Rough Research: The Heart Brain
Earth DNA Interpersonal Spiritual Health Connection:
Key words: Alpha and Gamma Brain
Waves, chaos theory, Heart Math, Joseph
Chilton Pearce, , neocortex, Neurocardiology,
Rudolph Steiner, Schumann Resonances
Updated 1/30/11
Relationship
between Heart Variability and Heart Coherence
Heart rate (HR) is intimately tied to the bodily
expression of emotions.
A healthy heart has a natural variation, from minute
to minute, beat to beat, even at rest. This phenomenon is known as Heart Rate
Variability (HRV). It’s a sign of health – the greater the variability the
better.
Patterns within the variability are much more
significant than the fact of variability.
In states of stress, anxiety, anger and sadness the
variation tends to be disordered and chaotic. In positive emotional states such
as love and gratitude, the variation tends to be ordered and rhythmic. This
state of rhythmic variation is known as Heart (Rate Variability) Coherence, and
is a highly efficient and healthy mode of operating.
Left side: Two types of Heart Rate
Variability Right side: Biofeedback computer screen
showing chest and abdominal breathing (blue tracings) and moment-to-moment
change in heart rate (red tracing). When the breathing and heart rate tracings
become perfectly synchronized, maximal heart coherence is in effect.
http://www.drmueller-healthpsychology.com/Disorders_HeartCoherence.html
Head
–Heart Interactions
Key findings: When people touch or are in proximity,
one person’s heartbeat signal is registered in the other person’s brainwaves
http://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart-head-heart-interactions.html
Achieving
Collective Coherence
Key findings: Results suggest that a coherent energy
field can be generated and/or enhanced by the intentions of small groups of
participants trained to send coherence-facilitating intentions to a target
receiver. The evidence of heart rhythm synchronization across participants
supports the possibility of heart-to-heart bio-communications.
Heart
Brain Physiological Effects:
Modulation of DNA by
Coherent Heart Frequencies
Paper by Glen Rein and Rollin McCraty
provides first experimental evidence to support the hypothesis that positive
(coherent) heart states produce physiological results at the DNA level.
http://www.laskow.net/articles/ModDNAbyCohHeartFreq.pdf
]
Heart
Consciousness and Spirituality:
Olga Louchakova, M.D., Ph.D. (neuroscience):
http://www.fmbr.org/speakers/speakers-08-09.php
Brain Functions
According to “The Phoenix
Project”, the brain functions in the ELF frequency range, from 3 to 30 hz. It points out that:
Beta waves are 14-30 hz, and represent normal alert
consciousness;
Alpha waves are 9-13 hz, and represent relaxed, calm, lucid non-thinking;
Theta waves are 4-8 hz, and represent deep relaxation,
meditation and mental imagery
Delta waves are 1-3 hz, and represent deep dreamless
sleep.
http://www.the-phoenix-project.org/01b-inside-brain/page-03.htm
y gamma rays
HX hard x rays
SX soft xrays
EUV extreme UV
NUV near UV
Visible light
NIR near infrared
MIR mid infrared
FIR far infrared
Radio waves
EHF extremely high freq
SHF super HF
UHF ultra HF
VHF
HF
MF
LF
VLF very LF
VF/ULF voice freq
SLF super LF
ELF extremely low
frequency
From:
http://www.the-phoenix-project.org/01b-inside-brain/page-02.htm
Beverly Rubik, PhD:Do High Frequency Brainwaves from the Forehead Region Correlate with Higher Consciousness?Previous studies show that high frequency brainwaves (40 Hz; gamma band) from the forehead (prefrontal cortex of the brain) correlated with enhanced states of oneness and compassion in advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditators. Recent research has shown that the brain emits higher frequencies than were ever considered before. Are these related to higher consciousness? The 40-Hz emission from the forehead region appears to involve highly positive emotional states with reduced stress.http://www.fmbr.org/speakers/speakers-08-09.php The higher frequency brainwaves
discussed by Rubik are of interest in the following discussion of the
importance of brain entrainment with the heart.
