Autolysis-Self Digestion
Upgraded cognition will tend to cascade down and cause a revolution in the
limbic and autonomic system. This is perhaps why significant growth is followed
by a period of “regression.” I use the word dissolution instead of regression, because
it is a contemporary temporary disorganization/breakdown of patterns of function,
to make way for a higher, more complex patterning to form. If there is one thing I
am hoping to install in the Global Brain, it’s the idea that metamorphosis is a very
real and common process that is occurring within us humans. The most obvious
examples of this are the huge losses of neurons during various growth periods in
childhood and the Die-offs in kundalini awakenings.
Culturally we should become sensitive to the idea of metamorphosis occurring
in all our growth and learning developmental processes. We need a trans-temporal,
non-linear, hyperbolic-curve perception of the evolution of life processes. We
could go so far as to say that development itself IS metamorphosis. The pay off
from doing so is to have a more humane, realistic and healthy approach to illness
in general. By treating ourselves with greater insight, knowledge and compassion
during our periods of dissolution, then we will evolve faster with less secondary
psychosomatic damage. We must give great attention and understanding to the
impact of secondary fallout from our mismanagement of natural organic processes
of evolution itself. So just how does the body “eat itself ” in order to restructure its
tissues and functions?
cell DeatH anD Die-oFFs
apoptosis is word of Greek origin, meaning “falling off or dropping off.”
Apoptosis is the word used in science to describe controlled programmed cell death.
Cell death plays a considerable role during physiological processes of multicellular
organisms, particularly during embryogenesis and metamorphosis. For example
in the development of the brain, half of the neurons that are initially created will
later die in successive stages as the adult brain is formed. In the adult human body
several hundred thousand cells are produced every second by mitosis, and a similar
number die by apoptosis for the maintenance of homeostasis and for specific tasks
such as the regulation of immune cell selection and activity.
Apoptosis proceeds thus: the cell shrinks, shows deformation and looses
contact with neighboring cells. Its chromatin condenses and marginates at the
nuclear membrane, the plasma membrane undergoes blobbing or budding, and
finally the cell is fragmented into compact membrane-enclosed structures, called
‘apoptotic bodies’ which contain the contents of the cell. These apoptotic bodies
are then engulfed by macrophages and thus are removed from the tissue without
causing an inflammatory response, or damage to surrounding tissue. Apoptosis
is programmed and “tidy” compared to the messy mode of necrotic cell-death,
in which the cells suffer a major insult, resulting in a loss of membrane integrity,
swelling and rupture of the cells. During necrosis, the cellular contents are released
uncontrolled into the cell’s environment damaging nearby cells and producing a
strong inflammatory response.