Almost 20 years ago I was taught in my massage course that pimples, warts, cysts, "birth" marks, and more, are all trying to get your attention. The skin is the largest organ of the body. It is serving us grandly by telling us where the issues are. Look at meridians. Do the regressions and hypnotherapy. Consider reflex areas and points. Our body doesn't lie. Love this talk.

Many years ago I read a book that had this phrase “Your mind is in every single cell in your body.”. Neale Donald Walsh, Conversations with God.

When I was a child about 8 I had a wart on my hand which my grandma told me I should blow to the moon. That night I did the blowing over the wart 3 times just as she showed me to do. Needless to say the wart was gone after a few days. This powerful event cemented my ability to use my mind or faith you can call it for life I knew the power of my mind and belief. God bless my grandma

I'm a Neuroscientist turned healer. Whenever clients come to me with skin issues, the vast majority are due to accumulative stress/trauma and inherited stress/trauma. Releasing it makes the skin issues go away. But skin is NOT unique. The vast majority of physical issues I've worked on has at its roots unresolved trauma. Whether its difficulty recovering from pain, illness, chronic disease, or any symptom. It's the concept of the allostatic load. Anything that stresses the body increases our vulnerability to disease, illness, pain, mental, psychiatric and cognitive issues. Her talk is intriguing, but I didn't feel like she did a good job of convincing me that the skin has its own nervous system. Whether its touch, something we see, smell or hear, we have receptors that eventually connect to the brain . To imply that it is has its own nervous system suggests to me that skin can think independently of the rest of the body. And she hasn't shown me evidence of that yet. Or is this just a hypothesis? Western medicine thinks emotions are in the brain. Eastern medicine says they emirate from the organs. Candice Pert says they are in the peptides (which could be anywhere). Heart Math says they are represented by frequencies. Regardless, our mental health has a far greater impact on our health than Western medicine currently appreciates. So this talk is a step in the right direction.

The heart also has a mind of its own. Everything is much more interconnected than institutionalized science knows or teaches about at the moment.

I find it fascinating how the body works together and how the skin gives us signs that something is wrong.

My takeaway is we need to touch our children gently more often, hug and show love. :)

It was written that the Skin is the seat of Mind in Charaka Samhita an Ancient Indian text related to Ayurveda Almost 3500 years ago

It's not that our skin has a brain of its own, it's that our body is a whole community of organisms that cooperate and listen to one another, then react in an appropriate way.

Awesome presentation! If you study the physics of sound, sound is a pressure wave. Based upon this, our skin has the ability to "hear" as well!

I never wanted this talk to end. Soothing.

Nice to see that science is catching up to intuition and nature 💖

I've always thought that babies could actually " feel " love and acceptance through their skin. It may all start there...

What an amazing presentation. I was on the edge of my seat listening to this ground-breaking talk by Claudia Aguirre. Great great great!

Well, this explains reflexology, acupressure and acupuncture really well.. Brain very accurately represented on skin.

I often feel goosebumps when I listen to a particularly emotional, gripping piece of music. I think that most people has already experienced that form of interconnection between hearing and touch at least once.

Quit a very "good and stable" job which has all the benefits and bells and whistles... stable... because I developed many physical ailments due to the stress. My skin has now cleared up MOSTLY after being away only 1 year from that job. I have also been able to lose nearly 20lbs. I believe in this so much

It is amazing how food, lifestyle and stress is killing us inside and out. Great talk.I have also noticed since I cleaned my diet my GI system is calmer and stronger and so is my skin, so my skin was yelling out what was going on inside, something a very smart doctor told me so long ago, I just did not understand how to heal it. So get clean in life and you can deal with much more, body, mind and soul.

I think I would be happy if all I could watch on KZfaq was teds talks...(except for all the "how to" vids....i need them!) I really do learn something drom everyone i listen to and they always provide food for thought. Thank you for sharing all the valuable info with those of us that would never get to hear this type of thing any where else. I think it is fair to say I have changed a few habbits and ways of thinking from watching these presentations. I deliberately watch things I know nothing about and then realise how interesting some of those things are. listening to passionate people talk about their specialties is a great way to learn and understand, their passion can be contagious to many of us. What more could you ask from a talk?!