Notes from Knowing Our Hearts: Creating Coherent Electromagnetic
Fields
When the brain
entrains to the heart, an electrocardiogram of the heart brain combination
shows that the brain wave patterns are, in fact, embedded within the larger
field of the heart. The brain’s alpha rhythms also synchronize to the heart, and their amplitude lowers when they do so. When
brain neurons entrain to the heart’s ECG activity, research shows that the
timing of neuronal firing conveys several times more information than the brain
alone. Since we have been habituated to
the analytical mode of cognition to locate our consciousness in the
brain, this type of entrainment must be consciously practiced.
When the heart is
entrained to the brain’s oscillating wave-form, rather than vice versa, the
heart begins to, over time, lose coherence. The more the heart entrains to the
brain, and the longer it does so, the less it displays a variable HRV, the less
fractal its processes are, and the more regular it is. It is, in fact,
entraining to a linear rather than a nonlinear orientation. When any system
begins to lose this dynamical-chaos aspect of its functioning and becomes more
predictable, it begins to lose elegance of function. It, in fact, becomes
diseased. Heart disease is always
accompanied by an increasing loss of nonlinearity of the heart. The more
predictable and regular the heart becomes, the more diseased it is. To be
healthy, the heart must remain in a highly unstable state of dynamic
equilibrium.
Given all this,
it is not surprising that unhealthy emotional states (major depression and
panic disorders, for example) correlate with reduction in HRV as well as
reductions in the power spectral density of the heart (power spectral density
refers to the range and number of electromagnetic waves produced by the heart).
During major depression and panic disorder, as in many pathological heart
conditions, the heart’s electromagnetic spectrum begins to show a narrower
range, and beating patterns again become very regular.
Holding the
consciousness to one state of being, the verbal/intellectual/analytical mode of
cognition, of necessity produces a diminished heart function, a shallower mix
of emotional states, and an impaired ability to respond to embedded meanings
and communications from the environment and from the self.
Conversely,
increasing heart coherence and heart/brain entrainment has shown a great many
positive health effects. Increased heart coherence boosts the body’s production
of immunoglobulin A, a naturally occurring compound that protects the body’s
mucous membranes and helps prevent infections. It also also
produces improvements in disorders such as arrhythmia, mitral
valve prolapse, congestive heart failure, asthma,
diabetes, fatigue, autoimmune conditions, autonomic exhaustion, anxiety,
depression, AIDS, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In general, in many disease, overall healing rates are enhanced.
One specific
treatment intervention study, for example, found that high blood pressure can
be significantly lowered within six months–without the use of medication–if
heart coherence is reestablished. And as heart/brain synchronization occurs,
people experience less anxiety, dpression, and stress
overall.
Living organisms,
including people, exchange electromagnetic energy through contact between their
fields, and this electromagnetic energy carries information in much the same
way radio transmitters and receivers carry music. When people
or other living organisms touch, a subtle but highly complex exchange of
information occurs via their electromagnetic fields. Refined
measurements reveal that there is an energy exchange between people, carried
through the electromagnetic field of the heart, that while strongest with touch
and up to 18 inches away, can still be measured (with instruments) when they
are five feet apart.
A coherent heart
affects the brain wave pattern not only of the person achieving coherence, but
also of any person with whom it comes into contact. While direct skin-to-skin
contact has the greatest effect on brain function, mere proximity elicits
changes. A sender’s coherent heart-field is measurable not only in a receiving
person’s electroencephalogram, but also in his or her entire electromagnetic
field.
When people touch
or are in close proximity, a transference of their
heart’s electromagnetic energy occurs, and the two fields begin to entrain or
resonate with each other. The result is a combined wave created by a
combination of the original waves. This combined wave has the same frequency as
the original waves but an increased amplitude. Both
its power and depth are increased.
http://peaceandloveism.com/blog/2010/04/knowing-our-hearts-creating-coherent-electromagnetic-fields/
Joseph Chilton Pearce was among the first to
recognize the importance of the heart in allowing the development of fully functional
individuals and societies. He also was among the first to realize it as a potential solution to
some of our current crises, especially
of our educational crises.
