TUNING THE MIND AND BODY - Part III
Recently, O Carl Simonton, M.D., a noted author and innovator in the medical profession, and I were doing some teaching work together at the Certification Training. Carl remarked that in his long-term work with visualization and imaging used with cancer patients, he had noticed the very powerful impact that music and laughter have on the nervous system in the form of stress reduction.
Both of us support the concept that when you help someone to relearn, to re-image that's it's ok to be healthy, that person has the power to heal him/herself, naturally in conjunction with his/her own licensed physician. We also observed that the effect of the patient's power on the healing process is numerically increased. If you have a non-responsive or a non-positive patient with a serious cancer who goes to his licensed physician, the result on a scale of 1-10 would be a 4. If that person can be moved into a positive thinking modality, you've gone up to a 6 or 7. If you can teach that person stress-reduction, positive visualization, etc., your probability factor goes up to 8, or, 9 or even 10. Any good physician really dedicated to the healing of the patient wants an interactive patient, a patient who totally believes in the doctor and his/her own ability to heal, to take charge of his/her life. Wouldn't the average physician then want an 8 or a 10 rather than a 4? I'm convinced that this is what Carl Simonton is doing and I certainly believe that this is what our work here at the John-David Learning Institute is doing.
For many years now the traditional medical professions have recognized that human beings, specifically the human mind/body, can create its own illnesses, even to the extent that the mind can kill the very body it lives within for survival.
Taking this idea a step further, we could say that if the brain/mind can create illnesses it can also cure the very same dis-eases it created. Then, we could also say that not only can the brain/mind cure the illnesses but absolutely and totally prevent the dis-eases from ever manifesting themselves in body. This is where the very exciting field of neuroscience, and in this particular case, psychoimmunology, enters the scene.
The study of how the body's immune system functions in fighting off invading bodies is not new; however, the study of how the mind influences our immune system is quite recent. The new science of psycho-immunology shows us astounding ways in which emotions and attitudes, both negative and positive, can affect our health. Perhaps most intriguing is the fact, as has been found recently, that the nervous system has come to play a major role in this new science, hence the word psycho-neuro-immunology.
A premise of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is that the immune system does not operate in a biological vacuum but in fact is sensitive to outside influences. Somehow, the organ of thought, the brain, must be connected to the immune system.
Much of the literature regarding early experiments of the many facets of the immune system mentions experiments by Robert Ader and Nicholas Cohen at the University of Rochester School of Dentistry & Medicine. Using classical Pavlovian conditioning, they were able to show that the immune system had been turned off in fear of a physiological reaction (nausea). (See Further Reading)
Ader's discovery had great impact, because scientists had long assumed that the immune system was autonomous. Now, Ader was suggesting not only that the body's disease fighting mechanism was connected to the brain but that the immune system could be controlled by the brain as well. 1
Steven Locke, M.D. a recent pioneer in the field of PNI, and Douglas Colligan, writer and editor, in their book "The Healer Within" state: "We already know from just a few years of research that the brain is a presence in the immune system. The tendrils of its nerve tissue run through almost all important sectors of the immune system: the thymus gland, bone marrow, lymph nodes, and spleen. The hormones and neurotransmitters the brain secretes and controls have an affinity for immune cells." 2 They also cite work done at Indiana University by David Felten, John Williams and others who used special fluorescent dyes to trace the pathways of nerves. Felten also found a network of nerves ending near blood vessels and other areas through which lymphocytes passed, suggesting that they might also influence the flow of blood cells. 3
Felten's team made another discovery finding whole groups of nerve fibers near mast cells located near the thymus and the spleen. These are immune cells filled with lumps of concentrated chemicals vital in the total immune response. There seemed to be some kind of neuromodulatory mechanism, as the group called it, which was involved in signaling the mast cells to release their chemicals. 4
The discovery of this mechanism and the fact that the immune system has direct connections to the brain will spark a lot more research looking for clues how all of this works together in the immune response of the body.
At this point, I would like to present the two bodies of evidence regarding the linkage of the brain and the immune system, adapted from "The Healer Within."
Some of the inferential evidence includes.
1. Robert Ader's conclusion that immune functions are susceptible to influence by the brain based on the experiments in which he was able to make changes in the immune system by conditioning behavior.
2. Work by the Soviets and others showing that selective damage to certain parts of' the brain can cause selective changes in the immune system.
3. Some speculative theories suggesting that certain structural difference in the brain involving communication affect he course of diseases (See Further Reading)
More direct evidence is provided by the following:
1. Mapping nerve paths into the bone marrow, the thymus, the spleen and the lymph nodes.
2. Evidence that the endorphins secreted by the brain have enhancing or suppressive effects on the immune system.
3. Findings showing communication between the brain and the immune system. 5
Researchers are uncovering evidence that the nervous system can communicate directly with the immune system. In fact, this mind-body communication is probably a two-way street, in which the cells of the immune system also send signals to the brain. The scientists have found that certain cells in both the brain and the immune system respond to the same chemical messengers, such as acetylcholine and beta-endorphin. Those substances, thought to be produced only by nerve cells, have now been found to be produced by the immune system's white blood cells. To study the surfaces of nerve cells and white blood cells, scientists at the University of California at San Diego used antibodies against very late activation antigens (VLAs). These VLAs appear on white blood cells after the cells become active in fighting infection. The antibodies found and attached themselves to three proteins on nerve cells identical to the three subunits of VLA. 6
Now that there is more evidence to support a holistic view of medicine, researchers will try to uncover which of the two systems, the nervous or the immune, dominates. I like the view of neuroscientist Novera Herbert Spector of the National Institutes for Health who says; "The answer is obvious, and future research will make it clear, they control each other." 7
For many years now it has been known that stress has an important influence on the functioning of the immune system in the presence of disease, from colds to AlDS. A lot of the work we do, including the various sound tapes, are designed to help relieve stress by directing your brain waves into an alpha state, where the body's immune responses can begin to heal the body.
