Guide to Informed Choices
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the brain receive messages? A. Well, the nervous system might not be
completely working, but some nerves are insulated at only a few weeks old, while others are
not completed until adolescence. 1209
We know that babies of only 8 weeks have been observed moving to push away a fine hair that touched their cheek. 1210
We know that babies have observable and unique facial expressions as early as 14 weeks. 1211
By all available evidence, the early fetus is aware of his environment and is responsive.
Q. The fetus‘ brain is still tiny. How can it possibly be working properly?
A. Yes, it‘s still only ¼ of its adult weight! 1212
But, it‘s not like the brain isn‘t there. Still in the womb at 9 weeks the head is almost half the length of the body.
1213 A newborn baby‘s head takes up ¼ of his total body length. 1214
Obviously, high importance is placed on developing that mind! Sometimes it‘s more quality than quantity that counts too. Don‘t forget, we only use a small amount of our brain potential anyway. 1215
Just how smart is the fetus?
It is incorrect to think unborn children have no ability in higher brain function. 1216
Prenatal Parenting
e mentioned earlier that at 18 weeks a fetus has all the brain cells he will have for life. However, when it comes to intelligence, it‘s not just the number of brain cells that matters but their connections. So what connections do they have? You would be amazed. There was a study done that compared the brain cell connections of a 28-week-old fetus to a 12-year-old boy. In the sample tissue from the fetus there were 124 million nerve cell connections. The sample tissue from the 12-year-old boy showed 354 million. 1217
If you do the math, a 28-week- old fetus has more than a third of the brain connections that a 12-year-old has. Pretty impressive if you consider that he or she still has 12 weeks left until birth! And remember, age 12 is when those connections slow down — your unborn child at 28 weeks may have a third of your intelligence! Other investigations have led some researchers to state that the brain of a fetus at 33 weeks is relatively the same as that of a newborn. 1218
Intelligence is not an on/off switch
Where once it seemed that the mental development of a baby began at birth, now it appears that birth could be a relatively W
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insignificant event in developmental terms. 1219
— ―In the Womb‖ National Geographic Society ne of the most important points that you should know about your baby‘s brain development is that it is happening all the time and a little at a time.
1220 Imagine if there was a little intelligence switch at the back of your head that your parents could just flip when you were born. It would be kind of novel, I guess — as long as they didn‘t forget about it! Fortunately, our Creator did much better than an on/off switch. We have a built-in and progressive intelligence mechanism that is constantly growing and developing. That means, of course, that there is no one moment when we suddenly become intelligent. The process of awareness, thinking, feeling, memory and logic is just that — a process. The brain is made up of different sections which do different jobs. The parts that naturally develop first are those essential for existence — the instinctual part of our brain that takes care of remembering to breathe, tell our heart to beat, our body to stay warm and so on. Next, the emotional brain develops. The fetus has not yet developed the reasoning or analytical brain, but this is normal. We learn to breathe before we can talk and we learn to move before we can run. In other words, all intelligence happens in the most efficient and practical order and it‘s progressive.
Your mind exists throughout your body The last revolution in neuroscience suggests that true intelligence and memory — the very essence of self — are located not just in the brain but throughout the body. 1221
—Dr. Thomas Verny and Pamela Weintraub
hen we talk about intelligence some people think that those cells in your brain are the be-all and end-all of the topic. But today, new explorations in science, particularly in molecular biology, are showing us that our intelligence isn‘t limited to just the cells in our head. I know, for some of us this is a no-brainer. While the brain is still the central command point, physically every cell is a receiving and
sending station
for intelligence. For example, a scientist by the name of Candace Pert discovered this when she studied receptors in the human body. She found that emotions induce certain chemicals (called neuropeptides) which can be picked up by different parts of the body. She found that while most receptors were located in the brain, they were also spread throughout the body. Yes, your body cells O W
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are actually designed to respond to emotions! 1222
Her discovery sheds new light on the topic and rings true with New Age concepts of mind-body connection. Another example of intelligence focused outside of the brain is cell memory. 1223
One type of cell that remembers as part of its job is the immune system. By remembering viruses, bacteria or other enemies, it is able to call up the right antibodies and prevent us from experiencing full-blown symptoms of the infection. It‘s a good thing for us that our intelligence is not isolated to our brain!
