“There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy” – Friedrich Nietzsche
For a long time, we’ve believed that the brain is the seat of intelligence and intelligence is centralised. However, recent researches reveal that every cell in our body is inherently intelligent. Meaning, it is not localised in our brains, like we used to believe, but is, in fact, decentralised. It suggests that our body is more than just a vessel of veins and bones. At the core, it is a stream of intelligence—an ebb and flow of energy vibrating at various frequencies. However, turning this limitless supply of intelligence into wisdom is man’s responsibility.
In today’s ‘pop-a-pill’ culture, we do not always acknowledge this wisdom. Neither do we respect the needs of our body in the first place, nor trust our body’s very own healing capacity. To refresh this perspective, Soulveda explores this inherent intelligence as it delves into a few modalities of alternative medicine.
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star-stuff.” – Carl Sagan.
As beings of this vast cosmos, we can assume that we are guided by an inherent invisible intelligence. Our physical body too functions in a systematic manner like a well-oiled machine. For instance, congenitally, we sleep at night and wake up in the morning. Our pupils dilate when we’re in dark environments and constrict when there is bright light. It is safe to assume that our lives have the influence of cosmic intelligence too.
According to the principles of Ayurveda, the more we become receptive to this cosmic intelligence, the more we’d notice a river of intelligence flowing within us. That is, we’d realise that we ourselves are the cosmos, and within us are present, all the secrets of the universe. Writes physician Acharya Shunya in the book Ayurveda Lifestyle Wisdom, “Fundamental to Ayurveda is the understanding that the microcosm (in this case, the body) known as the pindanda, is no different from the macrocosm (Nature or the universe) known as Brahmanda. This means that you and the universe are essentially one.”
“We all share in the cosmic rhythm… For all natural laws are like the rhythm of the strings of the harp.” – Ernesto Cardinal
Our universe exists within a sea of vibrations. And everything in it follows a specific rhythm. Be it the cyclical nature of night and day, or the turn of seasons, everything follows a pattern. Over time, as life evolved amidst this cosmic cadence, its various biological responses too were integrated with diurnal and seasonal cycles.
According to WG Sutherland, the founder of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST), our bodies themselves are governed by rhythms. In fact, the whole body contracts and expands to a rhythmic ‘tidal wave’. He, in fact, describes five key rhythms in the body—the movement of cranial bones, the vacillation of cerebrospinal fluid, the vibration of the central nervous system and the reciprocal tension membranes, and the mobility of the sacrum between the ilia. And this rhythm is not localised but is expressed throughout the human system, and every cell is acutely aware of them, he says. Perhaps, that is why BCST hypothesises that every cell undergoes ‘primary respiration’—they inhale and exhale—in accordance to a greater rhythm—a ‘wider ordering principle’ called the ‘breath of life’.
Medicines administered must consider a person’s complete physiology as well as their overall psyche.
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