By Agustina Plos, GNM Certified Clinician
As I am writing this, I am about to graduate from the GNM Clinician Program with the GNM Institute and officially become a GNM Certified Clinician. It does feel like a huge title to carry after understanding how nuanced individuals are and how complex the GNM becomes when practiced.
Currently, working as a birth keeper, I want to talk about the “intersection” between birth and the GNM.
As a birth keeper, I am privileged enough to be witnessing an alternative and growing movement of women around the globe who choose to be at the centre of their pregnancy and birth experiences, and who are taking their power and autonomy back. These are women who decide to take full responsibility and who understand that birth is a physiological process, not a pathological one. Women who know that birth is not dangerous or risky, as our culture and stories continue to tell us.
At this moment, there are more and more women out there writing and weaving a new story of birth. Women are realizing that birth can be different. Yes, certainly intense, painful, extreme, but definitely not traumatizing, unsafe, out-of-control, chaotic or a process that needs to be managed by the experts. We understand that birth works well 99% of the times when left alone, when the complex, intricate, cleverly-designed and delicate hormonal matrix that allows it to unfold is kept intact and undisturbed, when our bodies are not poked or prodded, measured, assessed, or when fear is thrown at us during the process.
Women don’t need to be saved or rescued from birth. Our bodies have evolved and developed an extremely refined process at all levels– physiological, biomechanical, hormonal, neuronal and behavioural- so we can continue to survive and reproduce as a species. In the same way we have the physiology of eating, sleeping and going to the toilet; we also have the physiology of birth. And having this grounding on physiological birth, we can go on to make the choices that are right for us, choices that are out of power and trust, rather than out of fear.
And yes, sometimes we might still choose ultrasound, or maybe a blood test, or maybe going in for a CTG trace. Sometimes, it is ‘outer reassurance’ what we need and that’s ok. There is no shame in that. There is a place for traditional medicine and modern obstetrics. But, to many eyes, we see it shouldn’t be the norm, the routine. This is how our power is depleted. The advances of modern obstetrics should come as an additional tool out there in case we ever need it (And what a great tool to have, actually!)
More and more women are choosing to give birth either on their own or with the presence of a birth keeper (aka authentic midwife, wise woman, or a woman who serves other women, as opposed to registered, licensed midwives or obstetricians, who serve a techno-industrial obstetric system and insurance companies).
Both obstetrics and modern medicine continue to be paternalistic and not centred in the power of the individual. The experts know best and you need to be saved, with their tools, instruments, technology, drugs, knowledge, jargon, protocols and guidelines. We project a lot of POWER onto these authority figures. We even allow doctors to tell us how much time of life we have left.
I always remember being in med school and seeing a patient who knew he had 2 more months of life to live due to a sarcoma. My first gut reaction was: how can we accept doctors to tell us exactly how much time left we have on this planet? After all, doctors are human beings, not gods. Are we being ‘jinxed’ when we completely accept and surrender to a diagnosis with a time limit for our lives? Have we given away too much of our power to doctors, to statistics? Yes, sure, it is based on statistics of patients who had the similar condition but, do I want to allow that into my life? What about all the cases of ‘spontaneous remissions’ or ‘miraculous healing’? Because there are many reports of such things… Ultimately, no other person knows how much time left we have on this planet.
There has been very few ‘one-way journeys’ in my life. The understanding of physiological birth has been one of them and, of course, the GNM has been another one. Once you have seen the new landscape, it’s impossible to turn around. A veil has lifted.
What if we started to see disease in the same way as birth, that is, as a physiological process?
In the GNM, diseases are called ‘special biological programmes’ (SBPs). A cancer process, for example, is considered a meaningful SBP running in our bodies to help us to adapt to a sudden change of circumstances. These SBPs occur in a two-fold process (for more information please see the 2nd biological law of the GNM) and our bodies, at all times, are striving for survival and guaranteeing reproduction.
In this way, Dr Hamer described the birth process in the exact same two-fold biological pattern as he described all other biological programmes (or diseases)- both cancerous and those that are not. In the birth SBP, first there is a sympathetic phase (aka active conflict phase) in the first trimester of pregnancy. This is followed by a parasympathetic phase (aka as vagotonic or healing phase) during the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy up until the birth, which represents the ‘Epileptoid Crisis or EC’ (the sudden, abrupt, turning point in the parasympathetic healing phase that initiates the return to balance). Finally, the second part of this same phase (aka PCL-B in the GNM) marks the gentle and slow return to normotonia, where the body continues to heal, needs to rest, needs nourishment and eliminates fluids (immediate postpartum, 4th trimester and breastfeeding).
So, why not start regarding health – and disease- with the same eyes as birth? Can disease be seen as physiological rather than pathological?
Absolutely, YES! And this is where the GNM comes into play for all of us who are not experiencing or embarking on the journey of pregnancy.
