TIFA's 'Upleveling Humanity' Spring 2022: MIND Edition by Instituteforaliveness

UPLEVELING

HUMANITY THE INSTITUTE FOR ALIVENESS JOURNAL

THE MALE PSYCHE: NATURE OR NURTURED?

ISSUE 5

SPRING 2022

POST "METOO" NEUROBIOLOGY SOLUTION

ØPEN.$OURCE

IS PORN MAKING HUMANITY LESS FIT TO SURVIVE?

THE INSTITUTE FOR ALIVENESS EDITOR IN CHIEF Andréa Paige DESIGNER Han Pham EDITOR Simone Nofel EDITORIALS TIFA Class of 2021

©The Institute For Aliveness publishes independently. For inquiries or suggestions, contact us at: info@theinstituteforaliveness.com

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REFERENCES & WORKS CITED

TABLE OF CONTENTS MIND EDITION LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

FEATURES

THE PSYCHOSOMA WHAT ABOUT GREY HAIR?

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM & DIGESTION

TRAUMA & PSYCHOSOMATICS

SOUND, MIND AND EMOTION

MENTAL MANIPULTAION DO WE HAVE ANY CONSCIOUS CONTROL OVER OUR AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM AND INNATE IMMUNE RESPONSE?

IS NLP MANIPULATIVE? DOES IT SKIP OVER THE REAL INNER WORK?

CAN GAMIFICATION HELP US CONNECT TO NATURE?

WHAT DOES PROCRASTINATION HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR MOTHER?

SEX & TRAUMA UNDEFINING MASCULINITY

COULD PORN BE LEADING HUMANITY TO BE LESS FIT FOR SURVIVAL?

SEXUAL TRAUMA

TWO PROMISING COMPONENTS OF A POST-“METOO” SOLUTION: RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AND AN INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF SEX OFFENDERS’ NEUROBIOLOGY

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INTRODUCTION

FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to the future. By now, we all realize that the page has turn, the hourglass has shifted, and something's "different" about how we perceive reality. TIFA promises to skate the cutting edge of future human perception in our rooting in embodied research, non-duality, and the mythopoetic. The events of these years, undeniably unforeseen, will fester in our psyches for decades to come. Humanity has walked up to a cliff side... and jumped. Nothing we’ve ever known about ourselves as a species will ever be the same. Life is increasing in stakes at a rate faster than any of us could endure individually. The Gestalt principal of the whole’s outcome far surpassing the individual's is the clay we mold at The Institute For Aliveness. As this Institute has birthed itself into being and the right people have been magnetized into orbit, we set forth with one clear mission: to hold higher standards for our species. “Upleveling humanity,” as we say. The students have dived head first into profound change, in what many acknowledge as 10+ years of personal growth in just 1-2 years. The experience itself is what has created the change. “It’s not the curriculum that’s the course; it’s the journey that’s the course.” Intense. This pressure cooker for profound transformation is an undeniable straight-shot to facing oneself. Looking into the buried parts of ourselves we’d rather not unsettle. Dusting up mud, packed down deep, if unattended, they can create humus and mold our mind. So we attend to ourselves, our psyches, our souls. The three main semesters of TIFA empower the individual to decipher, separate and dissect the different elements of healing and being human. From Applied Epigenetics, the Microbiome and lifestyle design to herbal therapeutics, diagnostics, digestion and detoxification, the BODY semester is what you might expect from me. MIND is where we find out what BODY lacks. Rooted in deep study of neurobiology, we stem into trauma and psychosomatics. We clarify the lenses we look through to filter our world. We twist our tongue into compassionate communication techniques and untie cognitive dissonance. This herein are the term papers from the 2021 class' MIND semester. As we glide into our third semester: SPIRIT, the interconnection of all life's elements becomes apparent. We grace into the unseen, face the laws of karma and dharma, slide into symbolism and look deeply at relationships.

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Finishing up the year with bioenergetics, sex and Tantra, we leave no stone unturned. Each 2021 student has eased into their second year of TIFA a completely different being. Physically and psychologically upgraded, polished to a new level of excellence. This newfound resiliency will ease them through the final six months of the course, writing their final thesis and undergoing a rigorous apprenticeship beside an elder with 40+ years experience in their art. We top off the online content with two in-person courses: a colon hydrotherapy training in clinic to witness the mystery of the digestive system and scale up our emotional intelligence and bedside manner... and in the second year, a week of deep embodiment, triggers, facing self and spurring the rate of self-knowing. TIFA humans will get to meet one another in person for the first time, too! This transformational Institute is gaining traction and snowballing in influence upon the world. The only question is - will you join us...? 2023 enrollment opens July 2022.

FOUNDER, TIFA

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REFERENCES & WORKS CITED

FEATURES WHAT ABOUT GREY HAIR?

human nature? How do other primates fare? Is this mark of age something we can prevent? Or should we resign our regret, stop the dye and wear it proudly?

THE PSYCHOSOMA

06 Are we all destined to go white? Is it part of

15 THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM & DIGESTION

The central nervous system (CNS) , likewise the Autonomic Nervous System, extrinsically innervates the digestive system for proper digestive function.

TRAUMA & PSYCHOSOMATICS Sexual abuse is dishearteningly all too common in todays day and age. In fact, statics show that one in five women in the USA have been raped or molested in their lifetime, however, it is estimated that these numbers are actually much higher.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOUND & MUSIC Each individual will have different reactions and behaviour in connection to a traumatic experiences, and this includes the sensory impressions, notably: from sound.

CAN YOU CONTROL YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM? Based on scientific evidence presented herein, it is possible to learn and train ourselves to influence at will the key components of the autonomic nervous system.

IS NLP MANIULATIVE?

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46 Studying human excellence in the field of communication and negotiation, led to the development of NLP. Bandler and Grinder discovered the common methods used to persuade and manipulate other people to bend their will.

MENTAL MANIPULTAION

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FEATURES 50 CAN GAMIFICATION HELP US CONNECT TO NATURE?

PROCRASTINATION Piers Steel, academic expert on the topic who wrote “The Procrastination Equation”, found in his surveys that since the 1970s, the rates of procrastination are going up.

64 UNDEFINING MASCULINITY

Men especially, rarely pause to examine and reflect on their own male psyche, the set of beliefs, thoughts, opinions, emotions, decisions actively influencing and controlling their life and those around them.

PORN: THE SCIENCE BEHIND There are plenty of speculations, concerns, debates and scientific studies that have inquired about whether watching porn is good or bad for humanity.

87 WHAT IS SEXUAL TRAUMA?

Sexual trauma includes traumatic experiences that are related to one’s gender identity, sexuality, or the body in a sexual context. It includes a wide range of events including violating someone’s consent or sexual boundaries either by force or coercion.

SEX & TRAUMA

POST-“METOO” BACKGROUND The earliest written laws and texts defined rape as a property crime, with the male head of household or the family/tribal unit as the victims.

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WHAT ABOUT GREY HAIR? BY CAROLINE BARTH

... I woke up in the morning like any other morning, looked in the mirror and... "OH NO! GREY HAIR?!"

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Questions and worries ran through my head: Am I going to look old now? Oh no, are there more on my head or somewhere else on my body? I am way too young, why me, why now? Do I pull it out? Shit, I need to make a hair appointment... Am I still going to be attractive? What can I do to make them go away...? The question, "Why do we get grey hair", seems to be asked more by women than men. We as women are frightened that grey hair is a sign of not being attractive anymore and that from there on out it is all downhill. Yet some of us may actually like the grey hair and the way it fades into the other color on your head. You might see it as a process of maturity. Stop and think where this is going in your mind. What path do you want to travel down! The path of fear and shame? Or the path of surrendering to the human experience? Relax, you will be fine! Let's take a moment to reflect. Grab a pen and paper to write what has been going on in your life over the last couple of years. Are there situations that have drastically changed such as sorrow, stress, injuries, breakups, pregnancy, job loss, relocation, unhealthy relationships, bad diet, smoking...

To start wrapping our heads around the aging process we can explore epigenetics. From the beginning of time, humankind has searched for the secret to long life. Now science may have found an answer, in the form of molecular augury. The pattern of chemical chains that attach to the DNA in your cells—on-off switches known as epigenetic markers—can reveal how swiftly you are aging. DNA itself is fixed; the genes you’ve inherited will forever make you more or less prone to 2

certain conditions. But your epigenetic patterns change based on what you eat, how much you sleep or exercise, and what substances you are exposed to—and ultimately influence your risk of developing chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes. They do so by altering gene activity, like a complex set of controls that turn genes up or down, on or off.

1.Michele Cohen Marill. 2019. New Tests Use Epigenetics to Guess How Fast You're Aging. Wired.com

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HISTORY OF HAIR:

THE PSYCHO SOMA

HAIR ANATOMY

HAIR COLOR

Background: During the period of prenatal development and in the first months of life, infant hair is formed exclusively in the infant. They are usually soft and short. Further, during the first year, they are replaced by intermediate hair. During puberty, the final formation of hair on the head and body occurs.

Melanin is responsible for the color of our hair. When the production of this pigment slows down, hair turns gray or white. Eumelanin will give rise to people with either black or brown hair and all the different shades in between. Blondes have a little brown hue from eumelanin and no black hue.2

Hair shaft structure: The hair shaft is made of a hard protein called keratin and is made in three layers. This protein is actually dead, so the hair that you see is not a living structure. The inner layer, or core, is the medulla. The second layer is the cortex and the outer layer is the cuticle. Inner layer (about 5%) is the medulla; Second layer (85%) – cortex; Outer layer (about 10%) – cuticle. The hair cuticle consists of adjacent keratin scales that perform a protective function. The appearance of the hair depends on the state of the outer shell – their luster and smoothness.

MELANIN According to Nikki Goddard, a certified hairstylist with an associate degree in cosmetology, melanin plays another crucial biological role in hair: It protects hair against sun rays (photoprotection) and ultraviolet (UV) radiance.

The second layer, the cortex, constitutes the main hair shaft, which dictates its thickness. This layer has a protein nature and consists entirely of keratin. Cortex also contains coloring pigment that causes hair color. The core of the hair, or medulla, is present only in long hair growing on the head. In its composition – the medulla, saturated with air bubbles, responsible for thermal conductivity.

“The latter is conditioned by the type of melanin and its concentration. For example, dark hair is more resistant to UV rays and decay than light hair because of the higher photostability of eumelanin 3 compared to pheomelanin.”

2.Bansah, J. M.-K. 2021, May 2. Melanin. Lambda Stories. 3.Kester, S. (2020, July 23). Melanin for hair: What role it plays & how to increase production. Healthline. 4.Centre, person R. H. T. 2021, December 18. Hair transplant in Indore: Best hair transplant doctors in Indore. Rejuvenate Admin.

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WHAT EXACTLY TRIGGERS THIS SUDDEN CHANGE IN YOUR HAIR? Gray hairs pop up when your body stops producing pigment cells aka the melanin in your strands that gives them their color.

"But the hair isn’t actually gray, it’s just un-pigmented or colorless. Keratin, the protein that makes up your hair, has a naturally yellow tint to it.

HAIR CYCLE PHASES Anagen This is the most active stage of the life cycle. It can last between two to five years. Catagen Hair growth is the shortest – from 2 to 4 weeks. The production of melanin also stops. This stage continues for only two to four weeks. Telogen The final stage is characterized by a period of rest, which can last up to three months. The duration is 3 months. About 10% of the total amount of hair on the head is in this state.

So, when your hair loses its melanin, the yellow hue of keratin shows through. The pigment is actually produced along the hair shaft, and there are two main forms of hair pigment. There's eumelanin and pheomelanin.5 The cells in our hair bulb produce a little bit of hydrogen peroxide, which is a metabolic byproduct, and typically there's an enzyme called catalase that breaks this down to water and oxygen. But as we age, there's declining levels of catalase, and this allows the build-up of hydrogen peroxide in the hair bulb, which damages and destroys the melanocytes, or the pigment-producing cells, of our hair. One important factor is: tiny blood vessels at the base of every follicle feed the hair root to keep it growing. But once the hair is at the skin's surface, the cells within the strand of hair aren't alive anymore. The hair you see on every part of your body contains dead cells.6 The Question that we ask ourselves is now, how can we slow down the process of grey hair? Why does it happen quicker to some people and how does your diet and environment effect all this? Everyone knows that “aging” causes grey hair but what

the

real

underlying

biological

reason behind this phenomenon? And is going grey really inevitable as you age? What if grey hair could be reversed naturally without covering it up with hair dye? How can we make sure that the outer layer grows out healthy? Like a seed that come out the earth. 5.Lauren Adhav Associate Fashion Editor I'm Cosmopolitan's Associate Fashion Editor and write about any and all trends. 2021, November 1. Everything you need to know about that gray hair you just spotted. Cosmopolitan. 6.Flanagan, G. 2021, July ). We asked a dermatologist why hair goes gray, and why some experience the shift as early as their 20s. Business Insider.

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WHAT DO WE NEED TO CHANGE IN OUR LIFE? Most people start noticing their first gray hairs in their 30s—although some may find them in their late 20s. This period, when graying has just begun, is probably when the process is most reversible, according to Ralf Paus, a dermatologist at the University of Miami. In those with a full head of gray hair, most of the strands have presumably reached a “point of no return,” but the possibility remains that some hair follicles may still be malleable to change.7 The team also investigated the association between hair graying and psychological stress. Anecdotes of such a connection are also visible throughout history: according to legend, the hair of Marie Antoinette, the 18th-century queen of France, turned white overnight 8 just before her execution at the guillotine. Studies also provided a history of the most stressful events they had experienced over the course of a year and who it effected in single hairs where pigmentations changes appeared and how one could calculate the time of the change. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone in the body, increases sugars in the bloodstream. Cortisol also provokes functions that would be unnecessary in a threatening situation. Cortisol is an important bodily function, but the longterm presence of heightened cortisol is linked to a host of negative health outcomes.9

7.Kwon, D. 2021, June 22. Gray hair can return to its original color. Scientific American. 8.Alexander A. Navarini, M. D. 2009, June 1. Marie Antoinette syndrome. Dermatology.

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Cortisol is linked to the nerves of the sympathetic nervous system (stress-response), which are all over the body, including making inroads to each hair follicle, the researchers reported. Chemicals released during the stress response — specifically norepinephrine* — causes pigment producing stem cells to activate prematurely, depleting the hair’s “reserves” of color.10 *Norepinephrine is a naturally occurring chemical in the body that acts as both a stress hormone and neurotransmitter (a substance that sends signals between nerve cells). We need to understand how stress affects stem cells that regenerate pigment, we’ve started to understand how stress affects other tissues and organs in the body. Understanding how our tissues change under stress is the first critical step towards eventual treatment that can halt or reverse the detrimental impact of stress. Might that also mean someday halting and reverting the march of premature gray hair? It’s too soon to tell. Stressful events are inevitable, but there are defiantly a lot that we can do to change how we react to it. Although we cannot halt the process of aging, human vanity might save us — because in our future world of preventative medicine, new gray hairs are actually worth telling your doctor about. 9.Curley, C. 2020, Jan. 26. Scientists think they know how stress causes gray hair. Healthline. 10.Taylor, C. 2022, March 13. Yes, we can reverse gray hair. Mashable.

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MORE THINGS TO CONSIDER IN YOUR EPIGENETIC ADVENTURE: - Sleep problems - Anxiety

- Change in appetite - High blood pressure

Autoimmune Diseases An autoimmune disease can also cause premature white hair. This is when the body’s immune system attacks its own cells Thyroid Disorders Hormonal changes caused by a thyroid problem — such as hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism — may also be responsible for premature white hair. The health of your thyroid can also influence the color of your hair. An overactive or underactive thyroid can cause your body to produce less melanin. Vitamin B-12 Deficiency White hair at an early age can also indicate a vitamin B-12 deficiency. This vitamin plays an important role in your body. It gives you energy, plus it contributes to healthy hair growth and hair color. A deficiency can weaken hair cells and affect melanin production. Smoking Smoking constricts blood vessels, which can reduce blood flow to hair follicles and cause hair loss. 11 Diet Changes Food that may optimize the production of melanin contain higher levels of vitamin C as well as higher concentrations of antioxidants. Citrus fruits, berries, and leafy green vegetables all are rich in vitamin C. Foods with high concentrations of antioxidants: 12 - Pecans - Dark chocolate - Beans - Blueberries - Artichokes - Leafy greens To enhance the Keratin, a protective protein coating the fragile cells, responsible for preventing breakage, frizz and heat, you might add these to your diet also: Onions, Salmon, Sweet Potato, 13 Sunflower Seeds, Mango, Garlic, Kale, Carrots.

11.Higuera, V. 2018, September 18. White hair: Causes and prevention. Healthline. 12.Kester, S. 2020, July 23. Melanin for hair: What role it plays & how to increase production. Healthline.

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THE TIFA JOURNAL OTHER NATURAL REMEDIES: 14

Coconut oil - every other day, before bed, massage onto your hair and scalp. The next morning, wash your hair as usual. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) - every day, eat a teaspoon of fresh grated ginger mixed with 1 tablespoon of honey. Blackstrap molasses - every other day, eat a tablespoon; it’s believed to reverse the graying process. Amla (Phyllanthus emblica) - drink six ounces of fresh amla juice every day or massage your hair one time each week. Amla is also known as Indian gooseberry. Black sesame seeds (Sesamum indicum) two to three times a week, eat a tablespoon of black sesame seeds to slow down and possibly reverse the graying process. Ghee - twice a week, massage your hair and scalp with pure ghee (clarified butter). Amaranth (Amaranthus) - three times a week, apply fresh amaranth juice to your hair. Fo-ti (Polygonum multiflorum) - In traditional Chinese medicine, fo-ti is taken internally as a supplement — 1,000 milligrams two times per day with food — to reverse the graying hair process. Onion (Allium cepa) - Blend an onion in a blender and then use a strainer so that you’re left with the juice. Twice a week, rub this juice into your scalp, leaving it in place for 30 minutes and then shampooing as usual. Carrot juice - drink eight ounces every day. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) - take supplement with food. Ashwagandha is also known as Indian ginseng. Almond oil - mix together equal parts of almond oil and lemon juice, and amla juice. Massage the mixture into your hair and scalp. Follow this routine two times a day for three months. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) - fill 1⁄3 of an 8-ounce jar with dried rosemary and then fill the jar to the top with extra virgin olive oil. Leave the jar in a sunny place for four to six weeks, shaking it every few days. After six weeks, use it as a hair oil.

13.Raman, R. 2018, March 12. 12 healthy foods high in antioxidants. Healthline. 14.Frothingham, S. 2018, August 1. Home remedies for Gray Hair: 20+ natural methods. Healthline.

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NATURAL HAIR DYE Blonde hair: chamomile flower tea, lemon peel, Saffron, marigold flower Red hair: beet juice, carrot juice, rose petals, Brown hair: coffee, cinnamon Black hair: black walnut, black tea, sage, nettle Besides eating a healthier diet there may be some remedies you can try to help slow the onset of greying: Reduce stress levels by establishing habits such as meditation Quit smoking Maintain a healthy weight Reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals and pollution 15

We do not always have control over all the substances that go on in our body, but we can help it go through life stronger. What is important is to carve out some time for yourself; take vacations, enjoy life and give your mind to relax, smile, laugh and love. It does not come up immediately, but over time the information and the toxicity that has collected in your body will eventually come out. Release stress by journaling or talking to a friend to get it out of your system. One could envision hair as a powerful tool to assess the effects of earlier life events on aging— because, much like the rings of a tree, hair provides a kind of physical record of elapsed events. Hair grows out of the body, and then it crystallizes into this hard, stable [structure] that holds the memory of your past. Imagine your hair as a seed that comes out of the ground.

Protect your hair from the sun by wearing hats and scarves Dye your hair less Wash your hair less frequently and rinse hair with cold water Avoid bleaching: bleach is used to remove your natural hair color from each strand. To do this, it makes your hair swell, allowing the bleach to reach the inner part of the strand. Here, it dissolves the melanin that gives your hair pigment.

“The ideal outcome would be for doctors to one day be able to use hair pigment as a diagnostic tool, using our method. If somebody did have a sudden onset of gray hairs, it would be worth looking at their stress levels that correspond to that point in their life,” 16

15.Ferreira, M. 2019, March 8. How to repair damaged hair: Common causes and treatments. Healthline. 16.Taylor, C. 2022, March 13. Yes, we can reverse gray hair. no, we don't know why it works. just chill. Mashable.

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CONCLUSION We cannot stop time, but we can hopefully slow it down with simple changes in our life. It is said that mind and body cannot be disconnected from one another and that everything in us works together. Always question why, what and how and try to figure out what is going on in your life. Enhance the intake of dark green vegetables along with ripe fruit. Try to eat local, sleep more, reduce stress, protect your hair from UV rays, stop smoking, exercise, meditate, enjoy life, laugh and love more. A very important thing to remember is to age with dignity – be yourself and let go of perfectionism. Release the belief of the possible unlimited youth. Beauty and health come from the inside. This is where you can make the most and biggest changes – usually always! Try to see things from a different perspective and except yourself and resonate. Grey hair has over the years become very trendy and people are seen as wise and experienced when they have grey hair. For many grey hairs is associated with experience, leadership and trust. Male silverback mountain gorillas, which get grey hair on their backs after reaching full maturity, can go on to lead a gorilla troop. 17 Perhaps an animal that has endured enough stress to ‘earn’ grey hair has a higher place in the social order than would ordinarily be conferred by that individual’s age. As for us humans we seem to see it as a clear warning sign of determination. Try to change your train of thought!

17.Clark, S. A., & Deppmann, C. D. 2020, January 22. How the stress of fight or flight turns hair white. Nature News.

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I don't have grey hair; I have wisdom highlights.

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THE NERVOUS SYSTEM & DIGESTION BY TALYA YAVUZ

It becomes evident that there must be more to digestive issues than the food we eat. Could it be stress? What happens in the body when we are stressed?

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SUMMARY Digestive symptoms show up without any visible signs, damage or disease in the digestive system. The causes remain undetected by doctors. 1 It becomes evident that there must be more to digestive issues than the food we eat. This paper focuses on the influence of stress on digestion and explains what happens in the body when we are stressed. The sympathetic nervous system is activated and we enter the fight-or-flight response as if our life is on the line.2 However, today, anxiety provoking situations are long lasting but do not threaten people’s physical survival but nevertheless lead to the fight-or-flight 3 response. Especially the prolonged exposure to stress keeps us in the sympathetic mode for an extended period of time drastically affecting digestion. The effect of stress on the autonomic nervous system, central nervous system and enteric nervous systems are described to understand what could be done to counteract stress and ease digestive issues caused by stressors. It becomes evident that the parasympathetic nervous system needs to be activated to create balance as well in the other systems in the body. Hence, multiple tools are presented that can support the body into relaxation. Further research is required to look at the different extends to which stress or the food we eat affect digestion.

1.“Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS),” 2017. nhs.uk. 2.Emma Young. 2012 “Gut Instincts: The Secrets of Your Second Brain,” New Scientist 216, no. 2895 (December 2012): 38–42

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3.Irena Milosevic Ph.D and Randi E. McCabe Ph.D. Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear: The Psychology of Irrational Fear (ABC-CLIO, 2015); George Fink, Stress Science: Neuroendocrinology (Academic Press, 2010).

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INTRODUCTION When we fall in love we feel the butterflies in our stomach. When we are anxious before speaking in front of a large audience we feel it in our stomach. When we are utterly upset we are sick to our stomach. Could we actually get sick to our stomachs for other reasons than the food we eat? Can our digestive system be impacted by something other than food? What role does stress play in digestive issues? Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the common conditions that affect the digestive system. It causes symptoms like stomach cramps, bloating, diarrhoea and constipation. These symptoms show up without any visible signs, damage or disease in the digestive system. It remains undetected by doctors and underlying causes cannot readily be identified to date.4 But yet it is the most common disease diagnosed by gastroenterologists.5 This calls for further research to understand this seemingly mystical digestive disorder and its potential connection to mental states. It becomes evident that there must be more to digestive issues than the food we eat. Could it be stress? What happens in the body when we are stressed? BACKGROUND The concept of a “gut instinct” or “gut reaction” is well established, but it doesn’t start in the gut. It starts in the brain. When the brain perceives stress from external stimuli or internal thoughts, it initiates the fight or flight response.6 The fight or flight response is the immediate physiological reaction that occurs when danger or a threat to survival is perceived by an organism.

