something that the emotional heart is conditioned to handle well

That is what this piece is about.

I subscribe to a different view of the heart. The heart is not our emotional center. Emotions form in the brain from a combination of hormones and responses to external stimuli, or internal stimuli such as memories, and they may be stored in the brain or the body as memories and they may trigger physical responses that may release the energy of the emotion (one definition of a feeling that distinguishes feelings from emotions (Hi, jules - Miz Mindful)).

Furthermore, as I learned from reading White Feather’s We Are Broadcasters, What frequency are we using?

Then there is the other means of broadcasting vibrations from the heart center. This broadcasting tool does not broadcast thoughts or emotions but rather pure feeling. Emotions are all connected to thought and are a mental corruption of pure feeling. What we broadcast from our heart center is pure unconditional feeling-tone vibrations.

White Feather goes on to say:

Plus we mistakenly believe the heart is about emotions rather than true, pure feeling. We are so stuck in our noggins that we cannot even tell the difference. It is through our heart center that we receive true, pure feeling and through which we also broadcast true, pure feeling. We are so consumed with thoughts and emotions that our heart center is closed off to its primary function.

Our heart center is where our life spark is located. That life spark is fed true, pure unconditional feeling-tone vibrations of love and joy by our Source and it stays healthy and blossoms by broadcasting those vibrations out into our bodies and into our environment. Our hearts are conduits for the most powerful energy in the cosmos.

In other words, the heart is part of our extrasensory perception network. I believe that is what is meant by or is at least consistent with how people and Eastern philosophies/religions describe the heart chakra and the connections it fosters. The unconditional love, compassion, empathy, and joy associated with this energy center are not emotions nor feelings triggered by emotions. They refer to states of being that result from pure feelings unadulterated by our thoughts and emotions.

People often say “Listen to your heart” or “Follow your heart” or similar expressions. They are correct to say so but I suspect, not for the reasons they mean. They mean, “Do what you love” or “Do what excites you,” and in saying that, they may not be correct.

Love is complicated, all the more so because we use the word indiscriminately. When love is an emotion, as opposed to a state of being, it often leads to poor decisions. The emotion of love often places the needs of others ahead of our own, and codependency results. When the emotions and the feelings triggered by the emotions are taken out of the picture, then one can truly listen to and follow their heart, which might lead them to detach with love from a person, place, or situation that they love.

My heart knows what I need. My emotions often tell me what I think I want or don’t want. These are not necessarily the same and are often different. I may not want what I need or I may need what I don’t want.

Now perhaps my readers will better understand the acrostic sonnet I wrote back in April.

Feelings our hearts both transmit and receive English language writers and readers fail Emotions and thoughts our systems deceive Lies of conditioning wish not prevail

Inner senses through chakras we should trust Natal faculties atrophy with age Glorious tree of knowledge we should lust Science please release humans from your cage

Extrasensory perception rules day Quantumly entangled biophotons Under pressure shall Shift and have our say Ahh my heart and magnetic electrons

Living in our biofields are our souls Fabulous friends these minds and our egos All aspects of a person have their roles Cherubs in Heaven applaud my logos

This archetypal theory of knowledge Socrates would thusly teach in college

Further decoded here.

Getting the heart and the brain, or the heart, brain, and body on the same page — that’s the tricky and hard part, especially when the expectations of others join the morass. Jenny Lane understands this. If you haven’t yet read her Do You Truly Know What You Want? Be Loyal to Your Heart, please do.

Here’s another piece I wrote in April that now may make more sense to you:

Tagging a few readers who meaningfully engaged with my earlier work on the subject: Desiree Driesenaar | Rip Parker | Philip Temple | Henya Drescher | Frank Ontario | empathy, logic, love.

I’ll leave you with a Christmas story by White Feather:

and my Christmas poem from two years ago:

In Rama I create, with soul energy surging through my body, inspiring me and breathing wind into my sails,

Marcus (Gregory Maidman)