AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM REPROGRAMING
The International Meditation Teacher Trainers Association
Certificate in Autonomic Nervous System Reprograming (ANSR)
Postgraduate training course
MODULE 4
CONTENTS
The Gut Brain
Reprogramming the autonomic nervous system by changing our perceptions and beliefs
Finding beliefs to change
Belief changing technique
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Please read the module lecture below and make notes of any points you find particularly interesting, do
not understand or wish to research further.
2. Complete the Submission Form at the end of this lecture.
When you have completed the Submission Form and have finished all required work for your
submission, refer to instructions for submitting your submission to your teacher for assessment.
Your teacher will assess your submission and email your assessment to you within 10 working
days.
© 2015 Isabelle Cunningham
All rights reserved. No part of this training course may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed
or electronic form without permission of the author.
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THE GUT BRAIN
In previous modules information has been presented about the
ain, the internal glands, what they do, how
they operate and the new science of the
ain in the heart. In this module we introduce another
ain, the
Gut Brain and how to integrate this knowledge with the subconscious mind by conscious attention.
Did you know you have functioning neurons in your intestines - about 100 million of them? The network of
neurons lining our guts is so extensive some scientists have nicknamed it our ‘second
ain’.
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Have you ever wondered why people get butterflies in the stomach before going on stage? Or why an
impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? And why do antidepressants targeted for
the
ain cause nausea or abdominal upset in millions of people who take such drugs?
The reason for these common experiences is because each of us has two
ains – the familiar one encased in
our skull and the lesser-known but vitally important one found in the human gut. The two
ains are
interconnected; when one gets upset, the other does, too.
Few people would say they had an elbow feeling or a kidney feeling, but gut feelings are highly regarded as
a source of intuitive knowing and insight in many cultures around the globe. As it turns out, gut thoughts and
feelings are not a fanciful notion but a physiological fact. Rather than the one
ain found in our head,
scientists have revealed that we have two
ains – the other one is located in the digestive tract.
Known as the enteric nervous system (ENS), the gut’s
ain is housed under the mucosal lining and between
the muscular layers of the esophagus, the stomach, and the small and large intestines. The enteric nervous
system is a rich and complicated network of neurons and neurochemicals that sense and control events in
other parts of the body, including the
ain.
Amazingly, when scientists finally counted the number of nerve cells in the gut-
ain, they found it
contained over 100 million neurons – more than the number of nerve cells in the spinal cord. The
implication here is that we’re talking about a huge source of potentially untapped intelligence.
What’s fascinating to note is that researchers have observed a greater flow of neural traffic from the ENS to
the head-
ain than from the head-
ain to the ENS. In other words, rather than the head informing the
digestive system what to eat and how to metabolize, the locus of command is stationed in the belly.
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“The second
ain doesn't help with the great thought processes…religion, philosophy and poetry is left to the
ain in the head.” - Michael Gershon
The gut
ain develops from birth and has its major foundation phase up to seven years of age. Initially the
gut
ain is the unconscious force that drives us to become human - to overcome gravity and walk, to talk, to
think etc.
This
ain, of which we can become conscious, becomes our courage and resilience in life. Coddled children
who are denied “courageous exploration” as an infant can lack the will (guts) to mobilise themselves into
positive action.
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A deeper understanding of this mass of neural tissue, filled with important neurotransmitters, is revealing
that it does much more than merely handle digestion or inflict the occasional nervous pang. The little
ain
in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls, partly determines our mental state and plays key
oles in certain diseases throughout the body.
We likely evolved this intricate web of nerves to perform digestion and excretion ‘on site’, rather than
emotely from our
ains through the middleman of the spinal cord. “The
ain in the head doesn't need to
get its hands dirty with the messy business of digestion, which is delegated to the
ain in the gut,”
esearcher, Michael Gershon says. He and other researchers explain, however, that the second
ain's
complexity likely cannot be interpreted through this process alone.
