Does our emotional state affect the order of particles in our body?
Social Bodymind Connection: Our minds are our bodies & our bodies are our minds + it’s a feedback loop: the mind influences the body, which influences the mind
This is the neurobiology of the mind-body connection, or how exactly do our emotions affect our body:
Candace B. Perth, a Research Professor in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. (Molecules of Emotion: the science behind mind body medicine, Scribner, NY, 1997, Candace Perth) discovered neuropeptides she calls 'the molecules of emotion': these are the molecules (the correct scientific term is 'ligand') emitted by the pituitary gland when we feel an emotion, which travel throughout the body and the blood and the cerebrospinal fluid to highly charged receptor areas, ‘nodal points’ along the spine (which match the chakras’ locations). There, they attach to cell receptors, therefore altering the cell functioning. These cells as a consequence ‘manufacture new proteins, make decisions about cell division, open or close ion channels, add or subtract energetic chemical groups like the phosphates – to name just a few [biochemical changes]’.
Other researchers have found that when the receptors lock in those molecules of emotion on the surface of the cell and the whole cell changes as a result, the conductivity of the cell is altered (more or less conductive), the DNA within it winding (stressed) or unwinding (relaxed): our emotions change the way our cells behave.
Your emotional state affects your inner-body energy field; and the more coherent it is, the more conducive to healing, growth and repair.
Coherent doesn't necessarily means happy, but fully felt, in an atmosphere of safety, so that the body's wisdom takes over and lets the process complete itself: if coherent (meaning there is no resistance), an emotion will take up to 90 seconds to resolve itself in the body: think of children, who hurt themselves and cry, and are done quite quickly.
Safety also means that we remain aware of the lack of threat in the here-and-now surroundings, of our internal body energy field, of our breath as a haven - and if we get overwhelmed, that somebody else (a grounded person, who can stay in their body sensation and act as 'anchoring' for us) can keep us aware of the safety of 'here' while we go explore the 'there'. Because they are not afraid, and know it is good for us to go 'there', and love us for our courage to be vulnerable, it's the relationship that's healing, the safety of being loved no-matter-what (cf. attachment theory) that allows one to explore one's darkest corners, and bring back the brilliant insights that will emerge from this journey.
Deepak Chopra, who trained as a medical doctor, sums it up (in his 1989 book The Quantum Body - so this is really old news), "our body & mind are one. [Candace Perth] shows that our biochemical messengers act with intelligence by communicating information, orchestrating a vast complex of conscious & unconscious activities at any moment. This information transfer takes place over a network linking all of our systems & organs, engaging all of our molecules of emotion, as all the means of communication. What we see is an image of a 'mobile brain' - one that moves throughout our entire body, located in all places at once and not just in the head." "The mind is non-local, ever changing and dynamic, infinitely flexible. It is one gigantic loop, directing and admitting information simultaneously, intelligently guiding what we call life."
Beyond the physiological impact of emotions, Gabor Maté further adds that emotions and our health, are impacted by our (early & current) relationships, which are inscribed in a particular culture: a culture which only values individual strength, stoic courage, control, perseverance, and the accumulation of resources, fast - is a culture that will reinforce masks or armors of suffering courage worn day in & day out (until breakdowns, dis-ease or suicide), but also a culture which will devalue, abuse & take advantage of the sick and depressed 'weakest' (= not valued) by the 'strongest' (= the traumatized 'mask'-wearers posing as strong to get love, which they will receive only if they pretend they are always strong; so their last resort is to disconnect from their humanity/vulnerability, and hurt themselves or others). If we don't see pain where it is, we perpetuate the problem (not only where it is obvious: everyone knows suffering, fear, insecurity, anger, sadness, etc.). And it is about rising the health and happiness levels on this planet, realizing that peaceful relationships start at the smallest level: us.
So what can we do? Photons and the light of attention
Quantum biologist Vladimir Poponin and Peter Gariaev, at the Russian Academy of Sciences, published a paper in the US in 1995 about what was dubbed “The DNA Phantom Effect” experiments. Here is how it works:
The quantum biologist researchers put some photons (light particles/waves-forms) in a test tube, which naturally spread out in the tube in an unordered fashion.
They then added human DNA (which lies in all of our cells, quick reminder for the non-biologists among us) to the tube.
What happened left them shocked: the photons, or light particles, arranged themselves into a specific orderly pattern! (see my unorthodox attempt at a drawing below!)
The DNA caused the light particles to get ordered (photons are at the basis of most of our physical reality - refresher for the non-physicists).
The second part of the experiment is even more amazing:
When the DNA was removed from the test tube, the photons remained in order!
Which means DNA has a long-lasting influence on light particles...
For a much better version of these drawings, check this video out (in the first 3 minutes) on the so-called DNA phantom effect: Our "Junk" DNA holds astonishing powers.
‘Similar to "the matrix” that Max Planck identified more than 50 years earlier, as well as the effects suggested in ancient traditions’ (Greg Braden), cells (made of curled-up DNA strands) influence matter through an energy previously unrecognized' (>ours).
We all need care, love, and understanding, no matter how weak, weird, afraid, or 'negative' we are - from whomever is able and willing to provide such support, at that time; but let's start integrating a larger panel of values inside of each of us (and when we see others): weak and strong, shifting on a continuum, depending on the meaning of the relationship. Not sure how to start loving difficult others? Start here: Synergistic Relationships.
When enough leaders chose (you only need 10% of a given population to shift a culture) to value vulnerability in themselves & in others, listen to themselves & others in softness, intimacy & caring love - and to use the values of strength, control, courage, perseverance to keep peace and protect the vulnerability of Life (in themselves & others); we will have shifted what it means to be any shape or form on this planet; we will have understood that life, no matter how unpredictable and vulnerable, is beautiful. We will have shifted, inside.
Who do you value, based on our (past & current) conditioning?
What life expressions would you also want to value in yourself? In others?