the quest for the holy grail

Galahad receiving the Grail from the Grail maidens

So what would it take to see beyond the fallacy of current (rapidly becoming bygone) so-called norms and firmly commit to a path of sanity and happiness?
Tony Wright who has examined in depth our biological predicament ('the biological origins of the fall from from grace') observes our tendency to see the madness in others and wonders when we will see it in ourselves and realise it is ubiquitous and that there is actually something wrong with our brains.  We can then set out on a path of restoration of brain and body through a biologically appropriate diet, through use of plant medicines re-establish healthy endocrine system and brain chemistry, shift out of cerebral dominance of  the left hemisphere of the brain and function to a point where we can move into our full potential and live in 'a  perpetual state of wonder and awe'.  This he sees as the Holy Grail.
John  Lash. comparative mythologist and revealer of the Sophianic vision story of the Gnostics, has recently postulated (in his talk The Look of the Anthropos) that it might take for us to see the hideousness of the child abuse that is perpetrated across the planet and through shared empathy unite against the perpetrator
Through correction in three areas: 1. moving back into energetic connection with the planet we live n and engaging in a natural lifestyle, 2. deprogramming from cultural fear conditioning and 3. healing the rift between male and female, we can get back on track of our peak evolutionary potential, living lives of beauty and even cognitive ecstasy. Genial plant species help us on our way. Our peak experience is to behold the organic light, non-material animating light that permeates and emanates from all matter on Earth, the Holy Grail.

These are two parallel ways of describing at the same situation, that of the story of humanity, where we are at this time and what we might do to experience life on this planet as we would really like to.

What strikes me is that the longer we put something off the bigger the more difficult a task it seems, until we actually get round to tackling it and then there is often less to it than we thought.  Kind of  opposite to the situation when an idea pops in our head and we think it'll be done in a couple of hours but maybe takes weeks.  I think the steps to getting back on track are now quite clearly defined, we know what we need to do at least to get started.  As we proceed further steps will become clear.  We need to clear our perception through actually doing what it takes at physical level in order for this to happen.  Then the journey can unfold.

There are two grail questions:
1. What is wrong with humanity?
2. How can I serve the Grail?

bruce lipton on epigenetics and love

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"people who experience their power and take back control of their own lives know no limitation"

In this talk Bruce Lipton describes the  'central dogma' of medicine that DNA rules our lives.  A dogma is a belief based on religious persuasion, and this particular dogma is actually an unproven hypotheses. Information flows from DNA to RNA and to proteins - the assumption is that there is no flow in the other direction. Actually it turns out there is and the fate of cells is influenced by the environment.  We are talking about epigenetics, a new science where part of signal transduction affects hereditary.  'Epi' means above and epigenetics is above genetics, it is the control if genes from from the environment.  The skin of cell the membrane is the brain of the cell, it translates signals.  Interestingly the ectoderm of an embryo turns to skin and neural system.

The DNA actually doesn't do anything, it's just a blueprint.  The environmental signals alter the reading of the DNA.  Which genes are copied or activated depends on a biochemical process called methylation.  How they are read depends on the proteins around the cell, which in turn are affected by our mental state.  Love creates dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin and growth hormone, and the cells grow exuberantly.  Fear creates cortisol, cytokines, histamine and norepinephrine.

Experiments with folic acid, B12 and choline in animals showed that nutrients could prevent mutation  being physically exhibited even though they are in the DNA.

There are even receptors on your cell for personal identity self receptors.  It seems that there is an environmental signal about your identity that is is there even when the cells go, in other words, spirit.

Bruce Lipton's new book The Honeymoon Effect is a 'journey of self-discovery through the power of love that can be generated through the power of our own thoughts'.  In a recent talk in new Zealand he said that our brains are only really happy when we are making love because we are paying attention.   It would be wonderful if we could bring this love into all our daily activities and experience them in the same way.  He also pointed out that most of our minds are unconscious and 70% of the unconscious programming is negative and self-sabotaging  due to our culture.  This is an issue worth addressing!

