Image: The Magic of Placebos
Source: cbc.ca: CBC Radio-Canada: The Nature of Things: Brain Magic: The Power of Placebos - Infographic: The Magic of Placebos by cbc.ca
Learn more about Placebos at www.cbc.ca/natureofthings
Learn more about Placebos at www.cbc.ca/natureofthings
“Depression is a disorder of the body as much as of the mind. Consider that several of the core symptoms of the condition manifest in body systems.”
The power of the mind on the body is tremendous; or, as the above CBC Infographic suggests, almost magical. We would argue that the relationship between mind and body is intimate, and while the placebo effect is one powerful example, depression is perhaps an even more startling one.
Anyone who has ever suffered from chronic depression knows that it’s more than just a psychological condition. From physical exhaustion and pain to suppression or stimulation of appetite, the effects of depression on the body can be numerous, often compounding related negative thoughts and feelings.
Modern psychology and medicine have their explanations and treatments for this phenomenon: mostly materialistic drug-based treatments around managing levels of neurotransmitters in the brain and body. Such approaches are based, of course, on the assumption that mind, emotions, even consciousness are products of the brain.
But what if there was another explanation?
What if the brain’s function is to act as an interface between conscious and unconscious worlds —as all computers which interface between humans and machines do? Although made in the image of our intellect, computers are not conscious. They have input/output and a CPU. That’s it.
Similarly, the central nervous system and brain receive sensory input, process that input into a form that is useable by the consciousness. On the flipside, they receive energetic inputs originating within (and from beyond) will, thoughts and emotion and translate those impulses into a form useable by the physical body.
From this perspective, we can begin to better understand the all-pervasive interconnectedness between psyche and body; how it is that a stubbed toenail produces more than just pain: it can elicit a severe emotional reaction and cause the mind to race frantically (sometimes curses lasting only a few moments; sometimes nagging thoughts linger for hours) in reaction to the pain stimulus.
What if we had more than just a physical body? What if we had a body of vital energy, (Chi/Qi; Prana, the etheric body), an emotional body, a mental body, and a causal body (the body of willpower).
And, not only did we have such bodies, what if everything in nature had them as well?
We know from physics that all matter is, in fact, energy—and that there is no separating the two. But science is incapable of penetrating beyond a certain level of subtlety of that energy (the quantum worlds) with our crude materialistic scientific method.
Mathematically, science can theorize many dimensions. Physically science cannot prove the existence of any of them (yet). Of course not, because they are not physical in nature. And yet, we all know we dream; we all experience thoughts and emotions.
Practitioners of Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga, Martial Arts and many others know they can experience vital energy (Chi, Prana). And if you’ve never asked yourself the question, “what is willpower?” Do so now: is it a thought? An emotion? A physical movement? You can observe it; use it; but what exactly is it?
Now we begin to see how subtle the interlaced multidimensional energy bodies are, and how they are so tightly interlaced with each other within the field of consciousness. We can begin to appreciate how and why it is that a small child, witnessing his father trapped under a car, wills himself super-human strength to lift the car off his fathers chest. (Adrenaline alone can only do so much).
We can also appreciate the relationship between things like insomnia and depression. The racing mind keeps the body awake; the body that cannot sleep drives us crazy. A pain in the body that prevents us from being at peace, emotionally and mentally, and vice-versa: the chaos in our emotional and mental bodies—that for us are largely subconscious—which translates into physical discomfort, pain, etc.
Now consider that all kingdoms of nature have these same subtle energetic foundations (mineral, animal, plant, human kingdom). But, unlike human beings who are in a particular category of nature in which greater free will and higher levels of consciousness come to fore (i.e. ethics, morality, art, etc.), the lower-level beings of nature are innocent. Innocent is not the same as unintelligent, by the way.
From an energetic perspective, what if we could bathe our energy bodies in soothing and healing energy? Like a bath of Epsom salts which soothes the central nervous system, calming body and mind, we know what effect relaxing music can have; and, what a walk in the woods can do.
What if we could surround ourselves in an energy field whose physical manifestation is symbiosis and harmony? What effect would that energy field have on our mental, emotional, vital and physical bodies?
In the coming months and years, Genesis Eco Fund will put itself to task to demonstrate just what benefits ecosystems can have on the whole of the human condition, beginning with those conditions such as Autism and depression which hurt so many, and whose origins are not within the physical body.
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