Bodies know a great deal.
Its the basis of martial arts training and self defense workshops.
You train and train until you can do it automatically.
And there is a network of neurotransmitters in the gut that is so rich in neurotransmitter receptors that it has been termed 'the second brain.'
So far, there has been strong evidence relating gut digestive function to brain function.
But I can tell you of an incident when I was on service doing jury duty. It was a situation where my mind and my gut feelings were in profound conflict.
We jurors in this case were allowed to ask questions.
The defendent was on the witness stand. All at once, I had a question. But it seemed so stupid and simple that I didnt want to ask.
My head told me not to ask the question.
But I kept getting a strange, troubled sensation in my gut, as if someone
was jumping up and down demanding attention an impulse that said, 'Ask that question.'
My head centered mind kept saying, 'Its a stupid question, dont ask.' My gut kept giving me this troubled, haunting impulse that I ask the question.
Finally, with the mental feeling that I was a stupid idiot, I chose to obey my gut. I wrote down the question, handed it to the bailiff, and the bailiff handed it to the judge--who passed it to the defendant who was still on the witness stand.
The defendant responded to that question, giving an answer that included information that was new to me, totally unexpected---and that turned out to be of great importance when we as jurors sat and deliberated and reached our decision.
And there is the classic film, Double Indemnity, in which the insurance adjustor, Inspector Keys is under pressure to close the case, but he is convinced the case just isnt what it seems. He keeps investigating, the culprits screw up--and the case is revealed as murder--and justice is done.
Keys tells us throughout the film that he cant explain in any rational way why he is unable to close the case. He is troubled by a 'funny feeling'--a body sensation--that things are not as they seem.
No matter how we work on the brain-centered portion of the mind to trivialize or blank out certain matters--the body never forgets. All that sort of mental meddling does is generate added conflict between the mind that refuses to know and the body that still knows.
We dont yet have the science for this but plenty of us have had experiences that run counter to New Age assertions that reality can be wished away.
There is a line that is used to end Codependence Anonymous meetings:
'Knowing and remembering cannot be any worse than knowing and ... not remembering.'
Meanwhile, here are a few URLs on 'the second brain'
[
www.asimplerway.com]
[
www.cumc.columbia.edu]
[
www.iht.com]