Welcome

About four years ago, I reached a pivotal transition point in my pursuit for knowledge. While my scholarly interests frequently leap from one subject to another at the mercy of a mean curiosity, there remains one subject that rarely escapes my attention. That subject is the mind. My determination to understand it is the greatest driving force behind my journey through academia and in life.

Up until a few years ago, I looked to conventional sciences and western medical practices for answers. Then, through a series of life events, I suddenly knew there was knowledge and truth beyond textbooks and experimental data. At that point in my training as a neuroscience graduate student, I decided to complete my doctoral degree and take a break from the academic biomedical institutional environment. Let it be clear that I was not turning my back against science. Rather, I was choosing to explore  more holistic, spiritual, and alternative schools of thought pertaining to health and well-being. With my extensive educational and research background in the conventional sciences, I could see a new purpose in for my work in serving to help bridge science and spirituality.

My desire to understand the mind, especially during times of neurosis, stems from early childhood when my mother was battling the worst of her bipolar (manic-depressive) condition. To help my mother and all those who are like her was one of my most important reasons for choosing an academic path over a decade ago. The scientific path I chose is valuable for the extensive knowledge I have gained regarding the physiological basis of behavior and disease. Indeed, decades of biomedical research show evidence that causes for psychiatric conditions are primarily physical in nature. Many experts argue that disorders such as depression, psychosis, and addiction are no different from diseases such as cancer or diabetes. As a result, the standard treatment for mental illnesses involves pharmaceutical drugs.

It seems that physicians and researchers alike seldom consider the possibility that one’s mind is powerful enough to heal oneself. An interesting observation in light of a well-documented phenomenon called the placebo effect. I admit I am biased against the heavy reliance of drugs to treat patients but only because I had seen my mother suffering from years of being over-medicated. Now, what I want to see for any given psychiatric patient is a movement, a shift, in the mental health field toward a more integrative approach where the mind, body, and spirit are all carefully considered for one’s overall well-being.

My academic journey began in the biological sciences as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina. Over the years, I became very interested in the biological basis of psychology and took several courses offered in the psychology department. The courses that fascinated me most were human development, drugs and behavior, biological psychology, and psychopathology. By my senior year, I was living two separate but parallel lives on that campus. One life was in the department of biology doing independent research in neurophysiology and developmental molecular biology. The other life was in the department of psychology doing independent research on learning and memory in rats. After graduating I decided to combine the two interests and pushed forward into a neuroscience doctoral program.

I received my doctoral degree in August of 2006 from Pennsylvania State University. My thesis examined how drugs of abuse (specifically cocaine) can affect the brain, motivation, and behavior. The primary objective of my thesis was to investigate why some individuals are more vulnerable to drug ‘abuse’ than others. Using rodent models, I investigated what factors contribute most to individual differences in responsiveness to cocaine and natural rewards in a ‘reward comparison’ paradigm. The hope was and still is to determine reliable ways to predict which drug-naïve individuals are most vulnerable to drug-taking behavior, logic being that if we can predict, then we can prevent.

An unexpected, yet fortuitous, outcome of my graduate school experience emanates from the, otherwise unfortunate, development of severe allergies to laboratory rats. These allergies prevented me from being able to handle my own animals but at the same time, forced me to re-direct my goals. Today I look back and it is clear that my allergies were a psychosomatic response to me not listening to my inner voice, my intuition.

During this time, I was awarded a National Research Service Award (a three-year pre-doctoral fellowship through NIH) that allowed me to continue my project in a different setting. Since I was unable to conduct behavioral studies with rats, I decided to take on a different approach using mice instead. As a result, I was invited to continue my studies at the University of Colorado’s Institute for Behavioral Genetics in Boulder. While there, I immersed myself into coursework and research designed to help me understand the genetic basis of addiction.

It did not take long before yet another unexpected outcome of my graduate school experience forced me to again re-direct my goals. I had no idea I would react the way I did after sacrificing a mouse with my own two hands and losing two loved ones within a few month’s time. Suddenly, I was lost and consumed with conflict. This time I could hear my inner voice loud and clear. As a result, I declared to my committee that I would not sacrifice any more animals even if it would cost me my degree. Since then I have remained true to that choice and slowly but surely, have been creating my own path in life.

While much of the laboratory data I have collected will serve its purpose at a more physiological level, this knowledge will go further if combined with knowledge from other disciplines to paint a bigger working picture of the problem at hand. I believe the advancement of biomedical science is being held back by the lack of greater consideration for those elements, both human and spiritual, that are just as important as those elements that are purely physiological.

Indeed, spirituality is one factor that was not considered in my laboratory experiments or in my assigned textbooks and coursework. After all these years, I now believe that greater appreciation for the mind and most psychological ‘disorders’ comes from opening up to a realm beyond the physical body and what can be determined within the confines of a laboratory. Our greatest hope for curing addiction and similar ‘dis-eases’ that often exist simultaneously, requires one to cross boundaries between neuroscience and spirituality. I realize this is not a responsibility to be placed onto others but rather a responsibility I choose to place onto myself.

Having realized this choice upon completing my doctorate, I embarked on sacred journey through Peru for an up close and personal introduction to a culture in which spirituality and healing go hand in hand. The journey began deep in the Amazonian rainforest where I had the opportunity to work with and learn from medicine men native to the area. I was there with a group of about ten, many of whom are healers and were there for healing. The time was spent cleansing our bodies and quieting our minds through a special diet, daily meditation, and several healing ceremonies. I learned about various medicinal plants and have a newfound appreciation for a rainforest that serves as the largest natural pharmacy in the world. Equally impressive is how well these medicine men know their pharmacy. What struck me the most, however, is the sacred manner in which they gather, prepare, and administer the drugs. I couldn’t help imagining what it would be like if pharmacists, physicians, and researchers in modern societies used some sacred form of intent with all the substances that went from their hands out to a patient or administered to a laboratory animal. All the rituals and the sincerity from the heart and soul has had me wondering about the role of intent and the power of our thoughts in healing ever since. There is so much to learn from indigenous cultures.

Over the past few years, I have pursued my dreams of making a difference in people’s lives though making films, writing, and life coaching.  My experiences in Peru culminated in a documentary film series called Peru Revelations. Part I: Journey through the Amazon is complete and will soon be available for viewing online. Another film project I am currently working on dives into a more intimate look at the human condition within the context of love and relationship. This upcoming film is called 22 Ways 2 Love You. Given that visual media and film are the most powerful mediums to share with the masses, creating films that bridge together various schools of thought has become an important commitment in my life.

While making films and writing are a major part of my life, there is no substitution for the great joy I experience each time I get to witness the transformation of a human being in my clearing. My coaching practice fuels my heart and soul beyond anything I ever could’ve imagined years ago. I am truly grateful to have finally found a path on which I can powerfully combine my science background, especially my experience in neuroscience, with holistic perspectives integrating the mind, the emotions, and the spirit to create a space in which the most profound transformation can and as I’m finding does occur.

Today, the journey continues with great joy, curiosity, gratitude and trust in the Divine.

Jinju