Conference hydra::dejavu

Cindy,

Is this the type of info you are looking for under this topic?

The following is an 'official' desription of Polarity Therapy which 
works with the 'energy body':
    
    The POLARITY SYSTEM OF ENERGY  BALANCING  was  developed  by  Dr. 
    Randolph   Stone,   Doctor   of   Chiropractics,  Osteopathy  and
    Naturopathy.  Over a period of sixty years of practice and  study
    which  began in 1912 and ended with his retirement as age 83.  It
    represents a synthesis of the health wisdom of the West  and  the
    East,  where  Dr.  Stone studied Homeopathy, Chinese Acupuncture,
    the Ayurvedic System of India and folk health practices  of  many
    cultures.    From   these  systems  he  extracted  the  essential
    principles of healing and incorporated them into a simple,  clear
    and  universally applicable approach to total natural health care
    called POLARITY THERAPY.

    POLARITY THERAPY works to bring the life  energies  of  the  body
    into  a  state  of  balance.   When  these subtle electromagnetic
    currents are flowing smoothly, one experiences a  definite  sense
    of  well being, freedom from pain, and clarity of mind.  Polarity
    Therapy relaxes the whole person, encouraging the  restoration  of
    normal  functioning  so  that the body may be able to use its own
    natural intelligence to heal itself.  As a result, one is able to
    resolve  one's  own  problems  on physical, mental emotional, and
    spiritual levels.

    By releasing blocked energy, the 5 five part  elimination  system
    opens  up,  (feces,  urine, sweat, air, emotions).  Then physical
    and emotional toxins are eliminated, allowing the life energy  in
    the  mind/body  to  flow freely.  As the energy flows, emotional,
    mental, and physical patterns change from negative  to  positive,
    and  eventually  to  a  neutral  balanced state.  This process is
    accomplished by a series of sessions of body contacts,  adherence
    to  the  elimination and health building diets, daily practice of
    easy stretching exercises, and an increasing awareness  of  clear
    and positive thinking.

    As the elimination systems begin to open,  energy  is  freed  and
    begins  to  flow.   Even  after one session of body contacts, the
    person experiences both the opening up and  the  flowing  energy.
    After a number of sessions, "eliminations" occur as the body rids
    itself of sugar, salt, uric acid, cholesterol, alcohol, caffeine,
    nicotine  and  other  toxins.   During this time it may appear as
    though former illnesses reoccur in weakened form,  and  often  in
    reverse  order,  the  most  recent  symptoms  being reexperienced
    first, and the first, last.  Following  each  "elimination",  the
    person  is  aware of an increases sense of emotional and physical
    balance, and a heightened sense of well being.

    POLARITY THERAPY is the science of balancing the Life  Energy  in
    the  human body.  Vital energy circuit and fields in the body are
    the basic factors in  this  work.   These  are  the  current  and
    pattern  fields  by  which  the  body  was built and continues to
    function.  The objective is to know their anatomical relationship
    and  function  as  plus  (+) and minus (-) energy polarities, and
    balance  them  by  scientific  skill  rather  then  by  force  or
    mechanics.   We accomplish this by gentle contact with our hands,
    using Love, Thought & Attitude, Manipulation, Exercise and Diet.

    LOVE is the essence of all life everywhere in this universe.  The
    energy  of  Living Love is everywhere; all you have to do is tune
    yourself to it.  One must be an example of Living  Love:   seeing
    positive  in  all  things,  being  of  service to yourself and to
    others, working to lift yourself and others, and allowing  it  to
    flow  and  permeate  through the four other vehicles of Thought &
    Attitude, Manipulation, Exercise and Diet.

    THOUGHT & ATTITUDE.  Thought is energy.  Active thought is active
    energy.  Concentrated thought is concentrated energy.  We are the
    creators of our thoughts, and  what  we  create  returns  to  us.
    Thought  is  the  cause, and the experience which we meet in life
    will determine the effects;  the  physical  body  is  never  sick
    first.   Without  positive  thinking, one cannot have health, and
    you always get to choose with every situation, what your attitude
    will be.  Much of your reality is in your attitude, your approach
    to life, and the things manifested are reflections of  where  you
    are  inside.   It  is  that inner attitude that is all important.
    Emotions are only an aid for our learning.

