Back in Canada in the late fifties, as Engineering students at Queen's University, we used to sing a song called "The Engineer's Hymn." We sang it with great gusto, at any occasion that presented itself. The lyrics identified us as engineers, and told, or some might see it as bragged, of who and what we were. One verse in particular stood out in my mind and in writing this book, it has kept surfacing. It is sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the words are as follows:
Godiva was a lady, who through Coventry did ride,
She showed to all the villagers her bare and lovely hide.
The most observant one of all, an engineer of course,
Was the only man who noticed that Godiva rode a horse.As students we were being trained in far more than science, mathematics and technology. We were also being socialized into a world fraternity of applied scientists who share common values and attributes. This song taught us some of these attributes. The one portrayed in the above verse was a matter of great pride to us. It told us that as engineers, we could and should rise above our baser instincts to be true witnesses and to not get trapped up in only what we wanted to see. As an engineer, I learned to be as the child in my favorite fairy tale, "The Emperor's New Clothes," and to see what really is, to look beyond the apparent or obvious and see the whole picture.
It was also a reiteration of one of my birth stories. According to my Scottish mother, I was born with a caul, or flap of skin covering my face. According to her, in the Scottish tradition, those born with the caul (part of the amniotic sac) were blessed, or perhaps cursed, with the second sight. The second sight is the ability to peer through the veils of illusion, in order to see reality.
It is an attribution that has been foremost in my mind throughout my varied careers, and spurs me on to what others have often missed. This was particularly true when I retired from the practice of chemical engineering and business management, and instead, turned my attention to the study of psychology, healing processes, and later on, the medical sciences. The hymn and my birth story haunted me, because the more I looked, the more clearly I saw that not only was the lady (allopathic medicine) riding naked, but that no one seemed to be noticing the horse that she was riding on. It appeared to be an old nag that was inadequate for the job.
We are in the midst of a health care crisis. Currently, more than 40 percent of people seeking health care will turn to alternatives other than the medical profession. Diseases that we thought we had eradicated, such as tuberculosis, are returning informs stronger than ever before. New diseases, such as AIDS and Fibromyalgia, are surfacing, and our healers seem, so far, to be helpless in the face of these assaults. The third leading cause of death in this country is iatrogenic illness (death related to a medical treatment, drug or hospital stay). The lady is now seen to be naked, people are just beginning to notice that; but what about the horse that she's riding on?
That horse is the science on which the medical and psychological healing professions currently ride. This is classical science, as formulated by Newton, Bacon, Darwin and Descartes, which was founded on certain principles, and currently being undermined by new theories and advancements in science, particularly in physics. This old nag is mechanistic, materialistic, reducctionistic, fixed in rigid certainty, and excludes humanistic consciousness and spirit. If these words were used to describe a person, that person would probably be considered mentally or emotionally ill.
The "New Sciences" I am referring to are Relativity, Quantum, Chaos and Holographic Theories. They are based on energy, relationship and more organismic or system-oriented, and not fixed, because the concept of "uncertainty" is certainly present. These new sciences are also consonant with spiritual notions, and strive to include consciousness in their bodies of knowledge. It is time for medical arts and science to join in this scientific evolution, to join with the other sciences, change horses and mount the new ones, which are more like spirited, thoroughbred steeplechasers. It is this new science that will carry us well into the next millennium.
That is, in part, what this book is about -- changing the horse you came in on. There is a new paradigm implied by these New Sciences. This paints a very different picture of the fundamental basis of reality, how it formed and how it operates, than does the classical science we all learned in school. This has profound implications with respect to us personally, and impacts upon how we form our personal reality, influencing our perceptions which define the world, including ourselves.
The difference is often illustrated by the clock analogy: if you were to give a mechanical clock to a classical scientist, he could deduce how it works by taking it apart and tracing the mechanical connections and motions of the gears and springs. He could replace any gear or spring that was broken, then put the clock back together, and it would work.
This mechanistic model is the sole one which the medical and psychological sciences now use to operate. We are seen and treated as mechanisms, our worn parts are replaced or fixed, and our chemical insufficiencies remedied by injection or orally taken drugs. This is the "horse" the healing profession currently rides on. It does not really describe the complexity of people, nor how they function very adequately.
But, what about a new digital watch? Take that apart, and all you see is a chip, a quartz crystal. There are no moving or mechanical parts; it is electromagnetic energy that works the clock. Its workings cannot be deduced by the mechanistic, reductionistic and materialistic methods of classical science. It is a device of the "new sciences."
The human body and mind are only in part mechanistic, and this involves functions such as the mechanical actions of arms, legs, and body movement, and some aspects of human biochemistry. However, humans are also based on and operate by means of energy waves and patterns, as does the digital clock.