4.“Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).” 5.M. Camilleri and M.-G. Choi. Feb 1997. “Review Article: Irritable Bowel Syndrome,” Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 11, no. 1 (February 1997): 3–15 6.Young, “Gut Instincts.” 7.Ph.D and Ph.D, Phobias. 8.Ph.D and Ph.D, Phobias.

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This reaction involves a series of mechanisms that rapidly activate the sympathetic nervous system preparing the body to confront the threat (fight) or to escape it (flight). A third reaction has recently been described as “ the freeze response”. 7 From an evolutionary perspective in moments of actual detrimental threat the fight-or-flight stress response is an adaptive instinct to life threatening events. It has been useful and helped us to survive. 8 Nowadays, the response still aids in survival in some situations, e.g. defending oneself or running from an attacker. 9 However, today, anxiety-provoking situations do not threaten people’s physical survival but nevertheless they lead to the fight-or flight response. Today's sources of stress vary greatly. Physical stress: Manual labor; surgical trauma; sleep deprication; pain, burns; exposure to excessive heat/cold; Chemical stress Alcohol; pesticides; drugs; pollutants Nutritional stress: Food allergies; micronutrient; mental stress; deficiencies; anxiety; long work hour; worry; paying bills Emotional stress Anger; sadness, fear, relationships with family, friends and coworkers.10

All of these stressors are very different but the body responds with a stereotyped stress response resulting in a pattern of consequences. Stress is and remains stress for the body and mind, irrespective of emotional, 11 physical mor work-related stress.

9.Ph.D and Ph.D; Fink, Stress Science. 10.Christine E. Cherpak. 2019. “Mindful Eating: A Review Of How The Stress-Digestion-Mindfulness Triad May Modulate And Improve Gastrointestinal And Digestive Function,” Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal 18, no. 4 (August 2019): 48–53, 11.Fink, Stress Science.

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CO VI D19

Ke ep in g

m ys el fo rm y

fa m ily

sa fe

(C or on av iru s)

Source:12 All of these stressors are very different but the body responds with a stereotyped stress response resulting in a pattern of 13 consequences. Stress is and remains stress for the body and mind, irrespective of emotional, physical or work related stress. INQUIRY We are stressed when we face a life threatening situation. Hence, the Fight-or-flight response is a stress response. But what is stress anyway? Stress is not a primary emotion, such as sadness or joy. Stress is the inability to solve a primary emotional need, such as safety in the case of a life threatening situation. So what happens in the body when we are stressed? How does prolonged exposure to stress affect digestion? Could stress be a bigger factor in digestive issues than the food we eat?

THE PSYCHO SOMA

DETAIL Which of our systems is most affected by stress? The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates the body's unconscious actions such 14 as breathing, digestion, and heart rate. It is subdivided into the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), and the enteric nervous system ENS. It is responsible for maintaining a balance in the body via chemical messengers. The15ANS intrinsically innervates the digestive system for proper digestive function and thus plays a key role in regulating the stress response and thus also plays a key role in impaired digestive function.16 Sympathetic Nervous System When a potential danger is perceived/ anticipated or when under stress the amygdala (an area of the brain involved in the processing of emotional information) turns on the sympathetic nervous system which activates the body's fight or flight response. This activation diverts energy from areas of the body associated with resting, e.g. digestive system to areas of the body that allow the individual to fight or flee in response 17 to the threat. As a stress response function of the organs necessary for digestion is reduced such as the salivation necessary to break down food in the mouth while chewing. The liver starts stimulating glucose production instead of bile secretion necessary for the digestion of fats. The gallbladder is inhibited and the adrenal glands start secreting stress hormones such as 18 19 and epinephrine (adrenaline), norepinephrine, cortisol. Under ongoing stress resistance to the initial anti-inflammatory effect of cortisol develops, increasing pro-inflammatory cytokines and risk for inflammation-related1 issues arise. In addition, chronically elevated cortisol may lead to impaired digestive function—e.g., increased intestinal permeability, impaired absorption of micronutrients, abdominal pain or 20 discomfort, and local and systemic inflammation.

12.“Anxiety about Life U.S. 2021,” Statista. 15.Cherpak. (n.d.). Mindful eating: A review of how the stress-digestion-mindfulness triad may modulate and improve gastrointestinal and digestive function. Integrative medicine. 16.Ronald Terjung. 2011. Comprehensive Physiology, 1st ed.

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14,17,19.Ph.D and Ph.D, Phobias. 13,18.Fink, Stress Science. 20.X. Li et al., “Combat-Training Increases Intestinal Permeability, Immune Activation and Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Soldiers,” Alimentary Pharmacology

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THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM The central nervous system (CNS) , likewise the ANS, extrinsically innervates the digestive system for proper digestive function. It promotes the peristalsis of the esophagus, stomach and intestine. It is also responsible for stomach acid and pancreatic enzyme secretion 21 in response to the activated vago-vagal reflex. When stressed, the CNS innervation is lost resulting in dysregulated motility, inhibited intestinal activity and suppression of gastric and pancreatic juices. This impairment of motility and secretion can cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as 22 stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Thus, stress contributes to significant alterations in the digestive system impacting functional gastrointestinal disorders such as IBS due to altered peristalsis. These alterations can cause variations in gastric emptying, colonic contractions and indigestion.23

THE PSYCHO SOMA

The Migrating Motor Complex (MMC) is also under ENS control. It moves over the stomach and small intestine during fasting to sweep digested food remains out of the stomach.27 The CNS and ENS work interdependent and communicate between the gut and brain via neurotransmitters in a bidirectional manner.28 Approximately 90% of the serotonin in the 29 body is found in the ENS - in the gut. Serotonin plays a key role because it not only influences bowel motility but communicates information such as pain to the CNS.30 When the brain perceives stress, it impairs the ENS and releases chemicals that stimulate the gut-brain to divert blood flow away from the gastrointestinal tract and toward organs necessary for fighting or fleeing (eg. arms and legs). This negatively impacts digestion and when digestion is disturbed, the gut-brain communicates distress to the brain. Consequence is more perceived stress. 31 It is a vicious circle. PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (PSNS)

THE ENTERIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (ENS) The ENS, is known as the gut-brain axis or the body’s second brain. It functions independent of the CNS and compared to the ANS and CNS, the ENS intrinsically innervates the digestive system for proper digestive function.24 Over 100 million intrinsic neurons are lining the walls of the gastrointestinal tract from the esophagus to the internal anal sphincter. 25

When the threat is over the autonomic nervous system should regulate itself by reducing the sympathetic response and moving into a parasympathetic state.

The ENS is essential for controlling digestive functions such as contractions that help mix food contents with digestive enzymes and bring ingested food into contact with the small intestinal wall for absorption. The ENS also controls peristalsis, which is rhythmic contractions or wave-like movements, pushing food through the esophagus and small intestine.26 21,22,24.Terjung, Comprehensive Physiology. 23.E A Mayer, “The Neurobiology of Stress and Gastrointestinal Disease,” Gut 47, no. 6 (December 1, 2000): 861–69. 25.John B. Furness et al., 2014. “The Enteric Nervous System and Gastrointestinal Innervation: Integrated Local and Central Control,” in Microbial Endocrinology: The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Health and Disease. New York, NY: Springer New York. 26 Jan D. Huizinga et al.. 2014. “The Origin of Segmentation Motor Activity in the Intestine,” Nature Communications 5, no. 1

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27.Eveline Deloose et al..2012. “The Migrating Motor Complex: Control Mechanisms and Its Role in Health and Disease,” Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology 9, no.5. 28.Furness et al., “The Enteric Nervous System and Gastrointestinal Innervation.” 29.F De Ponti. 2004. “Pharmacology of Serotonin: What a Clinician Should Know,” Gut 53. 30.Mihaela Fadgyas-Stanculete et al., 2014, “The Relationship between Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Psychiatric Disorders,” Journal of Molecular Psychiatry 2, no. 1 31.Cherpak. (n.d.). Mindful eating: A review of how the stress-digestion-mindfulness triad may modulate and improve gastrointestinal and digestive function. Integrative medicine

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The parasympathetic nervous system stimulates the body to "feed and breed" and to (then) "rest-and-digest". The PSNS supports digestion by increasing salivary secretions, and stimulating peristalsis, gastric juices, digestive enzymes, and bile to facilitate digestion, nutrient assimilation and extraction. Therefore, PSNS activation is 32 needed for optimal digestion. However if exposed to elevated levels of stress for weeks, months or even years, chemicals and hormones are imbalanced, resulting in a multitude of issues that can affect digestion.33 Most of today’s stressors mentioned above are experienced for an extended period of time. In these situations the fight-or-flight response is chronically activated and can lead to further 34 dis-eases such as: Suppression of the immune system Feelings of fatigue - difficulty sleeping Headaches Depression Irritability Alertness Excessive worry Recurring physiological issues (increased heart rate, shallow breathing) And of course digestive issues.35

METHODS TO COUNTERACT STRESS: As the PNS is essential to be activated to counteract stress, it is detrimental to find tools that activate the PSNS and calm the nervous system for healthy digestive system functioning. Some approaches may be: Meditation The practice of meditation reduced the physiologic stress responses (e.g. reduces cortisol levels) without taking away the beneficial effect of stress, namely, improved memory scores even in young adults who never practice meditation before.37 Surprisingly, fewer symptoms of stress from the practice of meditation are maintained for up to 6 months after practice.38

PERCEIVED STRESS Stress can be experienced due to a real threat or something can be perceived as stress internally. There is no difference in effect. Stress is perceived differently by different people. It is a subjective experience. The fact is stress is part of our daily human experience. Thus, stress is not something to be avoided.36 So how do we get out of the vicious circle? How can we deal with stress better so it affects us less and manifests in digestive issues?

Yoga Yoga has a positive impact on various chronic diseases by reducing markers of stress and inflammation as early as 10 days of starting to practice.39 Especially restorative yoga, a gentle type of yoga that focuses on ‘‘active 40 relaxation tends to improve stress as well as reduce blood pressure leading to an improvement in well-being.41 In a study 96% felt it reduced their stress and 94% felt an increased sense of well-being. The principle of relaxation, supported poses and its gentleness, makes restorative yoga unique and accessible to people of all ages.42

32.Laurie Kelly McCorry, 2007, “Physiology of the Autonomic Nervous System,” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 71 33-34-36.Fink, Stress Science. 35.Ph.D and Ph.D, Phobias. 37.Amit Mohan, Ratna Sharma, and Ramesh L. Bijlani, 2011, “Effect of Meditation...” The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 17, no. 3

38.Deborah L. Beauchamp-Turner and Daniel M. Levinson, 1992, “Effects of Meditation on Stress, Health, and Affect,” Medical Psychotherapy: An International Journal 5. 40.Suzanne C Danhauer et al.,2008,“Restorative Yoga for Women with Ovarian or Breast Cancer: Findings from a Pilot Study,” Journal of the Society for Integrative Oncology 6. 41.Beth E. Cohen et al., 2008 “Restorative Yoga in Adults with Metabolic Syndrome: A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Trial,” Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders 6.

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Similarly yoga nidra, also called yogic sleep is accessible to everyone and significantly decreases life stress intensity levels. 43 Pranayama / Breathwork: Pranayama is a deep breathing exercise that is often part of yoga. It significantly reduces the sympathetic drive and increases parasympathetic output, leading to a better parasympathetic control. It can also lead to improved cardiovascular functions. Thus pranayama has the power to significantly reduce stress levels.44 Some studies show perceived stress can be reduced already after only 6 weeks. 45 Binaural Beats: For those people who have a hard time to meditate because their brains refuse to be in silence and focus or for people having difficulty practicing yoga, another way of stress management is through brainwave entrainment; specifically listening to binaural beats. A binaural beat is a rhythmic stimulus which is generated to produce a desired audio frequency with the intention to make the brainwave follow that frequency. Studies show that theta brainwaves increase after listening to binaural beats which is the brainwave associated with reduced central nervous system arousal.46

In a study participants were placed under an acute stressor. Participants who used music with embedded binaural beats showed a decrease in sympathetic responses and an increase in parasympathetic responses, while participants who used music alone had the opposite effect. 47 Another study showed that participants who used BBT reported less stress over a 4 week period. Tapping (EFT Emotional Freedom Technique): EFT combines the tapping of meridian points on the body while repeating a statement of self-acceptance with the aim of cognitive restructuring of negative 48 thoughts. Previous studies have demonstrated that EFT relieves stress and a variety of psychological conditions and physiological conditions such as significantly reducing cortisol levels. Another study showed EFT significant improved anxiety, depression, the overall severity of stress symptoms, and symptom breadth. This makes EFT is an effective immediate treatment for common stress symptoms.

43.Kamakhya Kumar, 2008, “Impact on Stress & Anxiety through Yoga Nidra,” IJTK Vol.7(3) 44.N T Bhimani et al., 2011 “Effect of Pranayama on Stress and Cardiovascular Autonomic Function,” Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 55 45.Christine Tara Peterson et al., 2017 “Effects of Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya, a Multicomponent Breath-Based Yogic Practice (Pranayama), on Perceived Stress and General Well-Being,”

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47.MeLisa A. Gantt et al., 2017, “The Effect of Binaural Beat Technology on the Cardiovascular Stress Response in Military Service Members With Postdeployment Stress: Binaural Beat Technology for Stress,” Journal of Nursing Scholarship 49, 48.Dawson Church et al., 2013 “Psychological Trauma Symptom Improvement in Veterans Using Emotional Freedom Techniques: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 201,

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CONCLUSION Our fight-or-flight mode doesn’t serve us as much as it used to in rather rare physical life threatening situations. In today’s society, we experience stress on an ongoing basis. The body is constantly in sympathetic mode, disrupting our digestion long-term leading to various gastrointestinal conditions. It is much more difficult to return to a parasympathetic mode with so much (worry) on our mind every day. It is inevitable that we are stressed in our lives today. But how we handle and deal with stress is the key in overcoming these adverse effects of stress and the effect it has on our digestion and other bodily systems. Stress is perceived differently for different people. It is highly subjective. Thus there is not one-size-fits all solution to working towards a less stressful life. But it is encouraged to try different tools to see what works for each individual such as meditation, yoga, pranayama, binaural beats and tapping. More research needs to be done to assess whether the food we eat or stress has a larger impact on digestion.

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TRAUMA & PSYCHOSOMATICS BY JOSEPHINE PULITANO

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Sexual abuse is dishearteningly all too common in todays day and age. In fact, statics show that one in five women in the USA have been raped or molested in their lifetime, 1 however, it is estimated that these numbers are actually much higher. With such startlingly high rates of incident, these figures suggest that it is either ourselves or someone close to us, even in our own families that have been the victim to these horrendous actions. According to the American Psychological Association, ‘Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. 2 This can be any form of sexual 14 interaction that is non consensual such as rape, or childhood sexual abuse, in which a child is abused for the sexual gratification of an adult or older adolescent.3 The reality is heartbreaking to say the least. It is without saying, that the infliction of molestation on anyone would be considered a major challenging life event. A traumatic experience that could potentially affect you 15 long after the initial shock and violence has passed, some, even have lasting ill effects for their entire lives. Without reference to any medical journal there is already a strong societal understanding that rape victims could potentially be more likely to show signs of psychological and behavioural nuances as compared to non rape victims based on the agonising events they have had to endure. The damaging longterm effects are extensive, ranging from shame, self-blame, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), self-esteem issues, sexual dysfunction, chronic pelvic pain, addiction, selfinjury, suicidal ideation, borderline personality disorder, and propensity to re-victimization in adulthood,4 gastrointestinal disorders 5 and all understandably so. A long and incomplete list that does not necessarily reflect the emotional internal turmoil, distress, fear, insecurity and spiritual suffering that these people have had to live with. Psychosomatic diseases are a provocative concept, that our mind and state of emotional wellbeing can determine the physical state of the body. “Psychosomatic disorder, in which psychological stresses adversely affect physiological (somatic) functioning to the point of distress. It is a condition of dysfunction or structural damage in bodily organs through inappropriate activation of the involuntary nervous system and the glands of internal secretion. Thus, the psychosomatic symptom emerges as a physiological concomitant of an emotional state.” 6 Could this mean that an internal state of dis-ease, unresolved trauma, mental and emotional suffering could have something to do with a physical pain, or even a physical illness or disease? There is a large and long list of doctors and non doctors in the spiritual and wellness fields currently spruiking the mind-body-spirit connection as the root cause of all disease. Dr Hammer from German New Medicine, and spiritual author and guide Louise Hay, both claim to have developed cancer based on an unresolved traumatic event, and healed themselves solely from resolving that trauma. Louise Hay specifically stated that she developed cervical cancer, after a tormented childhood of repeated sexual and physical abuse. 7 mCould the trauma caused by the sexual abuse be a major missing link to why certain diseases appear in certain people and why some treatments fail?

1.National Sexual Violence Research Centre, Harrisburg, PA. www.nsvrc.org/statistics 2."Sexual abuse". 2018. American Psychological Association. 3."Child Sexual Abuse". 2008. Medline Plus. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 4.Whiffen, V. E.; MacIntosh, H. B. (2005). "Mediators of the link between childhood sexual abuse and emotional distress: a critical review".

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5.Sexual Abuse: Why It Is An Important Risk Factor, By Jane Leserman, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 6.Levin , E. (n.d.). Child Behaviour Disorder. Encyclopædia Britannica. 7.About Louise Hay: Bio & Timeline of Achievements. Louise Hay. 2021, April 8.

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In German New Medicine, a [highly contraversial] school of thought that says that all disease is due to an “unexpected emotional distress for which we are not prepared and 8 which we could not anticipate”. So, from this, according to Dr. Hamer's teachings, we can conclude that disease is linked to an unresolved physiological conflict event. “The differentiation between the psyche, the brain, and the body is purely academic. In reality, they are one.” Dr Ryke Geerd Hamer. Of unresolved sexual trauma, German New Medicine says it correlates to a lesion forming in the cerebral cortex, which in turn also is the root of the manifestation of cervical cancer. Reasonably large claims that go against the medical worlds general agreement of cancer cell creation and proliferation, though are they really such alternative ideas?

THE PSYCHO SOMA

“Stomach problems [are related to] dread, fear of the new, [and] inability to assimilate the new” whereas “female problems, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, fibroid tumours, leukorrhea, menstrual problems, vaginitis [are related to] denial of the self, rejecting femininity, rejection of the female 9 principle”.

Louise Hay was most known for her bestselling book “You Can Heal Your Life”, which also advises a similar train of thought, that disease is created in the the unease of the psyche. According to her book,

These medical issues are quite similar to those stated in "Mediators of the link between childhood sexual abuse and emotional distress: a critical review” 4 as listed above. With some common thought processing, we can see that even through the possible woo-woo of these claims there is some logic. In the sense that, the body, mind and spirit being housed in the same vehicle could be so intrinsically interwoven, that thoughts and feelings dictate the environment, which then manifest into something else completely, namely disease.

4.Whiffen, V. E.; MacIntosh, H. B. (2005). "Mediators of the link between childhood sexual abuse and emotional distress: a critical review".

8.German New Medicine®. The Five Biological Laws - The Foundation of GNM. (n.d.). 9.You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay, Hayhouse publishing, 1988

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There have been many social and scientific studies carried out on the health and health risks associated to sexual abuse survivors. Not just the immediate dangers presented post traumatic event, that include physical injury and sexually transmitted diseases, but also a much more varied range of longer term health problems. Curiously, there are numerous studies on unexplained gastrointestinal disorders and the relationship to victims of childhood or adult sexual abuse, all concluding a similar outcome. “Youth who have been maltreated are at increased risk for unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms, and this relation is partially mediated by psychological distress. These findings are relevant to the clinical care for children who complain of unexplained gastrointestinal 10 symptoms”. Furthermore, one of the more extensively studied long-term health outcomes of child abuse is gastrointestinal symptoms in adulthood. Adult survivors of abuse are twice as likely to suffer from disabling and chronic gastrointestinal symptoms as adults who have not been abused. 11 That is a vast difference between those non-abused and abused people. There is strong investigation as to why this actually occurs. The abuse could potentially impact gastrointestinal symptoms through several mechanisms, such as increases emotional distress as well as the effects of injury on hypersensitivity of the visceral nervous system, although the latter is much less likely given that few children present with physical injuries.12 “Psychological distress mediated the association between both CPS-recorded or self-reported abuse and gastrointestinal symptoms. This finding coincides with the literature showing increased psychological distress and dysregulation in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis among those who are abused as a child”.13 This is pointing out that an internal misalignment, potentially stress from the unresolved trauma associated with sexual abuse, does indeed have a a strong link to Gastrointestinal illness. “Unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms in atrisk youth may be psychosomatic and should prompt consideration of possible psychosocial contributors, particularly maltreatment.

It may be essential for the safety of the youth and important for successful treatment to identify child maltreatment victims complaining of unexplained abdominal symptoms”. 10 Another study conducted in a clinic setting once again shows more evidence that quite simply, abuse victims have a much higher chance of ill health. “Prevalence rates of abuse history tend to be the highest among patients in pain clinics, gastroenterology clinics, and other referral practices, especially among those with unexplained pain and psychiatric illness. In our studies among women patients in a referral based gastroenterology clinic, we found that 51% of patients reported a history of sexual and/or life threatening physical abuse”. 14 The percentage variances are quite undeniable.

10.Unexplained Gastrointestinal Symptoms After Abuse in a Prospective Study of Children at Risk for Abuse and Neglect, 2010 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc. 11.Felitti VJ. Long-term medical consequences... South Med J. 1991;84(3):328–331. 12.Salmon P, Skaife K, Rhodes J. Abuse, 2003. dissociation, and somatization in irritable bowel syndrome: towards an explanatory model. J Behav MEd.

13.Van Voorhees E, Scarpa A. The effects of child maltreatment on the hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal axis. Trauma Violence Abuse. 2004;5(4):333–352 14.Leserman J, Drossman DA, Li Z, Toomey TC, Nachman G, Glogau L. Sexual and physical abuse history in gastroenterology practice: How types of abuse impact health status. Psychosom Med 1996;58:4-15.

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There are also other studies that demonstrate reasonably conclusive evidence on other types of ailments, for example a large population based survey comparing matched groups of abused and non abused persons such as one conducted by Felitti and colleagues. They executed a clinic chart review comparing matched clinic patients with and without childhood sexual abuse history. “Sixty-four percent of the abused patients had gastrointestinal disorders compared to 39% of the nonabused patients. Eighty-three percent of the abused had depression versus 32% of the nonabused. Headaches, obesity and doctor visits were also found to be more prevalent among the abused, despite the fact that the abuse occurred on average 30 years before the study”.11 These are quite staggering numbers when you see them so closely together and altogether difficult to ignore. Additionally, just simply observing the fact that even after 30 years since the time of the sexual abuse, these symptoms are still so prevalent internally within the body. It appears that the disadvantage of living through a harrowing sexual encounter and the trauma and stress imposed on the body, is very much so related. The sexual trauma somehow could be translated into a physical symptom that is very real to the body and the person experiencing them. Perhaps the body, mind and psyche are as interconnected as Dr Hamer says.

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When the pain penetrates, the music resonates.

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SOUND, MIND & EMOTION BY CHRISTIN RAUTER

Sound and trauma, sound as triggers and different ways in which the brain can evoke emotions from sound and music.

