Joyce Whiteley Hawkes writes: "Cells are the foundation of physical life. Groups of cells
form tissues, and similar tissues join together and form organs, which are
dependent on the health of the underlying cells.
"Individually, cells are small: ten thousand can fit on the
head of a pin. Yet if your cells were spread out like a galaxy of stars, they
would occupy a space in the heavens a thousand times larger than the Orion
Galaxy. Within each cell there are trillions of molecules composed of trillions of atoms. Like the spaces between stars, which contain huge amounts of
energy, the ultrasmall nano-spaces inside the atoms team with energy to
constantly manifest new creation. In this microworld of the inner composition of
your cells, energy and matter interface in ultrafast blips of time: nano- or
pico-seconds. When an event occurs in these swift pulses of 10-9 or
10-12 seconds, the cells enter a type of quantum reality—no longer
linear and no longer predictable. The cell is the interface between ordinary
and nonordinary reality; possibilities exist here that we have barely begun to
understand or develop.
"It is a good thing that we do not have to keep mental track
of the operation of all these tiny parts. Yet we can influence them with our
consciousness. Conventional research has established the detrimental effects of
negative thinking, stress, and toxicity on the cells of the immune system and
brain. Science has begun to offer evidence of positive thinking on the
beneficial effects of spiritual practices such as meditation. Improvements in
health and happiness can be achieved by embracing the healing power of positive
Flow.
"Hundreds of years ago, the poet Rumi put words to the
mystery of the interconnectedness of soul and body when he wrote, 'Soul, a
moving river. Body, the riverbed.' Cell-Level Healing happens at this interface
of soul and body.
"There are five components of cells that need to be
understood in order to activate your intrinsic capacity for renewal and
healing. The scientific names of those parts unwittingly hide the amazing
functions they provide. Each one has a crucial and defined function.
"Most living cells share similar basic components and
biological functions, although they may differ significantly in appearance. A
single animal cell may be round, cubic, columnar, or long and stringy,
depending on its location and particular job. Each cell has an outer membrane,
to which receptor molecules attach. These sites grab free-floating messenger
molecules, such as hormones, and help push them inside the cell in order to
trigger specific cell activities. This is one of several ways in which cells stay
in communication with the rest of the body and adapt their biochemistry
accordingly.
"Inside the cell membrane an entire cosmos of complexity and
beauty lives in the watery medium of the cell sap, the cytoplasm. More
than 90 percent of the cytoplasm is water, and one can only speculate how our
thoughts might affect this cell-water and thereby affect the critical life
functions of the other subcellular component. Masaru Emoto’s provocative work
certainly challenges us to consider the messages we give our own water milieu.
Floating fibers in the cytoplasm create a loose inner skeleton for stability,
yet they allow Flow throughout.
"The nucleus, enclosed in its own membrane, occupies
a good portion of each cell. Molecular pores punctuate the nuclear membrane for
the passage of rather large arrays of molecules, which translate the directives
of the genetic code. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), into cell production and
function. DNA is the information center of the cell.
"Messages carried by molecules direct the assembly sites of
the cell to make very specific substances needed by the body. These sites of
assembly lie outside the nucleus in the cytoplasm. There, long sheets of
folded membranes called the endoplasmic reticulum comprise the ‘action’
part of the cell. Massive numbers of ribosomes spin from the surface of
the endoplasmic reticulum. On these sites, molecular information from the
nucleus direct the action of plugging one atom into another, thereby forming
molecules in precise sequences, which then become proteins. Each protein is
unique. One will become a muscle fiber; another, an estrogen molecule, an
enzyme for digestion, or a protein that will partially shape your nose.
"Cells may also export products into the bloodstream to be
circulated to another part of the body for use. Neatly packaged in vesicles,
these products are wrapped in their own membranes. They float to the cell
surface and make their way out of the cell.
"How does a cell obtain energy for all this work? After food
is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream, cells take in what they need for
the power stations of the cell to spring to life. Tiny ellipsoid dynamos,
hundreds of the power-station-like mitochondria inhabit each and every
cell. Magnificent, linked complexes of enzyme chains called the Kreb’s cycle
buzz in each mitochondrion, further breaking down glucose, one of the end
products of food digestion (glycolysis) and releasing energy. As the
bonds between carbon atoms in the backbone of glucose are unplugged, energy is
released and then stored for future needs. This crucial energy does not run
rampant, gleefully tripping through the cells, but rather it is instantaneously
taken up by yet another type of enzyme (ATPase), which hangs on the
inside of the mitochondrial double membrane like a bat on a cave wall. Safely
sequestered, the stored energy is available to the cells for heat, structural
repair, or synthesis.
"Curiously, the ATPase enzyme, which captures and releases
energy, spins as it works. In fact, the universal spiral is resonant in every
cell. The most impressive telescopes look outward and see spiral galaxies, and
the most powerful electron microscopes look inside cells and see spiral
structures smoothly running the business of life. The ribosomes perched on the
endoplasmic reticulum arrange themselves in a spiral as they create all of the
life-dependent proteins in the body.
"DNA is packaged in a double spiral, and now we know that
the enzyme responsible for all energy maintenance in the body spins as it works
in the mitochondria."
Joyce Whiteley Hawkes, Cell-Level Healing: The Bridge
from Soul to Cell (Atria Paperback, 2006).