Glossary

Abilities (Healing)
Healing abilities are dynamic bodily processes we initiate or enhance in order to be healing, that is, to abide in a healing state, or to become healing, that is, to shift our baseline state toward healing. Healing abilities include: creativity, the tendency to respond to phenomena in new and non-automatic ways via inspiration, ingenuity, and the like; curiosity, the inclination to wonder at and take an interest in tangible and intangible phenomena; joy, a state characterized by bliss, awareness and freedom from harmful responses; resilience, the ability to recover a lost healing state quickly and easily; right effort, the degree of effort between sloth and striving that best enables us to realize our intentions; strength, the ability to sustain healing abilities and states regardless of circumstances; wisdom, the ability to further healing intentions through understanding, awareness and perceptions; compassion; equanimity; grounding; integration; loving kindness; and sympathetic joy.

Adjuvants
Chemicals that provoke immune responses and that may cause the body to react to proteins to which it might not otherwise react, as when chemicals in a vaccination boost the immune response, or chemicals in air, food, or water induce allergic reaction to the contents of the intestines.

Affirmation
The act or process of affirming something. In this book, affirmation refers to a phrase, mantra or act that elicits joy, love and equanimity. We use affirmations to support and enhance our healing states and abilities and our overall sense of wellbeing.

Allopathy
The medical tradition formalized in ancient times by Hippocrates; influenced by Maimonides, Vesalius and Osler; and sustained in the modern era as mainstream high-tech medicine.

Apprehension
As used in this book, the ability to grasp meaning through perceptions free of concepts or symbols. For example, we may apprehend a work of art such as a poem, musical piece, play, or painting
without being able to comprehend or explain it through language, concepts, or equations.

Attention
Where we place our mental energy and focus.

Attunement
Bringing into harmony. The ability to bring distinct and even seemingly disjunct experiences into harmony with our own inner being. This creates a feeling of being “at One” with all life.

Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system is comprised of two complementary systems, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems Stimulation of the adrenaline-mediated sympathetic system, which includes the adrenal cortex, leads to arousal; stimulation of the acetylcholine-mediated parasympathetic system offsets arousal. The autonomic nervous system regulates visceral functions such as digestion and circulation, and is comprised of nerves, ganglia, and plexuses (reti) that correspond to the channels, centers and fields of the subtle body (see diagram opposite page, which includes selected chakras and autonomic nerve ganglia; text and diagrams under Sympathetic Nervous System)

Awareness (see Consciousness)

Axial Age
The era in human history wherein our species experienced a shift in consciousness through insight and perspective gained by direct experience (contemplation enabling the recognition and apprehension of phenomena) as well as by indirect experience (formal observation and analysis of symbolic aspects of phenomena). Leaders of the axial shift included the Jewish prophets; the
Buddha and other sramana in India; and Lao Tzu in China.

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Ayurveda
Ayurveda is an ancient medical tradition based on empiricism and empirically derived theories. Ayurveda developed in the area we know today as India, presumably in dialog with other Indo-European traditions as well as those arising in the Himalayas and in Asia (see Daoism; Traditional Chinese Medicine; Traditional Tibetan Medicine). Ayurveda is based on concepts of elements and fluids reminiscent of the Hippocratic elements and ors that influenced the development of Allopathy (see diagram at right; Allopathy). Ayurveda classifies patients into three main body types based on fluids: pitta, vata, and kapha. Treatments support the inborn healing systems of the body and include bodywork, diet, fasting, herbs, and movement form for self-healing, namely, yoga (see Yoga). Ayurvedic medicine is analogous to, but distinct from, other traditional and indigenous forms of medicine (see Allopathy; Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Tibetan Medicine.)

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Becoming
Becoming is the intentional, steady transformation of our baseline state of being through the deepening and extension of healing states and through comprehensive integration of our sevenfold body.

Being
Being is the present state of our sevenfold body. We can transform our being by using our abilities to recognize, create, and abide in healing states characterized by relief, well-being and thriving.

Bodywork
Bodywork is the practice of hands on healing through forms such as acupuncture, physical therapy, shiatsu, Reiki, accutonics, lomi lomi, hot stone massage, cupping, acupressure and Swedish massage. Bodywork may be designed to relieve discomfort and tension; to ground, balance and enhance the subtle or sevenfold body; to enhance the fl ow of blood and lymph; to enhance the tone of the neuromuscular system through stimulation of refl exes, touch, pressure, or proprioception; and/or to integrate the systems and levels of the body. Bodyworkers may use lotions or oils and may add indirect treatments such as aromatherapy, sauna, infrared, ice, dripping oil, phototherapy, or whirlpool baths. Some forms of bodywork, such as Reiki and acupressure, can be self-administered.

