Suffering and Our Natural Blueprint

Medicine, including mental health, stands out for being a field where we are trying to fix a problem without the real understanding of its root cause. Though the root causes have been identified for some time now, the practice of medicine and mental health has changed very little. Now, the question is: Why?

We know that this is not the case when it comes to the use of technology in medicine; however, the clinical component has not kept up with the advances of science and technology. Mind-reading exoskeletons, 3D printed drugs, and gamification in health care insurance are just some of the ever-growing technologies in medicine.[1,2] So, why has the latest in science been applied at one level in medicine and mental health and not at another level, despite the fact that it is the same science?

Ensuring that the latest in science makes it to the hands of clinicians will help ease pain and suffering for all patients. However, we have to be clear that the application of this knowledge will not profit only the pharmaceutical industry, the health insurance industry, or the technology business of medicine.

For this, clinicians have to become appraised of the latest in science. For example, clinicians have to start talking about the science that informs who we are, what we are made of, why we do what we do, and feel how we feel. Clinicians have to start talking about how we get the results we get and how we can help our patients and clients adjust things when they have the insight that there may be a more helpful way to navigate the world.

If we look at our biology, for example, we all need to have received 23 pairs of chromosomes from our mother and 23 pairs of chromosomes from our father to be born. A chromosome is a structure found in the center of each of the trillions of cells in our body that carries genetic information, which we call a “gene.”[3] We receive roughly 50 percent of our genes from our father and 50 percent of our genes from our mother (we said “roughly” because men receive 51 percent of their genes from their mother and 49 percent from their father).

This genetic information determines the color of our skin, eyes, hair, our height, our facial features, and body contour. These genes also determine our level of intelligence, our talents, how fast we learn a particular skill, and how fluent we are in a specific language. This inheritance also determines which conditions, illnesses, or diseases we are more prone to, more likely to develop, or even more likely to die from.

Since 1866, when Gregor Mendel[4] discovered the principles of genetics, then giving rise to modern genetics, the above paragraph has been absolute. Our genes determine our life. Yet, we later understood that while the above is true, it is not accurate. Yes, true but not accurate because accuracy is contextual, and truth taken out of context leads to inaccuracy and, of course, becomes dangerous.

This inaccuracy is challenged in light of the observation that our experiences and our environment carry some weight in determining our skills, the fluency in a specific language, what disease, illness, or conditions we develop, and how much intelligence we express. The more this claim has been studied, the more evidence has been found. The question then went from, “How influential is the environment or experience?” to “How much is genes, and how much is the environment?”

Information is in the difference, and what we actually found is that it was neither our genes nor our environment running the show, rather, the process of epigenetics.

Epigenetics involves changes that affect gene activity and expression, and these changes, in turn, result from the environment, or environmental factors, or from our experience.

Genetics Essential Reads

Is Our Fate Determined by Our Genes?

Genes Influence Children’s Success, Directly and Indirectly

“Whether it is genetic or environmental” is, therefore, no longer the debate. Similarly, “how much is genetic, and how much is environmental” also leads us nowhere. For it is neither our genes nor our environment, rather, it is epigenetics, and it has been epigenetics all along. But as stated, epigenetics involves changes that affect our gene activity and expression thereof. This is what makes the concept of genes determining our life a true statement. The accuracy of this statement is demonstrated through the following:

1. The genes that we inherit from our parents are not all expressed.
2. A gene unexpressed has no weight in determining our life.
3. Changes in the environment affect the activity and the expression of our genes.
4. Epigenetics makes the process of these changes to the activity and the expression of our genes possible.

Therefore, the true statement is: Our genes determine our life through the process of epigenetics, which consists of using changes that result from the environment to affect the activity and the expression of our inherited genes.

This last statement has lots of ramifications, which include:

1. Our patients are not condemned by their genes.
2. A change in the environment or the experience of our patients serves as new input for changes in the activity and the expression of their genes through the process of epigenetics.

The mechanism by which an evidence-based practice like CBT has been able to help so many patients is based on exactly the above two points. However, with this being the case, why does CBT, for example, not necessarily work for everyone? Another way of asking this question is: Why do some people fail to respond to CBT given the above mechanism?

Here is why:

"Genes + Environment + Epigenetics" is the triad that makes up our Normal Blueprint. Our Normal Blueprint is used by our brain to direct the rest of the body, while a different blueprint, known as the Natural Blueprint, coordinates the activities of the brain. We will be talking about it and contrast it with our Normal Blueprint in subsequent articles.

Meanwhile, let us remember the following:

While practitioners have been using CBT to address a patient’s Normal Blueprint, the essence of CBT itself is predicated upon our Natural Blueprint and not our Normal Blueprint. Therefore, for CBT to properly engage our Natural Blueprint, it is essential for practitioners to learn more about it and implement this knowledge to help individuals cease suffering.

We have always known that individuals suffer because of their beliefs. We’ve always known that the types of beliefs that are related to their suffering are limiting beliefs. But now we also know something that is both surprising and easy to understand. It is that all our beliefs are limiting because they are part of our Normal Blueprint.

This means even those whose suffering is alleviated through CBT will continue to carry many limiting beliefs, which will hinder their advancement to self-actualization or have their self-fulfillment needs met, as explained by Abraham Maslow.[5] In other words, they still will be unlikely to live a fulfilled life.

Lastly, “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” says Albert Einstein[6], and working with our Natural Blueprint will require some abstract thinking both from clinicians and from the individuals they serve. This form of thinking will allow all of us to quickly formulate suffering, illnesses, or diseases for what they are: A phenomenon or state caused by the Process of Disintegration but prevented and/or restored by the Process of Integration.