Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 1; January 2002

The Intelligent Body;The Non-Local Mind

( This article arose out of a presentation given by Dr Rosy Daniel at the 9th International Conference of SEAL, the Society for Effective and Affective Learning, entitled Opening Minds, March 2001. Further information from seal@seal.org.uk)

( If you do not wish to read this article from beginning to end you can use this menu to click on the parts you want to read first:

1. State of the Spirit
2. The emotional and mental state
3. The physical state
4. The environment
5. The Lifestyle
6. Connectivity
7. Energy
8. Illness and Therapy
9. The Scientific Evidence – The holistic 'body-mind' science

In the west, we have a model of medicine which is reductionistic, or mechanistic. The body is viewed more as a machine and the focus is on the disease and not the person. In modern medicine we look at the tissues, the cells, the DNA and the biochemistry, with many brilliant outcomes and technical solutions becoming possible. However, for many patients their experience is that they become lost in the process. People often say they feel that the doctor is not longer thinking about them and that they find this is a frightening and alienating process; they feel bereft and abandoned with their feelings and fear, as their involvement and insight into their illness or problem is overlooked. In the holistic approach, each person is seen as being the greatest expert on himself or herself and many important factors and behaviours which affect health are felt to be within the individual's control. This underlines the need for partnership between patients and health care professionals and the vital shift from the passive to the active role. In the doctor/patient relationship lies another essential element of the approach – the importance of the caring connection made between the patient and the professional helper or the great value of the 'therapeutic relationship'. In the reductionistic model, the professionals' value is a function of their knowledge and technical skills and in fact modern scientific research 'controls out' the effect of the practitioner in order to measure the 'real' therapeutic benefit of any given intervention.

Within the holistic model the main factors affecting the state and health of an individual are:

1. the state of the individual's 'spirit', their purpose in living and will to live
   
   
2. the emotional/mental state, both current and chronic; the way an individual deals with emotions and the underlying beliefs and past experiences which determine behaviour and the relationship to themselves
   
   
3. the physical state – nutrition, fitness, posture and breathing
   
   
4. the environment – socially and physically
   
   
5. the lifestyle – particularly the balance of work with recreation and pleasure, busy- ness with stillness, and regenerative time and the priority given to creative self- expression
   
   
6. connectivity with the whole of life, and the energetic and spiritual support which can be gained from 'non-local' sources
   
   
7. the overall energy level

a) State of the Spirit

It is often observed that if an individual has lost the will to live, then no medicine – orthodox or complementary – will help them. Similarly, if individuals have become dispirited or had their spirit crushed by hurt, loss, disappointment, abuse, social disadvantage, grief or continual stress, the body's ability to heal is severely compromised. The accent within the holistic approach is therefore strongly on helping to revive the individual's spirit through holistic therapies and individual and group psychotherapeutic processes. These aim to help the individual discover a sense of purpose and meaning in life, identify their core values and current choices, and identify sources of uplift for their spirit. These may range from the beauty of nature, art, music and children, to spiritual practices, following a religion or helping others. Sometimes individuals have become dispirited by following the wrong life-path and ending up in occupations or 'ways of being' which do not fully express them. Here the emphasis is placed on helping individuals make new choices and find activities and occupations which excite and stretch them, helping them to reach their potential and achieve fulfilment. This is particularly important for individuals who have been repressed chronically, through abuse, abandonment or social disadvantage.

Another common reason for depression of the spirit is loneliness, and here the need is to connect individuals to others, either socially, in learning situations, or in community initiatives or support groups. It is also important to help individuals learn how to make good relationships and to communicate their needs clearly, which may require assertiveness training. The overall aim is to enable individuals to re-find their joy in living, a sense of purpose and belonging, and an outlet for authentic self-expression, and caring connections to other people and the community.

Spiritual enquiry often becomes activated if there is serious life-threatening illness. The big questions come to the surface: What is life all about? Is there a purpose to life or is this all there is? If there is a purpose, what is it and how does it affect me? If it is a journey, where am I going? Is there any sense in it all and what will happen to me when I die? Often through the very process of asking and thinking about these questions and working on the areas of faith, belief and understanding, the inner spiritual essence awakens and with this awakening a huge amount of energy for living life in the here and now can be released. Commonly times of extreme adversity are the times when individuals discover their spiritual nature and develop their own spirituality in very personal ways. This profoundly enriching process can be so important that there is sometimes a feeling that the illness has served to awaken the person to the real essence of life, 'transforming them' and enabling them to live a far happier life based on spiritual rather than material or fear-based values.

b) The Emotional & Mental State

In the holistic model, great attention is paid to the emotional state, both current and chronic, and to the way the individual handles their emotions. Because of the deleterious effects of fear and repressed emotion on the body, strong efforts are made to help individuals learn how to relax and to feel safe to express their emotions, helping them identify and meet their emotional needs. At a deeper level, efforts are made to help individuals identify the beliefs and attitudes they hold, which dictate the relationship they have to themselves and others. Often those who have not been well cared for as children, and who do not have strong, positive self-images, will base a great deal of their behaviour on the desire to win approval and affection, often stressing and exhausting themselves severely in the process.

