Cell Phone to Human: What is Your Vibration?

Misplaced my cell phone. Good! Some quiet! Some peace! But what if there was a disaster? Could it not strike any moment?


As a good friend E. emails me this week: “Dear Adem, I am fine, let me make that very clear, but I need to share that I was actually in Salt Lake City last Friday/weekend and Monday … unbelievably I was in the Trolley Square mall at about 5:30 buying a brass doorbell at Restoration Hardware… and had just left through the front doors of the mall and was about sixty feet into the outdoor parking lot when the shooting began and people started running out the doors behind me. I immediately ran across the street and stood with the others, trying to help/comfort people for the next two hours while watching all unfold.

“It was surreal and I felt very detached. My taking action and leaving the mall at that point was so random and this is what is lasting and disturbing for me, the randomness of avoiding harm. Why did I leave just then? I was going in search of a new pair of socks because the socks I was wearing were driving me crazy and falling down into my shoes and I could stand it no longer, as there are no socks type shops inside the mall I was leaving to walk across the street …”

Did E. survive because of socks that did not fit her feet? Thanks be to Allah! But also, how mysterious His Will can be, manifested through a human cycle of violence. My friend (a refugee services professional who deserves her own column) tells me that a colleague heard that one of the young man’s parents was killed in the war in Bosnia when he was five. He was known in the community as troubled. Yes, a Bosnian Muslim, may Allah heal his soul. For whatever reason, lack of overt religious appearance, perhaps ethnicity, he was treated with some respect in some media. But then the right wing blogs discovered his religion, and yes—they called him Terrorist because of that.

Young people do break down under pressure and it is something to keep in mind. Our community is no different, of course, especially with all the conflicting demands of family and mainstream culture and even Islamophobia. Also, by social life intrigue, heightened by the technology of cell phones. Cell phones—they can be also used to detonate bombs. Youth can be manipulated in this way as well.

Of course, most young people think they have the strength of mind to make their own decisions, regardless of peer pressure. Maybe. But media consumption consumes the consumer. It is not only the content of programs that Muslims should be concerned about—liberal and sentimental tolerance is useful in a pluralistic society— not even the pandering to primitive tastes and desires for violence. It is the negative energy, the meanness that arises from materialism, the resentment that is so easily exploited by politicians to divide and control. It cheapens humor, drains us of ideals and sedates us with cynicism. Youth become scornful and insecure. So do we all.

Muslim media can promote negativity as well. In consequence, cells can form in extremist groups and cells can be filled in prison—cancerous cells in an endless cycle of negativity. A few irresponsible Muslim media, including some khotba sermons, darken the mind, instead of enlightening the heart. But what more positive cycles might be possible instead? What cells might detonate love instead of hate?

As Shaykha F (may Allah be pleased with her) emails this week: “…stay centered in the reality of our community. Stay centered in heart merging in heart in One Heart. Then see your own circle of light. See your circle leader, your servant, who sustains the presence of this light for you. For each circle is a tiny cell of the whole ocean… without the cell we cannot feel the ocean, know the ocean. Appreciate the invitation to be part of and to serve this cell of Living Reality. Find amazing grace in the possibility to live openly the life of love with others who have been initiated into love, who find it natural to speak in mystic gestures of love, who pray for all humanity…who radiate love from the Source of love.”

Sufi traditions urge us to enter a world of rhythm and texture, and not merely the books of science and dimension of law. Do you ever wish to open your heart and mind to the Unseen? If you have been in love you know there is a different energy. If you pray, you know there is a different energy. Why are we not open to this during daily work? Why does peace of heart vanish as soon as we open our mouth, or when others open theirs? Is there just too much noise in our heads for peace and prayer to enter in?

As my mother emails me today, “Listening so important. Preferably while in a resting, receiving mode. Just to clear the head or better, just to hear.” She is right— and I should also listen to her! And generally it is better to be in that receiving mode.

Last night, coming back tired from a trip, I listened to the drummer on subway platform across the tracks. I have heard him over the years. His drumming really speaks. My own energy changed. The air cleared. My head cleared. Some people on the platform were dancing. It occurred to me that I would rather hear this healing vibration than most sermons I have heard. Their content was sometimes correct, sometimes challenging. But the energy was unbalanced, broken—like an electrical malfunction.

Energy is not only Oil and Gas. Not all Energy can be owned. And not all spirit can be consumed for intoxication. But subtle human energy is hard to speak of intelligently. And I don't know enough. Do you?

And do we really listen and connect to the vibration of energy? For those in scientific instead of sufi mode, here are some is a study for you: for almost 40 years Bernard Krause has worked to record the earth’s rapidly disappearing “biophony,” the subtle vibrations and tiny sounds of the natural world. In this understanding, animals and insects compete for space or food but also for bandwidth—that is, to be heard by others. Jeff Hull reports (NYT 2/19/07) that, “ If a species cannot find a sonic niche of its own, it will not survive.”

Unfortunately, Hull adds, “nearly a third of the ecosystems he has captured have become aurally “extinct” because of habitat loss or the presence of noise-making machines. In this country, animals are continually forced to compete for bandwidth not only with one another but also with snowmobiles, off-road vehicles, Jet Skis and other loud motorized “toys.”

And so unheard, they die. So I wonder about humanity and its toys--what will survive longer? The human voice, or a cell phone ringing in the night?