The Era of Energy Medicine
One day in the late 1980s, a therapeutic touch practitioner walked into the laboratory of Dr. John Zimmerman at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Zimmerman wanted to know whether the healing energy claimed by nurses who used therapeutic touch with patients could be objectively demonstrated.
The practitioner and a patient entered the magnetically shielded chamber of a SQUID detector, a highly sensitive device constructed to register the subtlest of humanbiomagnetic fields. When the nurse passively held her hand close to the patient, SQUID recorded a baseline level; then, when the practitioner relaxed into the focused, meditative state used in therapeutic touch therapy, SQUID detected an immediate and huge increase of the biomagnetic field emanating from the healer’s hand. It was by far the strongest human field Zimmerman had ever recorded. In fact, the field was so powerful that SQUID was incapable of accurately measuring it. Zimmerman found that non-practitioners were unable to reproduce what the trained nurse had done. (1)
Zimmerman’s findings were confirmed when Japanese professors Seto, Kusaka and Nakazato more accurately measured the extraordinarily large biomagnetic fields emanating from the hands of martial arts experts such as those trained in Qigong, yoga, meditation, Zen, etc. (2) We now know that all forms of life vibrate in the frequency range of 10 Hz, and that these healing biomagnetic fields variably pulse at the same frequency as does the Earth’s electromagnetic field (7-10 Hz, called the Schumann Resonance). Just as a fish breathes and feeds in water, our bodies and minds live, breathe, and have their being through resonance in and with our Earth’s electromagnetic atmosphere. Biological systems need the Earth’s magnetic field in order to function just as much as they need oxygen, soil, water and sunlight.
Throughout history, subtle energies associated with the human body have been used for healing purposes. This energy has been called ruah (breath/spirit) among the Hebrews, prana and shakti on the Indian subcontinent, chi or qi in China, and ether, animal magnetism (Franz Mesmer), archaeus (Paracelsus), and orgone energy (Wilhelm Reich) in the West. In his book, Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis, cell biologist James Oschman defines healing energy — whether produced by a medical device or projected from the human body — as energy of a particular frequency or set of frequencies that stimulates the repair of one or more tissues. And scientists are finally honing in on the elusive nature of these subtle healing energies. Medical researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York have found that biomagnetic fields projecting from the hands of qigong practitioners are capable of increasing cell growth, respiration and DNA and protein synthesis. (3) It is now known that the pulsing electromagnetic fields produced by the hands of traditional healers are of the same frequency range used to stimulate the healing of soft tissue and bone injuries through PEMF devices (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field) commonly used for the healing of bone fractures and related conditions. Therapeutic Touch, introduced by nurse Dolores Krieger in the 1970s, is now used in hospitals throughout the country.
Indeed, a revolution is occurring in our understanding of biological processes and healing. The 19th and 20th centuries in the West were largely dominated by anatomical (surgery) and biochemical (drugs) approaches to the treatment of human disease. Now, instead of treating biological dysfunction with drugs and surgery (allopathic medicine), the 21st century is seeing a dramatic increase in the use and study of subtle energies that elegantly enhance the body’s own capacity for self-healing. Also known as resonance medicine, the frequencies of pulsating biomagnetic fields — whether they are introduced by a healer’s hands, by light, by heat, by sound, or by a low-frequency electromagnetic device — match and resonate with the frequencies of different cellular and molecular structures in the body.
The study and practice of resonance medicine is now exploding around the world. Eastern European countries, including Russia, have traditionally been at the forefront of investigating the nature and use of biomagnetic modalities for diagnosis and healing. Professor Tina I. Karu, a Russian biophysicist, has published hundreds of papers on the biological effects of low-level (or soft) laser light in the body. (4) Many of us are familiar with the use of powerful lasers for surgery. Soft laser light, however, works not by cutting or destroying tissue but by introducing the same frequencies cells use to maintain their normal healthy function. The body uses specific frequencies for communication between and within cells, just as we use selected radio frequencies for communication purposes. Better cellular communication means better biological function of tissues and organs and better health.
