Tuning in before healing
Studies have shown that
the vibrations from rhythmic sounds have a profound effect on brain
activity. In shamanic traditions, drums were used in periodic rhythm to
transport the shaman into other realms of reality. Like sound waves, the
brain has its own set of vibrations which it uses to communicate with
itself and the rest of the body; EEG equipment distinguishes these waves
by measuring the speed with which neurons (nerve cells) fire in cycles per
second. Alpha brain waves range between 7 12 Hz, which causes deep
relaxation.3
Before a
healer commences healing s/he centres themselves and tunes in with the
person receiving healing (the healee). Studies have shown that a person
healing with intent will typically exhibit a (alpha) brain waves as
demonstrated using an EEG and known as the a
state.
Studies have also shown that
during healing the healer's alpha brainwaves synchronise with those of the
healee, so both will be resonating at the same frequency (sympathetic
resonance).4 In other words, channelling energy through the
healer and to the healee involves both being in the a
state.
Sympathetic resonance, as
with the strings on a Hardanger fiddle or Hurdy Gurdy (vielle), or indeed
the solid material of a bridge when marching soldiers fail to break step,
results in constructive interference taking place. Constructive
interference is when two wave forms produced in separate 'structures'
resonate in sympathy and, in so doing, increase the amplitude of the wave
form without altering its frequency. In the case of the bridge, this can
eventually result in the collapse of the bridge. In the case of the human
brain might it facilitate the transmission of a signal(s) from the brain
to the body via the A.N.S. for instance?
Tapping the universal energy source
Alpha is also the home
of the window frequency known as the Schuman Resonance, which is the
vibrational frequency of the earth's electromagnetic field (emf). This
means that the brain waves of a person in the alpha state will resonate in
sympathy with the earth's emf producing constructive interference which
amplifies the vibration. This might explain how healers (having tuned into
the healee) are able to draw on energy (universal energy source?) from
outside themselves i.e. channel energy through them to the healee. It also
might explain the discrepancy between the magnitude of the biomagnetic
field produced by the hand during healing (at least 1000 times greater
than that of normal human bio-magnetism when healing is not taking place)
and the corresponding 'electric' current which is detected flowing through
the hands i.e. the extraordinary large bio-magnetic field strength was
shown not to derive from internal body current alone.5 The
above phenomenon only seems odd if we attribute the human biofield solely
to electricity produced within the human body. Surmising that the extra
large field produced during healing might be produced by drawing on the
'infinite energy source' via the Schuman resonance makes much more
sense.
The discovery of millions of
crystals in the cells of the brain suggests that the brain might be able
to tune in (similar to a radio receiver) to the surrounding earth's emf,
the crystals providing the vibratory link between the earth's emf and the
alpha brain waves, resulting in the Schuman Resonance. The transmission of
waves from the brain throughout the body in possibly a similar way to
transmission of radio waves from a radio tuned to a certain frequency
could help the body achieve its own particular resonant frequency thought
to achieve, or be conducive to, optimal
health.
Also, under normal, healthy
circumstances, does the brain transmit correct frequencies to all cells of
the body to keep them resonating at the optimal frequency? If, for some
reason, the cells begin to oscillate at a less than optimal frequency due
to: localised injury, emotional trauma, magnetic field deficiency etc.,
then hands-on healing may be exerting its effect by jump-starting the
system to redirect (divert) energy flow. Following a myocardial infarction
(heart attack), electrical waves travelling through the heart muscle have
to re-route themselves round the area of damaged cardiac muscle so that
the heart can display normal rhythmia once
more.
To sum up, channelling of
energy through the healer to the healee involves both being in the alpha
state, with the healer tuned into the earth's emf via the Schuman
Resonance.
Magnetic Field Deficiency Syndrome
The importance of existing in harmony with the earth's
natural emf has been brought to our attention with the emergence of
diseases attributed to magnetic field deficiency syndrome, such as many
degenerative diseases, certain types of memory loss, or conditions such as
M.E.
Human beings, and all other
living creatures, have their own electrical-magnetic energy balance. Since
our first appearance on the planet, we have also encountered external
emfs. The human body floats in a sea of magnetic fields those of the
earth, moon, sun and other galactic fields.6 The earth itself
has an iron core that generates a halo of electromagnetic energy, reaching
far beyond our atmosphere. All life on earth has adapted to and existed in
this natural electromagnetic environment for millions of
years.
