I am not sure if you have ever heard the saying, “Above Down Inside Out”. It is quite brilliant. The idea comes from the philosophy that information travels from the brain to the body (above to down) and we heal from the inside – out. When the body is in balance, otherwise known as homeostasis, it will provide you with everything you need and thus you would be ‘healthy’.
Most people when they hear about philosophies and taking care of your mental or emotional health think of meditation or gurus. Then there is the misunderstanding that this is separate from what we do for our bodies physically, such as exercise. It really is all connected. There are so many ways to explain how the body is connected, but let us take a look at one of the perspectives from an information idea.
Candace Pert, an American neuroscientist, published a study back in 1985 about neuropeptides for a psychosomatic network. Neuropeptides are a group of compounds that act as neurotransmitters in the body. Psychosomatic is relating to the interaction of mind and body. If used as an adjective, psychosomatic, “is of a physical illness or condition caused or aggravated by a mental factor such as stress”.
I have heard at many conferences and seminars that I attend that every illness is psychosomatic in nature. Well, does that not put the body-mind idea into perspective?
Most people know that feelings are stored in the brain – in particular, the limbic system of the brain. However, Candace Pert noted some other areas (nodal points) in the central nervous system. They were located in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord and the periaqueductal gray matter.
I was quite interested in regard to the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, considering the theory of spinal cord tension. If our nerves, in this case an example of the spinal cord, resonates a tone, it must try to balance its tension at any given point in time. How does it do that? I am sure science is still trying to figure this out. However, if we are intelligent beings is there not an innate intelligence in our bodies that works to balance us at any given point?
Consider the analogy, (taken from the Sedona Method – Mr. Levenson) that your body is like a computer. Your brain and nervous system are the hardware and your experiences would be software systems. If you do not let go of your software programs throughout your life (ie. Stress), and you continue to exist year after year, after a few decades how many software programs are open? What would happen to your hardware? I am pretty sure it would be overwhelmed. Your spinal cord is having issues maintaining tension.
So, let us get back to the idea of feelings being stored in your nervous system. If nodal points with neuropeptide receptors exist at the dorsal horn of each segment of your spinal cord that would mean that sensory information (your experiences) are making first contact with your nervous system at this point. “Although it has not previously been considered part of the limbic system, neuropeptide receptors here, as postulated for other sensory way-stations (26) may filter and prioritize incoming sensory information so that the whole organism’s perception is most compatible with survival.”
That means that what you feel as part of that experience is saved in your program, your body. Your mind is the hardware. It will keep the information available for any future experiences that it deems necessary to use if survival is questionable.
We, as humans are information. We gather information from our experiences and hopefully learn and enjoy life. That is what life is all about! That information is stored at each segment of your spinal cord and in your brain. Your central nervous system is extremely important. It stands to reason that your body is going to follow your ‘mind’. It is going to follow your feelings because it stores those feelings in more than one area.
I was reading a book about aging by David Sinclair, a PhD biologist at Harvard. He mentions aging as a disease process. If we consider the theory of spinal cord tension and what I hear at conferences from health care professionals, that every illness is psychosomatic in nature, then this idea has credit. Hippocrates wrote, “look to the spine for the cause of all dis-ease”. The spinal cord theory of ease and dis-ease relates to information and how you deal with stress, those experiences in your life. If you are healthy and balanced your spinal cord is at ‘ease’ and when it is under stress, it is in ‘dis-ease’. This is just one perspective. Imagine how many other ideas or options there are in regards to this?
If we can close our software programs, so that we have efficient hardware that processes information correctly, and our bodies are in homeostasis, then how come we could not be healthy all the time? Now we need to find ways to close software programs! I am sure there are many ways we could do this.
Your body does follow your mind, as it is all connected. This is one perspective. There are many other explanations, theories and ideas. I look forward to exploring more of them with you.
“Above, down, inside, out.” (ADIO)
