Journey to Awareness: Reality Check

I rode my bike northward to the coastal cliffs of Huntington Beach, California,where surf crashed in irregular beats, after a particularly stressful day inJune of 1983. Life at home was increasingly difficult as I grew into newunderstandings. I attempted to discuss them with my husband, paul, who resisted.Looking out over the waves for solace, I thought how hard I'd been on myselfsetting unreasonable expectations that, more often than not, thwarted myprogress and caused me to fall back and reorganize.

positioning myself on a rocky boulder, I propped my feet on another for balance.A mild breeze wafted over my body to soothe my aching heart and cool theafternoon sun. Sailboats graced the horizon in leisurely pace, bobbing white ongentler waters, while clouds drifted by as if on cue. A hundred feet below,children squealed as ocean waves and wet foam caught them off guard. Approachingtides enveloped picnic sites only recently abandoned. Dogs barked, anticipatingthe retrieval of tossed driftwood from the dancing surf.

What is it about bodies of water that invite romance, yet clarify dreams?perhaps our transient moment with the hypnogogic temptress is in rhythm with theflow of possibilities. Perhaps the opportunity to view a huge expanse withoutany blocks unleashes freedom to create anew. My thoughts pierced the oceandepths looking for answers and inspiration as had so many others before me.

Paul and I swung together on punctuated moments of joint interest, only to splitoff again as we swung back, out of phase. Shouting solved nothing, and thedreaded inevitable silence that pockmarked our marriage plagued attempts atreconciliation. Nagging uncertainties tolled the bells of change.

But there were contributing factors to our out-of-sync relationship. I knew thatmy earlier ulcerated duodenum was indicative of an inability to stomach mymisery and discontent. Unexpressed emotions ate away at me, though, at the time,I had no awareness of possible cause. Any romance Paul and I had left was groundto dust by frustration and blown into oblivion through misunderstanding. Theyouthful ideal of finding fulfillment in marriage was now all but dead.

Making the decision to separate after a lengthy marriage was not an easy one,but the consequences of staying in a relationship that wasn't working made itimperative. Our children were treasures of happier moments, and we purposelyavoided dragging them into the fray. Finding resolution to our relationshipdilemma met with fear-based excuses. Confronting the issue head-on would takemore courage than I'd been able to muster so far.

I thought about my parents, who had their own relationship issues, aboutmother's multiple surgeries being the result of her unhappiness. As my healthproblems were also triggered by emotions, it made me realize that if I didn't dosomething soon to change my life for the better, I could easily duplicate herconditions. I recognized that I had given away control of my life—to my husband,the medical establishment, and self-defeating thoughts as my mother had done.

The pain of a lengthy divorce left both Paul and me devastated, and the childrentorn in allegiance. Now, I had only to trust "self" and my intuition to tell mewhen I was on the right path. I closed my jewelry business and moved toWashington State to begin life as a single woman.

As I had stared at the ocean that summer day, looking for answers to life'sdifficult questions, I never realized the journey would increase myunderstanding of how my body and reality really worked. Nor could I havepredicted the direction or extent of my personal growth.

Like rhythmic waves of an active ocean, life carried me into another world muchdifferent than I'd known. I rode the wave of each experience, as would a bobbingcork on the sea of change, adapting as I went to the ebb and flow of life'sevents. I tangled with choice, met death head on, and achieved a healthier, morefulfilling life. Everything I did made a difference.

And everything you do makes a difference. As with the cells in your body, allyou need to grow is more information. With more information, you make betterchoices, ones that focus on enriching your life with health and happiness, andtake you off the radar screens of medical professionals. The journey's worthbeginning.

Genetics Aren't All You Are: Mistaken Assumptions

Yes, you can make a difference. An out-of-ease system is ripe for disease. Drugcompanies aren't dummies. They're convinced you need them, and, because youbought the bait hook, line, and sinker, you've come to depend on their productsas a cure-all.

Sadly, you live and work in a disease-oriented medical system, not one that'shealth oriented. I'm convinced that most of the time you know what's wrong withyour body, even before you go to a doctor.

I remember being asked by the doctor, "What's wrong with you?" or "What's yourproblem?" I had an inkling, an inner knowing, and told the doctor so. When Ithought about being sick, manifestations began to appear. Boy, did I learn thehard way. You don't have to do that when you know the secret to healing iswithin you.

