Foreword by Gary Sharpe, Out-Thinking Parkinson’s
I am often asked if I am aware of Dr Janice Hadlock’s work on the Parkinson’s Recovery Project, and how Janice’s teachings compare and contrast with the Nervous System perspective of PD that form the basis of the ideas presented here.
Yes, I am aware, and it would seem to me we have independently converged on similar understandings, just from different perspectives: more from a Traditional Chinese Medicine point of view in Janice’s case, and more from western science here.
Recall that my explanation for Idiopathic PD is that this is what happens when someone gets stuck in the tonic immobility (also variously known as “death feigning”, “playing possum”, thanatosis, or catatonia) freeze response of the Nervous System. Meanwhile, Janice has also concluded that folks with a PD diagnosis are “stuck on pause” due to a circuit which is only supposed be activated when there is a risk of imminent death.
In both cases, the solution is for the person with a Parkinson’s diagnosis to make themselves feel safe enough in the present to be able to emerge from the stuck situation.
Indeed, I was recently contacted on this topic by Dave Faller, a person with a PD diagnosis, who has been exploring ways to help himself. Dave has written a very useful two page summary of Janice’s “Stuck on Pause” book and other work, and so I asked him if we could reproduce it here. He agreed, and hence the article below.
Guest ARTicle by dave faller, person with a parkinson’s diagnosis
introduction
After looking intensely for alternative treatments for Parkinson’s disease for over a year now (I probably spend 2 to 3 hours each day) I have cataloged over 160 non-prescription treatments for Parkinson’s so far. Almost all of these deal with symptoms only. I have tried approx 30 of them, without noticeable effects.
I have cataloged 9 that deal with recovery from Parkinson’s, 6 of those 9 I would call psycho-somatic-based solutions. The one that really resonated with me was developed by Janice Hadlock. Her description of a Parkinson’s personality was just too close to me to ignore. The common sense and simplicity of her solutions are compelling. Her books, “Recovery from Parkinson’s” and “Stuck on Pause” are available for free download on PDrecovery.org. I don’t call it Parkinson’s anymore, I call it being stuck on pause.
Some of Hadlock's hundreds of patients recovered quickly (epiphanies) although most took months/years.
I have been utilizing her techniques for a number of months now (alongside exercise, meditation, and a clean vegan diet). I have not recovered as yet, although I know it is just a matter of time.
I have created a two page summary of these books. If this resonates with you in anyway I would recommend reading her books.
My summary of the Books
Parkinson’s is not, and never has been, an incurable illness. The symptoms of Parkinson’s disease result from chronic use of specific electrical circuits in the sub-dermal fascial and brain, circuits that are only supposed to occur when a person is at risk of imminent death
• The premise is that many people with Parkinson’s are stuck in a Pause Mode. Pause Mode is likened to when someone is in an emergency or near-death situation. This neurological mode is recognized in ancient Chinese medicine.
• In people with Parkinson’s, the physical immobility usually caused by this mode has been long overridden with a norepinephrine [noradrenaline] based brain behavior that kicks in during times of gravest emergency if motor function is required in spite of the body being immobilized.
• People can get stuck in pause mode by trauma, or commanding themselves to do something like “I do not want to feel pain anymore”. This instruction was often given in childhood, often while staring into a mirror. Stomach channel qi runs backwards when in pause mode.
• There are 4 types of pause: Type I self-induced pause; Type II pseudo pause foot injury; Type III self-induced disassociation from injury; Type IV biological pause. 95% of Parkinson’s patients have Type I, and 90% have Type I & II. Type I must be addressed first.
• Only when a person feels safe can they turn off the Type I PD self-instruction to “feel no pain” (be on pause mode). To feel safe, one needs to maximize the amount of current flowing through the midbrain from the medulla oblongata, through the striatum, and on to the point between the eyebrows. Maximization of the Du current in the midbrain automatically diminishes the amount of current in the UB channel running along the sides of the head.
• The steps for coming out of pause are: tremor, feeling safe, slow-deep audible breath, wiggle of neck, spine tingle... When pause is turned off, the circuitry in the body automatically reverts back to that of a healthy person: the normal, healthy blend of sympathetic and parasympathetic mode electrical circuitries.
