Ep. 750 - Immune Balance: Harmonizing Body and Cosmos | Dr. Michael Shea

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Episode Transcript

(00:14):
Thank you for joining us, andwelcome to another edition of Answers Network.
I'm your host, Alan Cardoza.Now, for those of you that have
been listening, sending in questions andcomments, thank you so much and please
continue to help spread the word thatevery Monday from eleven am to noon Pacific
time, this show will bring onspecial guests that can inspire, educate,

(00:35):
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This is one powerful way that togetherwe can make a positive influence in

(01:00):
the world. Now, I alsowant you to know that this show we're
going to introduce talented authors new innovationsin the areas of health, happiness,
and security, which is just anotherway to create more joy for you and
your family. Now, I'm goingto start with a quote, and this

(01:21):
quote was the volcano of ill healthhas erupted. Now, this was a
statement made to the European Economic HealthConference in the spring of twenty eighteen by
the noted cardiologists from London, AssimMahatra, MD. Now drawing from more
than forty five years of practicing Easternmedicine, our guest today, Michael jsh

(01:45):
PhD, presents a holistic guide tobiodynamic manual therapy practices for optimizing the immune
system and for healing the deep spiritualsuffering of our contemporary world. Michael's a
doctorate in somatic psychology from Union Instituteand has taught at the Upletger Institute,

(02:07):
the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, andthe International University for Professional Studies. He
is a founding board member of theBiodynamic Cranio Sacral Therapy Association of North America
and the International Affiliation of Biodynamic Trainings. He is the author of several books,
including his newest book, The Biodynamicsof the Immune System, Balancing the

(02:30):
Energies of the Body with the Cosmos. Michael, Welcome to Answers Network.
Good morning, Alan, and thankyou so much. It's a pleasure to
be here, and it's a pleasureto talk about our mutual work. Actually,
well, I had to tell you, I'm so impressed with reading the
book and the focus that keeps bringingback to it's in our body, in

(02:58):
us. It's not out there,it's in us. If we can just
master it, if we can justreally focus on that. And one of
the things that I was thinking aboutas I was reading the book was how
much it seems like it's needed nowmore than ever. But I know how

(03:20):
long it takes to write a book. So my guess is is that you
may have started this some time ago. Why did you make the decision to
write this book and why now?Well, you know, I've been working
on this book Alan for probably aboutten years. And if you read some
of the parts in the first sectionthere, you know, when I left
military service, I was morbidly obese, and I was very fortunate to run

(03:45):
into some nature paths in New YorkCity and we're talking about the early seventies
and really turned my life around.And so since that time, I've really
been you know, focusing and practicingwhat what does it take to feel safe
in my body and what does ittake to trust my body? And that
that that's a wide variety, youknow, including exercise and so forth,

(04:06):
but also diet. And we seethe continual ongoing degradation of the human body.
You know that book I wrote becauseof I see clients, and I
write these books because of what Isee happening with the contemporary client. And
in the last three years, we'veseen the degradation of the immune system,

(04:27):
and that's a major problem, andit can be fixed. It can be
fixed, you know. And Iknow in the book you talk about your
own journey, which I think isgreat when you look at all of us,
you know, as a as arace, I mean, how ill
are we, you know, asjust as part of the people of this

(04:49):
planet, as human beings. Well, I would say, you know two
things with that, and the firstthing is that that metabolically and that's that's
one of the points with the book. Metabolically, we're very, very sick
Americans, especially a very very sick. A study in nineteen twenty eighteen actually

(05:10):
from the University of North Carolina statedthat eighty eight percent eight eight percent of
Americans are metabolically unhealthy. And ithasn't gotten any better because last year a
very prestigious cardiology journal said that ninetythree percent of Americans are part unhealthy,
metabolically unhealthy. Hearts. That's awfulthat our country is like that, and

(05:35):
we see that spill out into dialogue, into polarization, into the excessive emotions
and rage that's out there. AndI see that as all linked together.
And on the other hand, Ialso see that the last three years has
given us an opportunity for spiritual growth. If you want to get away from

(05:57):
the rage and the anger and begintrusting you body, then you can come
into a more spiritually grounded place.You know, I'm so glad you brought
up the part about the ninety threepercent. You know, yesterday I was
doing some of my studying to getready for this show, and I came
across that same figure and it absolutelyblew me away. And I do some

(06:23):
of my studying in the gym,so here i am. I'm in the
gym, and I'm exercising, andI'm amongst people, and I'm like,
how can it be ninety three percent? It's just it's it's so incredible to
me that that we can have thatpercentage of people who are either unhealthy either

