SECTION III
CIRCLES OF LIFE
BRAIN/MIND THEORY
The brain and the mind work together as a synchronous
whole: the physical brain operates as a receiver and translator for the
mind; the mind is an organized non-physical energetic structure of information.
There are two important aspects of the individual mind which are pertinent
to the technology of Circles of Life: the
morphogenetic field and consciousness.
The morphogenetic field is more stable and is composed of inherited
energy patterns. It is a memory bank which stores programs related to
behaviors, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, operational rules and the designs
for the physical form. Consciousness is the more fluid aspect of the mind.
It holds beliefs, attitudes, experiential memories, information, words,
and operational rules. Each aspect interacts with and informs the other,
thus creating a synchronous whole which we call mind.
The brain receives energy patterns of the mind through the heart
chakra (39), which Circles of Life refers to as the heart/mind. These
energy patterns are received through electrical capacitor centers. There
may be other bio-electric centers which also deliver energy/information.
The interaction of the brain and mind are most easily understood through
the computer hardware/software analogy; the mind being the software and
information storage, the brain being the hardware, and the conscious self
being the programmer. (See diagram) Extending the analogy, the morphogenetic
field aspect of mind is what is stored on disk and consciousness is the
on-screen work space.
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Rupert Sheldrake writes:
The hypothesis of formative causation
introduces the idea of morphic fields,
which interact with the nervous system and play a role similar to the
program or in the computer metaphor... The conscious mind can be regarded
as a subjective aspect of the morphic fields that organize the activity-of
the brain; these fields can be experienced as it were from within. (16)
Chreodes within the morphic fields are like programs in that they
are structures of organization and are purposive: they are directed
toward goals. (40)
It is precisely the evolution of these 'programs' held in the personal
morphic field the technology of Circles of Life accelerates and develops.
The goal set in an integration addresses a program the person is ready
to change.
Morphic fields have a dynamic interactive
relationship with consciousness. Thus they are changing, evolving fields
of information for form, behavior, and mental activities. In addition,
they are inherited along with our biological characteristics.
To illustrate this phenomenon, Espiau likes to recount the story of
the woman who always cuts the ends off her roast before putting it in
the oven. When queried about this procedure, the woman replied, "Well,
my mother always did it." When the mother was questioned about why she
cut the ends off of her roast, she replied, "Well, my mother always did
it." When her mother, the grandmother of the first woman, was asked why
she cut the ends off her roast, she replied, "Because it was the only
size pan I had."
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The brain may be getting too much credit lately for performing all the
functions of intelligence. Neuroscientists have been feverishly studying
the brain for the last 10 to 20 years: It has been dissected, bisected,
scanned, probed, anesthetized and drugged. Convinced that they were at
the last portal, the entrance to the highest shrine of mysteries, researchers
have felt that some of the ultimate secrets about being human were to
be found in the brain. While many discoveries of great value have been
realized, the highest levels of human intelligence -- memory, language
and speech -- remain unsolved mysteries.
Mechanistic theories claim that all functions of thought and memory
may be found in the neurological structures and chemical compounds of
the brain. These theories are simply not being supported by research.
Patients often recover partially or completely from brain damage even
though the damaged regions of the brain do not regenerate. The appropriate
patterns of activity come into operation somewhere else in the brain.
This is almost impossible to understand if programs are "hard-wired"
into the nervous system; but fields
can move their regions of activity and re-organize themselves in a way
that fixed material structure cannot. (41)
From a purely neurophysical and neuroanatomical point of view, there
is at present no knowledge of what it is that makes the nervous system
capable of language and speech. (42)
Even Wilder Penfield, the brain surgeon famous for his experiments triggering
memories by electrical stimulation of the cortex, abandoned his original
interpretation that the memory record was stored in the cortex. Penfield
examined the brains of thousands of people, sawing
through the skull and electrically stimulating portions of the cerebral
cortex. With many patients he had to remove large portions of abscessed
or cancerous brain tissue. To his amazement he found their memory far
more intact than he would have presumed. He finally concluded that the
mind was a separate entity, dependent on the brain for input yet, in some
way, independent of it. (from Sheldrake, 1988, Talbot, 1987)
A British neurologist, John Lorber, questions if the brain is really
necessary at all! His doubt is based on numerous documented cases of hydrocephalic
children and adults who have as much as 95% of their cranium filled with
cerebrospinal fluid rather than brain tissue, and yet have Intelligence
Quotients ranging as high as 126. (43)
Roger W. Sperry, one of the most thoughtful and experienced neuroscientists
in the world, tells other professional brain and behavior scientists that
mental properties of the brain are real and that they exert control over
individual neural elements:
Consciousness is an integral component of the brain process that functions
as an essential constituent action, and exerts a directive holistic
form of control over the flow pattern of cerebral excitation. (44)
Neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles, winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for
his research on brain synapses, believes that consciousness is a non-material
something that does, indeed, exist apart from our biological selves and
causally determines which of our neurons fire and which do not. A particular
area of the human cerebral cortex called the Supplementary Motor Area
(SMA) has been found by researchers to be an important zone of interaction
between consciousness and the physical brain. Of this research Eccles
says,
"So we have an irrefutable demonstration that a mental act of intention
initiates the burst of discharges of a nerve cell."
