VISUALIZATION: Your Body Is Not Solid - You’re Mostly Empty Space
VISUALIZATION: Your Body Is Not Solid - You’re Mostly Empty Space
What are we made of? Atoms, elemental particles, cells, but mostly, we are made of empty space. This guided visualization can help you find some distance and relief from pain or emotional turmoil.
The idea of having a translucent body may seem funny, but it has helped me feel more at ease with my body when I needed it most. I use it when
I’m feeling pain or discomfort in my body.
I feel anxious and trapped.
Want to heal a part of my body or change it. Deconstruct the image of your body, and then reconstruct it in your desired form.
Seeing the truth beneath the illusion
What are you? What is your body made of?
When you look at your arms, for example, you see them as firm, material objects. You can touch them, and they appear solid. Your skin is flexible and full of texture. If you grab a fistful, you can feel substantial matter under the skin, such as meat, blood, and bones. Can’t you?
Let’s look under a microscope and then go deeper:
How does it look? Solid?
What is it composed of? Cells (e.g., skin cells, muscle cells, nerve cells)
What are those cells composed of? Molecules (e.g., proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids)
What are those molecules composed of? Atoms (e.g., carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen)
What are those atoms composed of? Cores (nucleus), Electrons (orbiting the nucleus), Neutrons (neutral charge, found in the nucleus), Protons (positive charge, found in the nucleus)
Are these subatomic parts physically attached to one another? No! They are suspended in emptiness, detached, and bound together by invisible forces. Forces we can no less measure to a point.
We’re not done yet. Now we’ve come to Elementary Particles
What are we on an elemental level? Quarks (fundamental constituents of protons and neutrons), Leptons (e.g., electrons, neutrinos), Gauge Bosons (force-carrying particles)
What forces are connecting these elements together in the vacuum? Gravitational Force, Electromagnetic Force, Weak Nuclear Force, Strong Nuclear Force
Why all this theory? My head hurts!
I’m trying to help you understand that you are not a solid object but a system of intricately connected particles suspended in emptiness. They say you’re 70% composed of water, but you’re actually 99,99% composed of empty air!
In that empty space, you resemble the night sky above much more than how you perceive a rock. There is an infinite number of orbiting particles dancing and interacting by invisible forces but never touching.
When you begin to understand Quantum physics (if that is even possible), things get even weirder. You realize that on the most fundamental level, you’re not even a particle but a wave of all possibilities, only collapsing into form when an observer is present.
Cells in your body are constantly being replaced
Your body is changing all the time. Nothing is the same as only a year ago. Cells are replaced at varying rates: skin cells are shed and renewed every 2 to 4 weeks, red blood cells have a lifespan of about 120 days, the lining of the gastrointestinal tract renews itself every few days to weeks, the liver can regenerate damaged cells within months, and while neurons in the brain were once thought to be mostly static, certain regions can generate new neurons throughout life, albeit at a relatively low rate.
Let’s connect the above points in simple terms for a better understanding:
You are by no means solid but are composed mostly of empty air, tinny particles, and forces that bind them. On a quantum level, you’re constantly shifting between all possible states and, like a blinking light, form particles. (horrible oversimplification)
Your body is entirely new every few months. All the old cells die off and are replaced with new ones. What you believe is your permanent body with all of its properties is a constantly changing mass of cells. You essentially get a new body every year or so.
Visualization exercise
Long Translucent body guided meditation:
Meditation notes: This guided meditation is not word-for-word identical to the described exercise. A shorter version is near the bottom of the article.
I am empty space, translucent, weightless, formless
Find a quiet spot and a comfortable position. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Try to clear your mind or thoughts, ideas, and beliefs.
You can imagine wiping them off with an imaginary broom. Feel the freshness of all your old ideas and thoughts being cleared from your mind. Keep sweeping them away until you feel your mind is empty and ready. (optional - just clear your mind)
Now open your eyes in your mind - not in reality!
Your real eyes are still closed. You’re now imagining that you are seeing through your eyes. See yourself right where you are, in the same bed, chair, and room. Look around. What do you see?
Focus on your arms
See them as you usually would. Now imagine you have the ability to zoom in and see how your arm is a bunch of cells running around, making sure everything works perfectly. See the blood flowing through your veins, composed of red and white blood cells.