Simultaneously, they may be alienating those whose affections they are trying to win. Individuals are asked the fundamental questions: What is your relationship to yourself? How are you looking after yourself? Do you nourish, care for and protect yourself from destructive influences, or do you chronically abandon, neglect or even abuse yourself? The establishment of a new, loving and nurturing relationship to one's self is one of the most important themes within the holistic model, and individuals are enabled, first through the therapies and then through self-help approaches, to learn to identify their needs and care for themselves properly. They can then go on to model their new relationship to themselves on the therapeutic relationships they have experienced.

c) The Physical State

Here the key issues are getting individuals to examine their eating habits, their exercise patterns, their body posture and way of breathing. In the west most of us eat a very processed diet which is high in fat, sugar and protein, with too few fruits, vegetables, vitamins and minerals. This results in us becoming over-fed and under-nourished, and having too little fibre in our digestive tracts. Within the holistic model, the emphasis is placed on directing individuals towards a wholefood, high vegetable/fruit diet, which is organic where possible, with vitamin and mineral supplements as required. In cancer, the antioxidant vitamins and minerals beta carotene, C, E, selenium and zinc are most commonly recommended. Individuals are also encouraged to exercise and stretch daily, (even if they have to do this on a chair or in bed). It is important for some people to identify food allergies which may be seriously compromising their health. Avoiding 'stagnation' of the body energies is seen as an important part of many holistic therapies and the achieving of a good posture is also encouraged. This becomes increasingly relevant today due to the sedentary office and computer-based lifestyles many people in the west are living. Attention is also directed to breathing patterns. Often the combination of sedentary lifestyle, poor posture and emotional tension or depression lead to very shallow breathing. This in turn affects the mental state, leaving the individual feeling sluggish, depressed or anxious. Through yogic breathing, relaxation and exercise in general, it is possible to deepen the breathing, which in turn helps to oxygenate the body more fully and create a state of well-being and vitality.

d) The Environment

Socially one's environment may be dominated by difficult, demanding relationships, or by interpersonal pressures in the workplace or home. Many have discovered, through their holistic explorations, that previously, they never had the chance to find out 'who they are' or what their own needs are because of having lived around extremely dominant family members or colleagues whose needs always came first. Re-establishing health and well-being may depend upon renegotiating boundaries and commitments, and identifying and meeting personal needs and goals.

At the physical level our environments may be overtly toxic, being smoky, airless or very electro-magnetic. At subtler levels our environments may be subject to geopathic stress or radiation hazards. Certainly many individuals report never having felt well since moving into a particular house or office environment, or may find it difficult to maintain their health within the more polluted town environment. Developing the awareness of the toxicity of one's environment begins to give individuals choice about making the necessary changes to promote their health and well-being.

e) Lifestyle

The lifestyle of an individual is usually a very clear reflection of the nature of their relationship to themselves, and it is usually necessary for the relationship to the self to change before changes in lifestyle become possible and sustainable. The overall aim is to get the lifestyle into balance.

We help people who have become workaholic learn again how to play and relax; enable individuals who have become addicted to being busy and constantly stimulated learn how to become still, and enable people who have become co-dependent with others to become emotionally independent. These processes can be helped by spiritual healing and learning the self-help techniques of relaxation and meditation, which also enables the development of a rewarding inner life. This in turn can help to break the cycle of people requiring more and more stimulation and higher and higher achievement and excitement in order to have any sense of satisfaction. In relaxing and becoming more open, individuals regain their sensitivity and have a far enhanced ability to experience pleasure and the subtler dimensions of life.

f) Connectivity

Most people in the west believe they exist in isolation from the rest of life and a great deal of their suffering and fear comes from the resulting state of isola- tion or sense of separation. By working on the raising of consciousness of indivi- duals it is very possible for people to experience the true situation – that all of life is connected and at its essence all is one. People start to realise this by becoming more aware of the effects of their thoughts and prayers on others, realising how their beliefs – positive and negative – affect the outcomes in situations, realising how often meaningful coincidence or synchronicity starts to happen when they are actively on their path and, indeed, that there is a great deal of love and gui- dance which is available from the natural and spiritual dimensions when they begin to open up to it. Consciousness is raised on the one hand through exercise and by simplifying the diet, particularly by removing the mentally and physically depressant effects of excess fats and proteins, and on the other hand, by medita- ion, spiritual healing and spiritual enquiry, as well as becoming involved with creative visualisation. The connection between our minds and the environment can be clearly experienced as we visualise parking spaces in busy locations and then have them miraculously appear as we arrive!

