Week Four Inquiries

Questions?

• Is there a drug around for just about everything?
• Can we raise our levels of dopamine ourselves?
• How do you think chimps and humans diverged as species?

a) There surely appears to be an effort by the pharmaceutical companies to manufacture a drug for every unsightly, unwanted, or inconvenient physical and psychological manifestation. Often times the disease isn't really a disease but rather a physical expression of stress - a release of energy (flowing of Qi) such as in the case of 'restless leg syndrome'.
Upon performing a Google search of 'restless leg syndrome', I came across this thread of people discussing various exercises, supplements, dietary changes, and drugs that have helped reduce symptoms or eliminate the restless leg. The search also pulled up hundreds of advertisements for drugs and methods such as "The Cure" and "All Calm". In TCM, there is a clear connection between muscle spasms and Liver Blood deficiency. This could be treated in a variety of ways in TCM without the use of pharmaceutical chemicals. I find the resistance to the simple and holistic approach offered by TCM to be almost completely based in ignorance. There aren't commercials selling acupuncture on television like there are for drugs to cure RLS. If, there were, we might see a flood of people rushing to Eastern and Alternative medical doctors.

b) We can alter our chemistry and we have a much more powerful effect on ourselves than we realize. In one person's explanation of placebo, they emphasize the archetype of the 'doctor' as being a contributing factor:

"The placebo effect illustrates the effectiveness of the physician's role in 'healing' a patient. Past research show that a patient's high opinion of the physician prescribing the treatment as well as the doctor's personality can invoke the placebo effect. Furthermore, research has shown that an amiable doctor with a positive outlook of a drug treatment would induce the placebo effect.

The power of the placebo is more readily explained as a function of the individual because the placebo effect can rely on the amount of faith an individual has for a given treatment. One suggestion is that placebo effects may be due to anxiety reduction. Stress and anxiety adversely affect the body and increase an individual's focus on symptoms. A decrease in the body's stress and anxiety level by a well-known doctor alleviates the patient's worry and pain leading to a 'curing' of the symptoms. It has been shown that placebos may be more effective among highly anxious people because the adverse effects interact with the physiological processing. There is evidence that there might be an alteration in the body's endogenous opioid release. Pain relief in patients provided via placebo, may be caused by a release of endorphins in the brain. Endorphins are the body's own morphine-like painkillers. Within the nervous system, there are specific pathways that modulate pain when stimulated by these endorphins. As a patient anticipates symptom relief, the expectation of receiving an active substance, alone, may be activating the pain pathway thereby reducing symptoms. The presence of a substance probably activates the pain-inhibition because unaware of the treatment group, the patient is led to believe that they have received an active substance." (1)

Ultimately I feel that this all boils down to our own capacity to directly affect the quantum reality surrounding and swimming within us through conscious or unconscious intention and emotional energy. Most people have yet to realize that they generate a series of electromagnetic fields around them which have direct effects on the atoms that make us up and move around us. See the film 'What the *&$@# Do We Know?' for a detailed explanation. There are many explanations and scientific studies that support this view. It is only a matter of time before it trickles through the collective mind.




c) How do I think Humans and Chimp diverged? Slowly and over mind-distortingly long periods of time, such that it makes the time that we have been assuming ourselves as the supreme authority over all of Creation a complete blip in the greater dream of it all.

I think that the process took much longer than we can truly understand and that there was a lot of experimentation, dead-ends, and unexpected leaps in genetic expression. It is a miracle that this process exists at all. Why is there even an argument about whether or not evolution is a valid explanation for how we came to be? It is so beyond understanding and beauty that it can still be considered of 'divine will' or whatever people are choosing to defend.

We are animals that have slowly arrived at a state of such high vibration and frequency that we are about to invert on ourselves in self-reflection and ever-new expansion.

Week Three Assignments

1. Genetic similarities between the humans and the chimpanzees; I find this to be ultimately irrelevant to what comes down to the fact that we are so interconnected with the Earth and the rest of life around us that is becomes a waste of energy and an avoidance of intimate and deep connection by searching for statistical and measurable reasons for this inherent connection.

2. The Cell Quiz (see previous posting)

3. Human Genetic Evolution -
I find the article on spontaneous generation to be extremely fascinating:

From the time of the ancient Romans, through the Middle Ages, and until the late nineteenth century, it was generally accepted that some life forms arose spontaneously from non-living matter. Such "spontaneous generation" appeared to occur primarily in decaying matter. For example, a seventeenth century recipe for the spontaneous production of mice required placing sweaty underwear and husks of wheat in an open-mouthed jar, then waiting for about 21 days, during which time it was alleged that the sweat from the underwear would penetrate the husks of wheat, changing them into mice. Although such a concept may seem laughable today, it is consistent with the other widely held cultural and religious beliefs of the time. (1)

How wonderful to see the pre-scientific methods at work!

I also find it fascinating that we have developed ways of thinking and problem solving that allow us a seemingly more accurate view of the world. Interestingly beyond this, we still hold onto certain ideas and views of the world unless we are given a certain kind of evidence of anything different. It is as though we require encouragement and permission to refresh our world-view and fit it into the ever-evolving world. We require authority and proof from outside of ourselves to validate ideas of ourself and our world.
With so much information moving so quickly at this time, we can gain access to a very rapidly evolving world-view by taking in new information, checking it with the old information and then synthesizing an entirely or subtly new world-view.

Another question that comes to mind with regards to evolution is: how are we continuing to evolve? What is the impulse, the drive, the stressor that is pulling us into the future of ourselves?