Will people buy it, will it make me famous, will it make a difference to people’s health and well-being?  So obsessed that I got out of bed at 1 am to check the hourly updated Amazon ratings.

Astounded that it has become the #1 best seller in cell biology, considering that it is not your typical biology book.  Far from it. I laugh when I see it there thinking that its  masquerading as science and will no doubt surprise the person looking for only mainstream science.  It expands how we view cells and biology to give them a sacred and social perspective. We are so much more than our amazing biology.

Yet I’m even more shocked how obsessed I’ve become with numbers rather than surrendering to the content of the book which is what really needs to be shared.

Yes, numbers tell us how well its doing in the marketplace, but now for me at a personal level, I have to carry e highest intention and persistence to share the wisdom and wonders carried in this book.  This post is certainly one of my most personal exposures.

From the perspective of my cells, I am working on surrendering, to continue without obsession. After all, obsessing is stressing.

Stepping back I look at how easy it is for us to obsess about being liked, accepted, wanted, and rewarded.  And another question becomes, if no one approved or wanted what we have to offer, would we do it anyway?

Discover YOUR inner intelligence, the secrets hidden in your cells.

Where in our cells is INTELLIGENCE?

Our cellular architecture encompasses a hidden fabric of vibrating strings and tubes that some scientists say carries consciousness.  And like all strings, this cellular fabric responds to vibrations and may, in fact, be key to quantum  and energetic healing.  I call them the ‘shape shifters’ or change makers, the negotiators of cellular intelligence.

Through our bodies we can explore  how to access this seat of intelligence and gain insightful understanding to how stress, truth, gratitude, or dwelling in the past impacts our cellular selves.

There may even be implications for people living with cancer as we explore how the act of  ‘letting go of attachments’ for cells leads them into maturing wisely.  Building on this cellular process based on mechanical tension and forces placed upon our cells we can affect our physical and psychological health, behavior patterns and body practices.

Northwestern University Medical School scientist Guenter Albrecht-Buehler researched for evidence of cell intelligence. and discovers experimental proofs of cellular intelligence.

His key to proving  cells are intelligent: cell movement

A cell processes signals in such a way that it takes in information about its environment, its place in time and space, nearby  cells, any obstructions, and somehow puts  all that information together to move in a given direction.

Decades ago as I watched human blood cells moving intentionally, or so it seemed, towards a dangerous invader or a foreign object.  I asked myself, how did they know something was there, was it simply random, accidental, or was it directed in some mysterious way. How did it know where and how to move.

Albrecht-Bueler’s website is pretty complex but if the subject intrigues you it’s worth taking your time to sort it out for according to him Cell Intelligence is the future of medicine -

“Cells, not doctors heal patients.”
Only cells know how to close wounds, understand what to do with insulin and how to destroy pathogens. The best a physician can do, is to move obstacles out of the way of cells (e.g. by surgery), supply materials and weapons to the cells (e.g. drugs and building blocks of life) and leave the fight against disease to the cells.

So can we learn to ‘talk’ with our cells?  Listen, be aware of their actions and choices.

Our cells are part of a larger environment of ‘me,’ my home, my city, my family, etc.  Cells have millions of jobs to do with miraculous outcomes most of the time.  I have learned to that can communicate to them my gratitude for keeping me alive as best they can.  When I do, a peacefulness comes over me that must send them a molecules if calm.

Think about it – you are a community of trillions on intelligent beings who support your life. How would you MOVE them or have them move you?

What would happen if you start letting them know how grateful you are for all that they do?

Come explore Life’s Secrets Hidden within your cells.  Tap into your innate wisdom and thrive.

In the film Thrive, the design of the universe – is the torus, a swirling movement of energy. Universal patterns of Nature, in theory are the torus which reflects the Movement of energy.  Strings  are the form of energy.

When we get to our cells, it is the vibrating strings of the cellular fabric  (the cytoskeleton’s microtubules filaments) that engage the cell’s energy and consciousness.  And since we have strings that are part of us, we can set our strings a hummin’, resonate with joy, peace, love, whatever….

What is exciting to me is that we can tune our heart strings, strum our cell strings and who knows, maybe we are tuning into another power of us.

And in this new year, how do you want to play your strings? How will you stay in tune with yourself?

More music?

More stretching?

More relaxing?

Less tension?

Of  course, sound plays a big part in getting our brain waves moving in the same way, our cells and heart resonate with the rhythm and vibrations of music we enjoy; sound  enlivens as we allow the strings of our cells to get in tune.

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When we pour wine into our glass and swirl, we’re helping the wine open up.  It softens and release its many volatile components into the air, and our nose.  A lot more happens, of course, as the wine in our glass opens up.