Brahma-Viharas
The Brahma-Viharas are the states of being known as heavenly abodes. They include loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, and sympathetic joy. In sevenfold Healing, we conceive of these states as among the healing abilities that enable us to recognize, enter into, and rest in healing states (see Abilities and Healing States).

Buddhist Psychology
Buddhist psychology is knowledge of the sevenfold body, especially its intangible levels, through direct observation. The study of Buddhist psychology, an aspect of Buddhist philosophy, was established in ancient times by the sramana of India through meditation, contemplation, and other forms of esoteric yogic practice. Buddhist psychologists are now transforming Buddhist philosophy by incorporating understanding of the body gained through scientifi c, that is, indirect and objective study of the sevenfold body.

Carer
One who gives or provides care, also known as a caregiver.

Central Channel
Known in Sanskrit as the shushumna nadi, the central channel is the intangible backbone of the energy body that runs from the crown to the pelvis along the front of the spine. This channel forms the core of the energy body, which comprises the dynamic electrical potentials and magnetic fields of the body’s matter, especially those created by the nervous tissues, the cardiac conduction system, and the ions that circulate with the body’s fl uids. The main intangible centers, or chakras, of the energy body are located in this channel.

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Chakra
The word chakra, from the Sanskrit word for wheel or turning, refers to the centers of the energy body that mediate our state of being and interpenetrate and integrate all levels of the sevenfold body (see diagram at right; Subtle Body). The centers correspond roughly to the reti, or nexuses, of the autonomic nervous system (see Autonomic Nervous System; Parasympathetic Nervous System; Sympathetic Nervous System.) When we have learned to practice esoteric forms of meditation known as tantra, we can use awareness to directly know and infl uence our chakras, as when we generate or gather energy (see Chi) in the secret chakra known also as the dan tien (tan tien; see Subtle Body, Chakra, Ayurveda, Yoga, Traditional Chinese Medicine.)

Chi (Qi)
Chi is dynamic life energy. As Reiki it flows from the heavens to the earth. As yan it fl ows up the back body from the earth toward the heavens. As yin, it fl ows down the front body from the heavens to the earth. It is generated in the energy center below the navel known as the dan tien, tan tien, secret chakra, and sacred chakra (see Chakra; Ayurveda; Yoga; Subtle Body; Autonomic Nervous System). Chi also circulates inside the body, flowing up through the central channel and the crown chakra as yan and down again as yin (see text and diagrams under Subtle Body.) Qi Gong (chi kung), a series of movements that represents a dynamic form of healing meditation, can balance and enhance the fl ow of chi (see Daoism; Traditional Chinese Medicine.)

Chronic
Deep rooted, habitual, lingering, ongoing.

Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is the objective study of human reasoning, including the formation, use, and spread of heuristics that enable rapid reasoning through the conditioning of the adaptive unconscious, and of the errors and biases those heuristics create. The systematic study of cognitive psychology can be used to reduce errors in judgment under uncertainty in professions such as medicine, engineering, and law. Common biases shared by the chronically ill and their consultants include illusion of control, representativeness, and availability.

Coherence
A systematic connection and consistency. The integration of diverse expressions, experiences, matter and interbeing into a unified whole cohering to itself and to the Web of Life in Time.

Compassion
Compassion is the ability to feel the pain and suffering of others in our heart. Compassion is free of harmful reactions that increase pain and suffering through mirroring, introjection, transmission, or multiplication. It is also free of responses that entail aggression such as anger, resentment, guilt, shame, or blame. Compassion is also free of self-interest in the form of seeking safety, superiority, advantage or identity through avoidance, pity, condescension, or helping so as to acquire love, approval or money.

Comprehension
Comprehension is the human capacity to grasp meaning through symbolic systems such as alphabets or equations.

Conscience
An inner feeling, voice or sense of what is right and wrong in one’s actions, conduct, intention, or attention.

Consciousness
Consciousness is the human capacity for unitive thinking, that is, mental processes in which the observer, the observed, and the act of perception are one and our bodies and species appear as aspects of a single shared existence. Consciousness confers the ability to recognize the new and unknown, which prepares the mind to perceive universal patterns of phenomena that manifest inside and outside of the body. Consciousness is supported by the somatic and autonomic nervous systems, and is mediated through the energy center known as the crown or sahasrara chakra (see Chakra, Subtle Body.) Consciousness requires alert, grounded relaxation and the ability to focus relaxed, grounded, attention and concentration (see Mental Strengths).