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Sound plays an influential part in how we view the world. It gives us social cues and evokes certain emotions, such as a dog barking might instill fear or a baby laughing can cause happiness. The official term for the study of sound is psychoacoustics, which includes the psychological and physiological responses to any sounds, music and speech. Sound affects our perception of depth, speed and motion, but more interestingly, sound, especially music, is a direct cognitive response to our memories, according to the Independent Hearing Professionals1 ; this response in memory links directly to our emotions. It is also one of the reasons we can remember songs so well from many years ago, as they connect to a memory no matter how small and cause a positive or negative emotion. 2

Human mind and emotion can be profoundly affected by sounds. Sound is capable of producing powerful reactions in the listener. History is littered with tribal traditions of drums uniting tribes in ceremony, or songs that bring communities together in celebration that show the powerful effects sound can have on us. The effects of sounds on our state of mind is never more profound as it is with music. Music can produce some of the strongest emotional reactions in humans, whether it’s happiness, sadness, fear or nostalgia. Sound is a series of vibrations that travel into the ear and get converted into electrical signals that are sent to the brain via the vestibulocochlear nerve. Your brain then tells you that you are hearing a sound and what that sound is.

1.Independent Hearing Professionals is a not-for-profit organisation looking after the interests of independent hearing aid dispensers. 2.Vox Magazine, Devon Yarbrough Nov 1, 2017

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOUND The sound of a growling dog might create fear; the sound of a child's laugh, joy; the sound of a loved-one's crying, sadness. Neurologists have long been keen to find out why our ears and our emotions have such a strong bond. Scientists have learned that even when a person is deep in delta-wave sleep, the bundle of neurons at the base of the brain known as the Reticular Activation System is always listening. Acting like a bouncer at the door of your mind, it's passing judgment on whether a particular sound is important enough to justify waking the cortex and the rest of the body. Often emotions are triggered by sounds connected to a particular circumstance, like the sound of bath water running at bedtime. Auditory neurologist Seth Horowitz 3 says that sound which is in the background and often taken for granted, yet it developed to trigger deeply-held emotions. In a way, sound is like touch at a distance. Waves of vibrating air travel through space and make contact in the ear drum where they vibrate a very few small bones like trees in a breeze. Our brains couple sound with emotional information, storing it as a bundle. Over time, specific sounds elicit pre-conditioned emotions.

Known as 'hatred of sound', misphonia is an extreme sensitivity to one or many sounds found in everyday life — think of nails scraping along a chalkboard or someone loudly slurps a bowl of soup.Exposure to these trigger sounds can cause severe reactions, including panic attacks, social withdrawal, and even rage. Think of it as evaluative conditioning gone too far. Early studies suggest that the cause may lie with a hyperactive connection between the auditory and limbic system, a part of the brain that regulates emotion. It sometimes co-exists with other conditions like anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. And why is the sound of nails on chalkboard such a universally reviled sound? Scientists say that this sound, in the frequency between 2000 - 4000 hertz, is remarkable because it is the range that the human ear is most sensitive too. In fact, most sounds we find obnoxious (fork on glass, ruler on bottle) are also in this auditory sweet spot, suggesting that the human ear developed to amplify these frequencies for an evolutionary purpose. It's worth noting that it's the same range that includes human screams. Perhaps that's why our brains don't like them much.

3.Seth Horowitz “The Universal Sense” 2013

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SOUND, CATASTROPHY AND TRAUMA Each individual will have different reactions and behaviour in connection to a traumatic experience, and this includes the sensory impressions. In the shock phase especially, patients can describe sensory phenomena as “unreal and supernatural” as though they had considerable amplification of hearing for example. The experience of silence or the absence of sound can be marked, as in the classical expression “you could hear a pin drop”. So-called dissociation can arise in the shock phase, where time and place can change so that a minute can be like an hour and vice versa the sound experience may have a lengthy, or split second lapse. In connection with robbery, a patient may have reported no experience at all of glass being broken for example, only the impression of the perpetrators eyes or gun, everything else is missing or very diffuse. When the traumatised person enters into the reaction phase, certain flashbacks of sensory experiences such as an explosion, screeching car tyres etc. can suddenly return and often be very frightening. In the case of a severe bus accident 1988 where many children died and many were injured, terrifying memories of the accident were awakened at the hospital when some children recognised the sound of drink being sucked through a straw, which was a similar sound to the sound in the bus exactly prior to the accident. So-called traumatised sensory experience, such as a sound, can of course be unique, for example a bus skidding round on a motorway. In that context the sound was described as “when you crumple up a Coca Cola tin”. Sensory experience/sounds can also cause a conflict of feeling as it can be a common everyday sound, and basically a positive one, but transformed by the trauma to one representing danger, threat and death. Another example of so-called sound trauma is told by a twice-robbed patient, where the first assailant had “only” pointed his pistol at her temple, but the second fired his pistol in the air. The patient could now experience her own death; the scene and sound from the two 4 traumas became one in her experience. 4.Cullberg, Johan. Kris och utveckling, (Natur och Kultur 1980), Andersson, Birgitta. Avlastningssamtal (Studentlitteratur 1999)

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It appears to be common that one or several sensory experiences disappear or are amplified with trauma, and create permanent scares paired with severe anxiety. According to clinical experience those traumas that are partly more sudden, and partly violent, have a deeper and more prolonged effect on the patient. One patient who, when young was exposed to sexual violence, could as an adult be frightened by the sound of a door being opened before she could see who it was. It is of the utmost importance that the traumatized patients receive psychological help for their crises. An important part of crisis counselling is to create security and to work through emotions. Music can also play a meaningful role both in evoking closeness and fascilitating grief reactions. All events that threaten our security and existence will cause us huge psychological stress. They will challenge our belief in the world as a good and safe place to inhabit. 5 A traumatic experience has an extensive impact on the individual, socially, psychologically and physically and our sensory organs are of vital significance for our survival. In traumatic circumstances hearing and sound can be “distorted” and “disappear” completely from consciousness. The ways our senses coordinate or become damaged depends probably on the type of trauma and the individual’s capability of overcoming/working through the crisis. Many interesting future research areas opens up around this subject. With regard to treatment, the consideration of the senses is of great importance. 6

5.Fredriksson, Brottsoffer, (Skandia 1996), Dyregrov. Katastrofpsykologi, (Natur och Kultur 2002) 6.Interdisciplinary symposium, 2008. Sound Environment Centre, Lund University, Sweden

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An invisible wound has emerged, which does not seem to change over time. What happened in the past continues as an everlasting presence.

SOUNDS AS TRIGGERS In december 1991 an aircraft from Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) had to make an emergency landing in a field in the countryside north-west of Stockholm just after take off. The plane smashed the trees in its descent. All 129 passengers survived. A few were physically injured. The passengers reported afterwards that the sound of the trees smashing against the airplane remained as vivid auditive impressions. Later on, some of the passengers talked about reminders, that is to say other sounds which were very similar and which became triggers for the experience of the emergency landing. These reminders activated the same type of arousal and emotional reactions as the original reactions at the time of the accident. A threatening incident, as the one described above, which is sudden and unexpected, is experienced differently by different people. Most people react initially with strong arousal, followed, for some time by sensory reexperiencing, like pictures, sounds, taste or body sensations, but also accompanied by elevated tension and anxiety and maybe a lack of emotional balance. For most people these reactions will decrease after a shorter period, but for some they will remain. It seems as if these persons cannot process their impressions, and the unprocessed memories are stuck in the mental memory system.

This is the nature of the traumatic memory, which is typically dominated by perceptual characteristics, pictures, sounds, scents or body sensations. Often the memory is fragmented, but the fragments can be very vivid. The fragmented mmemory is associated with strong negative feelings. Some parts of the incident might be dissociated, that is, they cannot be retrieved in a voluntary way. If this condition lasts for more than a month, the person might have developed what is called a posttraumatic stress syndrome, PTSD. Persons can be reminded of a traumatic experience by so called triggers. These triggers consist of external or internal reminders, which are related to the original incident. Triggers can consist of mverbal stimuli, sounds, thoughts or pictures. The reminders will cause the person to re-live the 9 traumatic incident, as if it happened again. This re-living can be characterised by sensory stimuli and might be experienced as a video clip, as pictures, or as body sensations. Sometimes re-living might have a more auditive quality, like words, or as in the example above, noise or even inner voices. Findings suggest that the right hemisphere of the brain is important for traumatic memories. A study by Pagani, Högberg et al (2006) demonstrated that clients with PTSD, who had auditive trauma reminders, had an increased blood flow in the right brain hemisphere when they were compared to a group who had not developed PTSD. 7

Anxiety arises when the individual is reminded of the incident, and because of this fact, tries to avoid everything that might remind them of what happened. 7.R & Shapiro, F (2008). EMDR and the Adaptive Information Processing Model. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research; 2 (4): 315-325.Spates, C.R., Koch, E., Cusack, K., Pagoto, S. & Waller, S. (2009). In Foa, E.B., Keane, T.M., & Friedman, M.J., (eds.), Effective treatments for PTSD: Practice Guidelines of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (pp279-305). New York: Guilford Press.Shapiro, F. (1995).

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WAYS IN WHICH THE BRAIN CAN EVOKE EMOTIONS FROM SOUND AND MUSIC

Sound moves us. It may cause great pleasure as well as great pain. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of music – often referred to as “that one of the fine arts which is concerned with the combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and the expression of emotion” . Emotional reactions to music have 8 fascinated people since Ancient Greece , though it is only recently that researchers 9 have made progress in understanding how such reactions come about . It turns 10 out that our reactions to music tell us a story about who we are – both as individuals (e.g., in terms of our memories, preferences, and personalities) and as a species (e.g., in terms of our innate human disposition to use sounds as sources of information in our inferences about future events, potential danger and affective states of other individuals).

Although music arouses positive emotions more frequently than negative emotions, music does arouse some negative emotions such as sadness and irritation quite frequently. If we consider sounds more generally, it is even more common that sounds are a cause of negative emotions and stress . As shown in some of the other contributions to this volume, 11 specific sounds may also be connected to traumatic life events in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such that hearing a certain sound may continue to arouse negative emotions long after the event in which the sound originally occurred. Strange as it may seem, the underlying mechanisms that cause these responses may be partly similar to those that arouse positive emotions in music listening. Hence, systematic knowledge about the mechanisms that underlie emotional reactions to music could be of potential importance also for therapeutic attempts to address aversive reactions to sounds in PTSD.

8.Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. 9.Budd, 1985

10.Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008 11.Västfjäll, in press

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PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS Building on the work of the pioneers in this field as well as on more recent research, Juslin & Västfjäll (2008) suggested the following six mechanisms: 1. Brain Stem Reflex refers to a process whereby an emotion is induced by music because one or more fundamental acoustical characteristics of the music are taken by the brain stem to signal a (potentially) important and urgent event. All other things being equal, sounds that are sudden, loud, dissonant, or feature fast patterns induce arousal in the listener. The responses reflect the immediate impact of simple auditory sensations. 2. Evaluative Conditioning (EC) refers to a process whereby an emotion is induced by music simply because this stimulus has been paired with other positive or negative stimuli. For instance, a specific piece of music may have occurred repeatedly together in time with a specific event that always makes you happy such as meeting your best friend. Over time, through repeated pairings, the music itself will, eventually, arouse happiness even in the absence of the friendly interaction.

4. Visual Imagery refers to a process whereby an emotion is induced in a listener because he or she conjures up visual images (e.g., of a beautiful landscape) while listening to the music. The emotions experienced are the result of a close interaction between the music and the images.

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Listeners appear to conceptualize the structure of the music in terms of a metaphorical, nonverbal mapping between the music and image-schemata grounded in bodily experiences; for instance, hearing the melody as “moving upward”. Listeners react to the mental images much in the same way as they would to the corresponding visual stimuli in the “real” world (e.g., reacting positively to a beautiful nature scene). 5. Episodic Memory refers to a process whereby an emotion is induced in a listener because the music evokes a memory of a particular event in the listener’s life (often referred to as the “Darling they are playing our tune” phenomenon). When the memory is evoked, so is also the emotion associated with the memory, and this emotion may be relatively intense – perhaps because the psychophysiological reaction pattern to the original event is stored in memory along with the experiential contents. Music expectancy refers to a process whereby an emotion is evoked in a listener because a feature of the musical structure violates, delays, or confirms the listener’s expectations about the continuation of the music. Thus, for example, the sequential progression of E-F# sets up the expectation that the music will continue with G#. If this does not happen, a listener familiar with the musical idiom could become, say, surprised. The expectations are based on the listener’s previous experiences of the same style of music. 6. Theoretical Hypotheses By synthesizing theories and findings from several research domains outside music, Juslin and Västfjäll (2008) were able to offer the first set of hypotheses that may help music researchers to distinguish among different mechanisms in future research.

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MUSIC: EMOTIONAL CONTAGION AND EPISODIC MEMORY What is it exactly about music that allows it to evoke emotion unlike any other sense? Listening to music, our pupils dilate and our pulse and blood pressure rise. Music activates large areas of the brain including the auditory, motor and limbic system. Researcher have demonstrated that music actually triggers the brain to release dopamine, the feel-good chemical, into parts of the brain that have been associated with the response to pleasurable stimuli. You could almost say that music is the completely natural drug of happiness. The power to tap directly into our emotions, and ignite our imaginations. It can make us bust a move, or move us to tears, sometimes in the course of a single song. But that’s not all it can do. EMOTIONAL SOUNDS AND THE BRAIN: THE NEURO-AFFECTIVE FOUNDATIONS OF MUSICAL APPRECIATION That music can profoundly effect our moods is a fact of every-day life. However, the manner in which music helps arouse feelings, ranging from joy and belongingness to bittersweet sadness and despair, remains a great mystery. Presumably, if we did not possess the kinds of social-emotionalbrains that we do, human music would probably be little more than cognitively interesting sequences of sounds and, at worst, irritating caco-phonies. Instead, it can help create avariety of peak human affective experiences. While some argue that music does not reflect 12 evolved processes of our brain, who called music ‘cultural cheesecake’, others have suggested that it is an important ingredient in the overall recipe of our evolutionary fitness, who emphasized that it helps facilitate the success of male sexual court-ship. In any event, most of us listen to music 13 for the emotional richness it adds to our lives, and we rapidly become attached to the music that moves us, yielding, we suspect, bonds that may have underlying neurobiological similarities to the love and social devotion that people often feel for eachother.

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As many have declared, music is the language of emotions. It is remarkable that any medium could soreadily evoke all the basic emotions of our brains, coaxing us to consider ourinnermost nature and to savor the affective dimensions of our minds. Clearly, music gives a voice to our feelings, and it provides a unique and highly ethical way to study the emotions of the human brain/mind. Unfortunately, this medium is so complex that for a long time methodologically rigorous psychologists despaired of ever distinguishing to what extent emotional changes were due to specific music attributes such as rhythm and melody, as compared to personal memories and acquired dimensions of cultural significance. We still do not know to what degree these, and many other factors, influence the emotional impact of music, but it is bound to be to very complex interactions that vary substantially from person to person. Surely human musicians utilize some culturally shared codes of emotional communication to produce their sound-magic, but we do believe there is a deeper trans-cultural, perhaps trans-species, emotional order to such issues. In addition to the many acquired cognitive influences on the appreciation of music, we believe, there is an even deeper affective mystery within brain organization to which all these cognitive issues are subservient. To begin to clarify them, we need to focus on a series of basic questions: What is it about our brains, our minds, that make them such receptive vessels for the emotional power of music? How much has evolution prepared our neuro-mental apparatus to appreciate music? How deep in mind/brain evolution can we find the stamp of rhythmic ‘musical’ dispositions within the neurodynamics of ‘being’? In general, we tend agree with the view advocated by Langer (1942) that ‘there are certain aspects of the so-called ‘inner life’, physical or mental, which have formal properties similar to those of music, patterns of motion and rest, of tension and release, of agreement and disagreement, preparation, fulfillment, excitation and so forth. 12.Gabrielsson,1991 13.e.g.Pinker, 1997

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Our overriding assumption is that ultimately our love of music reflects the ancestral ability of our mammalian brain to transmit and receive basic emotional sounds that can arouse affective feelings which are implicit indicators of evolutionary fitness. In other words, music may be based on the existence of the intrinsic emotional sounds we make (the animalian prosodic elements of our utterances), and the rhythmic movements of our instinctual/emotional motor apparatus, that were evolutionarily designed to index whether certain states of being were likely to promote or hinder our well-being. However, upon such fundamental emotional capacities, artists can construct magnificent cognitive structures of sound/musical cultures that obviously go far beyond any simple affective or evolutionary concerns. In any event, the understanding of how music arouses emotional/affective processes of the brain may be essential for clarifying the extended love affair of our species with music. This simple idea has been resisted by music theoreticians, partly because until recently we have known so little about the emotional processes of the human brain. That is rapidly changing , and modern brain imaging is 14 beginning to reveal the deep subcortical foundations of peak musical experiences in remarkably many brain areas that we share homologously with all of the other mammals.15 Music is not a unidimensional process, and many distinct, but widely distributed, brainareas participate in the neural coding of music . Classic work on the 16 neurology of music has highlighted a critical role of the right ‘prosodic’17 hemisphere in affective musical appreciation and expression, while many of the analytical components are elaborated more by the left side of the brain. 18 This simple fact that emotional and affective sensitivity are both elaborated more robustly in the right hemisphere again suggests an intimate relationship exists19 between affective and musical processes in the brain. However, it does seem that some of the positive affective aspects of musical appreciation arouse left frontal areas while negative emotions arouse right frontal areas.20 14.Toga and Mazziotta, 2000 15.Blood and Zatorre, 2001 16.Blood and Zatorre, 2001; Halpern and Zatorre,1999; Liegeois-Chauvel et al., 1998

We all know music is a kind of magic. It has the power to tap directly into our emotions, and ignite our imaginations. It can make us bust a move, or move us to tears, sometimes in the course of a single song. But that’s not all it can do. There’s growing scientific evidence that shows learning to play an instrument —and piano in particular—can actually make you smarter, happier, and healthier. The cognitive demands of learning piano could help with everything from planning skills and language development to reducing anxiety and even boosting memory!

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17.e.g.Critchley andHenson, 1977; Steinberg, 1995 18.Peretz, 1990; Sergent et al.,1992 19.(Peretz, 1990; Zatorre, 1984 20.Schmidt and Trainor, 2001

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CHANGE YOUR THINKING Most people don’t think about the sound of their own thinking and its effect on their mind.The work of Japanese author and researcher Dr Masaru Emoto highlighted the effects that sound whether spoken or thought, could have on water. Throughout the 1990’s Dr Emoto and his team performed a series of experiments observing the physical effect of words, prayers, music, and environment on the crystalline structure of water. The results were nothing short of remarkable. Water that was exposed to positive vibrations such as the laughter, love, or even just a child playing nearby managed to shift the crystals into beautiful forms. Whereas negative behaviour and chaotic music did the contrary. We have to remember that we are 60–70% made of water, so the results of this and other research highlights that our thinking, attitude, and even the people we surround ourselves with can have a major significance for our state of mind and overall well-being. Sound in whatever form has the harm to create balance and harmony or to create trauma and chaos, so become conscious of the sounds you are creating for yourself and the sounds from the environments you spend the most time in, and see what effect they are having on you.

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DO WE HAVE ANY CONSCIOUS CONTROL OVER OUR AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM AND INNATE IMMUNE RESPONSE? 1

BY PETER BORDA SPRING 2022

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INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

In a world where its normal to think that an external stimulus is needed in order to create a change inside the human body, what is the potential for conscious control of the human body, even the areas considered to be automated, without the need for those external stimuli?

Wim has also demonstrated that by using his meditation and breathing techniques he was able to fend off an injected endotoxemia by the wilful influence of his Innate Immune Response (IIR). This created further interest in the potential for positive wilful influence relating to autoimmune disease and diseases associated with chronic inflammation.

It’s exciting to even consider the possibility that within each of us there is an ability to proactively protect ourselves from illness and heal ourselves from existing diseases. If this is possible, it would mean all of us could access practices of preventative self-care at will and in any location if only we knew what to do and how to do it. The potential for reducing the use of medications that cause unwanted side effects would be enormous! Geography would no longer be an impediment to preventative health care. Doctor visits would plummet and health care resources that are currently clogged1 could be redeployed where needed most and perhaps even the need for some vaccines could be rethought. If this was even possible, where would we need to go and what would we need to learn to achieve this control? Perhaps there are some things we would need to unlearn. Instead of pain or illness prompting us to visit someone or something else, what if we connected with ourselves in a deeper way first? What if instead of waiting for our body to remind us to look after ourselves through pain, we proactively practiced techniques that prevented disease by strengthening our body and mind? The notable world records of Wim Hof have drawn attention from some parts of the scientific community to question what has previously been written about the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and its autonomic nature. During a world record attempt of full ice immersion wearing only shorts on Sep 17, 2009 on Regis and Kelly ABC TV Show, Wim Hof was able to raise his core body temperature from 88f up to 94f. This created progressive discussion on the previously held and taught medical dogma that once a human body falls below 90f the body is no longer able to warm itself. 1.Emanuel, E. J. et al. 2020. Fair allocation of scarce medical resources in the time of Covid-19. N. Engl. J. Med. 382, 2049–2055. 2.Stories of transformation. Unlimited with Dr Joe Dispenza. (n.d.).

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When our skin is cut, it heals itself through blood clotting to form a scab and the skin then automatically healing underneath it. This process requires no conscious thought as it is automatic. But some injuries require physical surgery to literally put bones back in the right place. What if it were possible to influence our body’s innate ability to heal itself even at the bone level without any external stimulus at all? Dr Joe Dispenza fully recovered from a smashed spine after being knocked off his bike by an SUV in nine-and-a-half weeks without the need for any body cast or surgery. He did this through thought alone. He has since taught his healing techniques which include, sitting, standing, walking and lying down meditation variants to many thousands of people and has recorded testimonies listed on his website 2 from many people where scientifically unexplained healings have occurred. Baylor University conducted a study 3 and showed that fake knee surgery had the same healing impact as a control group who actually received the arthroscopic surgery. How is this possible? These studies and embodied experiences have piqued the interest of many to further explore the potential of the mind over matter phenomena and how automatic processes in the human body may be able to be predictably influenced at will.

3.Moseley JB, O'Malley K, Petersen NJ, Menke TJ, Brody BA, Kuykendall DH, Hollingsworth JC, et al. 2002 Jul. A controlled trial of arthroscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee. N Engl J Med.

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GUIDING QUESTIONS Is it possible for the common person to heal themselves through thought alone and to influence their ANS and IIR through breathing and meditation?

What if they have not studied these areas and are unaware of the sources mentioned above? What if they feel dejected in life and are untrained and unskilled in these areas? Can they still apply natural techniques that are available in the common home without any equipment or chemicals? Can focused thought alone, meditation and breathwork make any difference in protecting someone from disease or allow them to heal themselves from existing diseases without the need for external medications or surgery?

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PREVIOUSLY HELD BELIEFS ABOUT THE OPERATION OF THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM AND THE BODY’S INNATE IMMUNE RESPONSE The ANS is known to regulate heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, respiration, and sexual arousal. The IIR is the bodies first line of defense against any pathogens that are automatically detected entering the body. To protect the body, internal chemical protection systems are immediately deployed without conscious thought or control. It is a commonly held scientific belief that the ANS and IIR can only be weakly and insignificantly influenced by conscious thought. Many autoimmune diseases are treated from this perspective which gives no credible allowance for the individuals conscious influence. What if the approach to autoimmune disease was to include and harness the power of the individuals conscious influence of the ANS and IRR perhaps only to further enhance the positive effects of external assistance? Does this mean then that some chronic conditions that have previously debilitated the individual be improved to the point where they could live a fuller life? Could it be possible to re-establish harmony within the whole body so these autoimmune diseases disappeared altogether? Research says it’s plausible.

