TRANSFORMING DRAGONS NEWSLETTER

Dear Subscribers,

We are pleased to be publishing our fourth monthly newsletter. We have been actively seeking to expand our network of Internet and other connections. It would be most helpful to our efforts if our subscribers and TDPLP listeners would provide us with feedback either by email or by U.S. mail.

Mail feedback to:

Transforming Dragons Network
10455 N. Central Expressway
Suite 109-155
Dallas, Texas 75231

Also, if there are persons who do not want to order the Transforming Dragons CD through our on-line store, their order can be processed as a mail order. The mail order price for the U.S. and Canada is $23 plus $7 for S&H, a total of $30. Make checks payable to Applied Neurobiology Associates LLC, and mail it to the Transforming Dragons Network address above.

P.S. In the next issue (June) of this newsletter we plan to present a special feature on the PNRI-based Wonderbaby Program.

There is a very ancient wisdom that comes to us from the keepers-of-wisdom of an ancient Polynesian civilization. These keepers are called Kahuna, and their wisdom is founded on seven principles. The third of these seven principles is contained in the single word, Makia; and that translates to: Energy flows where attention goes.

When listening to the TDPTP modules it is important to have your full attention invested into your process. Your attention is essential to permit the flow of “energy” that activates the transformational process.

Those few who listen to the TDPTP modules with distractions intruding into their process will have the effectiveness diminished. Those who don’t get much out of it, did not put much into it.

However, we are receiving positive feedback; and so it seems that most TDPTP listeners experience a shift in emotional foundations of their life, and their awareness has been expanded.

There is an underlying structural integrity and order that forms the foundations of our personality. This exists at the deepest level of our experience, and this foundational integrity begins in our own unique neurochemical patterning that is created from our shared emotional and other experiences with our mother. From this patterning, certain complex generalizations develop after birth. These complex generalizations form unconscious filters of perception, and create what is referred to as “meta programs” that structure our reality and affect our personality.

The meta programming model draws on the idea that language is a translation of mental states into words, and that in this translation there is an unconscious process of deletion and distortion. The meta model originated from the somewhat vague works of Milton Erickson. Later, Erickson’s meta model formed the basis of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) as developed in the mid-1970s by then assistant professor of linguistics John Grinder, and his student Richard Bandler.

Therapeutic methods based on meta programming knowledge yield a fuller representation of a person’s world view, by accessing their linguistic foundations (“deep structure”) from which later verbal expression (surface-structure language) is derived.

For example, suppose that a person has had a prenatal experience of being an unwanted pregnancy that was only reluctantly accepted because of social pressures on the mother. This prenatal experience is imprinted as a deep structural foundation of their personality. This will later develop a meta program with the complex generalization: My mother really does not want me.

While the conscious awareness of this complex generalization may be blocked, it is still there lurking as a hidden dragon in the inner core of that person. This establishes foundational personality patterns of insecurity and inadequacy that will remain in the inner core of a person and will influence their perceptions, their emotional outlook, their attention, values, and motivation throughout their life.

It is helpful to introduce a parallel comparison between digital computers and human brain function. Digital computers operate through the fundamental operation of an electronic circuit with a “gate” that is either open or closed. Thus, digital computers operate with a binary numbering system using zero (open) and one (closed) as the base numbering system. With very large numbers of circuits operating very fast, computers can run many computations very quickly.

At the dawn of the computer age we saw a great surge of programming instructions to make computers work better and accomplish remarkable feats. Microsoft has built an enormous empire writing computer meta language (software), and there are growing numbers throughout the world that are continuing to program computers by writing code that connects a higher language (software) to the basic machine language of zeros and ones. Computer programs are a meta programming language that operates through to the basic computer machine language of zeros and ones.

The human brain has trillions of circuits, and for a simplistic comparison, each synapse may be considered to be either open or closed (zero or one). As we develop, our basic neurochemical language develops a higher level ordering and we form characteristic patterns of response and behavior. After birth our foundational neurochemical language becomes subject to our learned patterns of meta language.

