Sep 9

Sep 9 INTUITION MEDICINE® METHODOLOGY

By Karen Meyer

The Academy of Intuition Medicine®. (AIM) is based in Sausalito, CA. AIM was founded in 1984, and is a globally recognized academic school for professional intuitives and for those interested in developing intuition as a pragmatic skill. The mission of AIM is to teach and empower individuals to discover and use their natural intuitive sense in all endeavors of life. The philosophy of AIM is that everyone has innate intuitive abilities which can be developed and utilized as a natural human sense.

Below is an essay explaining the methodology taught at the Academy of Intuition Medicine®.

The framework regarding the mind-body question has given me some foothold as to how to explain the Intuitive Medicine®/Energy Medicine vocational training. The puzzle of what the Medicine part of the Academy of Intuition Medicine meant slowly started to become clear. With it also came a burning interest in everything regarding a more scientific basis for explaining the Energy Medicine Models. I've enjoyed reading several books that are doing a great job of trying to bring about a change in paradigm regarding the mind-body issue (the three most helpful ones are: BODY OF HEALTH, McCartney; VIBRATIONAL MEDICINE, Gerber; MOLECULES OF EMOTIONS, Pert). I found myself mostly turning to Candice Pert while trying to build a base for convincing skeptical Western minds of the validity of Energy Medicine in general, and Intuition Medicine in particular. I feel that, so far, she has presented the most scientifically convincing single model for the role of emotions in overall health. Other books make their case by accumulating a wealth of information on different Energy Medicine models, showing the validity of Energy Medicine by way of saying: all these different approaches seem to work, therefore ... " , which is a strong enough case for people who are already convinced, but might still be weak enough for the others.

We are slowly moving away from the Newtonian/Cartesian mechanical model, a model I never felt at home in and consequently could never bring myself to study within, even though I've been wanting to be a doctor ever since I can remember. I instead choose to focus on getting a masters in Orthopedogogy: counseling and educating people with disabilities (psychological, psychiatric or physical) at least offered some measure of examining the body and mind connection.

So, how to explain this in laymen's terms?

What is Intuition Medicine®?

Intuition Medicine is "an ancient healing modality that is now being recognized for its efficacy in

treating disease and promoting health and healing" (Francesca McCartney in "Intuition Medicine. The Science of Energy"). It falls within the healing module of Energy Medicine (or Vibrational Medicine), which combines modern Western scientific insights into the energetic nature of atoms and molecules making up our body, with Ancient observations of the body's unique life-energy systems that are critical aspects of healthy human functioning.

Although very helpful in many situations, the Western world's Newtonian mechanical approach to illness can rarely ever explain WHY diseases occur. This type of medicine can, in the end, really only treat the symptoms. To accomplish true and truly effective healing, however, the cause of the disease is what needs to be treated!

The theory I will be laying before you is that consciousness/awareness plays an integral role in health and illness, and is not merely a by-product of electrical and chemical signals. Health is strongly affected by our emotions, as well as by our state of spiritual and psychological health.

Emotional imbalance and stress in our life seem to precede the appearance of physical disease.

The ideal medical model would be able to detect and correct these life disturbances before people actually become sick. It would also be able to bring awareness of the condition which created disease to its patient, which will get us to the core of the problem. Which might lead to a cure, but at the least it will lead you into a different, a more enjoyable and more accepting way of living your life.

Intuition Medicine® in particular focuses on unlocking your natural innate intelligence of "knowing the answer". It teaches ways in which to increase your natural Intuitive abilities to assist in keeping your body, mind and spirit healthy by increasing your sensitivity to understanding the particular energetic nature your body is made up of. It is a journey of self-discovery. A journey that will teach you to increase your personal health, and to make positive changes to your life and others.

Before going further into an explanation of what the Intuition Medicine healing modality works on accomplishing, I would first like to present a convincing case for the validity of Energy Medicine in general, by introducing you to results from scientific research that support the theory behind this Energy Medicine model of a true integrated energy-processing human system of mind, body and soul.

Modern research is increasingly supporting the model of the constant interaction between body and mind. Not only that, there is increasing evidence that the body IS the mind, mind traditionally having been located in the brain. The evolving field of mind-body medicine known as Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has added a new layer to the mind-body dynamic by introducing the vital role played by the immune system within this network. It has provided many new insights into the various hormonal and chemical connections between emotional stress and illness. A key characteristic of the cells of the immune system is that they travel through the body to wherever they are needed to mount a defense of repair damage. PNI refers to the multi-directional network of communication between -psyche (all that is of ostensibly non-material nature, such as mind, emotions and soul) - human biology, neurology and physiology (the material world of molecules, cells, organs and their functions)- and the function of our body's immune system.

Let's examine the research regarding this mind-body medicine in more detail.