Consultation
We can consult doctors, bodyworkers, and counselors to support our self-guided Evolve Medicine healing. When we do so, we retain the authority and responsibility for our healing, and confer in a cooperative rather than adversarial way. We seek to gain advice and support rather than submit to domination or dependence

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Continuous Practice
When we are beginners, we establish a regular healing practice that is brief and that enables us to learn basic healing abilities. As we advance, we begin to use our new practices and abilities in everyday life. Eventually, we extend our practice until it is continuous, that is, until we are, in every moment, aware of our healing intentions, sustaining healing states and abilities, choosing healing thoughts and actions, and deepening our healing processes through being and becoming healing (see Being; Becoming.)

Counselor
A counselor is a consultant who is able to aid us in removing obstacles to being and becoming healing. A counselor may facilitate healing through language-based communication entailing listening, dialoguing, and the giving of advice. Counselors undergo formal training in fi elds such as psychology, divinity, or psychiatry. Some counselors offer bodywork with counseling, as those who practice Rubenfeld Synergy work.

Cure
Cure is the ongoing creation of a new life that realizes our deepest purpose and that is always becoming better than we could have imagined in the past. This new and better life includes outward, objective changes that have tangible as well as intangible effects.

Cycle of Existence
The cycle of existence refers to concepts in physics, theology, and metaphysics wherein space and time unfold cyclically within an all-encompassing ground of creation. In physics, the cycle of existence may begin with an event such as the big bang, which leads to expansion and formation of matter as galaxies, star clusters, and the like. This expansion eventually leads to contraction and implosion, which in turn leads to the explosive beginning of the next cycle. In theology, the cycle of existence may begin with the filling of the vessels of creation, which shatter and disperse in the ground of being as holy sparks. Conscious human beings can reunite the sparks through soul communion, and so help to heal the shattered vessels.

Dan Tien (see Chi; Chakra; Subtle Body)

Daoism
Daoism is an ancient Chinese philosophical system that offers a comprehensive approach to life. It is rooted in ancient ideas of the fi ve elements (see diagram at right) and in a threefold paradigm of the body comprising body, mind, and spirit. Daoism envisions the subtle body as entailing the flow of life energy, or chi, along meridians and as yin and yan. This model enables followers to balance and enhance the subtle body through practices such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Qi Gong (see Chi, Yin, Yan, and the text and diagrams under Subtle Body and Traditional Chinese Medicine.) These features of Daoism are analogous to but distinct from chakras and channels, Ayurveda, and yoga (see Chakra, Ayurveda, Yoga.) as well as from Traditional Tibetan Medicine (see text and image under Traditional Tibetan Medicine.)

Decision-Making (see Cognitive Psychology)

Eldherhood
The practice of bringing awareness to our interbeing, and living responsibly from there. We take on the role of an elder whenever we have developed a mature vision that can support our personal sevenfold healing as well as the healing that we share with life in time and eternity.

Energy Body (see Subtle Body; Autonomic Nervous System)

Energy Center (see Chakra)

Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of human ways of knowing. The scope of epistemology is sometimes restricted to ways of knowing that yield accuracy and precision, such as scientific methods that accumulate knowledge by gathering indirect observations and subjecting them to formal analysis. This book includes ways of knowing useful in fathoming the new and unknown such as recognition, apprehension and intuition.

Equanimity
Equanimity is the ability to remain in a healing state regardless of circumstances. It is characterized by stability and resilience. We can enhance our present equanimity on every level of the sevenfold body. Through consciousness, we can sustain unitive thinking; through understanding we can remain free of repetitive, useless, and harmful thoughts; through perceptions we can enjoy freedom from useless or harmful conditioned responses; through sensation we can continuously engage the tangible world; through energy we can sustain grounded, stable, balanced integration; through flesh we can create continuous, alert, grounded relaxation to support equilibrium and homeostasis; through inter-being, we can heal continuously with life in time. We can also create equanimity of being and becoming by resting in healing states and by deepening and extending those states.

