Thought for the Week: Radiation in Meeting
G Gordon Steel considers signals and reception
Few Friends may be aware that when we are sitting in Meeting on a Sunday we are in the midst of a sea of radiation. With suitable instruments, radioactivity is easily detectable in the walls, floor and ceiling of the rooms where we live and worship. It is in the air we breathe and in our bodies. A few cosmic rays rain down from the sky and pass straight through the room. We are unaware of all this and, hopefully, the risks to us are minimal. The world has been radioactive throughout its history, but for the past century there has been a new type of radiation flying around and for the past twenty to thirty years it has been all-pervasive.
If we were to bring a smartphone into Meeting and switch it on (heaven forbid) we could access a vast range of signals. We could surf the internet and receive information and images from California, Australia, China, or where you will. We could turn to the BBC and watch football, news channels or entertainment. We could go to the radio and have culture on Radio 3. The phone is not creating these signals, it is merely a detector. Its audible and visual output is proof that the electromagnetic radiation is there every Sunday and all the time. We are sitting in a sea of information-loaded radio wave – a staggering thought.
There are other forms of ‘radiation’ in Meeting, of greater spiritual significance. As we sit in Meeting we may be aware of feelings of friendship directed towards us from others in the room. The sight of a Friend who we know to be in trouble may cause us to generate loving concern towards them. Within the room as a whole there may be warmth of companionship. Catching the eye of another Friend may generate signals that pass between us:
From hand to hand the greeting flows;
From eye to eye the signals run;
From heart to heart the bright faith glows;
The seekers of the Light are one.
– Samuel Longfellow
We come to Meeting to be in the presence of the Spirit, and of the human spirit, and are fortunate if we experience a message or an unspeakable influence that is serviceable for us. Quakers have always affirmed the presence in our Meetings of the Divine Spirit, though in recent years some of us have been heard to question whether that has an essence distinct from the human spirit. Some Friends may be aware of these hidden forms of communication, others less so. The key lies in the detector, the receiver. We are enjoined to come to Meeting with hearts and minds prepared, but this does not even, mainly, mean coming with a vocal message that we might be moved to give – it means bringing our selves, who we are and the spirit within us, and coming in a receptive frame of mind.
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