    MANIPULATIONS.  The objective of manipulation  is  to  relax  the
    person  being  treated  allowing  the Life Currents to be brought
    into balance, thereby removing energy blocks, with the end result
    that normal body functions are restored and maintained.

    EXERCISE.  Easy stretching postures will cover a  part  of  those
    exercises  which  are  based  on  the  squat position.  The squat
    approximates the attitude of the  fetus  in  the  mother's  womb.
    This  position  attracts  the five elements from the cosmic rays,
    nature's way of building a healthy body.

    DIET.  Earth, Air, Fire and Water are the electromagnetic charges
    in  food.   Dr.   Stone's  purifying  diet  is  the  basis of the
    philosophy regarding diet in Polarity  Therapy,  emphasizing  the
    importance  of  desiring  to  enjoy  our  food  in a calm, loving
    atmosphere, and to be thankful for what we are eating.  If there
    is  any  type  of emotional upset surrounding the eating hour, it
    would be better not to eat at all, as the  most  nourishing  food
    cannot be assimilated under such circumstances.

    Polarity Therapy does not look at  specific  physical  or  mental
    conditions;  rather  it  views  the  Body/Mind  as  an organized,
    integrated unit.  Each organ and  function  affects  every  other
    aspect  of  the  human  system.   When the life energy is flowing
    freely throughout the  individual,  good  health  will  naturally
    follow.   Polarity  Therapy  does  not diagnose, prescribe for or
    treat disease, nor does it make  therapeutic  claims;  rather  it
    encourages  the  restoration  of  equilibrium  necessary for self
    healing.  Therefore, if an individual is concerned about specific
    symptoms  during or after Polarity Therapy they are encouraged to
    consult a physician.

    
    Sure Ro!  Any references to the energy body are most welcome.
    
    Cindy

From: "Perfect Health - The Complete Mind/Body Guide", by Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Part I - A Place Called Perfect Health

Chapter 1 - An Invitation To A Higher Reality

There exists in every person a place that is free from disease, that never
feels pain, that cannot age or die.  When you go to this place, 
limitations which all of us accept cease to exist.  They are not even 
entertained as a possibility.

This is a place called perfect health.

Visits to this place may be very brief, or they may last many years.  
Even the briefest visit, however, instills a profound change.  As long 
as you are there, the assumptions that hold true for ordinary existence 
are altered, and the possibility of a new existence, higher and more 
ideal, begins to flower.  This book is for people who would like to 
explore this new existence, bring it into their lives, and make it 
permanent.

The cause of disease is often extremely complex, but one thing can be 
said for certain: no one has proved that getting sick is necessary.  
Quite the opposite, in fact.  Every day we come in contact with millions 
of viruses, bacteria, allergens, and fungi, and only the tiniest fraction 
ever lead to disease.  It is not uncommon for doctors to see patients 
whose respiratory tracts contain clusters of virulent meningococcus 
bacteria living there harmlessly.  Only on rare occasions do they break 
out and cause meningitis, a serious and at times fatal infection of the 
central nervous system.  What provokes such an attack?  No one knows 
precisely, but it seems to involve a mysterious factor called "control 
by the host," meaning that we, the host of germs, somehow open or close 
the gate to them.  More than 99.99 percent of the time, the gate is 
closed, which implies that each of us is much closer to perfect health 
than we realize.

The leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease, which 
in most cases is caused by deposits of plaque blocking the coronary 
arteries that conduct oxygen to the heart.  When cholesterol and other 
debris begin to obstruct these arteries, oxygen starvation threatens to 
impair the heart's function.  Yet the course of heart disease is highly 
personal.  One person with a single, rather small bit of plaque can be 
incapacitated by angina, the squeezing chest pain symptomatic of 
coronary artery disease.  A second person with several deposits of 
plaque large enough to block most of the oxygen flow to the heart might 
feel nothing.  People whose coronary arteries were 85 percent blocked 
have been known to run marathons, while others have dropped dead of a 
heart attack with completely clean vessels.  Our physical ability to 
repel disease is extremely flexible.

In addition to our body's physical immunity, we all have strong 
emotional resistance to sickness.  As one woman, an older patient of 
mine, put it, "I've read enough psychology to know that a well-adjusted 
adult is supposed to become reconciled to getting sick, growing old, and 
eventually dying.  At some level I have understood that - but 
emotionally and instinctively, I don't believe it at all.  Getting sick 
and deteriorating physically seems like a ghastly mistake, and I've 
always hoped someone would come along to correct it."

