Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Intergenerational effects of Trauma


In my last three posts, I discussed the individual and group affects of bullying and their cost to society and business.

In this post, I'd like to discuss some of the latest updates in epigenetics that have identified the inter-generational effects of trauma, and how that is shaping the wellbeing of current and future generations.

In a study from the University of Lethbridge in Canada, researchers identified that generational exposure to stress and trauma, progressively shortened pregnancy length, leading to ongoing negative effects for both mother and child. These effects had a compounding effect, growing more pronounced with each generation:

"Gerlinde Metz, senior author of the article, says: "We show that stress across generations becomes powerful enough to shorten pregnancy length in rats and induce hallmark features of human preterm birth. A surprising finding was that mild to moderate stress during pregnancy had a compounding effect across generations. Thus, the effects of stress grew larger with each generation."*


In another study it was shown that trauma effects histone and methylation, leading genes that should be silenced to be expressed, while others that should be expressed to be silenced.

"This distinction is especially important when a cell copies its genetic material, which happens just prior to cell division. As the cell replicates its DNA, it must also preserve the epigenetic marks that delineate active and inactive areas of the genome. In fact, silencing machinery, which deposits methylation marks on H3.1, works in tandem with the replication machinery. "Because H3.3 can't carry this modification, its presence on active genes allows them to escape silencing," says Jacob. "In our research, we discovered a way for cells to protect active genes from silencing and preserve that memory through successive cellular generations.

This study also has implications for how the genetic material is copied. "We have found that replication (how DNA copies itself) and transcription (how DNA is copied into RNA) are controlled by the same highly conserved histone. Thus, these most fundamental properties of the genetic material are regulated by our chromosomes," says Martienssen.**

This study identified the mechanism through which gene expression is silenced or not, explaining a phenomenon that has been postulated for some time. Histone, it appears, is the epigenetic smoking gun.


In a further study it was shown that even two childhood exposures to bullying or psychological trauma predisposed the individual to the activation of a genetic risk factor for PTSD, Bipolar Disorder and Depression.

The question of whether the genetic risks for developing PTSD are similar in other populations that are exposed to different traumas at different periods in their lives remains to be further tested, noted Galea. "However, our findings that the ADRB2 factor might be shared by men and women, African Americans and European Americans, and military and civilians is consistent with the idea that some genetic risk factors for PTSD might be common across populations and even shared by other stress-related disorders, such as depression."***

What is the take-home message from these and other studies into gene expression and the epigenetic effects of trauma?

1. It's clear that bullying and other psychological trauma changes gene expression for the individual experiencing it. These effects can continue well into adulthood, contributing to mental and physical illness.
2. If your parents or grandparents experienced bullying or other psychological trauma, the genes you inherited from them were changed by the experience.
3. If you inherited these changed genes and experience bullying in childhood or adolescence your response will be more severe.
4. If your children then experience bullying the negative effects will be magnified.
5. If your mother was psychologically or physically abused before or during pregnancy, the downstream effects for each subsequent generation become more pronounced.

So when we bully, either as an individual, group or community, we create negative outcomes for generations to come. When an individual or group is oppressed, the effects get worse for each generation, making it harder for subsequent generations to fight for their rights.

When we stand by and do nothing while an individual or group is bullied, we contribute to this problem. The long-term effects may well create fertile ground for crime and terrorism, as the second or third generation feel themselves immersed in an inescapable sense of hopelessness and despair. Indeed population studies seem to make this link - that individuals or groups will struggle to achieve their potential and may become easy targets for radicalization.

If you've been bullied, seek help and support and as much counseling as you require to reverse these effects, so you can pass on more resilient genes to subsequent generations.

As communities, we need to provide more support for the victims of bullying and trauma, providing inter-generational counseling and opportunity to those most at risk, rather than oppressing them further and compounding the problems.




Elisabetta is an expert in human performance, specializing in the study of epigenetics. Elisabetta is an in demand speaker, writer and mentor, and the author of The Energy Code (2014), The Infidel (2013), The DNA of Bullying (2011), The Energy Bucket (2010) and D'Arc, the Legend of Saint Joan (1998), as well as the soon to be released novel - Veritas...

Visit her website

Buy her books






Citations:
 
* Youli Yao, Alexandra M Robinson, Fabiola Zucchi, Jerrah C Robbins, Olena Babenko, Olga Kovalchuk, Igor Kovalchuk, David M Olson, Gerlinde Metz. Ancestral exposure to stress epigenetically programs preterm birth risk and adverse maternal and newborn outcomes. BMC Medicine, 2014; 12 (1): 121 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-014-0121-6
** Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. "Unraveling mystery in 'histone code' shows how gene activity is inherited." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 March 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140313142612.htm>.
 
*** Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "Evidence of genetic link to PTSD in soldiers exposed to childhood trauma." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 September 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140916123636.htm>.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Pack Mentality; Why Winning Isn't Enough for the Bully...

In my last blog I shared my experience of individual bullying at the hands of a psychopathic father.

When the power of a bully is entrenched through societal privilege, political dominance or wealth, their behavior can become even more extreme. Nowhere is this more apparent right now than Scotland.

Despite a positive campaign atmosphere in the run up to the Scottish Referendum for Independence, the post election atmosphere has revealed a dark face.

This weekend video evidence has emerged within Scotland of interference in the referendum electoral process, with footage showing apparent vote stacking at polling booths and the misappropriation of YES votes into the NO count at the counting room; allegedly distorting the proportion of YES to NO votes. A petition has been signed by 90,000 Scottish voters demanding a recount. So far none of this has been reported by mainstream media.

Video footage from Glasgow on the day after the vote shows Unionists taunting YES campaigners, charging them and threatening an escalation of violence. Social media posts reveal YES voters in Glasgow are afraid to leave their homes.

So if these allegations are true, why would the victorious NO voters - a supposed majority - behave in such a manner?

My hunch is that some of the NO voters know the vote was rigged, and are now beginning a campaign of intimidation to ensure YES voters are too afraid to speak up. This is the typical modus operandi of the bully. You see, the bully knows they are not a winner, and can only win through intimidation, fear and cheating. They will do anything to win, and yet the fruits of that victory taste hollow. Because the bully is emotionally immature, the only way they can cope with this uncomfortable feeling is to lash out and ensure that anyone who suspects the deception is silenced.

