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Your Mind’s Effect On Your Health
September 26, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
Our state of mind has a direct impact on our state of health. No news to most people in complementary health practice and hypnotherapy, but the allopathic types need clinical data, and why not. Three new reviews of the data relating to those with HIV say stress and depression ‘may’ make a great difference in the state of health. Dr Gail Ironson, lead author of one of the reviews said "the research strongly points to a link" and "we’ve got to study this over time (to show) that it’s not a fluke.
On the one hand I always feel pleased to see allopathic researchers venturing across the boundaries of their own speciality into the realm of interconnected systems (holism). On the other hand I think it’s 2008 and their still not
completely convinced… deear Lorrd! Anyway let’s stay positive and encourage the inevitable if slow death of the reductionist model.
Dr Ironson did further say "Psychological states do predict whether you’re going to stay healthy longer or whether your disease is going to progress faster" and that depressed people become susceptible to disease at twice the rate of other patients.
So what it looks to me is happening is this. While there are increasing numbers of allopathically oriented doctors who recognize a symbiotic relationship between body and mind (fewer stretch to include spirit), they just break out of their own area of specialization. Others then have to cover the same ground in their own area of specialization. Some break away altogether Deepak Chopra being the most famous. He like Candace Pert that I spoke of yesterday have then become darlings of the holistic and complementary health world.
A quick word on the use of complementary rather than alternative. Alternative seems to indicate one or the other while complementary indicates just that. If you are in a car accident where would you want to go, the emergency room or your homeopath? Not much of an alternative is it. Complementary indicates there is room for what is most appropriate. That really is Holisitc.
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Science Seeking The Soul
September 22, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
Science and Spirituality are finding more and more relinquishing of past distrust and antipathy. There are Universities around the world that have departments of consciousness study, and individual scientists exploring different aspects of spiritual experience.
Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania is among a small group of doctors and scientists on a purposeful pursuit of our relationship with the Divine or ‘God’. They like many of their colleagues around the world do not find science and faith incompatible. They are using sophisticated medical technology to hunt down and map the soul.
Newberg has searched for spirituality in the brain for almost 20 years. He has probed
the brains of praying nuns, meditating Buddhist monks, and Pentecostals as they speak in tongues. He has written three books: "Why God Won’t Go Away," "The Mystical Mind," and his most recent, "Why We Believe What We Believe." He has another book coming out next year.
In the early ’90s, Newberg had fallen under the mentorship of psychiatrist Eugene d’Aquili, an early leader in the study of the effects of religious and mystical experiences in the brain. Newberg proposed to d’Aquili to photograph
brains during religious experiences using the injection of a radioactive tracer scanned using a process called single photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT. They found willing volunteers among three disparate groups: Tibetan Buddhist monks, cloistered nuns and Pentecostals who speak in tongues.
As Newberg studied the results of the brain scans of nuns and monks, some bright spots were obvious. The frontal lobes got especially busy. They’re the part of the brain he calls the "attention area." The meditators had clear strong activity in their frontal lobes possibly from focusing on their task. He also saw the thalamus kick in. It’s a pea-sized
piece of the brain atop the brain stem that, among other things, sends sensory information to the frontal cortex, where much of our heavy thinking happens. Whatever was happening in meditation, the thalamus was creating a strong sense of it being real.
There were surprises elsewhere, in the parietal lobe, the part of the brain that helps us orient ourselves in relation to things around us. Newberg discovered that the nuns and Buddhists had actually shut down that part of the brain, suspending their senses of space and time. It was then that they entered the peak of their transcendent experiences.
Has he found the soul? Newberg is still looking.
He concluded "Why We Believe" by saying we may never know all of why we believe. "It is the questions that give us meaning, that drive us forward and fill us with transcendent awe."
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September 19, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
Meditation, like other form of ‘trance’ state, allows a bridging of the conscious and subconscious. It is of value then as a meditator to have some understanding of the subconscious mind and it’s workings.