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SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE OF INFLUENCE OVER THE ANS AND IIR A Wayne State University School of Medicine study4 has shown compelling evidence that it is possible to learn and train ourselves to influence at will the key components of the autonomic nervous system. This suggests that it is possible, through lifestyle changes and practices, to heal from multiple clinical syndromes. Through a combination of breathwork, meditation and committed choice the study recorded the ability for the human body to generate heat at will to maintain a safe basal body temperature and avoid hypothermia in freezing conditions. This wilful control over bodily functions previously thought of as automated opens up a whole new picture of human potential. If the body can wilfully maintain body temperature in freezing conditions to avoid death, is it possible with training and practice then to also teach and condition our body to realign to autonomic health rather than autonomic disease? A Radboud University Study 5 involved injecting a dead bacteria into the healthy body of 100 people to establish a clear base line for the innate autoimmune response. When the dead bacteria were detected by the body’s immune system, despite the bacteria already being dead, cells began to fight off the perceived threat by releasing different proteins and causing physiological changes to protect the host. These physiological changes included nausea, vomiting, fever and generally feeling very unwell for a short while. After being injected with the same endotoxin and unassisted by anything other than his own focused thinking and breathwork, Wim Hof was able to alter the response of the immune system to the dead bacteria by influencing his ANS and IIR. Due to his wilful influence, his ANS flooded his system with adrenaline and also a key messaging protein called interleukin 10 (IL10). IL10 essentially indicated to the cells that the release of the nausea causing defence proteins wasn’t required. This drastically reduced the symptoms that were observed in the first 100 baseline responses.

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Simultaneously the extra adrenaline actually boosted white blood cell production in Wim’s body indicating that the immune system was still operating effectively despite a reduced inflammation response from the extra IL10. The authors of the study stated that these findings had ‘important implications for conditions associated with excessive or persistent inflammation, especially autoimmune diseases.’ (2014, Knox et. al.) ANECDOTAL AND PENDING SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE OF PHYSICAL HEALING FROM DISEASE THROUGH THOUGHT ALONE Meditation has historically been synonymous with eastern spirituality with its general purpose being to achieve a greater level awareness of how the world works and one’s place in the world. In recent decades the popularity of meditation has increased considerably and become more mainstream in the western world as a way of balancing the pace and stress of modern life. Over the last decade or so science has begun to show, currently anecdotally, that meditating with a clear intention for that meditation and the deliberate focus on feeling an elevated emotion, can have a measurable positive impact on the body and help the body to heal. Dr Joe Dispenza’s research team conducted a research study in February 2016 measuring psychological and biological changes as well as heart and brain coherence over a 4-day period of practiced meditation. The study is currently under review by Brain Sciences Journal with an outcome still pending. At this stage, the best evidence is anecdotal however embodied testimony from participants of this research and individual healing can be found on Dr Joe’s website.

4.Muzik O, Reilly KT, Diwadkar VA. 2018. "Brain over body" - A study on the wilful regulation of autonomic function during cold exposure. 5.Kox M, Stoffels M, Smeekens SP, Alfen NV, Gomes M, Eijsvogels TMH, et al. 2012. The influence of concentration/meditation on autonomic nervous system activity & innate immune response.

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EMBODIED EXPERIENCE OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL CHANGES USING BREATHWORK, MEDITATION AND CONTROLLED COLD EXPOSURE The author has personal experience with breathwork and cold exposure and writes from a place of embodied verification. Instantly and repeatedly after utilizing the Wim Hoff Method breath technique the author felt completely relaxed both physically and mentally and almost always attained a state of total calm. Any small pains disappeared for a short time after the breath work which could easily be described as being an analgesic effect. The author can also give embodied evidence of the mental strength that developed after repeated cold exposure experiences. The choice to willingly subject themself to an uncomfortable experience seemed to allow the author to begin looking at other areas of their life where there lay hidden a joy or benefit of which its attainment required a short-term experience of discomfort. Areas of intimate relationships, business growth and discussions with the authors own inner child became opportunities to experience more of life in a positive way.

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Could this mindset open up new ways for people with autonomic diseases to approach them with optimism, thus aligning themselves on the favorable side of the placebo effect? Dr. Dispenza held a clear intention coupled with an elevated emotion twice a day for 2 hours each time for nine and a half weeks to heal his crushed spine. His clear intention was of his realigned spine and his elevated emotion was the gratefulness he felt in the present moment for the healing which he convinced himself had already occurred. This experience clearly happened for Dr. Dispenza and simultaneously highlights a systemic challenge with gaining scientific evidence over such a healing when science is perhaps a little hesitant to attempt to explain what is not yet fully understood. A new paradigm is needed to consider the obvious validity of this type of healing.

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CONCLUSION Based on the research that has been carried out on the Wim Hof Method to date it is clear that with practice of this and similar methods, influence over the ANS relating to core body temperature and the IIR in defending against a dead bacteria is possible. It’s also been shown possible by Dr Dispenza’s personal testimony and that of many hundreds of people who have healed themselves in his workshops through thought alone, that what we think can literally make us well. The task of proving these benefits to a mainstream scientific standard is burdensome. For the purpose of serving humanity fully, the scientific community need to adopt a more open stance in considering the validity of practices and techniques that do not appear to require any physical or chemical intervention from outside the body. More research is also needed to bring these concepts into the mainstream flow of scientific discussion. Another challenge exists even once mainstream science is satisfied however. The global community’s innate desire and nurtured conditioning for a quick fix solution and avoidance of discomfort are key factors that will continue to inhibit their ability to heal themselves with these practices.

SUMMARY - REVIEW FINDINGS, CONSIDER INTRO/BACKGROUND, TIE STORY UP. Scientific studies along with strong embodied experience have shown that the ANS and IRR can be influenced at will. Healing through thought alone is possible. An external stimulus is not essential to the body’s ability to heal. The body innately knows how to heal. If this approach to health is embraced globally, people can begin now to improve their health naturally without harming themselves or further burdening an already inadequate health system. In addition to the short-term and long-term individual benefit, collective medical resources could then be more effectively sourced and utilised globally. The intrinsic challenge to bring self-healing through thought alone into mainstream discussion is obtaining proof to satisfy the current requirements of the scientific community. Mass scale embodied evidence is needed. More self-healings will continue as people begin taking ownership and responsibility over their own health. It is the innate desire of the modern human to enjoy the ability to heal all the while having little to no tolerance for discomfort on the path to that healing. For humanity to truly heal themselves as individuals and as a collective, the human psyche must evolve to embrace short term discomfort to bring about a shift in its perspective of health. The goal for both steps three and four is to resemble the natural growth patterns of fungi in the wild and then double or triple that amount. This can be repeated in multiple zones or the testing area. To maintain the fungal growth, step five is highly necessary by adding healthy composted soil to every zone. It would be ideal for the compost to come from local plants to give the fungi, thus the soil, the local nutrients needed to thrive. To sustain the progress by periodically adding debris to the soil, step six is in place.

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NLP is an attitude and a methodology, not the trail of techniques it leaves behind.

RICHARD BANDLER

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IS NLP MANIPULATIVE AND DOES IT SKIP OVER THE REAL INNER WORK? BY ELINE MEIJER You might know Tony Robbins. He is considered as a successful entrepreneur and author of five internationally bestselling books. Backstage at his seminars, he bounces on his tiny trampoline and reminds us that ‘’words have the power to pierce the conscious mind’’. He runs out on stage to euphoric applause, claps his giant hands to the music and pumps the air.1 The whole audience is going crazy when he arrives on stage. Tony’s purpose is to empower people to practice techniques they learn during the seminar, until they become part of their identity. He was trained by John Grinder, one of the creators of NLP, and included the ideas of NLP into his self-help programmes.2 These seminars cost a good amount of money, but many people swear by them as life-changing events. NLP is very popular, uses many hacks in communication and changes the thinking process of the individual.

1.Robbins, 2016, T. Netflix documentary: I am not your guru. 2.Salerno. 2006. S. Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless.

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The scientific interest in NLP faded soon enough, as controlled research couldn’t show the benefit of it. 12 13 This paper researches whether NLP is being used as a manipulative tool to control thoughts, feeling, and emotions, rather than doing the inner work; Is NLP manipulative and does it skip over the real inner work? NLP TECHNIQUES

NLP was created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in 1979 in California, United States. They claim in their book ‘Frogs into Princess’ (1979) that there is a connection between neurological processes (neuro-), language (linguistic) and behavioural patterns 3 4 learned through experience (programming), that can be changed to achieve specific goals in life. NLP claims that in one single session, it can treat health problems such as depression, learning disorders and phobias. NLP has also been promoted that it can be used to treat a variety of diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, HIV/AIDS and cancer. These claims have no supporting medical evidence.6 The original core techniques of NLP were psychotherapeutic, but their generic character enables them to be applied in other fields. By the late 1970s it had developed into an industry with a market for NLP theory and practice. Besides being a therapeutic method, it was also a study of communication and they started to market it as a business tool. In 1980, Bandler earned more than 800.000 dollar from book sales and workshops. 7

Studying human excellence in the field of communication and negotiation, led to the development of NLP. Bandler and Grinder discovered the common methods used to persuade and manipulate other people to bend their will. It resulted in a program of techniques that concentrate on how the body, mind, and language work together to provoke certain changes in a person’s behaviour and make them better negotiators. They discovered how different people grasp the power of language, while others are conscious of more physical behaviours. As said before, early books about NLP had a psychotherapeutic focus, given that the early models were psychotherapists. NLP has similar core assumptions and foundations in common with 15 systematic practices in psychotherapy.

For more than three decades trainers and salespeople have been drawn by the assertions made by NLP. Global brands like IBM, McDonald’s, NASA, and government agencies are using the techniques in their working field. You can even get certified as an NLP Practitioner within 18 days. Despite the growing popularity of NLP, researchers started to examine the theoretical underpinnings empirically. Research indicated that there is a lack of empirical focus applied to the ideas. 10 11 3.Tosey, P., Mathison, J. Introduction Neuro-Linguistic Programming (PDF). Centre for Management Learning & Development, School of Management, University of Surrey, 2019. 4.Dilts, R., Grinder, J. Delozier, J. and Bandler, R. Neuro-Linguistic Programming: The Study of the Structure of Subjective Experience, 1980. 6.Russell, J., Rovere, A. Neuro-linguistic programming. American Cancer Society Complete Guide to Complementary and Alternative Cancer Therapies, 2009. 7. Clancy, F., Yorkshire, H. The Bandler Method, Mother Jones Magazine, 1989.

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10.Passmore, J. and Rowson, T. S. Neuro-linguistic programming: a critical review of NLP research and the application of NLP in coaching. Int'l Coaching Psychology Review, 2019 11.Witkowski, T. Thirty-five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. 2010. 12.Devilly, Grant J. Power Therapies and possible threats to the science of psychology and psychiatry. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2005. 13.Gelso, C J. Fassinger, R.E. Counseling Psychology: Theory and Research on Interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, 1990.

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NLP always focuses on the perception of a problem. Our perception of the world around us is always subjective, and therefore our problems. Perception is like a system in which some elements of reality are in the foreground and other elements are more in the background or even distorted. In this way, a person creates its own model of ‘reality’. Once you learn to oversee all elements of the system, it makes other ways of perception possible. By investigating where there are elements in the system that cause or maintain a problem, NLP can be used to reorder the system and create a new balance. In this way, a person’s own model of reality can be adapted, and problems can be solved by changing its context. There is no homogenic treatment schedule within NLP, but there is a set of treatment techniques that will be outlined here. The NLP practitioner will first ask the person to describe his or her problems. While the person is describing, the practitioner will pay attention to the person’s body language, communication, and the conscious and unconscious ways of communicating. Next, the NLP practitioner agrees on a concrete goal with the person to create rapport. To achieve this goal, different techniques can be applied: 1. Anchoring: With anchoring, the person learns to evoke specific emotions at any time. For this, the person thinks of a concrete image of an experience or memory that is linked to a positive emotion such as relaxation or happiness. Through practice, this image becomes strongly linked to the emotion. This allows the person to evoke the desired emotion at any given moment by thinking of the image, or the anchor.

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3. Reframing: Reframing approaches a problem situation from a different angle by changing the framework of the problem. For example, a major life change that was experienced as negative can be seen as a new beginning. Reframing has been acknowledged as having influenced systematic practices in psychotherapy as it shifts the context or meaning by finding the positive connotation of a thought or behaviour. 17 4. NLP Swish: The person creates a big and bright picture in their mind of something they don’t want. Then the person creates a picture of what they want to replace it with, making it small and dull. Next step is to reverse them by bringing the image of what they want into the foreground, making it brighter and brighter. The image the person doesn’t want is now in the background, coloured grey. When this is repeated three to five times, the brain will be trained to amplify positives and weaken negatives. The techniques described here are not integrated into the systematic practices of a diplomatized psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical doctor. Imagine if these techniques would work for cases such as depression, heavy anxiety, and psychosis. Then we could go to an NLP practitioner that got certified after 18 days instead of a medical doctor that has been trained for more than 5 years at university.

2. Modelling: With this NLP technique, the person learns to put oneself in the position of another. By experiencing a problem imaginatively from the point of view of another, new perspectives can be discovered. In this way, the person can take the position of an objective outsider, or of another person with whom there is a conflict. You develop greater understanding of their own behavioural patterns. 15.Morton, N. Psychological Warfare and Deception: What You Need to Know about Human Behavior, Dark Psychology, Propaganda, Negotiation, Manipulation, and Persuasion. 2020

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16.Beyeback, M., Rodriquez, A. Thoughts on integration in solution-focused therapy. 1999 17.Maag, J.W. Why they say no: Foundational precises and techniques for managing resistance. 1999.

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MANIPULATION The definition of manipulation in the dictionary is as follows (Dictionary.com, 2021): ‘’Influencing or attempting to influence the behaviour or emotions of others for one’s own purpose’’. Manipulation as a word can hold a negative connotation; to get someone to do something for your own personal gain where the outcome is bad for someone else. NLP is based on the idea that people’s thinking features can be manipulated to some extent. If we understand how a person is programmed, it can be manipulated.18 Programming can take place on certain actions through an idea that is expressed orally or in written form. The subconsciousness can remember repetition and the consciousness will act upon the imposed idea. Most people perceive certain situations through an image or a picture, but not a psychological thought. For example, through a picture or an image or by creating a situation that will catch (touch) a person and remain in his subconsciousness. Short expressions, slogans and phrases are most effective to manipulate people by word. People that are unhappy with their lives are feeling depressed, vulnerable and are easy to influence on their personal development path. With all the self-help books on the market, people are desperate to make a better version of themselves and are seeking ways to take control over their lives. With this obsession being focused on self-development, they become blind to the pitfalls. The dopamine shots they gain after going to a seminar of Tony Robbins or reading a self-help book, they feel motivated and want more. The result is visiting more seminars, buying more self-help books, and sponsoring the commercial selfdevelopment industry. Once they paused, they realized that nothing had changed.19

CONCLUSION NLP is a commercialized set of techniques that has been enormously successful in the business industry since the 1970s, and it is big business in the self-help industry. Desperate people with an obsession for self-development are paying huge amounts of money to visit seminars to feel and become more positive and optimistic to change their current situation. If you never question the motives of these self-development guru’s and believe they are doing this because they honestly care about you. Be objective and question if they might be doing this for their own good by making money behind your back. This brings us back to the definition of manipulation: ‘’Influencing or attempting to influence the behaviour or emotions of others for one’s own purpose’’.

The initial goal of NLP was to help a person change himself, by using the techniques to achieve success and create the dream life he wants. This placebo effect gives the person a feeling of power and confidence. Nevertheless, there is little evidence that NLP interventions improve health-related outcomes.20

NLP manipulates thoughts and behaviour. Once the techniques are programmed within the person it becomes part of the subconscious. Depending on the context and the intentions of the person, it can be beneficial (placebo effect) to become a better version of yourself. It gives the person a feeling of power and confidence which results in a happier life with more actions, emotion, and adventure. Nevertheless, NLP is not a cohesive therapy but just a set of different techniques without a clear theoretical basis and a lack of empirical evidence. Because of the manipulative character of NLP, it might not be the right practice to do the real inner work. The meaningful things in life happen by going through the inner struggles instead of manipulating them!

18.Morton, N. Psychological Warfare: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Human Behavior, Brainwashing, Propaganda, Deception, Negotiation, Dark Psychology, and Manipulation, 2020.

19.Alaie, R. NLP College: https://hetnlpcollege.nl/weerstand-tegen-nlp/. 20.Sturt, J., Saima, A. Robertson, W., Metcalfe, D., Grove, A., Bourne, C. Bridle. Neuro Linguistic programming: s systematic review of the effects on health outcomes. 2012.

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Nature itself is the best physician HIPPOCRATES

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CAN GAMIFICATION HELP US CONNECT TO NATURE? BY SIMONE NOFEL

Are we able to use technology to enhance our connection with nature? Can the very devices that have led to human disconnection be used in a way to actually reconnect? Is it possible to get the best of both worlds? Thanks to smartphone apps, gaming has become a sensation even adults enjoy. Can you think of the last game app that you were sucked into? What was the goal of that particular app? Did it in any way optimize your wellbeing? What if you could have the fun of a game while at the same time improving your quality of life?

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According to Dr. David Perlmutter and Dr. Austin Perlmutter 70% of humans on the planet now own a smartphone and 42% of the time that Americans are awake their eyes are fixated on devices such as smartphones, computers, tablets, and televisions.1 Can you imagine utilizing these devices for the benefit of your overall health? Needless to say, technology has an addictive component that allows us to perceive its use as bringing pleasure and joy, but it is only short-term satisfaction. Thomas Jefferson once said, “do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.” They state that this illusion of sustainable happiness can be called the disconnection syndrome. Loneliness, chronic inflammation, narcissism, poor relationships, chronic stress, and impulsivity are some characteristics of disconnection syndrome that directly impact our mental health. Several habits and interventions have been explored to combat that disconnect from ourselves, others around us, and the earth we live on. The focus of this discussion will be on how resolving just one of these disconnected areas can lead to reconnecting us back to all three of them. Many who came before us alluded to the idea that our disconnection from nature was the beginning of a downward spiral and will also be involved in the first steps needed to regain wholeness as humans.

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An alarming 2018 survey revealed: 87% of its participants reported feeling increased happiness, feeling healthier, and more productive when they were in nature yet 75% of them felt as though it was just easier to stay indoors. What could be some reasons this complacency exists? What lies inside the walls of a home that compels us to ignore the significance nature plays in our wellbeing? In a world where mostly everything is digitized it is hard to separate ourselves from our smartphones and other technological devices. So why not take part of that engagement time in front of these screens and turn it into a tool to enhance our connection with nature? How do we turn that complacency around and motivate ourselves to reap the benefits our planet so effortlessly provides us? Making a distinction between nature and humans could also be slightly detrimental to getting by-in from skeptics. As Andy Goldsworthy emphasizes, “we often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we have lost our connection to ourselves.” Finding a way to create fun amongst a community that poses an alternative to mindless use of our devices could be a significant solution to the ever growing rates of non-communicable diseases and mental illnesses. Let’s take a journey back in time to explore possible causes to our species’ disconnection from nature. In the 1900’s 14% of the world’s population lived in urban areas, today more than 50% of us live in cities away from rural environments. Could the reason why people have lost touch with our mother Earth be because we are further away from the pastoral regions that are enriched with vast landscapes and free roaming animals? Being in touch with nature doesn’t necessarily mean one must venture into the rainforest or climb a mountain top. Masashi Soga, Kevin J. Gaston, and Yuichi Yamaura emphasize the importance of bringing nature exposure into city settings, “urban living is associated with various adverse health consequences...nature in cities can play a key role in achieving a healthy society.” 2

1.Perlmutter, D., & Perlmutter, A. 2020. Brain wash: Detox your mind for clearer thinking, deeper relationships and lasting happiness. YELLOW KITE. 2.Soga, M., Gaston, K. J., & Yamaura, Y. 2016. Gardening is beneficial for health: A meta-analysis. Preventive medicine reports, 5, 92–99.

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We can formulate a way to make activities in nature more accessible, rewarding, and motivating than the effortless notion of 1 staying indoors. Instead of viewing technology mainly as a disconnecting experience, let’s utilize its capabilities to boost nature’s reconnective properties. If we can link technology with human immersion in nature could we increase motivation for us to be outside more? Daniel Johnson and his team found that gamification can have a positive impact on health and wellbeing, particularly for health behaviors. 3 They describe the idea of gamification as using game design elements to make engagement in particular activities more motivating. This could solve the complacency problem in individuals who acknowledge that being out in nature is beneficial but have little to no motivation to engage in outdoor activities. 3 Gamification promotes engagement with intervention and enhances an intervention’s intended effects.1 The outdoor activity, or intervention, examined is gardening. The figure below depicts the reasons why gamification is an effective application to increase consistency gardening. Key gamified characteristics aiding to promote time spent gardening are intrinsic motivation features, easy accessibility & social cooperation.

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Research suggests that improvements in health behaviors, or behavior change, can reduce the chances of individuals developing illnesses, 4 increasing overall wellbeing. First, it is important to understand behavior change is most effective when intrinsic motivation is at play. There is great significance in knowing the difference between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. In summary, extrinsic motivation encourages behavior change by means of attaining external outcomes like money, verbal praise, and/or other rewards. 3 4 On the other hand, intrinsic motivation encourages behavior change through internal outcomes that satisfy basic human needs such as love, a sense of belonging, pleasure, and freedom. Vanessa Cheng and her research team discuss the significance of promoting engagement intrinsically. Gamifying activities in nature will only be effective when engagement levels are consistent. In their research they conclude that this would also mitigate user defensiveness and distress pertaining to the health goals or desired outcomes.4 Unfortunately, due to the vast majority 3 of gamification features being extrinsic motivation such as points, feedback, and rewards, self-rating scales must be incorporated as well. Self-rating scales are able to give users a visual representation of how their physical, emotional, and mental well4 being is progressing.

3.Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K. A., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature. Internet interventions, 6, 89–106. 4.Cheng, V., Davenport, T., Johnson, D., Vella, K., & Hickie, I. B. 2019. Gamification in Apps and Technologies for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being: Systematic Review. JMIR mental health

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Markers such as energy levels, happiness, and emotional regulation (stress/anxiety) could be rated on such a scale. As intrinsic motivation sets in, behavior change will soon follow. Particularly, an increase in gardening participation and engagement. There are many ways to immerse oneself in nature, so why gardening? Several researchers have explored holistic therapies that emphasize gardening such as green care therapy and horticulture therapy. The main difference between green care therapy and horticulture therapy is that within horticulture therapy the participant is cultivating plants for the production of food whereas in green care therapy it can be as simple 2 as exposure to plants. Richard Thompson gives the basic foundation of why gardening is beneficial to health by describing three main aspects: physical activity, social interaction, and exposure to nature/sunlight.⁶ Health indicators researchers have studied pertaining specifically to urban gardening are reductions in depression and anxiety, stress, mood disturbance, and BMI. As well as enhancements in quality of life, sense of community, and cognitive functions. It is important to note that the average number of visits to the urban garden per month was 16 times, and during each visit that participants would stay a duration of 80 minutes on average. 2 When it comes to gardening the one outcome that had significant impact for most participants was “taking a mental break”, this is in large part due to its intrinsic motivation essence. The graph below shows other reasons why participants reported being motivated to engage in gardening. So imagine layering the fundamental feature of gamification, motivation, with the innate intrinsic motivating properties of gardening. It almost seems inevitable that consistency would be reported.

Taking a mental break Growing vegetables to eat Having contact with nature Enjoying social interaction Physical exercise Relaxing Learning more about nature Getting in shape Other 0

Proportion of respondents identified (%)

Figure 2 Gardener's motivations for allotment gardening. Note that multiple answers were allowed.

