Messages from the Body
Introduction ~ The key factor in the maintenance of bodily health is the immune system, which is controlled by the brain via neural connections, chemical reactions, neurotransmitters, lymphocytes, neurohormones, endorphins, and the like. Through these linkages, what is going on in our consciousness is continuously affecting our body -- and vice versa. In many ways, the body and the mind imitate and imprint each other. Ultimately, of course, consciousness underlies and is the final determinant of everything, and the body reflects this vividly. It should be noted in this regard that “consciousness” will be used here to refer to both aware and unaware processes and phenomena, as well as what is happening in our brains and in our souls. What is in our consciousness is determined by our life experiences and by the nature and history of our soul. We design our destiny, and then we encounter the interaction between ourselves and the world around us. And we react to what happens. For instance, one way in which illnesses and such can happen is when the individual's life goals are not being met. The individual then feels so frustrated that bodily functioning goes awry. Their consciousness then becomes permeated with this process. The resultant in such a situation is that the particular interpretations and interventions that the individual exhibits about this issue are reflective of the agitated state of their consciousness. And that, in turn, shows up in the form of the disorder that develops. The illness, ailment or damaged condition then reflects the goal-thwarting impacts from our environment, and/or it reflects the effects of our efforts to try to get by without dealing with our goal(s). The key factor in all this is the “thought form” or pattern of consciousness in the mind and soul, which affects the body via the processes described above. And when something is awry in our consciousness, the body is the place where our consciousness problem; that is precipitating the disorder, is played out. Illnesses, ailments, disorders and damages in our bodies therefore represent the final warning system regarding the things in which we are caught up that are causing us significant, serious, and perhaps even lethal outcomes. These “Messages From The Body” point to what needs to be tracked and modified in our emotional/cognitive/behavioral/evaluational/spiritual system. Symptoms and syndromes (clusters of symptoms) express what we are unconscious of, as well as what we are “shoving into our shadow.” The “shadow” is that part of us where things that were (or are) not acceptable to us and/or to those around us are relegated. This is especially true during the intensely impressionable childhood period, where at the beginning in particular, we tend to put God's face on the parents and other significant caretakers and relationships. What the symptoms and syndromes of illness and disorders often represent, then, is a de-evolution of a “shadow-shoving” process, in which we are refusing to integrate our qualities or needs into our consciousness and lives, due to severely repressive, suppressive, exploitative and/or abusive reactions to these aspects of our nature when we were children. There is an old saying to the effect that “As a person thinketh, so they shall be.” In other words, what is in our consciousness determines the way our life goes. And that gets started in childhood. This means that how one handles one's core themes determines who and how one will become. Some example core themes here are things like self-support, belonging, being safe, getting love, needing validation, being responsible, knowing and understanding, mutual support, honesty, perfection, being able to love, being able to have, cultural and community commitment, being without doing, attention input, abandonment, cosmic connection, etc. A major source of bodily malaise is the impact of one's negative experiences on the neurotransmitter conditions that result from formative processes. Chronic and/or repeated traumatic experience patterns have specific impacts on the individual's neurotransmitters that tend to last the lifetime. Specifically, what has been found is that: 1) Dopamine is lowered by joy-deprivation. 2) Norepinepherine is elevated by fear- and/or rage-induction. 3) Endorphine is lowered by love-deprivation. 