High blood pressure may be more difficult to control in winter, according to research reported to the American Heart Association, at its meeting in Orlando last week.

A five-year study by a team from the United States found Department of Veterans Affairs analyzed data on 443,632 veterans treated for hypertension at 15 VA hospitals in cities throughout the US found that blood pressures during the summer were on average 7.76% lower than during the winter. The researchers found the same pattern emerged from each hospital they studied, regardless of whether it was based in a warm or cold climate, in locations that ranged from Anchorage, Alaska to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This is an intriguing finding, and there are a load of potential explanations for it:
A more active summer lifestyle may be the key
It is also possible that people might eat more salty foods in winter, and salt is strongly linked to raised blood pressure
There may also be a link with sunlight. Which can trigger a number of metabolic changes

But I also need to sound a note of caution: blood pressure changes all the time throughout the day. Although the study was all done correctly, it is important to realize that many subtle variations in blood pressure could be lurking within the data.

Nonetheless, people should be aware of the possibility that their blood pressure may be harder to control in the winter, and to be more vigilant at this time.

“For everything there is a season, And a time for every matter under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; A time to seek, and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to throw away; A time to tear, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate, A time for war, and a time for peace.”
–The Bible, Ecclesiastes, 3:1-8

“Each new season grows from the leftovers from the past. That is the essence of change, and change is the basic law.”
–Hal Borland (American Writer, 1900-1978)

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet drink and botanical medicines.”
–Henry David Thoreau (American Essayist and Philosopher, 1817-1862)

It is almost forty years since Fernando Nottebohm first began to describe some of the dynamic changes that occur in the brains of songbirds as the seasons change. Every year some regions of the brain grow in response to changes in ambient light levels and others regress. There are marked seasonal changes in the brains of fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and even some mammals such as gerbils, mice and perhaps even in humans. But the magnitude of the changes in birds far outweighs any other species. It is hoped that that understanding the mechanism controlling that change may help us to develop treatments for age-related degenerative diseases of the brain such as Parkinson’s and dementia.

Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley, have published some interesting new data in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They report a striking shrinkage in the size of the brain regions that control singing behavior of Gambel’s white-crowned sparrows. This transformation is triggered by the withdrawal of testosterone and can be seen within 12 hours. The study is the first to report such rapid regression of brain nuclei caused by the withdrawal of a hormone and a change in daylight conditions in adult animals.

The research protocol was designed to mimic the natural seasonal changes that occur in the brains of the sparrows. Their song-control regions expand in the spring and summer leading up to the breeding season, as they use songs to establish territories and attract mates in Alaska. Later in the summer, as the birds get ready to migrate back to California, the same brain regions shrink.

To better understand what happens in the sparrows’ brain, the researchers received federal and state permits to capture 25 of the migrating male birds in Eastern Washington. They then housed the birds for 12 weeks before exposing them to 20 days of long-day conditions comparable to the natural lighting the sparrows would experience in Alaska during the breeding season. The birds were also implanted with testosterone.

At the end of 20 days, six of the birds were euthanized and the remaining 19 were castrated and testosterone implants were removed so there would not be any circulating testosterone in their systems. After 12 hours five more birds were euthanized and the remainder were euthanized at 2, 4, 7 and 20 days.

The researchers found that the size of the high vocal center (HVC) region decreased 22 percent within 12 hours after the withdrawal of testosterone and that the number of neurons in this song-control region fell by 26 percent after four days. In addition, the size of two other song-control regions called Area X and the RA significantly regressed after 7 and 20 days.

Much as I dislike animal experiments of any kind, it is invaluable to have an animal model system in which we can observe predictable neurodegeneration. As men age, circulating levels of testosterone decrease, and other research has shown that this decline may contribute to cognitive impairment.

This is an important new approach to understanding the interplay between nerve cell degeneration and hormones.

It is often a bit frustrating to read articles about the brain in which the writer says things like: “research has shown that the insula does this…” or “the amygdala does that…”

This idea that it is possible to reduce brain functions to regions of the brain is not correct. Some years ago I used the term “Neo-phrenology,” to describe this fallacy, though I am sure that I was not the first. (Phrenology was the old and discredited theory that you tell things about people by examining the bumps on their heads.)

So why is it a fallacy? The idea that certain functions can be “localized” to a bit of the brain is called “naïve localizationism.” The vast majority of the psychological functions of the brain are performed by distributed networks, not a single lump of tissue. One of the remarkable things about the human brain is that it can recruit new circuits as they are need. If we do not have enough brainpower to solve a problem, other systems are taken off line so that they do not distract and may be able to help. You have probably had the experience of working on something so intensely that you lose track of time, and fail to hear things going on around you.

Yes, there are regions that have jobs to do. For instance the auditory cortex is responsible for processing sound. But after that initial processing the rest of the brain becomes involved in deciding what to do with the information. The key to understanding the brain is how different regions of the brain communicate. As I recently mentioned in a different context, there are good reasons for believing that a number of problems, from the schizophrenias to the attention deficit disorders, may all be a result of poor communication between different regions of the brain.

