Secrets of Your Cells: Discovering Your Body's Inner Intelligence

by Sondra Barrett

A guiding principle of the spiritual journey is to "look within." Biochemist Dr. Sondra Barrett has done just that- and discovered that our cells offer us invaluable wisdom for inspiration, transformation, and healing.

Genres: Health, Science

312 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2013

Reviews

[*sj* · Rating 1 out of 5]

OK - after reading normally through first couple of chapters, I ended up skim-reading the rest of it.

A friend lent this to me after a discussion we had about cellular function and health and I was expecting the book to be more focused on that - on the biological, chemical science of cells. Unfortunately there was very little specific information about cells but a whole lot of new age style, simplistic self-help guff that I've read too many times in years past.

A found a handful of mildly interesting and useful tid-bits on the science side of things, but that is just far, FAR too thinly spread across an entire book, which had me otherwise bored, wincing and rolling my eyes.

Glad I made no effort or financial outlay for this book. Would not recommend - for anyone interested in 'self-help' type reading, there are many more superior and actual useful options than this.

[Rljulie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sondra Barrett has a PhD in biochemistry and post-doctoral training in immunology and childhood cancers. I am not qualified to comment on her science. I can't say how much of what Barrett says on the subject of cell biology (and its relationship to spirituality) is true or not true. I can only observe what this book is trying to do, and observe, as well, that this is a book her publisher was hoping would find its audience at Book Expo, and what this publishing and distribution and promotion tells us our culture, our book buyers, our publishers, believe that people want to spend money for right now, and what they think readers hope is true. What we as a culture would like to be true, by putting this book (and others like it) out into the world.

According to this book, some of those things we hope are true are as follows:

-Clues to our spiritual and social life are built into the molecular structure of our cells, in patterns that are echoed in art and architecture humans create

-Auto-immune disease comes from an essential "failure of self-recognition", a breakdown of "self" and "other" and a failure of cells to recognize our essential selves

-Cell membranes communicate with other cells, and we can become aware of "our body's innate signals" (stress and danger, for example)

-Since cancer cells are "rigid", perhaps incidents of miraculous healing are enacted by people "softening their attitudes" which somehow, in turns, soften the cells and tissues "in some way" (not described).

-Endorphins released by spiritual practice (drumming, laughing, dancing, music, pleasure) "eases our cell tensions" to shift energy and change the molecular structure of our body's tissues.

-"The use of guided visualization and imagery is growing as a complementary healing modality, particularly in stress reduction and easing pain, suffering and other consequences of cancer and its treatment."

-Stories, myth and art tie to long shamanic traditions of healing through memory, imagery, and energy work.

While I can't criticize the science, I can say that Dr. Barrett's writing on science is difficult to read, and often seems to be "padding out" her (equally tedious) writing on spirituality. It doesn't seem relevant to me, for instance, to go into a description of plant photosynthesis to illustrate "the interdependence of life on this planet" to make any particular point relevant to her thesis. It's just that a half-page on plant photosynthesis gave her an extra half-page of science text to impress her readers with. It's not a particularly well-organized book, either, and the see-sawing between science and spirituality seems contrived and not well edited. Chapters are titled vaguely, like "Memory--Learn" and "Wisdom Keepers--Reflect". Each chapter ends with a section called "Reflection" that gives the reader a meditation or exploration exercise to do, and then a section called "Exploration" which gives "instructions" for you to work on "the mysteries and teachings of your cells." I'll give you the "Exploration" for the very last chapter, your Cliffnotes guide to cell-healing, if you are curious and want the cheat-sheet, and are able to make any sense of it:

Embrace sanctuary
Recognize self and other
Listen
Choose
Attach and let go
Sustain energy
Create purpose
Learn and remember
Keep and know wisdom
Connect and "cell-ebrate"

The book also includes a fair number of (seemingly pointless) illustrations, including a glossy insertion of color plates that show such illustrations as a medicine wheel pictograph, compared with a computer graphic of DNA. (Spoiler: they're both circular.)

For the record, I don't think it's completely hogwash. She draws from a well of legitimate studies that do relate stress levels to health, community and social connections to longevity, well-being and mental outlook to recovery from diseases. There's a basis of real science somewhere in there, but over that it seems to me to there's a thick layer of "snake oil" going on over the top. To Dr. Barrett's credit, all of her most radical claims are framed as questions: "If we engage in magical passes, quigong, or dance, do we change our cell's tension, memory patterns, or genes?"

Which is good, on one hand: she's coming just short of saying you can dance or drum or yoga your way out of cancer, but on the other hand, that's an old tent-minister's trick. The audience draws the conclusion without the speaker taking full responsibility for the suggestions they've deliberately planted. And because of this obfuscation and the straight-up vapidity of the "spiritual meditations" (What will expand me? What contracts me?), I'm going to stick with my initial analysis of this as not any breakthrough research or discovery, but a wishful compilation on the part of the author of all the messages of hope she would like to impart to her patients: what we would most like to be true. This is where her readers are going to come from, not an audience of researchers responding to her clinical or laboratory work. Certainly useful for some, and useful to me primarily as an interesting depiction of "where we are, right now" as a culture and as a consumer market, especially as consumers of both healthcare and spirituality alike.

[Sabrina White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely Fascinating
The study of Epigenetics is amazing. I highly suggest this book to anyone who is interested in the body/mind connection. This book backs up these ancient ideas with modern science.

[Cyberpayanee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author integrates her scientific knowledge with human experience she encounters in her life. She had contemplatively reviewed findings under microscope with her own intuitive forays into healing in modest way. She is refreshingly open in admitting that her findings are somewhat anecdotal and gives the context in which she has based her understanding. The book isn't dogmatic but empirical. However what she says resonates with the reader. There is an indian Advaita principle that "what is in the universe is what is in the flesh". This is a well developed concept in religious texts, that various parts of the body and organs have corresponding outward manifestations of energy forms "devas". This is of similar view to ancient Chinese thinking as well. The intercommunication between mind and cells would at least to common sense would be natural and is feasible. The awareness in contemplative and meditative individuals can be very subtle giving rise to various so called ESP or miracle phenomenon, particularly in healing. In fact there is only awareness and the objective world and so called solid objects are is sensory perception - mental. This is a book that takes science closer to human experience denied by classical science.

[Mazen Alloujami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an interesting method to build bridges between cellular biology and shamanic wisdom.
It implements a practical method for well-being, but doesn’t go beyond that on the wisdom realm.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Secrets of Your Cells

There were so many connections and reconnections to books read recently and long ago, to teachings we hold innately and to scientific breakthroughs that I was in a state of awe and wow while gobbling every morsel of information that Sondra Barrett serves in her amazing book.
My copy is tabbed like a rainbow!

This wasn't information recycled and regurgitated in a different format.
This was science meets energy healing, meets spiritual thought.
WOW WOW WOW!

We are amazing creations. Life is a miracle.

Thank You, Sondra for reminding me, for rewinding me.

[Pat Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tough to review. It has enough science in a palatable format that the lay person can consume and learn about some cell structure and behavior. The book is more about the metaphysical, though. The author's limiting views (IMO) I had to skip over in some places. That said, she also presented some very insightful and thought provoking ideas that stirred me. Worth a read as long as you have the tools to query yourself, "Do I believe that? Yes or No?" and get what is valuable out of the book.

[Sondra Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle above is incorrect - Correct one is Discovering Your Body's Inner Intelligence.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a great read. It helped the reader see the sacredness of life and of every intricate detail of the human body.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. A little new agey in places, but worth the read. Makes one think about how all the systems of our bodies affect everything about us.