“The system is way too complicated to have evolved only to make sure things move out of your colon.” -
Emran Meyer professor of physiology, psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
For example, scientists were shocked to learn that about 90 percent of the fi
es in the primary visceral
nerve, the vagus, ca
y information from the gut to the
ain and not the other way around.
“Some of that info is decidedly unpleasant.” - Michael Gershon
Consider the diagram below and what it says about the effects of stress on our physical systems.
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A big part of our emotions are influenced by our gut. Butterflies in the stomach is but one example.
Gastrointestinal turmoil can sour one's moods, everyday emotional wellbeing may rely on messages from
the
ain below to the
ain above tempered by the
ain in between.
Reprogramming the autonomic nervous system is empowered by the knowledge of what constitutes the
subconscious mind, the totality of all of the consciousness in our bodies. The individual cells, the
environment they exist within, how they know their purpose and perform their functions, what connections
are there to other bodily systems, what influences act upon them.
How are we affected by the thoughts we think, the food we eat, the emotions we feel?
Reprogramming the autonomic nervous system includes reprogramming the whole organism, the head
ain, the heart
ain, the gut
ain, the entire sum of all of the organs, glands, muscles, tissues, and every
cell of the body.
“The intelligent, vital, joyously contented citizenry of thoughts, will, feelings, trillions of cells, countless
molecules, atoms, electrons, and units of creative life sparks – all living and working in harmony, efficiency
and prosperity.” - Yogananda
3
ain structure:
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3
ain structures and their attributes
Head
ain
Cognitive perception – Thinking – Making Meaning
“I think therefore I am.” - Rene Descartes
“The human
ain works as a binary computer and can only analyze the exact information-based zeros and
ones (or black and white). Our heart is more like a chemical computer that uses fuzzy logic to analyze
information that can't be easily defined in zeros and ones.” - Naveen Jain
Heart
ain
Emotion – Values – Relationships - Conscience
Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. - Aristotle
The way is not in the sky it is in the heart. - Buddha
That which is false troubles the heart, but truth
ings joyous tranquillity. - Rumi
Hate the sin, love the sinner. - Mahatma Gandhi
Love your neighbour as yourself. - Jesus
The most powerful healing force is love. You are love. And so it is. - Louise L Hay
Gut
ain
Identity – Self Preservation- Mobilisation – Courage
Both male and female will/courage (gut
ain) has its foundation from birth to seven years of age. Thus gut
ain is developed quite naturally, by unconscious developmental forces of the body. Sometimes we forget
this innate physical wisdom where the following marvels take place:
Walking, talking and the foundations of picture imaging and concrete thinking are established.
The child grows down from the head into the body. At birth the head body ratio is 1:3 or 1:4. It takes
approximately 6 years to become close to 1:7.
Consciousness grows slowly from the body into the heart/feelings realm.
Major physiological faculties develop and integrate - touch and balance, sense of movement and life.
The ears and eyes are profoundly involved.
Dominance of eye, ear, hand and foot settle naturally (if not interfered with).
Crossing midlines (left right, up down, front back) becomes gradually integrated.
Primitive reflexes switch off naturally if appropriate movement takes place.
Courage, risk-taking and resilience have their foundations here.
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Now we know the relevant features of this human bio-machine, how do we harness them to gain the
enefit of a reprogrammed autonomic nervous system?
In a plastic tissue culture dish, the composition of the growth medium (environment) controls the fate of the
cells. The human body, is by definition, a ‘skin-covered culture dish’ containing 50,000,000,000,0000 (fifty
trillion) cells. The cells are maintained by a culture medium (blood).
The chemical composition of the blood is the equivalent of the culture medium used in the plastic culture
dishes. Changing the composition of the blood’s chemistry is the same as changing a culture’s growth
medium.
Let’s look at that beautifully simple fact once more – The environment used to grow cultures in a plastic dish
in a laboratory influences the fate of the cells. In the human body the blood