Articles

Consciousness and Healing

As we move into twenty first century, there is an increasing awareness that our civilization is going through a profound cultural transformation. At the heart of this transformation lies what is often called a “paradigm shift” – a dramatic change in the thoughts, perceptions, and values which form a particular vision of reality. The paradigm that is now shifting comprises a large number of ideas and values that have dominated our society of several hundred years; values that has been associated with various streams of western culture, among them the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century, The Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. They include the belief in the scientific method as the only valid approach to knowledge, the slit between mind and matter, the view of nature as a mechanical system, the view of life in society as a competitive struggle for survival, and the belief in unlimited progress to be achieved through economic and technological growth. All these ideas and values are now found to be severely limited and need of radical revision.

 

            Physics has played the major role in shaping the old paradigm. Ever since the seventeenth century, it has been the shining example of an “exact” science, and has served as the modal for all the other sciences. For two and a half centuries, physicists developed a mechanistic view of the world, based on the philosophy of Descartes and the mechanics of Newton. The universe was seen as a machine assembled from separate objects which, in turn, were composed of elementary material building blocks. Others science accepted this view as the correct description of reality and modelled their own theories accordingly.

 

In the twentieth century, however, physics went through several conceptual revolutions that clearly revealed the limitations of the mechanistic world-view and that led to an organic, ecological view of the world, showing great similarities to the views of mystics of all ages and traditions. The universe is no longer seen as a machine made up of a multitude of separate objects but appears as a harmonious, indivisible whole; a  network of  dynamic relationships which does not involve any basic building blocks, nor any material substance, but generates dynamic patterns continually changing into one another-a continuous dance of energy.    

 

            The dramatic changes in the philosophy of physics will necessarily affects scientists in other disciplines, who will have to re-examine the foundations of their conceptual framework in the light of these new developments. In this process of re-evaluation, the study of the nature of consciousness and the relation between mind and matter will play a crucial role. The division of nature into two separate and independent realms-that of mind and that of matter-has had the most profound effect on Western thought. It formed the very basis of the Cartesian paradigm and has dominated most of the sciences to the present day. Transcending the Cartesian division will thus be an essential aspects of the current conceptual and cultural transformation.

 

            In modern physics, the question of consciousness has risen in Einsteinian quantum modal with the problem of observation and measurement. The recognition that human consciousness determines, to a large extent, the properties of the observed atomic phenomena has forced physicist to accept the fact that the sharp Cartesian division between mind and matter, between the observer and observed, can no longer be maintained. In atomic physics, we can never speaks about nature without, at the same time, speaking about ourselves. The pragmatic formulation of quantum theory, used by scientists in their day-to-day research, does not refer to the mind of observer explicitly. However, several physicists have come to see consciousness as an essential aspect of the universe and have argued that we may be blocked from further progress in our understanding of natural phenomena if we insist on excluding it. Thus, the question of the nature of consciousness has come into the forefront of scientific research, even in the natural sciences.

 

The Background of Study

The current practice of medicine is based upon the Newtonian model of reality. This model is primarily a viewpoint which sees the world as an intricate mechanism. Doctors conceptualise the body as a type of grand machine which is controlled by the brain and Peripheral nervous system: the ultimate biological computer. But are human beings really glorified machines? Or are they complex biological mechanisms which are in dynamic interplay with a series of interpenetrating vital energy fields……the so-called “ghost in the machine”? This study is to introduce a new viewpoint of healing that encompasses an evolving picture of matter as an expression of energy. This new field of healing, based upon the Einsteinian paradigm, is called vibrational medicine  by Gerber, R.(1996).

 

The Einsteinian paradigm as applied to vibrational medicine sees human beings as networks of complex energy fields that interface with physical/ cellular systems. Vibrational medicine uses specialised forms of energy to positively affect those energetic systems that may be out of balance due to disease states. By rebalancing the energy fields that help to regulate cellular physiology, vibrational healers attempt to restore order from a higher level of human functioning.

 

The recognition that all matter is energy, forms the foundation for understanding how human beings can be considered dynamic energetic systems. Through his famous equation, E = mc², Albert Einstein proved to scientists that energy and matter are dual expressions of the same universal substance. That universal substance is a primal energy or vibration of which we are all composed. Therefore, attempting to heal the body through the manipulation of this basic vibrational or energetic level of substance can be thought of as vibrational medicine. Although the Einsteinian viewpoint has slowly found acceptance and application in the minds of physicists, Einstein’s profound insights have yet to be incorporated into the way doctors look at human beings and illness.

