wholism

WHOLISM AND THE NEW AGE

by

Diane Brandon

We find ourselves perched on the "cusp" of a new era, or so we're told -- a "new age." A whole new era will be ushered in -- with the emphasis on newness.

Part of that newness, I believe, will be new thinking, a breaking of the old, the creation of the new. New thinking, new forms. But are we still caught up in the old thinking? Are we marching into the "New Age" dragging our old thinking along?

We talk a lot about wholism -- "wholistic health," "wholistic living." And I feel that wholism is a form that we are inexorably moving towards, an integral part of the "New Age." But what does "wholism" really mean and what are the implications of wholistic being?

Well, obviously the term wholistic comes from the word "whole." And a whole is the combination or total of its parts. "Wholeness" is considered to be desirable: we strive "to be whole."

Unfortunately the age and culture we live in has heavily swayed us against wholeness. We separate and compartmentalize, rather than uniting. We live in an age of specialization, splitting off parts of ourselves and earning a living doing one thing, thereby neglecting our other talents and interests.

We separate and reject, rather than unite and accept. We compete, rather than cooperate. We fear and push away that which is feared, rather than accept and understand. We judge, rather than forgive and accept. We talk about dualities of good vs. evil, light vs. dark, rather than look at the whole, which is composed of both, and combinations and gradations thereof. We engage in simplistic labeling and thinking, rather than deal with totalities and nuances -- the polar opposites, rather than mixtures or shades of gray.

All of these engrained habits of thinking have been salient characteristics of the Piscean Age, and we have all been under their spell.

So, how do we move toward wholeness, given all the influences on us to the contrary?

The Personal Level

Let's take a look first at wholeness as applied to the individual or personal level. I would think that, to be whole, we must first accept ourselves as a whole. Rather than split off parts of ourselves as undesirable and disowning them, we can accept that everything exists for a purpose. To believe otherwise is to reject creation and second guess the Creator.

Therefore, we can first accept all our faculties: left brain and right brain; logic, feeling, and intuition. How many times have we heard someone say, "I don't think; I feel?" Why not think and feel. Instead of labeling one as "bad" and the other as "good," why not consider that both serve a purpose? Why thinks in terms of "ors" that separate, instead of "ands" that unite? If any of these faculties did not serve a purpose, why were they created? There are times when I don't know where my thinking or ideas come from: from my logic or intuition or feeling. It feels, instead, as if the parts are working together as a whole -- which is a nice feeling, a feeling of wholeness. We can become more whole by reclaiming all parts of ourselves.

Emotions

Emotions get a lot of bad press. We tend to reject emotions as undesirable qualities, especially "negative" emotions like pain or anger. We suppress our emotions; it's not "good" to be "emotional." Isn't it possible that emotions serve a purpose, perform a function? To me, emotions are indicators, or signals: they tell us when something is going well or needs to be worked on. If we pay attention to our emotions, we can learn and grow.

If the different parts of ourselves are working together, then we achieve a wholeness or balance in our lives. If we suppress or deny parts of ourselves, the energy of the parts disowned does not dissipate; it remains and throws us off balance.

The Role of Fear

Certainly fear is an emotion that is a big bugaboo to us. When we label something as "bad," we push it away. The more "bad" it is for us and the more we push it away, the more we fear it. As anyone who has worked on his or her issues knows -- or as any truly spiritually wise person knows -- fear is our teacher, if we go into it. Fear separates and holds us back; it does not unite. If, however, we face our fear and go into it, we learn from it and reclaim a disowned part of us. We also usually learn that our fear of the fear was worse than what we thought we feared, the object of our fear. We learn that superstition and fear are only shadows, projections from within ourselves with no real substance, projections from our own lack of wholeness. We also gain in self-confidence when we go into fear. We become more whole.

A healthy curiosity can also help with fear, because curiosity opens us; its energy goes outward. An open mind is an inquiring one. A closed mind holds us back. Curiosity impels us forward to learn and grow.

