The matrix is both complex and deceptively simple. It is used in working with clients and brings together TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), Ayruvedic medicine, and the four-element theory and balances these old traditions with modern allopathic medicine.

TCM involves using yin and yang deficiencies (or excesses) and the assessment of dampness, dryness, heat, or coldness in the body. It’s been practiced in China for thousands of years.

Ayruvedic medicine is very similar to TCM and it is practiced in India. People are assessed by their constitution: Vata (air), Pitta (fire) and Kapha (water). Treatment plans are designed according to one’s constitution and also if the symptoms are hot, cold, wet or dry.

The Four Element Theory, which was Greek in origin, looked are Earth, Air, Fire and Water in the body and was the West’s version of TCM. The theory became the Four Humours Theory in Europe, but was lost from common knowledge when the age of reason and science took over medicine. This theory measured levels of the four humours in the body: Sanguine (blood), cholertic (bile), phlegmatic (phlegm or mucous) and Melancholic (black mucous). It was from this theory of medicine that the ideas of bloodletting and leeches came about. It has a bad name now, but the ideas make sense when looked at it from the point of view of the matrix.

So what is the Matrix?

The easiest way to explain what the matrix is to use the analogy of a sponge; Imagine a sponge, just your common everyday sponge with spaces and holes and the ability to soak up water. Now imagine this sponge immersed in water soaked and dripping. Now, imagine that water is seawater with salts and minerals in suspension and dilution.

The sponge is your cells. The Matrix is the fluid surrounding, permeating and flowing through your cells, the seawater, or plasma that keeps our bodies functioning.

When the Matrix functions properly we are healthy. Nutrients flow into our cells and wastes flow out. When we eat food our stomachs break it down into minerals, vitamins and other essential nutrients. Our small intestines then absorb these nutrients and they enter our blood stream. Our blood carries these nutrients to the individual cells. Blood itself does not enter our cells; rather the nutrients pass out of the blood through the membrane of the capillaries and then through the membrane of the receiving cell. In that tiny space where the two membranes meet is the Matrix fluid. This fluid makes the exchange possible because it acts as a carrier in a space where blood cannot go.

If the Matrix fluid is out of balance, say too thin then the nutrients needed in each cell cannot pass through the membranes. If it is too thick then again the nutrients cannot move through or get stuck between the cells. This of course is the same for waste products leaving the cell and this is more serious. When wastes cannot flow out of the cells there is build up of waste, which causes stagnation. Stagnation causes inflammation, which if not dealt with will cause disease.

Each and every cell is able to communicate with every other cell through the Matrix. Once one is able to picture this fluid flowing and moving around each cell one realizes that through this fluid each and every cell in the body is connected. The Matrix allows each cell to communicate with its neighbour as well as send messages to the next cell, and the next. In this way the smallest skin cell in our baby toe has a way of knowing what’s going on up in the cells of our brain.

Imagine a perfect city where the sewers work, mail gets delivered, garbage gets picked up, the politicians know what they’re doing (I said imagine perfection, remember). This is the Matrix at it’s best.

Then the garbage men go on strike or there is a clog in the main sewer line. You can imagine the rest.

All cellular function is based on pH, the acid/alkaline balance in the body. When our bodies are too acidic the Matrix can’t communicate with the cells. Cellular function and communication break down. Enzyme’s, our building blocks stop working and creating new cells. Enzymes are also unable to read DNA coding when the body is to acidic which inhibits grow at the very basic level. Hormone regulation stops or overproduces. We are thrown out of balance and as mentioned above and sickness results.

Acidity is caused by the foods that we eat. Carbohydrates, coffee, and red meat are all acid making foods. Green leafy's, herbs, fruits, veggies and water are all alkaline and Matrix enhancing. Dehydration also causes acidity. Drinking plenty of water helps keep the lymphatic system moving and the Matrix in balance.

