elokuuta 06, 2010

Heart & mind

Few lines from Connecting with Horses by Margrit Coates:



"Professor Candace Pert has confirmed that every cell in the body has its own "mind" and she has discovered that the heart and the body send messages to each other through chains of amino acids, previously thought to exist only in the brain. Scientists at the Institute of HeartMath in the U.S. have discovered neurons -brain cells of the type shown to have memory- in the heart."



"Further research has shown that communication between heart and brain is an ongoing dynamic and two-way dialogue. These scientists have also discovered that when people hold hands, one person's heartbeat can be measured in the other's brain waves."

Today I've thought a lot about why humans have developed this brain thinking and finds it somehow more useful? Is that the reason we've lost contact with nature? How could I start training my heart, so that I would have better connection with horses? Would it be possible to really write from my heart, without brain interfering? How would it change us if we'd suddenly realize our intellect brain is much less cool than the ability to use your heart the way it's maybe supposed to be used..?

So in another words today I've used my brains a lot. Maybe tomorrow will be better and I get to strenghten my heart neurons :)

8 kommenttia:

  1. Yes, I think we need to re-teach our "brain thinking" to adopt a role of serving rather than ruling. G.K. Chesterton talks a lot about the madness of reason. I think we can see science itself trying to move above its role of service and into domination.

    VastaaPoista
  2. I've been thinking too - there's definitely a way of acquiring knowledge that bypasses the conscious mind. We don't even have a word for it, do we? Unless we call it intuition - is intuition valued nowadays? Does it mean the same thing as what we're talking about?

    VastaaPoista
  3. Isn't intuition more like USING that heart based information, but I think there is no word for gaining it.

    VastaaPoista
  4. Thank you, Jenny, for inviting me to read and comment. I have a LOT to say on this subject, so much, that I've started several blog entries, but have so far been unable to complete any of them because the subject seems bigger than my ability to write about it. :-)

    When I read "Connecting with Horses" the section that resonated most with me was the one from which you've quoted, where Coates talks about the heart.

    One of the books listed on my blog's reading list is Stephen Harrod Buhner's "The Secret Teachings of Plants." Buhner is an herbalist. In the beginning of the book he writes a great deal on this very subject, of how we came to value the mind ("rational" thought) over the heart (feeling/emotion). He also provides a great deal of scientific confirmation that the heart is, in fact, a far more powerful electromagnetic transmitter AND receiver than the brain. This is interesting to learn because a large part of the communication that occurs between ourselves and the world (plants, other animals, the elements,) occurs in various electromagnetic frequencies.

    This information is picked up as "feelings" or "vibes"... and is more multi-dimensional than a linear thought. It is direct, holistic perception of reality in the moment. Many of us have had experiences like this (often with horses) but it is almost impossible to find words to describe them. Written words are symbols, shadows of the underlying truth. (Sound is another subject. Certainly words gain more power when they are spoken -- with feeling -- and heard.)

    There are certain meditation techniques designed to develop the ability to listen to our hearts, to access the heart's intelligence.

    VastaaPoista
  5. There is a word which kind of fits - it's sort of a theological word and refers to the way Adam and Eve acquired knowledge in the Garden of Eden - it's called "infused knowledge" - knowledge which is somehow directly "put" into the person rather than being acquired in a linear, piece-by-piece way. I feel like that's how I learn from the horses, and that's what Kris is talking about in "Pasture Moments" - that the knowledge arrives, fully formed, inside oneself.

    And yes, I think you're right, Jenny - I think intuition is more about using the knowledge rather than acquiring it. Also "intuition" doesn't strongly enough imply "knowledge" - more like a possibility or a hint.

    VastaaPoista
  6. Oh, y'all are going to be interested in this:

    http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

    If the video doesn't load, there's a transcript available on the right hand side of the screen.

    VastaaPoista
  7. Thank you all for commenting! I actually have Buhner's "The Secret Teachings of Plants" but I've only browsed it and read what seemed to be interesting at that moment, now I will have to read it from the beginning. I knew I had read about this stuff somewhere before!

    Thank you June for that link, it was most interesting!

    VastaaPoista
  8. Jenny,
    I've read Buhner's book three times. The first time I skimmed through the technical segment which relayed information about how the organ of the heart functions, being more drawn to what he had to say regarding communing with plants. But later, I was obliged to revisit carefully that first segment. This is such a treasure of a book to illuminate the concept of the inherent knowledge of all things and learning to relate to non-human entities via heart entrainment.

    Kris is right, there are meditative techniques which facilitate a shift from brain perception to heart perception, and Buhner's book offers information on this. For myself, I find that just being out in nature, away from modern technology and human companionship provides the right ambience to draw me into a state of being that is less preoccupied with analytical reasoning and instead flows me into a heightened sensory field of perception.

    Melding into the non-human environment, becoming one with the swaying grasses and fragrant breezes, this is what opens the other field of perception where information resides. The only difficulty with this, for me, is that upon returning to the realm of brain reasoning, I often have a difficult time putting into words what I may have gleaned from the heart.

    It's worth pursuing, it is, I think, our original heritage, which our development of language has distorted in deleterious ways...

    Thanks for prompting me to comment on a very excellent which I am glad you are exploring!

    VastaaPoista