I was asked recently by Marketing Consultant Sara Bruno to comment on what I believe individualized medicine is for the world. Questions such as these come at a remarkable time in human history when never before have humans collectively created so quickly the problems that now threaten the existence of our species and the planet as a whole – nor have we ever in commonly recorded science been able to quantify or qualify so much of what was once considered sacred truth in ancient civilizations.
We are asking better questions, because we have to.
In particular we can look at the science of genetics, epigenetics and genomics, each contributing to “individualized medicine” which are unravelling biological, historical and environmental determinants related to our DNA; can health outcomes be impacted by factors in ones’ lineage, what markers trigger full-blown life-threatening disease, and what can be reversed or eliminated by virtue of knowing specifically the workings of full DNA sequences? How much suffering can we control individually, or who do we need the help from, and how?
Unity Consciousness and quantum physics are natural partners thanks to the creationary possibilities of phenomenon like entanglement theory which we hear routinely experience in ways such as receiving a phone call from someone we haven’t thought of for years until ‘just now’ as the phone begins to ring. At the macro and micro level, we are all connected; and now the term “individualized medicine” or genomics, is unravelling full DNA strands that can lead to treatments that will become completely specific to the patient; considered a pinnacle of medical engineering, for certain.
From my standpoint in alternative or complimentary healthcare, watching all the developments with a lot of curiosity, it currently seems to me that whether you are talking to a medical researcher, the head of a neurology department, an energy worker, a quantum physicist, a shaman, acupuncturist, mathematician, yogini or geneticist, we are all studying and endeavoring to alter consciousness – we just haven’t yet agreed upon that terminology, yet.
It is all consciousness examining itself without often realizing it.
Fun Fact: What consciousness is comprised of and where it resides remain unclear. Science still cannot agree upon the home of human memory, yet when you transplant a human heart, the recipient frequently takes on tastes for things like foods that the organ donor had.
What being conscious of consciousness can bring rise to for each of us is another way that I position the term “individualized medicine” and what we can take control of by managing our thoughts in relation to our emotions, what is called to be healed, and how we choose to live our lives, e.g., supportive nutrition and life balance. “Intentionality” becomes paramount as we discover more about our abilities to develop and create change at every level as an individual that which we previously thought only others with more “expertise” could add to our lives, e.g., you are your own guru even though wisdom teachings and guidance are essential.
As the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome. It is where all these conversations will eventually converge because our biography determines our biology. There are scientists very dedicated to backing this up now, like quantum physicist like Amit Goswami who I heard say in a lecture “any medical model that ignores the human energy system at this point in history, is officially remiss.” Yet teachers of the esoteric have been saying it for a long time. There is nothing like direct experience to qualify what seems like speculation or woo-woo where’s my magic wand nonsense to many; and there really are times when it is wise to suspend our disbelief no matter how well educated we are.
Take the work of Dr. Dean Radin, PhD and Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS), Associated Distinguished Professor of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) who explains:
“the role of consciousness in shaping the nature of physical reality…showed that meditators were able to collapse quantum systems at a distance through intention alone.“
In this case, Dr. Radin is referring to a physics study called the Double-Slit Experiment and mind-matter interactions which you can review yourself with this link:
http://www.deanradin.com/papers/Physics%20Essays%20Radin%20final.pdf
The report indicates “the curious effect whereby quantum objects appear to behave differently when observed than when unobserved.2, [which may remind you of that old saying ‘if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does anyone hear it?] The QMP [quantum measurement problem] is a problem because it violates the common-sense doctrine of realism, which assumes that the world at large is independent of observation.”
The western medical model is based on the realism mentioned here. If you can’t see it or measure it, then it doesn’t exist. Yet energy medicine is the future of healing because scientists are asking different questions now.
What the Bleep Do We Know Anyhow and The Living Matrix are more recent documentaries now on YouTube or online that you can review to explore more, and I often suggest them to clients, especially those who come for HeartMath™ who are learning to enhance thoughts of the mind with the “little brain in the heart” that is now proven as a true form of internal guidance. HeartMath techniques when practiced and guided by those understand what the heart’s language sounds like, demonstrate the “individualized medicine” we all carry within us.