Eccles concludes that some sort of complex code is involved and that
the nonphysical mind is actually 'playing' the 50 million or so neurons
in the SMA region as if they were the keys to some sort of piano. (45)
This supports the Circles of Life brain/mind theory which proposes that
the Will operates through the crown chakra,
The crown chakra closely corresponds in physical location to the SMA.
Randall and Vicki Baer in The Crystal Connection further clarify the
relationship of the brain and the mind:
First, the brain as a whole is the seat of the individual's intelligence/consciousness;
it is that physical zone that grounds the higher dimensional aspects
of the mind's brain; rather they are received, processed, and stored
from the more causal levels of the mind. The brain is an antenna-like
amplifying-receiving unit functions as a biocrystalline computer system.
(46)
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The Circles of Life brain/mind-heart/mind theory posits the existence
of at least eight "capacitor-type" electrical centers in the brain. [In
electronics, a capacitor is a device for storing electrical charges.]
These eight capacitor centers are connected with the 12 rings of the heart/mind
(see below). Their function is to receive and store mind energy coming
from the 12 rings.
Circles of Life practitioners have found that most people have only
two of these centers, the 'Heart' center and the 'Depth' center, operating
fully. As a result these two centers are overloaded, having to do the
work of eight, thus creating blocks, stress and confusion in the energy
pathways leading from the mind to the brain.
One of the first re-educations for Circles of Life students is the "switching
on" of these electrical capacitor centers through a process called the
One Brain Integration. Anecdotal feedback from those experiencing this
integration is that the person often senses a greater and smoother flow
of memory and thoughts in contrast to the sometimes uneven spurts of thought
which preceded the integration. This sense of an increased and smoother
flow reflects the capacitor nature of the eight electrical centers as
receivers and storehouses for the mind energy coming from the 12 rings
of the heart/mind. Obviously, when the One Brain Integration is completed,
the flow of mind energy is received by all eight centers and the person
experiences a sensation of increased capacity.
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As previously mentioned, Circles of Life brain/mind theory suggests
that at least one aspect of mind flows through the heart
chakra and is named the heart/mind. Twelve spin points are located
on orbital paths around the heart chakra. These 12 energy centers are
the rings of the heart/mind (see diagram on next page).
Ten of the twelve rings contain within them an energy element which
is both expansive (yin) and contractive (yang). However, two others, the
Heart ring and the Eating ring, have only expansive elements. Except in
the case of the latter two, for a ring to be in harmony it is necessary
to have a balance of the expansive and contractive energy elements within
the ring. Additionally, each ring is optimally in harmony with the other
rings.
When rings of the heart/mind are in disharmony, the person experiences
learning disabilities and other dysfunctions according to where the disharmony
is located. The rings of the heart/mind can be disharmonized by many causes:
emotions, daily life activities, language habits, nutrition, cellular
memory or trauma, genetic memory, interaction with other people.
Furthermore, disharmony in the rings inhibits our ability to learn,
to grow, and to evolve. And it blocks the process of releasing old thoughts,
feelings and behaviors which prevent us from making new choices and leaves
us stuck in old patterns, in spite of our best intentions and deepest
desire to change.
Circles of Life integrations allow a person to harmonize the Rings within
themselves and with each other, creating new energy pathways. Brain/Mind
harmony opens up freedom to learn, grow and evolve. The technology of
Circles of Life creates the harmony to allow us to choose to easily and
rapidly become our best selves.
DIAGRAM OF 12 RINGS OF THE HEART/MIND
Source: Circles of Life Whole Brain Re-education, Espiau, 1987.