My advice to anyone facing this kind of situation is:

1. Collect the evidence: take photos, video footage and note in a diary each and every incident, post these to social media, as that will provide a date stamp - this evidence will stand up in court. Do not embellish or exaggerate  incidents, the bully will use errors on your part against you, and because they have the support of mainstream media, and government on their side your evidence has to be rock solid.

2. Do not retaliate: when confronted with a bully, simply walk away, do not invite trouble and as much as you can avoid trouble spots, do not be drawn in.

3. Keep the positive movement going, energize each other with hope and positive steps to achieve your goals, no matter how steep the odds may seem right now. The bully hates your positivity. They want to drain you of that and draw you into anger, rage, fear and hopelessness - because that is where they live.

4. Withdraw your energy from the agents of the bully, and spread the word, far and wide - you are part of a bigger movement for reform in the UK, the opportunity to end an antiquated system of centralized power.

5. No matter what happens, don't give up on your vision, support each other, become as educated as you can, and help others to become more so.

Defeating a bully takes endurance and wisdom. Theseus of Greek legend had to negotiate the labyrinth to find and defeat the minotaur - the half man half bull that has come to symbolize the bully.

Our task today is no different, we must understand the foe we face, know the mind and tactics of the bully to defeat them. As powerful as they might seem, they are a minority, that is why they are so afraid, that is why they behave the way they do, that is why they can be overcome.

Elisabetta is an expert in human performance, specializing in the study of epigenetics. Elisabetta is an in demand speaker, writer and mentor, and the author of The Energy Code (2014), The Infidel (2013), The DNA of Bullying (2011), The Energy Bucket (2010) and D'Arc, the Legend of Saint Joan (1998), as well as the soon to be released novel - Veritas...

Visit her website

Buy her books on Amazon

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The Scars of Bullying and Child Abuse

These are the adult scars of child-abuse; of a childhood controlled by a psychopath, and the bullying that ensued in the schoolyard because I was different. The ones you can't see are much worse.





This scar happened some 45 years ago when I was 4 years old. I had only been back in Australia with my parents for less than a year after life-saving surgery in Italy. My mother worked as a primary school teacher, my father worked night shift, and so I spent the days with him. I now know my father was a psychopath, but back then I was his adoring pre-school age daughter. The dark side of my father was first revealed to me some months earlier. I have a clear memory of my grandmother gathering me into her arms, running to the bathroom and locking the door while my father pounded on it, screaming he was going to kill me, at that time I was only 3. This rage started to happen regularly anytime someone commented on what a pretty child I was.


On the day I got this scar, we had been grocery shopping. There was a crate of soft-drink bottles on the floor in the back seat of the car next to me. My father told me to stay in the car while he took the groceries in. I waited and waited, but I wanted to help. I got out of the car and took a glass bottle of lemonade with me, carrying it carefully in my arms. I remember it was a dark green glass and the bottle felt heavy.

The last thing I remember before the blood, was as I approached the screen door. My father was coming out, he saw me carrying the bottle and roared at me for disobeying him. I remember freezing as he grabbed the bottle, raised it and swung it at my face. I remember putting my hands up in front of me. Then everything went black. When I came to, I was standing. My dad was wrapping me in towels and I remember fountains of blood running down my body and spurting out of my right wrist; the towels turned instantly red. I heard myself ask:

"Daddy, am I going to die," though my voice sounded funny, probably because half my lip was detached and there was a gaping hole in my face.

Then my father punched me and knocked me out.

The next thing I remember was waking up in emergency, doctors all around, my mother crying her eyes out at the end of the bed, my father looking down, at me. I heard my mother ask through tears,

"How could you let her carry such a big bottle, you know she is clumsy."

I never told, I wore my scar as a badge of my supposed clumsiness, and took the bullying when children ridiculed me for having a mustache scar, or being 'it' - neither a girl or a boy, just a thing. I resisted all attempts by my family to have it surgically repaired or covered up, it was part of me, part of my journey and I knew every time my father looked at me it would silently remind him of what he had done.

Over the next 15 years I watched as my father drove my mother to madness through his violence and control; how she eventually became an accomplice, ruining our childhood through emotional, mental, physical and sexual abuse.

This story is hard to tell, but I tell it because hundreds of people knew this was happening. My father was a violent psychopath, beating men almost to death and yet was never arrested. Family and friends knew this, I imagine doctors at the very least suspected, and yet nobody did anything.

My father's bullying behavior in the workplace meant he didn't keep jobs in one place for long; not because he was sacked. He was too productive a worker for that. They would just move him to another contract, another mine, another town. Dad would be charming to start, and his productivity was so impressive he was always paid well, thought the gambling meant we never saw much of it. He had a nick-name in the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme - Nero - for his black temper, and reputation for beating all-comers in street fights.

My father was protected by a society that worships superhuman strength, record breaking productivity and compartmentalizes that from the damage that bullies do to their families, co-workers and communities.

My father is now 80 years old and suffering dementia, he has conveniently forgotten his crimes and blames everyone else for his poverty and loneliness. 

You may read this and think he was a product of his upbringing, his genes, his socioeconomic class. My father was born the son of a self-made millionaire in Italy in the early 1930s. By age three the signs he was different were already apparent when he tried to murder his mother with a garden implement and was only stopped when his grandmother walked into the scene. He was physically talented, and highly intelligent with an infamous temper, who could flip on a dime and go from charming and warm to deadly.

WWII couldn't have helped as the violence he experienced as a young child at the hands of both the Nazis and US forces is beyond the comprehension of most of us. And yet his cousins experienced the same thing and none of them turned out like him.

I write this because bullying, domestic violence and child-abuse are being discussed on talk shows everywhere. Everyone has an opinion, but nobody seems to have a solution.