2.Soga, M., Gaston, K. J., & Yamaura, Y. 2016. Gardening is beneficial for health: A metaanalysis. Preventive medicine reports, 5, 92–99. 6.Thompson R. 2018. Gardening for health: a regular dose of gardening. Clinical medicine (London, England), 18(3), 201–205.

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A major element to gardening we must not overlook is the production of healthy and sustainable food. Home gardens and urban gardens alike can contribute to ecosystem health, which is directly linked to human health. Creating urban community gardens will change the soil health of a once barren land to a biodiverse land full of nutrients. 7 The correlation between how gardening improves the health of an ecosystem and human health was made as a result of people consuming more vegetables when they engage in gardening. This is in comparison to people who do not participate in gardening at all (Spano). Assuming this is common knowledge, we can agree that by eating more vegetables our overall health in turn gets better. We must also explore the limitations and variations of green care therapy and horticulture. Due to the many benefits being outdoors brings we must first take a step back and realize not all gardening occurs outside. With advances in at-home hydroponic systems, this leaves room for users to still remain indoors. Would solo participating in indoor gardening have the same positive outcomes that traditional outdoor gardens have? For instance, The Mayo Clinic has published literature suggesting that by listening to sounds heard out in nature we have the ability to lower anxiety1 and improve pain management. This passive interaction with nature would be lost when tending to a hydroponic garden indoors. However, one key aspect to horticulture therapy is the collection of natural elements and cooking. If users chose to garden using an indoor hydroponic system, they would indeed be participating in the collection of natural elements such as seeds, and pruning in the growth and maintenance stage. During harvest it will also be necessary for them to physically touch natural elements upon gathering each vegetable or fruit.

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Both indoor and outdoor gardening directly impact the rate of cooking in participants. Thinking back to the study that showed participants prefer to stay inside rather than engage in outdoor activities they knew improved their health we can now discuss how gamification can play a key role. Social interaction was previously mentioned as a key aspect of gardening, however, we must acknowledge that not all users will be going to community gardens or engaging in allotments gardening. Thus, how do we ensure the social benefits of gardening when one could very well be engaging in this in their personal home garden without a friend, partner, or family member? Through gamification, social interaction is designed as a feature to promote fun amongst its users. Social interaction in game design can be experienced through competitions, relatedness support, and social feedback. 4 Although yes, an extrinsic motivation, we can rely on these features for building a sense of belonging. When it comes to mental health, the social cooperation feature could be more impactful than reported in studies that have a broad focus on general well-being. It is important to realize game design elements such as comparison and competition are distinctively different from social cooperation. More studies should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of social cooperation features on the mental health of its users. Similarly to participating in community gardens, the social cooperation feature is said to foster positive ways of interacting with others which satisfies the basic human need for relatedness. 3 We know that gamification and gardening both produce intrinsic motivations. We also know gamification and gardening both increase social interaction. Therefore, it is clear that developing an app for increasing engagement in-home or community gardens is a possible addition to game-based approaches for health promotion. Let’s change our perspective on how we view nature. Let’s switch our perspective on technology from being isolating and draining to one that emphasizes its practical use for deepening connection. Our devices don’t need to separate us, but can instead bring us together with nature, thus ourselves and our fellow humans.

7.Tresch, S., Moretti, M., Le Bayon, R.-C., Mäder, P., Zanetta, A., Frey, D., & Fliessbach, A. (2018, January 1). A Gardener's influence on urban soil quality. Soil Processes.

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WHAT DOES PROCRASTINATION HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR MOTHER? BY KAHRA

“Aufschieberitis” from German aufschieber = to push back, itis = disease What is procrastination? A mind game

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The lines you are reading right now, and through this article, have taken more effort and time than you may think. They are the result of a long process of inquiry, self-inquiry, and reflection upon the mental process of writing, and the process of completing a task by itself. Indeed, the author of this paper has been dealing with procrastination for the entirety of their life and found difficulty in coming to terms with writing this very article. So wanting to write about the topic of procrastination and desiring to understand more of its psychological, emotional and mental origins at the same time, the author has been dealing with excessive procrastination regarding this article. Because before anything, writing it was seen as an achievement, as a way to forever say “goodbye” to their procrastination tendencies, and created for themselves a huge unattainable goal out of completing this paper.

Because a mechanism that can appear with procrastinating behaviours and that was true for the author, is the negative self-feeding loop to mentally create pressure and have expectations upon the results or completion of the task, in addition to an inability to divide the task into smaller tasks to make it less big and less pressuring. See how procrastination can start to take too much space in achieving anything, and take more effort and time than it could, even if the task appears small?

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Procrastination is defined as one’s voluntary delay of an intended course of action despite being worse off as a result of that delay. Piers Steel, an academic expert on the topic who wrote “The Procrastination Equation” in 2010, found in his surveys 1 that since the 1970s, the rates of procrastination are going up. Indeed in the 1970s, only 4-5% of people surveyed indicated they considered procrastination a key personal characteristic.2 In 2010, that number was between 20 and 25%. According to Piers Steel, 95% of the population has faced procrastination at least once in their life or is facing procrastination occasionally. Procrastination by itself makes no rational sense in terms of getting things done because in the long run it often adds more stress, anxiety, and effort and leads to lower efficiency and results, and can create more trouble from unwanted consequences due to overdue deadlines. An easy example is delaying paying off your bills or parking tickets, risking a bigger fine later. So why are so many people procrastinating? Over the past 20 years, researchers have been studying the correlation between procrastination and many factors, such as perfectionism, fear of failure and expectations, lack of motivation, impulsivity and distraction, the influence of technology, value system, poor self-regulation capacities, high levels of stress and anxiety or even ADHD. As any of these reasons can by themselves explain why we are more or less prompt to be procrastinators and why so many of us could be affected by it, what if they could be considered as only the symptoms of a deeper cause that hasn’t been explored yet? Could it be out of habit? Coming from personality traits? By choice? Linked to birth chart and the planets? Link to emotional maturity? Or related to upbringing environment? 1.Steel, P. 2010. The Procrastination Equation. Harper Collins. 2.Steel, P. 2010. The Procrastination Equation. Harper Collins.

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As the author has been confronting their own pattern of procrastination while writing the very article you’re reading now, this article will explore how procrastination can be rooted in the relational, emotional and educational aspects of procrastination, and especially the correlation between procrastination and the way our parents have influenced us through their behaviours, parenting styles, our attachment patterns to them, and how our self-worth and self-regulation can be influenced by these traits in regards to procrastination tendencies. Could procrastination be positively related to the way we’re been raised and educated, cared for, and modelled on how to be healthily functioning in the completion of a task? In other words, we’ll explore if the way we’ve been emotionally and behaviorally conditioned by our parents could be a predisposition to procrastination. For this, we’ll explore what procrastination has to do with your mother.

A placebo effect? Our whole life, since we are born, we look up to our parents as our teachers and learn with them. We learn from mirroring before anything else. Thanks to our mirror neurons, we learn by reproducing and experiencing behaviours after observing them. An article from 2012 3 explains the role of our sensory motor in learning from experiencing and imitating behaviours. This shows us the implication of our senses, neurons and nervous system in the way we learn our conditioning, to experience and view the world, and explains how we can be influenced by our environment to learn. Bruce H. Lipton, PhD., describes in 2008 in his book “Biology of Belief” how cells receive and process information, showing that genes and DNA do not control our biology. Instead, DNA is controlled by the environment outside the cell, which conditions the expression of our genes, and even our beliefs, positive or negative 4 thinking can influence our physical and mental health expressions and the choices we make. 3.Caroline Catmur 1, Vincent Walsh, Cecilia Heyes. 2009 Aug. Associative sequence learning: the role of experience in the development of imitation and the mirror system 4.Bruce H. Lipton, PhD. 2008. Biology of Belief.

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To go even further, Bruce H. Lipton’s book explores the subconscious and conscious minds, and describes how signals flow and generate emotions in the conscious mind. According to him the conscious mind is the creative one and the subconscious mind is the repository of stimulus-response memories derived from instincts and learned experiences. So on a psychological and mental level, between the age of 0 and 7, our brain functions as an empty hard drive, where we learn essentially by mirroring and during which the access to our subconscious is direct. In the very first years of our lives, we learn how everything functions around us and absorb like sponges into our subconscious. The relationships dynamics, the language, expressing our needs, the hierarchy in the family, in society, how to act, what behaviours to adopt, how to relate and communicate to evolve in this world, we download and save these pieces of information directly into our subconscious. They become programs that will always run in the background to maintain our functioning, by simply reproducing what we have seen around us growing up.

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“Monkey see monkey do.” As a result, we can perfectly imagine that it’s would be easy to mimic the behaviors in our environment mediated through our parents and become procrastinators ourselves as adults, if they would be procrastinators themselves. And if any of us ask people around ourselves today, we can also find many cases in which children are procrastinators while their parents aren’t, and vice versa. So procrastination seems to not only be something that can be taught or learned by mirroring. Other factors must be playing out. Could procrastination also be a coping mechanism we created growing up in response to the way we learned to regulate our internal state and our nervous system? Can procrastination be linked to the way your mother taught you how to regulate your nervous system when you were a child?

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A SELF-REGULATION FAILURE SYMPTOM Our nervous system is by essence what allows us to feel and sense our environment and react in the present moment at what is around us. It is what binds us to the reality of the moment and the experience of being alive. In an article from February 2018,5 procrastination was described as a self-regulation failure. In fact, it seems that the inability to handle our nervous system arousal and deal with one’s own internal emotions appears to be a common factor in why we procrastinate. This article describes how impulsivity and intrusive thoughts -also identified as regulatory system failures- are related to and can influence procrastination. It illustrates the tendency to be easily distracted that procrastinators are often subject to, and helps us understand the nature of procrastination in relation to our nervous system and ability to regulate our internal emotional state. This article shows us the correlation between our nervous system regulation failure and procrastination. The less we learn to regulate our nervous system and emotional state, the more we’re prompt to procrastinate. Could it be that by never learning to regulate our nervous system, we simply never learn to feel harsh emotions? Ultimately is procrastination a symptom that we didn’t develop the nervous system resilience we need to handle harsh emotions because we simply never learned it from our parents? Does it have anything to do with their parenting styles or their own nervous system resilience?

THE PARENTING STYLES An article from May 2002,6 is pointing out the parallel between parental authority and the development of female dysfunctional procrastination. In this article, we find out that procrastination not only is linked to parental authority 4 -with a distinction made between whether it is an authoritarian or authoritative style and whether from a mother or a fatherbut also that the females of the study presenting procrastination tendencies, often had repressed anger. The study finds that a female is more likely to procrastinate when she has an authoritarian father (versus authoritative father), expressed anger emotions, and even though the parenting style of the mother didn’t seem to affect the procrastination tendencies of their daughter, she would also most likely have chronically indecisive mothers that tended to be avoidant procrastinators themselves.

“(...) Authoritative fathers, in contrast, were significantly likely to raise daughters who were nonprocrastinators. Mother′s parental authority style was not significantly related to procrastination scores reported by their daughters, but mothers who are avoidant procrastinators are more likely to raise daughters who are avoidant procrastinators as well.” 7 So we can see that behaviours that were shown in our environment to mirror, the way our parents interact with us, and our repressed emotions can influence procrastination. These aspects are yet to be directly linked to nervous system regulation failure. But could procrastination be linked to another aspect that our parents transmit to us as we grow up? 5.Marie My Lien Rebetez 1, Lucien Rochat 1, Catherine Barsics 1, Martial Van der Linden 2. 2017 Aug. Procrastination as a Self-Regulation Failure: The Role of Impulsivity and Intrusive Thoughts 6.Ferrari, Joseph R., Olivette, Michael J. May 2002. Parental Authority and the Development of Female Dysfunctional Procrastination 7.Ferrari, Joseph R., Olivette, Michael J. May 2002. Extract from Parental Authority and the Development of Female Dysfunctional Procrastination.

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The Importance of Self-Worth A study from March 2001 on adolescents, explored the main effects and interactions between gender, maternal and paternal parenting style, and global self-worth in the prediction of procrastination in adolescence and revealed significant interactions between parenting styles, adolescent gender, and self-worth. And to be specific, for females again, the study found the effects of maternal authoritative and authoritarian parenting on procrastination were mediated through the self-system, whereas paternal parenting had a direct relation with procrastination. So it seems that self-worth and the self-system in all of its aspects is indeed a component that could be taken under consideration in the relation of parenting styles regarding the topic of procrastination. Not only our nervous system regulation, the parenting style we were exposed to or the emotions we might repressed can be factors in whether or not we procrastinate, the self-system of worthiness is also to be looked closer into, especially as it seems to be a factor influencing it throughout the gender spectrum. It seems that self-worth goes even beyond, in its implication with procrastination. Indeed it has been observed through an article from August 2017, that self-worth is also mediating procrastination in regards to attachment style with your parents. Here is another occasion to look deeper at how our upbringing can influence the way we value ourselves and our worth, and tend to procrastinate. This article takes a closer look at three parental dimensions in particular: trust, communication, and alienation, and results indicated that both paternal and maternal trust and paternal communication were not associated with higher levels of procrastination. On the other hand, both paternal and maternal alienation were positively associated with procrastination. It seems that if our parents are emotionally or physically distant or have repressed emotions themselves, our exposure to procrastination would increase. So in terms of attachment styles, the ones having a lower sense of value, the anxious or disorganised attachment styles would be more exposed to procrastination.

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AN UNDERSTANDING OF ONESELF Upon collection of all these research studies, it appears that procrastination tendencies are not simply coming either from the mother, or the father even, but a savant mix between mirroring their habits, the way we learn how to handle our emotions and regulate them through our nervous system and how our parents handled their, the self-worth system subconsciously programmed into us by our parent's parenting styles and attachment styles, and that our gender influences these correlations. Ultimately, whether or not you find procrastination to be a good or a bad thing that stimulates you with the deadline rush or slows you down in terms of your productivity and efficiency, it appears that learning to regulate your nervous system and to feel and bear your emotions, would be an essential key component of the life long journey to “healing” procrastination. But is procrastination something you would really like to or even can truly change or quit? Or is it something you simply learn to live with and accommodate your life around? The journey of being a procrastinator and wanting to heal it, will help you before anything else to accept more of yourself as you are. Understanding that procrastination simply is a lens through which you can learn to get to know yourself deeper and how you function on an emotional and a mental level, like any other wound or struggle you might encounter in your life. Understanding why you do it, can help you prevent procrastination from happening too much, by applying “tricks” that work for your specific type of procrastination. Procrastination, because linked to a nervous system failure, could be due to traumas experienced in childhood, and our inability to feel our emotions because too hard to feel. This could point to our inability to be in the present moment, present with our surroundings, sensations, and emotions through the nervous system. In that idea, procrastination could be a symptom of avoiding feeling our emotions from childhood. Could procrastination be treated by healing the wounds and the relationship we have with our parents? Also, if procrastination is linked to our attachment styles, behaviours, emotional regulation, and self-worth system, would procrastination be a way to trigger in us the question: “For whom are we really doing the things we do?” and to finally find our own intrinsic motivation, beyond any achievement, perfectionism or expectations. The topic of procrastination is a vast topic that can be viewed from so many different angles. A lens that can be looked upon for further research, would be to study procrastination through the lens of productivity, especially within the concept of “flow state”, looking at how it can affect the nervous system in the “Infinite Present or “Deep now” and how it could interact with procrastination. Another interesting angle would be to look at treating procrastination as any other chronic ptsd (post-traumatic stress disorder) and studying the benefits of microdosing psychedelics, in treating or reducing procrastination. Eventually, the writing of this paper didn’t heal the writer’s procrastination tendency, but has helped them understand themselves better, and experience new tricks about what is working or not for them. Experimenting with regulating their nervous system before they write, meditating, taking breaks to regulate again during the writing process, getting rid of distractions and increasing focus, microdosing psychedelics, experiencing ways to trigger flow state, have been methods that have been applied through the writing of this paper to come to a more embodied wisdom of what can help.

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If you do something for someone else, you’ll go far. If you’d do something for yourself, you’re unstoppable.

ROMAN FREYSSINET

Care for your Psyche… Know Thyself, For once we know ourselves, only then we may learn how to care for ourselves.

- SOCRATES -

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The Male Psyche: Nature or Nurtured? MASCULINE AND FEMININE.

UNDEFINING MASCULINITY WE BEGIN OUR JOURNEY WITH A GAME OF TRUTHFUL CONFESSIONS

By Khar Wei Lee

We wouldn’t blame you if you immediately thought of the difference between a man and a woman. Majority are taught that these pairs are synonymous, that being a man is to be masculine and a woman is to be feminine. But let’s consider these two words at a deeper level. Growing up, what is your conception about being a man and being a woman? A sex and gender identity differences? What constitutes a masculine man and a feminine woman? A set of beliefs, personalities, roles and behaviours? How would you instinctually describe a feminine man and a masculine woman? Those who go against their biological destiny or current societal gender norms? What are the qualities you often observed and describe in yourself? (Deep self-reflection for the men.) What about those of your father, brother, husband, son, male colleagues and friends? Archetypal masculine and feminine? Or a wellbalanced of both gender qualities?

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Are boys just being boys through the way they think, speak and act; or is there more than meets the eye? Men especially, rarely pause to examine and reflect on their own male psyche, the set of beliefs, thoughts, opinions, emotions, decisions actively influencing and controlling their life and those around them. To deeply consider whether their thoughts, feelings and actions stem from inner authenticity or are externally conditioned, imposed and enforced . It is even rarer for men to participate in conversarion to examine the history, development and evolution of their masculinity, a topic shrouded in disassociation, fear, confusion, shame and 1 division. This article is an exploration into the condition of the male psyche (from the author’s personal perspective as a heterosexual cis gendered male). We will examine the childhood developmental experience of boys growing up, followed by the major biological / dominant social-cultural influences and their impacts on the male psyche. Ultimately, the paper aims to incite deeper awareness and inquiry on the humanity of masculinity along with inspiring all readers towards a more mindful, conscious and full human expression in our current divisive time period. We begin our journey with a game of truthful confessions.

1.Greco, Julianna. 2018. A Social Construction,Sociological Imagination: Western’s Undergraduate Sociology Student Journal: Vol. 2 : Iss. 2 , Article 8.

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ENTER THE “MASCULINITY CONFESSION BOOTH”

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-1 -1

Growing up, what are some commonly heard or implied societal messages on what it means to be a real man? Rarely do we ever hear or consider the opposite of what it means to be/become a good man. We first invite all to enter the self-confession booth by themselves (for biological males) or to reflect upon their own feminine version of societal messages (for biological females), followed by inviting their male partner, family members and friends to relate, feel and share their personal growing-up experiences (ensure it is fun and willing). As you read through the following list of messages, do pause, inquire and reflect on : 1) Whether your daily behaviours and interactions often unconsciously model the said message? 2) Whether your social environment generally agrees or disagrees with the said message? 3) What was your first and recent experience that introduced, implied or re-enforced the said message? 4) What impact does the message have on how you show up as a man today? 5) What impact does the message have on how you interact with others? (Consider the interaction with man and woman separately)

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“BEING AND/OR BECOMING A REAL MAN IS… … … … … … … …

to enjoy eating lots of protein and steak and/or drink beer and alcohol. to hit the gym, lift weights, have big and toned guns. But not skip on leg days. to demonstrate atheism, physical prowess and be good at a particular sport. to train an inverted triangle figure with broad muscular shoulders and a slim waist. to be tall, or at the very least, taller than the woman they are with. to never back down from an argument or fight. to drive cars with steady speed and confidence, not get overtaken on the road and not ask for direction when lost (especially on the road). … to be self-sufficient and financially provide for the family. … to be valued for his job, achievements, income and net worth. … to own a big house, nice car and expensive watches. … to not enjoy cooking, doing the dishes or cleaning the laundry. … to be the Hero who ultimately saves the day. … to be the one who protects and rescue women and children from danger. … to be the gentleman who initiates and pay for the first date. … to get the girl, but not be desperate for the risk of being “friend-zoned”. … to be a great romantic lover and an expert on sex. … to lose his virginity and conquer sex as a rite of passage to manhood. … to be perceived as Alpha rather than Beta within his male group. … to “size up” or “measure up” to other boys in the locker room. … to only have conversations on work, money, sports, politics, and woman with the bros. … to constantly adhere to and never break the "Bro Code". … to not show excessive physical touch, emotional connection & intimacy amongst men. … to not be branded as the kind, soft-hearted and sensitive man. … to not talk about his fears, worries and problems with others. … to never break down or cry in front of family, friends and in public. … to do whatever it takes to not to be portrayed or branded as feminine or gay. … to be a confident leader rather than a silent follower. … to be ahead of the pack and top of their game. … to do more of the talking such that others listen. … to have an opinion and point of view rather than admit to not knowing. … to be loud and outspoken rather than soft and unspoken. … to remain calm and rational in the face of uncertainty and challenges. … to never apologize and acknowledge for honest mistakes. … to act first and take control of a situation over considering options and consequences. … to cope and figure out his problems without seeking support. … to work and push through challenges and obstacles even if in pain. … to suppress or deny sickness, loneliness, depression or weakness in self and others. … to be (Fill in the blank) enough.” i.e. Brave, Big, Smart, Confident, Sexy, Successful, Privileged, Loved, Dad etc… Ultimately, to be Man enough (whatever this personally means to the man). If you have gotten this far, we now invite you to shift the dominant question instead to… “Being and/or Becoming a Good Man is to …?” 2

2.Gilpin, Caroline Crosson, and Natalie Proulx. April 12, 2018. “Boys to Men: Teaching and Learning about Masculinity in an Age of Change.” The New York Times. The New York Times.

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MALE BEHAVIOR: BIOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY OR SOCIOLOGY?

SEX & TRAUMA

Sincere apologies to all readers who once experienced the following casual yet annoying behaviours, commonly demonstrated by your father, brother, partner or male friends. Top offenders include being overly addicted to sports, hogging the remote control, sloppy messiness, never volunteering to do the housework, manspreading, inappropriately passing gas in public, insensitively yet obvious stares at other women and of course, never listening or admitting that their wrong. Some may even justify/blame these stereotypical male behaviours based on their difference in chromosome pairing, brain structure and raging testosterone. But to what extent are behaviours pre-determined, correlated and dictated by biology?

In her book “The Gendered Brain”, cognitive neuroscientist Gina Rippon debunked the sex difference myths of blue or pink gendered brains that correlate with differences in skills, aptitudes, preferences and personalities through the use of 3 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis . Similarly, Gender Similarities Hypothesis by Janet Shibley Hyde based on peer review of forty-six meta-analysis studies on sex differences also came to the same conclusion that men and women are more alike than different in our psychological characteristics across lifetime. Despite the minor differences in motor performance, there are insignificant differences in psychological trait of aggression, language and mathematical abilities, assertiveness and self-esteem amongst different sexes.4 The differences in genetic material, brain structure or hormonal influence would ultimately have little or no bearing on personality, cognition and leadership behaviors after several decades of past bias and misconception. Instead, the social perception and narrative of a separated gendered world may come to play a bigger role in shaping our observed gendered behaviors.5

The history of sex-difference scientific research is often riffed with innumeracy, misinterpretation, publication bias, weak statistical evidence, inadequate controls or worse. The long-held notion of binary distinctiveness between male and female biology and cognition is currently being re-examined, scrutinized and widely debated. Previous strong claims on fixed differences or imbalance between male and female sex brains are increasingly discredited and even dubbed as a form of “neuro-sexism”. A dangerous “biological determinism” belief that hold, stereotype and pigeonhole people into specific gendered norm behaviours.