Go deeper. Go inside a cell. You now notice atoms with their electrons, neurons, and protons orbiting the nucleus (center) like moons orbiting a planet. Zoom a little out, and you see them as you perceive a galaxy in the night sky—a collection of stars, planets, and comets dancing around in a spiral.
Zoom in again. This time into the core of the atom. Imagine even smaller particles. See them blinking in and out of existence, turning from particles to waves of all possibilities. Now you see them, now you don’t, in this vast emptiness that is all around you.
Zoom out. Now, you see your arm as you see the space above. It is mostly empty and dark but filled with dancing stars—in this case, atoms and subatomic particles. You’re looking at your arm but seeing emptiness. Stay with this image.
Look at your other arm. See it as emptiness as well. You can see through it. It’s translucent. Imagine waving your other hand through your arm, and it goes right through—no resistance, no matter, nothing.
Look down and see your stomach and legs just as translucent, empty, dark, empty space with particles dancing around. Keep looking at your body in this light.
If you feel pain in some part of your body, focus on that and see it for what it is - nothingness. It doesn’t exist. It’s not real. It’s just a signal. Your body isn’t real, so your pain can’t be real either. It’s all in the mind.
If you dislike a part of your body, look at it now and see it as emptiness. There is nothing there. There is no problem. There is no permanence. There is nothing but empty space.
Don’t focus on the particles. Focus on the emptiness!
Observe the emptiness. Notice how you can see right through your body. When you interact with it, you go straight through. There is nothing there - only emptiness.
Imagine that you can see your head. Either in the mirror or by stepping out of your body with your mind’s eye and observing yourself, what do you notice? It’s translucent, empty, and not there.
Imagine yourself waking or floating through the room you’re in—effortless, even more than being carried by the wind. You have no weight or mass. You’re floating around as if no gravity holds you down. Doesn’t it feel nice?
Then, look at the room and see it for what it is—mostly empty space. There is nothing there. What seemed real only a moment ago is now just as translucent as your body. It’s made of the same fundamental elements. It’s no more solid and real than you. There is nothing but empty space everywhere you look.
Feel how relaxing that is
Feel the freedom of having no body, no form, no identity, no nothing. Fly around and notice how nothing is real. Nothing is solid. It’s all just a mental illusion. Take that away, and you see things as they are - empty space, galaxies, miniature particles dancing in the darkness.
You are one with the whole world. The entire universe is reflected in you, and you in it. Imagine seeing other people, animals, buildings, and planets as translucent emptiness without mass, weight, or form.
If you want to change something about your body, now is the perfect time
You’ve stripped away the old. You see your body for what it is. There is no solidity, no form, no permanence. Draw your body anew. Fix what you believe needs fixing, or better yet, see it in your mind as perfect. If you feel pain, focus on it and see through it, dissolving it into nothingness. You now realize that there is nothing to change but your mind. Play with it, and feel how perfect it is. Enjoy the lightness of the experience and the relief that comes with it.
There is no body. There is no you. There are no labels. There is no pain. There are no problems. There is no disease. There are no defects. Only empty space and dancing particles. Everything is perfect in this moment. You are perfect. It all makes sense. You are one with all, connected by invisible forces, as all the billions of tinny particles within you. Feel the love. Feel the warmth. Feel the light shining through you.
When you want to stop, slowly bring yourself back. Move your fingers, then wrists, then arms and legs. Take a deep breath and open your eyes.
Question
Was the visualization an illusion of emptiness, or is this world appearing solid that is the illusion?
Practice a shortened version of this visualization often
Short Translucent body guided meditation:
Meditation notes: This guided meditation is not word-for-word identical to the described exercise. A longer version is near the top of the article.
Simply close your eyes and see yourself translucent. Begin with the arms and go through your whole body. It can only take a few short minutes, and some of that feeling of lightness, relief, and oneness might slip through.
You can also do it with your eyes open. Look at your arms, body, and the room around you, and imagine them as translucent, empty, and dark, like the night sky. See through the illusion whenever you want.
I also recommend doing a version of this visualization when you’re in pain, afraid, anxious, or sick. Dissolve yourself into an empty space, and if you’re like me, your problems will seem a lot lighter than they were even a moment before. Your pain will subside (it’s just a signal of the mind), and you will feel better.
I hope you learned something new and enjoyed our little visualization. Reading about it does nothing unless you put it into practice. Good luck.
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