These experiences set me on a lifelong quest to understand human behavior and, along with the rare genetic condition I have, inspire me to keep searching for answers. So here's what I know to be true. Not as a theory, but as a reality:

Bullies, whether they are abusive parents, spouses, teachers, schoolyard children, politicians, professionals, blue collar workers or terrorists, only thrive on the energy we give them through our attention, fear and desire to appease them or cure them.

This is just what they want, and it is all they need.

The solution?

Withdraw your energy. Become aloof to them, distance yourself in any way you can. Starve them of the financial means to thrive, if you have the power. In the workplace, close your doors to them, and do this without being drawn into an argument. Refuse to play, cut them out of your life, and document everything. Put it all on paper, dates, times, what happened, and photos if you can. Don't fool yourself into thinking you can beat them head on, you can't.

If you know someone is being victimized by a bully, offer to help the victim, support them to notify the authorities, but make sure everything is documented. If they say no, stay vigilant, there will be a moment when they need you. If it is a child, don't hesitate, report their abuser.

If you are the spouse of an abuser - you cannot fix them, you cannot cure them. That is up to them and it will only happen when all other forms of support are withdrawn and they are forced to look themselves in the mirror. But don't expect a miracle, the violent, psychopathic bully rarely changes.

Society - stop rewarding bullies with high incomes, flashy cars and positions of power and stop holding them up as roll-models. Look for the signs, and address them. Provide real programs to help anyone with rage issues learn better skills. Make your organization's culture a NO-Bully zone.

The Justice System - stop treating domestic violence as a lesser crime, prosecute regardless of whether the victim files a complaint or not.

Set this as an example to our children that might isn't right, and manipulation isn't good. There are plenty of constructive, non-violent productive people who were born as psychopaths. They are the ones whose families realized there was something different about them early on, and managed them with insight, not denial.They are the ones that learned about their psychological profile and understood the future that faced them if they didn't learn different behaviors.

When we say one thing, but do another, our children notice and they tend to copy what we do, not what we say. So, if you have anger issues and tend toward violence, don't justify it because you were beaten in childhood. That doesn't make it okay. Get help, talk about it, and change. Create a support system to keep your family safe from you. Own up to the problem, and then you can own up to the solution.

As long as we promote, justify, reward and overlook the behavior of bullies (whether they are wife-beaters, child abusers or the workplace tyrant) they will continue to thrive, and we are all to blame.

Elisabetta is the author of The Energy Bucket, The Energy Code, The Infidel and the upcoming books The DNA of Bullying, and Veritas.

Her books and articles are available from:

http://elisabettalfaenza.com 

You can watch Elisabetta's videos on her channel:

My Channel






Friday, September 12, 2014

The DNA of Bullying: Why Society Favors the Bully...


Bullying and its affect upon individuals and society has been in the news a lot this year. It's also been a hot topic on many of the interviews I've done around the world lately.

Interviewers are often surprised when I show little sympathy for the bully. I hear things like - but they are humans too - which of course is true. The issue is that serial bullies lack one important human trait - empathy. Perversely this seems to provide them with a social advantage when it comes to manipulating and traumatizing their victims and then getting away with it.

A recent study by the University of Warwick has recommended that anti-bullying policies must focus on all of society, because as long as bullies reap the life-long benefits of increased status and opportunity, bullies will thrive, while their victims suffer life-long negative health and social impacts.*

So, here is the unadulterated truth: society loves bullies. Yes, that's right, society selects bullies for promotion, leadership, wealth and position, and has done so for thousands of years. We love winners, and despite our moralistic preaching, will look to blame the victim, because we perceive them to be a loser in the competition of life.


Neil Tippett, lead author of the review, emphasized, "This hierarchy is familiar to us all from our own school days. In my view, so long as the rewards exist for bullies in the form of social status, it is difficult to make bullies to change their behaviours as there is little incentive for them to do so."*


We are fascinated by bullies, uncompromising winners and those who pursue success at all costs. The charismatic bully holds us in their thrall, convinces some of us to participate in acts of physical, emotional or psychological harm to others, and promises to share the rewards. This phenomenon contributed to the Global Financial Crisis, and resulted in those who tried to warn government and the financial sector of the impending crisis, being ostracized and victimized.

If the bully is rewarded early in life, they are unlikely to change their behavior for the better, or develop empathy, instead hard-wiring in the mind-maps for bullying and manipulation, becoming extreme narcissists. If they are one of the 3% of the human population who is a psychopath, then this bullying behavior can set them on a path that will most likely do immense harm to others. If the psychopath is bullied, then the results can be even worse. Research suggests that when a psychopath is bullied during childhood their lack of empathy can become pathological.

So what do we do?

As a society we need to stop rewarding bullies, from the playground, to the classroom, to the shop-floor to the board-room. We need to take complaints about bullying seriously, and swallow the short term bitter-pill of removing a bully from their position of power. If we observe a bully in action, submit a complaint and then remove yourself from the bully's sphere of influence. It is not your job to fix them, it is not your job to make them better, leave that to the professionals. Take your energy elsewhere and reclaim your life.




If we are serious about creating a bully-free playground, we need to stop rewarding the teenage and adult bully; we need to champion co-operation, consultation and collaboration and reward these behaviors instead.

Are we as a society prepared to walk-the-talk?

Elisabetta is the author of The Energy Code, The DNA of Bullying, The Infidel, Veritas and D'Arc, the Legend of Saint Joan.

More from Elisabetta 


*Journal References:
  1. Neil Tippett, BSc, and Dieter Wolke, PhD. Socioeconomic Status and Bullying: A Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Public Health, April 2014 DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.301960 
  2.  University of Warwick. "Anti-bullying policy must focus on all of society." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 April 2014. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140429125737.htm.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

The Tyranny of Familiar Truths



When the 'Jack The Ripper DNA' story hit the headlines today, I was interested and intrigued by the variety of responses; especially how people clung to their conspiracy theories despite evidence to the contrary. At the same time I was having an interesting conversation via The Energy Code Facebook Fan Page about the nature of ideology and dogma.

It got me thinking about how many of us have 'sacred cow' beliefs that we will defend bitterly, sometimes violently, and how the tyranny of truth has held back advances in science, the arts and philosophy throughout the ages, mainly via religion's repression of thought and freedom of expression.

