Making Maximum Use of Your Brain

 

Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha ignited in me an interest in studies of the brain. Over a number of years these studies have led me to totally accept and celebrate the information that new neurons can be activated even in adult years. In contrast, my initial introduction to brain studies in nursing school 60 years ago led me to totally accept “hook, line and sinker” that the brain had virtually no ability to repair itself in adult life. Fortunately, it has been proven since those years gone by that amazing potential for healing and repairs exist in the brain.

It is mind boggling to attempt to visualize that there are about one hundred million nerve cells or neurons in every square inch of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain.
This vast number of neurons connect with each other through dendrites (branches on nerves cells) with the role of receiving information across synapses. Like tissues of other parts of the body, if connections are not regularly used, they atrophy. For nerve cells to stay healthy, they must communicate on a regular basis. Through a clear focus on my thoughts, I influence the connections I desire.

Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha reinforces the importance of each individual being consciously involved in creating the desired connections.

Again, it is truly mind boggling that our amazing brain processes 40 billion bits of information every second. It is easy to realize that many of these do not register in conscious thoughts. Generally, most people focus on 70,000 thoughts in a day. In fact, these thoughts redundantly focus on people, places, things, environment and time. In my years of study, I have come to realize that I can reduce this redundancy by feeding some
new information into my mind every day.

I have learned that this is a way of adding value to myself, and Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha reinforces that constantly. Science has shown that new information fed into my brain is associated with emotions. These emotions reinforce the ability to expand my thinking in new ways. Such an excellent and effective exercise in getting out of the proverbial “box”!

In contemplating the complexity of the brain leads us to consider some of the minute details of
the structure of the brain as well as the vast numbers of cells involved in the functioning of our brain. A tiny slice of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand contains 100,000 brain cells/neurons. The brain tissue is so compact that a chunk of tissue the size of a pebble contains about 2 miles of neurons. The brain as a whole contains 100 billion neurons. Each neuron is only a fraction of a millimeter in size. In spite of the miniscule size of a neuron, some actually extend up to three feet in length.

Another measurement to wrap your mind around is the space between neurons called the synapse is one-millionth of a centimeter in width or one thousandth of a millimeter wide. Yet in this minute space, information travels and is communicated.  

Another avenue to explore in the brain is the Redundant Cycle of Thinking and Feeling. It is suggested that a person can possibly argue about what comes first – a feeling or a thought. Whichever it is, it is common for it to become a redundant cycle that repeats itself so many times that a neural pathway becomes hardwired in the brain. Most people can pull forth a situation in their life when they were caught up in this cycle. The awareness of this redundant cycle is the first important step to making a different choice of thought and/or feeling.

Thoughts of Past Emotional Experiences involved discussions around hard-wiring of the brain networks. With any thoughts of highly charged emotional experiences, the brain fires in the exact sequences and patterns as when the actual experience occurred. When we cause our brains to fire and wire to the past, we reinforce those neural circuits to become more hardwired. The more often this cycle occurs, the more hardwired the networks become. Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha has led us in discussions of the importance of developing the ability to function at the level of coherent wave patterns. This principle can be applied to any activity we are involved in from surfing the ocean waves, to playing tennis, to baking pies, etc. It is a fact that when we get into a coherent rhythm and pattern in whatever activity we are doing, we resonate with the feel of it and the activity becomes effortless.
 
The role of Creativity triggered a “light bulb” going off for me. I realize that when a solution is needed for any project the process works when we start with an initial idea. It is exciting that once one idea has materialized others are spawned. It is a chain that moves quickly once the first idea is ignited. What is wonderful about this process is the exhilaration one feels as well as a revitalization!

We have explored with Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha, how communication happens between the nerve cells in our brain and nervous system. Four functions occur in the different types of neurotransmitters. These functions are: 1. Excite the brain, 2. Slow the brain down, 3. Make the body sleepy, 4. Make the body be awake.

These messengers/neurotransmitters can stimulate a neuron to either disconnect from its current location or to reinforce the present connection. Most interesting to me is the fact these messengers can change/rewrite the message that is being delivered to the particular cells that are connected. I found myself very excited at the concept of having the neurotransmitters as a major asset in my life.