Fear exists in the New Age community as well and, unfortunately, at times is taught to others. There was an idea going around last winter before the first Uranus-Neptune conjunction about "negative space entities" that were going to use the conjunction as some sort of opening to do "negative," bad things to "lightworkers."

I was taken aback when I heard this, as well as baffled and somewhat saddened. Here was fear in all its grandeur, rearing its head again -- this time in the New Age community, a community I had thought was enlightened. New drama, old thinking. The old myth and fear of evil and Satan in New Age clothing. The old need to fear something and project it outward in an anthropomorphic fashion: Satan was now "negative space entities."

Fear wields its power pervasively, especially when one feels separation, and it rules with an iron fist. Unfortunately fear can contaminate and be contagious: we teach our fear to others. Again, we can learn from going into fear and examining it openly, thereby reclaiming our wholeness. A life without fear is a "whole"-some life.

Self-Development

The human potential development movement also springs from a move toward wholeness. As we develop talents that have lain dormant and acquire new skills, we develop more parts of our selves – and thus become more of a whole.

As we start to reclaim disowned parts of ourselves and truly develop ourselves as whole human beings, wholeness is not the only result. Self-development can also lead to self-acceptance, self-esteem, and self-empowerment.

We can also apply wholism and new forms to the personal area of career. I first found myself expounding the following idea during a reading and was surprised by what was coming out of my mouth. An idea had formed, unbeknownst to me, and it was an idea that I could apply to myself.

Basically, I found myself saying that one could assess one's talents, abilities, and interests and come up with a career that combined these, thus drawing on one's wholeness. That perhaps we err in trying to think of having a job or career that already exists in our economic structure -- of trying to fit ourselves into a pre-existing hole, instead of carving out and creating a career that suits us. A new form customized for us specifically.

In our one-dimensional society, we tend to think of people as being or doing only one thing. But this, of course, is the antithesis of wholeness. The eclectic person tends to be whole. And that eclecticism can be incorporated into how one earns one's living. This idea runs counter to our era of narrow specialization, but I feel that we are truly moving toward just this sort of whole living and career, and away from specialization that cuts us off from things.

Wholistic living does not imply a closed system. The moment we think we have all the answers and stop seeking and questioning and adding to our whole -- we close down and cease learning and growing. Closing down -- not being open -- also implies separation.

The Societal or Larger Level

Which brings us to another area of wholism -- the societal, or our interactions with others and our world. How can we apply wholism to our interactions with that which is outside us?

Just as being whole means accepting all our own parts, it also implies accepting other people. It means feeling a connection, rather than separation. Just as Native Americans view all of life as interconnected, wholism as a world-view implies that we are part of a whole. We are not only connected to other humans (both those we deem "bad," as well as "good"), but to all of life: animals, plants, rocks, air. We are part of an interconnecting and very complex web of life -- the ultimate symbiotic relationship. Any time we separate ourselves from the whole, we are negating not only the whole, but also aspects of ourselves.

There are many ways in which we separate ourselves from the whole: by judging others; by seeing ourselves as separate or different or better; by criticizing; by "shoulding" other people; by labeling.

Personal Causes of Alienation

Why do we feel this separation (so strongly that at times it is more alienation than separation)? One of the reasons is that old word "ego." We are trapped in our egos -- and the ego need to feel important in comparison to others and separate from things. And the ego need to feel important comes from not loving ourselves, from low self-esteem. Which ultimately goes back to not accepting ourselves -- and all our parts and traits. Ergo, learning to accept ourselves -- all of our parts -- is a step towards loving ourselves, as well as loving and feeling connected to others.

Another cause of separation is our own pain. And our pain comes from different things -- from not accepting ourselves, from unresolved issues from the past. The more we go into our pain (similar to going into fear), the more we resolve and heal it – and heal ourselves. As we heal our pain, we become more whole. Pain closes us in into ourselves. It pulls our energy in and prevents that energy from radiating out. As we heal ourselves of pain, we feel our energy flow outward -- thus connecting ourselves to other things and people.