(06:45):
their heart or their metabolic system,and yet we were not focusing on the
right things. Well, I completelyagree, you know, but you know,
if we could turn off some ofthe television, you know, my
wife and I finally had to turnoff the television and reduce the amount of
social media, you know, reducethe amount of screen time. But these

(07:06):
are things we've already, you know, always heard about, and basically in
biodynamic work, you know, thecranial sacral or the manual therapeutic arts in
general. Is just what I'm doingnow is applying them to the cardiovascular system.
And because that is the system thatruns the entire homeostatic processes of the

(07:27):
human body. But we have tohave a good intestinal lining, and therein
lies the problem. Eighty percent ofour immune system lines the are innate immune
system lines the gut, and becausewe have an addiction to processed food,
and you can go online and youcan see ten or twenty research articles on

(07:49):
how much processed food Americans are eating, Like seventy percent of the food that
Americans eat is processed, and thatis what's causing a break down in the
gut. That breakdown in the gutgoes right to the vascular system that's the
next layer, and it goes tothe liver and then it spreads throughout the

(08:09):
body. And depending on your genetics, it's not going to affect everything,
but it will manifest differently, andit'll incubate different metabolic problems over time,
especially you know, like type twodiabetes and things like that, obesity.
We have a major problem in ourcountry with that. These are all metabolic

(08:30):
problems, and if we have metabolicunhealthy hearts. We see that though in
the toxicity of the dialogue that happensfrequently, you know, in our culture,
not just America, but worldwide,and we see that level of car
I call it cardiotoxicity, you know, the excessive anger and the excessive pushback,

(08:50):
and so really finding that a middleground with that as much as possible,
but you know, metabolically, it'sgot to start with the diet and
distressing ourselves. I couldn't agree more. And I share with us some of
the other the other diseases are theother things that are coming out, because

(09:11):
you know, I talk with peopleand they they're constantly now saying, you
know that you know there's you know, there's such there's there's greater dementia,
there's greater Parkinson's, there's you know, there's more and more of these diseases
coming out, and yet nobody reallywants to look at why so are these

(09:31):
things also tied to to what you'retalking about, and are we going to
be able to reduce these types ofthings as well just by doing as you
say in regards to reducing our stressand focusing more on keeping a healthy immune
system. Alan everything you mentioned isa metabolic problem. Dementia is a metabolic

(09:52):
problem. I was just reading someresearch on that yesterday. And when you
have a vascular system in the brainthat has very tight junctions, it's very
tight, tighter than anywhere else inthe body. Remember that if you're eating
let's say, junk food, processedfood, all of this gives off waste

(10:13):
products. We're not just talking aboutperspiration and vowel movement in urination, but
we're talking about cellular metabolism. Andbasically, when not waste products coming from
individual cells in the brain can't getout, it gets backed up, and
so you have these things called brainfog, and you can and some people

(10:35):
begin to reduce dementia. And againit's going to be not only a stress
dynamic, but it's going to bealso a dietary dynamic, a nutritional we're
starving. We're starving as a culture, you know, with this food we're
eating. The person I follow outin northern California. Is there's Robert Lustig,

(10:56):
MD. He's a pediatric neuro endochronologyand I've been following him forever,
along with a Semi Malhotra, whoyou mentioned at the beginning. And basically
Lustig's message, which I bring itloud and clear in my book, it's
not only about processed food, butthat processed food is breaking down into sugar

(11:16):
because those processed food items are carbohydrates. We got way too much sugar going
on and then the added sugar issue. Lustis an expert on the sugar issue
and well worth tuning into, youknow, in terms of social media.
And he's so he's one of thepeople that I follow that I mentioned in
the book, you know, thatfeeds me this information that tells me exactly

(11:39):
the problem I had. I wasaddicted to sugar. I told my wife
yesterday when I finally broke that habitto sugar, how emotionally painful it was
to pass up a bakery that hadall these sugar laiden glazed donuts and things.
But this is an addiction, andthis is what he's pointing out,
and so we have a problem thatway regarding diet, nutrition and we're not

(12:03):
getting any help from the USDA becausethey're still promoting a high carb, low
fat diet and that's basically what's gottenus into trouble in the last twenty or
thirty years. It's amazing to methat the term you use is that we're
starving ourselves. We're starving our bodiesof what it is that they need.

(12:24):
And yet at any moment, wecan get in the car and drive down
the street and if we drive morethan a couple of miles, we'll drive
past ten fifteen different types of restaurantsor fast food places that are promoting their
products, and that we're bombarded withthat. How do we turn this around?

(12:48):
Well, what I say in mybook is Alan the kitchen is the
new we are. You know,if you have metabolic syndrome, I also
work with death and dying. Mywife and I life as a minister,
and we do work with death anddying. It's not pretty when you have
metabolic syndrome and you end up inintensive care unit. It's multiple organ failure.