In the process of my last move, I came across two cassettes entitled “Your body is your sub-conscious mind, that I’d never made time to listen to.” On the cassettes are a talk and an interview with Candace Pert, a neuroscientist and the author of ‘Molecules of Emotion’. Pert spoke about research indicating that each cell of our body has intelligence. In technical terms it boils down to the presence of neuropeptides and their receptors, which I won’t be explaining here! She also mentioned that such neuropeptides and receptors are found in the most basic single cell organisms, leading her to conclude that all living things have feelings!
Our feelings register our direct experience of each moment, and they do this whether we are paying attention to them or not. For most of us most of the time we are not. Our culture, education and habits are thought oriented and dominated by rationality. We are conditioned this way. Unfortunately most of the time this dominance of thought is
at the expense of connection to our feelings.
In the Tri-Une model of the mind I work with, the dominant rational part is our conscious mind and the feeling part the sub-conscious, our subconscious also remembers everything we felt – ever. Within the subconscious is the superconscious, the One, where nothing is, ever was or will be conditioned or separate.
Where we experience problems or conflict in ourselves, the conscious mind, the subconscious and the superconscious are out of alignment. We could say that where there is separation between what we think from what we feel, and from what we feel from what we are. We will experience that separation as problems and conflict in ourselves. When we are disconnected from what is felt within us, we project it outwards as how we experience what and who is around us on the outside. If you’ve followed me this far you will see that this is a catch 22 situation. If we’re not connected to our feelings and have problems, conflict or suffering, and are projecting that outwards and seeing it as the world we live in, where is the space to break the cycle to bring conscious awareness to what exists and drives us from within the subconscious? We need some means of stepping out of the cycle and turning inwards, often we need a guide in that. Healing of our problems, conflicts and suffering is complete when the subconscious is made conscious and both come into alignment with our true nature, the superconscious. There is nothing conditioned in us that can’t change and be healed. Meditation can be practiced with this understanding a space in which we can be with ourselves in such a way to create a break in the feeling into projection cycle. With experience meditation becomes the ground on which we can meet our deepest fears and pains in the process of their release and healing.
To come back to Candace Pert and biology, when asked what in her view made us different in our feeling experience to other life forms she replied it is the development of the frontal cortex of our brain. Pert went on to explain that the frontal cortex allows us to recognise what is driving our behaviour (subconscious feeling) and to make a different choice if that behaviour creates problems, conflict or suffering. If or when that new choice brings our conscious, subconscious and superconscious into alignment we experience the other gift of our unique frontal cortex, joy of being.
There is a growing body of scientific data that shows correlation between the activity and vibrancy of the frontal cortex and meditation. So while meditation can open us to the unresolved and unhealed in us, it also gives the means to heal and resolve. Knowing this ability to be with whatever arises in us is powerful indeed.
In the future I will look at the many health benefits of meditation.
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September 19, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 3 Comments
The practice of asanas is the aspect of yoga that has become synonymous with what yoga is. As we can see it is but one face of the jewel of yoga.
To begin understanding asanas as something more than an ancient health and fitness exercise system, let us look at the meaning of ‘yoga’. The Sanskrit root of the word yoga is ‘yuj’ meaning to join, bind, yoke, at a deeper level it means union. We can say then that it is a process of joining to create unity.
So the question is now, join what to create what union? Yoga is a spiritual science and it’s purpose is to facilitate the joining of the fractured human nature, so as to realise our true state of union with the Divine.
Asanas then are the body postures that we know commonly know as yoga. The science of yoga understands the inter-related dimensions of our humanness. The body, mind and emotions are all inter-connected. As such what occurs in
one effects the others. Asanas are one means of facilitating a unity between body mind and emotion that allows deepening integration of the experience of spirit.
In the Niyama of sauca we spoke about yoga as a system of purification. I’d like here to make the connection between purification and the process of unifying, so that purification can broadly mean the process of joining together what is separate. Within this process are multiple dimensions of purification at physical, mental and emotional and subtle levels. Because of our holistic nature each level can be found through each other level. The body in asana then becomes the site of this process.
When we perform asanas we create a process of ‘opening’ the body. This opening allows flows of blood, lymph and subtler energies of prana and awareness. It is this awareness aspect that makes asana a spiritual practice and not just exercise.