The body is full of
magnetisable materials, such as iron in the haemoglobin of the blood. The
biomagnetic fields of the body have been measured using SQUIDS
(super-conducting quantum interference devices) and found to be 100,000
times weaker than the earth's fields.7 We are so dependent on
the earth's fields that when we leave the planet for prolonged periods we
suffer. Astronauts in space for long periods require artificial magnetic
fields to maintain health.
In the
last one hundred years we have radically altered our environment with
human-made emfs with a different waveform, coherence, and frequency to
natural emfs, and their effects on living biological systems are only just
beginning to be understood. Naturally-occurring emfs do not seem to
significantly alter the body's innate electromagnetic balance and are
thought to be necessary for its proper functioning.8 Most
concern comes from alternating currents (AC electricity) which create an
energy field that is both electrical and magnetic. Electrical fields are
of little concern as they do not penetrate the body, while ac magnetic
fields do penetrate organisms.
Nature of the Healing Energy
John Zimmerman at the
University of Colorado has adapted a machine to measure the brain's
magnetic field to monitor the entire body. When a trained healer attempts
to heal, Zimmerman observes distinct changes in the body's fields. Signals
up to several hundred times larger than background noise appear while the
healer works. Some seem to be associated with frequencies in the range of
alpha and theta waves as seen in the brain. As the signals' frequencies
decrease in cycles per second, their amplitudes
increase.7
Also, William
Tiller at Stanford University, CA, reported in 1986 that he had
constructed a device that released bursts of electrons in response to
focused healing energy from a healer's hands. The device was in a Faraday
cage which shields it from any form of electromagnetic energy such as
radio, microwave, infrared, visible light, UV, X-rays or Gamma rays. 70
volt pulses of electricity were produced at will by healers' hands and
recorded.
Professor Fritz-Albert
Popp, a well-known biophysicist at Kaiserslautern University, Germany,
states that:
"All living organisms emit certain electromagnetic
waves. If they are in a healthy condition, they emit more. If not, they
emit less. This electromagnetic emission is called
biophotons."
Glen Rein, a
biophysicist at the Institute of HeartMath, CA, has been doing some work
on detecting subtle energies. He calls this energy non-Herzian or scalar
energy (after maverick scientist Thomas Bearden's theories). He found that
exposing neurons (nerve cells), cultured in a petri dish, to healing
energy, caused them to fire in their synapses (gaps between the neurons);
that is, impulses passed along the nerves, and from one nerve to another,
when they were exposed to the scalar
energy.
A survey of the literature
suggests that 'scalar' energy is the most appropriate description of
healing energy up-to-date, as it allows for the fact that healing energy
has been shown to be not part of the electromagnetic spectrum as we
understand it. According to Robert Jacobs,9 scalar waves are
capable of acting on living organisms at a sub-atomic level, and certain
frequencies of scalar have been shown to destroy viruses and bacteria. The
most efficient use of scalar waves appears to be when the body is exposed
en masse to a sweeping range of beneficial frequencies (similar to those
delivered by a healer), which enhances its own healthy resonance and helps
to restore energetic
order.
Experiments involving the
Canadian healer Olga Worrell showed her hand temperature, during healing,
to remain normal and constant. The absence of thermal transfer led Clyde
Ford, one of the researchers, to speculate that biological microwaves or
an organising field might be transferred from the
healer.10
The absence of
a temperature rise in the air surrounding a healer's hands has also been
recorded using a thermistor. Jochen Edrich of the University of Colorado
reported that "Since microwave emissions can be detected at depths well
below the surface of the skin, we felt this would be the best region for
diagnostic monitoring of biological radiation." Tissue under stress emits
increased levels of microwave radiation. Although the difference is small,
it can be detected by a radiometer. Edrich used this technique to detect
areas where tumour growth had caused tissue stress. Microwaves may help to
account for reports from healers that they can sense/feel problem areas in
the body, during scanning of the body during healing. They may also
explain sensations of heat reported by healees during
healing.11
Fire and
electricity convey heat to a substance, but microwaves induce heat within
a substance by altering its molecular motion. This altered molecular
motion might be the mechanism of unconventional healing. Internal
sensations of heat generated by microwaves would not necessarily be
detected on the surface.