Physicists, neurochemists, biologists, and other scientists who are trying to unravel the puzzle of the miraculous functioning of our body are coming to some fascinating conclusions. All parts and organs of our body have their primary bio-mechanical functions, but they also seem to have an innate intelligence and amazing ability to process different kinds of information. Most of the information they receive is in the form of "messages" that help to regulate the function of each organ within the context of the body's daily needs. The organs and the CELLS making up each organ do not only communicate with each other through electrical signals, as has been known through research on the nervous system, but also through other non-chemical forms of information carrying messengers, as well as through coded messages carried by hormones and biochemicals. Within this network of information distribution, the CELLS of the body appear to have their own inherent intelligence that allows them to understand and use this coded information in its many forms in order to maintain the body in a state of health.

The different ways in which the cells of the body communicate with each other point clearly to the previously mentioned multi-directional network of communication. It would take a whole book to explain the ways in which this works and the ways in which research has shown that it works. For the purpose of this particular essay, I will focus only on a few of the amazing discoveries made within this Energy Medicine Paradigm.

Recent studies of the body's electrical functioning show that we have an even more complex electrical control system than the electrical signals that move information throughout the nervous system. Leading edge scientists have discovered that living cells seem to have internal elements and membrane structures that give them the capacity to function as tiny integrated circuits. This field of bio-electronics seems to indicate that this type of message distribution ultimately controls whether or not cells divide and reproduce. For instance, it looks like cancer cells can grow because the normal electronic signal regulating cell division has gone wild.

Physicists working with electromagnetic energy trying to split atoms into smaller and smaller particles, discovered to their surprise that there is no final tiniest part of nature. Rather there are forces best described as wavelengths of electromagnetism ... or Light. These pieces of light serve as fundamental building blocks for everything. Russian researchers discovered that when introducing a poison into one of two identical quartz dishes with identical cell cultures, the other cell culture dead a mirror death: the cells emitted weak pulses of ultraviolet light that convey information to the other cells.

One of the pioneers in this recent field of mind-body research is Dr. Candice Pert. She started her career in neuroscience with measuring receptors, molecules made up of proteins (chains of amino acids) that respond to energy and chemical cues by vibrating (!). These receptors basically work as scanners. They are attached to a cell's membrane, waiting for the right chemical to come along to bind to (receptor specificity). This chemical is called a ligand, and it is a molecule itself. As soon as the message, the chemical cue, is received, the receptor transmits it deep into the cell's interior, where a reaction of biochemical changes is started. The actual change depends on the message, but the changes in this single cell have an effect on a much larger scale.

The largest category of ligands (95% of the total) are called peptides. They are the chemicals that play a wide role in regulation almost all the life processes . A peptide that is brain involved is called a neuropeptide. It turned out that almost every peptides that has ever been found anywhere, was a neuropeptide. These neuropeptides also had its receptors in the brain. Furthermore, they found that neuropeptides exist in all parts of the brain. But what was more startling than this, was the discovery that neuropeptides and their receptors are to be found in the body as well. For instance, it has been discovered that besides from the 2 classical neurotransmittors that run the nervous system, all of the known neuropeptides can be found there also. They are "abundantly distributed in subtly different intricate patterns all the way down both sides of your spine".

As mentioned earlier, it is the connection with the immune system that provided the vital link between body and brain. Monocytes and other white blood cells travel along in the blood and at some point come within "scent" distance of a given neuropeptide, and because these while blood cells have receptors for that given particular neuropeptide on their surface, they begin to move towards it. Candice Pert discovered that every neuropeptide receptor they could find in the brain was also on the surface of the human monocyte. It has been known for over a century that the pituitary gland (located near the middle of the brain) spews out peptides throughout the body. But a few years ago it was found that these peptide-producing cells also inhabit the bone marrow the place where immune cells are generated. Human immune system cells have receptors for opiates and other emotion-affecting peptides which actually appear to control the routing and migration of the monocytes, which are very pivotal to overall health. However, they don't just have receptors on their surface for the various neuropeptides. Immune cells also make, store, and secrete the neuropeptides themselves. In other words, the immune cells are making the same chemicals that we think of as controlling our mood. Immune cells clearly do not only take care of the physical health of the body, they also create information chemicals that can regulate mood and emotion. Two way communication: brain communicating with immune cells in the body, immune cells in the body communicating with brain chemistry.

Thus, it seems fair to reason that some kind of intelligence is located in these cells that are distributed through the body. According to Dr. Pert it is the emotion-effecting peptides and their receptors that make the dialogue between the conscious and the unconscious processes possible. Since neuropeptides and their receptors are in the brain as well as in the body, since there is a multi-dimensional exchange of information between cells, organs and systems of the body, we may conclude that the mind is in the body, in the same sense that the mind is in the brain, with all that that implies. The mind, as we experience it, is immaterial, yet is has a physical basis, which is both the body and the brain. It also has a non-physical basis, that has to do with the flow of the information. The mind is what holds this psychoneuroimmunoloy information network together.

Therefore the traditional separation of mental processes, including the emotions, from the body is no longer valid. If the mind is defined by brain-cell communication, as in contemporary science, then this model can now be seen as naturally extending to the entire body.

Energy Medicine work from the emotions side of the equation: effecting the emotions will have direct repercussions on the entire network.

