What's Happening -- Newsletter from the Center

—2003 Newsletters
 
 

—Fall 2003 Newsletter
                           Sciences of the Seen and & Unseen World

The world of thought is poorly understood. Present day biological scientists have no difficulty immersing themselves in the world of forms measurements and visible phenomena. The study of the human genome is thrilling because it takes us that much closer to our origin. It nourishes us with the hopeful idea that all diseases may be banished some day because of our understanding of DNA. But presently scientists are very cautious about predicting what this new information holds in store for us. One researcher was quoted as saying, “What we are now understanding is that the genome is not linear, one gene leads to one protein, but rather genes are constantly interacting with one another altering each other’s expression.” This unexpected expression of complexity has led us to a new event horizon. We reach a new level of understanding only to find that it opens up a whole new world of investigation.

So what does this have to do with thought?  Just as the field of genome research has opened up a new world so is the study of consciousness leading us to explore an unseen world. We have to leave the world of the seen (manifest) explored, measured and defined so well by present day science and begin delving into a world unfamiliar to us. This realm of the unseen is every bit as real as the science of the manifest world as validated by contemporary quantum physics. But because the science of the manifest is so assuredly known, dominates our present day thinking and is comforting to what has been done in the past, we tend to shy from other less familiar disciplines.

So what does this have to do with thought? The world of thought is in the realm of the unseen. It exists at the level of energy and information. It is blatantly obvious that thought has its origins in an unseen realm. This world is not one that yields easily to measurements nor gives up its secrets to the present day probing done by the science of the seen. But it is nonetheless real because we all experience thought. I think!

If we are to understand the world of thought we will have to engage in a dialogue that uses a different vocabulary. Not that we will junk the contemporary science of the seen but we will add to the rich scientific heritage that we have thus created by adopting a new biological science of the unseen. This study will open up new vistas that are haltingly interrupted because we are trying to apply the investigational tools of the manifest world to study the unmanifest world. Unfortunately the world of the unseen does not give up its secrets to probing in a linear fashion that we are so accustomed to in the science of the seen.  That is because the world of the unseen is nonlocal, beyond space and time.

This may seem vary abstract right now but it is the key to health. Because if you begin to understand nonlocality you will begin to identify your soul.  And it is not so hard to do. All you have to do is meditate or turn your attention to the one who is listening right now and you will discover your soul. The soul is the silent witness, the ever present presence that was with you when you were young and is with you now and will be with you when you pass from this world.

So what does this have to do with healing and biological disease? All disease begins in the mind and in order to be healthy implies understanding how the mind gets us sick. To watch the mindbody means to practice being healthy. If we understand how to get in touch with the watcher of the mindbody, we will be able to access new levels of health and live longer.

The vocabulary of poetry has long expressed the unseen world but now quantum physics is giving us a scientific vocabulary for this domain as well. So the paradigm shift is happening in which we will have to access the science of the unseen world to gain greater and greater levels of health. It will not happen by taking vitamins and attending to the next health fad!!
 
 

—Summer 2003 Newsletter
                           SynchroDestiny
 

The acceleration of manifestation of one’s own desires is something that everyone would like to see happen in our hurried up societal pace. Our work ethics tells us that we simply have to work harder and longer hours and what we desire will come true for us. But one of the values of understanding the creative workings of the universe is to foster an easier way of manifesting, the speed with which will seem almost miraculous to the observer.

The first step, which may be the hardest, is to recognize that you are a continuum of body mind and spirit. This latter unrecognized dimension of our existence can be enhanced but we have to pay attention to it. This can be done by fostering techniques that increase brain wave coherence such as living a Day in Balance.  Another technique is to shed the daily practice of judgement. Lastly, the mirror technique can promote your level of functioning on the plane of spirit.

The characteristics of the field are to seek no approval, look for no control, and desire no power. By amplifying the spiritual characteristics of this plane in our mind in front of a mirror, we pay consistent attention to the spiritual dimension of our awareness. While looking at your eyes in the mirror, silently affirm to yourself the following: I am superior to no one and beneath no one; I am independent of the good or bad opinions of others; I freely face any and all challenges. It’s important to anchor the affirmations with a mantra, such as Aham, Amen, or any word that you choose. Never pass a mirror without doing these affirmations.

The next step is to become a witness to the steady stream of meaningful coincidences that are occurring in your life on a daily basis. They take the form from someone calling you as you’re thinking of them, to running into someone when you are in need of their advice or help. This begins the practice of participation rather than trying to control the events of your day.

Next, recognize that the universe is a weaving and being part of this weaving, all relationships are stories being unfolded to you. It’s your job to understand the stories and weave your own story into theirs. Please remember that this is not about control or getting people to do things for you, but to silently participate and read your relationships – all of them, including the one that you have with yourself.

The final step is to develop congruency in your desires. At the physical, psychological and spiritual levels all desires are consistent with one another.  This automatically happens as integration and balance is developed by doing the above work and by reviewing your desire list during daily periods of silence the desires become more active in your consciousness.

For many different reasons spirituality has not seemed very practical for the everyday working person in our culture. It seems relegated to the higher eschelons of human endeavor, scripted to the processes that occur in churches, and far removed from the day to day stressful struggles. However it is the key to not only accelerating our desires but an integrated state of health.
 
 

—Spring 2003 Newsletter
                           Reclaiming the Inner Healer

We have all had the experience of rubbing a sore muscle or an aching joint after some physical task in hopes of making it feel better. Few of us however have little confidence that paying attention to signals from our physical bodies will bring about healing. We have all been conditioned that paying attention to any physical signal pales small in contrast to the comfort and healing that comes from a tablet, pill or visit to the doctor.