As a practice and lifestyle choice, learning to manage your emotions with heart intelligence is one of those experiences you need to have, not read or think about, to truly integrate this brand of self-understanding. It’s a way of coming at consciousness from a very different angle, using a scientific system that measures the effects of feelings on your physiology which to me is just.plain.fascinating. I love introducing people to their heart, and to their capacity to self-regulate; and in the spirit of this document, when we change our emotions we can change our life because it is our emotions that are actually driving our thoughts. There is a lot more to it than that though.
Heart Intelligence Science is verifies ancient wisdom. Every indigenous culture in the world holds the heart at the centre of its wisdom teachings. Then there are examples such as the next one, which take modern medicine and the way it verifies results with another version of faith in the unseen power of mind and directed intention to change the physical world:
Take Helen Vera Lunney, aka. Louise Hay, October 8, 1926 – August 30, 2017, founder of what is now a metaphysical empire called Hay House Radio for your Soul and Hay House Publishing. She maintained that almost anything can be healed if one is willing to do the mental work of changing thought patterns. She was a student of metaphysics, Transcendental Meditation, and a New Thought Practitioner among many things. In fact, changing ones’ beliefs to change health outcomes and life quality was the foundation of her work. She believed as did the New Thought Leaders who she studied, that positive thinking could heal the body. She trained many in her methods and often when interviewed, explained that her commitment to positive thinking and her practices were the reason she overcame a diagnosis of incurable cervical cancer.
Further to that miraculous effort and outcome, Louise believed strongly that what we hold onto emotionally brings rise to illness in the long-term: in her case being raped at the age of 5. Her most famous book, You Can Heal Your Life, published in 1984, is a testament to what she believed, taught and lived.
These days, “individualized medicine” can also look like the the work of experts such as Gabor Maté and Bruce Lipton, Gregg Braeden, Carolyn Myss, Joe Dispenza and so many more great modern minds, that reinforce the magnitude of emotions on health, the nervous system, and how we can take far more control of our wellbeing than the prevailing western medical model has yet embraced in its design. There are many therapies now that help to manage all aspects of mind and emotion to shift the suffering that is held in our biology.
Yet when we combine heart intelligence which is proven quantum by nature and defies time-space reality, using the techniques pioneered by the HeartMath™ Institute, we directly increase our capacity to create and direct the intention of the mind (linear and bound to the time-space continuum) to increase vibrational wellbeing at every level, and enhanced outcomes. Our mind is not designed to create what our heart is and when they are trained to collaborate, your perspective will shift to assemble solutions that are created far more dynamically. The heart can help interpret old story lines and empower the mind to write new more authentic ones.
We can unleash our higher minds with heart intelligence. Within us we possess an incredible capacity to integrate and self-regulate into a natural healing state which beautifully paves the way for greater self-realization.
Another aspect of Individualized Medicine is Epigenetics which takes into account that we are dealing with far more than the life we were born into. More recent medical research indicates we may carry the genetic memories, e.g., trauma, of at least 14 generations. Our ancestors really are in our DNA. An example: Some [research] suggests that “events in our lives can indeed affect the development of our children and perhaps even grandchildren – all without changing the DNA.” In fact, transgenerational studies “show that both the children and grandchildren of women who survived the Dutch Famine of 1944-45 were found to have increased glucose intolerance in adulthood. (U.S. National Library of Medicine).”
Other researchers demonstrates that the descendants of Holocaust survivors have lower levels of the hormone cortisol, which helps your body bounce back after trauma. (Tori Rodriguez, Scientific American, March 1, 2015). Research on alcoholism also leans toward genetic pre-disposition, as well as cultural.
My favourite cultural example of micro-versus-macro and the potential of an individual to impact the collective is called the 100 Monkeys Syndrome: http://www.i-change.biz/100monkey.php and so we come full circle again. This is the kind of thing that adds credence, according to me, to a phrase associated with Unity Consciousness:
My Healing is Your Healing, or Your Healing is My Healing.