This woman is nearly 70 now, and her physical and mental condition is 
excellent.  When asked what lies ahead, she said, "You may think I'm 
crazy, but my attitude is that I'm not going to get old, and I'm not 
going to die."  Is that so unreasonable?  People who consider themselves 
"too busy to get sick" are known to have above-average health, while 
those who worry excessively about disease fall prey to it more often.  
Another man told us that the idea of perfect health appealed to him 
because it was a creative solution - perhaps the only solution - to the 
overwhelming problems currently facing medicine.  A highly successful 
electronics executive, this man compared perfect health to the kind of 
"breakthrough thinking" that transforms corporations.

Breakthrough thinking is a unique form of problem solving: it involves 
making a situation better by first raising your expectations much higher 
than anyone believes possible and then looking for ways to make your 
vision come true.  "If people continue to think and act in the same 
familiar ways," this man commented, "they may accomplish five to ten 
percent improvements by working harder.  However, to get improvements of 
two to ten times, targets must be set high enough that people say, 
'Well, if you want *that much* improvement, we'll have to do this an 
entirely different way.'"

Breakthrough thinking has been applied among advanced computer companies 
in Silicon Valley - for example, if the current model of some hardware 
took forty-eight months to develop, the next generation is scheduled for 
twenty-four months.  If defects in manufacturing have been cut down to 5 
percent, then "zero defects" becomes the rule for the future.  This is 
exactly how perfect health works - it sets zero defects as the goal and 
then discovers how the goal can be met.  In the computer world, it may 
cost eight to ten times more to repair a defective machine than to make 
it defect-free in the first place.  For that reason, imposing "quality 
at the source" (i.e., doing things right the first time) makes better 
business sense than going for engineering that is merely "good enough."

The same holds true in medicine, where prevention is much cheaper than 
treatment, both in human and in economic terms.  A 1988 poll shows that 
more than anything else, Americans fear catastrophic illness.  The reason 
doesn't have to do with pain and suffering - it involves the crushing 
expense of a long hospital stay and the devastating costs of whatever 
surgeries and drugs are required.  Even death is not as frightening as 
leaving one's family destitute.  Clearly, we need a medical approach 
that believes in "quality at the source" and can promote it in 
individuals.

                                                        
    Dr.Chopra's credentials:
    
    He has practiced endocrinology since 1971, is the former chief of staff
    of New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Mass.  He is a Fellow of
    the American College of Physicians.  He is also the president of the
    American Association for Ayurvedic Medicine and the medical director of
    the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for Stress Management and
    Behavioral Medicine in Lancaster, Massachusetts, US.  Dr. Chopra is the
    author of Creating Health, Return of the Rishi, Quantum Healing, and
    Unconditional Live.  He lectures around the world and his work has been
    published in twenty languages.  He lives in Lincoln, Mass. with his
    wife, Rita, and their children, Mallika and Gautama.

    -----------------------------------
    Scientific study of the Energy Body
    -----------------------------------
    
    	Western origin with Paracelsus
    	------------------------------
    The energy body is one of a number of terms for a cluster of
    related concepts that go all the way back to each of the major ancient
    civilizations.   Probably the most influential Western version of the
    concept came from 16th c. alchemist and healer Paracelsus, who believed 
    that the celestial bodies influence human health, but through a subtle 
    human body rather than directly by influencing the physical human
    body.  He called the subtle body 'astral' because of the link to
    his version of the theory of the stars and planets influencing us.  
    Traditional Paracelsan theories of the human 'aura' hold that it is
    the border of various human subtle bodies, rather than an image
    generated by the human physical body.
    
    	Early scientific attempts
    	-------------------------
    Since the late 18th century, attempts have been made in scientific 
    research to either demonstrate the existence of the traditional 'astral 
    body,' (or some variation of it), or to demonstrate some more physical 
    kind of electrical or magnetic field coinciding with or surrounding
    the physical body.
    
    Among the most notable historical attempts were those by Franz Anton
    Mesmer, whose theory of animal magnetism was extremely influential
    on Theosophy, behavioral science, and theories about faith healing.
    Also, many believed that the claims of the German chemist, von Reichenbach 
    to have discovered an 'odic force' were related somehow to the
    traditional astral body.  His was one of a number of similar
    discoveries made at about the same time.  They were mostly eclipsed
    by the rising popularity at the time of spiritualism, the reaction to 
    which made the odic force and similar theories seem unacceptable as
    areas for research in the mid 1800's.
    
