Thoughts on Totality

I have seen partial eclipses several times in my lifetime.  

Each time felt quite amazing. 

This past April 2024, my wife and I took a trip to visit my sister brother-in-law in upstate NY, and then traveled with them further north to my nephew and his wife in Colton, NY, to try to see totality.  

We lucked out, despite some high clouds, we had a magnificent view!  

Traveling on the way back, my wife mentioned it was better than any psychedelic experience.  

I agreed, greater than any of my own psychedelic experiences.  

In the psychedelic literature one of the measures of importance has been to cite the psychedelic experience as:  “Among the Top 5 Personally Meaningful Experiences of a Lifetime.”  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3050654/

I would agree and rate this short 4.5 minute experience of totality as “Among the Top 5 Personally Meaningful Experiences of a Lifetime.”  

Why would this view of the new moon completely eclipsing the sun result in what I could label as an amazing, even spiritual, experience?  

The rays spanning out were stunningly beautiful, there was an intense red dot of a solar prominence at the bottom of the eclipse. 

The sudden darkness was interesting, the temperature dropped, and we all donned more clothing.  

It was not the experience of the mosquitos suddenly coming out to bite…  

I like my toys, I had a solar telescope, image stabilized binoculars and a binocular telescope both with glass solar filters, lots of eclipse glasses for viewing.  

Seeing the sunspots and the solar prominences using the solar telescope is always beautiful.  

Watching the slow progression was amazing.  

At totality we all removed our eclipse glasses, seeing this sight with the naked eye was something else.  

Although, I am writing a lot here, the experience is truly ineffable…  

Why?  

There has been much written through the ages about the significance given to solar eclipses, particularly before we understood the science.  

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231012-how-solar-eclipses-have-shaped-history

In 1919 expeditions to view the solar eclipse confirmed Einstein’s generalized theory of relativity.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/a-history-of-solar-eclipses/

Some become “addicted” to seeing totality repeatedly: 

https://beingintheshadow.com/publications/total-addiction-the-life-of-an-eclipse-chaser/

Humans are interesting creatures.  

As humans we can find beauty in unusual places, sometimes we find beauty in symmetry, in the structure of molecules, even in great ugliness:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-beauties.html

Perhaps, this breathtaking beauty of totality, is the basic spiritual experience of Source, G-d, All-That-Is, and All-That-Is-Not. 

You are the Totality…  

You are experiencing the beauty of being human, and being the Totality…  

Perhaps, instead of chasing eclipses, we can slow down, and perhaps begin to see the magnificence in our everyday experiences.   

Namaste