Embodied Presence Cannot Be Simulated

By Samuel Malkemus & Marina Romero

Your sensing body is a process of intelligence, at once ancient, earthy, elemental.

The world is woven through your flesh, hair, eyes, teeth, and bones.

Feel the moisture in your mouth in this moment and notice the air that surrounds the whole of your body. With each breath water escapes from your lungs, eventually becoming clouds, rain, ocean, river. And each day, 3% of our bodies water molecules, which make up 60% of our total body volume, are replenished. Replenished from vapor rising as the sun touches a morning frost, replenished from rainforest heat. Replenished from crashing waves wetted upon the rocks and beaches of all shorelines.

You are the waters of the earth and the waters of the earth are you.

And being present with the living pond that you are, with just enough molecular thickening to keep you from dribbling away, there are certain qualities of presence that open you to an inner ground and an inner mystery.

Presence from the body, from the whole of the body, and not merely presence from the head, allows for a relaxed and grounded state of awareness.

Presence from the body, embodied presence, allows us to get beneath the content of our mind, and the content of the stories that play on, often incessantly. Until we pause. Until we breathe, a few deeper breaths, and find stillness.

When we can get under the content of our minds, and be present from the body, what we are faced with is not so clear. What we are faced with is mysterious and dark. A pregnant potential that is the mysterious ground and creative source of our lives, and of our symbolic representations, our stories, about our lives.  

With the recent emerge of artificial intelligence, there is a rapid acceleration of potential. A processing and organization of information that represents a phase-shift in human cultural evolution. The shift is so great that some have been inclined to state that human beings are on the verge of obsolescence. They are no longer needed. Their utility has been surpassed. (See Elon Musk’s recent talk at the world economic forum). And yet the shadow of this tool is also emerging, in new terms like AI psychosis and the recognition of the negative impact that it can have upon mental health.

Artificial intelligence is a tool of great utility. Yet it is not a tool that can replace human to human presence and connection. And given its current proliferation, at this current cultural moment, it is a time, perhaps more than ever before, to remember who we are as human beings, and to turn to the mystery of embodied presence. It is time to open to the wisdom of the body and connect to our unique experience of being human on this earth.

We are embodiments of cosmic process, and that cosmic process is presencing through us and the Earth as a whole. Yet, AI flourishes rapidly among us. It flourishes within the field of a culture that shapes us in the forgetfulness of such truth. This is an oblivion that generates an increasing and painful need for connection to the source of our own freedom and unlimited potentials of being. AI, depending on how it is used, may push us a bit further from our embodied presence in the world. Many are turning to AI as a response to the loss of connection, connection to our own innate freedom and limitlessness. But the healthy response that we truly need is way simpler; it is embodied presence, openhearted embodied presence, awakening in it, re-membering it.

AI is an important tool in our times with great utility –we, as many, are exploring its applications, carefully and with awareness. But let us not forget that it is not here to substitute our embodied nature and its inherent freedom and limitlessness. Let us re-member who we truly are and what we are here to become.

Let us re-member together; let us face together the potentials of re-membering and the wounds of forgetfulness. Let us re-member and become, once again.

In presence,

Sam and Marina