Restructuring Consciousness

Rem and The Consciousness of Healing

What people mean by consciousness is varied. Some mean no more than awake or aware, (conscious), as opposed to asleep or unaware, (unconscious). Some see it as the essence of self-awareness, (i.e. humans have consciousness, and animals don’t). But this particular definition is very shallow. It short changes the intricacy and depth of consciousness and does not account for the many consciousness phenomena that characterize the human condition and reality in general. The behaviorist school of psychology embraces this definition and in doing so relegates the human to a simple stimulus-response machine-like organism.

Freud's notion of consciousness is much more than this. Basically he established three elements or organizations of consciousness: the ego, the superego and the id. This division involved a sense and definition of self, (the ego), and a dark and complex morass of base sexual and other desires and structures, (the id), that vies with a “conscience” or finer, higher self, (the superego), to control and shape the ego, the id and behavior. Thus, he moved beyond the notion of consciousness as only self-awareness (the ego) and embraced levels of consciousness of which we are unaware (the sub- conscious) and which determine our responses and behavior as much or more so than our aware mind (the Id and the Superego) does.

This was a remarkable insight for the time and circumstances in which it was formulated.  Freud presented his theories about consciousness in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  This was at a time when the mechanistic (Newtonian) view of reality was virtually unchallenged. There was no room in science for something as unsubstantial and unpredictable as consciousness phenomena and he was rewarded with ridicule for his theories.  In my opinion he was defining a new scientific paradigm for working with humans. However, he lived and operated in a sexually repressed time and culture and these elements possibly were foremost in his studies of his clients.

Although limited by these considerations, Freud's notions about the nature of consciousness implied that it was far more than was immediately apparent on the surface. His identification of subconscious or hidden consciousness, which controls our behavior, opened the doorway to a much deeper understanding of the human condition, mental illnesses and our actions. However classical science was not ready to admit consciousness into its body and so Freud was not really considered a scientist nor his work scientific. He was years ahead of his time.  Even today those interested in studying consciousness phenomena are at best barely tolerated and most often ridiculed in classic science.

Carl Jung expanded this definition of consciousness beyond Freud's to include a transpersonal component, the collective consciousness that defines a common pool of consciousness from which all people draw. This collective consciousness transcends culture and presents archetypal images or principles that influence people from any and all locations, times and races.

Jung also defined many dynamics or structures of consciousness such as the complexes that form about certain structures. Standing on Freud's shoulders, his insights opened the door to much current knowledge and began to bridge the gap between science and spiritual teachings. Both Freud and Jung were ahead of their time and defined the basis for the broader definitions of consciousness that are emerging currently to define consciousness science.

Until recently, many if not most, neurologists and neuro-biologists have considered consciousness to be the product of neural activity, although that particular notion is now coming under attack both from within and outside the profession. Consciousness was seen as nothing more than the result of neural activity in the brain. Recently, however, it has been suggested that neural activity may instead be the result of deeper consciousness structures and activities.

For some, the notion of consciousness is still broader and consciousness is not limited to being an exclusively human characteristic. For example, consider the concept of Gaia, in which the entire planet is seen to be a living and conscious entity. Views from the cutting edges of physics, particularly quantum theory, go even further and imply that consciousness may be one of the fundamental forces or principles of nature, a building block of reality and the universe itself.

All particles in the universe seem to display consciousness characteristics as observed, for example, by David Bohm in his work with plasmas. Other theoretical physicists such as Amit Goswami go so far as to suggest that the universe is a conscious self-creating entity with matter and reality forming out of more fundamental levels of consciousness.  H.P. Stapp’s current directions in theoretical physics are in exploring the nature of consciousness and its relationship to matter.

We have come to understand and define consciousness in this broader context, consistent with shamanic beliefs and also with our scientific understanding, which echo the notions coming from the advanced theoretical physicists such as Bohm, Stapp and Goswami.  In the shamanic paradigm all things are understood to have a beingness or consciousness: animals, plants, insects, rivers, even rocks and grains of sand, and the atoms and subatomic particles that form them. The entire planet, the sun and moon and stars, the entire universe are conscious entities. It exists in all things and at all levels of being and organization. There is nowhere or nothing in which consciousness is not involved. This is the concept for consciousness we accept and explore in this book.

To be true, this implies two possibilities, or in scientific terms suggests two hypotheses: Before going on to these the reader should note that many portions of this Part 4 of the book are speculative. They are hypotheses I have formed based on my own explorations of consciousness. They are mixed in with known data and are usually extrapolations, interpolations or speculations based on that data and my experiences, or they are a blending of shamanic and scientific notions. I have attempted to differentiate where I am offering these hypotheses or notions, and cited the sources of the more accepted data. The following are two of my base hypotheses about consciousness.

