Science You want to know about

Discoveries that broaden our understanding of how we function

Yet science has now shown:

• That every neuropeptide receptor from the brain is also on the surface of the immune cells;


• That the immune cells make the same mood controlling chemicals as the brain does;


• That brain, gut, and immune system all produce the same neuropeptides controlling digestion;


• That the immune system, like the central nervous system, has memory and the capacity to learn;

The chemicals that were thought to be responsible for passing on messages within the brain — chemicals that relate to our moods — are found to be secreted by every cell of our body. Every cell also has receptors to receive these messages. All cells respond to the same chemical messages and are capable of distributing messages throughout the body very quickly. Our moods, our emotions are not a privilege of the brain, they are genuinely experienced throughout our entire body. The gut has a very high density if receptors for neuropeptides, the chemicals specifically involved in how we are feeling. This may account for the importance and accuracy of one’s gut feeling.

All cells have a learning capacity regarding previous experiences. In other words, if you have come across an unsavoury person your brain will remember (a sense of unease), so will your gut (stomach in knots), so will your immune system (heightened alert), so will your skin (breaking out in red hives). The same full scale reaction will happen when you have come across food which is unhealthy. Memory of all our experiences are held within each cell of our body, not solely within the brain, and will be used as the template for our reaction next time we come across the same situation.

These memories determine how you feel today or in certain circumstances and how you react to certain situations or thoughts. These learned patterns of behaviour and reactions guide us through the maze of every day life, unrecognised and totally automatic. That’s just me, sums up the total of those memories; it is the memories stored in this physical way which allows your body to experience and recognise life in your way.

Furthermore, science shows us:

• That the deeper, older messages are not stored in the brain but in the body — the body is your subconscious mind. These messages can only be accessed through the body, and you can not heal it by talking alone;


• That emotions exist in the body as informational chemicals (neuropeptides and receptors), and also in the realm we experience as feeling, inspiration, love — beyond the physical;

Experiences that are recorded and are held within the body can not be released through a function of the brain. Just thinking that it is silly to continue being afraid of getting into a car after a crash is not going to release the anxiety and pain that are stored in the cells of the body which have held on to the experience. A full recovery can only be made after one is able to release the physical pain and erase the memory.

Similarly, irrational fears do not disappear because one realises that it is irrational. The pattern of fear is stored within the cell memory and is triggered every time the person is put in a similar situation or even starts thinking about being in that situation. The body responds with all the "learned" patterns and displays an exact replica of the state it was in when it first happened. All emotions are linked to physical changes within the cells and their environment by peptides. The physical body has learned patterns of expressions which link certain feelings to certain physical states. A feeling of being unloved can express itself in hunger and overeating, sexual arousal is dependent upon the feelings and emotions of the person rather than upon the physical contact — what is pleasant and stimulating in one set of circumstances, can be painful, disgusting, or tensed in an other.

The information that makes this work, is held in the non-material part of our being (in our mind) as emotions and feelings, and is translated into chemicals in the material part (in our body).

Science also tells us:

• That changes in the rate and depth of breathing produce changes in the quantity and kind of peptides that are released from the brain stem — and vice versa;

With breathing we control our emotions: slow deep breathing promotes calmness, quick shallow breathing induces anxiety and irritability. And what is more, when one is calm the breathing slows down; when we are nervous or stressed out the breathing becomes rapid and shallow. Chemicals inside our body transcribe these messages from the non-material world into the material: feelings become physical reality — and vice versa. Peptides which block receptors for the release of adrenaline not only inhibit the body to become wind-up, but also stop the mind getting anxious. Mind and body are calm together, or are excited together.