We may open up too while the wine does.

And for those of us who are patient and lucky enough to own several bottles of a special vintage  can experience, over time, how a wine may open up and grow in complexity while ‘resting’ inside the bottle.  Why else would we ‘lay down’ a few bottles for future years?

As a wine photographer, on many occasions I have had the great opportunity to capture how a wine opens up in the invisible domains.  After all, I often receive several bottles of a wine I have photographed for a client.  (Will work for wine holds real meaning for me.)  ONCE YOU DELVE INTO THE INVISIBLE microscopic expressions of wine, you discover even more of the Winemaker’s Art; wine has a real life story to show and tell.

Recently I photographed a 2008 pinot noir from hope & grace wines.  And then I enjoyed another bottle at Thanksgiving with my family and photographed that too.  In one month the wine had become an even more beautiful expression, in my mouth and the microscope.

The Art of Winemaker Charles Hendricks, hope & grace

2008 Pinot Noir first taste

2008 Pinot Noir, one month later

More Pinot Noir OPENING UP

The Art of Winemaker George Vierra

See also his Chardonnay (1982 Vichon)

2006 Jeriko pinot noir at 3 years

2006 Jeriko pinot noir at 4 years

Our computers network with other devices invisibly… how does THAT happen?

The neurons in our brain and body build networks connecting through  molecular embrace, electrical impulses and contracting tubes and trembling strings.

And in each one of us

our TRILLIONS OF CELLs

create  a network of vibrating energy.

This wonderful drawing of Buddha on the cover of Tricycle  illustrates strings of connections, networks throughout the body.

And this illustration from Scientific American’s “Architecture of Life”  by  Dr. Donald Ingber

reveals the net work within each cell. Looks just like Buddha.

The fabric network of our cells sing your song.

Get in tune, attuned.

This photograph (below) through the microscope shows an actual cell and its stretchy elastic network, holder or shaper of inner intelligence.

The cells tell us to stretch our netting to make change softer. The fabric of life has us covered.

Hum and move. Your cells know how to change, be flexible, stretch a little and relax.

AHHH MMMMM

“Magic’s fundamental conception is identical with that of modern Science; underlying the whole system is a faith… in the order and uniformity of Nature.”

Sir James Frazer ~ The Golden Bough.

This may look like a mandala…

Is it ancient sacred art?  Or is it a modern computer graphic of DNA?

Mandalas and Mantras are magical ancient ritual practices still used today to connect us to our core, our spirit, soul, God.

Take a close look at the design and structure of these two images, both represent the universe in different ways .

The one on the right is a painting of an ancient sacred symbol – the Sri Yantra.  On the left, a modern look at the atoms in DNA ‘built’ by Dr. Bob Langridge who was head of the computer graphics department at UCSF.

For years I’ve used this  image of DNA, the bottom left picture.  I had spent a very short time in Bob’s lab – couldn’t grok computer language so went back to cells.  Anyway, recently I had to obtain written permission from him to use in my new book and emailed this lower image.  He emailed me back and told me it was ‘upside down’ –  the right way is the top picture.  He saw that image as resembling the vitruvian man.

The four vintage wines captured were 2001, 2005, 2008, and the not yet released 2009.   All except the 2009 (too early to tell) received expert ratings of 90 or better. The winemaker was Michael Silacci.

I will synthesize here are expert ratings and reviews plus my own wordy spin on the pictures from within the bottle.  BTW, my words came from what the pictures reveal, before reading expert opinions or actually imbibing.

My words interpreting the wine portraits -

2009 OPUS ONE

Tight, concentrated, not ready to burst out

EXPERTS: William Kelley at special vertical tasting with David Pearson, CEO of Opus One Winery at Oxford University Wine Circle in April 2012 says about Opus One 2009, “a wine that has not yet been released. Still very tight on the palate, this wine has a very powerful entry, but though promising it is difficult to evaluate in its current state.”

2008 OPUS ONE

Strong structure, bright tannins, flying forth with a softened presence that lingers.

From Opus: this precocious and remarkable wine offers a long finish. A satin texture enrobes the wine’s smooth, round tannins, its bright acidity supporting a juicy and elegant mouth feel. The smallest per-acre yield in thirty-two vintages of Opus One.BLEND – 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petit Verdot, 4% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Malbec. – 22 days of skin contact and 17 months of barrel aging in new French oak.

EXPERTS

Kelley 4/2012 The 2008 is also a formidable wine with great aromatics, though it is currently a little unresolved on the palate-as one would expect

ST 5/2011   Juicy and energetic in the mouth, with enticing inner-mouth florality. Not a particularly dense or fruity style but boasts nicely integrated acidity and already displays a lot of personality

2005 OPUS ONE

2005 was visually the most complex of this series with  strong softened structures and smooth mouth embracing textures.  This wine curls around the tongue with a tickle and tingle.

