A Message From Our Editor, Issue #38 – The Imaginal Self

The Imaginal Self

Throughout its early life, a caterpillar contains dormant cells, seemingly without function. These are called imaginal cells, and they are the essence from which the future butterfly will be formed. After a stage of over-consumption, the caterpillar buries itself in its cocoon, and the imaginal cells begin to flourish. The caterpillar’s own immune system tries to destroy these emerging cells, in an attempt to maintain its old identity. However, the new cells grow prolifically and cluster together, and critical mass is reached. With this new identity, the butterfly comes into being.

The growth and proliferation of these cells of the emerging butterfly can be seen as a metaphor for those people who are finding their new identities in the seeming chaos of our world. Cellular biologist Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., relates this stage of the life-cycle, as the caterpillar disappears and the butterfly emerges, to the shift in consciousness that is occurring today. He writes:

The challenges and crises the world faces today are actually signs that change is imminent. We are about to face our evolution.

Resembling the metamorphosis of a butterfly from a caterpillar, our current “caterpillar” phase of human civilization is dissolving and reforming as a more advanced, sustainable “butterfly” version of itself. Old, non-sustainable structures are collapsing while new, viable alternatives are evolving.

Evolutionary change will only start when we become participants and stop our fruitless wait for another hero to arise and save us…for we are the heroes we have been looking for! Every day, human “imaginal cells” are creating order out of the impending chaos. Evolutionary actions at the local level are increasing at a logarithmic rate, and frequently unrecognized by the media. So while it appears that nothing is happening on the surface, there is a groundswell of change that is about to erupt.

In the midst of apparent chaos, a new world is emerging like a Phoenix, a world based on love rather than fear, and we are its co-creators. We are, each and all, active participants in what will amount to be the greatest of human adventures, for we are on the threshold of an incredible evolutionary event…the emergence of a new super-organism, Humanity.

Taking his metaphor and applying it to each of us individually, I am led to ask: What is the Imaginal Cell/Self within each of us? The realizable essence that is lying dormant within us, which at the point of critical mass will burst into passionate expression? A conscious existence with distinct power to overcome all resistance to its manifestation? An exuberant expression of intelligence, with directed purpose and representation?

Ah yes, all this and so much more.

For the raising of the consciousness,

Jeanne Ohm, D.C.