By getting very familiar with their actions, I believe drugs can have a lesser role in managing symptoms in our bodies. We can call on whatever neurotransmitter would assist in any given situation and bring balance to ourselves. It is easy to feel both relief and excitement at the potential for self-creation by rewiring our brains with new patterns of thinking and feeling. In our sessions with Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha, we have learned
about different neurotransmitters and their role in our bodies.

One of these is serotonin. Serotonin is the calming neurotransmitter important to the maintenance of “good mood.” It promotes contentment and is responsible for normal sleep. In addition to the central nervous system, serotonin is also found in the walls of the intestine (the enteric nervous system) and in platelet cells that promote blood clotting. Serotonin plays
an important role in regulating memory, learning, and blood pressure, as well as appetite and body temperature. Low serotonin levels produce insomnia and depression,
aggressive behavior, increased sensitivity to pain, and is associated with obsessive-compulsive eating disorders. Serotonin is synthesized from tryptophan in the presence
of adequate vitamins B1, B3, B6, and folic acid. The best food sources of tryptophan include brown rice, cottage cheese, meat, peanuts, and sesame seeds.
 
“Knowing yourself is true wisdom.” ~Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha

By Joyce Mollenhauer BSN, RN, NC-BC

Deep Dive at the Seaside with Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha

 

 

Imagine spending five nights on a quiet North Carolina beach in the deep of summer, sitting around a camp fire with a group of spiritual seekers who are on “silence” (not talking).  They're quite well occupied contemplating a single passage from an ancient text. Here, Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha is our Elder and coach as we take a deep dive into discovering who and what we truly are.  Or, to say it another way, to “know thyself” is our quest’s goal.  Quite an adventure!

  

Let me share the story as best as I can recall.  Imagine, perhaps, that you are there too, in the dark, feeding the fire. Staring into the flames. Sheltered on one side by grand dunes and soothed by the sound of the surf only yards away. We won't go back to our tents until dawn. We will spend the whole night in contemplation.

 

In the mornings, after a welcomed sleep of several hours, we rise to Grandmother's call to come to sit at a picnic table with our notebooks and share our thoughts and experiences. She will share her oh-so-loving Wisdom with us.  Then, maybe you’ll share a small meal she makes for you in her RV kitchen?

     

As the sun sinks, you and the seven others prepare for another night of contemplation by the fire, gathering firewood, notebooks, and Medicine blankets. You climb over the dune.  No talking. Seeking—What?  Understanding? An Awakening? Illumination? Peace of Mind? Empowerment? All of these and more, indeed! You look at a piece of paper Grandmother has given you and read quietly by the fire’s light:

 I AM, that is the natural life-giving force of all things, FE/MALE of all the elements, the initial progeny of Worlds.  Chief of the Divine Powers, Queen of All that are in Hell, the Principal of them that Dwell in Heaven, manifested alone and under one form of all the powers of the Principals.

 

At my will, the planets of the sky, the wholesome winds of the sea, and the lamentable silences of hell be disposed; my name, my Divinity is adorned throughout the Worlds, in diverse manners, in variable customs and by the many names.

Quite a mouthful! Quite a claim! Who is this mysterious being?

 

The font alone gives the quote an arcane air; as if it comes from some forgotten ancient document or tale of Gods and Goddesses? You have lots of questions!

    

Who is this bold speaker who appears to claim full Power over the universe itself? Where did Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha get this quotation? Or did she write it herself? Why had she chosen this particular quote for us to ponder?

 

Your forehead figuratively furrows in your brain and your eyes roll.  It’s a Mystery! A puzzle. The air is cooling down. We feed the fire and it rises up hot and delicious.

      

Grandmother has instructed us to take walks on the beach whenever we are moved to do so. She has set some boundaries so we do not wander too far.  But we are free to wade into the waves and stare out to sea, study the surf and the stars; walk back and forth from surf to fire as we please. We do not speak to strangers or each other.

 

We seekers know each other reasonably well.  We have traveled to other shores with Grandmother and are building a place called Friendship Village in Ohio, a ceremonial home, retreat and conference center.  We are family.