Even our language may contribute to our feeling of separation. We define by difference, rather than similarity or commonality. We want to know how something is different from something else. We have a need to distinguish by differences. It is interesting to note that many Native American languages do not have nouns, only verbs. In these languages, what we see as things or people are instead processes or actions -- a dance of energy, rather than something fixed or immutable. It is very hard to label something that is in movement and thus changing. And once we label or define, we cease seeing something or someone as unique; we cease seeing them afresh. It is a mental shortcut to label and define -- we no longer have to deal with the more involved process of seeing freshly.

Our very society has influences for alienation. As our population has increased and increasing urbanization has crowded us together more and more, we increasingly tend to view other people as objects -- as obstacles that get in our way. We have to "fight" through traffic. We have to stand behind others in line. It is hard to feel connected to others when we feel others are "in our way." So some of us seek a more "wholesome" life in less urban settings.

Cooperation

The very idea of competing for things -- competing for food, for jobs, for space -- has been a hallmark of the Piscean Age. The Aquarian Age, we are told, will be one of cooperation, rather than competition or domination. Some people speak of the shift from the Piscean to the Aquarian Age as a shift from the dominating, paternalistic force to the rise of the cooperative, feminine principle.

Certainly cooperation is a facet of wholism -- the parts of a whole cooperating or working together, rather than fighting or abrading against each other. But striving for wholeness in society or the world ultimately begins on the personal level. A whole entity cannot be working together smoothly and "wholesomely" if the individual component parts are not smooth, whole-functioning microcosms of the whole.

Charity Begins at Home; Wholeness Begins in the Self

Perhaps healing our pain, working on our issues, shining a light on our less-illumined areas, accepting ourselves, striving to be whole within ourselves, developing our potential, having an open, curious outlook, and changing our thinking -- all of this together is the first step. It is no coincidence at all that there has been an intense flurry of activity in the past several years as more and more people have been "working on their issues." This is definitely happening for a reason, for we can't bypass the personal work to leap into the divine. Ofttimes an intense desire to immerse oneself in the New Age movement without having done one's personal work may represent an unconscious desire to escape from pain -- a denial of one's reality and diversion of attention from one's problems. (Denial is not just a river in Africa!) If we are here for a purpose, then part of the purpose may be to fully experience life and learn and grow -- here and now.

I often hear some people refer to themselves as "lightworkers," who are on a mission to save people. That we are now in the throes of a struggle between light and dark. That people are being forced to choose between "life" and "death." And woe to those who choose "death."

This is a very seductive idea. But does this picture feel right to you? It encompasses a lot of the old thinking and pulls people in through fear and separation. It taps into a lot of ego needs and pain-based needs. Physician, heal thyself.

We first have the duality of light vs. dark, the totalitarian and simplistic thinking dividing things and people into polar opposites -- no grays, just black and white. People are good or bad, light or dark. Period. There is no in-between. We also have the old separatist thinking of Us vs. Them, the Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys. (If we wanted to give it a Western touch, we could add white and black hats -- just so people could tell at a glance who was who.) We also strongly have the element of fear: if you don't choose life, you get death. It pushes people's fear buttons big-time. (If you're not good, you'll get coal in your stocking; "so you'd better be good for goodness' sake....")

And, after it has pushed all the big fear and separation buttons, it then gives a pay-off, the Reward, by pushing the ego-need button. The need to feel good about oneself. And not just good -- superior. Superior to others. A savior. A "lightworker," separate and above others (except for those other lightworker members of your exclusive clique). Who needs a country club when you can have your own New Age substitute version? This, for many, is an enticing notion, coming out of pain and need, but, unfortunately, at the expense of others: others must be seen as in the dark and needing to be saved in order for the "lightworker" to be exalted. For anyone with low self-esteem, who feels alienated from others and has deep-seated fears, and who has not done his or her personal work, this is very strong stuff.

And it is exactly the same heady brew of button-pushing that we have seen in religions over the years. Take a populace that has fears, is alienated from itself as well as others, and is into separation (Us vs. Them) and, voila: we have the Crusades and other variations on a theme. We can all be susceptible to such ideas.