4) Serotonin is lowered by status-deprivation and powerlessness-induction. Illnesses and disorders are linked to beliefs and changes of beliefs about oneself, about the nature of one's relationships with others, about one's position in the social world, and about where one stands in relation to the Universe. And these, in turn, are determined by one's life experiences, by one's interventions in the world, and by one's soul history. Things like the love or lack of love, joy and meaningful sexual contact that one has experienced, via such things as having undergone oppression, emotional conflict and trauma, the role of expectations and their play-outs, social acceptance or rejection experiences, having the feeling that one is able or unable to impact on the environment and the nature of one's quality of life, etc., are key factors here. Such processes as not feeling a part of a social unit, not feeling valuable and valued, being caught up in loneliness, undergoing deep longing and frustration, traumatic patterns and being under the spell of unresolved detrimental residuals from infancy and childhood have the effect of causing disturbances in one's consciousness. Living through uncontrollable stress, social instability, lack of resources, or failed ambitions, encountering conflicting signals from important others around crucial matters, having to deal with unexpected threats, finding oneself ensnared in compulsive and addictive behavior, and experiencing social rejection, isolation, devaluation and alienation also cause consciousness problems. All of these, along with issues like learned helplessness, feelings of weakness, victimization, incompetence and lack of control and/or power, and the experience of rejection by or alienation from the Cosmos are the things that generate negative thoughts and emotions such as grief, fear, despair, guilt, resentment, nihilism, cynicism, hostility, greed, hate, unforgivingness, pride, cruelty, narcissism and ignorance. These kinds of difficulties suppress the immune system by generating and maintaining negative self-reactions and beliefs about one's position/situation in the world. The mental thoughts and emotional patterns that most often precipitate disease and disorder in the body are criticism, anger, resentment, guilt, shame, grief and fear. Criticism arises from a feeling of wanting to hands-on control everything, due to a childhood in which such control was critical for cosmic acceptance, physical and/or emotional survival, family protection, sense of worth, quality of life, etc. When this “control-mania” occurs, it results in disorders in which the environmental impact systems are affected, such as arthritis. Anger comes from experiencing obstacles that can't be overcome, and the resulting impasse ends up in our turning from seeking to remove the obstacle to attacking other people, the environment, and the Universe. This tends to lead to conditions that emphasize infections, boils, burning, fevers and inflammations. Resentment is based on a feeling of victimization and powerlessness, and it turns into smoldering fires that eat and fester away at the body, until diseases like cancer and tumors develop. Guilt is anger turned against the self, with a resulting self-attacking. It leads to self-punishment and pain. Self-hobbling illnesses like emphysema and herpes are the result. Shame is generalized guilt, and the attack that results from shame is on the general self-sustenance systems. As a result, it ends up in disorders of the life support system, such as the blood, the liver, and the immune system. Grief is the reaction to loss and deprivation, and its expression involves the entire respiratory system, along with the fluid treatment systems such as the kidneys and the bladder. Suppressed grief therefore produces such things as lung problems, ear infections, and sinus difficulties, as well as heart problems. Fear activates the adrenal system for all-out emergency action. It suppresses the vegetative systems such as digestion, regarding them as being of less importance during the emergency. Chronic fear thus tends to result in things like stomach and intestinal disorders, along with diseases of the kidneys and the bladder. Physical symptoms arise from the condition of the individual's body, as generated by the negative thoughts the individual characteristically has, that shape their life and experiences through constant repetition. They also represent the body trying to do things that the individual won't/can't/isn't manifesting and/or patterns that the family of origin forced upon them. Environmental influences like diet, bacteria/viruses, pollens, pollutants, etc. operate as the precipitant or “trigger” for the already loaded and aimed “gun.” So are the events that produce traumas and assaults, such as falls, accidents, violence, losses, etc. Current intensely emotionally loaded situations tend to precipitate disorders that heal quickly in response to interventions, though they will go on to generate physical ailments/complications if the condition-of-consciousness warnings are not heeded. Meanwhile, chronic stress-producing and on-going emotional meaning pattern problems grind away at the body till it breaks down. These illness and disorders tend to take longer to heal, and to require more intensive interventions. It should also be noted that this whole disorder-precipitating process pretty much centers around what we think of as “unconscious” phenomena that are out of awareness, that are beyond our conscious control, and/or that are continuously indirectly influencing what happens in our lives. They reflect aspects of ourselves and of our lives that are so threatening to us or that were so threatening to those around us in our formative period that we had to repress them from our awareness.
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