One hypothesis suggested by the foregoing expanded shamanic-scientific view of consciousness is that it is a field in the way that physics uses that term. Fields exist at the most fundamental level of reality, even before energy, force or matter are formed. In fact they are the base source of these manifestations. They underlie the very fabric of reality. Einstein’s life-long quest to explore the nature of space-time and for a unified field theory, and his theories of relativity showed that space-time itself has structure and is permeated with fields. He died still seeking his unified field theory. Physicists’ calculations suggest that there is more implicit energy in the fields present in one cubic centimeter of space than is unfolded in all the matter in the universe.

Electric, magnetic and gravitational fields have been identified and measured, but our explorations into consciousness dynamics suggest that in addition to those, there are probably other fields, two of which are time and consciousness fields. We suggest that the interaction of all these fields in various combinations create the physical and energy structures of reality. Consciousness may operate and manifest in ways similar to magnetic or electric fields and how they appear and work in space-time. Just as electric fields can manifest as structure in degrees varying from static electricity, lightning and electric currents, to being part of the structure of solids such as organic molecules, metals rocks and minerals, so too can consciousness manifest in various degrees. (See figures      )

At the quantum level, strange attractors influence the emergence of consciousness and its interactions with other fields to create the essence of self and external reality. Just as every structure and event in the universe is a manifestation of electric, magnetic, gravitational and time characteristics, it also displays consciousness characteristics. Even mountains and stars are born, die, decay and eventually pass into oblivion to be reborn.

Using David Bohm’s model of reality, consciousness can be either enfolded in the implicate order as potential structure or a field, or it can be manifested or unfolded as structure in the space-time universe. In the enfolded or potential form, it is outside of space-time reality, and this could account for the many consciousness phenomena that seem to defy our notions of  matter and the order of time and space. These include such well-documented events as remote viewing, telekinesis, or experiencing the future or past as present in dreams and other extra-ordinary consciousness states. This idea also leads to our second hypothesis.

Our second hypothesis is based on Bohm’s notion of the holographic nature of reality. Emerging wave fronts (as predicted by the Schroedinger probability wave equation) at the quantum level of reality interact with one another as they manifest into quantum reality and then space-time. These interactions may be the basis of the standing wave interference (holographic) pattern in which we participate and that we perceive as reality.

What we define as consciousness may actually be the holographic interference pattern itself, formed by these interactions among the waves emerging into quantum reality from the infinite possibilities on the other side of space-time, or as Bohm might put it, from the implicate order. In other words the holograph that forms our perception of reality or indeed reality itself may be what we call consciousness.  In this model too, consciousness is involved in the formation of all of the structures of reality throughout the universe. This hologram may be the foundation of reality itself and of every object, structure or phenomenon we perceive in the universe. Since we are also part of this hologram, our presence (consciousness) affects it.

These are both intriguing notions and both are consistent with new science theories as well as a broad spectrum of spiritual beliefs. We will be exploring implications of both viewpoints throughout the rest of this book. Like the dual nature of light, both may be true.  There is just a semantic difference in trying to describe phenomena for which we don't yet have either language or familiar models. We are just opening up to these possibilities. It is sort of similar to the TAO, a Zen koan, or the dual nature of light.

We propose that consciousness can be described as a spectrum, similar to the electromagnetic spectrum. When electric and magnetic fields interact their union is called the electromagnetic spectrum of which visible light is a part. Furthermore, this electromagnetic energy is convertible to matter as theorized by Einstein and described in his famous equation e=mc2.  At one end of this spectrum is matter, at the other end fields and in the middle energy. So, too, we propose with the consciousness field. When it interacts with other fields it forms an energy spectrum which is convertible to matter. In fact consciousness may be hidden in the electromagnetic spectrum itself, obeying the rules that we have found apply to this energy phenomenon.

By this reasoning, consciousness too, at one level, takes on the form of energy. It may not have been measured by objectively classic science yet, but it does have observable effects on matter. Consider the effect on our thoughts and emotions of the consciousness complexes in our subconscious, which in turn determine our actions and behavior. If the strict behavioral model of stimulus-response were true, any two people would have the same response to a given stimulus. This may be true in a few instances where reflex takes over such as flinching when poked, but in a majority of cases people react differently to various stimuli. Consider, for example, three people encountering a barking dog. One person may be terribly frightened and run away, the second person may ignore it and continue on with what he was doing, and the third person may talk soothingly to it and try to quiet it and make friends with it.

