Science and the Roots of Love: What Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Shows Us
Cell biology, brain science and child development studies confirm the findings of Transpersonal Psychology and sacred teachings of long ago: What we experience at the very beginning of life deeply shapes our health, the way we live, and our life choices. Many problems and chronic conditions we face as teens or adults can, in fact, be traced to faulty patterns in our brain and nervous system, including a distorted sense of self and an inability to trust the world around us. These patterns are physiological and rooted in the experiences we had at conception, during womb life, in birth, and in those first crucial hours afterward.
Our first “home” is the womb, when our mother’s body and psyche are our world. We bathe in the sea of her thoughts, emotions and perceptions. Our umbilical cord tethers us to the mother ship, and we receive the biochemical translation of her consciousness. Not only do we develop from her nutrients and love hormones but also the toxins she takes in, all via that pulsing channel. These are the components from which we compose our tissues and organs, especially our brain.
After birth the face, voice and body language of our mother constitute the mirror in which we see ourself and the window to the world around us. Therefore, how our mother experiences life, how she is treated – with joy and honor or neglect and abuse – profoundly influence how we grow up to treat ourselves, everyone, and everything we encounter.
…From immune system disorders to terrorism, from committing suicide to devising weapons, from child abuse to corruption, and from alcoholism to trashing our planet, we are dealing with an impaired capacity for loving oneself and others…
…For the first time in known history we can collectively address the premise that both peace and war begin in the womb. Our consciousness does not end at the boundaries of our flesh. It lies in, around and beyond our developing brain. Deep inside, we forever hold the memory of our birth, our in-womb life, and even conception.
Nature has endowed women with the monumental task of birthing cultures as well as human beings. More than ever, we know how important it is for society to embrace and empower pregnant mothers, offer them beauty and harmony, so that they are inspired in their endeavor to weave a luminous, caring web of life for their babies, the future citizens of earth.
The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is a fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. – Albert Einstein
Created by Laura Uplinger and Suzanne Arms
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