Video: what makes a location spiritual? Make life a meditation

view of the Bariloche area from atop a mountain

birds eye view of Patagonia

close to where the ski-lift dropped us off. Heading up to the ridge

wow, just wow





a view from the ridge





Bariloche- cycling around the lakes

ascending Mount Tronodar on the Chilean/ Argentinian border

the fall colors of Patagonia

carved by glaciers like a razor blade- on a hike in Patagonia





Spiritual friends often ascribe physical places (houses, mountain-tops, Gettysburg, etc.) as having an energy, sometimes "negative," other times the location's vibration is deemed a blessing; generally dependent on its history. Occasionally they'll tell me an area we're traveling to is situated upon a naturally occurring energy line/meridian of the earth, and assure me that the planetary pulse here is palpable to those sensitive enough to feel it.I won't pretend to understand the logic behind their beliefs, but having been in the presence of a saint/ true yogi/ enlightened man (in India) and been deeply moved and affected by his presence, I am open to the fact that even if something doesn't make intellectual sense to me, or lacks immediate sensory proof, does not preclude its existence. After-all, though I'm unable to register the sound, does my puppy not respond to a dog whistle? Won't radioactive material affect me physically, even if I feel and see nothing when it's near?So for me, the jury is still out as to whether a location can store, like a battery, psychic or ethereal energy, or whether negative or positive frequencies dissipate the moment an event finishes, like unused electricity.Or is human perception of energetic frequency based mostly on manipulation of the mind?How many people would be able to walk into a clean bright house without prior knowledge that a some horrific event took place there a week ago, and tell you the space was negatively charged? Similarly, if you primed most people with false information of a tragedy taking place, I'm willing to bet a high percentage of them would report feeling, to put it in scientific terms, the "heebie-jeebies."It seems to me that if there is a Oneness of all things, a singular energy from which all matter originates; as human beings our lives are analogous to a drop of water which momentarily escapes the surface of a vast and deep sea, and for a blip in relative time yells, "Look at me!" while floating above for 50, 80, 100 years, before merging once again with the greater ocean of energy.If this is the case, if everything is one, how then can a location have a greater level of spirituality than another?Allow me to explain in relative human terms, rather than cosmically as I discuss above:For me, when I speak of spiritual places, they are areas of such astounding natural beauty that the mind gets inundated with so much "awe," that our continual and habitual thought processes short-circuit. For these brief periods of time, as it ceases activity, we have no mind, and as the cloud of thought which obfuscates our internal light dissipates, the naturally bubbling energy, the presence within everyone, that which continually governs our body- causing our heart to beat, our lungs to breathe, our cells to divide, that which was present long before we were born, runs through us today, and will be here for eons after our physical form dissolves ... As we become aware of the true energy that we are born of, a lightness, a sense of dynamic love overtakes us, and our bodies feel completely alive and electrified (at least this my experience.)And to me, this is the meaning of spirituality; to connect with and explore the depths of our being. There are an infinite number of paths to get there, (we can turn any moment into a meditation) but I truly believe for a majority of people, any location of such mind blowing natural beauty makes it more likely that a gap in thought will occur, and enables us to dive into the vast ocean of energy from which our lives sprung.Patagonia, Argentina is one these heavenly locations, and for this reason, I nominate it as: The World's Most "Spiritual" Place.