The mind exists beyond the physical body our brain — and to a lesser degree each cell
— is
biologically intelligent. But you are more than a physical being with a physical body. I believe we have an intelligence that includes, yet goes beyond, our physical body.
A 1992 Gallup Poll reported that 8 Million Americans had a near-death experience. 1224
Typically in these
experiences, the person clinically dies, becomes aware that they are dead (with their mind/soul — not physical brain) and sometimes will have a religious encounter or "see the light at the end of the tunnel." Some of the stories have been verified as true, as there is no way the person who was dead
could not
have watched
a conversation or seen what was going on in a closed room on another floor of the hospital. This is just one example of how our intelligence is not simply stored in our brain. How does all this affect abortion?
1. The fetus is actually very intelligent. 2.
3.
A completed brain is not required for awareness to take place.
Reason #87 ―There is
more to
that ‗pregnancy tissue‘ than you think!‖ Y
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Reason #88 We are self-aware before birth
Self-awareness in the womb Memory, as it turns out, is not just a matter of rational or even verbal recall. We also have a non-verbal, essentially emotional memory.
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—Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley, Ghosts from The Nursery
ould it amaze you if I said that the fetus experiences the world not with his logic but his emotions? Would it amaze you if I said that those experiences become stamped upon his memory body or that some people are able to recall their births or time in the womb? If you‘ve read Reason #87 , you‘re just in time to move on from our discussion of ―Your mind exists throughout your body‖ and ―The mind exists beyond the physical body.‖ If you‘ve not looked at it yet, you might find it helpful. We take off here, starting to look at the case put forth by psychologist Arthur Janov. He believes that the child in the womb is fully aware of what is going on. Just, not in an intellectual sense. You see, the brain structures for emotion develop long before the structures for rational thought and logic . In other words, we are ―feeling beings long before we are thinking ones.‖
1226 The same area of the brain that processes emotion also stores memory. That‘s why one study technique is to add emotion when trying to remember facts.
What does this mean for the fetus? First, experiences are more likely to have an impression. Being emotional but not yet logical beings, we are more likely to accept without judgment our early life impressions. After the first few months of development the brain can receive what Arthur Janov calls imprints. 1227
These pre- birth imprints are stamped: on the brainstem (the primeval part of the brain that develops first) and the limbic system, which is
the part
involved with
emotions. 1228
(To see how to feed your child positive imprints, see Reason #54: You can begin bonding with your baby now .)
memory. They are gone from your mind but not erased. Some people believe that feelings and memories stamped on our brain at this early age can follow us into our adult life. 1229
How do we know the fetus has self- awareness? Well, some people, usually young children, do remember their birth. For the rest of us, it seems to take a deeper therapy like hypnotherapy to uncover the memories. W
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Doctor‘s experience — ―I believe‖ ―From my personal experience in interviewing families who have asked their toddlers about their births, I believe that infants do remember their births.‖
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—Dr. Frederick Wirth, Prenatal Parenting
Spontaneous birth memories sometimes occur in young children, most usually around the ages of 2-3, when the child is just beginning to speak but before 5, when these memories seem to fade away. The topic may come up spontaneously, such as when a new baby brother is on the way. Indeed, I wonder how many children have memories but consider them normal and not worth talking about. Certainly, not all children remember, and our bodies are merciful, allowing us to forget the stress of birth. During birth, high amounts of the hormone oxytocin act as an ―anesthetic for the mind,‖ dulling the memories of birth pain. The stress hormone cortisol also acts to dull memories. 1231
Children who have been able to recall their birth describe it in words like ‗dark‘, ‗tight‘ and ‗wet‘ — which is accurate from the perspective of the fetus. 1232
Other descriptions include coming out through a ‗window‘ for a caesarean birth or a ‗tunnel‘ for natural birth. 1233
Hypnosis with adults has also produced birth memories, including ones where results were matched against a parent‘s version of the birth events. 1234
Might these memories be real? Dr. Paul Bick used hypnosis to find the cause of his client‘s strong anxiety attacks and hot flashes. The man recalled a time as a fetus when he got very frightened and hot. When the patient‘s mother was questioned about this, she admitted having tried to abort the child with hot water baths in the 7 th