Consciousness energy may be bound or unbound and this binding takes on the aspects of this spectrum. This is, in part, an extrapolation of one of Eric Berne’s notions about energy (consciousness). He proposed bound and unbound consciousness in his descriptions of Transactional Analysis theory. His notion was that the unbound energy was free flowing and when it became bound it took on the patterns he identified as games and scripts.

In more general terms, in its more loosely bound state, consciousness takes forms such as the energy dynamics of the ego or personality or perhaps in more general reality, electric current (neural currents) or waves. More bound forms of consciousness have the appearance of solidity such as body, blood, tissue and bones, or trees and rocks. In its unbound or field state, for which we have coined the term “chaotic consciousness” to describe, it is more a field phenomenon, or part of the implicate order.

The above notions, however, did not result from the intellectual or theoretical study of physics or of consciousness.  In the finest traditions of engineering and empirical science they were formed from our explorations and observations of the consciousness dynamics observed while developing and working in the Consciousness Restructuring. Process of Natural Healing (CRP).

In extensive explorations of this healing processes, and our shamanic studies, we have worked with and experienced many states of consciousness. In our own way, we have experienced quite a vast spectrum of consciousness dynamics.  Meditations, visual imagery, shaman's altered states, sensory deprivation experiences are all useful ways of experiencing these altered realities. However, we have come to recognize the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) consciousness dynamics to be among the most important yet least valued and understood available to us. We have found these dynamics to be extremely important, indeed critical to our natural healing abilities.

REM stands for rapid eye movement and this phenomenon is so named because these consciousness dynamics are identified and characterized by the eyes moving rapidly beneath the lids in a random and jerky fashion. It is indicative of dream activity although not limited to it.  While we have much folklore and many therapeutic means of analyzing and interpreting the dreams, symbols and subjective experiences that come in this state, the dynamics and importance of REM itself has been relatively unexplored until recently.

The most common experiences of what I term “REM consciousness” are dreams. Although there is more to REM than just the activity of dreaming we will focus for now on the dream aspects. We all dream. Our dreams have always intrigued us with their symbolism and content. Dreams have long represented the mystery of humanity's inner life and we have indeed connoted this connection with the creator or deity.

For example, the Bible abounds with many dozens of examples of God communicating with mortals through their dreams, as do many other spiritual practices such as shamanism and the Greek mythology of Asklepios. It was because of his interpretation of a dream for the Pharaoh that Moses was able to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. In the ancient Grecian and Roman Empires, dreams were considered even more than that. They represented the final and most powerful healing resource available, the place where the gods, specifically Aesculapius, visited to heal mortals when the ministrations of their physicians had been inadequate.

As an applied scientist (engineer) and a chemist it is time to make a confession about at least my branches of science and perhaps science in general. Many of the important breakthroughs in chemistry, and I believe this also applies to science in general, came from dreams.

For example, the very foundation of modern chemistry, the organization of the elements into families with similar properties, the periodic table, came from a dream. The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev was trying unsuccessfully to make sense of the vast number of chemical elements that were being discovered and studied in his time. The notion was that there was an organization to them but, exactly what that was, was a mystery.

One night Dmitri fell asleep exhausted by his attempts to make sense of the chaos. He later reports that, “I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper. Only in one place did a correction later seem necessary.” This periodic table still stands to this day as a fundamental understanding of the chemical elements and how they are related. This dream-inspired periodic table forms the basis of the organization of all chemistry.

Organic chemistry has several instances where it too advanced through dreams. For example, the discovery of the ring shape of the benzene molecule by Friedrich August Kekule Von Straditze in 1865 came from a daytime dream he had during a nap. It was of a snake eating its own tail. This suggested to him that organic molecules sometimes form or assume circular configurations. This has been called the most important piece of prediction to be found in the whole range of organic chemistry.

This discovery in turn led to the elucidation of the constitution of aromatic compounds. These contributions are so important that three-quarters of modern organic chemistry is directly or indirectly the product of Kekule's benzene ring theory.   It is interesting that little of the scientific literature describing this development reveals that it came from a dream. It is implied that it was solely the result of the rational scientific method.

The double helix shape of the DNA molecule was also revealed through a dream. Watson, one of the chemists who won the Nobel Prize for this discovery, was discouraged and feeling stymied by their inability to discover the configuration of the DNA molecule. One night he dreamed of two snakes intertwined and woke with the certainty that this was the elusive shape of the DNA molecule. Later lab work proved this to be true.  This work provided the gateway to the whole field of DNA chemistry and genetic engineering. Yet the dream source of this discovery doesn't appear in any of the standard scientific literature.