(13:11):
And so this is very very importantto remember. You know that we
have to be able to take careof our organ systems that way. But
again, getting back to the dietarycomponent. I want to just keep going
back to that because of the wayin which the processed food breaks down and
degrades the epithelial lining of the gut, and that's called leaky gut. You

(13:31):
can go online and look at alot of that. We have a lot
of repair work to do. Alanthere's a lot of repair work. It's
not just about Lustic's dynamic. Isreal food. I love that it's so
clear and it's so simple. Realfood. Okay, you know, farmed
a table. You know, getout in the backyard we have. We're

(13:52):
getting as sustainable as possible here inour tropical environment, and we grow a
lot of our own food. Thefood I ate this morning came from my
own yard. And yes, that'sit's labor intensive and it's time consuming.
And a lot of Americans, Ithink over twenty or twenty five percent get
all of their meals through a fastfood line at a restaurant. Thirty three

(14:16):
percent of Americans do not know howto cook, so and that's a major
time commitment. So it's it's eatingright and it's real food. But then
you have to consider and I mentionedas I go over this really well in
my book The Dynamics of Managing aKitchen, you know, the prep time,

(14:37):
the cleanup time, how to rea label. We were starting over
a grin from scratch, Allen,we're babies in this new world. If
we want to be reborn, youknow, with a healthy immune system,
and we can do it. DoctorJason Fung, world's leading authority on obesity,
is a nephrologist in Toronto. He'sable to reverse type two diabetes in

(15:00):
some patients in fourteen days with realfood. So's it'll be harder for some
people because of their epigenetics, andit could be easier for other people.
I was fortunate. I did waterfasting and I studied natureopathy with Ann Wigamore
of the Hippocrates Health Institute in Boston. This is back in the seventies.

(15:22):
So I learned old style European natureopathyand I learned how to fast, and
I did a lot of fasting.But people are so sick nowadays you can't
put them on a water fast Youhave to this to be a very slow
process. So there's a lot ofhelp out there. That's what I want
to say. There's a lot ofhelp out there. We're talking principles right
now. But there's a lot ofhelp in going through these steps. You

(15:45):
know, it's interesting that you bringout you brought up fasting, and there
are so many different groups that arealmost militant to the point of promoting whatever
it is that they believe in.And so, you know, we have
the guy out there that's known thatyou know it sees the carnivore guy or

(16:06):
whatever. You know, all you'resupposed to eat is meat. You just
have to eat meat, and ifyou eat any of this other stuff,
it's terrible for you. And thenyou have you know, you have vegans
that okay, you can only eatthis, and they're they're militant about it,
and you see them on the internetand they're attacking each other. And
it's just frustrating to me that there'sall these different things and I think that

(16:29):
some of the things they're missing.And my question is going to be asking
you is is what are some ofthe things they're missing? But some of
the things are One is we're different, that we're all not exactly the same.
And then the other part is thathas to do with when you brought
up fasting. As far as theydon't seem to have as much communication about
when you eat. And I knowthat I've gotten into a point now to

(16:52):
where I have a time restricted periodsof time in which I will eat and
it has helped so much. ButI also don't go and try and tell
everybody to do it because I realizethey're different. So what are your thoughts
on this area? Well, firstof all, regarding diets, and I've

(17:15):
tried a lot of different diets,you know, since I got out of
the military in nineteen seventy three.And my realization now at the age of
seventy four is it's trial and error. There's no one size fits all.
You know, you try something andif it doesn't work, then you move
on to the next possibility, andthere are ways to work with that.

(17:36):
They're really good teachers. My sisterSheila Sa runs the Intestinal Health Institute and
she's at GAPS certified nutritional coach theGut and Psychology Syndrome diet. So it's
very much about try this up,that doesn't work, try this, So
it requires some nutritional coaching as yougo along, and it is trial and
error because in my thirties my metabolicdemands were different. In my forties they

(18:03):
were different, so there's a developmentalphase that we also have to appreciate.
You can't be eating the same thingyou were eating in your thirties. I
mean, I have my comfort foodof bacon every now and then from childhood,
but that's it. I'm not goingto eat that every day. However,
Now, the second part of yourquestion was around fasting, and I

(18:26):
look at the literature on that.I consider myself an expert because I did
a forty day water fast, asixty day water fast, I've done multiple
day juice fasting. I tend tolimit it now to three to five day
periods of fasting. And I wantto just tell the audience why that's important,
and Allen, what you said aroundtime restricted eating is another way,