Waking Up To The Holographic Heart: Starting Over With Education
Joseph Chilton Pearce 1998 Interview:
[The interview divides into two parts; one part is on
the bad news of our educational system. The second part is on the good news of
the emerging field of neurocardiology]
Key Points
First part
“If we look at any system and find that it has an
error within it, we can address the error and consider the possibilities of
correction. But, if the entire system from beginning to end is one whole,
integrated, total error, then there is nothing that can be done. There is
nothing, zero. That, I believe, is the American school situation today. Nothing
can be done.
“It's been ten years since I wrote Evolution's
End, and, believe me, the situation today has
worsened …. The truth of the matter is
the children they are dealing with now are, by and large, damaged past the
point of educability in any real sense. The public has yet to recognize this is
so.
“The clearest indications of such damage recently
came out of
“First, there has been an average of one percent per
year [therefore as of 1989 a 20 percent ] reduction in
the sensory sensitivity of the human system and the ability to bring in
information from the outside world. [ i.e. a 20
percent reduction in conscious]
“Secondly, the kind of stimulus that does break
through the reticular activating system in the ancient reptilian brain, the
brain stem, is only highly concentrated bursts of over-stimulation.
“…it's a physical atrophying of the whole sensory
system. This is right in line with Marcia Mikulak's
work that I wrote about in Evolution's End. Fifteen years ago, she found
there was anywhere from a 20-25% reduction in sensory awareness of the
technological child as opposed to the pre-literate, or "primitive"
child in the grass shacks of the jungles.
“The third finding of the German study is that the
brain is maladapting on a level which seems almost
genetically impossible. That is, the brains of these young people are not
cross-indexing the sensory systems, so there is no synthesis taking place in
the brain. Sight is simply a radical series of brilliant impressions which do
not cross index with touch, sound, smell and so forth. There is no context
created for sensory input, each is an independent, isolated event. It explains
why so many kids get intensely bored unless they are subject to intense input.”
Note: it is interesting that brainwave
activity synchronous with the
40Hz Schumann resonance appears to be involved in binding sensory
inputs into the single, unitary object we perceive. Is the ‘maladapting’
brain Pearce speaks of entirely due to our educational system, or is part of it
due to something related to the 40 Hz Schumann resonance?
“So, these are the three issues. First, we have to
realize that education really begins in the womb and that the first three years
of life are when ninety percent of it takes place. Secondly, never waste effort
or energy on trying to bring down institutions, but put every bit of effort and
energy into doing what must be done for as many children as can immediately be
reached. Look to the tangible and real need in a child, in a family, or in a
neighborhood.”
Second part
“Discoveries in the field of neurocardiology
are … far more awesome than the discovery of non-locality in quantum mechanics.
“Close to a century ago, Rudolph Steiner said the
greatest discovery of 20th century science would be that the heart is not a pump
but vastly more, and that the great challenge of the coming ages of humanity
would be, in effect, to allow the heart to teach us to think in a new way. Now,
that sounds extremely occult, but we find it's directly, biologically the case.
“First, about sixty to sixty-five percent of all the
cells in the heart are neural cells which are precisely the same as in the
brain, functioning in precisely the same way…
“Secondly, the heart is the major endocrine glandular
structure of the body, which Roget found to be producing the hormones that
profoundly affect the operations of body, brain, and mind.
“Thirdly, the heart produces two and a half watts of
electrical energy at each pulsation, creating an electromagnetic field
analogous to that of the earth… [12 to 25 ft in radius which includes all
frequencies of the EM spectrum, including light and radio waves]
“Thirdly, the heart produces two and a half watts of
electrical energy at each pulsation, creating an electromagnetic field
identical to the electromagnetic field around the earth. The electromagnetic
field of the heart surrounds the body from a distance of twelve to twenty-five
feet outward and encompasses power waves such as radio and light waves …
This verifies research from people such as Karl Pribram.
Roger Penrose has proved mathematically that
there is an electromagnetic aura where dendrites meet at the synapse.
“Now, physicists are beginning to look at
the electro-magnetic auras as, simply, the organization of energy in the
universe.
“All these are operating holographically
-- that is, at the smallest, unbelievably tiny level between the dendrites at
the synapse, the body, the earth, and on outward. All are operating holographically and selectively.