Most PNI experts prefer to talk about psychosocial factors instead of stress, or stressors, covering everything from a person's life-style to cultural background. Locke and Golligan also point out that the term psychosomatic medIcine is redundant. "More than thirty years ago, Alexander, one of the guiding lights of psychosomatic medicine, concluded; `Theoretically every disease is psychosomatic, since emotional factors influence all body processes through nervous and humoral pathways." 8
Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, Ph.D., and Ronald (Glaser, Ph.D. discuss the psychological influences on immunity. They report on one study on bereavement, where it was shown that separated and divorced (major negative life event) women had significantly higher antibody titers. This is thought to reflect poorer cellular immune system control over the latent EBV (Epstein-Barr) virus. 9
It was also found, that "Within the group of married women, a poorer state of the marriage was associated with greater depression and a poorer response on three qualitative measures of immune function." The conclusion was that "clinically significant levels of depression are associated with poorer immunocompetence in psychiatric populations." 10
Kiecolt and Glaser also reported on the connection between commonplace stressful events, relaxation, and immune function; the relationship between distress and carcinogens; and, finally, morbidity and mortality levels in distressed populations. 11
In another study by Marvin Stein at the Mr. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, he noticed a sharp decline in the husbands' immune cell function within two months of the deaths of the wives. 12
In an interesting test performed by experimenters at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, human volunteers spent days in a highly controlled laboratory environment. The design of the experiment included the following stressors: the pressure to perform well, loud noise, and sleeplessness. Palmblad found that the immune cells of the sharpshooters lost some of their ability to kill bacteria. He also found high levels of stress hormones, such as epinephrine, present in the cells. 13
Thanks to new evidence from the fields of immunology, psychology, neurology, and others, the idea that a person's attitude has a great deal to do with his/her state of health has become more accepted " The new research makes it clear, "says Dr. Novera Herbert Spector, a neurophysiologist at the National Institutes of Health, "that attitudes can matter." 14
Some investigators believe that the immune and the nervous systems are so irrevocably intertwined that the immune system may actually function as one sensory organ. Dr. J. Edwin Blalock of the University of Alabama at Birmingham says that "the immune system serves as a sensory organ for such `non-cognitive stimuli' as viruses and bacteria." He goes on to say, "In effect, the immune system acts as our sixth sense." Dr. Blalock's research has shown that hormones produced by the immune system in response to invading mirco-organisms are the same hormones that regulate the neuroendocrine system." 15
Ted Melchenuk, at the Institute for the Advancement fo Health, supports Dr. Blalock's view. He says: "The immune system is beginning to look like a liquid sensory-motor organ." 16
I totally agree with both scientists. I think the immune system is one huge, flowing, responding-to entity, like a huge resonating thing. As you speak to it with love, stress reduction, yoga, music, sound, mantras, etc., you are caressing and tuning your immune system. It's a prime example of Einstein's theory of relativity; the fact that everything is in a constant flow of change. The immune system becomes resonating, alive, flowing, vibrating, constantly changing. It is also directly affected by your physical environment, the people you work with, your friends, etc. My work teaches people that a healthy immune system is normal; a normal state of being. And by being in this normal state of health, you win in life - more love, more attention, more success, more money. It's kind of an indirect way of educating the immune system.
And, of course, sound or music plays a very important role in this whole dance that the psychological, neurological, and the immunological systems, on a cellular level, are creating far us. I love the way Michael Hutchison, in his book "Megabrain", puts it. He says, "there is now evidence that neurons function cooperatively, with various subpopulations linked together in networks of millions of cells, each subpopulation responding to vibrations in a certain frequency, much the way a spider's web will vibrate throughout its entire structure when a single strand of it is touched, or the way a crystal goblet will resonate to a specific pure tone. Memory, thought, consciousness itself are products of a complex, intricate arrangement of all these neurons and neuron subpopulations firing together in a sort of orchestral harmony. The various neuron groupings and centers are like different musical instruments in the orchestra, each vibrating within its own characteristic frequency range, together producing the tune we hear as consciousness, the rich, subtle, infinitely expressive symphony that is the whole brain in operation." 17
And here's the real revolution that's happening in medical thinking. Scientists and some doctors agree that many of the major functions of' the so-called involuntary nervous system is really under our control. Most are signs of stress - high blood pressure, rapid heart beat, low skin temperature, excess perspiration, and a disturbed emotional state. By learning total relaxation techniques, in our case, by using specially designed tapes, you can control the "uncontrollables" with your brain/mind.
