- Excerpt
In her fascinating book The Rainbow and the Worm, the Chinese geneticist Dr. Mae-wan Ho wrote: “Most people regard the connective tissues in purely mechanical terms; their functions are to keep the body in shape, to act as packing between the major organs and tissues, to strengthen the wall of arteries, veins, intestines and air passages, and to provide the rigid elements (bony skeleton) for the attachment of muscles. At best, connective tissues or the extracellular matrix is seen as part of the [biological structure] of the body that transduces mechanical information [pressure and movement] to cells to determine their structure and function.” However, “the connective tissues may be largely responsible for the rapid intercommunication that enables our body to function as a coherent whole, and are therefore central to our health and well-being.” ([I])
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Connective tissues and collagen
According to Dr. Ho, “the clue to the intercommunication function of connective tissues lies in the properties of collagen, a special protein that makes up 70% or more of all the proteins of the connective tissues. Connective tissues, in turn, form the bulk of the body of most multi-cellular animals. Collagen is therefore the most abundant protein in the animal kingdom.” The crux of Ho’s findings is that “collagens are not just mechanical fibres and composites.” Instead, they have special properties that make them very sensitive to mechanical pressures, acidity or alkalinity, electrically charged molecules (ions) and last but not least, to electromagnetic fields. Connective tissues’ sensitivity for electromagnetic fields make that they will get “organized” in response to the direction of the field, which means that they will be aligned in accordance with the direction of the field.
Collagen is sensitive to electromagnetic fields
The sensitivity of collagen to electromagnetic fields finds its origin in the fact that it is surrounded by water. In previous articles, I have explained that the water in our body isn’t just floating around as “loose”, unstructured, water, but that it is a kind of Jell-O, which scientists named “4th-phase” or structured water. We find “4th-phase” water not only in our cells, but, as Dr. Ho explained, also in the connective tissues. Studies have revealed three patterns of water associated with the collagen in the connective tissues. Some of it is very tightly bound to the collagen, some of it has a cylindrical shape that loosely surrounds the collagen, and then there’s “free” water that fills the space between the strings of collagen that, together, form the fibrils. The various forms of water give the connective tissues a hybrid “between-solid-and-liquid” fluid crystalline quality. Liquid crystalline water combines the properties of a solid (strength) with those of a liquid (fluidity).
Connective tissues support the entire human body
The “electrical” properties of the connective tissues, so Ho, “were found to depend to a large extent on the bound water molecules in and around the collagen […].” The collagen-rich liquid crystalline structures in the connective tissues, with their associated structured water, constitute a semi-conducting, highly responsive network that extends throughout the organism. The connective tissues function as the relay-point between electromagnetic fields and the cells and tissues. This network is directly linked to the intracellular segments of individual cells via proteins, as well as water channels that go through the cell membrane. The connective tissues and intracellular parts, together, form the network of continuous and resilient tension that constitutes and supports the complete human body, as well as an excitable electrical medium for rapid intercommunication throughout the body. “Actually”, so explained Dr. Ho, “all the cells in the body are interconnected to one another via the connective tissues […]. The connective tissues include the extracellular matrix surrounding all cells, the skin, bones, cartilage, tendons, filaments, the wall of arteries, veins, alimentary canal, air-passages, and various membranous layers covering the internal organs and tissues.”
Body consciousness
In traditional Chinese medicine, the human body is seen as a living organism that has its own “consciousness”. In Western medicine, the body’s “consciousness” is usually located in the brain, from where ideas, intentions and instructions are supposed to emanate, and which, through the nervous system, is supposed to control the entire body. “I have always found that odd”, so wrote Ho, “for like all Chinese, I was brought up on the idea that thoughts, like feelings, originate from the heart. I have come to the conclusion that a more accurate account is that our consciousness is delocalised throughout the liquid crystalline continuum of the body (including the brain), rather than being just localised to our brain, or to our heart. By consciousness, I include, at the minimum, the faculties of sentience (responsiveness), intercommunication, as well as memory.” In other words, “the whole can be accessed or grasped from any local part. So, regardless of whether we think our conscious awareness is in the brain or in the heart, we may literally have an image of ourselves in both the brain and the heart; or in our ear, our foot, or our hand.”
The “I” we experience ourselves to be
As human beings, we share a “unity of experience” with our body, when we become conscious of our body’s consciousness. In traditional Chinese acupuncture theory, this unity of experience depends on a complete coherence of brain and body. It is this “combined” consciousness that permits us to become aware of our individual “Self”, our body’s consciousness, our body and the world as a meaningful whole. In the world view of Dr. Ho, “the unity of experience depends, in the first instance, on the organism's experience of itself as a unity, and not as a collection of disparate parts. It is the ‘I’ that each and every one of us experiences ourselves to be. Not only are we conscious of ourselves as a unity, but we also have a total grasp of different parts of our body working together as a coherent whole. We have a self-image of our body that is located exactly where our body is. So, we can reach out instantly to touch our face or scratch our ear, without missing the target.”
The ”unity of experience” and connective tissues
Yes, indeed, there’s more going on in life and living than molecules and biochemistry. The human organism doesn’t just “cohere” and maintain its constancy as the result of incalculable biochemical actions and reactions that “somehow” and mysteriously act together in some kind of accidental unity. Hippocrates, the “father” of medicine, proposed the idea that the body is subject to a healing power of nature which is constantly busy to operate correctively when the normal state of the organism is upset. In light of the foregoing, Hippocrates’ “vis medicatrix naturae” might very well be understood as the body’s consciousness which intelligently coordinates all the seemingly disparate activities in order to attain optimum survival. In this regard, the role of the connective tissues as the liquid crystalline medium between the body’s consciousness and its “substance” is quite evident. The healing power of nature will remain powerless unless it can freely communicate with the body through that medium.
Collagen, OPCs and Crystal Body Consciousness
This opens a completely new perspective on collagen as much more than the “glue” that holds the cells, tissues and organs together. As the main constituent of the connective tissues, the combination of collagen & “4th-phase” water that surrounds it is instrumental in facilitating instantaneous communication between body consciousness and all the invidual cells. All this is taking place simultaneously in the “here & now”, i.e. while you are reading these words. Quite miraculous, indeed, but quite likely as well. And, as the attentive reader may have expected, this also throws a new light on Masquelier’s OPCs. All of a sudden, OPCs, which play a crucial role in the synthesis, maintenance and protection of collagen, can be seen as essential in supporting the “combined” consciousness that enables us to perceive our individual “Self”, our body’s consciousness, our body and the world as a meaningful whole. This is how the seminal scientific work of Dr. Masquelier in the field of collagen and vascular health gains its rightful place in today’s cutting-edge research into “Crystal Body Consciousness”. And, who knows, perhaps this is why all clinical trials performed with Masquelier’s OPCs showed significant health benefits in a wide variety of seemingly unrelated conditions in an equally wide variety of individuals.