    	Dr. Kilner's screens and goggles
    	--------------------------------
    Around 1900, Dr. Walter J. Kilner was in charge of electrotherapy
    at St. Thomas's hospital in London.  Using apparatus with glass
    plates ad a blue coal tar dye called dicyanin, Kilner demonstrated
    that he could make ultraviolet radiation visible, and claimed that
    he could also make a human aura of some sort visible.  Kilner does
    not seem to have believed that this aura was neccessarily the
    occult astral body, but that it was a very low level electrical field
    of some kind that varied with the state of health of the patient
    and could therefore observing it could potentially be a useful diagnostic 
    tool.   Kilner published The_Human_Atmosphere in 1911, but his work
    lost momentum after his death, and most reviewers seem to have
    considered his visual effects to have been optical illusions.
    
    	Kirlian Electrophotography and the Soviets
    	------------------------------------------
    At this point, the bulk of the interesting research into a
    physical energy body (as opposed to proof of the occult astral body)
    was done in the former Soviet Union, where the conclusion appears to be 
    the body does indeed have a 'biofield' with magnetic characteristics,
    but which has very little to do with the traditional notions of an etheric
    double or astral body.  In spite of statements to the contrary by the
    researchers, some people continue to believe that the Russian research 
    supports various kinds of occult metaphysics.
    
    The Soviet research began in earnest in 1939 when a Soviet electrical
    engineer named Semyon Kirlian accidentally discovered a method of
    using high voltage electricity to create images on photographic plates
    that in some ways resemble clairvoyant descriptions of the human aura.
    
    Such interesting findings as being able to cut a leaf and have the
    complete 'aura' of the leaf appear on the plate rather than an image
    of the cut leaf have invited many speculations and further 
    research efforts.  Some methodological problems ('unclean plates')
    were found in some cases, but the effect was also replicated in 
    instances where such an explanation appears extremely unlikely.
    
    Various Soviet publications discussed a 'bioplasmic body' theory
    that as far as I know is still a hot topic for research.
    
    One of the most influential critics of Kirlian Electrophotography
    is a Theosophist, professor of electrical engineering at London's
    City University, and a past president of the Society for Psychic Research 
    named A. J. Ellison.
    
    After years of studying the method and the claims, Ellison
    came to the conclusion that the photographic images are what we
    calls 'Lichtenberg Figures,' an effect of intermittent ionization of
    the air around the object.  
    
    The popular book by Ostrander and Schroeder,
    _Psychic_Discoveries_Behind_the_Iron_Curtain_, described in some detail
    though at a very low level of technical precision, much of the
    Soviet research studies into Kirlian Electrophotography.  Primary 
    researchers referenced by O and S include Inyushin, Gurwitch,
    Kolotilov, Litvinov, Gulyaev, and Godik.   Soviet researchers had
    since its publication denounced the O.and S. book as anti-Soviet 
    propagandist and extremely distorted and inaccurate in many places.  
    They do, however, generally admit to seeing value in further
    scientific persual of the concept of the bioplasmic energy body.
    
    One older source that might be available in English is "Electrodynamics
    of Living Systems," by V. Adamenko, from Vol 4 of the Journal of
    Paraphysics, 1970.  
    
    In addition to the Soviet research, Harold Saxton Burr in the 1930's
    beleived that he had measured what he called the "L-Field" of trees,
    showing how they fluctuate with sunspot activity and lunar phases.
    
    References :
    
    		Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience
    			by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
    
    		Mind and Magic, 
    			by Francis X. King
    
    		Encyclopedia of the Unexplained,
    			by Richard Cavendish 
    
    		Signet Handbook of Parapsychology,
    			edited by Martin Ebon
    		
    		Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain,
    			Ostrander and Schroeder
    
    		The Chakras,
    			C.W. Leadbeater
    			
    						kind regards, 
    
    						todd

From: "Perfect Health - The Complete Mind/Body Guide", by Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Part I - A Place Called Perfect Health

Chapter 1 - An Invitation To A Higher Reality (p.5-7)

Promise Of A New Medicine - Maharishi Ayurveda

The first secret you should know about perfect health is that you have
to choose it.  You can only be as healthy as you think it is possible to 
be.  Perfect health is no mere 5 or 10 percent improvement over good 
health.  It involves a total shift in perspective which makes disease 
and infirm old age unacceptable.