The goal of Prenatal Re-Imprinting (PNRI) and Transforming Dragons (TDPTP) is to re-imprint new and positive neuronal circuits through the introduction of appropriate meta programming language. Thus, transformation occurs in the relationship between deep-structure neural circuits, and the surface structure of meta programming language. The dysfunctional meta program that “My mother really does not want me,” is re-imprinted with an alternative meta program of a loving mother mother who is proud of her baby.

One of the important meta programs for self esteem is the experience of a loving mother being proud of her baby. Thus, the mother’s voice in the TDPTP modules is the loving mother being proud of her baby.

The effectiveness TDPTP depends to a large degree on the ability of the listeners to shift dominance to the deep structural base language and make new associations (re-imprints) with positive alternatives.

Changing Our Reality
by Gerald H. Vind

In our discussions of the science of Prenatal Re-Imprinting, and Transforming Dragons, we talked about our own personal reality field. Our personal reality is what we seek and what we create; a reality field that stimulates the emotional center of our brain to produce the same orchestration of emotional “juices” that we experienced in our mother’s womb. This article discusses reality, our personality and how we introduce positive change.

In the What-to-Expect-After-Listening article (above) mention was made of a very ancient wisdom that comes to us from the keepers of wisdom of an ancient Polynesian civilization. These keepers (Kahuna), and their wisdom are founded on seven principles. The first of these seven principles is contained in the single word, Ike (ee-kay); and that translates to: The world is what you think it is.

Many eons later this ancient wisdom has been reframed into a more popular awareness through Robert K. Merton (1910 to 2003), distinguished Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. Merton is best known for his coined phrase: "self-fulfilling prophecy." Merton’s concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy is often restated as: If you believe something is real, it is real in its consequences.

So, what is really real? We begin creating our experience of reality when we are mere embryos beginning to form our first neural circuits. Our experience of reality is learned. When something is learned, that learning occurs through a process of neural growth, and the creation of interconnections between neurons.

When we repeatedly activate a pattern of neural connections there is a point when the individual neurons involved release a neurochemical called neural growth factor (NGF). When NGF is released it travels in the opposite direction of the nerve impulse, moving from the receiving side of the synaptic gap to the sending axon side. There, NGF facilitates the growth of additional terminals on the axon extension. This results in more neuronal interconnections and an expanded information transmission capacity.

Neural circuits are formed by repetitive synaptic firings between adjacent neurons that initiate release of certain neurochemicals that begin to “hard wire” the neuronal interconnections. However, this simple example must be viewed as part of a vastly larger orchestration of many neurochemicals that are involved in neuronal responses.

Our personal “fabric” of reality is built upon our unique neurochemical process-level experiences that become woven into symbolic higher orderings that develop our meta language reality. (See “meta language” described in the preceding article.) Out of the many trillions of synaptic firings that take place every second of our lives, only a few thousand of these rise to the level of our conscious awareness.

Our neural circuits are the basic foundations of our inner reality. At this neurochemical level the trillions of our various brain circuits become integrated into memories. We have memories from book learning (called semantic memory) and more meaningful memories from life experiences (called episodic memories).

Memories of our life experiences have separate sensory components that include visual images, sounds, smells, tactile and kinesthetic sensations, and tastes. Our brain routinely forms our experiences of the various sensory features of an episode, and binds them together into a common memory representation.

This perceptual binding of multiple stimuli into coherent memory “packets” takes place in a region of the brain called the IPS (intraparietal sulcus). The IPS seems to be central to the coherent organization of our life experience. The IPS is also involved in interpreting the intentions of others, and thus is important in our process of socilization.

Our brain’s massive neocortex has a left and right hemisphere. The neural circuits in our left hemisphere become “hard wired” through repetitive firings and thus, these brain process are largely routine. The right hemisphere is where we process novel events and where learning begins.

