BELLY BRAIN | JjG-Vibrasons

LE CERVEAU DU VENTRE
le Cerveau Entérique

THE BRAIN OF THE BELLY

The Enteric Brain

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THE AILMENTS OR THE WORDS OF THE GUT

Many people suffer from digestive issues, heartburn, intestinal pain, bloating, and other ailments related to the GUT. It is widely acknowledged, both in scientific and personal spheres, that our gut is our second brain.

Some even argue—and I am among them—that it is our first brain, as it is connected to our emotions (Soul), which generate far more harm than good. This is because our conditioned mind has overtaken our ability to feel and trust our intuition.

When negative emotions are blocked and cannot find an outlet, they fester in the organs and eventually migrate to the abdomen.

Moreover, the connections from our gut to our brain are far more numerous than those going from the brain to the gut.

This has been my observation over the past five years… the crown for ailments goes to digestive problems!

The Gut Brain or Enteric Brain

Serious studies demonstrate the close connection between our brain and our abdomen. According to embryology, the nerve cells in the gut originate from the same embryonic layer as those in the brain.

At a certain point in embryonic development, nerve cells separate from the main brain and migrate to the gut, forming the Enteric Nervous System (ENS). The study of its functioning has given rise to a new discipline: neuro-gastroenterology.

The Enteric Nervous System has various functions:

It is responsible for the propulsion of the food bolus.
It maintains and regulates the digestive system.
It can modify the proliferation rate of intestinal mucosal cells.
It innervates associated and neighboring organs, such as the pancreas.

On the biopsychic level:

It is closely linked to the immune system, which contributes to the sense of self.
It is responsible for maintaining our psychological balance.

The neurons of the enteric nervous system (ENS) produce the same neurotransmitters as the main brain. The most striking example is serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences mood and is produced at 95% by the gut’s nerve cells. According to Michael Gershon, the gut brain may be capable of memory.

It likely participates in the dream phase during sleep by producing serotonin and may constitute the biological matrix of the unconscious.

Additionally, the digestive mucosa acts as a true barrier between the external world and the body. It comes into contact with numerous toxic or even deadly foreign molecules. The enteric nervous system must react immediately in case of danger, for example, by inducing vomiting. Furthermore, the digestive system houses 70 to 80% of the immune system’s cells, appearing to largely direct the body’s defense mechanisms.

The enteric nervous system mirrors the central nervous system and vice versa. They communicate constantly via the vagus nerve while maintaining their independence.

According to Dr. Gershon, our two brains—the one in our head and the one in our gut—must cooperate. If they do not, chaos ensues in our gut, and misery in our head.

The abdominal region, typically associated with the assimilation and elimination of food, is also linked to the assimilation and elimination of emotions. Our enteric brain in the abdomen shapes our emotions and, in turn, is affected by them.

With its array of neurotransmitters and other endogenous psychoactive substances, it has the power to give rise to discouragement or enthusiasm, helplessness or pleasure, depression or fulfillment.

Endowed with memory, our gut holds the archives of our entire emotional life.

References:

“Only the body knows. The body speaks, even when the individual has nothing left to say.”
FIAMMETTI Roger - The Emotional Language of the Body - Editions Dervy
The Secrets of the Gut, Filter of Our Body - Dr. Louis BERTHELOT & Dr. Jacqueline WARNET - Edition Albin Michel
Website of Madame Patricia Buigné-Verron, biodynamic psychotherapist, “The Inner Movement”

The Contribution of Tradition in Considering the Gut Brain

What modern medicine is only recently discovering, the ancient Taoists fully understood.

For them, the human body is governed by two brains: the cerebral brain and the abdominal brain.

They associated the activity of the nervous system primarily with the abdominal region and, to a lesser extent, the brain. The perception and generation of emotions are functions of the abdominal region, specifically located at the solar plexus.

Negative emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety, sadness, or discouragement (if too frequent or chronic) create highly damaging energetic blockages for health. Similar harm can result from material causes such as surgeries, physical accidents, drug use, certain medications, stress from chronic overwork, sudden or brutal emotional shocks, poor diet, or maintaining an improper posture.

The solar plexus affects all organs in the abdominal region. When it functions well, the organs are free from stress and tension. But when balance is disrupted, problems arise. According to Taoist theories, this balance is disturbed when, by suppressing emotions, the cerebral (rational mind) develops at the expense of the visceral. By denying their emotions, humans impair the solar plexus’s functions, which disrupts organ functioning and shortens their lifespan.

True emotions are expressed at the solar plexus rather than in the brain. The brain merely records the expression of an emotion. When the organs that sustain life cease to function normally, the information reflected in the brain becomes vague, confused, and obscures the wisdom of the gut and the intelligence of the heart.

If negative emotions are blocked and cannot find an outlet, they fester in the organs and end up migrating to the abdomen, which acts as the body’s “dump.”

“The release of negative emotions and toxic thoughts comes with digestion,” says Gilles Marin, a Chi Nei Tsang practitioner. “It is a physiological process through which the emotional burden is released. Internally, part is eliminated, and part is integrated. The eliminated part is generally the most unpleasant and passes through the large intestine. This leads me to say that the large intestine is the organ of emotional consciousness.

It is at this point that blockages sometimes manifest, such as constipation. We lock away something we don’t want others to see.”

The Universal Tao System is a practice of body, soul, and spirit. Its creator, Master Mantak Chia, explains how our internal organs contribute to a physiology of forgiveness and transformation.

From his perspective, the primary key to any process of self-transformation is the willingness to forgive oneself, as it opens the heart, sets the flow of Chi in motion, and releases it both inward to the organs and outward.

However, forgiveness is not a one-time act; it is a necessity in a continuous process of observation and inner growth.

Forgiving oneself. Is there anything more difficult?

How many times, how long do we scrape our lives on past mistakes that resurface unexpectedly, catching us off guard? Some days, guilt overwhelms us with its demons, reflecting an image of ourselves we’d rather erase. How, then, do we reharmonize our lives and recreate inner unity?

Self-forgiveness is the first step toward reunification with ourselves, putting an end to the fragmentation caused by wounds or trauma.

The refusal or inability to forgive affects all our internal organs.

Forgiving does not mean the wound must be closed. It may remain, but it is no longer active or decisive in generating toxins, and thus it does not hinder the emergence of positive emotions that foster understanding and inner growth.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. At first, this is not necessary; only the charge that triggers the release of toxins needs to be neutralized.

In conclusion, Gilles Marin states: “We grow internally by digesting our emotions. We swallow emotions, break them down with the stomach, then extract what we need to grow and eliminate what we don’t need. By assimilating our experiences, we grow, gain maturity, and become stronger and more sensitive, which allows us to process past emotional burdens that have not been digested.”

It is because of this critical role in managing emotions that I consider the gut to be the first brain!

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