In this BodyTalk 4 Life newsletter, I explain what exactly “Mind Over Matter” means and what you can do to maximize your healing in the context of this principle. I will also tell you about a fascinating experiment which illustrates how we are creating our own reality. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this.
Vyara
How to choose the right holistic therapy following the “mind over matter” principle
Everything is energy, whether you can perceive it or not. The stuff around you is energy (chairs, TV, computers, food, etc). Your thoughts are also energy. The difference between the matter you can perceive and the energy you can’t see and/or touch is in the frequency of vibration. Low frequencies are characteristic of dense matter, whereas thoughts have higher vibratory frequencies.
The bodymind is a bundle of energies with different vibratory rate. The physical body (muscles, ligaments, connective tissue, etc.) has slow vibratory rate, hence it falls within the range of the human perception. Chakras, meridians and acupuncture points, on the other hand, represent faster vibratory frequencies and thus fall largely outside of the range of our perception. The endocrine system is somewhere in-between.
Although the human body represents a big spectrum of vibratory frequencies, roughly we can distinguish between five different levels to the bodymind:
Bliss Body (the highest level)
Supramental Body
Mental Body
Vital Body
Physical body (the lowest level)
The Physical Body, the lowest level, is obviously the human anatomy – the bits and pieces you can touch and see and that hurt when you injure them. The next level up is the Vital Body which is represented by the chakras, meridians and other similar energies. Next up we have the Mental Body, the Supramental Body, and finally the Bliss Body at the top – these represent the mind in its various states (conscious, unconscious, superconscious,etc).
Quantum physics argues in favour of the principle of “Downward Causation”. Applied to the five levels above, this principle states that the cause for manifestation at any given level is found at a higher level. In other words, the Bliss Body (i.e. higher consciousness) is at the root of the cause for manifestation of the physical body. Another way of saying that is “Mind Over Matter”.
Thus, “Mind over Matter” is the popular version of the quantum principle of Downward Causation. This principle entails that when the mind is healthy, the body will be healthy. When the mind is sick, the body will also be sick.
Given the principle of Downward Causation, it follows that when you do a treatment on a certain level, you can influence the health at all of the lower levels of the bodymind. For instance, if you treat the Vital Body, you will also help heal the Physical Body because the former is causing the latter.
Given Downward Causation it also follows that in order for a treatment to be effective, it has to touch at least two levels of the bodymind (because the cause for an imbalance at any given level is always located at a higher level).
Not surprisingly, working on the Physical Body often results in temporary healing because what’s causing the physical imbalance is by definition somewhere on the higher levels. Conventional medicine and various medications mainly aim to heal the Physical Body. Such treatments give us mostly symptomatic relief and can almost never deal with the primary cause for disease.
Therapies like Acupuncture and Reiki, on the other hand, are aimed to treat the Vital Body. Therefore, they can bring about longer lasting healing of the Physical Body since they are dealing with more causative factors. Some sophisticated forms of counselling and psychotherapy work on the Mental Body and by extension can bring about changes in the Vital as well as the Physical Body – this makes them even more effective.
According to quantum physicist Amit Goswami from What The Bleep Do We Know, the only therapy that uses quantum principles and works on theSupramental Body is BodyTalk PaRama (i.e. the postgraduate qualification in BodyTalk). The Bliss Body cannot be treated at present and possibly doesn’t need any treatment to begin with.
So whether you want to be scientific and talk about “Downward Causation” or stick to the old “Mind Over Matter”, the message is the same – subtle, higher vibratory energies (i.e. mind) are the cause for manifestation of denser, slower vibratory energies (i.e. matter). Therefore, if you want to heal the cause for a physical imbalance, you need to approach the mind. To do that, energy medicine is your best bet. It may take longer but it will be more effective in the long term.
Of course in case of emergencies, by all means use allopathic medicine – it can do wonders in the short term and it still plays a very important role in our life (if we didn’t need it, it wouldn’t exist). Long term though, use a form of energy healing or integrative medicine (Auyrveda, Reiki, Acupuncture, Psych-K, NLP, BodyTalk, etc.). Such therapies can help you heal existing ailments effectively. But more importantly they are also great preventative healthcare because you will be able to address imbalances on the subtler (more difficult to perceive) levels before they manifest on the physical level.
The power of observation: Are we creating our own reality?
Our mind influences not only our physical body. It also influences all outcomes in life. If fact, it is not just the human mind that has the power of manifestation. All consciousness does! You are just about to find out how chickens can influence the behaviour of robots.
When chickens hatch, they bond with whatever is around. If their mother is around, they’ll bond with her. But if a dog is around, they will bond with the dog instead. In one experiment a robot was programmed to go into random directions. When placed in a room, it went to all four corners of the room randomly but made overall an equal number of visits to each corner over a period of time. When chickens bonded with the robot and were placed in one corner of the room, the robot went to that corner more than anywhere else. In other words, the chickens attracted the robot and influenced its behaviour even though it was programmed to do something else.
If chickens can do that to a robot, how much do we humans influence what’s happening? A lot! Sadly, we do it mostly unconsciously and yet, we manifest every single bit of life’s experience, whether we like it or not. So next time you complain about something, be reminded that this is an outcome you are entirely responsible for. If you don’t like it, pick a different scenario, energizes it with your thoughts and feelings and watch it unfold for real.