ONE TRAUMATIC EVENT CAN SHAPE A LIFE; AN INTENSE THERAPEUTIC EVENT CAN RESHAPE IT. Trauma can create a large disturbance both immediately and exponentially over time. Healing spreads out through the individual life like ripples on a pool of water. This changeability is the prime characteristic of many chaotic systems.
Shaman-Therapists Board members, Graywolf Swinney, Dr. Stanley Krippner, and Iona Miller conducted pioneering sessions. trainings, and conferences in dreamhealing, co-consciousness (empathy), darkroom retreat, dream incubation, and theta training at Asklepia Foundation, in Southern Oregon. The mentor functions as a guide and creative model throughout the therapeutic process without importing imagery into the client's experience.
In this model, self-arising, self-revelatory epistemological metaphors are 'how we know what we know.' The zone between what our senses perceive and how we experience the self and the world around us, is filled with primal structures or patterns, elements of deep structure, where our self image and personal reality are shaped.
The experient is guided into the chaotic self-scape. Dreams or evoked imagery, sensations, or symptoms can initiate the process. The multi-sensory imagery process involves guidance by an interpersonal co-consciousness, rapport, or empathy. Erickson, Rossi & Rossi, (1976) describe co-consciousness of therapist and client as intuitive insight about the client's journey, healing process, and existential state. Experiential therapy can continue to unfold and integrate conflicting aspects over a lifetime.
Images are accessing cues and field potentials, providing depth insight. Deepening alone, without direct suggestion, is enough to morph the imagery to a less superficial level accessing the inner world down to the ground-state of undifferentiated consciousness. A deep state of rapport or resonance develops in psychotherapeutic journey processes using shamanic and informal hypnotherapeutic techniques and feedback. Usual frames of references and beliefs are temporarily altered so the client can be receptive their own deepest patterns of association and transformation that are conducive to restructuring.
Spontaneous hypnotic-type states (subtle and covert) and transactions naturally occur in the healing contract. Consciousness is structured by them. Trauma itself is an example of spontaneous hypnosis by a catastrophic stressor. Double-binds are hypnotic and metaleveled. Therapeutic double binds emphasize positive agreement on the metalevel and offer alternatives that can be refused on the primary level. Deepening follows once attention turns inward (dissociation) and begins processing. Like most rituals, it is phenomenal, transactional, and procedural, overlapping within a meaningful context.
There is no question of false memories or confabulation in the metaphorical rather than historical dimension, because the process is radically symbolic. When real meaning is lost it is replaced by the symbolic. This is not hypnotherapy via dissociation of feelings, but an organic transformation from the internal ground up -- feeling and integrating the feeling into the body’s system versus repressing it. In complex consciousness what is true at one level of consciousness is false at another. At levels relevant to the dysfunction subjective truth becomes objective when we recognize it. The locus of healing is within the client.
Rossi described a fusion of psyche and matter: "...what is fascinating, interesting, numinous for you on a psycholgocial level actually evokes cascades of molecular genomic processes that facilitate the construction and reconstruction of the brain as well as healing through the body" (p. xviii). He also describes neurological changes in the psyche and body. He implies that the transcendent function operates in our brains and body at a biomolecular level.
Someone can think his emotional problems have vanished when they have not. A person can believe that his feelings of inferiority have been resolved even while he admonishes his children to be the best in everything. While the hypnotic reality constructs one world -- "I feel relaxed," "I am not compulsive anymore," "I feel worthwhile," "I want the best for my kids" -- the actual physiologically engraved reality (necessarily) constructs another world of referred tensions, substituted symptoms, and projected emotions. The first logical extension of this fact is that applying hypnosis in psychotherapy means utilizing the same dissociative conditions of consciousness that characterize neurosis. The second logical extension is that hypnotherapy reinforces rather than resolves neurosis Utilizing key neurotic mechanisms to treat neurosis is at the very least contradictory. http://www.primaltherapy.com/GrandDelusions/GD05.htm
The Science Therapeutic hypnosis is used in mind-body healing when the client is overwhelmed with too much unintegrated information that manifests in symptoms. Hypnotic experiences are interpreted as real, through simulated. The subconscious doesn't distinguish real from imaginal experience. They have real consequences for attitudes and behaviors. Novel experiences awaken attention and can change gene expression and emergent behaviors with greater awareness in relationship to self, others, and cosmos.
Storytelling has real power and helps unlock unconscious holding patterns, body wisdom and sensual intelligence. Inherently arising images can deconstruct patterns of pain and fear back to an undifferentiated state, then reconstruct a healthier primordial self-image, through new epistemological metaphors and action potentials. Imagination helps us make knowledge applicable, helping us process real, remembered, and imagined stress.
The anterior insula and adjacent frontal operculum (IFO) activate when we observe someone experiencing an emotion such as disgust, delight or pain, and when we experience it ourselves. This triggers empathy with other and allows us to understand their intentions. IFO is also active when we imagine an emotion. The similarity between first-hand experience and imagination helps explain why process work can be so vivid and compelling, solving problems, integrating experience and learning.
Brainwaves and converging networks shape our reality. Theta brainwaves (4-7 Hz) are reportedly healing and in the psychic range of the mind, generated largely in the temporal lobes. REM (dreaming) sleep is associated with theta. Typical 7-13 Hz Alpha resonance oscillations are triggered by the heart beat. There is some evidence for shared brainwave state around the 7.8 Hz of Schumann Resonance.
Mirror neurons not only fire during basic motor tasks (real and imaginal), but also have components that deal with intention, and mobilize self-guidance and even genetic expression (Rossi). They are the root of empathy and compassion. Mirror neurons in humans have an important therapeutic role, and mu wave (7.5-12.5 Hz) suppression may represent a high level coordination of those mirror neurons.
Other mechanisms may include PGO-waves. Ponto-geniculo-occipital (PGO) waves are spiky field potentials generated just prior to and during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. These events are physiological correlates of oneiric behavior (Sterlade). The PGO waves which induce phasic eye movements of REM are readily observable via EEG and by inference through direct observation. PGO waves are a principal coding tool, acting at the cortical level to record the genetic and epigenetic acquisitions necessary for the individuation of the human brain.
REM then reboots the consciousness patterns for habits, needs, and the manner in which one approaches life (Miller, 1993). In addition, through “chaotic” activation mechanisms, the PGO waves eliminate pathological information overload from certain types of neuronal networks. REM sleep undergirds a sorting out process among the “residues” stirred up by the PGO wave sleep pattern and disposes of these residues during dreaming.
In neurological terms, the fractal patterns of reorganized S-Net unit activity are allowed to emerge through an autopoietic process, in concert with dynamic changes in other brainstem and forebrain areas. Many spontaneous or unpredictable patterns of oneiric (dream-induced) behavior such as orienting response can occur. The "journey" phase space functions as a cognitive map of our motion through time. Images emerge as natural fractals, statistical copies of the whole, nested self-similar patterns and structures which emerge from this patterning.
Induced dream-like states have many of the behavioral and neurophysiological markers of REM sleep without atonia, or sleep paralysis. Anderson suggests this may result from sudden massive destabilization of the normal behavioral-states-rhythmicity of the tonically firing S-Net, forebrain and reticular formation. This effects a complex dynamic network of interdependent dopaminergic, norandrenergic, opiod, cholinergic, and NMDA receptors and systems.
The Experience Co-consciousness is a shared virtuality. In telepathic rapport both participant's brainwaves become synchronized into a single resonant holographic biofield (Miller and Swinney, 2000). Spontaneous psi phenomena have been associated with theta waves by Krippner (1977), the Greens (1977), and Persinger (1987). Theta production arises from quieting the body, emotions and thoughts simultaneously, leading to an integrative reverie.
A deep focus of attention is often accompanied by hypnagogic or dream-like imagery correlated with the temporal lobes. The temporal lobes host many structures and functions including memory, orientation of self in space and time, interpretations of meaning and emotional significance, organization of audio and visual patterns, smell, and language.
Local discharges can be potentiated by specific memory recall. Ramachandran attributes increased emotional intensity to the kindling or potentiating of the pathway between the temporal lobe and amygdala, heightening the significance of stimuli. What is deemed meaningful becomes extraordinarily meaningful. Images of religious images or words can even be preferred over those of a sexual nature.
New Organization To the extent we are self-organizing entities, we exhibit sensitivity to our initial conditions. There is self-similarity between our turbulent experience, issues, and symptoms, which iterate, over and over again. Like chasing one's tail, patterns of repetition suggest a deeper center of gravity is the source of the dis-ease. In human life, a trauma at a given point will create exponential problems (turbulence) further on in time, until and unless one passes through the chaotic breakdown into an undifferentiated place of healing -- into flow.
Graywolf Swinney, Iona Miller, Dr. Stanley Krippner; Iona, Asha Deliverance, Dr. Krippner Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama, my mentor, Dr. Marshall Gilula; Dr. Emoto & Dr. Motoyama
CHAOS CONSCIOUSNESS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY An Experiential Approach and Application to Dreamwork, Creativity, and Healing by Iona Miller and Graywolf Fred Swinney, M.A. Aesculapia Wilderness Retreat, Grants Pass, Oregon
Prepared for the Proceedings of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology. Presented at Saybrook Institute, Summer, 1991. ABSTRACT: Experiential therapy sessions and mysticism demonstrate that as we journey deeper and deeper into the psyche we eventually encounter a state characterized either as "chaotic" or void of images. In a therapeutic context, chaos is experienced as a consciousness state--the ground state. This state is related to healing, dreams, and creativity. Shamanic approaches to healing involve co-consciousness states which lead to restructuring both physical and emotional-mental senses of self. Dreams, creativity, and healing arise from this undifferentiated "chaotic consciousness." Dreamhealing uses images as portals for consciousness journeys to facilitate transformations ranging from mood alteration to profound physiological changes. Imagery (virtual experience) affects the immune system, activating psychosomatic forces, such as the placebo effect. Chaos-oriented consciousness journeys suggest these states reflect complex phase space, fractal patterns, strange attractors, "the butterfly effect," sensitivity, complex feedback loops, intermitency, and other general dynamical aspects suggested by chaos theory. More than an experiential process, this is a philosophy of treatment -- "Chaosophy."
"I'm just asking you to hear yourself. Listen to what you're really saying and to what you think you're saying. Control, control, control. When are you going to realize that nothing can be controlled?""We live in chaos; it's the central issue in everyone's life. Mack, look around you. Everyone in this parking lot is struggling for control. And you know what it is they're trying to control, each and everyone of them? Fear--they're trying to control their fear." -Steve Martin character in the film, GRAND CANYON
Creative Chaos We all instantly recognize the fundamental nature of chaos in our lives. The archetypal creation myth posits that all originates in Chaos. We all "get it," intuitively. But generally we are enculturated to fear chaos, to hold it at bay through so-called "control." Chaos is a very personal experience. We relate to it viscerally as well as emotionally and intellectually. When chaos intrudes on our lives, we feel pain, and defend against that pain with fear, rather than embracing the chaotic dynamic. In psychology, we have had the idea that we need a "strong ego," that we need a stable structure in order to function and cope. But nothing exists in complete order or complete randomness.
We live in a chaotic universe. When we are "far from equilibrium" change becomes inevitable. Like a bifurcation point in chaos theory, the old system either falls apart or emerges with a higher degree of order. Our bifurcations state changes are personal crossroads, decision points, initiated by perturbations of our systems. Chaos theory applied to experiential psychotherapy shows us we actually need to cooperate with chaotic dynamics, to enter a less-rigid process of flow, submitting outworn aspects of the ego to dissolution, which increases our adaptability, helping us evolve. The phase space of non-linear dynamics is analogous to psychic space--our psychophysical construct of our experience of reality.
This complex inner landscape can be mapped and has all the features of phase space: stability, chaos, bifurcation points, and catastrophic changes. This virtual reality is the world of virtual experience. The landscape of information is richly structured with attractor basins, valleys, and mountains with peaks, saddles, and passes. And it is also hyperdimensional containing a vast amount of implicate or enfolded information. This landscape (self-scape) can be explored with experiential psychotherapy by faithfully sticking to the imagery emerging from the autonomous imaginal flow. It is a dynamic "ocean of active information" in wave form, with which we can commune, transcending conventional boundaries.
The inner journey is one of movement without motion--stretching and folding spacetime. Imagination is the voice of creativity. It is the primary way we experience soul. Creativity expressed in imagination means experiencing multiple states of consciousness. There is an infinity of realities and states of consciousness. Imagination embodies it's own reality. It is self-revelatory. Meaning dwells in the image like consciousness dwells in the body. We are learning from chaos theory that physically and mentally we need chaotic disorder to function smoothly. Dipping into that disorder shakes everything loose and allows creative restructuring to occur. Self-organizing systems, both organic and inorganic, naturally evolve toward the "edge of chaos."
Many natural systems develop their own dynamic stabilities. Dynamic stability applies to development in chaos theory, and research shows that living systems are naturally self-correcting. Strength is a measure of what force it takes to destroy or break a rigid structure. True power, on the other hand, is a measure of readily-available energy for immediate use.
Strength is rigid, while power is flowing. Empowerment flows forth naturally when we come into intimate therapeutic contact with our stream of consciousness. This stream is most easily observed as our dreams, and manifests in our symptoms. Water is a natural metaphor of consciousness and a flowing, organic connection with the creative force within.
The turbulent stream of consciousness flows through the labyrinth of the psyche. It is the source of dis-ease and our healing as indicated by its importance in the cult of Asklepios, the god of dreams and healing. In Greece, the springs of his shrine were channeled into circular labyrinths, forming a concrete metaphor of the healing process. Healing "springs" from deep within. However, first the old rigid images must be dissolved, and the "universal solvent" is chaos. Dreams bridge the gap between the spiritual and scientific worldviews. Most would agree that dreams are a truly chaotic phenomenon.
Object of scientific inquiry and healing tool of the psychotherapist, they are firmly entrenched in the scientific worldview, although on the fringe. On the mystical side, most religions teach that God, or the nature of the transpersonal Source is revealed through dreams and visionary experience. Chaos theory provides a comprehensive metaphor for uniting physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realities. Supreme insights are always metaphorical in expression. But the relationship of chaos and psychotherapeutic effects may be more than metaphorical and subjective. The empirical connection may lie in the mystery of the true nature of consciousness and creativity.
Dreamhealing One of the authors, Graywolf, discovered a way to journey and guide others into the deepest layers of the psyche while practicing Gestalt dreamwork and shamanism. Therapy at its very best is a matter of changing consciousness and so is shamanism. In dream guiding, all the action lies in going just beyond the boundary from the known and comfortable toward the fear and challenge. Following the images below the ego deeper into more fundamental consciousness states, he found that clients could easily be guided to the level of chaotic consciousness with therapeutic results. Mapping these levels below behavior, emotional-mental process, belief systems, and mythic zones of imagery, he refined the technique and directions for guidance.
This process (Dreamhealing or Creative Consciousness Process) was not originally based on chaos theory, but observed directly in working with dreams, symptoms, feelings, and healing. The theory came later as an analogy for describing the observations. But chaotic dynamics may be the actual mechanism of its action, rather than merely a metaphor of the transformative process, as were the hydraulic and cybernetic models. Dreamhealing is not an interpretive or analytical way of understanding a dream, but is a non-linear consciousnesness journey into its healing heart.
Dreamhealing is not guided imagery. The guide follows the autonomous flow of psychic imagery, while guiding the focus to deeper, more primal imagery. Then letting go of that form, and entering a yet deeper one, much like entering deeper into a fractal image to find yet deeper images. In dreamhealing one "becomes" the image which leads to sensing, identifying, empathizing with the essence of a color, shape, form, or pattern--then letting go of form. It is a process of initiation--becoming, sharing, feeling, releasing, yielding, accepting, deepening, intensifying, surrendering, healing, and integrating. Everything in the dreamtime occurs in the present tense--it is happening. But it is linked in a non-linear fashion--through association--with the past and the future.
Becoming the image creates the experience of a new state of consciousness, new sensations, awarenesses, feelings, visceral and kinesthetic reactions, responses, acceptances. Dreams are chaotic by nature and so is much of shamanic practice. Both evoke the irrational, and of all the healing modalities, these two reflect chaos theory. The forte of shamans is the dream journey or consciousness journey, based on the assumed ability to experience multiple consciousness states other than ordinary consensus reality.
The shaman/therapist acts as guide by entering a co-consciousness state or shared experience with the journeyer. The therapist serves in the capacity of psychopomp or soul guide, "soul carrier," or "soul accompanier." The experient recapitulates a shamanic healing where the soul 'leaves' its physical environment and and begins to journey to its final destination among the stars, soul's cosmic journey. This destination was the entrance to the "upper world" or sky-world -- in modern terms unitive state, undifferentiated consciousness, chaotic consciousness, or primal ground of consciousness.
This virtual experience has the ability to create natural consequences or results in real-time. The experience of multiple states of consciousness leads away from egocentricity toward a biocentric perspective. A larger sense of participation counteracts existential alienation. Small changes in initial conditions (sensitivity) are pumped-up into larger changes, via the "butterfly effect."
There is a complementary notion in psychotherapy that one traumatic event can shape a life, and a therapeutic event or experience can re-shape it. Small changes can make phenomenal differences in outcome. A dream is a stream of chaos, a river of turbulent, undifferentiated consciousness and creativity, flowing through the self-scape of the psyche. It is shaped by the frozen states and complex feedback loops of consciousness, the existential images and patterns that define and mold the self and the reality of our perceptions. When it finally emerges into awareness, the images and plots that are presented to our almost-waking self are reflections of these states. They are another way of seeing the self and the reality we create that is less prejudiced by the ego.
The dream is also much like a hologram. The passage of the consciousness stream through the psyche, and its encounter with the frozen consciousness states, causes ripples and patterns that create images of the deeper self that formed them. Like a hologram or fractal, the whole is contained and re-iterated within any part of the dream, though details may be fuzzy. Our primal existential image of who and what we are begins with conception (universal, undifferentiated consciousness) and is conditioned by our internal and external experiences. But, of course, not all disease originates here.
Trauma at any point can trigger a disruption in the primal self image, setting the "butterfly effect" in motion as the consequences of that trauma permeate the life. There may be multiple, or re-iterated trauma. This deep existential image contains the essence of our dis-ease. Chaos permeates our existence from the sub-atomic to universal level, and we react to it with fear and pain. The primal image is revealed in the ongoing process of imagery: dreams, visions, visceral reactions, symptoms, feelings, beliefs, and behavior. Dreams are shaped by these existential images much as they also shape our lives and destinies.
Chaos Consciousness During consciousness journeys, participants report encountering a place, after moving through the fears and pains, that is totally disorienting, chaotic. They, for example, enter into a gray cloud, and becoming that cloud the mind goes totally blank. Or they enter into a spiral, and giving over to the motion of that spiral, they become so totally disoriented that there is nothing to hang onto.
This experience is what we call "chaotic consciousness," observed within the therapeutic context--undifferentiated, or universal consciousness. It is virtually a place of "all and no structure," a no-boundaries condition, pure potential, the source of creativity. It appears paradoxically as a plenum or a void. The plenum represents hyperarousal; the void hypoarousal. Direct experience of the transpersonal means going back below the ego, into this infinite place, back into this basic formless consciousness--the void or chaos of pre-existence.
Chaotic consciousness is the crucible of our creative spirit. Creativity emerges from chaos. This negentropic, or syntropic principle is the matrix of evolution. Infinite process is constantly creating itself and destroying itself at all levels. Nature repeats herself at all levels of organization, and whatever it is we are that. Dreams reflect this self-generating, self-iterating and self-organization of patterns, and so does the natural philosophy emerging from the New Sciences. This deterministic philosophy incorporates the human condition, rather than vilifying or pushing it away.
Chaos helps us feel our way through a complex, unstable world. Like the supercritical state of chaotic dynamics, "chaotic consciousness" may be characterized as dynamic, non-linear, paradoxical, self-generating, self-iterating, and self-organizing. It could be likened to an infinite complex of manifolds potentially enfolding infinite information--vortices within vortices within vortices--exploding limitless detail.
There is an essential relationship between healing and irrational consciousness. Irrational consciousness "works" the cure. Somehow that chaotic consciousness, the giving up of the old order, the letting go of the old structure to chaos changes things fundamentally. The next set of imagery emerging out of that chaotic consciousness is always a healing one. So chaos, as the matrix of transformation, seems vitally important at the existential level.
The process of creativity is one of new forms emerging from the void, new forms that have not existed previously. Not merely a juggling of existing forms or ideas into a new configuration, it is more of a quantum leap, a disruption of the old perception into new levels of consciousness and awareness.
Chaos theory provides an apt metaphor for this process. In a nutshell, chaos theory states that in all apparent structure is hidden chaos and in chaos there are hidden forms. We exist in a twilight zone between chaos and order. We flow back and forth between them and that keeps us healthy.
Consciousness always strives to take on form. We build a structure and it begins to develop flaws and rigidities. Our illness comes when we hang onto that worn-out structure. But when we let go, we let ourselves flow back into that primal chaos and into total freedom. It is like a heart that periodically develops a chaotic beating pattern to renew itself. We seem to need that within our consciousness, too.
The Transformative Process Consciousness, creativity, healing, dreaming, and chaos are fundamental to the human condition. They are crucial to our health and ability to move through life. Creativity is also evolution. Dis-ease may be seen as a crisis that forces the organism to expand beyond its limits and evolve. It is part of the evolutionary action of natural selection.
Current research shows that dreams reflect an individual's strategy for survival. Those who adapt, survive. Those who adapt better, thrive. Much of this has to do with our states of consciousness, which lead to creative choice-making. All of a sudden we are free, we are flowing again, and that is the natural condition of health.
Disease, as a crisis, presents the organism with the opportunity to dissolve the old structure and evolve into a new one better adapted to survival. Evolving into a new form, the process of recreating oneself, makes a difference in our view of the disease process. There is no heroic search for a cure, or compulsion to "get rid of" symptoms.
The focus of transformation goes to the deepest level. The implication is that form and rigidity need to periodically give way to non-structure and chaos for renewal and recreation. Much as the "dance of Shiva" destroys the existing forms so that new reality can be created, we can foster the disintegration of outworn images of ourselves, even those seemingly "hard-wired" into our perceptual system.
The process creates a new primal self image, a new attractor as the core of the organism. In chaos theory, when an attractor disappears due to sudden catastrophic change, the system becomes structureless and experiences a term of "transient chaos" before another attractor is found. Order emerges spontaneously from chaos, and tends to degenerate into chaos when forms are obsolete.
Creative Consciousness Process follows nature's lead by amplifying and intensifying the movement toward chaos, rather than heroically defending against it. But letting go of the old forms is frightening. We identify with them, and to a large degree define our sense of the self by them. To forsake them is to dissolve that part of self, to let it die.
Most of us are only comfortable in the known territory within the limits of our belief systems, which define our reality and existence. The creative solution often exposes the limits of our beliefs by moving beyond them, thrusting us into unknown territory, which is frightening. Typically, we try to hang on to the old limits even if it means we are destroyed or have to hang on to our problem rather than letting go to move into a broader awareness and reality.
We mark the boundaries of our belief systems with fear and discomfort to keep ourselves safe and enclosed. To journey into undifferentiated chaos we need to go through the fear which surrounds the pain, then through and beyond the pain to the healing core. This profound and creative state of consciousness provides our form and the core of our being.
Here, we create our healing from within. We experience first-hand that personal power (empowerment) arises from within. To transform we must break free and let go of the cocoon of fear and pain which has kept us prisoner of our own device. We must pass through the discomfort and confusion and let go of what we know and are comfortable with. We must make a quantum leap in consciousness beyond the known into chaos--into the void, like The Fool in the Tarot. Chaos is inherent in our being and structure just as science has shown. We've always known it intuitively, but the ego seeks to deny it by heroically, one-sidedly adhering to the principles of order and light.
Only by entering the dark, by entering chaos, yielding to it, do we allow newly evolved form to come into being--to arise spontaneously, yet deterministically, out of chaos. It is a journey through fear to a Way in which each moment is an act of personal creation and freedom. The primal self-image functions like an attractor. It forms based on the organism's interaction with the "Not-I" or environment. Under conditions which could be characterized as "far from equilibrium" this image may suddenly dissolve (bifurcation), leading to confusion, disorientation and fragmentation of the personality.
The same process, facilitated (rather than defended against) in therapy can lead through the confusion and ego death to healing, renewal, and rebirth. The new self image is better adapted to current reality. In chaos, the search for information is open and novel solutions emerge. We are attractor-centered, whether we conceive of that primal attractor as divinity, the higher self, the core self, the Jungian self, the Gestalt self, or that deepest sense of self--our primal self image (including its unconscious aspects). Its pattern appears in all the sensory and extrasensory modalities.
The attractor embodies the long-term qualitative behavior of a system. As an attractor, it contains an infinite complex of potential forms and images which are unfolded over time in unpredictable yet characteristic ways. The personality "revolves" around its strange attractor until a bifurcation occurs and another stable center is found. It might be conceived as a new existential myth, or a different dominant archetype. It is a dynamic multi-sensory image that is not different from our very essence--from ourselves. By entering into chaotic consciousness new forms arise organically out of chaos.
Consciousness is reborn after its sojourn in the underworld of the deep psyche. The "lost soul" is found and retrieved through the shamanic journey in the dreamtime. In embracing chaos, we tune in to its self-directing flow. In dreamhealing we move deeper into the images, becoming them, rather than interacting or interpreting them. So too with other states of consciousness we encounter. As long as the image is followed back faithfully, the connection can be made from any feeling, symptom, or dream image, old or new. In dealing with illness there is always a specific image that underlies the ailment. That is what to look for when guiding a dream journey.
Healing In each dream journey we encounter a state of consciousness that is personal experience of primal chaos. The disorienting, dizzying surrender to the tornado or whirlpool is a surrender to chaos, an experience of no-form and total confusion and disorientation. It is like the whirling, twisting molecule of water in the chaotic world of non-laminar flow.
The experience is of committing oneself to the fire and becoming it, and as the random flickering of the flames, and the torrid heat, disintegrating into pure energy. Becoming the boiling, flowing every-changing body of molten magma at the core of the earth is felt as a visceral sensation. These are some of the personal, subjective responses to the experience of total chaos.
The closer one is to the chaos consciousness field, the more undifferentiated the imagery is. Archetypal states define its borders. Visual images dissolve into impressionistic colors, visceral sensations, intuitive perceptions, vague awareness, and often culminate in total blankness or lack of any form, or an overwhelmingness of sensation. There may be grayness or cloudiness, and paradoxical sensations of falling or falling-floating within vast emptiness.
Another perception is characterized as a spiral or vortex. It exerts a magnetic draw on the journeyer who is drawn into it. Sensations of spinning and being drawn deeper often cause intense dizziness and disorientation. There may be feelings of flying apart--dismemberment in the centrifugal forces of the vortex. Dissolution might, for example, be experienced as a deep red which leads into a magma-like flowing sensation in which intense heat melts the journeyer.
The imagery tends on one side to zero, and on the other, infinity, like the paradoxical concept of the plenum which is also a void. It appears void because it contains a vast amount of undifferentiated information which is chaotic and overwhelms the senses. It is invisible because it is not-yet-visible. Reaching this state, one has the sense of transformative forces at work--a feeling of almost palpable relief. The sense of peacefulness and security is the essence of the journey itself and what the guide brings to it. Many other aspects of this "whole brain" state have been described, such as feelings of dimensionlessness, timelessness, and boundarylessness. It has also been called cosmic consciousness.
Many sensations are involved, such as the experience of bubbles or effervescence and tingling in the body, often at the site of a symptom. It may be specific or generalized. It may be expressed as a new primal image that is seen, heard, or perceived in a deeply felt way. Healing manifests as a new emergent order--the implicate becomes explicate as a new perception of self and one's relationship to the whole, of essence to source. Evolution in consciousness comes with a quantum shift in awareness. That quantum shift occurs during the period in which the evolving structure is in chaos.
So if one is in a dreamhealing process, experiencing for example, the multiple consciousness of the Earth Mother as decay, one may follow that to the point of total disintegration. Since one is identified with that state of consciousness at the time, personal awareness dives down into the chaos, journeying to the most fundamental, primitive or primal condition--the ground state of being. Here a shift is possible as consciousness is totally de-structured, non-linear, yet dynamic, and Here we are simultaneously everything and nothing.
We are not separate from the universe: both science (holism, holography, new physics, philosophy) and mystics (shamans, saints, and gurus) tell us so. The whole is reflected in the part and the part is seamlessly unified with the whole. Chaos theory is the result of unitary, iterative processes. Chaotic systems exhibit holistic behavior. "Solve et Coagula" As we watch the cycles of nature, we observe that things go into life and death, and rebirth, as energy changes form. If this is happening all around us, what is to make us think we are any different than that? We are part of nature, unlike the "civilized" or "objective scientific" views which set us apart.
So we may, quite naturally, expect to go through the same cycle ourselves, in consciousness as well as in biology. Further, we can trust that and embrace that evolutionary flow of life, death, and rebirth, because in this transformative change lies true stability. Always, passing through this state, the new order of imagery, thought, emotion, sensory perception reflects a new and less dis-eased sense of being.
The deeper self image undercuts the old belief system, and begins to create a new order of being, a new way of perceiving the self and the world. Chaos provides a new image around which to order the personality and often the physiology. This is an application of the old alchemical maxim, "solve et coagula," dissolve and reintegrate.
One half of the process is being able to let go of the focus of attention and enter the chaos. The other half is being able to seize the new order that arises from it. Order is present in the most chaotic state of mind, just as chaos underlies even the most rigid and orderly intellect. The primal images, the deep multi-sensual experiences and perceptions act like psychic magnets, attracting and ordering energies around them, which echo their shapes and forms.
Like fractal patterns displayed on a computer screen, the quantum shift comes when the attractor values are changed. The old image that lies on one side of the chaos experience gives way to a surprising new image that arises from the chaos. Emotions, thinking, and behavior are all affected.
Condensed from the book Dreamhealing: Chaos & the Creative Consciousness Process, by Graywolf Swinney and Iona Miller, c1992, Asklepia Foundation.
Applications
Situational & Clinical Depression: life passages; spiritual malaise; meaninglessness
An Integrative View of Normal Adult Development and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Counseling Philosophy and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
About Fibromyalgia (FM) and Consciousness Restructuring by Rob Kuehn and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Chronic Fatigue Syndromes (CFS) and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Depressive Disorders/Grief and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Bipolar Disorder and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Attention-Deficit Disorder (A.D.D./A.D.H.D./O.D.D.) and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Psychotherapeutic Treatment of Cancer and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Borderline Personality Disorder and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Eating Disorders and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
Psychoactive Substance Abuse Disorders and the Consciousness Restructuring Process by Iona Miller and Graywolf Swinney Click here for abstract.
There is communication between cortices in the brain during REM sleep. This communication or information processing in the brain could be termed dreaming. Neurological findings about dreams and the source of their mysterious qualities are summarized in "Wild Dreams," by Stanford neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, (Discover, April 2001, p. 37-43). Among other functions, dreams may be a means of keeping under-utilized neural pathways active by giving a workout to neurons that don't get exercised during the day.
Dreams are characterized by rapid transitions, heightened sense of emotionality and irrationality. Researchers use positron emission tomography (PET) to read blood flows in the brain during slow-wave sleep and REM to discover which areas are active. In slow-wave sleep the reticular activating system (RAS) and motor areas shut down. Regions involved in the consolidation and retrieval of memories don't shut down, but the pathways that transmit to and from them do. This is metabolic isolation of the area. Sensory areas shut down as do areas that integrate and give meaning to these signals.
During REM, when most dreams occur, metabolic rates leap upward throughout various subregions. Muscle movement, breathing and heartrate increase. The limbic system, or emotional center shows increases, as well as memory and sensory processing areas, especially vision and hearing. The visual cortical region does not show much metabolic increase, but the downline regions that integrate visual information turn on. In REM, we start with the downstream integration of visual patterns producing the imagery of dreams.
Dreams may be dreamlike because of the absence of most activity of the prefrontal cortex. During REM most of the prefrontal cortex is off-line. Only one of the four subregions increase in activity in REM. This area plays a central role in self-discipline and gratification postponement, in reining in impulses. Meanwhile, there are high rates of activity in the complex sensory processing parts of the brain concerned with emotion and memories. Therefore, dreams are filled with uninhibited actions and labile emotions.
PGO waves fire synchronously during REM sleep. A prominent feature of REM sleep is the presence of these large PGO (pontine-geniculate-occipital) spikes which originate in the brainstem, travel up to the lateral geniculate bodies of the thalamus, and on to stimulate the occipital lobes. This is interpreted by the visual brain as sensory stimulation. An increase in the excitability of the brain's internal communication system occurs between the cortices of the brain. The communication between cortices is orchestrated by synchronous firing of action potentials--evoked potentials.
External sensory pathways are blocked during REM sleep. If an internal auditory stimulus is given then synchronous PGO waves appear in the auditory cortex. The PGO waves act as a high amplitude electrical potential which is a self-organizing internal pattern generator. The intensity for producing the stimulus in REM is relatively small compared to Non-REM sleep or waking. PGOs occur simultaneously through all cortices during REM sleep.
This cortical bombardment by PGO spikes might act as a perturbation to the dreaming visual cortex, changing dream content. Even subtle changes might lead to sizable effects on patterns of neural activity (Combs & Krippner, 1998). Such effects are felt experientially as the conscious flow of the dream. Pelting the cortex with PGO waves "heats up" the entire process, creating resonance effects which keep the system from stagnating--it keeps the dream narrative in motion.
However, the subjective, specific content of dreams remains a mystery. Sapolsky speculates that the more prefrontal metabolism remains suppressed during REM, the more vivid and disinhibited dream content will be. Especially when dreams appear "big," exceptionally vivid, or spiritual in nature, from our other research, we might also suspect a role for the temporal region, and the naturally-occuring hallucinogen DMT, whose blood-levels typically peak around 3:00 AM. Psychiatrist J. Allan Hobson (The Dreaming Brain, 1988) considers both waking and dreaming states to be characterized by "narratively coherent awareness."
"The brain/mind organizes its percepts, thoughts, and emotions of whatever provenance, in the form of a scenario. It extracts from and/or imposes upon sensorimotor data certain structures or frames that give them order. These include orientation, intention, and tone.. In dreaming the constructive activity persists, but regulation and control are relaxed. . .not only is internal information generated in REM sleep but that information has a high degree of spatial specificity."
Elsewhere he states, "The cardinal feature of all dreaming--detailed sensory imagery [largely visual, auditory, and kinesthetic], the illusion of reality, illogical thinking, intensification of emotion, and unreliable memory--constitute its form, as opposed to and irrespective of the content of a particular dream."
Hypnosis and the BrainMystical experiences, dreams, and hypnosis share a broad spectrum of phenomena, including dissociation, multisensory hallucinations, psychophysical manifestations, the illusion of reality, intensification of emotion, loss of sense of self, unreliable memory, sensed presence, confabulation, time distortion, etc.
In its July, 2001 issue, Scientific American (p. 47-55) reviewed hypnosis and its neurological correlates Psychology professor Michael R. Nash, Ph.D. tells us that studies show an individual's hypnotizability according to the Stanford Scale remains consistent over time, suggesting hypnotic responsiveness may have a hereditary component. Responsiveness remains consistent despite variations in the hypnotist, motivation, relaxation, or therapeutic setting. But, negative attitudes and expectations can interfere, so hypnotherapists are taught to induce positive expectations in the client.
Several studies have also shown that hypnotizability is unrelated to personality characteristics such as gullibility, hysteria, psychopathology, trust, aggressiveness, submissiveness, imagination or social compliance. The trait has, however, been linked tantalizingly with an individual's ability to become absorbed in activities such as reading, listening to music or daydreaming, (is this perhaps a temporal lobe link?).
In hypnosis, subjects are active problem solvers, but don't perceive their experience that way. It seems to be happening to them, and is typically deemed effortless--as something that just happens. These types of disconnections are at the heart of hypnosis. Using hypnosis, scientists have temporarily created hallucinations, dissociation, compulsions, certain types of memory loss, false memories, and delusions in the laboratory. These must take place in the same portions of the brain which produce these same phenomena in spiritual experience and dreams or process oriented psychotherapy, or at least some of those circuits.
PET scans, conducted by Henry Szechman at McMaster University in Ontario revealed that an auditory hallucination and the act of imagining a sound are both self-generated and that, like real hearing, a hallucination is experienced as coming from an external source. The brain can hallucinate a sound mistakenly 'tagged' as authentic and originating in the outside world.
Imagining hearing a voice can create auditory hallucination if the expectation of reality is there. Tests show that a region of the brain called the right anterior cingulate cortex is just as active during hallucinating as it is when we actually hear a stimulus. In contrast, tthe brain area is not active while we simply imagine we hear the stimulus. Somehow hypnosis tricks this area of the brain into registering the hallucinated voice as real.
Examining hypnosis and pain, researchers find that the analgesic effect of hypnosis occurs in higher brain centers than those involved in registering the painful sensation. Using PET, they distinguish the suffering component of pain as distinct from its sensory aspects. They found that hypnosis reduced the activity of the anterior cingulate cortex--and area known to be involved in pain--but did not effect the activity of the somatosensory cortex, where the sensations of pain are processed.
Hypnosis can produce false memories which have the ring of truth to the subject, because of the confabulation process. The distinction between reality and imagination is the experience of effort. Apparently, at the time of encoding a memory, a "tag" cues us as to the amount of effort we expended. If the event is tagged as involving a good deal of mental effort on our part, we tend to interpret it as something we imagined. If it is tagged as involving relatively little mental effort, it is usually interpreted as something that actually happened to us.
According to Nash, "given that the calling card of hypnosis is precisely the feeling of effortlessness, we can see why hypnotized people can so easily mistake an imagined past event for something that happened long ago. Hence, something that is merely imagined can become ingrained as an episode in our life story." An individual need not be under the influence of formal hypnosis, since most of us exist in a limited number of walking trance states most of the time--the trances people live, from inadvertent autohypnosis to our belief systems, to media programming. We live a great deal of our lives on "autopilot."
CONSCIOUSNESS RESTRUCTURING PROCESS Dreaming Yourself Better
The Institute for Applied Consciousness Science (IACS) has developed and uses a Consciousness-Restructuring Process, (CRP). It uses REM-dream consciousness. Dreams, creativity, and healing arise from this undifferentiated "chaotic consciousness." Dreamhealing uses images as portals for consciousness journeys to facilitate transformations ranging from mood alteration to profound physiological changes. Imagery (virtual experience) affects the immune system, activating psychosomatic forces, such as the placebo effect. Chaos-oriented consciousness journeys suggest these states reflect complex phase space, fractal patterns, strange attractors, "the butterfly effect," sensitivity, complex feedback loops, intermittency, and other general dynamical aspects suggested by chaos theory. More than an experiential process, this philosophy of treatment is "Chaosophy."
A brief description of the process follows.
Imagination/REM-based, the process explores the sensory nature and roots of a dream or a symptom. REM is attained through breathing techniques. Using imagination in this state, the patient begins to notice and identify images and/or sensations suggested by a dream symbol, or by a symptom itself. These sensory images are followed to their source, that is, to the consciousness structure that shaped and formed them.
This Process is often described as a “Dream Journey” because while not necessarily every journey starts with a dream, all journeys take place in REM. Peoples' lives, behaviors and physiology are based on perceptions of self and its relationship with the world. Past and present experiences create consciousness structures that are stored as the neural patterns and shape these perceptions. This body-mind phenomenon underlies our personal and unique experience of self and reality.
CRP allows the experience of this structure as a primal self image. It is a sensory, existential, (meaning self, the world and the relationship between them) self-image, and becoming aware of and accepting it as self presents the means to restructure it. Studies at IACS demonstrate that fear-based patterns of consciousness such as these seem to be the body-mind's foundation for illness conditions of all types.
Dreams occur in REM sleep while the brain is in its most complex and chaotic synaptic firing dynamics. In this extremely complex neural state, it is generally thought that the brain is organizing the stimuli and experiences from daily activities, and developing new neurological firing patterns in the nervous system to help assimilate, integrate or deal with them. These dream state or chaos/complexity brain dynamics are needed to balance and heal our complex organism.
Our dream experience is shaped by these inner, consciousness patterns (neural firing patterns) that also shape our behavior and physiology. Every dream, among other things, is a self-portrait, but an impressionistic one. Each dream symbol represents different aspects of self, although since dreams are holographic in nature, any part or symbol in a dream also contains the whole.
By imagining the sensory experience of becoming one of the dream symbols and following this sense of being to its source, we directly experience the consciousness dynamics and patterns underlying it. These dynamics at this primal level incorporate the disease patterns. This "exploration" is accomplished using imaginary sensory images that arise from the subconscious. Sensory imagery is used because it is the first input and most basic way reality is experienced It is not the same as our perceptions which are usually skewed based on our individual life experiences and memories.
At this source, our primal, sensory, existential image (meaning an image that defines self, world and the relationship between the two in a sensory way), is experienced. This “existential hologram” or neural pattern is our deepest sense of "what and who we are" and incorporates the consciousness pattern that underlies and fuels the disease.
In REM, this out-of-ease neural firing pattern is influenced by the chaos in the brain activity and "dissolves" into it. This is experienced as a release into unstructured or unbound consciousness field. Since the mentored is fully identified with it as a sensory self, the release or dissolution also occurs on a somatic level.
It is known from neurobiology and studies of the role of chaos in the brain, that in REM new neural patterns are most easily formed. The restructuring of a pattern is experienced as a quantum like shift in consciousness and is a sensory experience of a new yet familiar being or self emerging into awareness. The new structure is easeful, balanced and a healed sense of self. It restructures the organism both mentally and physically by forming new neural patterns, which change both body and brain chemistry through the pineal and pituitary glands. This altering of the body's and brain’s chemistries, in turn restructures the immune system and other presentations of the body and personality. This eased consciousness state is reflected on all those levels.
The CRP is a co-consciousness procedure, which usually involves two people, a Mentor and a Mentored. A journey lasts about an hour to an hour and half. After CRP treatment has begun, it is quite possible to feel worse before feeling better. It takes the mind-body time to adjust to the changes that are occurring. During this phase of change and adjustment, FMS's are encouraged to be patient, to stay open and to just notice things that might be different.
During journeys the healing sensations are felt somatically or in the body. For example “temperature” changes are often encountered. The body, in essence, applies its own heat or cold packs to stressed or tensed muscles. It is also important to note that the dream journey belongs to the dreamer and even though accomplished in REM consciousness, there is still full awareness of the self and environment. Their own imaginative process determines every step.
Following the journey, mutual dialogue gives context to the experiences, and relates them to the dream or symptoms. This is referred to as re-entry and is mutual sharing of hunches, thoughts and observations. A context for the often-confusing imagery experienced during the journey is established. Most often symptom relief begins within the first few journeys.
For most of human history, healing involved contact with spirit, with consciousness, with rituals intended to create a shared biofield with a shaman who seemingly could shift perceptions and exert mind over matter. This spiritual technology yielded to technological medicine governed by the rational protocols of science. But noting that medical intuition and therapeutic rapport are real forces in the healing process, many practitioners are moving toward a more inclusive paradigm or model of healing.
Anomalies such as the proven power of prayer, placebo effect, spontaneous remission, therapeutic intentionality, and remote healing hint that the irrational, the mysterious, is an inherent part of the natural healing process. When we become ill, the fundamental nature of consciousness is revealed as it relates to both mind and matter, psyche and soma.
DISRUPTED LIVES: Chaos Theory and the Healing Process The Role and Value of Journey Work in the Process of Recovery by Iona Miller, Asklepia Foundation, 2003
1). Disruption and Continuity; 2). Healing Words: "Metaphors Be with You"; 3). The Healing Power of Narrative History; 4). Soul Support: Healing the Disordered Bodymind; 5). Character: Have Some, Don't Just Be One; 6). Conclusions and Directions
Abstract: Our life journey is an unpredictable series of chaotic twists and turns which mold our lives, despite our best intentions and plans, as we wend our way toward our certain end. The 'journey' is a core guiding metaphor for our multifarious experiences. It is a poetic journey of self-discovery. Chaos theory provides a natural yet scientific metaphor of this complex trajectory of emergent order from disorder, the complex dance at the edge of chaos.
Process-oriented therapies help us not only recover but make sense of our feelings and experiences by evoking our story, a meaningful narrative of our unique course. It is a combination of subjective healing fiction and our objective history, but expresses the reality of our psyche -- our embodied soul.
Even if many have embarked on a similar quest, each of us makes this dramatic voyage of discovery for ourselves -- we become our own Columbus of the soul, going where we do not know. It leads into the unknown where fearsome dragons (pain, suffering, loss, grief, illness, emotional devastation, mortality, our own personal demons) await to devour us. How we navigate those turbulent seas or traverse that undiscovered country is crucial to our wholeness and well-being...even as old explorers heading for the shores of death.
If metaphor is central to embodied experience, we can find healing meaning embodied in our personal tales, which speak from the soul of the resilience of human spirit.
Efforts to control a chronic condition are rooted in two ideas: that people can control their environment and that people should take responsibility for their health. The notion that chronic illness can be controlled is common in U.S. medical practice, whereas discussion of the limits of control are uncommon. Often couched in terms of illness management in both the medical and social science literature, control over the condition reflects interpretations of Western Cartesian philosophy, which, in contemporary thought, has been interpreted as mind over matter.
"The responsibility people feel for controlling their chronic illnesses and the efforts they make to overcome the constraints such control places on everyday life affect self-perceptions and alter as the illness waxes and wanes. . .embodied knowledge is assaulted by the ethos of rational determinism. The imposition of another type of order [leaves us] without meaning in [our] lives. The close relationship between embodied knowledge and meaning is thus relegated to a subsidiary position, while control over the body becomes preeminent. Metaphor is central to embodied experience." -- Gay Becker, 1997
THE QUANTUM SELF
We need to remold our healing institutions to conform with new physics to develop a contemporary understanding of the mind/body. A new model of the human organism is emerging ~ a holistic rather than mechanistic model that theorizes our basis in the quantum world; it means healing can happen in very subtle ways, perhaps even at the quantum level.
Emergence is the process by which order appears spontaneously within a system. It is essential to understanding functional consciousness, the mind/body, subjective experience, and the healing process. When many elements of a system mingle, they form patterns among themselves as they interact.
When the mind lets go of its rational order, lets the old form die, and enters into unstructured chaos, the whole person emerges with a new form, embodied as a creative expression, an intuition, or as healing. Most often it is characterized by an element of novelty and surprise, since it apparently does not originate in what came before. Both healing and medical intuition are examples of emergence. It is a spontaneous solution to a problem.
HEALING PHILOSOPHIES
The healing arts, from conventional medicine to alternative/complementary medicine, and from psychology to pastoral counseling are undergoing a shift from a mechanistic to a holistic paradigm. Science is actually an experimental philosophy whose highest value is empiricism, and conventional healing shares this philosophy. All new scientific theories require some unifying idea, and that idea is, by definition, metaphysical ~ essentially untestable.
Today's heresies are tomorrow's dogmas. In any metaphysical dispute, strong non-scientific arguments can propose new theories, which may become scientific. Speculative ideas have contributed heavily to the growth of knowledge.
Rather than discouraging exploration of fringe areas of knowledge, this awareness makes it mandatory we explore all possible modalities and anomalies without prejudice, no matter how unconventional. Even extraordinary subjects may be approached with rigorous protocols. Though subjectivity is unwelcome in science, we can study the subjective nature of experience (qualia) in various ways. The process of healing is one such subjective experience.
The alchemists, who were students of consciousness in matter, created an elixer of life, a “medicine of philosophers”, a cure-all or panacea. What the modern world yearns for is a “meta-syn,” or visionary synthesis rooted not in a mechanistic model but one using nature’s own forms of self-organization.
This model is based on the peculiar characteristics of nonlocality and probability of quantum physics, rather than classical Newtonian mechanics. Hopefully, the new model has the power to resonate with our whole being and propel us into a more effective healing paradigm. Emergent healing is actually a treatment philosophy, rooted in a worldview born from our current understanding of the nature of Reality.
The emerging paradigm is a more subtle and energetic model of health. In the emergent healing paradigm, healing depends on the nonlocal principles of nature’s own self-organization, as well as on direct causal influences on the mind/body of the organism. It appeals to spirit, soul, and body.
Recognizing the complexity of reality, the new paradigm includes a series of perspectives, which emphasize the positive rather than pathological, health rather than sickness, and a holistic approach to health care.
In this qualitative, rather than outcome-oriented approach, subjective experience and process are valued. The fusion of mind, emotions, body and spirit is recognized as central. In this ecological approach, the individual is embedded within larger systems, not isolated as a disease process. When we treat a symptom or disease rather than the whole person, we treat the part not the whole.
Interdependence of individuals, societies, and nature can be honored. As our knowledge of nature is increased, our knowledge of our own nature also grows correspondingly. Health, self-healing, and therapeutics is a balance supported by many disciplines, including physics, biology, and psychology as well as medicine.
We have all noticed that often the physical body is healed, but not the emotional trauma; or perhaps there is spiritual or psychological healing, but not physical cure. Therefore, it only makes sense to treat the whole person, rather than just the symptomology.
PARADIGM SHIFT
Paradigms underlie the interplay of chaos and order in human culture, at the conscious and unconscious, collective and individual level. These tacit belief systems act as lenses through which all sensory data passes before it is experienced as perception. Some perceptions arrive relatively undisturbed while others are subject to immediate characterization, distortions, and value-judgments.
Old ideas die hard. The established order, materialism, is entrenched. Establishment science is always resistant to new ideas. Science deals with models and metaphors of our perception of reality. We have had science less than 500 years, but in that time it has transformed much of the world technologically, intellectually and physically.
Scientific models change as exploration leads to the discovery of new facts and approaches that work. Still, new models are slow to be embraced. The dominant worldview hangs on as tenaciously as geocentric religious views did in the Dark Ages.
A paradigm is a working set of assumptions and postulates, (a disciplinarian matrix), about a field of inquiry or practice ~ such as healing. How we envision healing is as important as how we proceed to try to heal. It governs our protocols, what we notice and fail to notice, and how we evaluate the results. The theoretical construct defines our approach and methodology. It gains momentum over time.
Scientific exploration is not a linear process, but results from competition among theories. The best results of each system are then woven into a seamless fabric that, at least temporarily, defines the nature of that field. New observations can lead to complete revisioning of a discipline, like the emergence of quantum mechanics did in physics. Filling in theoretical gaps leads toward better explanations and solutions to problems.
Sometimes new paradigms coexist and develop alongside one another, until one supersedes the other. This is paradigm shift. Such has been the case in concurrent development of allopathic and alternative or energy medicine, also called integral medicine.
Both the conventional and integral approaches have long, noble histories, one rooted largely in western culture, the other in Asian systems. Allopathic doctors and patients themselves now recognize that strictly reductionistic and technologically-based medicine has its limitations in contemporary healthcare.
Objective science can be devoid of higher purpose and intentionality. Thus, we find ourselves with a host of ethical dilemmas in genetic engineering, transplant research, geriatrics, pharmacology, cloning, technological intervention, and molecular biology.
The relativism of postmodern deconstructionism has undermined all theoretical perspectives, turning them into or exposing them as social constructions. It is true that the healing arts are riddled with political, religious, and cultural biases. Health care has been delivered in terms of a power relationship over the body, superimposed on its biology.
There is a strong desire from the both the scientific community and public for a health system that values personal relationships, emotions, meaning, and beliefs. They connect body, mind, spirit, and society.
It is crucial to realize there is both rational and paradoxical healing, and both are vital to our well-being. Paradoxical thinking is unpredictable, unique, unforgettable, unrepeatable, and often indescribable. Breakthroughs are often paradoxical in nature, seemingly absurd, yet in fact true. Rational healing relies on doing, while paradoxical healing is rooted in ways of being. Physician Larry Dossey says it requires, “standing in the Mystery.”
There is a yearning to return “mystery” to the mechanistic arena of healing, so we can face illness and disease as whole organisms. Transpersonal forces have a valid place in healing, as they do in all areas of our existence. Many people have a sense of the importance of actively integrating spiritual principles with the material world.
The whole-systems approach co-exists with conventional medicine and is making inroads among its practitioners. Treating causes as well as symptoms, it mobilizes the patient’s will to live. It fosters the inner dimensions of the healing experience. The healing response includes behavioral, mental and spiritual shifts or transformations.
Health is the natural outcome of a meaningful life, not just absence of symptoms. It means a comprehension of the complexities of life that is deeper than the conventional worldview of cause and effect. It proposes that consciousness is the foundation of reality. We do not exist independently from the universe, but the exact nature of that seamless connection is unknown.
Rooted in relativity, quantum, holographic and chaos theories, a metaphysical context is provided to justify such a paradigm shift from the purely causal healing model. The interactive field (psychodynamic field) present in healing situations can be amplified intentionally through therapeutic entrainment, or resonant feedback playing off the unified field (universal field).
NEW CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
No science or healing is independent of the realities of our fundamental consciousness. Consciousness is a process not an object. Neuroscientists have begun to study consciousness, both in its functional and universal aspects.
Some scientists try to reduce matter (brain cells) to consciousness while others are trying to reduce consciousness to matter. Some suggest (Newell), echoing ancient philosophies, that Absolute Consciousness may be a field that is always everywhere.
We are not discrete entities but deeply embedded within the fabric of the universe. The essence we share, more fundamental than matter and energy, may well be primordial consciousness. It may be the very basis of materiality, as the Vedas implied centuries ago. Consciousness involves the integration of information, not just a passive array of information itself.
We have many ways, besides our senses, of interfacing with reality, including intentionality, intuition, somatic perception, and direct apprehension. The new integral model of health and mind/body healing recognizes and operates from this expanded perspective and innovative medical options.
Consciousness -- the intersubjective dimension -- may be a stronger dynamic causal factor in healing than previously considered. Incorporating the full spectrum of human experience into healing promises new possibilities, new outcomes, which have been neglected in the biomedical model.
Conscious intentionality may influence subtle electromagnetic or quantum field energy processes. It affects the exchange of information at the cellular, organismic, and social level. Exceptional states of awareness (such as meditation, shamanic journeying, dreaming, dissociation, etc.) can lead to exceptional results, but they also require exceptional proof that may be difficult to produce in the laboratory or document objectively.
The emerging worldview extends our concepts beyond the domain of purely objective, reductionistic realism ~ materialism. The trend is moving from biophysical to psychophysical and psychospiritual dimensions without loss of scientific rigor.
Just as physics seeks a unified field theory, so the healing process needs a model that accounts for the mechanisms of natural healing and its anomalies such a placebo effect, spontaneous remission, even distant healing. Consciousness may just be an expression of such a universal field.
Models of healing in which disease is seen as an invasive process and the treatments are also invasive can give way to those following a natural, evolutionary course. Rather than comparing healing to a fight, or war on an external invader, we can imagine it as the creation of healthy processes. New forms emerge from adaptations after the breakdown of old forms. In this synergetic view, the organism interacts with its total environment.
Quantum Biophysics and Healing
Our contemporary task is to move beyond the apparent mind/body dichotomy of western mechanistic thought. This cannot remain a mere concept but must become part of our essence, a belief lived from our very core. Living from a holistic perspective is an experiential process, a Way of life.
"Consciousness" encompasses the potentially integrated healing aspects of brain, mind, emotions, and spirit, together with physiological and environmental influences that produce unique patterns. Healing is a physical or biological form of creativity. Nonlocal healing is a synchronistic event, which takes place in the presence of intentionality to share a common field of influence.
The "consciousness of healing" may be a pattern, or patterns, that can be identified in the anomalous energies associated with sensitive persons. Anomalous energies are one highly meaningful constellation of factors. Recurrent, complex, interrelated patterns, processes and temporal variations, influenced by the environment, are inherent in states of consciousness for better or worse.