Part of the problem is working out how regions communicate has been technical: we have not had the computers or hardware to do the measurements. But that is beginning to change.

Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, recently said that today’s faster computers and more advanced electronics might provide scientists with the tools they need to unlock the brain’s mysteries.

“Multiple electrode recording techniques, offer a whole new level of brain interactions that can’t be seen using the [current] piecemeal approach.”

Two studies published recently in th journal Science support this idea.

In the first Thilo Womelsdorf and a group of neuroscientists at the F. C. Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, looked at the electrical activities of groups of neurons in the brains of cats and monkeys wile they were engaged in an array of different tasks. They found that two groups of neurons could only communicate efficiently with each other when their rhythms are coordinated, or synchronized. If the rhythms are not coordinated, then one group sends information while the other is not ready to take it on and vice versa.

The researchers found that when the rhythms of electrical activity are synchronized between neurons in distinct brain areas, memories are made and tasks are completed more efficiently.

The other study, by scientists at the University of Melbourne in Australia, also revealed communication between the cerebral cortex and the deep medial temporal region.

They flashed two images at a group of macaque monkeys for less than a second. The monkeys had to decide whether the spatial orientation of a stack of bars in two images were the same or different. While the animals worked, researchers monitored the electrical fields in the posterior parietal cortex, which is one part of the system involved in directing spatial attention. At the same time they looked at the medial temporal area, a region deep in the midbrain that handles movement perception. The researchers had hypothesized that these two areas need to communicate with one another to enable reasoning.

The researchers observed activity first in the parietal cortex, followed by synchronous action there and in the medial temporal area. The delay illustrates “a top-down” feedback from the cortex, which then signals the lower area.

One of the authors, Trichur Vidyasagar, said,

“The parietal neurons seem to code for what is salient or relevant in the world and allocate attentional resources accordingly. The medial temporal neurons are sensory ones that process the visual signals, but due to the influence of the parietal cortex the activity across the medial temporal area is varied.”

The studies were accompanied by an editorial in which Robert Knight, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, praised the findings - and their potential significance.

This research is important for two reasons:
First it confirms that the key to understanding the brain is the interaction of networks.

Second, there are a number of periodic disorders, such as depression, seasonal affective disorder, mania and even some rare types of episodic psychosis that are episodic and are not associated with any clearly defined neuroanatomical disruption. It may well be that some of the periodic symptoms are caused by intermittent network dysfunction, as a result of disturbed oscillatory dynamics.

“In all things there is a law of cycles.”
–Publius Cornelius Tacitus (Roman Historian, Writer, Orator and Public Official, A.D.56-c.120)

“Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to the same mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player.”
–Albert Einstein (German-born American Physicist and, in 1921, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1879-1955)

“It has been said that a complete understanding of the Law of Cycles would bring man to a high degree of initiation. This Law of Periodicity underlies all the processes of nature and its study would lead a man out of the world of objective effects into that of subjective causes.”
–Alice A. Bailey (English Writer, Spiritual Teacher and Founder of the Arcane School, 1880-1949)

“At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a silent pulse of perfect rhythm, a complex of wave forms and resonances, which is absolutely individual and unique, and yet connects us to everything in the universe. The act of getting in touch with this pulse can transform our personal experience and in some way alter the world around us.”
–George Leonard (American Aikidoist and Writer, 1923-)

It is well known that mood disorders are associated with the disruption of many of the circadian rhythms of the body including sleep, temperature and thyroid function. These links are so well known that many experts believe that depression may be a consequence of disturbances in circadian rhythms.

Although circadian rhythms tend to be fairly consistent across individuals, but there are significant differences in these rhythms in different people: we call this the “morningness-eveningness” dimension (MED).

As part of a larger project, researchers from Providence, Rhode Island last month presented a most interesting study (NR293) at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in San Diego.

People with psychiatric problems tend to be owls: evening types who don’t like mornings, and this was particularly striking in people with depression.

This suggests that “eveningness” may be reflecting a risk factor or vulnerability to psychopathology, in particular depression. It may actually be that if you are a “morning person,” you may have some protection against developing depression.

I remember seeing a study from Stanford in April that suggested that people labeled a “night owls” report more pathological symptoms related to insomnia, despite many having the opportunity to compensate for their nocturnal sleeplessness by extending their time in bed and being able to gain more total sleep time. So this may be the link with depression.

You will not find them listed on WebMD, but “Diseases of Discipleship” are nonetheless very real. I have mentioned them in Healing Meaning and Purpose and also here. They are the result of sudden access to spiritual energies that can upset the balance of the body, mind and spirit. The great value of having a teacher is to help you balance and work with these energies without being harmed by them.

Several of my own teachers talked a lot about these diseases of discipleship, but I would particularly like to single out Douglas Baker and the writings of Roberto Assagioli, Del Pe, Torkom Saraydarian, Stan Grof and Alice Bailey.

