Soma – The New Name for the New Human

by Mary Ann Gray Voorhies

Soma is the new cutting-edge understanding of what it means to be human. It’s a completely new paradigm that will change our understanding of healing, which will change everything. Clinical Somatic Education is a “new” modality that includes simple ways to prevent and do away with about 50 percent of all “dis-ease.” By employing our consciousness to integrate our brain/body (which are really one) and by employing simple movements called pandiculations, we can change our posture and radically improve our health.

Everything in the universe is moving even though to our eyes it may look still. The Soma (you and me) are like atoms. In fact, we are made of atoms. We are always moving, whirling, twirling like everything else in the universe. Sometimes we forget we are part of nature and the universe. And, when you think of it, everything in the universe is whirling out of the Big Bang. This new understanding is an evolutionary leap for mankind.

Be sure to view the video in this blog post to see me demonstrate how we can use somatics and pandiculation (movement) to rapidly change our own bodies!

Soma means the mind and body are ONE. Some people call it the mind/body connection. This is incorrect. They are not a “connection.” Mind and body are ONE thing. The western understanding of mind and body separates the two. Why is that? It’s because French philosopher René Descartes incorrectly separated them. This has been called the Cartesian Mistake. This mistake has been deeply ingrained in our thinking and in our use of language. This kind of thinking is still deeply embedded in Western medicine.

There is no permanent self. A soma is an ever-changing PROCESS. Since this is true, we can engage Hanna Somatics to change the process and rapidly bring ourselves back into balance. This balance can bring pain relief, improved posture, and promote healing of certain functional diseases that wreak havoc on our systems. See previous blog posts on:

• The red light reflex
• The green light reflex
• The trauma reflex

Somatics can also retard and prevent aging.

A new aspect of somatics is that negative thinking, moods and emotions are somatic in nature and can cause disease. The word psychoneuroimmunology is just a new fancy modern word that points to what is really very ancient. What we call modern neuroscience is really nothing more than what the ancients knew all along — that negative thinking (stinkin’ thinkin’) wreaks havoc on our systems, causing misery and sometimes even death.

The opposite would be teachings described in ancient texts such as the Bible that positive thinking and love can bring health. There is an example of this in the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles. One onlooker said, “these Christians are drunk and it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning.” They were drunk on the spirit. That is one reason why I think Jesus is called the Savior. He saves us from negative thinking, and with joy and happiness, health abounds.

One of my favorite books Love, Medicine, and Miracles by Bernie Siegel, M.D., illustrates these points beautifully. As the Bible says, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” And, as my friend and Tai Chi teacher Stuart Heller reminded me, we can now prove that love is biochemical.

For more information, visit:

Mary Ann Gray Voorhies: Muscle Pain Relief | Back/Neck Problems | Somatics Lafayette, Louisiana

Lawrence Gold – www.somatics.com

The Novato Institute

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