A few months ago, our daughter, Sarah, informed us that she was pregnant and that the baby was due at the end of October. Since she just turned 32 and it's been awhile since she left our home, this was very welcome news to two future grandparents.This will be the first grandchild from either of our two daughters. Our other daughter, Marin, - younger by 3 1/2 years - is busy tasting the fruits of a spiritual world that currently holds no time for marriage and or a child. But like happened to Sarah, perhaps one or the other or both will come suddenly and unexpectedly.
This event takes me back some 33 years to my wife's first pregnancy and how in that 1976 Centennial year, we were at the very beginning of an adventure that has been, without a doubt, the greatest joy of our lives.
What is so exciting for us as we watch Sarah begin her own journey through the awe and wonder of pregnancy and birth is that today there is so much information at our fingertips to follow this astonishing event compared to then.
Since the day Sarah told us, we've followed our grandchild's fetal development with a program called PregnanSee™ which can be found at ZNet Downloads. This wonderful little program is shareware and costs $14.99, but can be tried out for 15 days.
The information found in this program covers topics such as Changes in Baby, Changes in You, Good to Know, Wholesome Advice, Your Actions, Common Concerns and Nutrition.It is a week-by-week account of the baby's development. Each week, you can see a real ultrasound video of a baby at that stage. For instance, at this point, Sarah's pregnancy is at week 17 and the fetal age is 15 weeks. We've been following his or her development since pregnancy week 6 and fetal week 4. The pregnancy week is marked as time since the last menstrual period.
At pregnancy week 6, these were things Sarah discovered about her baby:
- From crown to rump, your baby measures at 2-4mm or 0.08-0.16 inch, the size of a small lentil.
- This week marks the beginning of the embryonic period which spans from the 6th to 10th weeks of pregnancy or the 4th to 8th weeks of fetal development.
- Growth is rapid this week with your baby resembling a tadpole with a tail but no brain.
- It is already 10,000 times larger than the fertilized egg; it doesn't have gender characteristics yet.
- Over the next 5 months, more than 100 billion neurons will be formed in the brain, laying the necessary groundwork for a lifetime of learning.
As I write this, our "grandfetus" has these characteristics:
- From crown to rump the baby measures about 5-6 inches and weighs about 100g or 3.5oz.
- The fetus is the size of a hand spread wide open
- While still big, the head is beginning to look in proportion with the rest of the body.
- Incredible changes are happening now: fat is beginning to form this week and will continue in the weeks that follow. Know as adipose tissue, fat helps to keep baby warm and gives it energy.
- It's small heart is pumping 24 liters of blood a day.
- The baby can now hear sounds outside mother's body and may even be startled by it.
And so it goes. Each new fact of each new week is even more amazing than the last.
Consciousness
Since one of the areas I've been studying for a number of years is the concept of Consciousness, I naturally began to wonder about the tiny life growing inside my daughter's body.
When does Consciousness first manifest in the fetus?
At one end of the spectrum of ideas relating to this question, Dr. Stanislav Grof - of whom I've written much here - has based the entire field of Transpersonal Psychology on the theory that Consciousness exists independent of time or individual organism.
In his research of over 50+ years, he has found compelling evidence that Consciousness is very fluid. Using such tools as psychedelic drugs and Holotropic Breathwork, he has had subjects experience conscious awareness,
- back to the time of their birth
- during their birth
- before their birth back to the moment of conception
- during human lives prior to their own conception
- from beings other than our own species
- even from inanimate objects
Another area I've studied is the scientific work of Rick Strassman, whose book DMT: The Spirit Molecule explores N,N-dimethyltryptamine or DMT, which is a naturally-occurring molecule in both plants and animals, including our own bodies. It is one of the most powerful psychoactive molecules and is the active agent in psychedelic substances like the shamanic brew, Ayahuasca
Based on several years of intensive medical research, Dr. Strassman proposes that the release of DMT from the pineal gland at 49 days after conception marks the entrance of the spirit -or Consciousness, if you will - into the fetus. This 49-day prenatal period is very interesting in that it corresponds to the first signs of fetal pineal tissue, the differentiation of the gonads into male and female, and - according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition - the time between the death of an individual and its soul’s next rebirth. While I've seemingly conflated Consciousness with Spirit here, I've done it purposefully since these two things have been so intricately intermingled on my journey and in this blog.
Dr. Strassman suggests that the individual’s life-force enters the body through the pineal gland and leaves it through the pineal gland at death. The infant’s brain is flooded with 5-MeO-DMT, secreted from the pineal gland and the brain is 40% more active and open. In effect, then, the fetus is "tripping balls", as the kids so artfully put it.