(18:48):
another metaphor for describing intermittent fasting.For example, it's really really valuable to
manage at least twelve to sixteen hoursbetween the last thing you put in your
mouth at night and the first thingyou put in your mouth in the morning.
Just twelve to sixteen hours. Andif your hypoglycemic, that's another issue

(19:11):
and it could be addressed by anutritional coach. But if you can tolerate
twelve to sixteen hours, it allowsthe cellar of metabolism that I mentioned a
couple of minutes ago. It allowsevery cell in the body to process the
waste products. That all the energythat the mitochondria need in every cell that's

(19:32):
coming from the food we're eating,because that's the prime directive feed the mitochondria,
that's number one. Those waste productsthen have a chance to dissipate out
of the system and that's called autophogy. Autophagy, and so the longer you
can go, it's so much betterbecause your body does its natural housekeeping.

(19:55):
And that's what intermittent fasting is about. It's about just giving your body the
opportunity and that's what the research says. Take some time off from what the
Japanese called lonely mouth disease. Yougot to keep putting stuff in your mouth,
you know, the midnight snacking andall of that. If there's anything

(20:21):
that I've said in the last coupleof minutes, it would be twelve to
sixteen hours is so nourishing in healthrestoring if that's all you do. Now,
I love that you brought up atophagy, but share a little bit more
about that because I think it's soimportant and I know that when I learned
about it, it was very enlightening. So explain a little bit more so

(20:45):
that people understand that, as yousaid, if they keep feeding and you
never get rid of this through autoplogy, you never get rid of these cells.
Where do they go? They sitthere, right, they sit there,
you know. Just I don't wantto oversimplify metabolism because it's exceedingly complex.
But I was an academic embryologist,and in learning about embryology and metabolism,

(21:11):
the setup is you build up theanimalism and you get the food you
need. It breaks down. However, it breaks down and like I said,
the mitochondria, that's the prime,prime directive. You have to have
energy to run the body. Sothe food we eat, the air we
breathe, and so forth, andthat gets broken down and gets given to

(21:33):
the mitochondria and that creates ATP.I mean, we know probably some of
our many of our listeners might knowabout that cycle. The point we're talking
about are waste products. So it'snot just about a healthy diet, it's
it's the waste products. Getting ridof the waste products. Now, when
a cell, when the mitochondria,when they excrete waste products, it's into

(21:57):
the cytoplasm, and so there isa vesicle that surrounds the waste product and
actually secretes enzymes and acids that beginsto eat and break down those waste products.
Will guess what, It breaks themdown into smaller components until they can
finally get out of wherever they areinto the bloodstream and excrete it out through

(22:21):
urine, feces and so forth andsweat. So it's elegantly simple if you
give it time to work and notkeep overloading it with these processed foods that
my sister says you can do aboutcarbohydrates, and I've seen the literature on
that, and the literature on thatis clear because the brain likes ketones more

(22:45):
than it likes glucose. So yourbrain cells likes high quality protein and fat
from meat, okay, and lessso from glucose. So that's I know,
that's a controversy. We may seesome pushback on that. But I
also worked in the field aland forforty years in pediatrics, and so my

(23:07):
other specialty is working with modern toseverely developmentally delayed children. That means brain
damaged infants and children, and sincethe nineteen twenties. It's been known that
the ketogenic diet is very curative andhelpful to the brains of these children,
and I've seen it for forty years. But then when you suggest, oh,

(23:32):
let's give adults with dementia, becausethat's a brain problem, let's give
them a ketogenic diet, It's like, oh, no, no, we
can't do that. It's like,I'm sorry, that's corporate pushback. That's
not right. There's good solid literaturearound this. I'm not saying the ketogenic
diet is good for everybody. It'strial and error. Remember it's trial and

(23:56):
error. It might not work foryou. It's about having a high quality
source of protein and fat. Andthere are other high quality sources of protein
and fat. You know. Iwas recently having a conversation with someone in
regards to just as you were saying, the types of diets that we should
have young children on, and toprove a point to them that we've been

(24:19):
lied to, I went and Ipulled some advertisements from the fifties and sixties,
and one of them was it wasan advertisement by probably the biggest soda
pop company in the world, andit was and it had a picture of
a baby and a mom, andit says start them on this soda pop

(24:42):
earlier, get them on this sodapop sooner, you know, in other
words, put it in their bottle, you know. And and this was
allowed to go out, you know, to you know, to women of
the fifties and sixties that this isthat this is what you're opposed to do
with your baby. And so whensomebody tells me, well, this has