Selected aspects of consciousness provide more reliable experimental replication and active integration of holistic investigations into the sources and processes of healing, other associated non-local phenomena, environmental effects and biophysical interactions of body, mind, emotions and spirit.
New developments on the frontier of science start with (1) observations of phenomenological effects, (2) collection of anecdotal information, (3) organizing the data into useful patterns and relationships from the experiential data, (4) developing a subsequent taxonomy for defining discrete phenomena and their various aspects, (5) forming research protocols and designs to test hypotheses and maximize successful and reproducible results, and (6) utilizing the research results in development of individual and group healing applications and expanding knowledge about the bioenergetic aspects of healing.
It has been suggested (Dossey; Krippner; Gowan; Motoyama; Beal and Gilula, 2004) that some individuals possess unusual capabilities and processes of consciousness. They are often considered intuitive about past, present or future events, and highly sensitive to body, mind, spirit and environmental influences, in and around other persons, as well other living and non-living systems. They may be admired, imitated, ignored, feared, suppressed or judged as "handicapped" or "mentally afflicted", depending on how they use their "gifts".
Associated with an individual’s abilities, there are aspects of, (1) emotional events, both life-changing (epiphany or tragedy), and sequelae, (2) and/or an inherited component, (3) a health issue, which may also serve to influence their unusual capabilities, and, (4) an environmental influence, positive or negative.
Please note that these people, by inheritance, accident, illness, discipline, or environmental influence manifest an incredible range of sensitivity, down to quantum energy levels. Many persons involved in healing processes are hypersensitive to chemical, electromagnetic, and electrical factors, whether acquired either naturally or artificially induced.
Strong psychosomatic overtones are related to electrical and electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) as well as to multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). This type of adaptation and sensitivity may be one of the characteristics important to possess or develop in the healing process.
There are many answers to "unexplained phenomena." We are developing more sensitive instruments to measure, internally and externally, the electrochemical nature of living systems and the interacting variables of the environment. Every day we watch the impossible or nonsensical become useful and applicable through technological and conceptual quantum leaps in awareness.
The complex interactions of all these energy factors (holographic, quantum, electromagnetic and chemical) that shape life processes must be considered, along with genetic, biochemical, age, gender and health processes. All of these factors must be addressed in any exploration of unusual states of consciousness whether they occur in individuals or in groups. There is comparatively very little human perspective/awareness anywhere about our long-term relationship interactions with the earth and all other living systems.
We are a product of our natural earth environment and respond to some subtle degree (and sometimes not so subtle) to the same geoelectromagnetic, chemical and atmospheric factors which affect all other living things. We can, and are, affecting the balance of nature, which in the long-term affects us. This is a true form of biological feedback.
The field of healing sources and processes requires the development of taxonomy and protocols for analyzing and exploring inherited, spontaneous, controlled and stressful patterns of consciousness, and relating these patterns to potential environmental influences.
Areas of concern, which can respond to investigation, are the recurrent, complex, interrelated patterns of brain activity (before, during, and after healing events) related to 1) the consciousness of the healer (what psychophysiological patterns are required to produce optimal and repeatable healing, 2) environmental influences supporting the healing objectives, and 3) consciousness of the subject.
When both the patient and healer are co-equals in the process and on a “level playing field,” patient safety is optimized, but so is healer safety. This type of setting also maximizes the possibilities of bioentrainment of physiological signals belonging to both patient and healer.
A level playing field also allows patient and healer to co-create the process of healing from a position of mutual empathy, respect, and trust. Such a level field is created by an environment, which maximizes those traits. Interrelated patterns of consciousness are reflected in brainwave (EEG) frequency distribution, psychophysiological states, and environmental conditions, which affect the clinical healing setting (Gilula).
Unusual states of consciousness, controlled or spontaneous may occur due to: (1) external sensory induction, sensory deprivation or sensory over-stimulation, (by environmental influences); (2) internal changes that are self-induced by body and mind disciplines, (3) ill health, (psychophysiological aspects of electrical and chemical sensitivity), accident, injury or near-death trauma, (4) inherited CNS influences, for example, familial periodic paralysis (FPP) and recurring spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK), or (5) interactive combinations of the previous factors.
Research suggests that RSPK incidents tend to occur under unusual emotional stress and on days of above average geomagnetic fields, modulated by EMFs from the agent and focused by the agent onto significant other objects. Krippner and Persinger also report anomalies and amplification of psi reports associated with periods of exposure to tectonic strain.
The RSPK process is similar to the electro-acoustic effect of movement induced in the diaphragm of a loudspeaker by an electric current. But, in RSPK, the EMF energy moves through space-time without the benefit of electrical wiring, presumably because it is highly focused.
Roll brings up Puthoff’s theory that the central person affects the zero-point energy (ZPE) that fills space and thereby the gravity/inertia that usually keep things in place. If the ZPE is affected during RSPK, this may suggest that the ZPE has a consciousness component.
Meditative or yogic practices would add a dimension of personal exploration to any investigation of the zero-point energy. Recent research studies of the nature of consciousness and the relationship to "quantum holography", requires a new perspective regarding time, space and energy interactions.
Persons who exhibit strong allergic responses, who are often chemically and/or electrically sensitive, may inadvertently affect tape recorders, computers, lights, TVs and other sensitive electronic equipment during their reactive episodes. This is strongly reminiscent of the “Pauli Effect.” Robert Morris has reported that some individuals are affecting electronic equipment when they are in an intense or traumatized emotional state. Effects on magnetometers, electrical, magnetic, and electromagnetic field detectors have been noted from persons who claim non-local energy projection abilities.
Pathological sensitivities can be either inherited or accidentally acquired. Spontaneous, non-local events may occasionally occur around FPP or EHS-afflicted individuals. The events seem causally related to RSPK, and include lights going on and off (usually solar-activated types), computers crashing, individual components burning up, and other similar effects on sensitive solid-state electronic devices. Stressful events that may be psychophysiological or environmental seem to help initiate both FPP and ESH reactions, with RSPK occurring sometimes as a side-effect.
New methodologies and taxonomies may provide more consistent replication, control, amplification, and exploration of the subtle energies associated with healing and other states of consciousness. In the efforts to understand the interrelated patterns of body, brain, emotions, mind and environment involved in healing processes, we may describe some sources of healing within the blend of consciousness and quantum cosmology.
Discussion
Quantum mechanics, chaos theory and complexity have superceded both the pre-scientific and mechanistic worldviews. The new paradigm is an organic model ~ Nature's Way of spontaneous self-organization, self-assembly, regeneration, and transmutation of energy/matter.
Chaos prevails from the infinitely small to cosmic levels. Dynamic processes are deterministic though unpredictable. All experience is subjective. Intuition is an informational source that is non-linear and therefore can create quantum leaps in consciousness. Using imagination, we can ‘see through’ to a deeper level of reality.
The Universe is a fractal manifestation of the interaction or interdependence of chaos and order. Nature and evolution are complimentary systems evolving at the edge of chaos ~ the source of the genesis of new forms. Like a fractal, the individual embodies the whole, to a greater or lesser degree. We are neither exclusively biological nor psychospiritual beings ~ we are both/and psychobiological.
Archetypes are rooted in or emerge from the Demiurgic field as attractors, chaotic systems having fractal or reiterative structures that repeat at all levels of observation. They never settle into equilibrium, periodicity, or resonance. Transpersonal experience creates a new interpretation, or perspective on reality. Systems arise from positive feedback and amplification. Thus, archetypes introduce erratic behavior that leads to the emergence of new situations, including creative insight.
Both perception and cognition can be modeled as a transition from a state of chaos representing the unrecognized condition, or the unresolved problem, to a state of order. Creativity or learning can emerge spontaneously, from exploring states of confusion, to the instantaneous insight of a "Eureka"; moment, or knowing state through bifurcation to a new attractor, to chaotic resolution.
Art and artfulness embody the imagination expressed as a living form. An expressive form manifests human feelings and values, a concept of life (exoteric) and inward reality (esoteric) ~ the logic of consciousness itself. Other examples are sudden illumination, aesthetic appreciation, opening to nature (nature-mystic experience), simple recognition to dramatic realization, or awe.
An experience, innovation, discovery or realization always has aesthetic appeal. It contains mythological, metaphorical and epistemological dimensions. When we have a creative, therapeutic or transformative experience, it involves a degree of "what it is like"; to be shaped, to apprehend this given, to undergo this process or happening.
Chaos theory shows us we actually need to cooperate with chaotic dynamics, to enter a less-rigid process of flow, submitting outworn aspects of the ego to dissolution. This increases our adaptability helping us evolve. At supercritical junctions (crises, crossroads, bifurcations) we either breakdown (emergency) or increase adaptation (emergence) with more creative solutions.
Creativity is an excited-exalted state of arousal with a characteristic increase in both informational content and the rate of information processing. Creative holistic repatterning is introduced into the human system through the psyche as nonmanifest yet phenomenological images, symbols, and patterning information.
Imagination is embodied, objectified, expressed in the creative process. It is knowing through living through, distinctionally different from knowing about. It carries a sense of immediacy. Imagination is the voice of creativity. It is the primary way we experience soul; imagination embodies it’s own reality. It is self-revelatory. Meaning dwells in the image like consciousness dwells in the body.
We live in a chaotic universe to which we are seamlessly wed. We are a chaotic system ourselves, and chaotic systems exhibit holistic behavior. Holism sees the world in all its diversity as connected. A global wave of information (consciousness) is responsible for the extraordinary coherence that expresses as self-organization. It’s not a case of ‘we are the world’; we are one with the whole universe of phenomena and being in the deepest sense. The unifying force is consciousness.
Beauty is a state of consciousness described in Kabbalah and Hermetic philosophy as related to self-actualization. In psychological terms it implies transcendence of the realm of personality and intimate knowledge of the transpersonal self. It corresponds with creativity, healing, genius and bliss states or unitive experience. The bottom-up creative dynamic runs from personality to Self, to Demiurgic Field.
Chaos theory provides a comprehensive metaphor for uniting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual realities. Supreme insights are always metaphorical in expression. The empirical connection may lie in the mystery of the true nature of consciousness, healing, and creativity. Knowledge about natural phenomena, the way nature and ourselves work, can help us attune to deeper resources. The same essential dynamics that gave rise to the birth of the universe govern human creativity and learning.
What’s New in Emergent Healing
Experiential therapy sessions and mysticism demonstrate that as we journey deeper and deeper into the psyche we eventually encounter a state characterized either as "chaotic" or void of images. In a therapeutic context, chaos is experienced as a consciousness state--the ground state. This state is related to healing, dreams, and creativity. Shamanic approaches to healing involve co-consciousness states which lead to restructuring both physical and emotional-mental senses of self.
Dreams, creativity, and healing arise from this undifferentiated "chaotic consciousness." Dreamhealing uses images as portals for consciousness journeys to facilitate transformations ranging from mood alteration to profound physiological changes. Imagery (virtual experience) affects the immune system, activating psychosomatic forces, such as the placebo effect. Chaos-oriented consciousness journeys suggest these states reflect complex phase space, fractal patterns, strange attractors, "the butterfly effect," sensitivity, complex feedback loops, intermittency, and other general dynamical aspects suggested by chaos theory. More than an experiential process, this is a philosophy of treatment--"Chaosophy."
HOLOGRAPHIC HEALING We model six levels of healing: Behavior/Physiology - superficial biology; symptoms; field body, vegetative; embedded tissue memory Thoughts/Emotions - psychic level; pain/pleasure Belief System - vision logic Personal Mythology - Intuitive imaginal perceptions Holographic; Primordial Archetypal - life template Universal Field; Unconditioned, undifferentiated, transcendent, chaotic, and cosmic consciousness
Postulates:
The science that currently drives the healing professions is out of date and not really appropriate to complex systems. New science provides far better models for the human condition. I.e. relativity, quantum, chaos and holographic theories.
Healing and disease are matters that involve senses more than mind and are matters of consciousness and its structures.
Complex systems are self regulating (homeostasis principle) and will generally do so given the opportunity.
Healing depends far more on the connection between the practitioner and client than it does on the particular practice.
Symptoms are at their base attempts by the organism to solve problems. As such their isolated eradication can result in further symptoms arising in answer to the unsolved deeper issue.
There are only self-healers, the best one can do is find and encourage that process in another.
Consciousness prevails throughout all reality and is a basic field that is part of all structure in the space time continuum.
The placebo effect and spontaneous remission are two of the most powerful yet discounted healing phenomena known in the healing arts and sciences. Such healing occurs with any or all illnesses, yet nothing, no treatment or substances, has been administered that can account for it. In studies of new treatments, as a control, the placebo consistently brings about symptomatic remissions 30-50% of the time.
If a test drug performs in the 60% range (as many, if not most, do) the placebo was also at work in the test group and accounts for at least half or more of the effectiveness of the test treatment. The proponent of the treatment generally prefers to claim it to be the entire 60% effective. The half or more that is accountable by the placebo effect is ignored and illusions created about the drug's effectiveness.
The placebo effect and spontaneous remission are consciousness events, and more specifically events in which consciousness and matter interact to naturally change or transform diseased structures into healing process or flow. At the level of reality at which this event takes place, it is not even an interaction, it is a reality in which consciousness-matter, or as it is more popularly known, mind-body, are not different but are virtualities not committed to either condition, yet the potential of both. It is, in other words, a level of quantum reality.
Spontaneous healing is closely associated with REM. These clues all imply the mechanism through which dreams, placebos, and experiential psychotherapy do their healing and regenerative work. Chaos is always associated with change and is usually seen as its aftereffect.
Chaos is actually the mechanism of the change itself. REM-Chaos consciousness is the most chaotic or complex state of dynamics in the brain. It is the state that most supports its self-correction (the homeostasis effect) and the natural transformation of any organism to healthy flow. It is the state that supports profound self-healing. This information also implies a major change in the way we can view illness and healing.
Seen from a consciousness viewpoint and consistent with the new physics of quantum holographic, and chaos theories, illness and wellness are more a matter of basic consciousness structure than mere chemistry. Chemical changes are an effect rather than a cause, an associated phenomenon. We can no longer view illness as merely the invasion of the body by carcinogens or germs and viruses and healing as the mechanistic or chemical correction of these conditions. Natural healing happens at quantum-implicate levels of reality. Accessing it through the REM-Chaos state brings about subsequent changes in brain chemistry and may be the mechanisms by which placebos heal.
NONLOCAL MIND Unbound Consciousness: Beyond the Mind/Body Model
The universe is infinite, and so is the mind, not in the individual personalistic sense, but in terms of consciousness. ‘Nous’ is an ancient word for what we now call nonlocal mind or consciousness. Many philosophers and modern physicists consider ‘consciousness’ as the fundamental basis of all that is.
Alchemy, as the search for godhead in matter, argues that “there is one stone, one medicine to which nothing from outside is added, nor is it diminished, save that the superfluities are removed: as above, so below; as within, so without. Alchemists sought the Unus Mundus, the One World analogous to the modern search for a Grand Unified Theory in physics, or the Theory of Everything uniting all known forces.
The Greeks conceived of the mind as both limited and infinite, human and divine. The root of this notion comes from Hermetic and occult sciences, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. The mind is not localized nor confined to the body but extends outside it. This notion lies at the root of sympathetic magic.
The Persians were even bolder in their view that the mind could escape the confines of the physical body and create effects in the outside world. Their physician Avicenna declared, “The imagination of man can act not only on his own body but even on others and very distant bodies. It can fascinate and modify them, make them ill, or restore them to health.”
These notions were superceded by later causal and mechanistic views that came to dominate Western science and medicine, separating mind and body. The nonlocal mind paradigm suggests we can effectively operate with the realization that consciousness can free itself from the body and can act not only on our own bodies, but nonlocally on distant things, events, and people, even if they are unconscious of the intentionality. But it is a holistic viewpoint that doesn’t split mind from body. It also suggests a new emergent healing paradigm (Miller, 2003).
This nonlocal model is perhaps the basis of such phenomena as psychosomatics, remote healing, remote viewing, and dream initiations. Physicists use the term nonlocal to describe the distant interactions of subatomic particles such as electrons. We can experience nonlocal mind spontaneously, paradoxically, without losing our individuality. A creator can live in many universes instead of simply adhering to a prescribed worldview such as the outmoded causal paradigm or unscientific New Age beliefs.
It has been proven that human minds display similar interactions at a distance (Krippner; Mishlove; Radin; Dossey; May; Stanford; Germine; Nelson; Motoyama; Sidorov; Swanson; Miller & Miller). These anomalies include therapeutic rapport, telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, visions, prophetic dreams, breakthroughs, creativity, prayer, synchronicity, medical intuition, nonlocal diagnosis, spontaneous remission, and intent mediated or paradoxical healing.
Nonlocal mind erupts spontaneously, surprising, even shocking us. The mind has ultradimensional qualities seemingly unlimited by physical constraints. Psi phenomena concern organism-environment interactions in which it appears that information or infuence has occurred that cannot be explained through current models of sensory-motor channels. They are outside current scientific concepts of time, space, and force. We have hypotheses but little idea how organism-environment and organism-organism information and influence interface and flow.
“Emergence” is the process by which order appears spontaneously within a system. It is essential to understanding functional consciousness, the mind/body, subjective experience, and the healing process. When many elements of a system mingle, they form patterns among themselves as they interact.
Fundamental physics is about observable and verifiable anticipation of possible relatively evolving quantities and/or qualities, including complementary wave/particle descriptions. Quantum mechanical equations of motion yield open systems and work out their consequences for the flow of information. We have tremendous empirical evidence that quantum mechanics is part of such a physics. And so are we when we seem to make quantum leaps” in awareness.
When the mind lets go of its rational order, lets the old form die, and enters into a bifurcation or unstructured chaos, the whole person emerges with a new form, embodied as a creative expression, an intuition, or as healing. Most often it is characterized by an element of novelty and surprise, since it apparently does not originate in what came before. Both healing and medical intuition are examples of emergence. It is a spontaneous solution to a problem.
The healing arts, from conventional medicine to alternative/complementary medicine (CAM), and from psychology to pastoral counseling are undergoing a shift from a mechanistic to a holistic paradigm. Science is actually an experimental philosophy whose highest value is empiricism, and conventional healing shares this philosophy. All new scientific theories require some unifying idea, and that idea is, by definition, metaphysical or essentially untestable.
Today’s heresies are tomorrow’s dogmas. In any metaphysical dispute, strong non-scientific arguments can propose new theories, which may become scientific. Speculative ideas have contributed heavily to the growth of knowledge.
Rather than discouraging exploration of fringe areas of knowledge, this awareness makes it mandatory we explore all possible modalities and anomalies without prejudice, no matter how unconventional. Even extraordinary subjects may be approached with rigorous protocols. Though subjectivity is unwelcome in science, we can study the subjective nature of experience (qualia) in various ways. The process of healing is one such subjective experience.
The alchemists, who were students of consciousness in matter, created an elixer of life, a “medicine of philosophers”, a cure-all or panacea. What the modern world yearns for is a “meta-syn,” or visionary synthesis rooted not in a mechanistic model but one using nature’s own organic forms of self-organization.
This model is based on the peculiar characteristics of nonlocality and probability of quantum physics, rather than classical Newtonian mechanics. QM doesn't explain gravity, but the fact that the world “ever” appears classical is just a simplification due to our inability to sense quantum states directly. There is no such thing as a classical world.
Hopefully, the new model has the power to resonate with our whole being and propel us into a more effective healing paradigm. Emergent healing is actually a treatment philosophy, rooted in a worldview born from our current understanding of the nature of Reality as described in chaos theory, quantum mechanics, and the holographic concept..
Health is the natural outcome of a meaningful life, not just absence of symptoms. It means a comprehension of the complexities of life that is deeper than the conventional worldview of cause and effect. It proposes that consciousness is the foundation of reality. We do not exist independently from the universe, but the exact nature of that seamless connection is unknown.
Rooted in relativity, quantum, holographic and chaos theories, a nonlocal metaphysical context suggests such a paradigm shift from the purely causal healing model. The interactive field (psychodynamic field) present in healing situations can be amplified intentionally through therapeutic entrainment, or resonant feedback playing off the unified field (universal field).
Healing Disrupted Lives: Chaos Theory and Experiential Therapy The Role and Value of Journey Work in the Process of Recovery by Iona Miller, Asklepia Foundation, 2003
1). Disruption and Continuity; 2). Healing Words: "Metaphors Be with You"; 3). The Healing Power of Narrative History; 4). Soul Support: Healing the Disordered Bodymind; 5). Character: Have Some, Don't Just Be One; 6). Pathos and Healing
Summary: Our life journey is an unpredictable series of chaotic twists and turns which mold our lives, despite our best intentions and plans, as we wend our way toward our certain end. The 'journey' is a core guiding metaphor for our multifarious experiences through all of life's disruptions. It is a poetic journey of self-discovery. Chaos theory provides a natural yet scientific metaphor of this complex trajectory of emergent order from disorder, the complex dance at the edge of chaos.
Process-oriented therapies help us not only recover but make sense of our feelings and experiences by evoking our story, a meaningful narrative of our unique course. It is a combination of subjective healing fiction and our objective history, but expresses the reality of our psyche -- our embodied soul. Even if many have embarked on a similar quest, each of us makes this dramatic voyage of discovery for ourselves -- we become our own "Columbus of the soul," going where we do not know. It leads into the great unknown where fearsome dragons (pain, suffering, loss, grief, illness, dissocation, emotional devastation, mortality, our own personal demons) await to devour us.
How we navigate those turbulent seas or traverse that undiscovered country is crucial to our wholeness and well-being...even as old explorers heading for the shores of death. If metaphor is central to embodied experience, we can find healing meaning embodied in our personal tales, which speak from the soul of the resilience of human spirit. ---------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER 1 Disruption of Continuity
"Efforts to control a chronic condition are rooted in two ideas: that people can control their environment and that people should take responsibility for their health. The notion that chronic illness can be controlled is common in U.S. medical practice, whereas discussion of the limits of control are uncommon. Often couched in terms of illness management in both the medical and social science literature, control over the condition reflects interpretations of Western Cartesian philosophy, which, in contemporary thought, has been interpreted as mind over matter. The responsibility people feel for controlling their chronic illnesses and the efforts they make to overcome the constraints such control places on everyday life affect self-perceptions and alter as the illness waxes and wanes. . .embodied knowledge is assaulted by the ethos of rational determinism. The imposition of another type of order [leaves us] without meaning in [our] lives. The close relationship between embodied knowledge and meaning is thus relegated to a subsidiary position, while control over the body becomes preeminent. Metaphor is central to embodied experience." --Gay Becker, 1997
Introduction
Uncertainty is the zeitgeist of our day. We are anxious and unsure. We face global warming, environmental deterioration, emerging infections and incurable viruses, pandemics, bioterrorism, wars, urban violence, soil and water depletion, rampant population growth, genetically-engineered food and organisms, hazardous waste, and profound doubts about our earth's ability to continue to sustain life. Much of earth's life is already going extinct, and we wonder about own own and our grandchildren's futures, health, and well-being. Many of us feel the impact as loss of our cherished dreams of a better future.
We did not anticipate this transition from the arrogant certainty of the rational enlightenment promise to disquieting uncertainty. We have realized only empty promises of solutions to life's fundamental problems, like world health, food, and peace. Despite all our knowledge we have not been able to control or dominate our environment successfully. Knowledge is not wisdom, or even understanding. There is a deeper current in life and it is embodied in Mystery-- the unpredictable, the unknown, and perhaps unknowable.
Chaos Theory (CT) is the third revolution in science after relativity and quantum theory. It is the prime source of unpredictability in the macrocosmic world and the human scale, formerly described only by classical physics. Chaos and complexity is nature's own way of organizing systems and creating structure. All systems emerge from and eventually dissolve back into chaos.
Chaos is ubiquitous in nature, but it was missed by science due to the overwhelming complexity of detecting its underlying pattern and purpose. Chaos theory means dynamic processes are deterministic though unpredictable. Much the same can be said for its discovery in human physiology and psychology.
It is well established now that most dynamics in nature, ranging from the orbits of planets to behavioral adjustments in life, are essentially chaotic. We are chaotic systems ourselves, and chaotic systems exhibit holistic behavior. Holism sees the world in all its diversity as connected through complex feedback loops. Through the chaotic process of emergence, order appears spontaneously or even instantly within a system.
The conventional medical model has failed many of us. Holistic health systems embrace the mindbody paradigm, but that does not necessarily mean we should all rush out to substitute "foreign" or alternative therapies for conventional medical wisdom. Generally, these modalities are complementary to biomedical care. However, the holistic scientific metaphor provided by chaos theory allows us to describe the psyche in terms congruent with physical reality. This is simply the way nature works, and the way our nature works, too. It provides a comprehensive psychophysical metaphor for uniting physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realities.
Holism is a paradigm - a worldview, which is equally applicable to the universe and our human existence. Chaos Theory is not a metaphor, per se, but functions as a science metaphor to describe systems, organisms, and dynamic behavior, including complex adaptation. It describes how order emerges from chaos. People often spontaneously incorporate science metaphors in their self-narratives, using such terms as "black holes" and "melt downs," or "quantum leaps," etc. to describe their feelings or personal dynamics. And the same can be done with aspects of chaos theory which can describe how we adapt to life at the edge of chaos in our own unique way.
Paradigms from one field of science often interpenetrate others. Because the findings are more than metaphorical, they translate across disciplines. Metaphors reflect the interdependency of mind and body, and the embodied nature of metaphor holistically reflects the unity of individual and world. Embodied knowledge reflects our shifting understandings of the body.
Metaphors of chaos are as prevalent in our life trajectory as the explicit chaotic patterns are in our physiology (in our brains, hearts, and metabolic systems, etc.). The events of our lives become embedded in our structure and metabolism. We might call this embodiment "metaphorms."
Various forms of metaphor therapy can help us heal and adapt in the recovery process, giving our psyche a voice. With the advent of chaos theory and complexity theory, universally negative attitudes toward chaos are changing slowly but surely, at least in some individuals. We are learning to consciously accept chaos, and intuit that it also has value. Linear and deterministic theory is on the decline in favor of nonlinearity, fragmentation, multiplicity, iteration, complex feedback loops, and indeterminacy.
This ascendancy of the scientific paradigm of chaos includes medical uncertainty, both for practitioners and patients, who must learn to deal creatively with chaos, tolerate ambiguity, and respect the unapparent. Our sense of control over our external world is a destructive illusion. As we come to understand that disruption is part of the creative cycle, we learn to understand how "emergency" is part of the creative process of "emergence" of renewal and new potential.
Over time we can expect this paradigmatic shift to penetrate more deeply into the cultural fabric of our lives and an integrative health system. Chaos theory, systems theory, and complexity theory have shown us that self-organizing order emerges from chaos, and is thus the paradigm of the natural healing process. It describes the dissolution or fragmentation and reconstruction of the volitional self. It helps us attach a more positive valence to disruptions of our mortal human lives, either through illness or misfortune.
Society itself, even taking into account the various cultural distinctions of diversity, changes in unpredictable ways, including through human frailty or perversity, such as crime and war. Political figures, in particular have the ability to affect great masses of people with their policies and dictates. How we mediate and ameliorate these societal disruptions is a major part of our personal stories, and the story of humanity, in general.
Medical Anthropology
Medical Anthropology [1], in particular, is the field of inquiry which deals with how different cultures handle healthcare issues. Cultures are dynamic holistic systems which are 1). webs of meaning; 2). patterns of and for behavior; 3). "integrated" and interwoven; 4). filters which proscribe and prescribe; 5). give meaning and create order.
What is medical anthropology? Medical anthropology is a sub-field of anthropology that draws upon social, cultural, biological, and linguistic anthropology to better understand those factors which influence health and well being (broadly defined). It encompasses the experience and distribution of illness, the prevention and treatment of sickness, healing processes, the social relations of therapy management, and the cultural importance and utilization of pluralistic medical systems.
Thus, we see that culture influences the definition, experience, and treatment of sickness in Western and non-Western societies. Western medicine is mechanistic, while other cultures tend to incorporate the subtle or spiritual dimension in their healing practices. There is also a definition of sickness based on the patient's perception of suffering rather than the physician's assessment of biomedical signs.
This is the dimension of psyche, or soul, in the embodied rather than religious sense. This is expressed as autobiographical narrative, or personal poesis, which is imaginal in form, composed of healing fictions as well as fact. It tells the subjective story "as if" this is the way it is. It is generally also colored by the culture we are immersed in.
The discipline of medical anthropology draws upon many different theoretical approaches. It is as attentive to popular health culture as bioscientific epidemiology, and the social construction of knowledge and politics of science as discovery and hypothesis testing. Medical anthropologists examine how the health of individuals, larger social formations, and the environment are affected by interrelationships between humans and other species; cultural norms and social institutions; micro and macro politics; and forces of globalization as each of these affects local worlds.
There is an anthropological antidote for too narrow a framing of the complex tangle of ways-of-being and ways-of-telling. Stories of illness and healing are often arresting in their power, and they can illuminate aspects of practices and experiences surrounding illness that might otherwise be neglected. Recognizing the theoretical value of these healing tales among those eliciting, telling, and responding to narratives, we can explore these subjective stories from a variety of perspectives.
There is inherent poetics in the experience of personal chaos, tragedy, and illness, just as there is high drama in the grand confrontations of world history. Creative narratives flow from our challenging experiences as both healing fictions and historicities. Broadly, poetics means an expression of the movement of the human spirit. It details chaotic change which profoundly moves our psyches as well as our bodies, revealing resilience of the spirit if not the flesh.
Aristotle describes the classical framework of all dramas in the Poetics. These same qualities can be found in all our personal stories. Do we do it intuitively, or in fact, do these stories create us? People tell their stories; that is how they explain themselves whether to friends or strangers, therapists, or the public at large. We spontaneously weave our stories together into an overview, a word picture of the way it has been for us, from the inside out -- from our personal point of view.
The same dramatic framework is reflected also in our experiences of tragedies: catastrophes, natural and personal disasters, disillusionments, our dark depressions, life passages, loss of our dreams, shortchanged childhoods, stolen innocence, the pain of relationship break ups, sexual dysfunction, distorted body images, addictions, the pain of war, sickness and catastrophic illness, or other losses which move us deeply. Often the chaos of "real life" throws us off our projected course.
Some chronic illnesses and mental disorders have chaos or high drama as their constantly reiterated theme. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for example, is the constant reliving of painful chaotic sequences and seeing one's whole life through that distorted lens. But these soul-revealing narratives also have their own healing power and constitute a creative therapeutic avenue of their own, which restores meaning to our lives. Whether spontaneous or evoked through therapy, these stories are meaningful and important to our souls and spirits.
To heal originally meant to make whole. But, if we do not feel whole then the image of wholeness becomes a defense against feelings of fragmentation. There has been a loss of meaning in Western medicine. The body has been reduced to the the image of a machine, then medicine can say it is impaired, incomplete, and requires healing.
Biomedicine thinks in linear terms of illness and treatment, as if abeyance of symptoms equates with cure of disease. Sometimes it does, but not always. Sometimes we heal physically, but don't heal emotionally or spiritually. Or we heal emotionally, but not physically. When we step outside of this medical model, we find not only a fictitious goal, but also a new goal, or rather telos: function becomes psychic reality itself, deliteralized -- metaphorical.
Entering our interior story takes the same courage as starting a novel. This is not to say that each of us going to the doctor or therapist should come up with some coherent narrative, or deep insight. But given the opportunity, we do have a story to tell about what brought us to that point. These stories are not consciously crafted. Sometimes our medical treatment is relatively straightforward.
However, we can recognize the fact that most of us spontaneously do go through these internal dialogues, whether we realize it or not. They concern our own issues and our relationship to our bodies, our existential positions, our culture. They go on even when we are not in need of medical treatment. The fantasies and imagery we automatically spin around our psychophysical self surround us like a cocoon.
Autobiographical self-consciousness is a systematic record of our memories of past situations, of our self image, and of likes and dislikes--in short, of the more invariant properties we have discovered about ourselves. It generates the subjective experience of possessing an identity over time. Interestingly, what it grows out of is a much more transient entity--the core self, which is "ceaselessly re-created for each and every object with which the brain interacts." Neurology has produced this new idea of anchoring our traditional self-concept in a more fundamental notion of a "core-self" -- continuously changing bodily processes.
Perhaps we do not create our stories, rather our stories create us! Neurologist Antonio Damasio (1999) asserts that consciousness is an internal narrative. The "I" is not telling the story: the "I" is created by stories told in the mind. The more serious our affliction the more we tend to focus our attention around it, to spin tales of our journey around it. All of us take that one road, our idiosyncratic path of life, unique only to us. Sometimes there are detours and complex loops in our lives, our trajectories, and our stories -- factors beyond our control. Unlike an author with specific goals in mind, we do not know where it may take us, for it is not complete until our final breath.
Symptoms belong to the embodied soul. The metaphorical reality of the psyche is more than mere fiction but less than literal. Metaphors are more than symbolic ways of speaking. Metaphors facilitate thought by providing an experiential framework in which newly acquired, abstract concepts may be assimilated. They are ways of perceiving, feeling and existing. Through this imaginal reality we find soul, meaning, and significance in our suffering. Intractable problems create a continuous flow of psychological ideas, (Hillman, 1975).
Psyche connects us with the larger process and purpose of life. Then our symptoms reflect back to us other parts of ourselves that were alienated. They call attention to the way we live life that has made us feel disconnected, haunted, abnormal or afflicted.
The truth of our situation is not reflected in the literal conditions but in symbolic, poetic form -- in mystery, not history. Which is not to say that some lives aren't heavily impacted by collective history, war in particular. Nothing calls our attention to life like a close call, or brush with death. Or perhaps chaos came hauntingly early in life, creating the feeling of being an "outsider" all along, never seeming to fit in to the commonplace social forms.
When we literalize our symptoms, we remove them from their metaphorical basis, and this amplifies our suffering. Our autobiographical fictions do not have great explanatory power, but they do provide a resting place for a mind restlessly searching for ambiguity and depth. Psyche or soul calls us to place our attention back there by creating illness, morbidity, disorder, abnormality, and suffering, so we see our lives through the deformed or afflicted perspective. Literature is full of sorrowful laments, such as we find from Tolstoy:
"It seemed to him that he and his pain were being thrust into a narrow, deep black sack, but though they were pushed farther and further in they could not be pushed to the bottom...He wept on account of his helplessness, his terrible loneliness, and the cruelty of man, the cruelty of God, and the absence of God...Why hast Thou done all this? Why hast Thou brought me here? Why dost Thou torment me so terribly?. . . 'What is it you want?' was the first clear conception capable of expression in words that he heard. 'What do I want? To live and not to suffer,' he answered...'To live? How?' asked his inner voice. 'Why, to live as I used to--well and pleasantly.' 'As you lived before well and pleasantly?' the voice repeated. . . He suffered ever the same unceasing agonies and in his liveliness pondered always the same insoluble question: 'What is this? Can it be that it is Death?' And the voice answered" 'Yes, it is Death.' "Why these sufferings?' and the voice answered, 'For no reason -- they just are so.'" (Tolstoy, Ivan Ilych).
Medicine holds up an unrealistic image of an ideal level of functioning where virtually every system and organ works properly, and sets this image up as its healing goal. The wound or disease is an aberration in the wholeness of the 'machine' and must be repaired to its previous level of functioning.
This empty metaphor of unimaginative fixing prevents us from a deeper, more meaningful relationship with our afflictions. Setting of goals and progress, especially in psychotherapy, locks us into a specific ideal of problem and solution, ailment and remedy, wound and healing which is too linear to reflect our complex human nature. It is not actually healing but a palliative -- an unimaginative fantasy of healing.
Cultural concepts, like this medical model, shape the experience of illness. Body image is related to culture, as is self-image. Around the world, we find diverse rationalities and multiple realities surrounding health and healing. Beliefs about body and illness are linked to social and political agendas.
This unique symbolic construction of illness prevalent in the West has spread through 'medicalization' into other cultures.
Medical anthropology studies the beliefs and practices related to enhancing human health and healing in specific contexts. It describes a cross-cultural picture about how pain, illness, suffering, and misfortune are handled worldwide.
Using a medical anthropological “lens,” we can examine the diverse ways in which individuals and societies understand, express and deal with illness and health. Medical anthropology offers a window into the relationship between individuals’ bodies and their ongoing social, cultural and political worlds, including the political agendas of scientific research. The diversity of medical beliefs and practices includes shamanic, humoral, bioenergetic, holistic or mindbody, and biomedical healing systems. There is an intimate relationship between healers and patients and quality of care.
Likewise, there is a relation between the human life cycle, gender, health and the social implications of new biotechnologies, and international health issues. It impacts many of us through new technologies and diagnostic and treatment procedures.
We are overwhelmed and confused in our rapidly-changing world by such issues as genetic engineering, safer sex, birth control, birthing procedures, infertility treatment, hormone replacement, cosmetic surgery and enhancement, preventative medicine, and a variety of other health-related choices that directly impact our self-image -- hence our soul and spirit.
The healing approaches from many cultural sources are practiced in the west as complementary care. Over 40 out of 124 US medical schools are beginning to offer courses in complementary or alternative care. Some of these so-called alternatives, originating in Asia or indiginous shamanic cultures, are much older than allopathic medicine. Many nursing schools teach complementary concepts and skills as part of undergraduate and graduate curricula. [2]
According to an often quoted 1993 study by Dr. David Eisenberg at Harvard Medical School, one out of three adults in the U.S. report using a complementary treatment for a health problem, Americans made more visits to alternative practitioners than they did to primary care physicians and they spent .7 billion for such treatments, of which more than .5 billion was paid out-of pocket. The figures are even higher now, since these statistics are 10 years old, and complementary treatment has an even better foothold. The public's interest in non-conventional health care (CAM) has risen dramatically in recent years.
Whether referred to as complementary, alternative or integrative care, the subject is receiving significant coverage in both the popular press and in professional journals. Several studies have estimated that 30-50% of the American adult population are consumers of complementary care. In a recent publication, Janis Claflin of the John E. Fetzer Institute referred to this movement as the "invisible mainstream". While initially this was a very consumer driven movement, increasingly health care professionals, third-party payers, health plans, and other purchasers of health care are taking note as evidence accumulates that many complementary care approaches achieve credible outcomes at lower costs. There is a significant need for interdisciplinary models of education and research in complementary care.
The new scientific model of health and illness argues that a bioinformational process constantly oscillates between chaos-like non-linearity and linearity. When this oscillation collapses into a repetitive linear loop, it looses coherence with its bioinformational field creating a rigid state of pathology, (Martinez, 2001). This suggests the individual is an inseparable unit of cognition, biology, and historical culture.
Health and illness are neither exclusively biological nor totally mental. All human processes are inseparable biocognitions of bodymindculture, which is the domain of psychoneuroimmunology, bioinformatics, and medical anthropology. These fields have enriched clinical medicine. Body, mind and culture also meet in our stories where we either "think it out," or "tough it out." These stories express explanatory knowledge or power -- the power to define ourselves, to define our experience of reality -- to personalize and mythologize our experience of consensus reality. They may include denial, anger, and delusory features, but they are our version of the facts none the less.
In the objective, scientific model of who we are, we are complex fields of dynamic information flow. The bioinformational field is contained by horizons functioning as attractors that oscillate from stability to instability in the process of communicating and learning. This oscillation is operational at all levels of the bioinformational field, ranging from cognitive to cellular and perhaps subquantum modes of communication.
Reductionist and dualistic limitations of upward and downward causality are superseded by the notion of 'contextual co-emergence.' This suggests causality is a co-authored and simultaneous process taking place within and between bioinformational field horizons rather than originating at the molecular (reductionism) or cognitive (expansionism) levels of life, (Martinez, 2001).
Chaos Theory
Chaos Theory (CT) is a holistic discipline which has cut across all the sciences, including medicine. It has grown to include models of nonlinear complex dynamics, patterns of randomness, global effects, scale-invariance and deterministic chaos from the quantum to macroscopic realms, including the human scale. Gleick said, "Where chaos begins, classical science stops." By that, he means linear, causal descriptions stop and the nonlinear rules of turbulence hold sway. Near criticality, a crisis-point, predictability becomes impossible.
Gleick quotes Ford as saying "Evolution is chaos with feedback." It includes the science and computer modeling of fractals, bifurcations, intermittancies, strange attractors, complex feedback loops, and periodicities. In complexity theory, humans are viewed holistically as complex adaptive systems. This has also offered us a new, more positive perspective on the nature of chaos and disruption in our lives.
Chaos comes into our lives through an endless variety of crises. We all intuitively recognize how chaos interpenetrates our lives, punctuating our so-called equilibrium, diverting our most carefully-crafted plans and detouring our agendas. Sometimes it hits us broadside. It is unpredictability, part of our emotional "weather," and we are generally trying to adjust to it in some way.
Chaos theory holds that the more complex a system, the more stable and self-correcting it is. Disruption to a linear system throws it off course, but only affects a portion of a complex system, which soon adjusts to "fill in the gap." Chaos can engulf us either subjectively or objectively, but becomes embodied in any case, beginning by increasing our stress levels.
Disruptive changes impact us from inside as fear, pain, symptoms, compulsions, complexes, irrationalities, delusions, grief, mental disorders, blind spots, dementia, moods, suicidal tendencies, woundedness, addictions, nervous breakdowns, panic attacks, distorted thinking, social disconnection, and immunological dysfunction, to name a few.
Whether it is rational or not, shame, guilt, dissociation, and low self-esteem may come along with many breakdowns, diseases, or disorders. Vulnerability and guilt walk hand in hand; the affliction reaches us through the guilt it brings. Physical pain is compounded with emotional suffering. When we feel something is wrong, we are likely to perceive something as wrong with ourselves as well as with our bodies.
From outside, chaos impacts as accidents, impairment, injury, maladies, emotional loss, decline, frailty, debilitation, paralysis, dismemberment, mobility loss, brain damage, victimization, disenfranchisement, unexpected traumas and catastrophes (both personal and collective), a near-death experience, and the 'normal' yet unfortunate set-backs we all experience.
Or, we may be the victim of unsavory acts of human perversity in its myriad forms. All can have potentially devastating effects. Chaotic impact from outside oneself brings its own issues of blame, forgiveness, enforced rest, struggles for compensation, dependency, crises of faith. Our concern resides in our symptoms, embodied in more than metaphors. Our pathologies have immediate impact; they change our point of view.
Events beyond our control can lead to sudden, profound changes in our being, in our very physiology. Images of the sick or wounded are exceptionally moving to us all. The psyche itself either denies or complains and pathologizes spontaneously by magnifying all our sensations, aches and pains, often way out of proportion. Under this mental magnification, the body becomes the acute focus of our attention. Our anxiety may lead beyond our legitimate ailments into additional psychosomatic phenomena or even hypochondria. We hold our breath waiting for the next sign of distress.
Even when we are sick or wounded, we simultaneously have fantasies of "falling apart," being sick and wounded, around being sick and wounded. Affliction, real or imagined, reveals deep movement taking place in the psyche. Dreams, fantasies, and symptoms reveals the same imaginal process. As usual, our problems remain the focus of our fantasies. Chaos touches the dark edge of human experience and celebrates the mystery of our nature and destiny, soul and spirit.
Yet somehow people create meaning in a chaotic world. Some of our reactions depend on the basic foundations of our character. Creating meaning involves a process of life reorganization, after assessing the magnitude of impairment.
We like to think we are immortal, unassailable. We tend to live in denial of such almost certainly expectable disasters striking us, even though we know others are assailed daily. Cultural constraints, such as lack of access to affordable medical care can throw more people into crisis. Some of them never see treatment, or treatment and medicine are cut off.
The course of our lives are structured by expectations about each phase of life, and meaning is assigned to specific life transitions, events and the roles that accompany them. When expectations about the course of life are not met, we experience inner chaos and disruption. Restoring order to life necessitates reworking understandings of the self and the world, redefining the disruptions and life itself, (Becker, 1997).
Disease (or injury and degeneration) is an agent of chaos whose attacks can originate from inside or outside of our skin boundary. It even affects us second-hand by generating stress in family systems, and in our social networks. Stress, of course, is one of the commonest causes of many chronic symptoms. Stress can dramatically impact immune function. Serious illness can be like living in limbo. Illness or infirmities can limit our options and independence and thus can enforce the metaphorical death of the old way of life as well as actual deaths. The journey of our lives is interrupted midstream.
Sociologists and anthropologists have begun applying the principles of complexity to their studies of human nature and behavior, and to culture in general. Like mathematicians, they have found that complex adaptive systems, such as human beings, seem to function best at or near the "edge of chaos."
Cultural foundations are revealed particularly in the narratives surrounding states of the body, birth, rites of passage, health, illness, death and dying. These are the stories we tell about ourselves, reflecting our experience as we see it and as we wish others to see it. ---------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER 2 Healing Words: "Metaphors Be With You"
Like "the Force", metaphors are always with us. They help us move conceptually from the known to the unknown. They help us embody concepts in sensory terms. There is a reciprocal loop between metaphors, conceptual models, and physical orientation. Metaphors imply models, and models aren't easily grasped without metaphors. That is why we have modeled our bodymind after communication systems metaphors ranging from the switchboard to the computer, and now to a quantum computer. Over the last few decades our technology progressed but we still model the body as a machine.
The known metaphor helps us grasp the functional concept. That is why chaos theory comes as a more "user friendly" model, since it is organic, complex, and dynamic, rather than static. The principle of self-organization is arguably complementary to evolution. We are completely immersed in metaphors and our thinking is enabled by them. It is impossible to say many things literally, without resorting to metaphor.
We all speak in metaphors whether we realize it or not, not just scientists and poets. Linguist, George Lakoff, in Metaphors We Live By, suggests that they make our thoughts more vivid and interesting while they actually structure our perceptions and understanding.
So, metaphor is much more than a poetical device of the imaginative. They are pervasive in daily life, not only in language but in conceptual thought and action. They help structure what we perceive, how we perceive it, and how we orient ourselves in the world, and communicate with others. They help define our everyday reality, organizing our thoughts, shaping our judgments, and structuring our language.
Lakoff claims the mind is "embodied", that almost all of human cognition, up through the most abstract reasoning, depends on and makes use of such concrete and "low-level" facilities as the sensorimotor system and the emotions. Therefore embodiment is a rejection not only of any dualism of mind and matter, but also of claims that human reason can be basically understood without reference to the underlying psychosensory metaphors.
Conceptual metaphors also consitute the vocabulary of dream interpretation. It is the collection of our everyday conceptual metaphors that make dream interpretations possible. This is the language of symbolism, but it should not be taken too literally. Each symbol we can extract from a dream has a specific context and dynamic that make it unique. We should be cautious when we think we know what it "means," since as a symbol it stands for the unknown.
We don't want to extract symbols from dreams, but dreaming while awake, we want to surrender to imagery which emerges from us revealing our "as if" reality, our psychic reality. The unconscious mind makes use our unconscious system of conventional metaphor, sometimes to express psychological states in terms of spatial orientation and physical symptoms. They ground concepts in the body.
For example, in the Event Structure metaphor, there is a submapping DIFFICULTIES ARE IMPEDIMENTS TO MOTION which has, as a special case, DIFFICULTIES ARE BURDENS . It is fairly common for someone encountering difficulties to walk with his shoulders stooped, as if carrying a heavy weight that is burdening him.
The network of metaphors that underlie thought in this way form a cognitive map, a web of concepts organized in terms which serves to ground abstract concepts in our physical experiences, and in our relation to the external world. A major component of the human cognitive map is what Lakoff terms a cognitive topology, essentially "a mechanism by which we impose structure on space, in a way to give rise to spatial inferences" (Lakoff 1988).
A unifying framework links a conceptual representation to its sensory and experiential ground. The potential target becomes grounded in spatiophysical experience via the source metaphor. In this view, a metaphoric schema is a mental representation that grounds the conceptual (intellectual) structure of an abstract domain in the sensory (sensible) basis of another, more physical, domain. The result is that the schemas which mediate between conceptual and sensory levels in the source become active also in the target.
There are many allusions surrounding the metaphor that "life is a journey." It implies that purposes are destinations, means are routes, difficulties are obstacles, achievements or catastrophes can be landmarks, and choices are crossroads. The "end of the line" is "written in stone," which reads R.I.P. If a lifetime is likened to a day, death is sleep; if likened to a year, death is winter. If life is a struggle, dying is losing that contest to an adversary. If life is seen as a precious possession, time is a thief and death is loss.
We speak of the "high points"of life, and our "lows." The physical basis of metaphorical well-being is clear: Serious incapacitation forces us to lie down physically, and with death we are physically "down for the count," and buried even deeper. We can be "deeply disturbed," or "deep in trouble." When it's really bad, it is "living Hell." Happiness is "Seventh Heaven."
The most common metaphors of sickness and health relate healthy life with being "up"and sickness and death with being "down." We say that we are at "the peak of health," "he rose from the dead," "she's in top shape," "we fell ill," he's sinking fast," "they came down with the flu," "her health is declining," "he dropped dead." Having control or well-being is referred to as being "up," while loss of motivation and control is being "down."
Metaphors help us describe what experiences are like . Rather than literal, they depicts an "as if" reality. A simile is a simple comparison; a metaphor is more complex, expressing an implicit rather than literal comparison. They are emotionally charged, clarifying or emphasizing an idea by translating it into more concrete and familiar terms.
Metaphors transform abstractions into images. Metaphors carry several meanings simultaneously, and 'work" when they are appropriate to the context. Thought and image must harmonize. They enrich meaning by implying added dimensions of thought and feeling.
There is no formula for creating metaphors. Whether metaphor arises from "inside" the subject or from "outside," its coming depends on imagination. There is no magic for discovering metaphors. It is a talent which emerges with a sense of freshness and originality. They can be emphatic, expressing feelings or judgments, intensifying our awareness, and strongly restating a theme while creating a memorable image. Thus we describe, embellish, even embody our incapacitation, devastation, despair, pain, anger, and shame.
Personification is a special kind of metaphor which speaks of the inanimate or abstract "as if" it were a person, a subtle being. For example, the image of menace, chaos, or death is often personified in a number of culturally-expectable forms, such as "the grim reaper," or "Father Time." The purpose of personifying is to expand, explain or vivify. It breathes life even into the image of death. Or, it comes more metaphorically, embodied as being "scared to death," "being at death's door," or "a brush with death," "cheating death."
We use metaphor to describe things we can't see or that are not readily apparent. We use metaphors which come from our own experiential base. Thus, children are able to make metaphors which come from and are familiar to a child's vision and experience. We all know they are not to be taken literally.
However, if a metaphor lies outside our experience or is too learned, we will fail to "get it." If understood, they help us extend, explore, and expand our understanding. We do not necessarily need to concoct or develop metaphors of our experience; they emerge spontaneously. They help familiarize the strange. They link the known with the unknown, yoking us to reality by joining diverse experiences.
Metaphor therapies help us describe a vaguely-sensed process. We grope toward descriptions of our experience. They help us develop our healing stories, encapsulating the inner and outer journey we have been forced to undertake.
Epistemological metaphors tell us how we known what we know. They are unique to each individual. As soon as we describe what a condition or experience is like, we have created a metaphor of our dynamic state. We all know what we would like to have happen and what happens when it doesn't happen. We can generally describe what that experience is like, how we know, and when, where and how we feel it in our bodies.
When we don't recover as quickly as initially expected, a profound sense of hopelessness and doom, even suicidal thoughts, can set in. Or, we waiver between hope and hopelessness. Feelings of hopelessness can lead to further psychophysical complications, dysfunction, and breakdown. The longer the trauma lasts the higher the incidence of post-traumatic stress (PTSD) and the risk of dissociation associated with loss of goal-directed action.
In treating psychophysical trauma, many goal-directed mindbody practitioners make an error using metaphor therapeutically. They attempt to "import" or artificially introduce metaphors into the healing system. The unspoken assumption is that they can somehow "know" what images will effectively "work" on their subject. They take their client on a prefabricated or "canned" journey, of their own fashioning, which may or may not fit. This is a "band-aid" approach, bringing only temporary, if any respite.
What is needed is the mobilization of self-discovery , one's emergent process, rather than a surgical strike with a metaphorical missle to "get rid of" a symptom. One must follow one's own chaotic trajectory. "One size fits all" does not work when it comes to therapy. It has to be tailored to the individual.
A good therapist never pre-empts the process of self-discovery by informing the client of some realization which is obvious to him or her long before the client can articulate it. These externally introduced, or "guided" imagery practices ignore the reality that what is needed are the home-spun emergent metaphors, specific to the individual and arising spontaneously from within.
Destruction of the fabric of daily life, health and wholeness -- disruption of the intrinsic order of everyday life -- can leave us with a sense of unreality. We are forced to face the destruction of the habituated, embodied self as well as uncertainty about whether we have time left to create new selves.
This task of linking past, present and future may be beyond our cognitive or expressed abilities. For this reason, the transition is often aided by process-oriented "journey work" which is neither logically nor physically demanding. It merely requires focusing deeply on the embodied imagery that is already there. These are the images which get to the heart of the matter.
Healing Stories
Our "healing" stories all have a common plot: a disruption to life is followed by efforts to restore life to 'normal.' There are many journeys, yet just one road, our own well-trodden "trail of tears." Plot forms give stories coherence and order. Events are defined not in terms of their singularity but in terms of the meaningful contribution they make to the unfolding of the story or history in question. They contribute to the development of a plot and a story line. Often this coherent plot will not emerge until years later.
We portray the anguish and changes we undergo and the ways we reframe the disruption over time. Thus images of fragmentation, black holes, explosive disintegration, dismemberment, the disorientation of limbo, etc. are common metaphors in the narrative process. They express the opposite of integration -- dissociation.
Our old self-image dies before the new one emerges. Confronting the changed body is the first task of recovery. But the body cannot be treated as separate from the mind. Emotions can be triggered unconsciously, from unattended thoughts or unknown dispositions, as well as from unperceivable aspects of our body states.
Reason and emotions work together, as do intellect and spirit. Neural processes become images which are incorporated into the narrative of our stream of thoughts. Emotions and the body are intimately linked. The critical difference between stressful but normal events and trauma is the feeling of helplessness to change the outcomes. Helplessness leads to numbness, withdrawal, dissociation, confusion, shock, even speechless terror. Emotion-focused coping is an attempt to alter emotional states instead of the circumstances it arose from to reset equilibrium.
The biological purpose of emotions is clearly to help regulate metabolism, homeostasis and survival. They underlie our autobiographical experience. Feelings are sensory patterns signaling pain, pleasure, and emotions as images. Inducers of background emotions are usually internal - visceral. They allow us to experience background feelings of tension or relaxation, fatigue or energy, well-being or malaise, anticipation or dread.
The "body-loop" of chemical messengers and neural signals can change our somatosensory perception. Each symptom, illness, distress, or disease we manifest, whether physical or mental, is based in or reflects a deep psychosensory self-image. It defines our existential worldview, which simply means how we experience self, the world, and the the relationship between the two.
Thus, the mysteries of consciousness are rooted in our basic life regulation processes. The basic emotions function as fundamental regulatory mechanisms. They are complicated collections of chemical and neural responses, forming a pattern.
Primary universal emotions include happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, or disgust. Secondary social emotions include embarrassment, jealousy, guilt or pride. Background emotions, essentially degrees of arousal of either the sympathetic or parasympathetic systems, include well-being or malaise, calm or tension. The name emotion has also been attached to drives and motivations and states of pain and pleasure. All emotions use the body as their theater.
The Plot Thickens
Plot has the capacity to model our experience, it organizes our emotional experience. The plot weaves together the agents, goals, means, interactions, and unexpected results and renders the story's contents intelligible. Formulating the plot points is a crucial imaginative task of people who face sudden illness. It is a tool to mediate disruption and promote self-healing.
We choose how to plot their autobiographical narratives, which unify the chronological and nonchronological. This interweaving of non-linear narrative time is not reducible to linear time, and the beginning and end are often confounded with significance and explanations. We weave convoluted tales of stories within stories, shaping memory and events.