According to Dr. Richard M. Linchitz, a well-known specialist in chronic pain control techniques, here is where the East and the West have met. He says; "Taking their clue from Eastern medicine, which routinely channels the power of the brain to control what were once thought in the West to be uncontrollable actions of the body, the neurobiologists searched for the special language with which the brain talks to the involuntary nervous system - and found it. It's a language of images - not of thoughts, not of words, but moving pictures that you project on an imaginary screen in your brain. They are images that you create and direct -"guided images" the movies of the mind. With this newly discovered language, you can tell your involuntary nervous system what to do." 18
And, as many of you know, visualization techniques is what Dr, Simonton has spent many years developing and fine-tuning in his work with cancer patients, usually terminally ill cancer patients. In most cases, patients have lived three to four years longer than they would have without this method of healing.
Aside from the fact that we can now will our immune system to heal our bodies, we are discovering that the immune system does not necessarily deteriorate with age. This is what Dr. George Solomon, professor of psychiatry at UCLA has found with his studies of elderly people who are in good health. 19
Certainly our mental attitude toward our whole being, with all the intricate systems working together in harmony, can influence how those systems will interact to produce the desired end result. I agree totally with Dr. Barry Sultanoff, a well-known medical doctor who was one of the first to recognize our work at the John-David Learning Institute, when he states; "Our attitudes about our own strength, competence, and worthiness may be translated, through the language of the immune system, into the `competence' of our white blood cells (immunocompetence)" 20
So, not only is the East and the West Joining energies through the wonderful field of PNI, but this new discipline of neuroscience is linking together social psychologists, experimental psychologists, psychiatrists, immunologists, neuroendocrinologists, neuroanatomists, biologists, oncologists, epidemiologists, and other specialists in neuroscience. It's truly a beautiful, uniting and healing process for mankind.
NOTES
1. "The Mind and Unity", by Kirk Johnson, East/West Journal, Nov., 1986, p. 64.
2. "The Healer Within", by Steven Locke, M.D. and Douglas Colligan, p. 46. New American Library, Mentor book, New York and Scarborough, Ontario, 1987.
3. Ibid., p. 57-58.
4. Ibid., p. 58.
5. Ibid., p. 64-65
6. "Nerve, Immune link found on membranes", by J. Silberner, Science News, vol. 130, Aug. 23, 1986, p.118.
7. "Healer Within", p. 67.
8. Ibid., p. 88.
9. "Psychological Influences on Immunity", by Janice K.Kiecolt-Glaser, Ph.D., and Ronald Glaser, Ph.D. Psychosomatics, Sep. 1986, p. 621.
10. Ibid., p. 622.
11. Ibid., p. 624.
12. "Got a Cold? Have you tried willing it away?", p. 55, Business Week, Feb. 3, 1988.
13. "Healer Within", p. 92.
14. "The Mind and Immunity", by Kirk Johnson, East/West Journal, Nov. 1986, p.64.
15. Iibid., p. 68.
16. Brain/Mind Bulletin, Dec. 10, 1984.
17. "Megabrain", by Michael Hutchison, Beech Tree Books, William Morrow & Co., Inc., New York, 1986.
18. "Life Without Pain", by Richard M. Linchitz, M.D., Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1987, p. 84.
19. "The Mind/Body Connection: An Update", by Carolyn Reuben, Los Angeles Weekly, Jan. 16-22, 1987, p. 19.
20. "How to strengthen Your Immune System" , by Barry Su1tanoff, M.D., East/West Journal, Jan. 1986, p. 26.
FURTHER READING
"A Homeostatic and Self-monitoring Immune System" by Sir Macfarlane Burnet, p.158-161 in "Immunology", Readings from Scientific American, W.H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, Ca., 1976.
"Anatomy of An Illness", by Norman Cousins, Bantam Books, 1979.
"Beyond Feedback", by Dr. Elmer Green and Alyce Green.
"Encounters with Q1", by David Eisenberg, MD.D., W.W. Norton.
"Getting Well Again", by Stephanie Matthews-Simonton and O. Carl Simonton, M.D. and James L. Creighton, Bantam Books.
"Imagery in Healing", by Jeanne Achterberg, Shambhala Publications, 1985.
"Love, Medicine & Miracles", by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D., Harper & Row, 1986.
"Maximum Immunity", by Michael A. Weiner, Ph.D., Houghton-Mifflin Co. , Boston, 1986.
"The Nature of Autoimmune Disease", by Sir Macfarlane Burnet in "Immunology", p. 254-59
"Psychoimmunity & The Healing Process", Jason Serinus, editor., Celestial Arts, Berkeley, Ca., 1986.
"Psychoneuroimmunology", by Robert Ader (edit.), Academic Press, N.Y., 1981.
"Voluntary Controls", by Jack Schwarz, N.D.
"You Can Heal Your Life", by Louise L. Hay, Hay House, 1242 Berkeley St., Santa Monica, Ca. 90404.
"Emotions, immunity and disease: A speculative theoretical integration", by C.F. Solomon. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 1964:11:657-674.
"Health is a Trip", by J. Achtenberg, Utne Reader, No. 17, Aug./Sep. 1986.
"PNI - What Lies Ahead", by Dr. F. Patrick McKegney, Drug Therapy, Aug. 1982.
"Stress, immunity and illness - a review", by B. Dorian and P.R. Garfinkel, Psychol. Med. 1987:17:393-407.
WHAT ABOUT OUR FUTURE?
So where are we going with quantum leaps in information processing, technology at our fingertips, uncovering the hidden potential of each human being?
I believe that using today's measurement of human intelligence, we will all be operating at genius level within a few short years. This does not mean all will be at the same level some will still be at a higher level of genius than others.
