Humans 2.0 - Unpacking Junk DNA.

 Superhumans are really coming. Remember where you read this first.

Like pieces of a jigsaw, advances in the understanding of the human genome, chronicled in two recent books: The Gene and Junk DNA are rapidly giving a clearer picture of how illness and aging can be tracked back to genetic malfunctioning.

This does tend to suggest that if the malfunctioning was not there, then illness and aging need not be the inevitable facts of life that we currently assume them to be.

Although, the likes of CRISPR gene-editing would suggest that it will be as a result of break-throughs in medical technologies that will move us along the path to an illness-free youthful old-age, what has been discounted is the evolutionary free-pass to such a state that Nature herself may be trying to hand out.

In his book, the Gene, Siddhartha Mukerjee, using his own family history as a framing device, traces the development of the science of genetics ; touching along the way , ideas about the perfectibility of human beings that surfaced in Eugenics, a field permanently tainted by it's many negative associations.

Nessa Carey, in her book, Junk DNA looks at the DNA that make up our genes. She shows that human biological complexity is not down to the superior number of genes that we have compared to lower animals, since we share roughly the same number of genes as them. But rather our difference rests on the much higher percentage of DNA in our genes  that apparently do no useful work, compared to the DNA which code for protein and are thus the building blocks of our bodies. The ratio is 98%: 2% . That 98% is what is to referred to as 'Junk' DNA.

Professor Carey then goes on to explain how this non-coding Junk DNA in fact has a regulatory function ; telomeres being one example. The function of telomeres has been implicated in cell senescence and therefore has a direct connection to the human aging process.

So from these two books we get the possibility of the perfectibility of human beings via the genes and that the place from which this is likely to come is the 'dark matter' of our genes, the junk DNA.

If Nature built us with a certain biological potential, visible within the genes, then, like the process of fetal development or the development of a rose bud into a rose , Nature must have a device in situ for realising that potential. No human  intervention required.

That in situ device, knowledge of which has been gained from the pursuit of a science of another sort, is called the kundalini.

The sanskrit meaning of kundalini is 'a coil' , which by association with 'snake' is suggestive of a potential energy that can convert into a kinetic force.

The kundalini is said to reside at the base of the spine in the sacrum* (latin for 'sacred') in three and a half coils - a detail carrying some mathematical significance.

When 'She' ('kundalini' is a feminine noun in sanskrit) is 'awakened', in a manner similar to the spontaneous germination of a seed, She travels up a central channel corresponding to the spinal column and 'pierces' the bone at the top of the skull, through the fontanelle* (latin for 'little fountain').
 
The feeling a lot of people immediately get when this happens is of a cool breeze (pnuema ) above the head - a kind of subtle 'baptism'.

That this process is linked to curing, health, wellness and rejuvenation is hinted at (or hidden in plain view) in the familiar symbol on the side of medical emergency vehicles or ambulances in some countries. That symbol is the Rod of Asclepius (Greek god of healing and medicine) showing a snake entwined on a rod:

Published medical research on Sahaja Yoga Meditation, which is based on kundalini awakening, shows it's positive effect on:

• Depression
• ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
• Drug addiction
• Epilepsy
• Asthma
• Menopause
• Anxiety

 And this could be just the beginning of the noticeable effects of  kundalini.
 
Here are two quotes from two separate texts in the yoga tradition that refer to the anti-aging and rejuvenating effect of kundalini . The first is about 400 years old and the second could be over a thousand years old.

"..fragrance in the Prana enters the central (Sushumna) nerve along with the Kundalini. Then the spiritual nectar situated at the crown of the head spills into the mouth of the Kundalini and then gets absorbed throughout the body including the ten Pranas. (6:246-248).

Body gets rejuvenated The skin which covers the lustre of this nectar and is brightened by it is shed and all the organs show their bright aura. (6:250, 252-253). Now even Death is afraid of it (the body) and the aging process gets reversed and the yogi gets back his bygone childhood and he looks like a boy."

- Gyaneshwar

* 106 * Sudha sarabhi varshini - She who makes nectar flow in all our nerves from sahasrara i.e. she who gives the very pleasant experience of the ultimate

* 745 * Jaradwanthara viprabha - She who is the suns rays that swallows the darkness of old age

- Shri Lalita Sahasranama

So since aging and illness are in the genes , the kundalini appears to be using the Junk DNA as her box of tricks to pull out hitherto unknown human potential and capability.

The following is an excerpt of the transcription of an audio recording from January 30th 1982, where the founder of sahaja yoga, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi(1923 - 2011) was live translating a 2000 year old sanskrit text about the future of humanity. 


"...that will be the state of human beings. Their old age will disappear, their body will remain as it is and they will have a body which is divine. What a promise! So don’t worry too much about your bodily comforts. All right? Then maybe some of you, if you want, you can fly in the air also, with that, with that body. Also they can become subtle and can enter into the body(of others to cure them)"


Marvel Comics Stan Lee must have been tapping into something when he came up with the idea of superheroes being able to fly (fantastic four's human torch) and shrink themselves (antman).

It's time to unpack that Junk DNA.

   * See Gray's Anatomy