How it effects the emotions is another complicated question to answer. Let's look at the issue of "conscious breathing", a technique taught and practiced in prenatal classes all around the Western world, and deeply practiced in the Eastern world. A wealth of data shows that changes in the rate and depth of breathing produce changes in the quantity and kind of peptides that are released from the brain stem. And vice versa! One can do this by bringing the process of breathing into consciousness, and doing something to alter it. By either holding your breath, or by breathing extra fast, you can cause the peptides to diffuse rapidly throughout the cerebro-spinal fluid. This is an attempt by the body to restore balance. But since many of these peptides are endorphins, the body's natural opiates, as well as other pain-relieving substances, you soon achieve a lessening of your pain.

The medical and spiritual knowledge of the Far East (mostly China and India) has been based for centuries upon this mind-body connection. Healers from these areas have always understood that the "human" is an intricately balanced system between body and mind/emotions. Traumas are stored in the body, unlocking them can bring about healing. Referring back to Candice Pert for a moment, she also contends that the body is the subconscious mind. Memories are stored on a cellular level.

Traumatic memories within the neuropeptide flow can be unblocked by corrective energy medicine treatments. One such system of treatments is Chinese Acupuncture. Acupuncturists attempt to manipulate a series of channels for Life Energy that run through our body by inserting fine needles in to special points on those channels. These channels, called meridians, carry a type of Energy called ch'i.

Illness is seen as an imbalance of the flow of ch'i. Research has shown that that skin over acupuncture points has a high electrical conductivity. These points conduct weak electrical currents 10 to 20 times more easily than the surrounding skin.

Another system used to unblock and re-balance the flow of life energy/neuropeptides is the Chakra system. Originating from India, the chakras are seen as specialized energy centers throughout the body. Each chakra absorbs a unique form of subtle life energy and distributes its to our cells, organs and body tissue. This energy is called Prana, and it is seen to be strongly affected by our personality structure and by our emotions, as well as by our state of spiritual development.

According to ancient wisdom and current research, each of the major chakras is directly linked to a different region of the body, as well as to a particular hormone producing endocrine gland and system of bodily nerves. It appears that each of the 7 major chakras (and their associated nerve centers) processes and remembers different emotional events and traumas that affect us throughout our lifetime. Perhaps this is one of the reasons we remember not only with our brains, but with our bodies as well. This might also explain why different types of emotional distress seem to affect one part of the body preferentially over another.

Healing within this Energy Medicine model can start to happen when we move beyond the traumatic events that have influences our lives. If we continually focus upon our past hurts and psychic wounds, we never allow ourselves to heal in the present, thus limiting what we can make of our future. It is like we are borrowing from the energy currency allocated for our body's current health needs in order to support and "keep alive" those past traumas and psychological wounds.

We need to start overcoming the bias built into the current Western idea that the mind is totally in your head. We need to start thinking about how the minds manifests itself in various parts of the body, and beyond that, how we can bring that process into consciousness. Using consciousness techniques, such as visualization, autosuggestion and prayer, we can consciously influence reality at a micro-level. By selectively influencing certain micro-events, it is possible to create a much larger effect. If we truly belief that we have a greater ability to influence ourselves and the world around us, and if we learn to focus our consciousness in very specific ways, our consciousness will produce an energetic effect and will shape our reality accordingly.

It is time to come full circle and to get back to Intuition Medicine®. This model teaches one of the specific ways of focusing your consciousness: it teaches how to trust your intuition, and how to start acting upon it. All people have the ability to be intuitive. We all have to ability to develop a heightened sensitivity to the world around us. Even though some people have a stronger sense of intuition than others, we can all learn to access this natural innate intelligence of knowing the answer.

As Francesca McCartney describes from BODY OF HEALTH: The New Science of Intuition Medicine®: "With an interest to learn and the right coaching, anyone's dormant intuitive sense can be developed. As you study the Intuition Medicine system, you will be introduced to three essential components in your self-healing:

1. Diagnosis or Recognition: owning your intuitive abilities and using them to diagnose your current state of health.

2. Clearing or balancing: increasing your level of overall health by clearing blockages and balancing your energy.

3. Protection or self-possession: creating a positively charged protection field in and around your personal universe and claiming full possession of your energetic spaces.

As your intuitive skills develop more strongly, you will learn to tune into the different signals that different parts of your being send out, and you will discover how imbalances in one affect the others. As you initiate changes in one of these systems, other will change too, and you will create a new life for yourself.”

All this is accompanied by creating positive changes within ourselves. Healing starts occurring as we reinforce new and better patterns of responding to everyday life and new ways of relating to the people in our lives. Life will go more smoothly and with less stress. However, Energy Medicine is not an easy "wishing away" all illness, stress, dysfunctional relationships etc. We can only experience inner growth and healing by intense examination of the experiences life throws at us and our reaction to those experiences. The important thing to realize is, though, that our capacity for bringing about inner change is much greater than most people tend to think. With these currents shifts in the way we look at health and disease, people are presented with the possibility to have more control over their lives. We are evolving to a viewpoint of health and illness that takes into account all the forms and frequencies of vibrating energy that contributes to the multidimensional human energy system. We can start viewing the body as a complex, integrated life-energy system vehicle for human consciousness.

Learn more about the Academy of Intuition Medicine at intuitionmedicine.org.