Without necessarily noticing it all that much, we are each leaning into what we consider consciousness to be, because of the questions we are asking each other, what questions we are asking ourselves, and what we are noticing. Yet who is actually doing the noticing?
Within the framework of what I am trained and certified to provide — clinical and Thai massage, energy (light) work, and heart intelligence compassion coaching with HeartMath™– fundamentally I believe I am always working with consciousness = Energy. It can all be directed and redirected with what comprises us in mind, spirit and body. In Chinese Medicine which is so ancient, there are three centres of power that now are medically considered to be the nervous system of the brain, the sensory neurite system of the heart and the enteric nervous system of the gut. The Nervous System is like the electrical wiring in a building. Electricity = Energy. Every cell in a human being gives off an electrical charge, and by far the heart gives off the largest electrical current within us. Fun Fact: In Tibetan Deity Yoga which is ancient, when praying and reciting mantra to Green Tara for instance, one is encouraged to pray with energetic intention to one of those three energy centres to relate that aspect of our “consciousness” or “energy” to the corresponding centre of the deity.
Feelings are medicine. You can create your own self-realization formulas.
While everyone has and recognizes feelings, when it comes to “individualized medicine” your feelings are unique; and the irony is your feelings are your medicine. HeartMath™ coaching and heart intelligence helps us to learn what that means, and to learn how to listen to all the aspects or our consciousness or energy.
When I work with anyone, my heart brings me into a difference degree of presence. It has helped me greatly increase my abilities as an Intuitive Healing Guide. I am able to listen more intently to interpret the essence of your words, from which the patterns of your nature inevitably appear. It may seem like I am not asking you much or that it is a routine session – body work or heart-and-spirit work — but I am in detective mode before you even arrive to create results. I may have reviewed your file or planned your next session that last time we worked together to remind myself of where I feel we should start to keep you going in a particular direction. I am mulling over your potential treatment, and when you arrive, I am observing the latest version of you, which btw, completely re-generates itself at a cellular level every 30 days. Whether I have a client on the table for various kinds of massage and physical body care, for energy work, a HeartMath™coaching session or a heart-focused meditation circle – I really want to see you, and help you show up in your life in ways that matter to you.
In my own way, I can hear you. I am watching for what your life is doing to your nervous system and how much care it will need during treatment so that you can feel like yourself again and be more you in the world. I want to see how you walk and move and sit, where your shoulders are in relation to your ears and if you face is drawn and your sadness is affecting your posture; how you carry your children or if you run with them to catch the bus (while carrying their bags, which tells me why your low back hurts more that day). I will ask you about the delivery of your children, who is at home parenting and who is working out of the house, to find out how to treat you that day and what to watch for; you may need other community support for birthing complications and deeper stabilization. This is an example of how your biography creates your biology in relation to body work.
I look for the whole picture, even if you come in for a rotator cuff injury – because it’s not just about your shoulder. It’s about your whole life, how you feel, and how you respond to it; like your teenage daughter who just went on her first date o.m.geee the tension, or the fellow who spends so much time on elder care he is constantly holding onto a very sore neck to try and get relief, and has a lot of headaches. Then there are the tweens and teens of today: who doesn’t have a heart for them? I am just happy to just show up and care and offer a port in the storm, kind of a pay-it-forward because it was a tough time for me and I needed safe, nurturing care in a neutral zone too. It is a joy to extend support in those cases as well.
All of me is listening. I hear your body telling me its story even if you haven’t verbalized it yourself. Every session of every kind is individualized even though it is provided within an established scientific framework. For me it’s always about how much heart I bring to each moment. The biology of belief extends in such a way that as I do body work, stories actually emerge from your cells and the unseen aspects of you, emotions surface in tissue restriction patterns. Reasons for physical discomfort unravel as I work so that I can loosen more and more deeply with techniques that fit for you in those moments, when the body is ready to really let go; or balance the chakras in relation to what is happening in your life. Some of my clients will tell you that when we begin our work together, we talk about what their intention for healing is that day, especially in lymphatic sessions which deeply detoxify. I plan to have more of these conversations with clients now, to be more specific about my language and encourage them to be, because our words hold the power to create true change – from a cellular and sub-atomic level back out into the world and the collective — especially when our heart is on board too. I am also no stranger to guiding clients through heart-focused meditation while on the table to help them align their nervous system more quickly. It enhances treatment outcomes and also patterns in sub-conscious change because of how the heart’s intelligence interacts with the psyche.
