i am not saying that the 10 models of meta medicine represent the one and only way to think about dis-ease. our body is an evolutionary masterpiece. it is the perfect representation of where humanity is at this point of time on this planet and as such reflects a meaningful inter-connection between body, mind, conciousness and environment.
here is a simple example of the extraordinary systems our bodies are, the standard cut with a knife: the instance the injury happens, our bodies already begin the process of repair, usually leaving a scar which with time may or not disappear. we normally never doubt the body’s ability to fix this cut, to precisely do what it needs to do.
depending on the depth of the cut, i.e. which layer of the dermis it reaches and the severity of the actual shock of the incident we may develop quite a thick scar, whose sole intention is to render this particular part of our skin tougher, harder so in a biologically and evolutionary meaningful way our whole system will have learned to protect itself even better against future similar attacks. beautiful, perfect !
curiosity (s)kills the cat, right ? curiosity surely plays a part in my own style of thinking, which above all is solution focused. i just never find satisfying answers in traditional medical approaches when it comes to my burning questions as to WHY people develop an acute or chronic illness in the first place.
rather, what this all really is about is to have choice and this is the main reason why i am writing this blogpost today: what has been happening in this world and what has been offered to people as far as health and well being is concerned is, to my liking screaming about lack of choice! a fact that is supported by some of the world’s most powerful industries (pharma, insurances and media), which in itself explains the one-sided interest as far as ‘offering choice’ is concerned.
the way i personally see meta medicine is that it is represents the above mentioned choice, but also is the main holding frame for the puzzle that makes up health and healing, with a beautiful and well-matching array of puzzle pieces representing solutions (or soul-utions, as susanne billander calls them) for health which are all fitting into that frame, eventually ... when we allow ourselves to adapt an integrative approach to healing.
it isn’t only in meta medicine that we know that all dis-ease originates from high levels of stress, a significant emotional event or an unexpected, dramatic, isolating event that i had no coping strategies for (udin).
this ‘truth’ has been scientifically researched and proven over and over again. my own research has brought me into research by
- suzanne segerstrom (see article ‘psychological stress and the human immune system: a meta-analytical study of 30 years of inquiry (segerstrom and miller ,http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1361287/
- stephen porges and his ‘polyvagal theory’ http://stephenporges.com/index.php?
- peter levine and his ‘somatic experience’ approach to trauma http://www.traumahealing.com/somatic-experiencing/peter-levine.html
- richard bolstad’s ‘trauma manual’ and the nlp approach to assisting people to recover from trauma, and his research into resilience http://www.transformations.net.nz/trancescript/christchurch.html which encompasses my own training and the resulting “NLP recover’ work that is still being done in canterbury by us
i even gave adequate attention to david bercelli’s TRE, trauma release - neurogenic tremoring exercises, that absolutely have their place in today’s world and something that i would love to see in every exercise room, actually http://www.bercelifoundation.org/s/1340/aff_2_home.aspx - there is a wealth of scientific research on his website
to name but a few. one day, a few months after the first big earthquake in canterbury (4th september 2010) i found myself with a couple of thousand of pages research printed out and the quest of a ‘book to be written’ and even more so, a message to be spread.
it all started to make sense, gel, come together ... everything that i had studied from the field of meta medicine, psychogenealogy, german new medicine - plus of course the inspirational side of things by louise haye’s, her body/mind reference books and just so much more.
when richard flook agreed to come out here to train 10 of us to become meta medicine health coaches (2009), the timing couldn’t have been better because canterbury was getting ready for trauma, for real big time UDIN (unexpected, dramatic, isolating events perceived through either of our 5 senses, without having a strategy for dealing with them) moments, high levels of stress:
we were gearing up for 11.000 (and counting) earthquakes and aftershocks from 4th september 2010 onwards, with a few very strong earthquakes and the 22nd february 2011 earthquake that decimated christchurch of countless buildings and this time also many many lives were lost.
since then we had the media reporting on all kinds of mental and physical illnesses and i would like to dedicate the next few paragraphs to the meta medicine side of viewing some of these.
allow me to repeat that nowhere did i find an answer as to WHY certain illnesses appeared suddenly in canterbury.
please also bear with me and my very own personal observations on this - which i am simply offering as ‘choice’, mainly because i see this as the only way for people to return completely to health, without the long lasting side effects of countless drugs.
what is it really that creates what is reported on as an e-coli outbreak? in a couple of emergency shelters (or civil defense welfare centres) where hundreds of earthquake victims had come to for shelter/food and comfort there were reports on e-coli outbreaks or the high risks thereof.
what are we assuming here - follow my line of thoughts for a moment if you will:
- that the sanitary conditions of these places are extremely poor
- that there is no clean water available
despite the fact that tons of bottled water were made available, these places actually had toilets / portaloos and hand sanitisers were the first ‘commodities’ brought in from outside.
what then should happen if this were really true would be that everybody in the centre would complain of symptoms of diarrhea (headache, fever etc).
we all know that this is not true and that only a few people in such shelters actually become ill.
how about this? in meta medicine we differentiate between embryonic germ layers (ecto-, meso- and endoderm) and 4 different brain layers (brain stem, cerebellum, medulla and cortex). in the first 20 days of an embryo’s development it is determined which cells belong to which germ layer in order to form which organ, logically making this organ then correspond to a certain brain layer.
the organs of these brain layers fulfill a biologically meaningful function and are basically themed ‘survival, i.e. digestion / reproduction’, protection/separation, self-evaluation and social / territorial context.
dis-ease is not a mistake, but a biologically meaningful process - why should our bodies actually make mistakes ? after having gone through 9 points, and two phases of the healing process, the relevant organ - after having been tested (healing crisis) is meant to function as well as or even better than before (confirming the above story of a scar on the skin, where a part of the skin evolves into something that is just that tiny bit stronger than before the cut).
what would you do if your roof collapsed, you saw people being buried under steel posts, the pavement in front of you cracked open, if there was the most unbelievable noise you could ever imagine, if the earth shook and it made you literally ‘hold your breath in absolute agony, fear of death ?
if this is what your perception of this event is and your shock signals ‘fear of death’ to your system it is even to the non-believer totally logical that all your body does is shutting down everything that is not necessary, gets into survival and holds on to whatever reserve you have. in fight/flight survival mode you do not need to have the urge to go to the toilet - it’s the last thing you’d do if an angry sabertooth tiger were chasing you....
once your ‘system’ (which is your body / mind / consciousness / environment... ) understands that you’re ok, you’ve survived - at least this time - it relaxes, let’s go, sends every possible biological helper into your guts (i.e. bacteria ) to break down what you’ve been holding on to and voilà, there is where you have the diarrhea .
there’s more to this - but this will do for the time being.
the 10 models in meta medicine provide a perfect road map to define the problem and create the solution to even the more than 100 cases of alopetia, the various stomach/digestive issues, cough/bronchitis and other lung problems. it also allows a precise understanding of various ‘mental’ issues. yes, substance abuse, violence, marital problems etc by applying these 10 models, thus opening up to the possibility of healing.
in my next post i will share my ideas about the co-relation between specific element in different cultures, f.ex the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ here in new zealand and how this could be related to increased occurrences of certain illnesses.
until next time
love & joy, barbara
p.s. email or call me for any personal questions you might have; i will always endeavour to provide you with guidelines that allow you get on your path of true healing. there will be an immense number of benefits for you by attending one of our workshops around the country, contact me to find out about a workshop near you.
