Consciousness is defined in the online dictionary as a sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group; a special awareness or sensitivity; alertness to or concern for a particular issue or situation
Recent studies show the effects of psycho-spiritual experiences on gene expression and predict that consciousness will reach the front line of medicine in the coming decade. Looking at the work of Dawson Church demonstrate that taking control of our consciousness and using it to influence our genetic expression , we can sometimes bypass years of therapy and medical treatment. This can produce both immediate relief from long-standing anxieties and neuroses as well as ‘miraculous’ healing of diseases, specially auto-immune diseases.
Dawson Church states that memory, learning, stress and healing area all affected by classes of genes that are turned on or off in temporal cycles that range from one second to many hours. The environment that activates genes includes both the inner environment and the outer environment. This includes not only the emotional, bio-chemical, mental, energetic and spiritual landscape but also the social network and ecological systems in which an individual lives.
Recent studies performed by Ronald Glaser at the Ohio State University College of Medicine and Psychology Janice Kiecol-Glaser investigated the effect that stress associated with marital strife has on the healing of wounds. The researchers created small suction blisters on the skin of married test subjects. Couples were instructed to have a neutral discussion for half hour. For 2 weeks the researchers monitored the production of 3 of the proteins our bodies produce for wound healing. Next the same couples discussed topics which they disagreed on. The studies showed that wound healing was slowed by up to 40% in those couples who had sever disagreements with put-downs, sarcasm and criticism.
This study shows a clear link between the consciousness of the participants in the study and the creation of proteins( coded by gene activation) required to promote wound healing in their bodies. The healthy mental attitudes signaled their bodies to turn on the genes involved in the immune system and healing the wounds.
The concept of epigenetics is referred to as “ the study of heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the DNA sequence. Which is looking at the sources that control gene expression from outside the DNA. It traces the signals that tell the genes what to do and when to do it.
Studies Linking Beliefs to Health
Dr Gail Ironson, pHD, a leading mind-body medicine researcher and professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Miami runs the Positive Survivors Research Centre at the University. In her studies, she found that there were 2 interesting predictors of how fast HIV progressed. The first was their view of God,. Those who saw God as judgemental had a T cell decline more than twice the rate of those who don’t see God as judgemental.
The 2nd major factor Dr Ironson noted was the participant’s personal relationship with God. Her study found that patients who did not believe that God loved them lost helper Tcells three times faster than those who believed God loved them. She also found that those who felt a sense of peace also had lower levels of cortisol-the catabolic stress hormone.
‘’If you believe God loves you, its an enormously protective factor, even more protective than scoring low for depression or high for optimism. A view of a benevolent God is protective but scoring high on the personalized statement ‘God loves me’ is even stronger.’-Dr Ironson ( Ref: “ Genie in your Genes, Dawson Church, Energy Psychology Press, Santa Rosa CA 2008)
In my interview with Harvard Professor, Dr Ellen Langer we discuss the many studies she conducted showing the link between belief systems, mindfulness and physical health.
The idea that perceptions can be manipulated by expectations" is fundamental to the study of cognition,” according to Michael I. Posner, an emeritus professor of neuroscience at the University of Oregan. In my experience, positive suggestion in hypnotherapy can help to introduce new possibilities and belief systems to expand our perceptions and potentials.
When our brain senses something, raw sensory data is carried to a part of our brain that creates a comprehensible, conscious impression, so the data is moving from the bottom to the top. A Harvard study showed that the number of nerve fibres carrying information down involved 10 times as many nerve fibres. What this feedback circuit means is that what people see, hear, feel and believe is top down processing.. What you see is not always what you get as what you see depends on the framework built by experience which interprets the raw information. “ Top-down processes override sensory, or bottom-up information, “said Dr. Stephen M. Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard
This top-down processing supports the ‘placebo effect’, positive talk therapy and meditation as the beliefs support the results. This brain structure also explains the success of hypnosis where positive suggestions overcome reality. (“This is your Brain Under Hypnosis,” Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times, November 22, 2005)
Hypnosis provides several processes to release emotions held in the cells in the body and to re-program the mind. Eddie then provides exercises at home to support these sessions and enable changes in behaviour.
Up to the age of 12, before top-down circuits mature, 80-85% of children are highly hypnotizable states Dr David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford.
The role for meditation and hypnosis to affect the quantum field is the ability to focus on one thing for long enough for the observer to then collapse it into our reality in the field. Hypnosis provides several processes to release emotions held in the cells in the body and to re-program the mind. Eddie then provides exercises at home to support the new patterns and enable long-term changes in behaviour.
The concept of neuroplasticity is discussed in Norman Doidge’ s Book “ The Brain that Changes Itself” As he states in the book, “neuronets that fire together wire together” and once certain neural pathways have been established, the brain develops more neuronets around this thought process and may also find more-efficient ways to produce the same result. Soon accessing one situation will automatically cause the emotion associated with it.
This is where hypnotherapy and positive reframes of situations can set positive anchors and enable new neural pathways to support a positive, new direction in someone’s life.