1235 If this man was not reliving these memories, where did they come from? Certainly, it was not from his mother!
As far as being in the womb, an adult under hypnosis recalled his impressions as a fetus:
―Inside it was quiet and warm and comfortable. Dark. Nobody to bother me. I was happy with the way it was. Then it all happened pretty fast…something was happening and I knew there wasn‘t a whole lot I could do about it.‖ 1236
true, just remember that a fetus does have memory! In fact, we read in Reason #55
how your newborn baby prefers the voice
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of his mother, a familiar tune played in pregnancy and maybe even his mother‘s pregnancy food tastes. Perhaps he is more aware than we think!
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home. —Williama Wordsworth, ―Intimations of
Immortality‖
he idea that we existed prior to conception is not foreign. Many ancient
cultures and
peoples believed that there was another world that our spirits not only went to at death, but that we came from. I found out that as many as 18 religions, 25 ancient and modern cultures, 53 native North American peoples, 20 African tribal groups, 28 Australian tribes and 21 peoples in other areas not mentioned held a belief in pre- existence. 1237 Now that‘s a lot! It gets you thinking. If it‘s been around that long and in so many separate cultures, could it represent an eternal truth? Perhaps. You likely have your own opinion on this and I will not try to change it, but let me at least share my thoughts on the topic. For those readers who are strictly Christian in their view, you may be interested to know that Jewish tradition also supports pre-existence, at least parts that I saw. 1238
And of course, Jesus himself attended Jewish religious events and worshipped at Jewish temples, so I don‘t suppose he opposed their beliefs too drastically. In fact when, according with accepted beliefs, his disciples asked him if a certain man was born blind because of his sins or the sins of his parents, Jesus did not rebuke them or correct their suggestion of pre-existence (John 9:2). Instead, he simply says this was so God‘s works could be fulfilled, and proceeded to heal the man. After Jesus left us, his message spread far and wide, and many followers from many walks of life interpreted his message all in their own way and interpretation. Some earlier groups of Christians, such as Essenes, believed in
pre-existence. However, as history shows, the most powerful group prevails. In 543 A.D. the Roman emperor and a select group of bishops condemned pre-existence. 1239
Those followers who disagreed with that point of view became labeled heretics and were ignored, ostracized, or persecuted, until T
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barely anything of the belief remained in modern Christianity. In my research I did find that the Catholic tradition still contains a reference to pre-existence in this verse from their expanded version of the Bible: I was a boy of happy disposition, I had received a good soul as my lot, or rather, being good, I had entered an undefiled body; —Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20 (NJB) I also found that the Mormons hold it as one of their teachings: ―Prior to life on earth we lived as spirits in a premortal world.‖ 1240
―We were instructed and prepared for earth life in the premortal world.‖ 1241
―In the premortal world God knew each of us individually before we were born into mortality.‖ 1242
The Bible also contains some references which we‘ll talk about in a moment. When we think about existing before conception we are not talking about these physical bodies. Obviously they haven‘t been around for that long. But what about our true nature, our spiritual nature? Since our nature is spiritual and our source is God (Gn. 1:26), then we not only are destined to return to Him but we must have come from Him (Jn. 3:6, Eccl. 12:7). Indeed, in order to be strangers and foreigners to the world we must have come from someplace else (1 Pt. 2: 11; Heb. 11:13). In order to be reconciled to God we must have had a past relationship that existed beforehand. (2 Cor. 5:18-20) We are children of God, heirs of God. (Rom. 8:16-17; Acts. 17:28) What is so outrageous about the possibility that God made us his children before our current life? Even some Bible verses can be interpreted as such:
Where were we when God promised this? God was not surely promising himself. … the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time… —Titus 1:2
God chose us before the creation of the world. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. —Ephesians 1:4
We were known to God and set aside by Him long before our earthly existence. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. —Jeremiah 1:5 Who were these sons of God and were
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you among them? 1243
Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? ...while all the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? —Job 38: 4, 7 1244
Did you know? ―In the short space of Christ‘s mission and the next six hundred years, over eight hundred references to pre- existence can be found in the early Christian and Jewish texts alone, with more in the Greek writings.‖ 1245
—Sarah Hinze, Coming from the Light Yüklə 4,63 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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