Paragliding like a Saint

Welcome to Juniper Canyon on the Columbia River at the border of Oregon and Washington. A fine place for a peripatetic moment. Suspend your opinions on the existence of God for a bit and let us make some assumptions for the purpose of this discussion. Let us assume now that there is an invisible type of energy that permeates all of existence and is the fundamental life force driving the creation and sustenance of the universe. Let us further assume that it is a positive force in that as it pertains to mankind it is intrinsically loving and fundamentally supportive of human growth and development in line with it's tendency to create and make manifest not only that which is inanimate but animate. Lets agree, if you don't mind, to call this force The Spirit. Now, let's assume that we are paraglider pilots. Paraglider pilots need every possible advantage to stay airborne. If so, should we not avail ourselves of this energy in whatever fashion reasonably possible to help sustain flight? And if so, how?

Catholics have a quaint little group that they revere as "mystics," including St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Francis. St. John and St. Teresa are the principal teachers (Doctors of the Church, actually) of what is called contemplative or infused prayer--two way communication with God. St. Francis was also quite in touch with his diety. Another Saint pertinent to paragliding is St. Joseph of Cuportino, one of three patron saints of aviation. St. Joseph was in the habit of levitation when he was communing with God, sticking him with pins or poking him with burning embers didn't get him out of the air, only direct orders from his superiors could get him down. What can we take from these saints and their interaction with their God that might be useful to us as paraglider pilots should we desire to attempt interaction with The Spirit and help stay in the air?

From my readings about these saints, it appears that what they have to say coincides rather well with some of the comments in Mads Syndergaards book regarding the mental state required for successful paraglider competition. What is required is a mind cleared of encumbrance and quiet, as if for meditation, yet completely open to receive proper data. Study and training is required so that the act of flying is second nature, and the usual cluttered thought process (looking for triggers, birds, clouds, checking wind and instruments, etc.) can be pushed down towards the subconscious. (The contemplative saints were no poorly trained alter boys going straight for the prayer Olympics, these were all seasoned veterans.) The type of communication is not that of a couple of CB radio operators chatting mindlessly from their big rigs, but rather that of a nearly entranced ham radio expert in the quiet of his station in the middle of the night mind tuned mainly to receive, but ready and able to respond as necessary.

In order to communicate with The Spirit, to perhaps better pilot our paraglider, we must study and train and prepare, watching the details, and take great care of our mental state. Forgetting batteries for one's vario, having a pissing match with some idiot on the hill, worrying about this and that, whatever--got to let it go when it comes time, and get ready to fly.

The Spirit can infuse information into a receptive mind, actionable data perhaps? Set your priorities, set mind to receive, attempt to identify actionable data (preferentially subconsciously, as you most likely will not recognize it empirically as useful data) and allow proper action to ensue.

I think that in addition to mindset and the usual preparations for flying, it is reasonable to include an aspect of spiritual foundation to flight preparation if one wishes to include The Spirit in one's flying. Coming from a childhood spent in Catholic oriented spirituality, it is immediately obvious that such a preparation might include standard spoken (verbal, non-verbal, up to you, I'm not Jewish) prayer. The saints often used standard prayer as prelude to contemplative/infused prayer. Those raised Catholic have any number of memorized prayers readily at hand for such a purpose, I have personally had some success using the "Hail Mary," though, muttering about the hour of one's death just before launching is a bit disconcerting. A simple moment of silence prior to launch, however brief, giving thanks to The Spirit for the opportunity to take flight would certainly suffice. I suspect even a pretty rock solid stoic agnostic could give fair duty to a quick thank you prior to launching.

While you are contemplating the above, I'll introduce an ancillary concept. In Stephen King's Gunslinger Series, the author contemplates certain geographic locations where the fabric of space and time are thin and different dimensions are closer together. Sounds like the nodes down by Sedona in current New-Age religious theory I suppose (not a great fan) but even traditional Christian, Jewish, and Muslim people recognize holy places. Welcome to Lourdes, France. I've been there, it feels....like a place with intrinsic power of some sort.


Most paraglider launches are places of beauty and height fully worthy of being spiritually active places. It would likely enhance one's ability to engage The Spirit to be in a spiritually active place; I would therefore encourage you to spend some of your launch prep time recognizing the opportunity to perceive of your location in this unique fashion. Even a dead set atheist might be willing to acknowledge the possibility of trans-dimensional communications at certain locations in light of current physics multi-universe theory.

Ah, but lets leave the mundane of where we set our feet and amble back to communication with The Spirit. After you prepare, and you get your mind right, and you listen and react and fly and land, how do you feel? I've got to say I generally feel pretty darn good. This is traditionally the sort of time when those who are spiritually oriented give pause to give thanks. As we have made the assumption that you are a paraglider pilot, I know that there have been times when you hit the ground perfectly happy to kiss the earth and thank everybody and everything for your continuing existence--it would only be logical to consider doing so after every landing.

The Muslim folks pray, I think, five times a day. Some religious seem to save it for the sabbath. I guess many people don't pray, and it seems from my studies that contemplative/infused prayer is not a widespread experience even for the devout. Contact with The Spirit is to be strongly encouraged to increase the user perceived value of piloting a paraglider. Furthermore, if there is even the most remote possibility that infused prayer can positively improve in-flight decision making or otherwise enhance flight outcome it deserves a place in one's kit. Miracles don't just happen you know, they are made.

Teresa of Avilar, mystic and
Doctor of the Church.