As James
Oschman so ably recounts in his excellent series of articles on healing
energy,12 Zimmerman, observing biofields produced by a healer's
hand, recorded a pulsed signal of variable frequency ranging from 0.3 to
30Hz, with most of the activity in the range of 78 Hz.13 The
signal emitted is not steady or constant, but rather sweeps through a
range of frequencies. This range covers the low frequency pulses produced
by some pieces of physiotherapy equipment used for soft tissue
regeneration etc. Only healers were able to produce the biomagnetic
pulses.12
How Healing Energy Acts Upon the Body
So far then, we can see
that healing may be operating in two ways, one by inducing the alpha state
in the healee and the other by the direct action of healing energy upon
the body. As the body is thought not to consist of dense matter but rather
vortices of energy spinning continuously,14 the boundary
between the physical body and the etheric body becomes less distinct.
However, I will endeavour, where possible, to be specific regarding which
part of the body I am referring
to.
The pulsed biomagnetic signal
produced by a healer's hands can penetrate body tissue with ease, a
phenomenon which is made use of during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
diagnostic procedures in hospitals. In addition, the use of an electric
coil positioned round a broken bone that refuses to heal, will produce a
magnetic field which stimulates bone cells to begin dividing again. I saw
this latter procedure in action while living in Heidelberg, Germany in
1980, when a friend of mine had opted to use the (then) controversial
treatment for an upper-arm fracture that refused to heal, and had to pay
for it herself as it was unrecognised by the medical profession and hence
the medical insurance company.
In
addition to the transmission of a signal from brain/mind to the body via
the ANS, the healing energy might also travel via connective
tissue/fascia, the tissue found to have its own pulsing
activity,15 a fact made use of during cranio-sacral
therapy.
The healing energy could
access the body via the biomagnetic field (aura), a slight misnomer as
this implies a solid physical body surrounded by a biofield, when the
current thinking is that our 'dense' bodies consist of vortices of
energy14 vibrating at very high frequency and giving the appearance of
hard matter.
Healing energy could
be carried round the body by (a) magnetising the blood, (the iron content
of haemoglobin being reported by Linus Pauling as conferring magnetic
properties on the blood), (b) the ionic current created by the
electrolytes in the plasma of the blood (dissolved sodium, chloride,
potassium, bicarbonate), (c) proteins which serve as semi-conductors, (d)
the nerves, (e) the fascia (connective tissue and sheaths surrounding the
spinal cord etc.), and (f)
water.
The human body consists of
approximately 70% water. Many biologically active compounds are switched
on or off by changes in the concentrations of dissolved ions such as
sodium and potassium. Individual water molecules, with their tendency to
form hydrogen bonds, also stabilise the structure of proteins, whose
action depends crucially on their shape.16
If the hydrogen bonding angles of
one molecule are altered, those in the other molecules might be expected
to follow suit (as in a domino effect). Alteration of bonding angles shown
to follow healing17&18 might also be the way in which
homeopathy works, when the resonant frequency of certain plants is thought
to electromagnetically imprint upon the water following potentisation and
succussion of remedies.
Sweeping/scanning of the body
during healing could result in re-magnetising of the blood. This could
have the two-fold action of transferring healing energy throughout the
body via the circulation to parts where it is needed, and of helping to
restore the particular vibrational frequency of the person receiving
healing.
Vibration of the body will occur as a whole, at a very minute
level, affecting water molecules, individual cells and helping to restore
the normal L-field19 and resonant frequency of DNA within the
nucleus. It was Linus Pauling in the 1920s who first pointed out that at
the heart of the covalent hydrogen bond is resonance.20 As the
hydrogen bond is an integral part of water molecules, enzymes, DNA, all
food substances etc., it follows that if healing energy affects this bond
it will be able to influence every part of the body, in particular DNA and
enzyme activity.2 Also, is it possible that the vibrational frequency of
water molecules is unique for each individual when in a state of optimal
resonance? Each person may have a particular frequency for tuning in with
the earth's emf i.e. each person could be viewed as a radio receiver
capable of picking up a particular frequency. The enormous number of
different frequencies involved is not prohibitive to this idea when we
consider the existence of many different frequencies for individual
reception/transmission for mobile phones or the totally unique
fingerprints that each one of us
possesses.
