I am a Star Trek fan. Although I’m not a real “trekkie,” or “trekker,” as they are called, so far I’ve seen complete series of “Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine,” all Captain Kirk’s as well as Next Generation’s movies, and am now 6 episodes from completing “Voyager.” Every possible human emotion moves through me while watching these episodes, and the fact that my mind expands each time is icing!
The other night in the saga of Voyager, Seven of Nine (part human, part cybernetic female) is re-learning about her humanity by activating her mammalian, limbic brain in a series of simulated interactions on the holo-deck. Unfortunately, she experiences near coma when the emotions of an unrequited and passionate romance begin to flow.
The Doctor rescues and revives Seven, discovering her cortical implant–an installed mechanism that keeps her higher brain functioning–blocks her ability to experience this facet of her nature. He can heal her, yet it will be a tedious and drawn out series of operations that may ultimately alter her ability to retain the level of acquired knowledge and intelligence she has developed over her 25 years or so of life.
Here’s a little history. Seven was abducted and altered in early childhood by the aggressive cybernetic Borg race. After years living as a drone in a “collective” where there is only one hive mind, she has much trouble fitting into the mixed society of individuals aboard Voyager. At first very reluctant and uncertain about reintegrating back into the world of humans, she acquiesces and slowly incorporates the fact that everyone has a special function here. The biggest challenge is the absence of her fellow drones, replaced by emptiness and worse, her own thoughts.
In spite of her growing relationship with her individuality, by the end of this particular episode she is frustrated and decides this change is too big an undertaking. The Doctor’s final words of wisdom to Seven are this: “finding one’s heart is the surest road to individuality.”
At one point in my blog (see April 9th issue; Self Mastery: Oneness & Individuation) I spoke of the soul as a reflection of our heart in both its physical and energetic characteristics, residing in the chest cavity adjacent to the physiological heart. The soul is actually anchored there and emanates throughout our bodies, filling our cells and blood vessels, our bones, brain and nervous system as well as all the matching energetic components. Like the subtle energy bodies which are anchored in each chakra, connected by matrices of nerves into the web of oneness, the soul is connected to everything spiritual around us and everything in our bodies that makes us individual.
The soul is the center of our being-ness and the heart is the center of our physiology. I see the two components together (along with the thymus and nerve plexus) creating the 4th chakra. The key here being, heart and soul are the same, we as individuals are our souls and our spirit is more Universal.
On another physiological note, the heart does not float alone in a separate sea inside our chest, anymore than the brain does inside the skull. Whether we are speaking to upper brain, middle brain, brain stem or lower brain, there are nerves running between the heart and brain, connecting thought to compassion and affinity. In fact, the vagus nerve is the main nerve between the heart and brain. Its presence and connection allows the heart to beat without thought or a plan, and allows us to breathe without pre-meditation, effortlessly and eternally filling ourselves with life force, enticing the winds of inspiration to blow through us.
Because the vagus nerve is the center of the parasympathetic side of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and is linked to the rest and relaxation response, all we need do is rest to ignite communication between head and heart. Connecting these dots is imperative for stress reduction which is a complex mental-emotional-physiological mechanism operating along the sympathetic side of the autonomic nervous system.
When we have too many thoughts, an overwhelming amount of mental energy that is channeled only to “desk tasks” as opposed to physical energy, our systems become emotionally aggravated and the sympathetic controls flip on until we switch it off or turn on the parasympathetic switch. These two facets of the autonomic nervous system are always in operation, just like the two facets of any relationship, yet one can easily be oppressed by the other. Isn’t it strange that we need to sometimes jump start or remind the parasympathetic system to kick in?
Even during sleep and especially in the world now, our sympathetic branch of the ANS can be twitching away, keeping us from breathing easily, increasing our blood pressure and heart rate, slowing down our digestion and other detoxification processes which makes us cranky and edgy, physically ill at ease, and in turn disengages the energetic heart function. We are angry and uptight instead of warm, welcoming and compassionate because our physiological systems are imbalanced.
There are so many possible sources of dis-ease on physical, mental and emotional levels, which all boil down to big stresses on the human system and result in separation between head and heart. It’s easy to see why our intellectual functions overpower our heart-felt responses; what’s not so easy to see is how simple it could be to equalize the two forces, creating a limitless synergy, if we only stopped for a few moments each day to allow our body’s natural rhythms to balance our ANS, to calm that part of us that is addicted to being wound up or stressed. Ultimately the way we operate would be more integrated, and more individuated.
I’ve often wondered why we have to “try” to create rest in our lives! I’m looking for an answer here that links the physical to the energetic and have not found it yet. The simplest answer I know is: addiction and fear of our incredible capacity to embody spirit, to make it our own. Like masculine and feminine, shadow material and that which is in the light, we haven’t yet individuated body and spirit, heart and head.
For audio recordings and information about online courses to help you balance your heart and brain, please visit the Heart of the Mystic. Six week online courses are still discounted for one more month.