Before anyone gets offended here, I would like to add that academic and scientific edifices are just as capable of repressing ideas that challenge the accepted wisdom of the age, although historically, science has been more ready to adapt than religion; with change measured in decades for science versus centuries for religion.

I believe that our attraction to holding on to cherished beliefs has a lot to do with the way our brains create mind-maps for familiar activities. Mindmaps are life-hacks, they allow us to reduce the amount of effort required to think and do. Once we have performed a task, or acquired knowledge, or taken on a belief, it is easier to rely on the existing mindmap than to edit or replace it. Think of mindmaps as being paths of least resistance, a lot like a pathway through deep snow. Once we have trod a path through the snow, it is easier to retrace our steps, making that path more obvious, and requiring less effort. The more we walk along the same path, the easier and easier it gets.

Now we may discover there is a shorter route to get to where we want to go, but it is through virgin snow, so it is going to require a lot more effort to go that way at first. Here's the caveat, however, once we have walked the new path a couple of times, it too will become ingrained and be the path of least resistance, as well as more efficient.

So next time someone presents you with evidence that challenges a cherished belief or way of doing things, don't just resist it out of habit. Sit back, take a moment and assess if this new information is useful, and then allow yourself to update your mindmaps to accommodate it. The first few times might feel like trudging through foot-deep snow, but believe me, pretty soon you will be be glad you made the effort to escape the tyranny of a familiar truth.


Elisabetta is the author of The Energy Code, The Infidel, Veritas, and D'Arc the Legend of Saint Joan.

Visit her website 

Preview or Purchase The Energy Code from Amazon 

Saturday, August 23, 2014

What is Energetic Health? Excerpt from The Energy Code by Elisabetta L. Faenza



 To celebrate the launch of The Energy Code, today's blog shares an excerpt about the very important concept of energetic health; a concept that relates to our internal well-being as well as how we interact with the world at large.


Enjoy,

Elisabetta 25th of August 2014




If we think of our bodies, cells and relationships as buckets of energy
that we can have conscious awareness of, we start to be able to better
manage our health. And by this, I am not referring solely to physical
health. The latest scientific discoveries imply that the physical, mental,
emotional and even metaphysical are intertwined via the DNA feedback
loop, and cannot be understood in isolation.


One area of our life links to another, so I use the term Energetic Health
to represent the sum-total of the health of these systems. Using the 7 Key
Principles I outline in The Energy Code, we can manage the Energetic Health of our
cells, and organs, with a flow on effect to the health of our body, mind
and spirit.

This doesn’t stop at the individual. Because of the DNA’s ability to
broadcast its health into the environment, each of us affects the Energetic
Health of everyone we interact with. So managing our own Energetic
Health, by implication, helps us to manage the health of our close
relationships; whether at home, at work or at play.

The alternative to Energetic Health is Energetic Disease - a state that
leaves us vulnerable to the over or under methylating (silencing) of our
genes, toxic overload of our organs and cells, mind-blocks rather than
healthy, flexible mind-maps, and negative feedback loops between our
peptide receptors and information/emotion molecules. Perpetuated over
time, this leads to a state of chronic fatigue or unwellness, eventually
resulting in acute illness. It is clear we are all born with the
mechanisms to self-heal; we are in fact a self-healing organism, with all
the mechanisms and back-up systems to promote health.

For some, the decline into disease, whether it be classed as mental or
physical illness (I believe the distinction is a misnomer, as the mind is
the body), leads rapidly to an under functioning in many areas of life;
for others, it leads to acute illness and death. For a great many, the path
is slowed by watching the actions of those around us and changing our
behavior to mimic theirs. If we adopt the habits of the energetically
healthy, we can return to wellness bit-by-bit.

If you think of our body’s ability to store physical and mental energy as
akin to a battery that is recharged through rest, diet, exercise and healthy
thought patterns, then just like a battery, we can be drained - in our case -
by poor diet, lack of exercise, not enough rest, and negative thought patterns.
Just like a car battery can be used to jump start another car battery that has run flat,
so the human energy system can be drained by those around us.

All too often, we charge ourselves up by stealing energy, often
learning these techniques at quite a young age. The energy theft required
is unsustainable as one-by-one those we have stolen from succumb to
illness or leave for self-preservation. Bullying is a common example that
drains the victim and temporarily tops up the bully. Countless studies
have shown that both the bully and the victim have increased incidence
of mental illness, depression and incarceration as young adults. The bully
has learned this behavior by observing adults or older children and
then mimicking it. You can often see this playing out in family groups
where a dominant, aggressive parent will berate and bully their spouse,
draining them of energy, who may then use passive-aggressive techniques
to gain pity and sympathy, from friends or family draining them in turn.

Children observe this and learn to adopt either:
♦ A passive aggressive, ‘poor-me’ style, demanding sympathy and assistance without any serious
   intention to change their situation
♦ An aloof, detached style, requiring others to spend a lot of time and energy trying to    
    connect with them
♦ An interrogating, critical style, seeking to undermine others through criticism, sapping
    all joy
♦ Or the more aggressive and overt, dominator style that seeks to overpower and intimidate
    others

I class all energy theft as a form of predation, and the thinking that
goes with it as ‘the predator’, because regardless of whether the technique
is covert or overt, it involves the theft and devouring of someone else’s
energy - their life-force.

In extreme cases, this is obvious - the work place psychopath, the
sociopath and narcissist have developed successful techniques for stealing
energy from others in a conscious, planned way, literally draining the
reserves of those around them. Do not be fooled however, we all do it to
some degree if we are not taking care of our system’s energy needs through
healthy means.

Entertainment and media, especially, reinforce these patterns by
feeding the dominant thought patterns of this predatory mind-set,
through fuelling our fears, anxieties and insecurities, prompting division
over gender, race or beliefs and draining society and the individuals
within it of energy. Ill-gotten gains are never sweet, however, and the
predatory path of energy management leads to more despair, insecurity
and ill health, leading us to consume more of the earth’s resources, trying
desperately to re-charge our batteries.