From Opus: A voluptuous garnet, a long and luscious finish.  Gorgeously pure, opulently full-bodied, with sweet tannins, superb concentration, and a low acid, ripe, tannic finish. Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon 88%, Merlot 5%, Petit Verdot 3%, Cabernet Franc 3% Malbec 1% .29 Days Skin Contact 18 Months Aging  in New French Oak barrels.

EXPERTS

ST may 08  velvety in texture but also juicy and firmly structured, with mouthcoating flavors. elegantly styled wine really coats the mouth without coming off as overly sweet. Finishes with noteworthy spine and length.

RP  Gorgeously pure, opulently full-bodied, with sweet tannins, superb concentration, and a low acid, ripe, tannic finish, it tastes like a top-notch vintage of ripe Bordeaux, but made in California

4/2012 Kelley. The 2005 is full-bodied and ripe, clearly has a long life ahead of it
2/2009 Wine globe.com A soft, creamy entry gives way to a concentrated mid-palate that expands in the mouth and lingers on the finish.

4/2011  City Wine Cellar -  A tightly knit youngster,   ending with a strong, structured tannin

2001 OPUS ONE

Concentrated, focused, restrained and rounded

 

From Opus:  A supple, creamy entry is followed by intense flavors of ripe black cherry, cassis, and dark chocolate, finishing with lingering. BLEND: Cabernet Sauvignon 87%, Merlot 6%, Malbec 3%, Cabernet Franc 2% Petit Verdot 2%
32 Days Skin Contact and 17 Months aging in New French Oak barrrels.

EXPERTS

ST 1/2005 (at 4 yrs old)  Suave, smooth, lush and mouth-filling,  Generous, pliant wine, finishing with chewy but ripe tannins and lingering sweetness

EXPERTS’ REVIEWS taken from a variety of wonderful wine buying sites such as Wine Access.  Those cited here include Steve Tanzer (ST), Robert Parker (RP), Wine Spectator (WS), Wine Enthusiast (WE) and the now defunct  Wine News (WN), William Kelley of QLI

Ratings:               2001             2005            2008               2009

• ST               91                 92                  94
• RP                                   95                   93
• WS                                  90                   94
• WE             95
• WN            93

Opus One, a partnership of two wine greats, Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild,  was the first collaboration of French and American winemakers. In the late 1970s,  Mondavi and Rothschild aimed to combine the best of Bordeaux and Napa and now David Pearson and Michael Silazzi are building that reputation. READ at QLI, the enviable Opus One vertical tasting at Oxford.

Synesthesia is a state in which sensory experiences are cross-wired in the brain.  Some say this is ‘pathological’ while others like winemaker Randall Grahm say we should all be synesthetes when it comes to wine – to use all of our senses.

The legendary maestro of California wine Andre Tchelistcheff is said to have experienced wines in bigger shapes after he stopped smoking.

When I taste wine I experience it as smooth or angular, rough or soft.  My language lacks poetic descriptions yet my photography shows shapes in wine and the chemicals of taste that are intriguing to those of us lost in our senses.  The first wine I ever photographed “looked like it tasted” according to its winemaker Theo Rosenbrand.  And since then I’ve been exploring the science and pleasure of our senses.

Do you taste shapes?  Do you prefer angular or rounded wines?  Would their shape influence what food you’d match with them?

Here are two more red wines, one is a cab, another pinot .  How do you think these 3 wines might taste?

Top image: Pinot Noir Kosta Browne Santa Lucia Highlands.

Left is Napa Valley Cabernet                                      Right in a Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

Cabernet Sauvignon - Beaulieu

Pinot Noir - Freeman Sonoma Coast

More Links about Synesthesia:

Tasting the Universe

Links to the mystical

This last post reminded me of a shamanic practice in which we open to each of our senses, one at a time, and our consciousness is altered, expanded.  I never thought of it as synesthesia… an example – feel the sun on your skin, taste it, smell it… more later.

Today I sat, once more, trying to meditate, to ask questions about how to market cellular intelligence.  What I intuited was to once again embody my belief that sound is a potent healer and activates vibrational energy, is vibrational energy.  What I have experienced in myself and people I’ve worked with, when we use sound – as simple as a hum or as complex as a hindu chant -  we automatically go into a meditative state. The humming sound quiets the chatter and soon, cells are reverberating with the sound.  I could feel it  in my chest, my belly my head.

