ANNOUNCEMENTS
[Walter Driscoll asked to interview me in order to preserve on video some of the latest modifications and evolutions in the versions of the message offered here since 1989. He would label the discussion, "Unlearning with Floyd Henderson."
Please note: For those who have a problem hearing what is being shared, the video offers a fairly accurate set of closed captions which some listeners might want to activate.
The interview is available for viewing by clicking on video "NUMBER THIRTEEN" in the column to the right.]
1. [See the offer in gold text following this post for details on how you can watch a retreat on video which includes a detailed discussion of all seven of the steps on the path as used by Maharaj]
2. Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns. See the green text after today's post for the full meaning and implications of that.
3. A newer video ("Number Ten: Awakening Together Satsang, March 2018") has now been added in the far right column of this page, offering the opportunity to view a recent 2018 satsang session with Floyd being interviewed by Regina and Jacqueline of "The Awakening Together Group." (See the details in the blue text after this post.)
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THE PHYSIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS AND THE CALL BY THOSE CONSEQUENCES FOR REALIZATION AND A NISARGAN PERSPECTIVE
Now, to continue with the report on the damage to the brains of rats that were subjected to stress:
Sapolsky: “And what was most interesting in many ways was the part of the brain where this [effect of stress] was happening, the hippocampus. You take Intro Neurobiology and what you learn is that the hippocampus controls learning and memory.”
Narrator: “Stress in these rats shrank the part of their brain responsible for memory.”
McEwen: “Stress affects memory in two ways. Chronic stress can actually change brain circuits so that we lose the capacity to remember things as we need to. Very severe, acute stress can have another effect which is why it is said that ‘stress makes you stupid.’ It makes it impossible for you, over short periods of time, to remember things you know perfectly well.”
[NON-DUAL NOTE: Hence, the case among the non-Realized as described here: “It is as if they are no longer awake, aware, conscious. They are walking in their sleep, talking in their sleep, and doing everything else in their sleep as well.”]
Sapolsky: “We are all familiar with that phenomenon from back when we stressed ourselves by not getting any sleep at all. We couldn’t remember a single thing for a final exam. You take humans and stress them big time, long time, and you’re going to have a hippocampus that pays the price as well.”
Narrator: “In addition to undermining our health, stress can make us feel plain miserable. Carol Shively set out to find out why. She began not with misery but with pleasure.
Shively suspected that there was a link between stress, pleasure, and where we stand on the social hierarchy. Just like stress, pleasure is linked to the chemistry of the brain. When a neurotransmitter called dopamine is released in the brain, it binds to receptors, signaling pleasure.
She explored this process first by looking into the brain of a non-stressed [dominant] primate and then looking at a subordinate’s brain.”
Shively: “What we discovered is that the brains of the subordinate monkeys are very, very dull because there’s much less receptor-binding going on in this area. Why is that? What is it about this area of the brain?
When
you have less dopamine, everything around you that you would normally take
pleasure in is less pleasurable, so the sun doesn’t shine so bright, the grass
is not so green, food doesn’t taste as good. It’s because of the way your brain
is functioning that you’re doing that, and your brain is functioning that way
because you’re low on the social status hierarchy.”
Sapolsky: “One feature of low rank is the reality of being low-ranking. An even
stronger feature, by the time you get to humans, is not just being low-ranking
or poor. It’s feeling low-ranking or poor. And one of the best ways for
society to make you feel like one of the have-nots is to rub your nose in it
over and over and over again with what you don’t have.”
Narrator: “Richmond, California is a town where society’s extremes can be spotted right from your car.” [Shows a man driving through a “fairly-well-to-do, middle class” area] “This is cardiologist Jeffrey Ritterman’s regular commute.”
Ritterman: “You can learn a lot about the stress and health outcome just from the neighborhoods you visit. In this neighborhood, the life expectancy is quite good and most of the people are pretty healthy.
“As we reach the top of the hill, it gets to be a little bit less privileged and as we make this transition, the social status begins to drop and, correspondingly, in these areas, the health outcome is much worse.”
“These people are not going to have the same life expectancy as the people in the middle class area we started in. People are on guard, people are vigilant, and they’re living a more stressful life. This is a community that produces high stress hormones in people, and over time it takes its toll.”
[NON-DUAL NOTE: Consider the
terms used in analyzing the hierarchical separation among colonies of monkeys
and troops of baboons and humans as well, words that are not any part of “The
Vocabulary Of Non-Duality”: “superior,” “subordinate,” “low-ranking,” “high-ranking”
“rich,” “poor,” “haves,” “have-nots,” “well-to-do,” “privileged,” “less
privileged” and you’ll understand why so many postings here over the years have
addressed the ramifications of hierarchies and a sense of different-from-ment
and a sense of better-than-ment.]
Narrator: “One of Ritterman’s patients is 65-year-old Emanuel Johnson, a
guidance counselor in one of America’s most dangerous neighborhoods.”
Johnson: “Last year I think we had 47 homicides. In just the last 4 days, we’ve had 11 shootings and 3 deaths, and I just know, nine times out of ten, it’s going to be a relative or someone that the kids know.”
Narrator: “For Emanuel Johnson, there is a price for chronic exposure to this stress”:
Johnson: “Five years ago I had a heart attack. I’m a diabetic, too. I have to work on it constantly. I’ve been in this business 20 years, so it’s just - it’s stressful just working the job. So over the years came issues with the cholesterol, the blood pressure, the sugar, but the stress was always there, long before those problems came on.”
Narrator: “Emanuel Johnson’s body [shown, obviously overweight] may be telling yet another story of stress. The Whitehall Study in England found an incredible link between stress, your position in a social hierarchy, and how you put on weight.”
Marmot: “And the issue may not be just about putting on weight, but also the distribution of that weight. And the distribution of that weight - putting it on around the center - is related to one’s position in the hierarchy, and that, in turn, may be related to chronic stress pathways.”
Shively earlier: “So we asked, ‘Does that happen in monkeys because they organize themselves in a hierarchy, too?’ And it turns out that it does. Subordinate monkeys are more likely to have fat in their abdomen than are dominant monkeys.
I think the most amazing observation that I’ve made in my lab is this idea that stress could actually change the way you deposit fat on your body. To me, that was a bizarre idea - that you could actually alter the way fat is distributed.”
Narrator: “And Sapolsky, Shively and others think stress could be a critical factor in the global obesity epidemic.”
Shively: “So we said, ‘Does that happen in monkeys because they organize themselves in a hierarchy, too.’ And it turns out that it does. Subordinate monkeys are more likely to have fat in their abdomen than are dominant monkeys.
“I think the most amazing observation that I’ve made in my lab is this idea that stress could actually change the way you deposit fat on your body. To me, that was a bizarre idea that you could actually alter the way fat is distributed.”
Narrator: “Sapolsky, Shively and others think stress could be a critical factor in the global obesity epidemic.”
The Narrator continued: “Even worse, fat brought on by stress is dangerous fat.”
Shively: “We know that fat carried on the trunk, or actually inside the abdomen, is much worse for you than fat carried elsewhere on the body.
It behaves differently - it produces different kinds of hormones and chemicals and has different effects on your health. Whatever it is that works for individuals, they need to value stress reduction. I think the problem in our society is that we don’t value stress reduction;
in fact, we value the opposite. We admire the person who not only multi-tasks but does five things at once. We kind of admire those persons, how they manage that, though it’s an incredibly stressful way to live. We have to change our values and value people who understand a balanced and serene life.”
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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THE EXPLANATION
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.
