PHILOSOPHY JOURNAL

by Valerie Pennacchio, D.C., '90

Article 7 "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science"      - Albert Einstein

To complete the discussion we began in previous articles about the processes that are the responsibility of the educated brain, in this article, we'll discuss how the educated brain is instrumental in the adaptation to the external environment - a function that is explained through the special sense cycle.

In the previous articles, we established that physiological processes are explained through philosophical models in the philosophy of chiropractic. We noted that the simple cycle is our foundational model, while the interbrain cycle is an overlay that explains some of the functions of the educated brain. In this article, we'll further expand this concept with the special sense cycle.

Ultimately, however, the exploration of these seemingly separate cycles will lead us to the understanding that there is really just one cycle that has many different aspects to it. We study them individually in an effort to understand the complexity and interconnectedness of the system. It is through simplicity that magnitude and complexity can be appreciated.

The English poet John Milton illuminates this thought poetically by telling us that it is "untwisting all the chains that tie the hidden soul of harmony." Everything is connected to everything else. Everything works in harmony with everything else, and all the overlays of the cycles will lead us to a greater understanding of the innate harmony that is the music of our physical expression.

It's time to explore the special sense cycle - and, once again, revisiting the definitions of terms that will be used is a crucial step. As you will recall, innate brain and educated brain are anatomically the same structure (brain and spinal cord), but functionally, they have different responsibilities. The cells that are innervated by the efferent nerve have been termed innate body. Innate body is the term used for those tissue cells that receive and require a mental impulse to function. All the tissue cells of our body would come under the umbrella term of innate body.

However, those tissue cells that receive a mental impulse that was directed through the educated brain for such functions as sense perception, memory, reasoning and willful acts would be called educated body. The heart muscle beating faster (used in the example of the last article) would be considered innate body; the muscles of our legs moving quickly during sprinting (which was also used as an example in the previous articles) would be considered educated body.

When specific tissue cells receive raw, unadaptive information (a universal force) from outside the body, those tissue cells are termed special sense cells. An example of a special sense cell would be the retina. Cells that make up our special sense organs - eyes, ears, nose, tongue - would be considered special sense cells.

These tissue cells are receptor cells that pick up information from the external environment. The universal force is then converted to an innate force known as a special sense impulse. As we established previously, all forces have an informational component (non-physical) and an energy component (physical).

The informational component in the special sense impulse is non-adaptive information - raw information from outside the body that will be interpreted and responded to in the mental realm. This special sense impulse is carried over the afferent nerve, a physical nerve that connects the special sense cell to that portion of the educated brain dedicated to receive that specific force.

If the information coming into the body were visual light through the retina, the occipital lobe of the brain would receive it; if it were sound information, the temporal lobe would receive it, etc. Each area of the brain receives and processes specific information.

Once the educated brain receives the information (light from the outside), the innate brain, being the same anatomical structure, is aware of it. Any impulse interacting with any physical structure naturally changes the vibration/tone of that structure in response to the information that it has received. So, these changes in vibration/tone are transmitted via a matrix of vibrations to the mental realm. (Remember, the word "mental" comes from the root word meaning "spirit" or "the immaterial realm.")

This information is interpreted by innate intelligence and the response is formulated. The now adaptive information (forun) is expressed into the physical realm through the innate brain, and this is what we call the mental impulse. The mental impulse is directed through the educated brain and carried over the efferent nerve to the tissue cells of the eye; and the eye constricts in response to the light that entered it at the beginning of the process.

What we have just witnessed is the special sense cycle overlapping the interbrain and simple cycle. This process accounts for the mystery of how our eyes adapt to the changes in light so quickly that there is no damage and that our vision isn't impaired. WOW!


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