• The striatum and thalamus (along Du qi channel) are not actively controlling muscles, etc. When on pause, with the brain portion of the Du channel significantly inhibited, the energy level in the midbrain – where the striatum and thalamus are located – is correspondingly inhibited. Therefore, dopamine release from these areas is inhibited. The striatum provides dopamine to the lower midbrain substantia nigra and basal ganglia. The thalamus regulates internal sensory awareness, including the feeling tha you are inside your body.
• Clinical study shows that talking to an imaginary, wise, friendly friend can stimulate striatum and thalamus. One needs to replace internal thinking with non-judgmental conversation with an imaginary friend. The imaginary friend can be a deceased loved one, a wise and friendly figure (fictional or non-fictional). It should not be someone who is still alive. There’s a specific way of talking (friendly and laughing) and a specific type of relationship (trusting, mutual friendship) that leads to an epiphany. A person who wants to turn off self-induced pause must choose to live as constantly as possible in a completely different world from the false one he created when he put himself on pause: he must return to a heart-dominated world inhabited by his invisible friend(s), friends who love and can laugh with him.
The only accurate measures are 1) how much you are now communicating with your Friend compared to before and 2) whether or not your Friend is starting to seem more real to you. All the thoughts you normally hoard to yourself, share them with your Friend. You don’t need to change your thinking or develop special thoughts. This is the primary therapy to come out of Type I pause mode.
• Auxiliary exercises to hasten recovery:
o Mentally imagine as much energy as possible in the vicinity of Yin Tang, the point between the eyebrows. This creates a pull on the Du channel, drawing more channel qi through the midline.
o Mentally imagine energy moving along the Du channel path through the middle of the head. This energy moves from the base of the neck to Yin Tang.
o Mentally say thank you.
o Meditate.
• The outer tissue of the heart (the pericardium, the conductive tissue that creates electromechanical vibrations) needs stimulation to feel the inside of the body. Talk to the imaginary friend from your heart.
When on pause, awareness of the sensations (joy, sorrow, peace,...) generated by changes in the pericardium is inhibited. If you mentally use words or logic to self-assess how you are feeling instead of checking in with your wordless sensations of expansion and contraction in your heart area you may be stuck on pause.
• When in pause mode, the waves of pericardial consciousness are still active, but they might prepare for a potentially permanent exit from the body (death) by moving away from the pericardium to a location just outside of the physical body. This removal to just outside the body might allow a person to observe himself from outside of his body, as if he is floating nearby his body, but is not inside of it. Oppositely, when a person is in a high level of parasympathetic mode, he has heightened somatic (inside his body) awareness and might even experience his body as a tangible manifestation of his heart feelings and his intangible soul.
• People with Parkinson’s do eventually develop an insufficiency of dopamine in certain brain areas: for example, they develop a decrease in available dopamine for automatic movement, positive imagination and visualization, and temperature regulation. But there is no dopamine deficiency in other areas, such as those that regulate fear-based (sides of the brain) brain functions such as risk assessment.
• Substantia nigra dark cells are likely not dead, they have likely been repurposed due to inactivity (neuroplasticity). The lack of dark substantia cells is likely not the cause of Parkinson’s; it is likely a side-effect of being stuck on pause for a long time.
• The rigidity of Parkinson’s comes from being on pause, which disconnects the brain’s motor imagining area. The tremor comes from unsuccessfully trying to come out of pause. Rigidity and tremor are not directly related to the pause-based inhibition of midbrain dopamine release.
• There are two types of movement systems, dopamine-controlled, and emergency adrenaline/norepinephrine-controlled. When in pause the dopamine system is inhibited, and the norepinephrine system overrides. Norepinephrine override can mask symptoms, providing temporary relief (e.g. exercise, Deep Brain Stimulation). People on pause can get good at this, which can create a false sense of success.
• Parkinson’s personality, part of the cause, or part of the symptoms?... probably both. The moments of their lives weren’t experienced so much as analyzed and critically judged. Personality traits such as: pathologically punctual, highly judgmental of their own behavior, high intelligence, highly analytical thinking, strong spiritual leanings, industrious, rigidly moral, stoic, serious, and nonimpulsive.
• Compared to the general public, what seemed like a disproportionately high percentage of patients had spent a long time, maybe decades, practicing meditation, church-approved prayer, yoga, Tai Ji or Qi Gong.
● If you have ever taken dopamine-enhancing antiparkinson’s drugs or supplements for more than a few weeks, you might not be a safe candidate for recovery. Please read “Medications of Parkinson’s: Once Upon a Pill” to understand why.