Can we really believe in "zero defects" for something as complex as the 
human body?  According to the National Institute on Aging, no diet, 
exercise, vitamin, drug, or lifestyle change has proved itself capable 
of extending life. Averting the degenerative disorders that afflict the 
elderly - heart disease, stroke, cancer, arteriosclerosis, arthritis, 
diabetes, osteoporosis, and so on - is more feasible than ever before 
but still unlikely.  

Although public medical researchers speak optimistically of major 
breakthroughs in curing cancer and the other major intractable illnesses, 
they are much more pessimistic among themselves.  The best that they 
hope for is creeping gradualism - taking one tiny step at a time toward 
a solution.  (Lowering cholesterol levels will, statistically, reduce 
heart attacks in a large group of people, for instance, but it does not 
guarantee that any single person will be spared.

To make health twice or ten times better, you need a new kind of 
knowledge, based on a deeper concept of life.  This book presents a 
unique source of such knowledge, a system of preventative medicine and 
health care called Maharishi Ayurveda.  Dating back in India more than 
5,000 years, Ayurveda comes from two Sanskrit root words, 'Ayus', or 
"life," and 'Veda,' meaning "knowledge" or "science".  Therefore, 
Ayurveda is usually translated as "the science of life."  An alternate 
and more precise reading would be "the knowledge of life span."

The purpose of Ayurveda is to tell us how our lives can be influenced, 
shaped, extended, and ultimately controlled without interference from 
sickness or old age.  The guiding principle of Ayurveda is that the mind 
exerts the deepest influence on the body, and freedom from sickness 
depends upon contacting our own awareness, bringing it into balance, and 
then extending that balance to the body.  This state of balanced 
awareness, more than any kind of physical immunity, creates a higher 
state of health.

Ayurveda embodies the collected wisdom of sages who began their 
tradition many centuries before the construction of the Pyramids and 
carried it forward generation after generation.  A modernized system 
based on their insights - Maharishi Ayurveda - did not come to the West 
until 1985.  It is named after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of 
Transcendental Meditation, who turned his attention to reviving Ayurveda 
in the early 1980s.  I was fortunate to be one of the first M.D.'s to 
offer this new medicine; I have treated more than ten thousand patients 
with it in the past five years and trained nearly one hundred other 
physicians in Ayurvedic theory and practice.  

In adopting Maharishi Ayurveda, I have not abandoned my earlier 
conventional training but extended it.  Blending Maharishi Ayurveda and 
Western medicine has proved completely compatible.  As a doctor, I still 
take medical histories and work up physicals on my patients, relying on 
objective tests to tell me when a person is sick; in addition, however, 
I guide my patients to look inward, to find that all-important balanced 
awareness inside themselves.

From: "Perfect Health - The Complete Mind/Body Guide", by Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Part I - A Place Called Perfect Health

Chapter 1 - An Invitation To A Higher Reality (p.7-9)

The Quantum Mechanical Human Body

To comprehend how this is possible, we have to delve deeper into the 
body itself.  In Ayurveda, the physical body is the gateway to what I 
call the "quantum mechanical human body."  Physics informs us that the 
basic fabric of nature lies at the quantum level, far beyond atoms and 
molecules.  A quantum, defined as the basic unit of matter or energy, is 
from 10,000,000 to 100,000,000 times smaller than the smallest atom.  At 
this level, matter and energy become interchangable.  All quanta are 
made of invisible vibrations - ghosts of energy - waiting to take 
physical form.  Ayurveda says that the same is true of the human body - 
first it takes form as intense but invisible vibrations, called quantum 
fluctuations, before it proceeds to coalesce into impulses of energy and 
particles of matter.

The quantum mechanical body is the underlying basis for everything we 
are: thoughts, emotions, proteins, cells, organs - any visible or 
invisible part of ourselves.  At the quantum level, your body is sending 
out all kinds of invisible signals, waiting for you to pick them up.  
You have a quantum pulse underlying your physical one, and a quantum 
heart beating it out.  In fact, Maharishi Ayurveda holds that all organs 
and processes in your body have a quantum equivalent.

