Secrets of Your Cells: Discovering Your Body's Inner Intelligence (5 page)

REFLECTION

How fluid is your diet? Do you enjoy foods rich in unsaturated fats, like avocados, nuts, and fish? Are you eating too many packaged foods full of trans fats? Consider choosing foods that nurture your cells, your sanctuaries of life.

Proteins, the third major component of plasma membranes, are large molecules and have particular orientations within and across the membrane. Some proteins straddle the double-layered fatty membrane, reaching inside the cells from the outside, while others float on the surface. Fats and cholesterol in the membrane are the medium through which proteins move and function. The proteins themselves are the action molecules, conferring ability and identity to the cell. Proteins serve as both receptive antennae for information and distinguishing markers for identity. You will learn more about both in upcoming chapters.

The cell membrane carries on its surface the cell’s identification “passwords” as well as its listening devices for rapid communication.

EXPLORATION

Embodying the Container: Self-Discovery

By learning to embody the cell, we can gain practical and profound wisdom about its nature. Let’s face it; though we are constructed from trillions of cells, to most of us, cells are an abstract concept—nearly fictional. This exercise helps make cells more real and tangible. One of the first things I
do with adult students in my Cells and the Sacred workshops is encourage them to “become a cell container.” Here’s how:

Gather together at least four people and sit on the floor in a circle. Face away from each other with your backs to the center, shoulders touching. Together you are forming a container, protecting the sacred space inside. Close your eyes and become aware of what you hear, sense, and feel. After a few minutes, open your eyes and again take in what you see, hear, or sense from your surroundings.

After several minutes of facing outward, turn inward to the center of your “cell” and close your eyes again. Listen with attention for a few minutes and then open your eyes, gazing into the space in the center. With the rest of your “cell,” discuss your experience for ten to twenty minutes.

What did you learn about yourself and your cells? What did you notice when facing outside? Was that different from facing the center?

Here is how two workshop participants experienced the exercise.

Acting like a cell, we were asked to simply experience what we felt. Facing out was surprising for me. I felt protective of what was inside the circle, like I was standing guard. At the same time, I was receptive to what was before me. I felt open and expansive. —MP

Our cell-making exercise was a lesson in self-organizing systems and an experience in the meaning of boundaries. With eyes closed, we turned to face the world beyond our newly formed cell. Some members felt protective of the group as they heard approaching noises. Others felt the fear of responsibility for holding together their part. We each made a different connection with the external world depending on our unique perspective. I became intrigued with the ability of our cells to receive information. —JM

A Cell’s Way of Life

Now that you have experienced the cell as a container and have a more tangible sense of it, consider this question: what makes it alive? In achieving and sustaining life, nature uses a universal set of building
blocks: carbon atoms, water molecules, and genetic codes that hold a vast array of life stories.

The cell is the smallest functional unit of life—and believe it or not, scientists don’t always agree on the definition of life. We do know that all life is based on extremely large, complex, carbon-containing molecules. Life, in fact, exists because the carbon atom possesses exceptional bonding properties, and are able to connect with others in a variety of forms. Living systems are highly organized with specific spatial attributes and shape constraints. For something to be alive, it must be able to do the following:

• Have the ability to grow and reproduce (make more of itself)

• Inherit and pass on genetic intelligence

• Find and use food—metabolize (transform food to energy and raw materials)

• Discard waste

• Sense and respond to stimuli

• Adapt to the environment

• Maintain structural integrity and repair

Everything we need for physical survival is maintained by the life of our cells, either alone or with the help of other cells and nearby communities of cells. The cell engages in thousands of biochemical reactions each second to carry out the business of life. As we contemplate our tiny cells, we can see parallels in our lives: whatever they do to maintain life and survive is what we, too, must do to survive. We and our cells breathe, eat, assimilate and eliminate, recycle (we recycle things we use; cells recycle atoms), and regenerate energy (cells do so by recycling spent energy; at the level of the self, we do so by resting and replenishing). Though each of our cells is individual and independent, all cooperate as a community of one human body in a constant state of re-creation, balance, and communication. Cells need other cells to thrive; when isolated in a petri dish, a single cell cannot survive on its own—it will program its own death. Molecules and cells are continually removed and replaced, while the overall pattern and architecture of which they are a part are maintained—this is life.

Figure 1.2
Two neurons; image by Dieter Brandner and Ginger Withers

Figure 1.3
Human red blood cells

Figure 1.4
Scavenger white blood cells moving toward plastic beads

Cells Are Us

The human body contains trillions of cells that originate from the intimate dance of sperm and egg into a single fertilized egg cell. During embryonic development from one cell to the many, each cell specializes and takes on unique features and responsibilities. Cells have different shapes and sizes, which influence and dictate their function. Cube-shaped skin cells stack together to make a covering for our bodies; it takes about a million skin cells to cover a single square millimeter. Discus-shaped red blood cells (see
figure 1.3
) speed through our blood vessels carrying oxygen where it’s needed, while amoeboid-looking scavenger white blood cells (see
figure 1.4
) can squeeze through tissues seeking out dangerous invaders. One drop of normal human blood contains around three million red blood cells and five thousand white blood cells.

Figure 1.5
The basic architecture of a cell

Though cells differ in size, shape, and specialized tasks, they share some essential features and functions. A cell’s basic yet revolutionary design, depicted in
figure 1.5
, enables the functions of physical life.

The outer surface of the cell membrane provides discriminating, resilient, and protective boundaries; the center core (nucleus) contains encoded genetic recipes; and the fabric of the cell (cytoskeleton) gives it a pliable structure, along with the ability to coordinate information, choice, and movement. Protein production encompasses the intricacies of the Golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum. The spaceship-shaped energy generators are the mitochondria, and tiny grains called
lysosomes
are the dismantlers and recyclers of worn out and dangerous materials.