Awareness of Source Gathers Chi

Another bicycle ride.

I sometimes wonder why thoughts regarding “All That Is” arise during my rides.  Must be similar to any form of meditation. 

I was earlier today looking at the program for an integrative medicine conference I’m going to with my wife next week. 

The titles of the talks seemed so boring! 

I mentioned this to my wife, as she was perusing the program.  Her comment was “these are so 1980’s.”  

What was missing is the consideration of non-local connectivity. 

Era 3 medicine according to Dr. Larry Dossey. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/metta-blessing-patient-presence-and.html

At most it looked like Era 2 medicine, connecting brain and body. 

We could be wrong.  There might be Era 3 medicine discussion at the conference.  Could be our judging minds at work! 

Nonetheless, during my ride I was mulling over the talks and posters listed.  I was thinking how even within integrative medicine we fall into using the modalities with which we are comfortable; acupuncture, supplements, herbals, tai chi, yoga, meditation, and so forth. 

We tend to forget that we are each embodiments of Source.  When we are in the room with what we label “an other,” there is only Source in the room.  When we realize this, intuition of what is best to do next arises.  Healing occurs. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-is-health.html

This above title came to me. 

We can meditate, do yoga, breath work, swallow entheogens, so as to try to more fully connect to Source. 

But, all we really need is to Awaken. 

To realize we are always already fully connected to Source. 

This alone gathers Chi, Prana, whatever term you want to use for this healing Life Force. 

There is nothing wrong with using these varied modalities. 

What is important is to realize they are merely ways of focusing attention. 

Ways of being more fully present. 

Being more fully the pure embodiment of Source. 

So, use your massage, supplements, acupuncture, Reiki, healing touch, Jin Shin Jitsu, etc. 

But understand deeply that healing occurs due to more complex considerations than we can understand. 

And, that life and healing unfolds exactly as it will. 

Awaken Now! 

The See Saw of Enlightenment and Ego

I’m not sure this metaphor is entirely correct.

I was on a bike ride and thinking about how we keep a toe dipped in Enlightenment while performing the acts of everyday life. 

And, perhaps even in deepest meditation we keep a toe dipped in Ego, simply because we are still human. 

A visualization of these states came to me as a see saw, with a rock stuck under each end when down, so that the see saw would never be completely down. 

When one side of the see saw is almost all the way down, that rock represents the small distance that remains when we are almost all the way entering purely into Source, when we as the see saw are deep into Source, but a bit of being human remains. 

When the see saw is the other way down, that rock represents that we are never totally immersed in the Ego, we still have our connection to Source. 

So, I then went to take a picture of a see saw, since most of these photos I take using my phone or another of several cameras. 

Much to my surprise at each of the 2 playgrounds I passed on my ride had no see saw! 

I then looked this up using Google, and found most see saws have been removed because of risks of lawsuits! 

http://www.bobdorigojones.com/2011/04/29/seesaws-a-vanishing-part-of-america/

How sad. 

Yes, I think we can try to be too safe. 

 

I also noted there are no monkey bars anymore as well.  I guess that will save a few front teeth from getting knocked out. 

This see saw metaphor is not quite correct.  Nonetheless, I found it a useful visualization. 

And, I learned a little more about our crazy society. 

So, join me as we see saw between deepest connections to Source, where we always already are. 

And, the times we feel we need to don the comfortable coat of Ego to walk effectively in the world. 

Namaste. 

Are You a Survivalist?

Once again I was caught reading some strange stuff.  My wife and I were traveling to CA for a wedding and to visit the grandchild.  On the plane I pulled out Survivalist magazine.  My wife asks me, “you’re not going to turn into a survivalist?”

I laugh and say, “I’ve always been a survivalist!” 

My father escaped from 2 concentration camps and was liberated from “The Train” during the fall of Nazi Germany. My mother worked for the Jewish resistance.  I have survivalism in my genes!  I have first aid kits, bug-out bags packed, all sorts of survival equipment packed away.  I’ve read for years about both urban and back-country survival.  I train physically to be fit and to use a variety of weapons. 

What she really was asking, “are you going to regress to a lower level of consciousness?”  Are you going to become a Tea-Party type?  Perhaps not really worried, but this interaction led us into an interesting conversation. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

 

What can happen to us that might drop us down to a lower level? 

Maslow proposed a “hierarchy of needs,” beginning with needs for food and shelter, then safety and security, friendship and intimacy, respect and self-esteem, and finally the highest need is for “self-actualization. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

What happens when your very existence is threatened? 

Well this can occur when rising up to the next level of consciousness, where the ego feels as if it is dying. 

