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Attracting Abundance

The Law

Belief - XXX

Descartes had defined the physical body as made of matter. He had accepted the existence of mind and defined it as made of unknown immaterial substance. He postulated that only matter can affect matter. It was therefore the conclusion that mind can not affect body as non-matter can not affect matter. This postulate has been the foundation of the traditional medicine (allopathy - the treatment of disease by conventional means; with drugs having effects opposite to the symptoms) till the turn of the century.

We have seen, in the last two posts, the effect of energy on the physical body. Thoughts are the way mind expresses its energy. We have learnt in the recent posts that energy crates signals which can depress or energize a cell's activity of producing proteins. The majority of the traditional scientists have resisted the acceptance of proven incidents of influence of mind over body calling such incidents as quirks and abnormal. 

I have been taught to see and analyze data in my college days and followed that learning during my professional career. I think all technical people have been taught the same lesson. The lesson says that if you want to assess the influence of something (A) over other (B), then collate data on the value of (B) at different values of (A), and then plot a graph with (A) on one scale and (B) on the other. Draw a trend line through the points in such a way that maximum number of points fall on the trend line and almost equal number of balance points lie on either side of the trend line but close to the trend line. There will be some points which will be far out which should be cancelled out for getting a trend. the far out points are the quirks which can not be explained rationally (with the defined rules which are based on the available knowledge). I I have learnt later, much later, that the far out points, or the quirks, or the outliers on the positive side deserve much closer scrutiny. These outliers may indicate the potential of a thing and may hold the answers to phenomena beyond our comprehension our level of knowledge.

Bruce Lipton in his book "The Biology of Belief" cites an example published in an article by DiRita in 2000 in Science. It tells about an incident involving German Physician Robert Koch, who along with Pasteur, had founded the Germ Theory in the nineteenth century which held that bacteria and viruses were primary causes of disease. In those days, the theory drew flak from a large population of scientists. One of his critics to prove how wrong Koch's postulates were, gulped down a glass of water containing the bacteria which caused cholera. The man was completely unaffected. DiRita concluded that "for unexplained reasons he remained symptom free , but nevertheless incorrect". Why did DiRita call the inference incorrect? There are two plausible answers, to my mind, that explain the result of the bacteria not affecting the person. Either the Germ theory was not correct, which is not true as this theory, with some modifications, holds good till this day, or the person fully believed that the Germ theory was not correct and therefore there was no doubt in his mind that he would remain unaffected.

A second incident that I recollect is described in a book "Dying to be me" by Anita Moorjani who suffered from Cancer for four years. And then suddenly she made an almost spontaneous recovery when the malignancy disappeared from her body.

Roger Bannister was the first person in the history of mankind who ran the first sub-four-minutes mile in the Olympics in Helsinki. Till such time, it was thought that running a mile below four minutes was anatomically impossible. After Roger Bannister showed that it was possible, many other athletes started running the mile below four minutes, the current world record standing at 3:43:13.

The outliers show that it is possible to go beyond what is comprehensible to human mind because what is comprehensible to human mind is limited by the knowledge acquired.

When discussing on the evolution of complex organisms like man, animals etc. we had closed the discussion on the note that groups of cells took over the functions of different organs. We cited examples of the function of breathing being taken over by a group of cells which made our lungs, motility of our body being taken over by groups of cells which formed different muscles etc. Let us examine how the behavior of a complex organism, which is a result of coordinated functions of different organs, is controlled for the survival of the organism.

Say, you are walking down a forest track when a lion appears before you from nowhere. A lot of functions are required to be executed by different organs to enable you to resort to either flight or fight. Your muscles of hands and legs require more energy. So energy consumption in some other organs, like the digestion system, needs to be reduced. Your lungs have to start breathing faster to draw in more oxygen. the focus of your eyes has to be sharper to notice the nuances of movements of the lion and to look out for a club or something if you decide to fight. You will need to ensure that you do not freeze or get paralyzed out of fear. To carry out the different functions in a coordinated manner, specialized cells are required which take over the job of monitoring and organizing the flow of behavior regulating signal molecules which communicate between cells of different groups and also between cells of the same group. The specialized cells formed the brain and the nerve network. We have learnt that the individual cell has the capability to discharge all its functions. But in a complex organism, the cells listen to the instructions being given by the commander - the brain. Thus the brain controls the behavior of all cells. The evolution of the limbic system empowered the brain to communicate the regulatory signals to all cells in the form of emotions and sensations.

Note: The limbic system is a portion of the brain that deals with three functions: emotions, memories, and arousal or stimulation. The system is composed of several parts

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Thalamus is responsible for detecting and relaying from senses such as vision, smell etc.It is located withing the brain stem and is one of the pathways of information in to the cerebrum which is that part of the brain that is responsible for thinking and movement. 

Hypothalamus is an important portion of the limbic system that produces chemical messengers known as hormones which control water levels in the body, sleep cycle, body temperature and food intake.

Cingulate Gyrus serves as a pathway that transmits messages between the inner and outer portions of the limbic system.

The amygdala is one of the two almond-shaped clusters of nerve cells in the temporal, or side, lobe of cerebrum. Both amygdalae are responsible for preparing the body for emergency situations, and for storing memories of events for future recognition. Amygdalae assist in development of memories, particularly those related to emotional events and emergencies. The amygdalae are also involved specifically with the development of the fear emotion and can be the cause of panic. Additionally they play a major role in pleasure and sexual arousal and may vary in size depending on the sexual activity and maturity of the individual. 

The hippocampus is another part of the temporal lobe that is responsible for converting short-term memories in to long-term memories. Damage to the hippocampus may cause amnesia.

Basal Ganglia is a cluster of neurons in the brain that specialize in processing information on movement and in fine-tuning the activity of brain circuits that determine the best possible response in a given situation. Thus they play a very important executive role in the body i.e. they plan the best possible course of response to achieve a particular goal, in executing habitual responses and in learning new responses.


Candace Beebe Pert (1946 - 2013), was an American neuroscientist and pharmacologist who discovered the opiate receptor, the cellular binding site for endorphins in the brain. Emotions, Pert explains, are not simply chemicals in the brain. They are electro-chemical signals that influence the electrical potential, and therefore chemistry, of every cell. Thus the emotions change the environment within the body, which then reflects in the environment outside the body caused by the behavioral changes arising out of the changes in the environment within the body.


Namaste


Till next time


Prabir