(25:06):
to be good, because doesn't thegovernment look at these advertisements and that you
know, they say they can dothis, And I go, so,
if you believe all of that,then you must believe this one also.
And then I just want them tothink, you know, that we're not
always being told the truth. Andlike you said, it's yes, there's
trial and error, there's also commonsense, common sense and Alan and I

(25:29):
work with a number of midwives andI'm still work, you know, as
a consult in the pediatric field.And when you see infant formulas that are
full of sugar, you know,it's the same issue. And doctor Thomas
Row the Swiss biological medicine model thatmy wife talks about because she's certified in
that, and that's the clinic Iteach you at in Switzerland is the Swiss

(25:49):
Biological Medicine Clinic doctor Thomas Rout.He says, when you give these infants
sugar and their formula, the medicalsystem creates a client for life. Yeah,
it's a client for life because itdegrades the immune system, the developing
immune system, instead of having youknow, the breast milk with with with

(26:11):
the healthy immune factors in it tobuild the system and all that. And
I know there's complications around all ofthis. I mean, I've been in
the field and I see what parentsand especially parents with newborn babies deal with.
So I'm not saying this is easy, but it does require some work
and support, social and community support. But it's back to lusting. You

(26:34):
got to stop the sugar. That'sthe first step. You got to stop
added sugar. It's killing us.Well you got that right. All right.
We're talking with doctor Michael Shay andwe are talking about our immune system.
We're going to take a break,but when we come back, Michael,
what I'd like you to talk alittle bit about is is how is

(26:56):
the body made up of the fiveelements in Eastern tradition. I know you
talk about it in your book andhow do these elements offer a method for
us to reclaim the body? Sofor everybody, stay with us, We'll
be right back you're listening to orwatching Answers Network founded over thirty years ago
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Call one eight hundred eight nine tonine eight five eighty five, twenty four
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eight five eighty five or visit ourwebsite at west Shield dot com. Thank
you, and we're back. Weare speaking with Michael J. Sha PhD.

(28:30):
We're talking about his latest book,The Biodynamics of the Immune System,
Balancing the energies of the body withthe Cosmos. So, Michael, when
we went to break, I askedyour a little bit about the five elements
of Eastern traditions. What can youshare with us about that, Well,
that's a major section of my book. It has to do with healing ceremonies.

(28:53):
I was a student of medical anthropology, and you know, in the
early animistic and shamanistic cultures, youknow, healing rituals and healing ceremonies were
very important in order to heal aperson who was stricken with a disorder or
a disease in that particular culture,and the ceremonies were designed about regressing the

(29:15):
patient back to the time of theirembryonic period when they were perfectly whole at
the beginning of time, when thesupernatural deities and so forth created, you
know, a single celled human beingthat was perfectly whole at the time.
But the other ceremony was also aboutcosmology. If you couldn't heal someone by
regressing them back to their embryonic period, then you had to regress them back

(29:38):
to the beginning of the universe.Okay, so that's just the theory.
We could talk about that odd infinitum, but that's the theory. And what
was at the beginning of the universeaccording to Eastern traditions, and what was
at the beginning of our embryonic period, Well, it started with five elements.
So that's the way those cosmologies ushow the universe was created and what

(30:03):
it consists of, and also thehuman embryo. So there's two types of
Eastern traditions regarding that. I've beena student of Tibetan medicine for over forty
years. I'm not a Tibetan physician, but I still study with the teachers
at pure Land Farms in Los Angeles. Doctor Nita is probably one of the
leading experts in the United States,and he's a Tibetan physician and a Tibetan

(30:29):
Buddhist practitioner. So in the issueof the five elements really has to do
with the five senses. I mean, I could again, we could get
off and talking about the five elementsfrom the Indo Tibetan point of view,
which is really what I know moreabout. And then there's the other system
of five elements, the Sino Tibetantradition, which is really physiologically oriented.

(30:53):
But that's another story. But ifwe talk about the five elements, it
means that how do we come intorelationship with our five senses? Because that's
there. Each element is associated withone of the senses. So how do
we come into relationship with our vision? How do we come into relationship with
color? How do we come intorelationship with our breath? How do we

(31:15):
become aware of the wind and theair moving in us? And it's simple
awareness. How do we become awareof just our heat and the warmth and
the potency of our heart. Theone of the fulcrums for the fire element
is the heart. I love it, that's my work. So we have
that fire element, the potency ofthe heart coming from there. And the

(31:37):
water element is actually considered to bethe blood that moving all through us and
so forth. And then the earthelement, you know, our connective tissue
and our bones and so forth.So how do we come into relationship with
our earthiness? And how do wecome into relationship with flow and a sense
of flow in the body, anda sense of spreading, and how do

