Parapower stands for the amazing power that accompanies the deliberate activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. To understand it, I'll provide you with the basics of the human nervous system. Then, I'm going to suggest something fairly radical; that the only way to become more spiritual is through activation of this system.

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Every since I was a child, it's been hard to slow down. I gravitate towards doing things fast; multi-tasking; and project planning. Gradually, I became aware of the benefits of slowing down; I mean really slowing down. My job title is medical psychologist. My work involves helping people access innate healing mechanisms. And the strongest mental medicine I've found has turned out to be something I call parapower.

Parapower stands for the amazing power that accompanies the deliberate activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. To understand it, I'll provide you with the basics of the human nervous system. Then, I'm going to suggest something fairly radical; that the only way to become more spiritual is through activation of this system.

Many of you are familiar with aspects of the human nervous system. There's the central nervous system (CNS); named because it lies in the center of our bodies and because it's our central command station. The CNS consists of the brain and the spinal column.

And then there's the peripheral nervous system (PNS) which is on the periphery of the central! The PNS is divided into the autonomic nervous system and the somatic nervous system.

The automatic or autonomic nervous system was named by Dr. John Langley in the early 1900s. He thought the autonomic nervous system acted automatically and was self-governing; functioning independently of the central nervous system.

Today, scientists know that the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system do a wonderous dance together. When central command picks up information about a potential threat to our wellbeing, it sends a signal down the spinal column which then relays the information to a chain of cells running along side the column called the sympathetic ganglionic chain.

The sympathetic system then becomes activated by directing your heart to beat faster; your lungs to gather more oxygen; and your b to provide enerdy to release nutrients for energy.

This diagram shows the basic structure of this incredible system:

Our sysmpathetic systems are very well trained! For an extended period of time; human beings faced such a hostile, competitive environment. We were hunter-gathers. The average life span of a human throughout much of history was about thirty-five years. Life was often cut short by disease, by combat, and by some other animals who were also struggling to survive.

What type of nervous system helped us survive? Rapid in its response, energizing and protective, the sympathetic nervous system has served us well. In fact, all of us who are alive today owe our existence to this system. You had a great, great, great, (keep going) descendent who ran faster or fought harder or stayed alert longer than most. Survival of the fittest dominated in the natural selection of our ancestors.

As a sympathetically enhanced animal, we guard our juggler vain with uplifted shoulders. We elongate our spine to give us a visual advantage in the meadow or a psychological advantage through body language (shoulder padding is still favored as a body language enhancer). We tighten muscles along our torso to protect vital organs; creating a kind of coat of mail. We shut down all non-essential processes to maximize the energy available for survival. To prepare for fight, hand are protected from bleeding excessively by vascular constriction (the well know “cold hands” of fear). To prepare for flight, the feet have blood withdrawn (remember this all got programmed when there was no such thing as paved roads or PF flyers). Repair system, digestive systems, reproductive systems are all suppressed. We produce substances like adrenaline and blood sugar to give us energy and stamina.

Activation of the SNS is carried out in less than a second. When there's a lion, tiger or bear threatening us; it comes to our rescue and activated the action response of fight or flight. When it's a traffic jam or a work deadline that threatens us; that energy build-up can make us ill.

By its very nature, the SNS puts human beings in a combative, competitive place; not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. Changes in brain chemistry create a sense of vigilance, apprehension, and a focus on possible future outcomes. A sense of urgency prevails.

When the SNS is activated, we don't stop and smell the roses. It's difficult to focus on the present moment; difficult to connect in a kind, gentle manner with others and impossible to rest and recovery. Only when our sense of danger and emergency and fear dissipates; the system becomes deactivated. You can return to a neutral steady state. But if you're very lucky, another system becomes activated. That system is called the parasympathetic nervous system.

Parasympathetic ParaPower

The parasympathetic nervous system, when activated, provides maximum recovery and replenishing. And here's what we also have learned about the activation of this system; it can create profound experiences of joy, creativity, connectedness and good will.

When we sleep or when we're forced into bed due to illness, we easily recognize the healing importance of rest. But it has always been difficult for humans to stop. Stop or be stoned was one cultures answer to this tenacious human tendency to do more and more and more and to want more and more and more. It's so hard to stop the seductive aspects of production. The Sabbath; one out of seven days, for people and one year out of seven for the land. The wisdom of the ancients knew that the yield of the land would be poor in quality and quantity if you kept planting on it. The fruit brought forth in a person's life will be equally poor without time for rest, replenish, and restore.

But even more importantly, we begin to see some correlation between rest and spiritual development. For ions, the spiritual masters have observed that quieting the mind in prayerful meditation was linked with the experience of spiritual awakening and enlightenment. Creative insights often arrived at night in what is often called twilight sleep; a time when the brain can synthesis material in a non-linear fashion.

A profound sense of wellbeing often accompanies the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. As we enter this state of rest; our sympathetically driven need for fight is allowed to rest. When we enter this state of parapower, our need to flee and withdraw to our cave for safety is replaced by the inner sense that there is no threat here; we can relax. We draw near to each other with hands extended; with hearts capable of empathic ally attuned compassion.

Every culture has developed the means and methods to access this incredible state of extreme parasympathetic engagement; sometimes through music, sometimes through rituals, sometimes through drink, drugs, and food. It's such a powerful state in its potential to direct human behavior that almost every religion has captured its essence in its teachings.

Karen Armstrong writes so expressively about the transcendent moment experienced by the founders of the great religion movements. These individuals helped to ushered in great transformational periods through their own personal transcendence. And Armstrong found that the description of those transcendent moments were remarkably similar regardless of the religion mandates accompaning the experience. She writes:

“"it produces a sensation of calm, harmony, and equanimity said to be comparable to the effect of music. There was a feeling of grandeur, expansiveness, and nobility - a sense of presence"there was nothing supernatural about these experiences"they had discovered a new dimension of their own humanity”

When the parasympathetic system is engaged, the body's energy systems slow down. The brain fires more slowly; producing more theta waves. Theta is considered a slow brain wave that accompanies daydreaming and meditation. Andrew Newburg, in his work measuring the brain waves of people in deep states of prayer and meditation, found that the theta waves infuse much of their brains. Anna Wise in her work of recording the brain waves of healers and awakened individuals found that they tend to have more theta wave activity and sometimes even more delta wave activity than the average person. Delta waves represent even slower firing patterns in the brain than theta.

It seems that slowing down tunes us in as spiritual receivers; turns us towards our spiritual nature; transforms the mundane into the significant. It may even transfuse our surroundings. My clients have often asked me if I turned the lights up when they arrive in this state. Others have remarked that I appeared light up when I attained the state shift; something remarkable for this darked skinned, darked haired woman! Perhaps the halos found in paintings of spiritually engaged people were due to this interesting effect.

Recently, scientists have begun to study the electrical rhythms of the heart and popular personal training devices like the EMwave, Wild Divine or Stress Eraser have come on the market. The heart, like the brain, is a neural net and each has its own way of “knowing”. When we initiate the slow breath used by the yogis, about 7 breaths per minute, the heart's frequencies begin to harmonize and facilitates activations of the parasympathetic system.

Through practice and patience, I've become better and better at activating my parapower. I have experienced my spiritual essence as subtle; like the wind on my face, something difficult to capture. When fully experienced, it's caressing and ethereal and affirming and sublime and delightful and funny and healing. My hope is that we'll all begin shifting away from the need to be so sympathetically frenetically engaged with life and we'll all take time for a Sabbath; a time to shift into the lower frequencies that can tune us into the meaning of the holidays.