I really liked how multiple examples were used to show how stress can affect diagnosed conditions such as the 10 year old's excema and new conditions such as the teenage women's wart ont the bottom of her foot. it really put into perspective how our outside stress can affect our skins apperiance and health. The fact that their conditions were alleviated through aknowledging and working on their stress or trauma really shows that our skin has a brain. This really put into perspective that our skin is not just our outerlayer but that its complex organ that truly does have its own brain that isn't just affected by your health but also our stress levels and even trauma. Her last statement that we need to listen to our skin is so simple but profound because it is true. It is our first line of defense from the outside world and we need to protect it just as it does for all our other interal organs.

I see the loosing pigment on the skin after divorce and trauma!! It makes sense.. God bless everyone!

The soldiers eyes and mouth - 1st eyes calm, enchanted, mouth relaxed corners turned upwards. 2nd eyes, fearful or shocked mouth corners in n line, 3rd eyes disillusioned, disenchant, almost empty, mouth corners going downwards. The eyes are indeed the windows of the soul.

This made me think of the rashes I would have as kid on various parts of my body. I received different creams for it and light therapy and it soothed but it never fully healed. I just so happened to have a bad childhood as well and as I got older and was able to take more control over my life, the rashes went away by themselves. Food for thought.

Alleluia!!!!!! Finally.....a scientist who took the time to research the connection between emotions, diet and the skin (simplistically speaking). As a Holistic Esthetician, I've been teaching my clients this for years.....the skin is an amazing organ that speaks volumes about the health of your mind, body & Spirit.

Wow this is amazing. I have had alopecia three times in my life. Recently i lost my job in a very strange way and i was not prepared. I had so many wars and the alopecia came back again. I am just healing

Excellent talk!!! So interesting!!! After all the awesome and fast progress that we made , we still don't know our full physical and mental potential!!! I'm amazed!!!!

As a Muslim we already believe our skin remembers, because god Allah said in Qur'an "on day of judgement our skin will speak .. regardless weather someone is a believer or non believer everyone will stand ..how can skin speak?? unless it has its own memory...that's why eating halal/kosher plus water purification is a must.. that's why it's important we raise kids with hugs and kisses gentleness I have a little girl 12 years old so not a day passed by that I didn't kiss her.... Blessings.

Its really interesting to hear about how traditional medication could not solve their issues but that psychology,understanding the source of their emotional distress really did in fact help improve their conditions. I never once considered that problems in our skin like that could be an indicator of such a thing,i just always wrote it off as natural results from aging. Fantastic video,I wish it was longer :[

A really well communicated talk. In consciousness spirituality and alternative therapies we have long known the significance of the skin which is also the largest organ of the body. For five thousand years pus (pre-sanantadharma) our Matriarchal Dewi culture has worked with the plant energetics and understanding. I must mention this because Aromatherapy in its modern scientific explanation is powerful - but very limited to its early consciousness understanding, which includes relationships - our endogenous and exogenous relationships with ALL existence rather than a therapy context of epidermis, dermis and hypodermis and its interrelationship with the human form. I mention these ancient traditions simply because Aromatherapy works through treating the skin and involving the senses of touch, sound, taste and often sight (e.g. colour) as well as vibrational energetics. This total approach to healing often involves psychotherapies and cognitive therapies. In other words many thousand years ago during Matriarchy our healing techniques were very integrated, inclusive and worked with the assumption (knowledge) that the "whole" person within the "whole" (context of Cosmic Mother Earth or modern sustainability whole systems) requires treatment and rebalance rather than isolating and understanding one constitutent in isolation as traditional science does - also assuming (now known incorrectly) that the ego is superior and contains all and controls all. The brain is simply a data processing center. Our intelligence is complete and interconnected. This is why when humans create computers and machines based on their brain computational logic - they are creating (initially) a left brain extension of reality. I say initially because ultimately as we see with AI the computer doesn't "know" boundaries of knowledge as the human primate brain does and surpasses this restriction.

I wanna become a neuroscientist.

CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR EXCELLENT EXPLANATION !!! HUGS FROM BRASIL !!!

Easier to deduct our skin is an extension of our brain. Excellent talk!!

