A Market Spell

A young boy is close to his mother. He is five years old and she is thirty years old. She is in contact with her everyday of his life. He experiences her love in many forms. The way she calls him, the way she gives him shower, the way she feeds him conditions the boy to expect a certain kind of response from his mother. His senses of touch, smell, hearing and vision give input to his nervous system that produce certain physiological responses in his body. This response is mediated through his endocrine system, which, at the age of five years is not well developed. At this time in his life, he needs his mother. He is dependent on her for his survival.

Suppose his mother dies when he is ten years old and the mother was young, 35 years old. The boy is still dependent on the mother emotionally and physically. He is unable to comprehend where the mother has gone. He searches for his mother and she is nowhere to be found. But when he remembers her image, his body longs for the touch, the smell, the voice and the sight of her. He does not understand what death means. But he is confused. He feels sad and wants to cry. His father tells him that it is unmanly to cry. So he does not allow himself to remember his mother. Life goes on. He does not cry. Many years later, he becomes an adult. He is well placed financially and has a status in society.He has achieved everything that his mother wanted him to acheieve. He learns one day that the mother of his close friend has died. He then bursts into tears. He cries and cries and cries. His family members advise him to take medication as they feel he is depressed.

After his crying is over, he experiences a sudden sense of relief. He feels as if a load has been taken off his shoulders. His body has concluded his own grief of his mother.

In another scenario, the young man becomes a responsible adult. He achieves whatever he wants to achieve in life. He is self-sufficient. His mother is now an old lady. He still loves her. But he is no longer dependent on her emotionally, physically or financially. He also knows that if his mother was to die now, he would feel sad but that he would not be devastated. A few years later, his mother dies. He cries over the loss for a short period and then realises that his mother is happy where she is. His own life need to continue on its own without her physical presence.He is happy for her.

In the first case, the physiological grieving experience of the boy was blocked by his father. The father had conditioned him to believe that crying over his mother’s death was either not healthy or was an unacceptable activity. The boy’s body was at that time making an effort to undo the conditioning that he was physiologically used to experience in the presence of his mother. His whole life was consumed and emotionally frozen with his mother’s memories, till his friend’s mother died. At that time did he allow himself to ‘unfreeze’ his grief. When the nervous system experienced full expression of his emotions he felt ‘relieved’.

In the second case, the young man had already grown out of the dependence on his mother when she died. He had become independent off her in many ways. His nervous and endocrine systems were allowed to experience grief in a natural manner. So the grief period was short. He never carried any emotional burden due to this loss.

The human body is conditioned in many ways. In relationships, our body and our subconscious mind get ‘used to’ the sounds, touch, sight and smell of another person. This is done through chemicals present in our bodies. Such emtional memories are mediated through neuropeptides. When we are in the presence of such a person a particular cocktail of neurotransmitters and hormones is produced. This forms a physiological identity of the other person in the body. When the person dies, then the sight of the dead person is helpful for concluding grief. But the ‘physiological identity’ of the dead person is mismatched because of the conditioning of the body to see the person alive. So the neuro-endocrine system goes into a turmoil. Crying is an integral part of this process. After the weeping activity is over, the body becomes emotionally and physiologically stable and calms down. Grieving is then over

Pradeep K Chadha is a psychiatrist who specialises in helping patients with meditation and imagery using little or no medication. He is the author of The Stress Barrier-Nature’s Way To Overcoming Stress published by Blackhall Publishing, Dublin. He is based in Dublin, Ireland.His website address is :http://www.drpkchadha.com

Every police officer will tell you that when there is a full moon, the natives are restless and it will be a long night, with lots of arrests and paperwork? This is a known fact one which cannot be dismissed so easily after such basic observations. An evolutionary theorist would say this is because on moonlit nights our ancient ancestors went on night hunts or that the Sabertooth tigers came to hunt us? Some say these things date back to our Tree Shrew ancestry, all of which Darwin might agree is plausible. Other more spiritual folks might say it is a special time, which brings out human emotion and spirits? Sounds cool to me. I could go for that one? Whatever the case is Lunar Cycles and full moons cause or help along Earth Shift movements of Tectonic plates, coincide with ocean wave actions and indeed cause the behavior shift of many life forms on the Planet’s surface. Could this be from an interaction of gravity waves between Earth and Moon? If so does it affect the resonance of mother Earth’s 7.89 Hz or heartbeat?

What if we take these variations from these interactions and intensify them; using wave manipulation on the human brain. Oh no, you are so evil; you are now saying? Must be those spirits coming out for the next moon cycle, but all kidding aside, can we insight human emotion, emotional out bursts or even fear thru gravity wave simulations on the human body. Can we use sound directional technologies to focus it on someone’s skull while they are in a completely scientific environment? What kinds of behavior can we expect? Well as our policemen friends say we might expect some rather rotten, hostile or aggressive behavior. Indeed this maybe the case, but whatever it is we will find, we need to experiment and see, as the opposite might be like music to the common beast. Thus we have a way to heal, or mellow out as well or alert a population in times of impending danger to take charge to defend themselves. In times of war we can get our enemy to make a move and come out of hiding rather than wait to see where we will be attacked in an ambush. Anyway, think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Negative thoughts and feelings can significantly contribute to the tension we experience in our bodies. Most of the time we are unaware of the tension in our bodies until it manifests as a physical condition such as muscle tightness in the body, headaches and even stomach ulcers. Progressive relaxation serves as a great way relax the body at the first sign of tension.

Progressive relaxation involves systematically tensing and relaxing various groups of muscles in an orderly sequence. By regularly practicing this technique, you can train yourself to recognize the feelings associated with tensed and relaxed muscles. Recognizing the tension or stress in your body at an early stage gives you the opportunity to stop it before it becomes a major physical problem.

When performing the progressive relaxation technique it important to follow the following guide lines

- Do this technique in a quiet room where no one can interrupt you

- Sit on a comfortable chair, couch, recliner or lie on a bed

- Allocate around 10-15 minutes every day as your scheduled time for this technique

- Note the sensations you experience tensing and relaxing the various muscle groups

Start off by closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths for one minute. Then start progressive tensing and relaxing the various muscle groups. The sequence of muscles varies slightly depending on how much time you have however the general order is as follows:

- Toes

- Knees

- Entire right leg

- Entire left leg

- Right hand

- Right forearm and hand

- Entire right arm

- Left hand

- Left forearm and hand

- Entire left arm

- Abdomen

- Chest

- Neck and shoulders

- Face

At the end you should be feeling quite relaxed. Keep your eyes closed and breathe in deeply. Slowly start moving your fingers and wriggling your toes. Breathe in deeply again and stretch gently. Then breathe in deeply one more time and open your eyes.

NOTE: because this technique involves deliberate tensing of muscles, it is important to check with your physician if you have any medical history of muscle problems.