On Wednesday, November 30, 2022, Baba Dr. Wade Ifágbemì Sàngódáre Nobles and Siphiwe Baleka, along with Enola G Aird, were panelists on a forum entitled Skh (Illumination): Repairing Spirit Damage and Restoring Wellness in the African World. This event was a lead up to the launch of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent held at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland December 5-8, 2022.
The following is a conversation between Baba Dr. Wade Ifágbemì Sàngódáre Nobles and Siphiwe Baleka conducted via email on December 1, 2022, the day after the Skh (Illumination). Baba Nobles asked his questions in one email and Siphiwe Baleka answered in another email. For the sake of this post, the questions and answers have been spliced together.
Baba Nobles: Alafia, My Brother Siphiwe Baleka I am not sure if you are en route to Geneva or have arrived. Whatever the case, be well and be safe. The more I hear you speak and review some of your work, eg., COMPLETE STATEMENT TO THE 26TH SESSION OF THE WORKING GROUP OF EXPERTS ON PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT REGIONAL MEETING WITH CIVIL SOCIETY, the more I am convinced that our on-going conversations will be beneficial. Your thinking has forced me to recall an earlier (long ago) engagement with Western Psychological theorist, especially Eric Ericson who, if my recalling is correct, posited the idea that every organism is born with a certain purpose, and continues to develop how it was intended in interrelation with its environment. Hence, biology unfolds in relation to socio-cultural, environmental (experiential) factors, ergo, the “epigenetic principle.” With these new analyses, science supposedly discovered that such modifications disrupt the normal development and functioning of cells by influencing gene activation, deactivation, etc. without altering or changing the primary structure of DNA. This is intriguing. However, it is, I believe, bound to the ghost of Aristotle and Descartes’ dilemma, which yokes our intellectual explorations to only “materialist conceptualizations.” Genetics is a study of physical expressions as inheritance. Even the ideas or thought or affect or feeling are only understood through their physical expressions or evidence. The epigenetic inheritance, as you posit, can be passed down to at least seven generations. The epigenetic tags which react to our environment have cellular memory, which in turn, tell the genes whether to be on or off, to activate, or deactivate. Hence, the idea that our ancestors’ enslavement created epigenetic tags of “fear,” which is being passed down from generation to generation, may need to be expanded. I invite you to ponder additional considerations. Were there epigenetic tags of “courage,” “fearlessness” “etc.? What evidence do we have of these attributes being passed down from generation to generation? Do we have multiple complementary and conflicting tags? On another level, if African deep thought and wisdom traditions (BaNtu Kongo) suggest that all is spirit and that our beingness is a tri-fold vibrating radiating spirit (energy) that is knowing and knowable, which exist in both the visible and invisible realms, then are there epigenetic tags that are not limited to the physical?
Siphiwe Baleka: I am inclined to say yes but I have no narrative for how such other worldly epigenetic encoding process works or could work. Perhaps we could coin a phrase? - “multi-versal epigenetic encoding” or “quantum epigenetic encoding”. The more I think about it, a) we have non-intellectual faculties of knowledge that allow communication with the supreme intelligence inside and outside our bodies; b) our perception and thoughts input the epigenetic encoding; c) therefore our perceptions and thoughts from a) do in fact result in b)……
Baba Nobles: If our “Personhood” exists within “Familyhood” embedded in “Peoplehood,” then would there not be “collective knowing and knowable energy that could create a “force field” that makes the collective more important than the individual?
Siphiwe Baleka: Yes
Baba Nobles: Is the collective spirit (energy) greater than the individual physical being? What does that suggest for the centrality of inheritance being an individual proposition?
Siphiwe Baleka: I don’t know. I’m still of the persuasion that direct individual ancestral lineage genetic and epigenetic transmission is dominant. Take a physical example - there’s a reason that a black child resembles it’s black parents rather than Tom Cruise or Paris Hilton ….
Baba Nobles: If we, the yet-to-be-born and our ancestors are Divine Energy Made Manifest (DEMM) possessing a knowing and knowable spirit, then what intelligent guidance can we receive that is grounded in being DEMM?
Siphiwe Baleka: This is why I believe that one of the overriding imperatives at this time is establishing a New Afrikan Institute of Mysticism (feel free to replace this word with an Afrikan word/concept) somewhat like the ancient Kemetic Mystery School - where we gather all the living traditional healers and leaders and formulate a curriculum where students are taught inner engineering technologies that allow enhanced communication with the supreme intelligence within and without the body. Such curriculum would include various forms of meditation but also such things as remote viewing, associate remote viewing (seeing into the future) astral projection, telepathy, telekinesis, and other such techniques that have been taught in secret programs in the US and Russia. This is exactly what I proposed at the New Afrikan Thought Conference.
Baba Nobles: Is our knowing and being knowable limited to only the physical and only in our brains? Finally, can this epigenetic discussion include the Dwellers of Heaven, the invisible ones?
Siphiwe Baleka: No, it is not limited to the physical and the brain although what we do know is the brain plays an important processor of the environmental inputs. But then again, so does the “abdominal brain”. Until I can communicate directly with the cells in my body, I can’t know what capacity my cells have to independently epigenetically encode …. I believe the Dwellers of Heaven and invisible ones are already included in the discussion. How do you think I am able to talk about this? Of course, more skilled spiritual practitioners are needed to understand TGEE in order to ask better questions and receive better answers.
Baba Nobles: Be well and I look forward to hearing about the Geneva discussions.
The Indignity of an African Traveling to Geneva, Switzerland for the Launch of the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent at the United Nations
Siphiwe Baleka Statement to the 1st Session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent
NCOBRA's Statement to the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent
Baba Dr. Wade Ifágbemì Sàngódáre Nobles
Co-Founder and Past President (1994-1995), The Association of Black Psychologists
Chair, ABPsi Global Pan African Initiative,
Professor Emeritus, Black Psychology and Africana Studies. San Francisco State University,
Founding Executive Director (retired), The Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life & Culture, Inc.
Email: DrWNobles@gmail.com
"A people who do not plan for and take ownership of the future will perish"
"Yesterday is History, Today is a Miracle, Tomorrow is a Mystery"
"History is the Key to Unlocking
the Mystery of the Miracle"
Brassa Mada aka Siphiwe Baleka
Fouder, Balanta B'urassa History & Genealogy Society in America (BBHAGSIA)
Member, Inclusive Policy Lab of the UNESCO E-team for the People of African Descent and the Sustainable Development Goals
Member, International Civil Society Working Group for the United Nations Permanent Forum of People of African Descent (IWG-PFAD)
Member, NCOBRA International Affairs Commission & Health Commission
Coordinator, #savesoil Guinea Bissau
Coordinator, Lineage Restoration Movement (LRM)
WhatsApp Guinea Bissau +245 956 931 329