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Your Body Is Your Subconscious Mind |
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Review and Excerpt |
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Your Body Is Your
Subconscious Mind by Candace Pert, Ph.D.
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"Your brain is not in charge." This revelation by Dr. Candace Pert challenges conventional science – and everyone interested in total wellness – to reconsider how our bodies think, feel, and heal. As the leading pioneer in a radical new science of life, this bestselling author and world class neuroscientist gives us an inside look at the molecular drama being staged within every cell of the human body – and a glimpse into the future of medicine. In this two-cassette series with study guide, Your Body Is Your Subconscious Mind, Dr. Pert describes in her own words her extraordinary search for the grail of the body’s inborn intelligence with Dr. Pert first came to prominence when she dazzled the scientific community with her discovery of the opiate receptor in 1972. But this breakthrough event was only the beginning of a uniquely productive – and often controversial – career On Your Body Is Your Subconscious Mind, Dr. Pert describes her efforts over the past two decades to actually decode the "information molecules," such as peptides and their receptors, that regulate every aspect of human physiology. Her model of how these biochemicals flow and resonate, distributing information to every cell in the body simultaneously, has unlocked the secret of how emotions literally transform our bodies – and create our health. Easily shifting from a bench scientist’s view to a spiritual one, she relates her research to past and present mind/body topics, ranging from AIDS and cancer to the chakra system. Dr. Pert’s personal and compelling voice makes this a listening experience that is part detective story, part spiritual odyssey – and entirely irresistable. From the wisdom of the body to the wisdom of the laboratory, Your Body Is Your Subconscious Mind takes listeners on a scientific adventure of the first order, escorted by this pathfinder, iconoclast, and "goddess" of neuroscience. The tape includes 8 everyday practices that will help you sustain a free flow of information that is the essence of a whole and healthy self. These suggestions are not merely sensible health tips but in fact are practical guidelines for owning your emotional reality. Says Pert, "The rewards of living this way will show up in every area of your experience: physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. It is the ultimate practice." The following is an excerpt from the accompanying study guide Molecules of Emotion " The opiate receptor is a molecule on the surface of our cells. When morphine or opium enters our bodies, its molecules travel in the fluid surrounding the cells and are attracted to the opiate receptors. The opiate and receptor molecules bind together, transferring information into the cell through the receptor's 'roots'. The cell responds by experiencing bliss. Dr. Pert found that the opiate receptors, while densely concentrated in the limbic brain, also occur in every other part of the body. The implication is that the emotion - in this case, bliss - is not generated by the brain, but by the cells themselves. Since these receptor-bearing cells reside all over our bodies, the blissful experience occurs in the blood, organs, muscles, tissue and bones at the same time as it is registered in the brain. The limbic brain transfers the information to the frontal cortex, where we become conscious of it. It is only at this point that we begin to form ideas about what we are feeling. The experience itself occurs at a preconscious, physiological level. Every cell in our bodies is studded with hundreds of thousands of receptor molecules, each one programmed to attract and bind with a particular peptide. Because of their crucial role in guiding our bodies' responses to inner and outer cues, these peptides have been called 'informational substances. Your Subconscious Mind The cellular level, where emotions are instigated, is also where unexpressed emotions are stored. The catharsis of illness expresses the sudden, overwhelming release of information that has been trapped in our bodies. What Freud termed the 'subconscious' mind is actually a measurable physical process. In other words, there is no 'mind-body problem'. Your body is your subconscious mind. The Chakra System Dr. Pert's work is beginning to reveal the scientific underpinnings of the chakra system. From this point of view, the chakras are 'minibrains': nodal points of electrical and chemical activity that receive, process, and distribute information from and to the rest of the bodymind. Physiologically, each chakra is the site of a neuronal plexus--a network of cells dense with neuropeptide transmitters. All are interdependently connected to each other, such that nourishing any one plexus enhances the effectiveness of the entire system. By the same token, trauma or neglect can manifest as a block at one or more nodal points, degrading the performance of all. How the Chakras Interact The activities of the physiological
chakra centers constantly wax and wane in relationship to one another. In
each plexus, vacant neuropeptide receptors stand ready to receive
informational substances from other nodal points. When the bodymind requires
any one chakra's special genius, the plexus in that location can release
neuropeptides to the other chakras, driving the activities of the entire
organism. In some stressful situations, for example, digestion stops while
the heart rate increases, muscles tense, perception shifts, and breathing
speeds up. These changes could result from the first chakra--associated with
survival--temporarily taking the lead and directing functions typically
associated with the other chakra nodes. In such instances, the first chakra
would act as a 'brain', governing certain key subconscious decisions." |
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See review also Molecules of Emotion: The Science behind Mind-Body Medicine, Simon & Schuster, 1999 |
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