Narratives are a way to articulate and resolve core issues, or universal problems and paradoxically a way to either avoid or heal biographical discontinuities. In storytelling, we organize, display and work through our experiences.
Narratives can be a potent force mediating disruptions, whether it is caused by illness or personal misfortune. Experience is reframed and reshaped in the narrative process. Narratives are subject to change with subsequent experiences. They can have contradictory and multiple interpretations, as we struggle to characterize our existential condition.
Journey work helps us create narratives which heal. But journey work is not a linear, rational, enculturated process like the conscious stories we confabulate around our experiences. The defocusing of our enculturated conscious orientation allows an underlying paradigm to surface from nature's own self-organizing principles.
Chaos works for us as it becomes more explicit -- the underlying truth of chaos and creative, emergent self-organization. When we are "onto something" during an inner journey into our own depths, the more fundamental issues will surface gradually, and most likely spontaneously self-organize at a higher level, a more adaptive level.
Successful navigation of our lives is a rite of passage which never ends. Life includes all of the trials, joys, triumphs, victories, wishes, and the chaotic disruptions we experience as well. We cannot disown any of them, the years of our lives -- both good and bad, the light and dark -- or we disown a large part of ourselves.
To remain authentic, our histories must be comprehensive. The person we are, moment to moment, emerges from the co-evolutionary context of our life, including our dreams. But we can always embrace new dreams for ourselves consistent with our current reality, using imagination and creativity.
It is a spiritual matter to own the chaotic as well as the 'successful' aspects of ourselves and incidents of our lives. Others want to hear, want to know how we successfully navigated the treacherous parts of our histories. We draw nourishment for ourselves from the healing stories of others, their triumphs of the spirit. We ask, "How did you survive?", "What did you do?", "How did you keep your spirits up?", "How did you keep from losing your sanity?" "How did you bounce back?" "What did you reject and what was helpful to you in your healing process?"
Narrative is a means for giving voice to bodily experience, from embodied despair to spiritual breakthrough. Any process-oriented therapies which foster the narrative process mobilize healing (Miller, 2003). When sensation and bodily expression are undervalued, narrative is our primary means of accessing the world of bodily experience and essential to our understanding of that experience.
Embodied knowledge reflects our shifting understandings of the body and can be revealed in the metaphors in which we describe that understanding. Through metaphor we come to comprehend what we know, but don't know that we know!
In story we develop creative ways of interpreting disruption and draw together disparate aspects of the disruption into a cohesive whole. We express our development over time. Our individual history is brought together in a work of imagination. In articulating the various points of connection, we transform it into a coherent story. In the midst of our experience it is not always possible to know the meaning of our actions. Only with time do certain aspects of what is meaningful emerge.
Our stories reveal the kaleidoscope of our emotions and response patterns. They run the gamut of human ills, from infancy and childhood catastrophes to the experience of living with chronic illness, especially later in life.
Throughout life we may even be plagued or obsessed with health concerns even when we needn't be, imagining maladies and amplifying psychosomatic symptoms. These are the products of our medical fears and hypochondriasis. Gender issues such as infertility and related disruptions of midlife, relationship troubles, transitioning from independence to dependence, and recovery struggle stories, etc. are other persistent themes.
When disruption comes at the hands of an abuser, assailant, or any form of human perversity, the chaos of another is introjected into our lives. This is even true of car accidents. Our story becomes enmeshed with theirs, even if it is a stranger. The impact on our life's arc can be tremendous -- even more strongly jolting than the impact of metal on metal and flesh.
The loss and pain cannot be compensated. That which is lost cannot be returned, whether it is the innocence of childhood, cherished life plans and ambitions, or stolen treasures of the heart or mind. When we confront a disruption, it often brings in its wake all the disruptions we experienced in our lives, such as deaths of family members, sudden job loss, other accidents, and the onset of illness.
In a sea of unforeseeable changes, disruptions can be cataclysmic, or subtle and profound. Their legacy can persist for years, for decades, even a lifetime. The disruption is actually one of personal meaning, and the consequent destruction of a sense of continuity.
The stories we tell ourselves struggling to make sense of our lives are full of metaphors to make sense of disruption, limbo, and efforts to create continuity. We raise questions about what is meaningful. We try to make peace with our ideals. This dialogue with culture and its constructs takes place in both the body and the narrative. Our lives can also be studded with islands of serenity, periods of stability in which we seem to go on "normally."
Our ongoing interpretation of events, the stories we tell ourselves and others about disruptive changes, enables us to make sense of our personal worlds. And the knowable world provides a framework for understanding major events as well as everyday experiences. Humans thrive in routine, even though we also crave novelty, even ecstasy.
The body, in particular, responds to the orderliness of routine, in terms of sleeping, eating and sexual patterns, for example. Continuity is embodied in the ordinary routines of daily life, since even though they are repetitive or mundane, that is comforting at a deep level. This need for routine in order to thrive is clearly seen in the adaptation of infants. That is why we often react adversely if we miss our morning coffee or tea, or perhaps the morning newspaper.
When disruptions are large-scale, we interpret them first with a sense of loss, loss of our expected future. However, if we can reframe our experiences as time goes on, we see that the disruption of the normal and habitual also opens us to a new realm of possibility.
When things go wrong, when events fall outside of our experiences of life, and our expectations about it, we are called to a challenge. It is a test of our coping skills and resilience, not only of body and mind, but also of our spirit. The notion of the human psyche as a harmony and rhythm appears again and again, as in Shakespeare, who often uses music to suggest the health of the inner being.
Although continuity is apparently a human need and a universal expectation across cultures, continuity has a culture-specific shape. However, our real lives are more unpredictable than the cultural ideal, which is often framed around our notions of what is "normal," -- normal for our age, for our gender, for our station in life, family background, as well as other more subtle parameters.
Each of these categories gives us a window on the assumptions we make about ourselves and insights about the impact of specific types of disruption. We use them to make sense of our lives. We amend these core ideas associated with these categories to encompass our experiences. Then we find antidotes to the moral force of normalizing ideologies associated with such constructs.
We find new ways of understanding catastrophes, family, womanhood and manhood, the issues we face at different phases of life. Resistance to ideologies is a natural part of the process. Anthropologists have noted that distress seems to be a major organizing factor in the way people, particularly in the U.S., preserve or reconstruct some semblance of continuity in the wake of disruptions.
In the Continuum
Continuity is an illusion. Disruption to life is the real constant in human experience. The only continuity that has staying power is that of the body, and even that is vulnerable. But this fact is too unsettling for us to live with consciously. Faith in continuity of the body preserves the illusion of a more sweeping kind of continuity.
There is a disconnect, a disparity between cultural notions of how things are supposed to be and how they are. This disparity is highlighted by disruption. We all face it daily, but want to deny it, and are trained to deny it as a coping mechanism. We subscribe to an ethos that posits an orderly, predictable life, that shields us from a distasteful reality -- unpredictable chaos.
Although continuity in life is an illusion, it is an effective one. We use it to organize our plans and expectations, and the way we understand who and what we are and what we do. Or else, why do it if chaos will surely disrupt it?
This ideology of downplaying disruption and creating continuity is based on key components:
1) embodied knowledge, including bodily order and memory; 2) a view of linear cultural life rooted in development, adaptation, and transformation; 3) a polarized view of order and chaos, favoring order and mentally shunning chaos; 4) prioritizing values of the "Puritan work ethic" and "rugged individualism" -- productivity, personal responsibility, perseverance, control of the environment and future-orientation; 5) embedding order in our narratives to order the very experience of disruption; 6) moralizing with normalizing ideologies and core guiding metaphors, such as 'the journey of life,' and 'transformation.'
Metaphors give shape and form to life stories. They are tools for working with experience. They embody the situational knowledge that constitutes culture. We integrate explicit metaphors and more implicit images that encompass our whole life into a framework for understanding. We grope through associated images of light and darkness, healing and disease, life and death, toward the perception of truth.
When life begins to return to normal and we attempt to bring closure to a period of disruption, the role of metaphor represents a synthesis of interpretation and creation. The previous interpretations yield to new ones. Aristotle valued analogy and metaphor as the basis of poetic language: "But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances."
The concerns of young and old are not decidedly different -- we all have human concerns. We all cling to core guiding metaphors, and those most employed are "the journey of life metaphor" and "transformation" metaphors. These metaphors help us create critical linkages between the past, present, and future. But, rather than a retrospective continuity, memory is actually an illumination of discontinuity, subject to social influence.
Memory apparently both illuminates discontinuity and enables people to maintain the illusion of continuity. Because of memory, lives 'appear' to have continuity. Memory is not simply a personal, subjective experience. It is socially constructed and present oriented and thus re-configures experience. People filter memories according to what is meaningful and through these meanings they interpret the events in their own lives. Memories used to maintain a sense of continuity are apparently highly selective. Past life influences the current moment in time through this selection process, enabling the illusion of consistency to be maintained amid the facts of change. (Beaker, 1997).
When we experience one disruption to life after another, we may begin to experience disruption as the rule rather than the exception, concluding that (1) people are unreliable, (2) life is unpredictable, and (3) life is a struggle we fight alone. Metaphors are idioms of distress. They explain our feelings and bodily distress. They help us comprehend suffering, and reorganize our lives. They provide a way of locating new meaning, expanding our personal framework. They help us locate our personal experience in a culturally relevant context and encompass contradictions, such as good and evil.
Thus we construct mediating metaphors for drawing order out of chaos: metaphors for the journey of life, metaphors of identity, metaphors for life's crossroads, metaphors for struggle, metaphors for inexplicable loss, metaphors for the disordered body, metaphors for perseverance.
We have metaphors for transformation, metaphors for healing body and mind, metaphors of hope, metaphors of evil and good, chaos and hopelessness, metaphors for healing the body through the mind. Metaphors for living in limbo, metaphors of acceptance and healing, metaphors for cure, metaphors for present, past and future, metaphors for anticipation of death, etc.
Rather than "May the force be with you," it is more like "metaphors be with you." And they always are here as our creative guides. Our stories need to make sense, above all, to ourselves -- not only to communicate but to create coherence. Metaphors link disruption to meaning through creativity. They help us express emotions by channeling words in creative ways, defining our subjective reality. Their moral authority helps answer the question, "Why me?" when we feel we are innocent.
Metaphors are one of the most powerful change techniques available. Embodied metaphors provide a direct link to the emotions and deep patterns of behavior. In Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) tell us that our conceptual system is metaphorical. Women Fire, and Dangerous Things by Lakoff (1987) tells us that thought is embodied and grows out of perception, movement, and physical experience. A number of recent researchers have identified the importance of the body in creating consciousness.
Antonio Damasio (1999) has identified body level feedback systems as intricate aspects of emotions and even consciousness. In addition to neural structures, emotional states are defined by changes in the chemical profile of the body, changes in the viscera, and changes in the degree of contraction of the muscles of the body. Damasio believes that emotions are an important part of our homeostatic regulation and survival mechanism.
Candace Pert (1991), who describes the molecules of emotion and the science behind mind-body medicine, believes that the body is the unconscious mind and can best be addressed through right brain, expressive therapies such as dream work or art therapy. The reason we need to address emotional states in the body is because negative emotions are stored in the physical body long term and must be released before healing can occur. These stored negative emotions can create numerous emotional problems and can even set the stage for disease.
Unconscious or Merely Dissociated?
Negative emotions accumulated over a life time are stored not only as memories but also in the physical body. These stored emotions can become an integral part of our personality and identity. Since these emotions do not represent our true nature, they can often block our success in a variety of areas in life. Focusing directly on the embodied emotions can create change across contexts. It is also a way of bypassing conscious road blocks and engaging the creativity of the unconscious mind. Working at this level ensures that the changes are ecological and are in line with the our own deepest values. In fact this type of change work often has a spiritual component.
The bottomline is that metaphors help us mobilize emotions to enact change -- they move us. They lead toward the understanding of a particular worldview. But when chaos or disaster strikes, we feel the journey of our life is interrupted midstream. Then metaphors help us self re-organize. We do this experientially and through narrative.
CHAPTER 3 The Healing Power of Narrative History
"To heal the symptom, we must heal the person, and to heal the person we must first heal the story in which the person has imagined himself." --James Hillman
Emphasis in the West, has particularly been on the linear, orderly unfolding of life and the emphasis on the individual journey, the self in relation to society. Return to progress, activity, productivity, perseverance, achievement, determination, goal-orientation, and self-reliance are emphasized in our cultural ideologies in the face of uncertainty, loss of hope, and the anticipation of death. Yet our lives clearly don't follow predictable, coherent, linear paths.
This paradigm is not as pronounced in cultures which have a distinctively cyclic worldview, and maintain more integrated family and community lives where collective human values are prioritized. This is evident for example in Canada and Europe where healthcare is not treated solely as an individual responsibility. This sociopolitical aspect permeates healthcare in the U.S. which is the only country in the world to include its receipts in the Gross National Product.
Treatment in the health field starts with the assumption that clinical treatment of disease is a cost-efficient way to maintain health. In the past centuries, public health practices eliminated many diseases at a fraction of the cost possible with clinical treatment, so more holistic or sociological approaches have developed. Clinical medicine, with its emphasis on curing disease has gradually replaced the less remunerative public health emphasis, since it is much more lucrative and prestigious.
The medical ecology of the 1950s, focusing on disease and individuals, was based in a simplistic environmental stimulus-response model. It virtually eliminated scourges like polio, tuberculosis, many bacterial infections, and smallpox, at least in the US. But it failed to cope with the global spread of capitalism and its impact on health and societal development, which require more sophisticated ecological concepts. Critiques of biocultural paradigms, medical ecology, and medical anthropology need a common field of discourse, such as political ecology, but that is beyond the scope of this work, and the political power of our public health centers for disease control.
Our point is that our healing arc in the west is conditioned by the mandates of our Puritan work ethic, the underlying ethos of the U.S. Clearly this productivity bias goes hand in glove with our mechanistic, Cartesian upbringings -- we are trained from birth to notice and value certain things over others.
The history of Western civilization contains a fundamental theme of dissociation (Ross). It is manifest in the Cartesian treatent philosophy which splits mind from body. Its reductionist aspect is physically embodied in medical science; its dissociated romantic side in psychology. We are caught in the social web of dualism, dissociation, and projection. Curiously, the Western mind projects the products of its own function onto the unconscious and mistakenly concludes they originate there. Reductionism denies the reality of the psyche.
Contemporary medicine projects its vision of a mechanistic function onto the body and physical universe. Psychology's philosophical doctrine sentimentalizes the natural world and projects abnormal ideas onto the body and the "unconscious" mind. But is it unconscious, or merely dissociated? Culturally divorced from the body, of course the mind becomes dissociated. We need a spiritual return to a dynamic unified perspective.
Dissociation of mind and body was followed by fragmentation of social function. Looking at how we respond to disruption helps reveal our core tenets, and how deeply we are embedded in the cultural contours of our society. Can we have value as human beings, or must we force ourselves to respond as 'human doings' to maintain our self image and esteem, because our culture demands it?
Narratives, both personal and collective, arise from the desire to have life display coherence, integrity, fullness, disclosure, and closure. Even psychotherapy is based in part on the premise that reshaping or reframing events lends a sense of coherence where there has been chaos. Change the history or reframe the story and the attitudes associated with it automatically change.
The development of these narratives is preeminently, a cultural process. Even though the premise is unspoken, we have come to tacitly expect a "beginning, middle, and end" to our personal stories. Most of us would like to imagine an optimistic end to our stories, one that provides meaning and purpose for our lives...a "good" ending, if not always a "happy" one.
We all witnessed this, both at the personal and national level, even worldwide, in the aftermath of the 9/11 disaster. Part of the healing process commenced immediately with the constant telling of tales to one another -- how we were involved, or changed, and further impacted by this graphic demonstration that the sanctity of our native soil would never be the same again. The psychological and cultural healing became as important as the practical clean up and strategic reactions.
The distressed body plays the largest role in our response to and the impact of chaos. Stress alone can affect us even when we are not emotionally or personally connected to an event. Sometimes empathic viewing of an event, and the personal associations and issues it brings up, such as existential safety and trust, fear and personal pain can be enough to mobilize the body for the fight-flight response. A wake of psychophysical and immunological changes follow, and persist, depending on the degree of involvement.
Our understanding of ourselves and the world begins with our reliance on the orderly functioning of our body. Our expectations in this regard are somewhat conditioned in childhood by our own experiences and those of our close caregivers. A relatively uneventful childhood may lead to an exaggerated sense of strength, immortality, undefeatability; while exposure to catastrophic or chronic illness may lead to a deep sense of vulnerability, even weakness. We can't know just how strong or resilient we are until we are challenged to mobilize our inner reserves and resources.
We carry our histories, as well as the whole history of humanity, with us into the present through our bodies. Our feelings and thoughts become manifest in our physical structure. The past is "sedimented" in the body -- that is, it is embodied. Our bodies' sensory apparatus is the only way we experience the larger world. It is the medium through which we meet and respond to that world, feeling its reciprocal impact on us. Thus our symptoms can reflect our cultural as well as personal attitudes.
We may ignore, diminish, or hide symptoms, use specific kinds of supplements, folk or new age remedies attempting to control or minimize our symptoms. We may delay seeking treatment to avoid the fear of being "abnormal," or perceived in that way by others. There is a pervasive feeling that most of us don't want to become a "burden" to our loved ones.
Thus, the body is foundational in the emergence of culture and cultural norms. Its as if a deep part of us remembers the hunter-gatherer days of humanity when the infirm were simply left to fend for themselves or die when they could not "keep up." Culture essentially began with shamanic healing, lore, and ritual burials. We can presume teaching stories were used to bind the tribe together.
We are also able to ground our resistance to the power of cultural norms in bodily experience. Our resistance is tempered by our bodily knowledge as we listen to our bodies in deciding whether care is necessary. Failure to listen for symptoms, or to gauge them accurately, can have serious and even fatal medical consequences. Thus, bodily knowledge informs our actions, including resistance to the status quo. Part of that status quo is the availability of heathcare we feel is simpatico with our worldview and sense of self -- our view of the healing professions -- physical, emotional and spiritual.
Often in our illnesses, breakdowns, or grief, we seek a new norm for ourselves in larger social collectives, such as support groups or spiritual groups. It is comforting to be around others who share the same infirmities and issues, and are navigating the same turbulent waters.
We draw succor from knowing we are sharing the same passages, and can share information, resources, solutions and benefit from the experience of those who have gone before. By telling our sad tales, or tales of recovery over and over, we project images of ourselves into the world through performance. This is actually a form of creativity which helps the healing process, and creates resilience in the general community.
Order and Chaos
Our notions of order and chaos change as we attempt to come to grips with disruption in our lives. We reexamine the given ideas of our culture when we become marginalized from the bustling demands of daily life. When our life circumstances don't fit with our preconceived image we have to look at the disjunction, the discrepancies, the disconnections, and make adjustments.
Often efforts to create coherence and provide closure to situations are at odds with notions of order shaped by complex cultural dynamics. Where we find support for this reassessment can make a profound difference in our ability to move beyond the problem phase toward healthy choices, solutions, and resolutions. Depending on the nature of the disruption, various cultural ideals of, for example, health, womanhood, manhood, parenthood, independence, and the aging process emerge.
When our stability is threatened, we begin to wonder if the unspoken "end" of our personal story will take a different tack. Yet, stability is individually defined. We can adjust to a diminished capacity without feeling that our sense of self-identity is diminished, but it may be a big part of the healing struggle. Our culture has programmed us to derive a great part of our sense of self from doing, rather than being. Ideally, even when infirm, we can partake of an active life of the spirit.
Thus, our value is wrapped up in what we are able to do in the world, rather than simply being valued for existing, for our basic humanity. When challenged, we learn there are often a wide variety of other ways we can contribute. Our attitudes are a good predictor of how we will respond to challenge. A good attitude, even though it may not cure, supports the healing of the bodymind since it doesn't put an extra stress load on it.
Our self-narratives help us make "sense" of our ordeals, the gauntlet we are forced to run by the impact of disruption. What is most striking about the portrait of issues that emerge when we wrestle with disruption is that in the U.S. at least, core beliefs persist despite ongoing social change.
Even if we have been progressive, illness may cause us to regress to the values of our youth, when we felt more helpless, less independent. Of course, there is variation according to ethnicity, gender, class, and age. Disruption throws these cultural distinctions into high relief so the underlying core foundations and unspoken beliefs become more visible.
Most people strive to be somewhat "normal." But the realities of life can carry us far afield from that imaginal ideal. We all have compelling concerns and precious stakes to defend and sustain, including relationships and life goals and dreams that guide and sustain us.
Yet events occur continuously that do not fit in with our vision of how life should be. When they strike like a bolt from the blue, what we do affects our individualized view of the world. We may present a brave front to the world, and yet be quaking internally with fear and pain. To be authentic, to be congruent in our self-expression we need to make our inner truth part of our story.
Disruption makes us feel different from others, due to our existential position, traumas, or reactions. Once we feel marginalized we begin to define ourselves in terms of difference rather than normalcy. Over and over the conflict arises between the desire for normalcy and the blunt acknowledgment of difference playing over and over in one's experience and consciousness.
Our abilities to care for our selves in terms of pre-planning and response patterns effect those around us. Disruption makes us feel different from others and can render social relationships uncomfortable and even cumbersome. Our narratives repeatedly attest to the emotional pain that difference causes and to the struggle to reduce or eliminate that sense of difference from others.
On the other hand, some people exploit their infirmities for the social payoffs of what are called "secondary gains," in medicine and psychotherapy. This survival strategy may or may not manifest the desired manipulation, and can often backfire on the person, who may be totally unconscious of this goal.
The stories we construct surrounding the disruption of our lives are essentially moral accounts. This is virtually the only way we can endow our reality with so much meaning. But, clearly, bad things happen to "good" people. We call this tragic or say it's a "tragedy."
When thrust into a different lifestyle, into an experience of otherness, we seem to require a moralizing antidote to mediate the experience of the radical shift in self-image. This experience has been canonized in the dramatic form called tragedy, which devolved from ancient Greek rituals of Dionysus, god of chaos and disruption and Apollo, traditionally the god of light and healing, but also disease.
We struggle in the moral dimension rethinking our values under assault from chaotic disruption. Thus, our faith in ourselves, or perhaps a higher power is either confirmed or disavowed. Some of that resistance gets directed at the status quo. At this point many people rebel against the limitations of conventional treatment and seek alternative treatments or healing for the soul and spirit, as well as the body. [3] Our internal dialogue on differences and normalcy is riddled with metaphors that reveal cultural foundations.
CHAPTER 4 Soul Support: Healing the Disordered Bodymind
"The gods have become diseases; Zeus no longer rules Olympus, but the solar plexus, and produces curious specimens for the doctor's consulting room." --C. G. Jung (1929, p. 37)
Carl Jung believed the soul or psyche to be autonomous from ego consciousness. Soul, according to Jung, is a manifestation of the collective unconscious: the deepest substrate upon which existence rests. Its function is to animate life. In Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious , Jung writes: "Soul is the living thing in man, that which lives of itself and causes life. She is full of snares and traps, in order that man should fail, should reach the earth, entangle himself there, and stay caught, so that life should be lived."
The voice with which Ivan Ilych dialogues, is that of soul. It is soul, the objective psyche, which inquires in the midst of one’s suffering "What is it you want?" Symptoms are generally believed to derive from an external event, or an internal neuro-biological imbalance. From this ego perspective, symptoms are in us because that is the way they are experienced. Symptoms are experienced as an alien other.
When our mental or physical health is suddenly disrupted, we are thrown into chaos. It can be likened to a "descent into hell," "dark night of the soul," "being dragged over the coals," a "bad dream," or "nightmare," "limbo," "falling into a black hole," "reaping the whirlwind," or a "brush with death." The chaos and disorientation is reflected most strongly in our hopes and dreams as we attempt to cope with onslaught of our body, mind and spirit.
It splits our perception into two separate realities -- "before and after," -- the known world of normalcy before catastrophe or disease struck, and the chaotic world of the dis-ease, mental or physical. All sources of disruption disturb the psyche. Our spirit is assaulted by the agents of chaos. We can feel let down or even betrayed by our bodies. It raises a host of issues, such as lasting, leaving, longevity, mortality, repetition, being left behind, compassion, isolation, abandonment, marginalization, etc.
The spontaneous human activity of creating healing narratives to restore order is the basis of psychotherapy, particularly talk therapy. However, the healing journey and milestones of all therapies, including biomedicine and energy medicine, are congealed in the narratives we produce spontaneously about our life journeys. The life journey is a core metaphor. We don't need to formally enter therapy for its directive power to come into play.
It is a guiding force. We can creatively employ this natural process to mobilize healing by helping the process along in an integrated way. We can address the needs of the whole person: the bodymind, with its need to restore a sense of emotional balance, order and meaning, and the moral dimension with its need for spirituality.
All human actions are worked out to the end, passing through the unforeseeable contingencies of a "world we never made." The conscious purpose with which we start is redefined after each unforeseen contingency is sufferance. At the end, in the light of hindsight, we see the truth of what we have been doing.
When we experience illness and health conditions requiring considerable medical intervention, we monitor and discuss our bodies. How we talk about them tells us much about the nature of embodiment and how cultural particulars influence the way we experience embodiment. How we talk also tells us much about the portrayal of bodily experience.
There is a connection between how people talk about their bodies -- bodily concerns and bodily experience -- and how they experience them. This action is a kind of natural history of the psyche's life. But action does not means deeds, event, or physical activity but the motivation from which deeds spring. The action this art seeks is to depict a psychic energy working outwards, the focus or movements of the psyche toward what seems good to it at the moment -- a movement-of-spirit.
A Moving Experience
Action is active: the psyche perceives something it wants, and "moves" toward it. Passion, or pathos (suffering) is passive. The psyche suffers something it cannot control or understand, and "is moved" thereby. But in our human experience action and passion are always combined.
There is no movement of the psyche which is pure passion -- totally devoid of purpose and understanding. There is no human action without its component of ill-defined feeling or emotion. Pain, lust, terror, grief, and passion continually arises out of the more formless pathos or affectivity. Purpose arises out of the passion of fear, and is given form through the continued effort to see how the common purpose might still be achieved.
When disruption occurs, the temporary or permanent destruction of our sense of "fit" with society calls into question our personhood, sense of identity, and sense of normalcy. It can strike at every aspect of life from self-image, to sexuality, life plans, even ability to get a good night's sleep.
Usually the theme is loss, but simultaneously many aspects of the experience may give life meaning, distressing though it is. Biomedical diagnoses shape our discourses on normalcy. Diagnosis makes concrete what was previously indeterminate. It creates the goal and desire to return to normal, which is also shaped by societal discourse. Like good biographers, we instinctively edit our life stories into an "organic" form - the plot.
The purpose of plot-making is to represent one 'complete action.' We don't tell everything about ourselves, even to ourselves. We choose only those salient features which lead toward a satisfactory culmination, in the short or long term. We are being selective, rather than secretive, to lend coherence to our tale. It gives us a sense of greater consistency, and introjects a cultural or universal, as well as personal angle. Plot unfoldment is the unifying element of narrative.
Plot is the first principle, the very soul of tragedy. Plot-making forms story into an actual tragedy, bringing potential for catharsis or purging of the emotions of fear and pity. Purging us of our emotions helps us reconcile with our fate, because we come to understand it as the universal human lot.
Catharsis or purgation can mean either the cleansing of the body (a medical term) or the cleansing of the spirit (a spiritual term). It is a movement of spirit from ignorance to insight. A complete action passes through the modes of purpose and pathos to the final perception. Both action and character are formed of our ill-defined feelings and emotions, appetites and fears, but this element of pathos is essential.
Thus, tragedy speaks to the mind, soul, and spirit. The "end" of tragedy is the purgation of passion, and the embodiment of a universal truth, analogous to the purposes of spiritual ritual. Paradoxically, tragedy gives us pleasure, even with its images of conflict, terror and suffering.
Perhaps it is the promise of catharsis, which may or may not come, in an unpredictable real life tragedy. Poetry expresses the universal, but our histories express the particular. The appeal of tragedy is, in the last analysis inexplicable, rooted as it is in our instincts and mysterious human nature.
Our instinctive editing is in fact driven by cultural considerations about disruption, as its ritualistic aspect implies. Thus, the same topics emerge over and over again in stories by those from the same cultural background. They reveal what we consider most meaningful about our lives. Do we find ourselves sympathetic or unsympathetic characters in our own story? Or, do we or others judge us as simply pathetic ? Some themes remain dominant, while others recede into the background until another chaotic disruption brings them to the fore again.
Life Themes and Memes
Themes are cultural "memes" which also help us make sense of our experiences. Our stories may be highly influenced by a complex dynamic interaction of memes (cultural "viruses"), mirror neurons (biological capacity for imitation), poetics (emergent dramatic expression), and embodiment (embodied distress or normalcy).
The theory of memes describes them as a form of information that sculpts minds and culture as they spread through imitation. Memes are likened to informational "viruses," and the DNA of human society because of their ability to propagate. Because of their ability to replicate themselves, they influence every aspect of mind, behavior and culture.
Memes are the cultural equivalent of DNA. This notion undermines some of our cherished illusions about individuality. We are neither the slaves of our genes nor rational free agents creating culture, art, science and technology for our own happiness.
Blackmore includes among memes the stories, songs, habits, skills, inventions and ways of doing thing that we copy from person to person, including medical memes. Memes are to our minds what genes are to our bodies. Perhaps memes also evolve. Our culture has generated a host of medical memes about health, illness, and treatment. Our own stories morph over time varying with the meaning they embody.
[Richard Dawkins, "father" of meme theory] described the basic principle of Darwinian evolution in terms of three general processes—when information is copied again and again, with variations and with selection of some variants over others, you must get evolution. That is, over many iterations of this cycle, the population of surviving copies will gradually acquire new properties that tend to make them better suited to succeeding in the ongoing competition to produce progeny. Although the cycle is mindless, it generates design out of chaos. (Blackmore, 2000).
Human life is permeated through and through with memes and their consequences. Everything we have learned by imitation from someone else is a meme. But we must be clear what is meant by the word 'imitation' because our whole understanding of memetics depends on it.
Dawkins said that memes jump from "brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation." If in doubt, remember that something must have been copied. Aristotle named this principle of imitation the first tenet of his description of the mimetic arts, essentially the varieties of storytelling, chiefly epic, comedy, and tragedy:
"And with regard to each of the poetic forms, I wish to consider what characteristic effect it has, how its plots should be constructed if the poet's work is to be good, and also the number and nature of the parts of which the form consists. . .Let us then follow the order of nature and begin by taking up that which is by nature first: the basic principle of imitation. " [Second comes] "differences based on the means of imitation." (Aristotle's Poetics).
This dramatic imitation takes place in narrative, action, and manner and mode of presentation. But when Aristotle speaks of imitating action, he does not mean mere physical activity but a movement-of-spirit. By imitation, he does not mean superficial copying, but the representation of countless forms which the life of the human spirit may take through the arts.
This, peripherally, is why art therapy in all media is so effective as an aid to psychophysical recovery. It helps us express what we cannot put into words. Many of the arts combine imitation with harmony and rhythm. And so do our dramatic tales of our life journeys.
Ain't It Awful?
Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is whole and compete in itself and of a certain magnitude. As a whole thing it has a beginning, middle, and end. Differences arise from the object of imitation and the manner of imitating. The most important aspect of drama is the organization of the events -- the plot. It is in action that happiness and unhappiness are found. Everything that is passed from person to person through imitation is a meme. This is also revealed in the emergent style of drama, as described holistically by Aristotle:
"Just as in the other mimetic arts an imitation is unified when it is in the imitation of a unified object, so in poetry the plot, since it is imitation of an action, must be the imitation of a unified action comprising a whole; and the events which the parts of the plot must be so organized that if any one of them is displayed or taken away, the whole will be shaken and put out of joint; for if the presence or absence of a thing makes no discernible difference, that thing is not part of the whole. . . [P]ossbility means credibility; until something happens we remain uncertain of its possibility, but what has happened obviously is possible since if impossible, it would not have happened. . .It is clear then that the poet should be a maker of plots more than a maker of verses, in that he is poet by virtue of his imitation and he imitates actions. . .It is not only an action complete in itself that tragedy represents; it also represents incidents involving pity and fear, and such incidents are most effective when they come unexpectedly and yet occur in a causal sequence in which one thing leads to another...things that actually do happen by accident seem most marvelous when they appear to be intention...It is hard to believe that such things happen without design."
Aristotle goes on to describe elements of drama that seem reminiscent of chaotic dynamics. Some plots are simple; some are complex. In simple action, changes of fortune take place without a reversal or recognition. In complex plots, the change of fortune involves a recognition or a reversal or ideally both.
The action of perceiving, passing from ignorance to knowledge, is near the heart of tragedy. Pathos or suffering is also an essential element. The recognition and reversal follow from the preceding events toward a probabilistic outcome, but with a vast difference between "following from" (emergence) and "following after" (linearity).
Complications are influential events which happen outside of the range of the story, while the denouement or unraveling is the final turn of events, for good or ill, before the end of the story. In medical treatment, for example, the reveal comes after treatment with the prognosis.
Reversal is a change from one state of affairs to its exact opposite; recognition is a change from ignorance to knowledge. The best form of recognition is that accompanied by a reversal and springing from the events themselves. The three primary elements of tragedy include reversal, recognition and suffering (pathos), reflecting critical problems and their solutions. In drama and life, tragedy is never about one isolated character:
Neuroscientists are finding that much brain function is an interpersonal phenomenon. Not only do brain structures and functions provide the means by which we connect with and make sense of one another, but through relational experience, parts of the brain, literally, grow. In fact, the brain, as we know it, is inconceivable without social relationships:
“The traditional idea of the brain has been the single-skull view "an organ encased inside us whose functioning is determined primarily by our inborn biology,” says Siegel, who coined the term interpersonal neurobiology to describe how advances in research have created a conceptual bridge among biology, attachment research, development psychology, brain science, and systems theory.
“But we survived as a species not so much because of our physical brawn, but due to our interpersonal capacity. More and more, we’re realizing that evolution has designed our brains to be shaped by our interpersonal environment.”
Siegel posits a “multiskull view” of the brain, a way of understanding that brain processes take place through people’s interactions with one another. “The best way to define the mind is as the flow of energy and information,” says Siegel. “That flow can happen between neurons in a person’s skull, as well as between two people. Without being reductionistic, the cultural transmission of meaning ultimately comes down to a neuronal process.”
A securely attached child develops the neural pathways for resilience. Even when his or her parents are upset or impatient, his or her brain’s wiring “knows” from experience that they won’t abandon her and will reconnect after the storm has passed. Kids who don’t get this kind of back-and-forth parental attention may grow up more or less at the mercy of their emotions, unable to manage their rage and aggression, calm their anxieties, console themselves in their sadness, or tolerate high levels of pleasure and excitement.
Furthermore, they’ll be more likely to suffer social disconnection: unable to interpret others’ social cues because of deficits in their orbitofrontal cortices, they’ll have trouble joining in the rhythm of relational exchange. In short, from the beginning, relating isn’t a discretionary activity, something we can do without. As an organ, the brain must make human connections to develop a healthy, working mind, (Wylie and Simon).
Narrative is fundamental to brain function and attachment. There’s no greater example of the brain’s innate powers of self-creation than the universal human practice of constructing narratives, of drawing from the raw stuff of experience the stories with which our brain explains itself, to itself and other brains. “Storytelling is central to every culture, and when you find that kind of universality, you know it’s not just social learning but reflects something deep-seated in our genes,” says Siegel, who believes that the neurological subplot, if you will, of the well-made story involves the integration of the brain’s left and right hemispheres.
“Coherent stories are an integration of the left hemisphere’s drive to tell a logical story about events and the right brain’s ability to grasp emotionally the mental processes of the people in those events,” he adds. Storytelling also relies on the prefrontal short- and long-term memory systems and the cerebellum, ”once thought to coordinate only physical movement, but now believed to coordinate different emotional and cognitive functions. Storytelling involves planning, sequencing ideas, using language coherently, shifting attention, and interacting appropriately with other people. The ability to tell a good story is a measure of mental health and a well-functioning brain.
The most striking empirical indication of storytelling’s role in mental health and development may come from a series of studies involving the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), a research protocol that assesses the level of relational attachment. In the mid-1990s, Mary Main, the primary researcher, now at University of California, Berkeley, and then graduate student Ruth Goldwyn, found that a child’s attachment to a parent could be better predicted by listening to the how a pregnant couple related their autobiographical narrative than by measures of intellectual function, personality assessment, or socioeconomic status.
A year after the initial assessment, children’s attachment to their parent could be predicted with 75 percent accuracy, based on the AAI assessment. The idea is that by measuring the “coherence” with which people describe their life story, ”its emotional content, plausibility, completeness, relevance, brevity, and clarity, ”you can determine how securely bonded their child will be. Additional research suggests that secure children will then develop the capacity for coherent narrative themselves, ”good narrative is, literally, something their parents can pass on.
Tell me A Story
Why is storytelling paramount? Stories link the factual to the emotional, the specific to the universal, the past to the present. A child hearing a story thinks, “There are others like me.” A storytelling parent models coping skills and provides a template for self-expression, logic, and how to prioritize.
In sharing stories, parent and child are connected at many levels of mind, ”which translates to many levels of the brain. Siegel speculates: “For a parent to engage in the process of telling a coherent story about his or her life reflects a fundamental capacity for that parent’s brain to integrate memory, knowledge, and feeling. It appears that this ability in the parents’ brain nurtures their children’s own neural integration.” And the process of integration then guides their capacity for self-regulation and full adult development. (Wylie and Simon)
People tell their stories in therapy. That’s how they explain themselves. But they also learn to tell stories, learn how to organize and make something whole from sometimes chaotic feelings of pain and confusion. The enterprise of therapy is itself a kind of story: there are psychoanalytic stories, cognitive-behavioral stories, family therapy stories. Different stories resonate with the brains of different patients.
“Therapy evolved because language organizes the brain in some primary, fundamental way,” says Cozolino. “What we know of the brain suggests that therapy is successful to the degree to which it builds and integrates neural networks. In therapy, we teach clients that the more ways they have of interacting with others, experiencing themselves, and understanding life, the more likely they are to find new ways of approaching their problems. Therapy is a process of helping clients rewrite the story of their lives while simultaneously building neural networks and reorganizing neural integration.”
Psychotherapy is perhaps the area where the human brain’s capacity for storytelling is most deeply engaged, ”not only telling old stories, but making sense of what has always seemed irrational, and making up newer, better stories, with better plotlines, stronger characters, and more promising outcomes. Even the reduction of the mind to “nothing but” the physical brain, even the way the physical brain functions, become stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, providing meaning, worldviews, and political and social agendas. Our predisposition to stories probably explains our interest in brain science.
Neuroscience researcher Jaak Panksepp of Bowling Green State University posits what he calls a “seeking system” in the brain, ”the inner urge to find and get, to discover and learn, to understand, to satisfy curiosity. This system underpins primitive urges, like the urge to hunt. It informs complex behaviors, like the search for knowledge, spiritual connection, love. The need to satisfy curiosity about ourselves, ”where we come from, who we are, how we developed, what we’re made of ”compels the creation of the evolving story of the brain and how it grows. As John Ratey puts it, “Whatever the advances of neurobiology and our ability to relieve symptoms, I don’t think that we’ll ever undo the need for understanding people’s history.” (Wylie and Simon).
From infancy and childhood it is instinctive for human beings to mirror others, to imitate. Our brains are endowed with specialized "mirror neurons" in our frontal lobes that move us spontaneously in this direction. Researchers have identified individual “mirror neurons in monkeys,” single neurons that fire both when a monkey performs a meaningful act ”such as eating a peanut”and also when a monkey sees another monkey perform an act. Scientists think that this capacity for neural mirroring helps us interpret other people’s actions and feelings, and may be the neurophysiological basis for empathy.
With knowledge of these neurons, you have the basis for understanding a host of very enigmatic aspects of the human mind: "mind reading" empathy, imitation learning, and even the evolution of language. Anytime you watch someone else doing something (or even starting to do something), the corresponding mirror neuron might fire in your brain, thereby allowing you to "read" and understand another's intentions, and thus to develop a sophisticated "theory of other minds." ...
Mirror neurons can also enable you to imitate the movements of others thereby setting the stage for the complex Lamarckian or cultural inheritance that characterizes our species and liberates us from the constraints of a purely gene based evolution. . .their emergence and further development in hominids was a decisive step. The reason is that once you have a certain minimum amount of "imitation learning" and "culture" in place, this culture can, in turn, exert the selection pressure for developing those additional mental traits that make us human. And once this starts happening you have set in motion the auto-catalytic process that culminated in modern human consciousness. My suggestion that these neurons provided the initial impetus for "runaway" brain/ culture co-evolution in humans, isn't quite as bizarre as it sounds... the first great leap forward was made possible largely by imitation and emulation. (Ramachandran).
Scientists once thought the number of neurons and their interconnections was permanently fixed: the brain you were born with was physically the brain you died with. Now the rankest of neuroscience heresies ”that the brain produces brand-new cells in maturity ”has become generally accepted, as has the idea that the brain is changing and growing continuously throughout life, shaped as much by experience as genetic heritage.
Every passing sensation, everything we learn, every human contact we make causes millions of neurons to fire together, forming physical interconnections called neural maps or networks, the architecture of all our experiences. Some studies suggest that the process of neural growth can be startlingly fast.
The neurophysiological basis for empathy might logically be extended to include imitating the health-promoting, coping, or recovery behavior of another -- their healing arc, their healing story. It means taking elements from that story and making it one's own.
Tragedy reveals the complex dynamics of action. Dramatic tragedy is said to remove fearful emotions from the soul through compassion and terror through catharsis. Thus, our stories can also be instructive. Our painful tortures become transformative testimonials. They arouse the sympathy, empathy, even imitation of others.
Fabrega presents not only the vulnerability to disease and injury but also the need to show and communicate sickness and to seek and provide healing as innate biological traits grounded in evolution. In Fabrega's view, sickness and healing are linked facets of a unique human adaptation developed during the evolution of the hominid line and expressed culturally in relation to the changing historical contingencies of social organization and complexity. This linking in which sickness and healing are two sides of the same coin rather than separate phenomena offers a new vantage point from which to examine the institution of medicine.
After setting forth the idea that a complex, integrated adaptation for sickness and healing lies at the root of medicine, Fabrega goes on to trace the characteristics of sickness and healing through the early and later stages of social evolution. He describes epidemiological patterns of disease and injury, and the associated cultural constructions of sickness and healing, for family- and village-level societies, pre-states, and states and civilizations up to and including the modern European and postmodern eras. The notion of "memes" --units of cultural information stored and used by members of any society, in this case.
"Medical memes" that relate to combating the effects of disease and injury--serves Fabrega in elaborating his concepts of the evolution of medicine as a social institution. Besides offering a new conceptual structure and a methodology for analyzing medicine in evolutionary terms, Fabrega shows the relevance of this approach and its implications for the social sciences and for the formulation of medical policy. The evolutionary formulation provides a common basis for the biological, social, and cultural investigation of medicine. (Fabrega, review).
It has been said that we each have a rather small significant number of influential people, decision points, and life-changing events. These influences are the dramatis personae and plot points around which the rest of our stories revolve.
In the language of chaos theory, we might call them the "strange attractors" of our lives -- those people and events without which we would not have become who we are. Often, the hoped-for end is not yet in sight. Our story remains open ended, pregnant with human possibilities, with healing possibilities.
Plot is the unifying elements of narrative giving it holistic cohesion and well as context. The change of fortune introduces a disruption for good or ill. It is this very change of fortune that reveals character, a person's habit of moral choice.
Many of the elements of our history come about by chance, fortune or misfortune. Universally, tragedy is depicted as growing out of an initial small plot point into a sizable magnitude and influence, through a close succession of probable events. This is reflected in chaos theory where sensitivity to initial conditions amplifies small changes into ones of tremendous magnitude and scale -- even global effects.
HDL continues to Ch. 5 and References CHAPTER 5 Character: Have Some, Don't Just Be One
"Our distinction and glory as well as our sorrow, will have lain in being something particular." --Santayana
Perhaps part of the inherent problem of the medical model is that both practitioner and patient are encouraged to divorce themselves from their characters. Professionalism means succeeding in separating the practice of science and medicine from the character of the practitioner. As patients, we are encouraged to be objective about our condition, while our self-narrative is specifically our subjective healing fiction.
Self-knowledge appears and disappears as insight along the journey of life. Character is not a function of will but of the instinctual soul. Our characters are naturally wounded by our histories. Character ties psychology to society. It is a therapeutic idea. Character polishes us into a unique image. Unlike personality, it is impersonal -- an imaginative description, a cluster of characteristics, distinct from measurable talents and abilities.
What we do and how we do it is who we are, in fact, all that we are. Originally, character was not bent to fit moral strictures, but its uniquely defining characteristics have been co-opted by moralists (Bible-thumpers, Puritans, Victorians, etc.) into cultural notions of "good" and "bad" character. Our passion or pathos is more psychological than moral, per se.
A person of character may not necessarily be a moral exemplar. A person of bad character might be so due to little insight, drifting through events, clinging to stiff virtues, without linking to uniqueness. We are compelled and constrained by what we cannot control. Character forces us to confront each event in our own particular style.
Character doesn't need moral improvement, but metaphorical insight to live more fully. Character is embodied in traits, images, qualities. The usefulness of moral virtues lies primarily in their style of enactment. Character as images is revealed in our traits. Moral virtues are only part of the contents of character. We need insight, an intuitive sense of the images at work in our lives -- in the moves we make, the words we say, marking our style.
These characterological traits are the ways we stay authentic to our own nature. We are held within our personal bounds by the qualities particular to ourselves. Rather than knowing ourselves, we discover ourselves. Shame, guilt and low self-esteem aid character formation since they eat away at naivety and innocence. Hillman (1999) says, "Self-delusion is the mask of innocence in old age, much as innocence covers itself with denial earlier on. Shame which can make the body blush and writhe, confirms character's instinctive abhorrence of innocence."
Our healing stories are about characters both because others are so fundamental to our well-being in life, and because actions, passion, and motivations emerge from character . Characters are characters because they have specific characters. Character depends on differences, individuality.
Illness, aging, woundedness, and disruption can bring us face-to-face with our own character -- its delineation, core beliefs, self-concept, and self-image which is generally preserved and defended at nearly any cost. We are also moved by feelings we hardly understand as well as by ideas or visions which can be illusory. Thus unity of action or expression can be elusive.
The changes of old age, even the debilitating ones, have purposes and values organized by the psyche. Memory for recent events may falter, offering more place for long-term recollections. A heart condition in later life brings an opportunity to remove blockages from constricted relationships, while changes in sleep patterns allow the old to experience the profound elements of nighttime that we usually overlook. As Hillman says, "aging makes metaphors of biology." We don't realize that "oldness" is an archetypal state of being that can add value and luster to things we treasure, places we revere, and people's character. (Hillman, 1999).
Aristotle tells us action springs from two "natural causes," which are character and thought. Character disposes us to act in certain ways, but actually only in response to the changing circumstances of life. Thought (or perception) shows us what to seek and what to avoid in each situation. Are we afraid to look inward? What are we naturally curious about? There we find our passion. Thought and character together make our actions.
But action (praxis) here does not mean deeds, events, or physical activity. It means the motivation from which deeds spring. It is mainly a psychic energy working outwards. The focus or movement of the psyche is toward what seems good to it at the moment -- a movement-of-spirit.
Action implies the whole working out of a motive to its end in success or failure. Medically, that can mean cure, or healing even without cure, or failure to cure leading perhaps to death. Even in the face of biological failure to heal, however, we can heal emotionally and spiritually. It all depends on how authentic we stay to our characters, how we react to chaos and disruption, and how we want to end our unique story.
Pathos and Healing
There are as many healing stories as individuals. We intuitively craft our stories in the form of folk tales, drama, poems, prose fiction or essays that record the progress of an illness towards cure or death, stories that point the way to cure, and stories that may in themselves be healing medicine. We tell them to whoever will listen, or the story is that no one but ourselves will listen. Thus, we have stories from the point of view of the caregiver, the afflicted, the sick-room visitor.
Stories about diagnosis, denial, and protracted suffering; stories of courage and fortitude; stories about quick fixes and miracle cures; stories of apparent success then relapse or additional complications; stories of near-death, and mortality. Stories of medical failure; or medical success yet emotional or spiritual failure to heal. Stories about cultural plagues, such as tuberculosis, syphilis, influenza, cancer, and AIDS.
Stories involving healing modes such as neurology, psychology, hypnotherapy, psychiatry, homeopathy, chiropractic, modern drug medicine, surgery, and, traditional native healing, to name a few. Stories about cultural wounding, family sorrows, and the healing of men and women. Stories of crime and medicine. Stories of love and medicine. Stories of writers and medicine. Stories of war and medicine. Stories of the politics of medicine. Literature reveals many universal discoveries about the process of illness and healing. But no one else takes our particular journey.
Life's pathos is the royal road to healing. But, of course we can't substitute storytelling for needed medical treatment. No one would suggest such a thing. More accurately, it is in imagining through pathos, the pathologies and tragedies of life that healing occurs.
Hillman, in Healing Fiction, asserts that the way life is imagined is the way life is lived. The matter then becomes not one of healing persons, of curing diseases and addictions, but of healing one's imagination. It is a matter of healing our relationships with our stories, with the way in which these stories are imagined.
Nietzsche, in The Birth of Tragedy, writes that tragedy gives birth to imagination. It is to this realm, through the tragic suffering of our pathos, that the daimon leads us back to the soul's purpose.
Individuals who experience suffering must not only go through pain and confusion, they must come to terms with the powerful cultural ideology of rational determinism. This emphasis on the ability of will power alone to influence normalcy colors people's attitudes toward illness, old age, blood ties, and the chaos resulting from change.
Becker makes it quite clear that the cultural shibboleth that life will be orderly and predictable is an illusion. More and more people experiencing disruption are finding fresh paths to meaning and personal transformation in these crises.
Hillman conceives and practices therapy as an imaginative art, intimately bound with poetics -- the making with words, fictioning. To heal the symptom, he argues, we must heal the person, and to heal the person we must first heal the story in which the person has imagined himself. He suggests therapy "...that is based on a respect for the creative imagery of the patient, for his real predicament in the world and his ultimate irreducibility to rote mechanism."
We have seen that as complex adaptive organisms we use certain mechanisms to create a sense of order from the chaos we live in, and this gives us a feeling of well-being. Culture and tacit paradigms or worldviews plays a big role in this process, and the metaphors we employ to foster that well-being and return to normalcy.
New Directions
We can help physical and mental healthcare students envision an integrative health system for the 21st century and help them identify the skills they may need to acquire to help them practice in such a system.
1. Examine the impact of culture, history and politics on the allopathic and complementary health practices. 2. Learn to respect a variety of healing practices. 3. Describe the mind-body healing paradigm. 4. Describe the spiritual faith paradigm. 5. Describe selected complementary practices. 6. Observe the demonstrations of the various treatment modalities. 7. Identify the major underlying philosophies of the complementary practices. 8. Show an awareness of the research resources available related to the selected complementary practices. 9. Develop a frame of reference from which they can better understand a complementary practice. 10. Distinguish between an appropriate and inappropriate use of a selected complementary therapy. 11. Explore the primary concepts of a selected complementary therapy or an allopathic therapy related to the student's own health and well being. 12. Interact with students from various allopathic disciplines in a small group setting. 13. Appreciate the importance of communication about a person's health orientation in the healing process. 14. Describe one way in which the allopathic and complementary practitioner can best collaborate to promotion of health and the prevention of disease.
Topics found to be effective, teachable and used by the public include: progressive relaxation, focused breathing, meditation, visualization, self-hypnosis, biofeedback, autogenics, nutrition, yoga, tai chi and exercise. The healing community has immense resources to assist students to "walk the talk" of physical, spiritual and emotional self-care.
Students who "explore their own capacity for self-awareness, self-care and mutual help, (who) open their minds to new approaches are far more likely to value and encourage these possibilities in their patients. If they are treated, and learn to regard one another with love and respect, they may well come to treat their patients the same way." (http://www.ahc.umn.edu/tf/cc.html).
This journeywork with narratives, however, is not the ultimate healing modality. It is meant to be the first 'baby-step' in a bottom-up look at the healing process. So, it remains quite inadequate when critiqued from a top-down viewpoint.
There are deeper processes which can be tapped, but we must consider the status and capacities of our clientele to make a quantum leap to this ideal, particularly when they are in the shock of catastrophic change. Transpersonal Psychologist, Richard Theiltsen has suggested a spectrum of healing with seven operative levels:
Just as there are levels of consciousness, of evolution, and of awareness, so are there levels of healing. This is a spectrum of possibilities. Process-work is essentially a non-cognitive process. Higher integration comes from methods of slowing or stopping cognitive processes so that the greater body-mind can in fact re-configure without the little ‘story’ mind getting too freaked out and in the way. It is the cellular level of the body and mind that does the re-configuring.
LEVEL 1
In level one healing, one has healers and clients and these clients have conditions that they would like to address. In pursuing level one healing, the healer may do something, give the client something, tell them something, or perform some type of manipulation on them. In short, the healer is the active person, and the client receives the effect of the action, and goes away either better or not, as the case may be.
Level 2
In level two healing, one has healers and clients and conditions. In level two healing, the healer acts as a source of information such that the client is educated and empowered to realize that the client has within themselves the main healing power. The healer may teach, give them resources, inspire, or even perform some action, but the main focus is on the client to come to some realization, understanding, or action to help facilitate their innate healing process. This healing process can take many forms such as the creation of meaning, a change of lifestyle, etc. This is level 2 healing.
Level 3
In level three healing, one has healers and clients and conditions. In level three healing, the interaction between healer and client goes on not on the verbal or physical level, but on the energetic level (for want of a better term). Here there is some interaction that goes on between the body, mind, or energy fields of the healer and clients. This can be conscious or unconscious for either party. In this level we find modalities such as therapeutic touch, prayer, shamanic work, etc. Simply being in the presence of a person who has a certain state of being will bring another person into resonance in certain ways. It is similar to the phenomena of induction in electricity. This is level 3 healing.
Level 4
In level four healing, one has healers and conditions, but no individual clients as such. In level four healing, one works on healing one’s own self. By working internally, one becomes more aware of and able to effect one’s state of health, thinking, feeling, or energetic body. This work may take may forms such as live style changes, cognitive changes, awareness training, and many others. The result is that by changing one’s own body, mind and energy, one has a profound effect on all those around themselves, and this is a source of level 3 healing for others.
Level 5
In level five healing, one has healers, but no more clients or conditions. At level five one works in consciousness to come to the realization that all so-called conditions are nothing but the perfect working out of cause and effect. So thus they can be seen as perfect, and not out of order. The realization and acceptance of this truth brings a great release from suffering. This release from suffering brings a great peace and change to one’s body, mind and energy field, and is thus a source of healing to all in one's presence.
Level 6
In level six healing, one has no clients, no conditions, and no healer. In this level the interior work in consciousness deepens to the point that the mental verbal stream of consciousness quiets and gently comes to an end. Since our since of self is based upon this stream of verbal consciousness, and since suffering is based on this sense of self, by quieting the verbal mind to this point, suffering ceases. This state of no self operates just as it is, moment to moment. This state of enlightenment and no mind is the state of great peace, which allows the body, mind and energy to harmoniously normalize and flow through the cycles of destruction and reconstruction. This great peace is the center from which all true healing can be shared.
Level 7
Level seven healing is difficult to distinguish from level 1. You have healers with clients and conditions performing certain appropriate actions or teachings. The difference is that the healer operating at level seven is doing all these things from the state of consciousness of level 6. So the benefits of whatever appropriate actions the healer may confer come from a place of deep quite peace, and this is transmitted at a very deep level.