We do know:

• That environmental toxins are causing our immune system to lose much of it’s resilience;


• That exogenous (prescribed and illegal) toxins are harmful to the system, not only as disrupters of the natural balance but also because of the changes that happen at the level of the receptors (interfering with natural protection mechanisms);


• That pollutants suspended in the cell membrane are altering and interrupting normal electron flow, causing "energy starvation", resulting in chronic fatigue, allergies and chemical sensitivity;

Anything that is toxic to our body will interfere with the normal working of it. On the chemical level these toxins interfere with the normal communication between the cells and their environment. They block receptors on the cell membrane, which are like doorways into the cell, and they mix up the messages that are received by those cells. For immune cells this means that our army is not always aware of the intruder, and if it is, it can not properly identify it which leaves the defences severely weakened. For other cells it means a disruption of the normal function which leaves them tired and undernourished, and consequently vulnerable to decay and malfunctioning.

Toxic are all products that our metabolism can not cope with properly, whether or not there is a human law which allows you to take those substances. The debate about illegal drugs is irrelevant as other legal substances are drugs in the same way to our body than legal one’s are. These include caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, tar, refined sugar, chocolate, all prescribed medication, to name just a few popular ones. They all disrupt the normal function of our body in much the same way as the so called illegal drugs and are at least just as harmful.

Environmental toxins are far more wide spread then ever before. Not only do we have to consider our living environment but water and soil pollution have contributed to the lower quality of our produce. The use of chemicals from "bug- protection" to "decay-protection" have increased the intake of harmful substances by an unimaginable amount. Preserving food, sterilising food and adding qualities to food resulted in the killing of food. If we are not able to nourish ourselves properly then our body cells won’t get fed properly and we will get ill. Simple!

Furthermore it is known:

• That every one of us has a number of tiny cancerous tumours growing in our bodies at every moment;


• That there is a clear connection between cancer, the immune system and the toxicity in the body;


• That cancer is caused by environmental toxins; that it is a chronic metabolic disease;


• That there is no correlation between shrinking a tumour and extending the life of a patient;


• That the highly toxic chemotherapeutic drugs kill all rapidly dividing cells in the body which include the cells of our immune system — both the disease and the protection get destroyed;


• That cancer patients have a better survival rate if they are not treated at all;


• That conventional cancer treatments are in place as the law of the land because they pay, not heal, the best;


• That incidences of cancer always rise along with the nation’s rise in "industrialisation";

There is no future in the traditional approach to cancer as it has been well established now that "burning" and "poisoning" cancer cells is doing exactly the same to the cells that are meant to protect us from the cancer. Statistics furthermore prove that there is no fall in cancer rates — rather a steep incline — and no success in fighting back the disease. Long term survival rates are falling in spite of early detection and billions of pounds spent on research and treatments. The reason is simple: the assumption about what cancer is and how it works must be wrong.

Cancer is caused by toxicity within the system. Toxic products block or at least interfere with the normal metabolism of the cells, one effect of which could be the seemingly uncontrolled growth of the cells. So, it is not just smoking which causes lung cancer, but the sum total of toxicity which is responsible for the malfunctioning. The obvious treatment would then be diet and lifestyle changes. Strangely enough that is exactly what we keep hearing from the medical profession but what they are unwilling to put into practice as the central piece of their approach to illness.

What is there to be done by us mere mortals to remain healthy?

1. Awareness

You have to become more alert to your habits, body functions and emotions. You need to acknowledge and claim all your feelings as your own choice, and not as something which has been forced upon you by another person or situation. Take responsibility for your life as it is; this firmly puts you in charge and gives you the power to change whatever you decide is not right for you. This allows you to change what you previously thought beyond your reach.

2. Tap into your dreams

One of the best ways to integrate awareness of emotions into lifestyle is to develop the daily habit of recalling and transcribing your night-time dreams. Dreams are direct messages from your bodymind, giving you valuable information about what’s going on physiologically as well as emotionally. Strong emotions that are not processed thoroughly are stored at cellular level. At night, some of this stored information is released and allowed to bubble up into consciousness as a dream. Write down dreams that you recall only partially too. Be sure to write down even the most insignificant-appearing dreams, because by discounting a dream that seems dull and boring, you may be preventing yourself from getting an important message. Once you write down the boring part, other part will surface into memory.

