The tradition of Yoga and allother related spiritual traditions adhere to the fact that thephysical body is built using the subtle body configurations as themould.
Here I repeat something I havesaid many times before. If you place a piece of paper on a magnet,sprinkle some iron filings, the iron filings move around and adjustthemselves according to the lines of the force field.
So it is that the physical bodyis built around the magnetic field of the subtle body. The changes in the magnetic field willchange the configuration of the iron filings, but not necessarilythat a change in the configuration of the iron filings will changethe pattern of the magnetic force. However, in our interlinked layersof the personality systems, the spirit, mind, prana, breath and bodyare so closely connected that they are often inseparable. Changes inone may generate changes in all the others, or may not.
Not derived from this thought, but now generallyaccepted, theory in modern medical science is that the pattern of theentire body structure is engrained and imprinted in the totality ofour brain-mind, even the part of the brain that is primarilyresponsible for holding this pattern has been recognised. This theoryhas been forwarded as part of the explanation for what is known asghost limbs. A foot or a leg has been amputated, but the patientcontinues to feel pain in the area where it had been before.
My own view of the pain in the ghost limb is thateven though the physical part has been cut out, that is the ironfilings have been disturbed, the force field is present and thebrain-mind experiences the force field even without the nerveextensions, because the feeling is not in the nerve extensions; it isin the pattern imprinted on the brain-mind.
This short note is by way of a suggestion to thosein the healing professions. Just as a person undergoing any kind oftrauma goes through shock, which is now recognised as a combinationof many physiological effects, so also one undergoes a shock duringsurgery, even though one is fully anaesthetised. This shock is bothphysiological and psychological.
Here we need to interject the yoga understandingof the phenomena like sleep and coma, as well as unconsciousnessintroduced through anaesthesia. There is a discussion on this byShankaracharya in his commentary on one of the Vedanta sutras ,mugdhe'rdha-sampattih, but I will not go into the sutra at this time.
No one is ever fully asleep. No one is ever intotal coma, nor absolutely unconscious under the effect ofanaesthesia. Only that layer of the mind which comes awake is the onethat sleeps or becomes comatose or is anaesthetised, not the totalmind. The other areas of the mind, such as the observing mind, theseat of the holistic mind, continues to function.As proof of this happeningthrough sleep, I have formerly referred to the following types ofevidence:
1. If one were fully asleep how would one respondto his name being called? Who is it who hears it?
2. During sleep our toes become cold. We wake uphaving covered ourselves, but had not gone to sleep this way. Who waskeeping track of whether the toes were cold or warm?
3. As children we rolled off the bed, as adults wedon't. We may roll all over the bed and roll from one edge to theother but as we reach that edge, who tells us now not to roll on thatway, but to start rolling in the opposite direction?
In the case of comatose persons it is known, forexample, that someone placing a loving hand on the person's foreheadbrings down the blood pressure.
So also in the case of someoneanaesthetised. It is like entering atunnel.Whatever you carry into thetunnel will emerge from the tunnel when you comeout. For example, those who go under theanaesthesia remembering their mantra, come out of anaesthesiaremembering their mantra. Sometimes the surgeon, to make sure thatthe person is going under fully, asks the patient to count one, two,three, etc. Slowly the voice fades and the person stops counting andhas gone under. As they are coming out of anaesthesia they continuethe count where they left off. So something was going on underneath.
All of this needs much more careful and properlydesigned research. Perhaps under a title like "levels ofconsciousness during anaesthesia". The observing mind is observing,is experiencing; only the neuro-cerebral connections have beensuspended.
There is another principle, especially inAyurveda, that when there is one imbalance (vaishamya) anywhere inthe body, some imbalance occurs in all the body systems. This wouldalso be partial ayurvedic explanation for the physiological phenomenaassociated with shock which can be fatal. It is possible that manypeople who die during surgery are not dying from the surgery goingwrong, but just this subconscious shock both to the body and themind. Short of dying outright, the factor of varying intensities ofshock remain. The shock has to be defined simply as vaishamya,imbalance.