I have also had a great deal of experience with people undergoing spiritual crises. Many have been referred to me by priests, clergy and intuitives, because many of the individuals thought that they were “going crazy,” and some had ben given psychiatric diagnoses. That extensive experience has helped me and some of my students to describe some of the “symptoms” in more detail.

Roberto Assagioli identified five critical points where problems may arise:

1. Just before spiritual awakening begins
2. Crises caused by spiritual awakening
3. Reactions to spiritual awakening
4. Phases of the process of transmutation
5. The “Dark Night of the Soul”

Today I am just going to focus on the crises caused by spiritual awakening, because a great many people are experiencing them at the moment.

Here are some of the more common signs and symptoms include:

• Visual disturbances
• Extreme sensitivity to light and sound
• Paradoxically they often also find a raised pain threshold
• Increased metabolic rate, which may cause a slight increase in body temperature and a little weight loss
• Variable libido: some people lose all interest in sex, but most experience an increase in sexual desire, which can take them and any partners by surprise
• Disturbances in circadian rhythms
• Disturbances in thyroid and adrenal function: the thyroid often becomes slightly – or sometimes more than slightly – overactive and the adrenal glands slightly less responsive to stimulation
• Hypoglycemia
• Hypertension
• Chronic fatigue
• Anxiety and a feeling of “butterflies” in the region of the solar plexus
• Inexplicable sensations roughly corresponding to the channels identified in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine
• Irregular breathing patterns, usually hyperventilation
• Something that feels like electricity under the tongue and under the palate
• Crying for no readily apparent reason
• As peoples’ consciousness rises, it is quite common to experience “Synesthesia” in which senses overlap: people may taste sounds, feel colors and “hear and see” with different parts of the body
• Psychic abilities often begin to appear: clairvoyance, clairaudience, spiritual intuition and the ability to heal
• Many begin to feel and see their own Inner Light and the Inner Light of other people

Not everyone gets all of these symptoms and they may come and go for a while. Some people don’t get any at all, but they are unusual. There are two books by Hazel Courteney that detail some of what happened to her, and they are well worth a read.

It is important to emphasize that all of these signs and symptoms can also be caused by illnesses. So although most people who are going through all this want to avoid doctors, it is a very good idea to ensure that everything is okay. I once saw someone who had been told that she was having a kundalini experience, even though she did not have any of the usual features. She became very unwell, but felt much better when an insulin-producing tumor was removed from her pancreas.

The most important thing is to help people remain grounded. I have seen many people become extremely grandiose and even fanatical after going through a rapid spiritual awakening. It is also important to ensure that any physical symptoms - such as thyroid or blood pressure problems - do not continue unchecked.

Helping people who are going through spiritual change or crisis needs the help of a person or persons who understand physical and psychological problems, as well as being some way along the path of spiritual development. By “crisis” I do not mean crisis of faith, but a critical turning point in an individual’s personal development.

There are plenty of good ways of grounding using some physical, psychological and subtle system exercises. I have dozens of excellent techniques that I can publish if you are interested. Sometimes it is also a good idea to eat some heavy food.

It can be very helpful to get away form other people for a while. This doesn’t mean becoming a monk or nun, but just to avoid a bad case of people poisoning. In their overly sensitive state they can pick up a lot of negative things from the people around them. I have known a good many people who would begin to experience all the physical and psychological symptoms of the people around them.

Once we have confirmed that the person does not have all this as a result of thyroid disease or anxiety, it is essential to show them what is going on and the best way to approach and conceptualize it.

Next we help people to control some of the impulses that can otherwise swamp them. One of the many reasons for development of the sophisticated mind control techniques developed by Tibetan Buddhism was to help people watch their spiritual unfoldment without being overwhelmed by it.

We also try to help people to transmute psychological energies so that they can be used constructively.

Everybody is different, but in some people acupuncture, qigong, Reiki and homeopathy have all been helpful. Several of the flower essences can be very useful, in particular:
Vervain
Star Tulip
White Yarrow
Pink Yarrow

Every expert that I know in the field of spiritual development agrees with my observation that there are currently more people having major spiritual changes than ever before. It is essential for us all to know how to protect, support and birth them.

“To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance, and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by expressing in the world of forms - truth, love, purity and beauty - this is the sole game that has any intrinsic and absolute worth. All other incidents and attainments can, in themselves, have no lasting importance.”
–Meher Baba (Indian Spiritual Teacher who, from July 1925 maintained Silence, 1894-1969)

“You knock at the door of Reality. You shake your thought wings, loosen your shoulders, and open.”
–Jalal al-Din Rumi (Afghan Sufi Poet, 1207-1273)

“Life is a series of awakenings.”
–Sri Swami Sivananda (Indian Physician and Spiritual Teacher, 1887-1963)

“What we usually call human evolution is the awakening of the Divine Nature within us.”
–“Peace Pilgrim” (a.k.a. Mildred Norman, American Peace Activist, 1908-1981)