It is this unified energy field that basically drives all the functions of the body and mind, creating all movement and action and our quality of life. Moveover, a subtle energy exists that is fundamental to this system. It has been ignored, indeed excluded, from classical science. It is called consciousness, and very little is known about it. The fundamental energy that accounts for the human body and psyche has been banished from classical sciences and its considerations, and in its place, we are regarded as no more than a machine and collection of chemicals and parts.
So, this book is also about "Consciousness Science," the study of consciousness. What is it? How does it operate? What rules or principles does it follow? Consciousness cannot be adequately understood, nor its workings deduced by classical science. But the new sciences do provide the means to help us to find some order, and create realitistic models to describe what consciousness is and how it operates. They can help us to understand the unpredictability and spontaneity that makes life exciting, unique, and evolutionary for each one of us.
True to my original profession and pride in engineering, I hope this book shows that I am taking the first baby steps in developing the foundations of applied consciousness science, or more colloquially, consciousness engineering. This book outlines one of the first consciousness technologies I have developed at Asklepia, the "Consciousness Restructuring Process of Natural Healing," or CRP.
I ask you to take nothing on faith about it. I will merely describe the scientific theories and principles that support the process. Occasionally, I will speculate, but only based on clinical observations, and extrapolation, or interpolation, of the existing data and theories. These speculations may eventually become theory. I hope, at the very least, that they will motivate others to their research laboratories, to test their validity, perhaps opening new avenues of inquiry. This is certainly included in my plans for the future. This is how science and knowledge advances. This is what turns a hypothesis or speculation into theory.
On the other hand, this is also a book about spirituality. The same language and metaphors that describe the various "new science" principles, can also be used to describe spiritual phenomena and experiences. What divided us into two competing and divergent philosophies and world views in the 16th century, science and rationalism versus religion and mysticism, now are finally coming full circle. Once again they are merging into our common quest: to understand who and what we are, and the nature of the universe in which we live.
These are the same basic questions we sensed and sought to solve as babies, and struggled with into adulthood. The fundamentalists and dogmatic will probably still cling to their many differences, but those on the cutting edges of the evolution, both scientifically and spiritually, can find a common ground and language now. In speaking to scientific groups as well as spiritual groups, I find that one language works very well. The language describing new sciences suits spirituality also: the metaphorical expression of the principles of relativity, quantum, chaos and holographic theories.
Holographic Healing is also about creativity and the creative spirit, and processes that the driving forces behind humans surpassing their apparent limitations. Part of this describes how the use of imagination takes us beyond the limits of our diseases and into self-healing, which triggers the homeostasis processes.
All knowledge in any one human mind only defines its current boundaries and the limits of thought. An answer can only solve one problem in a specific context. It is the imagination that sets us free and can carry us beyond these limits to what we could not think. Imagination can solve any problem; that is imagination, and its eldest daughter, dreams.
Lastly this is a book about dreams. Dreams have captured our interest since time immemorial. They have carried the voice of our Gods to us mortals. They have served as the basis of some of the most profound scientific advances in chemistry, physics, and engineering. They have been our seers, telling us of possible futures, and they have served to heal us.
Recent information about REM dream consciousness leads me to suggest, that this base premise, may be a strong force behind the healing of the placebo effect. That too, is where we go in this book, to study this phenomenon in relationship to the new science and our dreams. We will offer what we think, is a plausible mechanism and operational process to describe how consciousness interacts with, and drives the physiological and neurobiological mechanisms of the body. This would account for the efficacy of placebos, spontaneous remissions, and perhaps, in fact, all healing.
We, at Asklepia Foundation, are unashamedly and boldly hoping to foster an evolution in the world of healers; the healing arts and science and ultimately, science itself. It is an evolution that will empower us all and honor our full potential as conscious beings. This honors all the conscious beings that make up the universe: from animals, birds, reptiles, trees, insects and other living creatures, to rocks, mountains, rivers, and even stars and galaxies. It honors all consciousness, no matter what form it assumes.
This evolution revitalizes the philosophy of the oldest of all professions, even older than "the one" that claims that place. It is the philosophy of the original healer-priests, the Shamans. It holds that all things live and exist in a harmony of rhythms and patterns that make up the symphony of reality. This is also an apt description of reality, as seen from the quantum perspective.
Perhaps we can use this evolution to help us heal our relationships with one another, and with our planet and environment. It has that potential. Won't you please join me in exploring that potential?
I hope you enjoy reading this book, and find it to as challenging and fulfilling as I have in writing it. It is an exciting ride, on this vital new horse.
Graywolf Swinney, 1997
Wilderville, Oregon