Conclusions Notes:
[1]. Medical anthropologists study such issues as:
Health ramifications of ecological "adaptation and maladaptation"
Popular health culture and domestic health care practices
Local interpretations of bodily processes;
Changing body projects and valued bodily attributes
Perceptions of risk, vulnerability and responsibility for illness and health care;
Risk and protective dimensions of human behavior, cultural norms and social institutions
Preventative health and harm reduction practices
The experience of illness and the social relations of sickness
The range of factors driving health, nutrition and health care transitions
Ethnomedicine, pluralistic healing modalities, and healing processes
The social organization of clinical interactions
The cultural and historical conditions shaping medical practices and policies
Medical practices in the context of modernity, colonial, and post-colonial social formations
The use and interpretation of pharmaceuticals and forms of biotechnology
The commercialization and commodification of health and medicine
Disease distribution and health disparity
Differential use and availability of government and private health care resources
The political economy of health care provision.
The political ecology of infectious and vector borne diseases, chronic diseases and states of malnutrition, and violence
The possibilities for a critically engaged yet clinically relevant application of anthropology
[2]. In a recent survey of physicians published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Practice on attitudes toward complementary or alternative medicine, over 70% of the physicians surveyed indicated that they were interested in more training in the following modalities: diet and exercise, behavioral medicine, biofeedback, acupuncture, acupressure, hypnotherapy, massage therapy, megavitamin therapy, vegetarianism, prayer and herbal medicine. Issues to address include research, cultural awareness and sensitivity and the educational and the socialization process of becoming a healer. Complementary care is an emerging area of health care that demands academic leadership, excellence in complementary, spiritual and cross-cultural care. We need to conduct research and development of innovative, interdisciplinary models of education and patient care that reflect an integration of complementary, spiritual and culturally-appropriate approaches to healing.
The graduates of health professional programs should be 1) skilled in critical thinking and the analysis and application of research findings in complementary care; 2) cognizant of the diversity of healing systems; 3) experienced with interdisciplinary teams that include complementary practitioners; 4) educated in the importance of cultural belief systems; 5) capable of talking with patients regarding their use of complementary modalities; 6) aware of how and when to refer to a complementary care provider and 7) skilled in self-care.
Health professionals practicing today increasingly encounter patients who are using complementary therapies and have questions about them. Patients are also increasingly demanding a more collaborative relationship with their care providers, and expect providers to be aware of and sensitive to cultural, spiritual and emotional aspects of their health. Practitioners need basic competencies in complementary care, prevention/wellness care, critical thinking, cross-cultural health, self care and interpersonal relationships. The health professions are responsible for preparing future practitioners who have both the intellectual skills for evidence-based practice and the knowledge base for understanding patients' complementary care practices and initiating appropriate referrals to complementary care providers. Future providers need relationship skills to help patients make life style changes and gain greater awareness of the spiritual, emotional and physical aspects of their health.
Recommended directions: 1) Content on complementary/alternative care needs to be integrated, 2) Interdisciplinary education is necessary and desirable to help students acquire the knowledge and skills required to function as a member of a health care team. 3) The education of health professionals within the academic setting has produced graduates who are intellectually prepared for the healing profession. There has been less emphasis on developing the health professional's awareness and understanding of issues of personal health and well being as well as the transformational process critical to becoming a healer. 4) There is a need to re-evaluate pre-requisites for admission to health professional schools, to encourage applicants to explore what it means to be a healer and to strive to achieve increased diversity in the student population.
[3]. Develop a graduate-level interdisciplinary program of studies in the area of complementary/ cultural/spiritual health. Course offerings would include didactic, experiential and clinical courses in comparative health, cultural and medical anthropology, culturally-based systems of healing; alternative systems of healing such as naturopathy, homeopathy, Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine; shamanism and spiritual healing; energy medicine; skill based courses in areas such as clinical hypnosis, imagery, meditation, and manual healing; clinical nutrition, herbal medicine, use of the arts in healing and research methods courses. Course offerings could be used to build a supporting program in an existing graduate program. As faculty are recruited and the curriculum developed, it is anticipated that this area of study would become a graduate level degree granting program.
The world views of researchers based in the biomedical model may differ from researchers and clinicians functioning in complementary/alternative care. Establish a comprehensive interdisciplinary program of research in complementary, cultural and spiritual care that focuses on the following broad areas of study: safety and efficacy of modalities, mechanism of action, elements of the therapeutic process between patient and practitioner which contribute to health and healing, role of patient's beliefs in the process of their healing, role of the healer's beliefs, strategies for clinical integration of allopathic and complementary health care and outcomes research that focuses on restoration of health and well being, symptom reduction, quality of life and impact of use of complementary care on overall utilization of health care resources.
*assess and recognize how a patient's cultural background, race/ethnicity, spiritual and religious beliefs, as well as gender and socioeconomic status contribute to proper diagnosis and treatment. *recognize the importance of one's family and community in overall health and well-being. *assess and recognize how one's own core beliefs and cultural, ethnic and religious background influences one's perceptions, behavior, and ability to listen, care for and recommend treatment alternatives. *understand the underlying philosophy, therapeutic practices and research base of selected complementary modalities, systems of care and culturally-based healing traditions. *evaluate the strengths, weaknesses and appropriate applications of a range of research methodologies. *evaluate research as well as determine how research results impact clinical practice. *work within an interdisciplinary health care team that includes complementary practitioners. ------------------------------------------------------ References:
Becker, Gay (1997). Disrupted Lives . Berkeley: University of California Press.
Blackmore, Susan (2000). "The power of memes." SciAmer, Vol. 283. No. 4, October 2000, p. 52-61.
Blackmore, Susan (1999). "Meme, Myself, and I" New Scientist. March 13, 1999 (pp 40-44).
Blackmore, Susan (1998). The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Damasio, Antonio (1999). The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.
Fabrega, Horacio, Jr. Evolution of Sickness and Healing.
Fergusson, Francis (1961). Aristotle's Poetics. New York: Hill and Wang.
Garro, Linda C. Cultural Knowledge as Resource in Illness Narratives: Remembering through Accounts of Illness.
Good, Mary Jo. American Medicine .
Good, Mary Jo, et al. Pain as Human Experience.
Hahn, Robert A. (1996). Sickness and Healing: An Anthropological Perspective.
Hillman, James (1999). The Force of Character and the Lasting Life. New York:Random House.
Hillman, James (1995). Healing Fiction. Woodstock, Connecticut: Spring.
Hillman, James (1975). Re-Visioning Psychology . New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
Hutton, James (1982), Aristotle's Poetics. New York:W.W. Norton & Company.
Jampolsky, Lee (2002). Healing Together: How to Bring Peace into your Life and the World. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, George (1987). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Mattingly, Cheryl and Garro, Linda (eds.) (2001). Narrative and the Cultural Construction of Illness and Healing .
Martinez, Mario E. (2001). "The Chaos of Health." 11th Annual International Conference of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences, Univ. of Wisconsin, Aug. 3-6, 2001.
Miller, Iona (2003a). "The emergent healing paradigm: progressive medicine and healing arts in the 21st century." Chaosophy 2003 - Paradigm Shift. Grants Pass: Asklepia Press.
Peat, F. David (2002). From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twenthieth Century . Joseph Henry Press. Pert, Candace (1999). Molecules of Emotion. New York: Touchstone Books.
Ross, Colin (1989). Multiple Personality Disorder. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Strauss, Sarah. Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America: Issues of Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender. Hans. A. Baer.
Wylie, Mary Sykes and Simon, Richard. "How the neuroscience revolution can change your practice. " Psychotherapy Networker.
Illness and Healing : An Anthropological Perspective ; Robert A. Hahn
Biocultural Dimensions of Chronic Pain : Implications for Treatment of Multi-Ethnic Populations (Suny Series in Medical Anthropology) Biologic Variation in Health and Illness : Race, Age, and Sex Differences
Birth As an American Rite of Passage (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care, No 35)
The Disordered Body : Epidemic Disease and Cultural Transformation (Suny Series in Medical Anthropology)
Evolution of Sickness and Healing Birth in Four Cultures : A Crosscultural Investigation of Childbirth in Yucatan, Holland, Sweden, and the United States
The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence : Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline Among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874
The Cultural Context of Health, Illness, and Medicine ; Martha O. Loustaunau, Elisa Janine Sobo Culture, Health and Illness (4th edition); Cecil Helman
The Anthropology of Medicine ; Lola Romanucci-Ross (Editor), Daniel E. Moerman (Editor)
Sickness and Healing : An Anthropological Perspective ; Robert A. Hahn
Writing at the Margin : Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine ; Arthur Kleinman
Social Suffering ; Arthur Kleinman (Editor), et al
The Biocultural Basis of Health : Expanding Views of Medical Anthropology
The Illness Narratives : Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition ; Arthur M.D. Kleinman
Knowledge, Power, and Practice : The Anthropology of Medicine and Everyday Life (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care, No 36) ; Shirley Lindenbaum(Editor), Margaret Lock (Editor)
Pain As Human Experience : An Anthropological Perspective ; Delvecchio Mary-Jo Good, et al
Exploring Medical Anthropology -- Donald Joralemon; Paperback
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology -- Peter J. Brown (Editor); Paperback
Knowledge, Power, and Practice : The Anthropology of Medicine and Everyday Life (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care, No 36) ; Shirley Lindenbaum (Editor), Margaret Lock (Editor)
The Anthropology of Medicine ; Lola Romanucci-Ross (Editor), Daniel E. Moerman (Editor)
Health and the Rise of Civilization ; Mark Nathan Cohen
Rethinking Psychiatry : From Cultural Category to Personal Experience ; Arthur Kleinman (Preface) Culture and Depression : Studies in Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Psychiatry of Affect and Disorder ; Arthur Kleinman (Editor), Byron Good (Editor)
Writing at the Margin : Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine ; Arthur Kleinman
The Illness Narratives : Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition ; Arthur M.D. Kleinman
Brody, Howard, Stories of Sickness. Yale University Hunter, Kathryn M., Doctor's Stories: The Narrative Structure of Medical Knowledge. Perrone, Bobette, et al, Medicine Women, Curanderas & Women Doctors . Reynolds, Richard, On Doctoring. , Simon and Schuster Sullivan, Lawrence, Intro. The Parabola Book of Healing. Continuum Whitmont, Edward, The Alchemy of Healing. North Atlantic Books ---------------------------------------------------- File Created: 1/22/03 Last Updated: 1/29/03 ~ 1/2005
INTRODUCTION - Paradigm Shift -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE EMERGENT HEALING PARADIGM Progressive Medicine and Healing Arts in the 21st Century by Iona Miller, Institute for Consciousness Science and Technology, 2003
1. Introduction;
2. New Physics and the Emergent Healing Paradigm;
3. Embodying the Paradigm; 4. Scientific Revolutions;
5. Metaphysical Research Programs; Appendix, Notes, References
Abstract: All new scientific theories require some unifying idea, and that idea is, by definition, metaphysical -- essentially untestable. New positivism denies the existence of any metaphysical questions, therefore, it cannot be an ultimately satisfactory philosophical solution. Thus, in any metaphysical dispute, strong non-scientific arguments can propose new theories. Further, metaphysical disputes may also become scientific. There can be little doubt that speculative, metaphysical ideas have contributed much to the growth of knowledge. Today's heresies are tomorrow's dogmas. There is a strong intuitive feeling among many healthcare practitioners that we need a new paradigm to undergird treatment philosophy and therapeutic frameworks -- "metasyn" not just medicine.
A holistic Emergent Healing Paradigm is proposed rooted in relativity, quantum, holographic and chaos theories -- our models of nature's own forms of self-organization. It is suggested that emergent healing depends on nonlocal principles and self-organization, as well as on direct causal influences on the mindbody of the organism. It is further suggested that the interactive field present in the healing situation can be amplified intentionally through resonant feedback -- therapeutic entrainment -- to facilitate intervention in the psychophysical healing process. A metaphysical context is provided to justify such a paradigm shift from the purely causal mechanistic healing model. A viable research direction is indicated by examining cosmology, the role of the human family, epistemology, and a mode of ethical reasoning.
Each of us can learn to balance and optimize inner growth, intimacy, physical and spiritual health -- to discover emergence beyond our emergencies.
"The main reason for healing is love." --~Paracelsus
"[Y]ou ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, nor the head without the body, so neither ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul. ... [T]he cure of many diseases is unknown to the physicians of Hellas, because they disregard the whole, which ought to be studied also, for the part can never be well unless the whole is well." --Plato: Charmides 156e
"[Though] the "clockwork universe" of Newton, Laplace, and Descartes has long been descredited by physicists, its vestiges linger on in the extant thinking of institutions, bureaucracies, economies, universities, software development methodologies, and general zeitgeist." --Munnecke
"All the biologicals are converting chaos to beautiful order. All biology is antientropic. Of all the disorder to order converters, the human mind is by far the most impressive. The human's most powerful metaphysical drive is to understand, to order, to sort out, and rearrange in ever more orderly and understandably constructive ways. You find then that man's true function is metaphysical." --Buckminster Fuller
1. Introduction
Today's heresies are tomorrow's dogmas. History has shown this time and again, and the history of science is no exception. That is why our culture has developed a system of academic checks and balances. What used to be called natural philosophy has become our allegedly objective science. We have had science less than 500 years, yet in that time it has transformed much of the world technologically, intellectually and physically. It is inherent in our nature to seek answers to life's fundamental questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality, transcending those of any particular science. It traditionally includes cosmology, ontology and speculative philosophy. Cosmology is the general philosophy of the universe considered as a totality of its parts and phenomena subject to laws -- the origin, nature and structure of the universe. Ontology is the study of being -- that branch of metaphysics which deals with the philosophical theory of reality, universal characteristics of all reality.
Epistemology relates to "how we know what we know." This branch of philosophy critically investigates the nature, grounds, limits, and criteria of any particular theory of cognition. It helps us analyze facts, thought processes and value-judgments.
The philosophy of science criticizes the "rules of the game" of science, methodological questions. Science is an experimental philosophy whose highest value is empiricism; it includes both theoretical and experimental avenues. This includes the science of medicine and the healing arts. The apparently "new" healing paradigm, which has been under discussion some 30 years or more, is actually a treatment philosophy, rooted in a worldview emerging from our current understanding of the nature of Reality. Like all things paradigms have momentum.
The search for truth in science is sometimes compromised by ideologies. Thus, "truth" is often defined from the perspective of utility or "value," often, for example, determining what gets funded. Truth can be protected by a bodyguard of lies. History suggests that often "objectivity" is well-agreed upon subjective experience. But even subjectivity suggests there is a subject. But our minds encompass all possible perception -- both intuitive and scientific. Still, it is problematical to investigate something that is transcendental to the mind, perception, and our physical embodiment. At this level of abstract speculation (the source of space, time, awareness, matter), there is no assurance of grabbing onto anything solid, and we start to lose our grip on anything approaching meaning.
So it falls to metaphysics and paradigms to provide the ultimate narratives for the roots of such fundamental processes as the potential for cosmic evolution of forms of energy or matter-energy, the reality of time as cosmic change, the expansion of space, the natural evolution of life, and awareness. As we "unpack" these paradigms we reach a level of atomically unbound energy waves wherein neither molecules nor atoms can form from the quickly appearing and disappearing subatomic flux of particles. We have nothing to hold onto conceptually -- neither "somethings" of which to be aware nor "somethings" to be aware with, in order to focus and limit awareness into conscious minds. Matter, too, originates in unbound energy.
Just like proto-mind, proto-matter is that same "sea of potential energy." In that sea is the potential for both what will be drawn into form as experience and what will be drawn into experience as form. The source of matter and mind is ONE "[non]thing." Well, maybe: but because of the nature of language and reality, we cannot speak or even think of a "single-aspect monism" without creating more aspects in the process.
Understanding of the entire world beyond our own minds is a model based on the evidence of the senses. Much of it is necessarily based on extrapolation. The problem is, in order to lay the groundwork for a fresh multidisciplinary theoretical framework, we have to explain the philosophical background to the scientists, the scientific background to the philosophers, both to the physical and mental healthcare professionals. In terms of treatment applications, pyschology must be explained to all of the above, and to interested lay-people as well. It is plausible to say that the main goal of psychotherapy is to enlarge the consciousness field modifying both aspects of "meaning" and "energy" (Koreck, 1998).
The wonderful thing about feedback is that all interested parties can, in return, explain it back in their own words, from their own experience and comprehension. By sharing how we have confronted and are resolving these issues in our own practices and disciplines we can contribute to the dialogue. So, we hope to develop some common language and metaphors to bridge the gaps.
Many times truth is defined from the perspective of utility or "value" in science, not objectivity. Objectivity is often well-agreed upon subjective experience, and this can determine, for example, what projects are funded. However, mind is all possible perception -- both intuitive and "scientific." There is a whole spectrum of response even among those sympathetic to the holistic perspective, some more conceptually radical than others.
Hence, we've received such comments, (reflecting the effort to integrate a new perspective), such as the following:
From a British surgeon: " From what I have read it is exactly the new paradigm which I am currently 'blossoming' into an understanding of for myself. It has been a long journey from studying neuroscience and then being a surgeon and I have little clue how to move forwards on a career level just yet, but it is coming for me."
From a Jungian-trained counselor working with at-risk teens: " The upshot is they do not approve of/understand the dynamic of the way I handle my kids by "being with" them instead of "doing to" them. They see our job (within the medical framework) as being one of "fixing" broken little people. I see my job as getting "along side" young psyches so that I can help them to "fix" themselves. . .Anyway, my point is, the "medical model" that we are working to change actually says more about the evolutionary level of those who hold it than it does about Truth. And I know that I just restated the obvious, but for me, this is a huge chunk of information that I am finally beginning to positively internalize. "
From a Chiropractor working with Energy Medicine: " The major problem with doing research on the energy medicine practitioner’s ability to detect the patient’s or client’s energy is that the “feeling” of the patient’s energy experienced by the practitioner is not as objective as many in the energy medicine field would like to believe. . . What one feels is dependent on what one is looking for and one’s belief system. This process can be very dynamic as when moving and following a patient’s energy in the field around their body. . .When the practitioner’s intention, as an energy or quantum informational or mind-stuff pattern, resonates with the information received from the patient via the non-local connection, this resonance can be felt or sensed by the practitioner. . . It is this resonance in the practitioner’s own mind and body that is sensed, not any direct energy from the patient. It is a process of finding the “best fit” within the practitioner’s conceptual model to what is happening in the patient based on the information unconsciously received from the patient. It is not an objective process and it is self-confirming. Almost any conceptual model will “work” in the sense of eliciting resonance feedback to the practitioner. Because a healing system works in this context it is not conformational evidence that it is correct.
However, the fact that a resonance response is elicited implies the therapy, in some manner of action, has therapeutic value. The quote from Neils Bohr applies here, "what we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” When working face to face with the patient, the patient essentially serves as a testing model for himself or herself. For some practitioners this resonance is easier to sense if the process of sensing it is unconsciously coupled to some physical action by the practitioner. The unconscious informational processing that occurs tends to optimize the therapy regardless of the practitioner's belief."
From a Russian physicist: " Of all the intent-mediated phenomena we are aware of, there is no doubt that self-healing carries the most significant potential, or that (fortunately) it is the closest to becoming integrated into our medical system, thanks to decades of research into the body's neuroimmunologic and electromagnetic control mechanisms. While the substrate of the biofield may continue to defy intuitive understanding for decades to come, we are at the moment in a position to focus quite effectively on the principles regulating psychosomatic modulation and even bioinformation resonance between proximal systems (Gotovski, 2000; Sidorov, 2001). But it is doubtful that we will make meaningful progress along this path until we come up with a working (experimentally-friendly) definition of consciousness - and the great mystery of consciousness is, of course, its apparent non-locality."
From an Indian physicist: "No doubt that functional consciousness is important. But what I mean is that even though functions are based on consciousness they are untouched with it. And so, they are only functional appearances on the existence of consciousness. This follows from the property of consciousness as the singularity. In this new interpretation of singularity as consciousness, paradoxes like '[singularity as] the doorway to other universes,' etc. do not arise. Mind, universe, matter, energy, etc., are just appearances on the existence of consciousness which is again untouched by all the above. And so, everything should be 'apparently' originating from there. Therefore, even though consciousness is present in our reality, this reality is not there in consciousness. Consciousness is existence, our reality is an appearance. There are no achievements implied here. The property of singular consciousness remains whether we achieve the synthesis or not. Singular consciousness denies all schools of thought. . .When singular consciousness exists, the zero to the universe remains as a mere appearance. I have been drawing attention to the ignored singularity or consciousness to physicists from Profs. Amit Goswami to J. A. Wheeler. Responses have been varying from surprise, support, agreement to ignoring."
As we move into the 21st century we need to evaluate and revision how much of this new paradigm we have been able to impliment, not merely conceptualize. As scientists, medical personnel, psychotherapists, pastoral, or alternative healers and counselors, the therapeutic framework becomes essential in determining where we go from here. Many people have a new sense of the importance of integrating spiritual principles with the material world.
Is it too much to ask that we address our infirmities at multiple levels, mobilizing not only medical technology but also the natural healing processes which foster our physical and mental well-being, as well as our spiritual health? Can we ever look forward to a wellness industry? The whole problem is also compounded by dynamic political forces and economic power struggles. All providers vie competetively for their share of the healthcare "pie."
We need metamorphosis, a new foundational vision, a new synthesis -- "metasyn" as well as medicine. Ancient philosophers equated the First Matter with the universal solvent, which dissolves all misconceptions, and called this immediate transformative comprehension the panacea , or Universal Medicine. Who is to say they were wrong in their apparently simple yet profound formulation?
What is at stake is whether, when seeking mental or physical healing, we will continue to promote and be treated by a healthcare industry under a mechanistic paradigm, or, in the healing arts under a holistic paradigm consistent with new science. We have to make science accountable to life. We are much more than a bag of skin containing a biochemical stew. Energy medicine has revealed that we are complex electromagnetic and possibly bioholographic entities. Our apparent skin boundary is quite permeable to these fields. Surely our minds are not confined to our brains, but permeate our psychophysical self in dynamic relationship with the environment.
In the new vision, we perceive ourselves holistically as complex adaptive organisms -- physical, emotional, mental and spiritual -- in intimate interaction with our surroundings. If anything, science has taught us that we need a more subtle conception of what is objectively real than materialism has given us. Something far richer than materialism is responsible for the universe as we know it. In every sense we are seamlessly welded with Cosmos, but we often lose sight of this basic fact, and immerse ourselves in illusions of separateness, of fragmentation. This is the source of existential alienation. The degree of our sense of separation is reflected in our worldview. It basically boils down to whether we see the world as a hostile or friendly place, where we can authentically express ourselves, thrive and flourish, or not.
Conscious or unconscious, each of us has a more-or-less coherent, all-inclusive frame of reference, our subjective view of the world and the sum of our experience. This philosophy of life includes life-giving elements, such as identity, an ethical base, and values which give meaning to our existence. We each grow up within an unconscious totalistic fabric, a naive inherited framework, which remains largely unsynthesized. But we must labor to produce our own unique, personal, and successful worldview that is internally consistent, pragmatically realistic, and personally fulfilling. In ancient times, this essentially spiritual quest was referred to as The Great Work. Jung called it individuation.
This personal synthesis helps us adapt or individuate and perhaps even self-actualize high well-being, or even extraordinary human potential. This comprehensive synthesis is mirrored in synoptic philosophy, which helps us fit the pieces of life into the whole mental jigsaw puzzle. Synoptic philosophy helps us achieve an all-inclusive view of our subject matter, seeing all parts in relationship to one another. To a greater or lesser degree, it erases the mental barriers that separate branches of knowledge in a holistic vision. Taken together, the personal synthesis of a holistic experiential worldview and the cultural synthesis symbolized by the synoptic wheel [1] is what we refer to here, in shorthand, as "metasyn."
This open-ended philosophic journey has certain milestones:
1). When you have any philosophical question proceed as far as possible with philosophical analysis, clarifying and drawing out all the hidden meanings that you can, dissolving the problem completely if possible.
2). If not, find out what philosophers of the past have thought about the problem.
3). Rephrasing the question in a variety of meaningful ways helps reveal what kinds of information will help solve it.
4). Develop an intuition for asking and reasking questions from different angles until they point to the data that illuminates them.
5). What fields most likely contain information related to the problem? Begin by asking questions about the problem and how it might connect one by one, to the various fields.
6). Go to these promising fields and gather information, looking for conclusions, hypotheses, and models currently used by field specialists. Keep asking questions relating the data to your central problem and cross-relating insights and drawing parallels from these fields themselves.
7). Network and integrate these insights refocusing new ideas on the initial problem to see what understanding and creative insights emerge. Weave these illuminative strands together into a glowing tapestry.
So, to envision our new paradigm we have to paint a multidisciplinary picture. We will draw on philosophy, physics, psychology, medicine, genetics, biology, politics, religion, anthropology, ecology, astronomy, geometry, mathematics, computer theory, economics, the humanities and the arts for our metaphors -- for our vocabulary -- to frame and reframe our questions.
Paradigms underlie the interplay of chaos and order in human culture, at the collective and individual level. They act as lenses through which all sensory data passes before it is experienced as perception. Some perceptions arrive relatively undisturbed while others are subject to immediate characterization and personal value-judgements. The nature of paradigms is such that those who embrace one of the seven typical viewpoints of the paradigm spectrum [2] are loath to listen to the arguments of those who embrace a different viewpoint, either more or less progressive. They don't have any common ground to serve as a basis for envisioning, reasoning, understanding, or intuition.
The established order, materialism, is entrenched at one end of this imaginal spectrum. Descarte argued for an absolute distinction between mental and material substance, institutionalizing the mind-body problem. Some materialistic positions go as far as denying any ontological or epistemic validity to consciousness, neither recognizing nor explaining anything beyond the functioning of brain circuits (Edelman, 2000). Other materialistic positions insist that although consciousness is generated by physical events in the brain, it is not reduced to them, but emerges from them.
Open-ended visions of an ideal world bracket the far end of the philosophical spectrum. In the polarization of materialism and idealism, all of reality consists of ideas and there is no "material substance" at all. By taking mind as the starting point, idealistic philosophies must take pains to explain matter in their theoretical framework. In this model blank awareness can be equated with the idea of potential energy, and matter is in some sense sentient or intelligent while conforming to the mathematical foundations of physics [3]. Could our experienced reality be a combination of our individual mental creations and some greater Mind's creations, or as some mystics have called it Universal Mind? [4].
The observer is entangled inseparably with the universe. The span in-between represents the dynamic interplay of chaos and order as old forms break down and new forms emerge. Nature's psychogenic forces manifest in localized quantum consciousness, where subjective and objective are in some sense unified, yet physically based. Most scientists themselves agree that pure materialism is untenable.
But flaws in the materialistic paradigm of science have appeared in recent years. These flaws have grown to a gaping rent, torn across the whole fabric of the materialistic conception of reality. Strained by the conflicts between Einstein and Bohr over the ultimate meaning of quantum mechanics, subjected to further stress in Bell's Theorem, and finally ripped through in recent tests by Aspect in France, the whole cloth of the materialistic picture of reality must now be rejected. (Walker, 2000).
But what are our other options? Reactionaries always find some opponents to struggle against; if an old opponent disappears, they quickly find new ones. Those vested in a conservative perspective are resistant to admitting new or contradictory evidence into their fundamental belief-system. Moderates, or centrists, are generally content with the status quo. Liberals lock in a struggle against conservatism, often to the detriment of formulating their next step forward. Progressives tend to be visionary and/or revolutionary. This is true whether the arena is politics, science, religion, the arts, or wellness. When an old model becomes untenable and crisis ensues, a revolution occurs -- again whether in new paradigm science or new paradigm politics.
The progressive paradigm is holistic and founded in the position that consciousness is a fundamental element of existence. Consciousness is a process not an object. Many physicists now hold this theoretical framework or view of reality (Walker, 2000; Goswami, 1993, 2001; Wolf, 1996; Bohm, 1980). In A Universe of Consciousness , Nobel Laureate, Gerald Edelman (2000) says that, "consciousness can be considered a scientific subject and [that] it is not the sole province of philosophers." Consciousness exists and is now being broached scientifically.
Over the past decade or so, however, something has definitely changed in the relationship between studies of consciousness and the neurosciences. Scientists seem less afraid of addressing the subject unabashedly, several books by neuroscientists have appeared, new journals have been launched, and studies have been conducted in which consciousness was actually treated as an experimental parameter. (Edelman, 2000).
Whether to understand the interconnections of will, to understand the most basic facts in quantum theory, or to discover the beginnings of the Big Bang universe, each path leads to the fact that there must exist a supreme Consciousness out of which everything else springs. It is Consciousness that began everything, that grows matter into a universe of existence; it is Consciousness that unifies and constrains all of us as individual beings; it is Consciousness that orders space and time out of a chaos of random events. (Walker, 2000).
The "new" paradigm recognizes that intuition, in addition to our normal sensory perceptions, is a faculty of discrimination which can be developed. Reaching beyond the dialectic of conservatism and liberalism, the progressive approach is based in viewing human beings, not as discrete entities, but as deeply embedded in the fabric of the universe -- the same essence as the universe. The new vision is 'soulful' while not necessarily promoting a religious notion of soul. It sees each individual as a meaningful mind/body/spirit, a microcosm of the macrocosm. It is thus rooted not only in egalitarian natural law, but in state-of-the-art cosmology, which is one of the four pillars of metaphysics [5].
It is a radical departure from the conservative view of ourselves as mechanical bodies within a clockwork universe. In that well-established model we are characterized reductively as meaningless cogs in the machinery of the universe, perhaps a source of depression or ennui. The organic process of change (and life processes) is such that as soon as any form congeals, it also begins to breakdown (entropy), to move toward another form. If we examine the universe at its absolute scale (large or small for theoretic and empiricial structures) this is what we find. Old structure must break down before new structure can emerge. Therefore, some sort of 'emergency' often preceeds 'emergence.' This is true in paradigm shift, and it holds true in the organic healing process.
Just as traditional medicine identifies itself with the past through the Hippocratic Oath, this new orientation also draws on the ancient Greek and Egyptian healing cults and our collective taproot back into 50,000 years of shamanic healing culture. Like traditional physicians seek to identify themselves with the Hippocratic ideal, we can embody this paradigm, this philosophy, by embracing a worldview which is seemingly new, but older than history -- medical intuition or spirituality. Only its recent implimentation in modern healing arts is new. It doesn't negate or even supersede the Hippocratic orientation; in ancient Greece both the complementary methods of healing mind, body and spirit were part of the cult of Asklepios.
When conventional means failed, supplicants went to the dream temples to heal their psyches -- their souls -- they entered the Mysteries. These healing dreams (which were never "interpreted" or "analyzed") somehow mobilized the nonrational elements of being and healing often emerged. But the ancient notion of soul was not disembodied; it meant the whole psychophysical organism. Ancient Vedic healers based their treatment in the philosophy that the common essence of humankind and cosmos is consciousness. Altering that primal essence, consciousness, could change one's state of health and well-being. It isn't really a case of activating mind over matter, but mobilizing what undergirds both mind and matter.
What, essentially, is this consciousness of which we speak? Can it be more than our functional subjective awareness, our existential experience -- the result of perceptual input and self-referential internal processing? Consciousness involves the integration of information, not just a passive array of information itself. We might conjecture that what does the connecting to more dimensions is one or more of the known fields: electromagnetic, gravitational, strong nuclear force, and/or weak nuclear force.
Every atom and molecule has all those fields. So, if any of them infuse information into consciousness, there should be a constant flow of information from everywhere there are atoms and molecules, not just the brain. Some still argue that quantum information is local and personal. But perhaps consciousness is the very basis of materiality -- a neutral essence more fundamental than energy or matter -- more fundamental than microstates of the complex functioning of human wetware?
In another corner of the scientific universe, neuroscientists have been trying to close the gap between brain and mind, to show that consciousness is simply an emergent property arising from brain cells, whose behavior can be explained with chemistry, the grammar of molecules and atoms. The mind arises from the laws of matter. So while some scientists are trying to reduce matter to consciousness, others are trying to reduce consciousness to matter. (Johnson, 1995).
David Chalmers, the distinguished philosopher and author of the 1996 book The Conscious Mind, has proposed that consciousness, like energy and mass, is a fundamental property of the universe, and exists to varying degrees in all things. According to Chalmers, consciousness is a universal phenomenon ...However, modern science tells us that light is dead, photons are merely massless "things" -- waves or particles depending on the way you look at them. (Schwartz, 1999)
James Newell (2003) suggests that there may exist an Absolute Consciousness as a field that (1) is always everywhere, (2) integrates information in all brains, and (3) usally makes conscious in individual brains only individual information, but occasionally also non-individual information. In "Three Paradigms for Psychology," Dr. Arturo Aguilar (1998) argues for assigning scale to functional consciousness:
Much of the confusion which exists in contemporary psychology would be greatly diminished if an integration of the main paradigms were to take place. On the other hand, although classical physics is the model science, the concept of consciousness is not necessary for the satisfactory solution of physical problems, except in the field of quantum mechanics; but it may be indispensable for solving most of the psychological problems. What I am proposing is a conceptual metaphor which assumes that all psychological phenomena (i.e. the expressions of consciousness) must be studied from three simultaneous points of view or paradigms: physiological, behavioral and cognitive. . .each class of data should be methodologically treated according to its own corresponding paradigm. Thus, the existence of congruence or consistency between the three aspects of consciousness could be verified and confusing shifts between paradigms could be prevented. Also, locating the system of interest (e.g. emotion) within its proper level of scale (form or kind of consciousness) permits an unambiguous identification of its corresponding subsystems and appropriate context.
Stapp (1993) argues that on the basis of certain mathematical characteristics classical mechanics is not constitutionally suited to accommodate consciousness, whereas quantum mechanics is. These mathematical characteristics pertain to the nature of the information represented in the state of the brain, and the way this information enters into the dynamics. This opens up the interesting possibility of representing the mind/brain, within contemporary physical theory, as a combination of the thoughtlike and matterlike aspects of a neutral reality.
Classical mechanics arose from the banishment of consciousness from our conception of the physical universe. Hence it should not be surprising to find that the readmission of consciousness requires going beyond that theory. The exclusion of consciousness from the material universe was a hallmark of science for over two centuries. However, the shift, in the 1920's, from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics marked a break with that long tradition: it appeared that the only coherent way to incorporate quantum phenomena into the existing science was to admit also the human observer (Stapp, 1972). But the recent resurgence of interest in the foundations of quantum theory has led increasingly to a focus on the crux of the problem, namely the need to understand the role of consciousness in the unfolding of physical reality. It has become clear that the revolution in our conception of matter wrought by quantum theory has completely altered the complexion of the problem of the relationship between mind and matter, (Stapp, 1995).
Western empirical descriptions of consciousness have been due largely to Descartes and Kant. William James and Hermann Weyl have also made important contributions. Consciousness studies is a relatively new field attempting to conduct credible theorizing and research on the topic. It often deals more with the functional aspects of consciousness, rather than its ontological status as a prime mover. But those engaged in the multidisciplinary field speculate on both.
It is often maintained that no-one can define consciousness but there exists a clear empirical description of consciousness as an observation of the space, time and content of our minds (where the content contains intuitions and feelings). Another alternative is to embrace what seems to be an infinity of parallel worlds where there is no need for an observer to reduce probability waves, as in the Many Worlds theories of Everett and Deutsch.
The "many worlds" or "parallel universes" version of quantum physics states that the observer, in observing is actually becoming a part of the observed by noticing and remembering what he or she experiences. If a quantum system is capable of being observed in one of several possible states, then when an observation occurs, the system enters all of these states and the observer's mind splits into a companion state associated with each possible physical state of the system, (Wolf, 2000).
The idealist approach emphasizes a different philosophical value:
In searching for the fundamental basis of physical reality and the nature of the mind, Goswami (1993) has defined consciousness as "the agency that affects quantum objects to make their behavior sensible." In choosing this criterion he hopes to show how mind can effect matter nonenergetically because they share the same essence.
By making the leap from a universe based on bits of matter, to one based in consciousness, he hopes to logically and coherently resolve some of the major paradoxes of physics. He suggests that instead of everything being made of atoms, everything is made of consciousness. If quantum objects are waves that spread in existence at more than one place, as QM has shown, then consciousness may be the agency that focuses the waves so we can observe them at one place. Goswami labels this philosophy, "monistic as opposed to dualistic, and it is idealism because ideas (not to be confused with ideals) and the consciousness of them are considered to be the basic elements of reality; matter is considered to be secondary." Mental phenomena such as self-consciousness, free will, creativity, and ESP are explained anew in this reformulation of the mind-body in a fresh context.
As in both the mystical view and holographic universe (such as that described by Bohm), there is only the dynamic play of one great webwork of existence (Bohm's holomovement). This unified movement, a dance of creation and annihilation, has intentionality. However, Goswami does not propose that consciousness is mind; they are different concepts. In monistic idealism, the consciousness of the subject in a subject-object experience is the same consciousness that is the ground of all being. Therefore, consciousness is unitive. The domain of potentia also exists in consciousness. Nothing is outside consciousness.
Buddha tells us that, "There is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, this Unoriginated, this Uncreated, this Unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed would not be possible ." But there is this essential ground, and it is possible to "escape" spacetime, according to Buddha.
If the brain-mind is itself an object in a nonlocal consciousness that encompasses all reality, then what we call objective empirical reality is within this consciousness. The one becomes many through self-reference, fragmentation into tangled hierarchies of self-iterating information. The trick is to distinguish between consciousness and awareness. In processes of which we are aware classical models prevail. When we consciously see, consciousness collapses the quantum state of the brain-mind. Unconscious processing does not effect collapse of the quantum wave-function, pinning down quantum entities to one reality. Thus, unconscious processing permits the expression of nonlocal phenomena. (Miller on Goswami)
Consciousness is all things in totality.
Consciousness is reality. Or, perhaps consciousness simply emerges as natural processes unfold, (Satinover, 2001; Layzer, 1990). As we've suggested, the counter-theory to emergent evolution is radical reductionism, which asserts that all the properties of complex structure or process are implicit in its components, which is clearly untenable. Consciousness is certainly a reality central to being and accessible to intuition. It is not beyond perception, but rather the means of perception and apprehension. Maybe the claim that no-one can define consciousness is frustration at the fact that no-one can adequately explain "Consciousness," or "Matter," either, for that matter (Green, 2002). [6]
Of course, it would seem easy to assert that small-scale processes will be described quantum mechanically, and large-scale processes will be described classically. But large-scale processes are built up in some sense from small-scale processes, so there is a problem in showing how to reconcile the large-scale classical behavior with the small-scale quantum behavior. There's the rub! For quantum mechanics at the small scale simply does not lead to classical mechanics at the large scale. That is exactly the problem that has perplexed quantum physicists from the very beginning. (Stapp, 1995).
I have studied a good deal of the newer writings on consciousness and neuroscience as well as those on consciousness and physics and on consciousness and philosophy. In the end, I have thrown up my hands. Perhaps it is my own limitations, of course, but here's what I've concluded: I doubt we will ever be able to show that consciousness is a logically necessary accompaniment to any material process, however complex. The most that we can ever hope to show is that, empirically, processes of a certain kind and complexity appear to have it. Perhaps it is an intrinsic "quality" of matter, like mass. Maybe it's somehow related to the foundational nature of "information." In any event, I have found almost all the writings on this topic singularly confused, filled with the wishful biases of the writers' professions. (Satinover, 2001).
These wishful biases are the unconscious paradigms at work behind the scenes -- the tacit belief systems. In our modern world, science has become our god -- but one that is fallible, that has failed to address our soul and spirit. The medical profession, in lock-step, expunged soul and spirit from its practice in an attempt to separate itself definitively from religion, magic, and superstition.
Science has its own beliefs and superstitions, despite its claim to total objectivity. It has sought to eliminate the undeniable subjective factor of our existence -- that which yields our awareness, our very consciousness of what it means to be human. The old healing paradigm simply isn't in harmony with what modern physics tells us of nature and our own nature. And, physics is the cornerstone of science. Modern medicine can implant an artificial or substitute heart, but can it put the heart back into its own practice, heralding a rebirth of spiritual medicine?
Based on the medical anthropology of cave painting and shamanism literature, consciousness has been a central component of healing since the beginning of human history. Recently, western medicine has re-established a priority of consciousness studies because of the failure of modern linear science to arrest the health crisis. Transpersonal medicine has again established a foothold in healing arts. Generations of distrust in self-appointed charlatans have eroded and almost destroyed the curriculum of skills inherent in consciousness healing. As students begin their educations into these ancient and contemporary skills, they do so under new criteria of being "scientific" if these skills are to earn their rightful place in a medical profession. Yet, the typical designs formulated on linear statistics do not apply to the non-linear characteristics of consciousness. The co-creative nature between consciousness and healing cannot be measured in three dimensions and innovative methodologies have to be developed with a full appreciation of scientific reasoning and the mysteries of healing. (Lawlis).
There is a crisis in the healing arts -- the kind of crisis that leads to paradigm shifts. It is new meaning that changes what we think and believe, as well as our physical experience of the world, both personally and globally. It helps us turn possibilities into realities even though that is often not easy. Crisis science - as described by Kuhn - requires a fundamental criticism of the old paradigm and its meaningfulness. Barrow's Constants of Nature shows that (so-called) paradigm shifts are generally widening and deepenings of existing theories.
The Holistic perspective is such an existing theory undergoing a widening and deepening of its applications. We know intuitively that we are integral to nature, and yet our Western ideology tells us that our consciousness makes us crucially different -- controllers manipulating a largely unconscious world. As scientists and artists we hold up a mirror to nature. Even our creative arts reflect the deep structure of matter and foretell the possibilities for recreating society from the same impulses that share our creativity.
The same powers of creativity that gave birth to the universe and unfolding forms of the natural world are present and reflected in the human mind and imagination. Creativity in nature and mind manifests its power through "authentic exchange," nuances of operations emerging from creative center. In these exchanges, the kinds of emergent self-organization described in complexity takes place, leading to the power of "collective creativity." One manifestatin of this is the power to remold our social institutions including the healing arts.
CONNECTIVE TISSUE 2005 SOMA SOPHIA Body Wisdom, Creativity & Psychic Energy By Iona Miller, 10-2005
“Unless bodies lose their corporeal state and unless bodies assume again their corporeal state, that which is desired will not be attained.” ~ Byzantine fragment, The Philosophical Egg
"The borders of our minds are ever shifting and many minds can flow into one another ... and create or reveal a single mind, a single energy" ~ William Butler Yeats
"The only truly natural and real human unity is the spirit of the Earth. . . .The sense of Earth is the irresistable pressure which will come at the right moment to unite them (humankind) in a common passion." ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“Light and matter both behave like separate particles and also like waves. This . . . obliged us to abandon, on the plane of atomic magnitudes, a causal description of nature in the ordinary space-time system, and in its place to set up invisible fields of probability in multidimensional spaces.” ~ Wolfgang Pauli, Physicist
The Triple Union
We are truly psychophysical beings, composed of bodymind and spirit. Arguably, Carl Jung (1911) was among the first to apply the recognized concepts of physical energy to show that libido, or psychic energy obeys the same laws and is not only analogous, but identical. Psychophysical and emotional energy is associated with instinctual biological drives.
Though psychic energy is neutral, it can be literalized, somatized, sexualized, emotionalized, socialized, mentalized, or spiritualized. Symptoms, thoughts, images, fantasies, beliefs, emotions, forms of expression or behaviour are all libidinal. Libido tends to flow inward or outward, a dynamic rhythm of introversion/extroversion. Jung attributed mana or personal power for a kind of shamanic or positive psychic contagion to those individuals who seem to have a charismatic influence on others.
Psychic energy tends to follow the same laws of physical conservation and entropy. Jung taught that within the psyche, libido: (1) creates entropy, (2) is generally conserved under the principle of equivalence, (3) flows through the psyche in channels that can be redirected, (4) can be either progressive or regressive, and (5) is transformed by symbols. In short, the psyche as, defined by Jung, is a complex system.
New physics, chaos theory, synergetics, and information theory describe our existence as complex dynamical systems. Entropy can only occur in system that is absolutely closed so no energy from outside can be fed into it. But the psyche is an open system, which exchanges energy and information with its environment and can be negentropic.
We can also have a negentropic influence on one another (Gladwell), perturbing, enlarging, creating new pathways and possibilities. Theoretically, behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or "tipping point" is reached, changing the world. Gladwell's thesis that ideas, products, messages and behaviors "spread just like viruses do" remains a metaphor. Yet, highly sociable or connective people often become revolutionary leaders, bringing others together with a new perspective, a broadened worldview.
Life includes chaos and order, good and bad experiences, even catastrophes that require us to adapt or die. The important thing is how we meet and react to chaos, finding ways to replenish our depletion. Observation of the subquantal domain reveals an inexhaustible realm of negentropy from which we can draw our psychophysical sustenance. When healthy, our entire system is designed to reduce entropy, in different scales and domains.
The same is true for the superorganism of society. We are irreducibly entangled with one another and the environment. We are healthy only to the extent we resonate with our environment. We maintain our integrity and identity as a dissipative system only because we are open to flows of energy, matter, or information from our environment (Prigogine & Stengers, 1984).
We live in a persistent delusion of separateness. However, we are all nonlocally connected in an ill-defined yet tangible way at the subatomic, individual, group and global level, connecting and diverging Psychic energy or libido is a psychosomatic phenomenon analogous to the paradoxical nature of energy/matter or wave/particle. The human body is not an object in space, but seamlessly welded to spacetime. We are not merely a phenomenal body of flesh, but one of awareness, of consciousness, a living interface of inner and outer field phenomena.
We all experience visceral or gut reactions and know instinctively how our mental states affect our physical vitality, and vice versa. But often we loose the intimate relationship with our mindbody, with the source of our being, our aliveness, our passions. If we experience this flow at all, it ebbs and flows away. Our individual and collective creative potential remains largely unrealized.
How often do we pay attention to those vital signs, the innate wisdom of the body, inhabiting our minds rather than our flesh? We are increasingly not instinctual, but cultural, and we choose many of our behaviors for good or ill. We’re nearly all “sick and tired” of the way things are, but what do we do to change them?
We can learn simple techniques for self regulation, such as biofeedback, yoga, and meditation. Creativity, as an activity in several fields, brings many intrinsic health-promoting rewards. We can create new habits to help us cope with technocratic society that tone or recalibrate our systems and change our physical state. We all have to learn how to deal with personal and/or global catastrophe whether we want to or not.
The Golden Flesh
Do we actively value our psychic well being, our totality, psyche and substance? Are we living soulful, artful lives? Do we nourish our whole selves with self-love? Do we take the time to care for our body or deny it, drive it relentlessly like our servant, or treat it like a machine? Do we attend to our inner world of waking images and dreams? Can we come to our senses, deepening the quality and intensity of embodied experience?
Our felt-sense is our wise intuitive response if we but listen. It brings meaning and value to life. What is your body trying to tell you? The body has a mind of its own and speaks that mind in gut reactions, body language, psychosomatics, and literal symptoms.
When psychic energy is dammed up it manifests in unconscious or destructive ways, such as tension, withdrawl, alienation, anxiety, compulsions, depression, addictions, somatization, and suicidal tendencies. Some people learn early, even in the womb, that their world is not a safe place. Social patterns become maladaptive when an organism’s true needs are not met in a tangible, congruent way.
A confused person can react with pain, fear, hopelessness, cognitive dissonance, disturbed biorhythms, approach/avoidance, passive aggression, codependence, apathy, or self-defeating behavior patterns. Our biology and minds become confused. Fed enough negative self-talk the body will react with authentic symptoms, self-induced illness. This does not mean that all disease is self-inflicted nor that we are necessarily to blame for our ailments, in some version of “new age guilt”.
Both the alternative health fields and mindbody psychologies such as the humanistic, Jungian and transpersonal psychologies have sought the triple union of body, soul, and spirit much like the medieval alchemists. But only a fusion of those approaches can manifest the union of opposites in the golden flesh. We can learn to care for our mindbodies in new ways from the inside out, conceptually and experientially.
To truly nourish ourselves holistically we have to address the manifest needs of mental and physical well-being. Consciousness may have a direct effect on the subatomic particles of the body, especially those within the brain. A tiny change within the open system of the brain, for example, can result in a vast change to the overall health of the body because of amplification through feedback loops. Nonlinearity exists at many scales.
Soma Sophia
Sometimes we have to address the external realities of a situation and sometimes its spirit or essential nature. The same is true for our bodies and souls. Significance is extracted from the experiential responses of our whole being – soma significance, the felt-sense wisdom of the bodymind, which we can personify as Soma Sophia.
We can use the wisdom of the bodymind to face stress, pain, loss, illness, even catastrophe. Creative transformation of our instinctive reactions produces the gold, whether we call that essence health, art, flow, or inspiration. Psychic sustenance is found within. Once the mindbody connects with Source, all of our self-expression becomes soulful. We truly embody spirit.
That Source is the source of psychic energy, our libido, which becomes available for negentropic or entropic expression. Its tangible root lies within our very energy/matter as the plenum that science calls the vacuum fluctuation or zero-point energy, the groundstate of existence. It is a bit of the cosmos, of the universe that lies within our bodies, which are composed of elements cooked within the stars.
The body itself is the Hermetic vessel for the transformation of instinctual drives. That creative process can take place through trance, art, or meditation, or any combination of them. There are many techniques, which help us process pain, stress, trauma, or depression. Often therapies address higher levels of organization, often at the conceptual level, rather than reordering the physical core of distress, which inhibits our well-being.
A dynamic combination of focus, concentration and flow undergirds our conscious existence and how we relate to others and the world. In meditations such as biofeedback, Tai Chi or Yoga, we intentionally create dynamic changes in our psychophysiology. We temporarily drop our identification with the body only to reinhabit it with even more awareness or mindfulness. This is the artful life; creative fulfillment of our collective destiny.
The Field Body
We can return to Nature and our nature, collectively preparing a paradigm shift for a new shared reality and trajectory – physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual coherence. The silent frictionless flow of living intelligence is beyond words and conceptual constructs. We are a process of recursive self-generation. This continuum, which is our groundstate or creative Source, is directly discoverable in the immediacy of the emergent embodied moment.
We are each a temple of living light. We arise from and are sustained by field phenomena, waves of biophotonic light and sound, which form our essential nature through acoustic holography (Miller & Miller), which is similar to the formation of matter via sound in cymatics. Cymatics is the science that describes how sound creates forms via resonance phenomena. Bioholography is thus a form of cymatics – acoustic holography.
Holography is the artform of producing virtual 3-D spatial images of objects. Its artifact is an ephemera, though the holographic plate which records the interference pattern is not. Projections are most compelling when they converge on the viewer. Virtuality is the condition of pure potential, non-actualization. Virtual images are created from diffracting lightwaves and reading the interference patterns.
But virtual particles from the vacuum potential (ZPE) pop in and out of our reality perturbing, even creating actual particles. Cybernetic virtuality involves interaction with a computer system to render certain potentialities actual within certain rules. In holographic systems, a body of fiction can potentially trigger future facts, opening new windows of reality. For example, rituals of quantum biofeedback, can manifest as nonlocal healing, whether through tangible interaction or the power of suggestion and placebo effect.
Our bodies are created from the virtuality of scalar field interactions with our 4-D reality of this spacetime. The mechanism is by projection via our DNA by biophotons or coherent light produced within the body. This coherent light transduces itself into radio waves, which carry sound as information that decodes the 4-D form as a material object, such as ourselves.
The study of this phenomenon of light and sound forming an organism using DNA as a holographic projector is called quantum bioholography (Miller). This process is true not only of formation of the body but also extends into its maintenance, a continual process of creation and renewal.
Light and sound carry the information that shapes us and our environment. In a sense we are essentially “frozen” light. Universe congeals within us each moment in a unique way, never to be repeated. Science now tells us this is so, that each of us extends nonlocally far beyond the skin boundary through our embedded field body (Pribram/Bohm, Wan-Ho).
Nature works through self-organization at the creative edge of chaos (Gleick, Peat), and so do we. Complexity is the fine line between chaos and order, "a chaos of behaviors in which the components of the system never quite lock into place, yet never quite dissolve into turbulence either" (Waldrop, 1992, p. 293). The creative edge of chaos is a transition phase.
Self-reinforcing, autopoeitic morphogenesis creates specific forms. Yet a meta-theory eludes us. We still don’t know exactly how that works; there is currently no consensus in quantum physics at the level of the unified field, but we have many working theories, which help us grope our way toward understanding. Likewise, there is no generally accepted paradigm in consciousness studies. Ambiguity surrounding our psychophysical Mystery also shows up in the split between conventional allopathic and energy medicine.
Mystics suggest even more subtle connections of soul and spirit through time and space, evolutionary intelligence. Even without a mystical approach, we can rest and refresh ourselves by aligning our intentionality with the very fabric of spacetime. Consciously participating in this universal process helps heal and integrate our mindbodies, psyche and matter. We can learn to self-soothe cumulative daily irritations by practicing self-regulation.
Cosmos resonates within each of us, but we have lost touch with that due to electromagnetic pollution and the distracting demands of modern life. But we can rediscover this integral context in which we are embedded as a field of timeless, radiant abundance. Spacetime is a plenum rather than an empty vacuum. It abides not just outside us in the depths of space but within the fabric of our being. We are pulsating dynamos of cells, organs, and dynamic systems.
We can learn to wrap our minds around this quantum reality that we are not separate from the ongoing process of creation, even if an energetic field of information defies detection. The source of creation always flows through rhythmic pulsation or waves of energy/matter. The manifestation of each so-called particle of our being is orchestrated through a self-organizing process (Penrose/Hameroff).
This dance is a harmonic continuum from the smallest to the largest scales, permeating all domains of assembly and observation – subquantum, quantum, molecular, chemical, even cultural, global, and cosmological. The evolution of our dynamic system obeys universal laws. Likewise our behaviors flow into manifestation from our beliefs, thoughts and emotions, including our self-image.
By opening to system dynamics we can reorganize away from the entropic, reductionistic, destructive habit patterns that plague our species. We can make stress-reducing negentropic choices for structural and psychological adjustment, which improve our quality of life. Integration is a synergistic process rooted in primordial bodymind consciousness.
The brain is not confined to our skull, but permeates our whole being through the intracellular matrix and sensory system, as well as the strong EM fields generated by the beating heart. Research suggests activities in the brain may be pre-conditioned by the DC field of the organism (Oschmann; Becker). Our molecular system extends beyond the nervous system and is the bedrock of intuitive, subconscious and unconscious processes.
Hypnosis suggests the fabric of the body also helps store our memories, embodying our triumphs and traumas. Ideomotor signaling (Rossi) can elicit revelations about ourselves not available from our conscious minds. There is a reciprocal action between our inchoate perceptions, thoughts and the chemistry of our bodies, and therefore our current and future states.
Jung (1932) identified at least five kinds of drives: hunger, activity, sexuality, creativity, and reflection. But he gradually came to conceive of "libido as a psychic analogue of physical energy,” a more or less quantitative concept, which should not be defined in qualitative terms, though libido includes drives, love, desire, aspirations. The important point is that this energy is never destroyed, but flows throughout the psyche activating now this part and now another.
Psychology describes psychic contents, including the role of the body, with psychic means. Psyche – the realm of soul -- is subject and object, medium and message, source and goal; there is no relative point of observation outside the human psyche. When we get down to it, we find only unprovable but assumed beliefs, which seem to work and therefore seem meaningful. We tend to have experiences that confirm our view or perspective of the world.
Physics, by contrast, pursues material reality both via and, to the greatest degree possible, beyond the human experience, but it also uses the mental medium in both its conceptions and inventions. All models of reality are “soft” technologies, but our beliefs and worldview condition the reality we experience. Just as matter is in a constant process of redefinition, so too must psyche and spirit be continuously redefined.
