Foreign Proteins
There are three classes of substances we take into our mouths: food and drinks, drugs and herbs and allergens. The first two need no explanation as there is no mystery in their cause and effect. But allergens live in the gray zone between self and non-self. And at the root of every allergen is a foreign protein our body does not know how to assimilate. Yet.
When I first started going to the Amazon jungle at forty years old everything that bit me caused a whelp to form. The foreign protein from the bite would be walled off from the rest of my body by inflammation, a very common process we have all experienced. Over the years of my return trips I experienced less and less of an inflammatory reaction and I noticed the locals had little or no reaction at all. What changed? What’s the difference? Our reaction to non-self.
The 1918 Spanish Influenza effected young adults and children seriously because the human immune system was unfamiliar with the pathogen and over-reacted with systemic inflammation, having no other learned defense. The invader was so novel the body often destroyed itself trying getting rid of the alien invader. Is our civilization making the same mistake?
There has been much ink invested in studying the rise and fall of civilizations. And many authors and scientists have explored factors of climate change, decadence, natural disasters, invaders and governance. Everyone can be reduced to the inability to properly assimilate foreign proteins. What cannot be assimilated causes the walling off of parts of ourself as infected. What cannot be reconciled causes division.
Today, over half of the American population has a chronic disease or auto-immunity related to the inability to digest specific proteins and our body remaining in a state of inflammatory overreaction. And there’s a direct correlation between chronic disease and the rise of globalization and the explosion of organic and inorganic compounds our body was never evolved with. More and more “foods” and “drugs” are toxic. Is this a case of indigestion or of overexposure? To our body, our mind, our culture?
We have all had days when we are overwhelmed emotionally and need to “count to ten” to prevent exploding upon our family and friends. Most every night we go to sleep with our minds needing to switch off from its daytime assimilations. Mind, heart and body are all required to have a response to foreign proteins, feelings and ideas. Each center has it’s home base and its homeostasis.
The ability to make the intelligent, emotionally fulfilling and healthy choices of reconciliation with the “other” or to close ourself off from further invasion is the master work of any human organization from the individual to the civilization. At the same time, there is a speed at which humanity is being inundated with change. There seems to be a cosmic agenda for humanity to be tested and forced to evolve upon some hidden cycle or factors.
The human organism evolves based upon the inputs of matter and energy. I sailed the Pacific and Indian oceans as a young naval officer and my gut biome became very cosmopolitan. I experienced racism against myself as a white colonizer in Asia and I softened my ego. And I learned to lead a team on a mission in hostile conditions. Each of these assimilations with the wider world was stressful and impactful. We are all a product of our environment based upon our ability to digest foreign proteins, cultures and ideas while remaining true to our core self.
Cosmonomics describes our human ability to become more resilient in the face of the not yet self. There’s a sweet spot of curiosity, self inspection and inflammation response that allows for our evolution into a more complete human while also enhancing our core strength of true self.
Becoming conscious of assimilation and rejection, reconciliation and division is the master work of every human. Eating food is both assimilation and rejection. Tailoring a life partnership is both. Building a healthy civilization is both.
Do not automatically reject a foreign protein. Or begin to worship it’s taboo. Find, hold and grow your center as your boat gets rocked by life’s evolving.