vitamin d hormone of happiness and health

Vitamin D is a hormone which is essential for our health and happiness in many ways.
I decided to revamp a post I wrote on this subject: (http://foodforconsciousness.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/vitamin-d-happiness-hormone.html) three years ago on this subject as it's become clearer than ever how crucial this substance is.   Many years ago I noticed how often people on an entirely raw plant diet eventually had difficulty dealing with sweet fruit. I was intrigued by this phenomenon. In fact the same thing happened to me when I was on that path.  Once I started including raw dairy products my ability to deal with sweet fruit gradually came back.  It turns out that vitamin D is essential for the proper function of the insulin system which of course is needed to deal with the sugars in fruit.  And vitamin D in the form we need (D3)  can be very difficult to obtain on an entirely raw plant diet unless you spend much of your life out in the high sunshine or supplement very intelligently.

One of vitamin D's other roles is to activate the immune system: "with vitamin D in the bloodstream, T cells become "armed" and begin seeking out invaders that are then destroyed and carried out of the body"

http://www.naturalnews.com/028357_vitamin_D_deficiency.html 

Known as the sunshine vitamin, Vitamin D is also crucial for our sense of well-being and happiness.
We were designed to be happy and we were designed to be exposed to regular sunshine!  In order  for our skin to make vitamin D from sunshine the sun needs to be high enough for UVB radiation to reach us.  In Britain this only happens from about March until September, In other words, there is a 'vitamin D' winter if we live a long way from the equator and the length of this winter depends on the exact latitude.

In terms of getting vitamin D through food and supplements, vitamin D is fat soluble, and needs to be taken with fat in order to be properly absorbed.  Also to be considered is that there are two common types of vitamin D: Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol). We need vitamin D3 rather than vitamin D2. We use an olive oil based vitamin D3 supplement which we find very effective and also free from unwanted additives.  We have this in addition to vitamin D rich foods such as raw milk, cheese, kefir and fish oil.  On top of all this I personally take sun showers (a sunshower is a booth where you receive UVB rays all over your skin, unfortunately not available in all towns, I go in Fab, Totnes, Devon) regularly through the winter and get out in the sunshine as much as I can in summer.  It's a good idea to wait for a few hours after sunbathing or sunshowering before bathing or showering as the skin produces a powdery substance after exposure to UVB rays that is then absorbed into the skin and converted to vitamin D by the body. I really do notice a difference from this amount of commitment to vitamin D intake.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027345_Vitamin_D_sun_exposure_blood.html

iridescent energy at ebbor gorge

Incredible iridescent energy today, we headed up Ebbor Gorge to enjoy the  sun and warmth where wild garlic leaves are beginning to emerge.

wild garlic

neural regeneration with nutrition

"There are actually a broad range of natural compounds with proven nerve-regenerative effects. A 2010 study published in the journal Rejuvenation Research, for instance, found a combination of blueberry, green tea and carnosine have neuritogenic (i.e. promoting neuronal regeneration) and stem-cell regenerative effects in an animal model of neurodegenerative disease.  Other researched neuritogenic substances include:

Curcumin
Lion's Mane Mushroom
Apigenin (compound in vegetables like celery)
Blueberry
Ginseng
Huperzine
Natto
Red Sage
Resveratrol
Royal Jelly
Theanine
Ashwaganda
Coffee (trigonelline)
There is another class of nerve-healing substances, known as remyelinating compounds, which stimulate the repair of the protective sheath around the axon of the neurons known as myelin, and which is often damaged in neurological injury and/or dysfunction, especially autoimmune and vaccine-induced demyelination disorders.  It should also be noted that even music and falling in love have been studied for possibly stimulating neurogenesis, regeneration and/or repair of neurons, indicating that regenerative medicine does not necessary require the ingestion of anything; rather, a wide range of therapeutic actions may be employed to improve health and well-being, as well."

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/6-bodily-tissues-can-be-regenerated-through-nutrition

fermented foods ~ instant energy for the brain

kefir with yacon, a prebiotic

We have been finding from experience that fermented foods such as kefir and kraut and jun give us a particular instant energy boost that we don't experience from other foods.  This intrigues us and we have been wondering what is the explanation.  With the question about what is the ideal fuel for the brain on my mind I came across the information below.

