DONNA THERRIEN: Everyone at one time or another has experienced synchronicity - a significant coincidence of physical and psychological phenomena that are connected.

You think of a person you haven't seen in a long time and suddenly they call you out of the blue. You stop somewhere to get directions and the person you ask turns into a lifelong friend. You take a step in one direction, a job, a relationship or a simple idea, to be guided to take another one in a different direction that brings clarity, peace and well-being or brings you on a quest for such. 

Carl Jung talked about a psychiatric patient of his who had a dream of a gold scarab and the next day sitting at his desk he heard a noise and there was a gold scarab, which was rare to see in that area, stuck in his cabinet. These experiences though sometimes seeming insignificant change us in some way. 

We have all had those kinds of experiences during our lifetime but what about the synchronicities that happen within our own bodies? What about the changes that occur over time, through generations, disease and good health? The synchronicities that change our genetic makeup, our environment?

Unfortunately the medical profession, in most cases, treats the body but not the soul and the link between them, trying to heal only the physical symptoms and not the spiritual ones.  I believe that illness is not just physical but rather the physical body's reaction to its surroundings whether physically or psychologically. There has been research showing the connection between the onset of illness and cancer after a difficult time in one's life or a traumatic event connecting the psychological and the physical. However this is still debated today and there are still many skeptics in the medical field.

We are exposed to toxins on a daily basis, whether in the air we breathe, food and water we consume or relationships we may have that cause stressors in the body. When a person is stressed, whether physical, emotional or psychological, real or imagined, their nervous system responds by releasing hormones called adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones get the body ready for an emergency, 'the fight or flight' action. The stress response is the body's way of protecting the person. After a length of time the body's immune system is exhausted, the immune system cells become unable to communicate with each other to fight off infections and recognize and kill abnormal cells before an auto immune disease or tumor is produced. Consequently the physical and psychological are connected.

Now what about the synchronicities within the body through generations? Can something that your parents did or the environment that your parents lived in have an effect on you as an adult?  Dr. Lars Olov Bygre, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholmn, during the 1980's did research on the feast and famine years of Norrbotten between 1800 and 1863 to see the long-term effects of the children living there in the 19th century. Not only did he research historical records of those children through those years but also their children and grandchildren. He took the information of 99 people who were born in the Overkalix parish of Norrbotten in 1905 and traced their parents and grandparents back to birth, then studied the agricultural records to determine how much food was available to them during these times. His research showed that the children who had overabundant winters, who went from eating little to overeating, produced children who lived shorter lives, dying on average of 6 years earlier. Then when he took into consideration the family's economic and social positions of those individuals the life span dropped to a 32-year difference in age. This study suggests that a winter of overeating as a child could initiate a biological change that would make their grandchildren die years earlier. Hereditary changes in is called epigenetics. The epigenome is the cellular material governed by the gene expressions that tell your genes to switch on or off, imprinting the genes that are passed from one generation to the next determined by environment, stress, diet and prenatal nutrition. Therefore the unconscious cultural attitude (better get it while you can) affected the conscious to gorge creating a gradual evolution by means of natural selection.

A person's reaction to their stress or illness also plays an important role in their healing.  Everyone is different and therefore react differently to life. But studies have shown that the more aware a person is of their own body, mind and spirit the healthier and happier they are with their lives and can deal with life and environment stress better than those who choose to live negatively. When we laugh and smile and have positive thoughts, our bodies produce natural chemicals that allow us to have feelings of well-being.

Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that helps maintain a happy feeling that keeps our moods under control, calming anxiety and relieving depression. The brain also makes Dopamine that affects brain processes that control movement, emotional response, and the ability to experience pleasure and pain. People suffering from depression, ADD/ADHD and addiction generally show a deficiency in serotonin and dopamine. There have been many studies showing that patients with cancer who smile and laugh often are more likely to live longer, be more creative and love life. Bernie Siegal, MD has stated that his patients who accepted their cancer, were positive and grateful for their life, had less symptoms to their chemotherapy as those who did not. So be conscious and aware of your guidance through difficult times and smile even when you don't feel like it – you will.

On another note, there have also been studies showing that weather patterns have been influenced by group consciousness which in effect influence people's lives. Weather is strongly influenced by Earth resonance frequencies or Schumann resonances (SR).  Those same electromagnetic frequencies, are also produced in our brains, and when many people synchronize their thinking or focus their thoughts in unison it is possible to influence the weather. Group consciousness has been practiced to control the weather throughout history, for example rain dances have been practiced for centuries during ceremonies of Indian tribes living in dry areas. It has also been shown to affect the crime rate in high violent areas. Let's think about what we can do about world peace and all get our thoughts together!

So to be aware of the synchronicities surrounding our lives, knowing that we are all interconnected and what affects one may indeed affect another could change our lives, our children's lives and the lives of everyone on the planet. Conscious awareness of health and healing means we need to understand that the physical, psychological, emotional, environmental, energetic, and spiritual aspects of each human experience is equally important.

Resources:

Rupert Sheldrake; The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature (Park Street Press, 1988)

John Cloud; Why DNA isn't Your Destiny (Jan 2010 Time.com)

Morphogenics (Wikipedia.org)

Bruce H. Lipton: The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles (Hay House, Inc.)

Bernie Segal, MD (berniesegalmd.com)

Larry Malerba, D.O. Green Medicine: Challenging the Assumptions of Conventional Health Care (North Atlantic Books)

Carl Jung (muskingum.edu)