(32:00):
we come into a relationship with theheat in our body and so forth,
how do we notice that. Soall of that is about trusting our body,
and it is the foundation for feelingsafe because all of these metabolic problems
are creating a lack of safety whereyou don't have an inward sense of safety,
and it's very difficult to trust yourbody because we're getting a lot of

(32:22):
mixed signals in the culture. Sothe five elements are first and foremost about
really feeling our body, becoming embodiedand embodying our five senses, and that
means without judgment, without interpretation.That's the hard piece right there at one
level. Because our mind gets veryactive, so we were constantly labeling everything

(32:47):
we see. We're labeling, labeling, labeling, creating cognition, creating ideas,
creating thoughts about what it is we'reseeing instead of just seeing color.
Because in the system of cosmology,what precedes the five elements are the five
colors. So it's called wisdom eyes. You know, there's meditations to be

(33:08):
able to just look at you know, the world of nature. My YouTube
channel has probably thirty or forty visualmeditations for looking at the horizon. I
call it horizon therapy, where youcan just tune into the subtle movement of
the subtle wind. Because all ofthese elements have gross factors that I just

(33:30):
describe, but they also have subtleelements, so elements relating to colors,
relating to our senses. But it'sreally trusting the body and how well we
can settle into our body, andhow well we can trust our mind,
how well we can train our mindto slow down the thought process, to
deconstruct some of the cognitions we haveand drop into our body and create more

(33:54):
balance. I'm not saying cognitions arewrong and that, you know, we
need to have less brain activity.I'm saying we're out of balance. And
so in that context, that's whatI'm referring to with the five elements.
That's kind of a broad brushstroke there, but I hope it's helpful. Well,
it is helpful, and I realizedthat with us only having fifty minutes,

(34:16):
we wouldn't be able to get intoall of it anyway. But I
think one of the things you touchedon there that's really important is trust,
and I know that for many ofus, we think about the things that
we did automatically because our body toldus to. And I think we've gotten
to this point to where, youknow, we need to have you know,

(34:39):
if a doctor tells us, thenthey must know better, or if
a commercial tells us, they mustknow better that there's somehow been enough research
done and we're not really taking intoconsideration. I think as a society that
those situations are set up for profit. So, you know, go back

(35:00):
to trusting your body, because Ithink so much of us really do know
what's best for us, but we'vewe've some for some reason, we've decided
we're going to allow somebody else tomake those decisions for us, and we've
turned some of those things off thatwe should have left on. Would you
agree? I completely agree with that, Alan, It's very well said that

(35:23):
issue of trusting the body. We'rebombarded by messages, subliminal messages all the
time, and we know this fromthe marketing research. To not trust your
body, you know, to trustthis, trust the drug, trust the
doctor, not that you shouldn't trustthose when you're when you need them and
when you're ill and you have adisease with which that might help, but

(35:45):
when you're constantly being bombarded by thosemessages and the food messages. Yeah,
so all of that is just thisbombardment to not trust the body, and
consequently that means, oh, unconsciously, I'm not feeling safe, you know,
we start eating that food or orwe're actually ingesting those messages. And

(36:07):
the big thing here is just notfeeling safe, you know, within that,
you know, we don't feel safewith the environment, we don't feel
emotionally safe, we don't feel metabolicallyor embodied safety. And then we've got
the whole issue of trauma around that'slocked on top of that, and so
that filter of trust and safety isso I would say, that's that's the

(36:30):
key point right now, Alan,How do we do that? You know,
it's for me, it's it's embracingthe contemplate of arts. You know,
my master's degree is in contemplate ofpsychotherapy at Naropa Institute or now in
Europa University. And we see that, you know, in the meditation practices.
It's just so valuable to have away to deconstruct our mind, our

(36:53):
thoughts and our cognitions and settle intoour senses. We've got to have that
through whatever contemplative art form or whatevernondual meditation practice that people might be doing.
But that's what brings us back intobalance, along with real food.
Real food. Yeah, you know, there is an area that you touch

(37:16):
on a little bit in the book, and I'm very curious and again for
those out there, if you're watchingor listening for the first time, my
background comes from being an international detective, so I have to research it.
I have to find the answers.I have to be able to grasp it.
And the area of distance healing,I can't put my finger on it.