Our personality, while resting on its prenatal foundations, is the sum total of all of our “hard wired” automatic neural networks. These neural networks operate like a computer program, and much of our life becomes automatic, and there is very little awareness involved.

We create our own experience of reality. However, we are social beings, and we develop within a familial and social environment. Those who are closest to us in our prenatal and early childhood years powerfully influence the development of our personal reality. So if we are around dysfunctional people we learn to do dysfunctional things; thus these become our “hard wired” perceptual, emotional, and behavioral patterns.

Our prenatal and early childhood years establishes both functional and dysfunctional patterns of behavior. However, we live in a dysfunctional world stumbling near the edge of chaos, and thus, there are many people who seek counseling to help them cope with dysfunctional and maladaptive patterns in their life.

Unfortunately, most therapeutic processes are exceedingly slow in changing or removing maladaptive and dysfunctional patterns. This is because the emotional and cognitive parts are experienced in separate (and semi-autonomous) parts of the brain. The massive verbally dominated neocortex inhibits access to the neurochemically dominated emotional center (limbic system). In order to produce significant changes to our emotional center, our neocortex must move out of dominance. The instructions in the Transforming Dragons Personality Transformation Program (TDPTP) are designed to shift dominance to our emotional center.

The TDPTP is designed to guide listeners to their inner emotional core and re-imprint positive and nurturing alternative emotional foundations. Thus, we are able to more quickly and effectively introduce positive change to our personal reality.

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Recommended Reading – Molecules of Emotion

This month we feature Molecules of Emotion, a groundbreaking book in 1997 by Candice B. Pert, PhD. She is a Research Professor (Physiology and Biophysics) at Georgetown University, and was featured in the Bill Moyers book and PBS series: Healing and the Mind. She was also featured in the film, What the Bleep.

Molecules of Emotion tells Dr. Pert’s inspiring story of the search for biochemical links between consciousness, mind and body. She has accomplished pioneering research on how messenger-molecules (neurochemicals) inside of our bodies form a dynamic information network linking body and mind into an inseparable whole. In her own words:

“Recent technological innovations have allowed us to examine the molecular basis of the emotions, and to begin to understand how the molecules of our emotions share intimate connections with, and are indeed inseparable from, our physiology. … [Dr Pert tells] how the molecules of emotion run every system in our body, and how this communication system is in effect a demonstration of the bodymind's intelligence, an intelligence wise enough to seek wellness, and one that can potentially keep us healthy and disease-free without the modern high-tech medical intervention we now rely on.”

“In order to grasp the enormity of this revolution, you have to first understand some of the fundamentals of biomolecular medicine which is what I like to explain at the beginning of my talks. How many of us can close our eyes and picture or define a receptor, or a protein, or a peptide? These are the basic components that make up our bodies and minds, yet to the average person, they are as exotic and remote from everyday experience as the Abominable Snowman. If we're to understand what role our emotions may play in our health, then understanding the molecular-cellular domain is a crucial first step.”

Dr Pert explains that there are close to 300 different messenger molecules (ligands) that operate throughout the body, activating particular types of receptor sites on the surface of our cells and signaling cells to respond.

“The receptors are molecules, as I have said, and are made up of proteins, tiny amino acids strung together in crumpled chains, looking something like beaded necklaces that have folded in on themselves. If you were to assign a different color to each of the receptors that scientists have identified, the average cell surface would appear as a multicolored mosaic of at least seventy different hues -- 50,000 of one type of receptor, 10,000 of another, 1,000,000 of a third, and so forth. A typical neuron (nerve cell) may have millions of receptors on its surface...”

“Basically, receptors function as sensing molecules -- scanners. Just as our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, fingers, and skin act as sense organs, so, too, do the receptors, only on a cellular level. They hover in the membranes of your cells, dancing and vibrating, waiting to pick up messages carried by other vibrating little creatures, also made out of amino acids, which come cruising along -- diffusing is the technical word -- through the fluids surrounding each cell. We like to describe these receptors as "keyholes," although that is not an altogether precise term for something that is constantly moving, dancing in a rhythmic, vibratory way.”