That story about the boy with eczema is a reality in my life. My mom and grandmother tragically died in a flash flood my eczema actually went dormant somehow, I do recall losing my desire to medicate when the Tylenol tampering occurred and a little boy was hospitalized in the Midwest. Suddenly tamper proof packaging was implemented... I appreciate your enlightening speech. Good luck and thank you.

What a beautiful woman, intelligent and lovely way of speaking too!!

Listen to your skin, yes. Dx with CTLC-MF 10 years ago, have had sx for over 30 years. Because of this disease, I learned to listen to my skin, adjusted certain areas of lifestyle and am now enjoying clinical remission of this lymphoma that in early stages, expresses through the skin. Thanks for this inspiring TedTalk!

Thank you Claudia, wonderful discussion. Maybe one day it can include the role our skin plays with Sun exposure and the laundry list of benefits resulting from Vitamin "D". Also, the benefits from Grounding/Earthing via our skin? You have opened the door to so many interesting discussions and health attributes!

Most interesting and what a wonderful natural speaker she is.

Interesting talk! My favorite clip was 6:45-10:00. Paraphrasing it here. Mothers touch changes a baby's epigenetic profile Newly discovered nerve fibers only process the gentlest of touch, connect to the part of the brain that shows you your feelings Gentle touch gives us a sense of who we are and can trigger out of body experiences

This spoke to me in ways I can't articulate yet. Thank you Claudia Aguirre.

Enlightening talk that will change the way I think and nurture my skin. TED brings us such gifts with speakers like this.

The gut microbiome plays a huge role in skin issues. Also, the skin has a microbiome of its own. It's so important to keep our gut healthy.

Been saying this for years now. Glad science is backing it up. I'm constantly telling others, "your skin(body) is its own ADT (alarm) Home System,"...... learn to use it.

In addition to our skin I think our hair has sensory skills too

Thank you so much. Cerebral Brain, Gut Brain, Skin Brain...check out Heart Brain, then keep checking until you discover that all the major organs have a "Brain". What's missing from this is the digital store and translator that makes them all communicate and how it all fits into "On The Origin of Species". I am looking for a publisher of a work which is left-of-field of Dr Aguirre's address but salutes her. There is a more visceral process at work here. But thank you again Dr. Aguirre. Again we are encouraged to look outside the "norm" by wonderful minds like the one in you.

I feel sound. I can control it and choose to experience the sound in any part of my body. It feels like a flower blossoming. I’m healthy and I’ve never had a stroke. I practice yoga and meditate.

Once I went to the Doctor with an itch that wouldn't go away unless I put ice on it. No physical reasons could be found for the itch.. He finally asked me a strange question: He asked if I had any goals or things in my life that haven't happened yet ? I was at the time physically injured and unable to train for the Olympics which was an important goal to me. Once in a while , every few years during times when I am making important decisions, the itch will return.

I'm blown away by this beautiful, transparent, well elaborated, smart and progressive presentation where new and important scientific understanding of our body is brought with such an elegance, persuasiveness and credibility. I'm thankful to Ms. Claudia Aguirre for this.

Emotional stress causes problems throughout the body. More naturals, more peaceful moments, & less anger, and do your best to relieve emotional sad, energy-draining situations.

After a long soft massage I feel very relaxed and at peace. The next morning I wake up very sick and mentally disoriented. I learned that my psyche did not "agree" with this comfortable warm feeling, that I am not worthy of such comfort. My early childhood was clearly the problem. Today I believe I will lose 10 years of my life because of the pain caused by not being touched. I love the touch that makes me ill. Addictions anyone?

Goodbye singularity, hello skin. As we know and have come to learn, more and more how our identity is founded upon examining our own mind and body. It’s within the terminology synonymous with both medical ontological research literature, to those examining then deciphering what I can only call synesthesian anomalies within the mind, brain, sensory conduits and body functions where new discoveries await; I am optimistic of new frontiers to be surveyed now, from our current summit of understanding, looking upon our Medical Science and qualitative reasoning, both finding the language and the correct questions to go forth.

Really interesting video, easy to listen to and understand.

One of the most remarkable comments I've ever heard ... we can reach the mind through the body and we can reach the body through the mind.