The coherent light waves of lasers do not need to be powerful in order to promote positive changes in the body; even a small amount of penetrating light energizes the molecules that control cellular function, especially those in the cell membrane and the mitochondria (the enzymatic engine of the cell). Since the low-level laser light can work with any type of cell, it can affect the health and function of all kinds of tissues: connective tissue (muscles, tendons, bone, etc.), blood vessels, blood, organs and nerve tissue. A leading reference work on low-level lasers lists hundreds of clinical studies showing the effectiveness of soft lasers for many kinds of conditions including headaches, arthritis, sports injuries, nerve pain, herpes sores, TMJ dysfunction, and carpal tunnel syndrome. (5) The FDA has recently approved the efficacy of soft laser devices for muscular pain and carpal tunnel syndrome, and additional studies are now in progress. These new devices such as soft lasers, qigong energy simulators and bio-resonant electromagnetic field generators can reliably produce resonating frequencies that gently support and promote the body’s own healing energy.
Shifting Scientific Ground
Why has science been so slow to investigate such powerful healing tools and medicine? For the past two hundred years scientific thought has rejected the idea that mind and spirit can have any effect on the physical healing process. The scientific theory that, ultimately, all reality is physical and mind is a by-product of matter stems from the 17th century French philosopher Rene Descartes. During this same era, Sir Isaac Newton defined classical physics by formulating the law of gravity and the laws of motion that govern the behavior of individual material bodies in space. Newton’s laws supported the idea that physical matter was composed of hard, indivisible, billiard-ball like units called "atoms" by ancient Greek philosophers. By the end of the 19th century scientists had concluded that everything in the universe, including life and consciousness, was the result of entirely predictable interactions between physical atoms that are separated by empty space.
At the turn of the 20th century Albert Einstein published his now famous equation, E=mc2: energy (E) is equal to mass (m) multiplied by the speed of light squared (c2). Einstein had defined the hard stuff of matter in terms of invisible energy and weightless, transparent light! It was a truly revolutionary way to understand physical reality. As Bruce Lipton writes in The Biology of Belief, "Einstein revealed that we do not live in a universe with discrete, physical objects separated by dead space. The universe is one, indivisible, dynamic whole in which energy and matter are so deeply entangled it is impossible to consider them as independent elements." (6) Einstein’s world-changing equation allowed quantum physics to describe physical reality both in terms of waves (electromagnetic frequencies) and particles (atoms). For instance, physicists know that light, when it is observed, is composed of small particles called photons; when unobserved, light is a wave of invisible energy!
The development of these theories led science to conclude that energy and matter are indeed one. This understanding has led to the exploration of the effects of electromagnetic fields, as well as our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings on the healing of our physical bodies. Quantum physics explains how biocommunication can occur instantly between living things even when distantly separated, as experiments by Cleve Backster and others have demonstrated. (7) Electromagnetic wave-fields are able to communicate information instantaneously over long distances (called non-locality by physicists) and have been shown to be a hundred times more efficient in biological communication and regulation than molecular substances such as hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, etc. This would make sense because electromagnetic signals travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) while chemically-based interactions occur at the speed of only one half-inch per second.
There is accumulating evidence to suggest that the electrical activity of the brain is both the cause and effect of different kinds of subtle energy fields which affect our condition of health or disease. (8) Professor William Tiller, world-renowned materials scientist at Stanford University, suggests that consciousness is composed of informational waves of a subtle nature that are married to the brain’s electrochemical impulses. (9) It is known that the brain interacts with the body through the electrochemical impulses of the nervous system, but we are just starting to understand how consciousness does so.
