My One Shift? Mutual Integral Health Consciousness World-Wide
The focus of my shift, Angela, would be on participatively involving the critical mass of humanity in expanding the height, depth, and breadth of their consciousness about our inherent oneness with our timeless Source. And in applying its-her-his natural noetic moral principles which appear intrinsic to integral individual, social, and ecosystemic health. Let me give you a brief overview of what I mean by integral health and its relationship to conscious natural morality.
Following are some of my 'working assumptions' and definitions:
Integral Health includes conscious healthy characteristics of mind, spirit, body, emotions, social relationships, vocation, economics, aesthetics, ecosystem, and omniverse (at least as far as the Hubble telescope can see)
Integral Health seems to be the most common inherent natural 'moral tendency' transcending, yet immanent in all spheres of holons from the most minute of microbes through intermediate ranges of life forms through the largest of universes.
I have come to see that a concept of inherent mutual integral health appears to transcend yet permeate all belief and value systems and can be used as a common place of interest, communion, dialogue and concerted action among people of all colors, creeds, national origins, sexual orientations and otherwise disparate philosophies and lifestyles.
Integral health appears to provide the foundation and precondition for all visions of peace and happiness in the everyday world. One of numerous notable examples of socioeconomic disease is the lack of jobs for thousands of well-educated Muslim youth, many of whom earned advanced degrees. Forced into poverty and thoroughly frustrated they attempt to give their lives some meaning by venting their despair and anger through destructive acts of violence against non-Muslim targets throughout the World. I believe we must focus on alleviating poverty throughout our globe. If we solve that challenge, world peace is more likely to follow.
Similar to Elisabet Sahtouris (2000), it is my view that each of those three variables -- individual, social, and ecosystem -- are nested as holons within each other -- the individual holon nested within the social holon nested within the ecosystem holon nested within larger and larger holons ad infinitum -- and have a dynamic interdependent reciprocating holonic systems relationship with each other for integral health or for ill.
Studies of approximately 7,000 experiences of life between lives by regression hypnotist Michael Newton (2004) suggest that the all-pervading psychospiritual climate existing in the life between lives is one of integral spirit-mind health, transformational learning, harmony, and recreation.
All my writings on integral health are premised on a reciprocating mind-body-ecosystem concept. In other words, what one does to her/his body – such as the kind and amount of nutrition and exercise – causes the emission of biochemicals which affect one's mind and emotions for health or ill, and reciprocally, what one thinks and feels affects the biochemistry of one's body (including brain of course)for health or ill. Both affect the way we perceive and value our ecosystem, and reciprocally, the health of our ecosystem – the purity of the air we breathe, the cleanliness of our water, etc. -- affects our individual and collective mind-body for health or ill.
Let's now take a look at Integral Individual Health, Integral Social Health, and Integral Ecosystem Health and an overview of some explicit and implied evidence to support my proposition that integral health could be a practicable key, if not the key foundational moral value intrinsic to and underlying all of nature.
INTEGRAL INDIVIDUAL HEALTH
Some Examples:
o The principles of centering and dynamic balancing, fundamental requisites for holonic immune systems and health, seem intrinsic to every living being's DNA.
o The thickness of an egg shell -- not too thick, not too thin -- seems vital to healthful hatching of chicks. If too thick the chick could not crack its shell and would die trapped within. If too thin the chick wouldn't have to struggle to crack the shell and work its way out. Such struggle seems vital to the chick's full functioning in its outer world (although I have heard some debate the latter point).
o Length of time from conception to birth seems to have evolved to protect the health, full functioning development of the fetus, human and otherwise.
o Human mothers' milk appears 'designed' to provide a healthful balanced and moderate diet of protein and carbohydrates to off-spring. While there are different ingredients and blends in mothers' milk from species to species, the same principle appears true among most if not all mammals.
o Our body's inherent capacity to heal itself, e.g. a cut finger, a broken bone, recovery from a bout with the flu, etc. suggests that nature values the principle of inherent capacity and energy to self-heal and health.
o Our biologic body's inherent natural tendency to gradually weaken and eventually die seems, ironically, suggestive of nature's concern for the health of our biologic parent holon, planet Earth. Too many older bodies would soon over-populate and dominate the Earth (and I at chrono-age 77 of course speak from one those older bodies) leaving less and less room for newborns.
INTEGRAL SOCIAL HEALTH
According to PET-scan studies (Justice 1988). . .
o Expressions of empathy, love, caring, compassion, relaxation, etc. cause the emission of biochemicals, e.g. endorphins and dopamine, which heal and reduce pain in the recipient's body unless the recipient rejects thoughts and feelings of empathy, etc.
o Expressions of fear, frustration, hate, stress, etc.cause the emission of biochemicals, e.g. cortisol and adrenaline, which if chronic can cause the breakdown and deterioration of body tissue and create a chain reaction of disease in the recipient's body unless the recipient knows how to thwart same.
