Womb Ecology
Read The Theorem just as you would read The Da Vinci Code. After enjoying this book, close it and keep in mind that it was fiction. The Theorem is a work of fiction written by a well-informed and highly imaginative author. Just as Dan Brown offers an amazing interpretation of western history, Douglas Arone offers an amazing interpretation of the mother/fetus relationship and its long-term consequences. The basis of the vision (or theory, or hypothesis presented as a discovery) is the concept of fetal response to the developmental cycle.

During the fear state of the cycle, the fetus misinterprets the situation. While the mother is just at rest or asleep the fetus ‘believes’ that the mother is dying. In desperation, the fetus kicks and punches out, attempting to gain some response. The mother feels little effect because the fetal pathways that carry the information from the neurons in the brain to the muscles are not fully myelinated, or developed, so that the response is weak. The mother is oblivious to the suffering of the fetus. After that, during the euphoric phase of the cycle, the fetus realises the mother is still alive since she is moving. The dopamine flows freely to the reward pathways and pleasure centres of the fetal brain (the word dopamine is used by the author when referring to all pain killing neurochemicals in the developing fetal brain). A great importance is given in this theory to the concept of ‘Memory block’, which prohibits fetal learning, and, in general to the ‘neurochemical manipulation of the fetus’. The fetus can forget, in particular, what happens during the fear state.

Starting from such visions, the author can explain that the essential aspects of human nature have their origin in life in the womb. He can also explain the genesis of personality traits and the genesis of pathological conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

We need this sort of book, at a time when an accumulation of hard data provided by multiple scientific perspectives leads to the conclusion that our health and our personality traits are to a great extent shaped in the womb. This is what we can learn by exploring the ‘Primal Health Research Data Bank’. This database compiles studies that explore the long-term consequences of events occurring during the ‘primal period’, including fetal life. Such studies are easily ignored, so far as they are unrelated according to the current classifications. Furthermore the real importance of fetal life is more easily accepted since we understand that the prenatal environment can influence the expression of our genes. However it will take a long time to get rid of the vision of the newborn baby as ‘tabula rasa’. Scientific knowledge is not sufficient to reach a deep-rooted awareness. ‘Womb ecology’ is not yet perceived as the most vital branch of human ecology. Authors of pieces of fiction and other artists have a role to play. The Theorem is representative of the sort of fiction we are expecting in the near future.

Killjoys with a highly critical mind must not read this book. Their insidious questions or comments would easily abound at every page. For example there are long paragraphs about the olfactory sense explaining that the fetus smells pungent and foul odours during the first fear cycle and smells sweet or fresh odours during the Euphoric cycle. An insidious question would be: ‘what happens before the plugs blocking the nostril of the fetus resolve?’ Another insidious question would be: ‘How can you write a 500 page book about mother/fetus relationship without mentioning the placenta?’ The roles of this intermediate organ between mother and fetus are vital. One of them is to manipulate maternal physiology for fetal benefit: the placenta is the advocate of the baby. By the way, why would the baby need an advocate? This might be a topic for another fiction.

I am also thinking of those who will be irritated by the presentation of the book suggesting that Douglas Arone had his ‘breakthrough’ one evening in the mid-1990s during a thunderstorm. Then he ‘discovered’ that the specific aspects of mankind are related to intrauterine life. Those who participated in 1983 (as I did) in the first congress of the American Association of pre- and perinatal psychology organised by Thomas Verny (the author of ‘The secret life of the unborn child’) might have difficulties in digesting several gross distortions of history. The concept of fetal consciousness appeared long before the day when Douglas Arone was transformed by the power of a storm.

This book is for all the others. It is for those who are still able to return to states of naivety, candour, and therefore openness. After reading The Theorem and forgetting a great part of its contents, they will be better equipped to follow the spectacular scientific advances related to human development.

Dr. Michel Odent edits Primal Health News