Clearly the predatory path is not sustainable and it is at the root of
many of society’s ills. It is the voice in your head telling you ‘I’m not
good enough’ that fuels jealousy, greed, anxiety, violence and addictions.
It sets in motion chemical feedback loops within the body/mind that
may persist for years, reinforcing and deepening our unhappiness, until
we believe that voice is us, forgetting that it is something we learned and
adopted. It is a false mind that prevents us from activating our natural
predisposition to living in harmony with each other, our environment
and ourselves.

Fortunately, we can free ourselves from this negative energy pattern, by following
some common-sense steps that free our body-mind to be healthy and energized, allowing
us to be the best we can be, and make the most of our time on this precious planet.*

To discover the 7 Keys to Energetic Health go to:
The Energy Code by Elisabetta L. Faenza

*Faenza, Elisabetta L., The Energy Code, Motivational Press, New York, 2014, pp88-89

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Social media and the Science of Influence


In this age of ubiquitous social media opportunities, more businesses are trying to leverage the medium to create sales, influence behaviour and develop loyalty. Most fail, spending lots of money and time trying to be 'liked' and then trying to work out how to translate these 'likes' into sales - what is known in the industry as 'monetising.'

There are many offers around to buy likes, whether through your Social Media provider in the form of advertising or some third party, but this strategy ends up having the opposite effect; reducing your impact as well as the quality and relevance of your followers to your brand. Buying 'likeability' simply doesn't work, you have to earn likeability organically because it is the glue that attracts and keeps your followers, converting them into customers.

I read an article recently by Arel Moodie in Forbes Magazine about likeability as a key factor of influence:

"We do business with people we know, like and trust. If people don’t like you, they won’t buy from you. If you sell something someone else sells, why should a customer buy it from you rather than them?"

"Increasing your likability is one of the best ways to separate yourself from the herd. Likability is accessible to everyone. Like anything else, it can be learned.  If you offer a good product or service and people like you, your competition won’t be able to touch you."
  (Arel Moodie is the best selling author of The Art of Likeability).
In our research we have identified the key components to rank highly in the social media realm, building likeability and sales. The research confirmed that successful communication in the digital realm has much in common with traditional print media; a picture paints a thousand words, snappy, relevant content is crucial, and a great headline trumps all.

Interesting, original and highly relevant images make you stand out, however - and this is a big one - they must be linked to content that is valuable to your target market. A headline of 3-4 words, with a high quality image that has an imbedded link featuring the first paragraph of an article or blog, seems to get the most impressions, views and likes; utilising the way algorithms prioritise posts on social media platforms.

So to build likeability, influence and sales via social media, you need to be able to access high quality, proprietary, original images, and have a great copywriter providing the headlines and the content. For most small organisations that's not something they can manage in house, because those skills are developed over a lifetime. It's kind of like suddenly having to become your own magazine or newspaper editorial team with copywriters, graphic designers and photographers on staff.

So what can you do?

This is where outsourcing comes in, but here is the caveat - and it's a big one. The team managing your social media must know you, must understand who you are, what makes you special, why you do what you do, and they must be able to write outstanding copy. Farming this out to some offshore team at the cheapest possible price will get you the same result as buying likes - nowhere!

So for true likeability that is in alignment with the who, what, when, where and why of your brand you need specialists who can do more than SEO and social media integration. You need a team who  have expertise in:
  • Brand Development and Consultation (understanding who you are)
  • Communication Mentoring
  • Social Media Strategy
  • Strategic Content Creation
  • High Quality, Proprietary Image Creation
  • Ghost Blogging and
  • Social Media Propagation 
If you want to stand out and become authentically likeable talk to the team at: NoTrees for an obligation free consultation:

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Here's a sneak peak from my next book in The Energy Code series - The Charisma Code...

Charisma and the Science of Influence



Have you ever wondered why some people exert more influence than others or are more likeable? We often describe people or organisations that grab and keep our attention and influence our behaviour as charismatic or likeable. 
Charisma, however is more than just popularity and more than an ability to influence or lead.
Charisma is an ancient term, derived from the Greek word charis meaning 'divine gift of grace.' In this sense 'gift of grace' means a skill or ability given to a mortal by the gods for the benefit of the world. This gift was given in order to fulfill an extraordinary destiny or to change the course of history. While in modern times we associate charisma with beauty and persuasiveness, there is a lot more to it than that. Some people demonstrate aspects of charisma either natural or learned, while some fake charisma, creating a cult of personality to increase their celebrity or political power. I would argue these do not represent true charisma, which is something much more profound.
In its original sense a charmed or charismatic person was said to have the following attributes:
1. A special gift or talent
2. An ability to inspire others through their passion for life or a higher purpose
3. Audacity in the face of adversity - the ability to break through and lead by example
4. Grace and benevolence - putting a greater purpose ahead of their own needs, sacrificing their own comfort or well being for others.
5. Attractiveness - not just physical, a beauty of the mind, spirit or character, likeability
Charisma should not be confused with manufactured popularity or a cult of personality that uses propaganda in order to increase or maintain power. There is one attribute of charisma that helps us to tell the difference between the real thing and a fake. That quality is grace or benevolence.
Of course advertising or propaganda can be used to create the impression that someone is charitable, kind, compassionate and giving, but it cannot be faked in person.
So can charisma be learned?
Charismatic behaviors can be modeled and mimicked. We can become better communicators, develop our abilities or talents through hard work, make ourselves more attractive, but only life experience will determine whether we become more graceful, compassionate and wise individuals. This is the difference between leaders who seek to have power over others, and those who find themselves in a position of influence to change the world for the better.
Teams with a greater purpose outperform others. They retain their highest performing team members and report a greater sense of personal satisfaction and team loyalty. This leads to ongoing business improvement, further innovation and talent retention, which all contribute to market leadership.
Communicating likeability is crucial.
Alignment and authenticity are crucial. Faking likeability is a short-term solution, as is using public relations to 'look' like a good corporate citizen, because in the information age, sooner or later the faker is found out. Not every brand or individual will change the planet, but if we can connect to a deep passion or purpose, perhaps we can us our influence to advance one small area of our world for the better.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Our Intelligent Cells

In his seminal work, 'The Biology of Belief’, Brian Lipton introduces the concept of Epigenetics or the science of the effect the environment has on switching genes on or off.⁠[i]

    Lipton is a Cellular Biologist and former Professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. After some 20 years as a pre-eminent biologist, pioneering the cloning of cells, Lipton realised that the cell tuned itself to its environment, and it was the environment, not our DNA that determined our evolution. He realised that the environment provides the cues that a cell uses to determine which codes to switch on or off. Even more startling, Lipton provides proof that cells actually assemble new DNA in response to environmental conditions.