Just think about all those 50-70 trillion cells in your body going berserkbecause you can't deal with some uncomfortable situation in your life. You'rehanging onto a belief that doesn't serve your best interests; or you've gottencaught up in some advertisement that says, "It's the cold or flu season," or"The incidence of cancer is rising. These are the symptoms...."

As you examine yourself for the slightest mal-alignment, thoughts that you mightget the disease or have it already, can actually produce the result you'reexpecting. That's right. You actually create the condition yourself. Isn't thata disturbing thought?

It is. But consider this: if you decide that you aren't going to get that cold,or that cancer, your body will fulfill that decree as well, depending on thestrength of your focus and the strength of your belief. It's as simple as that.No hard lessons here to learn except knowing that you control your health withyour thoughts.

Disease acts like a mirror that reflects when your life is out of step with yourbeliefs. Right now, you've got a dysfunctional system tormenting you.

So, what's the foundation for this dysfunction?

• Something enters the body and interferes with the machinery.

• The machinery itself is affected or mechanically altered so it doesn't functionwell.

The question is, how can something come into your system when pathogens (germs)are already running around inside? Your body depends upon them to digest thewaste. It's a symbiotic relationship designed into the system. The problem is,you become vulnerable when your defenses are down, or if they're shut down, orif disease-causing agents have circumvented what defenses you do have.

Let's say you accidentally cut your skin. You've just invaded your body. Perhapssomething enters your eyes, nose, ears, and mouth because they're in directcontact with the outside environment, or something mechanical like an objectgets caught in your throat. Now you must also look at the possibility that youlet the gates down yourself.

Your system, the cells, the whole biological organism itself has two positionsof control—one is autopilot, one is manual control. Have you noticed that yourphysical system runs perfectly if you're unconscious or asleep? You can thankthe innate intelligence of your body for doing such a great job.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle.The other is as if everything is. You haven't been trained to understand how tomaintain the machinery, so you sell out to the medical profession. I did, untilI learned that the secret to healing was within me.

Mainly, you've got a belief that says you're a victim of the environment andthat everything in the environment is out to get you. You're afraid of everygerm and contamination. That mind-set actually weakens your defenses and can, initself, shut off the body's protective barriers. That's pretty interesting,because you're dealing with any kind of information, including your thoughts.Your perceptions become reality.

The beautiful part of your human physiology is that when cells come together incommunity they create a powerful community voice, which can be good. It can alsooverride a central command that says, "You're not strong." When the voice of thewhole system says you're not strong, even if your cells are strong, they willtake commands from the central voice and weaken your system, all because of yourbelief. That's how you're compromised.

The same principle is true if, heaven forbid, you're knocked out. Yourphysiology will probably run better when you're unconscious. When you'reconscious, you can actually override the body's automatic control.

Earlier, I mentioned that your body is considered to be a genetic machine withbehavioral traits determined by hereditary elements called genes—DNA. But thatbelief is not valid. When Watson and Crick revealed the DNA's code in 1953, theylater assumed that DNA controlled life. What they did was create untested dogmafrom their hypothesis about the code and how it would work once the genetic codewas expressed. Here's what they presumed to be true: the genes are self-regulatory,controlling themselves and the expression of the organism. If thiswere true, you would be a victim of your genetics, your family heritage.

Inside the cell almost all of DNA is contained within a structure called thenucleus (see figure I.1). The nucleus is an organelle (diminutive organ) thatcontains all the genes, except a small number that are within the mitochondria.The scientists who studied DNA killed the cell and threw away parts they didn'twant until all they had left was the nucleus. When the nucleus was opened, theycleaned away the protein to have test-tube-pure DNA, hoping by isolating it,they'd learn the secrets of heredity.

However, half the nucleus is protein, not pure DNA. Eventually it was learnedthat it's the protein that regulates the genes and reads environmental signals.

So for forty years, experiments were set up to confirm how DNA controls things.Determining the outcome before the experiments isn't good science. In assumingthis truth, scientists misled everyone, including themselves.

It was in the last years of the twentieth century that they decided to put DNAback into the cell to see what would happen. That's when they discovered thatnow experiments worked differently than in the test tube. They found that it wasregulatory proteins that were actually controlling the DNA. That's when theylearned that genes don't turn themselves on or off, either. This came as a bigsurprise, and it means that you're not a victim of your genetics, after all.

