Mind/Body Connection Workshop

Which came first... the chicken or the egg? Another version of this kind of debate has captured the interest of mankind for centuries. The classic Greeks debated it, and history traces it back even further. The question was, and for many, still is: "What came first? Was it mind, or matter?" Did an animal somehow learn to think, or did thinking (mind) somehow manifest into physical form? Interesting question. Allow me to introduce you to some interesting science. I don't propose the answer to the preceding question is answerable by reading on, but none the less, will provide some insight and therefore, deeper understanding.

First, a little history. Descartes, a 16th century philosopher, wanted to study the human body. To do so, he had to make a deal with the Church. The Church would deal with the mind, spirit and soul, and Descartes would be allowed to delve further into the human body. To this day, there exists a division in the two subjects, mind (psychological) and body (physical).

Well, the fact is, they are one.

Thanks to some brave pioneers of our time, the facts are beginning to emerge from the laboratory. The Mind/Body Connection seminar I present is a compilation of many researchers’ work, which I have studied for the past 15 years, and is my version of connecting the dots. These researchers from various disciplines have been combining their knowledge and expertise to map out the pathways, from the mind all the way to the very DNA inside each cell. The term they coined for this exciting exploration is called Psychoneuroimmunology.

Up until now the medical profession believed that the immune system was an autonomous entity, and therefore unaffected by mind and emotions. Until recently, the popular belief, especially in the world of science, was that a human could feel or experience severe emotional states and the immune system was unaffected by these states. In other words, it is taught that the immune system is autonomous, that is operating on it's own, and free of all outside influences.

We now know that how an individual perceives a situation can have an affect on how the immune system operates. The immune system has a memory. So does the mind/brain. And, they "talk" to each other, and share information. For the first time in our history, we are beginning to discover the actual physical "links" between mind (thought) and body (matter) used for exchanging information.

As the brain processes the thought/emotion, it transduces it into a language the body can understand, and that ‘language’ is - chemistry.

An interesting question at this point might be: What do they talk about?  The message might be, "Make a little more of this protein," or "A little less of that one." The message might be, "Cells, stop dividing, we have enough for now." Now, before some of you begin to think all this is too far outside your model of understanding, too far outside your reality, I would suggest you recall the term "biofeedback." Biofeedback is used to effect all sorts of changes in the body, including blood pressure, headaches and anxiety, to name a few. Biofeedback equipment has been with us for some 30 years, and validates that inducing a different mind set produces measurable changes in the body.