Photographs Speak a Thousand Words

Many indigenous cultures across the world abhor photographs, particularly those taken without the subject?s permission. They believe that the photographer captures the subject?s soul in his camera and evil could result from this action. Until recently, I sided with the technologically more advanced societies and found such a belief laughable and hardly worth taking note of.


However, with the increasing use of internet and social networking sites, an interesting phenomenon is coming to light. People are unwilling to display their real face to match their name, but are hiding their identities behind caricatures, pictures of celebrities, beautiful pin up girls, or even cartoons. What is the fear or rationale behind such behavior? Is it dissatisfaction with self, inability to face the reality of the body you are born with, and the personality you have developed under the influence of society, childhood conditioning, peer pressure and the environment? Or is it a growing awareness that a photograph actually does capture you aura, your energy field, and your soul radiance, and transmits a million more messages to the discerning viewer than one actually intends to allow for public display.


                 

Two kinds of photography have become increasingly popular today. One is candid photography whereby the talented or amateur photographer uses natural or subdued lighting to catch facets of a person?s face and body and environment without stylized gestures or poses or frames. You see yourself as if through a neutral mirror and analyze your gestures and expressions frame by frame and tag the various emotions, feelings and thoughts mirrored in your eyes and body.
   
The other kind of photography is professional, stylized picturization in which the model subjugates his/her own personality to the demands of the commercial market. Then you see plastic faces, staring out of glossy magazine covers, with dead eyes and no depth of character. This is important for those who are selling their face and body to advertise products and services because they are exposed to the gaze of a multitude of people and they cannot afford to have their true persona made public.

Does this mean that we have finally understood what spiritually evolved cultures have told us for many years? That a photograph manages to entrap a part of your energy field and can be used for black magic if the practitioner of the art is so inclined. Reiki masters, tarot card readers, crystal healers and other enlightened light workers will tell you that natural photographs carry as vivid an energy field of the person as the living body itself. They can read the aura of the person and diagnose mental, emotional, or physical ailments just by scanning the picture with their energized crystals..

I now realize that a photograph speaks a thousand words and though we may long to reach out to a host of strangers and create a global network of friends, we want to keep a part of ourselves completely private and inaccessible to the world at large. Why? What is the fear? We are all spiritual beings, unique in our soul journeys, and present in this physical world to evolve and grow ever more knowledgeable and aware of our inherent godliness.  We should rejoice in our i divinity rather than seeking to hide it from the world.  Only when we release our own insecurities and fears will we be able to create a truly united world which respects and nurtures all living and non-living creatures with unconditional love and joy.