g) Energy

Another key concept within the holistic approach is to think in terms of the effect an individual's behaviour, lifestyle and mental state have on their energy levels or vitality. In all the old traditional holistic systems there is a concept for this energy. It is called the 'vital force' in homeopathy, 'chi' in acupuncture, 'prana' in yoga, and 'ki' in shiatsu. During illness or debilitating treatment, it is considered important in the first instance to have therapeutic help which will raise the energy level through passive input of energy. When clients are in a low energy state, self-help will be impossible and the first key to recovery is for them to be able to 'let go' and allow themselves to receive help and energy input. Individuals often need permission from therapists to do this. The energy levels can be lifted by spiritual healing and the energy medicines of acupuncture, shiatsu and homeopathy. Touch therapies like massage, reflexology and aromatherapy will also help to reduce fear levels and facilitate the letting-go process.

Once the energy has returned, the second key is for people to learn the importance of putting themselves first; reorganising their priorities and values in life, hanging on to this precious new energy and continuing to build it through self-help practices such as relaxation, healthy diet, meditation, visualisation, exercise, and by becoming involved with that which is really exciting and inspiring. We can look at this energy equation in budgetary terms, getting clients to ask themselves: How am I spending my energy, Where is it all going, and is this right? And the second, more important question: How do I build my energy and am I spending more than I generating?

Illness and Therapy

Within the holistic model, illness is seen to arise when the system's ability to resist disease has broken down due to a state of disharmony or imbalance in mind, body, spirit or the individual's environment. All holistic therapies and self-help techniques are therefore designed to strengthen and rebalance the body, increasing the individual's ability to stabilise the disease process and recover from illness. The therapies aimed at any of the levels of mind, body and spirit are seen as being able to affect all other levels because of the integrated nature of the system. After an initial exploratory assessment with the holistic doctor, nurse or practitioner, a therapeutic and then a self-help plan is negotiated which feels most appropriate to the individual.

Self-help should follow when the individual has been sufficiently strengthened by therapeutic help.

The Scientific Evidence - The holistic 'mind-body' science

Important evidence came first from the study of the effects of stress on the body. The body's reaction to stress or fear is to direct resources to the brain and muscles, so that we can both think and run or fight. This is well known as the 'fight or flight response'. This happens at the expense of the housekeeping functions of the body (digestion, absorption, growth, healing, immunity and repair), all of which are compromised greatly when we are frightened or stressed in sympathetic nervous system arousal. A great number of the holistic therapies and self-help approaches work by reducing fear and anxiety, helping to establish predominantly parasympathetic 'self-healing' states within the body in which immune and repair functions are optimised. The important thing this science shows us is that the body cannot work properly when we are frightened.

Since the early 1980's, the vitally important, paradigm-changing discovery has been made of a far more subtle and complex level of connection between the mind and the body. ( Pert.C, Moleculesof Emotion, Simon and Schuster, 1997) This has been through the emergence of the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). We now have the understanding that the mind, the neuro-endocrine, immune and all other tissues of the body are completely interconnected. This started with the discovery of a receptor in the brain for an opiate-like substance, and shortly after this the actual substance itself was discovered which was called 'enkephalin' or 'endorphin'. The discovery that the brain made its own morphine-like compound started a great race to search for other similar messenger substances. Now, over 200 messenger chemicals, called neuropeptides or informational substances, have been found, which are secreted by the brain and the tissues of the body.

Most crucially, receptors for these substances have also been found on all the tissues of the body. When the neuropeptide molecules are secreted and interact with the receptors, they affect the cells' functioning, either by activating the cells or by slowing down or deactivating them. So we see that the body has an informational system or language with over 200 'letters' or 'notes'! Far from the anatomical systems of the body being separate, it is clear that every thought and bodily process is communicated to all other cells within the body instantly.

In persistent states of depression or stress, the body's tissue functioning is changed profoundly. White blood cells, which should protect us, multiply less fast and the activity of the remaining cells can be depressed by up to 50%. Haemoglobin has been shown to carry less oxygen in the depressed. In grief, loneliness and depression the white cells' T cell suppressor/helper ratio is raised, tending the body to an overall depression of immune function, whereas in some chronic anxiety states the ration is diminished as helper cells increase, giving rise to aggravated allergic or auto-immune illnesses such as eczema or colitis. This body of science has also shown us that the use of mind-body approaches can be profoundly helpful in controlling, improving and preventing many serious diseases. Revolutionary science produced by American heart doctor, Dean Ornish, showed that the use of stress reduction and emotional expression in cancer patients actually reversed coronary artery disease! In cancer medicine, the state of mind has been shown to affect survival in relation to the coping style, ie those with fighting spirit are seen to do up to 60% better than those who become helpless and hopeless; those who receive emotional support can double their survival time, and those who are taught visualisation and relaxation during chemotherapy have been shown to survive 17.5% longer than those who are not.