Those two scientific evidence-based facts suggest to me that nature rewards near constant empathy, compassion, love, et al with health as the foundation for happiness; and 'rewards' chronic fear and hate et al, with pain, deterioration of body tissue, illness, and perhaps premature biologic death.
According to evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris (2000) certain organizational and operational features of healthy living systems exist including complexity, self-creation, self-reflexivity, self-regulation/
maintenance, response ability, embeddedness, input/
output, transformation, communications, empowerment, coordination, balance of interests, reciprocity of parts, conservation of what works well, and innovation/creative change.
According to former M.I.T. biochemist Barry Sears (1999) in a chapter titled "Serotonin-- Your Morality Hormone" in his book The Age Free Zone, serotonin levels affect our social behavior. "Your serotonin levels," he writes, "influence whether or not you are depressed, prone to violence, irritable, impulsive, or gluttonous." He goes on to say that violent criminals tend to have low levels of serotonin.
My own individual and organization transformation action research projects referenced elsewhere on shiftinaction.com, such as "Seven Steps to Integral Organization Transformation"(Johnston 2005) and "Integral Leader-Follower Relationships: Options in 4-D" (Johnston 2006) owe most of their success to recognition of the basic assumption that integral health is an inherent motivating force underlying all of nature. The latter article may also be accessed at http://www.integralleadershipreview.com/archives/2006_10_johnston.html
CAVEAT: I think it important to realize that using health and disease as criteria for 'right and wrong' misses the point for there can be many extenuating, many times unknown, causes for health and disease for which holons cannot be held justly accountable. I suggest what we can fairly encourage is the intent of individuals and societies to deploy mutual integrally healthful policies and practices.
INTEGRAL ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
Following are some of the signs I have observed in our ecosystem suggesting Nature's principle of healthful centering, dynamic balancing, circulation of energy and evolution.
It is relatively easy to observe that Nature moves in cycles, all the way from the vibration of electromagnetic waves to planetary cycles of apogee and perigee. As to the latter, while there is variation in distance from a seemingly stable center in all cyclic action, in some ways roughly analogous to the rotation of a wheel around a stable axle, there are healthful limits. For example, the Earth moves in cycles varying in nearness and distance as it moves around the sun. At least one contributor to our and our Earth's health is the fact that we don't get too close or to far from the sun, e.g. too close and our bodies all turn into ashes; too far and our bodies all turn into ice.
Therefore, a general principle for health inherent within the multiverse appears to be if anything healthful is overdone or misused it becomes diseased and dysfunctional.
In addition it is difficult for me to comprehend how the universe could continue for billions of years without being intrinsically and continually healthy, full functioning and evolving.
Elisabet Sahtouris' book EarthDance -- Living Systems in Evolution (2000) provides much more useful research data and insights than I am able to give you here.
SUMMARY
Following is an integral health-based set of moral options from a noetic perspective adapted from the ancient book of Ecclesiastes (circa 5000 BCE).
For everything there is the inherent motivation to realize an integrally healthful season --
a healthful time and reason for every purpose (at least within the scope of Hubble's telescope).
a healthful time to be born and a healthful time to die;
a healthful time to plant and a healthful time to harvest that which was planted;
a healthfully appropriate time to kill and a healthful time to heal …
a healthful time to weep and a healthful time to laugh;
a healthful time to mourn and a healthful time to dance …
a healthful time to embrace and a healthful time to refrain from embracing;
a healthful time to lose and a healthful time to win;
a healthful time to rend and a healthful time to sew;
a healthful time to keep silent and a healthful time to speak;
a healthful time to love and a healthful time to fear;
a healthful time for conflict and a healthful time for peace.
and there are probably more opposites to transcend and integrate into our respective repertoires of choices . . . I suggest you add your own.
Yours with empathy and trust in evidence-based integral natural science and our caring mysterious awesome Source of all
REFERENCES
Johnston, Robert Wayne (Bob) (2005). Seven Steps to Integral Organization Transformation.http://www.shiftinaction.com/node/1196
Johnston, Robert Wayne (Bob) (2006). Abstract: Integral Leader-Follower Relationships: Options in 4-D. shiftinaction.com.
Johnston, Robert Wayne (2006). "Integral Leader-Follower Relationships: Options in 4-D," Integral Leadership Review. http://www.integralleadershipreview.com/archives/2006_10_johnston.html
Justice, Blair (1988). Who Gets Sick -- How Beliefs, Moods, and Thoughts Affect Your Health. L.A.: J.P. Tarcher, Inc.
Newton, Michael(2004). Journey of Souls. St.Paul, MN:Llwellyn Publications
Newton, Michael(2004). Destiny of Souls. St.Paul, MN:Llwellyn Publications
Sahtouris, Elisabet (2000). EarthDance - Living Systems in Evolution. NY:iUniversity Press
Sears, Barry (1999). The Age Free Zone. NY:Regan Books/Harper Collins
Still unknown author (circa 5000 BCE). Ecclesiastes. The Bible (pick any of the approximately 3000 versions)
©Robert Wayne Johnston 2006