The psychic energy that directs and motivates the personality is called libido, which is simply a generic form of psychic energy which can be redirected or "canalized" into both sexual and non-sexual activities. Psychic energy balances the energy flowing between spirit and instinct. This non-specific energy can consciously be deployed and channeled for self-transformation.
Go with the Flow
Research has shown (Csikszentmihalyi) that self-teaching is strongly correlated with quality of life and the ability to experience refreshing concentration and flow in ordinary activities. Maslow called this quality self-actualization, first as an emergent property which can becomes a stabilized steady-state of personality. The “good life” is not only enjoyable and growth promoting, it reduces the sum total of entropy in the world.
Yet finding flow in our busy lives can be elusive. Flow is neutral, as a source of psychic energy, focusing attention and motivating action. It can be used for constructive or destructive experiences. The more we allocate to the negative, the less we have available for the positive. So we need to become jealous of our spare energy, spending it wisely as our psychophysical organism tells us through bodytalk and feelings.
The amount of energy available to our consciousness and will varies. We can respond to stress by being active rather than reactive. Self-regulation means scanning, listening to, and intentionally recalibrating the mindbody. It requires focusing and concentration our attention, then “letting go”, seemingly releasing all effort…self-accepting, non-striving mindfulness.
Some suggest there is a Platonic field (Symposium) that restores our energy. It is compatible with the description of stages of pure consciousness described by the Yoga Sutras and other Eastern traditions (Buddhism, Taoism, etc.). The secret of the universe lies within “empty” space, which turns out to be a virtual plenum of potential. It is a nourishing essence, which feeds our psychophysical being.
Non-locality is regarded as accepted fact by physicists. They say that the twin photons are aware of each other instantaneously even if they are at opposite ends of the Universe. Laszlo says this new concept has primacy over matter. Puthoff says that matter is driven by this energy source (ZPE). And so is our matter. The interconnections among EM fields are not the external interactions described by Maxwell's four equations, the interconnection is "in the deep" inside those interacting fields, our own fields.
Inexhaustible psychic energy is the single most distinguishing trait of self-teaching individuals. Most creative people are self-taught, often achieving breakthroughs by investing surplus energy playing with the apparently trivial. No matter the subject, each of their new little discoveries parlays into excitement at the moment of discovery, in a self-reinforcing reward. These rewards build motivation to continue.
Have the “creatively gifted” learned a subtle secret for drawing on the essence of the cosmos by investing in their curiosity and delight? Some learn how to draw this surplus energy from the psychic well early in life and drink deeply through their attempts to understand, invent, express and solve problems. They manifest a determination to participate as fully as possible in life.
Self-actualizers pay more attention to what is going on around them with surplus energy to invest their attention in things or people for their own sake, rather than for strokes or gain. Most people hoard their attention in self-absorption, material or emotional advantage rather than growth, empathy and compassion.
Most guard their energy for immediate role or stress responses, or become bound by those factors, numb or apathetic. Those less concerned with themselves actually have more psychic energy to experience life. Everyday giving is an antidote for self-obsession and negativity.
It’s a free-floating type of attention pursued without recognition or support, easily captured temporarily by any subject or interest, rather than strictly tied to goals and ambitions. Wonder, novelty, surprise, awe, and transcendence are boundary breaking allowing us to move beyond ignorance, fear and prejudice. Often this experience becomes a valuable element of later full-blown realizations – new synthesis.
We can cultivate this quality and it’s intrinsic reward by 1) doing whatever needs to be done, even the routine, with concentrated attention and skill, rather than inertia, and 2) approaching them with the care it takes to make a work of art.
Instead of using our leisure energy wastefully we can learn to direct it from passive activity toward new experiences, which only become interesting once we devote attention to them. Time management and husbanding of psychic energy can be directed to create increased enjoyment of life, here and now. In flow we forget ourselves, rather than wallowing in the apathy, worry and boredom of unmet personality needs. Life is too short to remain depressed or exhausted.
We need time and psychic energy to pursue our curiosity. So, we have to be alert for those issues and people who would negatively feed on us, draining, subverting, or sabotaging our creative flow. We can complain, reflect on our stuckness, or actively invest our psychic energy in harmonious relations and goals, creating positive feedback. Having clear goals helps us focus and concentrate, whether we achieve them, or not.
Owning our own actions helps us focus desires and priorities for an improved life. The self-motivated individual can concentrate more or less at will. Interest leads to focus and focus leads to interest. We take over ownership of our lives by learning to direct psychic energy toward our intentions. There is more consistency between inner desires and outer experience. When we learn to love what we have to do, the vector or arc of our development shifts.
When we learn to control attention, we learn to control experience, and therefore the quality of our lives. We invest less psychic energy in painful events and draining resentments, and more in self-affirming and rewarding activities, enjoying them for the control we acquire over our own attention. This simple process can lead to great leaps in transformation, and is also the basis of mystical practice simply for its own sake.
If you learn to love your fate, it reduces entropy not only in your own consciousness but for those you contact. In contact with source, you don’t have to feed on their energies in a negative way. We feel even better when creatively connected to something greater or more permanent than ourselves; it gives us energy. We can even find joy fighting a losing battle for a good cause.
Being in THE ZONE
Folklore has it that artists and sportsmen such as Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird can enter a state of consciousness where they are actively entangled with their surroundings and perhaps even the future. In tennis, the body must be in motion somehow anticipating trajectories even before the serve in order to return the volley. Surfing or boarding are also good examples. Gamers report a similar flow for their virtual states.
Likewise, artists enter a flow state in both inspiration and artistic production or performance. Artists, too, are often accused of anticipating expressing a symbolic change in collective culture, whether they are consciously aware of it, or not. They seem to have an uncanny knack for symbolizing the zeitgeist of the time.
Musicians speak of their own kind of telepathy among one another, especially when jamming or improvising. Someone playing a spirited fast musical break knows the flow is rolling on and at the same time they are aware of the details, although they couldn’t consciously decide each action.
Sudden alarm experiments explore how dominant field dynamics can happen faster than consciousness can respond, using purely internal physical mechanisms. Part of the role of consciousness as an overseer is to allow the conscious periphery to have immediate access in the case of a threatening signal.
We all know we can react with lightning speed automatically while only dimly aware of it. We are aware of it sufficiently to anticipate and react to save our lives. The critical advantage of subjective conscious comes in, even if it is almost subliminal and not consciously thought through.
The BITZ experiments explore the existence of entanglements beyond the human body. Books have been written on 'Being In The Zone' (BITZ). Most of us cannot repeat these super-athletic experiments. But, then, how many of us can smash an atom? We must trust the honesty and ethics of atom-smashing scientists. We just need a measure of BITZ that is not too subjective.
All of these examples are, in some sense direct verification of entanglement on a conscious level. But in practical terms we can still learn what qualities and practices lead to the flow state. In this subjective sense, BITZ has already been experimentally verified; indeed, we are all entangled with our environment, some more actively than others, but only a few can intentionally exploit it, though many have experienced it by accident or intent.
What we need to learn is how to deploy this capacity for creativity and/or healing. Anyone can learn through practices that require concentration in one area to translate that capacity to other areas, such as creativity. Certain orientations and qualities are involved and most of these can be adopted or developed. Many of them include the body, through kinesthetic muscle memory or other physical expressions that take learned behavior and put it on “auto-pilot”, making it seem virtually effortless.
Many activities elsewhere described as BITZ are actually products of a light trance state, such as flow state people report while driving a car.
Others, such as sports and music, explicitly require skill development to achieve fluency. We can most easily apply ourselves to those things, which inspire a passion in us – those things we cannot help but do because the drive is strong, so motive and opportunity are there. But if a person has no passion, creative flow will remain elusive. With passion you can always learn the techniques to accomplish your creative goals. Still, many wrestle with the experience of trying to maintain vitality, passion, and inspiration while getting caught up in the daily grind of paying the bills and other mundane necessities.
Reports of solutions include:
“It's a matter of intention. I try to make a conscious choice every day to do everything the best I can. For me, this has been a self sustaining and exponentailly growing energy sorce. The harder I work at doing things well, the better I do things, the better I feel about doing things, the more energy I have to work on doing things well, and so on, and so on.”
“For me, it's a matter of being Present, no matter what my external circumstances are. The loss of vitality comes not with the grinding work, but from the fact that we resist Life while doing that work. The only solution is to surrender to the moment, be present with what you are doing, and accept whatever comes as a result. Sometimes what comes won't be so pleasant, but as long as you accept that, then more and more often it will be pleasant things that come your way. “
“I feel like we can get through anything if we assert that it's only temporary. It's too easy to get dragged down by the slave paradigm, especially when you've got a higher mission you'd rather be tending to. We need to be that much stronger and clearer about our Great Work on this planet to get through the daily grind and seemingly endless servitude to the inane.”
There are two ways of looking at our predicament, one crippling, one liberating:
· COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: psychospiritual reality and mundane patterns are at odds with each other, bringing stress and a feeling of self-betrayal. This splits intent and energy, divides and conquers by lack of wholeness. Thwarted by a feeling of not living in sincere harmony with your true self Power (psychic energy) leaks away.
· METANARRATIVE: realize that mundane activities are a result of will or intentionality, and that you are manifesting the mundane patterns that you see before you, either by conscious will or by default. The life you've created can manifest as a song, a poem, an art project, a great disovery. When you chose to make it surface, your full power and as a manifestation engine emerges.
Flow in intellectual and spiritual processes emerges from removal of blocks to creativity (such as competing activities and focus; poor self-image; poor judgment, thinking and work habits; conventionality, mediocrity; numbness; intolerance of complexity or solitude) and certain positive attitudes and behavior patterns, such as commitment to vision.
The most often cited examples facilitating creativity include the following: fluency, flexibility, sensitivity to problems, problems, originality, curiosity, openness to feelings and the unconscious, motivation, persistence and concentration, ability to think in images, ability to toy with ideas, ability to analyze and synthesize, tolerance of ambiguity, discernment and selectivity, ability to tolerate isolation, creative memory, background of fundamental knowledge, incubation, anticipation of productive periods, ability to think in metaphors, aesthetic orientation, etc.
If your desire to be creative is strong enough, nothing will prevent you from applying yourself if you have passion. Can the flow state be far behind? It is a form of transcendence, whether it comes through the physical flow of the body, the conceptual high of the A-ha state, the absorption and aesthetic satisfaction of the artistic process, or any conditions, which promote emotional flow.
The latter might range from love, to the high encountered learning from one’s mentors, to the perception that Cosmos is facilitating your intention in a given direction, though the latter is a synchronicity – flow with the environment.
In trance states the process is largely automatic and unconscious; no “learning” is required. Trance possession and ‘white line fever’ arise from the same level, while the former includes a transpersonal experience. In artistic fervor the doors of the subconscious swing wide and there is mixing of the inner subjective world with the object world of tangible expression.
In pure creativity, including nonlocal healing and the bliss of meditative states, focus and concentration are consciously applied directly with intent. Trance, art and creativity are all forms of transcendence of the ego and connection with deeper than conscious levels of existence.
Exercising one’s talents helps remove the blocks mundane life would like to introject. Fluency, a creative ritual, a workstation, and making time available help increase the drive needed to carry a project to completion. Intentionality and a conducive environment increase the probability creativity will emerge. But the secret is that connections or open channels to primordial SOURCE tend to provide a degree of flow, self-realization, or illumination. So, the real key to creativity in all its forms seems to be an enhanced capacity to connect tangibly with source bringing back some material or immaterial boon from that inspiration.
Conclusions
There are many plausible ways that quantum theory can help with these profound mysteries of the groundstate of energy/matter, consciousness, awareness and flow. It will likely be many decades before some understanding of the actual mechanisms are finalized. So, despite the pluses and minuses of existing quantum theories of mind, these kinds of theories should be encouraged. If consciousness is or is related to quantum effects then scientists will have to think in these directions to figure it out.
"Whether this vast homogeneous expanse of isotropic matter is fitted not only to be a medium of physical interaction between distant bodies, and to fulfill other physical functions of which, perhaps, we have as yet no conception, but also to constitute the material organism of beings exercising functions of life and mind as high or higher than ours are at present-is a question far transcending the limits of physical speculation.”, says Maxwell.
Most natural philosophers hold, and have held, that action at a distance across empty space is impossible. In other words, that matter cannot act where it is not, but only where it is. The question "where is it?" is a further question that may demand attention and require more than a superficial answer.
Arguably, every atom of matter has a universal though nearly infinitesimal prevalence, and extends everywhere; since there is no definite sharp boundary or limiting periphery to the region disturbed by its existence. The lines of force of an isolated electric charge extend throughout illimitable space.
No ordinary matter is capable of transmitting the undulations or tremors that we call light. The speed at which they go, the kind of undulation, and the facility with which they go through vacuum, forbid this. So clearly and universally has it been perceived that waves must be waves of something, something distinct from ordinary matter.
Faraday conjectured that the same medium, which is concerned in the propagation of light, might also be the agent in electromagnetic phenomena, and he called it “the ether”. Now we speak of it as the zero-point domain of virtual photon fluctuation. Romantically, we refer to it as the plenum, since it is infinitely full of potential.
Some philosophers have reason to suppose that mind can act directly on mind without intervening mechanism, and sometimes that has been spoken of as genuine action at a distance. But, in the first place, no proper conception or physical model can be made of such a process, much less how that deploys intentionality in distance healing.
Nor is it clear that space and distance have any particular meaning in the region of psychology. The links between mind and mind may be something quite other than physical proximity. Since we don’t know how it works, in denying action at a distance across empty space we are not denying telepathy or other activities of a non-physical kind. Brain disturbance or mindbody healing are plausible physical correlate of mental action, whether of the sending or receiving variety.
There is no consensus in physics, nor in consciousness studies, though there is a correlating theory for nearly every one proposed in physics. Spontaneous healing may bypass all of these suggested metatheories. A field becomes a nearly innacurrate term in the subquantual domain or metaphysical level of observation.
According to Hameroff, “Everything (matter, energy, you, me) is part of the hidden geometry of spacetime, of which the Platonic is one aspect. Smells and colors and melodic tunes are complex assemblies of fundamental qualia embedded as configurations in fundamental spacetime geometry.
The qualia in spacetime geopmetry *out there* caused qualia *in here* within us because there is spacetime geometry within our mindbodies as well. Because spacetime geometry is inherently nonlocal it could be that *out there* and *in here* are connected, or actually the same. Only in the classical world is there a spacelike distinction. Pure consciousness is the experience of a total lack of phenomenal content while still awake and alert, and thus able to remember there was nothing.
[Some theories alledge] cognitive functions reflect consciousness which exists in the universe. I am saying that quantum processes in the brain (related to cognitive processes) are connected to protoconscious quantum information inherent in the universe. The connection results in OR which is a moment of consciousness (the protoconscious/unconscious quantum information becomes conscious) But remember the universe/spacetime geometry out there is also in our heads.” Hameroff
Several Vedic and Taoist texts (and perhaps other traditions as well) suggest that, with proper refinement of consciousness, the “outside” world can be cognized holographically, in a superposed, interpenetrating state where everything is experienced in everything else. If evidence can support such claims, perhaps the human mechanisms of perception have the capacity to directly experience an uncollapsed universe in which what is normally unconscious is merged into consciousness (or vice versa). Its like a dream.
But somehow consciousness is; somehow creativity emerges; somehow healing works; somehow we are, and are interrelated. Perhaps real meaning comes from our struggle to try to understand how these things work, to struggle toward wisdom in both the material and spiritual realms. There is meaning in the struggle to create, to heal, to know, to be. _______________________ Consciousness Studies; 4300 words
CONNECTIVE TISSUE
CONSCIOUSNESS: Quantum and Otherwise By Iona Miller, Nov 1, 2005
Quantum Consciousness?
The paths of Wolfgang Pauli, coming from the advanced edge of physics, and Carl Jung, from the advanced edge of the psyche, crossed with interesting results for their generation. Pauli came away rededicated to unifying psyche and matter, to finding "the irrational in matter and the subjective in physics" and convinced of "the resurrection of spirit in matter." Jung came away with the idea of acausal connections -- meaningful coincidences -- an idea developed with the help of Pauli.
This collaboration raised the question of what it means to live in a world of where synchronicity is part of our experience. Each of the physical and psychological theories that have arisen since have also addressed implications about our existence and interconnections, not just theories. It is quite different to be essentially an ethereal wave-front in space than a solid meat body. But we rarely even conceive of ourselves this way, much less wrap our minds around the implications. We live in a fantasy of solid objects and conscious awareness.
Consciousness is more than simple conscious awareness or self awareness. It’s ALL in your mind, but not necessarily merely in your head. The universe is literally holistically contained within the mindbody and is the context of mindbody. Both physicists and mystics now tell us that there is noTHING “out there.” The Vedas said centuries ago that it’s all “mindstuff” and modern science is now confronting that. Wave forms and particles derive their energy from the inside of space. That energy is dynamic, always interacting from the cosmic to subquantal realms.
"The vast interplanetary and interstellar regions will no longer be regarded as waste places in the universe, which the Creator has not seen fit to fill with the symbols of the manifold order of His kingdom. We shall find them to be already full of this wonderful medium; so full, that no human power can remove it from the smallest portion of Space, or produce the slightest flaw in its infinite continuity. It extends unbroken from star to star; and when a molecule of hydrogen vibrates in the dog-star, the medium receives the impulses of these vibrations, and after carrying them in its immense bosom for several years, delivers them, in due course, regular order, and full tale, into the spectroscope of Mr. Huggins, at Tulse Hill.", declared James Clerk Maxwell.
The vacuum energy or Zero Point Energy (ZPE) can be viewed as the Qi energy field according to the ancient Chinese Qi theory or worldview. In the very beginning there was Wu (Nothing or Void), then there was "Hun Tun" (the Great Chaos), later formed the "Tai Chi", then formed the "Tai Shih" (the Great Beginning) permeated with Qi.
The Qi then splitted into two, the Yin and Yang two complementary Qi forces. The interactions of the Yin Qi and Yang Qi evolves all things including Life. To the Chinese, Everything has Qi. Everything functions through Qi. It is the Qi that keeps us alive. To the Chinese, Life is not the end product of an evolutionary process, rather Life Force Qi's existence necessitates Physics and Chemistry being what it is.
Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist at Oxford University, believes that if a "theory of everything" is ever developed in physics to explain all the known phenomena in the universe, it should at least partially account for consciousness. Penrose also believes that quantum mechanics, the rules governing the physical world at the subatomic level, might play an important role in consciousness.
But physicists and metaphysicists seem to talk about Consciousness as a primal essence, and consciousness as a neurological state of an organism, including human. Consciousness is equated by mystically-oriented physicists with the very essence of cosmos beyond energy/matter, residing within us as the groundstate of Being. The reductionistic view is that it is just a sequence of awareness interacting with the environment which can become complex as self-awareness arises; hierarchically stratified neural processes.
But no one seems to really know what Consciousness or consciousness is, anymore than they know what electricity actually is. For some it is cosmic, for others the most mundane result of our brain functions. The distinctions between so-called objective and subjective consciousness is now moot. Physics has shown there is only subjectivity, though facts can exist.
"Almost everyone agrees that there will be very strong correlations between what's in the brain and consciousness," says David Chalmers, a philosophy professor and Director of the Center for Consciousness at the Australian National University. "The question is what kind of explanation that will give you.
Chalmers wants more than correlation, alledging we want explanation – “how and why do brain process give rise to consciousness? That's the big mystery.” The converse question would be how and why does Consciousness give rise to cosmos? The problem is, Consciousness and consciousness seem to be irreducible, try as we might.
According to Chalmers, the subjective nature of consciousness prevents it from being explained in terms of simpler components, a method used to great success in other areas of science. He believes that unlike most of the physical world, which can be broken down into individual atoms, or organisms, which can be understood in terms of cells, consciousness is irreducible. It’s an aspect of the universe, like space and time and mass. According to this view, consciousness is primal.
A theory of consciousness would not explain what consciousness is or how it arose; instead, it would try to explain the relationship between consciousness and everything else in the world. In another theory the boson involved is conformal gravity, aka dark energy, aka the vacuum, aka zero point energy. Anything that gets entangled (electrons, photons, etc) builds up consciousness. There are other theories of entanglement, coherence and decoherence.
Many say QM has the look and feel of consciousness. There are several types of explanation of quantum state reduction, an occasion of experience: Copenhagen (conscious observation causes collapse), multiple worlds (each possibility branches off to form a new universe), decoherence (interaction with environment contaminates superposition - though it doesn’t really cause reduction), some objective threshold for reduction (objective reduction - OR), or quantum gravity.
Popular QM notions seem to fall into two categories: · Copenhagen-esque--"old school" explanations which dwell on quantum theory's non-intuitiveness and in fact seem to celebrate the "leap of logic" needed to accept the observer-based wave-function collapse postulate;
· New Agey Utopian idealism--"quantum theory is strange, consciousness is strange, therefore, consciousness is explained by quantum theory", entanglement is proof that "all points in the universe are connected by some underlying ineffable thing, so can't we all just get along", etc.
Quantum theory will probably play a role in explaining consciousness and its relationship to the brain. In some theories (Greenfield), mind is rooted in the physical connections between neurons, while consciousness is an emergent property of the brain, similar to the 'wetness' of water or the 'transparency' of glass. The electrical activity of the brain makes a `model' of a self in the world and our understanding of physical reality requires this `model' to exist `in the dark'. We don’t know if it’s basis is quantum or complexity, or some combination of quantum uncertainty and chaotic sensitivity. There may be a link between chaotic sensitivity and quantum entanglement to create the ‘trick’ of consciousness (King, 2005). Synapses are making a potential energy landscape. High energy chaos explores the full phase space and attention lowers the energy until the dynamic either enters an existing attractor (recognition) or the system bifurcates to form a new attractor (new learned stimulus). It's a form of energy minimization. Is there a link between global brain states and quantum phenoemena? Promising hypotheses link Freeman's model of chaos and bifurcation, Cramer's idea of transactional quantum entanglement, and Pribram's idea of the holographic brain and newer ideas of stochastic resonance and more theoretical ideas of quantum chaos. All these processes can interact together to make a viable basis for intentional subjective consciousness. The brain is full of oscillations. The oscillations are chaotic in the time domain but holographic spatial oscillation in the space domain. Neural systems identify the oscillations that are in phase and they become the process that stands out from the out of phase noise. The in phase waves cause synaptic adaption and learning. When the brain goes from 'hunting' to 'eureka' there is a transition from chaotic out of phase excitation to phase correlated excitation.
This is the same process that happens in a quantum measurement, when we can only measure energy as frequency and can't directly sample wave amplitude of a quantum, so have to let enough beats pass to get an accurate frequency and thus don't know the time exactly. This is the uncertainty relation. The two processes are homologous. Coherent oscillations in neurons are both the consequence of coupled areas and the cause of them over time. Chaotic excitations can, of course, be in or out of phase . It is the non-linearities which enable a number of harmonic oscillators to become mode-locked into phase or phase multiplicity, so non-linearity is the basis of all these phase locking phenomena, too (King). According to Walter Freeman, "Consciousness may well be the subjective experience of this recursive process of motor command, reafference and perception. If so, it enables the brain to plan and prepare for each subsequent action on the basis of past action, sensory input and perceptual synthesis. In short, an act of perception is not the copying of an incoming stiinuIus. It is a step in a trajectory by which brains grow, reorganize themselves and reach into their environment to change it to their own advantage."
This `model' is an intellectual abstraction and in reality it is just spatial and temporal relationships between each piece of electrical activity. Every quanta is in the form of matter waves except at state reduction. The electromagnetic fields permeating neurons and synapses consist of real and virtual photons, in their wave states, and each of these are disturbances in the photon field.
Quantum Healing
Our experience of reality is based on mind and observation. Only our mental impressions, sensory filters, language categories, and concepts make us perceive things: things as separate from ourselves, the I and the not-I. But we are seamlessly welded to the Universe at the most fundamental levels. We cannot scientifically or spiritually distinguish ourselves from the subquantum ground of BEING, even if we feel separate or alienated.
But who among us has successfully abandoned the tendency to conceptualize observations as things, and compound that observation with qualitative attributions? We have experiences and later we say it was this or that. Some forms of meditation are based on disidentification from all aspects of existence and nominalism – neither this nor that.
But most of us still can’t wrap our quantum minds around it as a steady state of perception. Though science has extended our sight to the subquantal and cosmological levels, we still think provincially from the human scale of our natural senses. Our logic and metaphors are based in the senses. But our outer life comes from the invisible inner world, where we are literally in resonance with the Cosmos.
Concepts of matter, life, and mind have undergone major changes. Consciousness is not a material system and neither is Quantum Mechanics (QM). The world is quantum mechanical and we must learn to perceive it as such, but we don’t need to understand that to experience nonlocal healing, any more than we need to comprehend internal combustion to drive. Even physicists have a tough time reconciling what they know about the deep nature of reality with their mundane experience in the world of things.
So how does that mind and its underlying mechanisms relate to or produce consciousness? Is consciousness a quantum process, or does it underlie all process? Neurologists tell us it is a physical matter of wetware in the skull. However, the most we can say at the molecular level is that there are correlates of consciousness. The irreducible precursors of consciousness and matter are built into the universe. They just ARE, unified holistic process.
At the finest levels of observation, physicists contend the distinction between mind and matter becomes as paradoxical as the distinction between energy and matter, life and death (organic/inorganic). Quantum mechanics strongly suggests the Universe is mental. The substratum of everything, including our experience of being, has this mental character.
Healing theories, particularly nonlocal models, have drawn from theories in both new physics and consciousness studies, often compounding and confounding both disciplines. They mix levels of observation in theories, which seem to be largely conditioned by the favoritism of pet projects; thus each theory is generally associated with only one or two “brand” names of researchers.
Healers have been quick to parrot many of these ideas that support what they feel they have observed in intentional healing acts, or what validates the tenets of their school of practice. Often their comprehension of the scientific basis of the argument is slim to none. But this attribution is used to “explain” the phenomenon, with enough misapprehension to preserve the Mystery. However, it isn’t this confusion that makes it so. Are the enigmatic qualities of the quantum realm actually the same as the unity, coherence and other enigmatic qualities of the conscious one? The jury is still out.
There is no consensus among theories of what constitutes FIGURE and what constitutes the most fundamental GROUND, and it seems they share the same essential nature. Our perceived ‘content’ is not distinct from the ‘context’ in which it arises. It is one whole cloth of bubbling space-time. Nothing more, nor less. We have looked into the Abyss of spacetime and found it laughing back.
Ervin Laszlo points out regarding the finest level of observation, that because of “the quantum vacuum, the energy sea that underlies all of spacetime, it is no longer warranted to view matter as primary and space as secondary. It is to space or rather, to the cosmically extended "Dirac-sea" of the vacuum that we should grant primary reality.” Virtual particles pop in and out of existence like quantum foam.
Mass is the consequence of interactions in the depth of this universal field. There is only this absolute matter-generating energy field. This realization transforms our perception of life. Living systems constantly interact with the quantum vacuum, also called zero-point energy, vacuum fluctuation, or subspace. Wave-packets of matter are in a subtle interactive dance with the underlying vacuum field, a vast network of intimate interactions, extending into our biosphere and even Cosmos. Mind and matter both evolve from the cosmic womb of space.
According to Laszlo: “The interaction of our mind and consciousness with the quantum vacuum links us with other minds around us, as well as with the biosphere of the planet. It "opens" our mind to society, nature, and the universe. This openness has been known to mystics and sensitives, prophets and meta-physicians through the ages. But it has been denied by modern scientists and by those who took modern science to be the only way of comprehending reality.”
He goes on to propose a poetic metaphor: “Everything that goes on in our mind could leave its wave- traces in the quantum vacuum, and everything could be received by those who know how to "tune in" to the subtle patterns that propagate there.” In a mechanistic throwback, he likens it to an antenna picking up signals from a transmitter that contains the experience of the entire human race, reminding strongly of Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious.
Worldviews color our perceptions of our Reality, even in science. Concepts are effective theories, useful not true. The universe is immaterial, mental and spiritual. The mind observes, but it doesn’t really observe “things”. It has a way of attributing certain qualities, subjective qualities and dynamics, to everything, even so-called “objective observation. This multisensory narrative becomes the content of our memories – how we remember what happens.
Our minds have a tendency to come up with reasons, whys and wherefores, for things as they appear to us. It is part of our survival mechanisms. However, physics has proven, through relativity theory, the uncertainty principle, wave/particle duality, and Godel’s theorem, that there can be no objectivity, no order or creativity without chaos.
The mind produces narratives. Archetypal forces act as lenses that cause us to cherish certain beliefs, which lead to a class of thoughts, and patterns of emotions and behaviors. It doesn’t matter if you come down on the side of preferring order or chaos, nature has her way. Ultimately, spontaneous or natural healing seems to by-pass this entire complex system, overriding our conscious perspectives in many cases. We may not “believe” in paradoxical healing, but it can still “work”, effecting psychophysical change at a deeper level through the emotional mind and through Mystery.
Healing is irrational. Perhaps the question we should really be asking is what causes us to imagine we are dissociated from a state of optimal health. This doesn’t mean our bodies will always work flawlessly. Chaos theory reveals that many systems in the body are self-organizing and regulated by stochastic processes that are naturally chaotic in nature. Chaos actually helps us reorganize, recalibrate our metabolism.
We can discuss it in terms of nested structured duality, superfluids, or an array of vortices, or a microtubule bank, or a dendritic cluster, hyper-neurons, glia and gap junction networks, or an entangled or collapsing wave function; still, we're merely talking about resonance between arrays -- patterns. This perspective leads to consideration of a Holographic concept of reality, the frequency domain, David Bohm’s implicate order.
Panpsychism aside, every bit of electrical activity is unaware of itself, is unaware of every other bit of electrical activity, and is unaware of all their relationships. This raises the question: why does consciousness exists at all and why is it a unity? What is synchronicity but a feedback between perceived reality and the emerging train of events. This is consistent with the transactional interpretation in which there is a handshaking between past emitters and future absorbers.
There are many plausible ways that quantum theory can help with these profound mysteries and it will be many decades before some understanding of the actual mechanisms are finalized. So, despite the pluses and minuses of existing quantum theories of mind, these kinds of theories should be encouraged. If consciousness is or is related to quantum effects then scientists will have to think in these directions to figure it out.
Conclusions
"Whether this vast homogeneous expanse of isotropic matter is fitted not only to be a medium of physical interaction between distant bodies, and to fulfill other physical functions of which, perhaps, we have as yet no conception, but also to constitute the material organism of beings exercising functions of life and mind as high or higher than ours are at present - is a question far transcending the limits of physical speculation.”, said Maxwell.
Of course, that was then and this is now.
Most natural philosophers hold, and have held, that action at a distance across empty space is impossible. In other words, that matter cannot act where it is not, but only where it is. The question "where is it?" is a further question that may demand attention and require more than a superficial answer.
Arguably, every atom of matter has a universal though nearly infinitesimal prevalence, and extends everywhere; since there is no definite sharp boundary or limiting periphery to the region disturbed by its existence. The lines of force of an isolated electric charge extend throughout illimitable space.
No ordinary matter is capable of transmitting the undulations or tremors that we call light. The speed at which they go, the kind of undulation, and the facility with which they go through vacuum, forbid this. So, clearly and universally has it been perceived that waves must be waves of something, something distinct from ordinary matter.
Faraday conjectured that the same medium, which is concerned in the propagation of light, might also be the agent in electromagnetic phenomena, and he called it “the ether”. Now we speak of it as the zero-point domain of virtual photon fluctuation. Romantically, we refer to it as the plenum, since it is infinitely full of potential.
Some philosophers have reason to suppose that mind can act directly on mind without intervening mechanism, and sometimes that has been spoken of as genuine action at a distance. But, in the first place, no proper conception or physical model can be made of such a process, much less how that deploys intentionality in distance healing.
Nor is it clear that space and distance have any particular meaning in the region of psychology. The links between mind and mind may be something quite other than physical proximity. Since we don’t know how it works, in denying action at a distance across empty space we are not denying telepathy or other activities of a non-physical kind. Brain disturbance or mindbody healing are plausible physical correlates of mental action, whether of the sending or receiving variety.
There is no consensus in physics, nor in consciousness studies, though there is a correlating theory for nearly every one proposed in physics. Spontaneous healing may bypass all of these suggested metatheories. A field becomes a nearly innacurrate term in the subquantual domain or metaphysical level of observation.
According to Hameroff, “Everything (matter, energy, you, me) is part of the hidden geometry of spacetime, of which the Platonic is one aspect. Smells and colors and melodic tunes are complex assemblies of fundamental qualia embedded as configurations in fundamental spacetime geometry.
The qualia in spacetime geopmetry *out there* caused qualia *in here* within us because there is spacetime geometry within our mindbodies as well. Because spacetime geometry is inherently nonlocal it could be that *out there* and *in here* are connected, or actually the same. Only in the classical world is there a spacelike distinction. Pure consciousness is the experience of a total lack of phenomenal content while still awake and alert, and thus able to remember there was nothing.
[Some theories alledge] cognitive functions reflect consciousness which exists in the universe. I am saying that quantum processes in the brain (related to cognitive processes) are connected to protoconscious quantum information inherent in the universe. The connection results in OR which is a moment of consciousness (the protoconscious/unconscious quantum information becomes conscious) But remember the universe/spacetime geometry out there is also in our heads.” Hameroff
Several Vedic and Taoist texts (and perhaps other traditions as well) suggest that, with proper refinement of consciousness, the “outside” world can be cognized holographically, in a superposed, interpenetrating state where everything is experienced in everything else. If evidence can support such claims, perhaps the human mechanisms of perception have the capacity to directly experience an uncollapsed universe in which what is normally unconscious is merged into consciousness (or vice versa). Its like a dream.
But somehow consciousness is; somehow creativity emerges; somehow healing works; somehow we are, and are interrelated. Perhaps real meaning comes from our struggle to try to understand how these things work, to struggle toward wisdom in both the material and spiritual realms. There is meaning in the struggle to create, to heal, to know, to be. ________________________________________________ Chris King suggests how chaotic sensitive dependence and quantum entanglement might be connected. Here are a few pointers to the core idea:
> 1. Cosmic symmetry-breaking causes the universe to develop non-linear fractal interac tive structures, leading to the origin of life.
> 2. Primal eucaryote cells had excitable membranes as a multi-quantum mode sense using chaotic sensitive dependence (the butterfly effect). There are three quantum senses vision (photon-orbital), hearing/touch (harmonic/soliton), and smell (orbital-orbital)
> 3. The amplification of quantum uncertainty by sensitive dependence gave these cells an anticipatory property through transactional entanglement (see below).
> 4. Com plex nervous systems developed as fractally dynamic structures to enable this sensitive dependence to become global, using phase-front processing - the same basis as quantum measurement. This is different from fractal structure although the two are related.
5. The brain uses global excitations with phase front measurement, and chaotic sensitive dependence to make a resonance be tween the quantum and global levels ... this resonance is made possible by the scale-exploding properties of fractal dynamics.
6. There is direct experimental evidence that a single ion channel opening stochastically (a quantum transformation) can excite an entire hippocampal cell and that a single hippocampal cell can set off a global brain response. The brain critically poised in a decision can thus become quantu m sensitive. The phenomenon is called stochastic resonance, and it proves the brain is capable of such super-sensitivity.
> 7. The brain can then use computation to engulf the deductive aspects of a problem using transitions from chaos to order. Eureka for example is a transition from specific initial conditions Archimedes was facing in his problem and conscious lateral intuition in a transition from 'hunting' chaos to 'eureka' so the process is capable of complementing computation with intuition.
> 8. Most problems an organism faces are computationally intractable open environment problems in which there is not one optimum choice but many viable alternatives. Consciousness is not manifestly computation, but anticipatory awareness of the quantum of the moment which enables an anim al to escape a predator.
> 9. Transactional supercausality shows collapse of the wave function can anticipate future boundary conditions. History, evolution and the Schrodinger cat all have a common basis in collapsing the super-abundance of quantum parallelism. Collapsing the wave function is a way the brain can complement computation with real outcomes generated by uncertainty through chaos when the situation is uncomputable. It is manifest in subjective consciousness and has potent survival value in anticipating imminent crisis.
The placebo effect is a consciousness event, and more specifically an event in which consciousness and matter interact to change or transform a disease structure into a healing process or flow. At the level of reality at which this event takes place, it is not even possible to say that it is an interaction. This is a level at which consciousness-matter, or as it is more popularly known, mind-body, are not different but are a 'stuff', for want of a better word, which is not committed to either condition, yet is both. It is, in other words, a level of quantum reality.
Quantum reality describes a reality in which something, for example light, can display properties of being both matter and pure energy as waveform. The laws of quantum mechanics apply rather than the linear-cause effect laws of more conventional science, (including medical science). Sudden changes in state, or quantum shifts, occur instantaneously. It is a reality in which all is interconnected and uncertainty reigns. We are part of natural process, influencing it and being influenced by it at subtle levels where structure is only a passing creation of continuing evolution. True natural healing takes place at this quantum level where mind and body are the same, transformation is the essence of reality, and reality is created from infinite potential.
This level of reality exists on the edges of chaos or infinite complexity/possibility. From this vast potential of infinite possibilities reality is created. There are principles by which this creation emerges out of chaos, known as 'strange attractors'. Strange attractors, as defined in Chaos Theory, are essentially organizing principles that limit the patterns or structures that manifest from chaos and give them form. The CRP reveals even more fundamental principles (consciousness experiences encountered at the deepest levels of the journeys) identified as 'archetypal strange attractors'. Not archetypal in strictly the same sense as used by Jung; the term refers to principles so primordial that they underlie the fundamental shaping of all structures from the universe and its galaxies to the most fundamental of sub-atomic particles. These experiences are commonly encountered from person to person and underlie the individual's self structures.
The CRP model identifies this level of experience/reality as the 'edges of creation', and at this level self and every element of our being is created, including the structures that manifest as diseases in our physical and emotional being. This level is also the source of the unstructured or chaotic consciousness that passes through us and is shaped in its interactions with our organism and psyche to manifest as dreams. The implication is that our dreams are reflections or symbols of the structures that underlie our beingness and in particular our disease states.
In that the placebo effect is a consciousness event, to understand it also requires understanding the nature of consciousness and its dynamics. What people mean by consciousness is varied. Some mean no more than awake or aware (conscious), as opposed to asleep or unaware (unconscious). Some see it as the essence of self-awareness, (i.e. humans have consciousness, and animals don't). However, we have come to understand and define consciousness far more broadly along shamanic lines. It exists in all things and at all levels of being. There is nowhere or nothing in which consciousness is not involved.
To be true, this implies that consciousness is a field in the way that physics uses that term. Fields exist before energy, force or matter and are the source of these manifestations. Einstein's life-long quest to explore the nature of space-time and fields and his theories of relativity showed that space itself has structure and is permeated with fields. Electric, magnetic and gravitational fields have been identified, but our explorations into consciousness dynamics suggest that in addition to those, there are two others: time and consciousness fields. We suggest that the interaction of these fields in various combinations create the physical and energy structures of reality. Strange attractors influence these emerging structures of consciousness in its interactions with other fields to create the essence of self and reality.
The last element of science involves neuroscience or the study of the brain, how it works and, in particular, its role in disease and healing. The brain's extension throughout the body is the nervous system. It connects the brain with every part of the body and nerve impulses control and monitors the functioning of every organ and muscle in the body. Nerve impulses underlie all sensory input to provide the fundamental basis for our perceptions of self and reality. This is all controlled in and by the brain itself and more specifically by synaptic firing sequences or patterns.
The pineal and pituitary organs or glands are of the brain and control moods and secrete the hormones that control how we function and our body chemistry. Increasingly the brain is known to operate in a holographic fashion, which means that change in any part of the brain affects the whole. In brief, the brain is the basis of the entire body's functioning and of all our perceptions of self and reality, and dysfunction in any part of it affects the entire brain and organism.
The Disease ModelWork with the CRP has led to certain speculations about how consciousness interacts with the brain to influence its operations to in turn shape our personality and physicality. To illustrate this, consider the following case study:
Sonja is a health professional who suffers from relatively debilitating slow progressive multiple sclerosis. During the course of several dream-based journeys, we encountered severe states of restriction on a sensory level, experienced for example, as kinks and crushing pressures. Following one particularly intense journey, both her mother and son called later the same day to complain of feelings that Sonja had experienced in her journey. Their experiences had happened at the same time as Sonja's. Moreover, in chatting, uncharacteristically her mother offered unsolicited information about conditions surrounding Sonja's conception and birth, which confirmed our speculations during re-entry. Her mother had been feeling extremely restricted in her life and Sonja was conceived to provide meaning and purpose in this restriction.
Another factor was that Sonja was ready to be delivered on Christmas Day, but because both the doctor and mother did not want to interfere with their familiesí Christmas celebrations, mother was instructed to ìsit on a pillowî and hold Sonja back, which she did. Moreover, the onset of Sonja's disease followed a plea, or prayer she herself had expressed while trapped in an abusive, physically demanding and restrictive marriage. 'I pray for something to happen that will free me from this and all that he expects me to do,' she begged, and very soon thereafter was afflicted with her disease, which did.
This thread of restrictiveness that weaves throughout Sonja's life was present during her conception, birth, up bringing and further manifested in her first marriage and subsequent disease. Restrictiveness defined her world and imprinted in her consciousness and neural structures to shape her organization of self and world from her earliest beginnings. In essence it was a strange attractor. As a consciousness structure present in her parents at her conception it influenced the mix of genes coming from them. It influenced how the consciousness field interacted with the other fields to create the essence of her body and mind out of all the infinite possibilities. It imprinted itself in her neural structure both in the fetal stage and as a baby-child. It evolved into a specific "neural organ" or pattern of synaptic firings that defined a very deep primal sensory existential image of self.
Now stored in the brain it influenced how her nervous system functioned and how her personality developed. Sonja's mind and body in taking on this primal image and consciousness structure eventually manifested it as multiple sclerosis, which restricts and suppresses the flow of nervous energy throughout the body by affecting the sheath, which surrounds the spinal nerve bundles. In this way, her inner senses of self created the same in her outer world. (One model of brain function holds that for every movement we make, for example, moving our hand to scratch our nose, the brain creates an image and sequence of synaptic firings, and the hand conforms to this model. The outer reflects the inner.)
In quantum reality, the beginnings of the structures that form the universe appear as wavefronts arising out of infinite possibility to form electrons and other subatomic particles that interact to become the structure of matter. Neural firing patterns are hybrid chemo-electro phenomena that are in essence consciousness wave fronts arising out of infinite possibility. They are ordered in part, as implied in the preceding paragraph, by environmental consciousness structures and events acting as strange attractors to shape the neural firing sequences that define self-image and influence the functioning of the entire organism.
These patterns or sequences are stored in the brain experientially as fundamental primal sensory self-images defining the nature of self and reality. They shape our perceptions of self and world out of the raw flow of sensory input. It is why eight people will have eight different perceptions of the same event. The CCNHP suggests six zones and characteristics of consciousness dynamics that stem from these images and eventually manifest as physical and behavioral functioning as self. These are described in Chapter 12 of Clinical Chaos: A Therapist's Guide to Nonlinear Dynamics and Therapeutic Change ed. Chamberlain, Butz, Pub, Taylor and Francis.
The Healing Model
Healing is an ongoing process of ever evolving consciousness energy flow, as opposed to disease which is consciousness energy bound in unchanging and unadaptable structures. Fundamental healing involves reaching these levels of primal disease consciousness structure to release the bound energy. To do this we begin with a surface manifestation of the disease, usually a dream image although not necessarily limited to that. Dreams begin as chaotic consciousness energy. In its journey through our organism and psyche this consciousness energy is influenced to take on the shapes of deeper aspects of self. On the aware or dream level these shapes become the plot and symbols in our dreams but whatever else they are, built into them are the roots of our deeper self, including the roots of our disease states.
Using a Gestalt method and encouraging the imaginative process of the client, we invite them to imagine and yield ever deeper into these consciousness structures and dynamics. We encourage sensory rather than just visual or auditory imagery, and it is a process of 'becoming'. The discomfort is followed since this represents the dis-ease state, and in the journey the fears and pains encountered are embraced to fully identify with them. To help, the mentor enters a state of co-consciousness and shares the experience, in a sense modeling the way. It is in this becoming and identification that the fundamental image or neural firing pattern becomes activated. The client is fully identified with it and experiences it as self. This self-identification is important, as will be seen shortly.
The experience at this level is now even beyond the sensory. It is a reality filled with the elemental structures of the archetypal strange attractors, which shape our personal, and the general universe. It is the level of quantum reality in which distinction between matter and energy is not clear. It is a zone that on one side is experienced as the primordial patterns of sensory flow that define self, and on the other, pure complexity and chaos. . . undifferentiated or chaotic consciousness. . . infinite possibility. We invite the client, now fully identified with the disease structure, to let go into this infinite universal solvent, to yield to it and become it. The disease pattern dissolves and from the chaos a new self image emerges. On the neural level, the synaptic firing pattern that holds the disease structure loses coherency and randomizes, or becomes non-linear and complex. From this complexity emerges a new firing pattern that represents the healed sense of self.
This new self-image gradually affects the entire organism. The new synaptic firing pattern defines a more healed self and shapes the sensory inflow differently, influencing the whole brain to operate more appropriately. Sense of self and the world is more easeful. Hormonal secretions are changed and mood is improved. Through this, eventually the body and mind take on a new configuration.
For Sonja, her journeys have brought her to a more flowing and free sense of self. There is ease and peace in this new primal existential image. She is experiencing tingling and sensations in her legs, which for many years were numb. A bladder problem associated with her m.s. has gone into about 95% remission. She is walking more easily without her canes and seems to need them less often now. All this began happening after her first journey at which time she also stopped taking any medication for her condition.
Endings and BeginningsPlacebos do not work in the linear world of mechanistic science, and this is one reason medical science and psychology which are based in this model, have failed to understand or honor this powerful healing force. Placebos operate in the realms of consciousness dynamics, which are far more adequately described and modeled by quantum, relativity and chaos theories. Dreams, imagination and other creative consciousness processes provide doorways into these realms, and the primordial images and neural structures that define our sense of self, world, and dis-ease. At this deep level the transformations that reshape our entire organism occur. And the beauty of it is that it is the imaginative self that creates this miracle of healing. And it is from here that we begin to really live.
Creation came out of chaos, is surrounded by chaos and will end in chaos. --Anonymous Despite their training, psychoanalysts have a dread of unconscious meaning, which really translates into a dread of chaos. --Robert Langs
CREATION, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND CREATIVITY According to classical Greek myth, only Chaos existed in the beginning. The random element eventually produced Gaea, the deep-breasted earth or matter, from within infinite potential. For matter to exist, the force of attraction also had to appear (super-celestial Eros). Uranus, the starry heavens, is Gaea's first-born child.
In other words, the first descent of matter into the threshold of concrete existence came from a chaotic matrix. This cosmic trinity of chaos, matter, and attraction lies at the heart of chaos theory. It bears directly on another Greek archetype that we all share--the psyche. Just as the ancient pantheon provided a foundational orientation for the Greeks, chaos theory can provide us with a model for constructing cognitive maps.
By embracing the chaos in our lives--learning to re-honor the principle--we can begin balancing out millennia of identification which held that only order equates with "good." Part of our cultural heritage is the programming that we should stave off chaos at every point. Some speculate this was a patriarchal reaction against the ancient matriarchal, chaos cultures.
Sometimes it is psychologically more fruitful to "let go" of control, pass through that de-structured state, and discover what happens on the other side. Chaos is definitely part of the process of creativity. It generates the new order spontaneously from deep within itself.
What makes it imperative for us to embrace the new scientific paradigm implied by chaos theory? By rejecting chaos, you reject Gaea. And she is not only the Earth, the love of the planet, the integrity of life forms, but also love of your own physical embodiment. Whatever the essence of chaos is, we are that. By rejecting it, we run the danger of rejecting our selves.
Chaos is the essence of life. Chaos is essential to health. Research has shown that chaos in bodily functions signals health, while periodic behavior can foreshadow disease. Whether Eros (the principle of attraction) is evident in the mathematics of a strange attractor or in human behavior, there is a resonance with Chaos and Gaea.
Chaos has laws of its own, which harmonize with order. Chaos describes the structural growth patterns in nature, and the patterns of breakdown, entropy, or decay. It describes systems far-from-equilibrium, not just the rarely found stable state. It applies to all complex dynamic systems, which certainly includes human beings. It provides a new perspective on reality.
Adaption of this perspective into our worldview helps us understand whole systems. Chaos theory leads to a new vision of matter, one no longer passive, as described in the mechanistic worldview, but one associated with spontaneous, creative, orderly activity. This scientific frontier is fertile ground for new metaphors and models. It will help us solve some of our practical problems, both personal and global.
Throughout history many innovative discoveries have come through the process of reverie, daydreaming, or inspiration. Research has also shown that the greater the mental challenge, the more chaotic the activity of the subject's brain (Rapp). After incubating a solution in the chaotic state, we seem to "get a brainstorm."
Certain brainstates, high in virtually random, chaotic activity are conducive to creativity. Let's hope that by "letting go" of our old rigid structures and beliefs, and letting chaos back into our lives consciously, that we can find more of those creative solutions. Both scientific and intuitive apprehensions of chaos will lead the way.
A NEW DIALOGUE WITH NATURE Chaos theory came on the scientific scene in the late 1970s. It was introduced by a self-motivated group of Santa Cruz scientists. As students they had to fight their faculty to pursue their fascination with this unorthodox subject. After its initial presentation, chaos became a buzzword in many disciplines, as scientists thought of ways it applied in their fields. Even more interesting, scientists began crossing over fields, developing multidisciplinary approaches.
Chaos is not entirely random, but is an occult, "hidden," or implicate order within nature. Cosmology, weather prediction, animal migration patterns, quantum mechanics, and more were affected. We now have terms like "quantum chaos," and chaotic planetary motion. Chaos is a major influence from the microcosm to the macrocosm.
Some astronomers even postulate a cosmic Great Attractor toward which all the local galaxies are moving. Is the earth, our solar system, and galaxy really on a pilgrimage to the Great Attractor? Technically, the attractor isn't only "out there." Our galaxy is part of the attractor, whatever it is. With a sphere influence of 300 million light-years, it is one of the most gigantic known entities in the cosmos. And, it may have relatives!
At the other end of the scale, it appears that chaos is found in the distribution levels of certain atomic systems and wave patterns (Gutzwiller, 1992). Chaotic systems lie beyond the description of normal perturbation theory. Quantum chaos may be a way of linking quantum systems and chaotic systems. One interesting property of chaotic systems of quantum energy is that they cannot be decomposed. Chaos also shows up in the way electrons scatter.
Probably the first popular book to discuss chaos theory was ORDER OUT OF CHAOS: MAN'S NEW DIALOGUE WITH NATURE, by Ilya Prigogine, published by Bantam in 1984. By far, the most widely read has become James Gleick's now-classic, CHAOS: MAKING A NEW SCIENCE, (1987). Others, like THE TURBULENT MIRROR, Briggs and Peat, (1989), have sought to express the theory more simply, and poetically.
Some books have focused on the computer graphics, known as fractals, which have emerged from this new science. Their natural beauty holds an aesthetic fascination. Even the art world discovered chaos through fractals. Images of dynamic fractals are used in discos, like light shows. Chaos software has brought them to the home PC. Chaos moved through science into the arts and humanities.
Chaos bears on our consciousness, physiology, perception, and psychology. We can learn a lot from what chaos theory tells us about the nature of reality. Most of reality, instead of being orderly, stable, and equilibrated, is fluctuating and boiling with change, disorder, and process.
Little fluctuations in subsystems combine through positive feedback loops, becoming strong enough to shatter any pre-existing organization. In chaos theory, this crucial moment is known as bifurcation. At this point the disorganized system either disintegrates into chaos, or leaps to a new higher level of order or organization. Through this means, order arises spontaneously from disorder through self-organization.
When a system is far-from-equilibrium, the slightest flux can be amplified into structure-annihilating waves. Chaos theory helps us think in terms of these fluctuations, feedback amplification, dissipative structures, and bifurcations. It provides pause for reconsidering the nature of time and the role of chance during transformation from one state to another.
Chance plays its role at or near the point of bifurcation, after which deterministic processes take over once more until the next bifurcation. But, of course, we can never determine when the next bifurcation will arise. Chance rises phoenix-like to take its place among physical processes. Thus, nonequilibrium, the flux of matter and energy, is a source of order.
In the new concept of matter, matter is active. Paradoxically, matter leads then to irreversible processes, yet irreversible processes (entropy) organize matter (negentropy). Chaos theory is therefore a new evolutionary paradigm, based in dynamics and thermodynamics. Irreversibility seems to be a source of order, coherence, or organization.
Time, reality, and reversibility/irreversibility are closely related. The implication is that "time" is a real dimension, not merely introduced through human observation. Irreversibility is not a universal phenomenon, but it is not necessarily subjective, either. Our human reality is embedded in the flow of time.
It appears that our consciousness creates that sense of time flow by information processing, but it may be a given. The question then becomes, "what is the specific structure of dynamic systems that permits them to distinguish past and future?" If we can answer that, and determine the minimum complexity involved, perhaps we can be more precise about the roots of time in nature.
The irreversibility of time is itself closely connected to entropy. To make time flow backward we would have to overcome an infinite entropy barrier. Natural systems contain essential elements of randomness and irreversibility. After a bifurcation there can be no return to the old condition. Time has both linear and nonlinear qualities. Time might be described, rather than as a flow, as a dimensional manifold of infinite processes, the ultimate feedback loop.
All biological systems are dissipative structures which are self-organizing (DNA) and self-iterating (reproduction). The type of system which evolves is critically dependent on the conditions in which the structure is formed. We can speculate that the gravitational field of earth, as well as EM fields play an essential role in the selection mechanism of self-organization [see EMBRYONIC HOLOGRAPHY, Miller and Webb, 1973].
Chaos theory has caused us to reexamine the concept of matter as inert and without consciousness. It expresses its own quality of consciousness and determinism, a type of awareness also seen in some quantum phenomena.
According to Prigogine, in equilibrium matter is "blind," but in far-from-equilibrium conditions it begins to be able to perceive, to "take into account," in its way of functioning, differences in the external world (such as weak gravitational or electrical fields). [see THE DIAMOND BODY on scalar physics, Miller and Miller, 1982].
Prigogine and Stengers comment further on the so-called consciousness of dynamic systems: Near bifurcation, systems present large fluctuations. Such systems seem to "hesitate" among various possible directions of evolution, and the famous law of large numbers in its usual sense breaks down. A small fluctuation may start an entirely new evolution that will drastically change the whole behavior of the macroscopic system. The analogy with social phenomena, even with history is inescapable. Far from opposing "chance" and "necessity," we now see both aspects as essential in the description of nonlinear systems far from equilibrium. This is very different than the static view of classical dynamics or the evolutionary view associated with entropy.
Perhaps this is one intuitive perception the Greeks had when they deified these principles. "Necessity" is the goddess Ananke, while "chance" and opportunism corresponds with Hermes. The whole pantheon evolves through these principles from the pure chaos of the source.
In FACING THE GODS, James Hillman points out the common identity of Necessity and Chaos with anxiety:
The psychological viewpoint sees Necessity and Chaos not only as explanatory principles only in the realm of metaphysics; they are also mythic events taking place also and always in the soul, and they are the fundamental archai of the human condition. To these two principles the pathe (or motions) of the soul can be linked.
Psychology has already recognized the faceless, nameless Chaos, this "sacred and crazy movement" in the soul, as anxiety, and by naming it such, psychology has directly evoked the Goddess Ananke, from whom the word anxiety derives. If anxiety truly belongs to Ananke, of course, it cannot be "mastered by the rational will."