This work on coping style was done by Drs Greer and Pettingale at the Marsden Hospital. They realised that they were observing very different survival patterns in people with cancer depending on their reaction to the diagnosis. They described the different coping styles they were seeing as :

'fighting spirit',
'denial',
'stoic acceptance or fatalism'
'helplessness and hopelessness or anxious preoccupation',

The visualisation study came from Scotland and was performed by Dr Leslie Walker ( Walker.L et al. Guiided imasgery and relaxation therapy can modify host defences in women receivinng treatment for locally advanced breast cancer, from British Journal of Surgery Vol 84 suppl 1, 1997 ) which has shown that people who use mind/body techniques of visualisation and relaxation during cancer treatments improved their survival rate greatly – especially is they were 'nice people', defined scientifically as 'having high levels of social conformity'. There are many other studies, which also show that the depressed, demotivated and socially disadvantaged get more cancer and die from it more quickly than others who are more robust psychologically.( Mind-body data base, Bristol Cancer Help centrew, 1997) The health of our immune system is crucially important in cancer and many other illness processes because healthy, active immune cells can recognise abnormal, infected or cancerous cells and destroy them. PNI findings show that when we are excited and happy and feeling loved or loving, our tissue and immune function increases greatly. There is therefore a physiological as well as emotional need to free ourselves from chronically depressed states of mind and unexpressed emotion, by the use of counselling and group therapy, and by encouraging involvement in that which excites and inspires us.

So whilst depression and stress are not usually the cause of illness per se, they can cause our defenses to be significantly weakened to the point where serious illness can become established.

Back in the field of heart medicine another crucial finding has been made. The association between stress and coronary artery disease has been known for many years but it was not known until recently that it is not stress per se, but stress over which you have no control, which is the killer. In situations where there is a very strong hierarchy in both the human and animal kingdoms, whilst the leaders may appear to have great stress related to their levels of responsibility, the associated power and positive self-esteem protects them. However, their poor, pressured subordinates are at great risk – as they have continual pressure with no authority to change things. At the other extreme, groups or societies where there is a very strong, loving community link are greatly protected against heart disease – even with an animal food diet.

This work has pointed the way to the vital need to explore the role of loving relationships in our health. Within the medical context, placebo studies have shown that strong relationships between patient and doctor/therapist, combined with belief in the therapy, can convey up to a 90% clinical effect without there being any active medicine given at all! (Mitchell .A and Cormacks.M The therapeutic relationship in complementary health care, Churchhill Livingstone, 1998)) How much does this tell us about the power of mind-body connections and the need to return to the 'art' rather than the 'science' of medicine! Because of the emphasis on the therapeutic relationship in complementary medicine and the belief of the therapists in their therapy it is likely that these therapists engender a powerful placebo effect in their work.

More recent work in the field of stress management has given us a brilliant new insight into the role of the heart in mind-body medicine. A group called 'HeartMath' has been measuring a variable known as heart rate variability. When we are well and happy, our heart normally alternately speeds up and slows down a little every few seconds. This gives us a sinus curve if plotted on a graph or viewed on an oscilloscope. When we become agitated and stressed or depressed, we lose this nice regular sinus curve and the trace becomes chaotic. Because the heart is the strongest electrical signal in the body, distortion of its electrical output distorts the output of all other organs, including our brain wave activity and the functioning of our guts and immune systems. What they have shown is that the quickest way to get ourselves back into this optimum sinus heart rate variability is quite simply through the feeling of love. Within less than 90 seconds, focusing on someone or something we love, we are back in synch and, lo and behold, the brain waves and the rest of our tissues follow! Whilst the early stress science showed us that an unquiet mind affects our body's function, this shows us that a disrupted emotional state adversely affects the functioning of our mind.

HeartMath has demonstrated clearly that both our thinking ability and the ability to hear and relate well to others is greatly enhanced by being in a loving state.

This is the ultimate validation of the holistic approach for me, as the absolute essence of the Bristol Cancer Help Centre and all the therapies practised there is unconditional love – whether that be the wave of love people experience on walking through the door, the love they learn to generate for themselves, the healing of relationships with others, or by opening up to receive love from Spirit or from others distantly through prayer. There is even high quality randomised control trial evidence for the power of prayer and spiritual healing.( Dossey.L The power of prayer and the practice of medicine, Harper Collins, 1993 ) It was demonstrated quite clearly that people in intensive care units who were prayed for, even without them knowing it, did significantly better than those who were not. Further studies currently in train have shown that the death of AIDS patients who were prayed for by large groups was greatly reduced, compared with control patients who received no prayers.