Eternity
Eternity is the ground of time, space, matter, creation, and being, that is, the context in which they unfold (see Cycle of Existence.) The concept of eternity is that of the largest context in which to perceive time and space as infinite, dynamic and interrelated and yet contained and comprehensible. Eternity extends into Evolve Medicine and shows up through ongoing, self-guided, intentional practice-driven, continuous realization of increasing relief, well-being, healing change and sevenfold transformation. If we think mathematically, we can conceive of eternity as like a k space containing an infinite number of interrelated space-time functions.

Evolve Medicine
Ongoing, self-guided, intentional practice-driven, continuous realization of increasing relief, well-being, healing change and sevenfold transformation.

Fragmentation
Fragmentation is disruption of the harmony, alignment, or unity of the sevenfold body. Fragmentation can occur between levels, as when understanding obstructs perceptions or lack of energy undermines vitality. Fragmentation can also occur within levels, as when multi-tasking fragments awareness or poor focus fragments understanding. Reversal of fragmentation (unification) between levels can catalyze the reversal of fragmentation within levels, and vice versa.

Grounding
Grounding in the earth is the initiation and sustenance of a direct or indirect connection between the body and the earth. Like the grounding wire of an electrical circuit, it enhances equanimity by dissipating energy surges. It also supports equanimity by enabling the free fl ow and balance of energy and by lowering the center of gravity of the subtle body. Grounding is the anchor that steadies and stabilizes our sevenfold body. Grounding through inter-being is the formation and maintenance of ties between each level of the sevenfold body and shared inter-being, including the web of life and its ground in time and in eternity. Both forms are essential to stabilizing the dynamic body and its ongoing processes of healing integration and transformation.
Without grounding, our intentions, healing states and abilities, and being and becoming may become fragmented,
discoordinated, and disoriented.

Healing
In this book, healing is the episodic or continuous realization of relief, well-being, integration, and transformation on each and all levels of the sevenfold body, including consciousness, understanding, perceptions, sensations, energy, flesh and inter-being. Healing also entails comprehensive transformation from illness and
dis-ease to ease and thriving as well as to synchronization with the healing of life in time.

Healing Abilities (see Abilities)

Healing States
Healing states are states of mind and being that create relief, wellbeing, integration, and healing transformation. When we learn to recognize, enter into, and sustain healing states, we create conditions in which our inborn healing processes can end pain and suffering. We create healing states by developing mental strengths and healing abilities. Through practice, our healing states become our baseline states. We learn to be healing by abiding in healing states and to become healing by deepening and extending those states. In Mahayana Buddhist psychology these states are poetically described as heavenly abodes, called Brahma-Viharas. Beginners know these as loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, and sympathetic joy. Adepts know them as the union of bliss and emptiness, which melds continuous exquisite joy with freedom from obstacles and errors. In the Abrahamic traditions, we know healing states as experiences of union, grace, peace, seventh heaven, divine love, blessing, consolation, and the like.

Healing Studio
An Evolve Medicine Healing Studio is a series of healing sessions during which an individual or group engages in the full sequence of healing practices. A facilitator assists self-guided healers in learning to recognize, enter into, and sustain healing states during the exercises while doctors and counselors provide consultation. Audiotapes, music, aromatherapy, heat and pillows can also be used. A counselor can assist the individual or group in getting the most out of the working questions between sessions. An Evolve Medicine Healing Studio can be created by a self-guided healer or by a doctor, bodyworker or counselor in an offi ce, clinic, or sanctuary.

Healing Transformation
Evolve Medicine healing transformation is a practice by which we continuously alter our intangible and tangible body through our moment-by-moment choices and actions. We prepare by developing healing abilities and skills that enable us to see the unhealed and healed aspects of life exactly as they are, to abide in and deepen our healing states in any and all circumstances, and to constantly choose tangible and intangible actions through which to be and become healing, that is, to diminish and dissolve pain, suffering, illbeing, fragmentation, and dis-ease and to create and enhance relief, well-being, integration and joyous ease

Homeopathy
Homeopathy is a modern medical tradition in which practitioners imbue remedies with healing properties and then dilute and administer the remedies, which are meant to confer exponential benefits. Homeopathicremedies are based on the expectation that remedies that replicate symptoms at high doses (low dilution) may alleviate them at low doses (high dilution.) As with any medical tradition, self-guided healers can assess the personal utility of remedies by prudently trying those that are safe, observing their effects, and weighing harm and benefit.

Illbeing
Illbeing is the opposite of wellbeing. It includes pain and suffering as well as the absence of happy thriving, which can be recreated with the wise use of healing abilities such as lovingkindness and curiosity, and of mental strengths such as alertness and relaxation.