    Perhaps, most startling of all, Lipton shows that cells borrow DNA from other species, and that the human body is actually a community of differentiated cells, working and cooperating with foreign species - like the bugs in our gut - to do more than survive.

    All of this goes hand in hand with what quantum biologists are discovering about the way DNA codes are affected by emotions, behaviour and environmental conditions.

    What Lipton adds to the debate is that every cell in our body is listening to our thoughts, feeling our emotions and responding to the thoughts and emotions of others. Like ripples in a pond, the DNA within our cells organises itself according to the needs of the cell and then broadcasts this response into the environment.

    Now the ramifications of this growing body of science are astounding. There is a revolution occurring in the world of the evolutionary sciences. Darwin is no longer pre-eminent with his 19th century doctrine of survival of the fittest, and the determinism of the genes. Darwin's contemporary, and the first to publish a theory of evolution - Lamarc - was long pilloried for his belief that cells are more than factories at the whim of flight or fight responses. His thesis that an organism evolves through co-operation is at long last being considered by modern science. In the battle for hearts and minds in the scientific community where nature seemed to triumph over nurture, the tide has turned. Nurture now seems to be the determining factor in what gets expressed by genes.
  
What all evolutionary scientists, cell biologists and geneticists agree upon, however, and what is often not conveyed to the general public, is that our genes are how we store and transmit the memory of our experiences from one generation to another. Our DNA is a portable library, one where new books are being written, old books re-read, and others edite
  
    So what does this mean for you and I?

    It means that we are not at the mercy of our genetics: that unless we suffer from one of a small handful of genetic conditions like aplastic anaemia, our genetic make-up is far more mutable than previously publicised. The environment we live in, the experiences we have and the choices we make about our environment, behaviour and thoughts determine what gets switched on or off, or indeed constructed in our DNA.

    As someone who was born with a potentially fatal genetic condition, I have experienced the power of choice in my life. The choices I have made around healthy food, to exercise regularly, avoid alcohol and tobacco, pharmaceuticals and recreational-drugs has helped me to beat the odds. However, the decision to manage my thoughts and emotions has been even more profound.

    By focusing on positive outcomes and committing my energy, intent and actions to the steps that will make these outcomes a reality, I know I have changed my destiny. I did not perish at three years of age, from bowel disease, although I was diagnosed with it. I did not die at 12 as a result of the four strokes I suffered. I was not in a wheel chair at fourteen or dead before adulthood. I am now nearly 50 years old, the mother of four healthy children with a full and productive life. I have outlived my mother, who died at 44 of breast cancer.

    In short I have made the best of a bad lot. What the future brings is anybody's guess. What I do know is that I have choices, and I will continue to exercise my ability to choose as long as I draw breath. I will continue to thank the collection of 50 trillion or so smart cells that make up my being, and send them supportive, healthy messages through the physical, emotional and mental choices I make; and I will acknowledge the messages they send to me, and interpret them in context, choosing the most appropriate response.

    For me, the quest to understand our biology and how our DNA, environment, behaviour and emotions interact is extremely personal. However, you don't need a genetic condition for this to matter. It is in the interest of all of us on this planet to ask ourselves a simple question each day.

    "What have I cast my vote for today? Through the choices I have made did I vote for health and a productive, useful life, or did I vote for something else?"

    This is what I have asked myself every day since I was twelve years old and a doctor gave me a death sentence. Through my choices, I believe I proved him wrong. Thanks to scientists like Lipton, I can begin to understand why.


This article is an excerpt from The Energy Code, by Elisabetta L. Faenza, published by Motivational Press for release late 2014.

[i]  Lipton, Dr. Bruce, H., The Biology of Belief, Hay House, NY,
2008

Friday, April 4, 2014

Gravity waves, microtubules and biocentrism...


The discovery of gravity waves recently has got the scientific community buzzing as the ramifications of this discovery are debated.

Gravity waves were predicted by Einstein in 1916 as a biproduct of the general theory of relativity and the sudden inflation of the universe that occurred after the big bang. Gravity waves are ripples in the curvature of space-time, but have, until very recently, been undetectable.  Their recent detection gives credence to physicists who have posited that inflation theory underpins the existence of countless, inflating, simultaneous universes, each with their own unique physical laws.

Discussed below is a book entitled "Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the Nature of the Universe," by Dr. Robert Lanza.  Dr. Lanza takes the theory of relativity and applies it to human consciousness and the nature of the universe.  Lanza posits that our experience of this universe resides within our own perception - our own electromagnetic shell, so to speak, and that when we die, we are released from that shell and our consciousness moves into another universe, existing on another frequency in a world much like our own.


Some quantum biologists have entered the debate of late suggesting that the microtubules in our brains process quanta of information and upon our death, lose integrity and release this information into the universe, where it is not destroyed but continues to exist in the form of electromagnetic energy.


While Lanza has come to his cosmological view through a study of astronomy, quantum physics and cosmology, his conclusions sound strikingly familiar.  The ancient teachings of shamanism, and mysticism describe multiple universes experienced through the layers of our individual energy fields. Furthermore, many traditions describe the near death experience as something akin to uploading your life experience to the cosmic consciousness (sometimes described as the eagle's beak) and the importance of personal energy to consciousness after death.  

Lanza's theory is known as biocentrism, which sounds strikingly like the work of Teilhard de Chardin, co-discoverer of Peking Man, and conciever of the Omega Point. Teilhard believed that the universe is a consciousness that is ever evolving, perfecting itself through the experience of everything within it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin

So everything old is new again - both literally and metaphorically. It seems that modern science is re-discovering through technology and theoretical physics what many ancient philosophers conceived through revelation, and by so doing, sorting the wheat from the chaff.

