Why I Left The Developing Mind Off the Esogetic Medicine Reading List — and what it has to offer beyond laterality

Why it is not on the list

Dan Siegel's The Developing Mind is frequently cited as clinical proof for the importance of laterality — the idea that unresolved trauma in childhood causes the brain to develop unevenly, with one hemisphere compensating for what the other cannot process. This is not wrong, but I excluded it from the list of books that inspired Esogetic Medicine. This article explains why, in addition to what this book still has to offer.

The problem is the framing. Siegel writes as though there is one correct way to develop, one correct way to be raised, and everyone who did not receive that correct version is now carrying a deficit that requires significant work to correct.

When students read psychology textbooks like this, they often discover that what they experienced in childhood meets the clinical definition for trauma, and they conclude that now need to carry a secret (that they might be damaged as a result).

This discourages (sometimes unnecessarily). Esogetics does not (because each person is seen as unique and their Kirlian photo will show what is still relevant for them, regardless of how a textbook might define their upbringing).

What the book actually contributes

That said, The Developing Mind contains three concepts that are genuinely worth knowing, and that Esogetic Medicine has a way to address

The first is laterality. When you see the left and right hands have different quality or severity of emission in the person's Kirlian photo, you know the way their brain developed because of unresolved childhood trauma still has an impact in their life, and still needs to be addressed, even if laterality treatment may be less interesting than other Esogetic Treatment. It is my own laterality that creates this negative perception.

The second is vertical connections, from the instinctual, to the social, to the thinking brain, helping us to process conflict or new experiences with all levels of our brain, not just in reaction mode based on what was dangerous before so there is no time to think through what to do this time around. The problem is, this time around may be different than before, and reacting as if nothing has changed, closes doors to things being able to change and for new and better things to enter into our lives. Esogetics has as extensive suite of treatments for EQ/IQ, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, limbic, medulla, thalamus, conflict, and more.

Finally, the most interesting addition, is the dorsal/ventral dimension. At first one might think this is the same as the vertical distinction, but it's not because it involves the vagus nerve, in a way you could think about it as the name suggests - showing your ventral (front) vulnerable side in order to connection socially with others or showing your dorsal (back/quills) to protect yourself from others. What is interesting about how Siegel describes it is he says "it starts in utero", this tendency to approach versus avoid the world. If our mother felt the world a safe place or the world is a dangerous place, this gets encoded in the developing fetus. In Esogetics, it can even come from the father's beliefs, directly via his genetic contribution and also via the environment he sets up for the mother and baby to exist in.

Esogetic Medicine already treats at the prenatal level, at conception (the medulla), and into pre-existence (the thalamus). We can see these issues in the left little finger of someone's Kirlian photo. This book provides mainstream language for what Esogetics has been describing - something happens in utero, it repeats in childhood, and if it is not resolves, it continues to repeat as relationship conflict in adult life (and then it shows as congestion under the middle toes on both feet), over time, this is what drives the risk for cancer and other serious illness. Our worldview can also be seen in the left index finger (is the world safe to move towards) and right index finger (do I have the skills to navigate it). It is fascinating how our experience builds our future experience and how we can see where we are at in this journey using Kirlian Photography, and reverse it using Esogetic Medicine.

Of course it is ideal if the people around us change the way they see us and treat us in a more supportive way, this is what Unique Psychology, Felt Safety, and the Information Field have to offer (a new perspective), but to only and blindly say that others need to change the way they treat us until we change is too much to ask for most people. They need proof, the need to see the chart, the photo, the report, and then they need the other person to make an effort towards change, which is what Esogetic Medicine offers. We help the person feel seen and then we help them change, and then everything changes. Mainstream methods, like the Developing Mind (and other books by Siegel) expect way too much blind effort and can't take into account the context that people exist in, including their additional needs. This is the problem with one size fits all, it doesn't fit most, because we have not only different experiences but we processed those experiences differently and we came into this life different with different support, sensitivities, goals, and needs.

Where the theory meets lived experience — and where it falls short

Let's take my elbow as an example.

Outside elbow pain (tennis elbow) shows up on the left big and ring toe, something from childhood makes us too aggressive when trying to make space for ourselves in the world. If my issue was more on the inside of my elbow (golfer's elbow) then the issue would be more about present day grief (which shows up on the right big and ring toe). Issues on the left foot create more risk for malignancy because they are older and less conscious (from childhood) and they impact the way the brain organizes and detoxes. Issues on the right are more conscious, but this doesn't always mean easier to deal with, its just a different approach. Which is ventral which is dorsal, its hard to say.

Human Design adds another layer that mainstream and Esogetics cannot account for. I have an open emotional system — which means that I feel other people's emotions amplified, and if I walk away from them I can empty out. And I have splenic authority, which means that my instinct will tell me right away what to avoid in order to protect my health. I was born this way, regardless of how my time in utero or childhood may have programmed me. It's strange to think about the integration of instinct, emotions, and intellect. I am not immune to the need to perceive more clearly, but it doesn't surprise me that I developed left laterality (to be more intellectual and less creative, for lack of a better word). My creativity is something we can see, anyone can print their chart, take a photo, look at Esogetic Maps, we can all come to the same conclusion - you have this sign and this design and this is a treatment that might work for you, and then we can take a picture afterwards to confirm what impact the treatment had, what symptoms is likely to emerge next (or go away).

