Complexity theory approaches to biology and universal structure. This construct may provide a linguistic and perhaps mathematical way to cross cultural boundaries when discussing biology, medicine, and healing.

1. Alternate Models of the Body:
Opening Science to Cross-Cultural Dialogue
Alternate Models of the Body:
Opening Science to Cross-Cultural Dialogue
Neil Theise, MD
Departments of Pathology and Medicine (Digestive Diseases)
Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center
New York City
Icahn School of Medicine
at Mount Sinai

2. neiltheise.com
neiltheise.wordpress.com

3. Beyond Cell Doctrine Complexity Theory Informs
Alternate Models of the Body for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
Theise ND.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009; 1172: 263-9.

4. Mechanisms of Yogic Practices in Health, Aging, and Disease
Kuntsevich V, Bushcell WC, Theise ND.
Mount Sinai J Med. 2010; 77: 559–569.
From the global to the local: possible pathways for the
transduction of Indo-Sino-Tibetan cognitive-behavioral
practices into site-specific, tissue-regenerative effects.
Bushell WC, Spector NH, Theise ND.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009; 1172: 74-87
Toward a unified field of study: longevity, regeneration, and
protection of health through meditation and related practices.
Bushell WC, Theise ND.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009; 1172: 5-19

5. neiltheise.com
neiltheise.wordpress.com
also: Researchgate, Academia.edu

6.  Cross Cultural Views of Bodies
 A Complexity Primer
 The Universe as Complex System
 Biofields and Boundaries

7.  Cross Cultural Views of Bodies
 A Complexity Primer
 The Universe as Complex System
 Biofields and Boundaries

8.  Cross Cultural Views of Bodies
 “Western” Biology and Medicine

9.  Cross Cultural Views of Bodies
 “Western” Biology and Medicine
= “Cell Doctrine”

10.  Cross Cultural Views of Bodies
 “Western” Biology and Medicine
= “Cell Doctrine”
 Non-”Western” traditions

11.  Cross Cultural Views of Bodies
 “Western” Biology and Medicine
= “Cell Doctrine”
 Non-”Western” traditions
…”nested” bodies

12.  Cross Cultural Views of Bodies
 A Complexity Primer
 The Universe as Complex System
 Biofields and Boundaries

13. Complex Adaptive Systems:
1Lewin R, Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos. 2nd ed.
Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press; 2002.
2Johnson S, Emergence. New York NY: Scribner; 2001.
1,2

14. Complex Adaptive Systems:
Interacting individuals that,
if they fulfill 4 criteria,
organize themselves from the bottom up,
into larger structures,
which appear planned from the top, downward…

15. Complex Adaptive Systems:
Interacting individuals that,
if they fulfill 4 criteria,
organize themselves from the bottom up,
into larger structures,
which appear planned from the top, downward…

16. Complex Adaptive Systems:
Interacting individuals that,
if they fulfill 4 criteria,
organize themselves from the bottom up,
into larger structures,
which appear planned from the top, downward…
BUT ARE NOT!

17. Complex Adaptive Systems:
Interacting individuals that,
if they fulfill 4 criteria,
organize themselves from the bottom up,
into larger structures,
which appear planned from the top, downward…
These structures are referred to as
“emergent self-organization”
and are ADAPTIVE.

18. Complex Adaptive Systems:
• Numbers matter

19. Complex Adaptive Systems:
• Numbers matter
• Negative feedback loops

20. Complex Adaptive Systems:
• Numbers matter
• Negative feedback loops
• Interactions are local without global sensing

21. Complex Adaptive Systems:
• Numbers matter
• Negative feedback loops
• Interactions are local without global sensing
• Low level randomness

22. Complex Adaptive Systems:
• Numbers matter
• Negative feedback loops
• Interactions are local without global sensing
• “Quenched disorder”

25. 1Theise ND. Exp Hematology 2003
2D’Inverno M, Theise ND. BCMD 2004
3D’Inverno M, Theise ND, Prophet J.
In: Potten C, Wilson J, Clarke R, Renahan A:
Tissue stem cells: Biology and applications

26. Implications of Cell Lineages
as Complex Adaptive Systems
Mass extinctions.

27. order
disorder
“chaos”