So, you might ask, what can we do now to prepare for the emergence of our fully heightened mental capabilities?
I think that one of the most important things we can do is to begin to relearn that it's ok to be highly intelligent, to let go of all the threats of being a genius, highly intelligent. We can start to reprogram our educational systems that make gifted children no longer an oddity but a norm. We can also begin to change our lifestyle systems to make it possible for all children to have an opportunity to experience how truly beautiful and powerful they are. This process takes a social ok-ness, and it takes a bureaucratic ok-ness, and it takes a governmental budget ok-ness. And, in this process, we need to honor the educational system, the person's brain/mind, and those people who are willing to take their time to be teachers. We also need to give them an opportunity to do that within the proper system, which is very contrary to the educational system we have today.
Some of the aspects of this whole process of emerging human consciousness we can see already. It is now almost mainstream to work on your own motivation, to work on your own image of who you are, to change some of your learning patterns, your habits, your lifestyles.
Here's something else I find totally mind-blowing. In 1987, Shirley Maclaine's latest book sells 10 million copies. Only two years before, that same book ("Out on a Limb") would have sold perhaps 500,000 copies to a very limited metaphysical community.
John Nesbitt in "Megatrends" discusses, and Peter Russell in "The Global Brain", shows with graphs the timeframe of moving from the agricultural to the industrial to the information age. The next step is information consciousness, and, because the start-up time is so short in this age, the bargraph is almost totally straight as it's already starting to manifest itself.
So, being highly intelligent, being a genius, thinking and acting globally, will be a right that every single person living today will have by the early part of 1990. Being a genius is technologically accessible to a 7-month old child as well as a 70-year old person. What a totally glorious and exciting time to be living in!
I believe I speak for all my colleagues in the self improvement arena when I say that all of us see clearly that the whole traditional Western modality is now, as never before, interacting deeply with the more Eastern, and, up until a few years ago, unknown modalities. I would also like to state further that the work so far accomplished, particularly at the John-David Learning Institute, supports the merger of these two worlds. This process is also strongly encouraged by all the work of my colleagues, all the Institutes, all the traditional and alternative healers we have mentioned before - there is this wonderful merging of the East and the West happening. We are taking 5000 years of Eastern healing techniques, alternative techniques if you will, and giving them the left-brain, quantitative, qualitative repeatability of Western technology. And so, nothing has to be done by word of mouth any longer; now there can be some form of testing the results, of finding out what works and what doesn't work. I'm convinced that my purpose with this paper is to take a step forward in that direction.
I would also like to acknowledge that we are now in an experimental stage. We won't have all the answers in the next five years, if ever, and we probably won't have a lot more to go on until the 21st century. But more has been learned about psychoneuroimmunology and accelerated learning in the last three or four years than in all the years that make up the history of humankind. Those are quantum leaps.
So my intention with this paper is to move that whole merging process forward. And I want to acknowledge all the hundreds and thousands of people who are working both traditionally and non-traditionally in this field. I also want to thank the bureaucracies of state and federal governments, not only in the United States, but also in the other countries that make up our planet. And we want to acknowledge the more traditional, conservative medical and non-medical establishments for their openness, their tolerance as all healing practitioners begin to dance together, to merge together, to experiment together. I would urge that there be more tolerance shown by the traditional establishments so that even more cross-pollination between the Eastern and Western healing modalities can take place as we move into the most exciting century of our human history.
FURTHER READING
"The Brain Revolution", by Marilyn Ferguson, Taplinger Publishing Co., New York, 1973.
"The Emotional Brain" , by Laurence Miller, Psychology Today, Feg. 1988.
"Male brain, Female brain: The Hidden Difference , by Doreen Kimura, Psychology Today, Nov. 1985.
"Of Hemispheres, Handedness and More", by Linda Garmon, Psychology Today, Nov. 1985.
"On the Trail of the Brain Builders", by Joshua Hammer, California Magazine, Dec. 1987.
"The Social Brain", by Michael S. Gazzaniga, Psychology Today, Nov. 1985.
"Tapping the Healers Within", by Carol Kahn Omni, March, 1988.
"Three Heade Are Better Than One" , by Robert J. Trotter, Psychology Today, Aug.1986
RESOURCES
American Association For Music Therapy, 66 Morris Ave., P.O. box 359, Springfield, N.J. 07081
Halpern Sounds, 1775 Old Country Road, Suite 9, Belmont, Ca. 94002.
Institute for the Advancement of Health, 16 E. 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Ted Melnechuk, director of research communications.
The Institute for Consciousness and Music, Box 173, Port Townsend, WA. 98368. Music therapy tapes.
Megabrain, P.O. box 1059, Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. 10276. Mind-expanding machines.
Merritt Learning Systems, 3768 Front St., Suite #10, San Diego, Calif. 92103. Books on Accelerated Learning and Teaching.
The Monroe Institute, Rt. 1, box 175, Faber, VA 22938.
"Music and the Brain", a seven-part tape and video series exploring the psychological and biophysical effects of music processing as they relate to the neurological and endocrinal responses of the body. Order through Arthur Harvey, Dept. of Music, Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond, KY 40475.
Sound of Light, P.O.Box 38234, Dallas, TX 75238. Music by Don Campbell.
Tomatis Centre, 1121 Bellamy Rd. N., #12, Scarborough, Ont. M1H3B9. Research on Gregorian chants.