This is how we bring depth, colour, and texture to the black and white of mainstream theory. The book describes how trauma shapes the brain. It does not describe how different designs experience, process, and can navigate the world. We have to be willing to borrow from both sides (esoteric and scientific), to see a more complete picture.

There is more to laterality than left and right

When the hands in a Kirlian photo are uneven, laterality tells us the brain developed asymmetrically because of unresolved conflict. But there is also heaviness at the top of the fingers which indicates stress on the brain. Or heaviness at the bottom of the fingers (or in the feet) which indicates subconscious burden — what has sunk below awareness and is being carried in the body rather than the mind.

Weak hands paired with heavy feet signals burnout — the body is paying the price for the brain continually putting it last.

The simple treatment for laterality is grey light on either side of the head, but there are many other options (it just takes time to find which one is right for you):

Other patterns include:

The wall of puberty, which means we passed through ages 12-24yrs and don't know what our life plan is or our development got stuck for some reason, this stresses the pineal gland, our antenna/guidance in life.

The left and right little finger and little toe square suggests a hard start — a great deal of fear early on, with the personality closing off to protect itself.

The middle finger and middle toe square, which I explore in more detail in the third article for this series: Giving Birth to the Pain — What Tracking Your Symptoms Actually Tells You.

And finally a pattern with the left index finger and toe plus the left little finger which says that 24/7 stress is causing acidity to go to the heart and joints.

Living with laterality

My right hand will weaken in my Kirlian photo from time to time (although my Esogetic teacher says she sees my laterality go back and forth between left and right). I respond very well to treatment, but the pattern returns because I have a tendency to prefer to live more in my mind than my body. As I alluded to in the first article for this series, I am consciously making an effort to put care for my physical health before allow myself to indulge in my business (intellectual work).

The whole reason I do this work is because I know what happens when I do not. If I stop paying attention, stop living in my whole body — the pain comes back. Living in only one side of our brain is not sustainable if you want to enjoy life.

The Developing Mind seems to suggest its a social adjustment that is required, but it is much more than that, while at the same time, with Esogetics on board, can be easier than the book suggests, because Esogetic Medicine changes the options we see as being available to us, it gets the person on board to make change for a better outcome.

Flushing out the middle fingers and toes and how emotions turn into physical pain

At approximately age six, something happens. Emotional processing should occur, but it does not. Instead of moving through the feeling, the child's body converts it into pain or illness, to avoid what we cannot face. Over time, the child learns be intellectual (or creative) as a way to escape dealing with how they feel, probably because there was no one available at that time to help them process it. The middle finger and middle toe pattern in the Kirlian says, figure this out or suffer the physical consequences.

This is just an example of the many loops we can get stuck in. Seeing someone's kirlian photo gives us a starting point to speak or treat from. What is upper most, when did this layer start, how can we unwrap the onion, to give you more room in which to live pain free?

Esogetic Medicine is about identifying each person's specific story — what happened, when, and what loop it created. This is why so many people cannot heal mental health issues through standard approaches that assume we are all the same, a few theories and possible chemical imbalances, with no way to confirm but trial and error. Esogetics is trial and error too, but at least the Kirlian gets us into the right loop or ballpark.

As mentioned in the first article in this series, Markus Wunderlich (Peter Mandel, founder of Esogetic Medicine's, son) looked at the middle fingers in my photos and said part of me doesn't trust myself to step out, the desire to move forward is being held back by something that has not yet been resolved, the conflict between these two poles is pulling me apart and causing me physical pain until I resolve it.

This is not just a laterality problem. It is the specific story of what happened to motivation — in the womb, in childhood, and the intellectual hiding that followed, because my experience with how others receive what I have to offer has not been good, and to change this I need Esogetic Medicine to help me see more options. Some people think that just being grateful and forcing positive thought is enough, that's a band aid and go away, it's not healing, which requires listening.

The trilogy of articles of which this is a part — Fibromyalgia Doesn't Have to Be a Life Sentence, this article, and Giving Birth to the Pain (coming soon) — is an attempt to show what the squeeze and release actually feel like when you are in it. There is more value to feeling the squeeze and navigating to feel the release than there is to have never been squeezed in the first place. Mainstream doesn't acknowledge this, maybe because they don't have faith that things can actually heal and that the experience can offer more richness than the experience of constantly winning or doing well. Most people will choose the easy life, but most souls will choose to be challenged.

If you want to explore this further

→ Why You're Up at 3am — the TCM clock, the Kirlian, and what the body is trying to tell you

→ What Your Joints Are Trying to Tell You — karma, attachment, and why the Kirlian doesn't always change right away

→ How Souls Incarnate — prenatal, pre-existence, and what the body carries from before birth

→ Inside and Outside — the 2024 Update and what the body is reacting to

→ Felt Safety and Kirlian Photography

→ In What Way Is Alahnnaa Campbell a Holistic Health Practitioner

→ Book a free 15-minute consultation