Cellular Intelligence

Candace Pert, PhD. is a neurobiologist, researcher and professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center. She has been a research scientist for 30 years, including 13 years at the NIH where she was Chief of Brain Biochemistry. In her recent book, Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel The Way You Feel (Simon & Shuster,1997), Dr. Pert shakes the conventionally accepted paradigm of medicine. She declares that mind is not separate from body...mind infuses the body. An information transfer system happening at the cellular level throughout the body coordinates physiology, behavior and emotion in a coherent manner. Let's call it "cellular intelligence".

Original Painting by Lucy Sprayregeu

Pert's new paradigm retires our previous notion that it was solely the brain which activated emotions through an electrical-chemical exchange on neural pathways. Pert and her colleague, Miles Herkenham, believe less than 2% of neuronal communication actually occurs at the synapse. Most communication happens at receptor sites on cell walls throughout the body, where specialized small proteins, called peptides, floating in the fluid surrounding cells match to specific receptor sites and infuse those cells with specific information.

The peptides are manufactured in many sites throughout the body. They are the information and chemical agents of homeostasis which maintain the balance of the whole system. Scientists have recently located 100s of these peptide receptors and peptides. These include endorphins. The endorphins are the body's opiates...which can make us feel very good and even dissolve physical pain.

This notion will transform how we deal with emotional disturbance as well as physical illness. For example, synthetic chemicals, like Prozac, used for depression, are actually inhibiting the smooth functioning of cellular intelligence throughout the body. A whole new class of "medication", peptides which replicate the bodies own natural peptides, should be far more effective in stimulating well-being.

The cellular information exchange with peptides is 98% of the biological basis of our emotions as well as, Pert believes, our intuition. It may even be the foundation of spirit or soul which some individuals sense within themselves--and relate to the chakra system. (Many of the peptides are manufactured in centers related to the chakras.)

The receptivity of a cell's receptors to life-giving peptides is conditioned upon stress levels within the tissue of the site where the cell is located and where peptides are manufactured. Where there is the memory of past trauma, muscle contraction due to stressful experiences and/or unexpressed emotions related to the site, there is less receptivity to the information available in the circulating peptides....as well as fewer peptides which can catalyze good feelings being manufactured and in circulation.

Thus, a lifestyle where a person is open to express emotions and feel subtle feelings related to inner sensations and intuition actually stimulates the free flow of information between peptides, receptors and manufacturing sites for more peptides. This lifestyle nurtures homeostasis, making it easier for the person to feel balanced and have good health and maintain a state of well-being.

In addition to these peptides being impacted by emotional expressiveness they are highly influenced by the conscious intention of the individual and how that individual filters reality, what he/she pays attention to. The power of conscious intention to effect change in body organs thought to be outside conscious control has been proven through biofeedback training where a person can learn, for example, to slow or speed his/her heartrate. (Until recently this was believed to be impossible). However, Pert's findings show us the chemistry behind this information exchange...it is not only the patient learning to control his/her state of mind, entering an alpha state to modulate the heart function, in this case. It is actually the peptides being influenced by the intention of consciousness which create a change throughout the body.

This explains why the Avatar® techniques work so well. Avatar trains each individual to be deliberate, to have 100% attention on the goal of his/her choice. If someone has 100% of his/her attention on health, for example--there are no second thoughts, repressed emotions, doubts, distractions, pre-occupations which are not aligned with the goal. As a result of this clear intention--health will manifest and/or healing will be accelerated. Consciousness (of something) precedes experience, or attracts certain experiences. Clear intention precedes the manifestation of a goal.

How does one detach from the obstructions to one's intention? One must be willing to recognize and feel what obstructions to the goal (health) are...then to feel and experience whatever has been repressed or resisted. (This knowledge has been echoed in Tibetan Buddhist texts as well as some Western psychology.) Once this is achieved, obstruction dissolves and the person is now free to move toward the goal of choice.

This Avatar exercise opens the system of the body to receive the complete resources of the information networking between the peptides and the cells. Intention stimulates cellular intelligence. In the Avatar course we find that a byproduct of the above technique is the spontaneous opening of intuition, empathy and compassion--the benificent aspects of feeling.

In Molecules of Emotion Dr. Pert writes that we must open to our feelings and feel our emotions in order to manifest our human potential. If we don't open to our feelings, 1)we obstruct our ability to feel emotionally and physically well. 2) we lose faith in the innate intelligence of the body to know what it needs to be in balance and we look to outer authorities for that information. 3) we lose touch with that intelligence we call our "gut feel," our intuition...the guiding star of our life's journey.

Reading Pert's book helped me recognize that the Avatar Course is totally aligned with the most recent findings of neurobiology. Those of us who deliver the Course can be assured that we are practitioners of the most current paradigm of health maintenance. Those looking for an effective and natural health maintenance system which strengthens intuition and well-being should feel confident in taking the Avatar course.

Emma Bragdon, Ph.D. has been facilitating Avatar ® internationally since 1990.

She can be contacted through her home office in Vermont: 1-802-457-4915 or by email:ebragdon@aol.com