In what way is the mind connected to the body, and vice versa?
Mainstream Western science has long held the theory that mind and body are two separate, independent entities.
Until recently, the mind has been regarded merely as the “epiphenomenon” of the brain, meaning that the mind is merely a result of the complex electrical, chemical and biological actions of the brain. Without the brain, the mind does not and cannot exist.
Fortunately, recent research on body-mind medicine and in neuroscience has proven this theory utterly wrong. The mind is not merely the result of the activities of the brain. It may even be the other way around—that is, the mind has created the brain.
I define the mind as “the thinking faculty of the soul,” but science does not believe in the existence of the soul, because it has no way of proving its existence.
Body-mind connection
Western science can no longer ignore the growing number of evidence regarding the body-mind connection. As Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD at Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention said, “Mind and body are inextricably linked, and their second-by-second interactions exert a profound influence upon health and illness, life and death… Emotional stress… can trigger chain reactions that affect blood chemistry, heart rate, and the activity of every cell and organ in the body—from the stomach and gastrointestinal tract to the immune system.” (From “Mind, Body Medicine,” edited by Daniel Goleman, PhD and Joel Gurin)
Because it has been conclusively proven by neuroscientists and researchers that every cell in our body is in constant communication with each other through neurotransmitters and their receptors, the important role of the mind and emotions in the cause, progression and cure of diseases can no longer be dismissed by the medical community.
Not all diseases can be traced solely to a pathogen (like bacteria), germ or microbe, allergen or carcinogen. Disease can be also caused by nonphysical things or conditions, like emotions and negative thought patterns.
As Harris Dienstfrey, editor of “Advances” for the Fetzer Institute, pointed out in the book “Where the Mind Meets the Body”: “The level of health today would likely be higher if the medical community had retained a bit of skepticism toward the germ theory and was more responsive to the capacity of the mind to move the physiology of the body.”
The brain is not the same as the mind. The brain is the physical organ that presumably produces thought and directs the physiological activities of the body. The mind is a nonphysical entity which is not contained in the brain. It is all over the body, it is nonlocal. It is the seat of consciousness.
Near-death experiences
Consciousness is not dependent on the brain. A man can be conscious or aware even if he is out of his body. Numerous cases of near-death-experiences (NDE) and astral projections (or out-of-body experiences) have proven this beyond doubt. Many times I have experienced being out of my physical body and even saw, at least once, my physical body sitting in a chair while I hovered near the ceiling. Yet I was fully aware of everybody in the room, including their thoughts. That’s why I know that consciousness is not dependent on the brain.
Can the mind cause the body to be ill? Of course it can. Not only that, it can also do the opposite, that is, the mind can restore a person to health or wholeness.
People who develop heart disease are typically high-strung, highly stressed, perfectionist, type-A personalities. They can’t keep still and are always looking at their watch. They want to finish a job, not on time, but ahead of time. These people are usually very successful and financially stable. But they are also usually the ones who have high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes and ulcers.
This does not mean that the easygoing, type B person won’t get ill. He will, too, but between the two types, the former is more prone to disease than the latter.
A study was done by Harvard cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson on the effects of meditation (or what he calls the Relaxation Response) on the body of an individual. He found, among other things, that meditation not only relieves tension or stress. It even lowers blood pressure, slows down metabolism and reduces oxygen consumption and blood lactate level, indicative of a relaxed state. Dr. Benson discussed these in his best-selling book, “The Relaxation Response.”
Each cell in our body is in communication with every other cell through neuro-transmitters and their receptors. So, when you talk to your body, the body listens. I once cured my “trigger finger” ailment by simply talking to it, as advised by a spirit entity from the fifth dimension.
Dr. Candace Pert, a pioneer in mind-body medicine, discovered the role of neuropeptides in one’s health and immunity. She described how the emotions “act like drugs in the brain and body and control storage of memories, i.e. the brain is not the sole storer of information, that happens in the body, too.” She published more than 250 scientific papers on peptides and died in 2013 at age 67. Her research findings paved the way for the development and acceptance of “psychoneuroimmunology.”
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