Cells communicate with
each other, and the vibratory energy will reach within the cell via the
cytoskeleton and microtubules. Lakhovsky21 discovered in 1935
that the individual cell possesses two characteristics capacitance and
inductance which are the elements of a tuned circuit. Like a radio, the
cell must be tuned to the desired frequency i.e. that necessary to sustain
life. As Becker8 has shown, the requirements for normal differentiation of
cells and final shape and size attained by body tissue is dictated by
minute (micro) electric currents, which are in turn dictated by the
biomagnetic field of the body. This also relates to healing energy which
is thought to produce tiny eddy currents in body
tissue.
The maintenance or
restoration of the L-field, or as Rupert Sheldrake terms it 'morphic
resonance', is crucial to health. The removal of cells from a specific
organ in the body (away from its defining L-field) leads to the
development of an amorphous mass (cancer) in the absence of this template
of energy which determines normal shape and
size.
Distortion of this field
either by geopathic stress/trauma/exposure to mutagenic agents etc. could
result in failure of the body cells to differentiate (divide to form
specific cells) properly, leading to abnormal and unrestricted growth e.g.
leukaemia.
Healing might be helping
to restore the normal morphic field, which could account for some of the
cases of what are often termed 'remarkable recovery' or spontaneous
remission.
Energy Blockages
There is nowhere in the
body that is unable to receive healing energy except where 'blockages'
exist. Could these 'blockages', often sensed by healers as warm areas, be
pockets of electrical resistance encountered within body either at
cellular/tissue/meridian level? If so, healing might have the
effect of stimulating the flow of ions again [ions ( or proteins, which
serve as semi-conductors), cause 'electricity' to flow round the human
body as compared with a non-living electrical system which uses the flow
of electrons to create electricity]. In other words healing could be used
to stimulate energy flow through or round the areas where resistance to
flow has built up. As mentioned earlier, this can be compared with
electrical waves travelling through heart muscle which have to re-route
themselves following damage to the heart muscle resulting from a
myocardial infarction (heart attack) in order to restore normal cardiac
rhythm.
Potential benefits of healing energy
As well as altering the
state of the body by acting upon it at an atomic level, electromagnetic
applications in energy medicine induce changes in tissue voltage, improve
the activities of the body's enzymes, enhance ion transport at a cellular
level and affect membrane potentials. This in turn results in
heightened tissue repair and wound healing, enhanced immune functions, and
the reduction of inflammation. It can also bring about the elimination of
allergic sensitivities and the re-establishment of energetic harmony in
the body as a whole.9 In addition, healing often brings a sense
of well-being and peace a general uplifting of the spirit.
Example:
Sudden
relief from back pain (sciatica) might be due to reduction of inflammation
of soft tissue surrounding (trapped) nerve, therefore restoring to normal
the size of the hole in the vertebra through which the nerve passes, and
eliminating the sensation of pain. It could be noted that relief from
pain, in this case, should be long-lasting, as it would be due to a
physical change rather than just the enhanced release of the body's own
endorphins.
Hopefully this
description of a tentative mechanism for healing will serve to stimulate
further ideas and discussion and help to develop a better, more
comprehensive picture of what is actually happening during healing. There
are other aspects of healing, such as emotional and spiritual, which have
not been addressed in this article; suffice it to say that they are no
less important than the physical aspects, and I hope the reader will bear
this in mind.
Footnotes
Compare with the the electrical circuitry of a car, where
using too great a fuse strength may result in increased resistance to the
flow of electricity, a localised build-up of heat and occasionally
fire.
The importance of maintaining a certain polarity within
cells is illustrated in Robert Charmans excellent series of
articles,22 where he states that living cells employ many of
the properties of living systems and continually work to generate and
maintain regions of differing electrical properties against continual
leakage of charge. In fact, the ceaseless work involved in achieving and
maintaining these electrical needs consumes some 5060% of the metabolic
activity of the cell.23
References
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