I KNOW that I'm healthier when my skin has rosy cheeks and clear skin. I'm just now starting to get that back after a catastrophic illness that has taken over a year and I am still recovering.

It's interesting to know that our skin shows or represents the things we try to block out and the only way to make it better is by bring it to light and talking about it, like with her story about the three patients. Something that came to mind was an unhealthy relationship, most people are unaware of the changes of their body language and how they seem to care themselves, and typically after a breakup their demeanor changes, they look and feel better because they got rid of the problem.

WOW! This helps me understand so much why the intuitive energy massage technique I learned is so effective!

Claudia Aguirre, are you aware of the EndoCannabinoid System? It's being studied as the "think it in to being system". It is quite fascinating. Wonderful talk, thank you!

One of the better talks i heard in a while... beautiful in every sense of the word! ☺️

Evelyn Glennie is deaf and she teaches people how to listen . She teaches music to deaf children . She is one of the best percussionist on the planet. Listen to her on Tedx . From my heart to yours Michael♥️🎵

Amazing lecture, after the discovery of the deep bowels-brain connection now this, it´s truly beautiful how our organs are connected in so many and unexpected ways. Taoist and other eastern strands of medicine also teach something similar, by the way.

The last two weeks I have been listening to low bass cello all week on loud Bose system (play list on my KZfaq) plus using internal iridology eye accessing cues (whole body / specific point viewing ) and oil on skin massage to get even more associated with my body. Have had fear paralysis withdrawal most of my life. I had become associated (feel my body/ feel touch) over the last decade but I still keep withdrawing out of habit. This video finds me, as I find myself feeling right out to the top level skin edges while at the same time pointing inward toward old emotional neurological addresses to release and new better ones to be found.

i have always thougth that humans are a collective of entites not one "creature" as we once thought. PeaceLove and light.

Nicely shared. I was a bit surprised she didn't also share something delightfully perplexing - well, in terms of current science. It's that those brain chemicals, neurotransmitters, are also produced in the heart & the gut. That tempts me to say that it's likely we don't understand thought as well as we'd like to believe, opening yet another delightful avenue to explore. ~♥~

Thank You, Claudia Aguirre. And ... Our skin is our largest organ and our most exposed organ ... I just watched 2 different videos talking about our brain being in our heart (actual brain cells in our heart) and so this video was a perfect one to follow those. Love & Peace to All

Great! Thank you as a scientist to make the bridge between science and somatic body/mind understanding! In the Trager Approach - coming from Milton Trager we listen to the skin and all the layers beyond and as you describe with a soft touch we invite blockages to evaporate and get into a. alternate experience of Self!

Just a thought on the disembodiment part - when you separate yourself from the body, which includes the skin, the job that you just described is performed by the skin, that ability also separates. Reason being, its this separated entity which supports the skin to behave so intelligently. That intelligence is different from the body. Skin by itself, without this entity, cannot display any of the characteristics you described. Same applies for all the senses. However, as long as we are destined to stay within our skin, some expressions of our minds continues to display because of the close contact.

Ms. Aguirre, your topic is very interesting. I would love to know what more has been learned in the past five years. I was a practicing hypnotherapist for many years. I experienced many things the mind corrected that modern medicine and science typically couldn't explain.

My face is very very sensitive to stress. I am in my 60's and when a stressful situation arises my face will get red with blemish's, not pimples just red raised areas. Sore to the touch. When things settle down, they go away! I use Sulphur ointment, to help with soreness. Yes I believe our skin tells us what we may be eating is not healthy for us, and stress. It is like a brain.

Excellent talk....so relatable and the underlying scientific connections reflected in the talk make the experiences much more believable..

Amazing, very interesting. Somehow when you talked about the perception of sound in the particular case of a patient, --although what I am going to ask is not directly related--, it resonated with me, it reminded me of a problem that I have had since an unpleasant event occurred in my life: Tinnitus. Do you know if there are advances in the research of this unpleasant ailment and its possible solutions? Thank you for sharing your knowledge in such a beautiful way.