You ought to feel better when your disgruntled relatives complain, "You're justlike Uncle Harry," because it's not true. You can tell them to take a jump inthe lake.

This revelatory research frees everyone from the stigma of the past. Justbecause Uncle Harry was an alcoholic, doesn't mean you have to be one. Or, justbecause Aunt Harriet was diabetic, doesn't mean you have to develop thatcondition. Or, just because you live on one side of the tracks isn't any reasonthat you can't live on the other side. You're in control of your behavior,because

there's no behavior in the genes.

Bruce Lipton proved in 1985 that genes respond to environmental signals from theoutside and inside, not from your family's genetic history. This liberating newsmeans that you no longer need to play the victim. The legacy of being heldcaptive to your genes in the slave quarters of your body's vulnerable ship withno possible escape is a myth. You're free to rise to the top, unfettered by thepast.

What's so great is that those chains of limited thinking weren't even locked.You just thought they were. Your powerful mind actually created your lifepatterned after a hypothetical idea. That's how powerful your thoughts are.

Just look around and see how nature adapts to the changing environment. You dothe same. All living forms must do this to stay alive. We don't have to go intothe lab to study nature. It's everywhere. Your genes are malleable. Your genesare never too old to change their ways. You've got genes in your body right nowthat are changing, reorganizing, and creating different configurations toaccommodate stresses you've put on your body.

Let's talk about cancer genes, as if there's such a thing. If you had geneticproblems in your family, then you'd expect to have the problem passed on to you,right? That's been the accepted belief. But that's a fallacy too. No matter whatgenes are passed down, genes don't activate themselves. If that were true, anyorganism that had that cancer gene should have cancer. Logic says that if thegene causes cancer, any baby born with that gene should be born with cancer. Howcome they don't have cancer?

The truth is—it isn't the genes that cause cancer, it's something inside theindividual that causes the so-called cancer gene to express itself. Self-generatedthought sets up the situation. It could be unexpressed anger, a not-good-enoughattitude, some quirk of desired perfection that can never beattained, or wondering why things aren't working out very well after all yourwork. Who knows what the scenario is? It could be most anything that eats awayat your psyche. Emotions get intense and are often hidden (or so you think) fromthose around you, until suddenly, you're sick. Everything's out of control.Since cancer is an eating-away process, there's a correlation to an emotionalissue that's eating away at you, sort of like the miserable ulcer condition thatI created for myself. That having ulcers could be a relationship issue was notconsidered then.

During this period of my life, I was ignorant that mind over body had anyeffect—or that the human body reflected emotions. It wasn't in my consciousness—soI can understand those of you who may also question the validity. When healthinsurance covers most every affliction, there's no motivation to think you haveany control. Yet, somewhere deep inside me I knew an unhappy marriage must bethe source of my discontent. I was miserable, and my body felt the same way.Being drugged senseless on 75mg of Librium three times a day was enough to turnme into a vegetable. I knew I could die if I didn't do something drastic aboutthis chaotic situation.

Perhaps this kind of chaotic condition is what propagates cancer, ulcers, andother unnamed physical malfunctions, and perhaps finding another expression tovent emotional release from stagnating conditions is what the doctor should haveordered. Maybe, redirecting energy into new areas of exploration is what ittakes to change debilitating conditions to those of expanded awareness. A shiftin focus begs a change in perception toward one's abilities to contributefurther to life. This edge of chaos is similar to a transition area whereassessing one's capabilities stimulates the mind/brain neural synapses todevelop new pathways of communication. Overcome the stability in boredom, andevolution occurs to increase intelligence and extend life and mental clarity.

No matter the condition, whether continued frustration or boredom, equilibriumis a static state. To grow you must engage change, and that naturally leads to anew condition. Harmony is equilibrium, but the resonance is life-giving.Negative reinforcement through drug advertising and aging propaganda sets up aseries of doubt factors about your ability to function without a product orservice. Advertisers play with your imagination, hoping you will be convinced toadopt their model of behavior for their financial gain. To counteract thisnegative programming, positive inputs must be strong and frequent. Otherwise,the human body will adapt to make the condition a reality. Wise counsel saysthat whatever the mind can conceive, the body can create. The brain learns tomatch the focus, whether good or bad.