 

Sitting by the fire comes naturally to us so there is a silent camaraderie that blesses our shared excursion into inner space.

 

The message, the text, is obviously about Divinity. This is not an unfamiliar theme to any of us.

 

You start studying each and every word, starting with “I Am that is…!

           

You, personally know from your own previous studies how very significant the ability to say “I AM” is.  It demonstrates the power of the human consciousness to self-reflect and to KNOW THYSELF as an individual, self-contained living entity that has a memory and ability to imagine the future. A self-conscious human being can recognize their own existence over the passage of Time.  This is the tell-tale sign of being a human. We each are fundamentally “I Ams”.

 

In the Ten Commandments story in the Bible, Moses asks God who he should say spoke to him on the mountain and God says “I AM that I AM!” God gives no real name!

  

So, this ability to say, “I AM” is also a fundamental characteristic of Divinity as well as of Humanity! Self-consciousness, self-reflection and awareness of existence over Time are things that humanity has in common with the Gods and Goddesses of ancient worlds and cosmic realms. 

 

So, the quotation you are studying begins with “I AM that Is” … and goes from there. What a list! What a proclamation! This Entity that speaks is…

 

1—The natural life-giving force of all things

2- FE/MALE of all the elements

3- The initial progeny of Worlds. 

4-Chief of the Divine Powers.

5-Queen of All that are in Hell.

6- The Principal of them that Dwell in Heaven, manifested alone and under one form of all the powers of the Principals.

  

And she sums it up by saying “At My will, the planets of the sky, the wholesome winds of the sea, and the lamentable silences of hell are disposed.

My name, my Divinity is adorned throughout the Worlds, in diverse manners, in variable customs and by the many names.

 

What a proclamation!  Worth repeating. Worth contemplating. This is likely a Goddess speaking and she seems to believe she is the Creator/Source and perhaps the Destroyer as well. In any case, this is Divinity speaking.

 

Now…a still small voice inside you suggests, since the Speaker goddess is an ‘I AM’ and you are also an “I AM” being, then you are Divine too!  HHmmmmm. No small thought. Of course, because you are a Seeker, you are familiar with this assertion.  That each human is, in essence, an off-shoot of “the Divine One” that is in all Things.

   

But though you can grasp the notion that you are Divine intellectually, it is difficult to feel divine, or to accept that you have creative powers equal to a God’s. But at least you are on the right track.

 

As the nights pass, you consider each word and phrase of the quotation. For instance, you ponder what “FE/MALE” could actually mean. It is oddly written.  The speaker says she is a Queen.  You contemplate “FE” by itself and it occurs to you that that is the chemical symbol for Iron. And iron makes our blood red. Red is often associated with the primal force of life. So “FE, you can conclude, is a good prefix that expresses the life-giving character of a Mother goddess.

 

You find that you take particular pleasure in the phrase, “the many names.”  Go figure! Much later you learn of more of her names.

 

The weather has been beautiful until one night, Yunsai comes in.  You were prepared somewhat as Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha’ had said something earlier about a new weather front coming in.  And sure enough, that night the wind picks up…

 

Out on the beach, looking far North you see approaching a huge, dark cloud bank roiling like you have never seen before! The wind picks up slowly at first, then more fiercely. Thrilling it is! 


 

When it is almost directly above, you’re awe-struck! The cloud bank is so very sharp and clearly defined as it towers directly above you. Then the clouds burst and the rain pours. You are soaked by rain, refreshed and cleaned!  You feel so so close to the natural world.

 

Yunsai, the North Wind, the powerful Gatekeeper of our Mother Lodge, the White Buffalo, has visited us and blessed us.  We are electrified and re-generated!

 

Eventually, when we return to our tents, we find them flattened. But we are troopers and have a good laugh over it all.

 

Eventually the days on the beach come to an end.  We sit with Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha in circle and share our thoughts. One person named Minnie speaks up and tells us in a hesitant tone that she had seen a younger version of Grandmother on the beach!  We looking questioningly at each other. Grandmother nods and says “Yes.” She had visited each of us as a younger form of herself! But Minnie was the only one that saw her in that form!  We look at each other and are sad that we had not seen her!