This creation process continues to this day, through every moment, a dance of creation and destruction. It takes place in the quantum flux, as virtual entities pop in and out of physical manifestation. It takes place in the crucible of new and dying stars, galaxies, and perhaps our entire universe. Chaos may even be the ground state of multiple universes.
MEASURES OF COMPLEXITY AND CHAOS Turbulence was one of the key phenomena that motivated the resurgence of interest in nonlinear dynamical systems. It was, after all, investigation into the mechanisms for turbulence that led to the invention of the term "strange attractor" in 1971. The turbulence that is described by strange attractors is "turbulence in time"--deterministic chaos, or temporal chaos in current terminology.
In the past decade, a vocabulary for the quantitative characterization of temporal chaos was developed. It has been used to describe and analyze an incredible variety of phenomena in practically all fields of science and engineering. The dimensions of strange attractors, the entropies, and Lyapunov exponents describing motion on the attractors, have been used to analyze heartbeats, brainwaves, chemical reactions, lasers, the economy, flames, radiation, and fluid flow.
Yet this vocabulary is not sufficient to describe turbulence, for its complex nature exists in time and space. Time evolution is seamlessly united with the quantitative characterization of spatial complexity. Turbulence is dynamical, nonlinear spatio-temporal complexity.
Dimensions, entropies, and Lyapunov exponents [don't worry about this one; there is no test later] have become the standard measures of temporal chaotic behavior. Dimensions lend themselves to computer modeling of fractal attractors.
Fractals visibly demonstrate harmonies that may not be apparent within the mathematical formulas. Graphic generators make this beauty visible, where it speaks to us geometrically, intuitively.
The large variety of fields in which dimensions, entropies, and exponents have been used to characterize temporal evolution is an indication of the extent to which these quantities have become elements of a scientific vocabulary that is now nearly universal.
These quantities are used to characterize astrophysical data, dendritic growth, electroencephalographic and electrocardiographic data, nerve fibers, epidemics, etc. As one of the most basic applications of these methods, dimensions have been used to discriminate between chaos and noise.
Nonlinear dynamical systems produce complex temporal or spatial patterns by stretching and folding regions of phase-space in an iterative way. Space and time get folded like so much multi-layered pastry dough [more on this aspect shortly]. As a result of the unfolding procedure, the dynamics is described as a sequence of deterministic paths (blocks of symbols) which appear as random in time, with given transition probabilities.
This would seem to imply that chaos underlies the implicate order [see Bohm, WHOLENESS AND THE IMPLICATE ORDER]. It has already been shown as an influence in quantum probability, the mechanism of quantum flux. Chance and necessity may not be widely separated phenomena--they may be two sides of the same chaotic coin.
A large variety of physical systems exhibit seemingly disordered (turbulent, chaotic) spatio-temporal behavior which, behind its apparent irregularity, hides a high degree of organization. The observation that low-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems are able to generate aperiodic bounded solutions gave rise to an increasing interest in the study of chaotic behavior, which led to the definition of strange attractors. These objects have been geometrically described in terms of fractal dimensions and, dynamically, by means of Lyapunov exponents and metric entropies. Their future time evolution can be predicted only for finite (relatively short) times, although they are fully deterministic, because of the exponential amplification of the uncertainty on the initial conditions. Highly structured patterns can be produced, which are not necessarily related to chaotic motion.
Examples of "complex" behavior are provided by biological systems, hydrodynamic flows, spin glasses, neural networks, fractals, cellular automata, and nonlinear dynamic systems. It is easy to show that entropy and Lyapunov exponents are not useful indicators for the characterization of complexity.
THE MAIN FEATURE OF SELF-GENERATED COMPLEXITY IS THE PRESENCE OF AN ITERATIVE MECHANISM WHICH TRANSFORMS THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE INITIAL CONDITIONS IN A DETERMINISTIC WAY. IN THIS SENSE, IT IS POSSIBLE TO VIEW COMPLEXITY AS ELABORATED SIMPLICITY.
There are mechanisms for the creation of defects. In deterministic systems, several mechanisms can lead to their formation, including initial conditions and phase instabilities. VORTICES can be induced by initial conditions, such as dislocations.
Phase instability plays a crucial role in the creation of defects. Transitions which involve vortices, as for example the Hopf bifurcation, lead to patterns which are described in terms of a phase. These transitions are in some sense "phase breaking" transitions.
More complicated patterns, as for example standing waves, require more than a single phase. In more than one dimension, large enough systems can sustain vortices. Phase fluctuations eventually become large enough to break, locally in space and time, this "phase only" description. In regions where large gradients appear, the creation of defects destroys the quasi-long range order induced by the pattern. In one dimension, defects are spatio-temporal, i.e. they occur at a given spatial position, for a given time.
Lastly, defects can be created in the transient process accompanying a subcritical transition. Defects play an important role in the spatio-temporal destruction of the order induced by symmetry breaking transition. The most efficient way to create defects in these non-equilibrium systems is related to phase instabilities. Experimental evidence of such a defect-mediated picture of turbulence exists.
All this sounds very far afield from human life, but is it really? Aside from the literal expression of chaos, there is its metaphorical aspect. If we re-read the above with an intuitive eye, it might provide archetypal insight on depression, nervous breakdown, personality defects, life transitions, phases of development, and other human realities. [See CHAOS THEORY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXES, Miller, 1991].
Chaos relates directly to information theory. Quantitative measures of chaos have been developed and used to connect theory and experiment. All these systems are closed. Imposing closed boundary conditions means the system "interacts with itself at all times," so the effects of a perturbation to one location cannot escape, but influences the dynamics of the entire system. This also holds true for individual human beings.
The primary instability in such systems is absolute and information on the dynamics of spatially distributed, but closed systems may be obtained by studying the temporal behavior at a single location. Indeed, the vast majority of experimental investigations have assumed the observed chaotic systems have finite spatial extent, without information flows across their boundaries. Again, also applicable to the individual person.
In open systems, information may enter and leave the system. It is not always possible to describe the dynamics by the time series at a single, fixed location. In contrast to closed systems, open systems frequently possess downstream propagating primary instabilities. In human life, a trauma at a given point will create exponential problems (turbulence) further on in time, until and unless one passes through the chaotic breakdown into a place of healing--into flow.
Technically, spatial development of flow may depend crucially on external forcing, often by low amplitude noise. For human beings, the healing space is often one with so-called "white noise," like the flowing of a waterfall or ocean surf, or the rustling or whoosh of the wind. We create the same state internally when we enter the alpha brainwave state. These are generated by the dynamics of chaos, and their healing, soothing effect on our personality is well known to nearly everyone.
THE PARADOX IN CHAOS There is order in chaos; randomness has an underlying geometrical form. Chaos imposes fundamental limits on prediction, but it also suggests causal relationships where none were previously suspected. In chaotic systems, since there is no clear relation between cause and effect, such phenomena are said to have random elements. Simple deterministic systems with only a few elements can generate random behavior. The randomness is fundamental. Gathering more information does not make it go away. Randomness generated in this way has come to be called chaos.
A seeming paradox is that chaos is deterministic, not probabilistic. It is generated by fixed rules that do not involve any elements of chance. A paradox is a union of opposites in a transcendent third. In principle the future is completely determined by the past, but in practice small uncertainties are amplified. Even though the behavior is predictable in the short term, it is unpredictable in the long term. This is because any effect, no matter how small, quickly reaches macroscopic proportions.
Graphic depictions of attractors allow us to map a dynamical system's behavior in discreet-time or phase-space. It helps us visualize a complex situation. Roughly speaking, an attractor is what the behavior of a system settles down to, or is attracted to.
Some systems do not come to rest in the long term but instead cycle periodically through a sequence of states. An analogy might be the cycling between competing attractors in bi-polar disorder, or manic-depression. What slight perturbation causes the switch? A system may have several attractors [complexes, archetypes, subpersonalities?] The set of points that evolve to an attractor is called its basin of attraction.
STRETCHING TIME AND FOLDING SPACE The key to understanding chaotic behavior lies in understanding a simple stretching and folding operation, which takes place in the state space. The orbits on a chaotic attractor are shuffled by this process, much as a deck of cards is shuffled by a dealer.
The randomness of the chaotic orbits is the result of the shuffling process. The process of stretching and folding happens repeatedly, creating folds within folds ad infinitum. A chaotic attractors is, in other words, a fractal--an object that reveals more detail as it is increasingly magnified.
Crutchfield, et al describe, in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, how chaos mixes the orbits in state space in precisely the same way a baker mixes bread dough by kneading it. Just imagine rolling out the dough and placing a big drop of food coloring in the center. As you spread and fold the dough, you create many layers of alternating blue and white. Then finally the dye becomes thoroughly mixed with the dough.
Chaos works the same way, except that instead of mixing dough it mixes the state space. The state of the system is located not in a single point but rather within a small region of state space. The stretching and folding operation of a chaotic attractor systematically removes the initial information and replaces it with new information. The stretch makes small-scale uncertainties larger, and the fold brings widely separated trajectories together and erases large-scale information.
Thus chaotic attractors act as a kind of pump bringing microscopic fluctuations up to a macroscopic expression. In humans only small fluctuations in mental processes are required initially to amplify over time into major changes or re-visioning of reality. To slightly alter experience of a psychological complex is to work directly on the ego. Any microscopic fluctuations we make in therapy are amplified into real-time.
This reflects on our concepts of transformation, and permission for change to occur in a nonlinear manner in personality. After a brief time interval the uncertainty of the initial conditions covers the entire attractor and all predictive power is lost: THERE IS SIMPLY NO CAUSAL CONNECTION BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE. There is also no psychological mandate to adhere to an outworn self-simulation. The change can be instantaneous, unfolding over time. Healing is an ever-present potential.
Chaotic systems generate randomness on their own without the need for any external random inputs. Based on this, we can make quite a case for allowing clients to develop their own therapeutic metaphors in therapy. Some therapists "import" teaching tales or metaphors into the process which they feel could help the client. The imaginal free association of dream healing seems to open them to the flow of their own process and imagery. Facilitating that process, the therapist functions best as a guide.
Random behavior comes from more than just the amplification of errors and the loss of the ability to predict it; it is due to the complex orbits generated by stretching and folding. If a system is chaotic, how chaotic is it? A measure of chaos is the entropy of the motion, which roughly speaking is the average rate of stretching and folding, or the average rate at which information is produced.
CHAOS AND HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY Nonlinear chaos refers to a constrained kind of randomness, which, remarkably, may be associated with fractal geometry. Fractal geometry is the basis of human anatomy, but it pervades nature. Fractal structures are often the remnants of chaotic dynamics.
Wherever a chaotic process has shaped the environment (the seashore, the atmosphere, a geological fault), fractals are likely to be left behind. Fractals consist of varying size and orientation but similar shape.
Certain neurons (nerve fibers), for instance, have a fractal-like structure. If one examines such neurons through a low-power microscope lens, one can discern asymmetric branches, called dendrites, connected to the cell bodies.
At slightly higher magnifications, smaller branches on the larger ones are observable. At even higher magnification, one sees another level of detail--branches on branches on branches. Although at some level the branching of a neuron stops, idealized fractals have infinite detail. The details of a fractal at a certain scale are similar (though not necessarily identical) to those of the structure seen at larger or smaller scales. All fractals have this internal, look-alike property called self-similarity.
Because length is not a meaningful concept for fractals, mathematicians calculate the "dimension" of a fractal to quantify how it fills space. Self-similarity of a system implies that features of a structure or a process look alike at different scales or lengths of time. The greater the dimension of a fractal, the greater the chance that a given region of space contains a piece of that fractal.
In the human body fractal-like structures abound in networks of blood vessels, nerves, and ducts. The most carefully studied fractal in the body is the system of tubes that transport gas to and from the lung. The heart also exhibits fractal anatomy or fractal architecture.
Fractal branches or folds greatly amplify the surface area available for absorption (as in the intestine), distribution or collection (by the blood vessels, bile ducts, and bronchial tubes) and information processing (by the nerves). Fractal structures, partly by virtue of their redundancy and irregularity, are robust and resistant to injury.
Fractal structures in the human body arise from the slow dynamics of embryonic development and evolution. These processes, like others that produce fractal structures, exhibit deterministic chaos.
In the early 1980s, when investigators began to apply chaos theory to physiological systems, they expected that chaos would be most apparent in diseased or aging systems, but contrary to what training and intuition might suggest, the opposite is true. For example, careful analysis reveals that healthy individuals have heart rates that fluctuate considerably even at rest.
To identify the type of system dynamics (chaotic or periodic), one determines the trajectories for many different initial conditions. Then one searches for an attractor: a region of phase space that attracts trajectories.
The strange attractor describes systems that are neither static nor periodic. In the phase space near a strange attractor, two trajectories that started under almost identical conditions will diverge over the short term and become very different over the long term. The system described by a strange attractor is chaotic.
Recent evidence suggests that chaos is a normal feature of other components of the nervous system, including those components responsible for hormone secretion. This might account for a degree of randomness in mood and emotions, related to secretion of neurotransmitters in the brain. It might also be the mechanism for a dream "putting a mood on you" after you awaken. It is a real-time effect of chaos reaching out from the subconscious mind to the conscious.
Chaos can be generated in a model of the olfactory system. This research appeared in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, February 1991. This model incorporates a feedback loop among the "neurons" and a delay in response times. There is a recognized importance of time delays in producing chaos. Why should the heart rate and other systems controlled by the nervous system exhibit chaotic dynamics? Such dynamics offer many functional advantages. Chaotic systems operate under a wide range of conditions and are therefore adaptable and flexible. This plasticity allows systems to cope with the urgent requirements of an unpredictable and changing environment.
However, the periodic patterns in disease and the apparently chaotic behavior in health do not imply that all pathologies are associated with increased regularity. Controlled chaos may play a roll in the human ability to quickly produce strings of different speech sounds. It seems biological systems may use chaos, and the richness in chaotic behavior, to change their behavior on the fly.
Edward Ott, et al speculate (SCIENCE NEWS, "Ribbon of Chaos," January 26, 1991), that just small disturbances can radically alter a chaotic system's behavior--tiny adjustments can also stabilize their behavior.
The success of this strategy for controlling chaos hinges on the fact that the apparent randomness of a chaotic system is really only skin deep. Beneath this chaotic unpredictability hides an intricate but highly ordered structure--a complicated web of interwoven patterns of regular, or periodic, motion.
Physicists from the Naval Surface Warfare System in Silver Springs, Maryland, have succeeded in experimentally controlling chaotic behavior in a magnetic ribbon. Normally, a chaotic system continually shifts from one pattern to another, creating an appearance of randomness. In controlling chaos, the idea is to lock the system into one particular type of repeating motion.
William Ditto reports, "We don't avoid the chaos; we stay in the chaotic region. We take advantage of the system's sensitive dependence on initial conditions." The trick is to exploit the fact that a chaotic system already encompasses an infinite number of unstable, periodic motions, or orbits. That makes it possible to zero in one particular type of motion, or periodic orbit, or to switch rapidly from one type of motion to another.
In the past, most scientists and engineers considered a chaotic system's extreme sensitivity to initial conditions as something to be avoided. To ensure that, say, a chemical reaction or a bridge would function reliably and predictably, they tried to design systems that shunned chaos.
However, chaos may offer a great advantage, allowing system designers greater flexibility and making possible systems that adapt more quickly to changing needs. The Maryland researchers write, "In particular, the future state of a chaotic system can be substantially altered by a tiny perturbation. If we can accurately sense the state of the system and intelligently perturb it, this presents us with the possibility of rapidly directing the system to a desired state."
If physical and mental states are analogous, imagine what this might mean in terms of therapeutic intervention. In fact, it is the theory of all therapeutic intervention, but in practice the effect is unpredictable, both in occurrence and change over time. Typically, one third of clients get better, one third get worse, and one third stay about the same, statistically. Understanding the therapeutic nature of chaos might increase positive results.
CHAOS AND PERCEPTION Walter J. Freeman (U.C., Berkeley) is the pioneer in applying chaos theory to perception and the interface between sensory-motor information and brain patterns. He says, "the brain transforms sensory messages into conscious perceptions almost instantly. Chaotic, collective activity involving millions of neurons seems essential for such rapid recognition." (SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, February, 1991).
In other words, "brains make chaos in order to make sense of the world." He has created a new physiological metaphor, where chaotic behavior serves as the essential ground state for the neural perceptual apparatus. He proposes a mechanism for acquiring new forms of patterned activity corresponding to new learning. (BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (1987) 10:2).
Researchers speculate that chaos underlies the ability of the brain to respond flexibly to the outside world and to generate novel activity patterns, including those that are experienced as fresh ideas (also fresh behavior, emotions, belief systems, mythologies, etc.). Chaos results in meaning-laden perception, a gestalt, that is unique to each individual. Chaos is implicated in human perception as a multi-sensory phenomenon.
The controlled chaos of the brain is more than an accidental by-product, like "putting your brain in neutral." Indeed, it may be the chief property that makes the brain different from an artificial-intelligence machine. One profound advantage chaos may confer on the brain is that chaotic systems continually produce novel activity patterns.
The ability to create activity patterns may underlie the brain's ability to generate insight and the "trials" of trial-and-error problem-solving. These chaotic patterns have been documented in the olfactory system. This is the system most efficient for recalling a memory gestalt.
Just recall how an old familiar scent can bring memories flooding back. Gamma bursts across large cortical regions involved in recognizing visual images have also been found. Brain patterns are identical whether experiences are imaginal or real-time. The stimulation to the visual cortex is identical.
In neuroscience, a new paradigm for the general dynamics of perception is emerging. The brain seeks information, mainly by directing an individual to look, listen, feel, and sniff. The search results from self-organizing activity in the limbic system (that part of the brain that includes the entorihinal cortex and is thought to be involved in emotion and memory).
It funnels a search command to the motor systems. As the motor command is transmitted, the limbic system issues what is called a reafference message, alerting all of the sensory systems to prepare to respond to the new information.
And respond they do, with every neuron in a given region participating in a collective activity--a burst. Synchronous activity in each system is then transmitted back to the limbic system. There it combines with a similarly generated output from the other sensory systems to form a GESTALT.
Then, within a fraction of a second, another search for information is demanded, and the sensory systems are prepared again by reafference. Excitatory inputs at synapses generate electric currents that follow in closed loops within the recipient neuron toward its axon, across the cell membrane into the extra-cellular space and, in the space, back to the synapse.
The existence of chaos affects the scientific method itself. The classic approach to verifying a theory is to make predictions and test them against experimental data. If the phenomena are chaotic, however, long-term predictions are intrinsically impossible. Chaos demonstrates that a system can have complicated behavior that emerges as a consequence of simple nonlinear interaction of only a few components.
The ability to obtain detailed knowledge of a system's structure has undergone a tremendous advance in recent years. Yet, the ability to integrate this knowledge has been stymied by the lack of a proper perceptual framework within which to describe qualitative behavior.
The interaction of components on one scale can lead to complex global behavior on a larger scale that, in general, cannot be deduced from knowledge of individual components. Chaos may provide the possibility of putting variability under evolutionary control.
Even the process of intellectual progress relies on the injection of new ideas and on new ways of connecting old ideas. Innate creativity may have an underlying chaotic process that selectively amplifies small fluctuations and molds them into macroscopic coherent mental states that are experienced as thoughts.
In some cases the thoughts may be decisions, or what are perceived to be exercise of WILL. In this light, chaos provides a mechanism that allows for FREE WILL within a world governed by deterministic laws. In other words, Newton's laws are only local ordinances. Chaos suggests causal relationships where none were previously suspected.
Studies have discovered chaotic activity in the brain. Chaos is evident in the tendency of vast collections of neurons to shift abruptly and simultaneously from one complex activity pattern to another in response to the smallest of inputs.
In healing terms, this implies that ONE TRAUMATIC EVENT CAN SHAPE A LIFE; ONE INTENSE THERAPEUTIC EVENT CAN RESHAPE IT. Trauma can create a large disturbance both immediately and exponentially over time. Healing spreads out through the individual life like ripples on a pool of water. This changeability is the prime characteristic of many chaotic systems. It is not harmful to the brain. In fact, it may be the very property that makes perception possible.
Consciousness may well be the subjective experience of this recursive process of motor command, reafference and perception. If so, it enables the brain to plan and prepare for each subsequent action on the basis of past action, sensory input, and perceptual synthesis.
In short, an act of perception is not the copying of an incoming stimulus. It is a step in a trajectory by which brains grow, reorganize themselves and reach into their environment to change to their own advantage. Consciousness is not confined to the ordinary state of awareness.
Dreams (and other non-ordinary states) can be used for healing by employing the imagination to create new realities within the psyche which facilitates multi-state education. This learning can supercede physical history, according to the "changing history" principle of NLP.
The latest dream research has shown that DREAMS HELP US LEARN. Tasks performed or information gleaned during the day are assimilated into long-term memory during dreams. Researchers found that those whose dreams were interrupted experienced more difficulty in absorbing what they learned that given day. The same holds true if what is learned comes through dreamhealing.
The poet William Blake wrote: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." Such cleansing would not perhaps be desirable. Without the protection of the doors of perception -- that is, without the self-controlled chaotic activity of the cortex, from which perceptions spring -- people and animals would be overwhelmed by infinity. The lack of external driving means the activity is self-generated. Such self-organization is characteristic of chaotic systems.
Chaos theory is based on the mathematics of nonlinear dynamics. But it is also a set of attitudes toward complexity--a new way of seeing, that moves from fragmentation toward integration. It evolved through the discovery of strange attractors (remember, the cosmic principle of attraction, Eros).
Strange attractors can even be plotted in free will, as we have discussed. The concept of free will as a strange attractor brings up philosophical and theological implications. Again, it presents a different relationship than a mechanistic model between human beings and the Higher Power.
Chaos theory does suggest that God, in the forefront of science as usual has outstripped us once again. This is less surprising than you might suppose: science of late, arcane sub-atomic physics in particular, has begun to implicate a higher presence. The second coming may arrive as fractal geometry on some lab computer screen. That our universe is irrational and unjust has long been a forceful argument against the Higher Power's existence. Yet all the randomness we perceive from Big Bang through Big Whimper may, in fact, contain secret, huge rhythms of creation and destiny. There can be no more tremendous paradox -- suitable to an omnipotent creator -- than order-from-chaos. No: ORDER-IN-CHAOS.
So even chance--still obstinate, still anarchic--is not incompatible with divine arrangement. We have begun to apprehend a new description of certainty. It may have all the traits that characterize disorder and yet be under law, and those who ask, "How can God exist when there is chaos in our universe?" may have answered their own questions.
Research on the chaotic brain is yielding new models of behavior. Nonlinear dynamics is being used to focus on overall patterns of behavior, describing how stable or unstable they are and pinpointing the circumstances that make them change.
Results are showing that changes in patterns of electrical activity in the brain are linked to changes in behavioral states. What we used to consider as meaningless background noise, output of large groups of nerve cells in the brain, are evidently quite meaningful. They just contain so much information, it blurs together and looks like no coherent message. Our perceptions can't decode it because they respond through an all-or-nothing relay system.
For a complementary approach to chaos in the brain, see Karl Pribram's BRAIN AND PERCEPTION, 1991. He speaks there of a theory of nonlocal cortical processing in the brain, and the geometry of neurodynamics. But Pribram is now exploring chaos, as his attendance at the first conference on psychology and chaos theory in 1991 shows. We can eagerly await his conclusions.
NEUROANATOMY AND CHAOS World famous researcher, E. Roy John [Brain Research Lab, New York University Medical Center] has edited the definitive book on the MACHINERY OF THE MIND (1990). It includes integrative processes, strange attractors and synchronization, cognitive functions, visual information processing, human development, and brain imaging. All are related to chaos theory and the hardwiring of the brain.
Neuroscientists have dissected the brain minutely defining all structure. They have charted the wetware circuits of nerve pathways and identified some 60 neurotransmitters. But they could never explain the synergistics of an emotion, idea, act of will, or consciousness itself.
Mathematical metaphors help us visualize the bigger picture. Chaos theory has led to the discovery of amazing variations among vast collections of neurons. This is one application of chaos theory, since nonlinear equations can describe many phenomena from the subatomic to cosmic level. Nonlinear phenomena are sustained by complex loops of feedback in which the outcomes of initial inputs are diverted back into the system at unpredictable points in its cycle. This certainly bears on many aspects of perception, consciousness, and personality. In the cult film, EAT THE SUN, the Videru Telemahandi teaches that, "The ecology of the soul is to recycle one's consciousness."
The body uses complex feedback loops to maintain biochemical balance. These "biological oscillators" lead to reactions which reveal nonlinear dynamics. The structure emerges around a strange attractor, and the system may vacillate erratically, but it always stays within a bounded range or norm. The boundaries are strictly defined mathematically, but within the chaos is apparent method in the madness.
PERSONALITY TRAITS AS STRANGE ATTRACTORS Chaos is not total randomness, but implies an implicate, "hidden", or occult order within the nature of reality. The strange attractor construct of chaos theory offers a new way to think about personality. It is exceptionally difficult to predict the specific behavior of an individual, yet if we know a person, his or her behavior seldom suprises us.
The observation that personality varies within limits may be understood within the context of chaos theory. Specifically, the strange attractor construct is proposed to account for nonperiodic, nonrandom order.
Understanding and predicting human behavior remains a fundamental goal of psychology. Personality theory developed for this reason. Yet, accurate prediction of behavior continues to elude personality researchers.
Chaos theory provides a framework within which the puzzling inconsistency of traditional measures of personality can be understood. The consistency may be there, but in nonlinear form under the guise of the strange attractor's "hidden order."
Personality is inferred from behavior and personality consistency refers to similar behavior in similar situations (cross-situational consistency) and/or similar behavior over time (temporal consistency). Consistency, here, simply refers to the repeated presentation of the same or similar behavior.
Some theories of personality stress static or stable traits, while other emphasize states or psychodynamics. Others find that traits and states are virtually indistinguishable and consider the distinction arbitrary.
Regardless of whether personality is governed by characteristic dispositions (traits) or an intrapsychic balance of forces, the effect upon observed behavior is the same; that is, stable internal factors generate behavioral continuity.
The person's interpretation or "mental representation" is his "true situation," not the actual external environment. Our intuitive belief in the consistency of personality may be derived from a real, but nonlinear, order underlying human behavior. It forms the basis of self-simulation moving through time. There is a nonlinear influence in negative feedback the organism perceives. It molds behavior. Chaos theory provides tools for identifying complex, nonlinear relationships. Behavior is variable, but always within the limits and ranges set by the person's structure itself.
Unpredictable variation within limits sounds very much like the operation of a strange attractor. Chaotic systems have a sensitive dependence on initial conditions. For humans this means, any perturbation from conception onward can be a determining factor in structure and personality.
If personality or personality traits function as a strange attractor of behavior, then correlations of behavior over time would not be expected to be very high. Exact behavior would be unpredictable from moment to moment, but would remain within loose boundaries--those of the strange attractor. All potential behavior would not have an equal probability of occurence.
In contrast, if behavior were random, then every possible behavior would have an equal probability of occurence at any given time. It would not be surprising to discover that personality traits can be construed as strange attractors of behavior. Natural chaos allows adaptation and self-organization so it is an evolutionary advantage.
Sensitive dependence on initial conditions ensures that long term prediction of humnan behavior remains unattainable. Prediction within limits, as probabilities of certain behaviors, may be possible based on the strange attractor characterizing the personality or personality trait of an individual.
One may have a particular personality trait that seems to operate like a strange attractor at one time, but later the trait enters a phase of periodicity. Also, types of attractors may differ from trait to trait within a particular individual.
Research may reveal that assessments of personality or a personality trait over time generate data that leads to a fractal correlation dimension. Such evidence would confirm that personality or that a particular personality trait may be desribed as a strange attractor of associated behavior. Essentially, the same statements can be made for dynamic states of consciousness, if states and traits are interchangeable.
r. Hiroshi Motoyama is a scientist as well as a yogi, philosopher and priest. He is a man of many varied interests and talents specializing in oriental medicine, computing and electrical engineering who is also a parapsychologist, spiritual healer and seer. He is head of the Institute for Life Physics, Tokyo, and the California Institute for Human Science, California. He conducted experiment sin the 70s showing the effects one person's mind on the body of another in a screen remote locale. In other experiments he scientifically detected biophoton emission. He is concerned with elucidating the nature of religious experience and the existence of 'subtle energies' using scientific methods. He built two machines: one measures 'ki' energy in the meridians (AMI machine) and another chakra energy or energy centers of the body (Chakra instrument). The AMI instrument is used by American and Japanese medical institutions as a diagnostic and research tool in health, disease, and the paranormal.
Intent Mediated Healing EMERGENT HEALING as a model of Intent Mediated Healing Iona Miller, Asklepia Foundation, 2003 http://emergentmind.org
You ought not to attempt to cure the eyes without the head, Nor the head without the body, So neither ought you attempt to cure the body without the soul for the part can never be well unless the whole is well. --Plato: Charmides, 156e
MIND/BODY CONNECTION
For most of human history, healing has had to do with contact with spirit, with consciousness, with rituals intended to create a shared biofield with a shaman who seemingly could exert mind over matter. This spiritual technology has yielded to technological medicine governed by the rational protocols of science. But noting that medical intuition and therapeutic rapport are real forces in the healing process, many practitioners are moving toward a new paradigm or model of healing.
Anomalies such as the proven power of prayer, placebo effect, spontaneous remission, therapeutic intentionality, and remote healing hint that the irrational, the mysterious, is an inherent part of the natural healing process. When we become ill, the fundamental nature of consciousness is revealed as it relates to both mind and matter, psyche and soma. Consciousness may be more fundamental than either energy or matter, as the Vedas claimed centuries ago. At this sensitive threshold, miniscule changes in the situation can lead to large differences in the outcome.
THE QUANTUM SELF
We need to remold our healing institutions to conform with new physics to develop a contemporary understanding of the mind/body. A new model of the human organism is emerging - a holistic rather than mechanistic model that theorizes our basis in the quantum world; it means healing can happen in very subtle ways, perhaps even at the quantum level.
“Emergence” is the process by which order appears spontaneously within a system. It is essential to understanding functional consciousness, the mind/body, subjective experience, and the healing process. When many elements of a system mingle, they form patterns among themselves as they interact.
When the mind lets go of its rational order, lets the old form die, and enters into unstructured chaos, the whole person emerges with a new form, embodied as a creative expression, an intuition, or as healing. Most often it is characterized by an element of novelty and surprise, since it apparently does not originate in what came before. Both healing and medical intuition are examples of emergence. It is a spontaneous solution to a problem.
HEALING PHILOSOPHIES
The healing arts, from conventional medicine to alternative/complementary medicine, and from psychology to pastoral counseling are undergoing a shift from a mechanistic to a holistic paradigm. Science is actually an experimental philosophy whose highest value is empiricism, and conventional healing shares this philosophy. All new scientific theories require some unifying idea, and that idea is, by definition, metaphysical or essentially untestable.
Today’s heresies are tomorrow’s dogmas. In any metaphysical dispute, strong non-scientific arguments can propose new theories, which may become scientific. Speculative ideas have contributed heavily to the growth of knowledge.
Rather than discouraging exploration of fringe areas of knowledge, this awareness makes it mandatory we explore all possible modalities and anomalies without prejudice, no matter how unconventional. Even extraordinary subjects may be approached with rigorous protocols. Though subjectivity is unwelcome in science, we can study the subjective nature of experience (qualia) in various ways. The process of healing is one such subjective experience.
The alchemists, who were students of consciousness in matter, created an elixir of life, a “medicine of philosophers”, a cure-all or panacea. What the modern world yearns for is a “meta-syn,” or visionary synthesis rooted not in a mechanistic model but one using nature’s own forms of self-organization.
This model is based on the peculiar characteristics of nonlocality and probability of quantum physics, rather than classical Newtonian mechanics. Hopefully, the new model has the power to resonate with our whole being and propel us into a more effective healing paradigm. Emergent healing is actually a treatment philosophy, rooted in a worldview born from our current understanding of the nature of Reality.
The emerging paradigm is a more subtle and energetic model of health. In the emergent healing paradigm, healing depends on the nonlocal principles of nature’s own self-organization, as well as on direct causal influences on the mind/body of the organism. It appeals to spirit, soul, and body.
Recognizing the complexity of reality, the new paradigm includes a series of perspectives, which emphasize the positive rather than pathological, health rather than sickness, and a holistic approach to health care.
In this qualitative, rather than outcome-oriented approach, subjective experience and process are valued. The fusion of mind, emotions, body and spirit is recognized as central. In this ecological approach, the individual is embedded within larger systems, not isolated as a disease process. When we treat a symptom or disease rather than the whole person, we treat the part not the whole.
Interdependence of individuals, societies, and nature can be honored. As our knowledge of nature is increased, our knowledge of our own nature also grows correspondingly. Health, self-healing, and therapeutics is a balance supported by many disciplines, including physics, biology, and psychology as well as medicine.
We have all noticed that often the physical body is healed, but not the emotional trauma; or perhaps there is spiritual or psychological healing, but not physical cure. Therefore, it only makes sense to treat the whole person, rather than just the symptomology.
PARADIGM SHIFT
Paradigms underlie the interplay of chaos and order in human culture, at the conscious and unconscious, collective and individual level. These tacit belief systems act as lenses through which all sensory data passes before it is experienced as perception. Some perceptions arrive relatively undisturbed while others are subject to immediate characterization, distortions, and value-judgments.
Old ideas die hard. The established order, materialism, is entrenched. Establishment science is always resistant to new ideas. Science deals with models and metaphors of our perception of reality. We have had science less than 500 years, but in that time it has transformed much of the world technologically, intellectually and physically.
Scientific models change as exploration leads to the discovery of new facts and approaches that work. Still, new models are slow to be embraced. The dominant worldview hangs on as tenaciously as geocentric religious views did in the Dark Ages.
A paradigm is a working set of assumptions and postulates, (a disciplinarian matrix), about a field of inquiry or practice such as healing. How we envision healing is as important as how we proceed to try to heal. It governs our protocols, what we notice and fail to notice, and how we evaluate the results. The theoretical construct defines our approach and methodology. It gains momentum over time.
Scientific exploration is not a linear process, but results from competition among theories. The best results of each system are then woven into a seamless fabric that, at least temporarily, defines the nature of that field. New observations can lead to complete revisioning of a discipline, like the emergence of quantum mechanics did in physics. Filling in theoretical gaps leads toward better explanations and solutions to problems.
Sometimes new paradigms coexist and develop alongside one another, until one supersedes the other. This is paradigm shift. Such has been the case in concurrent development of allopathic and alternative or energy medicine, also called integral medicine.
Both the conventional and integral approaches have long, noble histories, one rooted largely in western culture, the other in Asian systems. Allopathic doctors and patients themselves now recognize that strictly reductionistic and technologically-based medicine has its limitations in contemporary healthcare.
Objective science can be devoid of higher purpose and intentionality. Thus, we find ourselves with a host of ethical dilemmas in genetic engineering, transplant research, geriatrics, pharmacology, cloning, technological intervention, and molecular biology.
The relativism of postmodern deconstructionism has undermined all theoretical perspectives, turning them into or exposing them as social constructions. It is true that the healing arts are riddled with political, religious, and cultural biases. Health care has been delivered in terms of a power relationship over the body, superimposed on its biology.
There is a strong desire from the both the scientific community and public for a health system that values personal relationships, emotions, meaning, and beliefs. They connect body, mind, spirit, and society.
It is crucial to realize there is both rational and paradoxical healing, and both are vital to our well-being. Paradoxical thinking is unpredictable, unique, unforgettable, unrepeatable, and often indescribable. Breakthroughs are often paradoxical in nature, seemingly absurd, yet in fact true. Rational healing relies on doing, while paradoxical healing is rooted in ways of being. Physician Larry Dossey says it requires, “standing in the Mystery.”
There is a yearning to return “mystery” to the mechanistic arena of healing, so we can face illness and disease as whole organisms. Transpersonal forces have a valid place in healing, as they do in all areas of our existence. Many people have a sense of the importance of actively integrating spiritual principles with the material world.
The whole-systems approach co-exists with conventional medicine and is making inroads among its practitioners. Treating causes as well as symptoms, it mobilizes the patient’s will to live. It fosters the inner dimensions of the healing experience. The healing response includes behavioral, mental and spiritual shifts or transformations.
Health is the natural outcome of a meaningful life, not just absence of symptoms. It means a comprehension of the complexities of life that is deeper than the conventional worldview of cause and effect. It proposes that consciousness is the foundation of reality. We do not exist independently from the universe, but the exact nature of that seamless connection is unknown.
Rooted in relativity, quantum, holographic and chaos theories, a metaphysical context is provided to justify such a paradigm shift from the purely causal healing model. The interactive field (psychodynamic field) present in healing situations can be amplified intentionally through therapeutic entrainment, or resonant feedback playing off the unified field (universal field).
NEW CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
No science or healing is independent of the realities of our fundamental consciousness. Consciousness is a process not an object. Neuroscientists have begun to study consciousness, both in its functional and universal aspects.
Some scientists try to reduce matter (brain cells) to consciousness while others are trying to reduce consciousness to matter. Some suggest (Newell), echoing ancient philosophies, that Absolute Consciousness may be a field that is always everywhere.
We are not discrete entities but deeply embedded within the fabric of the universe. The essence we share, more fundamental than matter and energy, may well be primordial consciousness. It may be the very basis of materiality, as the Vedas implied centuries ago. Consciousness involves the integration of information, not just a passive array of information itself.
We have many ways, besides our senses, of interfacing with reality, including intentionality, intuition, somatic perception, and direct apprehension. The new integral model of health and mind/body healing recognizes and operates from this expanded perspective and innovative medical options.
Consciousness - the intersubjective dimension - may be a stronger dynamic causal factor in healing than previously considered. Incorporating the full spectrum of human experience into healing promises new possibilities, new outcomes, which have been neglected in the biomedical model.
Conscious intentionality may influence subtle electromagnetic or quantum field energy processes. It affects the exchange of information at the cellular, organismic, and social level. Exceptional states of awareness (such as meditation, shamanic journeying, dreaming, dissociation, etc.) can lead to exceptional results, but they also require exceptional proof that may be difficult to produce in the laboratory or document objectively.
The emerging worldview extends our concepts beyond the domain of purely objective, reductionistic realism or materialism. The trend is moving from biophysical to psychophysical and psychospiritual dimensions without loss of scientific rigor.
Just as physics seeks a unified field theory, so the healing process needs a model that accounts for the mechanisms of natural healing and its anomalies such a placebo effect, spontaneous remission, even distant healing. Consciousness may just be an expression of such a universal field.
Models of healing in which disease is seen as an invasive process and the treatments are also invasive can give way to those following a natural, evolutionary course at the edge of chaos.
Rather than comparing healing to a fight, or war on an external invader, we can imagine it as the creation of healthy processes. New forms emerge from adaptations after the breakdown of old forms. In this synergetic view, the organism interacts with its total environment.
THREADS OF QUANTUM RESONANCE AND BIOFEEDBACK
Science proceeds by way of 'discovery,' as well as simple accumulation of information or even 'invention.' This is the basis of scientific revolutions, and paradigm shifts - "the tradition-shattering complements to the tradition-bound activity of normal science," (Kuhn, 1962). A paradigm can be a disciplinary matrix.. Paradigms are essentially worldviews -- expressing our beliefs about the way things work, including tacit assumptions.
Chaos Theory and Complexity have disclosed the self-organizing inner workings of non-linear dynamics in nature and human nature. Systems (and subsystems) are always connected in various ways to various degrees; energy and information is constantly exchanged. In complex phase interactions and dynamical energy systems, resonance is the key dynamic which couples them, increasing dimensional complexity and leading to emergence of new properties. "Emergent" means what comes from the new and creative resolution of chaos.
Interactive resonance occurs both within and between material systems, through recurrent feedback encoding a complex interactive history. Circulating recurrent feedback interactions (cyclic information) are the fundamental bases of holism. The more rapid the feedback, the more stable the holistic system. This circulation of energy and information allows them to interact as a whole.
According to one hypothesis, emergent healing depends on the nonlocal principles of nature's own self-organization, as well as on direct causal influences on the mindbody of the organism. It is proposed that the interactive field -- therapeutic entrainment -- present in the healing situation can be amplified intentionally to mobilize the psychophysical healing process.
INTRODUCTION TO REMOTE HEALING
Clearly, the whole story of human technology is the the story of the ascendency of mind over matter. Whether that is a triumph or a tragedy for humankind remains to be seen.
Conventional medicine takes an allopathic approach to healing, but Complementary Medicine works holistically in conjunction with it through compassionate intentionality. Historically, so-called spiritual healing or faith healing has been person-to-person, whether local or nonlocal. It works on the premise of evoking the healing potential through a commonly shared field-effect, electromagnetic physiological reactivity.
Today’s technology has allowed distance healers to experiment with technological aids to their healing practices. There are still many mysteries of the interactive field which remain to be explored.
With a phenomenological eye toward field dynamics, this exploration demonstrates an additional theoretical framework within the interactive field applicable to paradoxical healing. It opens creative and healing possibilities and allows for the active, intentional liberation of the psychophysical imaginal realm.
The genesis of the interactive field is rooted also in shamanic realms as a backdrop from which to see field theory. Shamanic expressions, ancient healing forces, of the unified field include mana, chi, prana, qi, kundalini, bioenergetics, psi faculty, universal energy, orgone, wakonda, etc. Field theory is also explored in the world of quantum physics where the universal field is examined from paradigms situated in varied consciousness models.
The somatic unconscious, an intrinsic part of the interactive field in mutual engagement with two or more persons, is also woven into this fabric. In this study it is an intersection between the universal field and the psychodynamic field -- embodying co-consciousness in healing. (Miller, 2003)
Just as traditional medicine identifies itself with the past through the Hippocratic Oath, this new orientation also draws on the ancient Greek and Egyptian healing cults and our collective taproot back into 50,000 years of shamanic healing culture. Like traditional physicians seek to identify themselves with the Hippocratic ideal, we can embody this paradigm, this philosophy, by embracing a worldview which is seemingly new, but older than history -- medical intuition and holistic spirituality. It doesn't negate or even supersede the Hippocratic orientation; in ancient Greece both the complementary methods of healing mind, body and spirit were part of the cult of Asklepios.
When conventional means failed, supplicants went to the dream temples to heal their psyches -- their souls -- they entered the Mysteries. These healing dreams somehow mobilized the nonrational elements of being and healing somehow emerged. But their notion of soul was not disembodied; it meant the whole psychophysical organism.
Ancient Vedic healers based their treatment in the philosophy that the common essence of humankind and cosmos was consciousness. Altering that primal essence, consciousness, could change one's state of health. It isn't really a case of activating mind over matter, but mobilizing what undergirds both mind and matter.
What, essentially, is this consciousness of which we speak? Can it be more than our subjective awareness, our existential experience -- the result of perceptual input and self-referential internal processing? Is it the very basis of materiality, a neutral essence more fundamental than energy or matter, more than microstates of the functioning of human wetware?
But, does psi or ESP even exist, or is it merely an optical illusion of the mind? There are volumes of research (Krippner, Motoyama, Honorton, Tart, Swann, Schwartz, Putoff and Targ, Radin, Utts and Nobel-winner Josephson) to suggest that it does, though skeptics staunchly maintain it does not. Because the issue is emotional and seemingly unresolved does not mean we should stop asking, looking for a deeper relationship of psyche and matter.
In fact, the mandate was laid down several decades ago by physicist Wolfgang Pauli when he worked with psychologist C.G. Jung: " We should now proceed to find a neutral, or unitarian, language in which every concept we use is applicable as well to the unconscious as to matter, in order to overcome this wrong view that the unconscious psyche and matter are two things."
However, as Carl Sagan also said, " Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Therefore, we will approach the notion from a variety of perspectives, from the "soft" science of psychology, and the "hard" science of physics, as well as the median position of alternative medicine -- transpersonal and energy medicine, with their holistic perspective. In this way we hope to create a circumspect view about and investigate the possibility of the role of co-consciousness in healing.
Preliminary research done by Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama in Japan has shown that a person emits very small amounts of visible light. The amount is so small that a photon counter is needed. Dr. Motoyama used shielded cages and custom-made sensors to discover that photon emission is higher at certain acupuncture points compared to a region of skin with no acupuncture point. According to unpublished research done by him in Japan, there is some indication that emission at certain acupuncture points is increased for persons with psychic abilities. The modern healer is moving away from epic, heroic models of power toward imaginative fantasy. Awareness is growing that image-consciousness heals (Miller and Miller, 1994).
The healing dyad is best characterized by its emphasis on intent. Both parties have the intention of engaging in a healing dynamic experience. This is the foundation or underlying raison d' etre of the therapeutic encounter. This intention can deepen into a linking or "hook up" of the individuals into a unified field, a shared resonant interactive field. This field seems to facilitate or mobilize the healing dynamic.
The facilitation of attentional resonance opens the participants to the simultaneous presence of both classical and acausal field phenomena. They are mutually connected through the unified field. The more mutual the process, the more the interactive field manifests. In this interactive field, we are embedded in an imaginally perceived whole situation -- an encompassing, infusing, and mutually interactive field, with conscious attention to the relationship.
SOME HISTORY OF REMOTE HEALING
The genesis of the interactive field is rooted in shamanic realms as a backdrop from which to see field theory. Shamanic expressions, ancient healing forces, of the unified field include mana, chi, prana, qi, kundalini, bioenergetics, psi faculty, Odic force, universal energy, orgone, wakonda, etc. Field theory is also explored in the world of quantum physics where the universal field is examined from paradigms situated in varied consciousness models.
The shaman is the archetype of the wounded-healer and is perceived as having social or personal power for vision and healing. Healers learn not to exploit or identify egotistically with this process of mobilizing the unconscious. Rather, they let it operate through them as guides or mentors, so the other can discover that the healing resources are within and find empowerment -- the dramatic healing breakthrough, (Swinney and Miller, 1993).
The history of modern remote healing is lost in antiquity, in 50,000 or more years of shamanic practice, but modern investigation began in earnest in the 1950s and 1960s. One of the pioneers of this era, is Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama of Japan. Motoyama conducted near- and distance-healing experiments in both screened (Faraday cages) and unscreened situations to test the potency of intentionality, and the ability to one human being to influence the physiology of another without direct contact.
Motoyama also worked with and incorporated the theories of Itzhak Bentov into his protocols. Bentov summarized his early findings in his work STALKING THE WILD PENDULUM (Bantam, 1977), a popular book which educated the public about resonance phenomena.
Medicine is mostly concerned with mass, the material aspect. Matter is a kind of accumulation of energy in a fixed order. Chaos is energy but random, not in order. But when the energy is fixed, in order, in a certain frequency, etc, it becomes quantum, and this quantum is the origin of mass. So this quantum forms an electron or a proton or nucleus and thence an atom. The atoms combine and they make molecules and the molecules combine to make DNA and protein and then us: matter-with-consciousness (Motoyama).
The first Motoyama-Bentov Fellow in Japan was Marshall F. Gilula, M.D., is a Neuropsychiatrist with a specialty in EEG. Over the years, Dr. Gilula has employed both software and hardware in his healing practice. Because of his psychiatric background, he has also focused on "wetware" (the human brain and it's relationship to hardware and software. He was one of many pioneers in applying neural stimulators such as TENS and CES during the Seventies and did research in Moscow as a US-USSR Exchange Scientist for NIH's Fogarty Center. CES (Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation) has been shown by some investigators to affect the mean dominant frequency of certain brainwave frequencies such as the alpha frequency.
SUBTLE ENERGIES
Numerous controlled studies suggest that conscious intent can initiate helpful changes in a variety of organisms, including human beings, at great distances. These events appear to be genuinely nonlocal in nature. They do not yield to explanations based in classical concepts of energy, space, time, and causation. Classical models of distant healing, including the concept of "energy," must be reexamined. A new theoretical perspective, anchored in the nonlocal nature of human consciousness, may be necessary if we are to progress in our understanding of nonlocal healing events. (Dossey, 1994)
The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine was founded in 1989 in Colorado. ISSSEEM was founded to explore the application of subtle energies to the experience of consciousness, healing, and human potential and is designed as a bridging organization for scientists, clinicians, therapists, healers, and laypeople. ISSSEEM encourages experimental exploration of the phenomena long associated with the practice of energy healing. ISSSEEM has made one definition of Energy Medicine.
Energy Medicine includes all energetic and informational interactions resulting from self-regulation or brought about through other energy linkages to mind and body. In addition to various therapeutic energies which we may use, there are also energy pulses from the environment which influence humans and animals in a variety of ways.
For instance, low-level changes in magnetic, electric, electromagnetic, acoustic, and gravitational fields often have profound effects on both biology and psychology. In addition to energies originating in the environment, it has been documented that humans are capable of generating and controlling subtle, not-yet-measurable energies that seem to influence both physiological and physical mechanisms.
Subtle Energies, compared with "energy medicine," is a concept more difficult to define within the current scientific paradigm. Ancient and modern wisdom traditions describe human bioenergies referred to by many names (e.g., chi, ki, prana, etheric energy, fohat, orgone, odic force, mana, homeopathic resonance) that is believed to move throughout the so-called "etheric" (or subtle) energy body and thus is difficult to measure using conventional instrumentation.
In addition, many of the complementary and alternative therapies that are becoming increasingly popular appear to involve the flow of these subtle energies through the dense physical body. In addition, it is traditionally accepted that expansions of consciousness often are related to changes in subtle energies that cannot be quantified. These latter "energies", which are said to be associated with interactions and with transcendence, may not, in fact, actually be involved with known physical fields.
RESONANCE THERAPY
Quantum Resonance is a comparatively new field of energy medicine/vibrational medicine that addresses the body electric. Once tested, energetic therapy helps to neutralize dis-ease and imbalances in the body and provide ordering patterns to harmonize the system. Quantum therapy works to balance physical trauma and emotional trauma by stimulating the mind to naturally balance the body.
MICROVIBRATIONS GOOD VIBRATIONS 2; NEXUStentialism; Energy Medicine, Bioelectronics, Biophysics; 4690 words. Proprietary. 1/19/05 Physiological Tremor This is a very-low-amplitude fine tremor (between 6 Hz and 12 Hz) that is barely visible to the naked eye. It is present in every normal individual during maintaining a posture or movement. Neurologic examination results of patients with physiologic tremor are usually normal.
GOOD VIBRATIONS Human Microvibrations and Magnetospheric Micropulsations in Plasmas
By Iona Miller, 1/2005
Hypothesis: human microvibrations are transduced from, analogous to and/or resonantly entrained to micropulsations in the common plasma medium. Bioelectronic processes may be treated as a plasma state within the solid state of organic compounds. Biophysicist Popp showed that cellular condition is related to electromagnetic emissions.
Significantly, low-frequency biological rhythms display correlations with the geophysical environment. Rohracher (1950s) of Vienna described the phenomenon of microvibrations, oscillations in the frequency range of 7 to 13 Hz that can be observed on the surface of the body during complete muscle relaxation. Microvibrations are cardioballistic or heart-driven phenomena likely related to the cranial pump and electrical activity of the hippocampus at 7.8 Hz. Low frequency oscillations in the Earth’s magnetosphere are called magnetic micropulsation (ULF waves). 7.83 Hz is Schumann’s Resonance (SR); Earth’s electromagnetic heartbeat is 10 Hz. Alpha brainwaves are 7 - 12 Hz. Healers and meditators exhibit nearly identical EEG signatures during their healing moments: a 7.8-8 Hz brainwave activity, which lasts from one to several seconds and is phase and frequency-synchronized with the earth's geoelectric micropulsations.
“Some researchers have measured electromagnetic (EM) signals emanating from the hands of healers which are within the same frequency range as human brain waves. There are some indications that a correlation exists between atmospheric oscillations, brain waves, and biological EM emissions.” ~ Dr. Leanne Roffey Line
Introduction
Czech electrical technician and biotherapist, Jaroslav Novak accidently found a measurable relationship between Schumann Resonance (SR) and a biological parameter (BP) when his monitor went off with no subject attached. Though further research needs to be done, “Jarda” is confident that this strongly suggests that SR and ELF EM fields do have a provable and valuable influence on living organisms. SR changes over correlated circadian rhythms and other cycles of time (light/dark, hormonal and sleep cycles, seasonal, gravitational and subtle geophysical effects, etc.).
Novak keeps his biological parameter confidential while developing an inexpensive home monitoring system. The BP is a weak signal that requires 100.000 amplification but demonstrates biological changes in confluence with changes in SR through field effects ~ standing field line, wave-guide and resonant cavity oscillators. But many biological signals can provide useful feedback.
A good model for this project is the Heartmath Institute http://heartmath.com , which uses heart monitoring via a simple software and a home program for stress management and personal growth. The classic “armchair” work on the relationship among heart-driven rhythms, psychophysical states and geophysical rhythms is Itzhak Bentov’s STALKING THE WILD PENDULUM (1977, Bantam).
The heart is our own pulsing center as the sun is that of the solar system. In The Heart’s Code, Paul Pearsall, PhD (1998) points out that “simple physics tells us that energy and information leave the body and go out into space. It reaches our loved ones and our pets and plants, it extends to the sky, and, yes, logically, the electromagnetic field expands into the “vacuum” of space at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. Though the signal strength will obviously be very tiny, each second after our heart beats our individual heart’s code has expanded and travelled 186,000 miles into space - through space forever.” (p. xi-xii) In this sense, perhaps we are immortal. However, waves from space also impinge upon us.
“As Above, So Below”
EM waves are our primary means of knowing and viewing the universe. We are integral products of our environment, an embedded lattice of pulsating, vibrating energy. What happens in the solar system, our electromagnetic environment, and at our cellular level are all intimately related. The classic Hermetic axiom, “As above; So below” reiterates the nonlinear fractal unfoldment of self-similar organization at different scales of magnitude, from cosmic to subatomic.
This metaphysical notion suggests analogies or intuitive correlations of macroscopic, meso-, and microscopic processes or dynamics. With that in mind, we can examine the micropulsations of the earth and its atmosphere as well as our own neuromusculature, including the reciprocal relationship of the brain and heart muscle.
Resonance occurs when the natural vibrational frequency of a body is amplified by vibrations (essentially shock waves) at the same frequency from another body. The earth and our human organism are in such a resonate relationship. Standing waves that resonate at SR frequencies can form in the heart and drive other resonate systems in the body.
The bifurcation of the aorta forms a resonate cavity oscillator where pressure pulses coincide in phase (Bentov). Echo and pulse leave the heart together and continue in synchrony. Amplitude increases to 3 times normal as the body moves up and down 7 times a second. When it approaches 7 Hz, a progressively amplified standing wave form is created, resonating as large oscillations that entrain body circuits. This drives the pulsation of our piezoelectric brain against the skull creating standing waves in the ventricles.
Earth’s magnetosphere is a spherical magnet. Like the brain, the plasma of Earth’s magnetosphere can be viewed as a stiff jelly that conveys subtle vibrations to all bodies within it. Our biofield couples to the isoelectric field of the planet. 7.83 range is the SR frequency compared with the micromotion of the body at 6.8 to 13 Hz. EM fields are the connecting links between the world of resonant patterns and form, a feedback pulse of information. SR actually exerts a slight pressure on the surface of the planet and its inhabitants.
Low frequency oscillations in the Earth’s magnetosphere are called magnetic micropulsation (ULF waves). There is a subtle yet pulsating disturbing force. This field and Earth’s magnetic plasma are fused. Two pulses appearing to propagate away from their origin are called Alven waves. Alven waves are only one wave mode that can propagate in a plasma. In magnetized plasma the two waves are coupled to the sound wave by the frozen in field. These waves are fast, intermediate, or slow with the slowest is closest to being a pure sound wave.
Many of the waves on Earth’s surface originate beyond the magnetosphere. Solar wind, space weather, pressure waves, foreshock, bow shock and magnetopause create ULF waves that pass through the magnetopause and propagate through the magnetosphere. Internally they interact with wave guides, cavities and field lines creating observable pulsations. Close to the ion foreshock ions in the field align and produce small amplitude 1 Hz waves, as recorded by Lonetree (2004) at .9 Hz and 1.82 Hz. 1.855 Hz also has been cited by scalar physics researcher Hodowanec (1999) as the prime cosmic resonant frequency, also noted by Schumann.