We all have a mission and a purpose. Otherwise, why are we here -- any of us? But are we divine saviors? (Or are we all not divine saviors?) Must others be base, foundering in the dark and needing to be saved -- by us in our elevated and rarefied position? Or are we all not a mixture of light and dark -- somewhat less than perfect (and yet perfect because we are where we are meant to be)?

In reality, we are all at different places on our respective paths, and we all contain grays and gradations of light. We are all in this together and are connected. We all learn from each other, and we all have something to contribute.

And, as we contribute, there is an exchange of energy, which can be wholistic as well -- a circle, if you will. With wholistic energy, the cycle must be complete: if it goes out, it must be returned. An equal give and take. As we teach, so we learn. As we give, so are we given.

Transitions are not easy. As we go through change, a lot of dirt and discomfort are stirred up. We are, however, inexorably moving towards wholism. All our separation and fear and underlying dualistic thinking are gradually dying away. The old rigid and separatist forms and thinking are winding down. More and more people are changing their thinking, working on their issues, healing themselves, and becoming whole. And seeing themselves as part of the whole. And as we heal and grow, the whole reflects our change by also healing. The throes of change may be discomfitting, especially when the change is fundamental, but wholism will be part of the future. We can be healthy parts of that whole.

(Published in Connexions, November and December 1993)

“There is a wisdom of the head, and...a wisdom of the heart!”
Charles Dickens, Hard Times

“Where my heart lies, let my brain lie also.”
Robert Browning, “One Word More”

“It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason.”
Blaise Pascal

There is a new trend these days toward becoming more heart-centered, one that is a positive trend in our move toward wholeness.

What do we mean by “heart-centeredness?”

Actually, the term “heart-centered” may be a bit misleading, as it might indicate a move from the head to the heart. I prefer, instead, to look at it as opening the heart up, a “heart-openness.” (And, as we shall soon find out, current scientific research shows that we may already be more “heart-centered” than we know.)

As a believer in wholism and in being whole, I feel that we are healthier and more whole when we develop and use more of our faculties and abilities. In the present context, this means that we want to use our heads and our hearts (as well as our guts, our intuition, etc.) – and have them all working together in a seamless whole. So, in order to become more heart-centered, we don’t want to stop thinking! We just want to open up our feeling center more and feel while we think and think while we feel. (We may not need open-heart surgery, as much as we may need heart-opening surgery!)

The move toward “heart-centeredness” in Western industrialized societies is truly a step toward wholeness. And it is not just Western societies that are starting to inch toward wholeness: interestingly, there is also a move in less industrialized “third-world” societies that have traditionally been more heart-centered toward developing their rational, head-oriented faculties more (technical, analytical, etc.) – and thus embracing their wholeness.

So, why aren’t we already “heart-open?”

The Age of Reason has propelled our Western society increasingly into our heads. And our contemporary materialistic focus has served to cement us there. As we have become more “rational,” we have tended to discount and dismiss the “non-rational” (i.e., heart-centered faculties) as beneath us or as lesser attributes, and not to be relied upon. The rational, empirical, and pragmatic alone are to be trusted. Interestingly, even if we have tended to see ourselves as left brain or right brain, we are still viewing ourselves as in our heads, as these are still head-centered faculties. (Of course, if we want to be head-centered, we could always be whole-brain, rather than half-brain!)

Thus, our “rationalism” has led us to disown our feelings and live in our heads. And, if we do get into our feelings, we tend to talk about them, rather than genuinely feel them.

Certainly our age of specialization has led us to be more one-dimensional, relying on only one facet of ourselves and leading us to be less than we can really be.

When we layer in on top of these factors another influence that we have seen in our society in the last 30 years – that of hiding our feelings – it is easy to see why we are not more heart-open. There has been increasing pressure in our society not to show our emotions (or “wear our hearts on our sleeves”) and thus be vulnerable. We must protect ourselves by appearing “cool.” This tendency has been further aided and abetted by our advertising and popular media that have encouraged us to be image-conscious. In addition, increasing urbanization and crowding, and an increasing crime rate have led us to protect ourselves by putting our emotional armor on and erecting walls between ourselves and others.