 

It was a wonderful week but of course, it comes to an end. You truly had arrived at many conclusions!

 

Several years after this North Carolina vision quest (another name for what we were doing), I found a paragraph in a book by Joseph Campbell titled The Power of Myth in a chapter titled The Gift of the Goddess. He cites a source for the origin of the quotation that we had contemplated! I was so excited!!!

 

It comes from a second century A.D. novel (one of the first novels ever written) called The Golden Ass by Apuleius.  The speaker is the Goddess Isis.  The original is Latin so the translation is different from what I had become familiar with. But there is no mistaking it.  Isis speaks:

 

….I am Nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are.  My nod governs the shining heights of Heaven, the wholesome sea-breezes, the lamentable silences of the world below.  Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names, and propitiated with all manner of different rites, yet the whole round earth venerates me.  The primeval Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, Mother of the gods; the Athenians, sprung from their own soil, call me Cecropian Artemis; for the islanders of Cyprus, I am Paphian Aphrodite; for the archers of Crete, I am Dictynna; for the trilingual Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and for the Elusinians, their ancient Mother of the Corn.

 

Some know me as Juno, some as Bellona of the Battles; others as Hecate, others again as Rhamnubia, but both races of Aethiopians, whose lands the morning sun first shines upon, and the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship me with ceremonies proper to my godhead, call me by my true name, namely Queen Isis.  

 

Ah!  So many names!  Yet paradoxically, we are ALL the “I Am” —the One that is in All Things! And each of us have our feminine/Mothering aspects as well as the powers and characteristics often associated with the masculine.

 

As I sit now in my home, re-reading and re-living by sharing this story, I am eternally grateful to the One called Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha who once took me for a Deep Dive into an ocean of Contemplation, so that I might better Know Myself.  As the Cherokee say:  "Wado! I appreciate"!

 

-Dusty (Elizabeth Richie)

More About Ego Boundaries

 

 

Recently, Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor has shared that the statement “I care” goes from the heart. That saying “I Love you” often carries the expectation that intended has to say it back. Having announced that the experience of "falling in love" is a kind of deception that not the slightest bit comprises genuine love, let me finish by moving into invert and bringing up that becoming enamored is real love. The misguided judgment that becoming enamored is a sort of adoration is so strong definitively because it contains a trace of validity.

An actual body isn't enough since we are conscious creatures, not simply actual creatures with spontaneous constancy stimulation. In this lattice, we limit from Source, so if not for our inner self superimposing a psychological limit around our actual bodies, we would have a personality crisis.

This is fundamental in a civilization that shows similarity and aloofness. It can turn into a lonely presence as it makes a feeling of fairness as it's effortless to be misunderstood or not comprehended by others.

The inner self covers we unravel resemble mental protection we clad our actual bodies with to project to everybody how we might want to show up and be respected. However, these inner self brims are not generally arranged with our actual selves. They are frequently internal self shrouds that meet the endorsement of our smothering society and are not entirely set in stone by practical pretends. Yet, like mother, father, chief, specialist, tycoon, political inventor, social laborer, laden individual, reliable sibling, etc.

In control of ego boundaries, we are left with an inconsistent incensing approach to being. From one viewpoint, ego boundaries maintain that we should be remarkable and unique, and simultaneously it needs to be typical and acknowledged by others. The final product is an outlook that is tormented by duality. It's in every case either/or dark or white. We don't frequently incorporate the third state, which is 'not one or the other' or 'something different. Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor encourages us to become aware “that what is true of one of us is true of all of us. Further, we are all born with our own fingerprint which speaks to our uniqueness.”

 

Inner ego boundaries according to other people

The most valuable spot for ego boundaries is in cozy associations with life partners - family, dear friends and work associates. Because of the vicinity and reliance on such individuals consistently, there is a gamble of obscuring the inner self boundary insurance.

An individual with a solid inner limit, who has an over-expanded feeling of the significance of their requirements, may unknowingly (or deliberately) stomp all over the necessities of their better half, who has more fragile ego boundaries.

 

Why do specific individuals have solid inner ego boundaries and others have feeble internal ego boundaries?