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge the contributions made by Katrina Sjoberg, who was research manager for this project; and to Joan Stark, research assistant. We invite you to visit www.brainspeak.com
Both of us support the concept that when you help someone to relearn, to re-image that's it's ok to be healthy, that person has the power to heal him/herself, naturally in conjunction with his/her own licensed physician. We also observed that the effect of the patient's power on the healing process is numerically increased. If you have a non-responsive or a non-positive patient with a serious cancer who goes to his licensed physician, the result on a scale of 1-10 would be a 4. If that person can be moved into a positive thinking modality, you've gone up to a 6 or 7. If you can teach that person stress-reduction, positive visualization, etc., your probability factor goes up to 8, or, 9 or even 10. Any good physician really dedicated to the healing of the patient wants an interactive patient, a patient who totally believes in the doctor and his/her own ability to heal, to take charge of his/her life. Wouldn't the average physician then want an 8 or a 10 rather than a 4? I'm convinced that this is what Carl Simonton is doing and I certainly believe that this is what our work here at the John-David Learning Institute is doing.
For many years now the traditional medical professions have recognized that human beings, specifically the human mind/body, can create its own illnesses, even to the extent that the mind can kill the very body it lives within for survival.
Taking this idea a step further, we could say that if the brain/mind can create illnesses it can also cure the very same dis-eases it created. Then, we could also say that not only can the brain/mind cure the illnesses but absolutely and totally prevent the dis-eases from ever manifesting themselves in body. This is where the very exciting field of neuroscience, and in this particular case, psychoimmunology, enters the scene.
The study of how the body's immune system functions in fighting off invading bodies is not new; however, the study of how the mind influences our immune system is quite recent. The new science of psycho-immunology shows us astounding ways in which emotions and attitudes, both negative and positive, can affect our health. Perhaps most intriguing is the fact, as has been found recently, that the nervous system has come to play a major role in this new science, hence the word psycho-neuro-immunology.
A premise of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is that the immune system does not operate in a biological vacuum but in fact is sensitive to outside influences. Somehow, the organ of thought, the brain, must be connected to the immune system.
Much of the literature regarding early experiments of the many facets of the immune system mentions experiments by Robert Ader and Nicholas Cohen at the University of Rochester School of Dentistry & Medicine. Using classical Pavlovian conditioning, they were able to show that the immune system had been turned off in fear of a physiological reaction (nausea). (See Further Reading)
Ader's discovery had great impact, because scientists had long assumed that the immune system was autonomous. Now, Ader was suggesting not only that the body's disease fighting mechanism was connected to the brain but that the immune system could be controlled by the brain as well. 1
Steven Locke, M.D. a recent pioneer in the field of PNI, and Douglas Colligan, writer and editor, in their book "The Healer Within" state: "We already know from just a few years of research that the brain is a presence in the immune system. The tendrils of its nerve tissue run through almost all important sectors of the immune system: the thymus gland, bone marrow, lymph nodes, and spleen. The hormones and neurotransmitters the brain secretes and controls have an affinity for immune cells." 2 They also cite work done at Indiana University by David Felten, John Williams and others who used special fluorescent dyes to trace the pathways of nerves. Felten also found a network of nerves ending near blood vessels and other areas through which lymphocytes passed, suggesting that they might also influence the flow of blood cells. 3
Felten's team made another discovery finding whole groups of nerve fibers near mast cells located near the thymus and the spleen. These are immune cells filled with lumps of concentrated chemicals vital in the total immune response. There seemed to be some kind of neuromodulatory mechanism, as the group called it, which was involved in signaling the mast cells to release their chemicals. 4
The discovery of this mechanism and the fact that the immune system has direct connections to the brain will spark a lot more research looking for clues how all of this works together in the immune response of the body.
At this point, I would like to present the two bodies of evidence regarding the linkage of the brain and the immune system, adapted from "The Healer Within."
Some of the inferential evidence includes.
1. Robert Ader's conclusion that immune functions are susceptible to influence by the brain based on the experiments in which he was able to make changes in the immune system by conditioning behavior.
2. Work by the Soviets and others showing that selective damage to certain parts of' the brain can cause selective changes in the immune system.
3. Some speculative theories suggesting that certain structural difference in the brain involving communication affect he course of diseases (See Further Reading)
More direct evidence is provided by the following:
1. Mapping nerve paths into the bone marrow, the thymus, the spleen and the lymph nodes.
2. Evidence that the endorphins secreted by the brain have enhancing or suppressive effects on the immune system.
3. Findings showing communication between the brain and the immune system. 5
Researchers are uncovering evidence that the nervous system can communicate directly with the immune system. In fact, this mind-body communication is probably a two-way street, in which the cells of the immune system also send signals to the brain. The scientists have found that certain cells in both the brain and the immune system respond to the same chemical messengers, such as acetylcholine and beta-endorphin. Those substances, thought to be produced only by nerve cells, have now been found to be produced by the immune system's white blood cells. To study the surfaces of nerve cells and white blood cells, scientists at the University of California at San Diego used antibodies against very late activation antigens (VLAs). These VLAs appear on white blood cells after the cells become active in fighting infection. The antibodies found and attached themselves to three proteins on nerve cells identical to the three subunits of VLA. 6
Now that there is more evidence to support a holistic view of medicine, researchers will try to uncover which of the two systems, the nervous or the immune, dominates. I like the view of neuroscientist Novera Herbert Spector of the National Institutes for Health who says; "The answer is obvious, and future research will make it clear, they control each other." 7
For many years now it has been known that stress has an important influence on the functioning of the immune system in the presence of disease, from colds to AlDS. A lot of the work we do, including the various sound tapes, are designed to help relieve stress by directing your brain waves into an alpha state, where the body's immune responses can begin to heal the body.
