The Five Portals

I rarely talk about psychology- you can take pop psychology and pitch it as far as I am concerned. But Dr. Mario Martinez, a   neuropsychologist, brings to us a system balancing issues of safety, love, expression, peace, and spirituality in a new experiential  way.  This is a little bit off from my usual dowsing or energy pattern experiments or suggestions, but I see this as invaluable- empowering- something I want to teach to others.

We have been listening to Dr. Mario Martinez talk about the mind body code-how the mind wounds and heals the body, and how culture can shape our concepts of wellness and illness. But before we go there I must say that accepting the new evidence he presents, requires moving from one set of beliefs to another, called a paradigm shift.

Dr Martinez has coined the word ‘biocognition’ where he proposes that cognition and biology coemerge within a cultural history to find maximum contextual relevance.  Biocognition brings together mind and body, within a culture.

Through his talks, Dr. Martinez teaches us that we have bio symbols from a language we learn through a culture and that symbol triggers a biological response. Yes, words can effect your health- there are biological consequences to words- take for example the man who was mistakenly given his last rites and died 15 minutes later.

The 5 portals are the areas in which your body is responding to either safety, love, expression, peace, or spirituality, biologically, and apply to everyone across all cultures, as follows

Safety/danger– stomach, legs, feet
fight or flight, can’t stomach it
when you feel unsafe, blood goes to your feet for running or fighting if you must, and digestion temporarily stops leaving blood and energy for fighting or running. If you are feeling something in your stomach of legs or feet, it would be stemming from lack of safety.

Love/hate– chest area to base of neck
in all cultures we point to the heart as where we hold both love and hate
a ‘broken heart’ is felt in the chest

Expression/suppression– face, throat to eyes, arms and hands
these are the parts of the body that we use to express our thoughts, ideas, emotions with (or maybe not- maybe you do not express yourself)
It is well known that thyroid problems are often associated with people who have trouble expressing themselves. By the same token, it is also know that women who have been sexually molested frequently get reproductive problems later in life- often cancer. Hmmmmmmmmmm

Peace/turmoil– eyebrow to top of head
some cultures refer to this area as the third eye
this is where you feel either peaceful or in turmoil

Spiritual/existential– all around you and within you
the portal to your spiritual/existential is all around you-
are you too spiritual, are you too existential?

The goal is bio symbolic balance, which can be achieved through some self exercises that the good doctor takes us through, and we will talk about in another article. In the meantime, what is your bio symbol? Where are you feeling it?  What is the portal? Think about it.