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In the last twenty years an enormous number of inferences and conclusions
have been drawn from research on the unique activities of the left and
right hemispheres of the brain based on observations of split brains in
animals and humans. Gazzaniga and Ledoux of the ComeIl University Medical
College published a book entitled The Integrated Brain in order to rectify
the errors of "these 'pop' versions of hemisphere function." Based on
the most careful research, they make a clear distinction between motor/sensory
and higher cerebral functions, indicating that
consciousness is not necessarily split by a severed corpus callosum as
are motor/sensory activities.
Experiments and clinical observations have shown that the right hemisphere
is capable of spelling, comprehending verbal commands and making conceptual
judgments involving verbal information. These abilities are usually the
domain of the left hemisphere. Conversely, researchers have elicited "right
brain" emotional responses and pattern recognition through the left hemisphere.
Gazzaniga and Ledoux conclude that interhemispheric communication is not
essential to maintaining integrated mental functioning. However,
it is only by way of an active interhemispheric communication system
that the sensory input to each potentially independent haft-brain is
maximized, the processing and output mechanisms are coordinated, and,
as a result, the adaptive capacity of the integrated organism is maintained
at its fullest potential. (47)
Thus, ideally, one cerebral hemisphere is not dominant over the other.
A person should be able to easily access any aspect of brain functioning
without favoring one side or the other. When neural impulses are blocked
then there is more activity in one hemisphere then other. The Exceptional
Brain, edited by Obler and Fein, contains numerous references to exceptional
skills and talents of persons who have been found through clinical testing
to use both hemispheres in equal magnitude while performing music, math,
memory, reading and art.
Circles of Life offers the Brain Dominance Integration for maximizing
integrated inter-hemispheric communication.(48)
Testing through applied kinesiology and certain
brain-dominance evaluation procedures indicates that, indeed, following
the Brain Dominance Integration individuals do not show electrical dominance
patterns of brain hemispheres. Moreover, they seem to have greater access
to integrated hemispheric functioning. However, an individual's experiences
and abilities following a Brain Dominance Integration are often mitigated
by longstanding mental habits and patterns which need to be changed through
re-education of the morphogenetic
fields.
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The operational theory of the Circles of Life program has strong support
from metaphysical traditions as well as recent research on the relationship
of the physical heart and brain.
The heart is the mind in Native. American thought; it is where the
intellect lies. Around the heart are two electrical fields, one going
clockwise, the other counterclockwise. (49)
These words are written by Dhyani Ywahoo in Voices of Our Ancestors.
In this book she reveals the wisdom of the Cherokee Indians, an oral tradition
passed from generation to generation for more than 2000 years.
Hazrat Inayat Khan, a master of the centuries-old Sufi tradition, states:
There are four things: will, reason, memory, thought, together with
the ego as the fifth or principal thing, that make up the heart; it
is these five things that may be called the heart. But in definitely
naming the different parts of this heart, we call the surface of it
mind and the depth of it heart. (50)
Joseph Chilton Pearce, in Magical Child Matures, has shown that modern
research has also discovered some fascinating relationships between the
heart and the brain:
Our mid-brain is the "hem" of our brain system [tying together the
physical and thinking brain] and, interestingly enough, has direct nerve
connections with our physical heart...Tradition has always connected
emotions with the heart, and recently we have found that the mid-brain
actually does take directives, moment by moment from our hearts. Conversely,
the mid-brain is constantly sending information to the heart. The two
form the center of our life system. (51)
These statements by Ywahoo, Khan and Pearce, and those of other noted
authors quoted throughout this text provide a fascinating backdrop for
the Circles of Life brain/mind and heart/mind theory and serve to corroborate
much of the research Espiau has done in the last 20 years.
The implication of morphogenetic
field theory is that a person's behaviors, thoughts and feelings and,
therefore, his or her experiences of reality are, in large part, the result
of pre-existing, inherited patterns. Thus, as we seek to change ourselves,
we might also be changing morphogenetic fields which are the results of
centuries of behaviors, thoughts and feelings.
However, since morphogenetic fields are dynamic rather than static,
their evolution is guided by the choices of the person. Circles of Life
and "Geotrantm" enables us to direct, amplify,
and accelerate the evolution of the morphogenetic field. But, as we have
noted before, a change of mind does not automatically mean a change of
behavior. Sometimes the morphogenetic fields are so strong that they have
to be over-ridden by a stronger force of will in the form of directed
thought.
Circles of Life gives us an opportunity to change morphogenetic fields
directly, thus enabling our goals to come to fruition much more quickly
and easily. And since, as we have learned, fields
control form, it is also theoretically possible that Circles of Life Integrations
could effect aspects of the physical body as well as the mind.
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