The magnetosphere itself functions as a resonant cavity and wave guide for waves that propagate through the system. These cavities resonate at discrete frequencies many of which have biological effects. The relation of magnetospheric micropulsations (Alven waves and SR) appears correlated with diurnal, circadian and other psychophysical rhythms in the human organism, in particular microvibrations.
Earth’s Magnetosphere
This leads to the hypothesis: human microvibrations are transduced from, analogous to and resonantly linked or entrained to micropulsations. Alven waves oscillate at the low end of the Delta (0.5 Hz - 4 Hz) brain wave frequency spectrum (deep dreamless sleep). In Delta the body is at rest and more susceptible to the subtle rhythm of the heart as a driver of psychophysical processes. It is well known that the brain can be driven by acoustic signals, sound and light, through the frequency-following response (Monroe). Even our DNA responds directly to biological coherent light and sound (Gariaev, 1993; Miller, Miller, Webb, 2002).
A strong 0.1 Hz signal traveling from the heart to the brain via the baroreceptor link might frequency-pull the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the ANS into this frequency range and also frequency-pull the respiratory system into the same range. It is not clear where this 0.1 Hz baroreceptor signal originates but this may be the source that pumps the initiating 0.1 Hz signal into the baroreceptor channel heading for the brainstem.
The heart drives the cranial pump, creating microvibrations. Biotherapist, Leanne Roffey says, “As to where they [microvibrations] originate, I'm pretty sure that would have to be in the "cranial pump" in our craniosacral systems. That is a hydraulic pump that can be thought of as magnetohydrodynamic. Connective tissue is very much piezoelectric, so signal is produced. Everything drives off the Cranial rhythm and there are quite a few factors, respiration included, hormones, blood flow, even perfusion, that go towards making up that sum.”
In between the cranial parts are situated the so-called cranial sutures. The cranial sutures are composed of an elastic substance connecting the various cranial parts. The cranial parts are continuously opening and closing, functioning as a pump system. This pump system takes care of the circulation of brain fluid that is located underneath the skull. The pressure caused by the pumping movement has an overall effect, reaching the tail-bone (the sacral part), and all the bones in the body. Thus, it is implicated in microvibration.
Rohracher in Vienna described the phenomenon of microvibrations in the 1950s. Microvibrations consist of oscillations in the frequency range of 7 to 13 Hz, which can be observed on the surface of the body during complete muscle relaxation. Not surprisingly, when astronauts began going into space, the absence of Earth rhythms sent their bodies out of kilter. Therefore, all missions include a generator that simulates SR frequencies for health.
Physiological coherence encompasses entrainment, resonance, and synchronization, which are all distinct but related physiological phenomena associated with more ordered and harmonious interactions among the body's systems.
From an energy medicine perspective, the heart is the most powerful electromagnetic organ serving important regulatory functions. An ongoing dialogue takes place between heart and brain. The heart’s EM field extends 12 to15 feet beyond the body, 50 times more powerful than the brain’s EEG signals.
The heart is our most powerful organ. The heart responds directly to the environment. The heart is the conductor of the energy of the body’s cells. The heart is a dynamic system. The heart is the body’s primary organizing force. The heart resonates with information-containing energy. The heart is the body system’s core. The heart speaks and sends information. All hearts exchange information with all other hearts and brains. (Pearsall)
Every cell in the body is linked by electromagnetic contact with the toroidal-shaped magnetic field of the heart, mirroring the relationship of Earth with its organisms. Heart rate mediates stress response and balance of the relaxation response. The connective tissue matrix, with it semiconducting and liquid crystal holographic structure, resonates with these field changes.
Cells are fractals embedded in a holographic energetic matrix that extends beyond the skin boundary. The body is an energetic event, a self-organizing electromagnetically unified matrix. The living matrix continuum or tissue tensegrity matrix reaches inside each and every cell, all systematically interconnected parts of the body, even more so than the nervous system.
“Contrary to prevailing neuron doctrine, the glial substrate and other perineural structures of the central nervous system, through their sensitivity to extremely low levels of electric currents and magnetic fields, may directly control brain functions. The neuronal brain is not only supported by, but modulated by, the glial brain. (Becker)
Electromagnetism has effects on the "integration of brain function" in consciousness. Becker hypothesizes that DC and low-frequency extraneuronal electric currents generated in, or transmitted by, the glial components of the brain and may be the basis of perceptual awareness.”
Fear and Trembling
Frohlich (1988) found that our bodies- primordial high-speed networks -- vibrate continuously at light frequencies, because of huge electrical potentials and the high degree of molecular order or crystallinity in our tissues. This living matrix is a mechanical, vibrational, energetic, photonic, and informational network. Communication breakdown can lead to systems failures in microcircuitry and regulative processes.
A simple model can demonstrate that microvibrations are due to mechanical resonance. The oscillations are apparently elicited by the heartbeat. Therefore it appears that microvibrations are cardioballistic phenomena. This force is transmitted through the bones to soft tissues such as relaxed muscles. Local resonance finally leads to the oscillations.
Resonance is an important mechanism in energy healing, whether with electronic devices or energy therapists. Molecules are resonant antennas, emitting characteristic signals and responding to tiny signals of the appropriate frequencies. Once the appropriate frequency and amplitude are discovered, virtually any physiological process can be influenced with a tiny signal.
Human tremor is concentrated in the 3 - 20 Hz spectrum. Though some researchers report a spread of 6-12 Hz, Comby et al (1992) report the peak frequency of human tremor between 5.85 and 8.80 Hz, which averaged coincides closely with Schumann Resonance (7.83).
Microvibrations correspond closely with adaptation to levels of stimulation and psychological states, particularly states of ergotropic (sympathetic) and trophotrophic (parasympathetic) arousal. Tremor increases with stress and anxiety yet this very mechanism may be the key means of restoring equilibrium. “Tremor at rest” is the minimal tremor, which remains in the absence of voluntary muscular activity.
Human tremor can be measured with an instrument that connects a piezoelectric (pressure electricity) accelerometer with an electronic circuit to display the results. This signal is analyzed and converted via computer from analog to digital signal. Standardization of a tremor scale and the piezoelectric ceramic has made fabrication of an inexpensive yet satisfactory system possible for home use. Tremor can be measured from a standard measuring position and scale (Comby, 1992) and correlated with SR fluctuations. Appropriate psychophysical drivers and feedback systems can be employed to encourage resonance or entrainment for health or personal growth.
Tremor at rest can be separated from kinetic tremor, which is of much higher amplitude and has the same frequency range. The problem is partially solved by adopting a standard position, which includes "standing still" in the instructions given to the subject. However, some kinetic tremor still remains which is of much higher amplitude than tremor at rest. The best way to ensure that only tremor at rest is measured is to take into consideration only the lowest amplitude reached during the time of measurement.
Physiological tremor increases in states of anxiety or during emotional stress during which there is an increase in release of catecholamines from the adrenal medulla. Psychological stress increases tremor amplitude. Mental stress induces tremor even in healthy subjects. Panic attacks generate tremor from anxiety and psychophysical changes. Tremor can be experimentally produced in human subjects by stress-hormones such as adrenaline, coffee, tea or nicotine.
Comby’s results confirm a correlation between the impact on tremor of a relaxation session and the correlation between measured tremor and self-evaluated stress. His research links psychological stress (subjective "stress" or "nervousness") and tremor (objectively quantified).
Plasmas and Bioplasma
Plasma is the fourth state of matter (liquid, gaseous, solid). Living organisms are plasmas. Plasma physics has merged with biology; life is a highly energetic system, not just chemical processes. The optimal adaptation to receive any kind of information and relay it instantaneously to the entire mass of the system is found in plasma.
Plasma is a source of all types of waves, which feed back on the plasma and display mutual correlation. The manifestations of life may be ultimately summarized in terms of plasma and radiation. The secret of life lies in process control through small energy and with minimal noise. Plasma can be controlled only through fields, in particular magnetic fields.
The plasma approach to life points out that life is electric, however, its control takes place magnetically. Plasma is revealed by the emission of an electromagnetic field and is obedient only to this field, even a very weak one. The electronic processes of metabolism may be treated as a plasma state within the solid state of organic compounds.
Significantly, low-frequency biological rhythms display relations with the geophysical environment. The alpha rhythm of the human brain has a frequency of about 10 Hz, which is the same as the frequency of magnetohydrodynamic oscillations of the ionosphere, and of the vibrations of the Earth's crust. Magnetohydrodynamics is based on magnetic transmission over a plasma carrier. Sedlak proposes that magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) can be used to model living bioplasma.
The same frequency is found in the continuous vibrations of the entire organism's skeletal muscles in warm-blooded animals. For a human adult this frequency is 7 - 13 Hz, falling in the range of 8 - 12 Hz in 80% of subjects. The coincidence with the cerebral alpha waves lacks an explanation to date. The rhythm may be transmitted by waves through the organism as biological microvibrations. Plasma unites in itself the phenomena of electrodynamics, electronics, and hydrodynamics, even in the absence of a fluid medium. One of the manifestations of this situation is magnetohydroydnamic waves (MHD). The wave propagation of magnetic field fluctuations in plasma is analogous to ripples in a fluid medium, accompanied by real transport of magnetic energy.
Therefore, a biological system possesses its own magnetic information, highly sensitive to external field variations and unusually responsive to spin variations in organic structure. Magnetohydrodynamic waves and weak radiation are typical electromagnetic effects of plasma. Plasma -- the fundamental background for the processes of life -- is maintained in a constantly agitated state of generation and decay. This magnetohydrodynamic controlled state is correlated with metabolic process, such as anabolism-catabolism and oxidation. It is notably related to physiological currents and weakly luminescent effects (biophotons; bioluminescence).
What is formed is a complex signaling system -- involving electric, magnetic, optical and acoustic effects. This signaling system must operate not only on the level of single macromolecules like DNA, but also on that of groups of molecules, such as cells, tissues, organs and the organism, and above all on the level of the metabolism, as an ensemble of chemical processes.
Magnetic mechanisms control the plasma medium that has features of a conducting liquid. Here hydrodynamics combines with electrodynamics, yielding magnetohydrodynamic vibrations. The common factor of the entire system, namely the averaged-out electronic state of the metabolism, is likely a carrier and receptor of those controls. In more biological terms -- the entire metabolism is the fundamental control within a living system.
Living organisms respond to low-frequency fields. Because the separation of an electro-magnetic field into electric and magnetic vectors is an involved problem, the effects are usually attributed to the electric vector. The sensitivity of living systems to fluctuations of weak magnetic fields of planetary origin indicates that magnetic effects play an even more fundamental role.
A biological system displays not only an electronic "life" of its own, typical of protein semiconductors, but also a specific magnetic "life" endowed with a characteristic rhythm. Plasma repels magnetic field lines (or is itself repelled by them), or "freezes" field lines within itself.
Sedlak (1993) discusses how a living organism is both an information detector and generator and a transformer of electromagnetic energy. Biological systems generate their own magnetic mediums or plasma fields. A plasma responds to magnetic and electric fields, acoustic waves, mechanical action, gravitational fields, and temperature; in addition to depending on chemical composition. Plasma is the ideal carrier system of information within living organisms because it alters its own state with exceptional selectivity and responsiveness.
Bistolfi (1991) characterizes the borderline electronic-chemical reactions found in living tissue as a function of resonance. He offers a biophysical explanation for the acute sensitivity of living systems to electromagnetic influences in bioelectronic terms based on small and large groups of hydrogen bonds within molecular structures such as DNA and other nucleic acids.
Biochemical action and bioelectronic action meet at the quantum-junction. The keys to our physiology are also the keys to consciousness. Phenomena now considered esoteric may someday be explained in terms of bioelectronic interactions of energy and matter. What has been the realm of metaphysical healing may become a precise EM healing science. (Roffey)
“Understanding the nature of this correlation may enable us to characterize and further utilize various types of "healing energies". The paradigm for the application of these energies may develop into a basis for a variety of existing complementary medical practices. Integral portions of biological systems have been shown to be semiconducting, ferromagnetic and piezoelectric.
The biosemiconductor, together with the drift of charges, ions, and radicals, may be considered as a form of "bioplasma". Bioplasma may be subject to magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) control. The EM fields emitted by trained healers may be considered as coherent, resonant biomagnetic emissions by which a less coherent EM field of the patient is "tuned" to the specific frequency and phase, and through which homeostasis can be "aligned" to induce "healing".“ (Roffey)
Bioresonance: Resonant Frequency Therapies Interactions between electromagnetic fields and living matter are pursued on three levels:
Prevention: the way electromagnetic fields influence the development of illnesses.
Diagnosis: the way endogenous bio-electric signals and weak electrical and magnetic fields of bio-molecules correlate with the state of health.
Treatment: the way biological structures and functions can be modulated by means of electromagnetic fields.
Stanford cellular biologist, Bruce Lipton http://brucelipton.com characterizes the environment as awash in signals. Specific frequencies are informational signals. While the environment is in a sense "chaotic," with hundreds and thousands of simultaneously-expressed "signals," the cell can selectively read only those signals that are relevant to its existence.
Physiology reveals that most of the body's natural chemicals are released by an electrical signal or an electrochemical reaction. Can these same chemicals be released by applying an external electrical signal? Can different EM parameters stimulate different chemical systems? Simply stated, can externally applied bioelectromagnetic fields influence cell and organismal behavior and expression? The answer is a clear, resounding, and unequivocal, YES! Through event-related synchronization and desynchronization.
Electromagnetic energy fields, which include energies in the ranges of microwaves, radio-frequencies, the visible light spectrum, ELF and even acoustic frequencies, have been shown to profoundly impact every facet of biological regulation. Specific frequencies and patterns of electromagnetic radiation regulate: cell division; gene regulation; DNA, RNA and protein syntheses; protein conformation and function; morphogenesis; bone growth, regeneration; and nerve conduction and growth.
As evidence has mounted that bioeffects of EM fields that are not only dwarfed by much larger intrinsic bioelectric processes, but may also be substantially below the level of tissue thermal noise. Theoretical and experimental studies now seek the first transductive steps. Answers to that important question are currently sought in EM field interactions with free radicals that have a role at electric power frequencies and at the other extreme in the EM spectrum in bioeffects of millimeter waves. (Adey)
If electromagnetic fields can affect enzymes and cells, there is no reason of principle why one should not expect to be able to tailor a waveform as a therapeutic agent in much the same way as one now modulates chemical structures to obtain pharmacological selectivity. The high specificity of electromagnetic signals may result in the "direct targeting" of activity, without many of the side-effects common to pharmaceutical substances.
Integrative Biophysics
We are primarily energetic and informational beings with field dependent chemical reactions.
Typically, the treatment of biological effects of EM fields is restricted to ionizing radiation and membrane potentials. But Integrative Biophysics is more than a molecular-genetic approach to biology. It focuses on our intrinsic systemic holism, an inseparable whole with the environment, interconnection within and without the organism.
Professor Fritz-Albert Popp, a well-known biophysicist at Kaiserslautern University, Germany, states that:"All living organisms emit certain electromagnetic waves. If they are in a healthy condition, they emit more. If not, they emit less. This electromagnetic emission is called biophotons."
Biophotonics is a rapidly increasing field of current scientific research and applications, based on the discovery of biophotons, a permanent, weak photon current emanating from all living systems. The biophoton emission reflects some, if not all, of the essential biological and physiological activities in biological systems. Energy and information can move about the body through other means than nerve transmission and hormonal regulation via quantum coherence.
Biophotonics provides a powerful tool for investigating these electromagnetic interactions. The theoretical approach requires holistic models of living systems, rather than local analytical models. Consequently, these new insights into living matter create a new basis of "integrative biophysics" that is concerned with the questions of EM regulation, communication and organization of biological systems.
REFERENCES
Adey, Ross. Whispering Between Cells: Electromagnetic Fields and Regulatory Mechanisms in Tissue. MindNet Journal - Vol. 1, No. 50. VA Medical Center & University School of Medicine Loma Linda, California.
Adey, W.R. (1988) Physiological signalling across cell membranes and cooperative influences of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields. In: Biological Coherence and Response to External Stimuli (H. Frohlich, ed.) Springer-Verlag, Berlin, p. 148.
Becker, Robert O. (1992). Modern Bioelectromagnetics & Functions of the Central Nervous System. ISSSEEM Journal Volume 3 Number 1 1992
Bistolfi, F. and Brunelli, B. (2001). “On electromagnetic acoustic conduction in biology and medicine: a speculative review”. Physica Medica. Vol XVII N. 2, April-June 2001.
Bistolfi, F. (1990). The bioelectronic connectional system (BCS): a therapeutic target for nonionizing radiation. Panminerva Medica 32(1): 10-18.
Bistolfi, Franco (1991). Biostructures and Radiation Order Disorder. Edizioni Minerva Medica, Turin.
Bistolfi, F. (1987). Classification of possible targets of interaction of magnetic fields with living matter. Panminerva Med. 1987. Jan.-Mar., 29 (1): 71-3. PMID: 3601423.
Campbell, W. H. Geomagnetic pulsations. In Physics of Geomagnetic Pulsations, ed. S. Matsushita and W. H. Campbell, 821-909. New York: Academic Press, 1967.
Chouinard, Edmond (2004). “Mind-Matter Entanglement with Geomagnetic Fields”. Also, “Mind-Matter Entanglement with Telepathic Body Jerks”. MS, private correspondence with this author, 11/05/2004. Also, published in JNLRMI.
Comby, B. and M. Bouchoucha & al. (1992). A new method for the measurement of tremor at rest. International Archives of Physiology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics.
Allan H. Frey (ed) (1994). On the Nature of Electromagnetic Field Interactions with Biological Systems. Austin, TX: R.G. Landes Company.
Frohlich, H. (1988). “Biological Coherence in Response to External Stimuli”. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Lipton, Bruce, Ph.D. videotapes, titled “The Science of Innate Intelligence”: also “The Science of Innate Intelligence”, “The Biology of Belief” and “Nature, Nurture and the Power of Love”.
Miller, Iona (2005). Biophotons: We are a Temple of Living Light. Grants Pass, OR: O.A.K.
Miller R.A., Miller I. And Webb B (2002). “Quantum Bioholography”. JNLRMI, Vol. ! No. 3, Oct. 2002; www.emergentmind.org/MillerWebb3a.htm
Monroe, Robert
Oschman, James L (2000). Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance.
Popp, F.-A., et al (1979). Electromagnetic Bio-Information. Munich: Urban and Schwarzenberg.
Popp, F-A. (1989). "Biologie de la Lumiere", Ed. Pietteur, Liege.
Pearsall, Paul (1998). The Heart’s Code. New York: Broadway Books.
Roffey Line, Leanne E. (1994). "The bioelectronic basis for "healing energies"; charge and field effects as a basis for complementary medical techniques", in M.J. Allen, S. F. Cleary & A.E. Sowers (eds.) Charge and Field Effects in Biosystems -- 4, pp. 480-497. Singapore: World Scientific. www.bioelektronika.com As of the time of this review over 150 studies of "healing energies" have been reported in which the energy parameters were specified and controlled. More than half demonstrate statistical significance, p < 0.05.
Sedlak, W. (1971). Outline of Biological Magnetohydrodynamics Outline of Biological Magnetohydrodynamics. Wlodzimierz Sedlak, Ph.D. translated by Leane Roffey Line, Ph.D. and Jaroslaw Kempczynski, Ph.D. First appeared (in Polish) in the journal Kosmos A (Vol. 3, 1971) and later as Chapter 9 of Sedlak's book Bioelektronika. In 1993, the article was translated into English and published as an offprint by Dr. Leane Roffey Line with permission of the Sedlak Estate. www.bioelektronika.com/sedlak1971.htm
Williamson, Samuel J., Gian-Luca Romani, Lloyd Kaufman & Ivo Modena (eds) (1983) Biomagnetism: An Interdisciplinary Approach. New York: Plenum Press.
"Calm Birth is a sublime gift to us all. The positive impact of it on society cannote be overestimated."— Christiane Northrup, MD
Calm Birth is meditation practice for pregnancy, birth, parenthood, and beyond. Prenatal meditation helps birthing parents access inner calm. Calm birth is vital for the child.
Calm Birth was first presented in California and Oregon hospitals in 1997. The program has been training teachers internationally since 2005. Calm Birth is strongly endorsed by leading childbirth educators. The practice has been used in more than 14,000 births worldwide.
Meditation has vital benefits, such as a more complete kind of breathing: breathing both oxygen and vital energy. Meditation strengthens the immune system and enhances nervous system and neural functioning. Meditation improves the ability to work through challenges. It builds compassion and confidence. These benefits are passed on to the child within.
Whether you are planning a medical birth or a natural birth, please consider birth with complete breathing. Experience the healthiest kind of birth. Calm Birth meditation empowers pregnancy breath by breath, breathing calm into childbirth.
This kind of childbirth preparation gives women and their partners a calming practice they can use the rest of their lives. If you are a birth professional looking for a new way to empower your clients, Calm Birth offers teacher trainings on Skype or in groups. You will receive the same health benefits of meditation that you share with your clients. Please explore this website to learn more about the practices and benefits, order audioguides and books, and find or learn how to become a teacher.
For decades, meditation has been studied as a nonpharmacological healing method for ailments ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to chronic pain. Research consistently indicates that meditation has profound impacts on the mind and body, many of which stem from an increased ability to cope with stress.
The simple act of sitting into silence, watching the mind take over, and returning to a state of awareness lends itself beautifully to a world in which stressors are unavoidable: even with eyes open and during activity, a meditator can function from a state of inner calm.
Preconceived notions of meditation being or and demanding can be pushed aside: the meditations practiced in Calm Birth and the postnatal practices are simple, elegant, effective, and based in ancient Tibetan meditation science. “Calm” does not mean passive or still: to be “calm” is to function from the space of inner wisdom from which all action, movement, words, and decisions can arise.
Our era has been called the "Age of Anxiety." Stress causes an overproduction of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, suppressing important biological functions in order to shift energy into muscle systems in preparation to fight, fly, or freeze. Anxiety suppresses immune system function, but meditation brings adrenaline and cortisol levels down, restoring healthy endocrine balance. Meditation strengthens the immune system with major hormones, melatonin and DHEA, to give a vital basis for life and to promote healing from any aftereffects of birth. Less stress for the parents means that they are more emotionally and physically accessible to welcome the baby to the world.
Biological and psychological benefits of meditation are transmitted to a prenate through the pregnant woman’s bloodstream and placenta. The woman communicates with the child physically and energetically, influencing the production of beneficial neurohormones and neurotransmitters. Postnatal benefits will be transmitted to the child through lactation and breast-feeding and through sympathetic resonance. Before and after birth, meditation benefits are dual, inseparably benefiting the woman and the child.
Biological Benefits of MeditationThis subject has become vast, but with respect to directly influencing the quality of prenatal and perinatal health, the focus will be primarily on hormonal balance and immune system enhancement.
Anxiety pushes tolerance of pain to low levels; meditation restores normal tolerance of pain and produces endorphins, pleasure agents in the nervous system, so important for childbirth, reducing physical pain.
The chemical treatment of anxiety in pregnancy can be risky, but childbirth meditation is a safe, proven antidote to anxiety. Childbirth meditation reduces the need for medical interventions during labor, and brings biological enrichment.
DHEA DHEA, a life-enhancing hormone, was one of the first biological benefits of meditation to be observed. DHEA is produced in the adrenal glands, just above the kidneys. Issuing from the same glands that produce the stress hormones, elevated levels of DHEA imply reduced production of restrictive cortisol and adrenaline. DHEA has a variety of health-impacting benefits. It is an immune enhancement agent that has been proven to be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lupus and other conditions. DHEA stimulates the production of monocytes (T cells and B cells), potent immunity bio-chemicals that cause the production of other immune system agents. T cells (white blood cells produced in the bone marrow) produce two powerful immune system agents: interleulin-2 and gamma-interferon, intelligent defense agents that help maintain health. DHEA is good for the bones, muscles, blood pressure, vision and hearing. It is the substance from which the male and female hormones are developed and it is the source of vitality and youthfulness. DHEA is a mood elevator that makes people feel and look better. It enhances brain biochemistry and growth.
Anxiety and stress lower normal DHEA levels in the bloodstream. Meditation elevates DHEA levels. Thus meditation during pregnancy, in offering potentially ideal hormonal function, conveys elevated levels of vivifying DHEA to the womb child, and, through lactation and breast- feeding, to the child after birth.
MelatoninMeditation produces elevated levels of melatonin, the hormone secreted by the pineal gland located at the center of the brain. Melatonin many be the most potent and versatile antioxidant. It directly stimulates interleukin (IL-2) activity which in turn stimulates the increase of all the various cells of the immune system, in a pervasive, global optimization of immune function. Melatonin directly restores and increases T-helper cell production in bone marrow. In stress-inducing times, which tend to cause detrimental hormonal imbalances, strong levels of melatonin in the bloodstream, naturally induced by pregnant women, are a sign that they are engaged in effective prenatal care. Melatonin is renowned as a sleep-aid. Especially when produced naturally to elevated levels, it helps establish normal sleep and rest even in challenging situations. Melatonin is known to have a calming effect, bringing contentment and improved mood.
EndorphinsMeditation is also known to produce endorphins, peptides secreted throughout the nervous system that have a very strong pain-relieving and pleasure-inducing effect, similar to that of morphine. Endorphin production is important to a woman in avoiding the risks of medical interventions and in gaining confidence in her natural abilities in childbirth.
Pain toleranceAnother important benefit derived from meditation is increased tolerance of pain based on psychological factors. Extensive research conducted at the UMMC (Murphy & Donovan, 1999, p.77-78) demonstrated statistically significant reductions in the following: present moment pain, negative body image, inhibition of activity, mood disturbance, anxiety and depression, and the need for pain-related drug utilization. The implications for childbirth are evident.
Murphy and Donovan describe published research in the following psychological benefits of meditation:
Extended Perceptual Ability
Quick Alert Reaction Time
Field Independence
Concentration
Empathy
Creativity
Self-Actualization
In a pregnant woman, the above benefits of meditation will likely entrain the womb child, through sympathetic resonance, to develop these inherent traits.
Blood PressureOne of the first important health effects of meditation to be discovered by modern medicine was that it lowers blood pressure. Today there is strong evidence that meditation helps lower blood pressure and heart rate. The findings have been replicated in many studies (Murphy and Donovan, The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation, IONS, 1999). Childbirth meditation directly reduces blood pressure and heart rate, lowering the risk of hypertension and potential preterm brain damage.
Other observed benefits of childbirth meditation:In their important study (2003) Vieten and Astin concluded what common sense and countless thousands of women who meditated during pregnancy have indicated: meditation significantly reduces prenatal anxiety and stress. Furthermore, “Experts suggest that the practice of meditation by the mother can reduce high levels of neurological and endocrine [stress] chemicals that could be detrimental to the newborn." (Giobbi, M.; 2011, p. 1)
Two recent studies from Thailand are significant. Because of the great concern in the USA about preterm birth, a primary factor in the high infant morbidity and mortality rates in USA, a major Thai hospital study (2011) on the prevention of preterm birth through the intervention of meditation is important. The study concludes that meditation is a promising technique for reducing the incidence of preterm birth. Recommendations were made for further research in this area.
Another recent hospital study in Thailand, “Incorporating Buddhist Clear Clean Mind Meditation into Natural Childbirth Practices”, concludes: “Clear Clean Meditation should be encouraged during natural childbirth, through labor and delivery, in other hospitals in Thailand. Other observed benefits of meditation with significant implications for childbirth are as follows: Benson (1996) noted cesarean section surgery reduced by 56% and epidural anesthesia use reduced by 85% among meditators.
All together, increased attention to the child, increased pain management skills, increased levels of endorphins and important hormones, should be important incentives for women who don’t want to risk chemicals and anesthesia in childbirth.
As we discover more and more dimensions of physiological and psychological function, and as mind/body methods become more and more a part of childbirth medicine and the focus of research, we’ll learn more about the potential benefits of meditation in childbirth. Please note that meditation should not be used solely as a medical treatment for physical ailments, but it can be a powerful complement to any health challenges. Please consult your doctor if any medical concerns arise.
Prenatal maternal depression and stress has been associated with negative impacts on the embryo, ranging from greater fear reactivity as infants to increased disposition toward depression and anxiety disorders as adults. Exposure to heightened levels of stress hormones in utero prepares the offspring to survive in a stressful extrauterine environment. This means that the child will be born with more cortisol in his or her system and less receptors to process it and return the body to a neutral, relaxed state of being.
Not all stress during pregnancy is negative: in fact, some cortisol exposure is necessary for the formation of the lungs and central nervous system (this is a good thing, as parts of the transition into parenthood are intrinsically stressful!). However, excessive anxiety is to be avoided, for the sake of the parents and the child. Pharmaceutical antianxiety and anti-depression medications have not been sufficiently tested to be safe for pregnancy. Meditation is a nonpharmacological method that is consistently shown to help people cope with stressful situations and receive biological benefits therein.
A study in 2015 examined the impact of prenatal meditation on the offspring, and found that infants whose mothers meditated had healthier cortisol levels at birth, five weeks of age, and five months of age, and they consistently scored higher on behavioral assessments. If prenatal stress exposure impacts the development of the fetus negatively, it stands to reason that the positive impacts of meditation are passed on in the same vein: babies who are exposed to elevated levels of DHEA, melatonin, oxytocin, and other beneficial hormones may be born more predisposed to the compassion, empathy, and feelings of connectedness and empowerment experienced by many meditators.
Physiological benefits aside, children whose parents model healthy coping strategies, self-care practices, and interpersonal connectedness will be more likely to embody these attributes as they grow. The offspring of meditators may be predisposed to live healthy, happy, productive lives.
Have you ever watched a baby or child breathe? Look closely: you will see the belly rise on the inhale and fall on the exhale. Intuitively, we are born knowing how to breathe completely. As we grow older, our breath rises up into our lungs, until we are breathing quick, shallow breaths as a regular practice. This is traditionally how humans breathe when panicked, and in doing so we activate the stress-response system, releasing adrenaline cortisol, ready to fight or fly. If we breathe this way all the time, our body's sympathetic nervous system responds in kind, and we are perpetually in a state of stress, while not receiving full oxygenation.
Calm Birth introduces the practice of complete breathing: intending the air and the energy within it down and into the energy center. This “center” resides about three finger-widths above and below the navel. It has been called the naval chakra, hara, and other names in many traditions. Here, it is referred to as the Vase of Life: a luminous, soft vase that can be filled with life-giving energy for the meditator and the child growing within.
The breathing of vital energy from the air is an element of Buddhist, Tai Chi, Qi Kung, and Hindu meditation science. The vital energy in the air, traditionally called prana or chi, is life-giving energy of the universal field. The energy is ubiquitous and may be directly sensed and breathed. As evidenced by the belly-breathing of babies and children, humans are made to breathe this way. People have been intentionally breathing energy for centuries in various traditions.
Breathing vital energy from the air into the Vase helps shift from mind to awareness, bringing two remarkable assets to childbirth: a method to see and release any anxiety and fear may arise, and increased ability to cope with the sensations of labor from a place of calm and empowerment. Womb Breathing strengthens the woman’s immune system and strengthens her ability to distinguish between mind and awareness, and between pain and suffering. This practice can be carried forth into any type of birth, from homebirth to cesarean, so that the mother and partner may feel a sense of inner peace and empowerment, and a connection to the child being born.
These practices are not only for pregnancy and childbirth: meditation will optimally be carried into every breath of life. Meditation’s blessings of compassion, health, empathy, connection, ability to appraise challenges positively and cope with stress healthfully, are incredibly beneficial during parenthood and beyond. This is why we offer Calm Mother and Calm Healing: so that you can continue to empower life.
The Medicine Wheel and CRP by Graywolf Swinney, 2001
Old Ezekial saw a wheel a-rolling way in the middle of the air. A wheel within a wheel a-rolling, way in the middle of the air. And the big wheel ran by faith, and the wheel ran by the grace of God, Old Ezekial saw a wheel a-rolling, way in the middle of the air.
The four directions of healing is one model or organization that can be used to describe the steps in healing processes in general. It does not drive the processes, but is a means of organizing four key steps or stages in healing, and most specifically relates to natural or spiritual healing. It directly applies to the Consciousness Restructuring Process (CRP) and derives from the medicine circle, or wheel used by aboriginal tribes throughout the world but, most particularly the Americas.
The particular version of the wheel described in this article comes from Central America as described by shaman Don Edwardo who was studied and his work chronicled by Dr. Alberto Villaldo, a well known psychological anthropologist, (author of Healing States with Stanley Krippner). We have added our own notions about the way that the wheel relates to the more contemporary healing processes and specifically the CRP.
All healing processes involve passing through each of the four directions of the wheel, and each direction represents a principle that applies to life in general, as well as healing. Each of the four directions has a guide or totem that represents this principle. Each of the four directions also represents a cardinal compass point. In native American teachings, it is stated that one constantly travels around this circle and in so doing attains harmony and balance, and comes full circle. This may indeed be the purpose of any or all diseases, to provide an evolutionary opportunity for an individual organism to evolve.
I derived this model in a brief flurry of panic under the following circumstances: I had been invited to address an early breakfast meeting of a large group of healers of all persuasions. The talk was to be on Shamanism, and in particular to discuss the contents of medicine bag, how they had come to me and how I used them. That morning when I went to get into my car, it had been burglarized and my medicine bag had been stolen. I was due to talk in about ten minutes and now had no topic, or at the very least had lost my props. The following model is what I presented. It seemed that by just speaking and listening to what I said, the following notions came forth. This event is chronicled in The Empty Medicine Bag.
The East
The first of the four directions is the East. It is where the sun rises and comes back into our sight and awareness each day. It is the direction that brings light into the world so that we can see what is about us. It represents the beginning of each day when we re-awaken to the seeing and sensing of the outer world.
The teacher or totem of the east is the Eagle and the lesson it brings to us is that of the "eagle's eye." The eagle can spot a tiny mouse in a field from great heights and swoop down to feed on it. It is this acuity of vision that represents the lesson of the east.
The healing principles involved are about seeing or sensing. The first step in healing is to see or sense that we have a disease, the nature of it, and that healing is needed. For us personally, this is the stage when we become aware of the symptoms either directly or though our dreams. We must sense or see that we do indeed have a disease and understand its nature.
The symptoms alert us to a condition that needs attention. Indeed in all forms of healing we must identify what it is that needs to be changed, physical, mental, or spiritual. In medical practice this is the stage at which the diagnosis is made. Only by making a valid diagnosis can the physician provide treatment according to medical criteria or protocol.
In psychological healing we must realize that we have a condition that needs to be resolved. The joke about "How many psychologists are needed to change a light bulb?" is germane here. The answer is "Only one, but the bulb has to want to be changed."
Spiritual malaise is often much more difficult to identify. We often only realize it through our physical or mental symptoms.
The first step when one goes to an allopathic doctor is for the doctor to diagnose the illness. It is only after knowing what the illness is, that the doctor can undertake a treatment. Added to this, the comment made by Sir William Ostler is applicable, "It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease, than what sort of a disease a patient has." One needs to see the patient as a full person rather than as only a disease. In this much more holistic and humanistic approach, one still needs to see or sense the nature of the condition and come to know the nature of the one with the condition before treatment can be administered.
With respect to the CRP, this stage of the East involves identifying the nature of the problem in its many manifestations. This is done in partnership with the patient. For example a client shows up suffering from great discomfort of being in confined spaces. The psychologist might get more specific information but has probably already formed a tentative diagnosis of claustrophobia. He would probably ask questions to confirm the diagnosis and perhaps explore the etiology of the condition. The mentor, however, would further pursue the matter by asking about how the condition may present physically or spiritually as well. In this he might also discover that the patient has fibromyalgia and in further questioning may find that the person also feels restricted in their marriage and occupation. They may be feeling the limitations of their religion or lack of it. (See Fibromyalgia and CRP by Swinney and Kuehn, Chaosophy 2000).
Thus the fundamental nature of the illness is seen to be a factor much broader than merely a psychological disorder, and to manifest in many aspects of the patient's life. It weaves a thread throughout the tapestry of their experience of life. It is this sense of being restricted that is more fundamental to the disease, and that manifests as many other symptoms. This is to be discovered and revealed in the phase of the East. During treatment the mentor and the mentored may revisit the east many times as the layers of the disease reveal themselves. Dreams have within them the ability to help us to sense or diagnose that there is a problem long before it manifests as an actual disease. This has been a recognized characteristic of dreams since the dawn of human presence on the planet.
In the CRP journey process, the journey itself often addresses this stage of healing. What might identify such a journey is an apparent lack of resolution, and being left without completion. However, both the mentor and the mentored have had a fuller experience of the disease or discomfort and may find that the information presented by the unconscious during the journey gives a fuller and more multi-dimensional experience of the issue, and provides information about its etiology.
One client, for example, bolted out of a journey and was unwilling to resume the process. He had encountered a deep blackness that scared him. This was consistent with one of his diagnoses, paranoia. On re-entry, he stated that the blackness had triggered thoughts of a Black Widow spider. His mother had considered herself as such and had even signed notes to her family as the "Black Widow."
He had been over controlled and the life taken out of him by this woman. The journey was in and of itself complete in that it revealed this heretofore unknown data at a very visceral level and demonstrated its effect on the patient. This image of the female as a black widow had adversely shaped his attitudes and perceptions of relationships with women his whole life, and proved to be necessary to his future work and evolution.
In other senses, all CRP journeys may incorporate this as one component of the process. We can not begin to heal until we know that healing is needed and understand the nature of the crisis. This is the lesson of the east. For example, when one encounters the experience of the Primal Existential Sensory Image, this is a profound insight into the dynamics or nature of the self and the disease's dynamics. In that most journeys reach the level of experiencing the primal existential sensory image, they reveal the primal sensory pattern of the disease. This is the last stage in which the ego is involved and leads to the next step of the healing process, and entering into the transpersonal. This happens in the South.
The South
The medicine wheel is based on the circle of the sun. When the sun is seen to be in a given direction, in this case the south, it is characterized by what happens there in the southern sky. When this is the case, it is the time of winter. It is cold, not much happens outside and most of our activities take place in the shelter of our buildings or lodges. What leads or brings into the south or winter is the fall or autumn, when the trees let go of their leaves and cold takes its grip on the earth.
Echoing this natural pattern the CRP is almost entirely a process of letting go and becoming; of entering into the cold or blackness of the void.
In the cold, things become still; they do not grow. Indeed, even the very motion of the atoms ad molecules is slowed down. Things become brittle and shatter easily, losing their form as they break or dissolve into the chaos of many scattered pieces.
The guide of the south is the Snake. The snake grows by shedding its old brittle skin. Once new, soft and flexible, it protected and defined the snake. The skin, eventually, however, becomes old and brittle and confining. The snake becomes confined by this old skin and cannot grow inside it but must shed it to develop a new larger and more flexible skin. So too the diseases we incorporate were once solutions to problems we faced, and these solutions protected and defined us. As times evolve and our lives change, these old solutions become brittle and confining to us, so we must shed them.
The problem is that we often become attached to the old skin, and are unwilling to let it go, so the next stage of healing is to be willing to let the disease go. It is not always easy to do. Many who seek psychological help have the agenda of wanting the therapist to magically change those who they consider to be their problem.
For example, the paranoia of the client about the Black Widow nature of women was very protective for him. It also defined who he was around women. He had developed his body strength and muscle through rigorous daily workouts with weights, however his obsession with this had created a stiff and inflexible body, which was contributing to fibromyalgia or arthritic like muscle pains. He was strong but brittle, and could not flow. Moreover, he kept asking and plotting how to get his current girlfriend(s)) to change.
The skin he had developed to help him survive with his mother, who was likely insane, was now no longer serving him, and in fact was the basis of his physical and mental afflictions. As a child he had come to believe that only by being very strong and tough could he survive his mother. The idea of giving up that protective skin was terrifying to him and he fought to hang on to it. He was as a snake, not wanting or willing to lose its skin and become vulnerable and sensitive. His evolution was stuck.
The task of the south is to let go of the disease, as the snake sheds its skin. This exposes our sensitive inner being to the world, and makes us vulnerable. Many failures in healing stem from this stage. Often the patient will discontinue or stop treatment if it looks about to succeed.
For example, an other mentoree suffered from multiple sclerosis. It had manifested in response to a prayer in a particularly abusive relationship and eventually got her out of it. This disease, however, now identified her and largely defined her relationship with her new husband. It allowed her leisure, space and safety which had been lacking in both her family of origin and her first marriage. When the MS appeared to be going into remission, this threatened her relationship with her new husband, which was based in her illness and his need to have someone ill in his life, and also threatened her identity. These factors caused her to discontinue her healing work on it, at least with me.
Letting go of the disease takes us away from what has grown to be familiar and casts us into the chaotic maelstrom of the unknown. Yet it is a necessary step. It is in this chaos and vulnerability that the old forms dissolve or die so that we can be reborn. We must let go into chaotic consciousness and trust or have faith in our organism's ability to heal or self regulate. ("The big wheel rang by faith...").
In my own recent brush with death I recall as I was being wheeled into emergency surgery, letting go and putting my faith into the process I was experiencing. I am convinced that this was very crucial to my surviving the ordeal.
In the journey process, this going into a death experience is integral to the process. Otherwise we are only putting a superficial patina down to cover the disease. The old must die in order for a true rebirth to occur. The energy of the illness must pass into the cold of winter and death to be shattered and transformed into the renewed life and energy that emerges with spring. This is the lesson of the south and carries us around the wheel into the west.
The West When the sun travels into the western sky, it brings the night. During the night we are still inside our lodges and it is in this time that we find release in the little death of sleep. In this little death we encounter our dreams. Night is the time of darkness, and in the darkness our senses are enhanced. This too is in the nature of dreams, this enhanced sensitivity and also the ability to see or imagine what is yet to become, to dream.
The totems of the west are the black bear, the wolf, the panther, creatures of the evening and night who are familiar with finding their way through the darkened landscape, in this case the selfscape. They do so through their enhanced senses. Dreams too, through their enhanced sensitivity, guide us through the darkness, but dreams also provide us with occasional glimpses of the future, tell us what is to be. It is in the west that the new image of who we are to become emerges from within us.
This is the next stage of healing. After shedding the old skin, entering the chaos of loss of self to become unbound Self, ("And the little wheel turned by the grace of God..."). We must find within this realm of spirit, the image of our new self. It is a case of creating the seed image that will grow to become what we may be, that will provide the new image that will shape us, and let us experience what we may become.
It takes place in REM and we have hypothesized elsewhere ("Remembering REM," and HOLOGRAPHIC HEALING), that REM may indeed be the consciousness in which we restructure both physiological and mental dynamics into healthy process.
In the CRP, this is experienced as the emergence from the chaotic consciousness or the unbound Self of a new sense of self. In the CRP, the old image, the primal image dissolves into chaos and from this emerges a new and different sense of self; it is a creative, self-organizing process. The organism begins to take on this new image but it is formed in the chaos and creativity of our REM or dream consciousness. This is the lesson of the west. It is the gift of REM. It is the newly born self, a gift from the Self.
When we experience, embrace and indeed become this new sense of self, it provides the blue print for the eventual presentation of new behaviors and body structures. This takes place in the completion of the circuit around the wheel, to the direction of the North.
The North As the sun moves into the northern sky, it brings with it the warmth and rebirthing of spring. When the sun reaches the northern sky it becomes the time of summer, the time when the seeds planed become mature, and the fruits and seeds ripen to feed and sustain us.
These are the healing principles of the journey into the North. Once we have experienced the birth and inner presence of the new sense or image of self, we must let it grow and mature, much as the fruits and seeds need to mature in the summer heat or become useful to us in our lives. The totem of the North is the Owl, and Owl guides us "through the valley of the shadow of death." Indeed each healing journey is the death of something within us, a mental problem, a cancer or an ulcer, or millions of viruses, to allow our continued evolution. In this way the north and the owl see us throughout the entire circuit around the medicine wheel.
In the CRP this follows after the inner journey and represents the bringing out of the new self image. It begins during the re-entry process as the mentor and mentored dialogue about the journey and how to allow this new image of self to express in daily life. It continues on for months or years after the journey, providing new insights into the healing and revealing new skills expressed in behavior, attitudes and perceptions of life. In deed it is the emergence of a new wisdom about the self.
This wisdom is another characteristic that we have imparted to the owl, the image of the wise old owl. This coming to wisdom brings us to a new enlightenment about the self and allows us to see ourselves in a new light which in its turn brings us back to the East, and the next healing journey around the medicine wheel. In this way the the wheel is seen to be wheels rotating within wheels, spirals of evolution bringing us to every increasing maturity, health and wisdom. May the circles be unbroken and lead one into the next.
c, 2001, Asklepia Foundation
THE QUANTUM BODYMIND by Graywolf Swinney and Iona Miller Asklepia Foundation, c2000
ABSTRACT: Where does a thought or an emotion come from? How is it formed? Sometimes thoughts are suggested by previous thoughts; they are part of a serial flow, one following the previous one. Sometimes they arise out of nothing, and sometimes we find ourselves seeing things differently and thinking about them differently than ever before--a burst of creativity. How does this happen? This could be a description of spontaneous emergence through complex dynamic processes at the quantum level. The quantum body-mind exists on the creative edge of spacetime reality. It is a self-organizing, emergent force of consciousness which arises from the formless level of reality in which there is no distinction between matter and energy. This quantum zone is where something is created from nothing or the sum of all possibilities. The primordial consciousness field patterns and conditions our primal existential self.
Chaos is the transformative process by which outmoded structures dissolve and new ones create themselves. The quantum mind-body floats on an ocean of undifferentiated potential or chaotic consciousness. It draws on the emerging waves to form our personal reality. Our ordinary reality forms just this side of the Unbound Self--our state of Godness. Consciousness does exist and operate at the quantum level of reality and affects the nature or course of reality just as our thoughts and other consciousness activities do at the macro levels of reality. Individual consciousness may be abstracted from an underlying pool of consciousness, in the same way as the observed quantum wave packet is collapsed from an overall wave function. A basic unit of consciousness is described as a "conscioutron," which is neither a wave nor a particle of consciousness but is the potential for both. Conscioutrons are fundamental units of consciousness energy-matter arising from the consciousness field. They are the basis of all our sensations, thoughts, emotions, and conscious awareness. Out of infinite possibility, out of the constant flux of infinite possibilities, a quantum shift can create a different reality, a healing shift, a creative restructuring of the whole person.
Physicist H.P. Stapp states that, "The recent resurgence of interest in the foundations of quantum theory has led increasingly to a focus on the role of consciousness in the unfolding of physical reality. It has become clear that the revolution in our conception of matter wrought by quantum theory has completely altered the complexion of the relationship between mind and matter."
Quantum physics describes a fundamental or primal level or zone of reality formation. It is the level of reality in which there is no distinction between matter and energy. It is the level at which this matter-energy stuff arises (is created) from an infinite field of possibilities. If these are the fundamental dynamics from which the universe is being created, then these dynamics must also exist and express within each of us and must also be the basis of each of us. We will coin the phrase "the quantum body-mind," to use when referring to this level of the self. The quantum body-mind exists on this creating edge of space-time reality. On one side of this zone or level lies a vast complexity of formlessness, or unrealized infinite potential, the complex forces and dynamics that underlie the creation of reality. It is the implicate order defined by physicist David Bohm. On the other side of it are the structures that we perceive as our personal reality, the experiences and forms of self and environment that structure the existential perceptions that are our experience of self, environment and the relationship between the two. This quantum zone is where something is created from nothing or the sum of all possibilities. It is where the processes of the Creator work in each of us to produce an experience of reality and personal evolution. (See Figure 1).
Structure and formlessness embrace on this line and dance to the rhythms of creative processes. On the one hand the dance solidifies the patterns that are experienced as our primal existential Self. On the other hand the old structures and rhythms or patterns that need transformation dissolve in this dance to ever evolve into new expressions of physical and mental self. In the most fundamental sense, it is the eternal evolutionary dance of the Hindu God, Shiva. The old and outmoded structures dissolve--die--and new ones create themselves. It is here that space-time reality starts and evolution is the everlasting, ever-present and ongoing process of reality.
It is at this level where the conception of a thought and the birth of a cell are just different presentations of the same dynamic consciousness processes. Both cell and thought emerge from the same underlying stuff that expresses itself as either matter or energy. At this level of quantum reality, the undifferentiated stuff has the potential to be both, and perhaps even more than that. The quantum mind-body floats in this ocean of undifferentiated or chaotic consciousness. It draw on the emerging waves to form our personal reality. It is just this side of the unbound self or our state of Godness.
The consciousness dynamics of the quantum body-mind, or what we label "quantum consciousness" is different than the "chaotic consciousness" identified in other writings, (Swinney, 1999). To understand this difference we must first explore the nature of consciousness.
Figure 1: Quantum Continuum We propose the hypothesis that Consciousness, too, operates at the quantum level. It exists as energy-matter, and at its most basic or primal level is a field. Field processes can be described either in terms of fields or particles. We further presume that the natural processes describing field phenomena in general (such as electric or magnetic fields) as they manifest and operate in the reality of the space-time continuum also apply to consciousness field as it too emerges into space and time. In fact, we speculate that consciousness field may actually be the unified field or the basis of all fields that Einstein was seeking throughout the last half of his life.
The Case for Consciousness Field: We suggest that a consciousness field exists because there are certain observable and well-documented phenomena that are best or most simply and elegantly explained by the existence of a consciousness field. We know that fields exist in general because they interact with and affect matter and energy, through such means as polarization. In fact, all fundamental fields known to physics correspond to specific vacuum polarization-states. It seems likely that cosmos and consciousness are interconnected by a continuous information-conserving and transmitting field, as suggested by Bohm's implicate order. This flow is what determines the geometrical structure of space-time.
These observable effects are what imply the existence of a field. For example, when we pass a wire close by a magnet (and through its field), this induces the flow of electricity in the wire. This implies the existence of a magnetic field producing an observable and measurable space-time phenomenon in the form of an electric current.
These phenomena are best described and understood by quantum physics, the physics that describes the reality of microcosmic events. However, as with electricity, their effects are also observable in the macro world of human experiences. One of many examples of this with respect to consciousness is the experience of synchronicity.
As the term, coined by Jung, is currently used synchronicity occurs when events mysteriously line up to create an effect on matter or influence events' outcomes or directions. There is a meaningful coincidence at the level of both psyche and matter simultaneously. For example, I need to find an obscure reference and am not sure where to start looking, or where I had first encountered it. I unexpectedly receive a phone call from an old friend who hasn't contacted me for several years. In our conversation recalling old times together, without prior reference to it, he casually mentions the missing data and its source. Often we are thinking of a friend, and as we go to pick up the phone to call, it rings and they are on the line.
Synchronicity or psi? Spontaneous healing, a mind-body phenomenon, is another example. All things are simply connected, through a fundamental pattern: the information-conserving and transmitting universal holofield. Although classical science has tended to explain these types of events away as coincidence or accidental chronistic alignments, we tend to think that Einstein's contention that "God would not play dice with the universe," is more likely true. There seem to be, in our experience, just too many such synchronicities that occur to seriously consider statistical chance as the only or even the best explanation for them.
Quantum Theory itself suggests that consciousness exists at the levels of quantum reality, and in fact may ultimately be responsible for quantum level events. "How," the physicists ask, "does an electron know what its pair partner is doing unless they are connected or conscious of one another?" This refers to the theory that for every electron with a positive spin, there is another electron, its pair partner, with a negative spin.
Physicists have demonstrated this experimentally. By changing the spin on one electron they are able to measure the complimentary change in the spin on its pair partner even though the two electrons are separated in space. Another example is the double slit experiment. An electron arriving at one slit and passing through it must have consciousness about another electron arriving at the other slit in order to produce the observed interference pattern beyond the slits.
The simplest and most direct answer to these questions suggests that the electrons are exchanging information and each is "conscious" of the dynamics of the other. This consciousness or connection suggests among other things that a consciousness field is operating on or influencing events in the universe just as do magnetic and gravity fields. Non-locality is one way that this characteristic is often labeled in quantum physics, but this label does not exclude consciousness field -- it elaborates it and can help us define it. Inherent in this is the notion that consciousness, in the broadest sense, may in part be information or awareness about the state of beingness has of itself, and the rest of the universe. That is certainly one way we can define human consciousness: the awareness of self and the environment.
Another example of consciousness field operating is the phenomenon of entrainment. As it operates in either non-living or living systems, it has never really been explained by classical physics. Both types of system display the ability to become synchronous with other similar systems when their frequencies are close to one another. Some examples of entrainment we experience are observing two swinging pendulums slightly out of phase come into phase on their own with no known external connection or mechanism operating. Electronic circuits do the same (the automatic fine-tuning feature of FM radios), or women's menses becoming synchronous when living closely together or in close relationships. When each system is in proximity to another similarly periodic system, they soon match up. We believe this too suggests the existence of a consciousness field operating in and affecting the material universe at the fundamental level of information.
This notion of consciousness field can also explain widely reported ESP phenomena such as remote viewing, which classical science cannot. In fact, it generally ignores such phenomena because it has rejected and excluded consciousness from all its considerations and models. Henry P. Stapp (1995), a theoretical physicst, states it well. He notes that, "Classical mechanics arose from the banishment of consciousness to find that the readmission of consciousness requires going beyond that theory."
We also suggest that it is far simpler to go beyond the limits of classical science in these instances and to posit the existence of a consciousness field to explain the aforementioned, and many other similar phenomena. It is much more elegant to do so than to embrace the many convoluted contentions of chance, coincidence, fraud or other non-answers and denials usually offered by classical science when it considers such phenomena.
The point here is that consciousness does exist and operates at the quantum level of reality, and it does seem to affect the nature or course of reality through minor perturbations in the flow of microevents, just as our thoughts and other consciousness activities do at the macro levels of reality.
The Nature of Quantum Reality: Consciousness Field and the "Conscioutron"
One can conceive of fields as potential energy-matter existing on the edges of space and time. In this quasi field phase, neither matter nor energy yet exists. A field is potential for such. A magnetic field has no substance. It is only potential matter or energy. When influenced by a magnetic field, electrons (quanta of electricity) are influenced to flow through a conductor as an electric current. This current is an event and measurable in the reality we sense and perceive and it is what tells us that the electro-magnetic field exists.
The electron is the basic unit of energy-particle or the quantum that is created from the field. It is the primal or initial way that the underlying field manifests into the space-time universe. Similarly a photon is a quantum of light and graviton is a quantum of gravity. Light expresses itself as energy or wave patterns, or in its solid form, as photons of matter.
Physicist and author Fritjof Capra (1981) states that, "independent of my mind, my conscious decisions about how to observe say an electron will determine the electron's properties. If I ask it a particle question, it will give me a particle answer, if I ask it a wave question it will give me a wave answer. The electron does not have objective properties." Which aspect is manifested depends on the observer and what is being studied. These types of dynamics are what define the level of quantum reality and its inherent anti-intuitive strangeness, which doesn't conform to the observable mechanics of ordinary experience.
The same process goes on in the body-mind at subtle levels. Deepak Chopra (1989) points out that, "Thanks to messenger molecules, events that seem totally unconnected--such as a thought and a bodily reaction--are now seen to be consistent. The neuro-peptide isn't a thought, but it moves with thought, serving as a point of transformation. The quantum does exactly the same thing, except that the body in question is the universe, or nature as a whole."
Thus, thoughts are somehow connected to hidden processes that transform nonmatter into matter, by going directly to the source of the body-mind's existence in space-time. A journey into this mysterious zone can have amazingly positive results; the transformation must occur here or the rest of the cascading events will not happen. What makes DNA mysterious, according to Chopra "is that it lives right at the point of transformation, just like the quantum. Its whole life is spent creating more life...constantly transferring messages from the quantum world to ours."