I am ever grateful to be living through this amazing time of discovery and debate...

Enjoy...

Scientists Claim That Consciousness Moves To Another Universe At Death

Spirit Science and Metaphysics
A book titled “Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the Nature of the Universe“ has stirred up the Internet, because it contained a notion that life does not end when the body dies, and it can last forever. The author of this publication, scientist Dr. Robert Lanza who was voted the 3rd most important scientist alive by the NY Times, has no doubts that this is possible.

Beyond time and space

Lanza is an expert in regenerative medicine and scientific director of Advanced Cell Technology Company. Before he has been known for his extensive research which dealt with stem cells, he was also famous for several successful experiments on cloning endangered animal species.
But not so long ago, the scientist became involved with physics, quantum mechanics and astrophysics. This explosive mixture has given birth to the new theory of biocentrism, which the professor has been preaching ever since.  Biocentrism teaches that life and consciousness are fundamental to the universe.  It is consciousness that creates the material universe, not the other way around.
Lanza points to the structure of the universe itself, and that the laws, forces, and constants of the universe appear to be fine-tuned for life, implying intelligence existed prior to matter.  He also claims that space and time are not objects or things, but rather tools of our animal understanding.  Lanza says that we carry space and time around with us “like turtles with shells.” meaning that when the shell comes off (space and time), we still exist.
The theory implies that death of consciousness simply does not exist.   It only exists as a thought because people identify themselves with their body. They believe that the body is going to perish, sooner or later, thinking their consciousness will disappear too.  If the body generates consciousness, then consciousness dies when the body dies.
But if the body receives consciousness in the same way that a cable box receives satellite signals, then of course consciousness does not end at the death of the physical vehicle. In fact, consciousness exists outside of constraints of time and space. It is able to be anywhere: in the human body and outside of it. In other words, it is non-local in the same sense that quantum objects are non-local.
Lanza also believes that multiple universes can exist simultaneously.  In one universe, the body can be dead. And in another it continues to exist, absorbing consciousness which migrated into this universe.  This means that a dead person while traveling through the same tunnel ends up not in hell or in heaven, but in a similar world he or she once inhabited, but this time alive. And so on, infinitely.  It’s almost like a cosmic Russian doll afterlife effect.

Multiple worlds

This hope-instilling, but extremely controversial theory by Lanza has many unwitting supporters, not just mere mortals who want to live forever, but also some well-known scientists. These are the physicists and astrophysicists who tend to agree with existence of parallel worlds and who suggest the possibility of multiple universes. Multiverse (multi-universe) is a so-called scientific concept, which they defend. They believe that no physical laws exist which would prohibit the existence of parallel worlds.
The first one was a science fiction writer H.G. Wells who proclaimed in 1895 in his story “The Door in the Wall”.  And after 62 years, this idea was developed by Dr. Hugh Everett in his graduate thesis at the Princeton University. It basically posits that at any given moment the universe divides into countless similar instances. And the next moment, these “newborn” universes split in a similar fashion. In some of these worlds you may be present: reading this article in one universe, or watching TV in another.
The triggering factor for these multiplyingworlds is our actions, explained Everett. If we make some choices, instantly one universe splits into two with different versions of outcomes.
In the 1980s, Andrei Linde, scientist from the Lebedev’s Institute of physics, developed the theory of multiple universes. He is now a professor at Stanford University.  Linde explained: Space consists of many inflating spheres, which give rise to similar spheres, and those, in turn, produce spheres in even greater numbers, and so on to infinity. In the universe, they are spaced apart. They are not aware of each other’s existence. But they represent parts of the same physical universe.
The fact that our universe is not alone is supported by data received from the Planck space telescope. Using the data, scientists have created the most accurate map of the microwave background, the so-called cosmic relic background radiation, which has remained since the inception of our universe. They also found that the universe has a lot of dark recesses represented by some holes and extensive gaps.
Theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton from the North Carolina University with her colleagues argue: the anomalies of the microwave background exist due to the fact that our universe is influenced by other universes existing nearby. And holes and gaps are a direct result of attacks on us by neighboring universes.

Soul

So, there is abundance of places or other universes where our soul could migrate after death, according to the theory of neo-biocentrism. But does the soul exist?  Is there any scientific theory of consciousness that could accommodate such a claim?  According to Dr. Stuart Hameroff, a near-death experience happens when the quantum information that inhabits the nervous system leaves the body and dissipates into the universe.  Contrary to materialistic accounts of consciousness, Dr. Hameroff offers an alternative explanation of consciousness that can perhaps appeal to both the rational scientific mind and personal intuitions.
Consciousness resides, according to Stuart and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose, in the microtubules of the brain cells, which are the primary sites of quantum processing.  Upon death, this information is released from your body, meaning that your consciousness goes with it. They have argued that our experience of consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects in these microtubules, a theory which they dubbed orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR).
Consciousness, or at least proto-consciousness is theorized by them to be a fundamental property of the universe, present even at the first moment of the universe during the Big Bang. “In one such scheme proto-conscious experience is a basic property of physical reality accessible to a quantum process associated with brain activity.”
Our souls are in fact constructed from the very fabric of the universe – and may have existed since the beginning of time.  Our brains are just receivers and amplifiers for the proto-consciousness that is intrinsic to the fabric of space-time. So is there really a part of your consciousness that is non-material and will live on after the death of your physical body?
Dr Hameroff told the Science Channel’s Through the Wormhole documentary: “Let’s say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum state. The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can’t be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large”.  Robert Lanza would add here that not only does it exist in the universe, it exists perhaps in another universe.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

DNA and memory



You’ve probably heard the term ‘muscle memory’ before.

Well it turns out your muscles literally have a memory, along with every other cell in your body.

The same researchers that discovered that our DNA processes light and sound waves have discovered that each cell in our body has three Gigabytes of memory storage.

They believe that what we have termed the ‘subconscious mind’ is actually the function of the DNA in every cell of our bodies.