Even in the most recent of the sciences, chaos theory, dreams have added to our knowledge. It seems that Dr. Michael Barnes was attempting to use chaos theory and fractal mathematics to compress information for computers.  He was making little progress and quite perplexed by the problem. He reports that on a night exactly two years following his father's death he had a repetitive dream that he had been having since he was a child.

In the dream he was faced with an old-fashioned telephone type switchboard, which was a mess of intertwined non-connections. On this particular night, suddenly they all seemed to fall into place and he saw how all could interconnect with all others. In this insight he found the way to develop the computer compression programs for which he had been searching. These programs have found application in many fields and allow, for example, satellites to compress and send several times the data back to earth than would otherwise be possible.

My own minor success as a chemical engineer and executive was also largely attributable to dreams. In my first engineering job, I was a Technical Service Representative and trouble-shooter. I rose through the ranks rapidly, my next position designing and getting operational a production line, and then next, working as director of research for the rubber and plastics division of a pharmaceutical company. Later for yet another company, as the executive in charge of a manufacturing division, I was on the front lines in solving the problems that had stymied the production engineers as well as managing a factory with nearly three hundred employees.

I was usually very successful in solving both technical and management problems, but deep inside I felt as if I were an imposter since the chemistry, engineering and management skills I had studied so hard to master were only used after the fact. I would work at a problem for days and be equally as perplexed by it as the production engineers had been, but inevitably during this process, I would have a dream. I would awaken with a deep felt sense that my dream had in it the answer to whatever problem was plaguing me, and within hours would literally feel my way to the solution. I could then, having the answer, easily work my way to a more formal presentation suitable for my colleague’s rational approach.

For example, one problem I faced was with the machines which wound elastic thread onto a golf ball core. They were erratic. It was a problem winding the ball and maintaining constant tension within the rubber threads, which are so variable, plus forming a perfect sphere while doing so. The spaces between the windings are also important since the cover must bond with the core by penetrating it. So the thread must have an open weave and cannot bunch up, or insufficient cover bonding will occur. The current machines we were using were resulting in large numbers of balls falling into undesirable compression (thread tension) ranges, less than one third falling into the tight specifications for a top grade ball. This high level of downgrading cost much in lost dollars and adversely affected my profit and loss statements.

I pondered this problem with little insight until one night I had a dream. In the dream I was riding on a cushion of air, and the air smoothed the rough terrain over which I was passing. I could actually sense it doing so. On awakening and recalling the dream, I immediately knew that this was the answer to the problem.

The next day I co-opted one of my maintenance men from his usual duties. We modified one of the winding machines by replacing the mechanical wheel holding the spinning center to the drive wheels with one mounted on an air cylinder, a cushion of air. As in the dream, the air cylinder smoothed out the variations in the thread's thickness and tension and the vast majority of cores, about 80-90%, began falling into the tightly specified top grade compression range.  A later independent test by the corporate-engineers to satisfy a skeptical higher management verified the validity and statistics of this solution.

But I didn't tell anyone how I had found it.  I was sure that to do so would sully my reputation as a good technical engineer, and perhaps put my future in question with executive management. They rewarded me for my technical know-how, not as a dreamer.

Since I started working with dreams as a therapist, I have found out that many other engineers solve their problems using dreams but do not admit to it.  They tell me because of my focus on dream processes, and in the safety of the therapeutic relationship. One electronics engineer who was employed by the local hospitals to maintain and fix their computers and equipment such as the CAT, EMR, and  PET  scans.   He admitted to me that when he is stymied by a particularly knotty problem he dreams the circuits and from the dream finds the solution.

I suspect that many solutions to every day problems come from dreams, even if they are not remembered. How often do we go to bed perplexed by a problem and wake the next morning with a solution in mind, or at the very least feeling better able to handle it?

The point I am stressing here, however, is that REM and its dreams are very interesting and important consciousness dynamics that have contributed and can contribute much to our knowledge and understanding of the awake world and how it works. As will be suggested below, REM may also be the consciousness dynamics responsible for the body’s own natural healing abilities, or as it is called the homeostasis principle. In fact, I think that the data suggests that REM may be the consciousness-state and dynamics responsible for the healing effects of the placebo.

In developing the Consciousness Restructuring Process of Natural Healing (CRP) which uses the awakened side of REM as the consciousness-state for the inner journey, several interesting things were noted.