It's because of the make-up of the essence of the individual and their young life developmental encounters. A passive ego boundaries attribute in one individual might be the overall inner self quality.

 The individual in a relationship's self-image limit doesn't embark on being like that. They were drawn to their accomplice since they have an attribute they respect and might want to have. Like the expression goes: opposites are drawn toward each other. 

This is most normal in family and relationships, and the issue with powerless limits and solid limits impacting is somewhat because of the design of society. Every day we live in remote units of the family unit instead of the more distant family. The tension in the family unit to be everything to its singular individuals is very extraordinary. It's even normal for a married couple to become so reliant upon one another that they begin to treat each other as augmentations of themselves.

For the accomplice whose self-image limit is powerless, the relationship is a strain according to their viewpoint. Rather than a caring association, they end up entangled in different necessities instead of being two people connecting on an equivalent balance. When involved, their character becomes obscured by the other. They will change themselves to attempt to satisfy them. The predominant adaptation of this self-image attribute is the point at which they stay away from closeness through and through or end connections right on time, inspired by a paranoid fear of losing themselves in compromising with an accomplice.

Declaring requirements and wants without becoming charging or conservative is troublesome at first for the individual with a frail limit. They will have fostered the propensity for fulfilling different requirements first since it's faster. Yet, falling prey to that challenging situation makes it more earnestly for them to meet their necessities.

If we lived in a more mutual presence, similar to a more distant family that pools its assets, there would be less need to draw solid ego boundaries around ourselves to protect our sensibilities from those spirits who are exceptionally near us and from whom we expect and give to such an extent.

 

Have you seen that the more individuals you are around, the less you want solid ego boundaries?

Grumpy and empathic individuals have more trouble drawing a psychological boundary around their character. They frequently obscure their limits to others and mistake their requirements for theirs. Maybe they have a more grounded memory of the cherishing between linked we have as spirits.

They might give in to the reasoning: 'If I fulfill my better half's necessities first, my requirements will come straightaway'. It doesn't generally work out that way, as ego boundaries are self-centered and artful, for the most part at the oblivious level. Rather than the band together with the solid inner ego boundaries to arrive at a similar understanding, they are bound to unknowingly succumb to their ego boundaries molding, which hopes for something else and is rarely fulfilled.

 

How Soul plays role in Ego Boundaries?

We are over-subject to self-image recognizable proof since we are, in a real sense, kept from data about the idea of soul personality. This is mainly because of the absence of elaboration on this significant angle in most present-day otherworldly lessons.

 We hear a ton about the inner self-being and how an individual is a person. There is a presumption that to lose inner self means to lose self. No big surprise, the vast majority won't approach other materialism: they would not give up their feeling of a particular separate individual to some quantum ocean of awareness ordinarily distinguished as Universal Consciousness or God.

 Indeed, this expanse of Soul is the existence force, the energy and well of awareness behind all creation. The actual manifestations, you and me, nonetheless, have an unmistakable soul character and that is the amount of the numerous genuine lives we have. Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor shares that “we are the collective of all those who have gone before us.” Said another way, “we are the sole reason they ever existed”

We entered the physical to separate as we previously came from that shapeless un-individuated state yet are presently branching out to improve our reality. An inner self is bound to a solitary life, yet the spirit is across all the horde, and unique inner self lives it has decided to manifest into learning, developing, and creating. You could say that the spirit is more personal than the inner self.

Numerous incredible lessons talk about the acquiescence of the self-image to the solidarity of God. They leave out that this is a steady cycle done in stages, as indicated by the singular Soul's necessities. General Love (God) is extraordinary that we don't become re-consumed in a minestrone kind of cognizance soup after the 'change called passing'.

The individual God and the mimicking God. We should be personal, and it's essential for the drive toward our inventive experience. We will have as need might arise and need before we shed them totally and return to source in an unadulterated energy state - assuming you take that to be the sacred goal.

Nonetheless, similar to the projected color, the encounters we gain as Souls from our self-image lives can't be scattered - data is rarely lost. Whenever we realize what it is, we decide to learn we don't require inner self lives to be individual, and we would have figured out how to be experts in our psyches. This process is done in highly steady stages, totally customized to the person.