Humanity is progressively shifting from the simplistic notion of biological essentialism, towards the perspective of evolutionary theories that agree on social environment dictating biology, instead of the other way around; that nature is inextricably entangled with nurture. Embedded in multiple scientific breakthroughs ranging from Darwin’s theory of evolution, to Bruce Lipton’s epigenetics science and recent discovery of neuroplasticity, is the very notion that human brains and cognition are in constant interaction and evolution with their environment. We come to increasingly acknowledge that male-female psychological traits exist on a wide spectrum depending on the influence of childhood developmental and social conditioning. Society’s gender binary expectation and dogma would become a self-fulfilling prophecy that drives and restricts individual freedom of action/expression in our polarized world. Perhaps the old Mar versus Venus difference may appear to be more mythical than factual. With this context in mind, we shift our crucial investigation to the early childhood conditioning and major societal narrative that heavily “nurtured” the general male psyche.

3.Rippon, Gina. 2020. The Gendered Brain: The New Neuroscience ... Vintage. 4.Hyde, Janet Shibley. 2005. “The Gender Similarities Hypothesis.” American Psychologist 60, no. 6 (2005): 581–92.

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5.Greco, Julianna. 2018. "A Social Construction" Sociological Imagination: Western’s Undergraduate Sociology Student Journal: Vol. 2 : Iss. 2 , Article 8.

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MALE INFLUENCERS: FAMILY, FRIENDS, BULLIES & OTHER BOYS Growing up, we inevitably hear terms such as “don’t cry”, “be strong”, “man up” and "no pain, no gain” directed towards young boys. Children are exposed, influenced and conditioned by their early developmental experience and social environment. Gender scripts, indoctrination socially and reinforcing a child’s impressionable mind begins immediately after birth. A child subconsciously learns what to believe in and how to behave within appropriate and acceptable boundaries that conforms to a prevailing set of attitudes, standards, and practices within their family, school, work and social system. Fathers, in particular, are eager to introduce, role model, encourage and at times, demand masculinity from their sons. Passing down introductory performance masculinity scripts and tricks in preparation for their son’s eventual admission into the adult boy’s club. This is the boys' first transmission of the meaning and value of being a man that is enacted and passed down. Further socialisation continues through the informal education of the school classroom, cafeteria and playground via how other boys view, speak, act, reward or punish and bully them.

The conflict tipping point often occurs during puberty when adolescent boys struggling with emotional confusion, feminine attraction, social acceptance, male identity, and future life direction rapidly absorb multiple mixed societal messages on what it means to be and become a man that serves as a blueprint for all future acceptable conduct. As a young man enters a university or the workforce, society’s masculine narratives would have already been heavily rooted and constantly policed onto his psyche. 67 You may now wonder about the dominant masculinity scripts and ideals our boys are being conditioned into. This starts our further examination into masculinity: The set of implicit and explicit beliefs, emotions and behaviours considered desirable, appropriate and acceptable for men in this specific cultural and historical period. Importantly, it also includes the opposing set of socially inappropriate, undesirable and unacceptable behaviours governing male behaviour and expression.8 Oftentimes, a specific and rigid set of expectations and pressure on how men should think, act and behave that will now be closely examined and deeply questioned.

6.Gilmore, vid D. Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity. New Haven: Yale university press, 1990. 7.Gilpin, Caroline Crosson, and Natalie Proulx. 2018. “Boys to Men: Teaching and Learning about Masculinity in an Age of Change.” The New York Times. The New York Times. 8.McKay, Brett, and Kate McKay. 2009. The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man. Cincinnati, OH: HOW Books.

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DISSECTING THE MASCULINE IDEALS The historical function & role of the male sex can be conveniently summed up by the 3Ps of Manhood: To Provide, To Protect, To Procreate.9 Men have traditionally been raised and rewarded with positions of privilege, prestige, and power through displaying stereotypical hypermasculine behaviors. To undergo challenging and painful trials while putting aside their inner human needs for a greater goal or common good. Thus, despite experiencing challenges and struggles of life, men are often cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally conditioned to be resilient, exercise autonomy, not emotionally express, share, or seek external support. Robert Garfield, author of “Breaking the Male Code: Unlocking the Power of Friendship" summarized that masculinity is conditioned into the four Male Codes. A deeper explanation behind the outward actions, subconscious intentions and male social indoctrination. This masculine script is further perpetuated through social policing and fear-mongering amongst men. A vicious reward and punishment cycle that demands constant self-regulation and social performance to prove and reaffirm ones state of manhood. A social phenomenon psychologist now termed as “Precarious manhood”. 9.McKay, Brett, and Kate McKay. 2009. The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man. Cincinnati, OH: HOW Books.

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HOMOPHOBO THE FOUR 10 MALE CODE

MACHISMO

Machismo - The constant pressure to embody hypermasculine as a performance of manhood. Common qualities span widely from the need to be strong and fearless, tough and aggressive, athletic and capable, rugged and independent, practical and hands-on, stoic and unemotional, commanding and assertive, challenge and dominate, achievement and recognition to more.

DUMBO Dumbo - The promotion of men as being inept, confused, lazy, or disinterested in the feelings and emotions in themselves and others. A false portrayal that men are emotionally simple, shallow, ineptitude and naïve with an innate lack of evolutionary ability to identify, express and process emotional rich and complex connections in life. Classic media portrayals include Homer Simpson (from The Simpsons), Joey Tribbiani (from Friends) and Mr Bean.

Homophobo - The discouragement of men to act emotionally interested, vulnerable or caring towards others (especially men) for fear of being mislabelled feminine or sexually attracted. Fundamentally, it is an internal fear and restriction about sexuality and masculinity stemming from historical institutionalized antigay prejudice. A mirror of society’s long attitude and behaviour towards gender stereotyping, marginalisation or misgender of feminist, homosexuality, bisexual, or transgendered group.

MISOGYNY Misogyny - The hidden and subconscious feeling of mistrust, fear or dislike towards women. This stems from a long history of presumption, prejudice and oppression towards women as inferior and/or dangerous. The root of sexualization, dehumanization and objectification of woman that led to a social phenomenon termed the “male gaze”. Often an attempt to reinforce male identity, privilege, domination and patriarchy control by discouraging /suppressing female empowerment and self-advocacy.

10.Garfield, Robert. 2016. Breaking the Male Code: Unlocking the Power of Friendship: Overcoming Male Isolation for a Longer, Happier Life. New York: Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

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This current paradigm is built on a foundation of extreme polarization and separation. The first act of violence society inflicts onto boys is to disassociate and shut off their inner emotional truth. Shackles of a patriarchal hyper-masculine culture artificially inflate masculine ideals while disassociate, disconnect, and devalue feminine qualities in boys. General outwardly male displays of emotional honesty, openness, vulnerability and connection are perceived as emasculating in men to be outwardly shamed or judged. Boys are conditioned to disconnect, deny and suppress their full emotional expression over time, leaving aggression, assertiveness and power/status-seeking behaviour as the few acceptable forms of coping mechanism.

SEX & TRAUMA

A system that thrives on secrecy, silence and judgment seeking to remain ubiquitous, where everyone plays their part without deeper question or inquiry. Men who outspokenly question and challenge the existing structure/norms are branded and shamed as an indirect admission of not being a real man. Further perpetuating deeper conditioning to not show and admit intellectual vulnerability, uncertainty or confusion that bring about great personal and societal consequences.12

Our social media constantly publicize and report of unhealthy masculine role models such as glamorizing “successful” and violent men over the sick, struggling or lonely men commonly perceived weak and are often ignored. The unrealistic and stereotypical portrayal of gender norm script in culture and media leaving no room for other middle path narratives beyond boys are tough - girls are weak, be strong or risk facing rejection yourself.11

OTHER NOTABLE CONFESSIONS FROM FELLOW MEN : “The minute men talk about masculinity, it can feel very emasculating.” “I love being a man, but not what being a man means.” “I think most men are oblivious to the multiple identities and culture they carry.” “Men know their silence is part of the problem.” “I want to change the narratives of what it means to be a man today.”

11.Mishra, Pankaj. 2018. “The Crisis in Modern Masculinity.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. 12.Plank, Liz. 2021. For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity. New York: St. Martin&Griffin.

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According to a report by the American Psychological Association, “Traditional masculinity ideology has been shown to limit male psychological development, constrain their behaviour, result in gender role strain and gender role conflict, and negatively influence mental health and physical health.” 13 In the book the Boy Crisis, our generation of boys face multiple crises ranging from declining education achievement, mental health issues, increased loneliness and social isolation, deprivation of father role model and an inner purpose void that leave a deep developmental wound and trauma as the social environment strives towards unrealistic gender ideals and expectations.14 Society’s hypermasculinity ideals, gender stereotypes, and stigma treatment inevitably push men over their physical, emotional and mental limits. It discourages emotional expression, community connection and support seeking behaviours. The harmful idea of needing to be “man enough” through denying all fear, struggle, insecurities, stress and addictions has brought about an unprecedented physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health crisis in men. Beyond the commonly known physical health crisis of not seeking professional medical consults, men often face emotional intimacy deficiency that contributes to the silent epidemic of loneliness. The experiencing a sense of shallowness in one’s relationships, associated failure to recognize or express personal feelings and details about oneself, challenges to be vulnerable or accept support, to comfortably share attention or let go of control, and to 15 listen without having to solve a problem.

THE SOCIETAL IMPACT OF UNHEALTHY MASCULINITY IDEALS These suppressed, confused and bottled-up male emotions eventually come to manifest as aggressive and violent behaviours that escalate to massive societal consequences. Statistics correlated that the male population come to contribute or dominate the current major societal issues, from gender war, rape culture, domestic violence, homelessness, theft and crime, prison crisis and even economic bubble crashes.16 This eventually led to the most toxic form of masculinity, justifying war and killing as an ultimate act of power, reasserting power, sovereignty and dominance at the moment. Mass killing and slaughter are seen in forms of public shootings, invasion and occupation of another nation, enslavement and genocide of another race, factory farm killing and rampant environmental destructions of mother nature.17

An urgent wake-up call for men to consciously question societal conditions along with self-observe their conditioned beliefs and actions.

13 “Apa Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men.” 2018. PsycEXTRA Dataset. 14.Farrell, Warren, and John Gray. 2019. The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do about It. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books. 15.McKenzie, Sarah K., Sunny Collings, Gabrielle Jenkin, and Jo River. 2018 “Masculinity, Social Connectedness, and Mental Health: Men’s Diverse Patterns of Practice.” American Journal of Men&Health 12, no. 5. 16.Plank, Liz. 2021. For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity. New York: St. Martin&Griffin. 17.“Harmful Masculinity and Violence.” 2021. American Psychological Association. American Psychological Association.

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The next step towards change, transformation and healing is via awareness, understanding and acceptance of the pain, wounds and trauma inflicted in our male conditioning. Humanity needs the best of both genders striving to reach their fullest potential. A male psyche revolution is long overdue where men advance from the limited behavioural corrective stage to the current reflective stage and eventually towards the final connective stage.18Exercising freedom, agency and sovereignty to adopt an expansive belief, compassionate and egalitarian approach towards human function, expression and communication. It starts with men being willing to actively selfreflect, question and challenges the appropriateness of deep societal ingrained beliefs and assumptions in different life scenarios and contexts. Gaining honesty and clarity over their intentions behind their actions, whether it’s from the male superego (that perpetuate desires, pride, judgements, shame, and regret) or from a place of higher consciousness (that embody compassion, love, 19 and connection). To actively reflect in daily interaction and behaviours:

“Why did I say that?” “Why did I react that way to what was said / what just happened?” “Why am I so triggered by this?” “What events and experiences lead me to first feel /continually believe this?”

MAN IN THE MIRROR This is not to disown or demonize the “toxic” masculine part of themselves, but to acknowledge the traditional role and goodness of men with an urgent need to smooth out its traditionally rough and destructive edges by integrating certain feminine traits and approaches. Internally balancing their dominant masculine qualities of bravery, autonomy and independence with the support of inner feminine qualities of vulnerability, compassion, openness and intimacy, that aligns to one’s inner principle, purpose and truth. Willingly embracing the spectrum of gender qualities and expression while broadening, developing and embodying the best qualities of BOTH masculine and feminine.20 We conclude our journey with a impactful reminder from the founder of the Man Enough movement, Justin Baldoni in his classic TED Talk titled “Why I’m done being Man Enough”. 21 He re-emphasize the need for modern men to undefine and redefine traditional masculinity qualities of strength, bravery and toughness by being Brave enough to be vulnerable and do the self-development work; Strong enough to be sensitive and show emotions even if perceived weak; Confident enough to be open and listen even if uncomfortable and perceived wrong and finally, Man enough to be a good man and human being, standing up against unhealthy toxic masculine ideals and create a safespace for all genders and future children. To grow up, clean up and show up as a better man, friend, son, partner, husband, father, entrepreneur and community leader in our current polarised humanity.

A movement to continuously question, challenge and deconstruct the traditional mask of masculinity that plague society today. Actively debunk social prejudice, norms, role, expectation, structure and dynamic around both male and female towards undefining, redefining and broadening the age-old definitions of masculinity. Accepting a multiplicity of truth over the current limited “us” versus “them” perspective toward uniting and healing a fractured gendered world. 18.“MSG Management Study Guide.” 2021. Kurt Lewin&Change Management Model: The Planned Approach to Organizational Change. 19.Brown Brené. 2015. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. London, England: Penguin Books Ltd. 20.Plank, Liz. 2021. For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity. New York: St. Martin&Griffin. 21.Baldoni, Justin. 2021. Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity. New York, NY: HarperOne.

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“The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: The male and the female. So long these two wings are not equivalent in strength. The bird (humanity) will not fly.”

ABDUL-BAHA

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COULD PORN BE LEADING HUMANITY TO BEING LESS FIT FOR SURVIVAL? BY RIIHANNON WILDE

Are you lurking? Alone in your bedroom browsing through different porn websites with staring eyes, seeking clitoris orgasms or ejaculations? Maybe telling yourself that you are investigating and educating yourself and at the same time imprinting your mind and body with this fascinating landscape of all fantasies that you can possibly think of. You are not really doing it alone. More than 109,012,060,000 people visit a porn website every year and in a way this underlines that porn has become the main source of sexual education on the planet today, for better or worse.

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WHY DO YOU/WE DO IT? Perhaps to release stress? Because you are feeling lonely? To spice up your relationship? Too get rid of shame? Out of curiosity? As a way of perpetuating trauma? Or could it be the case that your body and mind crave porn because watching it has become a real addiction? What if the more than 109,012,068,000 visits to porn websites every year is not an act of collective sexual liberation but actually a continuous retraumatization and a servere altering of the brain's neuroplasticity that makes humans less fit for survival? Or is porn the secret antidote to liberating you and the rest of humanity into the next step of shameless relational evolution?

This article will investigate the scientific takes on these questions and will discuss how you and I can evolve in the most fruitful and serving way for humanity by taking full responsibility and charge of our bodies, relationships and mind. 1.French, Ilisha M. and Hamilton, Lisa Dawn. 2018. Male-Centric and Female-Centric Pornography Consumption: Relationship With Sex Life and Attitudes in Young Adults .Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 44(1): 73-86. 2.Garlick, Steve. 2011. A new sexual revolution? Critical theory, pornography, and the Internet. Can Rev Sociol. 48(3):221-39. 3.Cigna Newsroom. 2020. Cigna Takes Action To Combat The Rise Of Loneliness And Improve Mental Wellness In America

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THE TIFA JOURNAL THE SCIENCE BEHIND

There are plenty of speculations, concerns, debates and scientific studies that have inquired about whether watching porn is good or bad for humanity. Some studies have shown positive effects of watching porn - especially for women as a stress release tool while other studies have shown negative effects such as porn addiction.1 Let's go deeper than that! Screen time, Electronics and The Human Social Connection Nervous System 2 Porn has been available since the 90’s, but in the last 10 years, it has truly been booming. In the speed of which more and more people also have electronic access! And at the same time more and more people are also reported to feel alone. A very interesting human development indeed! 3 Could it be that these two factors might correlate as retraumatization? The Polyvagal theory by Stephen Porges teaches us how our autonomic nervous system is linked to our social behaviour. He also shows through his studies how a part of our nervous system which is called the social connection nervous system 4 is not developed until after we have been born (Tabel 1). This social connection nervous system develops through eye contact, facial expression, touch and heart connection - all the elements of emphatic relating. Depending on the quality and how much of this type of interaction that you have experienced from your caregivers as an infant and the quality of this connection - You will develop different levels of safety that will impact how easily you relate to others, if you have an open heart, how you feel when you are socializing and if you are more prone to feeling isolated in the world. In other words; How safe are you to deeply connect to another human being or not.

4.Porges, Stephen W. 2001. The polyvagal theory: phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42: 123-146. 5.Welch, Martha. 2017.and Ludwig, Robert. Calming Cycle Theory and the Co-Regulation of Oxytocin. Psychodyn Psychiatry. 45:4, 519-540.

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When watching porn you are looking at a screen, and not being with another human being. You are not interacting, connecting or relating. You are watching a screen that doesn't give you reciprocal eye contact, touch or facial connection. However studies show, that while having sex and also while watching porn, your brain is producing oxytocin which is also produced during breastfeeding.6 And here lies the confusion when you for a moment feel like you are having a connected experience however it is in reality not real connection! And afterwards you return to the same reality of loneliness leaving you feeling disconnected. It is. But the oxytocin high makes you want to feel that again and again through watching more porn. Could it be that porn is keeping us in a cycle of this lack of deep social connection in our nervous systems? Could it be that because you do not feel safe to deeply connect in an intimate and vulnerable way since your nervous system has not been soothed properly, watching porn therefore becomes the easiest way to at least feel something? Could it be that a big part of the current adult generation has been growing up with the trauma in their social connection nervous system of not feeling deeply seen and met? And could it be that porn is created from this level of traumatized consciousness? We know from studies 7 that social connection, eye contact, physical touch and feeling truly safe in relating is not only creating a deep relaxation in the nervous system, but we need it to survive and evolve as a species.

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Lieberman who is one of the founders of social cognitive neuroscience, a discipline that analyzes how brain function underlies social thinking and social behavior states that:

"Mammals are more socially connected than reptiles, primates more than other mammals, and humans more than other primates,(...) what this suggests is that becoming more socially connected is essential to our survival. In a sense, evolution has made bets at each step that the best way to make us more successful is to make us more social. (...)Someday, we will look back and wonder how we ever had lives, work and schools that weren't guided by the principles of the social 8 brain.” With this in mind it is a valid question to ask - Is porn actually contributing to evolving humanity in a direction of weakness and loneliness rather than fit for survival by being more connected? This is especially an interesting question to ponder when we consider the current world crisis that we all face together at this time! Could sexual shame and fear of rejection be the roadblocks? Imagine that the more than 109,012,068,000 viewers of online porn each year is a human being - you - everyday feeling sexual shame and fear or rejection of actually sharing their/your deepest sexual desires, needs, vulnerabilities and longings with their partner or another person but instead a big part of humanity is seeking the easy solution of watching porn alone. And could it be that this sexual shame and fear of rejection actually stem from our upbringings with lack of sexual education and having parents who had parents who viewed sex as something shameful and not something we could talk openly about? I am sure that you as a reader feel the answers on these questions deeply depending on your upbringing. Let's look into another aspect! - The Brain.

6.Mitrokostas. 2019. What Happens to Your Body & Brain When You Orgasm. Business Insider. 7.Wolpert, Stuart. 2018. UCLA neuroscientist's book explains why social connection is as important as food and shelter.

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8.Wolpert, Stuart. 2018. UCLA neuroscientist's book explains why social connection is as important as food and shelter.

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YOUR AMAZING BRAIN PLASTICITY Neuroplasticity “...at its most basic level, refers to the brain’s ability to change. When you learned to ride a bike, your brain didn’t just logically process the steps involved in riding a bike, your brain literally, physically changed itself into a brain built for bike-riding. It can mold and shape itself, like a playdough, as it responds to outside forces and experiences”.9 When we engage in an activity—particularly a pleasurable activity, and particularly if it involves repetition and intense focus—the brain alters itself so that it’ll be better and more efficient at doing that activity the next time.10 Our brains create what are known as “neural pathways.” The more we engage in an activity, the stronger the pathways associated with that activity become.11 Once formed, those pathways can become remarkably long-lasting and resilient. Pathways neglected or ignored, even for years, are still there, ready to be revitalized 12 hence the saying, “It’s like riding a bike.” Porn can take our brains’ natural stimuli, our desire for intimacy and connection, our longing to feel strong or desirable in our relationships, our interest in a particular feature or activity, and give us more quantity, more exaggerated, and more “supernormal” versions of that thing, until it can override what we think is normal, warp what we perceive as exciting, and make real intimacy seem less interesting by comparison studies show.13 This is why Dr. Simone Kühn and Dr. Jürgen Gallinat concluded that pornography affects the brain through an “intense stimulation of our reward system” ultimately making “pornography consumption more rewarding than real life intimacy in a relationship.” With this neuroplasticity awareness it is easy to conclude that watching porn often is wiring our brains in a specific way.14

9,10.Pace, Steven. 2014. Acquiring Tastes through Online Activity: Neuroplasticity and the Flow Experiences of Web Users. M/C Journal, 17:1. 11.Pitchers, K. K., Vialou, V., Nestler, E. J., Laviolette, S. R., Lehman, M. N., & Coolen, L. M. 2013. Natural and drug rewards act on common neural plasticity mechanisms with ΔFosB as a key mediator. The Journal of neuroscience: the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 33:8, 3434–3442.

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12.Love, T., Laier, C., Brand, M., Hatch, L., & Hajela, R. 2015. Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction: A Review and Update, Behavioral Sciences, 5:), 388-433. 13.Voon, V., et al. 2014. Neural Correlates of Sexual Cue Reactivity in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviors, PLoS ONE, 9:7. 14.Fightthenewdrug.org. 2021. How Porn Can Change The Brain.

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Let's look at what happens in your body when you ejaculate and only focus on getting a clitorial peak orgasm: Porn is focusing on fast fucking, peak orgasms and ejaculation and not long lasting intimacy and emotional connection. Perhaps there is a very good reason for this? Addiction equals money. We know from research that during orgasm your dopamine levels will become very increased. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter responsible for feeling pleasure, desire, motivation and activates the reward system and this can create the addiction, whether it is drug addiction or in this case porn addiction. After you have ejaculated or had a clitoral peak orgasm, dopamine levels drop and you will feel hungover and start longing for the next dopamine high. Oxytocin is also being activated during mastubation and that gives you a sense of the connectedness. After ejaculation or clitoral peak orgasm oxytocin levels also drops. Research 15 on male rats have also shown that they experience a reduction in testosterone receptors for up to a week after ejaculation resulting in a decrease in energy. And when a man’s testosterone levels decrease after ejaculation, he feels less like a man. He feels the need to pull away and may even lose interest for a while. Vasopressin helps him hold the interest of a woman and increases when he’s sexually excited but hella decreases after he ejaculates according to Harvard studies.16 It is easy to conclude that the porn industry is living off these neurotransmitters firing in your brain making you addicted. Just like sugar in our foods creates addiction and in that way can be money machine. Many men and also women have come forward around the world to report17 how porn is very addicting and how in some cases it ruins lives. Some porn sites even have disclaimers using it as a part of their way of pulling in. However we as consumers are in the end the ones who have the power and responsibility of what we buy into and if we dare to feel everything that is underneath our addictions. Let's take an even deeper look at what actually happens in the body when you repeatedly ejaculate or get clitoris orgasms.

15.J Neurosci. 2013. Testosterone Depletion in Adult Male Rats Increases Mossy Fiber Transmission, LTP, and Sprouting in Area CA3 of Hippocampus. National Library of Medicine. 16.Harvard Medical School. 2015. Love and the Brain. hms.harvard.edu. 17.Promises Behavioral Health. 2013. From Masturbation to Molestation: ‘Severity Levels’ in Sex Addiction.