Matter and energy come out of the primordial state as a "singularity," the compression of all the expanded dimensions of the universe. When a mental event needs to find a physical counterpart, it works through the quantum mechanical human body, molecules that are "smart" instead of inert. We again invoke physicist David Bohm's (1980) notion of an "invisible field" that holds all of reality together, a field that inherently possesses the property of knowing what is happening everywhere at once.
Like the thought and the neuro-peptide, light cannot be a wave and a photon at the same time; it is either one or the other. Light is one small band in the electromagnetic spectrum. The amount of electromagnetic energy that makes up a particle of matter is described by Einstein's famous equation that Energy equals mass times the speed of Light, squared. But this quantitative equation only tells us the amount of energy associated with the particle. It does not, however, describe how the energy and matter coexist and manifest as reality.
Bohm's theory is that the waves of energy created or emerging from the infinite potential or implicate order form an interference pattern or hologram that we perceive as the solid universe. This holonomic theory provides the basis for all the material phenomena in the universe, with solidity, substance and motion being added by interactions of electromagnetic, gravity, and time fields, (Swinney, 1999).
Similarly we suggest that consciousness field exists as a potential throughout all the space-time universe and operates by the same principles. The basic quanta of consciousness might be called a "conscioutron," which is neither a wave nor a particle but is the potential for both. Both our physical substance and our psyche's energy are continually forming at this level. The realms of mind and matter are complementary aspects of the same transcendental reality.
This transcendental realm is the subquantum virtuality of the vacuum potential (Zero-Point Field, ZPF), a field which has the properties of a superfluid. Objects move through this fluid without encountering resistance as in ordinary flow-states. The quantum vacuum is a universal torsion wave carrying medium. All objects, from quanta to galaxies, create vortices in the vacuum. The vortices created by particles and other material objects are information carriers, linking physical events quasi-instantaneously.
Since not just physical objects, but also the neurons of our brains create and receive torsion-waves, not only particles are "informed" of each other's presence (as in the EPR experiments), also humans can be so informed and integrated in the cosmic Whole, or universal holofield. Our brain is a vacuum-based "torsion-field transceiver," (Laszlo, 1996). This suggests a physical explanation not only of quantum non-locality, but also of synchronicity, telepathy, remote viewing and other psi effects.
The quantum body-mind is the level of our organism in which conscioutrons operate. Just as electrons are the smallest energy-particle of electricity, conscioutrons are the fundamental units of consciousness energy-matter rising from consciousness field. How many conscioutrons it takes to make up, say a protein, a thought, an emotion or a sensation is open to speculation.
The flow of conscioutrons is the basis of all consciousness just as the flow of electrons is the basis of electricity. Conscioutrons are the basis of all of our sensations, thoughts, emotions, and conscious awareness. Electricity is most readily detected when it flows as a current and it is when it is flowing that it directly influences or effects the material world. In an analogous manner consciousness flow is the way consciousness field affects the material world and is what we usually refer to as being conscious.
We can conceive of consciousness field as being a primal sea of chaotic or undifferentiated consciousness. Emerging from this sea of consciousness are conscioutrons which define the quantum level of consciousness or quantum consciousness. Thus, quantum consciousness operates by the same principles that define the quantum level of reality. There are many texts and popular books defining the dynamics and principles that operate in and define this quantum level of reality (see References).
The quantum view is a surrealistic view of reality, one which is not based on some fundamental particle or building block. Instead substance arises out of apparent nothingness, or disappears into nothingness to perhaps reappear in some other location or form. Here, between space-time, and the oceans of chaos and infinite possibility, wave fronts or energy clouds appear that have not yet committed to being matter or energy. They are somehow both and yet neither.
When we observe something in this primordial "soup" it seems to assume either matter or wave configuration but unobserved remains uncommitted energy-matter virtuality, known as quanta. One physicist, Nick Herbert, comments about this and the quantum reality that he sometimes imagines is behind his back as "a radically ambiguous and ceaselessly flowing quantum soup." When he turns around and tries to see it, his glance instantly freezes it, and turns it back into ordinary reality.
In this quantum reality, time itself is far more than the inevitable linear ticking of a clock. Particles can travel backwards or forward through time (precursor or "pilot" waves). They appear out of seeming nothingness, moving through time and disappearing into the past or the future. Here, it is not possible to merely observe an event; the act of observation itself actually shapes or influences the event. It is also a reality of uncertainty, where you can't really pin anything down.
The more one focuses on and learns about one aspect of an event, the less one can know about the rest of it. This is known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. We cannot measure an electron's position in space and its speed or dynamics simultaneously. The more we know about its velocity, the less certain we are about where it is.
Reality is in constant flux arising momentarily out of the infinite possibility, and in the next moment, too short to even be time, a quantum shift can create a different reality. An electron cloud shifts from one energy state (orbit) to another, and the atom becomes more, or less reactive. All reality is changed.
The Quantum Mind This is also true of what creates body-mind and the level of the quantum body-mind also operates in this fashion. In other words, each of us is a part of reality and is formed at the quantum level by the same principles that form the rest of reality. Nature is our healer, because we are Nature.
It is this flow that defines or operates in the quantum mind. We can change like quicksilver, transforming or healing spontaneously, because the flowing quality of life is natural to us. The material body is a river of atoms, the mind is a river of thought, and what holds them together is a river of intelligence--what has been referred to as the stream of consciousness--consciousness which informs the entire holomovement. We are all navigators in the stream of consciousness.
If there is not a flow, if all the conscioutrons are tied up in rigid structures, we are disconnected from the flow of universal evolution and thus in a state of stress or disease. The disease may present itself as mental or physical dissonance, or symptoms, whose forms repeat at all levels of organization. This notion of the fractal reiteration or repetition of structures is an important aspect of Chaosophy, this definition of disease and health. We consider disease as stagnation and the stress caused by a structure's opposition to free consciousness flow and evolution--a stuckness. Health is the flow and evolution of both our physical structure and mentality.
An excellent analogy is that of a river. The rocks or obstructions in the river are what creates the rapids. The bigger the rocks and the faster the flow, the more dangerous are the rapids. Similarly, we are constantly creating self at the quantum level, drawing on the consciousness potential to create the flow and substance of our body and mind. This potential exists as a field dispersed throughout and indeed underlying all of known space and time. The rocks are analogous to fixed and highly structured consciousness patterns or dynamics. The bigger the fixations and the faster the flow, the more dangerous the disease.
Continuing with the water analogy, picture an ocean of water. It is analogous to the field underlying reality. As the sun evaporates or draws water from the ocean, it becomes humidity in the air. As the winds blow and encounters with geographical features move the humid air about, raising it, cooling it, etc., the water vapor takes the forms of clouds, then rain and finally becomes the lakes and rivers that flow back into the ocean, and in doing so shape the geography or topography. This cycle ultimately shapes all the landmasses of the planet.
In the context of this analogy, we, our personal experience of self and reality, are analogous to the river. Quantum reality is represented by the evaporation into the air of the ocean water. It is neither water (matter) nor vapor (energy), but has the potential to be either. It is uncommitted. As this moist air flows in the winds, it encounters a land mass and the flow is altered. It rises and cools, and in doing so very tiny particles of water form suspended in the air mass and become clouds and mists.
These micro particles of water (mists or clouds) eventually join or unite into globules or drops of water from the turbulence (non linear or chaotic dynamics) in the moving air. At the quantum level, physicists claim that an electron is more like a cloud distribution about a nucleus, rather than being a discrete particle. The drops eventually condense, as rain, fall to the ground where they continue to unite and flow until they become streams and eventually rivers. The shape of the river is determined in part by the existing terrain, but at the same time it is also modifying the terrain, shaping the river valleys and dissolving even the greatest of mountains.
Analogously, we are constantly drawing consciousness out of its field form (ocean). At the quantum level conscioutrons are formed, the smallest dynamic structures or patterns of consciousness. As this encounters our organism (landmass) these conscioutrons blend, mix and unite to produce the substance of our body (the cells, bones, and tissue) and mind (thoughts, emotions, etc.).
As with the rain, the drops unite and become water flowing eventually as a river shaped by and shaping the terrain through which it flows. So too the pattern of the consciousness flow is determined by the existing energy and matter structures in our organism and creates our conscious flow through life. It is our personal river of life and a well-used metaphor.
The quantum level is equivalent to the water evaporating from the ocean and becoming a quasi-liquid. So too we draw on, or perhaps more accurately consciousness is drawn from the field level as water evaporates from the ocean. Even the particles of our existence "evaporate" into existence from the ocean of pure potential. It can become the substance of our body (the water of the river) or the energy of our mind that flows and is both shaped by and shapes our experiences of life reality. It shapes our perceptions and existential self-image.
The point we are making is that at the level of the quantum mind our self is formed both physically and mentally in one seamless movement. It is at this level that the characteristics that define us, including our diseases are dynamic patterns or clouds of consciousness quanta (conscioutrons) that arise out of potential, and it is from here that the most profound changes to both mind and body must originate. We allege that CRP consciousness Journeys perturb this system to facilitate spontaneous psychophysical healing. It is more than mere coincidence that we heal when we focus our attention deeply within, reconnect with our primordial Source, and allow that cosmic creativity to restructure us and emerge in a new, rejuvenated form.
We know about the quantum reality through inference and experimentation, and we can also experiment on ourselves by looking within. We suggest that similarly the quantum mind is not directly experienced except through its influences. We can facilitate our healing by intentionally entering the flow through the Journey process.
For example, where does a thought or an emotion come from; how is it formed? Sometimes thoughts are suggested by previous thoughts; they are part of a serial flow, one following the previous one. Sometimes they arise out of nothing, and we find ourselves seeing things or ourselves differently than ever before. We call this spontaneous emergence creativity, but how does this happen? This could be described as how things operate at the quantum level which is governed by spontaneous self-organizing emergent processes. When this process is unblocked we experience psychophysical well-being or health; when blocked we experience dis-ease. Conversely, dissolving the old, outworn structures, forms, or patterns leads to spontaneous healing.
At the very least, this is the mechanism sought after in the psychotherapy professions. How do we effect fundamental changes in the functioning of the mind? We also suggest that it will soon be the overriding question in physical healing as well. Does a drug or a pharmaceutical change the mind or even the general physiology at this level? Usually not. For example, psychotropic drugs take over for the body and eventually further decrease its ability to produce it's own healing or feel-good chemistry. In what way does the administration of a medicine bring about a change at this more fundamental level? Most often the medicine is also poisonous at some level. The cure can be worse than the disease, though its negative effect may be delayed in time. Indeed, how does it cure at all; or is such healing an endless chasing of the end of a rainbow?
References Bohm, David (1980); Wholeness and the Implicate Order; New York: Ark Paperbacks. Capra, Fritjof (1981); The Turning Point, New York: Bantam Books. Chopra, Deepak ((1989); Quantum Healing; New York: Bantam Books. Laszlo, Ervin (1996); "Subtle Connections: Psi, Grof, Jung, and the Quantum Vacuum," http://www.goertzel.org/dynapsych Stapp, H.P. (1995); "Why Classical Mechanics Cannot Naturally Accommodate Consciousness, but Quantum Mechanics Can," PSYCHE 2 (5) May 1995.
The Mystical Mind
Thought in its widest sense is a constructive process utilizing internal representations, and so is inner spiritual life. These representations may be visual images, speech images, or musical images, even scents, which classically are reported in spiritual experiences. Thus consciousness is a self-organizing, emergent property of living organisms.
The ability to construct internal representations of sensory stimuli, which underlies perception and cognition, is also an emergent property. Viewed objectively, internal representations are perfectly concrete entities, even though we can't yet characterize them precisely. But internal representations also have a subjective aspect: in certain situations we are aware of them. Consciousness is central to being and directly accessible by intuition. But it is not beyond perception; it is the very stuff of perception.
In 1979, Charles Laughlin and d'Aquili wrote The Spectrum of Ritual, which was elaborated upon by d'Aquili and Newberg in The Mystical Mind, (1999). They assert that ritual accomplishes two important biological feats: 1) coordinating the neural systems and functions of ritual participants into group action, leading to a sense of unity among participants, and 2) entraining and transforming the structure of neuromotor subsystems in developing individuals.
The imperative toward ritual arises in the interaction in the brain of the left frontal lobe and the left orientation area, which forces us to look for causes in any chain of events; to create meaningful narrative stories about experience. What really maintains the force and persistence of religious ritual, however, is ineffable experience, the intense positive affect experienced by participants.
D'Aquili and Newberg propose that certain religious practices can so stimulate the body's calm system or its flight system that activity in the related brain circuit starts to "reverberate," while simultaneously shutting down ever more of the other system. Depending on whether the ritual is fast (as in the spinning dance of Sufi whirling dervishes) or slow, as in Zen meditation, different parts of the brain are activated, perceived by the mind as a higher state of consciousness.
Within the brain, the autonomic nervous system regulates and adjusts baseline body function and responds to external stimuli. It consists of two mutually inhibitory subsystems: the sympathetic or arousal system and the parasympathetic or quiescent system. The arousal system is the source of our fight or flight response, and is connected to the adrenal glands, the amygdala, and reaches into our left cerebral hemisphere. It is sometimes called the "ergotropic" system because it releases energy in the body to react to the environment.
The parasympathetic or quiescent system (sometimes called the "trophotropic" system), on the other hand, conserves energy, promotes relaxation and sleep, and maintains basic body function and growth. It includes the endocrine glands, parts of the hypothalamus and the thalamus, and reaches into the right cerebral hemisphere. Although this material is highly complicated, the most important relationships to keep in mind here is that the dominant (analytical) mind is connected to the arousal system and involves the amygdala, and the non-dominant (holistic) mind is connected with the quiescent system and involves the hypothalamus and hippocampus.
Psychologist Roland Fischer (1967) developed a map of inner space and states of consciousness based on the dynamics of the ergo- and trophotropic systems. He postulated that all knowledge is innate, being an interpretation by the cerebral cortex of sub-cortical information. He contends that each level of arousal contains certain types of information which one can “know” only at that level. This is similar to other theories of state-related learning and memory, (Tart, 1975; Rossi, 1986).
Fischer also postulated that at extreme levels of hyper- or hypoarousal there is a paradoxical shift from one physiological system to the other, automatically. He declared boldly that the extremes in either direction create mystic experiences of the Self, which are interpreted either as an experience of the Plenum (hyper-arousal) or the Void (hypo-arousal).
Fischer summarized his theories by creating a consciousness map, a 'Cartography of Meditative and Exalted States.' Increased states of arousal were graphed to the left of center (which indicates “normal awareness”), while increasing tranquility was mapped to the right. Movement of an individual’s consciousness to the Left brings increasing motor excitation, while that to the right brings almost total lack of sensory input. In Fischer’s own words:
“What I propose is that normality, creativity, schizophrenia, and mystical states, though seemingly disparate, actually lie on a continuum. Furthermore, they represent increasing levels of arousal and a gradual withdrawal from the synchronized physical-sensory-cerebral spacetime of the normal state. Specifically, there is a retreat first to sensory-cerebral spacetime and, ultimately, to cerebral spacetime only. The gradual withdrawal from physical spacetime is an expression of the dissolution of ego boundaries, that is, the fusion of object and subject, and it implies that an existence solely in spacetime is an oceanic experience, the most intense mirroring of the ego in its own meaning.”
In summary, we can see that for any individual perception of the universe (as Self or mind) can occur as an internal or external experience. It is our rich internal experiences that have puzzled researchers in consciousness as the so-called “hard problem” of consciousness. At the extreme parameter in either direction, we experience an encounter with the Absolute. Along the continuum, we may experience varying forms of an I-Thou dialogue uniting extremely hyper- or hypo-arousal states.
Hyperarousal, or mania, may result from psychoactive drugs, or a bipolar or schizophrenic episode. It results, sometimes in “ego-death” when the “I” becomes so freaked-out it submits or gives in to the sensory overload which overwhelms it. Hypoarousal leads to a characteristic state of silence or emptying when the ego voluntarily submits to unification of subject and object, of “I” and Self. In either case, cortical and subcortical activity become indistinguishably merged; there is no separate “I” left to perceive an objective reality. Thus, dualism is obliterated.
Paradoxical physiological mechanisms operate in the body under most conditions to chemically prevent the attainment of higher states of arousal on either end of the spectrum. They function somewhat like the switchover from arousal to repose which occurs at the point of orgasm. But it is possible, with repeated exposure to the paradoxical situation to function effectively at higher levels of arousal.
In fact, there is always a complementary component of the opposite arousal system functioning even in the mystical state. If there were no ergotropic arousal in mediation, for example, we would fall asleep. Thus in some sense, our task becomes falling asleep as much as we can while remaining awake. REM sleep, or the dream state, is another example of physiological paradox where there is extreme cerebral excitation coupled with little muscular activity.
We can characterize the physiological condition of an experience of the Self as remaining trophotropically relaxed while ergotropically alert. The mystic achieves his goal when he learns to short-circuit the homeostatic mechanism of negative feedback. The negative feedback system perpetuates the experience of duality between the “I” and Self.
D’Aquili and Newberg outline "four basic categories of arousal/quiescent states that may occur during extraordinary phases of consciousness": The Hyperquiescent state; the Hyperarousal state; the Hyperquiescent state with Eruption of the Arousal System; and The Hyperarousal State with Eruption of the Quiescent System. In addition they propose a fifth state where both systems are maximally aroused, the absolute unitary state (AUB). The Mystical Mind, 25-16; see also d’Aquili and Newberg, "Liminality, Trance and Unitary States in Ritual and Meditation," Studia Liturgica 23 (1993):2-24.
D’Aquili and Laughlin report research that shows that when either the arousal or quiescent system is maximally stimulated it results in a "spillover effect" or a stimulation of the other system. That is, experts in meditation may experience a "rush" or a release of energy during a hyperquiescent state. From the other side, those who engage in rhythmic rituals that engage the arousal system, such as energetic dancing and singing, may experience states of bliss, tranquility, and oneness with others. Hyperarousal and hyperquiescent states seem to stimulate the limbic system, which regulates our emotions. Hence, these states are experienced as being emotionally intense, and often pleasurable.
In summary, in states of very high activity around one circuit, there can be a "spillover" such that the dormant system activates and goes "on line" simultaneously with the other. Although rare, this dual state can lead to a sense of "tremendous release of energy" that may feel like "oceanic bliss" or absorption into the object of contemplation.
And in extreme cases there is a "maximal discharge" of both systems, inducing brain activities perceived by the mind as the Absolute Unity of Being or AUB, which brings the abolition of any discrete boundaries between beings, by the absense of a sense of time-flow, and by the elimination of the self-other dichotomy. A mystic in the AUB state will experience either a divine being, such as God, or the cosmic void of Nirvana, depending on whether there has been a predominantly ergotropic or trophotropic involvement. Yet we cannot reduce religious awe, numinous vision or mystical experience to merely a neurochemical flux.
It is also during these "spillover" experiences that the paradoxes presented to the brain through myth become resolved by the simultaneous functioning of both hemispheres of the brain. In ritual stimulation of the arousal system, for example, the presentation of what is an unresolvable logical problem in the left brain (the wafer is both bread and the Body of Christ), is experienced as unified in the holistic operation of the right brain.
Ritual participants therefore may experience a resolution of the problems presented by the myth and a deep unity with other participants: "The simultaneous strong discharge of both parts of the autonomic nervous system creates a state that consists not only of a pleasurable sensation, but, also, under proper conditions, a sense of union with conspecifics and a blurring of cognitive boundaries." Similarly, those who engage in meditation may report that they experience resolution of paradoxes during some meditative states, hence the famous use of such paradoxes by Zen practitioners.
Both meditation and ritual can lead to the spillover effect and the simultaneous discharge of the arousal and quiescent systems. But they come at the experience from different directions. Meditation begins with the quiescent system and by its hyperactiviation can achieve spillover into the arousal system (from trophotropic to ergotropic). Ritual approaches from the opposite system (from ergotropic to trophotropic). But there are other differences as well:
The difference between meditation and ritual is that those who are adept at meditation are often able to maintain an ecstatic state for prolonged periods of time. The ecstatic state and sense of union produced by ritual are usually very brief (often lasting only a few seconds) and may often be described as no more than a shiver running down the back at a certain point. This experience, however, may be repeated at numerous focal points during the ritual. Furthermore, the ecstatic states produced by ritual, although they are usually extremely brief, seem to be available to many or most participants. The ecstatic states attained through meditation, although they may last for hours or even days, require long practice and intense discipline.
So ritual is more accessible and effective than meditation for large groups of people as a system for stimulating both hemispheres of the brain and thereby bringing mythic conundrums to resolution. In The Mystical Mind, d’Aquili and Newberg elaborate on the difference between these approaches, describing a complex continuum of unitary or mystical states that may arise from different types of ritual or meditation, but the basic principles remain intact.
Ritual is here described as a "bottom-up" technology for activating the autonomic systems; its rhythmic qualities stimulate either the arousal or quiescent systems that then affect the higher brain functions. Slow rhythms in ritual, like chant and read liturgy, primarily stimulate the quiescent system, while rapid "driving" rituals involving loud noise and body movement stimulate the arousal system.
Either approach may lead to a "filling up" of the autonomic system and then a spillover effect and an altered state of consciousness. Slow ritual may lead to a hyperquiescent state and a feeling of peace or unity, and occasionally result in a spillover into the arousal state or a sense of profound energy. Similarly, fast ritual may provoke a hyperarousal state of attention and intention, sometimes spilling over into the quiescent state and a sense of bliss.
They hypothesize that ritual could theoretically lead to the maximal discharge of both systems, causing hallucinations, mystical visions, or a state of Absolute Unitary Being (AUB). Finally, they note that marked ritual behavior tends to draw the attention of the amygdala, as does strong smell, which may be the biological source of the experience of religious awe. Ritual actions and the presence of incense may help neurologically for ritual to promote altered states of consciousness in its participants.
In The God Part of the Brain, yet another author Matthew Alper alleges that the brain is hard-wired for mystical experience to modify the threat of our hostile existential reality. "Based on social, psychological, and anthropological confirmation as well as the latest genetic and neurophysiological research, The "God" Part of the Brain explores the apparent correlation between spirituality/religiosity and the human brain. Just as honeybees are compelled to construct hexagonal shaped hives, perhaps humans are compelled to perceive a spiritual reality...as a reflex, an instinct. And why would we have evolved such an instinct?"
"With the dawn of human intelligence, for the first time in the history of terrestrial life, an organism could point its powers of perception back upon its own being; it could recognize its own self as an object. For the first time, when an animal knelt down to drink from the watering hole, it recognized its own reflection. Only humans possess the advanced capacity for self-awareness. Though, in many ways, this capacity has helped to make our species the most versatile and powerful creature on earth, it also represents the source of our greatest affliction. This is because once we become aware of the fact that we exist, we ecome equally aware of the possibility that one day we might not...even moreso, that it's certain that one day we will not. With the advent of our species, with the emergence of self-conscious awareness, a life form became cognizant of the fact that it is going to die. All we had to do was to look around us to see that death was inevitable and inescapable. More terrifying yet, death could befall us at anytime. Any moment can be our last."
Conclusions: TechnoshamanismAre there things we should not know? There are many responses to the impulse toward experience, therefore, we pass through the essential stage of experience on the way to widom. But it remains a stage, not an end in itself. Religion generally answers yes to the question, while philosophy answers no. But before philosophy and the dogma and dictates of religion, before forbidden knowledge and forbidden fruit, there was shamanism.
Shamanism was the primordial spirituality of humankind. Evidence of our spiritual evolution is at least 50,000 years old, and is implied by the earliest ritual burials. Shamanism is still practiced throughout the world, particularly in third-world countries, which might more properly be referred to as first-world countries. The drive to experience the inner realm of being is universal and reflected in the myriad ways the majority of human cultures find to incubate alternative phases of consciousness. Technoshamanism is the integration of futuristic technology with ancient pathways of the past. It implies access to full-immersion experiences, virtual realities which have consequences in the real world.
The world of the shaman is the world of the spirits, uncanny powers, psychic phenomena, initiation, altered states, dreams, death, rebirth, and healing. It is the realm of body, faith, trust, disruption, dissolution, intuition, mysticism, transcendence, psychedelia, cosmic consciousness, sex and madness vs. intellect, morality, dogma. Under the influence of a shaman, an initiate may attain direct transpersonal experience that vivifies multiple realities. Shamanism means mastery of the sensorium, the symbolic world. To the extent that the shaman has great power, he penetrates deeply into the basic roots of the structuralizing process, and brings that information back.
Shamanic personalities work at the edge of chaos where it is often difficult to distinguish spiritual emergence from spiritual emergency, bloom or doom. Technoshamanism is connecting contemporary society with the mythic roots of humanity. Shamanism is beyond time; it's a primal spirit. Anything that is created is linked into that spirit. Technology is the interface between what exists now and what is coming into existence.
We are all capable of transcendent awareness, of becoming shamans. The shaman is a shaman because he has been empowered by treading the road others wish to follow. The shaman is a symbol to others of their projection of a degree of personal insight and growth. The shamanic principle is ubiquitous to religion, healing, and transpersonal activities simply because its activity is essential to neurocognitive and physiological development. The inner shaman is a percept which penetrates to our neurocognitive intentionalities: exploration of self and multiple worlds, transformation, and social flow.
Shamanism has enjoyed a resurgence in the West from a variety of sources including raves, yoga, fen shui, martial arts, Tibetan Buddhism, Native American spirituality, Amazonian shamanism, Sufism to Voodoo, and more. All these technologies, (a primary hallmark of modern humans), involve ritualistic forms for altering states of consciousness, with and without psychotropic drugplants. Like traditional magick and ritual, they rely heavily on accessing multisensory cues, emotions, dreams and imagination. They range from temporary rites of passage to stabilized lifestyles.
Art and music have played a big role in emergence of this technoshamanic spirit, especially explicitly shamanic artists, such as performance artist and musician Genesis P-Orridge whose outlandish role in magick, psychedelics, sexual freedom, and organizing raves led to his being the first person exiled from his homeland England in 250 years. The electronic occulture is dancing through the doors of perception into a hyperspatial reality. It is a pilgrimage into the mind out of time, the body out of space, and the universal spirit that beckons beyond. This story is told through ceremony and ritual, music and dance, sight and source, science and religion. Written with living light, it fosters a reunion with the sacred, the Divine, the Other.
Technoshamanism is the process of altering consciousness through technology. It implies using the healing and mind altering techniques of ancient shamanism combined with modern technologies for altering consciousness, and the holistic mindbody. An archetypal example of a highly developed technology is the Asklepian Dream Temples of ancient Greece, where the afflicted went for cures through healing dream incubation when medical treatments had failed. The cures came not from the priests or any interpretations, but from direct contact with the divine in the dream.
It hardly matters whether these technologies emerge from disciplines such as shamanism (inner journeys), hypnotherapy (neuralfeedback, frequency-following response), psychology (process work), psychiatry (neuropsychology), neurology (TMS; Persinger's 'Relaxit,'; Murphy's 'Shakti', shock-ti), or anthropology (biogenetic structuralism). The ends are often the same whether the aim is explicitly mystical, spiritual or psychotherapeutic. Not all technologies necessarily involve hardware, wet ware or ars electronica, though in the future technoshamanism will undoubtedly evolve to include cybernetic enhancements. A variety of research (Charles Tart's altered states; John Lilly's sensory deprivation tanks; Mantak Chia's 'Darkroom' technique), and the administration of psychedelics in laboratory situations (Grof; Strassman) can be included.
Postmodern process oriented experiential psychotherapies also fall under this rubric. Among the notables are Marshall McLuhan (Media; "The medium is the message"), Buckminster Fuller (whole systems; Spaceship Earth; Synergetics), Stanislov Grof (LSD therapy; Holotropic Breathwork), techno-shaman Terrence McKenna (Alien Dreamtime), stand-up philosopher Timothy Leary (Chaos & Cyber Culture), Jungian analyst Arnold Mindell (process-oriented psychotherapy), shaman/therapist Graywolf Swinney (Consciousness Restructuring Process), Ernest Rossi (Ideodynamic Healing), neurologist Antonio Damasio (Proto-Self Model), and RET (Rapid Eye Treatment, formerly EMDR) Therapies.
All begin to alter consciousness with a variety of traditional shamanic techniques, and proceed through an experiential journey, again in the shamanic tradition. The commonality among the therapies is facilitation and exploitation of natural process in the stream of consciousness, the 'waking dream,' or REM state. Waking dreams can be induced through techniques which function to drive the state, such as ritual, hypnosis, intense breathing, drumming, dancing, chanting, imagery, meditation, etc. In neurological terms, they facilitate neural plasticity and exercise or reprogramming of neural circuits.
Intuition is the common link between science and art. None of us live in a vacuum; we exist within a sensorium composed of self, others and world all of which impinge on us and ceaselessly redefine us. We can be sure that the inspired artivity of the neuro-shamans will continue to be an influence. Physicians, chiropractors, dentists, psychotherapists, counselors, spiritual healers, priests, rabbis and ministers all practice by virtue of shamanic projection. Our shared voyage through the stream of consciousness is far from over. Our relationship to humanity, earth, and cosmos is one of a relationship to the Other. Our first formative influences is the experience of empathy. And empathy needs a Face. If we find that face in our experience of God, who shall say Nay? Introduction to Technoshamanism
Are there things we should not know? There are many responses to the impulse toward experience, therefore, we pass through the essential stage of experience on the way to widom. But it remains a stage, not an end in itself. Religion generally answers yes to the question, while philosophy answers no. But before philosophy and the dogma and dictates of religion, before forbidden knowledge and forbidden fruit, there was shamanism.
Shamanism was the primordial spirituality of humankind. Evidence of our spiritual evolution is at least 50,000 years old, and is implied by the earliest ritual burials. Shamanism is still practiced throughout the world, particularly in third-world countries, which might more properly be referred to as first-world countries. The drive to experience the inner realm of being is universal and reflected in the myriad ways the majority of human cultures find to incubate alternative phases of consciousness. Technoshamanism is the integration of futuristic technology with ancient pathways of the past. It implies access to full-immersion experiences, virtual realities which have consequences in the real world.
The world of the shaman is the world of the spirits, uncanny powers, psychic phenomena, initiation, altered states, dreams, death, rebirth, and healing. It is the realm of body, faith, trust, disruption, dissolution, intuition, mysticism, transcendence, psychedelia, cosmic consciousness, sex and madness vs. intellect, morality, dogma. Under the influence of a shaman, an initiate may attain direct transpersonal experience that vivifies multiple realities. Shamanism means mastery of the sensorium, the symbolic world. To the extent that the shaman has great power, he penetrates deeply into the basic roots of the structuralizing process, and brings that information back.
Shamanic personalities work at the edge of chaos where it is often difficult to distinguish spiritual emergence from spiritual emergency, bloom or doom. Technoshamanism is connecting contemporary society with the mythic roots of humanity. Shamanism is beyond time; it's a primal spirit. Anything that is created is linked into that spirit. Technology is the interface between what exists now and what is coming into existence.
We are all capable of transcendent awareness, of becoming shamans. The shaman is a shaman because he has been empowered by treading the road others wish to follow. The shaman is a symbol to others of their projection of a degree of personal insight and growth. The shamanic principle is ubiquitous to religion, healing, and transpersonal activities simply because its activity is essential to neurocognitive and physiological development. The inner shaman is a percept which penetrates to our neurocognitive intentionalities: exploration of self and multiple worlds, transformation, and social flow.
Shamanism has enjoyed a resurgence in the West from a variety of sources including raves, yoga, fen shui, martial arts, Tibetan Buddhism, Native American spirituality, Amazonian shamanism, Sufism to Voodoo, and more. All these technologies, (a primary hallmark of modern humans), involve ritualistic forms for altering states of consciousness, with and without psychotropic drugplants. Like traditional magick and ritual, they rely heavily on accessing multisensory cues, emotions, dreams and imagination. They range from temporary rites of passage to stabilized lifestyles.
Art and music have played a big role in emergence of this technoshamanic spirit, especially explicitly shamanic artists, such as performance artist and musician Genesis P-Orridge whose outlandish role in magick, psychedelics, sexual freedom, and organizing raves led to his being the first person exiled from his homeland England in 250 years. The electronic occulture is dancing through the doors of perception into a hyperspatial reality. It is a pilgrimage into the mind out of time, the body out of space, and the universal spirit that beckons beyond. This story is told through ceremony and ritual, music and dance, sight and source, science and religion. Written with living light, it fosters a reunion with the sacred, the Divine, the Other.
Technoshamanism is the process of altering consciousness through technology. It implies using the healing and mind altering techniques of ancient shamanism combined with modern technologies for altering consciousness, and the holistic mindbody. An archetypal example of a highly developed technology is the Asklepian Dream Temples of ancient Greece, where the afflicted went for cures through healing dream incubation when medical treatments had failed. The cures came not from the priests or any interpretations, but from direct contact with the divine in the dream. It hardly matters whether these technologies emerge from disciplines such as shamanism (inner journeys), hypnotherapy (neuralfeedback, frequency-following response), psychology (process work), psychiatry (neuropsychology), neurology (TMS; Persinger's 'Relaxit,'; Murphy's 'Shakti', shock-ti), or anthropology (biogenetic structuralism). The ends are often the same whether the aim is explicitly mystical, spiritual or psychotherapeutic.
Not all technologies necessarily involve hardware, wet ware or ars electronica, though in the future technoshamanism will undoubtedly evolve to include cybernetic enhancements. A variety of research (Charles Tart's altered states; John Lilly's sensory deprivation tanks; Mantak Chia's 'Darkroom' technique), and the administration of psychedelics in laboratory situations (Grof; Strassman) can be included. They facilitate neural plasticity and exercise or reprogramming of neural circuits.
ABSTRACT: Experiential therapy sessions and mysticism demonstrate that as we journey deeper and deeper into the psyche we eventually encounter a state characterized either as "chaotic" or void of images. In a therapeutic context, chaos is experienced as a consciousness state--the ground state. This state is related to healing, dreams, and creativity. Shamanic approaches to healing involve co-consciousness states which lead to restructuring both physical and emotional-mental senses of self.Dreams, creativity, and healing arise from this undifferentiated "chaotic consciousness." Dreamhealing uses images as portals for consciousness journeys to facilitate transformations ranging from mood alteration to profound physiological changes. Imagery (virtual experience) affects the immune system, activating psychosomatic forces, such as the placebo effect. Chaos-oriented consciousness journeys suggest these states reflect complex phase space, fractal patterns, strange attractors, "the butterfly effect," sensitivity, complex feedback loops, intermittency, and other general dynamical aspects suggested by chaos theory. More than an experiential process, this is a philosophy of treatment--"Chaosophy."http://www.asklepia.org/chaosophy/chaosophy2.html#top
Prepared for the Proceedings of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology. Presented at Saybrook Institute, Summer, 1991. It also appeared in the magazine DREAM NETWORK and Clinical Chaos: A Therapist's Guide To Non-Linear Dynamics And Therapeutic Change, ...edited by Linda Chamberlain, Michael R. Butz, Chapter 12 https://books.google.com/books?id=6vN5CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT16&lpg=PT16&dq=ROBIN+ROBERTSON,+CHAOS,+COMPLEX&source=bl&ots=UcG66YdVMq&sig=QL0txDzvMHayyaTnRqSLOLbCqRY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjy_rKcjszPAhUMdz4KHTMfATUQ6AEIPDAF#v=onepage&q=ROBIN%20ROBERTSON%2C%20CHAOS%2C%20COMPLEX&f=false ABSTRACT: Experiential therapy sessions and mysticism demonstrate that as we journey deeper and deeper into the psyche we eventually encounter a state characterized either as "chaotic" or void of images. In a therapeutic context, chaos is experienced as a consciousness state--the ground state. This state is related to healing, dreams, and creativity. Shamanic approaches to healing involve co-consciousness states which lead to restructuring both physical and emotional-mental senses of self.Dreams, creativity, and healing arise from this undifferentiated "chaotic consciousness."
Dreamhealing uses images as portals for consciousness journeys to facilitate transformations ranging from mood alteration to profound physiological changes. Imagery (virtual experience) affects the immune system, activating psychosomatic forces, such as the placebo effect. Chaos-oriented consciousness journeys suggest these states reflect complex phase space, fractal patterns, strange attractors, "the butterfly effect," sensitivity, complex feedback loops, intermittency, and other general dynamical aspects suggested by chaos theory. More than an experiential process, this is a philosophy of treatment--"Chaosophy."
"I'm just asking you to hear yourself. Listen to what you're really saying and to what you think you're saying. Control, control, control. When are you going to realize that nothing can be controlled?""We live in chaos; it's the central issue in everyone's life. Mack, look around you. Everyone in this parking lot is struggling for control. And you know what it is they're trying to control, each and everyone of them? Fear--they're trying to control their fear." --Steve Martin character in the film, GRAND CANYON
Creative Chaos We all instantly recognize the fundamental nature of chaos in our lives. The archetypal creation myth posits that all originates in Chaos. We all "get it," intuitively. But generally we are enculturated to fear chaos, to hold it at bay through so-called "control." Chaos is a very personal experience. We relate to it viscerally as well as emotionally and intellectually. When chaos intrudes on our lives, we feel pain, and defend against that pain with fear, rather than embracing the chaotic dynamic.
In psychology, we have had the idea that we need a "strong ego," that we need a stable structure in order to function and cope. But nothing exists in complete order or complete randomness. We live in a chaotic universe. When we are "far from equilibrium" change becomes inevitable. Like a bifurcation point in chaos theory, the old system either falls apart or emerges with a higher degree of order. Our bifurcations state changes are personal crossroads, decision points, initiated by perturbations of our systems.
Chaos theory applied to experiential psychotherapy shows us we actually need to cooperate with chaotic dynamics, to enter a less-rigid process of flow, submitting outworn aspects of the ego to dissolution, which increases our adaptability, helping us evolve. The phase space of non-linear dynamics is analogous to psychic space--our psychophysical construct of our experience of reality.
This complex inner landscape can be mapped and has all the features of phase space: stability, chaos, bifurcation points, and catastrophic changes. This virtual reality is the world of virtual experience. The landscape of information is richly structured with attractor basins, valleys, and mountains with peaks, saddles, and passes. And it is also hyperdimensional containing a vast amount of implicate or enfolded information.
This landscape (self-scape) can be explored with experiential psychotherapy by faithfully sticking to the imagery emerging from the autonomous imaginal flow. It is a dynamic "ocean of active information" in wave form, with which we can commune, transcending conventional boundaries. The inner journey is one of movement without motion--stretching and folding spacetime. Imagination is the voice of creativity. It is the primary way we experience soul. Creativity expressed in imagination means experiencing multiple states of consciousness. There is an infinity of realities and states of consciousness. Imagination embodies it's own reality. It is self-revelatory.
Meaning dwells in the image like consciousness dwells in the body. We are learning from chaos theory that physically and mentally we need chaotic disorder to function smoothly. Dipping into that disorder shakes everything loose and allows creative restructuring to occur. Self-organizing systems, both organic and inorganic, naturally evolve toward the "edge of chaos." Many natural systems develop their own dynamic stabilities. Dynamic stability applies to development in chaos theory, and research shows that living systems are naturally self-correcting.
Strength is a measure of what force it takes to destroy or break a rigid structure. True power, on the other hand, is a measure of readily-available energy for immediate use. Strength is rigid, while power is flowing. Empowerment flows forth naturally when we come into intimate therapeutic contact with our stream of consciousness. This stream is most easily observed as our dreams, and manifests in our symptoms. Water is a natural metaphor of consciousness.
The turbulent stream of consciousness flows through the labyrinth of the psyche. It is the source of dis-ease and our healing as indicated by its importance in the cult of Asklepios, the god of dreams and healing. In Greece, the springs of his shrine were channeled into circular labyrinths, forming a concrete metaphor of the healing process. Healing "springs" from deep within. However, first the old rigid images must be dissolved, and the "universal solvent" is chaos. Dreams bridge the gap between the spiritual and scientific worldviews.
Most would agree that dreams are a truly chaotic phenomenon. Object of scientific inquiry and healing tool of the psychotherapist, they are firmly entrenched in the scientific worldview, although on the fringe. On the mystical side, most religions teach that God, or the nature of the transpersonal Source is revealed through dreams and visionary experience. Chaos theory provides a comprehensive metaphor for uniting physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realities. Supreme insights are always metaphorical in expression. But the relationship of chaos and psychotherapeutic effects may be more than metaphorical and subjective. The empirical connection may lie in the mystery of the true nature of consciousness and creativity.
Dreamhealing One of the authors, Graywolf, discovered a way to journey and guide others into the deepest layers of the psyche while practicing Gestalt dreamwork and shamanism. Therapy at its very best is a matter of changing consciousness and so is shamanism. In dream guiding, all the action lies in going just beyond the boundary from the known and comfortable toward the fear and challenge. Following the images below the ego deeper into more fundamental consciousness states, he found that clients could easily be guided to the level of chaotic consciousness with therapeutic results.
Mapping these levels below behavior, emotional-mental process, belief systems, and mythic zones of imagery, he refined the technique and directions for guidance. This process (Dreamhealing or Creative Consciousness Process) was not originally based on chaos theory, but observed directly in working with dreams, symptoms, feelings, and healing. The theory came later as an analogy for describing the observations. But chaotic dynamics may be the actual mechanism of its action, rather than merely a metaphor of the transformative process, as were the hydraulic and cybernetic models.
Dreamhealing is not an interpretive or analytical way of understanding a dream, but is a non-linear consciousness journey into its healing heart. Dreamhealing is not guided imagery. The guide follows the autonomous flow of psychic imagery, while guiding the focus to deeper, more primal imagery. Then letting go of that form, and entering a yet deeper one, much like entering deeper into a fractal image to find yet deeper images. In dreamhealing one "becomes" the image which leads to sensing, identifying, empathizing with the essence of a color, shape, form, or pattern--then letting go of form. It is a process of initiation--becoming, sharing, feeling, releasing, yielding, accepting, deepening, intensifying, surrendering, healing, and integrating.
Everything in the dreamtime occurs in the present tense--it is happening. But it is linked in a non-linear fashion--through association--with the past and the future. Becoming the image creates the experience of a new state of consciousness, new sensations, awarenesses, feelings, visceral and kinesthetic reactions, responses, acceptances. Dreams are chaotic by nature and so is much of shamanic practice. Both evoke the irrational, and of all the healing modalities, these two reflect chaos theory. The forte of shamans is the dream journey or consciousness journey, based on the assumed ability to experience multiple consciousness states other than ordinary consensus reality.
The shaman/therapist acts as guide by entering a co-consciousness state or shared experience with the journeyer. This virtual experience has the ability to create natural consequences or results in real-time. The experience of multiple states of consciousness leads away from egocentricity toward a biocentric perspective. A larger sense of participation counteracts existential alienation. Small changes in initial conditions (sensitivity) are pumped-up into larger changes, via the "butterfly effect."
There is a complementary notion in psychotherapy that one traumatic event can shape a life, and a therapeutic event or experience can re-shape it. Small changes can make phenomenal differences in outcome. A dream is a stream of chaos, a river of turbulent, undifferentiated consciousness and creativity, flowing through the self-scape of the psyche. It is shaped by the frozen states and complex feedback loops of consciousness, the existential images and patterns that define and mold the self and the reality of our perceptions.
When it finally emerges into awareness, the images and plots that are presented to our almost-waking self are reflections of these states. They are another way of seeing the self and the reality we create that is less prejudiced by the ego. The dream is also much like a hologram. The passage of the consciousness stream through the psyche, and its encounter with the frozen consciousness states, causes ripples and patterns that create images of the deeper self that formed them. Like a hologram or fractal, the whole is contained and re-iterated within any part of the dream, though details may be fuzzy.
Our primal existential image of who and what we are begins with conception (universal, undifferentiated consciousness) and is conditioned by our internal and external experiences. But, of course, not all disease originates here. Trauma at any point can trigger a disruption in the primal self image, setting the "butterfly effect" in motion as the consequences of that trauma permeate the life. There may be multiple, or re-iterated trauma. This deep existential image contains the essence of our dis-ease.
Chaos permeates our existence from the sub-atomic to universal level, and we react to it with fear and pain. The primal image is revealed in the ongoing process of imagery: dreams, visions, visceral reactions, symptoms, feelings, beliefs, and behavior. Dreams are shaped by these existential images much as they also shape our lives and destinies. Chaos Consciousness During consciousness journeys, participants report encountering a place, after moving through the fears and pains, that is totally disorienting, chaotic.
They, for example, enter into a gray cloud, and becoming that cloud the mind goes totally blank. Or they enter into a spiral, and giving over to the motion of that spiral, they become so totally disoriented that there is nothing to hang onto. This experience is what we call "chaotic consciousness," observed within the therapeutic context--undifferentiated, or universal consciousness. It is virtually a place of "all and no structure," a no-boundaries condition, pure potential, the source of creativity. It appears paradoxically as a plenum or a void.
The plenum represents hyperarousal; the void hypoarousal. Direct experience of the transpersonal means going back below the ego, into this infinite place, back into this basic formless consciousness--the void or chaos of pre-existence. Chaotic consciousness is the crucible of our creative spirit. Creativity emerges from chaos. This negentropic, or syntropic principle is the matrix of evolution. Infinite process is constantly creating itself and destroying itself at all levels. Nature repeats herself at all levels of organization, and whatever it is we are that.
Dreams reflect this self-generating, self-iterating and self-organization of patterns, and so does the natural philosophy emerging from the New Sciences. This deterministic philosophy incorporates the human condition, rather than vilifying or pushing it away. Chaos helps us feel our way through a complex, unstable world. Like the super-critical state of chaotic dynamics, "chaotic consciousness" may be characterized as dynamic, non-linear, paradoxical, self-generating, self-iterating, and self-organizing. It could be likened to an infinite complex of manifolds potentially enfolding infinite information--vortices within vortices within vortices--exploding limitless detail. There is an essential relationship between healing and irrational consciousness.
Irrational consciousness "works" the cure. Somehow that chaotic consciousness, the giving up of the old order, the letting go of the old structure to chaos changes things fundamentally. The next set of imagery emerging out of that chaotic consciousness is always a healing one. So chaos, as the matrix of transformation, seems vitally important at the existential level. The process of creativity is one of new forms emerging from the void, new forms that have not existed previously. Not merely a juggling of existing forms or ideas into a new configuration, it is more of a quantum leap, a disruption of the old perception into new levels of consciousness and awareness.
Chaos theory provides an apt metaphor for this process. In a nutshell, chaos theory states that in all apparent structure is hidden chaos and in chaos there are hidden forms. We exist in a twilight zone between chaos and order. We flow back and forth between them and that keeps us healthy. Consciousness always strives to take on form. We build a structure and it begins to develop flaws and rigidities. Our illness comes when we hang onto that worn-out structure. But when we let go, we let ourselves flow back into that primal chaos and into total freedom. It is like a heart that periodically develops a chaotic beating pattern to renew itself. We seem to need that within our consciousness, too.
The Transformative Process Consciousness, creativity, healing, dreaming, and chaos are fundamental to the human condition. They are crucial to our health and ability to move through life. Creativity is also evolution.
Dis-ease may be seen as a crisis that forces the organism to expand beyond its limits and evolve. It is part of the evolutionary action of natural selection. Current research shows that dreams reflect an individual's strategy for survival. Those who adapt, survive. Those who adapt better, thrive. Much of this has to do with our states of consciousness, which lead to creative choice-making. All of a sudden we are free, we are flowing again, and that is the natural condition of health. Disease, as a crisis, presents the organism with the opportunity to dissolve the old structure and evolve into a new one better adapted to survival.
Evolving into a new form, the process of recreating oneself, makes a difference in our view of the disease process. There is no heroic search for a cure, or compulsion to "get rid of" symptoms. The focus of transformation goes to the deepest level. The implication is that form and rigidity need to periodically give way to non-structure and chaos for renewal and recreation.
Much as the "dance of Shiva" destroys the existing forms so that new reality can be created, we can foster the disintegration of outworn images of ourselves, even those seemingly "hard-wired" into our perceptual system. The process creates a new primal self image, a new attractor as the core of the organism. In chaos theory, when an attractor disappears due to sudden catastrophic change, the system becomes structureless and experiences a term of "transient chaos" before another attractor is found. Order emerges spontaneously from chaos, and tends to degenerate into chaos when forms are obsolete.
Creative Consciousness Process follows nature's lead by amplifying and intensifying the movement toward chaos, rather than heroically defending against it. But letting go of the old forms is frightening. We identify with them, and to a large degree define our sense of the self by them. To forsake them is to dissolve that part of self, to let it die. Most of us are only comfortable in the known territory within the limits of our belief systems, which define our reality and existence.
The creative solution often exposes the limits of our beliefs by moving beyond them, thrusting us into unknown territory, which is frightening. Typically, we try to hang on to the old limits even if it means we are destroyed or have to hang on to our problem rather than letting go to move into a broader awareness and reality. We mark the boundaries of our belief systems with fear and discomfort to keep ourselves safe and enclosed. To journey into undifferentiated chaos we need to go through the fear which surrounds the pain, then through and beyond the pain to the healing core.
This profound and creative state of consciousness provides our form and the core of our being. Here, we create our healing from within. We experience first-hand that personal power (empowerment) arises from within. To transform we must break free and let go of the cocoon of fear and pain which has kept us prisoner of our own device. We must pass through the discomfort and confusion and let go of what we know and are comfortable with. We must make a quantum leap in consciousness beyond the known into chaos--into the void, like The Fool in the Tarot.
Chaos is inherent in our being and structure just as science has shown. We've always known it intuitively, but the ego seeks to deny it by heroically, one-sidedly adhering to the principles of order and light. Only by entering the dark, by entering chaos, yielding to it, do we allow newly evolved form to come into being--to arise spontaneously, yet deterministically, out of chaos. It is a journey through fear to a Way in which each moment is an act of personal creation and freedom.
The primal self-image functions like an attractor. It forms based on the organism's interaction with the "Not-I" or environment. Under conditions which could be characterized as "far from equilibrium" this image may suddenly dissolve (bifurcation), leading to confusion, disorientation and fragmentation of the personality. The same process, facilitated (rather than defended against) in therapy can lead through the confusion and ego death to healing, renewal, and rebirth. The new self image is better adapted to current reality. In chaos, the search for information is open and novel solutions emerge.
We are attractor-centered, whether we conceive of that primal attractor as divinity, the higher self, the core self, the Jungian self, the Gestalt self, or that deepest sense of self--our primal self image (including its unconscious aspects). Its pattern appears in all the sensory and extrasensory modalities. The attractor embodies the long-term qualitative behavior of a system. As an attractor, it contains an infinite complex of potential forms and images which are unfolded over time in unpredictable yet characteristic ways. The personality "revolves" around its strange attractor until a bifurcation occurs and another stable center is found. It might be conceived as a new existential myth, or a different dominant archetype. It is a dynamic multi-sensory image that is not different from our very essence--from ourselves. By entering into chaotic consciousness new forms arise organically out of chaos.
Consciousness is reborn after its sojourn in the underworld of the deep psyche. The "lost soul" is found and retrieved through the shamanic journey in the dreamtime. In embracing chaos, we tune in to its self-directing flow. In dreamhealing we move deeper into the images, becoming them, rather than interacting or interpreting them. So too with other states of consciousness we encounter. As long as the image is followed back faithfully, the connection can be made from any feeling, symptom, or dream image, old or new. In dealing with illness there is always a specific image that underlies the ailment. That is what to look for when guiding a dream journey.
Healing In each dream journey we encounter a state of consciousness that is personal experience of primal chaos. The disorienting, dizzying surrender to the tornado or whirlpool is a surrender to chaos, an experience of no-form and total confusion and disorientation. It is like the whirling, twisting molecule of water in the chaotic world of non-laminar flow. The experience of committing oneself to the fire and becoming it, and as the random flickering of the flames, and the torrid heat, disintegrating into pure energy.
Becoming the boiling, flowing every-changing body of molten magma at the core of the earth is felt as a visceral sensation. These are some of the personal, subjective responses to the experience of total chaos. The closer one is to the chaos consciousness field, the more undifferentiated the imagery is. Archetypal states define its borders. Visual images dissolve into impressionistic colors, visceral sensations, intuitive perceptions, vague awareness, and often culminate in total blankness or lack of any form, or an overwhelmingness of sensation.
There may be grayness or cloudiness, and paradoxical sensations of falling or falling-floating within vast emptiness. Another perception is characterized as a spiral or vortex. It exerts a magnetic draw on the journeyer who is drawn into it. Sensations of spinning and being drawn deeper often cause intense dizziness and disorientation. There may be feelings of flying apart--dismemberment in the centrifugal forces of the vortex. Dissolution might, for example, be experienced as a deep red which leads into a magma-like flowing sensation in which intense heat melts the journeyer.
The imagery tends on one side to zero, and on the other, infinity, like the paradoxical concept of the plenum which is also a void. It appears void because it contains a vast amount of undifferentiated information which is chaotic and overwhelms the senses. It is invisible because it is not-yet-visible. Reaching this state, one has the sense of transformative forces at work--a feeling of almost palpable relief.
The sense of peacefulness and security is the essence of the journey itself and what the guide brings to it. Many other aspects of this "whole brain" state have been described, such as feelings of dimensionlessness, timelessness, and boundarylessness. It has also been called cosmic consciousness. Many sensations are involved, such as the experience of bubbles or effervescence and tingling in the body, often at the site of a symptom. It may be specific or generalized. It may be expressed as a new primal image that is seen, heard, or perceived in a deeply felt way.
Healing manifests as a new emergent order--the implicate becomes explicate as a new perception of self and one's relationship to the whole, of essence to source. Evolution in consciousness comes with a quantum shift in awareness. That quantum shift occurs during the period in which the evolving structure is in chaos. So if one is in a dreamhealing process, experiencing for example, the multiple consciousness of the Earth Mother as decay, one may follow that to the point of total disintegration.
Since one is identified with that state of consciousness at the time, personal awareness dives down into the chaos, journeying to the most fundamental, primitive or primal condition--the ground state of being. Here a shift is possible as consciousness is totally de-structured, non-linear, yet dynamic, and Here we are simultaneously everything and nothing. We are not separate from the universe: both science (holism, holography, new physics, philosophy) and mystics (shamans, saints, and gurus) tell us so. The whole is reflected in the part and the part is seamlessly unified with the whole. Chaos theory is the result of unitary, iterative processes.
Chaotic systems exhibit holistic behavior. "Solve et Coagula" As we watch the cycles of nature, we observe that things go into life and death, and rebirth, as energy changes form. If this is happening all around us, what is to make us think we are any different than that? We are part of nature, unlike the "civilized" or "objective scientific" views which set us apart.
So we may, quite naturally, expect to go through the same cycle ourselves, in consciousness as well as in biology. Further, we can trust that and embrace that evolutionary flow of life, death, and rebirth, because in this transformative change lies true stability. Always, passing through this state, the new order of imagery, thought, emotion, sensory perception reflects a new and less dis-eased sense of being. The deeper self image undercuts the old belief system, and begins to create a new order of being, a new way of perceiving the self and the world.
Chaos provides a new image around which to order the personality and often the physiology. This is an application of the old alchemical maxim, "solve et coagula," dissolve and reintegrate. One half of the process is being able to let go of the focus of attention and enter the chaos. The other half is being able to seize the new order that arises from it. Order is present in the most chaotic state of mind, just as chaos underlies even the most rigid and orderly intellect.
The primal images, the deep multi-sensual experiences and perceptions act like psychic magnets, attracting and ordering energies around them, which echo their shapes and forms. Like fractal patterns displayed on a computer screen, the quantum shift comes when the attractor values are changed. The old image that lies on one side of the chaos experience gives way to a surprising new image that arises from the chaos. Emotions, thinking, and behavior are all affected.