Cell biologist Bruce Lipton suggests that every cell possesses perception and intelligence because it is able to recognize and respond appropriately to signals that convey information about its environment. He claims that the "brains" that control the cell reside not in its DNA, as previously thought, but in the cell membrane — or what Lipton calls the "mem-brain." He compares DNA to memory stored in the hard drive of a computer that contains different operating programs. These programs are passive blueprints that cannot function without receiving commands externally entered through the keyboard by an operator. It is the function of the cell membrane to provide commands to the DNA in the cell nucleus.
Cell membranes contain receptor proteins which are like sense organs that allow the cell to perceive its environment. Some signals that are perceived by the cell membrane are physical molecules like hormones, but receptor proteins can also recognize the vibrational energies of electromagnetic wave fields whether these are communicated by light, sound, heat, movement or as the conscious intention carried by thoughts and feelings. Lipton emphasizes this point by saying that "because receptors can read energy fields, the notion that only physical molecules can impact cell physiology is outmoded. Biological behavior can be controlled by invisible forces, including thought, as well as it can be controlled by physical molecules…a fact that provides the scientific underpinning for pharmaceutical-free, energy medicine."
Evolution traces the story of how single-celled organisms were able to increase their perception, awareness and intelligence by sacrificing their separateness and banding together into large communities, thereby increasing the total surface area of their cell membranes and hence their "brain-power." For instance, with their combined intelligence, the cells in tissues and organs cooperate so plants and animals can sustain more complex and creative interactions with their environment. The most sophisticated multicellular community we know of (that with the greatest degree of awareness and intelligence) is the mammalian brain — perhaps most notably represented by the self-consciousness associated with the human brain.
Throughout the ages highly trained spiritual adepts in all religious traditions have demonstrated that evolved human consciousness is able to produce "miracles" of healing. We are on the verge of understanding how the power of focused intention manifested by spiritual healers and focused prayer can promote healing for oneself and others. The ability to heal is the result of consistent effort devoted to one’s chosen practice of self-development, as well as being associated with the spiritual joy of loving one’s fellow beings. Just as single-celled organisms have joined together allowing the evolution of complex differentiated organisms that serve the planet in diverse and creative ways, it is now a sacred challenge for each human being to increase their awareness and intelligence by joining with others in the task of developing a loving consciousness. This ultimate spiritual endeavor will serve to promote not only our own personal healing and healing for one another, but the healing of the Earth that supports us all.
REFERENCES
1. Oschman, James. Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 2000.
2. Seto A, Kusaka C, Nakazato, S et al., 1992. "Detection of extraordinary large bio-magnetic field strength from human hand." Acupuncture and Electrotherapeutics Research International Journal, 17:75-94.
3. Muehsam DJ, Markov MS, Muehsam PA, Pilla AA, Shen R, Wu Y. 1994. "Effects of Qigong on cell-free myosin phosphorylation: preliminary experiments." Subtle Energies, 5:93-108.
4. http://www.isan.troitsk.ru/dls/karu.htm
5. Tuner, Jan & Hode, Lars. Laser Therapy: Clinical Practice and Scientific Background, Prima Books, Sweden, 2002.
6. Lipton, Bruce H. The Biology of Belief, Mountain of Love/Elite Books, Santa Rosa, CA, 2005.
7. Backster, Clive. Primary Perception: Biocommunication with Plants, Living Foods, and Human Cells. White Rose Millenium Press, Anza, CA, 2003.
8. McFadden, Johnjoe, Quantum Evolution: The New Science of Life, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, NY, 2000.
9. Tiller, William, Dibble, W.E., Kohane, M.J. Conscious Acts of Creation, Pavior Publishing, Walnut Creek, CA, 2001.
Steven Hecht, D.C. has been a holistic chiropractor in the Boston area for twenty years and is the founder of Healing Light Associates, an educational and distribution enterprise for advanced high-quality energy healing devices. Please contact him at 978-264-3974 or email healinglightassociates@newview.org for more information. See May 16 calendar listing for information on a soft laser light healing demonstration and seminar.
