Quite simply the word refraction refers to the phenomenon where the electromagnetic waves constituting light are ‘refracted’ when crossing the boundary from one transparent medium to another because of their change in speed. For example, waves travel faster in deep water than they do in shallow water. So when a ray of light of one wavelength or colour band passes from the medium of air to glass, it bends when it enters a glass prism. The different refractions of the various wavelengths spread them apart and that is why we see a rainbow.
This was a concept I reflected a lot on when I studied refraction at school. I was less interested in the physics and more in the spiritual repercussion of it. As a person who identifies culturally as Muslim and conceptually as Sufi, the word ‘light’ always meant ‘Noor’ to me. Because Allah is only really described as ‘noor’ or ‘light,’ I always thought the only way to feel the presence of the divine is via illumination. Probably when stripped down at its hollowmost, I told myself we are literally beings moving from one form to another and until we bend and change our personal speed (sometimes slower and at other times faster), we cannot see the entire spectrum of colours. And when we do, we call ourselves enlightened.
We are living in dark times but there will be light at the end of this tunnel because that’s how things work, in the simplest terms but some of us can skip to the end of the tunnel and already see the light and others can help us by imagining the light for us. The idea that the mind’s eye or the ajna chakra is infact more powerful than our physical eyes is something I learned when I spent a decade plus studying healing though ‘Prana’ or life force. I however used that as a pretext to bounce back to my passion of studying esoteric sciences through religions and art in all its glorious forms because I love learning the rules only so I can break them. Sometimes I laugh at myself and realize how deeply anti-establishment I can be. Maybe I am an anarchist but I do believe true art breaks the mould of what exists. That is probably our real responsibility as artists- to make people see things differently so that things can finally become different.
This part of me does not believe we will arrive at the end of this tunnel the way we entered it and everyday that I spend on social media, I realize how we are all currently diverging and taking paths that are activating the tribal part of us. We are screaming at each other and often it is ‘reflected’ back at us. We are ‘banding’ with those whose ideas are similar and diverging from those who think differently. The algorithm is setup to provoke each one to diverge and it is happening successfully. While it is unleashing the basest aspect of humanity it is also shining a light on the finest of humans.
Then ofcourse there are the few ‘intellectuals’ who will try to set up debates to see the ‘the depth’ in a system that is quite literally the embarrassing collapse of an empire in real and virtual time. These so-called liberals have lost credibility too because this very screen is proof of the real genocide we are witnessing and we cannot possibly look away. It is easier to move from one form to the other and feel the pain of the population undergoing genocide than it is to close our eyes because the screens are now flashed at us in every direction and in every dimension. We have all collectively lost faith in the system though we are still comforted by it.
We are living in a moment where the words left wing, right wing, centrist, liberal, democratic and communist can be all grouped together as varying degrees of darkness. This is both the fall of the empire and its shadow entities- the opaque and its umbra and penumbra. We need change because as a species we have lost hope and our system has lost credibility. And it is that one moment where it does not seem that the system can simply change names and exist in another form, under another guise. In many ways, it is quite literally a breakdown.
Is it- East vs West? Tradition vs Modernity? Chritianity vs Islam? Tribalism vs Globalization? Barbarism vs Civilization? Nature vs Technology? Past vs Present? I find that no single extremity holds good. I think we are all struggling to understand what is to come. This cannot be understood in layers or through debate but it is something felt and all we can do is express our solidarity to one another. But at the core of this socio-political-economical battle which has given rise to ideological battles, I find myself burning with just one idea of Humanity vs the other. This ‘other’ for me can move from one umbrella to another. It does not matter.
While I feel a profound joy to have blocked Elon Musk because the hate mongering caused by his tweets alone on social media was quite traumatic to read, I cannot hide from the crude reality that he still owns this platform. However, when I read about the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif name Elon Musk in a case of cyber bullying regarding her gender, I realize nobody is invincible. This very same man has been called out by the UK government too as the primary instigator of the far-right riots due to his tweet clearly stating that ‘the civil war in UK is inevitable’. Though instagram has also been guilty of blocking Pro-Palestenian voices, people are finding different ways to reach out to each other. We have fascists and racists that are desperately trying to push down these ideas by inducing fear but they are often outnumbered by anti fascists and anti racists. I would also love to move beyond the terms racist and fascist but I will continue to use the terms until I find a more fitting definition.
We change our form, we change our speed and we change our vision as we pass from one medium to another. We unconciously bend our approach probably because human beings are incredibly resilient. To those who stubbornly hold on, they are being hard on themselves because I believe in what Buddha says- Only the resistance to change is painful.
I know how split we all are- our Self is on every platform be it Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Facebook or anything that pushes us to scroll, like and comment. These diverging paths are probably an important step in the way of this transition that we are seeing from the traditional mirror that once pushed us to see our image and simply reflect on it in the quietness of our homes.
We are now actively a part of the process- creating the image and changing it. So when the Bible says God created man in his own image, I wonder how multi-dimensional and evolutionary God is. Mirror-surfaces ofcourse have been common metaphors in Hinduism too providing insights into bimba (reflection) and projections (pratibimba). In many ways, I think thanks to our technological revolution we are now adept at intimate reflection and refraction in ways that are not just theoretical. This power which was once vested primarily in media makers, traditional journalism and establishments has melted into the hands of the common man. We are all making something- good or bad. So I do think this is a moment in which good must outnumber the bad to stop this downward spiral. We can use the same platforms created to monitor us and our movements to actually overthrow the negative forces at work. The platforms do not only belong to the ones who own them anymore.
I wonder though if we are inclined to refract more than reflect as a species and I ask myself if that is one step of our evolutionary process. We need to change our speed to navigate as we alternate between moving extremely fast and at times incredibly slow. Can we scroll to see images of food dishes and still appreciate the ‘slow food’ movement? I feel we can do both and we probably need our minds to comprehend reality in a multilayered way to move beyond labels, isms and terms to encompass everything. I would hope to move from a systemic collapse to a systemic reboot.
I will conclude my article and my internal refraction with Rumi here.
“The lamps are different, but the Light is the same. One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind, endlessly emanating all things.”