Whenever any part or system in the body is in anunbalanced state, that local imbalance is not an isolated event. Allother systems of the body--as everything is interconnected--becomeunbalanced in varying degrees.An incomplete list ofimbalances and their substrata can be provided here :
1. Consciousness, mind, brain, prana, breath, bodymay suffer mutual loss of connectivity, coordination and balancebetween any two, more, or all of these.
2. Different parts of the brain may lose mutualcoordination and balance.
3. Varying hormonal systems, brain fluid, spinalfluid, hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, thyroid, parathyroid and allother hormonal systems may become unbalanced anduncoordinated.
4. Thorasic and cardiac and respiratory systemsmay become unbalanced and uncoordinated.
5. Digestive systems, including functions of theliver, pancreas and such may experience partial, complete, temporaryor permanent failure; a milder form is weakness of appetite anddigestion and elimination.
6. The production of various components of theblood may suffer, or the components may not remainbalanced.
7. The absorption of nutrients, especiallymicronutrients, may be disrupted.
8. The elimination of body dross may not beeffected properly; dead cells, gases that are normally eliminated inrespiration, lymphic drainage, intestinal and urinary elimination,shedding of the uterine lining, -- and all such are included in thiscategory of imbalance.
9. Those around may notice a patient's change oftemperament caused by discomfort, hormonal imbalance etc. and may notrealize it to be temporary and symptomatic and may thus overreact ,eliciting further aggravation of the patient's temperament.
10. There may be unnatural loss or gain of weight.
11. Distortions of internal organs and externallimbs--muscles and joints.
12. Imbalances of the immune systems.
13. Pains, including stomach and abdominal painsand headaches of various kinds, that are not of purely physicalorigin, may be experienced; these are not imaginary, but products ofimbalance in the neuro-cerebral systems.
14. Sleep disorders may ensue.
15. Dream patterns may be disturbing.
16. In the Ayurvedic system, the imbalances of (a)sattva, rajas and tamas, in all their functions (b) vata, pitta,kapha, (c) partial loss of ethical sense, which further producesmental imbalances.
17. All of these situations, each alone or incombination with one or more of its associates, may producepsychological symptoms. For example, hormonal imbalance may causedepression, anger, self-destructive behaviour, like lack ofself-control or bad self-image.
18. Each and all of these may slow down thehealing process in many different ways.
This is just a partial list andall sorts of permutations among these various categories arepossible, all part of the shock syndrome which
(a) may give rise to further complications and
(b) even produce new diseases in the body,
(c) not to speak of death, which ordinarily getsattributed to some specific functional disorder and not to thedisarray and erratic misfunction of the entire personality systemswhich constitutes shock.
1. A wise patient should be able to recognize thesymptoms of shock, and use autogenic training, imparted as part ofthe yoga practice, to reduce the force and effect of shock.
2. The loving ones around should help bring abouta
-soothing feeling by voice, touch and caring,
-providing home-made balanced nutrition, withloving persuasion in case of a lack of appetite,
-expert massages of different kinds,
-prayer,
done by oneself,
by relatives in the patient's vicinity, orelsewhere,
through a priest or a person of sattvicnature,
including homa and other worshipofferings
(There are special prayers and specific worshipofferings for different imbalances),
-soft music and beautiful poetry,
-ample opportunity for rest through
sleep,
meditaition and japa (whether sitting up or lyingdown)
yoga-nidra breathing
yoga-nidra proper,
-inspirational reading,
-inspirational pictures in the vicinity (notdisturbing TV programmes)
-a relaxed body posture and faces of those around,and
joyful mien--not bringing problems and conflictsinto the patient's vicinity.