Most PNI experts prefer to talk about psychosocial factors instead of stress, or stressors, covering everything from a person's life-style to cultural background. Locke and Golligan also point out that the term psychosomatic medIcine is redundant. "More than thirty years ago, Alexander, one of the guiding lights of psychosomatic medicine, concluded; `Theoretically every disease is psychosomatic, since emotional factors influence all body processes through nervous and humoral pathways." 8
Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, Ph.D., and Ronald (Glaser, Ph.D. discuss the psychological influences on immunity. They report on one study on bereavement, where it was shown that separated and divorced (major negative life event) women had significantly higher antibody titers. This is thought to reflect poorer cellular immune system control over the latent EBV (Epstein-Barr) virus. 9
It was also found, that "Within the group of married women, a poorer state of the marriage was associated with greater depression and a poorer response on three qualitative measures of immune function." The conclusion was that "clinically significant levels of depression are associated with poorer immunocompetence in psychiatric populations." 10
Kiecolt and Glaser also reported on the connection between commonplace stressful events, relaxation, and immune function; the relationship between distress and carcinogens; and, finally, morbidity and mortality levels in distressed populations. 11
In another study by Marvin Stein at the Mr. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, he noticed a sharp decline in the husbands' immune cell function within two months of the deaths of the wives. 12
In an interesting test performed by experimenters at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, human volunteers spent days in a highly controlled laboratory environment. The design of the experiment included the following stressors: the pressure to perform well, loud noise, and sleeplessness. Palmblad found that the immune cells of the sharpshooters lost some of their ability to kill bacteria. He also found high levels of stress hormones, such as epinephrine, present in the cells. 13
Thanks to new evidence from the fields of immunology, psychology, neurology, and others, the idea that a person's attitude has a great deal to do with his/her state of health has become more accepted " The new research makes it clear, "says Dr. Novera Herbert Spector, a neurophysiologist at the National Institutes of Health, "that attitudes can matter." 14
Some investigators believe that the immune and the nervous systems are so irrevocably intertwined that the immune system may actually function as one sensory organ. Dr. J. Edwin Blalock of the University of Alabama at Birmingham says that "the immune system serves as a sensory organ for such `non-cognitive stimuli' as viruses and bacteria." He goes on to say, "In effect, the immune system acts as our sixth sense." Dr. Blalock's research has shown that hormones produced by the immune system in response to invading mirco-organisms are the same hormones that regulate the neuroendocrine system." 15
Ted Melchenuk, at the Institute for the Advancement fo Health, supports Dr. Blalock's view. He says: "The immune system is beginning to look like a liquid sensory-motor organ." 16
I totally agree with both scientists. I think the immune system is one huge, flowing, responding-to entity, like a huge resonating thing. As you speak to it with love, stress reduction, yoga, music, sound, mantras, etc., you are caressing and tuning your immune system. It's a prime example of Einstein's theory of relativity; the fact that everything is in a constant flow of change. The immune system becomes resonating, alive, flowing, vibrating, constantly changing. It is also directly affected by your physical environment, the people you work with, your friends, etc. My work teaches people that a healthy immune system is normal; a normal state of being. And by being in this normal state of health, you win in life - more love, more attention, more success, more money. It's kind of an indirect way of educating the immune system.
And, of course, sound or music plays a very important role in this whole dance that the psychological, neurological, and the immunological systems, on a cellular level, are creating far us. I love the way Michael Hutchison, in his book "Megabrain", puts it. He says, "there is now evidence that neurons function cooperatively, with various subpopulations linked together in networks of millions of cells, each subpopulation responding to vibrations in a certain frequency, much the way a spider's web will vibrate throughout its entire structure when a single strand of it is touched, or the way a crystal goblet will resonate to a specific pure tone. Memory, thought, consciousness itself are products of a complex, intricate arrangement of all these neurons and neuron subpopulations firing together in a sort of orchestral harmony. The various neuron groupings and centers are like different musical instruments in the orchestra, each vibrating within its own characteristic frequency range, together producing the tune we hear as consciousness, the rich, subtle, infinitely expressive symphony that is the whole brain in operation." 17
And here's the real revolution that's happening in medical thinking. Scientists and some doctors agree that many of the major functions of' the so-called involuntary nervous system is really under our control. Most are signs of stress - high blood pressure, rapid heart beat, low skin temperature, excess perspiration, and a disturbed emotional state. By learning total relaxation techniques, in our case, by using specially designed tapes, you can control the "uncontrollables" with your brain/mind.
According to Dr. Richard M. Linchitz, a well-known specialist in chronic pain control techniques, here is where the East and the West have met. He says; "Taking their clue from Eastern medicine, which routinely channels the power of the brain to control what were once thought in the West to be uncontrollable actions of the body, the neurobiologists searched for the special language with which the brain talks to the involuntary nervous system - and found it. It's a language of images - not of thoughts, not of words, but moving pictures that you project on an imaginary screen in your brain. They are images that you create and direct -"guided images" the movies of the mind. With this newly discovered language, you can tell your involuntary nervous system what to do." 18
And, as many of you know, visualization techniques is what Dr, Simonton has spent many years developing and fine-tuning in his work with cancer patients, usually terminally ill cancer patients. In most cases, patients have lived three to four years longer than they would have without this method of healing.