One of these was that often during a journey the client seemed to experience what seem sensory memories of their fetal experiences. In them they also often seemed to be operating at a pre-sensory level and experiencing even earlier consciousness structures, for example imagery and experiences that were highly suggestive of the act of their conception.  Data later obtained by many of them from parents confirmed that these consciousness experiences or structures were accurate accountings for what was going on at that time.

One example of this was given previously in Alicia's experiences with her mother calling to let her know about her conception and birth. Another person experienced swimming up a tube in which there were many waving weeds spurring them on. It had the sense of a race or competition. At the end of the pipe it broadened out and a large jelly-like mass was there. There was much fear in being swallowed by this mass and smothered.  However, this time as he entered this jelly mass, he experienced it as a place of freedom and growth in which he could expand and breath freely. During reentry from the journey he reported that his father had been smothered and controlled by his mother. He had breathing problems and suffered claustrophobia. Following the journey, he reported alleviation of both his breathing and claustrophobia problems.

Also intriguing was the fact that the Journeys took place in the awakened side of REM consciousness. In fact, unless this state was involved, the depth and integrity of the healing was diminished. Intuitively it seemed REM consciousness was crucial to reaching these consciousness structures, and to the subsequent healing dynamics that resulted from these encounters.  Scientific data is now available which provides support for our notions about the probable mechanisms of how the natural healing processes work, and the role of REM in them.

It is known that the fetus is in REM for the majority of its time in the womb, perhaps as much as 70 to 80 percent.  Dr. Allen Hobson, a noted sleep and dream researcher at Harvard Medical School, states that, “REM may stimulate immature brains while they're in utero.”  Dr. Mark Manhowald of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center has suggested that, “The fetus is in REM consciousness during most of its term in utero.  Because the new baby's brain begins development with only the basics, like a new computer, the life process, [REM], programs the brain with capabilities in each developmental stage and continues doing so after birth.”

This data offers food for some interesting speculations:

First Implications:

One implication that could be drawn from the data is that  in order to re-experience the fetal experiences and learning processes which were so important in the very earliest development of our body's physical and personality structures, the best way of doing so is in the consciousness in which they were fed or programmed into our being.  This is REM consciousness as suggested by Manhowald. Since it is present during the formation of the physiological and mental structures developing during our term in the uterus, it is a critical consciousness dynamics for reaching these earliest formative experiences.

Dr. Stanley Krippner and Dr. Montague Ullman, while at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory, in their work there, showed that what I call “REM consciousness” was a psychic conductive state. In one set of their experiments they had one person, a sender, concentrate on a picture or a painting. Another person was sleeping, often several rooms distant with locked doors separating them. The sleeper was awakened when REM was observed and asked to describe his or her dream.

These descriptions were recorded and later given to judges who scored a match or a miss between the dream descriptions and a number of pictures including those used.  With certain senders the matches were of statistical significance meaning that it is most likely that the dreamer was dreaming, or at least incorporating into it, what the sender was seeing. It was an earlier version and similar to the Puthoff and Targ explorations into remote viewing.

From this we can postulate that a fetus in REM is quite probably capable of sharing mother’s experiences including her dream states, and quite probably father’s too, even although physically separate from him. REM may provide a way for the fetus to monitor and experience the world before entering it. Children and parents do share psychic space. For example, it was Piaget’s notion that the baby is unable to distinguish self from its mother until sometime after the first year of life.

Also dreams are very sensory in nature and babies quite probably get their earliest programming from their sensory REM experiences in the womb. This implies a direct input into the fetus’s developing nervous system. Since dreams are also known to be necessary in dealing with waking traumas and events, the fetus is also exposed on a sensory level to all of those experienced in the waking lives of the mother and father through their dreams.

Thus we can speculate that the earliest programming of the fetus is very directly influenced by both of the parents, their life styles, emotional conditions, and events occurring in and requiring dream processing from their waking lives. In a very large sense, through REM, fetuses taps into co-consciousness with their parents and perhaps even into the collective consciousness of the species for programming during the earliest and most sensitive development period.  This may, as suggested by Dr. Manhowald, also continue on even after birth.

This is actually an excellent way for nature to program the developing fetus for survival, by giving it experiences and helping form the survival neural structures from the parents’ experiences prior to birth. .

My notion is that the mechanism for this is probably an entrainment phenomenon. Entrainment is the term which physics first applied in the 1800’s to describe a system’s dynamics in which two periodic wave systems oscillating close in frequency to each other, soon alter and become synchronous, that is oscillate together with identical frequency.  It was first noticed when two pendulums in proximity, but swinging with slightly different periods, were observed to soon become identical in their oscillations. No known explanation exists in classical science but it does seem to be consistent with quantum phenomena.  It is probably a consciousness phenomenon, which explains its inexplicability in classic science.

