Toward the end of teaching my most behaviorally challenging Physics class, I paused my explanation of how to use the kinematic equation, which displayed on the powerpoint, so students could jot down some notes. One of the biggest disrupters, both in size and “spiritedness,” took advantage of the silence and said, “Ms. Roberson, let me know when you’re ready to open your third eye.”
I was geniunely impressed by this particular off-topic statement, given the fact that not 10 minutes earlier, he’d grumbled under his breath, “I don’t wanna be in this f****** class,” presumably because he’d learned that after scrambling to turn in some last minute late work, he’d still fallen short of a passing grade for the first marking period.
I smiled at his invitation to help me open the portal to a deeper enlightenment. Later on, I wondered if he’d just heard about opening one’s third eye somewhere or if he actually knew the depth of what he’d said. I would’ve loved to discuss spirituality with him and I’m sure the rest of the class would have enjoyed an off-topic discussion since that would’ve taken us off the apparent subject at hand. Also, my students would have been pleasantly surprised to learn that there are theoretical physics concepts to explain consciousness; it’s just not on the curriculum so I don’t teach it.
Over the weekend, I did a little research to better understand the ramifications of opening my third eye. I’d already known that the third eye housed intuition, but I didn’t know that opening that particular chakra would cause me to have visions in vivid purple, gold and intense white. Some people with open third eyes can see the souls of people who have committed suicide and are ashamed of what they did, but are too afraid of being judged to move on. Others become more sensitive to the energy of the people around them. Often times, if someone with an opened third eye is in a crowd of mostly negative people, then the enlightened person feels drained.
One strategy for dealing with negative energy is to avoid negative people. Another suggestion is taking a cooler shower than one’s used to and visualizing the cool water washing away the negative energy. As soon as I read that, I better understood how lap swimming helped relaxed me. I always visualized my stress dissolving into the water and in that relaxed state and in motion, I could usually come up with creative solutions to problems I was having, usually teaching-related.
I never associated this phenomenon with spirituality since it made so much sense corporally. As a matter of fact, I’ve developed such a thick skin, I don’t know if I can afford to shed it and become more sensitive to other people’s energies. I certainly don’t want to open myself up more of the tragic-draining energy that my students bring with them to class. I get enough of that when I call their parents when my students’ behavior gets out of hand.
At the same time, if I better understood how to channel my students’ energy into something positive, then that would be well worth it. Even if the effect wasn’t assessed on one of those soulless standardized tests, in the long run, my students would benefit from learning how to discipline their energy constructively.