Levels of our Being
Long before the reptilian brain formed, creatures still lived and survived because of the development of their nervous system, what we call the spinal cord. But even prior to that development, single and multicellular creatures responded to their environment, sought food, and reproduced. Their behavioural responses were very limited, but that was simply because their physiology had not developed complexity. Considering that we are – you and I – the surviving cells of those earliest creatures, we can see the potential innate in them is now expressed as our own complexity and enlarged behavioural repertoire. To quote from the feature on self-regulation:
“The level after level of safety factors built into our system are nothing short of incredible. For adequate functioning our blood pressure needs to be at about 110 to 120 (i.e. it displaces 110 millimeters of mercury). It can drop to 70—80 before a critical situation arises in which tissue may die because blood is not reaching it. If we lose a lot of blood, even as much as 30 or 40 percent, the self-regulatory process maintains adequate blood pressure by constricting the blood vessels. This action is controlled by a part of the brain. If that brain area is injured or destroyed, other centres take control. If they arc eliminated, ganglia in the sympathetic nervous system direct the action. If they too are eliminated the walls of the arteries and veins themselves regulate their own activity.!
As is so clearly expressed in that description, control centres are capable of acting at every level of our being, not just the brain or nervous system. In fact, what is slowly coming to be realised, but has been said already by people who have explored their inner life, each cell is an intelligent being. But its intelligence and agency only attain self awareness if we are able to touch it by entering its world.
When we are able to do that very fully, effects on sick areas of our body and mind are produced that are considered miraculous or impossible, or are perhaps labelled as ‘spontaneous remission’, by the medical fraternity. We are able to tap a vast source of information, transcend the usual limits or time and space, and discover our own roots in the universe itself. For more information on this see Michael Talbot’s book For more information on this see Michael Talbot’s book The Holographic Universe, Hadad the Rogue Yogi, and Edgar Cayce.
However, the intelligence in the cells might go beyond simple ability to reproduce and survive. In a recent (November 22nd 2006) BBC 4 broadcast, Ian and Lynda Gammons explained how, after Lynda had donated one of her kidneys to save her husbands life, he underwent very marked personality changes. In fact, after being married for thirty years and developing habits of living together such as Ian hating shopping, gardening and cooking, he suddenly showed insight into household needs, enjoyed shopping and gardening, and now does all the family cooking. The transplant took place in October 2005, and Ian says the apparent opening in him of a sharing Lynda’s inner disposition is still developing. In fact they have begun to have exactly the same dreams.
Dr Paul Pearsall, Clinical Professor at the University of Hawaii, after his own hip cancer and what it revealed to him about the depths of his body, went on to study the experiences of transplants and explains, in his book The Heart’s Code, about even more extraordinary cases of cellular memory.
The more fully you move your self awareness into the realm of your organs, cells, and beyond, the wider your horizons of awareness become. Perhaps this is a simplistic way of looking at it, but considering that we have all developed from the same simple cells, we are all related and ‘know’ each other at the cellular level. However, some thinkers in quantum physics say that it goes beyond that. Their statement is that the fundamental material or energy of the universe is sentient and holds all experience. Touching it means we share that huge awareness and timelessness that is the foundation of our own existence. See Brain Levels and Dreams – Levels of Awareness in Waking and Dreaming