Cultivating Radical Joy in an age of 5G

Cultivating Radical Joy in an Age of 5G

Many people poo-pooh electro-sensitivity, but on 12 June 2021 I was blessed to be part of a Radical Joy gathering with three other women who also deeply understand, through their lived experience, how life-altering and frightening the impact of electro-magnetic radiation can be.

Even 3G and 4G have a negative impact on our health, and now we face the world-wide rollout of 5G. The erection of transmitter towers accelerated while people were confined to their homes during the Covid-19 lockdown.  And recently our City Council passed a regulation allowing telecommunications companies to install transmitters on your property without your permission, and to hold you liable for any damage to that infrastructure. All without consultation with the people.

While sharing our stories, our emotions ranged from fear to fury, from indignation to grief. But at least, and at last, we could be heard.

We gathered at my apartment because it is a witness site to the impact of nearby cellphone towers on health.  Soon after moving here in 2019, I developed a serious heart arrhythmia and ended up in hospital. The cardiologist could find nothing physically wrong and sent me away. I became suspicious that electromagnetic radiation from the cellphone towers might be responsible, so invited someone to come and monitor the levels of radiation in our unit. He was shocked. He had never measured such high levels of electromagnetic frequencies (emfs) in a private residence; in fact, the readings went off the scale of his equipment at some points. So, while all of us in cities now live within an invisible soup of unnatural emfs, this was a place where some of that invisibility had been made visible.

We spent our solo time in the communal garden that my husband and I love and help to tend. We reached out to Nature for wisdom and healing.

I felt drawn to a throbbing red geranium flower, and a phrase came to me: “All is emanance”. While the correct word for the radiation of that rich colour may be emanation, ‘emanance’ felt truer. The experience included elements of immanence – the state of being within – and also of eminence – a quality of distinction.

This alerted me to other emanations: sensations of cold, moist earth moving through my feet into my legs; knowing that Earth’s electrons were generously entering and waking up my tired cells; being uplifted by the gift of green – each leaf emanating oxygen and creating substance from air, water and light; feeling my heartbeat and trusting that its emanations were feeding a field of gratitude; and finally sitting on the edge of a garden bed and receiving the warm emanations of the late-afternoon sun on my face.

And it was then that I realised that, as I faced the sun, I was looking directly at one of the cellphone towers. And in that moment, I felt my back straighten, my chest swell. It was so clear. The power of the sun, the power and the wisdom of Nature, are infinitely greater than the emissions of technology. Before the radiance of the sun, these transient towers are empty threats. The Earth holds us, the Plant World heals us, our Animal cousins encourage us.

Together, under the trees, we shared our stories again, this time feeling nurtured and inspired by the silence, the opportunity to receive, and the witnessing of a circle of sisters.

We built our Radical Joy bird on a soft bed of breast feathers, the ultimate offering of a dove that had in turn given life to the sparrowhawk.