There is an interesting story about a Buddhist monk who had a heart attack and ended up in the intensive care unit.  He was in terrible pain, and wrote about losing connection to Source.  Only after it was all over he was able to reconnect.

So, regression to a lower level can occur with disease of the brain or body.  If we have Alzheimer’s or another dementia, can we still be connected to Source, so that we continue to practice right action? 

A diagnosis of cancer or other disease can undo our sense of self, and drive us to a lower level of consciousness.  On the other hand, contemplation of our own mortality can raise us up to higher level as well! 

Often the aged will let go of all the stuff they obsessed about when younger, perhaps money or status.   When they truly understand what is most important in life, and then letting go of “shoulds,” they rise up to a lovely new higher level of being. 

Stress beyond our ability to cope can drop us down to a lower level.   Other severe stressors can be related fear of loss, where we feel threatened or our loved ones are threatened, isolation, relationship loss and grief, or even just feeling that you have no clear purpose in life.

A survivalist mentality can be connected to living in a low-level community or to living as a hermit.

Yet, truly enlightened individuals may choose to live in a closed monk-like community, or to live a hermit’s existence. 

So, what protects us from regression to a lower level of being?

My father showed an interesting behavior while in a concentration camp.  Everyone was starving and there was only a small amount of bread that they had to divide amongst themselves.  My father decided to build a scale from scraps of wood and string.  Then each piece of bread could be weighed, so that everyone could be a assured of being treated equally.  A small boy in the camp observed this action.  Later, as an adult, he painted a picture depicting this episode.  

Why would my father do this?  Obviously he was a survivor, he could have found a way to cheat and steal from his fellow camp members, and he did steal from the Germans to survive. 

Maintaining a sense of morality maintains sanity.  Within compassion you automatically help others.  To do this you must let go of some level of ego.  Giving of yourself, so as help others live better and more fully.  These are the acts of living at a higher level.  This makes living worthwhile!

Right action is the key. 

So, be a survivalist!  Be prepared for many possible eventualities. 

Train with weapons, be a sheepdog. 

A sheepdog might look like a wolf, to the sheep, but you know you have a different mindset. 

The mindset is that you are there to help your neighbors, to share with others in what ever way you deem to be right action. 

A higher level of being can be defined as the larger group of people you consider to be part of your “family.”

We can play the role of “fitting in.”  But, realize it is only a role you are playing. 

You are the bright shining embodiment of Source. 

Embrace this embodiment and enjoy to the fullest!    

Can Google Solve Death?

The rest of the title on the front cover of Time magazine reads:

The search giant is launching a venture to extend the human lifespan. 

That would be crazy – if it weren’t Google 

This must have struck a chord in me.  Since I read the article I have been thinking about it quite a bit.  Enough so, that I woke within a lucid dream at 4:25 am and I was writing this blog in my dream.  

A lucid dream means I was awake enough in the dream to realize I was dreaming, and started altering the dream.  I’ve been writing this blog in my mind over the past few days.  Guess it is time to write it down!  

I love the idea that this search engine giant will throw some cash toward a significant area of research.  Aging has been of long-term interest to me (likely to most of us!).  I did an unpublished study on aging in mice using a “caloric restriction model” to show that their cellular immune system improved with an intake of less food.   Other studies have shown that caloric restriction can help immune function, but I did this study in a well-known model of viral infection. 

Why didn’t I publish it?  The data was pretty clear, but it wasn’t quite a perfect study.  Nonetheless I wrote a grant to the National Institutes of Health to further investigate these provocative findings, and was flatly turned down for funding.  I was so depressed over this that I really started loosing interest in doing any more mouse research.   So, I started doing some collaborative human research on the effects of stress and meditation on the immune response. 

For about 10 years I also taught a few annual lectures on aging in the immune system.  One lecture was to the med students in their immunology course.  That lecture eventually was cut.  I also taught a 2 lecture series in an undergraduate course on aging.  So, I’ve been following the aging literature for at least 15 years. 

Aging in general is a quite fascinating topic.  My overall gestalt is that most of aging is an accumulation of small changes and deficits in multiple systems.  There is a relative immune deficiency in aging individuals that can be quite variable. 

Next I’m going to lay out some scientific details about aging which you might find boring.  Feel free to skip to the end! 

There are widespread anatomic and functional changes in many systems.  There is decreased blood perfusion of organs, fibrosis and scarring, increased fat, and calcification, this can result in both increased and decreased permeability of blood vessels.  Overall, there are increased barriers blocking immune cells from traveling to sites of damage or infection, and, therefore, decreased repair. 

