Re: Stages in Chaos Theory LO3007

jack hirschfeld (jack@his.com)
Sat, 30 Sep 1995 11:44:02 -0400

Replying to LO2978 --

Ivan Blanco said:
>>.....An analogy I use is that of a headache. Most people run to the
>>medicine cabinet when they have a headache and take a few Tylenol, without
>>giving themselves time to learn more about themselves. They may learn to
>>overcome some headaches by the use of their brain, for instance. Or they
>>may be silencing very important signals of something more serious that
>>might be happening to their bodies....

To which Bryan Walton replied:

>A while back, I woke one morning with full blown flu'. Raging fever,
>sweating, etc. . . . all the usual symptoms. Instead of dealing with this
>in my usual way, I chose to experiment with exactly the concept you
>describe.
>
>For four hours, I did nothing, but sat still in a chair and allowed myself
>to fully experience what was going on. For the first hour, the discomfort
>was intense and I felt miserable. Gradually, I was able to let go of the
>mental labels. I reminded myself that my body was healing and that I would
>be open to the experience. What amazed me was that, slowly, the
>sensations changed and they became pleasurable. It was like I was able to
>feel every cell in my body. Four hours later, the flu' was totally gone
>and not a sniffle left to remind me!
>
>The experience served to remind me once again, that events are neutral, and
>it is how we choose to relate to events that makes the difference.
>

This wonderful story reminds me of something else as well... that in the
course of developing our knowledge in the Western mode (science) we have
"forgotten" or obscured knowledge that came with our systems (bodies).
People who have serious, recurring headaches are sometimes referred by
intelligent neurologists to teachers of biofeedback. Nearly 90% of
biofeedback users report complete pain control when the techniques are
mastered; more than half NEVER HAVE A HEADACHE AGAIN! Biofeedback
techniques are a triumph of modern science; but I can't help feeling that
they are little more than a mechanism to recover lost knowledge, the kind
of knowledge, for example, that is embedded in Qi Gong practices. What
can we do to learn again what once we knew, that has been shoved aside or
destroyed by our search for knowledge?

--
Jack Hirschfeld                    When two hearts become one,
jack@his.com                       who could ask for anything more?