(37:40):
I can't grasp it. I can'tfully understand it, which doesn't mean
that I discount it, but Ireally wish that I understood it better.
And I think if more people thatare watching or listening to this, if
they understood it better, that mayalso be helpful too. So can you
explain healing in a manner that manyof us can understand? Well, Alan,

(38:06):
I'll give him my best shot,I think, you know, because
that's a really good question. Iget it a lot, you know,
within the manual therapy community, especialcranial community. So now there's two camps.
Yes, you can do distance healing. No you can't. You got
to keep your hands on. Letme just mention back when I did my
doctor work in the nineties, thevery first study that came out about this

(38:30):
was called the Bird Study B.Y R D. So if you google
Bird study, you'll see that therewas a cardiologist in San Francisco and he
took a cohort of his cardiology patients, and half of the cohort just got
standard at the time, standard cardiacmedical care. And the other half of

(38:54):
the cohort and I forget the numbersbecause this is years ago, but the
other half of the cohort, theywere farmed out with their names and photographs
to various religious groups throughout the UnitedStates that specifically were prayed over at a
particular point in time. And ofcourse, you know that there's a happy
end to this story because at theend of the research, all the people

(39:16):
in the covert that got prayed overdistance wise got better, okay, And
then that got me into the spiritualityand health research. Now, at the
time in the nineties, I couldonly find less than one hundred research articles
on spirituality and health. Less thanone hundred now there's countless thousands, countless

(39:37):
thousands, but the synopsis at thattime in the nineties was that going to
church. And I would like tosay now having a spiritual practice is so
incredibly important for your well being andfor your health, not only metabolically but
spiritually, because come on, it'sall one thing. So it's really challenging.

(40:04):
And I can give you a practicalpeace on this because I was doing
rolfing work for many years. Innineteen seventy nine, I went to the
rolf Institute and I opened my firstrolfing practice in Boulder, Colorado, and
I lived about four blocks from myoffice, and so it was a great
walk back and forth. And everymorning on the way to work and i'd
had my four or five clients,my body would start aching, like the

(40:29):
low back would start to ache,and that would go away for a couple
of minutes, and then all ofa sudden, my neck would ache,
or there'd be another orthopedic thing.Each of the clients somehow or another.
And I've heard this from many therapists. Each of the clients I was connected
with, And so we can talkabout distance healing, but we can also

(40:51):
talk about being a healer and thatis that I can feel the pain and
suffering of other people. That's notjust a healer called emotional empathy. That's
called somatic empathy. That's well researched. We know that we feel when we
read about some tragedy that happens halfwayaround the globe, we can feel that.

(41:13):
What's the difference between that in prayingfor someone around the globe? And
I think the issue around around that, because especially around tragedy is there's so
much fear around that, and soreally people feel afraid for themselves first when
there's a tragedy, but then overcomingthat fear, because that's the global condition

(41:36):
when you want to pray for somebodyelse with cancer. I've got a lot
of people on my prayer list rightnow. They're really desperately ill, and
they get prayed for every day.What does that mean? That means I
think about them. I don't havea specific prayer, I don't have a
liturgy or a sodom or whatever.I think about them, and I feel

(41:58):
an empathetic sis going on. Ifeel my heart and I feel the warmth
of my heart. So it's aseasy as that, Ellen, It's as
easy as thinking about someone and fromthere there are organizations that teach distance healing
and different styles of distance healing,from shamanic styles to more contemporary styles to

(42:19):
more western styles and so forth.Was that helpful? Yes, yeah it
is. It's yeah, it's Imean and again, and I've had prayer
as a part of my life,you know, since I was a you

(42:42):
know what grade school, so Ican see that part of it. But
when the one on one, youknow, the distance healer that that is
able to channel everything that they're doinginto one person at that moment and focus

(43:05):
on that one person and know what'sgoing on in them and know that that
that they're dealing with a particular illnessor a particular virus is now in them.
You know, these type of things. This ability to be able to
do it from a distance, youknow, just it's not something I've been

(43:28):
able to completely understand. And againit doesn't mean that I discount it.
It's just it's frustrating the the detectivein me. It's like, I need
to know how how? Right?Well, if you need to know how,
there's there's certain systems. One ofthe more popular systems now is esoteric
healing. That's that's really available inthe United States. And that's it.

(43:51):
That is a very valuable, youknow, dynamic there. I think that's
very important. There was something yousaid that I was going to respond to
and it slipped my mind. Butthe esoteric healing, Oh, I know
what I wanted to say, Alan. The way I teach is that each
of us has a gift. AndI don't have the gift of thinking about

(44:14):
someone lying on their bed dying ofcancer. I don't have the gift of
them coming in and seeing that theyhave a problem with their kidney. That's
not my gift. And so I'vecome to realize, you know, because
I teach, I have about fivehundred students a year, you know,
and so it's really amazing. Andwhat I try to do is I try
to promote what is your gift?What is you know, the gift that

(44:37):
I have, that you have allanand that some I've come to accept in
terms of acceptance therapy, I've cometo accept that there are those that have
a gift that can see certain thingsin the body and can channel certain if
you want to call it energy tothat person, whether or not you know
that's placebo effect or not, ifthey feel better and if it helps them,

