NUMADELIC FLOW
The term “numadelic”, coined by Glowacki et al., combines the Greek words pneuma, meaning ‘breath’, ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’, and delein, meaning ‘to reveal’ or ‘to manifest’; thus Numadelic Flow may be thought of as ‘spirit-manifesting’ flow.
Molecular simulations make visible what is invisible to the naked eye; similarly, qigong and internal alchemy practises illuminate the “invisible” to practitioners. The “truths” of being and existence, whether grounded in quantum physics or ancient wisdom practises, are not always directly observable by us, and we therefore use tools (our imagination, our technologies), to understand them.
“the boundaries of my feet seemed hard to detect…I found that I actually didn’t want to feel my feet, or any of my body. I wanted to keep feeling more and more subtle, leaving the body behind”
Numadelic Flow is a minimally scripted version of the Isness platform. It offers an intuitive, adaptable meditation space which can be curated by a facilitator and integrated into practises such as meditation, yoga and mindfulness.
It was first experienced as a week-long ‘retreat’ by an international group of participants in June 2021. Participants took part in the guided virtual reality journey from the comfort of their own homes.
During a session you experience yourself and other participants as light beings: diffuse clouds with lights at the hands and the heart centres. This anonymised and pared-down visual presence—developed in the Isness experience—facilities connection, ego dissolution, and intimacy. Throughout the week, participants reflected upon what it is to see other living beings in their energetic essence; what it is to blur and combine with the other energy beings; and, as one participant put it, what it is to “become light itself”.
Showing the first person perspective of a participant using their mudra lights to move a buckyball up and down in front of them. In the background, you can see other energy beings doing the same movement in synchrony. In this scene, buckyballs appear as a dynamical network of light (without the cloud-like aesthetic layer).
“the depth of the direct experience of oneness was something I cannot find the words to describe”
Through the molecular physics simulation that forms the basis of the Isness framework, participants visualised and interacted with Buckminsterfullerene molecules, or buckyballs. Each buckyball appeared as a network of nodes (atoms) and edges (bonds) of light in a dynamical skeleton, with a diffuse cloud body that effervesced in the same way as the human energy beings. By creating light with their controllers, participants interacted with these buckyballs, whose movements were calculated in real-time using scientifically-rigorous molecular dynamics calculations.
In addition to the practicality of the molecular shape for QiGong-inspired energy visualisation exercises, there was an underlying metaphorical significance to the use of a molecular physics simulation: both ancient energy-visualisation practices and molecular physics involve illuminating that which is invisible to the naked eye.