28. disorder
“chaos”
complex
adaptive
systems
order

29. Implications
The price of adaptation,
i.e. of LIFE,
is DEATH

30.  Cross Cultural Views of Bodies
 A Complexity Primer
 The Universe as Complex System
 Biofields and Boundaries

31. Hierarchies of complex systems…
Theise. Nature, May 2006

35. Hierarchies of complex systems…
thing vs. phenomena
depends on scale of observation

37. ChRISTOPHER SWANN

38. Hierarchies of complex systems…
thing vs. phenomena
depends on scale of observation

39. Hierarchies of complex systems…
thing vs. phenomena
depends on scale of observation
=> COMPLEMENTARITY
Theise. Nature, May 2006
Theise & Kafatos, Complexity, 2013

41.  Complementarity and the Copenhagen Interpretation
Quantum phenomena exhibit complementary aspects that are
revealed by specific observations, i.e. there are a range of
possible states prior to observation and any single observation
is unable to capture all aspects of the complete physical
situation simultaneously.

42.  Complementarity and the Copenhagen Interpretation
Quantum phenomena exhibit complementary aspects that are
revealed by specific observations, i.e. there are a range of
possible states prior to observation and any single observation
is unable to capture all aspects of the complete physical
situation simultaneously.
Biological Complementarity

43. Communities
Bodies
Cells

44. e.g. cities, cultures, ecosystems, Gaia
Bodies
Cells

45. Communities
Bodies
Cells

46. Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules

47. Theise ND.
Now you see it, now you don’t.
Nature, May 2005
“Cell doctrine: modern biology and medicine see the
cell as the fundamental building block of living
organisms, but this concept breaks down at different
perspectives and scales.”
Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules

48. “The validity of cell doctrine depends on the scale at
which the body is observed…
Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules

49. “The validity of cell doctrine depends on the scale at
which the body is observed. To limit ourselves to the
perspective of this model may mean that explications of
some bodily phenomena remain outside the capacity of
modern biology…
Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules

50. “The validity of cell doctrine depends on the scale at
which the body is observed. To limit ourselves to the
perspective of this model may mean that explications of
some bodily phenomena remain outside the capacity of
modern biology…
e.g. Acupuncture
Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules

51. What kind of models?

52. for example,
2 models from Ancient Greece:
Is the body made of…
indivisible subunits or an endlessly divisible fluid

57. Models of the body are perspective/technique dependent
Look at it this way (cell membranes):
the body is made of cells
Look at it that way (organelles):
the body is an endlessly divisible fluid

58. “The validity of cell doctrine depends on the scale at
which the body is observed. To limit ourselves to the
perspective of this model may mean that explications of
some bodily phenomena remain outside the capacity of
modern biology. It is perhaps time to dethrone the
doctrine of the cell, to allow alternative models of the
body for study and exploitation...”
Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules

59. Theise. Nature, May 2006
Theise & Kafatos, Complexity, 2013
Biological Complementarity

60. NOT A HIERARCHY…

61. NOT A HIERARCHY…
A HOLARCHY!

62. Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules
Atoms

63. Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules
Atoms

64. Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules
Atoms

65. Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules
Atoms
We are walking, talking Earth…

66. Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules
Atoms
Subatomic Particles

67. Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules
Atoms
Subatomic Particles
Strings (or whatever)

68. Communities
Bodies
Cells
Biomolecules
Atoms
Subatomic Particles
Strings (or whatever)
The Quantum Foam

69. We don’t live in the universe . . .

70. . . . we are the universe

71.  Cross Cultural Views of the Body
 A Complexity Primer
 The Universe as Complex System
 Biofields and Boundaries

73. Boundaries are scale dependent
Theise. Nature, May 2006
Theise & Kafatos, Complexity, 2013

74. disorder
“chaos”
order

75. Macroscopic body
Microscopic body
Nanoscopic body
Quantum body

76. Macroscopic body
Microscopic body
Nanoscopic body
Quantum body
e.g. physical therapy
surgery
e.g. stem cell therapies,
probiotics, fecal txp
e.g. molecular medicine
antibiotics
e.g. electromagnetics

77. Macroscopic body
Microscopic body
Nanoscopic body
Quantum body
e.g. yoga
tai chi
e.g. acupuncture?
e.g. traditional remedies
e.g. “energy” healing?
meditation?
Nested Bodies,
e.g. coarse, subtle, energy,
etc.

83. Fundamental Awareness:
A framework for integrating science, philosophy and metaphysics
Neil D. Theise, MD
Menas Kafatos, PhD
Communicative and Integrative Biology 2016; 3: e115010