So at about 7 weeks, then, I will assume that Sarah's baby assumed Consciousness. Has it assumed - as Buddhist thought believes - the Consciousness of a someone who died 49 days earlier and has been traveling through the Bardo in search of a physical body?
This is one of those questions that will, for us earthbound mortals, remain a universal mystery, I'm afraid. It is fascinating to speculate upon however. One thing is certain. The tiny life that is growing by leaps and bounds inside Sarah's body contains the genetic code of our entire species back through the phylogenetic history of all earth organisms, back through time to the very first DNA and RNA molecules on earth.
According to some scientists, furthermore, those first molecules were, in fact, extra-terrestrial by means of a process called exogenesis or panspermia, and arrived on this planet via meteors and/or asteroids from somewhere out there. Fewer scientists yet - including the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick - have proposed the idea of directed panspermia, where primitive life or its precursors were "seeded" throughout the universe by an advanced intelligence. Could this be where a God fits into the picture? Or perhaps they were the earliest Greys!
This far-out idea, however, is one to be explored by others, for there is too much to be discovered right here on our own Big Blue Marble.
As a Father and a Male
The adventure Sarah is experiencing so completely in her life right now is quite remarkable, and gives rise to many thoughts and questions concerning life in general and human life in particular. As a male, it also makes me feel quite unimportant, as biologically we males are for the most part minor - but obviously essential - players whereas the female plays the lead role in this incredible production called life. It's almost a wonder that males exist at all in the animal world.
Certainly, a species could exist with all females. Sexual reproduction - which evolved only to create genetic diversity - could be accomplished by females alone. In fact, a female-only ant species has been found only recently in the Western Hemisphere. This species reproduces asexually, however, which can be an evolutionary disadvantage.
Certainly very few males would be needed - just for genetic diversity - but a world of human females could be a possibility as in vitro fertilization technology continues to develop. As we watch the slow, but seemingly inevitable destruction of our earth by "Man" (mostly men unfortunately), this idea raises the important question as to whether this would be a better world with far fewer males. Could the very biology that makes me a male bear the seeds of our destruction?
In an interesting switch to the reproductive process, the nematode or flatworm, C. elegans, exists only as either a hermaphrodite or a male. The predominant sexual form of C. elegans is the hermaphrodite — this animal produces both sperm and eggs. Thus, it can self-fertilize. Coincidentally, Sarah spent many years studying this tiny creature on her way to becoming a working geneticist.
But I digress.
The Female Brain
For over 30 years, I've lived only with women: my wife and two daughters. And so I was intrigued by a book I came across recently called The Female Brain by neuropsychiatrist, Louann Brizendine. Perhaps it was time to learn for myself (perhaps long past time) about these strange, wondrous creatures called females.
During medical school, Dr. Brizendine was confronted with the fact that brain studies were almost universally conducted using male subjects. One of the reasons given her (unspoken was an inherent male chauvinism that pervaded science and medicine up to that point) was that female brains seemed to change too often to study. But this wasn't a good enough answer for Dr. Brizendine, who has been studying the female brain ever since and what she has discovered about our mothers and sisters and daughters is utterly fascinating.As it turns out, the perception that females brains change often is absolutely true. In fact, whereas male brains are rather static in their functioning day in and day out, female brains change virtually daily.
The reasons for this are due to the very thing that makes females female: their hormones. So in a fascinating story that explores the female brain from conception through menopause, The Female Brain is an exceptionally eye-opening book for both men and women. This is from the Publishers Weekly review:
Brizendine provides a fascinating look at the life cycle of the female brain from birth ("baby girls will connect emotionally in ways that baby boys don't") to birthing ("Motherhood changes you because it literally alters a woman's brain-structurally, functionally, and in many ways, irreversibly") to menopause (when "the female brain is nowhere near ready to retire") and beyond. At the same time, Brizedine is not above reviewing the basics: "We may think we're a lot more sophisticated than Fred or Wilma Flintstone, but our basic mental outlook and equipment are the same." While this book will be of interest to anyone who wonders why men and women are so different, it will be particularly useful for women and parents of girls.For an interesting discussion from ABC's 20/20 about sex differences between men and women, which includes a synopsis of Dr. Brizendine's work, click this link.
As the father of two girls, I wish I had read this book before they were born - even before I got married. It would have helped me fathom the ebbs and flows of moods and struggles all the women in my life - as well as I - had to endure during the most trying times of their lives.
