Conflict-Active Phase (CA)

The conflict-active phase — often abbreviated CA — is the first half of the two-phase pattern. GNM proposes that it begins at the instant of the DHS and continues for as long as the conflict remains unresolved.

On the psyche level, the framework describes the autonomic nervous system shifting into sympathicotonia, a sustained stress state. The characteristic picture is compulsive thinking about the conflict, disrupted sleep (classically waking around 3 AM), reduced appetite, cold hands and feet, a faster pulse, and raised blood pressure. GNM sometimes calls this the "cold phase."

A concrete example: someone in the middle of an unresolved custody dispute who has been running on four hours of sleep for weeks, is not hungry, cannot stop replaying the situation, and whose hands are always cold.

At the organ level, what happens depends on the tissue's germ layer. Endodermal and old mesodermal tissues are said to add cells during conflict activity, increasing functional capacity. New mesodermal and ectodermal tissues are said to lose cells instead. Either way, GNM frames these as functional adaptations to an emergency rather than damage.

One reason this phase is easy to miss is that it is often quiet. Pain, swelling, and inflammation are described in GNM as belonging mostly to the healing phase, which is why symptoms so often appear once life has already improved.

If the conflict never resolves, the program does not advance — the person remains in a hanging conflict, which the framework offers as one explanation for long-running symptoms.

More detail in the Five Biological Laws explained and understanding biological conflicts.