The quantum mechanical body would do us very little good if we could not 
detect it.  Fortunately, human awareness is capable of sensing these 
faint vibrations, thanks to the incredible sensitivity of our nervous 
system.  A single photon of light falling upon the retina of the eye 
makes far less impact than a single speck of dust falling on a football 
field.  Yet the specialized nerve endings of the retina, the rods and 
cones, can actually detect a single photon, send a message to the brain, 
and cause you to see its light.  Rods and cones are like giant radio 
telescopes, huge structures that can still gather signals on the very 
threshold of physical existence, and then amplify them in such a way 
that our senses can deal with them directly.

By treating the underlying quantum mechanical body itself, Maharishi 
Ayurveda can bring about changes far beyond the reach of conventional 
medicine, confined as it is to thelevel of gross physiology.  This is 
because the power available at the quantum level is infinitely greater 
than that found at grosser levels.  The explosion of an atom bomb, which 
is a gigantic quantum event, is but one instance.  A more constructive 
example is the laser, which takes the same light that is emitted by a 
flashlight, and by organizing it into coherent quantum vibrations boosts 
its power enough to cut through steel.

What is at work here is the quantum principle, which reveals that the 
most subtle levels of nature hold the greatest potential energy.  The 
black emptiness of intergalactic space, although a mere vacuum, contains 
almost inconceivable amounts of hidden energy, enough in every cubic 
inch to power a star.  Only when it makes the quantum leap does this 
"virtual energy," as it is called, explode into heat, light, and other 
forms of visible radiation.

We all know that burning a piece of wood releases much less energy than 
splitting its atoms through a nuclear reaction.  But we have ignored the 
creative side of the same equation - 'making' something new at the 
quantum level would be just as powerful as destroying it.  Only nature 
creates rocks, trees, stars, and galaxies, but we are busily engaged 
every day in making something arguably far more complex and precious 
than a star - a human body.  Whether we realize it or not, all of us are 
responsible for the body we live in.

Headlines were made in the winter of 1988 when a San Francisco 
cardiologist, Dr.Dean Ornish, proved that forty advanced heart patients 
could actually shrink the fatty plaque deposits that were progressively 
blocking their coronary arteries.  As the arteries of these patients 
began to open, fresh oxygen started reaching their hearts, thus 
relieving their frightening chest pains and reducing their risks of 
having fatal coronaries.

Rather than relying on conventional drugs or surgery to unblock their 
artieres, Dr.Ornish's group used simple yoga exercises, meditation, and 
a strict low-cholesterol diet.  Why was this finding considered so 
remarkable?  Because mainstream medicine had never before acknowledged 
that heart disease can be reversed once it had started.  Medicine's 
official position is that a sick artery follows its own course of 
development: No matter what you believe, think, eat, or do, such 
arteries relentlessly pursue their grim fate, degenerating a little more 
very day, eventually becoming blocked and strangulating the heart 
muscle.

Yet, at the quantum level, no part of the body lives apart from the 
rest.  There are no wires holding together the molecules of your 
arteries, just as there are no visible connections binding together the 
stars in a galaxy.  Yet arteries and galaxies are both securely held 
together, in a seamless, perfect design.  The invisible bonds that you 
cannot examine under a microscope are quantum in nature; without this 
"hidden physiology," your visible physiology could not exist.  It would 
never have been more than a random collection of molecules.

Maharishi Ayurveda would say that Ornish's breakthrough for heart 
disease holds true for any disorder, once you know how to make use the 
quantum mechanical body.  A deposit of cholesterol-filled plaque looks 
solid, like rust lining an old pipe, but plaque is alive and changing, 
just like the rest of the body.  New fat molecules drift in and out of 
it, new capillaries develop to bring in oxygen and food.  

The real news from Ornish's study is that what we build in our bodies we
can also unbuild. A man who dies of a heart attack at age fifty has had 
innumerable chances to build new arteries.  A 70-year-old woman who 
develops osteoporosis in her spine has had innumerable chances to make a 
healthy spine.  (We cannot really count the chances, since the process 
of change is constant; however, you could possibly heal a damaged artery 
or a defective bone in a matter of a few weeks or months.)  We are all 
building new bodies all the time.  Why not build a healthy artery, a 
healthy spine, a complete healthy person?

