Hi Everyone. It has been an interesting time since the last Newsletter. My most recent book, “The Way Through” was shortlisted for the Ashton Wylie Book Award for Body Mind and Spirit, so I was away up to Auckland to participate in the Oscar like presentation that keeps everyone on their toes until the last moment. I was up against some really well known New Zealand authors this time, one who had already won the most prestigious Montana Book Award, so I felt honoured to have made it onto the shortlist. I did not get the first prize with the money, but nevertheless am grateful for the fact that both my books have been seen to be worthy of shortlisting in this award which is the most generous award in NZ. That said, I am pleased to be back into the day to day life of Dunedin.
I have often struggled to define my work in short sentences, so I was thrilled to read the article that I share with you below from Alberto Villaldo, the main initiator in the West of the Inca tradition of the Munay Ki of which I am a part . My other modality, the most elegant ‘psychology of soul’ that has been my profession for the last 25 odd years is a therapy for the future. Its basis is the process by which we define the opposites in our psyche that cause us to be in inner and outer conflict, and work towards finding what I call the AND, or the synthesis that defines a new way to perceive life and deal with the growth challenges that are always present as part of our ongoing development. This process awakens awareness of parts of us that we have overlooked as we have plummeted backwards and forwards in the ever futile process of the ‘either/or’ decisions and thinking. By opening ourselves up to the possibility of ‘more’, we encourage our physiological brains to expand into excepting a greater awareness of feedback around us and the possibility of a third, or other option.
This dance of opposites is what the population at large have been trained into. It helps us see both sides but unfortunately does not assist us seeing beyond them. It has long been my contention that to continue the evolutionary process of the human species, going beyond where we currently are, is essential. So clients come to me caught between the either/or of the conflict inside them that creates the outer reality of their lives through the choices they have made. As we live in linear time, the consequences of those decisions arrive after the choices have been made, and it is when the crisis of those consequences hit that people usually seek my help with them. Training them to find the AND and expand their range of abilities and focus helps them to see options that are new and a different way of seeing their issues. The new choices they then make will manifest in the future sometimes quickly, sometimes more slowly, depending on the degree of change that needs to take place in their lives to clear a space for the new to take up residence.
This process has the potential to completely change the way these people think and view life. It is a joy to behold when that occurs. What the article below points out so well, is that this process actually brings about physiological changes in the brains of those that ‘get it’. They permanently develop their pre-frontal cortex and expand the abilities of their brain to create new neural nets. It takes a little while of this work for that to occur. Indeed the training of a lifetime is not achieved in one session. However, once the point where the expansion has taken place, the client can never totally revert simply because their brain has now changed, not just their mind.
For me, this work is not only about individuals. As we are all part of the human collective, what changes one, eventually changes all as that development permeates the collective unconscious. As such, all who engage in the work of self change are in the business of the evolution of the species. If any of yo would like to know more about my work on this level, please feel free to contact me. My sessions are 90 minutes long because of the depth to which we sometimes need to go, and are $80 for that time. I have a few spaces currently available for that work, or the Munay Ki initiation. Please feel free to pass this Newsletter on to anyone you feel would benefit from it.
Talking about passing things on. Debbie Pratt of Evolve Trust has asked me to pass on a link to their Newsletter also. Many of you may already be on it but for those that are not, click on:
OK, that’s it for this month. Good things are happening. Beliefs are formulating that will change the species. Some of them are found in the writings above and below this line. Take Care of Yourselves, Love Yourselves, And use Everything that comes to you to you advantage. There is learning everywhere. Blessings Jay Sparrowhawk Ray
The New Brain
(An excerpt from Alberto’s new book Power Up Your Brain, The Neuroscience of Enlightenment, with David Perlmutter MD)
In the 17th century, James Ussher, Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, published a treatise that identified the date on which God created the world: the evening preceding Sunday, October 23, 4004 b.c.e. on the Julian calendar. Although his chronology was based on the patriarchal lineages described in Genesis and inaccurate from a scientific perspective, the Archbishop was not totally wrong. Today, while we dismiss the good Archbishop’s claim as a flight of religious fancy, he did approximate the date on which the gifts of the prefrontal cortex of the brain were becoming available for large sections of humanity at the dawn of civilization and the invention of writing
But this self-awareness didn’t happen overnight; rather, it took countless generations for the prefrontal cortex to become functional enough to warrant a circuitry connection with the older parts of the brain. In fact, fossil evidence of the earliest changes in this part of the brain dates back 2.5 million years ago, during the Pliocene epoch, when an early hominid called Australopithecus africanus lived. The enlarged cranium of A. africanus—a member of the “Great Apes” family, which includes humans—was more like that of modern humans than his immediate predecessors.
This means that the artists of the Altamira cave and the hunters of the Pleistocene epoch who lived 20- 50,000 years ago had the same brain structures we have today. Yet most members of the species lacked the nutritional support and mind-body disciplines that would allow them to experience artistic creativity and scientific discovery. This is why only a few isolated individuals awakened to the potential of the prefrontal cortex. Indeed, the gifted crafted their great works of art during secretive ceremonies deep inside caves.