“All receptors are proteins, as I have said. And they cluster in the cellular membrane waiting for the right chemical keys to swim up to them through the extra-cellular fluid and to mount them by fitting into their keyholes -- a process known as binding...The process of binding is very selective, very specific! In fact, we can say that binding occurs as a result of receptor specificity, meaning the receptor ignores all but the particular ligand that's made to fit it."

Prenatal science tells us that during the early stages of our embryonic development severe maternal stress can lead to functional alterations affecting brain interconnections, and also to receptor-site types and densities, as well as their responsiveness to the many varied messenger molecules (ligands).

"And what is this chemical key that docks onto the receptor and causes it to dance and sway? The responsible [molecule, called a ligand,]...is the chemical key that binds to the receptor, entering it like a key in a keyhole, creating a disturbance to tickle the molecule into rearranging itself, changing its shape until -- click! -- information enters the cell..."

"My favorite category of ligands by far, and the largest, constituting perhaps 95 percent of them all, are the peptides...[And,] these chemicals play a wide role in regulating practically all life processes, and are indeed the other half of the equation of what I call the molecules of emotion. Like receptors, peptides are made up of strings of amino acids. ...If the cell is the engine that drives all life, then the receptors are the buttons on the control panel of that engine, and a specific peptide (or other kind of ligand) is the finger that pushes that button and gets things started."

Candice Pert popularized the neurochemical basis of our emotions, and explained these new scientific developments in a clear and understandable way. She has united body and mind with her term: bodymind. Her inspiring work is an important part of the science within Prenatal Re-Imprinting (PNRI), and thus is incorporated into the development of the Transforming Dragons Personality Development Program (TDPTP).

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Recommended Link: www.birthpsychology.com

There is an excellent presentation of importance of prenatal influences that is shown on the website: www.birthpsychology.com This website is operated by the Association for Prenatal & Perinatal & Health (APPPAH) in Forestville, California.

The APPPAH seeks to expand awareness, and to bring a new psychology of consciousness to pregnancy and birth. Their website allows readers to explore the many mental and emotional dimensions of pregnancy and birth in everything from scholarly articles to personal stories and late-breaking headlines.

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Gentle Gestation & Birth Resolution

The State of Hawaii has a Gentle Gestation & Birth Resolution under consideration by their legislature. Hawaii is the first state to receive and consider such a resolution. This resolution seeks to develop a greater awareness of the importance of proper gestation and birthing practices to the individual, and to social harmony. Hopefully, subscribers to this TD newsletter can share their greater awareness with others, and offer their support to the resolution in Hawaii. We urge you to support this resolution by offering emails, support and testimony to the legislature in the State of Hawaii.

The following link takes you to the main site where on can monitor the resolution in the legislature: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/docs/docs.asp?press1=docs

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Mail Bag
by You!

We invite you to submit your comments and questions to us by email. Your privacy will be protected.

(Q) – What is Personality Transformation?

(A) – Personality is a dynamic pattern of personal characteristics that uniquely influences a person’s awareness, motivation, cognition, and behaviors. The word "personality" comes from the Latin word persona, that means “mask.” However, in the theater of the ancient Roman Empire the mask was not used to disguise identity, rather the mask was used to represent a typical character type. Personality is explained in the Changing Our Reality article above: “Our personality, while resting on its prenatal foundations, is the sum total of all of our “hard wired” automatic neural networks.”

Transformation is a marked change in appearance, character, or behavior, especially a change for the better. Transformation in the TDPTP experience is perhaps best understood in terms of the discussion presented in the Meta Programming article above. Transformation happens when our automatic “hard wired” neural networks undergo a major reorientation and change.

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