Aside from the fact that we can now will our immune system to heal our bodies, we are discovering that the immune system does not necessarily deteriorate with age. This is what Dr. George Solomon, professor of psychiatry at UCLA has found with his studies of elderly people who are in good health. 19
Certainly our mental attitude toward our whole being, with all the intricate systems working together in harmony, can influence how those systems will interact to produce the desired end result. I agree totally with Dr. Barry Sultanoff, a well-known medical doctor who was one of the first to recognize our work at the John-David Learning Institute, when he states; "Our attitudes about our own strength, competence, and worthiness may be translated, through the language of the immune system, into the `competence' of our white blood cells (immunocompetence)" 20
So, not only is the East and the West Joining energies through the wonderful field of PNI, but this new discipline of neuroscience is linking together social psychologists, experimental psychologists, psychiatrists, immunologists, neuroendocrinologists, neuroanatomists, biologists, oncologists, epidemiologists, and other specialists in neuroscience. It's truly a beautiful, uniting and healing process for mankind.
NOTES
1. "The Mind and Unity", by Kirk Johnson, East/West Journal, Nov., 1986, p. 64.
2. "The Healer Within", by Steven Locke, M.D. and Douglas Colligan, p. 46. New American Library, Mentor book, New York and Scarborough, Ontario, 1987.
3. Ibid., p. 57-58.
4. Ibid., p. 58.
5. Ibid., p. 64-65
6. "Nerve, Immune link found on membranes", by J. Silberner, Science News, vol. 130, Aug. 23, 1986, p.118.
7. "Healer Within", p. 67.
8. Ibid., p. 88.
9. "Psychological Influences on Immunity", by Janice K.Kiecolt-Glaser, Ph.D., and Ronald Glaser, Ph.D. Psychosomatics, Sep. 1986, p. 621.
10. Ibid., p. 622.
11. Ibid., p. 624.
12. "Got a Cold? Have you tried willing it away?", p. 55, Business Week, Feb. 3, 1988.
13. "Healer Within", p. 92.
14. "The Mind and Immunity", by Kirk Johnson, East/West Journal, Nov. 1986, p.64.
15. Iibid., p. 68.
16. Brain/Mind Bulletin, Dec. 10, 1984.
17. "Megabrain", by Michael Hutchison, Beech Tree Books, William Morrow & Co., Inc., New York, 1986.
18. "Life Without Pain", by Richard M. Linchitz, M.D., Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1987, p. 84.
19. "The Mind/Body Connection: An Update", by Carolyn Reuben, Los Angeles Weekly, Jan. 16-22, 1987, p. 19.
20. "How to strengthen Your Immune System" , by Barry Su1tanoff, M.D., East/West Journal, Jan. 1986, p. 26.
FURTHER READING
"A Homeostatic and Self-monitoring Immune System" by Sir Macfarlane Burnet, p.158-161 in "Immunology", Readings from Scientific American, W.H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, Ca., 1976.
"Anatomy of An Illness", by Norman Cousins, Bantam Books, 1979.
"Beyond Feedback", by Dr. Elmer Green and Alyce Green.
"Encounters with Q1", by David Eisenberg, MD.D., W.W. Norton.
"Getting Well Again", by Stephanie Matthews-Simonton and O. Carl Simonton, M.D. and James L. Creighton, Bantam Books.
"Imagery in Healing", by Jeanne Achterberg, Shambhala Publications, 1985.
"Love, Medicine & Miracles", by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D., Harper & Row, 1986.
"Maximum Immunity", by Michael A. Weiner, Ph.D., Houghton-Mifflin Co. , Boston, 1986.
"The Nature of Autoimmune Disease", by Sir Macfarlane Burnet in "Immunology", p. 254-59
"Psychoimmunity & The Healing Process", Jason Serinus, editor., Celestial Arts, Berkeley, Ca., 1986.
"Psychoneuroimmunology", by Robert Ader (edit.), Academic Press, N.Y., 1981.
"Voluntary Controls", by Jack Schwarz, N.D.
"You Can Heal Your Life", by Louise L. Hay, Hay House, 1242 Berkeley St., Santa Monica, Ca. 90404.
"Emotions, immunity and disease: A speculative theoretical integration", by C.F. Solomon. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 1964:11:657-674.
"Health is a Trip", by J. Achtenberg, Utne Reader, No. 17, Aug./Sep. 1986.
"PNI - What Lies Ahead", by Dr. F. Patrick McKegney, Drug Therapy, Aug. 1982.
"Stress, immunity and illness - a review", by B. Dorian and P.R. Garfinkel, Psychol. Med. 1987:17:393-407.
WHAT ABOUT OUR FUTURE?
So where are we going with quantum leaps in information processing, technology at our fingertips, uncovering the hidden potential of each human being?
I believe that using today's measurement of human intelligence, we will all be operating at genius level within a few short years. This does not mean all will be at the same level some will still be at a higher level of genius than others.
So, you might ask, what can we do now to prepare for the emergence of our fully heightened mental capabilities?
