Chlorella

(Chlorella pyrenoidosa)

This essence holds an ancient wisdom about surviving and adapting - in particular, about peaceful coexistence, about community. Deep and slow in its action, it's effect is profound. This single-cell organism spoke to my cells (members of a multi-cell organism) about cooperative action.

"We're an ancient species," it said. "We've learned how to adapt to our environment and thus stay alive through the ages. We do this by getting along with each other, by cooperating, not competing. It does not serve us to compete with our neighbors; we are one, so to poison our neighbor is to poison ourselves."

That sent my medical mind racing down two parallel paths: cancer and auto-immune disease. I had to ask...

What about cancer? "Ah; here is where we can really help you multi-cell beings. We help your cells function cooperatively and cease destroying each other. No cell thrives to the detriment of any other. It just doesn't work that way."

What about auto-immune disease? "Same thing. We teach you cooperation; none thrive if all don't thrive."

This essence showed me how, in a colony of Chlorella, order is maintained through signaling:

"If part of the colony is being aggressive toward others, it sends a ripple of unease throughout the entire colony, which generates an answering signal to cease this counterproductive behavior. If part of the colony is overproducing with no regard for its neighbors, it sends a signal that the rest of the colony picks up on and answers with a signal to cease this counterproductive behavior."

So, too, in the mammalian body, Chlorella fosters cooperation among cells, true symbiosis. It encourages wayward cells to come back on line and be a peaceful, productive part of the collective again.

It also encourages efficient use of nutrients and efficient elimination of waste products so as not to deplete or pollute the cells' milieu. When cells function in this way, they get what they need without depriving others or harming themselves.

This essence helps create a greater coherence and resonance among cells - and among life forms. It strikes me that it will be great for animals with chaotic heart beats or irregular heart rhythms.

It should also be wonderful for relationship problems of all kinds. For example, it should foster peaceful coexistence and cooperation in multi-cat households or multi-species families.

As the Plant collective said of this essence: "Blessed are the peacemakers."

And the Animal collective simply sighed: "Ahh."

The sophisticated and refined signaling system within the Chlorella colony took me by surprise. It was unexpected for a "simple" single-cell organism. But how anthropocentric of me!

This humble algae speaks of the incredible elegance, sensitivity, responsiveness, and cooperative nature of the universe. Not only is it not mindless, it is mindful, peaceful, inter-connected, inter-related, and inter-dependent.

How much we have to re-member as a species!