Insight
To heal the intangible aspects of our bodies, we can observe and assess them, and thus become profoundly aware of them. We can work from the inside out, for example by using insight meditation and the third eye, or from the outside in, as by using journaling or role-playing. In the emerging paradigm, we can view this process as bringing awareness into understanding and perceptions. This process also brings further integration within the sevenfold body.

Intangible
Not comprised of matter or not measured as matter by modern methods and tools.

Integration
Analyzing the body through the emerging model entails focusing on practices and processes that heal and cure each level of the body. Integration opens and absorbs those processes on all levels of the body and balances them. This hinders processes of harm and supports processes of healing and cure. Integration is thus the synthesis that follows analysis and transformation. Integration of the sevenfold body entails healing each level of the body, healing the connections between the levels, and removing any and all remaining barriers to
sevenfold union.

Intention
Intention infl uences the direction and speed of our healing processes. Without strong, clear healing intentions our awareness, understanding, and perceptions will be unable to support our inborn healing systems or to enhance our relief, wellbeing, integration, and transformation. Intention is like a vector expressing the momentum and direction of the healing that results from our choices and their consequences.

Interbeing
Interbeing is the level of the sevenfold body that extends beyond our tangible body, and is interwoven with life in time, that is, with the web of life in our era in time and eternity (see Eternity, Life in Time.)

Life in Time
Life in time refers to the processes taking place in space, time and eternity that we can conceive of as manifestations of interbeing, that is, of the one shared life (see Consciousness.) These processes are dynamic, ongoing and creative, and manifest in part as separate fl esh bodies that undergo growth, development, renewal and propagation. Ordinary consciousness enables our species to continue through time via propagation. Higher consciousness enables sevenfold human bodies to sustain life free of harmful inclinations toward premature death and to heal with the web of life in time and eternity (see Eternity.) Through the continuous practice of self-guided sevenfold healing, human beings can be and become healing, a and so intentionally coheal the one life manifesting in this cycle of existence (see Being, Becoming, Continuous Practice, Cycle of Existence.)

Lovingkindness
Lovingkindness is clear-sighted altruistic love free of confusion or self-interest that takes forms such as attachment, desire or expectation.

Mental Strengths
Consciousness requires mental strengths including the ability to sustain an alert state of grounded relaxation while creating and sustaining a strong focus of attention and concentration (see Grounding.) Attention is the ability to rest awareness on an object; concentration is the ability to contemplate an object of attention while narrowing the scope of awareness to a chosen degree. Self-guided sevenfold healers can develop mental strengths through the exercises in this Manual.

Meta
From the Greek for “after” or “beyond”. As a prefix, meta- indicates a level of abstraction from the associated subject, either a higher level of consideration or reflecting the concept upon itself. For example, metadata is data about data (e.g. who created it, when it was last saved), and metaphysics is the philosophical consideration of existence and reality above and beyond the factual processes of physics.

Meta-analysis
A study that uses statistical methods to integrate and collectively analyze data from several other studies. In principle, the resulting larger population gives the meta-analysis greater statistical power to detect effects or resolve uncertainty. Meta-analyses are also very sensitive to design choices such as how studies are selected, how differences between those studies are handled, and how the data is analyzed.

Microbiome
The sevenfold body includes microorganisms that live on the skin and mucous membranes, including the lining of the gut. A healthy microbiome is essential to immunity and digestion, and includes organisms that cause illness under conditions such as coinfection or impaired immunity.

N-of-1
A case study that focuses wholly on one individual patient, characterizing their symptoms and responses to treatment, identifying the specific effects of a given exposure or therapy — or its removal — on that person.

Naming
The simple act of giving something a name or a new name, which can be both empowering and limiting. Naming shapes our understanding and awareness of our experience, and therefore leads us through a particular way of thinking about it.

Naturopathy
Naturopathy is a modern medical tradition that aims to support the natural healing abilities of the body. Practice styles vary, with some including or emphasizing evidence based thinking like that used in modern mainstream medicine.

New Paradigm
The new or emerging paradigm lacks a consensual label, but is beginning to emerge from the modern paradigm that preceded it. Intentional paradigm change, or shift, entails sustaining beneficial social processes; developing new processes to heal previous problems, create new possibilities, and reveal the proximal unknown; and weaving old and new together to create a framework for cooperation and dynamic consensus. The new paradigm may feature reliance on biological principles that emphasize sustainability and resilience, global sourcing of paradigms and concepts, decentralization with enhanced individual and grassroots rights and responsibilities.