3. Getting in touch with your body

We need to become more aware of the messages that our body is sending out. Discomforts, aches, tightness, bloatedness, all are useful signs to indicated that there is an imbalance present. Listen to your body and learn to understand the language.

4. Reducing stress

No discussion of lifestyles and wellness would be complete without mentioning stress-reduction. The most effective method for reducing stress is meditation, because it allows you, even without conscious awareness, to release emotions that are stuck. All forms of meditation are useful. Perhaps the key mechanism of meditation is that of simply being in the present for a period of time. Meditation provides an opportunity to stop and wait before charging ahead, a chance to let the body catch up with the powerful effects of our natural flow.

A less formal practice than meditation, but equally effective at stress-reduction, is the habit of self-honesty: being true to yourself, keeping your word to others as well as to yourself, living in a state of personal integrity. Clarity about your own intentions results in streamlined physiological processes. When you are at cross-purposes, going through the motions but not really committed to your goal, saying one thing and doing another, then your emotions are confused, you suffer a lack of integrity, and your body integrity is likewise altered.

Having fun is the cheapest, easiest, and most effective way to instantly reduce stress and rejuvenate mind, body and spirit.

5. Exercising

The value of exercise has less to do with building muscles or burning calories than it has to do with getting your heart to pump faster and more efficiently and thereby increase blood flow to nourish and cleanse your brain and all your organs. If you exercise hard enough to break a sweat, you’ll also get the benefit of a mood improvement prompted by the release of endorphins.

Yoga is a particularly health-enhancing form of exercise. Any kind of conscious breathing accompanied by relaxation and body awareness is yoga.

6. Eating wisely

Eating, because of its survival value, has been wisely designed by evolution to be a highly emotional event. By tuning into your emotions as information about your digestive process, you can develop your ability to know what your body needs in the way of nourishment and when. Not disregarding basic nutritional principles, you would be better to rely on the wisdom of your body when making eating decisions. The benefits that come from eating according to your feelings — not your impulses — are greater than any particular food rules you may be following to build muscle or to lose weight.

The environment in which you eat has a lot to do with your emotional experience at mealtimes. The thoughts and feelings you bring with you to the table are just as important as the sensible balanced meal you sit down to.

7. Avoid substance abuse

All substances such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, sugar, chocolate, and other drugs, have natural analogues circulating in your blood. They all compete for the same receptors and the more unnatural substances there are around the less of your own will get to bind to the cell wall. The receptors then signal a decrease in your own secretions which leads to an alteration of the natural flow of your own feel-good peptides. Legal and illegal drugs are all potentially harmful and they can all contribute to less than optimal health in one form or another.

What causes people to consume legal and illegal drugs is emotions that are unhealed, cut off, not processed and integrated or released. Trauma and stress continually lodged at the level of the nerve pathways manifest themselves as a physiological condition you experience as stuck or unhealed emotions: chronic sadness, fear, frustration, anger. What if you stopped and checked in with your feelings to ask yourself what emotions are present before using an artificial substance to alter your mood? If you can bring this level of awareness to your habitual use of substances, then you have a chance, a possibility, of making another choice. By continually ignoring feelings, you have none.

Science is a quest to understand nature — both human and Mother.

Science is the search for truth.

Science should be unifying, spontaneous, intuitive, caring.

Science is a spiritual endeavour.

There is a higher intelligence, one that comes to us via our very molecules and results from our participation in a system far greater than the small, circumscribed one we call "ego", the world we receive from our five senses alone.

Dr Patrick Quanten MD

July 2000

Further Reading:

Molecules of Emotions — by Candace Pert, Ph.D.

Quantum Healing — by Deepak Chopra, MD

Cancer, why we are still dying to know the truth — by Phillip Day