Matrix thinking means seeing the body as a system, not a collection of separate parts. It goes beyond just looking at the balance in the cells. When working with a person and using this theory one must look at the big picture. The foods that we eat, or don’t eat are not the only causes of matrix imbalances or stagnation in the body. When we are feeling depressed the Macrophages (or Big-Eaters who clean up excess waste in our bodies) also become depressed and don’t do their job.

Emotional trauma or upheaval, mental anguish and spiritual discontentment can all be causes of stagnation and disease in the body. I often talk to people who have physical illness and their doctors have shrugged there shoulders, said ‘I dunno the cause, or what to do now.” This answer is often spoken when the physical illness does not have a physical cause. However when we use the Matrix system we can look beyond the physical to the emotional or even energtic's that maybe involved. We can take a look at the physical symptom as something hot (like a fever) or something cold. Is it dry, is it damp (mucous)? It opens up the possibilities for treatment to people who have been told, “you’re just going to have to live with it,”

So what does this mean to you, the reader?

It means an awareness that our bodies are more than the sum of our parts. We are not just a bag with a jumble of organs inside with a mind that is separate. Suddenly mind does have power over matter. Our thoughts, hang-ups, and self-criticism affect us on many levels including physical functioning.

And then there’s the scary realization that our bodies are a small piece of a bigger Matrix called earth. We are the individual cell stuck within a larger system, our planet. We affect our environment and our environment in turn affects us. This system of thinking takes on new dimensions when this realization hits. How are we affecting our environment, which is a closed system (matter and energy can not escape, but only change into new forms)? How does our economy affect the system, and how does the system affect the economy? The Matrix system of thinking is used in sustainable living practices, The Natural Step and the emerging new science of Biominicy.

However those are big topics worthy of their own individual articles. To pull the Matrix back down to the smaller level lets take a quick look at how an herb such a coffee affects the Matrix (Coffee grows on a bush, it is a plant and it changes the chemicals in our body, it’s an herb).

When we drink our morning cup of coffee our stomach creates a lot bile (often causing the liver to overwork) and acid to break it down. When it enters our blood stream a number of things happen. The caffeine passes to our cells causing them to burn nutrients faster. Coffee tells our heart to beat faster. Coffee also stops the production of ADH (Anti Diuretic Hormone). This hormone tells the cells how much water to hold on to and also tells the colon to reabsorb water. If it is absent water does not reabsorb. This is why coffee makes us pee and often causes bowel movements; the colon has a lot of water in it.

An interesting side note is that many studies have shown that ‘the jitters and shakes’ that seem to accompany coffee is often caused not the coffee itself, but rather the chemical residues of pesticides and herbicides that are sprayed on commercial coffee beans. Switching to organically grown coffee reduces or eliminates this side effect.

As mentioned before when we become dehydrated the matrix doesn’t function properly and we come acidic in our bodies. I’m not suggesting one stops drinking coffee, I do enjoy my morning cup, but is good to know just how it is changing the pH balance in our bodies so we can act accordingly.

Dandelion becomes an herb of choice to help with the taxation coffee has caused to our liver. It also helps the kidneys that have the tough job of washing caffeine and other chemicals out of our systems. It also helps reinstate the ADH levels in our body so we don’t lose more water then necessary.

Because Dandelion gets broken down into its chemical constituents in the stomach and enters the blood stream as such it will also enter each and every cell in our body thus affecting each cell.

This is the same for all herbs and chemicals we take into our bodies or are exposed to through our skin. This is another way that our outer environmental Matrix affects our cellular matrix.

I wish that I could recommend some further reading for the study of the matrix, but their aren’t any books, yet. However reading about Sustainability and Biomimicry will greatly increase ones knowledge about Systems Thinking and environmental cause and effect. Thank you for taking the time and having an open mind when reading this article. Any and all questions are welcome, post a discussion or email me directly.

Special thanks must be giving to Rowan and Don who first brought the Matrix into teaching. Their personal notes and teaching provided much of the information on which this article is based. Thank you for your strength, teaching and your encouragement to me through these last years.

Click to make bigger.

(previously published in 2002 at Suite101.com, by me)