5) The human hourglass

~ New view TWO ~
The human hourglass

Our two brains, ENS and CNS, are upstairs and downstairs in the human psyche.
We’ll pose a question here you may wish to return to.  Do you live more upstairs or downstairs in your psyche in any given day?
We are going to expand on Caroline Myss’ (pronounced “Mace”) idea of the human hour glass, that human energy is organized top and bottom in the body.  We’re going to suggest why the diaphragm muscle divides these two and why it makes sense we have TWO nervous systems; our two minds–and this is a good thing!  The following mixes Myss’ ideas with those of Maryann Castellanos and some of my own.
The human psyche has magnetic properties; specifically, humans have a north and south pole. Our diaphragm muscle divides these polarities top and bottom.
The practical significance of having two magnetic poles is embodied in our two nervous systems.  One is the enteric (gut) nervous system.  It lives in our south pole.  The other is our cerebral (brain, spinal cord and spinal nerves) nervous system.  It lives in our north pole.
This simple idea can replace the older, more confusing terms: sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
Caroline Myss’ hourglass image

In Caroline Myss’s 12 CD kit, The Science of Medical Intuition (Sounds True, 2002), and in Invisible Acts of Power she talks about the hourglass form.
Going from bottom up, she describes the heart chakra as the first center in our top north pole.   If we number our etheric centers 1-7, we then have this:

Combining Myss’ idea with what Maryann Castellanos of HealthyEnergetics.net has shown me, the narrow waist in the hourglass image is more precisely the diaphragm muscle, the large dome-shaped muscle we use for breathing. Above the diaphragm is the system of heart, throat, brow and crown. Below the heart is the system of centers, belly, sacral and root.  These three lower centers approximate the physical body, speaking energetically.
Different tempos above and below
The hourglass image suggests the possibility of different tempos top and bottom in the human psyche; and this is so.
Myss observes in the bottom half of our hourglass, we are “linear and sequential.”  This is the slower tempo.  Life situations are processed one by one and sequentially. The manner in which the gastro-intestinal tract processes food illustrates this preference for the linear and the sequential. Myss suggests not only food but also emotional experiences are processed this way below the heart.
Above the heart, Myss says linear sequential processing is much less a factor. We can change time, make new appointments, cancel old ones; we can change time. We have the capacity to think and move at the speed of light. In the heart and above, we can do this; we are “holographic” Myss says. Above the diaphragm, our etheric centers are more blended than below the diaphragm; they’re more of a team.
In childhood, specifically before puberty, when the bottom half of the hourglass predominates, body, imagination and feelings are all converged, perceived as similar and the same.
Myss’ characterization of how things need to happen in the lower half of the hourglass tells us much about how the basic self and children want to, need to,  experience life and how they process their disturbances.  Young children and the b/s in everyone needs things to happen in a predictable orderly sequence, otherwise they have a difficult time learning, processing hurt and evolving.
In this the lower half of the hourglass we are akin to plants.  A flower blossom’s opening is tied to a sequence of necessary events in time: First there is spring thaw, then moisture and warmth, then leaf-leaf-leaf, bud–and if conditions are right–you get a blossom.
In the top half of the hourglass, in our head, in great contrast, the rational mind can start with an image of a blossom and work our way backwards to the seed.  Indeed, the c/s becomes bored if everything happens too predictably. It likes surprises and deviations from routine.
This ends Caroline’s Myss’ contribution to this topic, known to me. Corrections and clarifications are invited.
Enteric and Cerebral Nervous systems (NS)

Hourglass imagery is useful to characterize our two nervous systems.  We have two concentrations of nerve tissue in our body. One concentration above in the brain, a second concentration of nerve tissues below in our “gut.” This suggests the human being has brains in two places—and this is so.  We have two distinct nervous systems and BOTH of them are intelligent.
One nervous system, composed of nerve tissue, is in your “gut,” the enteric nervous system (ENS). You also see it termed “mesenteric nervous system;” and, “abdominal brain.” Your “gut brain” is located primarily below your diaphragm muscle in the nerve tissues of the omentum, stomach, pancreas, spleen, part of the small intestine, esophagus and tongue.

The omentum is by far the least known anatomical part in this list.  It is the flap of nerve tissue overhanging the stomach and adjacent organs as in the image.  The experience of being “punched in the gut” and “butterflies in the stomach” originate solely from the omentum, so, it’s a big part of the gut brain.
Your second nervous system is in your “head,” your cerebral nervous system (CNS). It too is composed of nerve tissue, located primarily in your spinal cord, brain and the nerves radiating out from the spine.
Find out much more about your two nervous systems in You Have Three Selves, Vol. 1 and in many articles at my sites.
In physiologic terms, energetic strength is Coherence, Integration and Alignment–the new CIA–between our two nervous systems, our two brains.
The more CIA we are, the more humans function as One Whole instead of as Two Minds. Therefore, unresolved issues, any issue on which we are “of two minds,” keeps us OUT of integration and depletes our energetic strength.
Q: You mean, the more integrated we are top and bottom, the fewer inner barriers we have and the greater our potential vitality?
A: Yup, that about sums it up.
In the 1940s Wilhelm Reich correlated personality disturbances with differences in energetic charge in the physical body.  He noticed not only striking differences between different individuals as to charge in the body; but also, differences in charge within individuals, between the half of the body above the diaphragm muscle and the half of the body below the diaphragm.  Either half could be undercharged; either could be overcharged and virtually every permutation can be observed in people.  In turn these patterns of over and undercharge correlate with personality expressions.  Thru study, Reich grew “new eyes” to see; for instance, a person who was over-charged above the diaphragm muscle and who; at the same time, was also weak below the diaphragm muscle.   This defined for Reich the classic “neurotic” pattern, something still useful today, for those interested in reading body language.
A chicken-and-egg question arises here:  is low energy below the diaphragm the cause of anatomies below the diaphragm, “skinny legs and all”?  Or do the skinny legs come first and then the depleted energy?  Answers are individual here.
Reich describes the patterns he found simply and clearly in his forgotten yet surprisingly readable and cogent, Character Analysis (1948).

Our cerebral nervous system (CNS) and enteric nervous system (ENS) are “upstairs” & “downstairs” in our physical body.
(Continues at length in the print edition)
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