Secrets of Your Cells: Discovering Your Body's Inner Intelligence (32 page)

— JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Balloon Lady Becomes a “Shamanic Seeker”

Let me pause in this discussion and take a moment to describe my own experience of sacred art and ritual, beginning with a return to my “balloon lady” days. When I first took off my lab coat to spend time with children in the hospital, I would draw with them. Sometimes I’d ask them to draw their illness or how they felt. They drew whatever they wanted, and we talked about their images. I wasn’t there as a scientist or to study healing, just to give them a few minutes of comfort in an uncomfortable, stressful environment. Still, many times I witnessed that this simple act of drawing seemed to bring relief and a kind of peace.

Images have the power to initiate healing without the cooperation of the intellect.

— CARL JUNG

In my own healing journey I discovered that expressing my feelings through art or dance released something deep inside. It could be tears, a sigh of relief, or an “a-ha!” moment. Drawing and moving became my most powerful teachers. From a cellular perspective, the two practices are connected as a whole, and through them I could express grief or anger, shame or elation. These were feelings and places I couldn’t reach through words or my intellect. Healing, for me as for many others, can be attained through physical expression—through manifesting from within.

Art helped me maintain sanity during chaos; it brought me joy or deep tranquility simply in the doing. When I painted, I was in the zone; when I danced my sorrow or happiness, I was uplifted; when I walked in nature taking photographs in the vineyards, I was transported. The creative process took me someplace else—a place and state necessary for my well-being and healing.

For a period of time after I left the University of California School of Medicine, I worked individually with adults who had cancer using imagery as a healing tool. People came to me to learn how to meditate,
manage stress, and use their imaginations for healing. They asked me to “conjure up” a visualization script for them. These were the days when guided visualization and imagery were just finding their way into supportive medical care, and I discovered that, somehow, I had a knack for receiving information from beyond the intellect and the skill to deliver custom guided visualizations.

If we were an indigenous culture, this work would be considered “shamanic,” meaning that I accessed information by entering into an altered state of consciousness. Shamanic vision is an ancient gift from our human ancestors that I was able to tap into. In the clinic office, before the client arrived, I would alter my state of mind through meditation. I went even deeper into relaxation when the client and I were together in the room, and I led the client into a meditative state as well, to create conditions more conducive to healing. I knew that scientific research shows that slowing our brain waves down to an alpha or theta state facilitates hypnagogic imagery. In fact, visualization itself requires being in a deeply relaxed state—we have no choice but to relax, just as the indigenous shamans do, if we are to permit images to flow. When we are in a state of contemplation, deep relaxation, or prayer, our brain waves slow down to 4 to 10 cycles per second. Our normal awake state operates at beta brain waves, which range from 12 to 38 cycles per second.
⁴

My goal in this work was to take a “shamanic journey” and “bring back” images for people to use on their own. Almost universally, the images resonated with my clients in a positive way. Still, I always questioned where the images came from. Was I reading minds? Had I tapped into “cosmic consciousness”? Was God speaking to me? Was I making it all up? Was I faking it?

Ultimately, the fact that I really didn’t know the source of this imagery left me feeling insecure, and I stopped offering this service. In retrospect, I regret this—the work was genuinely helpful and useful. But my science mind ruled the day; my intellect was too uncomfortable operating in the intuitive realm of the great Mystery.

Shamanism: Our Oldest Healing Strategy

Since the beginning of recorded time, people have used pictures, symbols, and visualization as healing tools. This old, enduring system for healing with the imagination is called
shamanism.
⁵
I am no shaman, but I’ve spent decades exploring the inner worlds and have apprenticed to a shaman. The word
shaman,
from the Siberian Tungus, refers to someone who can intentionally penetrate and translate the landscape of the imagination. They can alter their consciousness at will to enter what is often called “non-ordinary reality.” Doorways to this mysterious realm are opened through drumming, chanting, dancing, psychoactive plants, meditation, dreams, and deep relaxation.

Through ritual the shaman reaches into the spirit realm in search of information that will help an individual or the tribe. This information often comes in the form of images, symbols, and songs, which the shaman interprets.

Shamanic traditions state that images, metaphors and stories are the best way to transmit knowledge. Myths are “scientific narratives” or stories about knowledge. Science means to know. . . . Wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things but contemplation of the mystery.

— JEREMY NARBY
The Cosmic Serpent

Sharing Inner Knowledge: Story, Myth, Art, and Symbol

Let’s widen the lens again and consider the role that stories, myth, and art play in passing along knowledge of human history. Through symbolic images, sculptures, and myths that have survived the people who created them, we have learned a lot about our ancient ancestors. Archeologists dig deep into our human past, learning the ancient beliefs, myths, and rituals of a culture from its art, temples, and writings.