The skin glands produce less antibacterial secretions and the skin also becomes drier.  Actually, the whole body is “drier,” with an increased percentage of fat!  These changes result in skin that is more easily damaged and we see pressure sores and torn skin, leaving openings for infection.

The immune system can be roughly divided into 2 parts, the more primitive “innate” system and the more modern “acquired” immune system.  The innate system is active more quickly in response to infection or any damage, there are “gobbling” cells, the phagocytes, eating up and destroying invaders, and other cells and soluble mediators that circulate at all times. 

The acquired system “acquires memory.”  Some of these cells produce antibodies, small proteins that can attach to invaders.  These antibody-producing cells can mutate and the antibodies become more specific for the invader over time.  The cellular immune system also gets selected for more specific cellular activity during an infection. 

During this proliferation of more highly specific cells, some of these cells become long-lived “memory cells.”  These cells can then become active much earlier than during the initial infection, the next time a similar infection occurs.

What is interesting about aging is that the more primitive innate immune system is better preserved compared to the more modern acquired immune system.  And the acquired antibody system is a little bit better preserved then the acquired cellular system. 

Perhaps even more interesting is that the whole immune system is not really destroyed.  It is “dys-regulated.”  If you want the cellular system to be more active within a particular infection, you might get more antibodies.  If you needed more antibodies, you might get more cellular activity.   This dys-regulation may also contribute to the increased incidence of certain autoimmune diseases with age and to the increased risk of cancer.   

Further, these structural changes in the connective tissue, fibrosis and increased fat, happens in most organs of the body; heart, lungs, kidneys, and dys-regulation is a also a common finding in most systems of the body. 

Why was I so triggered by this article in Time magazine? 

I was wondering how could we really stop aging?  

There are so many systems that are affected by aging.   So, how could we stop aging?  Or even, what could be the wide variety of possible ways that we could live longer?

There are the some ways we know might help.  Meditation helps to re-regulate the body’s systems, restores homeostasis.  But, Google already has a meditation guru, employee number 107, Chade-Meng Tan. 

Exercise has been shown to decrease the effects of aging.  In many animal models caloric restriction extends lifespan, a 30% restriction in calories often results in a 30% longer lifespan. 

This has not been proven in humans, but is a good argument for not being overweight!    

Of course, these are also the methods that seem to be very difficult for most people, eating healthier foods, restricting the total intake of food, and getting more exercise. 

Much less trying to get people to sit still and watch their thoughts!  

The joke often told about dietary restriction is that, “you really don’t live any longer, it just seems longer.” 

The above are more active methods of living longer.  Others, write about using supplements such as resveratrol and other supplements to help decrease the oxidation of cells over time.  However, there is not much great data on this subject. 

What about genetic manipulation?  There are likely hundreds of genes involved in aging.  Is there a possibility of finding certain key genes and altering their function, perhaps using newer methods such as antisense RNA therapies?  I suspect Google will aim at the genetic angle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisense_therapy

Let’s get more creative.  This is Google after all, with billions to spend on this.

Recently we have been seeing studies on how the mind can interface with computerized limbs.  Maybe we can replace the entire body?  Can we put the brain inside an artificial body?  The Dune series of science fiction writing has this as a method of increasing human longevity in the form of the Titans a group of “cyborgs” labeled cymeks. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Dune)

However, we would still need to stop the aging of the brain by Alzheimer's protein changes, and the brain vessel aging leading to ministrokes and slow “simplification” of the aging brain. 

What about digitizing our consciousness?  That could be a Google-type process!  Richard Morgan wrote a science fiction trilogy about a new age where people are downloaded into bodies called “sleeves.”  They can be sent to far interstellar distances digitally and downloaded into new bodies.  The rich can live forever. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon

I applaud spending money on research to keep people healthy.  I wonder why Google would choose this topic?  I guess all those rich kids are starting to become middle aged! 

Perhaps we need to get back to the things we can control, such as stress reduction using meditation, exercise, and decreased dietary intake. 

I am in favor of funding further research on supplements as well. 

Can we do more?  Can we control our genes, and hence, control our fate? 

Perhaps there even more possibilities at the far edges of science.   

Once again, I recommend reading the books by Lynne McTaggart:   

The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe (2003)

The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World (2007)

The Bond: Connecting through the Space Between Us (2011)

I especially like the books and writings by Larry Dossey, particularly, I love his editorials in the journal Explore. 

http://www.explorejournal.com

Perhaps it is possible to change the fundamental nature of our physical form using our access to consciousness.   (Heretic!) 

Maybe.  We shall see. 

In any case, I am very much looking forward to seeing whatever unfolds. 

Go Google!