And, if we’re not image-conscious or acting cool, we may have closed down emotionally. The extreme emotional sensitivity and past pains of some of us may have led us to feel pain more easily than pleasure or happiness. Our hearts may have become figuratively scarred (because we’re scared?) – and closed off.

It’s no wonder, then, that some of us close our hearts off, live in our heads, or fall into habits of negative thinking (cynicism, fearfulness, etc.).

So, why should we even want to become more heart-centered? What is so special about the heart?

Physically seated in the chest, protected by the ribs, and actually fairly tough, the heart is pear-shaped and consists of four chambers. It is composed of muscle and is a little bigger than a fist. Health-wise, the heart can be affected by hypertension, clogged arteries, etc. A healthy flow in the heart is vital to its health (just as a healthy flow is desirable in our overall energy flow).

Figuratively, we know the heart as “the seat of emotion,” the place where our “inmost thoughts and feelings” reside. It is also seen as “the vital or most essential part; the real meaning; the core.” (Webster’s Unabridged)

Interestingly, we have always accorded the heart a special place in our world, almost as if we have an innate sense of its complex importance. We use phrases like “with all one’s heart,” or “to set one’s heart on.” While we have apparently always had an intuitive awareness of the key role of the heart in our emotional well-being, scientists may have tended to dispute the validity or empirical value of these idioms and have therefore discounted this folksy wisdom.

It is interesting that we have traditionally viewed the heart in these two ways, both as a physical organ and figuratively as vital and involved with emotion, because, ironically enough, recent scientific research has yielded some provocative findings that show a basis for such a wedding in terms.

I was fortunate enough last summer to attend the annual IONS conference (Institute of Noetic Sciences), where I was introduced to the work of the Institute of HeartMath (IHM) in California. Aside from research into phantom DNA and subtle energy (they’ve also invented an instrument that measures subtle energy), they have done extensive research into the heart, which sheds light on the question of heart-centeredness. I’ll share some of their research here, but, should you want more detail, you can visit their web site (http://www.heartmath.org) and read their research for yourself.

They point out that the heart is the largest wave generator in the body. The waves it generates (as measured by an EKG) can actually entrain the brain’s waves (as measured by an EEG)! (Entrainment involves a synchronizing of two wave or energy systems.) And the heart’s waves can actually entrain our whole physical system (brain, immune system, etc.). Shades of wholeness!

“The heart generates an electrical information field that not only permeates every cell in the body, including the cells of the brain, but also radiates out into space.” (Joseph Sundram, IHM, “The Heart of Change Management”) The heart’s electrical field has been detected and measured five feet away from the body.

And one person’s heart waves can affect and show up in someone else’s brain waves when they touch each other.

There is also an intelligence and consciousness in the heart: “...the heart has unusual perceptual and intuitive information-processing capabilities....and has its own frequency range of intelligence that is not controlled by the brain or the autonomic nervous system. The heart is autorhythmic, which means that it beats on its own without requiring input from the brain or nervous system.” The heart and brain communicate with each other via nerves and hormones, and the heart’s communication to the brain “directly affects perception, reaction speeds, balance, intuition, and decision-making ability....” The “feeling and emotional perceptions of the heart,” when communicated to the brain, trigger “chemical changes in neurotransmitters and hormones throughout the body.” (All italics mine) (Doc Lew Childre, IHM, “A White Paper: Women Lead with Their Hearts”) This means that the heart affects our consciousness and our understanding, so that, in order to truly understand, we need to have our hearts open while we are thinking. Thinking with the mind alone (extreme intellectualism), while divorcing the heart while in the act of cogitation, leads to sterile thoughts devoid of true understanding.

The heart also affects the health of the immune system, hormonal balance (including the production of DHEA), thinking ability and creativity, DNA, entrainment, healthy cell growth, and inhibition of tumor cell growth!

