Uisneach

It is said that in ancient Ireland the fifth province was centred at Uisneach in Westmeath. It is a site of great archaeological interest but, as Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, tells us – ‘The fifth province is not some place here or there, North, South, East or West. It is a place within each of us. That place which is open to the other, the swinging door that allows us to venture out and others to venture in.’ It might be considered our psychological interface in a similar way as to how Uisneach was earlier thought of as the sacred interface between the physical world and the hereafter. It has been known for many years that a human cell can function normally with its nucleus removed. It is unable to replicate of course, but it is through its interface with the cells around it that allows it to contribute to the health of the whole. That physical whole may be an organ within a larger animal or human being. The psychological whole may be our personal psyche, the cultural psyche of our community or a Greater Whole known to many as God, a Divine presence within each of us through which we are united with everything. Clearly the interfaces we maintain with others and with our environment are all important for our health both physically and emotionally. In my years working as an electronics designer, designing interface circuitry was a daily activity. I remember my astonishment at the elegance of the theorem of conjugate matching which showed that when any part of a passive circuit is conjugately matched then the whole network is conjugately matched. For me this theorem has always had an importance far beyond electronic communications. It suggests to me a parallel for human interaction in general such that when there is complete and true harmony between any two individuals then there is complete harmony between all peoples. Interestingly the theorem can only hold true at a single frequency, or one person at a time. This is a leap of the imagination for sure but a sound principle to apply to our attempts to bring about the world we want to live in. Consider also that matching radio circuits deals in the manipulation of ‘Real’ and ‘Imaginary’ impedances. In every walk of life then very real results flow from paying attention to what cannot be seen. Mapping the human genome has now been cracked but similarly mapping the genes of mutated cancer cells has revealed that this ‘Emperor of Maladies’ is extremely complex and defies the attempts of researchers to produce silver bullet chemotherapy agents. Perhaps our attention has been distracted away from the truth that the cure for cancer lies in our interface to the world – our internal and external environments. The science of Epigenetics reveals that how our genes are expressed depends on the environmental conditions prevailing around our cells. This again appears like an application of the theorem of conjugate matching – If a cell is optimally matched to its environment then the whole body is optimally matched. Cancer and other chronic disease cannot develop in a healthy environment. Mary Robinson was right to think of the Fifth Province as a place inside each of us open to the other. Whether physical or psychological, our health is determined by the quality of our environment and our interfaces with it.