When the Reaction Shows Up in Your Body

The activity of a pathological network is usually experienced as a problem you want help with.

Sometimes the problem is psychological. You may take it to a psychologist, psychotherapist, psychiatrist, astrologer, tarot reader, spiritual healer, or guru, depending on which explanation makes sense to you.

Sometimes the problem shows up in the body.

That is possible because the brain is not separate from the rest of the organism. A connectome is a map of connections in the nervous system. There are networks in the brain and spinal cord, and complex neural networks in organs, including the heart.

The heart's neural regulation is not the same thing as the electrical conduction system doctors learn about—the sinoatrial node, atrioventricular node, bundle of His, and so on. I am referring to a much broader web of connections and regulation, an area not yet fully understood and not usually taught as one integrated system.

In my model, a pathological network can connect to this system and interfere with an organ's function. Its effects can include pain, an altered heart rhythm, changes in muscle tone, impaired function, and changes in immune or autoimmune activity. It can increase or decrease the activity of cells or whole systems.

Psychosomatic does not mean imaginary.

A psychosomatic mechanism can produce real symptoms. Laboratory findings can change. Imaging, including ultrasound, can show a real difference.

The physician sees an actual change and concludes that they are dealing with an ordinary structural illness. What may remain unseen is the mechanism that produced the change.

In the model I am presenting, a psychosomatic contribution might account for all of a symptom—or for 20 percent, 15 percent, or some other share. If the network accounts for the whole problem and is completely eliminated, the symptom may disappear as though it had never existed. If it accounts for part, removing that contribution leaves the rest of the illness to be addressed.

Now imagine that a network is pushing a particular cell or function toward greater activity while a prescribed drug is trying to reduce it. Two influences pull the same system in opposite directions.

The network keeps pushing one way. Treatment pushes the other. In my account, a prolonged conflict can lead to secondary damage. The system can reach a point of decompensation: removing the original network is no longer enough because a structure has been damaged, and full reversal may not be possible.

That is why the original mechanism and the consequences it has produced must be distinguished.

I understand suffering—psychological or physical—through the hypnotic effects of these networks. People want it to end. Too often they find someone who deepens the hypnosis instead.

A smoker hides briefly in a cigarette and calls it relief. A person dependent on alcohol hides in a bottle. Hiding in pleasant emotions supplied by a hypnotist can feel more attractive than either—especially when it comes with the message that you are spiritually special.

An exploiter does not need an independent person who no longer needs them. They need a returning customer.

The most dangerous arrangement is lifelong hypnosis sold as a path toward God, your true nature, and unconditional love.