It is also the principle behind automatic fine-tuning on an FM Receiver, by which if you set it close enough to the frequency of the sending signal, the tuner automatically tunes in to it exactly. Similarly, we propose that brain waves can become synchronous when in proximity. This seems to also be true for any rhythmical system in the human condition. For example women in dormitories, collectives and communities often report their menses becoming synchronous. REM is probably the consciousness dynamics through which this occurs.

Lending further support to this REM fetal programming is information now being confirmed that physiological conditioning occurs through the chemical environment created in the womb.  Mother's habits shape the baby’s. For example, if the mother smokes, drinks alcohol or does cocaine or crack, the baby is born with a latent or sometimes a manifested habit already ingrained into the senses and physiology. At the very least, the child is much more likely to also become addicted. In fact, such babies as are born with the physiological addiction often go through withdrawal after birth and being cut off from the substance.  The precedent that the baby’s senses and physiological predispositions are programmed by its womb experiences is already well established, we are only adding to this by proposing that some of this conditioning, particularly neural patterns, also occur through REM.

This “in womb” sensory programming makes quite a bit of sense actually. It is during this time that in addition to physiological development, the baby is being prepared for life on a psychological and coping basis, learning psychological survival and coping skills to be used for survival after birth. Being able to “sense” dangers, and having coping mechanisms already in place is important to survival. What better way for the fetus to learn these than to tap directly into the traumas and the resolving of these traumas through its REM, and also sharing its parent's dreams. It will be learning survival skills developed by the parents making it more likely to survive after it is born. It is a very efficient way to prepare the baby for life skills. It may, however, backfire, particularly if the parents' skills are dysfunctional.

For example, a client, whom I will call Margo, suffered from multiple personality disorder (MPD) and offers one very poignant example of this.    Her mother had also suffered from this disorder, and Margo's REM experiences as a fetus were of having no one single set personality model from which to program her personality, nor of a stable chemical environment in the womb.

It is known that MPD often results in different body chemistries for different personalities.  Moreover her mother was addicted to both tobacco and alcohol in some personalities. The mother was also having extra-marital love affairs, of which the father knew, and he was greatly disturbed by them.  The mother had also been raped shortly prior to Margo’s conception, and was still affected by this.  These events were extremely disturbing to both of her parents and it seems likely that they would have been processing much of it in their REM or dreams. By our concept, all this would have been absorbed by the fetus Margo during her fetal REM experience.

Various personalities expressed several of these symptoms. For example, one personality expressed insane jealousy with respect to the various men in her life. Yet she picked men for relationships who were unfaithful in their relationship to her. At the same time she used sex as a means of manipulating men, from another of her personalities, in part as a result of her childhood’s sexual molestation by her father, and in part because this was also how her mother operated. She had been in several situations where she was, in fact, raped. One of her personalities was addicted to alcohol and others were more of the temperance school. One had symptoms of schizophrenia, two other in concert exhibited a bipolar disorder. None were in communication with all of the others, although some were aware of one or two other personalities.

In working with Margo and hearing stories about her early life and experiences, it was apparent that she had literally come forth from the womb already strongly programmed to this disorder. She was born fully prepared to create alternate personalities as a coping mechanism or a response to trauma or threatening situations.

The first personality was created during the first few months of her life and was the source of the first split and alternate personality. We had to go back well into the earliest fetal and pre-fetal consciousness structures for her reach the source consciousness of her disease, in order to release and heal her disorder rather than merely putting a superficial fix on it.

The strategy was to transform the fetal programming responsible for the propensity to create the alternate personality structures as a primary means of coping. She also carried both her parents' pains and burdens experienced through fetal REM into birth and up to her present, and was incapable of separating them out even in later life. Reaching these diseased consciousness dynamics through REM and the journey process was crucial to releasing and transforming them.

Using the wakeful side of REM was necessary to the process for several reasons.  Margo's dreams were superficially not about these earliest and deepest memories and consciousness structures.  Dreams, on the surface level, most often reflect recent experiences and only through deeper work in the structure of the dream itself touch on the deepest consciousness structures, which in turn determine our reactions to these recent experiences.

