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The Body as Oracle

44bob123

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In his book, “Creative Throw”, (no longer available on the Internet), Andreas Gerolemou makes some interesting observations.
“According to Tor Norretranders our conscious minds only process up to forty (40) bits of information per second, where as our non-conscious minds can process up to eleven million (11,000,000) bits per second.

Our non-conscious minds handle all the microstates that enter through our senses, all the little details that surround us....These details are often too overwhelming and do not play such an important part individually...but form part of the macrostates that our conscious minds use to communicate.

Because the non-conscious processes, filters and summarises the incoming information, the original input is lost and we cannot truly experience it first hand, we only experience the condensed macrostate as information.

The non-conscious works primarily on the principle of association (I would also suggest pattern making), it associates related and similar subjects....... (The basis) of our ability to create metaphors and symbols.

Divination...could allow us to improve the relationship between the conscious and the non-conscious...”

I quote from his book to emphasise that our self awareness is such a tiny aspect of consciousness. We take on board so much more information than we are aware of. An example of this in practice is the recall, under hypnosis, of facts that the individual wasn’t aware of but had obviously seen.

Barbara Tedlock, ph.d., in her article, ”Toward a Theory of Divinatory Practice,” writes the following summary:

"Recent findings in biophysics indicate that cognition is found not only in the brain and nervous system but also throughout the entire protein matrix of our bodies, most especially in our connective tissues. Divination is a way of knowing that depends only partly on cognitive information from our brains and nervous system. It also depends, perhaps to a larger extent, on the electronic conduction of information stored throughout the tissues of our bodies".

The mind/brain/body interaction is currently under the spotlight with many high tech investigations. We already have an awareness of some interactions. Here I am thinking of somatoform illnesses, where mental stress is displayed in the body rather than in consciousness.

In both of these excerpts there is a clear indication that much information is located in the body as opposed to thinking solely in terms of the mind/brain. Divination is a process that aims to access these hidden sources of information, usually referred to as the unconscious.

However there is the constant problem in divination, of translating the oracle’s symbolic and mythical language into terms the conscious mind/ego can understand. Practice and a developing intuition help in this. But there is a way to talk directly with the body. Eugene T. Gendlin in his book, “Focussing”, provides a method to listen to your body as well as ask it questions. I’ve copied the procedure below. The book is good and his website is: http://www.focusing.org/bios/gendlin_bio.html

Focusing: Short Form by Eugene Gendlin, Ph.D.

1. Clear a space
How are you? What’s between you and feeling fine?
Don’t answer; let what comes in your body do the answering.
Don’t go into anything.
Greet each concern that comes. Put each aside for a while, next to you.
Except for that, are you fine?

2. Felt Sense
Pick one problem to focus on.
Don’t go into the problem.
What do you sense in your body when you sense the whole of that problem?
Sense all of that, the sense of the whole thing, the murky discomfort or the unclear body-sense of it.

3. Get a handle
What is the quality of the felt sense?
What one word, phrase, or image comes out of this felt sense?
What quality-word would fit it best?

4. Resonate
Go back and forth between word (or image) and the felt sense.
Is that right?
If they match, have the sensation of matching several times.
If the felt sense changes, follow it with your attention.
When you get a perfect match, the words (images) being just right for this feeling, let yourself feel that for a minute.

5. Ask
"What is it, about the whole problem, that makes me so _________?
When stuck, ask questions:
What is the worst of this feeling?
What’s really so bad about this?
What does it need?
What should happen?
Don’t answer; wait for the feeling to stir and give you an answer.
What would it feel like if it was all OK?
Let the body answer
What is in the way of that?

6. Receive
Welcome what came. Be glad it spoke.
It is only one step on this problem, not the last.
Now that you know where it is, you can leave it and come back to it later.
Protect it from critical voices that interrupt.
Does your body want another round of focusing, or is this a good stopping place?

I suggest that some self-divination becomes unnecessary if this method is used. In other cases it will enable the correct question to be formulated.
I have used Gendlin’s method and found that it has enabled me to find an accurate feeling of my mental state, rather than using clichéd labels.
 
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rodaki

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The non-conscious works primarily on the principle of association (I would also suggest pattern making), it associates related and similar subjects....... (The basis) of our ability to create metaphors and symbols.

(. . .)

"Recent findings in biophysics indicate that cognition is found not only in the brain and nervous system but also throughout the entire protein matrix of our bodies, most especially in our connective tissues. Divination is a way of knowing that depends only partly on cognitive information from our brains and nervous system. It also depends, perhaps to a larger extent, on the electronic conduction of information stored throughout the tissues of our bodies".


Great post Bob, thanks for sharing! In the past years I've often felt that working with Yi has amplified and brought to the surface an inner rhythm-like 'voice' (for lack of a better term) that lies somewhere between my biological and 'energy' bodies . . What I've quoted above comes very close to putting that feeling in words; I'll sure be trying out the method you describe here - curious to see how it's gonna pan out . .
 

anemos

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Interesting how some Buddhism ideas return as scientific findings
 

44bob123

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I know very little about Buddhism Anemos, but I am not surprised. As a culture we seem to re-discover things we already knew but neglected.

I came across two secondhand books in much the same vein. Gendlin is a qualified therapist, these other two are part of the New Age exploration:
Deb Shapiro "Your Body Speaks Your Mind" (2006) and "Heal your Body" (1998), by Louis L Hay. I cannot recommend or not recommend these two books, as they cover the whole range of mind/body interactions, particularly illness. What I can say is that I am an insulin-dependent diabetic and their "diagnosis" hit the nail on the head.
The full title of Gendlin's book is, "Focussing. How to gain direct access to your body's knowledge"
:bows:
 
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