This isn't difficult to handle because pretty much everything in the inner self world is driven by a specific need, a one-size-fits-all attitude, the necessities of the many offset the requirements of the sparse few, etc.

On top of that, we need to adjust to an inner self-driven perspective on 'great' and 'right', which barely perceives Cause and Effect. If a couple of citizenry misuse the framework (and nobody cares 'why', 'how'), we wind up languishing over it through the burden of cruel principles and limitations that limit our flexibility.

Real identity is outside inner self-limits. It implies you don't see yourself as a casualty when something awful occurs. You are an obvious soul who is gaining from involvement with this life. On second thought of thrusting at the felon (or situation) and deciding about them, hating their guts, you deal with your nursery first.

You look at your reactions to this tough spot and how you can collect any illustrations (agonizing as they might be). Keep in mind that 'each cloud has an upside'.

I know very well that it's not difficult to express, and keeping in mind your experience, it's a pretty large request to see it along these lines. However, when you start recovery or are emerging from it, that is an ideal opportunity to assess the situation and quit relating to 'me the person in question'.

However long we relate to the casualty of inner self-limit, we are not individuals yet a mark, an extent, a generalization. In this manner, we center around some unacceptable doing, on the misfortune. This delays the anguish and overlooks the main issue.

 

                          The Mystery of Love

The most severe mystics believe that our average impression of the universe contains numerous discrete articles.

Stars, planets, trees, birds, houses, ourselves-all secluded from one another by limits is a mis-perception, a trickery. To this consensual mis-perception, this universe of double-dealing that the more critical piece of us wrongly acknowledge as certifiable, Hindus and Buddhists apply "Maya." They and various mystics hold that veritable reality can be known by experiencing solidarity by giving up mental self-portrait limits. It is hard to consider the fortitude of the universe to have a place as one continues to believe oneself to be a discrete article, confined and conspicuous from the rest of the universe in any way at all.

Hindus and Buddhists consistently hold, along these lines, that the infant kid, before the improvement of mental self-portrait limits, knows reality, while adults don't. Some even suggest that the way toward illumination or data on the solidarity of existence expects that we backslide or make ourselves like infants. This can be an unsafely alluring statute for explicit young people and energetic adults who are not prepared to assume grown-up commitments, which seem, by all accounts, to be disturbing and overwhelming and mentioning past their capacities. "I don't have to go through this," such an individual could think. "I can give. up endeavoring to be an adult and pull out from grown-up demands into sainthood." Schizophrenia, in any case, rather than sainthood, is achieved by circling back to this thought.

Most mystics grasp the truth that was made sense around the completion of the discipline discussion: precisely, that we ought to have or achieve something before we can give it up. Stay aware of our expertise and common sense. Without its mental self-portrait restrictions, the infant youngster may be in closer contact with reality than its people; in any case, it is unequipped for getting by without the thought of these gatekeepers and unequipped for conveying its understanding. The way to sainthood goes through adulthood.

There are no quick and precise substitute ways. Mental self- boundaries should to be cemented before they can be loose. A person ought to be spread out before it will, in general, have exceeded. One ought to notice one's self before one can lose it. This implies that there is a knowing and we surrendered at some point to who? Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor asks “when did we give up who we are?” The speedy conveyance from mental self-portrait limits connected with going completely gaga, sex, or explicit psychoactive drugs could give us a short glance at Nirvana, but not with Nirvana itself. It is a proposition of this book that Nirvana or getting through enlightenment or veritable extraordinary advancement can be achieved mainly through the resolute movement of authentic love.

Pa’Ris’Ha Taylor encourages us to be aware everything is talking to us. We are not separate from the “All that is in All.” Can rain lose its water?

In summary, the temporary loss of mental self-portrait limits drew in with going completely gaga and in sex not simply drives us to truly focus on others from which certifiable love could begin yet, furthermore, gives us a look at the genuinely persevering through puzzling joy that can be our own after a significant stretch of reverence. While encountering energetic sentiments isn't itself love, it is a piece of the vast and confusing arrangement of reverence.

 

-Muhammad Faisal