[Not sure what is meant by “holographically”; could it mean at the smallest and largest
levels the same fields are formed? The hallmark characteristic of a hologram is
that all the information in the entire hologram is contained in each piece of
the hologram]
“… [there are] unmediated
neural connections between the heart and the limbic structure, the emotional
brain. …neural connections go right on up through the amygdala
or the cingulate cortex into the pre-frontal lobes.
These are what we call the "silent areas" of the brain simply because
we are using only the lower part of them.
“The higher parts of the pre-frontal lobes
are not even complete in their growth patterns until age twenty-one, which is
about six to seven years after the rest of the brain is complete -- when we
thought the whole show was over.
“Paul MacLean at the National Institute of Mental
Health, who is one of the brightest in brain research … spoke of the
pre-frontals (neocortex) as the "angel
lobes," as the origin of all the higher human virtues. Yet much of the neocortex is unused. “
“But, you see,
at the very time we're moving into a period of total chaos and collapse, this
other incredible thing is simply gathering. I think of Ilya
Prigogine's comments that so long as a system is
stable, or at an equilibrium, you can't change it, but as it moves toward
disequilibrium and falls into chaos then the slightest bit of coherent energy
can bring it into a new structure.”
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/JCP98.html
Dr. Joseph Chilton Pearce, a pioneer in the distillation of scientific research as it is applied to human development (and especially childhood education) is the author of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Exploring the Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Magical Child, Magical Child Matures, Bond of Power and Evolution's End. He has been gathering information from scientific studies around the globe that provide strong evidence that heart-consciousness is much more than just a metaphor.http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Healing-Arts:-Exploring-Heart-Consciousness,-Part-1;-The-Poets-Know-It&id=205216 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Chilton_Pearce Joseph Chilton Pearce has strongly connected biological cells with the earth and solar system by way of their similar electromagnetic fields. He has noted that in a number of ways, the heart is the driver of individual and social functionality, with the capability of effecting the brain, or the brain of others; for example in entrainment of EM frequencies. Our Heart...more than just a pump
During 20 years of research throughout the 1960s and
’70s, John and Beatrice Lacey observed that the heart communicates with the
brain in ways that significantly affect how we perceive and react to the world.
As their research evolved, they found that the heart
seemed to have its own peculiar logic that frequently diverged from the
direction of the autonomic nervous system. The heart appeared to be sending
meaningful messages to the brain that it not only understood, but obeyed.
http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v151/__show_article/_a000151-000012.htm
An excellent overview of HeartMath research from
BiomedME:
A summary of the main
points:
It is generally believed that conscious awareness
originates in the brain alone. Recent scientific research suggests that
consciousness actually emerges from the brain and body acting together. A
growing body of evidence suggests that the heart plays a particularly
significant role in this process.
In addition to the extensive neural communication
network linking the heart with the brain and body, the heart also communicates
information to the brain and throughout the body via electromagnetic field
interactions. The heart generates the body’s most powerful and most extensive
rhythmic electromagnetic field.
The magnetic component is approximately 5000 times
stronger than the brain’s magnetic field and can be detected several feet away
from the body with sensitive magnetometers.
The heart generates a continuous series of
electromagnetic pulses in which the time interval between each beat varies in a
dynamic and complex manner.
We propose that the heart’s field acts as a carrier
wave for information that provides a global synchronizing signal for the entire
body.
This perspective requires an energetic concept of
information, in which patterns of organization are enfolded into waves of
energy of system activity distributed throughout the system as a whole.
We have demonstrated that sustained positive emotions
appear to give rise to a distinct mode of functioning, which we call psychophysiological coherence. During this mode, heart
rhythms exhibit a sine wave-like pattern and the heart’s electromagnetic field
becomes correspondingly more organized.
Our research suggests that psychophysiological
coherence is important in enhancing consciousness– both for the body’s sensory
awareness of the information required to execute and coordinate physiological
function, and also to optimize emotional stability, mental function, and
intentional action. Furthermore, as we discuss next, there is experimental
evidence that psychophysiological coherence may
increase our awareness of and sensitivity to others around us.
There is now evidence that a subtle yet influential
electromagnetic or “energetic” communication system operates just below our
conscious awareness. Energetic interactions likely contribute to the “magnetic”
attractions or repulsions that occur between individuals, and also affect
social exchanges and relationships. Moreover, it appears that the heart’s field
plays an important role in communicating physiological, psychological, and
social information between individuals.