Another insight was to give thanks to my cells for accomplishing this state or sense of alignment.  Be in  gratitude, don’t just say the words.  When I reached into that felt sense, being ever grateful for the trillions of microscopic pieces of me, my soul or spirit came into the picture and I felt light pouring in, even though there was no sun shining outside my window.

How easy this is to touch into the sacred wisdom of our cellular universe, the universe that composes our physical self.  To be in alignment. And yet, we are so much more and so are they.

God’s hand illuminates life

We stretch ourselves

Going up the ladder

transforming Fear into Challenge

My early path as a scientist was researching strategies to reverse cancer.  I wanted to help children living and dying with cancer.   In those days I thought if we knew enough, if I knew enough, we’d (I) cure cancer.  It took me years to realize that changing the course of cancer is an inside job. The doctor doesn’t cure.   And even if the disease can’t be stopped or cured, healing can happen.

I don’t know why some people’s cancers go into remission and stay there.  I do know that scientists are discovering some of the most profound breakthroughs in cancer research and want to share a bit here for you to consider the possibilities.

In  biology we have learned that the mechanical tensions on a cell affect how it will express its genes. This activity is a function of the matrix or cytoskeleton of the cell -  Strings and struts balance tensions.  The above diagram from Slim Films illustrates this fabric of our cells.  Dr. Donald Ingber at Harvard University was the first to show how  different states of mechanical tension placed on the cell, triggers which genes are expressed.

When pulled taut and tight, the cell uses its “produce more genes” and keeps on reproducing.  When the cell lets go of some its tension, softening up a bit, other genes go into action and the cell transforms to its more mature non-reproductive self.  And when all physical tension is released by the cell, a third set of genes is expressed and the cell balls up and dies.

What we know about cells in the lab – the stiffness of the environment in which they live, or are placed in, influences which genes are expressed.  The surface they’re placed on, whether it is rigid or soft,  affects the genetic activities of the cell.  These could be genes that tell the cells to  reproduce, while other genes tell them to  mature, and yet another set tells them to let go and die.  Cells have the ability to surrender and program a gentle death.  And in the lab scientists have discovered that by putting cancer cells on a rigid matrix they keep making more cells.  Yet when they were put on a soft surface, the cancer cells stopped growing, they changed what they were doing and expressed another genetic program.

We know that cells have the ability to turn off genes. They select which ones to use at a given moment. Remember every cell in your body has the same genes but don’t use them all. For example, heart cells turn off the genes that the liver needs to function.

Here’s also where the exciting new field of epigenetics comes into play.  What we do now can make our cells change their behaviors. The actual genetic structure won’t change, but which genes come into play can be. Future offspring of pregnant moms can also be influenced by what mom does now, generations down the road.

We can change how genes express themselves in the lab but can we do that in our bodies?

Can we do that with cancer cells?

Must we wait for laboratory scientists to prove the possibilities and mechanics?  Can we use our inner wisdom and resources to provide an environment for dangerous cells to transform their direction? I am not saying that our tensions or what we think or imagine causes or cures cancer. I am just offering  a look into science that may support the spirit.

Many people use imagery to work with their disease.  Imagination may set up new healing.  You may have experienced imagery in your own life – dreams, worry, meditation, focusing on a future event or a past joy.  Imagery can be a powerful doorway into your cellular wisdom.  So I am offering this brief ‘script,’ if you are so inclined to try it out.

Always give yourself the message that whatever you experience does no harm.

Take some time to enter the inner space of your body. Close your eyes, let your breath move deeper into your belly and lungs.  Breathe so that you receive the life-giving oxygen your cells need.

Now imagine yourself as one giant cell sensing the core of your cell self, breathing to it and then sensing the outside edges of this cell self.  If you know there are abnormal cells hiding in your body or suspect such a thing, imagine or sense these cells.  And just breathe normally.

When you feel ready imagine or pretend that those abnormal cells become less rigid.  Instead of holding tight to the tissue where they are spending time, they soften up as if they are on a soft mattress.  The genes in these cells are now tweaked and unable to reproduce anymore.  Instead not finding their tight anchor they turn on their ‘time to die’ genes.  If they have lost those death genes, they instead turn on the genes that let them become normal healthy cells.  Allow yourself to experience the inner journey of these cells for as long as you like.

Again when ready, bring your awareness and breath back to your cell self.  And begin humming mmmmm to fill the space with healing energy where the cancer or abnormal cells have been.  You don’t have to know specifics of where they were or what they look like just know that you and they are letting go of the holds they have on your body and spirit.  Hum, drum, ring a Tibetan bowl to fill you with light  and love.  Thank your cells for taking such good care of you and thank those cells for changing their mind to take on a new program.