The Etheric in Sports

1. Opening — Beyond Competition

Sports today, are an enhancement of human capabilities in any given discipline. This can sometimes be brought very far, and those who excell, thanks to tireless work, training and discipline, are then also greatly admired. Technical prowess and physical strength, when driven very far, to exceptional achievements, become highly admirable. Sport is then as much about achievements, as it is about spectators participation. The prowess happens for, and in front a public. The public has the impression of participating, of seeing in sports people an extension of themselves. Once activity, pulse and adrenaline is heightened, and one extends within the sports people performing on any given terrain or arena.

Sport, because of the prowess, has become competition, as one athlete performs against another, as a team measures its strengths to that of another. Who is best? Who has the most strength? Who has the most skills. Trophies are part of the game, as it seals the performant, it creates records, classifications, statistics. Viewers are measured, and the value of a team is annotated, translated in numbers, allowing for companies to appear on the scene, who need to be seen and showcase their brand.

Beyond competition, there is also a narrow bond between athletes, their team, the trainers, and all related personnel, Up to management and sponsors. In such a specific world, where not directly is produced, and where performance and entertainment meet, camaraderie finds a ground, between encouragement, support in a world closely knit by the public eye.

But there is also a very special dimension, to performance and strength, as displaying of energy, namely physical force involves more than the eyes can see. Physical strength has been valued throughout time, in humanity’s long history, well before the world of machines came about. The physical prowess was vital, in providing goods and products, and often greatly admired, because so vital. Today that is no longer the case, yet physical strength, and human achievements and their boundaries keep being pushed in sports.

While science tends to see the human body as a machine, there are other dimensions involved, in physical strength, that aren’t so easily grasped. These dimensions however were still displayed in Ancient Greece, where the Olympics indeed involved besides the original pentathlon various combat disciplines, as well as foot races, but where, especially in the pentathlon, the beauty of the gesture played a role as well.. And not only so, but the various disciplines were accompanied by recitation, whereby the famous Greek rhythms played a crucial role. These rhythms, primarily based on the length of the syllables —long or short mixes— were a kind of quantitative meter, shaping the flow, impetus and sound of poetry and declamation.

According to the cases, distinct meters were used, such as the dactylic hexameter and the iambic trimeter. And while poetry provides an elevation, so did an enhancement through these rhythms, as for instance is today still noticeable in chanting, or even in warrior incantations. This “lifting” however —which we also experience in dance, that uplifts and moves the body— was experienced as much as was the force of gravity; sports meant a balance between the forces of gravity and levity.

Even in Asian martial arts, starting with Thai-Chi, anti-gravitational forces were still at work as well. Modern man only acknowledges gravity, but for instance in water, and anti-gravity force is still at work.. This is what’s called the etheric..

2. The Etheric in Movement

• The etheric is the principle of rhythm, growth, and flow. If Newton had an inkling by seeing the apple fall, one might as well ask how the apple got up there in the first place.. Sunlight indeed “pulls”, if not water to evaporate, and change from liquid to gaseous state. Heat dissolves the mere state of solid, inanimate matter. Plants grow up, anti-gravity directionally. the grasses stand tall, with a minimum of matter, raise up towards the light from which they have an affinity. The moon, so it is said, “pulls” the ocean, yet, another gravity pull one would say. Yet..
• Sports at their best are not about domination, but about rhythmic harmony of body and life-force: breath, stride, pulse, timing, balance. Running, for instance, when not seen solely through performance metrics, is in a way a “falling” forwards, kept in balance by the speed, by the forward direction, at least, so it can be done..
• The “zone” athletes speak of — being carried beyond themselves — is essentially the etheric coming into freer play. It is essentially being lifted above the bodily pull. A floating comes about, an entering into a new sphere.
• Some examples illustrate this quite well: some runner’s strides seems effortless, a basketball player whose body “knows” before the mind decides while running at lateral angles barely possible, a gymnast flowing through forms, etc.

3. The Shadow Side — Hardening and Depletion

• The etheric can be strengthened, but also depleted or hardened. Exercise, rhythm and discipline, the efforts to overcome mere habits all strengthen the etheric. To understand this correctly, one would need to speak of an actual etheric body, a kind of fanthom one carries within oneself, and which constitutes the actual "life" operator and architect within one's physiology. Too much physical exercise can harden the body, leading to a contracting of the etheric body, resulting in several forms of rigidity that are often not noticed, and not necessarily located on the physical level.
• Therefore over-training, excessive stress on the physical, or purely mechanical coaching and exercises can “burn out” the etheric, leaving the athlete hollow or injured.
• Competition that becomes war tears at the etheric instead of uplifting it.

4. Sports as Etheric Schooling

• Imagine sport not as pure competition, but as a school of the etheric:
  • Cultivating rhythm, breath, and inner balance.
  • Training perception: the “sense” of where others are on the field is not only physical but etheric awareness.
  • Building community: team rhythm is literally a shared etheric field in motion.
• In this sense, sport can be preparation for life: learning to work with forces of vitality, rhythm, and flow, rather than against them. And of course, sport can also be a preparation and a training ground to learn to work with others. Which too is a domain, the inter-human domain, which requires flexibility, and life and etheric forces that aren't always noticed.

5. A Cultural Task

• Today, sport is often reduced to commerce, statistics, and records.
• But if we saw it as a laboratory of the etheric, it could help reintroduce humanity to what it means to live in a world of formative forces, not only matter. This world of formative forces is often located in the "in-between", in the space as such..
• The challenge is to keep the etheric alive, flexible, and free — not depleted or hardened by the machinery of competition and profit.

6. Closing

• This article started by a beautiful photo by a sports reporter: sports images, often so luminous, translate what's living in movement, resulting in joy and vitality; it's the light of the life-forces themselves.
• Whether we see athletes at play, or mere pictures, these are not just pictures of bodies in motion, but glimpses of the life-forces at play, these life-forces that make up humanity, and the entire living world. They are much more present than generally assumed, and have significance well beyond life. While Life, somehow is not of this world, in the sense that it isn't visible as such with the senses, but it is that very same substance we find within, in the form of our very own thinking. Thoughts, have indeed a vitality, a life of their own, and they can be so luminous, and throw "light" on what is otherwise not understandable, and would remain in the dark
• To see sport rightly is to see the etheric shining through — a reminder of what human life could be if we learned to live more fully in rhythm, balance, and shared flow.