(to be continued)

From: "Perfect Health - The Complete Mind/Body Guide", by Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Part I - A Place Called Perfect Health

Chapter 1 - An Invitation To A Higher Reality (p.9-11)

The Quantum Mechanical Human Body (cont'd)

In India's ancient Vedic tradition, the most basic force underlying all 
of nature is intelligence.  The universe, after all, is not "energy 
soup"; it is not mere chaos.  The incredibly exact fit of things in our 
world - above all, the astounding existence of DNA - argues for infinite 
amount of intelligence in nature.  As one astrophysicist put it, the 
likelihood that life was created randomly is about the same as the 
likelihood that a hurricane could blow through a junkyard and create a 
Boeing 707.

One of the most crucial changes in contemporary science is the sudden 
arrival on the scene of models that take intelligence into account as a 
vital force in the universe.  (In physics, for example, there is the 
so-called anthropic principle, which proposes that the whole creation 
since the Big Bang was designed expressly to lead to the existence of 
man.)

Why is this relevant to us?  Because Maharishi Ayurveda, seen in its 
larger context, is nothing less than a technology for contacting the 
quantum level inside ourselves.  To get there you need special 
techniques - which we will cover in detail - to peel away the mask of 
the physical body; in addition, you have to transcend, or go beyond, the 
constant activity that fills the mind, like the noise of a radio that 
cannot be turned off.  Beyond that distraction lies a silent region that 
appears as empty as the quantum field between the stars.  Yet, like that 
quantum field, our inner silence holds rich promise.

The silence inside us is the key to the quantum mechanical body.  It is 
not chaotic, but organized silence.  It has shape and design, purpose 
and processes, just like the physical body.  Instead of seeing your body 
as a collection of cells, tissues, and organs, you can use the quantum 
perspective to see it as a silent flow of intelligence, a constant 
bubbling up of impulses that create, control, and become your physical 
body.  The secret of life 'at this level' is that anything in your body
can be changed with the flick of intention. 

You may find this hard to believe, so let me offer the example of Timmy, 
a perfectly ordinary-seeming 6-year-old who suffers from one of the 
strangest psychiatric syndromes - multiple personality disorder.  Timmy 
has more than a dozen separate personalities, each with its own 
emotional patterns, vocal inflections, likes and dislikes.  Yet people 
with multiple personalities are not just psychological cases; as they 
drop one personality and put on another, remarkable changes can occur in 
their bodies.

One personality might have diabetes, for example, and the person will be 
insulin-deficient as long as that personality is in force.  Yet the 
other personalities may be completely free of diabetes, testing normally 
for insulin levels.  Likewise, one personality may have high blood 
pressure while the others do not; even scars, warts, sores, and other 
skin blemishes have been seen to appear and disappear with the changing 
of personalities.  The literature on multiple personalities includes 
patients who can instantly alter their pattern of brain waves on an EEG 
or transform the color of their eyes from blue to brown.  One woman had 
three separate menstrual periods each month, corresponding to her three 
separate personalities.

Timmy is particularly amazing because one of his personalities, and only 
one, is allergic to orange juice and breaks out in hives if he drinks
it.  Health writer Daniel Goleman reports in the 'New York Times', "The
hives will occur even if Timmy drinks orange juice and another 
personality appears while the juice is still being digested.  What is 
more, if Timmy comes back while the allergic reaction is present, the
itching of the hives will cease immediately, and the water-filled 
blisters will begin to subside."

This is a perfect example of how signals from the quantum mechanical 
body can cause instantaneous changes in the physical body.  What is 
remarkable here is that allergies are not known to come and go at the 
whim of the mind.  How could they?  The white cells of the immune 
system, coated with antibodies that cause the allergic reaction, wait 
passively for the contact of an antigen.  When contact occurs, a series 
of chemical reactions is triggered automatically.

Yet, in Timmy's case, it appears that as the molecules of orange juice 
approach his white cells, a 'decision' is made whether to react or not.  
This implies that the cell itself is intelligent.  Moreover, its 
intelligence is contained at a level deeper than its molecules, for the 
antibody and the orange juice meet end to end with very ordinary atoms 
of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

To say that molecules can make decisions defies current physical science 
- it is as if sugar sometimes feels like being sweet and sometimes not.  
But it is not only the remarkable intensity of Timmy's case that stuns 
us.  Once we absorbed the fact that he is choosing to be allergic - for 
how else could he turn his hives on and off? - the we confront the 
possibility that we are choosing our diseases too.  We are not aware of 
this choice, because it takes place at a level below our everyday 
thoughts.  But if we have such an ability, we should be able to control 
it.