Experiments conducted at the
The results of these experiments have led us to infer
that the nervous system acts as an “antenna,” which is tuned to and responds to
the electromagnetic fields produced by the hearts of other individuals.
There are also new data suggesting that the heart’s
field is directly involved in intuitive perception, through its coupling to an
energetic information field outside the bounds of space and time. Using a
rigorous experimental design, we found compelling evidence that both the heart
and brain receive and respond to information about a future event before the
event actually happens. Even more surprising was our finding that the heart
appears to receive this “intuitive” information before the brain. This suggests
that the heart’s field may be linked to a more subtle energetic field that
contains information on objects and events remote in space or ahead in time.
Called by Karl Pribram and others the “spectral
domain,” this is a fundamental order of potential energy that enfolds space and
time, and is thought to be the basis for our consciousness of “the whole.”
The full article can be
found at
http://biomedme.com/biomed-articles/the-conscious-heart_4247.html
Heart math studies provide more evidence that the EM field of the heart can influence other brains, and that the effects of the coherent heart/brain propagate to the DNA level. It turns out that the geomagnetic field also has a profound effect on the heart/brain system. Just as a tuning fork has natural frequencies for sound, the planet Earth has natural frequencies for electromagnetic radiation, called Schumann Resonances, to which the human heart/brain entrains:
The nearly perfectly conducting terrestrial surface and the electrically charged ionosphere form an enclosed cavity. Electromagnetic impulses, like those from lightning flashes, bounce back and forth longitudinally (resonate) forming standing waves. These standing waves are called Schumann resonances, named after W. O. Schumann, the discoverer of the fundamental resonance of 7.8 Hertz in 1954. The nominal average frequencies observed are the fundamental at 7.8, with harmonics at 14, 20, 26, 33, 39, and 45 Hz, with slight diurnal variation.
The frequency values of the Schumann
Resonance are fixed by the speed of electromagnetic radiation and the
circumference of the earth: the first harmonic is therefore roughly 300,000
km/sec divided by 40,000 km/cycle. This is about 7.5 cycles per second (Hz).
http://www.valdostamuseum.org/hamsmith/Schumann.html (note the
physical restriction on the value of the SR refutes claims by some that the SR
is increasing)
http://www.highdesertshaman.com/Schuman_Resonance.html
The Human Brain also has natural frequencies for electromagnetic radiation which spans the frequency range of the Schumann Resonances; 7.8 to 40 Hz.
Dr. Herbert König,
Schumann’s successor at
The Schumann Resonance is important in synchronization of
diurnal and ELF brain rhythms.
In one experiment, student volunteers
lived for four weeks in a hermetically sealed environment that screened out
magnetic fields, specifically the 7.83 Hz frequency. These students started
suffering emotional distress and migraine headaches which were immediately
cleared after a brief exposure to 7.83 Hz. frequency.
http://alternativespirituality.suite101.com/article.cfm/healing_properties_of_the_schumann_resonance
Synchronous activity at about 40Hz appears to be
involved in binding sensory inputs into the single, unitary object we perceive.
http://brain.web-us.com/40hz/default.htm
The SR signal intensity is modulated and
highly correlated with solar activity and the electron concentrations in the
lowest layers of the ionosphere.
The first harmonic SR value fluctuates
slightly, within a few tenths of a Hz
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/schumann_resonancechanges.pdf
The enhanced or weakened solar activity
moves the level of the SR signal outside the normal homeostatic range and,
through the Melatonin mechanism, causes health problems and enhanced death
rates in large human populations.
the 50-60 hz EM fields present in urbanized areas mask the modulation of health effects associated with solar and geomagnetic activity.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/g3738528k17l1g73/ http://www.springerlink.com/content/g3738528k17l1g73/fulltext.pdf?page=1 Heart consciousness: Name
associations:
Glen Rein, Rollin McCraty,
William Tiller, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Olga Louchakova,
Heartmath, IONS, ISSSEEM
The heart, the first organ of the human body to form,
is the supreme theme of this year's ISSSEEM conference (2009):
http://www.theanimists.com/a618157-issseem-conference-to-have-deepak-chopra.cfm