3. The doctor should not dismiss post-surgicalshock as minor and temporary, but something to be taken seriously.
I have no doubt that surgery leaves certainlingering and complex psychological patterns. I have a fairly goodidea of what these patterns are, but that will require a much largerpaper. In any case, a lot of systematic research needs to be done onthis proposition. I will give one example here.
There is a particular sacredtext,Durga-sapta-shati,that many of us on the Path recite everyday. It consists of 700verses. Initially the recitation of 700 verses from memory required45 minutes for me;slowly as themeditation habit became deeper it was brought down to 25 minutes andon occasion to seventeen and a halfminutes. Here it ceasesto be recitation and becomes only a remembrance in the deeper,subtler, higher frequency mind.
After I had my heart by-pass operation, Iimmediately found that my mind had slowed down. The level at which Ido this remembrance was now operating on a slower frequency.In all of 12 years sincethe operation I have tried very hard to reach again the level ofseventeen and a half minutes for that mental recitation, and havenever managed to come down below 23minutes.I have no doubt that thesurgery itself interfered with certain prana patterns, which has lefta lasting effect on the frequency of the force field called themind.
Many people report certain phenomena followingsurgery. One patient reported dizzy spells following brain surgery,and asked my opinion as to whether the surgery might not have fullysucceeded. This prompted the writing of this brief article as ananswer to her question.
My suggestion is that during brain surgerydifferent parts of the brain had to take up the functions of theother parts, which were being operated upon or which were impaired,and it has taken them some time to re-establish a coordinated patternand I would attribute the dizziness to this lack of coordinationamong the different parts of the neuro-cerebral system. As thepsychological and physiological shock wears off, the coordinationwill be re-established, and some of the uncomfortable phenomena willcease.
What I am saying here is thatthe nature of shock during surgery both to the physiological andpsychological systems has not been fully understood, and aninterdisciplinary team of researchers need to prepare a carefulresearch design to investigate this phenomenon. Many of the post-surgical complaintswhich are dismissed as "this is all in your mind" will no longer bedismissed, but certain definite positive action will be taken tore-establish the coordination and balance (samya) which was disturbedthrough the fact of surgery.
It is for this purpose that the various yogaexercises become very necessary for a person to re-establish suchsamya in the psycho-physiological personality. The practices are wellknown : balanced nutrition, practice of silence, meditation andbreathing exercises such as alternate nostril breathing, as well asshavasana practices. However, for a different kinds of shockfollowing different kinds of surgery would require emphasisingdifferent practices and only an expert in yoga, relaxation,meditation and yoga-nidra would be able to determine how this wouldbe obtained.
Here a word about system ofyoga healing at a subtler level.
The healing of a particularorgan is not accomplished by concentrating on thatorgan.
The triggers are elsewhere. For example theovereating disorders--their trigger is in the throat centre ofconsciousness.
Constipation may be cured by entering the cave ofthe heart, not by concentrating on the intestines and the colon.
Similarly there are special ways for using mantrasfor different kinds of healing. There are practices such as wholebody mantra permeation (vyapaka) subdivided into many differentmethods. Only someone trained in the subtler systems of yoga therapywould know enough to apply these methods.
In creating a research design it will then benecessary that while one of the control group is not using the yogasystem, there are other control groups that are using differentmethods of the yoga system, especially the subtler one.
In the meantime, all those who feel post-surgicalphenomena that are not explained by their doctors should seek activeadvice and guidance from a teacher of subtler breathing and subtlermeditation practices of the type I have just referred to but have notdescribed. It will require a detailed medical text book to prescribevarious combinations of yoga and meditation practices appropriate forvarious combinations of the components of shock. This opens up awhole new vista of research in holistic medicine.
Swami VedaBharati is the leadingdisciple of the legendary Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Medicalresearchers interested in the topic are welcome to contact Swami Vedaat his personal e-mail at tadit369@yahoo.com
Copyright 2004 West Art, Prometheus 91, 2004