Presently our society views the human body as a machine, an inert lump of matter which obeys the mind mechanically without any intelligence of its own. This distrust of the body as a field of intelligence essentially robs us of our responsibility for our own health.

Yet there is an inner healer in all of us and it is nothing but this:  the witness or watcher who presides over and governs the mindbody and who pays attention to the mindbody’s signals and creates the intention to bring about a return to balance.  The mindbody’s intrinsic desire is to be in balance. This is it’s most profound desire.  Whatever it is that brings about the emotional or physical discomfort relates to a state of lack, an imbalance somewhere in inner space is leading to unarguably physical or psychological symptoms. Ignoring a pain or discomfort imposes a strain because it takes effort to keep awareness from going where it wants to go. Disease and sickness is an expression of imbalance and is a change in our awareness from comfort to discomfort. Sickness is therefore a self correcting cybernetic feedback mechanism to allow us to get back to comfort rather than discomfort.

I have no illusion that listening to the mindbody will open up blocked coronaries or cure cancers because by that time the mindbody has undergone significant tissue disruption. By the time the Western technological approaches are needed the mindbody has undergone oftentimes irreversible changes. But I do believe that being aware of the subtle signals that the mindbody provides is the first step in prevention of more serious disease in future years.

There are some hurdles that must be overcome to be aware of the mindbody’s signals. The first is the most difficult and is simply becoming aware of the signals. As we know distractions in all forms can take our attention away from our mindbodies preventing us from becoming aware of what is being reported to us, the witness. Meditation is the most powerful way of paying more attention to what is happening in the present moment, getting in touch with that inner healer. Secondly we psychologically retract from pain believing that something more serious underlies the signal as indeed there may be. Our fear of pain and desire for pleasure keeps us from getting in touch with where our mindbodies’ signals are headed at any one point in time. Furthermore if carried to an extreme the mindbody can simply deny that a problem exists, ignoring the signal for months or even years (a person claims not to be angry when queried even though everyone observes that the person seems upset all the time).

So the key is to bring our awareness to signals that invoke our attention. There are guidelines that can help us with developing this awareness. A Day in Balance is a start and can provide a base state of daily function so that we know what it is supposed to feel like when we are in balance and when we stray from that feeling we immediately can take action to bring ourselves back to the steady state of equilibrium.
 
 

—Winter 2003 Newsletter
                           Somatic Release of Fears
 

In the last two newsletters we discussed the development of psychosomatic blockages that occur in the mindbody system as a result of past undigested experiences. From an energetic perspective these undigested experiences like undigested food are quite toxic to the physiology and lead to unarguable dis-ease in our mindbodies if we do not deal with them.

“Why bother?” you ask. The most obvious reason is to enjoy life. I see patients daily who are suffering because of these undigested experiences. The root cause of their significant or not so significant dis-ease whether it be high blood pressure, obesity or anxiety and depression is fear. Undigested past experiences that once evoked the fear of nonacceptance or rejection evoke over and over again the same response that eventually stresses the mindbody and creates hypertension. The emotional reasons for obesity are numerous but distilled to the root cause is fear which leads to the subconscious need to stuff the fear with food whenever it arises. Anxiety and resultant depression is a result of the fear of past experiences occurring again or the fear of the same thing happening again in the future. If left to its continual activity as played out in the mind depression inevitably happens. But fear whether we are capable of being aware of it or not is the singular cause because all these undigested experiences at some very deep level threatened our survival from a psychological viewpoint.

Sound too simple or you just cannot relate to your problems as fear?  Then join the human race because the vast majority of us are unable to sort out our psychosomatic difficulties easily. As we said in the summer newsletter the mindbody system is multilayered and complex and the probing individual mind is unable to see clearly the issues because there is so much covering and denial involved. Why do people seek out counselors and therapists? But a counselor or therapist is not much good for themselves because they cannot see things for themselves clearly. They may be very good for others but when it comes to their own problems they need help like everyone else because they too have a very complex multilayered mind.

The good news as we have discussed in the past newsletters (you can read again at www.nwcwb.com) is that we can release these fears by meditation or through the practice of hatha yoga. Sound too good to be true? Try it and see!

Where are these fears held in the physiology? Ayurveda says that the subconscious mind is located in the connective tissue layer. Collagen is the molecule that composes the vast extensive matrix we call connective tissue in the mindbody Fears from life’s previously undigested experiences get laid down as excessive thickened collagen matrix in various parts of our body. Over years and decades these fears are continuously reinforced and the young supple lithe bodies that we had as children become thickened hardened dense collagenous stiff mind-bodies that yield very little to stretching.

But what’s happening? The subconscious mind’s fears are never far away from us and we literally develop postures which display this thickened connective tissue matrix. As we see the elderly grow older we see their shapes take on the contracted result of decades of holding onto their fears. The tightened hamstrings, collapsed shoulder girdles, and poorly expansive chest walls are all a result of the posturing of fears played out over and over again in the mindbody system.

Consciously and consistently (daily) doing simple yoga postures can have tremendous benefits in releasing fear. The heat generated in the posture creates the melting away of collagen holding our physical body in these fixed positions which are positions of fear. We all assume these positions unconsciously and by melting this collagen away we become renewed and our body assumes a more normal carriage in space. But the best thing that happens is we become free of our fears that had literally entombed us in our own self-made dense connective tissue web.
 

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