 

Present-day Newtonian models of medical thinking see human physiological and psychological behaviour as dependent upon the structural hardware of the brain and body. The heart is a mechanical pump which delivers oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the organ systems of the body and the brain. Doctors think they understand the heart so well that they have invented mechanical replacements to take over the function of the failing natural heart. Many physicians see the primary role of the kidney as an automatic filtration and exchange mechanism. Doctors have mechanically duplicated the kidney’s ability to filter out impurities and toxins by creating haemodialysis machines. Although advancements in biomedical technology have given doctors a wider variety of spare parts to replace diseased organs and blood vessels, the greater knowledge of how to reverse or prevent many diseases is still  lacking.

 

Mechanical analogies have offered great utility in explaining the behaviour of the physical world since the time of Isaac Newton. The Newtonian thinkers saw the universe as an orderly, predictable, yet divine mechanism. It would follow that human beings, like their Creator, would also be constructed in a similar fashion. During Newton’s era, it was easier to think of human anatomy in terms of intricate biological machinery. So prevalent was this mechanistic viewpoint that thinkers of Newton’s day saw the entire universe as a grand clockwork. Doctors’ perspectives on the inner workings of human beings have changed very little in the evolution of scientific thought over the ages. Present-day physicians still see the human body as a complex machine. They have merely become more sophisticated in studying biological clockwork mechanisms at the molecular level.

 

The first Newtonian medical approaches were surgical. Early surgeons worked under the basic premise of the human body as a complex plumbing system. The present-day surgeon may be seen as a specialised “bio-plumber” who knows how to isolate and remove a “diseased” component and how to reconnect a system so that it may again function properly. More recent developments in drug treatments have provided newer ways to “fix” the failing body. Although different in philosophy, drug therapy is still Newtonian in that it operates from the perspective of the body as a complex bio-mechanism. Instead of using knives, as in surgery, doctors use drugs to deliver magic bullets to the appropriately targeted tissue of the body. Different drugs are employed to strengthen or destroy the aberrantly functioning cells, depending upon the medical need. Advances in molecular biology have allowed magic bullets to be targeted with improved specificity, in hopes of creating drugs with greater efficacy and less overall toxicity to the body. Although both pharmacologic and surgical approaches have provided significant strides in the diagnosis and treatment of human illness, both subscribe to the Newtonian view of the human body as an intricate clockwork mechanism of physical organs, chemicals, enzymes, and membrane receptors.

 

The Newtonian mechanistic viewpoint of life is only an approximation of reality. Pharmacologic and surgical approaches are incomplete because they ignore the vital forces which animate and breathe life into the bio-machinery of living systems. In a machine, the underlying principle is that the function of the whole can be predicted by the sum of its parts. However humans, unlike machines, are more than the summation of a pile of combined chemicals. All organisms are dependent upon a subtle vital force which creates synergism via a unique structural organization of molecular components. Because of this synergism, the living whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The vital force creates order in living systems and constantly rebuilds and renews its cellular vehicle of expression. When the life-force leaves the body at death, the physical mechanism is slowly degraded into a disorganised collection of chemicals. This is one of the unique principles which distinguishes living from nonliving systems, and people from machines.

 

This animating life-force is an energy which is currently unaddressed by today’s Newtonian mechanistic thinkers, whose opinions predominate orthodox medicine. These subtle forces are not dealt with nor discussed by physicians because there are no currently acceptable scientific models which explain their existence and function. Science’s current inability to deal with the vital forces animating the human frame is partly due to the conflict between Eastern and Western belief systems that occurred many ages ago. This difference in worldviews is actually a deeper sign of the schism between religion and science that took place thousands of years ago. The application of the Newtonian model to explain the workings of the human body was a reflection of scientists’ attempts to take human function out of the realm of the divine and into the mechanistic world that they could understand and manipulate. The mechanisation of the human body represented a further movement away from religious explanations of the mystical forces that moved humans through life and, just as mysteriously, into sickness and death.

 

Present-day medical views are deeply entrenched within a Newtonian worldview which is hundreds of years old. The Newtonian model had been important in assisting mechanical and theoretical advancements in the era of the Industrial Revolution. However, this model was eventually found to be plagued with many shortcomings as physicists gained more experience with the phenomena of electricity and magnetism. The Newtonian worldview similarly lacks an adequate explanation for the role of the vital forces in living systems. Although vitalism was popular at one time in medicine’s past, overconfidence with technology and science has tossed aside such philosophies in favour of mechanistic models of organic life.

 

The Newtonian view is based upon early models of mechanistic behaviour that were derived from observation of nature. Acceleration and gravity were analyzed by Newton from his observations of a falling apple. He applied mathematics to his observations and deduced various laws of motion which described what he had seen. These early Newtonian laws enabled scientists to make predictions on the way mechanical systems would behave. For its time, the Newtonian model was quite advanced. Through his development of calculus, Newton gave scientists a tool for probing the observable universe. This led to new directions in scientific discovery and enabled the creation of many inventions which have since benefited humanity. But Newton’s laws dealt primarily with the force of gravity as it acted upon moving bodies in the Earth’s gravitational field. This model were unable to explain the behaviour of electricity and magnetism in later years. Eventually, new models of the universe had to be invented to accommodate these curious energetic phenomena.