When you actually read some of the results of IHM’s research, you feel blown away by the importance of that little bitty organ located in your chest.

Now, what makes the difference in whether the heart’s effects are positive or negative?

Interestingly enough, it is the type of emotions we have that affect our heart function – and, thus, how they entrain our whole physical system, how they affect others, and how they affect our own health.

Because emotions affect the wave patterns of the heart.

Dan Winter, a psychophysiologist, has mapped emotions in the heart. He has twice spoken at SFF (Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship) meetings, and I was serendipitously fortunate enough to hear him both times. He has shown how coherent emotions (creating a wave pattern with waves that are in phase with each other) – i.e., love, appreciation, etc. – affect the braiding of DNA.

At IHM they have researched how coherent emotions affect the heart and health. Coherent emotions produce a heart wave pattern that is smooth and symmetrical; noncoherent emotions (anger, frustration, resentment, caustic humor, etc.), by contrast, produce a jagged wave pattern.

Coherent emotions produce heart rate variability, vital for life and health, whereas the negative emotions do not. Noncoherent, or negative, emotions close the heart down and cause constriction. (There’s that “flow” factor again!)

As if it weren’t enough just to feel those noncoherent emotions and feel angry, resentful, etc., they also have the following ill effects: suppression of the immune system; hormonal imbalance; inability to think clearly; cardiovascular strain; negatively impacting others; tumor growth; and a negative impact on DNA. Indeed, recalling an angry memory for just five minutes can suppress the immune system for five hours. (On the other hand, just suppressing anger can also have ill health effects.)

It is through feeling – not thinking about, but really feeling – coherent emotions that we optimize health, reduce stress, promote longevity, optimize our thinking and creative faculties, have intuitive intelligence, have true understanding, entrain our physical system (for wholeness), have a healthy flow of energy, and positively affect others. (And we now have some scientific justification for ideas about wholeness and energy flow!)

And, if that weren’t enough, coherent emotions and an open heart allow for more connection to others and to our world.

But wait: there’s more!

IHM research also indicates that “the quantum electrical field of the heart is where love, or Spirit, enters the human system...where Spirit meets matter.” (Doc Lew Childre, IHM, “Building a Bridge Between Science and Religion”) So an open heart also opens us more to “Spirit”uality.

All of this – health, wholeness, flow, true understanding, connection to others, spirituality – from feeling love, appreciation, etc.!

But how do we start to feel coherent emotions more in our stressful contemporary lives?

Well, there are two techniques that I am aware of at the present time. One is the “Freeze Frame” technique devised by IHM (and delineated in the book, Freeze Frame by Doc Lew Childre), which incorporates recognizing the stressful feeling by becoming consciously aware of it (conscious living), shifting your focus to your heart for ten seconds, recalling a “positive, fun feeling” and re-experiencing it, asking your heart what would be a more efficient response to the stressful situation, listening to your heart’s answer, and writing down your response. Please note that this is a bare outline of the technique and does not give full justice to it. IHM conducts workshops in this technique and also provides consulting services to corporations, the military, etc. (You may contact them at (408) 338-2161.)

The second technique is called The Natural Process technique. It, too, is more of a meditative technique, but contains more elements of spirituality in it.

Information on The Natural Process technique was received by Margaret Keen in a near-death experience (NDE) she had in 1978. She was told, however, in her NDE not to release the technique until 1993. I was fortunate enough to learn it in 1994.

The Natural Process simulates a near-death experience and through it one experiences love, peace, knowing, the light, perfection, and oneness. It is truly a technique that enables one to move towards “heart-centeredness” and heart-openness in a positive way, facilitating one to feel coherent emotions and experience positive benefits in one’s body and feeling pattern. And one can experience transformative and lasting effects from it as well.

I’m sure, as time goes on, we’ll see more techniques facilitating the opening of our heart and allowing us to move more toward wholeness.

What an exciting time we’re living in! And who would'a thunk we’d see science giving us more and more of a basis for and validation of spirituality? What more lies ahead???

This article was first published in "Innerchange Magazine" in the April-May 1997 issue.