[Andrea Barnett Budin]

I'm reading Reinventing Medicine, by Larry Dossey, M.D. Fascinating! It touts "Beyond Mind-Body to a new era of Healing" on the cover.

Emotions are associated with medically significant changes in the body, Dossey writes. Researcher Paul Ekman of the Univ of Calif San Fran, has shown that people who willfully contort their facial muscles into expressions of happieness, fear or anger will soon come to feel happiness, fear or anger. To me, FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT comes to mind. I've heard that for some time. I believe it.

Immunologist Nicholas Hall and his colleagues have reported immune changes associated with acting! Their findings suggest that acting is more than an act; it exerts effects on the body that may have important consequences for our health.
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They measured changes in the immune systems of two actors before, during and after they performed in two plays. One was a madcap comedy, Lucy Does a TV Commercial,. The other was a serious play whose main tone was depression, Peter Barnes's It's Cold, Wanderer, It's Cold, which is set in turn-of-the-century Russia during the days of the revolution. It takes place in a prison cell on the eve of the execution of an assassin.

The researchers started drawing blood and measuring the heart rate of the two performers before they even received the scripts. They monitored the actors through rehearsals and during all subsequent performances. The plays were presented at the same time of day, before a different live audience, daily for 2 wks.

Hall and his colleagues measured the responsiveness of immune cells called T- and B-lymphocytes. The data suggested a correlation between the type of personality being performed and immune responsiveness. After the Lucy comedy, the female performer showed increases in her immune functions. After she performed a depressing role in the drama, these measures were diminished.

The male performer projected an anxious personality in the comedy as well as in the serious play. His immune function decreased following both performances.

Dossey asks, If we identify with actors who are performing anxious or depressing roles, will we experience decreases in our immune function? Are comedians healthier than tragedians?

He refers to our picking up on others' emotions (or energy) as nonlocal. And he says it is a fact, not a choice.

If Shakespeare was correct, Dossey points out, in asserting that the world is a stage, then we're all actors and every life is an act. The question becomes which role shall we play?

I consciously chose not to think of myself as a victim. I am a survivor. That's the role I've been playing since '95. And interestingly enough, as I project this hard-found inner strength and courage, others tell me, You're amazing. Huh, I think. Me?? They say the loveliest things to me and that in turn prods me to keep up the good work. The whole attitude thing feeds on itself.

And, I believe, helps boost my immune system.

Acting is more than an act. It's an exercise in being. We have to choose our roles carefully and exercise caution with whom we identify. As writer Marguerite Yourcenar says, "The mask, given time, comes to be the face itself".

Dossey says "Nonlocal events have local consequences." They "Leave their tracks in the body. Their effects are real. The arts are more than entertainment; they affect the body". "Art is derived from the Latin artis, meaning 'to join' or 'fit together'. The essence of nonlocality is the joining and fitting together of things that appear separate. Nonlocality is art and art, nonlocality."

We pick up on events like the Colorado horror. There is a mob mentality. Fans evoke and emit emotions and things can go well, happily, or turn into a stampede. When an audience laughs, we all feel we are having fun and doing it together, even with strangers.

Very fascinating topic, no?

Andi