 

Scientists are again beginning to discover forces that do not fit into the conventional Newtonian model of reality. Although not acknowledged as such by orthodox scientists, the energies of the life-force are being studied by various researchers who recognise their vital importance to living systems. Unfortunately, the majority of biological researchers and physicians are still working from a Newtonian model of living systems in which the human body is seen as a cellular mechanism. Researchers do not yet recognise the primary role of vital life-energies that animate the body. Although medicine has increased its sophistication by focusing on cellular interactions at the molecular level, physiologic models are based strictly upon the behaviour of dense physical matter. These models exclude the contributions of bio-energetic fields which influence cellular patterns of growth and physical expression.

There is a new breed of physician/ healer that is evolving today who seeks to understand the functioning of human beings from the revolutionary view of matter as energy. These spiritual scientists look to the human body as an instructional model by which we can begin to understand, not only ourselves, but also the inner workings of nature and the secrets of the universe. By realising that humans are beings of energy, one can begin to comprehend new ways of viewing health and illness. This new Einsteinian viewpoint will not only give future doctors a unique perspective on the causes of disease, but also more effective ways by which human beings can be healed of their suffering.

 

Instead of conventional drug and surgical approaches, vibrational medicine attempts to treat people with pure energy. This theoretical perspective is based upon the understanding that the molecular arrangement of the physical body is actually a complex network of interwoven energy fields. The energetic network, which. represents the physical/ cellular framework, is organised and nourished by  “subtle” energetic systems which coordinate the life force with the body. There is a hierarchy of subtle energetic systems that coordinate electrophysiologic and hormonal function as well as cellular structure within the physical body. It is primarily from these subtle levels that health and illness originate. These unique energy systems are powerfully affected by our emotions and level of spiritual balance as well as by nutritional and environmental factors. These subtle energies influence cellular patterns of growth in both positive and negative directions.

 

Conventional medical wisdom is misguided by the notion that one can cure all illness by physically repairing or eliminating abnormal cellular systems. Through drugs and surgery, doctors try to reroute dysfunctional components, such as atheromatous arteries, much as a high-tech plumber might try to fix a clogged drain. They use chemicals to increase blood flow past cholesterol blockages, and when that fails, they use a balloon plunger or even a laser beam to blast away the dysfunctional debris. More commonly, a new pipe is carefully stitched in place to bypass the old clogged artery. The key to treating such recurring conditions of disease may not lie in simple, “quick-fix” physical solutions, but in the realm of re-patterning the organising energy fields which direct the cellular expression of dysfunction.

 

There is an aspect of human physiology that physicians have not yet understood and only reluctantly acknowledge. This dimension of human physiology is the domain of Spirit as it relates to the physical body. The spiritual dimension is the energetic basis of all life, because it is the energy of spirit which animates the physical framework. The unseen connection between the physical body and the subtle forces of spirit holds the key to understanding the inner relationship between matter and energy. When scientists begin to comprehend the true relationship between matter and energy, they will come closer to understanding the relationship between humanity and Karma.

 

The evolving field of science which will bring humankind to this new level of understanding is vibrational medicine. Vibrational medicine attempts to heal illness and transform human consciousness by working with the energetic patterns that guide the physical expression of life. We will eventually discover that consciousness itself is a kind of energy that is integrally related to the cellular expression of the physical body. As, such, consciousness participates in the continuous creation of either health or illness. Vibrational medicine, as the science of the future, may contain clues which will help doctors solve the mystery of why some people remain healthy while others are continually in a state of disease.

 

When physicians come to better understand the deeper interrelationship between body, mind, and spirit, and the natural laws guiding their manifestation upon our planet, then there will be a truly holistic medicine. We are indeed a microcosm within a macrocosm, as oriental philosophers have long understood. The principles seen within the microcosm often reflect larger principles governing the behaviour of the macrocosm. Patterns of order within nature repeat themselves on many hierarchical levels. If one can make sense of universal laws as expressed in matter at the micro level, then it becomes easier to make sense of the cosmic whole. When humans truly understand the physical and energetic structures of their minds and bodies, they will be that much closer to comprehending the nature of the universe and the forces of creation which link them with Karma.

 

The Purpose of Study

The exploration into the nature of consciousness and life force, a problem so central to the current paradigm shift, is the focus of this study. It will be explored from many different point of view – scientific, philosophical, religious, artistic, and others. This broad range of approaches reflects another important aspects of the emerging new paradigm: the recognition that all rational approaches to reality are limited, and that scientific knowledge is not the only valid kind of knowledge. Broad acceptance of this fact will be a necessary step toward a more balanced culture. In such a culture, science will be only one of many ways pursued by men to deepen their understanding of the cosmos. It will be complemented by the intuitive ways of poets, mystics, philosophers, and many other, equally valid, approaches.

