The Pharmacy of the Brain

Inside a little organ called hypothalamus is where the emotional responses are produced. There, in our brain, is the biggest pharmacy there is, where a particles called "peptides", little amino acid sequences which, combines, create the neurohormones or neuropeptides.

They are responsible for the emotions we feel everyday. According to John Hagelin, Physics professor and director of the Institute for science, technology, and public politics of the University of Maharishi, dedicated to the development of theories of unified quantum field: "there's chemistry for anger, for happiness, for suffering, envy..."

At the moment we feel a certain emotion, the hypothalamus let out those peptides, releasing them through the pituitary gland into the blood, which will connect with the cells those receptors have on the exterior. The storm acts like a storm which downloads the thoughts through the synaptic fissure. No one has ever seen a thought, not even in the most advanced laboratories, but what can be seen is the electric storm caused by each thought, connecting brain cells through the synaptic fissures.

Each cell has millions of receptors around its surface, like opening to those emotional experiences. Dr Candance Pert, holder of patents about modified peptides, and Professor at the University of Medicine in Georgetown, explains it this way: "Each cell is a little home of consciousness. When a neuropeptide enters a cell this equals a discharge of biochemicals which may modify the nucleus of the cell."

Our brain creates these neuropeptides and our cells get used to "receive" each one of the emotions: anger, anguish, happiness, envy, generosity, pessimism, optimism... Once we get used to them, thought habits are created. Through the millions of synaptic endings, our brain is constantly recreating itself; one thought or emotion creates a new connection, which is reinforced whenever we think or feel "something" repeatedly. That's how a person associates certain situation with an emotion: a bad experience in an elevator, like getting trapped inside, may cause the object "elevator" is associated with the fear of being trapped or locked inside. If that association isn't interrupted, our brain might relate that thought-object to that emotion and reinforce that connection, known in the psychology field as "phobia" or "fear".

All habits and addictions operate with the same mechanism. One fear (to not sleeping, speaking in public, falling in love) might cause us turn to a pill, a drug, or some kind of damaging thought. The unconscious goal is "trick" our cells with a different emotion, usually something that makes us excited, "distracting" us from the fear. This way, every time we experience that situation, the fear will connect us, inevitably, with the "solution", meaning, the addiction. Behind every addiction (drugs, people, drinking, gambling, sex, television) there a fear inserted in the cellular memory.

The good news is, when we break that vicious cycle, as soon as we break that connection, the brain creates another bridge to the brain cells which is the "passage to liberation". Because, as it's been proven by the Massachusetts Technological Institute in its research with Buddhist lamas in state of meditation, our brain is constantly restoring itself, even in old age. For that reason, it can unlearn and relearn new ways of living the emotions.

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