By Kaili Brooks • Photo by Hilary Nichols
In recent years, German New Medicine (GNM) has risen in the alternative medicine field. First discovered in the 1970s by Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer, GNM examines how intense shocks, or conflicts, manifest in the brain and result in symptoms ranging from ear infections to cancer. I talked with Briana Johnson, a Metro Detroit GNM practitioner, who walked me through the basics of this complex healing framework.
Kaili Brooks: The 5 Biological Laws are the central tenets of GNM. In brief, how would you describe them?
Briana Johnson: The First Biological Law is the conflict. It’s the unexpected shock to the system. It feels isolating and alone. What is shocking to you may not be shocking to me, so it impacts us in different ways. It simultaneously affects the psyche, brain, and a specific organ. Our psyche perceives the conflict and shows itself on the brain layer. Dr. Hamer did thousands of CT scans to prove that concentric rings appear on the brain during this conflict-active phase.
The Second Law is the law of two phases. When you have the conflict you go into the heightened state of stress—or the conflict-active phase. You’re going to see anxiety, rumination, anger. Your body puts you into this state to look for the resolution. In the jungle, this would be the tiger chasing you; in the modern day, it’s what you feel while driving. Once you find that resolution, your body enters the healing phase. When you’re in the conflict active phase, your body can’t handle the symptoms. You don’t have time for diarrhea when the tiger is chasing you. When the tiger leaves, your body has the space to repair, and you begin to show the symptoms. The epi-crisis is the peak of the symptoms: this is where you’d identify as having a virus or a UTI, but this is when your body is doing the most repair. After this process resolves, you return to ‘normatonia’.
The Third Law is the law of the ontogenetic system. In your brain you have the endoderm, the old mesoderm, the new mesoderm, and the ectoderm. Essentially, this is where your psyche determines what kind of event a conflict was. It could affect your pancreas. Your brain determines this and signals the organ to adapt the way it needs to.
The Fourth Law is the law of microbes. This is where our body is utilizing our microbes to assist in our healing. Whatever happened in the conflict-active phase, mycobacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses, these are what show up to assist in repair. During the healing phase, your body reacts in the opposite way it did during the conflict phase to restore your body. Using something like an antibiotic kills all the bacteria that assists in the clean-up process. They are our friendly helpers. When you show up to a house fire and there are firemen there, you don’t blame the firemen. So, microbes are present at the site, but it’s not their fault.
The Fifth Law is the quintessence that everything that is happening is working for our survival. There is nothing that our body is doing that’s not trying to keep us alive. It’s that trust in our body; everything is working for us. We can live in the trust that we’re not sick, diseased, or broken. Everything is working for us always. There are, however, three exceptions to these laws which are physical injury, malnutrition, and poisoning.
Kaili Brooks: What is the core essence of GNM?
Briana Johnson: The core essence for me was to trust my body and the symptoms I’m experiencing. When symptoms show up, it doesn’t have to be a fearful experience of our body attacking itself or I’m diseased. When I was first going down the holistic path I couldn’t cook on pans I wanted to use or buy detergent because everything was out to get me. GNM forced me to look at my internal perception and how that was shaping my life. When you feel safe to heal and repair, that’s when the symptoms show up. It’s not an experience of having to fix yourself. It allowed me to finally breathe. Symptoms may be uncomfortable, but it’s ok to trust your body. Something will always occur that you won’t have prepared for, but living in that fear is what needs to change. Live, be present in your life, and know that your body is always working to keep you alive.
Kaili Brooks: What does the healing of a biological conflict look like? Is there a special process to resolve it?
Briana Johnson: A lot of times it can be very quick. You can drive in the car and be fearful, someone is about to hit you, and they don’t, so you can relax. When you get down to chronic illness, it shows me the individual is continuously having the same conflict. You’re stepping on this track multiple times throughout your life. Something like a separation conflict affects the epidermis layer and shows up as psoriasis, eczema, or hives. This can be very significant. In these cases, we want to look at a perceptional change or a practical change. Sometimes perceptional change doesn’t work, and you need to permanently separate from the situation that is causing the conflict. It takes deep, inner work. You can also live in your symptoms. You decide what you want to do.
Kaili Brooks: What is the role of a practitioner in GNM? Is this something you can undertake yourself?
Briana Johnson: I want to say you can become your own doctor and evaluate your conflicts and symptoms. It’s sovereign to be able to be your own healer and not outsource all the time. You can become the practitioner for your family. When it comes to chronic illness, having that practitioner there to walk this path and give you an outside perspective of the conflict helps. I bring you that point that you couldn’t see due to the stress of it all. I do a lot of talk therapy where we find that true resolution, whether practical or perceptional. I do a little TFT (tapping) to help calm the nervous system, some use breathwork or Reiki, but knowing the root [of the issue] helps you to release the conflict.
Kaili Brooks: Could you give an example of a conflict you’ve healed or helped someone heal?
Briana Johnson: I had shoulder pain in my right side for close to eight years. I did chiropractic, fascial release therapy, all of that. Anything in the musculoskeletal system is a self-devaluation conflict. When I learned this, I found it all linked back to me doing hair and not charging enough for what I did. When I began seeing my value and charging what I was worth, my shoulder pain disappeared. I’ve worked with a client who had TMJ; the grinding of the teeth is the healing phase and is associated with wanting to ‘bite back’ and say what you need to say. After resolving that, she no longer has TMJ.
For more information, or to work with Briana Johnson, visit sovereignwombanwellness.com or email sovereignwombanwellness@gmail.com. She specializes in women’s health, working on symptoms that manifest in the reproductive, menstrual, and breast realms. To learn more about German New Medicine, visit learninggnm.com/home.html.
Kaili Brooks is the calendar editor for The Crazy Wisdom Community Journal. Outside of her work on the magazine, she is a Secondary English major at Eastern Michigan University, a toddler mom, and a lifelong student of holistic living.
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