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Non-ionizing Radiation
Artificial electromagnetic radiation which—while it does not cause cancer through ionization of tissues—may impact biological systems that evolved with only natural radiation from the earth and its generative living systems. Impact of human-produced non-ionizing radiation depends on factors related to host (human, habitat, or biome), to context (other artificial poisons and antidotes), and to agent.

In this case, the “dose” or impact of the agent may be the power and proximity of sources at each frequency level cumulated over time and summed across frequencies with similar impact, adjusted for synergy and interference. Even if “dose” could be assessed, host and context factors would be difficult to determine reliably and accurately by conventional means. The best approach for individual patients is controlled N-of-1 self-experiments with follow-up on reversible effects of dose over an appropriate timeframe, which may be several years. (For more information on non-ionizing radiation, see Wikipedia.)

Normal Flora
The microbiome that forms through early exposure to the microbiome of healthy parents, to healthy soil and to foods grown in healthy soil, and that is sustained by similar exposures free of antibiotics, excessive cleanliness, and other bactericidal factors (See Microbiome). In adult life we can treat an abnormal or sick microbiome with probiotic supplements of living cultures.

Old Paradigm
Human history entails the formation, growth, development and senescence of social paradigms. Currently, the old paradigm that is passing away is modernism, which began with romanticism and the industrial revolution, mechanization, large-scale depletion of fossil fuels, industrialized habitat destruction and genocide, concrete thinking, objectification, domination, unprecedented concentration of power and information technologies.

Parasympathetic Nervous System
When the parasympathetic nervous system dominates the sympathetic nervous system (see Autonomic Nervous System; Sympathetic Nervous System), blood and neural activity are diverted from somatic systems such as the
muscles to visceral systems such as the gastrointestinal tract. We may perceive parasympathetic dominance as relaxation, lethargy, or exhaustion. Symptoms of excess may include brain fog and headache. Parasympathetic elements of autonomic nervous system dominate the upper and lower ganglia (see diagram).

Pelvis
The human pelvis includes the ischial, iliac, pubic, and sacral bones.

Perceptions
In psychology, spirituality and theology, perception is the process of direct knowing through recognition or apprehension, which entail the tripartite union of the perceiver and perceived through the act of perception. In sevenfold healing, perceptions is a level of the body associated with the heart, thymus, and immunity, and is inclusive of the adaptive unconscious, conditioned responses, and intuition.

Perpetual Crucifixion and Resurrection
Perpetual crucifixion and resurrection is a theological concept and metaphor for the process of illness.and healing. Derived from the Abrahamic traditions, it represents illness as a dynamic and continuous process of death, and healing as a dynamic and continuous process of rebirth. In analogous Eastern traditions, this process may be personified in the form of a diety such as Shiva or represented by the number seven.

Perspective
The angle from which we are perceiving. To heal the tangible aspects of flesh and inter-being, we can observe and assess them indirectly and objectively from the vantage point of inter-being. We can do this by occupying the perspective of the center, seeing the big picture around us, or from the perspective of the periphery by seeing the body as a small and distant element within the vast and dynamic expanse of life in time. To develop perspective, we can visualize ourself trading places with other people and see each level of our bodies through their eyes.

Plexus (see Autonomic Nervous System; Chakra; Subtle Body)
Network of nerves and ganglia (see diagram of autonomic nervous system on previous page.)

Practice
Evolve Medicine healing practice is a series of bodily actions that we undertake to establish processes that create and enhance relief, wellbeing, integration and transformation. We begin with brief daily practice sessions
that we deepen and extend until we are able to practice continuously as being and becoming healing

Qi Gong (see Chi; Traditional Chinese Medicine)

Reconciliation of Time Debts
Reconciliation of time debts involves transforming and completing processes that began in the past and that caused or continue to cause harm. Steps in reconciliation may include becoming aware of a harmful process, naming and understanding it, taking corrective action, and initiating a healing process. Corrective action may include terminating a process, recognizing and acknowledging the harm done, making amends or reparations, and initiating a process that creates healing unity.

Relaxation
Relaxation may refer to the easing harmful states through the release of excess muscular tension or the reduction of sympathetic nervous over-stimulation. In sevenfold healing, relaxation is a quality of healing states that comprises easy, receptive equanimity on all levels of the sevenfold body.

Relief
In sevenfold healing relief is the easing of unpleasant symptoms and signs associated with harmful states such as chronic illness.