I am a Journey Worker
My goal is always to meet people where they are at on the path. The stories of our lives sit in the physical body and whether you tell me or not, your body reveals its unrest and stress or overwork, to create the energy of pain or congestion in muscles, or emotions in an overwhelmed lymphatic system perhaps; at other times a lighter touch is required to realign and soothe other tissue structures because the immune system has developed a pathology, or the energy body and the chakras are out of alignment based on your age and the lessons you are learning through the energy of that chakra at that stage in your life. Stress and chronic pain may have become so unmanageable that it becomes time to mention heart-focused meditation practice in community for that form of healing, or Resilience Training.
Every thought and feeling you have or ever did; every word you have spoken or heard, every life experience in this and many previous lives and that of everything we are connected to which continues to expand in how we understand it – all shows up in the person I am working, from cell and sub-atomic levels back out to what you bring voice to and take action to create. The more aware we are of our inner and outer worlds and connections, the power of the spoken word and the motivations behind them, the more control we take over our wellbeing.
Self-Awareness is Where It’s At
Being in alignment with our thoughts, the emotions, instincts and values that drive them, are how as humans, we power up our creationary abilities of being intentional. That is our own “Individualized Medicine.” Each aspect of the work is unique to aspects of our consciousness or energy, represented by the nervous system and those energy centres I referred to earlier that have their own purpose, language or way of communicating and perceive, and interacting. As we develop more awareness of how to work with what is visceral yet unseen, high science and great medical minds are asking better questions and a convergence of disciplines is weaving together very new possibilities within the fabric of the existence we co-experience.
This journey seems to be about aligning energies of all kinds, and when there is some kind of misalignment, I may be able to help with technique and care that is restorative. At other times it becomes clear that trauma and grief are gripping and it is time to create a space that allows for a unique process to emerge over time, that empowers instead of drains. These things are all familiar to me personally. I have had many experiences that help me understand and care about people. It seems impossible to treat any one aspect of a person without taking everything else into account. It is my life’s work, because it is the work I have always had to do in order to be here.
It is such an honour to walk with anyone on this path – each of you my teachers. There are moments that leave me humbled beyond words. I am not hesitant, however, about ensuring clients are tapped into community resources that may be of help to them. Individualized care is delivered within an agreed upon framework that is specific to each person, yet collaborative and I hope to see far more of that in all medicine and science as the years go by. No one has all the answers or skills and so it is important to help people put the best pieces together when needed with compassion as our guide – for it is compassion that opens up our perspective and makes many conversations possible that would not otherwise take place.
An holistic approach requires more than one practitioner, and again, knowing your story helps me understand what else may be needed around town to stage you through a process and help you progress. I enjoy offering suggestions of that kind to help everyone find their way with more peace and balance and they are free to determine if those ideas are suitable for them — if not then, perhaps at another time, or another connection they need will come of it. Resources are important, and there is often a book title that comes to mind. I enjoy sharing resources and appreciate hearing what works for others. We really are all in this together.
Thank you for reading my ideas on the nature of caring for an individual, or what is scientifically now developing into the high science of Individualized Medicine. Certainly there is far more to it than I could possibly convey. I did not touch on ethics as it relates to genetic manipulation for instance. I am not a scientist or medical researcher, I am a full-time human-being trying to figure things out like everyone else. Perhaps you can relate or want to explore some of the ideas presented.
May you treasure yourself on the path.
May we each remember that this day has never come before and become more aware.
May we see ourselves in the other with an open, spacious heart.
May the beauty you love become what you do.
May you have peace.
Alanna Prather RMT TMTT
Certified HeartMath™ Coach/Mentor
Founder & Guide of HEART Sangha
Intuitive Healing Guide/Lightworker/Karuna Master