At the physical level the increased flows of blood and lymph increases the health and vitality of the bodies cells. At subtler levels the same opening and increase of flow occurs in the movement of prana in the nadis. The nadis are the subtle energy channels, similar to the meridians in far eastern systems. Prana is the subtle energy similar to chi in the far eastern systems. The flow of subtle energy in the nadis allows purification at this subtler level, purification occurring where the flow has stagnated.
The body is the site of the subconscious, meaning it stores or holds the subconscious. In asana we open the body to allow awareness to travel into the subconscious to bring into the light conscious awareness of what is there. It is in the subconscious that what in us is fractured is held, as well as the why; at deeper levels is also the means of re-joining. In this subconscious state of fracture are the feelings, emotions and beliefs that formed and maintain the fractured state. Making them conscious then allows their healing.
It is my personal view that the process of re-joining is a process of healing. As such the spiritual process of yoga is a healing of the fractured into re-joined unity or lived union with the Divine. Asana as spiritual practise is an integral part of this process on the yogic tradition.
In a future article i will explore the relationship between asana and the other seven limbs.
Let us look at the yamas and niyamas to see how awareness in asana is applied. The principle of ahimsa shows that asana practice is done without violence towards ourselves. The principle of satya indicates the need for truthfulness with ourselves in our asana practice. The principle of asteya in asana can be the requirement of balance between the two sides of our body, that one part is not taking from another.
Eight Limbs of Yoga 4 Pranayama
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September 19, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 3 Comments
Like the Yamas, there are five Niyamas. Direct translation of Niyama from sanskrit means "rules" or ‘laws’. A more fitting interpretation might be ‘disciplines’. The Niyamas then can be seen as the disciplines and dharma supporting a yogic life.
1. Sauca (Cleanliness)
In understanding the eight limbs of yoga we must at all times keep in mind the purpose of yoga and more importantly, the means that it’s practice forms to reach it. At this level cleanliness can be understood as the process of purification. We can find an application of this process in every of the eight limbs.
In Sauca the discipline is in relation with oneself. Cleanliness or ongoing purification requires a foundation of physical and mental health. Sauca then is the attention to care for the maintenance of our physical health. Because
yoga is a science of the inter-relation of body, mind and spirit, this personal cleanliness is applicable at each level. Also because we do not exist separately from our society and wider environment, sauca extends from us into the world in our actions and attitudes.
2. Santosha (Contentment)
Santosha is the mental aspect of our health foundation and is the seed of the fifth Niyama. The contentment of santosha is acceptance and acceptance is the seed of surrender. Santosha requires then presence in the moment. If the mind moves to what could be, should be, would be, contentment disappears.
3. Tapas (Heat)
Tapas is often given to mean austerity, the austerity is however the means of creating the heat. Tapas in this sense is
the heat required for purification.
At each level of our being purification is usually uncomfortable, getting increasingly so at subtler levels. It takes therefore a real conviction and courage to hold oneself in this fire. Tapas then also implies the heat of desire for truth, for self realisation, for liberation required to keep stepping into the fire.
4. Svadyaha (Self-inquiry)
As i have already expressed svadyaha is seen and required in each of the eight limbs. To do any action, be it a spiritual practice or something mundane without svadyaha is to be asleep in the dream. Svadyaha is the light that illumines our life wherever we shine it. Practicing and developing self-awareness is what transforms the eight limbs from a set of rigid rules into principles for living that can be applied with appropriateness to the moment.
Svadyaha is also the keyhole in the door that forms the veil of separation. It is also part of the key itself made up of the alive and vibrant totality that the eight limbs form in it’s light.
5. Isvarapranidhama. (Surrender)
In christianity isvarapranidhama is expressed as "thy will be done’. When the egoic mind has been tempered through living and deepening the yamas and niyamas and other limbs, space opens in us to feel and perceive the movement within life that is beyond our personal thoughts and desires. We begin to connect to the presence of the Divine and feel it’s movement around us and through us.
Isvarapranidhama, is a journey in itself, a broad threshold of subtler and subtler letting go. Yet it to is present and developed in each of the eight limbs.
I hope by now it is becoming apparent that in a holistic, even holographic way, each of the limbs and their aspects is in some way present within all the others. Rather than a series of stepping stones there are like a tapestry woven together, each requiring and supporting the others.
