Tibetan healing practices describe the physical experience as a: ‘continuous interaction between the second body and the dense, material human body’. The second body is often referred to as the astral form, soul or mental body that is intertwined with the physical.
This division is recognised as the subtle material and the gross material organism, spiritual and corporeal forms that run parallel to one another.
According to Tibetan philosophy the bodies coincide at the nerve fibres and blood vessels, winding themselves around each other. This brings a second level to sensation and presence. Aiding the ability to experience spiritual pregnancy and introspection.
As they are so closely linked, physical issues with the body can sometimes be treated through mindfulness and meditation, an engagement with the second body.
Fibromyalgia is a mental condition, more common in women, whereby the brain chemically alters the way nerves and the spinal chord communicate pain signals. Signals are often repeated or distorted, triggered by stress and injury. This often causes pain sensations that are no longer relevant to injured tissue or completely random sensations that spread unnecessarily.
We could view physical sensation as true and mental sensation as false. For me, fibromyalgia acts as a mediator between function and perception. It makes the judgement of true and false nerve endings difficult but acts as a connection to the second level of sensation.