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WHY DO MOST OF HUMANITY ONLY FOCUS ON THE CLITORIS ORGASM AND EJACULATION? For women all of the genitalia contains a huge number of nerve endings (the clitoris alone has more than 8,000 19 of them), which are, in turn, connected to large nerves that run up through the body to the spinal cord. The vagus nerve on the other hand bypasses the spinal cord, performing many other functions in the body in addition to providing the nerve supply, and therefore feedback to the brain, during sexual stimulation. For most women and men pleasure equals stimulating the clitoral part of the vagina and ejaculating for men. Therefore it is also this kind of neuroplasticity that you teach your brain to respond to just like if you were riding a bike. Another way of saying that you teach your brain's reward system to respond to a very specific way of stimulating the 8000 nerve endings of the clitoris. Get that peak orgasm and go to sleep! We can say that your neuroplasticity creates a pattern. WHAT IS SEX, CONNECTION?

INTIMACY

AND

While some will say that porn is liberating us, a concern is that it doesn't show emotional intimacy, heart connection and authentic communication which we all know is a big part of real life relating and very crucial. When we look at the world and notes that most of humanity experiences generational trauma, sexual abuse (every 1⁄3 of women has been sexually abused - more than 10% of all men according to WHO 20 ) , lack of emotional and heart intelligence, there is a lot of things pointing to the fact that porn is an energetic repetition of our collective trauma.

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It is also a big concern that porn is the biggest “sex educator” on the planet as it actually only shows a small fractions of what is possible during sex. Let's dive into this at the end of the article. The positive side of porn - and the timeline aspect - that the scientific standpoint neglects: Let's have a look at some of the reported positive sides of watching porn! If you have experienced a lot of shaming and repressed sexual energy from the people around you (like most of humanity) in your upbringing, could watching porn be a way for you to live out shame and repression in a way that serves you? Could it be that the diversity in sexual expression, desires 21 and fantasies that porn shows is a way that people can feel met and save marriages? According to Michelle Montoro, porn saved her sex life because she was able to see women like her, with her body size and it sparked her sexual desire. Could it be that if you have had a rough childhood and were about to get into some gang shit that porn would be your addiction savior? 22 Can it be that watching porn helps to save marriages because you can get relief for your sexual fantasies without having to live them out in real life? According to the famous singer Robbie Williams porn was his savior.23 Could it be that the positive effects of watching porn stems from women who are via today's society more in their masculine energy and by watching porn and getting a peak orgasm it makes them more relaxed and gives them a good night sleep? 24 We all know the benefits for health on a good night sleep and how that let alone improves one's life. However, what we see with all the positive effects of porn is that it all stems from deeper issues that are based on a very specific timeline and problem - where porn comes in as a helper in all these cases!! As a symptom treatment but actually not dealing with the root cause! So when science or personal stories report positive effects we need to look at the timeline of each individual and at the underlying deeper issue.

19.Wikimedia Foundation. 2022, April 10. Clitoris. Wikipedia. 20.Joint News Release. 2022. (n.d.). Devastatingly pervasive: 1 in 3 women globally experience violence. World Health Organization. 21.Michelle Montoro. 2019, August 13. How pornography saved my sex life. Medium.

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22.Arellano, G. 2002, February 7. HOW PORN SAVED MY LIFE. OC Weekly. 23. 2020. Robbie Williams: Porn saved my marriage. LadyFirst. (n.d.). 24.Suni E. 2022, March 11. The relationship between sex and sleep. Sleep Foundation.

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WHAT COULD BE EVEN BETTER THAN WATCHING PORN? Imagine a way where your dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin levels could always be active and high? The neurotransmitter components that are needed for us to feel pleasure, motivation and deeply connected as earlier described. A recent research by Dr. Nicole Prause25 showed that not only is the biggest reason for having sex pleasure but also that the greatest reward, using electrocephalograpgy EEG 26 (where you measure the electrical impulses in the brain) to measure, is in fact the high arousal state during sex and not the 8-12 rytmic contactions during the normal peak/ejaculation orgasm. This can indicate that conserving your high sexual arousal state is the way forward. Imagine that you could experience long lasting orgasms for 30 min up to several hours rather than 5-10 seconds! Imagine sex and intimacy as a tool for humanity to reach higher states of consciousness and connection instead of separation! Most of humanity does not realise that there are 8 different types of orgasms that women can have through 4 unique nerve pathways - he Vagina, the Uterus, the Clitoris and the Cervix! 6 of these orgasmic experiences will require that you don't have the normal peak orgasm but circulate your sexual energy and stay neurotransmitter high. According to tantric sexologists and tantric practitioners this is all possible, if you know how to work your science, as Dr. Nicole Prause also discovered. Giving in to the high dopamine of the peak orgasm and ejaculation rush but instead circulate your sexual energy as a wave without climaxing. Let's take a look at what many independent tantric researchers 27 have found to be true on what happens in the body when you don't peak on the clitoris orgasm or ejaculate as a man but with slowness and presence keep circulating and storing the sexual energy 28

25. 2022. Liberos. (n.d.). 26.Prause, N., Siegle, G. J., Deblieck, C., Wu, A., & Iacoboni, M. (n.d.). 2022. EEG to primary rewards: Predictive utility and malleability by brain stimulation. PLOS ONE. 27.Hope, A. 2017, November 14. Pineal gland: Science, DMT, fluoride, and activation. Wake Up World. 28.Somatic consent | The art of touch - book orgasmic. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2022.

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Sexual Arousal, Circulating Slow

Sexual Arousal, Circulating Fast

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These tables show the difference between ejaculating and getting a peak 5-10 seconds clitoris orgasm and to circulating the energy and not peaking and how the neurotransmitters are affected by this. A part of this knowledge comes from science and another part of the embodied knowledge on circulating sexual energy is only experienced by a relatively small number of people on the planet at this time. 29

Interestingly hundreds of tantric practitioners report this same information - how by circulating the sexual energy that oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin and melatonin stays high and can potentially under the right circumstances activate DMT 30 into the spinal fluid which together gives the experiences of altered states of consciousness as similarly reported in plant medicine. There are different factors making this possible. Two of them are that both parties being deeply vulnerable with each other / heart fully open and that the body is fully de-armoured 32 from emotional blocks and trauma armour. Underlining that a relaxed nervous system and a balanced human social connection nervous system is crucial for this to happen. As we concluded earlier, the heart connection is a vital part. Could it be that in a time of huge climate crises, health crisis, economic crisis and trauma crisis aso that the solutions we are seeking are not out there but to be found in our neurotransmitters, level of consciousness and our social connection nervous system bringing us closer and connected through the heart and not through rubbing our genitals though porn behind a screen ? Imagine what effect it would have on our collective consciousness if the 109,012,068,000 billions of people each year watching porn would instead feel safe to be vulnerable and connect eye to eye,body to body - heart to heart and potentially work towards altered states of consciousness? What effect would it have on you if you felt deeply connected and loved by someone in everything that you are ? 29.2021. Tantra and DMT - sex and spirit - somatic consent. (n.d.). 30.Ginkgo Biloba. (n.d.). DMT: The spirit molecule (2010) [multi subs] - youtube. Retrieved April 27. 2022 31.Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, April 24). N,N-Dimethyltryptamine. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N,N-Dimethyltryptamine

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CONCLUSION Upon this collection of research studies, it has become clear that porn does affect our brain, neuroplasticity and nervous system in a possibly traumatic way. Porn is also affecting our relationships and is enhancing isolation and addictiveness instead of creating deeper human connection. Depending on personal timelines there can be both positive and negative outcomes from watching porn, however there are no indication that porn can heal trauma or solve root causes in people's lives - and therefore it is clear that we must be aware of the addictive neurochemistry that is activated in the brain and nervous system with a constant high and low of dopamine and oxytocin levels that. Like sugar and other addictions, watching porn is blocking humanity to think long term and being able to elevate into higher states of consciousness and human connection - and through that creating a better and safer world where we take care of each other, the Earth and every other living species. On a personal level: If you have childhood trauma of not feeling seen, heard and truly met by your parents as a child - watching porn doesn't seem to be the solution for you and humanity to engage in or dwell into. Relational trauma can only be rewired in relating to our social connection nervous system through interaction with other people. If your heart is truly longing for intimacy - porn is never the solution! It will work like a bandaid but do not address the real issue. On a collective level: Even Though we might assume porn being a small thing we do alone in our bedrooms compared to the collective challenges we face we are now more than ever invited to see how the micro level of human consciousness has created the macro level. In a time of economic, health, sexual, racial, environmental and inequality crisis that is slapped in our face, especially since the effects of covid-19 showing us even more so how much we are deeply interconnected, dependent and affected by one another. We have learned or HAVE to learn that the only way to solve things is through elevating education & consciousness - and to truly stand together and connect through empathy and solutions for the higher good and not for the greedy ego wanting instant gratification. Fittest For Survival Can it be that the solutions we seek for our collective issues does not lie in keeping our nervous system’s in a state of short term defense/survival mode due to trauma and repeatedly using porn as an escape to feel deeper and safe for a little while - but that our ability for survival as humanity at this moment in history lies in the ability to be able to be vulnerable and connect deeply - and to be in a deep rest and digest state and feeling how everything is interconnected - through a continuous flow of oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin high - we get to experience the deep sense of connectedness to life with another human being and that THIS is what we truly need to move beyond our egos and live in a more sustainable, loving and cohesive way on the planet? May this article be an inspiration into how the micro level of your life affects the macro level and for you to through the knowledge of science to dare to receive the love and connection that you truly long for!

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SEXUAL TRAUMA BY SHILPI SINGH

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INTRODUCTION

Most girls in India feel unsafe and have experienced sexual trauma by family members or by those they encounter regularly in everyday life! Indian society and the family unit often displace blame of such traumas or pretend to care about the well-being of girls by restricting their life experiences. They don’t allow their girls to go out to play or be educated, saying that it’s not important and it is unsafe for them. Growing up in India girls oftentimes are told that "people are bad," and so they begin to believe this narrative. Gender segregation is normalized within the school system with girls’ and boys’ schools to kept separate. The educational and personal restrictions are a way of dwindling female power and making women and girls vulnerable in the society, so that they don’t have a voice of their own. Men are the ones who made this society where the women stay at home, raise children, give pleasure to men, shut their mouth, and don’t question. Men are the master of the family and they believe that the women are incapable of doing field work or to help run the society. It’s all about power! However, I wouldn’t deny to say that the so-called traditional Indian society as anywhere else in the world is evolving. Traditional family structures are breaking down. There is still a long way to go; deep rooted trauma to Indian women has been passed on from generation to generation. This ongoing trauma cycles is mainly due to lack of awareness/ignorance, lack of respect to others’, and an overall low emotional intelligence amongst the population. The research that this article will focus on is about Sexual Trauma in the female child (ages 6-16) within the Indian society.

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I HAVE TAKEN FOUR QUESTIONS FOR MY FINDING AND THEY ARE THE FOLLOWING: 1. Root cause for trauma 2. How it manifests/affects an individual 3. How to heal/overcome childhood trauma 4. Prevention Before going into sexual trauma we need to understand what trauma is” WHAT IS TRAUMA? Trauma comes from a Greek word that means wound. It’s not an experience which only makes you feel overwhelming in your capacity to cope, but it is an experience that puts you in a moment of shocking halt. It is too intense to be taken in completely by our nervous system. It involves serious loss, both physical and emotional harm, and could create life-long behavioral issues. In trauma, the person has a sense of helplessness and oftentimes they do not have the capacity to cope.

WHAT IS SEXUAL TRAUMA? Sexual trauma includes traumatic experiences that are related to one’s gender identity, sexuality, or the body in a sexual context. It includes a wide range of events including violating someone’s consent or sexual boundaries either by force or coercion. For example, it can include sexual assault, rape, molestation, incest, sex-related abortion, and any other non-consensual sexual contact. It can also include verbal and emotional harm related to gender or sexual identity such as making crude jokes, diminishing someone because of their sex,

Trauma is categorized in two types: Single trauma (an accident): a traumatic event that happened once in a person’s life such as a car accident. Complex trauma: reoccurring events in childhood which affect the growing brain, becoming a frozen memory.

sexuality, or physical gender identity. It is

Peter Levine, a well-known psychological trauma theorist, characterizes trauma not by the event but by one’s reaction to it and symptoms. He explains that “any overwhelming and distressing experience can cause trauma and that trauma is only recognizable in its symptoms.”

committed by a person responsible for the care of

inappropriate sexual behavior and event/events with a child which includes fondling a child's genitals, making the child fondle the adult's genitals,

intercourse,

incest,

rape,

sodomy,

exhibitionism and sexual exploitation. To be considered child abuse‘, these acts have to be a child (for example a baby-sitter, a parent, or a daycare provider), or someone related to the child. If a stranger commits these acts, it would be considered sexual assault and handled solely by the police and criminal courts. Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is forcing undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or (often pejoratively) molester. The term also covers any behavior by any adult towards a child to stimulate either the adult or child sexually. When the victim is younger than the age of consent, it is referred to as child sexual abuse.

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CAUSES OF SEXUAL TRAUMA I pondered on it, discussed with many people of all ages and researched on Google scholar, and found the following which is some of the root cause for Sexual trauma in Indian girls: Major problem: a surprising majority of males act out of impulse and desire, which leads to incidents of mindlessly overstepping the child’s innocence and boundaries. Sex Education: Culturally there is total lack of sex education in school, the family, and all of society. Many parents don’t know to teach their children about good and bad touch or give children a sense of security, because it is considered as taboo to discuss, except occasionally amongst the adults. State educational structures as yet do not provide avenues for an open dialogue about oppression, sexuality and violence. In India, when a girl starts developing physically, the culture imposes the idea of the need to shield, and hide her developing body which creates oppressing notions in her psyche, which develop into feeling shame for her growing body, rather than feeling proud of becoming a woman. Therefore, the cycle of sexual violence amongst adolescents or teens goes on. Education or human value: Most of the men do not have proper education, knowledge and understanding of human being and life. They haven’t learned or been taught to respect and consent other person’s choice. Tradition and Culture: most of the Indian culture still considers having sex without marriage as being wrong, and the need has been repressed which often manifests in a forceful and unwanted ways. Online Pornography: In India now almost every man has a smart phone with internet because it is affordable to everyone, and they are exposed to all kinds of sex related vulgarity, without any discrimination. Pride of being men: as our society has given men the authority of being superior to women, they tend to use this to overpower women. Old power hierarchies of patriarch exists under the surface. Child marriage system: Centuries ago in most of India the elderly men were getting married to young girls, sometimes even the girls who just got their first period and that was acceptable by the society. It’s unbelievable, but still in some regions of India the child marriage is still happening because it is a patriarchal society.

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CAUSE OF SEXUAL TRAUMA Rigidity and attachment with the culture: Indians have a strong sense of collective aspiration, and whether it’s good or bad they don’t question, and follow them religiously. Such as the dowry system, cast system, and the veil system. It has a negative impact on the girl’s life. They are being neglected, unwanted, blamed for their existence on the family, and not given equal education, or no education, which is a birth right for every human being. Apart from that, social reputation matters a lot to the Indian family. They often hide or keep secret when such an incident happens. Poverty: Many poor parents have an immense pressure for their daughters to marry as they have to pay the dowry. Girls are always reminded that they are a burden on their family. Their existence costs a lot to the family. In this case, instead of spending money on their education in order to make them independent in their life, often the middle or lower class parents save money for their daughter’s marriage. Girls don’t have their own room and privacy, often the entire family shares one room and they sleep in the same room or even on the bed along with other adults. Disassociation from the real world/media influence: watching romantic movies which are often sexist in nature where a woman is often sexually objectified, and then trying to imitate this in the real life. Women and children who are sexually abused often feel oppressed and powerless, and unable to voice their predicament. Substance abuse: excessive use of substances lowers their consciousness, and often people don’t operate from their sane mind. Men who live with alcoholism tend to abuse their wives and daughters which may also lead to physical and as sexual abuse as well. The state agencies e.g., the police often not sensitive in handling the victims of violence and therefore silence around these issues remains deepState educational structures as yet do not provide avenues for an open dialogue about oppression, sexuality and violence.

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TRAUMATIZED BRAIN NEUROBIOLOGY Trauma affects every part of the brain: it overloads, practically lighting up the left brain while the right brain shuts down. Back brain becomes hyper active and the front brain is less active or shuts down. The brain goes into a frozen state. It is either hyper alert or goes into paralysis, and the connection of different parts of the brain gets messed up. Our brain takes in stimuli and needs to deal with the excess stimuli that never gets dealt with. It needs to process all the sensory input on an ongoing basis. All this happens rapidly, in a very small amount of time, you can say, its energy information which is flowing through our nervous system. In trauma, the brain does not know how to bring together and coordinate these different sensory-input systems. When we have integration, it brings us to a balanced emotional response, but if that does not happen, it becomes traumatizing. All of the information that does not get integrated goes into so-called frozen memory and it manifests in different forms.

THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF TRAUMA Researchers in neuropsychology often split the brain into three distinct units; the hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain and the focus is on the area of the brain affected by trauma. Trauma is as unique as its role is in changing neural pathways; however, common issues arise within the temporal and frontal lobes in areas such as the cerebral cortex, cerebrum, hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala and hippocampus.

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HOW DOES A TRAUMATIC PERSON’S BRAIN PERCEIVE INFORMATION? A traumatic brain has a pervasive experience of fear that elicits feelings of being unsafe in the very relationships that were supposed to nurture and guide them. Feeling a lack of safety in their body, with their feelings, in their thoughts. Their emotional brain becomes a survival brain. It relies on basic automatic survival response – fight, flight, freeze, or faint. The thinking brain gets hijacked by trauma; it cannot access it and is unable to make rational decisions. Their

brain

exaggerates

the

negative

experiences so strongly that it does not manage to make a balance with good experiences. The alarm system of the brain becomes totally distorted to register danger. It perceives danger in dangerous, as well as in positive situations. The primary aftereffects of childhood sexual abuse have been divided into seven distinct, but overlapping categories Emotional reactions Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Self-perceptions Physical and biomedical effects Sexual effects Interpersonal effects Social functioning Responses can be greatly variable and idiosyncratic within the seven categories. Also, survivors may fluctuate between being highly symptomatic and relatively symptom-free.

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COMMON SYMPTOMS IN ADULT SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE: Physical Presentations

Depression and anxiety

Chronic pelvic pain

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms

Gastrointestinal symptoms/distress

Dissociative states

Musculoskeletal complaints

Repeated self-injury

Obesity, eating disorders

Suicide attempts

Insomnia, sleep disorders

Lying, stealing, truancy, running away

Pseudocyesis

Poor contraceptive practices

Sexual dysfunction

Compulsive sexual behaviors

Asthma, respiratory ailments

Sexual dysfunction

Addiction

Somatizing disorders

Chronic headache

Eating disorders

Chronic back pain

Poor adherence to medical recommendations

Psychologic and Behavioural Presentations

Intolerance of or constant search for intimacy

Depression and anxiety

Expectation of early death

Psychologic and Behavioural Presentations Although there is no single syndrome that is universally present in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, there is an extensive body of research that documents adverse short- and long-term effects of such abuse. To appropriately treat and manage survivors of CSA, it is useful to understand that survivors' symptoms that often represent coping strategies employed in response to abnormal, traumatic events. These coping mechanisms are used for protection during the abuse or later to guard against feelings of overwhelming helplessness and terror. Although some of these coping strategies may eventually lead to health problems, if symptoms are evaluated outside their original context, survivors may be misdiagnosed or mislabeled . In addition to the psychologic distress that may potentiate survivors' symptoms, there is evidence that abuse may result in biophysical changes. For example, one study found that, after controlling for history of psychiatric disturbance, adult survivors had lowered thresholds for pain (13). It also has been suggested that chronic or traumatic stimulation (especially in the pelvic or abdominal region) heightens sensitivity, resulting in persistent pain such as abdominal and pelvic pain or other bowel symptoms. Although responses to sexual abuse vary, there is remarkable consistency in mental health symptoms, especially depression and anxiety. These mental health symptoms may be found alone or more often in tandem with physical and behavioral symptoms. More extreme symptoms are associated with abuse onset at an early age, extended or frequent abuse, incest by a parent, or use of force (4). Responses may be mitigated by such factors as inherent resiliency or supportive responses from individuals who are important to the victim (4). Even without therapeutic intervention, some survivors maintain the outward appearance of being unaffected by their abuse. Most, however, experience pervasive and deleterious consequences.

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THE LASTING EFFECTS AND TRAUMA OF SEXUAL ABUSE Experiencing sexual abuse creates a feeling of powerlessness in the child and leaves the child with the perception of having little control over what happens. Girls are more likely to exhibit internalizing behaviors, such as depression and eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, or obesity). Externalizing behaviors such as delinquency and heavy drinking are more likely exhibited by boys. Being used as an object to satisfy the needs of the perpetrator can lead to feelings of devaluation and worthlessness and lead to lifelong difficulty with intimate relationships. According to World Health Organization (WHO), 33 percent of women with a history of sexual abuse show signs of a psychiatric disorder. They are also more likely to be psychiatrically hospitalized and have more extensive utilization of health care services. The most painful effects of abuse come from the betrayal of trust by the perpetrator and other adults who failed to protect the child in the first place or did not support the child upon disclosure. Many children believe the abuse is their fault, and some learn to hate themselves. Childhood sexual abuse not only robs children of their childhood, but can have long term effects that seep into adulthood. These include: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Depression Anxiety Eating disorders Obesity Alcohol and drug abuse Self-injurious behaviors such as cutting Increased likelihood of being re-victimized as an adult PTSD could then fuel a personality disorder.

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SYMPTOMS OF PTSD The severity and type of symptoms can vary greatly among survivors of sexual assault and abuse, but there are a few common symptoms: Depression Anxiety Flashbacks or hyper-reactivity to stimulus like sounds or colors that reminds them of the trauma Intrusive symptoms like random thoughts which will drastically change their demeanor Avoidance of thoughts or things that remind the person of the trauma Hyper-sensitivity and easily triggered feelings Detrimental impact on their ability to function day-to-day Families and loved ones may notice increased irritability, feelings of anger, feelings of numbness or substance abuse, and also resistance and rebellion. Their loved ones may start to get into fights or have more angry outbursts. People might also become less social, afraid to leave their homes and miss work or school. It is important to listen them when they want to talk and steer them to get help.

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HOW TO HEAL/OVERCOME CHILDHOOD SEXUAL TRAUMA Our body is designed in such an amazing way that it knows how to heal by itself, but it needs time and attention –just to be relaxed. Ancient practices and scripture to heal trauma Ancient India developed and used many techniques to heal trauma, such as breathing techniques, chanting mantras, meditation, yoga, and many more to relax the body, to silence the mind, and to release the stress from the cellular body, through raising the consciousness. One of these ancient techniques is known as Sutras, which provides access to higher realms of consciousness and unleashes the magnificent gifts and powers that are uniquely yours. The Sutras help release and heal past trauma, empower creativity, deepen meditation practice, and enable the students to initiate to higher realms of Spirit. Many cultures of India also formed rituals to heal trauma on the individual level as well as the collective. For example, the Theyyamin Kerala is one of the rituals celebrated for healing trauma of the women and to the Dalit who had experienced trauma generation after generation. Yogic approach of Healing of Trauma Sri Aurobindo’s approach towards psychology and healing trauma (Dr.Monica Gupta, Personal Communication) Sri Aurobindo looked at psychology as a science of consciousness. He said that there is much in human nature that we repress, that we push down into unconscious, into subconscious layers and that material need to be addressed. According to Sri Aurobindo the way to heal is not to go into the subconscious, and into the unconscious and bring out the materials that have been repressed but to ascend to a higher light. A light that can come down and heal, a light which can touch and remove the darkness from the subconscious, and unconscious layers. The higher we ascend the greater the power of the Light.