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Eight Limbs Of Yoga- 1 Yamas
September 19, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 2 Comments
This is the first article in a series on the eight limbs of Yoga as compiled by Lord Patanjali.
It was the brilliance of Patanjali to create in his now classic sutras a clear and concise summation of the great Yogic works of the Puranas, the Vedas and the Upanishads.
It is interesting to note that Patanjali’s lifetime is placed a few hundred years after the life of Gautama Buddah, and I will in the future make a comparison of the eight limbs of Yoga and the Noble eight fold path.
The First Limb of Yoga – Yamas.
The Limb of Yamas has five characteristics in relating with others and the world we live in and expounds the principles of dharma or righteous duty, in relation to others and society as a whole.
1. Ahimsa (Non-violence or compassion)
The principle of Ahimsa is not limited to actions, but also applies to thought. The relationship of mutual influence between body and mind is well understood in yogic philosophy.
Like any principle Ahimsa has many dimensions which reveal themselves according to the consciousness of the individual. Taken to it’s fullest depth Ahimsa is the compassion of understanding that there is no separation between self and other. In the embodiment of such understanding Ahimsa is natural and effortless.
Ahimsa was the bedrock of Mahatma Gandhi’s Indian liberation movement. It has though far greater depth and should not be confused with the concept of pacifism. Because Yogic philosophy arises from spiritual insight the presence of the Divine is to be sought beyond the appearance of things to our senses and mind. As such the notion of dharma within ahimsa implies alignment with the Divine will.
As we will see throughout the eight limbs each is like a jewel with many facets. It can be turned to view the aspect of
each face, and according to the wisdom and insight of the viewer, other faces will be seen and understood or not. Possibly only one who has achieved the ultimate union of Yoga will perceive the whole jewel.
2. Satya (Truthfulness)
The principle of satya seems initially self apparent and easily understood, tell the truth, don’t tell lies. It is unfortunate that great spiritual teaching can so easily be reduced to moral codes of right and wrong. Looked at more deeply satya can be seen as a principle of integrity, which requires degrees of self awareness and inner flexibility. A rigid code of law is applied universally. Satya as integrity requires the ability to evaluate in the moment truthful application of conduct. Implicit then is the development of an awareness of the relationship between one’s inner experience and the outer world.
By now I hope it is becoming apparent that each principle contains with in it a dimensionality of spiritual evolution. The eight limbs then are not the map of sequential progress but an integrated evolving whole.
3. Asteya (Non-stealing)
Asteya then deepens the theme of integrity. From the most obvious application of not taking what is not ours, through subtler levels. Asteya is also applicable to our attitude to others, their belongings, their thoughts, their confidences, their time and their energy. It is in the nature of the egoistically centred mind to manipulate. As such we can seek to get what we want from others, regardless of their willingness to give us what we want. Such manipulation ultimately lacks both satya and Asteya.
4. Brahmacharya (Purification of desires)
The understanding of bramacharya is often amalgamated with the vows of monk-hood and therefore celibacy. More correctly bramacharya is the commitment to live life focused on attaining direct knowledge of the Divine. To do so the impulsive drives of desire must be purified and redirected to this goal. In bramacharya then is another level of deepening of our integrity. There is little value in the external control of our desires if there isn’t a corresponding investigation into their causes. At the same time there is within the yogic path an understanding of the inter relation of desires and sexuality. More directly put, the distortion of our sexuality by desires. Bramacharya then is the pursuit of the truth within us and it’s quest requires the conscious engagement with and insight into the arising of desire within us.
5. Aparigraha (Non-possessiveness)
Aparigraha completes the five Yamas. Aparigraha is the principle of balance in relationship with the world. In balance we have what we need and we recognise that we gain what we earn. Living Aprigraha creates harmony. There is a recognition of the impermanent nature of the material world and the spiritual fruitlessness of pursuing worldly gain for it’s own sake. Aprigraha is related to Bramacharya in an orientation inward to gain insight and self awareness in pursuit of the realisation of ultimate truth.
In the next article we will look at the second Limb of Yoga, the Niyamas.
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