Rib Cage
The rib cage is the bony thorax that protects the lungs. It includes the ribs, sternum, manubrium, and thoracic spine (see diagram at right.)

Right Effort
Right effort is midway between slacking and striving; it is therefore the degree of effort that is just right for forming and sustaining progress.

Sacral Plexus (see Autonomic Nervous System)

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Sacroiliac Joints
The sacroiliac joints connect the sacrum with the iliac bones of the pelvis (see pelvis diagram.) Sacrum
The section of the spinal column between the coccyx (tailbone) and lumbar spine (lower back; see pelvis diagram.)

Self-Guided Healing
In Evolve Medicine, we take responsibility and authority for our healing on all levels of the sevenfold body. We also take responsibility and authority for our cure in collaboration with our consulting allopathic (mainstream) doctor as well as our system of medical care delivery. Ideally, our team of supporting consultants also includes a bodyworker and/or counselor.

Sevenfold Body
The sevenfold paradigm of the body is designed to enable healing and cure on up to seven levels at once including: consciousness, understanding, perceptions, sensations, energy, fl esh, and interbeing (for more, see Part A Chapter III Section 1 and Exercise U.)

Sevenfold Healing
Sevenfold healing is a set of comprehensive, self-guided processes of being and becoming healing through which our bodies can reside in ever-deepening healing states of dynamic relief, wellbeing, and integration.

Solar Plexus (see Chakra; Autonomic Nervous System; Subtle Body)
Plexus of autonomic nerves located in front of the spine behind and just below the xiphisternum that is
associated with our gut (see Rib Cage.)

Sources of Confidence
Sources, tangible and intangible, that give us courage and confi dence. We call on these to support us throughout our Evolve Medicine healing practice and journey.

Spinal Column
The spinal column includes the cervical spine (neck bones,) thoracic spine (upper back,) lumbar spine (lower back,) sacrum (pelvic spine,) and coccyx (tailbone.)

Sternomanubrial Joint
The sternomanubrial joint is the part of the breastbone connecting the manubrium with the sternum (see Rib Cage.)

Sternum (see Rib Cage)

Subtle Body
The subtle body, also known as the energy body, consists of dynamic centers and channels that serve as conduits for the convergence, enhancement, and fl ow of vital energy (see Chi; Traditional Chinese Medicine.) The subtle body itself is intangible but it is closely associated with the major nerves, ganglia, and plexi of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems (see Autonomic Nervous System; Sympathetic Nervous System; Parasympathetic Nervous System.). We can know and contemplate our subtle body directly with the aid of tantric forms of meditation. In ancient times, without the aid or interference of technology, tantric adepts identified the central channel of the subtle body, known in Sanskrit as the sushumna nadi. The central channel begins at the midpoint of the brow, runs up the midline to the crown, and runs down through the skull and along
the front of the spinal column to the tailbone. The central channel includes several key energy centers known in Sanskrit as chakras or wheels (see Chakra.) These centers include: the ajna chakra located behind the midpoint
of the brow; the higher consciousness chakra at the crown; the throat center below the larynx; the upper and lower heart centers; the epigastric center (at the solar plexus); the navel center; the sacred center (the secret chakra or dan tien below the navel); and the root center through which our subtle body is grounded to the earth. For more, see Exercise T.

Sympathetic Joy
Sympathetic joy is responding to the happiness and good fortune of others with spontaneous bliss.

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Sympathetic Nervous System
When the sympathetic nervous system predominates over the parasympathetic nervous system, the body shifts into a harmful state characterized by limited consciousness, understanding, and interbeing with keen but narrow perceptions, sensations, and energy. Sympathetic dominance diverts energy from visceral activities such as digestion to somatic activities such as muscular contraction. Sympathetic elements of the autonomic nervous system are shown between the top and bottom ganglia in the diagram to the right.

Symptoms of sympathetic excess may include a sense of urgency or desperation; difficulty disengaging from tasks; difficulty falling asleep; disregard of the body; inability to create or sustain healing states; over-response to stimuli; and inability to refuse external or internalized discretionary demands. In acute or emergency situations, sympathetic dominance may enhance survival. In chronic situations such as prolonged illness, it can lead to neuromuscular exhaustion with irritability, obsession, suspicion, enemy thinking, immune dysfunction and mental illness. It may also lead to gastrointestinal stasis with indigestion, poor nutrition, and nerve damage. Permanent damage may be avoided through timely rest and relaxation (see Autonomic Nervous System; Relaxation; Parasympathetic Nervous System.)