This memory holds our inherited and learned behavior patterns, memories, experiences, beliefs and skills.

It’s like a massive database of information that makes us, well us... it makes each of us unique.

Now it is estimated we each have 70 trillion cells in our body, so with three Gigabytes of memory per cell that equates to some 210 thousand, trillion Gigabytes or 210 Zettabytes of memory per human.

That’s 210 with 21 zeros after it, worth of memory storage in your body.

In 2013 the world’s computers were estimated to have reached 4 Zettabytes of combined storage capacity, less than one fiftieth of the storage capacity of a single human being’s DNA.

The ladder of our DNA Double Helix holds enormous storage capacity
And what is even more amazing is that just like a computer, we are able to switch the biological codes on and off and re-program the behavioral software within this DNA database.

Recently scientists have discovered that the every piece of DNA code is read by the cell in multiple ways, doubling or even quadrupling the amount of information that can be simultaneously encoded.

This appears to be the reason humans don’t need nearly as many DNA codes as was previously believed to be necessary to account for our complexity.

It’s the infinite potential of DNA’s interaction with our experiences that makes us so complex.

You can learn more about how DNA and environment interact in Elisabetta's upcoming book - The Energy Code, published by Motivational Press. 

Elisabetta's other books include The Energy Bucket, The Infidel and the soon to be released Veritas.

Learn more about Elisabetta and her work at:

 elisabettafaenza.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

An introduction to The Energy Code by Elisabetta L. Faenza


When I began studying human performance back in the early ‘80s I was full of questions. There was in fact very little published literature on the impact of the environment on DNA, our cells and the brain, and how these influence the way we develop behaviors.

The classical literature in the field treated the brain as a black box (to borrow an analogy from my good friend Dr. Dan Diamond). We had evidence of people’s response to the environment in the form of the things they did, and we could ask them about how they felt about their experiences. Behavioral scientists could even predict certain behaviors based upon reflex and the theory of conditioned response. But we had little idea how behaviors linked together neurologically, how habits were formed, or how we could unlearn an old behavior and adopt a new one. These things were literally hidden from view inside a black box that some believed we would never be able to peer into.
Whenever researchers proposed a theory or created a new therapy to treat behavioral problems they were often guessing, and hoping that these methodologies would help people, and make a positive difference to their lives. As a result psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience were not considered ‘hard sciences’ because much of the theory was untestable.

All the while, biologists, quantum physicists, psychologists, psychiatrists and neuroscientists, assisted by breakthroughs in the technology of peering into the black box, were gathering two types of evidence:

1.    Evidence that the brain’s functions are localized and fixed and therefore would one day be able to be predicted, and controlled.

2.    Evidence of anomalies to the accepted map of brain localization that signaled the brain might be plastic - highly changeable and not fixed, and that our approach to the brain and behavior was built on a false premise.

Today, some thirty years later, science has accepted the view that the brain is plastic, and that behaviours and memories are not stored in fixed locations. The evidence is overwhelming.
This new science is starting to be taught in universities all over the world, although it will be years before high-school biology textbooks reflect it. And in the ‘real’ world where people work and live together, we behave as if the older theory is still intact. We count humans as a cost rather than an exceptional resource, and change as something to be feared and survived rather than embraced.

In our interactions with each other in our homes and workplaces, in our hospitals and communities, many of us labor under the illusion that once injured, the brain cannot heal itself, and that ‘old dogs cannot be taught new tricks.’

My own experiences and obsession to understand the deeper biological underpinnings of behavior has of course influenced my practical work as a hypnotherapist and personal effectiveness expert.
In working to improve the performance of groups and individuals in the workplace, I was aided by my knowledge of the mind, and assisted by productivity and time-management tools.
Over and again I would be asked by managers to help them teach Stephen Covey’s ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ to their teams, or embed the ideas in the latest Time Management Blockbuster into the workweek. Books like David Allen’s ‘Get Things Done’ or Tim Ferris’ ‘4 Hour Work Week,’ contain helpful strategies to more effectively manage the things we do in the limited time available to us.

These strategies cannot and should not be undervalued. They provide useful tips to getting more done in less time.

However, unless we address the workings of the ‘black box’ of the mind, all we are ever doing is tinkering around the edges of productivity. While it is important to know how to handle the ‘stuff’ of our lives - the stuff that happens to us, the stuff we experience around us, and the stuff we do - our habits do not change through intellectual realization alone.

The reason for this is that habits are laid down over time and by repetition. Any new habit has to compete for resources within the brain and is competing with well-resourced, highly entrenched older habits. This is why, for most of us, habit change is a difficult process filled with fits, starts and reversals. It’s why our old, bad habits reassert themselves so prominently when we are under pressure and most in need of newer, better ones, and why we resist change in any area of our lives.
It is when our jobs are on the line, our company is in trouble or budgets are squeezed that we should be able to rise to the challenge and demonstrate highly productive behaviors. In my experience, working with sales teams around the world, the opposite is usually the case.

Eleven years ago I met Matt Church, the founder of the ‘Thought Leaders’ community, and he encouraged me to turn my passion for understanding the ‘black box’ of the mind into a practical guide for individuals and managers. ‘The Energy Code’ is the end result of that process.

My purpose then in writing this book is to provide a practical guide for the layman: extending the influence of complex multi-disciplinary fields like epigenetics, neuroscience, quantum biology and concepts like brain plasticity into our homes and workplaces and into our schools and hospitals, so we do not miss the opportunity to revolutionize the way we work together, the way we heal after trauma and build resilience into our personalities.

The Energy Code is a very practical book designed to help people to understand how the mind works and how three things determine behavior:

1.    Our genetics,
2.    Our environment, and
3.    Our energetic health

It is my sincere wish that you, the reader, embrace the ideas and concepts in this book and question them, test them and prove them for yourself. If out of that comes a positive change in the way you interact with your family, work colleagues and community, my purpose will have been met.


The Energy Code is published by Motivational Press and due for release in the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2014.

7 Essential Tips for Anxiety - Part 5 Mindfulness

  Anxiety is an extremely common problem. It is estimated that Approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health probl...