Psychiatrist Carl Jung proposed that we carry within us unconscious images and myths that arise from our biological past, that our ancient memories have roots in our biological nature. He named this ancient knowing the
collective unconscious
and envisioned it as biologically inherited bits of experience. The collective unconscious retains and transmits the common psychological inheritance of humankind. Myths, legends, and symbols seen across time and place show the same forms as sacred and mythical. Such universal symbols are held in the collective unconscious and are called archetypal; they are primordial images or archaic remnants from our hidden past. According to Jung, as evolution of the embryonic body repeats its prehistory, so the mind also develops through a series of prehistoric stages.
According to Jung, archetypes are biologically grounded.
⁶

Jung believed that myths are inherited memories of the race that embody evolutionary processes and past experiences. And somehow, precognitive memories of these stories are carried within us, and we have access to this collective, unconscious stash of sacred signs and symbols. He proposed that we are all born with extensive foreknowledge and memories of the world. If this is so, where are those memories stored? In our DNA?

In
Art and Physics,
Leonard Shlain reminds us that the DNA molecule is a massive library of blueprints for everything from fingerprints to hair color and all the proteins in the body, yet not all of it is useful. In fact, as we learned in
chapter 6
, cell biologists revealed that the majority of our long strands of DNA provide no known information for any physical trait or molecule and called it “junk.” Shlain asks whether this junk DNA with no present discernable value could be a source of our ancient memories. “It is not inconceivable that somewhere along its twisted, elongated shelves is a section from our evolutionary history.”
⁷

Perhaps this “silent DNA” serves as the depository of ancient memories. What if Shlain is correct that the bulk of our undecipherable DNA holds keys to healing wisdom and ancient knowledge? Does the almost-universal use of spiral movements in ancient sacred body practices tap
into the very essence of our spiral molecules, our DNA, loosening memories from our collective unconscious vault? What if by engaging in tai chi, qigong, dance, and yogic kundalini movements, we unwind and rewind the cosmic karmic memories held in the twists and kinks of our long strands of DNA? Not only can moving our bodies help release present memories and change our gene expression, it may also give us access to ancient wisdoms.

When we visualize symbols they can have profoundly transformative effects. Symbols connect us with regions of our being which are completely unavailable to our analytical mind . . . they train us to understand . . . directly, jumping to . . . a deeper kind of understanding, which awakens intuition. A symbol can be a true reservoir of revelation.

— PIERO FERRUCCI
What We May Be

The Spiral

The spiraling DNA was the first molecule I thought of as mythic and mystic—a symbol. In myth, the spiral symbolizes growth and transformation. It connects our roots in nature and our inner nature. Likewise, the spiral was one of the earliest recognized sacred symbols for many cultures.
⁸
Wherever it was found in nature, it was worshipped: as early as Paleolithic times, the whorled shell was revered. The curved and undulating spiral form was often included in images and sculptures of the oldest fertility symbols, the life-giving mother goddess. Did the DNA that guides our lives play a role in imparting to us symbolically the regenerative power of the spiral?

In nature, the spiral is characteristic of flow and growth. Galaxies grow through the inward spiraling of interstellar gases (see
figure 8.1
). The curve of an elephant’s tusks, the pinecone, and the grapevine are all examples of spiraling growth, as is the nautilus shell (see
figure 8.2
). All are programmed, encoded by DNA that is itself a spiral. The movements of wind and water also follow this universal spiral pattern.

Figure 8.1
Spiral Galaxy M81

Spirals also have been associated with the passing on of the soul and have been used to decorate ancient burial chambers. The spiraling vine is a sacred Hebrew symbol for eternal life and is even represented in the ritual bread of the Jewish Sabbath, the challah.

If one is to understand the invisible, look carefully at the visible.

— THE TALMUD

The spiral is a form of transformation and beauty. Not only did it have a mythic presence in ancient cultures, but even today our biotechnology culture worships the sacred genetic spiral code as containing the answer to all life’s ills.

Like all existence on the descending scale of realities, the spiral is a symbol. It denotes eternity, since it may go on forever. . . . This order, reverberating down into the microscopic and subatomic levels, both structures and reflects our consciousness

— JILL PURCE
The Mystic Spiral

Figure 8.2
Many things grow in spirals, like plants, some seashells, and galaxies.

The Cell’s “Code of Three”

DNA holds more than the spiral at its core physical and symbolic self: what about its coding abilities? Another element of cellular life that has reverberated throughout biology and taken root in our myths and symbols is the DNA “code of three.” Life itself depends on threes: the three-letter genetic code necessary to create living things is a kind of Trinity. As we saw in
chapter 6
, of the four building blocks forming the genetic “scripture” of DNA, three of these structures at a time prescribe the correct amino acid to build our proteins. It is a three-letter code. Three states of cellular tension regulate gene expression, cell growth, life, and death: tight, loose, and just right. In
chapter 4
, we learned that cellular creation requires a 3
³
tube-like structure (the centriole) to guide the way.