Thus, to work at only the surface level of a dream is inadequate for deep transformation. For examples: dream interpretation or analysis, operates at intellectual and occasionally emotional levels; gestalt dream work works at the emotional-experiential levels; and lucid dreaming works at ego-experiential levels. None are sufficient to completely reach the actual early and most deeply held experiences and consciousness structures needing release and transformation.

In the wakeful REM consciousness, using the imaginative sensory nature of the journeys, Margo was able to reach the “primal consciousness structures” that formed the basis of her multiple personality structure.  The ego minds (there were twelve in all) were able to follow the process without directing or controlling it to allow their eventual transformation and the emergence of one whole self.  This was necessary in order to transform the coping mechanism of creating other personalities when in pain or threatened; the coping mechanism with which she had been programmed while still in the womb. The actual structure of the many personalities came from post-natal traumas, but the sensory mechanism of developing them was programmed into the fetus from sharing the mother's MPD experiences while in REM.

Second Implication:

REM consciousness is associated with womb experiences and tasks such as the generation and development of the nervous system and cellular-tissue formation.  The nervous system and personality development, we know, are very susceptible to the mood, experiences and perceptions of the organism.  These are the matters with which much of psychiatry and psychology deals. However, tissue formation and function is also associated with perception, mood and experiences.  We will discuss one model of this later when we review the work of cellular biologist Bruce Lipton.

For other examples: Dr. Carl Simonton worked with this in relation to the development of cancer and its remission. In one study, he found that many cancers developed within two years of a major loss such as death of a spouse or loss of one's career through retirement. (so also do many other, often fatal, diseases) and he was also able  to develop a psychological profile for likely  cancer development. He also found that certain types of visual imagery combined with other informational and therapeutic psychology seemed to facilitate remission of the cancer.

Although some authorities question the validity of his findings, so too many authorities questioned the findings of Freud, Einstein, Puthoff and Targ and others who dare go against orthodoxy. Those who don't color inside the lines of classic science’s boundaries and operate beyond the current notions about reality as defined by it often find such difficulties. New ideas are difficult to accept when they go in the face of current beliefs.

Author Norman Cousins experienced that somatic healing could be induced through generating genuine good feeling and peace of mind by such means as humor, laughter and positive attitude. He healed himself of his own life threatening condition in this way. Dr. Bruce Lipton, a cutting edge cellular biologist, presents a very convincing explanation and mechanism for how the cell's functioning and genetic structure are greatly influenced by our perceptions of reality. His work lends confirmation to Simonton's and Cousin's experiences.

We know from chaos theory that any complex system is very much influenced by minor perturbations or differences in its initial conditions.  This is known as the “butterfly effect.”  The human organism is certainly a very complex system, and so is very much influenced in its development by events in its earliest developmental conditions. The initial mitosis of cells after conception and the fetus itself are at the earliest stage of the human developmental process.  The mother's consciousness and perceptions can affect the cellular development in these early conditions. Cellular Biologist Bruce Lipton makes a case for perception influencing cellular behavior and genetic presentation.

Later, these sensory perceptions in REM consciousness shared by fetus and parents, can greatly influence the physiology and personality of the future adult.  Some of our illness predisposition and susceptibilities are quite probably programmed into our consciousness structure during these sensitive initial conditions. It is here in the fetus that that we suspect consciousness directly influences our neurological and cellular structures during their development and these consciousness structures continue to influence them throughout life.

Return to these consciousness structures in REM consciousness could very well allow us to rewrite this early programming, and to do so in the state that is associated with the formation of our nervous system and cells.  Since this consciousness is associated with the development of new tissue and the nervous system, it stands to reason that we can probably also naturally regenerate them in this state.

We find some degree of validation of this from dream deprivation studies, which clearly show that the mind, the nervous system and eventually the body and physiology deteriorate when the organism is deprived of REM sleep.  It has also long been an observation in medical therapy that sleep is regenerative, and that people recovering from illnesses and surgery need more sleep (and thus REM consciousness) than usual.

In fact during recovery dreams are often quite intense. They certainly were for me during my recovery from the surgery to replace my burst aorta. Even the often-heard comment, “A good nights rest will cure you.” addresses this capacity. There is much truth in it.  Evidence points to Delta deep sleep as the only state in which certain hormones such as HGH and some of the neurotransmitter such as seratonin are generated. Further evidence is that this is the consciousness in which we have noticed such profound self-healing in the Consciousness Restructuring Process with our clients.

Third Implication

Several pieces of data from various sources suggest that the use of wakeful REM consciousness will allow us to fully experience with our senses the transformative or healing experience.  It is known that while in REM the muscles are buffered from the nervous system, that is we can be running in our dream yet the leg muscles may only twitch slightly.  This allows the brain then to input much inner information and experience without engaging us in outer activity.