With the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago, when abundant and brain-rich food supplies became available, the prefrontal cortex began to stir. During the late Neolithic period, starting around 7,000 years ago, our ancestors initiated horticulture, which ended the need to follow and harvest food from a nomadic herd. They domesticated cattle and sowed grain crops and ground the grain into cereal. They developed a curiosity for science, exploration, and perhaps even love. And they conceived of transoceanic travel; for example, Micronesian navigators built sailing canoes in which they navigated the open ocean for hundreds of miles, using only the stars for reference and arriving at islands that were not visible from their point of departure. It was around this time in history that writing and city-states emerged in many geographically disconnected societies around the globe.
At that time, as civilization emerged in the Fertile Crescent in western Asia and the sprawling city of Mohenjo-Daro rose along the Sarasvati River in what is now Pakistan, the dietary staples of the political and religious leaders came from the Himalayan rivers and the Mediterranean Sea. These were fish and mollusks rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a brain food that has become increasingly scarce in the human diet of today. DHA provided the neuronutrient boost that brought the previously installed prefrontal cortex’s software online. : Is it not possible that the benefits of a DHA-rich diet explain why a great Master—Jesus of Nazareth—chose simple fishermen as candidates wise enough to be his apostles, his “fishers of men”
However, while the prefrontal software was already installed in all humans of the time, the masses, though capable of tapping into the wisdom of this brain, were still struggling between two mind-sets—the old and the new.
The Old Mind-Set versus the New Mind-Set
To truly understand the conflict inside the human mind, let’s compare the power of the prefrontal cortex, or new, higher brain, with the prowess of the old brain. The old brain perceives the world as a frightening place, filled with rivals competing for the same scarce resources. To this brain, what matters most is survival, and it is always ready to fight or to flee. Considering that the old brain developed in mammals at a time when large, stomping dinosaurs still roamed, it is no wonder that these survival mechanisms were firmly embedded in the core of those small, fuzzy creatures that we developed from.
The old brain in humans gave rise to the belief that the spirit world is populated with fierce gods who demand sacrifice and that the physical world is prey to invisible forces that are to be appeased. In many mythologies, the earth was populated by titans, giants with extraordinary powers, who had to be defeated. The early Greeks, for example, identified 12 Titans who ruled the earth during the legendary Golden Age. In the King James Bible, God tells Moses of “a land of giants [who] dwelled therein in old time.”1 In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of older gods whom the Olympians banished to the darkest depths of the underworld in the War of the Titans.
The old brain seeks magical and religious explanations for natural phenomena, be they the formation of mountain ranges or the course of rivers or the tempest of storms. Legends of the Inka tell of the four original beings who could move mountains and establish the course of rivers with their bare hands. Zeus, the king of the sky, wielded a thunderbolt that he periodically used to wreak havoc on the earth.
With such mythic precedent, the old brain righteously claims, “My god is stronger than your god,” and believes that only those of “our faith” have been chosen for salvation, while everyone else is a pagan or a heathen destined for a hellish experience in the afterlife.
The new brain, however, understands that we do not have to live in a continuous state of threat. It knows that we are not struggling to survive in a hostile world haunted by death. It comprehends, rather, that we are all interconnected, that we can practice compassion by “turning the other cheek” and “loving our neighbors as we love ourselves,” and that physical “death” is really an opportunity to return to a heavenly realm—a precept that lies at the core of the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
But even this mind-set is a matter of consciousness. At first, only those living in monastic communities and among religious orders attained this insight of the ways of wisdom. Meanwhile, the older mind-set in the majority of the populace continued to be tempted by the ways of fear. This mind-set continued to seek wealth and justify greed, while the newer, higher mind-set called out to the ways of love and artistic expression. These two, seemingly opposite callings have plagued humanity for millennia—and continue to do so. The disparity will only be resolved when we can turn on the truly beneficial neural programs inherent in the prefrontal cortex.
It is clear that our reasoning abilities, rooted in the more evolved brain, are not enough to prevent our suffering or give us the opportunity to create a more habitable, peaceful, and sustainable world. Indeed, if reason had ever prevailed over passion, the story of humanity would not be written in blood.
At this point in history, our species is in need of the next great opportunity offered by our prefrontal cortex, which will allow us to entertain the ancient notion of a web of life in which all creatures, and even inanimate matter, are interconnected as part of a field of information and energy. To experience enlightenment and learn to interact with this cosmic web, we must begin by healing that part of our bodies that allows us to dream a new world into being: our prefrontal cortex.
Mitochondria and the Feminine Life Force
Intricately linked to the ability of the prefrontal cortex to come fully online are the mitochondria—the powerhouses of your cells and the feminine life force referred to by shamans. Mitochondria are the conductors of the genetic orchestra that regulate how every cell ages, divides, and dies. They wave the baton that helps dictate which genes are switched on and which are switched off in every one of our cells. And they provide the fuel for establishing new neural networks. And all of the mitochondrial DNA in your body is inherited solely from your mother’s lineage. That means that the source of energy that sustains your life, is derived exclusively from the women in your family tree—your matrilineage.
