Chapter Two — Shells of Darkness

In the previous chapter I asked you to close your eyes and imagine our body as an inner sea that lives in darkness.

Now I want you to think about something more.

Our body lives in darkness, but almost everything that allows it to exist comes from the world outside it.

We eat, drink and breathe. We take in information through the senses, hear words, experience emotions and respond to the environment.

But have we ever stopped to think where the things we bring into the body come from?

I want to begin, of all things, with sunlight.

The sun is the central source of energy that enables the existence of most life on Earth.

Think of a fruit that grows on a tree.

The tree takes in the sunlight, and in the process of photosynthesis uses the energy of light to produce sugars from water and carbon dioxide.

The fruit we eat was created as part of these processes.

The vegetables, grains and plants we eat are also connected to the sun's energy.

And when we eat food whose source is animals, it too is ultimately connected to a food chain that begins, in most cases, with plants and with the sun's energy.

That is, a large part of the energy we receive from food originates in sunlight, which went through many processes until it reached our body.

And what about the air we breathe?

Here too there is a connection to sunlight.

Plants, algae and other creatures that perform photosynthesis release oxygen as part of the process in which they use the energy of light.

We breathe this oxygen, and the lungs pass it into the blood and from there to the body's cells.

In the cells, the oxygen takes part in processes that make it possible to produce energy from food.

And so, even when our body lives in darkness, some of the processes that allow it to exist are connected to energy whose source is light.

This thought is one of the starting points of my theory.

The body lives in darkness, but it exists by means of things that reach it from outside, and many of them are connected directly or indirectly to sunlight.

I imagine this energy as light that enters into our inner darkness.

Not light that illuminates the organs, and not light that the eyes can see inside the body, but light as an image for the source of energy that enables life.

And now I want you to imagine that same light as it reaches the body.

Sometimes it arrives through food that nourishes us and provides the body with the materials it needs.

But sometimes, together with the things we bring into the body, substances that do not benefit it may also enter.

And here the image of the shells of darkness is born in me.

I imagine light that comes from outside, but wrapped in a shell of darkness.

This shell represents the harmful influence that may accompany what we bring into ourselves.

When it enters the body, it arrives into the natural darkness in which our lives take place.

I want you to close your eyes for a moment.

Imagine your inner sea.

The waters are dark, moving quietly, and every part of the sea influences the other parts.

Now imagine light reaching this sea from outside.

Around it is a dark envelope.

Within my image, that envelope is the shell of darkness.

It is not the body's natural darkness. It represents something that came from outside and may disturb its inner balance.

And I do not attribute this image only to food and to the substances we breathe.

I also think about the emotional influences we bring into our lives.

Think of a child who hears hurtful words again and again.

He is told that he is not good enough, that he is not capable, that he does not succeed.

At first he may be hurt and cry. Over time he may grow used to hearing these things.

But does the fact that he grew used to them mean they stopped influencing him?

I imagine that every such hurt may leave a small shell of darkness inside him.

Over the years, as the hurts repeat themselves, the shells accumulate inside his emotional world.

The child grows up, but some of the experiences continue to accompany him.

He may become an insecure person. He may respond with anger or find it hard to trust others. And he may cope with things in other ways.

Not every person who was hurt will develop the same behavior, but the experiences we go through can have an influence on the way we learn to respond to the world.

In my theory, I imagine these influences as shells of darkness that change the movement inside our inner sea.

And not only in childhood.

As adults, too, we are exposed every day to words, behaviors and situations that arouse emotions in us.

Someone insults us.

Someone shouts at us.

We hear difficult news, watch disturbing images, or are in an environment that creates tension in us.

Sometimes the event itself lasts a few minutes, but we keep thinking about it for hours and even days.

We replay the conversation, remember the words, and feel that same hurt again.

Within my image, this is a shell of darkness that goes on influencing the movement of the inner sea.

Now let us return to the physical body.

Think of a bag of snacks that we buy at the store.

We open it and eat, but how often do we stop to think about the road the food traveled until it reached us?

About the raw materials, the production processes, the additives, the packaging, the storage and the transport?

Or about a strawberry that looks beautiful and shiny, but we do not know which pesticides were used in growing it?

And what about the air we breathe?

Car smoke, air pollution, fumes of various substances and certain fragrance substances — all of these may expose us to substances, some of which are harmful to health.

I am not claiming that every processed food is harmful, or that every substance that enters the body stays inside it.

But I do think it is worthwhile for us to be more aware of what we bring into our body.

In my theory, I imagine these harmful influences as shells of darkness.

And here I return to the inner sea.

Imagine that into the dark, peaceful waters, small shells begin to enter.

One represents an emotional hurt.

Another represents ongoing tension.

And others represent exposure to harmful substances from the environment.

Within my image, each of them may influence the movement in the sea.

Sometimes small waves are created, and sometimes I imagine how an accumulation of influences creates a greater storm.

We cannot always control everything that takes place in the world around us.

We cannot always prevent another person from saying something hurtful to us, and we cannot always avoid every exposure to various substances.

But we can learn to be more selective.

To choose what we eat.

To pay attention to the air and the environment we are in.

To choose which content we watch.

And above all, to learn that not every word someone says to us must become part of the way we see ourselves.

I believe this awareness is the first step.

Before we can change something, we must learn to identify it.

To identify what benefits us and what disturbs our calm.

To distinguish between the natural darkness in which the body lives and the shells of darkness that I imagine entering it from outside.

And perhaps most importantly, to understand that not everything that reaches us from the external world must remain inside us.

The body lives in darkness, but a large part of the energy that sustains it begins in sunlight. In my theory, the shells of darkness are the image for the harmful influences that may accompany the things that reach us from outside and disturb our inner balance.

In the next chapter we will try to understand how those shells of darkness may influence our inner sea, our emotions, and the way we behave.

© 2026 Nurit Rozenblat. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed without the author's prior written permission.