Getting Our Body

Nature looks after the safety of life of a single cell. It is a primitive sensing mechanism combined with a sophisticated active sense. Nature automatically operate these mechanisms. It is said to have an unconscious mind. It is not aware of how it works but it works. We may say that its works in ignorance, or its life is on autopilot, or God in His in His infinite compassion and kindness looks after it.

There are all kinds of threats to a tiny singe cell life anywhere, even in the mother’s body. There are harmful germs, viruses, and other unfriendly matter. When the zygote (or later fetus) encounters them, it releases some proteins to neutralize them or dies if it is overcome by them.  This is the first use of our protection system known as the immune system.

If the zygote survives, it absorbs life supporting sustenance through its skin and procreates. Its process of procreation, called mitosis, is asexual in which a cell divides two identical daughter cells, two into four and so on. As they multiply, some cells die but there is a net increase in the population. At around six days after fertilization, the zygote grows to a hollow ball of cells the size of a pinhead with fluid inside.

With further increase in cell population, cells mutate into various sizes, shapes and structures for specific organs. At six weeks after fertilization, enough brain cells are formed for brain activity to begin and enough heart cells are formed for its heart to beat. At eight weeks after fertilization, a human embryo is about 1 ¼ inch in size with its head is about half the length of the embryo.

Between weeks 35 and 38, the fetus is developed enough for life outside the safety of our mothers without artificial assistance. When we are born, we may be about fifty centimetres in length from head to toe.

As an adult, we have a body consisting of around 37.2 trillion cells. Each cell is alive. Are we alive? Our life really is a gift of the collective life of 37.2 trillion cells which surely are alive. Our health is a gift of the collective health of 37.2 trillion cells. We are healthy only when they are healthy. Similarly, our mind is the collective mind of 37.2 trillion cells. When the collective mental health of 37.2 trillion cells is good, we are mentally in good shape.

What we call our brain is the physical device to implement the will of 37,2 trillion living beings that we call us.