The Su Wen (The Simple Questions), the first section of The Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emporer’s Classic of Internal Medicine) written circa 100 BCE in China, discusses the relationship the lungs have with the skin, sadness and grief. As an acupuncturist it is validating to hear the very well articulated scientific explanation of a development in medicine discovered intuitively over 2,000 years ago.

Thanks for such a wonderful info.

Excellent !!! Yes BTW i do listen to my skin. I have had some issues with it all my life. I'm in my 70's now. The problem is knowing how to respond to symptoms. And of course almost every thinking person will agree it's way better to find the root cause of a problem than to treat merely the symptoms. But much easier said than done. Thank goodness science and medicine are making progress in those areas with new discoveries.

WONDERFUL AND WELL SAID , ALL MOST ALL PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMAS REFLECT ON THE SKIN !

I highly appreciate her point of view and importance of skin and sense-abilities. We have much more to learn in this subject. Since skin is the biggest organ of our body; it will be great help to know how we can take better care of our skin. Request her to provide some simple ways to be more careful about skin. Thanks!

Most of our Serotonin is produced in our gut. The connection between the brain and our gut is just as important.

The people with the best skin are enlightened

Now I know what they mean about worry worts

This is probably one of my favorite TED talks. I'll admit, she was stumbling over her words-I wouldn't have done any better. But the information she shared and the points she brought up are really interesting. For many animals, skin plays a vital role in surviving, attracting mates, camouflaging, hypnotizing, etc. You could say that it has super powers ;) and I know we don't realize the potential or skin has.

My cousin was diagnosed with Anorexia nervosa, took so many treatments, but no relief was seen. One day her friend told her about Planet Ayurveda, whose treatment was going here. She ordered medicines online like Digestion support and all and is still using these medicines. Now she has much relief.

Amazing talk. Thank you thank you thank you

This woman is astonishingly beautiful! At first I thought it was Gina Davis

Omg trippy! 9:45 I triggered an out of body experience for someone by gentle touch just recently ! How fascinating

We evolved without much clothes and the skin took tons of cues and energy from sunlight. This form of being in communication with your surrounding is severely hampered by clothes.

Shabbat shalom. Great verbal communication about how lifestyle and events can negatively affect us as humans. Another scientific reason to have a day of rest, thankfulness, and contemplation! The Creator prescribed it after our rebellion of freewill tainted our DNA and self perpetuated through procreation.

I wonder if the damage stress on skin, can be reversed? Thank you, this is so interesting. I forward to seeing more research into this field

Embodied cognition, Brilliant!!!

Well, if we have skin conditions and aren’t consciously aware of their origin, how to we decipher what’s the source? Techniques would be a great addition to this.

Sophie should have used the old Irish remedy my many siblings and I used when we were young. You took a potato, cut it in half, and rubbed it on the wart. Then, you buried the potato halves in a secret place. Worked every time.

Tenderness and touch are beyond words.

Maybe the title should be "Are you listening to your skin?" - I am trying.

She's absolutely gorgeous

Very interesting. As sound is just vibration I would imagine we always feel it through our skin. Maybe we are just not as tuned into it as we could be. This would also explain why the right music is so soothing when we give ourselves to it.

Man I loved this 100%

embodied cognition. thank you for this talk.

Finally, Beauty and Brain and a little big hint of Courage

she has so beautiful voice !) Thanks a lot for this information!:)))

Aha! She’s right on. I’m dealing with an itchy skin condition that’s driving me nuts, tried several medications but it keeps coming back. I’ve been in charge of a very sick patient, who coughed and coughed loudly and constantly! It’s been very disturbing to the patient and me! The patient was terminal and died! I’m still left trying to deal with the skin disease....after this lecture I will work on changing and improving my lifestyle attitude! It’s got to make the difference. Thank you!🤷🏼‍♀️

I work as an airline pilot, a job I hate with a passion but trapped by the income and the fact I can’t do anything else. After a few days of sitting in an airplane I develop an eczema on my trunk. A few days off and it goes away. I don’t find the job stressful other than knowing my life is wasting away in such a brain dead occupation.

So wonderful- thank you

Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathic Medicine said this 250 years ago, every disease begins in the mind and then came out to the skin. This is why the homeopathic clinician treats the individual from his feelings, emotions, memories, dreams, so he's the whole personality.