As one of those static-brained males, I could never fully understood the fact that emotion was a volatile driving force in their lives or why I couldn't reason with them at times, as I was wont to do. They still baffle me quite often, yet the very aspects of femaleness that control their lives is what gives our world and our species the beauty and nectar that makes life so incredibly worthwhile.
Female and Male Psychology
Still, hormones and brain states are just the physical aspects of being a male or a female. The yin and yang of masculine and feminine energy are psychological aspects of each and every one of us.
Males generally have more masculine energy, which drives aspects of personality like being assertive, logical, analytical, doing, controlling, being aggressive, striving, projecting, hard, organizing, rushing, thrusting and always pushing to survive.
The feminine energy, on the other hand, is delicate, intuitive, nurturing, receptive, tender, surrendering, synthesizing, integrating, soft, feeling, and the part of us that knows without explanation and incorporates creativity, the natural life-force and even an innate understanding of death as being a part of life. This is psychologically understood by a woman in the knowledge that each 28 days a potential life is swept from her body during menstruation.
The feminine helps us to be. This form of energy softens the constant male-driven doingness of our lives, which has become part of our misguided and relentless efforts to survive in the material world.
David Deida delves heavily into these two energies in his books and workshops. A very provocative writer and thinker, he is described in Wikipedia as "an American author, independent researcher, and teacher. He writes on spiritual practice, nondual sexuality, and sociocultural evolution. He has published ten books in more than 25 languages. Deida’s early scientific research includes psychobiology, human evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and mathematical modeling of the immune and nervous systems. Since 1975 he has trained in hatha yoga, tai chi chuan, various forms of meditation, and sexual yoga. For over two decades, Deida has been writing books on spiritual-sexual growth, practicing in solitary retreat, and traveling internationally to present his work to a wide range of audiences."This is an excerpt from David Deida's book, It's a Guy Thing: An Owner's Manual for Women:
Our masculine and feminine ways are not only rooted in our biological roots, but also in our spiritual depths. As it has been said in many spiritual traditions, the first thing created was light. This light is the true source of our feminine energy, and the void in which it shines is the source of our masculine.It is a grand adventure, then, is it not? This being male and female. There is so much involved with being man and woman, masculine and feminine, and it always seems to be a struggle to understand it in each other and in ourselves.
That's why many women are concerned with their radiance. They identify themselves as sources of light or energy. They want shiny hair, glossy lips, blushed cheeks, glowing skin, radiant eyes. The feminine in each of us feels akin to life force itself.
The masculine in each of us feels more akin to the void in which the light shines. Most men would rather watch women dance than dance themselves. They want to witness feminine radiance. Thus, men identify more with the witness, with awareness, with consciousness itself.
This consciousness never moves, while the feminine energy always moves. This consciousness never changes, while the feminine energy always changes. Men who stand firm and trustable in their deep truth are more sexy to women. Women who move their bodies freely in radiant energy are more sexy to men.
Men seek perfection in the external world--in their philosophies, golf games and a centerfold's body--because they intuit the perfection of deep and eternal consciousness. But they misplace this desire for perfection. Deep consciousness, or divine consciousness, may be perfect, changeless and unblemished, but life is not. Life is the play of energy. Life is feminine!
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Nevertheless, in a very real sense, we are a young species. We've only been introspective about who we are for a few thousand years and we've only tried to understand ourselves and nature scientifically for a few hundred years.
Still, our species continues to do what all species do. As individual organisms we conceive, develop, reproduce and then die. But as a species we have thrived and keep striving to utilize more fully this amazing and remarkable tool, the brain, evolution has gifted us with. In the process, we have learned a great deal about our Universe and everything that comprises it. Yet, the more we learn, the more we realize we don't know and we are compelled to keep searching for answers.
I feel that the worst thing we can do as human beings is to believe that we have all the answers. Or that there is a man, a book or a philosophy that incorporates all we can and should know. I think we do a great disservice to the special gifts we've been given if we stop searching for answers to life's questions.
Unfortunately, we can't know if there is an ultimate architect to all of this. We can believe there is, but we can't know - at least yet. If there is a divine intelligence behind this curtain of reality we exist in front of, that is amazing. Yet, if the mathematical beauty of the Friedmann equations and the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems predict an uncaused beginning of this magnificent universe, that to me is equally amazing.
We know that life has a biological imperative. For us, as humans, we also have an intellectual imperative. Discovery is that intellectual imperative, and constant, endless inquiry is how we accomplish it.
To Sarah and her baby, as well as my other daughter, Marin, I bequeath this unique and marvelous legacy. Use it well and joyfully, my beautiful Children of Eve.