I think that one of the most important things we can do is to begin to relearn that it's ok to be highly intelligent, to let go of all the threats of being a genius, highly intelligent. We can start to reprogram our educational systems that make gifted children no longer an oddity but a norm. We can also begin to change our lifestyle systems to make it possible for all children to have an opportunity to experience how truly beautiful and powerful they are. This process takes a social ok-ness, and it takes a bureaucratic ok-ness, and it takes a governmental budget ok-ness. And, in this process, we need to honor the educational system, the person's brain/mind, and those people who are willing to take their time to be teachers. We also need to give them an opportunity to do that within the proper system, which is very contrary to the educational system we have today.
Some of the aspects of this whole process of emerging human consciousness we can see already. It is now almost mainstream to work on your own motivation, to work on your own image of who you are, to change some of your learning patterns, your habits, your lifestyles.
Here's something else I find totally mind-blowing. In 1987, Shirley Maclaine's latest book sells 10 million copies. Only two years before, that same book ("Out on a Limb") would have sold perhaps 500,000 copies to a very limited metaphysical community.
John Nesbitt in "Megatrends" discusses, and Peter Russell in "The Global Brain", shows with graphs the timeframe of moving from the agricultural to the industrial to the information age. The next step is information consciousness, and, because the start-up time is so short in this age, the bargraph is almost totally straight as it's already starting to manifest itself.
So, being highly intelligent, being a genius, thinking and acting globally, will be a right that every single person living today will have by the early part of 1990. Being a genius is technologically accessible to a 7-month old child as well as a 70-year old person. What a totally glorious and exciting time to be living in!
I believe I speak for all my colleagues in the self improvement arena when I say that all of us see clearly that the whole traditional Western modality is now, as never before, interacting deeply with the more Eastern, and, up until a few years ago, unknown modalities. I would also like to state further that the work so far accomplished, particularly at the John-David Learning Institute, supports the merger of these two worlds. This process is also strongly encouraged by all the work of my colleagues, all the Institutes, all the traditional and alternative healers we have mentioned before - there is this wonderful merging of the East and the West happening. We are taking 5000 years of Eastern healing techniques, alternative techniques if you will, and giving them the left-brain, quantitative, qualitative repeatability of Western technology. And so, nothing has to be done by word of mouth any longer; now there can be some form of testing the results, of finding out what works and what doesn't work. I'm convinced that my purpose with this paper is to take a step forward in that direction.
I would also like to acknowledge that we are now in an experimental stage. We won't have all the answers in the next five years, if ever, and we probably won't have a lot more to go on until the 21st century. But more has been learned about psychoneuroimmunology and accelerated learning in the last three or four years than in all the years that make up the history of humankind. Those are quantum leaps.
So my intention with this paper is to move that whole merging process forward. And I want to acknowledge all the hundreds and thousands of people who are working both traditionally and non-traditionally in this field. I also want to thank the bureaucracies of state and federal governments, not only in the United States, but also in the other countries that make up our planet. And we want to acknowledge the more traditional, conservative medical and non-medical establishments for their openness, their tolerance as all healing practitioners begin to dance together, to merge together, to experiment together. I would urge that there be more tolerance shown by the traditional establishments so that even more cross-pollination between the Eastern and Western healing modalities can take place as we move into the most exciting century of our human history.
FURTHER READING
"The Brain Revolution", by Marilyn Ferguson, Taplinger Publishing Co., New York, 1973.
"The Emotional Brain" , by Laurence Miller, Psychology Today, Feg. 1988.
"Male brain, Female brain: The Hidden Difference , by Doreen Kimura, Psychology Today, Nov. 1985.
"Of Hemispheres, Handedness and More", by Linda Garmon, Psychology Today, Nov. 1985.
"On the Trail of the Brain Builders", by Joshua Hammer, California Magazine, Dec. 1987.
"The Social Brain", by Michael S. Gazzaniga, Psychology Today, Nov. 1985.
"Tapping the Healers Within", by Carol Kahn Omni, March, 1988.
"Three Heade Are Better Than One" , by Robert J. Trotter, Psychology Today, Aug.1986
RESOURCES
American Association For Music Therapy, 66 Morris Ave., P.O. box 359, Springfield, N.J. 07081
Halpern Sounds, 1775 Old Country Road, Suite 9, Belmont, Ca. 94002.
Institute for the Advancement of Health, 16 E. 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Ted Melnechuk, director of research communications.
The Institute for Consciousness and Music, Box 173, Port Townsend, WA. 98368. Music therapy tapes.
Megabrain, P.O. box 1059, Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. 10276. Mind-expanding machines.
Merritt Learning Systems, 3768 Front St., Suite #10, San Diego, Calif. 92103. Books on Accelerated Learning and Teaching.
The Monroe Institute, Rt. 1, box 175, Faber, VA 22938.
"Music and the Brain", a seven-part tape and video series exploring the psychological and biophysical effects of music processing as they relate to the neurological and endocrinal responses of the body. Order through Arthur Harvey, Dept. of Music, Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond, KY 40475.
Sound of Light, P.O.Box 38234, Dallas, TX 75238. Music by Don Campbell.
Tomatis Centre, 1121 Bellamy Rd. N., #12, Scarborough, Ont. M1H3B9. Research on Gregorian chants.
Acknowledgements
I wish to acknowledge the contributions made by Katrina Sjoberg, who was research manager for this project; and to Joan Stark, research assistant. We invite you to visit www.brainspeak.com
posted by BrainSpeak Blog at 11:14 PM
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