However, the GNM can appear complex to understand. Particularly, in an era of quick fixes, bombardment of magical solutions and short-lived access to knowledge. Unfortunately – or, rather, fortunately – the GNM is grounded in physiology, embryology, histology, pathology, neurology, anatomy, among others, and it requires intensive and in-depth studying and understanding. And if we want the GNM to make sense for ourselves, we need to have a certain previous foundation on the above mentioned areas of study. We need to comprehend how modern western medicine understands disease in the first place. Only after we can understand this, are we able to appreciate how the GNM analyses the same processes but through different lenses, thus rendering a different explanation about disease.
In the GNM, as patients, we are not at the mercy of something happening to us. We have the possibility to understand our story and what our bodies are expressing in relation to it. The ultimate key to unravel our bodies’ mysteries lies within us. The GNM is very solid when it comes to explaining the ‘whys’ of a condition or somebody’s symptoms. Whereas, traditional medicine, although being really good at describing the pathophysiological and biochemical mechanisms behind the formation or manifestation of “disease”, it lacks substance when it comes to explaining the causes, reasons, and WHY these changes came about in the first place. There are hypotheses, probabilities, and multifactorial causes but it all remains in speculation. The GNM conversely offers an exquisitely detailed precision as to the “why” of disease.
It is now possible to imagine a growing movement of people addressing our diseases (now SBPs) in the same way as these powerful women are reclaiming birth, taking back their own power, and choosing to be the protagonists. And, now, it is a whole different thing to interact with the medical system from this position and place of power.
Simultaneously, yes, again, there is a place for conventional medicine as well. For example, it is great at diagnosing. An accurate diagnosis is something profoundly important in the GNM and it could make the difference. So, biopsies, imaging… all these help to deliver a better understanding of what the body is really expressing, which tissue is actually affected (For example, it’s the liver but, is it the parenchyma? Or the bile ducts? Or maybe the connective tissue within the liver? The same goes for certain treatments such as the need for analgesia when a person is experiencing excruciating pain. Why not? Sometimes this will be extremely beneficial and absolutely necessary (and no shame around that!) Or other times, we will need antibiotics if we have a sepsis.
There is currently a huge misunderstanding in the GNM world as to what to do –or not to do- . And, unfortunately, many believe the GNM says ‘you have to do nothing’ about your diagnosis or “disease” except let it run its course because ‘you are in a healing phase’. But it is vitally important to clarify this misunderstanding here. This did not come from Dr Hamer. Hamer would say ‘you have to do the right thing’. And the right thing is different for each of us. It depends on our circumstances, our knowledge, our beliefs about health, our current state of fear around the symptoms or condition our body is expressing and many other factors.
Having the correct GNM insights as the roadmap, we can now understand what is going on in our bodies, what it is that our bodies are expressing, what is constantly triggering us, how can we make sense of what we are experiencing, how the ‘condition’ is there to help us thrive, what is its biological meaning, what is its purpose and in what way our body is helping us adapt.
It takes an incredible amount of time to study and correctly interpret what Dr. Hamer shared within the 5 Biological Laws of the GNM (and, as already said, a solid foundation of other related fields is required). But then, once we get it, we now have this extremely valuable and precious map to take with us elsewhere. Thus, we make use of further tools (allopathic, traditional, alternative, etcetera) from a more empowered, well-grounded, less fearful place.
When choosing the GNM roadmap over many others out there – or choosing the GNM reality over many ones co existing in the world, we have a tremendous advantage and autonomy over our own health. And I, personally, also likely have several good extra years of life ahead (for example, because now I understand that cancer is not there to kill me, I will not be shocked or I will not develop an adrenaline response if I am diagnosed with it…) Isn’t this great?
And yet, the GNM remains controversial for some, and a quick Google search might deter many others. And that is fine… This is such a new ‘modality’, ‘paradigm’, ‘discipline’, ‘science’… It still has not stood the proof of time. It is not as ancient as TCM, Ayurveda and the like… In the end, results always speak for themselves…Fortunately, the GNM has been showing an unsurpassable record when it comes to results.
Let’s talk about cancer and chronic diseases, for example, two areas where the GNM is very good at being evaluated and, let’s face it, two areas where allopathic medicine doesn’t have a good record of curing. Modern western medicine does not have a good background at treating cancers. Yes, some of them are treatable or became treatable through research and testing over a period of time but, most of the times, the word ‘Cancer’ is a very negative life sentence when immersed in the allopathic paradigm of medicine. This has not been the experience of the thousands of patients with cancer who have used the GNM. There are countless, successful testimonies across the globe and Hamer was able to record thousands of cases empirically.
Again, thousands of people have been successful at treating their cancer with the GNM. Yet, thousands of people who follow mainstream protocols continue to die from cancer. So, results…
Why not giving it a try? Why not explore the GNM? Why not try the GNM on as your new truth, territory or roadmap?
It’s so worth it. It does take some time to learn but I can assure you that you will gain so much peace of mind over so much of your health conditions that you never thought was possible before. And you don’t have to become an expert. This is where the GNM Certified Clinician comes in, to guide you and orient you, working with more precision and experience. Still, if you have an understanding of the GNM foundations, you already have done a great deal of the work. The GNM has a very attractive, sensible, meaningful and cutting edge explanation to disease nowhere else to be found. Why not give it a try?
Thank you for reading and having made it to the end!