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So, according to him the greatest healing Light will come from the highest consciousness, and if we want to completely heal the unconscious, then we need to ascend to the highest supernatural planes. For there is great power there, and that’s the power which can heal the deepest problems/trauma/ issues within us –unconscious problems – the problems of irrationality, the problems of darkness, the problems of lack of refinement. According to him if one has to heal, the healer herself or himself needs to be in the state of stillness, a state of warmth, a state of completeserenity and these qualities emanate from the psychic or the soul within. Psychicenvironment needs to be created for healing- the environment of beauty, in nature, in emotions or even in our physical surroundings has the tendency to quieten the energies and therefore creating the receptivity for healing. Healing also requires adequate amount of rest and adequate amount of relaxation. A lot of hurry, agitation, restlessness will only increase the problems - will not help even a person intending to help and trying to solve their issue - it’s not going to help. So there needs to be peace, there needs to be calm and quietening and receptivity. Creating receptivity in the to receive the Light and that is indeed the yogic method of healing trauma. SOMATIC THERAPIES While traditional kinds of talk therapy, such as psychoanalysis and cognitive-behavioral therapy are often helpful in overcoming trauma, they are not always sufficient — particularly where sex and sexuality are concerned, whether dealing with the child or adult. This body of therapy has proven to be especially beneficial in dealing with traumatized children who are as yet unable to express their emotions as well as youth or adolescents who frequently feel the weight of shame and guilt. Somatic therapy - a type of bodycentered therapy that combines psychotherapy with various physical techniques, recognizes that trauma can be as much a part of the body as of the mind. “Somatic” comes from the Greek word soma, which means “body.” According to somatic therapy, trauma symptoms are the result of an unstable autonomic nervous system (ANS). Our past traumas disrupt the ANS and can manifest themselves in a wide variety of physical symptoms. This type of holistic approach can be especially useful for survivors of sexual violence.

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TREATMENT OPTIONS FOR VICTIMS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy is evidence based treatment for PTSD, depression, and behavior problems related to traumatic experiences including sexual trauma. It is short term therapy over 12 to 16 sessions and includes individual sessions for the child and parent as well as joint sessions. It includes psychoeducation about impact of trauma, relaxation training, parenting skills, cognitive processing to change negative thoughts and most importantly trauma narration in which the child describes the traumatic experience. The key to successful treatment is the therapist's ability to tolerate talking and hearing about the child's traumatic experience. These graphic descriptions can be very distressing and leads to avoidance of discussion by the child, but remembering and talking about the trauma is central to reduce the trauma's impact. Such treatment can help reduce the risk that the child will develop serious problems as an adult. Families of these children should be assessed for the presence of other risk factors such as substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence, or other dysfunction. Identified risk factors must be addressed and appropriate treatment initiated. Recovery for children can be facilitated by optimizing the strengths of their families and identifying and then addressing their weaknesses.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY SUPPORT Ultimately, the responsibility and blame lies on the perpetrators of these heinous acts. However, family support when a victim speaks out plays a crucial role in protecting against negative consequences for sexual abuse victims. This responsibility lies with all of us and we need to give all parents and adults working with children the knowledge to recognize the signs of abuse and the tools to report it to the proper authorities when they see it or suspect it. Not only is it urgent for parents and family members to bring justice to such crimes, it is also vital for the victims and their families to seek medical examinations and psychiatric consultations. Therapy can help abused children regain self-esteem, cope with feelings of guilt about the abuse, and begin the process of over coming the trauma. Overall, like any other trauma, sexual trauma can turn a person’s behavior into depression or aggression or both. It affects a persons’ behavior, which could cause extreme mood fluctuations, feelings of impotence, failure, guilt and intellectual inhibition. These are expressed in the body as agitation, stress and tension, bowl movement disorder, fatigue, or being hyper alert, or vigilant. Considering this, the healing has to occur, in order to comfort the person mentally, emotionally as well as physically. Empathetic listen without any judgment or comment often tends to soothe the person’s psyche,which helps them move toward balance.

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PRACTICAL WAYS TO HELP RELEASE TRAUMA BASED BLOCKED FROZEN ENERGY AND TO BALANCE THE NEUROCHEMISTRY Practice breathing and relaxing while you are working Re-visiting and deconstructing the trauma and confronting the within Practice self appreciation, talk to your body and listen to it, self-massage (abhayanga), self-shiatsu Keep yourself open to the universe and have trust in it Ask for help if you are in any crisis or have any fear/ talk to your therapist if you have one Express your creativity through the form you are comfortable – writing, dancing, singing etc. Practice meditation and mindfulness Look into the life style- spend time in the nature and with the nature Morning rituals (energy flow work such as shiatsu, yoga, pranayama, qi gong, sun basking, journaling, setting affirmations, meditating) Avoid everyday activities that drain your energy/engage yourself with the soothing activities such as candle flame gazing in the evening or before going to bed , listening to good soft music or mantras, spend time with the light minded people; no gossip) Celebrate your achievement no matter how small or big it is Make sure you switch off your smart phone, light latest by 9:30pm. Go on retreat/holiday /give yourself a vacation Eat light, fresh food – more fruits and vegetables and give yourself time while eating, hydrate yourself well Do things that brings joy to and uplift your consciousness such as watching comedy, reading an inspiring book, involve yourself with any new learning Avoid any substance which makes you anxious Organize your day Practice introspection – look into your needs and feelings. Work on your basic needs Going into the core and depth of the issue and have a talk with the abuser if possible and get a peace with it. Have a purpose/goal in your life and celebrate it. Do things which nurture your psyche and connect you to the nature because the nature is the best healer. Have trust, the nature and time will heal you! Relax and Breath! Breathe for your beautiful existence. These activities will help to rebuild your self-perception and clear the blockages which prevent you moving forward in your life. PREVENTION Some thoughts on prevention from sexual trauma: Education: sexual, behaviour, refining senses and beauty, education of cogniHacking: Mindfulness and Metacognition, changing the social mindset about the female and human relationship, talking out, learning about good and bad touch, expressing about their trauma, opening up a collective movement, identifying the abuser and creating a safe environment for them to heal, developing avenues to channel this strong, vibrant energy which could lead harmful behavior towards others

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TWO PROMISING COMPONENTS OF A POST-“METOO” SOLUTION: RESTORATIVE JUSTICE & AN INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF SEX OFFENDERS’ NEUROBIOLOGY BY CARRÉ SUTTON

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INTRODUCTION In 2006, civil rights activist Tarana Burke began using the phrase “me too” when discussing the work of her non-profit organization (Wexler and Robbennolt, 2019). 1 She was focused on increasing resources and creating peer advocacy for survivors of sexual violence, particularly for women of color from non-wealth communities (Mueller et al., 2020). 2 Burke did not know that when she used the term “me too” eleven years later in an interview, it would become the term associated with such a pervasive social media campaign, something that would serve to promote collective healing and raise awareness about women who had been sexually assaulted (Murray, 2017; Robbennolt and Wexler, 2019).3 The social media hashtag (#metoo) quicky gained global recognition after actor Alyssa Milano used Burke’s term in a Tweet, sparking a viral movement (Guerra, 2017).4 This campaign is seen as the beginning of some significant cultural shifts–in terms of conversation, language, and in some cases, legal practices (Beitsch, 2018). 5 As this social media campaign grew in popularity, women and men continued to come forward to share their stories of sexual harassment and sexual assault (Bower, 2019). 6 There seemed to be a new understanding about what was and was not tolerable, what was and was not justified, and it seemed that real and lasting change was on the horizon (Bower, 2019).7 As Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance states in Ms. Burke’s MeToo Impact Report (2019), “One of the biggest effects of the #MeToo Movement has been to show Americans and people around the world how widespread sexual harassment, assault, and other misconduct really are. As more and more survivors spoke out, they learned they were not alone”. 8 Women coming forward spanned every background; there was great diversity in terms of socioeconomic status, race, religion, political affiliation, and profession. While some have argued that marginalized and underrepresented groups were in some ways overshadowed by more privileged survivors coming forward (CSUB, 2018 and Mueller et al., 2020), the pervasiveness of sexual assaults and sexual harassment across all groups grew increasingly undeniable. According to RAINN, as of 1998, an estimated 17.7 million American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape.10 And recent research indicates that in the U.S., 81% of women and 43% of men experience some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime (Kearl, 2018). While the #metoo-movement has undoubtedly raised awareness of sexual misconduct and violence, and while it has certainly driven a significant increase in the reporting of sex crimes, these crimes continue in most communities (Cummings, 2020). 12 Reports of acts of sexual harassment and assault continue at a high rate throughout different industries (The Opportunity Agenda, 2021).13 Despite this increased awareness, the #metoo-movement has in 14 no way eliminated the problem and may have even created unintended consequences that have increased women’s fears about reporting (Bower, 2019). These indications that incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault have not decreased since the #metoo-movement (Bower, 2019 and Johnson et al., 2019) point to the ongoing need to understand the roots of the problem and the offenders themselves.

1.Robbennolt, Jennifer and Wexler, Leslie. 2019. “#Metoo and Restorative Justice.” 2-3-4. Mueller, A., Wood-Doughty, Z., Amir, S., Dredze, M., and Nobles, A.L. 2020. “Demographic Representation and Collective Storytelling in the Me Too Twitter Hashtag Activism Movement.” Proceedings. 7.Bower, T. “The MeToo Backlash.” 8.MeToo Impact Report. “Realizing restoration for victims and offenders” (2019).

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10.RAIIN. “Statistics” (2021). 12.Cummings, M. “#MeToo makes a difference in sex-crime reporting, study shows.” Yale News (January, 2020). 13.The Opportunity Agenda. “Sexual Violence, The #MeToo Movement, and Narrative Shift.” (2021). 14.Bower, T. “The MeToo Backlash.”

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BACKGROUND Incidents of sexual violence have long been a part of human history, from the writings of 16 ancient Greece to the writings within the Bible. In terms of understanding the factors that contribute to one’s propensity to commit sexual violence, an area of research which could be promising, is the study of neurobiology of sex offenders (Higgs et al., 2020). While there are likely many different contributing factors that create the makeup of a one-time or even a serial sex offender (Tabachnick & Klein, 2011), research indicates that neurobiology may be a key factor warranting further comprehensive research (Joyal et al., 2014). The earliest written laws and texts defined rape as a property crime, with the male head of household or the family/tribal unit as the victims. While those laws evolved over time around the world and in a variety of cultures, English Common Law most clearly influenced laws about sexual assault in the U.S., shifting it to a crime against a person where a civil suit could be made, or a crime against the state in which the government would bring an offender to trial (Greensite, 1999 and WCSAP.org, 2020).19

Perhaps the first people to break the normalized silence about rape were African American women testifying before Congress following their rape by a White mob during the Memphis Riot of May 1866 (Greensite, 1999). The earliest efforts to organize against rape began in the 1870s when African American women, most notably Ida B. Wells, took leadership roles in organizing anti-lynching campaigns (Smith, 2018).21 The second wave of women’s activism began with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the Student’s Free Speech Movement of the 1960s (WCSAP.org, 2020). 22 In 1972, one of the first rape crisis centers was formed in Seattle, Washington, and humanity made progress: the movement went from “organizing” to creating “organizations” to address, educate, and support victims of sexual assault (Conley, 2014).23 According to RAIIN (2021), while sexual violence has fallen by half in the past 20 years, every 68 seconds an American is sexually assaulted.24 RAIIN also says that 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime while approximately 1 in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Rape culture and sexual violence have been so deeply embedded in society that many feel resigned about the notion of finding solutions and creating real change (Card, 2021 and 25 Cusmano, 2018).

16.History.com “Ancient Greece.” 2010. 19.Greensite, Gillian (1999). “History of the rape crisis movement. In California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (Ed.), Support for survivors: Training for sexual assault counselors;”

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21.Smith, D. “Ida B Wells: the unsung heroine of the civil rights movement.” The Guardian. 2018. 22.Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. “Working with Survivors.” 23.Conley, C. “Sexual Violence in Historical Perspective.”Gender, Sex, & Crime. Oxford. 2014. 24.RAIIN. “Statistics” (2021).

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INQUIRY Given our understanding of this ongoing problem, one further exposed by the #metoomovement–but not in any significant way actually reduced by the #metoo-movement–an essential question remains: How can we find a real solution to this deeply ingrained societal problem? Would transforming the system of consequences and punishment, while working to deepen our understanding of the offenders themselves make a meaningful difference? Neurobiology of Sex Offenders. Understanding the neurology, biology, and psychology of those who commit sexual crimes may help us find better solutions that would impact both 26 prevention and treatment (Joyal et al., 2014). Some violent criminals, for example, have been found to have Frontal Lobe Disorder, a mental disorder; this may point to a correlation between impulsive violence and frontal lobe damage (Blanchard et al., 2006). Frontal lobes are focal points of memory, cognition, abstraction, concentration, and judgement. Clinical and empirical evidence linking impulsive violence to frontal lobe damage was significant enough to classify Frontal Lobe Syndrome as an organic mental disorder in the 9th edition of the World Health Organization International classification of diseases (Fazel, 2007). Symptoms of frontal lobe damage include lack of self-control, lack of foresight, lack of concern for others, and outbursts (Fazel, 2007). 29 When studying the brains of sexual offenders, some researchers have found abnormalities in brain size and gray matter volume, cortical thickness, white matter connectivity, and structural and functional differences among brain regions (KirkProvencher et al., 2020). Research has also suggested that brain damage can lead to decreased concern with punishment as well as decreased empathy for others (Thomas, 2001). In some cases, there seems to be a connection between decreased cognitive functioning, decreased concern for short-term and long-term consequences, and decreased concern for the well-being of others (Cailleau et al., 2016). 26.Joyal, Christian C., Jolyane Beaulieu-Plante, and Antoine de Chantérac. “The Neuropsychology of Sex Offenders: A Meta-Analysis.” 29.Fazel, S., O’Donnell, I., Hope, T., Gulati, G., Jacoby, R. (2007). “Frontal lobes and older sex offenders: Apreliminary investigation.”

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Neurotransmitters and hormones (e.g., Cortisol) also seem to play an important role in aggressive behavior (Gowin et al., 2013). Raine and Yang (2006) assert that neurotransmitter activity in the prefrontal cortex modulates impulse control, sensation seeking, novelty seeking, cognitive functions, and aggressiveness. Alterations to any of these systems, they posit, may predispose individuals to violent behavior. While an understanding of an offender’s neurobiology seems relevant, it does not explain all sexual aggression. Farrone, Tsuang, and Tsuang (1999) theorize that most mental disorders exhibit a complex inheritance from a combination of genetics, familial, environment, socio-economic and traumatic experiences. Substance use, genetics, and environmental events are certainly 36 contributing factors as well (Thomas, 2001). The developmental sequence of pathology is a complicated one, and increased research is 37 warranted (Amen et al., 1996). Some research emphasizes the importance of understanding the fusion between sexual motivation, sensation-seeking, and various strengths of dominance motivation (Golden, 1996). Approaches to Punishment of Sexual Crime. Another relevant area to explore when considering how to meaningfully decrease the number of sexual crimes is that of criminal punishment. The current standard for prosecuting and punishing sex offenders does not seem to provide adequate prevention, nor does it act as an adequate deterrent for sexual crimes (McAlinden, 2008). Furthermore, the current punitive system does not seem to indicate a satisfying result for the survivors who come forward (McAlinden, 2008; Hudson, 2002). There are low conviction rates and often reports from victims of feeling “re-victimized” by the system (Marsh and Wager, 2015).41

36.Thomas, D.J. “Identifying the sexual serial killer: A comparative study of sexual serial killers, serial rapists, and sexual offenders” The Union Institute. 37.Amen DG, Stubblefield M, Carmichael B, Thisted R. “Brain SPECT findings and aggressiveness.” Annals of Clinical Psychiatry. 1996; 8:129–37. 41 Marsh, F., and Wager, N.M. 2015. Restorative Justice in cases of sexual violence: Exploring the views of the public and survivors. Probation Journal, 62 (4) 336-356.

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The very nature of the system seems to indicate that–at best–it can only ever hope to deal effectively with those offenders who have already come to the attention of law enforcement authorities. In practice, this actually covers a very small number of offenders. Some estimates suggest that fewer than five percent of sex offenders are ever apprehended (Salter, 2003).42 While a review of the literature on castrated sex offenders reveals a very low incidence of sexual recidivism (Weinberger et al., 2005), there must be a more humane way to find a solution. 43 It is clear that there is a need to re-examine the current regulatory framework for sexual offending and to consider alternative responses to sexual crime. Based on survivor and criminal report, and a number of studies, Restorative Justice appears to be a more humane reintegrative approach to sex offender rehabilitation (Umbriet, 1998).44 The term “Restorative Justice” essentially refers to interventions and programs that attempt to bring a more constructive and comprehensive perspective than the traditional criminal justice system (Galaway and Hudson, 1996).45 Sherman and Strang (2007) point out its benefits for both survivor and offender: “It provides both victims and offenders with more satisfaction that justice had been done than did traditional criminal justice. It reduces crime victims' post-traumatic stress symptoms and the related costs. And it reduces crime victims' desire for violent revenge against their offenders.” 46 Restorative Justice interventions have the potential to increase offender accountability by encouraging more victims and offenders to come forward. In one meta-analysis regarding the effectiveness of Restorative Justice, reoffending rates were shown to be lower when 47 compared with other justice interventions (Latimer et al., 2005). Despite the concerns of critics, Restorative Justice may provide a positive means of dealing with the offenders’ needs in terms of risk management and successful rehabilitation, while also addressing the concerns of victims and communities (Rye et al., 2018). 48 The Restorative Justice approach views crime not as a violation of a legal norm which necessitates punishment but as harm to people and relationships that must be restored (Van Ness & Strong, 1997).49

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Blanchard, R., Cantor, J. M., Robichaud, L. K. (2006). “Biological factors in the development of sexual deviance and aggression in males.” In Barbaree, H. E., Marshall, W. L.(Eds.), The juvenile sex offender (pp. 77-104). Fazel, S., O’Donnell, I., Hope, T., Gulati, G., Jacoby, R. (2007). “Frontal lobes and older sex offenders: A preliminary investigation.” International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22, 87-89. Fazel, S., O’Donnell, I., Hope, T., Gulati, G., Jacoby, R. (2007). “Frontal lobes and older sex offenders: Apreliminary investigation.” Kirk-Provencher, Katelyn, Nelson-Aguiar, Rebecca, and Spillane, Nichea. “Neuroanatomical Differences Among Sexual Offenders: A Targeted Review with Limitations and Implications for Future Directions” Violence and Gender. 86-97. Thomas, D.J. “Identifying the sexual serial killer: A comparative study of sexual serial killers, serial rapists, and sexual offenders” The Union Institute. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (2001). Cailleau V, Thirioux B, Méry B, Senon JL, Jaafari N. “Impairments of empathic process in sexual offenders.”Presse Med. (2016). Gowin, J. L., Green, C. E., Alcorn, J. L., 3rd, Swann, A. C., Moeller, F. G., & Lane, S. D. (2013). The role of cortisol and psychopathy in the cycle of violence. Psychopharmacology, 227(4), 661–672. Raine, A., & Yang, Y. (2006). Neural foundations to moral reasoning and antisocial behavior. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 1(3), 203–213. and affective neuroscience, 1(3), 203–213. Farrone, S. V., Tsuang, M. T., & Tsuang, D. W. (1999). "Genetics of mental disorders: A guide for students, clinicians, and researchers. Guilford Press. Thomas, D.J. “Identifying the sexual serial killer: A comparative study of sexual serial killers, serial rapists, and sexual offenders” The Union Institute. Amen DG, Stubblefield M, Carmichael B, Thisted R. “Brain SPECT findings and aggressiveness.” Annals of Clinical Psychiatry. 1996; 8:129–37. Golden, C., Jackson, M. L., Peterson-Rohne, A., and Samuel T. Gontkovsky, “Neuropsychological correlates of violence and aggression: A review of the clinical literature,” Aggression and Violent Behavior, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 3-25. McAlinden, A-M. (2008). Restorative Justice as a Response to Sexual Offending – Addressing the Failings of Current Punitive Approaches; Hudson, B. (2002). “Restorative Justice and Gendered Violence: Diversion or Effective Justice?” British Journal of Criminology, 42, 616-34. McAlinden, A-M. (2008). Restorative Justice as a Response to Sexual Offending – Addressing the Failings of Current Punitive Approaches. Sexual Offender Treatment, 1. Marsh, F., and Wager, N.M. 2015. Restorative Justice in cases of sexual violence: Exploring the views of the public and survivors. Probation Journal, 62 (4) 336-356. Salter, A. (2003). “Predators, Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders: Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children.” New York: Basic Books. Weinberger LE, Sreenivasan S, Garrick T, Osran H. “The impact of surgical castration on sexual recidivism risk among sexually violent predatory offenders.” Journal of Psychiatry Law. 2005;33. Umbriet, Mark S. 1998. "Restorative Justice Through Victim-Offender Mediation: A Multi-Site Assessment." Western Criminology Review 1(1). Galaway, B., & Hudson, B. (Eds.) (1996). Restorative Justice: International Perspectives. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press. Sherman, L. and Strang, H. 2007. “Restorative Justice: The Evidence.” London: The Smith Institute. Latimer, J., Dowden, C., & Muise, D. (2005). “The effectiveness of restorative justice practices: A metaanalysis.” The Prison Journal, 85(2), 127 144. Rye, B., Hovey, A., and Waye., L. (2018) “Evaluation of a restorative justice-based, community-based program for people who have offended sexually: participant impact.” Contemporary Justice Review, 21:3, 276-298. Van Ness, D. and Strong, K.H. (1997) "Restoring Justice.” Cincinnati, OH, Anderson Publishing Company.

SPRING 2022

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THE INSTITUTE FOR ALIVENESS UPLEVELING

HUMANITY

www.instituteforaliveness.com

THE

ORIGIN

STORY

TIFA arose out of moral imperative. When Andi left her public-facing career in health, there was no one out there doing the full-spectrum work of awakening. It’s not just about a healthy diet or the right mindset. The science of Applied Epigenetics and art of transformation are skills honed in through escalated self awareness. The Institute trains practitioners from around the world in an 18month interdisciplinary certification program. TIFA also sponsors one-week online fasting retreats with www.THEINITIATION.co. If you're already excelling on a personal level, you find a global collective to ground your continued self-development. This collective is a network many dream of. We truly understand the power of a container to do deep work and be held accountable in our becoming.

THE CURRICULUM

THE TIFA VISION

BODY

To birth the next generation of health revolutionaries and applied epigeneticists. Empowering people to take their health back into their own hands. We envision a world where humans thrive, not just survive. No more sniffles nor cancer. People re-connect to their bodies, learn practices of right living, psychosomatics, agency and trauma healing... and collectively, we evolve our species.

Month 1: Lifestyle & Disease Month 2: Embodied Applied Epigenetics Month 3: Plants & Nutrition Month 4: Medicinal Systems & Embodiment Diagnostics

MIND Month Month Month Month

5: Neuroanatomy & Physiology 6: Trauma & Psychosomatics 7: Psyche & Psychedelics 8: Cognihacking & Communication

SPIRIT Month Month Month Month

9: Interpersonal Dynamics 10: Divination & The Mythopoetic 11: The Life Cycle 12: Quantum Entanglement

SO WHY TIFA?

There is no other program as comprehensive nor effective out there. The personal growth required for graduation is a baseline from which you will start to work with others. With our global presence of 70+ students in 40+ countries, we are rebirthing the collective. Focused on deep embodiment, we take ideas and concepts from head to alive in every cell. It's not about studying; it's about becoming.

ARE YOU READY TO ANSWER THE CALL? TIFA's 18-month program starts every January.

"We see the world not as it is, but as we are." #notforbeginners

TIFA ACROSS THE GLOBE @instituteforaliveness

TheInstituteForAliveness

info@theinstituteforaliveness.com

www.instituteforaliveness.com

YOU

WANT

CHANGE

THE

WORLD? St

i tw

Now enrolling students for a Master's of Science in Lifestyle Medicine & Applied Epigenetics

TIFA's 'Upleveling Humanity' Spring 2022: MIND Edition

Articles inside

THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM & DIGESTION