Kathleen Rogers: Blood

Notes on the Properties of Blood and Circulation
In blood the orchestrations of cell divisions, migrations, death, growth and differentiation lead to a phantom residue of disembodied potentials.

Heart Bridge
The observation by William Harvey that "Blood is the first to live and the last to die" suggests that the circulation of blood is bridge to an invisible realm beyond life and death. The circulation of the blood and the organ of the heart are inextricably woven. Their morphological and co-evolutionary dimensions are informed by each other.

Continuation
The maintenance of the structure of blood and the division of the cells is a continuation of the method by which the structure of blood first came into being.

Elusian
The immunologist and poet Miroslav Holub writes and equates our molecular being as an orchestra of origins, endings, arrivals and departures.

Resurrection
"Shed blood shows that there is not one death, but a whole stream of little deaths of varying degrees and significances. The dark act of the end is as special and prolonged as the dark act of the beginning". In his essay Shedding Life (1990) he describes how multi cellular death through spilt blood overlaps with life. He describes how a clinically dead person is still in a sense running around in search of themselves since the systems cells - phagocytes and lymphocytes are still actively metabolising beyond death. Describing how "Blood will have its way" he suggests that biology and reincarnation intersect in describing how a captured lymphocyte could be readily fused with a cell of another species, "forgetting about a previous self but retaining in its hybrid state both self and non self".

Cord Blood
Cord blood is the blood remaining in the umbilical cord and placenta after birth. Cord blood is rich with stem cells, the building blocks of blood and immune systems in the body. Stem cells have the ability to become many other types of cells. The body’s immune system and blood system also originate from stem cells. There is clinical evidence proving that stem cells from umbilical cord blood extend much farther than the blood forming and immune systems, and that they can differentiate themselves into brain, heart, liver and bone cells.

Posted by Kathleen on September 9, 2006 8:28 AM to Kathleen Rogers