Some neuro-psychologists have recently postulated that one's physiology is incapable of distinguishing between dream experiences and outer experiences. I suspect most of us have woken from a dream confused as to its reality. It has also been demonstrated that REM is conducive to new learning, in other words the formation of new neural patterns.

We note here that it is our experiences that program us, and shape the neural circuitry that in turn shapes both our personality and body chemistry (through the pineal and pituitary gland both of which are part of the brain's structure.)  In fact Dr. Bruce Lipton's hypothesis will be presented later to show the mechanism of how it affects our cellular functioning and basic genetic structure.

Although most dreams have very little impact on long-term memory, the wakeful side of REM, as is used in the Consciousness Restructuring Process, does seem to impact on long-term memory.

Putting these data together suggests that in REM we can revisit and re-examine our very earliest traumas from a "virtual reality-like sensory experience" without involving our musculature. In this consciousness experience we are also capable of sensing very deep shifting and restructuring of these energy and consciousness structures, and the neural patterns resulting from them. We retain the memories of these healing and neural restructuring experiences as new neural sensory patterns. These firing pattern embody the new learning and become a part of the structure of the brain itself. They are retained in long term memory.

Thus the Consciousness Restructuring Process can permanently effect the brain and its neural firing patterns and our personal existential hologram of reality. In this way our self and outer perceptions are altered.  The operations of the pineal and pituitary glands are in turn affected since they function based on these perceptions. Thus our body chemistry, mood and personality are altered. In REM the body and mind become one entity rather than the dichotomy most often experienced in our awake reality.

Fourth Implication

From studies in the field of neuro-feedback on the interface of chaos with the brain, and its role in its functioning, a number of researchers have discovered some interesting data which are also pertinent to our thesis:

Measurements of brain waves have resulted in dividing and categorizing them into certain frequencies, or perhaps more accurately bands of frequencies such as alpha, delta, etc, This categorizing appears structured and ordered, but such is not really the case. Each category represents more of an average and defines a range of the frequencies within that band. The frequencies of the measured brain waves actually vary within the range of a given band, that is the distances between peaks are variable, and can be more or less disordered within the limits of the band.

When these frequencies are used to program a fractal (the mathematics describing chaos theory) it becomes possible to measure the degree of chaos or complexity in the brain's functioning within this range.  These degrees of complexity are known as dimensions and the higher the dimensionality, the more complex or chaotic are the firing patterns of neurons in the brain.

Lower dimensionality is associated with illness and dysfunction of the brain, for example epilepsy, comas and strokes.  (Some forms of meditation are also associated with lower dimensionality or linearity.)  Similarly dysfunction such as obsessive compulsive behavior and delusional thinking may be also be associated with linearity or lower dimensionality. So too is linear thinking.  On the other hand, high dimensionality is associated with healthier brain functioning. The highest levels of dimensionality are associated with processing and assimilating new information and the formation of new neural patterns, with creative process, and with more spontaneous behaviors.

Chaos theory itself offers some rational for this. It holds that the more complex a system, the more stable and self-correcting it is.  This is because disruption to a linear system will throw the whole system off course, but only affects a portion of the complex system, which soon adjusts to “fill in the gap.”  In a way this is the reverse of the butterfly effect and operates in the complex system once it is past its initial conditions. It lends further credence to the notion that dealing with illness at its formative level is more likely to be successful, i.e. in the organism's initial conditions, because once established and operating the complex system tends to be more stable and difficult to change.

The homily “an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure” comes to mind. However, the important data to note here is that: the highest dimensionality measured in the brain is a level of nine, and this occurs only in REM consciousness! In other words REM is the most complex or chaotic dynamics of brain functioning measured, and this chaos is associated with self-correcting (healing) systems as well as the characteristics noted in the previous paragraphs.

All of the above data and the conjecture based on it suggest that REM begins to look a lot like the ideal consciousness to explain the body's natural healing process as realized in the placebo effect. The CRP journeys seem to trigger natural healing and we feel also operates with the same consciousness dynamics as the placebo effect.

We have consistently observed that chaotic, unstructured or complex consciousness is the dynamics required for consciousness restructuring. This restructuring of the primal existential sensory self-image, in turn affects neural patterns (the existential hologram.) It is also necessary to be at the initial conditions of the system for this restructuring to have maximum effect, and REM consciousness seems to be necessary to these processes. In even more general considerations, this information implies plausible mechanisms through which dreams do their healing and regenerative work.