 

The recognition that all concepts and theories we use to describe nature are limited has been one of the main lessons that physicists have had to learn in this century. It has given rise to the ideas that the science of the future may not produce any more broad unified theories but may well consist of a network of interlocking and mutually consistent models, none of them being any more fundamental than the others. Such an approach seems to be suited ideally to describe the multileveled, interrelated fabric of reality. Ultimately, the various models will go beyond disciplinary distinctions, using whatever language will be appropriate to describe different aspects and levels of reality.

 

It is only recently that scientists have acknowledged that the mind can influence the biomolecular mechanisms that regulate the body. For many years doctors thought that consciousness was something the brain produced, similar to the gall bladder producing bile. Consciousness was considered merely a by-product of the central nervous system machinations. Neurophysiologists have long sought the area of the brain that is the centre of free will and decision making. Although they may identify the regions of grey matter that participate in the process of  executing commands, researchers will look long and hard before they ever discover the real seat of consciousness in the brain.

 

The brain, albeit a complex biocomputer, still needs a programmer to instruct the nervous system how to perform and what acts to accomplish. That conscious entity which uses this biomechanism of the brain and body is the human spirit or true self. That which we refer to as the spiritual domain is part of the series of higher dimensional energy system which feed directly into the computer hardware we call the brain and body. It is this higher dimension system, our so-called subtle energetic anatomy, that science has yet to recognise. Alternative systems of healing are often effective because they can correct abnormal patterns of function in the higher dimensional systems which control cellular physiology and behavioural patterns of expression.

 

  Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the new system of thinking about health and illness of psychosomatic as well as mind healing. This system of thought will examines human functioning from the perspective of multiple interactive energy system. It is an attempt to go beyond the current medical paradigm of illness in order to understand at a deeper level why our thoughts and emotions affect our physiology, and also to comprehend how therapies as simple as herbs, flowers and water can be such powerful healers. However, this study will focus on the psychosomatic effects of light and colour through the modality of visualisation or meditation. 

 

The Significance of Study

Sir Arthur Edington once said, “Verily it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a scientific man to pass through the door. And whether the door be a barn door or church door, it might be wiser that he should consent to be an ordinary man and walk in rather than wait till all the difficulties involved in a really scientific ingress are resolved.” This study will not only help us walk through the door to an understanding and acceptance of subtle energy system or true nature of consciousness, but also the doorway will be examined in the form of  therapeutic techniques of light and colour visualisation to more fully appreciate the body/mind/spirit language that is developing in holistic health today.

 

            We must remember, however, that models are not necessarily real, but serve as an conceptual tools to enhance a functional understanding. Even a idea of energy is a concept. If those within the mass consciousness of medicine were able to remember that the Newtonian mechanistic approach is only a model based on two-hundred-year-old concepts, the transition Einsteinian quantum modal  would be taking place with much less resistance. It is unfortunate that mainstream medicine still acts as if it believes the Newtonian concept-that have been proven to be an inaccurate model for the last 50 years-are real. It is my sincere wish that this study will bring some insight in understanding the metaphor of consciousness as they represent a wide spectrum of models, based on the exploration of inner and outer realms through scientific analysis, intuitive insight, religious experience, and artistic sensitivity – very often through a combination of several of these approaches.

 

            Through the journey of research of mind healing, it was very gratifying for me to see that the fundamental relationship between the view of modern science and of mystical traditions – an idea which seemed to be very farfetched when I began to explore it several years ago – is acknowledge, explicitly or implicitly, throughout this study. I think that this, too, is a significant aspect of the new paradigm. In the name of modernisation and implementation of secular education system in our society, mystical, paranormal, and other transpersonal experiences were increasingly not taken seriously in our culture, because they contradicted the basic concepts of classical western science. People who had experiences of that kind were often diagnosed as schizophrenic by psychiatrist who lack the conceptual framework for dealing with the transpersonal realm. This situation is now changing rapidly. As Buddhism is establishing itself as the practical teaching as a way of life of a significant number of Westerners, and meditation is no longer viewed with ridicule or suspicion, mysticism is being found worthy of serious consideration even within the scientific community. This has made an increasing number of scientists aware that mystical thought provides a consistent and relevant philosophical background to the theories of contemporary science.

 

            This development may be extremely significant for the further evolution of our polluted culture back to the original form as we inherited from our ancestor. I sincerely hope that, my contribution, like the one presented in this study, which acknowledge and explore the kinship between science and mysticism, will be not only intellectually stimulating but also therapeutic and culturally unifying.