Syncretic
Something that integrates different principles or practices into a collective whole.

Tai Chi (see Chi)

Tangible
Comprised of matter and measured as matter by modern methods and tools of science.

Time
Time is the dimension of creation that enables us to sequence events, to understand cause and effect, to assign meaning to narratives, to organize our healing and cure, and to transform matter and space. Events of the past that live on in us and that interfere with our free participation in the present moment are called time debts.

Time in Eternity
Time and eternity are joined in the present moment, which is always moving forward into the unknown future. We can visualize the present moment as the intersection of the three dimensions of space moving through time within the universe of eternity.

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Time Debts
Time debts are memories that live on in our bodies as harmful states. These states contain and sustain events that were incomplete, unprocessed, or incompatible with our awareness, understanding, or perceptions of the eternal. To come into sync with time, we face, process, and put to rest these harmful states. The first step in facing time debts is becoming aware of them, which we can do by examining our bodies for narrowed awareness and for harmful complex habitual responses such as remorse, a sense of obligation, or frustrated expectations. We can then free ourselves of these time debts by processing and releasing our harmful states, by living each moment so fully that we no longer accrue time debts, and by accepting our mortality. When we have erased our time debts or accrued credits by coming into sync with time, we will be able to complete our lives with grace.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (see Daoism)
Oriental or Traditional Chinese Medicine includes forms of bodywork such as acupuncture, acupressure, and acutonics, which access meridians, or superfician paths of energy flow, to enhance the generation, flow, and balance of chi (see image above.) Traditional Chinese Medicine also includes treatments such as dietary and herbal regimens and dynamic meditation with self-healing movement forms such as Qi Gong. In Evolve Medicine, we access Traditional Chinese Medicine to enhance, balance, and unify the subtle body, to enhance inborn immunity and resilience, and to align and unify the sevenfold body.

Transformation
In Evolve Medicine, transformation is being and becoming healing, that is, learning to recognize, to enter into, and to reside in healing states, and to steadily deepen those states until we reside continuously in healing states more profound than we could have imagined when we began.

Understanding
In Evolve Medicine, understanding refers to grasping meaning by comprehending systems of thought expressed in symbols such as language and organized in forms such as paradigms and concepts. Understanding includes the internalization of shared patterns of comprehension as well as the creation of new patterns of thought based on experience, recognition and apprehension.

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Understanding is synthetic and constructive and therefore distinct from forms of analysis and deconstruction such as logic and math, which utilize predefined rules and processes to break down questions and disprove hypotheses.

Unknown
The unknown is the aspect of life in time that exceeds the human body’s capacity to detect, recognize, apprehend and comprehend through awareness, understanding, perceptions, sensation, energy, flesh, or interbeing. The unknown may become known through detection, recognition, apprehension or comprehension. The last is rare as the brain limits comprehension to four to seven simultaneous processes.

Unseen
The unseen is that which we cannot reliably or accurately assess through conventional senses such as sight even when we are able to detect, recognize, apprehend, or comprehend it through one of more levels of the sevenfold body.

Vitality
The means by which our flesh can support and enhance our energy. It is the power the gives continuance of life, present in all living things.

Web of Life
The web of life includes all manifestations of life in this cycle of existence. The web of life encompasses all living elements of all ecosystems in all eras since the cooling of the earth, and therefore includes our interbeing as well as the interbeing of every living entity that has come into existence since organic elements began to aggregate and propagate in the primordial soup, and that will come into existence before the end of this cycle. The sum-total of all individual lives in the biosphere, from the fi rst generative forms of life to them last. All life that encompasses all time.

Wellbeing
Wellbeing is the presence of a healing state created and characterized by mental strengths and healing abilities (see Abilities; Healing States; Mental Strengths.)

Yan
Yan is the ascending aspect of chi or life energy that circulates through the body (see Chi). Strengthening yan strengthens the higher centers, such as consciousness, which in ancient times were seen as masculine. Yin
Yin is the descending aspect of chi or life energy (see Yan; Chi). Strengthening yin strengthens the lower centers, such as the root, which in ancient times were thought of as feminine.

Yoga
Hatha yoga is a movement form developed in ancient India and formalized during the Axial Age. The form consists of series of poses, or asanas, that create specifi c states of being. Adepts can use yoga to enhance and balance the energy body. Other yoga paths that support healing include raja (comprehensive,) jnana (wisdom,) bhakti (devotion,) karma (action,) mantra (chant,) laya (chakra,) or tantra (transformation).