First thing to mention is that while glucose is an oxidative fuel for our bodies and brains,  it is actually used to make ATP or adenosine triphosphate which is a  usable form of energy for cells - "the energy is "trapped" in a chemical bond that can be released and used to drive other reactions that require energy. (endergonic reactions)."   http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=2254


So how do we go from glucose to ATP? "This is achieved through the process of "oxidation" - and this is carried out through a series of metabolic pathways. Complex chemical transformations in the cell occur in a series of separate reactions to form each pathway, and each reaction is catalyzed by a specific enzyme. Interestingly, metabolic pathways are similar in all organisms, from bacteria to humans. In eukaryotes (plants and animals) many of the metabolic pathways are compartmentalized, with certain reactions occurring in specific organelles. Basically, cells trap free energy released from the breakdown (metabolism) of glucose. This energy gets trapped in the ATP as it converts from ADP to ATP by the addition of phosphate.
There are 3 main pathways for harvesting energy from glucose:
Glycolysis - begins glucose metabolism in all cells to produce 2 molecules of pyruvate. Occurs outside of mitochondria, usually in cytoplasm.
Cellular Respiration - uses oxygen from the environment and converts each pyruvate to three molecules of carbon dioxide while trapping the energy released in this process in ATP. There are 3 sub-pathways of cellular respiration - pyruvate oxidation, the citric acid (Krebs or Tricarboxylic Acid) cycle and the electron transport chain. Occurs in different sub-compartments of mitochondria.
Fermentation - converts pyruvate into lactic acid or ethanol; does not need oxygen. It is not as efficient as cellular respiration; it occurs in the cytoplasm." http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=2254

We want to look more into this but on first sight  it seems we have an explanation, we are using the help of friendly micro-organisms to convert the sugars on milk or vegetables or honey into ATP, an immediate energy source for the body and brain.

Now the brain uses a  lot of energy, a high percentage of the body's energy requirements.  Glucose is  a very immediate source of oxidative fuel for ATP production (and it seems the brain does need at least some glucose) while the breaking down of fat, protein of glycogen is a bit more long-winded.  However it seems to us that fermented foods can supply instant brain energy without having to take in a lot of fruit sugar which, as many of us know can cause challenges to our bodies in other ways.

Could it be that in order to advance our evolution as a species we do need a more instantly accessible source of large amounts of energy for the brain and that by engaging harmoniously with friendly micro-organisms we have this?

what is the oxidative fuel for our brains?

So..., these days many people are finding that they feel much better on low sugar high fat diets.  I myself eat a diet that is rich in raw dairy and fats and, while I eat fruit, it is not my main calories source.   If the brain uses glucose as its oxidative fuel, which has been my understanding, how can this be?  Well, personally, having experimented with eliminating fruit sugars altogether, I have found I feel best if I include some fruit albeit mainly low glycemic fruit which does not elevate the blood sugar too fast for me. 

Speaking to Tony Wright about this in view of his proposition that we evolved our large brains through eating tropical fruit he explained to me that although our origins are symbiotic i.e. with fruit trees (see http://www.beyond-belief.org.uk/node/7 and http://www.beyond-belief.org.uk/node/8) we are not that symbiotic organism any more.  Our system is not frugivorous any more...we are not the same species we were..we are now running on an ancient mammalian system that precedes our frugivorous phase.  So, in short, dues to changes in our brains and digestive systems we can no longer assimilate and run healthily on a predominantly frugivourous diet.

Tony gave me this link where there is a bit of a summary regarding brain glucose and other means of fuel http://evolvinghealthscience.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/why-you-can-all-stop-saying-meat-eating.html while remarking that "no consideration is given in the article of increasingly specialised fruit eating in non seasonal tropics regarding energy requirement and gut/brain theory given our obviously delicate tropical physiology....  Also of interest is  the structure of neural tissue, which is much less protein rich than muscle i.e .protein cannot have been a limiting factor" as we see here http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html.

Interestingly something I have noticed in my own life is that in situations of exalted expanded states of consciousness my metabolism has changed in a marked way and suddenly I have craved lots of tropical fruit and can metabolise it, it as if my brain is just burning it up.  On return to a more mundane or 'normal' state of awareness this effect drifts away.

This is an interesting topic and connects us deeply to the ongoing story of our species.