(45:00):
and if it's like holding their hand, you know, through a difficult
time, then that's fine. Isupport that gift and I really want to
help people with that gift. AndI can't explain it because I can't do
it like yourself. Yeah, andI almost I almost feel bad that I'm

(45:21):
now spending so much time on somethingthat I'm so interested in. But at
the same time, we've got somelistener questions in and I just looked up
We've only got about four minutes.But one of these reads says, I've
been researching everything I can about theimmune system and its relationship to inflammation as
I have aged. The arthritic changesin my body are a great concern,

(45:44):
especially since my mother was crippled withrheumatoid arthritis in her seventies. I read
in the summary that your book showshow inflamed components of the food in our
body, such as blood and lymphaticssystem form the substrate of metabolic syndromes.

(46:07):
How does that apply to arthritic inflammation? And this is from Henrietta in Utah.
Well, the way the simplest wayto address that in a short period
of time is just, you know, in reviewing what we've said is that
the innate immune system that's lining thegut, when it's been challenged with these
processed foods, it breaks down.And so the first thing the immune system

(46:30):
does is it creates inflammation in orderto alert the entire immune system through the
body that there's a problem. Andunfortunately, the immune system then will create
a cytokine storm and ratchet up moreinflammation for the body to naturally, you
know, fight these dynamics. I'mnot saying that this is a dietary issue

(46:52):
with your with the questioner, becauseagain it's a medical question. I'm not
a medical doctor, but I cansay that it's a very important that there
will be some repair of the gut, that there be some experimenting with real
food, and also detoxification. Ifthe kitchens the new we are, I'm
saying that the bathroom is the newintensive care unit, it's the new ICU.

(47:15):
And I recommend enemas and I alsorecommend colon hydro therapy. This is
my wife's specialty. She's trained medicalteams and clinics internationally to bring this colon
hydro therapy into into the general medicalmilieu. So detoxification is very important.

(47:37):
It's exceedingly important, not only theproper food, but also the detox.
All right, we've got another one. Only got about two minutes, this
one says. A YouTube video Iwatch recently showed how putting cold compresses on
the bagus nerve could positively affect inflammation. I hope I'm describing this properly as

(48:00):
what I understood is that the vegasnerve connects our brains transmission of messages directly
to the immune system, thereby affectinginflammation. Responses suggested suggesting that by cooling
the nerve it may have a positiveeffect on infections, sepsis, and autoimmune
diseases. Do you agree with thisand are they referring to viral infections?

(48:23):
What other comments do you have onthis? And this is from Erin in
Maine. Aarin, I have amajor part of my book on the vegas
nerve. So what you call thecold compress, that's called a vaguel maneuver.
And there's a lot of new literatureout right now, and it's been
out there for about five years onv and a vagueal nerve VNS vaguel nerve

(48:45):
stimulation, and so that's a wayto stimulate the vegus nerve. There's many
other ways to stimulate the vegus nerve, and that stimulation creates an anti inflammatory
effect. So here we are.The body knows how to heal. It's
got an inflammation. So if youstimulate the vegas nerve through breathing techniques,
yoga, exercise, cold compresses onthe face, or there's medical devices now

(49:10):
there's all sorts of medical devices,are really expensive ones too. You can
then stimulate the vegas nerve. It'llcreate an anti inflammatory effect, but don't
rely on that as the only wayto fight inflammation. Michael, thank you
so much. I wish we hadmore time. Would I be correct that

(49:30):
the book is available anywhere you canfind books such as Amazon, Barnes and
Noble and whatever. Absolutely, absolutelyokay, and for everybody out there,
And if you are going to orderthe book, you can do so also,
you know, through your local bookstore. I mean, you know,
if you can help give them businessand do that, please do that as
well. It's a great book.And again if you can, if you

(49:52):
can do things to help your ownimmune system, it's going to keep you
out of these other systems that areprofiting greatly from our illness, so please
do everything you can. And Ijust want to add also, because Michael
and I were talking ahead of time, his next book is called The Body
Dynamic Heart, So Michael, Iwould hope that as soon as that one's

(50:15):
ready to go, that you cancome back and we can talk about that
as well anytime. Alan, thankyou so much, all right, and
again, thank you so much.And you're making a great difference in the
world and I appreciate it very much. Thank you all right. For everybody
out there, be with us.Next week we're going to be joined by
Bob Rosenborough to discuss his new book, A Place of Thin Veil, Life

(50:42):
and Death in Gallop, New Mexico. And please everybody visit o archives of
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(51:07):
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(51:30):
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