I grew up in Hong Kong at a time when amahs( servants) were commonplace in most households. We had an amah who cooked, an amah who did the laundry and ironing, an amah who looked after the children. My Amah was a middle-aged lady who lost her daughter several years before she found work at our house. She was a simple woman, quiet, stoic except when she talked about her little girl. In a fervent and unforgettable voice, she would speak as though the girl were still alive, insisting that the dead girl had visited her several times at night and had even touched my forehead ( when I was fast asleep). I loved listening to Amah when she went on these ramblings; they pointed to something so close and yet so strange.

But my Grandmother worried that Amah might be poisoning my mind. "What's all this hullabaloo about a dead girl? ? she complained to my mother.

Now, years later, I have a special place in my heart for Amah. She has long since disappeared from my life ?but her ramblings about "Little Sister ? have opened my eyes to the possibility that there is more to the universe than meets the eye.

The reality of a universe other than the one we can see and touch has become popular in films and novels. However, we need to go beyond its seduction as pure entertainment and look at its implications as reality.

Quantum mechanics have shown that there is no such thing as a vacuum. What we think of as empty space is actually a vortex of activity, a quantum whirl of particles and waves. Instead of being reducible to atoms, our world is actually fluid, uncertain. At its most fundamental level, our world is pure energy, pure potential, pure possibility.

What does this mean?

1. Matter can no longer be considered separate and distinct from spirit. And even the insistence we maintain that we are separate bodies and selves is illusory at best.

2. Space and time exist only in one dimension of our world; there are other dimensions that communicate outside time and space. This means that we can communicate telepathically with someone or something several thousands of miles away.

3. The world is a complex web of interconnecting relationships, a sea of energy that is characterized by its indivisibility.

4. We are part of the Web. We are the Web.

5. We have the power to influence external events. Quantum scientists have postulated a particular relationship between the observer and the observed: the act of observation changes the nature of the observed; in short, what we see is what we get.

Most of us have experienced the Field even though we might not be aware of it.

Have you ever had

- a vivid premonition that came true?

- a sense that you are connected to the world, that you are a part of a sea of wholeness?

- an effect on something in your environment through intention or desire?

- an effect on an object ?such as a computer ?when you are emotionally charged?

- a special connection between you and an animal?

- a sense that something that happened to you was eerily co-incidental?

Instead of assigning these occurrences to the realm of the "unusual ? or "impossible, ? consider this-- our "rational ? views of cause and effect, our views that we are separate, individual beings dominated by the passage of time and space are based only on our three-dimensional experience of reality. What if we actually live in a multi-dimensional universe? What if the normal course of events is an unending flow of energy and our insistence on separation and distinction is the perversion that is preventing us from being who and what we really are.

In Feng Shui, everything is done to the environment to facilitate the flow of energy in the house because this flow will have a direct bearing on the flow of energy in the body. Wholeness and Wellness are seen as an uninterrupted flow of power through the body. Illness is a disruption of this flow. And despite my Grandmother's misgivings, Amah was able to connect me to this flow.

Perhaps we need to rethink our purpose on this earth. Yes life is good and we must live the best we can. Yes, we can work to create the most dynamic relationships and the most profitable businesses. But we can only channel our goals to their ultimate source if we carry this purpose foremost in our hearts ?reconnect with the Field, live its energy and teach others to do the same.

Copyright 2005 Mary Desaulniers